Reviews

This was probably one of the most well-made films of the 40's - Warner Bros. at the very height of their style. The photography by Sol Polito is arguably his finest achievement - gorgeous compositions and lighting with delicate shadowing. Max Steiner contributes one of his most complex and beautiful scores - the epitome of his classical leit motif method. The music adds great emotion and excitement to the plot and is exquisite and memorable. It's interesting to note that the same production team that made this movie went right on to make "Now, Voyager" later that year - a fine film which won honors and awards and went down as a historical favorite, ciefly because it starred Bette Davis. IN my opinion, "The Gay Sisters" is a much better film - better made in all departments, and more interesting, complex and enjoyable. A most unusual film which entertains those who take it for what it is, rather than project their own modern creative sensibilities or their advanced and demanding standards of hyper-critical perfection. Each thing has to be judged in it's own time reference and for what it is trying to achieve on its own terms. Most of the complaints I've read in these reviews are so childish and totally missing the point. If you're hungry for a perfect filet mignon, don't go to the bakery counter and start whining and complaining about the fluff pastry. The art of film criticism is truly lost on a large segment of the population. Sorry folks - maybe if this movie had had a score by the Rolling Stones and a hundred intricate and soul searching subplots, you'd all be gleefully gratified. I'll take an old movie without modern intellectual pretensions an day of the week!

Yikes!! Where does one begin? I bought the new DVD of this movie, just watched it, and now have chosen it as the worst film I've ever seen, with all due respects to former title holder Ed Wood. In fact, this movie has about the same level of production artistry and skill of a typical Wood epic. It's truly amazing. A pure fiasco on every level! Especially story and acting, with the sole exception of the unsinkable Agnes Moorehead who couldn't give a bad performance if they tied her up and gave her sleeping pills.

Ironically, I've waited years to finally see this film. A great admirer and fan of the incomparable classic film composer Max Steiner, I found that this was one of his few films that I was never able to see. I was always curious why he was loaned out from WB to score this minor forgotten film when he was at the zenith of his power and popularity in 1949 - having just composed for "Johnny Belinda", "Key Largo", "Treasure of Sierra Madre", "The Fountainhead", and "Don Juan" - all scores which entered film history.

Why did he go score this meager independent effort? I suspect that the director was a good friend of his and after the film was put together everyone saw what a disaster it was and believed that Steiner could achieve a true miracle and save the movie by putting his glorious music to this awful mess.

I never thought I'd ever admit this, but Steiner's score absolutely destroys the film. Perhaps after paying his astronomical loan-out fee from Warners, the producers insisted on getting their money's worth with a wall-to-wall thundering score. I'd hate to think it was Max's choice. But this film desperately needed just an ounce of subtle music here and there to make it more realistic and believable - and Steiner unfortunately scores it like a Wagnerian opera. I came across the sound track years ago and it was one of my favorites - vibrant, melodic, passionate epic music. At the time I had no idea what the plot of the film was and could only conjure the most epic images of car chases, train crashes, exotic locales - possibly a trip to Chinatown. When I finally read that the whole thing takes place in a bungalow in the San Fernando Valley I couldn't believe it. And watching the movie I was horrified to see that the surging, thunderous, throbbing passages that I thought was probably a thrilling chase culminating in a spectacular train crash was simply Laraine Day walking into her bedroom and sitting down at her vanity table and putting on lipstick! Poor Max! Poor movie! A dull, nothing plot. One tired cliché after another. Ridiculously motivated characters, acting badly as they chew up the drab scenery. Just a preposterous mess that can't be explained. Top talent all around. First-rate director, acclaimed writer, filmdom's greatest composer, a photographer (Lionel Lindon) who had shot some of Paramount's finest hits and would a few years later cap his career with an Oscar for Mike Todd's "Around the World in Eighty Days" - and this ultra cheap, crummy-looking movie is the result. A true aberation and unique disaster of film-making history. See this with a friend - you'l laugh yourselves sick.

I never heard of this movie until I caught it today by accident on TCM. It was a total surprise - once I began watching, I couldn't leave til the finish. A short film (an hour), very fast paced and exciting. Extremely well-done. The plot was exceptionally clever - it really kept you guessing for moment to moment who the true criminals were. The second unit location photography in Paris, Laussane, and the Balkans was superb and so generously dispersed throughout the film that you really felt you were there. Robert Florey is a master of this type of movie, and his direction added a very elegant and sinister tone. Watch it - you'll love it. I hope it gets remake someday.

This film has a silly ham-hocked plot done in a melodramatic over-the-top style. It's only saving grace is the superb musical score by the great Max Steiner and gorgeous color photography by the always excellent cinematographer Harry Stradling. Steiner's brilliant score makes skillful use of several lush, beautiful themes to establish character and locale. The main theme was originally written by Steiner for Selznick's "A Farewell to Arms" two years earlier, but never used for that film. The pine island theme is a piece that Steiner wrote in 1946 for "A Stolen Life" and delineated the island in that Bette Davis film. Actually the famous Theme From A Summer Place was merely one of Steiner's lesser melodies in this film - he used it as a leit motif for the young lovers Dee and Donahue. His orchestration of it is exactly the same as Percy Faith's who some months later recorded it and erroneously received the public's impression as being the composer. It's pure Steiner, as listening to the score will fully indicate. Faith had nothing to do with the film or the music. As for location photography, the entire film was shot on the Monterey Peninsula in central California. The pine island inn is on a point in the town of Pacific Grove, the parents home is on the waterfront of Carmel Bay just south of the village, the boating scenes were filmed off rocky Point Lobos, and the other locations in Monterey - the churches, the train station, and the Girls School being in downtown Monterey, the oldest and most historic building in the city. A feast for the musically inclined ear and for the beauty-looking eye. Too bad Delmer Daves was such a hack with such a talentless way with dialogue and a smirking immature attitude towards sex. In the hands of a reasonably gifted writer and director, this could have been a superb achievement instead of such a simple-minded exercise in cheap taste.

I saw this on TV the other night - a nice, modest little film. Although the sentimentality doomed it originally with the professional critics, I liked the warm, deep-felt feelings of nostalgia that this film presented. I think the story could have been developed better and made more fresh and compelling, but my most serious problem was the casting. I realize that this is almost a cult film for teenage girls, for it's almost impossible to accept for thinking, full-grown adults - and this is because of the inexplicable casting of the central role. They most definitely needed ONE actor to play both the 17 year old hero and the thirty-something hero. You can get away, traditionally, with having another actor play the hero as a child or a prepubescent teen, but to have totally different actors playing the same role as a man (and a senior in high school is literally a grown-man when he's preparing to play professional baseball) is a disaster for credibility. The film really belongs to William McNamara - and he does a good job of playing the younger protagonist, but the constant cutting back and forth between him and the more mature Mark Harmon is just too unrealistic and jolting. These are definitely TWO DIFFERENT guys, and although they ook a little alike, you just can't believe that McNamara has suddenly morphed into Harmon after only a decade or so of time has passed. I think that a teenager might think that an 18 year old might totally become another person physically in ten years, but adults know that this just isn't so. The hair might gray a little (possibly) and some lines may appear on the face and there might be a subtle weigh gain, but the person remains basically the same. How absurd that the producers of this film made the choice of using two actors. It totally spoiled the film. Why on earth did they do it?! What was desperately needed was an actor who could play both younger and older. Harmon was 37 when this was made and a bit too sun-damaged and worn to play high school age, and McNamara, although about 22, was way too physically immature to play a grown adult. Tom Cruise would have been a superb choice. At 27 he could have gone both ways (in age, that is!) and been very believable as the younger and older man. Too bad! And before I go, just have to say that Jodie Foster really lacked the charisma and femininity to play her part. She just never seems convincing in these 'eternal woman' roles - there's such a weird, cold, steely, sexless quality about her that just can't be camouflaged.

This is a beautifully done film, a very tender and sensitive story, perfectly acted and staged with great imagination. Max Steiner created a superbly melodic and emotional score which expertly brings together the psychological and emotional themes, and Karl Freund gives an excellent German expressionistic look to the fantasy sequences. One of the most unusual and captivating Hollywood films of that era. Especially enjoyable is the central performance by child actor Ted Donaldson. All of the other performances, especially Cecil Kellaways, are equally fine. An important film, sadly overlooked, with an even more important message. See it!!!

Let's just say that this unpleasant and simple-minded mess of a movie is not even sophisticated enough for its teenage demographic. No talent here at all - and boring in its anti-Christian, pro-gay message. Pretty sorry stuff!! Maybe the writer and director thought that by exaggering their theme they could appeal to a laugh-filled genre, but the parody is so witless that it falls flat. There's no humor for anyone here, only idiotic exaggerated sterotypes, a very distasteful cartoon of Christian fundamentalism, and a happy glorification of unwed teenage motherhood. What an incredibly irresponsible esssage to be sending to the intended youthful audience.