"Saboteur" with Bob Cummings and Priscilla Lane (1942)

When I was about 4 years old I used to watch a show called “The Bob Cummings Show”, in which he played a carefree bachelor, always juggling one woman against the next. Although I was probably too young to understand the show, I did notice the actor. The next time I saw him was on good old WOR-TV in New York when I was about 7 years old. He was playing the part of a man named Barry Kane, who works in an aircraft factory during World War Two.

Basically the plot centers about a mysterious man who bumps into Barry Kane just before the factory catches fire, obviously due to arson. As the two bump into one another, the other man drops a hundred dollar bill, along with some envelopes bearing his name and address, as well as the address of the envelopes destination. Moments after he returns the money, and the envelopes, to the stranger, the fire breaks out. Barry’s friend is killed fighting the fire with an extinguisher which has obviously been filled with gasoline. Subsequently, Barry Kane is accused of being a saboteur, and the chase is on as he flees the authorities, while trying to unlock the key to the trap in which he has found himself ensnared.

This is the first Alfred Hitchcock movie I ever remember seeing. And, as I was later to learn by watching his other films, it contains all of the elements crucial to a Hitchcock film. First rate performances by Bob Cummings and Priscilla Lane make this one a winner.

Happy Shana Tova - 5773!

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"Christmas Eve" with Randolph Scott, Joan Blondell and George Raft (1947)

This is one of the all-time greatest of Christmas movies, and also one of the most overlooked. It involves a wealthy widow who lives in Manhattan during the late 1940's, which is when the film was made. Aunt Matilda Reid's nephew is seeking to have her judged incompetent in order to become the sole trustee of her wealth. Her three wayward adopted sons have been gone for years, with not a word from any of them. One is a bankrupt playboy (George Brent), the other a rodeo rider (Randolph Scott), and the third son (George Raft), is a very mysterious man involved with hunting Nazi war criminals in South America.

Aunt Matilda has drawn just one concession from the lawyers and judge who are administering her case; if her sons show up before midnight on Christmas Eve, she wins. If not, she becomes the ward of her greedy nephew.

The film received tepid reviews in 1947 when it was released in late October. It was eventually re-released as "Sinner's Holiday", in an effort to attract a wider audience. I first ran across this gem in 1961, or so, while watching WOR-TV, Channel 9, in New York City. All the good old movies were on that channel.

As a matter of fact, "It's A Wonderful Life", with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, got it's second life from that station. That film was originally released in 1942, at a time when we were not winning the war. The film flopped. And then, around 1960, WOR-TV was looking for something to throw on the air Christmas Eve that wouldn't cost them anything. So they turned to "It's A Wonderful Life", a film whose copyright had just run out, enabling them to air the film for nothing. The switchboards lit up and another classic Christmas film was "discovered."