Leave Her to Heaven

Oh! I thought this was another one of those John M. Stahl movies that had later been remade by Douglas Sirk, but I got it confused with… probably… All That Heaven Allows? So I haven’t seen this one before.

Huh… This looks very… restored.

OH MY GOD! His face is made out of rubber! This has been totally over-restored — it’s just 2K, but it seems like they’ve totally degrained it and… smoothed it? Criterion, c’mon. You gotta know when to stop.

But other than that, it looks great.

Heh.

I love the idea of setting these scenes outdoors. There’s gotta be like five people just out of screen with reflectors to get the light everywhere… Looks really good, even if over-restored.

EEEEK

Is it possible that they were just really really heavy handed with the make up?

Nah, it has to be the restoration. I don’t think it’s meant to look like this.

I mean, this is very pretty, too, but I betcha it would have been stunning in a new 4K scan without all the smoothification. It’s just disturbing how plastick-ey this looks. Not a grain in sight.

I mean, look at these shots…

Stahl and his cinematographer were just insane. It’s just one gorgeous shot after another.

I mean, look at this! This could be the prettiest movie ever (except Zuckerbaby, of course).

Every shot is on point.

Vincent Price!?

Heh, twin beds because of the Hays Code, but then she gets into bed with him! *gasp*

Oh, I think I may have misunderstood this movie… I thought it was a romance or a weepie… but is it a noir!? Is she a psycho who’s planning to kill the brother!?

Wow, what a matte painting.

OK, this movie isn’t perfect. The third quarter of this movie drags — once it’s been revealed what this movie is about, we have to follow the characters around for a bit too long. But then there’s the ending, which is the most over-the-top melodramatic thing ever! Fantastic.

But more than anything, I just loved the cinematography on this. Every single shot had something interesting going on — something beyond the call of duty. Something that could have been a perfectly fine static shot is a dolly shot, and a talk that really didn’t need to happen in front of the most magnificent mountains… does. The melodrama is over the top, and so is the cinematography.

Heh — it won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and was nominated for All The Technical Awards, like Set Decoration. Understandable. And! It was also Fox’s highest grossing movie of the decade, according to the documentary on this disc.

Leave Her to Heaven. John M. Stahl. 1945. ⚅

Body Heat

I’m not quite sure why I got this movie — it might just have been on the New Releases page on Criterion and I went “oh right”.

I’ve probably seen this before? But not since the 80s.

It’s nice that almost all the blurays from Criterion are in 4K now. I mean, it’s not a huge bump in quality, but they do 100Mbps bitrates and everything looks… better.

See? Better.

Oh, I have seen this before more recently… I saw it in 2019, apparently, but I have no recollection of doing so.

Hey! Ted Danson! I didn’t appreciate Danson until I saw Bored To Death in 2010, and then I got it…

That’s what I want my bathroom to look like!

Oh, now I’m starting to remember… Yeah, I think I remember the plot of this now. The movie is a noir pastiche, and I think the plot is super duper noirish, too…

70s movies used to be really sweaty, and then 80s movies were very powdery. The sweat here is part of the plot, though.

I’m shocked at how few movies Kasdan has directed, because his name seems like such a staple. But I guess it’s his writing credits on a bunch of George Lucas properties that’s made him famous…

Anyway, this movie is pretty spiffy. Really good performances from everybody, and it got That Mood.

Sure, it’s a retro genre exercise, but it’s really entertaining.

Body Heat . Lawrence Kasdan. 1981. ⚄

I’ll Be Seeing You

Gotta love some Ginger Rogers.

I’m not totally sure why I got this, but it’s probably part of the Hazel Flagg collection.

This is a pretty unusual drama — it’s so full on, in a way. Ginger Rogers has been in prison for years, but is apparently out on a week’s release or something. And I don’t know what Cotten’s deal is, but he’s probably suffering from PTDQ from the war — nothing’s explained, really.

So it’s very ponderous from the start, and sad, but also mysterious.

Oh, is that Shirley Temple? I think I’ve only seen her in 30s movies…

Heh:

Unsatisfied with Dieterle’s direction of actress Shirley Temple during her confession regarding Mary’s prison record, producer David O. Selznick hired George Cukor to undertake a reshoot of the scene after principal photography was completed.

I really enjoyed this movie. This is one of those li’l forgotten pearls — I can understand why that’s happened (a movie from 1944 where the protagonists are a shell-shocked soldier and a woman serving a six year sentence), but it’s just such a solid movie. The performances are really good, and the plot is moving, and… it’s just a super duper solid movie. And:

The film was a box office hit, earning $3 million in domestic rentals.

I’ll Be Seeing You. William Dieterle. 1944. ⚄