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Wild Oranges (1924)
Poetic silence
Hereditary phobias drive Millie (Virginia Valli)and her grandfather (Nigel De Brulier) to retreat from the world on a small deserted island off the Florida coast. There is some reference to the grandfather's exile as a self-induced political banishment but the two are so fraught with anxiety attacks that it seems implausible that they would get up the courage to ever leave their home in the first place.
In another part of the world, John Woolfolk (Frank Mayo) marries and loses his bride in the same day in an accident. He takes to the sea in his small sailing boat (tiny yacht?) with his first mate, Paul Harvard (former Keystone cop Sgt. Ford Sterling) to forget and also to avoid ever falling in love again.
Prior to John's dropping anchor in the island's bay for fresh water, an escaped homicidal maniac Iscah Nicholas (Charles A. Post) attaches himself to Millie and grandpa and basically terrorizes them both. He gets a hankering for Millie, constantly threatening her and vowing to kill her grandfather if she doesn't do his bidding which includes kissing and ultimately marriage. Millie has a wanted poster saying that Charles is an escaped murderer convicted of killing an elderly woman.
Nellie falls for john as he stays anchored in the harbor and their love blossoms even though John is still in denial. He sails away only to turn around to retrieve Millie.
Millie of course is thrilled he's back and when he finally proposes to take her away with him, she is afraid to leave. He convinces her but she is still fearful of Isach. They agree that she will steal away with grandpa before Isach is the wiser but Isach knows there is something brewing and catches Millie and Grandpa putting on their coats (in Florida?!) to leave. He kills grandpa and takes Millie up the stairs to the bedroom and ties her up.
John shows up to get Millie, gun in hand, and discovering grandpa face down on the livingroom floor, he hears noises from upstairs and goes to investigate. When he reaches the door, the gun gets knocked out of his hand and Isach jumps him in a fight to the death. Isach is twice as large as John and motivated. Meanwhile, Millie is shown squirming in the bed half clothed (for 1924).
It is quite a fight. After skirmishing their way down a steep flight of stairs and into the livingroom, John finds a knife in the struggle and manages to stick it into Isach. That at least slows the madman down enough to allow John and Millie to leave the house. Isach follows and gets knifed again. John and Millie make their way to the dock where first mate Paul is waiting and he jumps in to continue the fight while John and Millie make their getaway in a dinghy.
Once aboard the yacht, they make their plans to cast off. Somehow Isach has found a gun and from the dock, wounds Paul in the head as his comes on deck to way anchor.
Something that has always been present in this movie finally gets Isach and the castaways brave the breakers in rough seas to get away. Paul passes out from his wound and the once timid Millie finds herself navigating the breakers as John does the depth sounds. Somewhere in here Millie is able to overcome her fears and leave them behind.
What makes this film magical is the new score. I amplifies the exotic nature of this tale. Kudos to the TCM winning composer.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Continuity
In the first scene when Melanie is introduced to Scarlett again by Ashley, Melanie is wearing a dove gray and white lace costume, an understatement to the more flamboyant Sarlett. She is also wearing straw bonnet with a dark peach velvet ribbon.
In a subsequent scene between Melanie and Ashley where they are discussing Melanie's joining the family and the fleeting beauty of the southern way of life and, if war comes, it will not matter to their commitment to each other. This is a touching scene; one of a deeper understanding than the superficial one experienced by Scarlett and Ashely.
Melanie and her betrothed are standing in front of a curtained window facing each other. The window overlooks the gardens. This is one of the most private moments in the whole movie and quite a contrast to the rest of the movie.
Melanie is wearing the same dove gray and white lace costume a straw bonnet with a light maroon gross-grained ribbon.
Now, Voyager (1942)
Bette - Self sacrificing and melodramatic
Bette as Charlotte Vale the plain jane of one of the Boston Brahman families, is dominated by a mother (played memorably by Dame Gladys Cooper) until she is driven to the brink of a nervous breakdown. Closing in on her 30s, her common sense tells her to rebel but her spine goes to jelly in the presence of her mother.
Bette Davis does an admirable job presenting this conflict, visibly quaking and fidgeting while her mother holds court. Enter one Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains)to represent a calm voice in a sea of angst, to take Charlotte away to "Cascades", a country sanatorium, to help her develop her spine and begin to discover who she is. Before going back home, a ship voyage is arranged during which the remainder of Charlotte's blossoming is completed and she falls in love with a fellow passenger, Jerry,(Paul Henreid). Jerry is unhappily married making any proper relationship impossible and they both swear off. Thus begins a long-distance relationship, roping in his unsuspecting and under loved youngest daughter.
Original consumation of their relationship is cemented on the final leg of their trip in Brazil. Subsequent consumation is cemented when they simultaneously take a drag off their respective cigarettes and exhale the smoke in each other's faces at peak emotional, self-sacrificing moments.
While I sound flippant about this implausible tale, it it the definitive Bette Davis playing against type. For anyone who needs their occasional Bette Davis fix, this is the one to watch. Other films that will satisfy this fix would be Jezebel, All About Eve and perhaps The Letter.