I Married a Communist

Propaganda masquerading as popular entertainment has rarely fooled the ticket-buying public. And American audiences in particular have rarely turned out in large numbers for politically themed movies with the rare exception of a surprise hit such as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Yet despite the dismal box office potential of most movies with a political agenda, that didn’t stop some studios or filmmakers from taking an ideological stand in the guise of a genre film. Take Howard Hughes for instance. When he assumed control of RKO studios in 1948, he was already a well-known eccentric with a paranoid fear of communist infiltrators in the industry. He immediately fired almost three-fourths of the RKO work force and had the remaining staff members investigated for their political affiliations. Some of the films produced under his reign also reflected his obsession with the “Red Menace” such as The Whip Hand (1951) and Jet Pilot (1957). The most notorious Hughes concoction, however, was The Woman on Pier 13 (1949) which was originally released as I Married a Communist, prior to Senator McCarthy’s investigation of communist activity within the U.S. army, and later, the entertainment industry.

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Raise the Pirate Flag!

In the pantheon of great Hollywood directors from the 1930s, Frank Borzage and his films are often overshadowed by the work of such peers as Frank Capra, George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch. Yet many film historians and scholars consider his work the equal of these better-known directors with such exemplary examples as 7th Heaven (1927) and Bad Girl (1931) – both of which won Borzage the Oscar for Best Director – plus Man’s Castle (1933), History is Made at Night (1937), Three Comrades (1938) and The Mortal Storm (1940). Often referred to as “The Great Romanticist,” whose most famous films usually focused on the redemptive power of love, Borzage began to fall out of favor in his later career when his films were seen as old-fashioned and anachronistic. But he was still capable of turning out a late period masterpiece such as the poetic film noir Moonrise (1948) as well as handle a big budget studio entertainment like The Spanish Main (1945). The latter pirate tale may seem atypical for a Borzage film but don’t forget he also dabbled in other unlikely genres such as war dramas (Flight Command, 1940) and musicals (Seven Sweethearts, 1942). It was also a rousing costume adventure which compared favorably to the swashbucklers of Errol Flynn such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940), with the added attraction of being filmed in glorious Technicolor by George Barnes.

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A Very British Haunting

There are not that many British films from the 1930s and 1940s about ghosts and haunted houses and the ones that do stand out are primarily comedies like The Ghost Goes West (1935), The Ghost Train (1941), Blithe Spirit (1945) and Things Happen at Night (1948). Still, there have been a few U.K. features that took a more serious approach to the genre and A Place of One’s Own (1945) is a good example, even though it is largely overlooked and forgotten today.  

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