Contentar
Best movie of this year hands down!
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Francene Odetta
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Spondonman
I saw this only once back in the '80's when UK TV regularly used to show programmes more than a few years old, never forgot it and finally caught up with again last night. It would be an ordinary little b picture in a rather grotty condition but for its unusual plot and setting which make it worth at least one look.Polished thug (George Sanders) – and his slinky female cohort (Gail Patrick) – both with mental issues are ready to murder people to get to valuable rare books so he can forge copies from them for resale. He murders a library security guard to get an olde copy of Shakespeare's Hamlet, problems then arise after he rips off a sinister gang of Nazis already speculating for the post War world, and a mercenary private dick (Richard Denning) is also on his track. Most of it is set in a dimly lit city of a library with miles of bookshelves, only running back and forth along its aisles and even stumbling across the Art room twice cheapens the overall atmosphere, which is surprisingly dark and menacing. Make no mistake, the various sets of baddies at each other's throats are an evil bunch of weirdos, with Sanders spouting manic cod psychology at every lucid moment, never mind Patrick not telling the truth for the entire picture. With a stroke of luck long haired Denning sorts it all out leaving wide eyed Sanders hoping to "die in terror", Patrick to go her own sweet way as a not very convincing victim of her own conscience, and even walks off at the end happily for a coffee with a GI's girl. And this is only a sketch for there's a lot packed into 67 complicated minutes.Thought provoking hokum yet daft beyond words and a little gem I treasure. To paraphrase what the man said, fulfil your secret desire to be caught off guard and pleasantly surprised.
kidboots
From the compelling opening scene (the best in the movie), Fleg (George Sanders) an expert forger of rare books is after a valuable edition of "Hamlet". When the library curator jokes "over my dead body", after Fleg has asked if he may take it home, Fleg is happy to oblige. If only the rest of the movie had lived up to the opening but, unfortunately, it doesn't. His partner in crime is Myra (Gail Patrick) a rare book appraiser and she has been busy trying to convince Martin Cleaver (Sidney Blackmer) that "Hamlet" is the genuine article and a steal at $20,000. But Cleaver is dangerous, he, in turn, is intending to sell the book to Nazi Generals (Goerhing, Himmler etc).Most of the movie is set in the public library, where Fleg takes control by masquerading as a police officer (and a very commanding one) and ordering the rare books to be put under "police protection". This was the directorial debut of John Larkin, who also wrote the story. To his credit he achieved more excitement from a library setting than most directors got from a whole war and it is a pity he only directed two more films (one was a short subject).Sanders and Patrick had screen chemistry together - with their Freudian comments about their need for danger and "You enjoy being hurt", but once Richard Denning entered as a Detective, the dark originality took a back seat to conventionality. Even my eyebrows were raised as Denning, in an effort to find the priceless lost books started flinging valuable books off the shelves. Then Lynne Roberts appeared as a patriotic librarian waiting for her Johnny, who is serving overseas. A different ending may have been viable, but in production code films of the 40s all offenders had to be punished so Patrick would never have been able to walk away. The fact that there was no romance between Denning and Roberts provided a patriotic subplot - so at the end he could upbraid Patrick's duplicity with a speech about how "there are plenty of girls like Kay in America today" etc, pointing out that she is loyal and true to her country and her man. Maybe the film meant to highlight that, in those fearful times, Patrick may have been the real villain, someone who has no loyalty and is not to be trusted.Gail Patrick began her career as a colourless ingenue, but, after "My Man Godfrey", broke the mold and from then on always seemed to find work as a haughty femme fatale. Lon McCallister had a very brief part as Freddie the library stacker. Theodore Von Eltz who, in my opinion, was a dead ringer for Edmund Lowe, had a brief scene in Denning's office.Recommended.
context-consult
Another reviewer suggested a better, more realistic ending (but one that would've been acceptable in 1942, when good had to triumph over evil at the movies). So I can see how some might prefer a more postmodern version.But I think the clichés of this film are good campy fun. It's been a very long time since I found a movie this good that I've never seen before. So I see it as a superb relic to be treasured.It's a charming film noir crime caper, stagy and clumsy at times, but with a very smooth George Sanders as the rather mild villain, and surprisingly smart banter throughout. It has a good formulaic story that doggedly ties up all loose ends into a neat package. It moves very quickly for its age, and is pretty easy to follow, despite the plot being somewhat complex.I'm very excited to have stumbled across it.
lucy-66
The plot is as much of a riddle as the psychology of the two mainvillains: George Sanders and the perfect noir woman. They calmlydiscuss their need to fail, self-sabotage and love of punishmentand fear, namechecking Freud but in a skeptical aside. The(blackhaired of course) girl spends most of the action in furs, highheels and a spiky hat with a veil. (You mean that's not how youdress to visit your local library?) Her words and actions are alwaysambiguous. The library setting is played for all it is worth:dialogues take place in rooms filled with antique furniture,classical sculpture or old musical instruments. Sanders, seenthrough the 'prison bars' created by the strings of a harp (usuallyplayed by angels), plucks one out to use as a torture instrument.We last see him deliberately cutting his wrists on the handcuffsand looking forward to his execution. A routine thriller? I don't thinkso. xxxx
