This Above All (1942)

 "A man ,must have integrity..."

This is another British war film, reasonably obscure despite starring Joan Fontaine, and a fascinating snapshot of the age.

It is, I suppose, a wartime romance on the surface. And the performances and characterisation are excellent. Yet at its core it's far more philosophical- about the ethics of war, of duty, of what's being fought for- in a way which could only have emerged in the middle of the Second World War.

Prue is a young, aristocratic lady who scandalises her rich family by joining the WAAF... as a private, despite her upbringing, wanting to do her part, frustrated by the stuffy life of privilege she sees around her by those who see the War as an inconvenient intrusion on their comforts. Clive, meanwhile, is a brave soldier, Dunkirk hero, mentioned in dispatches... yet AWOL and on the brink of desertion not from cowardice but disillusion with the privileged nonentoities whom he percieves to be in charge.

The narrative plays out as the well-done melodrama that it is, with a happy ending after many twists and turns. Yet what lingers most about this film, aside from the very contemporary attitude towards pre-marital sex, is that yes, the message is one of patriotism, of duty, of honour. But it is also a film, pointing forwards to the 1945 election, that Britain has come together for the war and so must never again go back to the old ways of privilege, poverty and a nation divided.

This film is no more than quite good, I suppose. But it's a fascinating snapshot of the age.

Cat People (1942)

 "I like the dark It's friendly."

I can't quite put my finger on why, but this film- as with many directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton- doesn't quite do it for me. It doesn't seem to cohere.

It gets a lot of things right. It manages to be pacey as well as having very strong characterisation for a horror film- fantasy elements and dodgy Serbian history aside, this is a film that could be about real people, and has an actual subtext of the wildness of female sexuality, kept repressed in what they would not, in 1942, have referred to as our patriarchal world.

The horror is well done, with suggestion and direction rather than spectacle as something seems to follow Alice- the footsteps and bus scene, and the swimming pool scene, are both very well done. Kent Smith is a little bland, but the rest of the case is superb.

And yet, there's an unevenness of tone. It doesn't become a horror film until the last part of the film, instead the story of a woman's fear of the harm she can do with her sexuality, causing her to remain repressed until she meets the nice but dull Oliver. There's a bit of a vague love triangle with Alice, who comes across as very real. Then there's the Doc, who probably isnt intended to come across quite as creepy as he seems in 2020. And the threat is, perhaps, undersold and left overly vague.

Nevertheless, this is a good and interesting little film.

Casablanca (1942)

"Here's looking at you, kid."

Casablanca is, of course, a bit like Citizen Kane in that its reputation should be a yoke around its neck. How can any film be as good as Casablanca is said to be? The film's enormous reputation means it can, surely, only disappoint.

Well, actually, no. I don't care if I recognise the famous lines from seeing them spoofed on, of all things, Red Dwarf- this film really is superlative. It is, I suppose, a romance and it is, I suppose, centred around a love triangle. Yet the characters, in a wonderful marriage of script and performers (Bogart and Bergman are extraordinary, but so is the entire cast), have all the emotional realism and complexity of characters in a literary novel. There's no melodrama here, only nuance- I love how Victor is well aware of what happened in Paris, but is not so crass as to confront Ilsa, or to doubt her love for him. And Ilsa is torn between love for two human but genuinely good men, both of whom, in their way, face a harsh and brutal world with integrity.

Like today, this is an era- the opening narration calls it the Second World War, already, in 1942- where the jackboots of far right extremism, with its contempt for humanity, for checks and balances, for integrity. All three of the characters in the triangle have had their lives deeply damaged by said jackboots, and all three perceive the world with a certain weary cynicism. Yet all three of them, ultimately, believe in something better and make sacrifices in that noble aim. One can live in a cruel world, blighted by tyranny, and be a flawed human being within that world, with conflicting feelings and loyalties- and still behave with integrity. Rick sacrifices not just his happiness but, it seems, his ife.

Yet just as fascinating are Yvonne, who sleeps with the jackbooted enemy only to be dumped, and realise where her loyalties truly lie during the extraordinary Marseillaise scene, which made this Englishman shed tears for la Republique, and of course Louis- the cynical, corrupt police chief who seems to flirt with collaboration throughout but redeems himself at the end.

This is a great, great film, but it's no forbidding and formidable edifice; it's grippingly watchable simply because of its characters, with the subtext very much arising from them. Let's not call it the greatest film ever made; it's far too good for such shallow concepts.