Wed 11 Dec 2019
A Seasonal Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: I’LL BE SEEING YOU (1944).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[6] Comments
I’LL BE SEEING YOU. Selznick/Unired Artists, 1944. Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Spring Byington and Tom Tully. Adapted by Marion Parsonnet from a radio play by Charles Martin. Directed by William Diertele and George Cukor.
Among the oddest of Christmas films, I’ll Be Seeing You offers a deceptively simple tale and makes it resonate with surprising counter-rhythms and a touch of noir.
The plot in brief: It’s the Holidays, and Ginger Rogers is visiting relatives in a small town, but after New Year’s Day she has to go back to Prison, where she’s serving a six-year stretch for Manslaughter.
On the train, she meets Zach Morgan (Joseph Cotten) a soldier who impulsively decides to get off at her stop and get to know her. But after the Holidays, he too must return — to a VA hospital where he’s being treated for what we now call PTSD.
The romance that follows is built like a fragile house of cards as we see them start to build trust in each other, confidence in themselves and tentative plans for a future that just ain’t gonna happen; he’s got to go back to the Hospital (she doesn’t know it) and she must return to Prison (he doesn’t know it) and even as love grows in the holiday climate, tension builds as we wonder what will happen when they find out….
Director Diertele heightens the drama by stressing the small town atmosphere and the loving cohesion of Ginger’s family (Tom Tully, Spring Byington and Shirly Temple at that awkward adolescent age.) Her furlough has been hard fought-for, and the depth of feeling when she reunites with her family is.. well it’s one of those moments we watch Movies for. Joseph Cotten is welcomed by her family…
….And then it hit me: This is the reverse side of Shadow of a Doubt (Universal, 1944 – just a year earlier!). We have Joseph Cotten once again as a man with a secret coming to a small town and ingratiating himself with an All-American Family. Only this time, Ginger is the killer, and the flashback to her crime has a haunting Woolrichesque quality to it that matches anything in Shadow.
As I watched both films I saw how Cotten incorporated elements of one character into the other and differentiated them at the same time. Both men are charming, but Zach ‘s charm is a clumsy, off-hand thing, while Uncle Charlie’s is a practiced act. Both men wear masks, but Cotten lets Uncle Charlie’s mask slip to chilling effect, while Zach’s mask crumbles heart-wrenchingly. Watching both films back to back I gained a new appreciation of Joseph Cotten’s talent, all too rarely used and too often wasted.
But all this is a sidebar at best. I’ll Be Seeing You is a moving if modest triumph of off-beat movie-making. A film of genuine charm and feeling. And perfect for the Christmas Season.
December 12th, 2019 at 11:09 am
Joseph COTTEN.
With an e.
Spellcheck please note – finally.
December 12th, 2019 at 11:24 am
Yipes. Fixed it. Thanks, Mike!
December 12th, 2019 at 8:51 pm
Temple’s role here is decidedly dark for Shirley, her character’s betrayal and recognition of what she has done both well done. I wonder how audiences then reacted to a Shirley who was something other than feisty or cute?
Cotten seemed incapable of a misstep at this point in his career.
December 13th, 2019 at 1:50 pm
David, the reason Cotten made few to none career missteps in the early going, was due to DOS — the often despised, but equally brilliant David Selznick. When that was over, more or less by 1950, the film parts diminished in size as did their running times.
December 13th, 2019 at 11:44 pm
I always thought with his battered-looking face and weary -sounding voice, Cotten wouldd have made a good Movie PI, especially in the 1940s.
December 15th, 2019 at 11:28 am
Dan,
Thanks for the good review of one of my favorite Christmas timed movies. You have to wonder though how Ginger’s character would be let out of jail for the Holiday’s.
And, as to why she went to jail in the first place, for killing her SOB boss, she should have had a better lawyer! I’ve not seen this yet on TCM this month. I’ll have to see when it’ll be on again.