The film that launched Veronica Lake to stardom, despite being listed down the credits - and in hindsight, it’s not hard to see why. It’s a terrific, showy part and Lake is excellent – not as an actor, but as a personality. She is a sexy nightclub singer who interrupts the bromance between rich kid Ray Milland and working class William Holden (this triangle popped up a lot in early war films eg Buck Privates).
Lake is an ex of Holden’s but chases after rich Milland – Holden “saves” him from her one night when he is drunk. Lake still goes on to see Milland on the side – she blackmails him into it (I got a little confused how she did this), pretends to be pregnant, so Holden (who’s been kicked out of the army by now) steps in and marries Lake. Then Lake and Holden try to make a go of it, but Holden keeps pining over Milland. Eventually Lake leaves, comes back wanted for murder, dies in a plane crash – Milland takes the blame for Holden. How gay is this movie? And when I say "gay" I mean that in its accepted (new) use, not as an insult, these two guys really love each other.
Just to remind everyone he's straight, Milland has another love interest, played by Lynn Carver (slightly more spirited a character than the good girl usually is – she’s a photographer, she doesn’t want to give up her single life for Milland unless she’s honest). But the real love story is between him and Holden. There’s some crashes but no shooting – America were still neutral. But like Buck Privates, the public lapped it up.
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