Sunday, May 19, 2013

Movie review - "I'll Be Seeing You" (1945) ***

The story feels very thin and I wasn't surprised to hear it was adapted from a radio play. But the concept is different enough - Ginger Rogers is on leave while serving a six year prison sentence for manslaughter (!) and romances shell shocked soldier Joseph Cotten. Shirley Temple is the horny teen who accidentally spills the beans and Spring Byington and Tom Tully as her allegedly cute relatives.

David O. Selznick became known for his spectacles and this probably cost more than it should but it's a simple story - mostly Rogers and Cotten chatting, and various chats with her family around the dinner table. The one elaborate sequence is the dance near the end.

It is sensitively directed by William Dieterle; there are some random chats about soldiers and politics which whiff of Dore Schary who produced (eg Cotten being asked what soldiers think and he says "soldiers have all sorts of opinions" or something like that). The theme song is laid on with a trowel, it's all sentimental and warm, Cotten was more a leading man than a star, but it does work and gets points for having a heroine in prison.

A young John Derek appears as Temple's date, a very young officer.

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