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The Unsuspected (1947)
Curtiz’s initial film from his Warner Bros.-based production company is a dazzling display of post-World War II noir based on Charlotte Armstrong’s novel. Claude Rains stars as Victor Grandison, a famous radio personality whose secretary is found hanged in his office. While the police attempt to sort matters out, a missing niece’s husband surfaces at Grandison’s birthday party as the family shenanigans begin to pile up. Co-starring Joan Caulfield, bad girl Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Hurd Hatfield, Michael North and Fred Clark in his film debut. The photography of Woody Bredell and Anton Grot’s production design aids Curtiz in shaping an insightful perspective about the cultural power of radio during the pre-television era.
35mm, b/w, 103 min. Production: Michael Curtiz Productions, Inc. Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. Director: Michael Curtiz. Producer: Charles Hoffman. Screenwriter: Ranald MacDougall. Based on the novel by Charlotte Armstrong. Cinematographer: Elwood Bredell. Editor: Frederick Richards. Cast: Joan Caulfield, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Hurd Hatfield.
Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Romance on the High Seas (1948)
Doris Day’s film debut is a song-filled frivolity set on a pleasure cruise to Rio. Michael and Elvira Kent (Don Defore and Janis Paige) are in love but both think the other is playing around. When Michael hires private detective Peter Virgil (Jack Carson) to keep tabs on his wife, neither is aware that Georgia Garrett (Day) is posing as Elvira. Oscar Levant, and S.Z. Sakall provide the comedy relief scripted by the Epstein brothers and I.A.L. Diamond, with the musical numbers staged by the great Busby Berkeley. The film also stars Fortunio Bonanova, Eric Blore and Franklin Pangborn. Julie Styne and Sammy Cahn’s song “It’s Magic” and Ray Heindorf’s score were Oscar-nominated.
35mm, Technicolor, 99 min. Production: Michael Curtiz Productions, Inc. Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. Director: Michael Curtiz. Producer: Alex Gottlieb. Screenwriter: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein. Cinematographer: Elwood Bredell. Editor: Rudi Fehr. Cast: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Doris Day, Oscar Levant.
