Johnny Belinda

We've seen this time and time again. One little rumor spreads and like wildfire, it inflicts a lot of damage on anyone too close. It's solid fodder throughout fiction, especially in melodrama. The effects, however, vary from story to story.

Jean Neglusco's Johnny Belinda follows such a premise. Bear in mind this was released in 1948, the Hays Code still very much in effect. So to no surprise it was met with controversy upon its release. But does it hold up all these years later?

Admittedly the way Belinda (Jane Wyman) is perceived by many of the townsfolk makes the film show its age (she's regularly called "the dummy" because she's deaf-mute). But it's the compassion from town doctor Robert (Lew Ayres) that gives the film its heart.

And it's the work from Ayres, Wyman, Charles Bickford and Agnes Moorehead that makes Johnny Belinda so effective nearly seventy years later. (After all, this was one of those few films to be nominated in all four acting categories.) They're all great but it becomes evident almost immediately how and why Wyman won.

Johnny Belinda has its fair share of melodrama (particularly in the final third) but overall it's a solid work. (Would you believe its director would go on to do How to Marry a Millionaire five years later?) It's the kind of picture that was acclaimed upon its release but is now all but forgotten. If there's a reason to seek it out, the main one is Wyman's performances. (She didn't win for nothing.)

My Rating: ****1/2

How to Marry a Millionaire

I usually like comedies from the classic era because the jokes were what the jokes in today's comedies are not: funny. Older comedies relied on jokes with wit rather than today's comedies relying on jokes with bad taste.

How to Marry a Millionaire I like because, as mentioned, the jokes are actually funny. They still work after nearly sixty years, so that's good. (I personally like when Lauren Bacall making reference to husband Humphrey Bogart as "that old fellow what's-his-name from The African Queen".)

I really liked the performances in How to Marry a Millionaire. Bacall possesses a New York attitude that has her in charge. Betty Grable, whom I'm not too familiar with, did manage to grasp my attention with her work. William Powell is his debonair self as the beau and eventual fiance of Bacall. (Who wouldn't want to marry him?) But my favorite performance came from Marilyn Monroe, whom I'm starting to like more with each passing movie. She showcases the typical ditzy blonde persona, but she gives a new take on it.

To sum things up, I really liked How to Marry a Millionaire. It gets a little silly in some scenes, but it's a very clever comedy. It also makes me long for a new comedy that mirrors the classics.

My Rating: ****1/2