October 3 movie: Between Two Worlds. John Garfield and Paul Henreid star as part of a group of people who die and then wake up on a mysterious ocean liner. They're your basic cast of cliches: the rich snobby woman, her hen-pecked husband, the arrogant self-important businessman, the kindly working class woman, etc etc. They all sit around talking endlessly and making each other miserable, reminding me alternately of No Exit and that Simpsons episode where Homer ends up on the Ship of Lost Souls. Then Sidney Greenstreet shows up as God's representative and sends them each to their eternal reward or punishment. That part of the movie was moralistic and creepy. It would have been better if they'd let Greenstreet ham it up and act evilly gleeful about condemning people to eternal torment. But since he was acting on God's orders, he was all restrained and sanctimonious about it.
I normally love Paul Henreid but this was a stinker. There wasn't even any suspense about what happened to the people, because Henreid and his wife figure it out right way. The only character I really liked was Edmund Gwenn as the ship's steward.
Post a comment