'Til We Meet Again

There are moments in certain movies that, once experienced, turn you, forevermore, into a movie-lover.

As those two glasses broke, in a bar in Acapulco, the sound nearly masked by New Years' celebrations and the strains of "Auld Lang Syne", I let out a sob that I can still feel, well more than fifty years later.

Dated, trite, corny, awful sound, loud voices, yeah, all of those. But put it aside and revel in this beautiful, gentle, glamorous and romantic love story. Even with all the available cinematographic bells and whistles, it simply could not be made today.

Classy, richly appointed remake of One Way Passage is close to a scene for scene remake but the talented cast manage to make it fresh. Brent is less stolid than usual and he and Merle make a handsome couple surrounded by a terrific group of character actors. Eric Blore is amusing as usual in a small role, Pat O'Brien full of quiet integrity as George's minder and Geraldine Fitzgerald is lovely and solid in a small role as a newlywed. But the real standouts are under-appreciated Binnie Barnes as a con-woman who has a past with Brent and most of all Frank McHugh as his loyal tippling friend, he manages to make a stock character very human.

my ex was a truck driver. The night that I was watching this movie, he called just as they were arriving in Hawaii. I missed the rest of the movie and was extremely disappointed. I tried to find it again on TV and only once that I know, was it shown. I imagined scenarios for many years trying to figure out what the ending would be. I finally found a company that had access to many film archives and obtained a copy. I've only had it a week and I have already watched it 3 times. The rest of the movie was better than anything that I dreamed up. I liked the twists and turns of the plot and the ending was classic. Of course, you could always imagine that the ending was different, but I think that the way it ended enhanced the love story. True love overcomes all difficulties in the end.

'Til We Meet Again is a remake of Warner Brothers earlier film, One Way Passage, a story of doomed romance that starred William Powell and Kay Francis. This film and the previous one concerns the shipboard romance of a man being brought back to the United States in custody to face the gas chamber in San Quentin and a terminally ill woman on a cruise for one last fling at life. Taking the parts of Powell and Francis are George Brent and Merle Oberon.

I can see Jack Warner's mind at work on this one. The year before George Brent had romanced and treated the terminally ill Bette Davis in Dark Victory. Why not get Brent into a remake of this other film about a dying woman and her last romance? We even get Geraldine Fitzgerald in this one in the same part, best friend to the terminally ill woman.

The part of the police lieutenant escorting Brent is built up considerably from One Way Passage where the role was played by Warren Hymer. Here Pat O'Brien is the cop and he's nobody's fool. Still Brent has friends on board, Frank McHugh who's a con man with a nice drunk act and Binnie Barnes who's a con woman with a phony French accent. She goes after O'Brien and not totally in the line of duty. She's also my favorite in this film.

Oberon and Brent make a beautiful pair of lovers and one had better have as big a supply of handkerchiefs as one did in watching One Way Passage.

If you like romance, you must see this movie. It is well written, beautifully directed, and superbly acted. The music, too, is memorable. Merle Oberon is perfection. George Brent is excellent. Binnie Barnes is masterfully restrained and right on the mark. Unless you are emotionless, make sure you have some tissues ready. This is a remake of an earlier movie that starred William Powell, but it is so much better thanks to the perfect casting of Merle Oberon in the lead. She is the force that propels this story. Along with the romantic thread of the movie, there is a compelling drama of two men, a criminal and a cop, bound together on a ship carrying the criminal back to prison. The drama and the romance are flawlessly blended in a tale that never drags.