ottoflop

I have always been impressed with this film not only for its beautiful black and white photography, but also for the "grim and gritty" look of the sets. One thing which has always bothered me is that while others have commented on the historical inaccuracies, the biggest blooper of them all is the date on the tombstone of the brother killed at the beginning of the film -1882. The Gunfight at the OK Corral took place in October 1881. Someone was asleep in the property department at Fox. J. Duffy

I had wanted to see this film for years. Despite the talent involved: Astaire; Crosby; Berlin and the best production values that money could buy, I found it to be very disappointing. Part of the problem is, I believe, the lackluster performance of Joan Caulfield who becomes annoying with her vacillating romance between Astaire and Crosby. One wonders why one, much less two, guys would fall for her. Billy DeWolfe and Olga San Juan are very good in supporting roles and,of course, the Irving Berlin score is great, but somehow it all fails to jell.

I believe that this film shows the different "style" of the studios. Had this been made at M-G-M, if probably would have been great, at Paramount it falls flat. "Lady in the Dark" was another Paramount opus which had a similar fault.

I first saw this film late at night in 1965. Very well done and both Lockwood and Anne Crawford (a sadly overlooked actress) are in their prime. After viewing this film, I came across the book written by Vera Caspary and was surprised to find that in the book the story was set in Connecticut during the Christmas tide of 1913; rather than England in 1946. At that time, many films had a late Victorian/early Edwardian setting and it was of interest to me that the period was updated to modern (1946) days. One key point of the period setting was the fact that after a snowstorm the characters were isolated and news was slower to reach people in 1913. One wonders what this film would have been like had the period setting been left intact.

On a trivia note, this film was one of the few independent productions made at Ealing Studios without the "Ealing Team" being involved.