Tormento

I'm afraid that for one to appreciate The Guilt Of Janet Ames one would have to have seen the Gary Cooper film Peter Ibbetson which came out from Paramount a dozen years earlier. I think that in 1947 there were probably new adult moviegoers who did not get the reference.

Based on a Daphne DuMaurier novel Peter Ibbetson is the story of a paralyzed and imprisoned man who meets and has a whole life with his true love through dreams.

In this film Rosalind Russell plays an embittered war widow. Her husband was killed by jumping on a live grenade and saving five others around him. Russell feels that none of these people could have been worthy of the sacrifice he made that got him the Congressional Medal Of Honor. She resolves to meet them all to confirm her suspicion.

One of them is Melvyn Douglas who has become quite an alcoholic since his war service. He was the editor of a newspaper and a crusading journalist before the war.

Russell gets hit by a car and his name is found in her pocket along with the other four. Nothing too serious in physical injuries, but she has a hysterical paralysis now. Douglas is sent for when they find the scrap of paper and he's known to the hospital staff.

Knowing who she is, but her not knowing him, Douglas stimulates her imagination and she discovers what the others could be like with some small bits of information. The fantasy scenes are really quite good, the best being a young Sid Caesar in a standup routine about psychological films of which this is surely one. Thinking of the recently released Spellbound, I wonder what Alfred Hitchcock must have thought when he saw Caesar's routine. It's worth seeing the film for that alone.

In the end Russell and Douglas learn a good deal about each other and themselves. The Guilt Of Janet Ames is not on par with a film like Spellbound, but it does have its moments and the stars acquit themselves well.

Rosalind Russell faces "The Guilt of Janet Ames" in this 1947 film also starring Melvin Douglas, Sid Caesar, Betsy Blair and Nina Foch. After the war, many, many films concerning psychiatry, mental illness, the mind, nerve disorders, etc. were released. Obviously readjustment and mental trauma were problems faced by many returning soldiers, and loss had to be coped with in many families. So it's no surprise that psychology became a huge subject.

Rosalind Russell plays a war widow whose husband threw himself on a grenade and saved five of his platoon. Angry and bitter, she has the names of the men, and sets out to meet each one to see if any of them were worth her husband sacrificing his life. En route to see one of them, she is hit by a car and has an hysterical paralysis so that she is confined to a wheelchair. One of the names on her list is recognized as that of a reporter, Smitty (Douglas), and he goes to the hospital to identify her. Though he has lost his job, is an alcoholic and due to leave for Chicago soon, he does a mental exercise with Janet that is inspired by the story of Peter Ibbetson. Ibbetson was an imprisoned man in a DuMaurier novel who was able through his imagination to leave the prison and reunite in dreams with his true love. Janet has to imagine each man, what he's like and what problems he's facing in order to gain some understanding of him. One man has a child, another man is married and he and his wife dream of building a house, another does work in the desert, one is a bouncer and another is a stand-up comic.

Once she is through with this exercise, Janet is able to admit some demons she has been carrying with her since her husband's death. Then it's Smitty's turn to face some facts.

Thanks to the acting of Russell and Douglas, "The Guilt of Janet Ames" is truly elevated. Russell looks beautiful, and her acting is wonderful. At first she's hard and angry (the word neurotic is thrown around a lot), but gradually, her character softens. Douglas gets to do more than be the light, debonair leading man here, and as he proved later in his career, he is more than up to it.

The message is that you can't live in the past and put yourself through the torture of what you did or didn't do, and it's an effective one that probably has as much resonance now as it did in 1947. There's still a war on.

This movie started with such promise...then....yuck! It begins with a wonderful premise. Rosalind Russell plays a woman who is seeking out five men that lived due to her husband's sacrifice during WWII. He died so these five men might live. However, what exactly she plans on doing when she sees all of them is unknown, as she is hit by a vehicle while crossing the street to see the first man! An alcoholic news reporter (Melvyn Douglas) learns about this accident. However, his decision to see the injured lady is because he was one of the five names on her list--as he'd been saved by her husband. So far...a wonderful premise.

When Douglas enters the hospital, the film starts to go downhill. First, the doctor firmly declares that Russell is able to walk--even though she insists she can't. This is odd, as she seems to have just been brought in to the hospital after the accident--and yet the nasty doctor yells at her and tells her she is okay! This might have made sense if she'd been in the hospital a few days--plus despite being hit by a car, she seems to have no injuries!! But, it gets worse, as with Douglas' help and a few pills, Russell starts to have out of the body experiences where she magically meets the families of the five men who were saved--and sees how their lives impacted the lives about them. Seeing the extended impact of the man's sacrifice is a nice idea--but doing an out of the body traveling gimmick really was dumb. It came off as preachy...very, very preachy.

Now I am NOT insensitive to the sacrifices made by people in war. And, I do appreciate the other reviewer, as the film was very personally touching to them. But it just came off as too weird, too contrived and silly--when, using the same basic story idea, it could have been wonderful. Too bad...I think the film makers' intentions were good--but the script was just strange and, at times, a bit ridiculous.

This is an exquisitely beautiful film reminding of the best moments of William Dieterle (like in 'Portrait of Jennie') with many innovative surprises, as the film moves on into the guilt complex of Rosalind Russell as she can't get over the death of her husband in the war, who sacrificed himself to save five of his comrades. An unemployed journalist on the booze comes across the case, when she is confined to a hospital for nervous problems when she can't move her legs, he gets over the list of the five saved comrades and develops an interest in her, a he knew all those soldiers. He develops a dialog with her in which he tries to open up her secret inhibitions to get her on her feet again, and thus all the five saved characters and their stories turn up as flashbacks. The problem is that she can't accept that they were worth saving by her husband's death, while Melvyn Douglas as the journalist on the booze, his first part after the war, gradually makes her realize the worth of the five chums. It's a wonderful film gradually revealing a deep mystery, and Melvyn Douglas is impressive as never before, and so is Rosalind Russell. This is a film to return to for its beauty, its charm, its wonderful story of many aspects and depths and one of the most extraordinary redemptions of a war film.

A surprising little gem of a movie. Articulate dialog, a realistic view of the impact of war, the best performance I have seen from Melvyn Douglas, good (and awfully tough) role filled by Roz Russell. Some of the fantasy went a bit too far and I'd love to know why one of the five surviving soldiers was not shown (his wife was). I always wondered about the buddies I lost and whether I've been a good representative for their sacrifice. This show was creative and touching, some hints of film noir and an occasional light moment. I've seen over 4,000 films, probably two-thirds of which I cannot remember even with prompting. This one stands out for being different and effective. Too few like this.