La Dame aux cheveux blancs

Robert Siodmak (1900-1973) was a member of a group of talented twenty-year-olds, all film fans in Berlin, who made the extremely popular German silent film PEOPLE ON SUNDAY (Menschen am Sonntag) in 1929. Siodmak co-directed the film with Edward Ulmer from a script by Billy Wilder and Siodmak's brother Curt. Fred Zimmerman was the assistant camera. When Hitler came to power a few years later, all five were forced to leave their country, in time ending up in Hollywood where all five became directors. Siodmak, perhaps best remembered today for a series of excellent film noirs, is one of the most neglected of the emigre directors, contantly working all over the world, doing every sort of script that came his way from THE KILLERS with Burt Lancaster and the young Ava Gardner to the pirate takeoff THE CRIMSON PIRATE to COBRA WOMAN with Maria Montez. This sentimental tale made at low-budget Republic Pictures in 1943 (but not looking it) is equally well-staged and photographed with a wonderful performance by character actress Mabel Paige as the old lady who befriends a gifted cast that includes young Peter Lawford, the beautiful ingenue Dorothy Morris, and John Craven who had been the original husband in OUR TOWN on Broadway. Siodmak, much like his contemporary, the Hungarian Michael Curtiz, was one of those always-working contract directors who seemed to be able to direct anything and anyone that any studio handed him; especially good with actors, many of his performers were nominated for Oscars. He is unjustly forgotten these days in most books that glorify the golden age of studio product. A master craftsman.

This is a forgotten classic from the 40's by Republic. It was sadly remade in 1957 with the wonderful Ethel Barrymore. The remake doesn't hold a candle to the 1943 film. When Republic Studio hit hit's mark, it really did make some memorable films such as this with Mabel Paige. I think the sentimental screenplay was just not right foe the late 50's. But it is a film to be treasured and will wring a tear from even the hardest heart. I recently saw the remake JOHNNY TROUBLE on TCM and though it was occasionally well meaning, it lacked the heart of the original. Don't miss this film if you are able to find it in it's original 80 minute length. Unfortunately many versions have been cut to as low as 60 minutes.

I first saw this film on TV in the late '50s and have never forgotten it. It still haunts, delights, and warms me like no other movie ever has. Republic Pictures had a reputation for churning out forgettable low-budget bottom-of-the-bill quickies. Nothing could be further from the truth. As witness this elegantly-produced, eloquently written, acted and directed tale of an elderly lady who refuses to vacate her room when her apartment building is converted into a college male dormitory. Her reason--her only son had mysteriously disappeared years ago, and she is convinced he will one day come back to her. When the conversion indeed takes place, the lady in question remains--and becomes a kind of den-mother to its randy young male occupants (among them, look for a very young and appealing Peter Lawford!) One of the students is troubled and rebellious--but when he and his girlfriend develop a lovingly attachment to the elderly lady, she becomes convinced he is indeed her grandson. And with the Christmas holidays approaching, and the boy's father coming to see him, the lonely old lady makes preparations to be at long last reunited with her son (whom she is convinced is the boy's father). But then . . . I have no idea why this perfect jewel of a movie has fallen into oblivion. Perhaps the inferior re-make "Johnny Trouble" (1957) yanked it into obscurity. The version available to TV in the '50s was cut by 30 minutes by its syndicator. I managed to rent a 16mm print of the cut version 20 years ago, and my dinner guests were enthralled. That fine, forgotten actress Mabel Paige gives a performance of exquisite subtlety and understatement. The supporting players are equally outstanding. What could easily have been a treacly, sentimental weep-wallow is instead fresh, smart, witty--and undeniably heartrending. "Someone To Remember" earns its emotional resonance, and demands to be seen--either on cable-TV, VHS or DVD--to a new generation of discerning viewers. This masterpiece of yearning with an O'Henry twist is based on a story by Ben Ames Williams, who, not so incidentally, wrote the novel which inspired the smash-hit "Leave Her to Heaven". Far from a mother-love tearjerker, "Someone to Remember" quietly cries out to be remembered. And relished. And savored. And if you suddenly find yourself trying to curtail your tears days after you've seen it, isn't that what great and lasting movie-making is all about?

Mabel Paige has lived quietly at the residential hotel as long as anyone can remember. Then it's sold to the university for a men's dormitory, and Charles Dingle explains that she has to leave. But she has a lifetime lease, and she won't leave, because he son quarreled with her husband when he was in college and cut off all contact. But she expects him to return one of these days, and how will he find her? She explains this so charmingly over tea that Dingle, doesn't know what to do. He makes some efforts at the orders of the college board, but they give up, and she is left in her apartment. The college boys are charmed too, and so was I. Who would have thought that Robert Siodmak, who specialized in grizzly films noir, could direct something so charming?

Alas, you can't fill an 80-minute movie on charm, so the plot advances, with John Craven turning up in the dorm with the same name as Miss Paige's son. She is convinced he is her grandson and the great reconciliation will take place when his father and mother return from South America. And she has to manage his affair with Dorothy Morris, to make sure the youngsters are married. This section is not as good as the plotless start the movie, but it certainly has its moments, like the waltz scene.