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Hatchetman1945
Reviews
Over 21 (1945)
Pleasant Movie with Impressive Speech
I first saw this movie in the 1960's on TV. I subsequently saw it a couple of more times in the next few years but have not seen it since the late 1960's. I don't believe there are any existing copies of it, but I may be wrong. I found the movie, as I recall it, pleasant and amusing. As you can tell, it made an impression on me.
This film is about the editor (Alexander Knox) of a New York newspaper who, already an older individual, gets called near the end of World War II, into the U.S. Army's Officer Candidate School and the difficulties he goes through to meet the standards in order to become an officer. He agreed at his publisher's (Charles Coburn) urging to continue with editorial writing. Because he becomes burden with trying to pass the classes at OCS he becomes, he can't devote time to effort to writing the weekly editorials as he promised. His wife (Irene Dunne), who lives with him while he attends OCS, starts writing the editorials but passes them off to the publisher as his (Knox's character does not know that she keeps writing the editorials after he stops).
What impressed me about this movie was a speech Knox's character gives at the graduating class commencement in OCS toward the end of the movie. It is called "The World and Apple Pie" and speaks about the need for America to remain active in world affairs after World War II ends (in view of America's isolationism prior to World War II). He makes the analogy between the ingredients and person that make a apple pie and the ingredients that and people that make a peaceful world, that the pie and the world are only as good as the ingredients and the people who made them.
If there is an extant copy of the movie with the speech in it, I would love to find it. If you do have a chance to see the movie, do so. It's not a great movie but the speech, I think, will make its mark.
I did come across a book, a few years back, containing Ruth Gordon's play upon which the movie was based but the play did not have the speech in it.
The Outer Limits (1963)
Characters and Delivery Added to the Story
I remember before the show was first broadcast. There was some good publicity and interest. The first program, "The Galaxy Being" had William O. Douglas, Jr. as the being -- yup, the son.
The program continued on with great stories, good delivery of the story, some relevant message, and wonderful cinematography and editing. Even though it was an hour long, it rarely dragged. That program and "Twilight Zone", which until its last year or so was only half an hour, were equal in stories and delivery. When "Twilight Zone" went to an hour it didn't have the same delivery and impact that "Outer Limits" had or that "TZ" had when it was only half an hour. What made "Outer Limits" also interesting was that it didn't rely on science fiction as the basis for the story -- science fiction was the way it was delivered, but the meaningful and interesting factors were the characters.