A Guy Named Joe

A Guy Named Joe: 1943 War Romance, Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson.



Marc Horton Plot Synopsis: Tracy is a WWII flyboy. Improbably, Dunne is also a pilot. They're in love. Tracy dies on a bombing raid. Dunne feels bad. Johnson's a fresh recruit. Dunne falls in love. Tracy's ghost hovers over her.

Notables: Breakthrough film for Van Johnson, who became one of the Top 5 box office draws in the '40s. Production was interrupted by Johnson's car accident that left him with a plate in his head. Steven Spielberg remade it as Always in 1989. The original filmed ending had Dunne dying on her own bombing raid, but the Production Code said that implied she committed suicide, so a happier ending was shot.

Politically Incorrect Movie Review: If Van Johnson, who died Dec. 12, was a top box office draw, a lot of grandmas must have been going to the movies in the 40s.

Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt: 1943 Suspense, starring Joseph Cotten, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The Marc Horton plot synopsis: We learn in the opening scene that Joseph Cotten's on the lam. He ditches Capital City for his sister's family in The Sticks. Shows up at the bank with $40K cash and the banker barely bats an eye. Niece reads the local rag and our Nancy Drew wannabe figures out Uncle Charlie's a murderer. Homeland Security-style gumshoes show up, poking around, asking a lot of questions. And the family just gives them the run of the place. This is a world where the bad guy practically has blood on his hands, strangers wearing fancy suits pop up in town, and yet nobody ever puts 2 and 2 together.

The hype: The Video Hound's Golden Movie Retriever suggests it was Hitchcock's personal favorite. According to an entry in IMDb, Patrick McGilligan's book "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light" (2003) notes: "...(Hitchcock) liked to call Shadow of a Doubt a 'most satifying picture'; more than once, he called it his favorite. But 'favorite' wasn't quite the same as best; and speaking for posterity, he pointedly told Francois Truffaunt it wasn't his favorite, and told Peter Bogdanovich it was merely "one of his favorites".

The Politically Incorrect Review: I think I understand. In the same way a mother refers to her ugliest kid as "her favorite." It's called over-compensating.