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Reviews
The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
Bogart is as loony as can be and a murderer, but lots of fun to watch.
The only reason to watch this film is because Bogart and Stanwyck are starring in it. Bogie practices his full-screen nutty facial expressions that later became famous in "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" and "The Caine Mutiny". Stanwyck recreates her "horrified-I'm about to be murdered looks" from "Sorry Wrong Number". The plot is pretty hokey and transparent but, like I said, it is fun to see great actors having fun, and it looks like they did on this film. I would bet that this movie was filmed in a few weeks time. I thought that Bogie's daughter would be the one to expose her Dad but she only gave clues to Stanwyck that caused her to be suspicious. As mentioned on the review the "milk out the window" later became "milk all over the sill and floor" for Bogie to realize that his poison milk was exposed to his wife. I saw this on TCM and there were satellite problems or something but only small parts were skipped. This movie, like so many Hollywood plots, has the "good guy" boyfriend that the wife should have married who comes to the rescue. What is funny is that in "real life" there is no way that Stanwyck would have married creepy Bogart and not the debonair, handsome Englishman that she was engaged to prior to Bogie. Of course, "real life" movies are not always good box office or much fun to see.
The Shepherd of the Hills (1941)
Filmed on location in Big Bear, California
This is a great movie that was filmed during the summer of 1941 while my family was camping in Big Bear, California. I was only 3 years old and have been told about the visit to the sets that my older sisters were able to make. They don't recall seeing any stars and think that they visited after the days shooting was completed. They were camped in a public campground just down the hill from the houses that were built for the movie. I have been told that I sang the Frank Sinatra hit "I'll Never Smile Again" at the age of 3 for all of the campers at the nightly campfire gathering. I memorized songs, I've been told, from the radio that my sisters always were playing. This was the last camping done until after WW 2 since Pearl Harbor was attacked in Decemeber of that year. The opening scene of the movie is of Big Bear Lake and the later scenes around the small lake where they fished is at a small man-made lake that was formed for the movie. I assume that the inside scenes were filmed in Hollywood but all of the outdoor scenes were filmed on the crest of the mountains to the south of Big Bear Lake. The San Bernardino valley is beyond some of the distant mountains as they filmed on the top of the crest. The rocks are prominent in the San Bernardino mountains and used throughout the film. The south shore of Big Bear Lake has large boulders at the water's edge but this area is not use in the movie. Anyway, it is great because of the newness of John Wayne and his now famous facial antics, which we love, and Harry Carey who was John Wayne's idol in real life. Betty Fields, always great, shines in the part of Sammy. This movie is now available as an econimical set of John Wayne DVD's that just became available. It is the best of the movies in the set but all of the others are wonderful just because they feature John Wayne. My wife and I enjoyed "Seven Sinners" which we had never seen.