Crossroads (1942)

Receiving a mysterious letter on the eve of his anniversary to wife Lucienne (Hedy Lamarr), French diplomat, David Talbot (William Powell) is confused. The letter is addressed to someone named "Jean," and asks for one million francs to satisfy an old debt. Thinking the letter must be a mistake, Talbot decides to get the police involved. When the "money" is delivered, Carlos Le Duc (Vladimir Sokoloff) is arrested. Thus begins a strange court case where Le Duc accuses Talbot of really being Jean Pelletier, a criminal and possible murderer. Le Duc states he was simply trying to retrieve money owed him by Jean. The case explodes when it's revealed by Talbot's friend, Dr. Andre Tessier (Felix Bressart), that Talbot had been in a train wreck in 1922 and suffers from amnesia. To further confuse the case and Talbot, a mystery witness, singer Michele Allaine (Claire Trevor), corroborates Le Duc's story and identifies Talbot as Pelletier, her former lover. However, Talbot is saved when wine salesman Henri Sarrou (Basil Rathebone) testifies to the court that he witnessed Pelletier dies years before after the train wreck.
With a new lease on life and an impending appointment as ambassador to Brazil, Talbot is visited by Sarrou who privately demands one million francs. Sarrou reveals that Talbot is Pelletier and that they had been cohorts in a two million franc robbery, in which Pelletier killed a man, then disapppeared with the money. He tells Talbot that Pelletier suffered a powder burn on his hand when he committed the murder. When Talbot sees a scar on his left hand, begins to suspect that he is Pelletier. The next day, Michele visits Talbot at his office begging for forgiveness about almost giving him away at the trial and warning him about Sarrou. Talbot now suspects a plot between Sarrou and Michele but when she leaves, she shows David a locket with a picture of the two of them together. Michele later visits Talbot and his wife at home with the intent of showing Lucienne the locket. However, David intervenes and later visits Michele still stating he does not believe the accusations she and Sarrou are making. Michele suggests that he go to a certain address and see Pelletier's impoverished mother. David goes to the old woman, who says he is not her son, but her affectionate and unselfish demeanour makes Talbot begins to doubt himself again.

So is Talbot the former Jean Pelletier, former criminal and murderer? Or is Talbot the pawn in a dangerous game? Watch and see! It's a truly great film and quite different from Powell and Lamarr's next collaboration, The Heavenly Body (1944) which is also quite good.

Watch the film here!


Tonight on TCM! Oooh! This sounds interesting!
Good Sam (1948) A family man helps out people in need and ends up broke in the process.
Dir: Leo McCarey Cast: Gary Cooper, Ann Sheridan, Ray Collins.

Blossoms in the Dust (1941)

Edna (Greer Garson) and her adoptive sister Charlotte (Marsha Hunt) are happily set to be married into the upper crust of Wisconsin society. However, their destinies are changed when Edna breaks off her engagement to marry Texan Sam Gladney (Walter Pidgeon) an associate of her father’s who brashly declares he will marry her. When Sam returns a year later for Edna, after opening up his flourmill, Mr. and Mrs. Keats (Kathleen Howard and George Lessey), Charlotte's future in-laws, tell the Kahlys (Fay Holden and Samuel Hinds) that their son Allan (William Henry) cannot marry her because she was a "nameless" foundling. Charlotte is devastated by the news and kills herself.

Two years later, Edna, who has moved to Texas and married Sam, gives birth to a boy and is told that she can have no more children. On Christmas Day, a few years later, tragedy strikes when their son is killed in an accident. Edna hides her grief by becoming a society hostess until Sam and Dr. Max Bresler (Felix Bressart), who attended her at Sammy's birth, try to get her interested in caring for other children. Though reticent at first, she and Sam set up a day nursery for working mothers, which they finance from their own fortune until Sam loses his mill due to the decline of wheat prices.

Selling everything they own, they move to Fort Worth where Sam works as a mill hand while trying to develop a new wheat process. On the day that Edna takes his new process to be notarized, she sees some children in a courtroom and discovers that they are orphans, tagged like cattle, and rejected by prospective adoptive parents because they are illegitimate. She brings two children home; one of them is named Tony who is very ill. With very little money and a lot of help from her friends Zeke and Cleo (Clinton Rosemond and Theresa Harris), she opens a storefront orphanage called the Texas Children's Home and Aid Society and arranges for adoptions for her charges, making certain parents and children are well suited for each other. However, the city councilmen close the home for zoning violations. Determined to keep up the fight, Edna must do so without Sam who passes away. 

She travels throughout Texas, collecting funds until she is able to open a large new home. As the years pass, Edna finds good homes for many children, but realizes that she has additional work to do when she receives a donation from a despondent young woman who is in the same predicament as her sister Charlotte was. Determined to change the law that brands children "illegitimate" and have it removed from birth certificates she fights and wins her battle to have a bill passed in the Texas legislature. But once one battle is over she must fight another, this time she fights for Tony who is wanted by a husband and wife who recently lost their only child. Wanting Tony for herself, Edna must stop and think what’s best for the child she loves so much and eventually gives him away to a loving home where he can have all the attention from a mother and a father.

A story based on the real life of Edna Gladney, Blossoms in the Dust is a real heartwrencher. In my opinion, Greer Garson was the best at eliciting sympathy…and tears. She was a phenomenal actress as TCM will prove tonight by showing the five movies that garnered her the distinction of being the only actress besides Bette Davis to be nominated five times in a row for Best Actress! If you spend the evening with her, then you will also get a healthy dose of Walter Pidgeon, a dynamic and talented player in his own right.

Oscar trivia:

Greer Garson was nominated seven times in her career and holds the distinction of being nominated five times in a row, a distinction she share with Bette Davis. She was nominated for Best actress for her roles in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie, Mrs. Parkington, The Valley of Decision, and Sunrise at Campobello. She won her only Oscar for Mrs. Miniver.


Walter Pidgeon garnered two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his roles in Mrs. Miniver and Madame Curie.