George Macready-Nina Foch-George Raft "Johnny Allegro" 1949, de Ted Tetzlaff.

The Window (1949) Ted Tetzlaff

July 15th 2022

The Window (1949)

dir. Ted Tetzlaff

Son of Sinbad (1955) dir. Ted Tetzlaff

Rainy day movie recommendation.

My Man Godfrey - with William Powell and Carol Lombard.

“God, but this film is beautiful. The cinematography by Ted Tetzlaff is a shimmering argument for everything I've ever tried to say in praise of black and white. Look me in the eye and tell me you would prefer to see it in color.” Roger Ebert

"What have morals got to do with it?"

Remember the Night, 1940.

Dir. Mitchell Leisen | Writ. Preston Sturges | DOP Ted Tetzlaff

I wrote a review of The Window, a really great little RKO thriller from 1949. It's compact and noirish, and features strong performances and tight direction. It's among the best "Hitchcock movies Hitchcock never made," up there with Wait Until Dark and Diabolique.

Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale for Ted Tetzlaff’s THE WINDOW (1949)

William Powell and Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936)

Cast: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick, Eugene Pallette, Jean Dixon, Alan Mowbray, Mischa Auer, Pat Flaherty, Robert Light, Franklin Pangborn. Screenplay: Morrie Ryskind, Eric Hatch, based on a novel by Hatch. Cinematography: Ted Tetzlaff. Art direction: Charles D. Hall. Film editing: Ted J. Kent, Russell F. Schoengarth. Music: Charles Previn, Rudy Schrager. 

My Man Godfrey is not only a textbook example of the screwball comedy, it also has all the familiar elements of the romantic comedy: the "meet-cute," the fallings-in and fallings-out, and the eventual happily-ever-after ending. But the rom-com is distinct from the screwball comedy, and the latter tends to subvert the former. William Powell is his usual suave and sophisticated self, and nobody except Lucille Ball ever played the beautiful nitwit better than Carole Lombard. But are Godfrey (Powell) and Irene (Lombard) really made for each other? Isn't there something really amiss at the ending, when Irene all but railroads Godfrey into marriage? Knowing that marriage is an inevitability in romantic comedies, I kept wanting Godfrey to pair off with Molly (Jean Dixon), the wisecracking housemaid who conceals her love for him. And even Cornelia (Gail Patrick), the shrew Godfrey has tamed, seems like a better fit in the long run than Irene, with her fake faints and tears. The film gives us no hint that Irene has grown up enough to deserve Godfrey. But perhaps it's just better to take it for what it is, a hybrid of the two subgenres, and to enjoy the wonderful performances by Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette, Alan Mowbray, and Mischa Auer, and the always-welcome Franklin Pangborn doing his fussy, exasperated bit. A lot could be written, and probably has been, about how the film reflects the slow emergence from the Depression, with its scavenger-hunting socialites looking for a "forgotten man." a figure that only three years earlier, in Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy), had been treated with something like reverence in the production number "Remember My Forgotten Man." Had sensibilities been so hardened over time that the victims of the Depression could be treated so lightly? In any case, My Man Godfrey was a big hit, and was the first movie to have Oscar nominations -- for Powell, Lombard, Auer, and Brady -- in all four acting categories. It was also nominated for director and screenplay, though not for best picture.

I married a Witch, 1942. René Clair. Ted Tetzlaff.

Ricardo Cortez-John Barrymore-Frances Farmer "World premiere" 1941, de Ted Tetzlaff.

The African Desperate

Year: 2022

Directed by: Martine Syms

Cinematography by: Ted Tetzlaff

Actors in frames: Diamond Stingily, Erin Leland

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐰 (𝟏𝟗𝟒𝟗)

THE WINDOW (1949, dir. Ted Tetzlaff)

The Window (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949).

Johnny Allegro (1949) Ted Tetzlaff

May 9th 2021