Saturday, June 23, 2018

Weekend Matinee--Sundown with Gene Tierney


     At the Lowe's Theater the week of December 8th, 1941 we have the movie "Sundown" with the lovely Gene Tierney and Bruce Cabot and directed by Henry Hathaway

 
   Adapted from a short story in the Saturday Evening Post by Barre Lyndon, who also wrote the screenplay, it is set in wartime British East Africa. Cabot was a veteran of movies, who had some great roles over the years, just never found the breakthrough to make him a star. Along with a workmanlike cast including George Sanders, Joseph Calleia and Harry Carey (no...not THAT Harry Carey) it is a pleasant 'B' movie to take one's mind over the events just a less than a week before.











     However it was hoped to be a breakthrough for Tierney, who was working up the ranks in Broadway then in movies, and at the age of 20 was cast as the alluring but potentially dangerous Zia. Does one wonder what kind of accent that was in the movie?? Does actually anyone care?? Probably not any of the men in the audience. Cabot didn't even attempt a British accent either....

      The movie was a so-so at the box office, although it was nominated for three Academy Awards (non for acting). The focus of many of the reviews focused on Tierney and her looks, but show that she could hold her own in a lead role, even at such a young age.

     





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