The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940) – A. Hall

Screwball comedy starring Loretta Young and Ray Milland (before he moved over to Noir and after his turn in the much funnier Easy Living, 1937).  Young plays a feminist author (a “career woman”, said with disdain by many in the film, one of its many dated aspects) who is mistakenly thought to have married neuroscientist Milland. Both have other lovers – she has her publisher (Reginald Gardiner) and he has a society fixture (Gail Patrick) – but it turns out that pretending to be married suits them both, despite the fact that they hate each other (naturally). Initially, Milland suggests that he is going along with the scheme simply to help Young write her new book on marriage (to make up for the losses that her earlier feminist books are now suffering) but it turns out that he’s been promoted to a professorship by a dean who values marriage. Nevertheless, they are both desperate to head to Reno for a divorce as soon as possible (despite not really being married).  Of course, the plot takes us in a completely different direction.  Not really laugh-out-loud funny and awkwardly old-fashioned in many places but it fills the bill for this genre if you’ve exhausted the many other better entries.

Nobody Lives Forever (1946)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Nobody Lives Forever (1946) – J. Negulesco

Nick Blake (John Garfield) has been honorably discharged (returning home in 1944, when this film was shot) but isn’t anxious to return to his life as a con-man/swindler, although his friend Al (George Tobias) is keen to get him back into the game. With his life in New York suddenly less interesting (when he finds that his gal has been cheating on him while he was away), Nick heads to California to catch up with his mate Pop Gruber (Walter Brennan) who turns out to be down on his luck.  Although he really just wants to rest and recover from his wartime trauma, Nick allows Al and Pop to convince him to sign up to con a widow out of her $2 million fortune (a scam organised by evil “Doc”, George Coulouris). But, of course, Nick falls for the beautiful widow, Gladys (Geraldine Fitzgerald).  This being noir, things get complicated fast. Director Jean Negulesco adds a few unusual flourishes (the visit to the Mission) and occasionally undercuts the noir vibe with a humorous note. Garfield is strong as the conflicted anti-hero and holds things together throughout, with strong support from the assorted character actors. Above average.

 

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) – J. Sargent

Don’t watch this 1970 film if you are worried about A.I. taking over the world and potentially exterminating humankind – because this is exactly the prescient possibility it explores. Under the auspices of the Pentagon, Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) has created a super-computer to control the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal, monitoring threats and using only rational decision-making to decide whether to press the button. But the old Cold War foe, the U.S.S.R. turns out to have created a similar self-teaching supercomputer of their own.  Very soon these computers make contact with each other and join forces to tell humans what to do.  They think they know better than we do how to run this world!  Situated between the Sixties spy era (with a cool electronic score) and the paranoid Seventies to come (screenplay by James Bridges who directed The China Syndrome), the film manages to maintain a high level of suspense while still injecting some sex and martinis.  Apparently, those are real computers (lent to the producers by CDC) but they do make WarGames seem modern.  Try not to think about ChatGPT and you’ll be fine.