BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

US, 1944, 112 minutes, Black and white.
John Garfield, Edmund Gwenn, Eleanor Parker, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Sara Allgood, George Tobias, Faye Emerson, George Coulouris, Dennis King, Isobel Elsom.
Drected by Edward J. Blatt.

Between Two Worlds is a remake of a '20s play Outward Bound by Sutton Vane (already filmed with Leslie Howard in 1930). The play was an allegory about death, purgatory and judgment. In this Warner Bros version it is updated to World War Two - with the opportunity for some mirroring of the war situation and propaganda.

The film has a strong cast, especially Edmund Gwenn as the guide on the ship and Sydney Greenstreet as the judge. John Garfield has a typical role, Paul Henreid is suitably solemn and Eleanor Parker is attractive in one of her earliest roles. George Coulouris stands out as a selfish millionaire.

The film is talky, unusual in its treatment of a serious subject - and not of universal appeal. However, as an attempt to explore something of the meaning of death and people reflecting on their life, (a Heaven or a Hell) this is an interesting film.

1. The impact of the film as drama? Fable? In the atmosphere of World War Two? Propaganda? Impact in its time? Now?

2. The adaptation of a play for the screen? The retaining or dialogue and characters, situations? opening out the play,- especially in the opening sequences in war and London? Black and white photography? The ship locations and their use? Editing and pace? The interweaving of the stories? The musical score (by Erich Wolfgang Korngold)?

3. The title of the film and its indication of a purgatory situation? The original title and its focus on the theme of voyage?

4. The plausibility of the situation: the setting with London and the raids, the line-up of people to get Transatlantic tickets, the discipline, the raids and the bombs, deaths? The transition to the ship? Its emptiness? The lone steward? The characters finding themselves on the ship unaware of how they got there? The difference between Henry and Anna? The interactions of the voyage? The discovery of the truth? the judge coming on board and the process of allotting places to each character? decisions for Henry and Anna? The final destination?

5. Themes of death, the experience of. death, participating in one's own death? Its suddenness? Death not changing people's attitudes? Purgatory and judgment as a re-assessment of one's life? Heaven as a culmination of one's life? Hell as a fixing in the choices made selfishly during life? A universal perspective? Christian perspective?


6. The focus on the range of characters? Their presence at the ticket office? Their going in the car and being hit by the bomb? Henry and his desperate situation? Anna and her coming to find him? Their love for each other, the decisions, their taking of their own lives"

7. Henry and Anna as a loving couple? Their background? Their deaths? Finding themselves on the ship? Knowing what had happened to them? The encounters with the steward? His explanations, wanting Henry to help? Henry's assistance with the characters - get his desire to tell them the truth? His participating in the Judgment? The decisions to be made about his own destiny? His love for Anna? Her support of hir, during the voyage, her anxiety, concern for the passengers? Her decision to be with her husband forever? Their being allowed to return? Their recovery? The gift of life?

8. Tommy Pryor and his pugnacious attitudes, his background, American, journalist, his exposure of Lingley, his being sacked? His relationship with Maxie? Her glamour, lack of success, ambitions? The tension between the two? Finding themselves on board? Maxie and the opportunity for wealth and position. Lingley, her succumbing to the temptation? Tommy and his angry reaction? His discovery that he was dead? The concert and his revelation of the truth? His enjoyment of their discovery? His having to face the Judgment? His mother and her presence on the boat, her choice to give her life for him? His being redeemed? Maxie and her change of heart, her being looked down on by Mrs Cliveden Banks? Her change of heart and her salvation?

9. Lingley and his pushing people around, his presence on the boat, snobbery, his attempt to seduce Maxie? His wanting Henry as his bodyguard and giving him the gun? Contempt for Tommy? Despising people? The Bridge game? The judge and his trying to push ahead? Being condemned to his own Hell?

10. Mr and Mrs Cliveden Banks and their background, marriage, her snobbery and the way she treated people on the boat? Cliveden Banks as a good man? Putting up with his wife? Their judgment - and her having a castle to herself? Her speaking the truth and her contempt of her husband? Her fear yet her proud going to her own Hell? His genial going to his companions?

11. Pete and his failing, the trans-Atlantic crossings, his death, his humour, good nature, his being hurt at knowing he was dead, the reconciliation with his loved ones?

12. Mrs Midget and her goodness, service, Mrs Cliveden Banks' snobbery, the revelation about her son, giving her life for her son after failing?

13. The portrait of the steward: his presence on the ship, knowing everything, meeting people's needs, a kind and considerate man? His getting Henry's help? Not wanting the people to know the truth? The concert and his acknowledgment that they should know? His welcoming of the judge? The explanation of his presence on the boat, the suicide doomed to be of service to others for eternity?

14. The minister - the parsonic touch, the good man, his hope to move out into a wider mission, his place on the boat, his knowing the judge, their conversation, his underestimating himself, his heaven being the possibility of living out his mission?

15. The judge and Sidney Greenstreet's style? The genial man, the bishop, his own experience of life, friendship with the clergyman, his holding court, his listening to people, his sardonic and humorous remarks (for the audience's benefit)? His helping people to see their own lives - and their hells? His genial receiving people into their heaven? The decision for Henry and Anna to go back to Earth?

16. Basic human themes - and the group as a microcosm of the world? In World War Two situations? Generally? The value of this kind of moral fable? Religious values of life and death?