'TIL WE MEET AGAIN
US, 1939, 99 minutes, Black and white.
Merle Oberon, George Brent, Frank Mc Hugh, Pat O'Brien, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Eric Blore, Binnie Barnes, Henry O'Neill, George Reeves.
Directed by Edmund Goulding.
'Til We Meet Again is a soft romantic soap opera of 1940. It is a remake of Tay Garnett's One Way Passage (1932).
It is a variation on the shipboard romance: she is terminally ill, he has just been arrested for murder and is being accompanied by the police back to San Francisco. Neither tells the other the truth. However, they both find out just before the voyage ends but do not reveal the truth to each other.
Merle Oberon is suitably romantic as the heroine, supported by Geraldine Fitzgerald as a concerned friend and Binnie Barnes, very good as a con-woman. George Brent is the romantic hero - very popular in films
at this time including director.Edinund Goulding's Dark Victory, The Great Lie. Pat O'Brien is good as the policeman. Frank McHugh?, who appeared in the early film, repeats his role as a con-man in this one.
The film is hazily romantic - and has not weathered the years as well as many other Warner Bros. romantic melodramas.
1. Popular romantic soap opera of the '30s-,'40s? Popular themes? Contempordry treatment? In later decades?
2. Warner Bros. production values: the strong cast and director? The atmosphere of the Far East? Shipboard life and romance? Some action sequences? Romantic sequences? The romantic score?
3. The title and its romantic evocations? The original title: One Way Passage? Indication of treatment, style and themes?
4. The popularity of the shipboard romance? The exotic atmosphere of the Far East and Hong Kong? International travellers? The romantic heroine? The suave hero? The supporting cast assembling for the voyage? The ambiguities? The couple falling in love? Audiences wondering how the romance will be resolved?
5. Merle Oberon as Joan: on her travels, her condition, her maid, the doctor's visits and reports, her turns?The friendship with Bonnie? Bonnie helping her, the truth, her criticism of her about the truth of Dan? Reconciliation? The encounter with Dan at the bar, the attraction, the toast and the smashing of glasses - repeated throughout (and by Bonnie at the end)? Falling in love with Dan, life on the ship, romantic sequences and interludes, her illness? Her courage, wanting to enjoy the voyage? Her concealing the truth from Dan? The reporter at San Francisco and the blunt telling of the truth? Her heroism in the finale with him? Letting him go?
6. Dan in Hong Kong, Steve arresting him, the ruse of going overboard, his rescuing Steve? The background of his criminal record? Steve's pursuit of him? The encounter with Joan, not telling her the truth? The shipboard romance? His past friendship with the Countess, with his con-man friend? Escaping Steve to have conference with them? The build-up to the escape plan? Joan's turn and his bringing her back to the ship? His trying to elude Steve? His finally going to prison?
7. Steve as the solid policeman, a man of compassion, his pursuing Dan, being rescued in the harbour, allowing Dan freedom on the ship, the infatuation with the Countess - and then finding out the truth? The struggles, his hold over Steve?
8. The sketch of the Countess - and her background, changing accents, con-tricks, love for Dan, willingness to help him? His friend and the suspicion of the police, the ship's officers? His helping in the plan? Comic touches?
9. The skit on the pompous Englishman - card-playing, victim of tricksters, the Countess and her friend, card games?
10. The background of life on the ship, officials, social functions? Popular material for audiences - the situation, the romance, the realism and the fantasy?
