Another Time, Another Place
Picture: B
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B-
Up until this point Sean Connery had done very little in
the bigger spotlight and this would be the film that would help get his career
launched. There is also a bizarre story
that happened offset with this film regarding Connery having his life
threatened by a jealous boyfriend of Lana Turner’s. He was then punched by Connery after the threat, but her jealous
boyfriend met his maker only soon after by a knife held by Turner’s daughter,
Cheryl Crane.
This is by far one of the most unusual plots ever! Connery plays a BBC War correspondent during
WWII, who ends up having an affair with an American Journalist played by
Turner. When Connery ends up dead,
Turner goes to his hometown to console his wife. While this film might be set in WWII, and made in 1958, this type
of thing is still bizarre to me now.
What is odd is how Turner would have the guts to go to his wife after
willingly sleeping with her husband.
The interaction between the two is also interesting and worth a view if
nothing else. The script is a tad dry
and makes the film feel longer than it is.
Paramount’s release of the film is up to their standards
though with a very sharp 1.85 X 1 anamorphic transfer displaying the
VistaVision shot film quite remarkably well.
The black & white photography of Jack Hildyard is outstanding. At this point he had done some excellent
work with David Lean on Summertime
with Katherine Hepburn, shot in CinemaScope on 1956’s Anastasia and 1958’s The
Bridge on the River Kwai (he was the D.P. on that film). He would later go on to film some other
reputable films including Hitchcock’s 1969 film Topaz.
The transfer here is very good, ranking up there with some
of Paramount’s other fine black and white transfers such as Seconds (1966), Hud (1963), Fear Strikes Out
(1955), Desperate Hours (also 1955),
and The Rose Tattoo (another film
from 1955). Most of these reviews can
be found elsewhere on this site, also check out The Matchmaker from 1958. The
audio on the disc is standard Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, which is clean, but very
compressed in nature and even when converted to stereo via the receiver it
still does not clean up much.
No extras, which is starting to become normal for some of
these average films from Paramount.
They save all their best for the highlight films and more recent
theatrical films it seems, which is understandable to a degree.
- Nate Goss
