Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

evanston_dad I had kind of a "meh" reaction to this noirish drama from 1942. Robert Taylor and Lana Turner are roguish and fetching, respectively, but Mervyn LeRoy, despite his prolific list of credits, was a pretty hopelessly boring director, and nothing about this film stands out. It's fine, but there's not much about it to motivate a modern-day audience to revisit it.It would probably be a mere blip in cinema history if not for the fact that it won Van Heflin a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Taylor's alcoholic and lachrymose best friend. He is pretty good, but not good enough to make the film around him worth watching.There are about a million other movies I would recommend before settling down to this one.Grade: C

Tad Pole . . . can melt the basest Beast, and JOHNNY EAGER proves to be no exception to this rule. As Johnny fades from view at the end of his namesake movie, you can almost hear him echoing the last whine of Dorothy Gale's nemesis (the Wicked Witch of the West), with something along the lines of, "I'm melting, melting - - who would think a pretty young thing like Lana Turner could destroy all my wonderful wickedness?!" Who indeed. Unlike, say, Ted Bundy, Johnny is not hung up on women. He's an equal opportunity sociopath, who never got kissed by a grandmother of his he wouldn't sell out for the least little advantage. He's akin to a sadistic rich kid playing with six dozen Ken and Barbie dolls, blowing up one or eight with firecrackers just for "the fun of it." Johnny's Eager to add Lana to his endless trail of discarded pawns, from force of habit. But, unlike all his past victims, she doesn't have the decency to stifle her tears. Johnny goes soft, and it ain't a pretty sight!

mark.waltz A fabulous cast, a brilliant screenplay, and a truly dynamic pairing really create TNT here, Taylor and Turner as beautiful a couple as could possibly be on screen during the golden age of cinema. Even in spite of their age difference, Robert and Lana spark,e and this is a single pairing that even outdid Lana's four films with that dear Mr. Gable. Robert Taylor is a parolee, and she is the daughter of one of the prosecutors (Edward Arnold) who sent him up the river. Taylor is obviously not done with the shady life, and Arnold is out to expose the corruption involving Taylor and a dog track he is preparing to open while living the seemingly honest life of a cab driver.Van Heflin deservedly won the Oscar as the drunken philosopher who is the heart and soul of the film, dying inside due to his consumption, but still filled with the truth of life in spite of that addiction. You get the impression that this idealistic drunkard imbibes because he is disgusted with a world that is beyond his comprehension. In fact, the drunker he is, the more in tuned with his wisdom he is, showing how deceptive alcohol can be when it makes you open your eyes metaphysically while closing them physically.There's a great supporting cast with characters who sparkle with cynicism and hardness. Taylor's young niece is all young lady on the surface, suddenly exploding in rough talk out of nowhere. The character of Turner's fellow sociology student partner is also amusing as she constantly keeps inserting her foot into her mouth. Former Warner Brothers "B" star Glenda Farrell has a cameo as an old acquaintance of Taylor's whose desire for help from him has an ironic connection with the finale. Patricia Dane, as Taylor's obvious mistress hysterically mispronounces "Herod Agrippa" and does not remotely display a "heart of gold" underneath film characters like this usually later reveal.Edward Arnold also is winning as Turner's father who finds himself the victim of blackmail thanks to a vicious game Taylor uses her in, showing a disgust with both Taylor and himself as he goes against his own moral code to protect his daughter. Ultimately, the film surrounds the heat between Taylor and Turner which explodes in a scene where Turner falsely believes herself to have impulsively committed murder. This is a speedy film that is a preliminary to the growing genre of film noir, not as dark as those to follow within two years,but utilizing the same types of camera shots and tough dialog that was on the verge of taking over the screen. The fact that pretty people are not leaving a really pretty situation makes this noir enough for me, and one that remains a classic to this day.

Martin Teller Johnny Eager is a model parolee by day and a ruthless gangster by night, doing whatever it takes to get his dog racing track up and running... including seducing his prosecutor's daughter. At first this felt like a competent but mediocre picture, but eventually comes into its own, making for an above average experience on the whole. Robert Taylor is good in the title role, charming and snappy. Lana Turner has a smaller role than you would imagine and for the first half kinda seems like a non-entity, but has a couple of great scenes towards the end. Overshadowing them both is Van Heflin as Eager's literate lush of a right-hand man, a marvelous performance. Although it takes a while for the film to develop interesting angles, Johnny's various deceptions are entertaining, and later on his character shows faint glimmers of humanity. Techincally the film is solid but lacking in impressive shots. Worth sticking through the lackluster beginning to get to the good stuff.