Tonight's Movie: It All Came True (1940) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review
The Runyonesque Warner Bros. comedy-drama IT ALL CAME TRUE (1940) will be released on Blu-ray this week by the Warner Archive Collection.Humphrey Bogart stars as gangster Chips Maguire, who has just shot someone and needs a place to hide out.
The place he finds is a boarding house owned by the mother (Jessie Busley) of a pianist Chips employs, Tommy Taylor (Jeffrey Lynn).
The place he finds is a boarding house owned by the mother (Jessie Busley) of a pianist Chips employs, Tommy Taylor (Jeffrey Lynn).
Chips goes stir crazy not being able to leave the house, but the lovely presence of Tommy's lifelong friend Sarah Jane (Ann Sheridan) brightens things up.
Before he knows what's happened to him, Chips (now known as "Mr. Grasselli") is adopted by the wacky boarding house residents; they befriend him, and in turn he changes their lives for the better.
The movie would have been equally well titled as "Angel in Disguise," one of the movie's songs. Although he's definitely a killer, Chips also proves to have a soft side as he deals with his elderly "neighbors." He's of particular help finding a way to keep the boarding house from being lost to unpaid taxes: He turns it into an exclusive nightclub!
Before he knows what's happened to him, Chips (now known as "Mr. Grasselli") is adopted by the wacky boarding house residents; they befriend him, and in turn he changes their lives for the better.
The movie's tone reminded me a bit of a Bogart film from just a couple years later, ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (1942), in which a bunch of good-hearted gangsters battle the Nazis.
While I wouldn't call IT ALL CAME TRUE a classic, it proved to be an enjoyable 97 minutes. Although I think some of the sequences with the boarding house folks "entertaining" went on too long, it was a good-natured, pleasant film which I enjoyed seeing for the first time. It was a nice way to while away a Sunday afternoon.
IT ALL CAME TRUE's screenplay was written by Michael Fessier and Lawrence Kimble from the novel BETTER THAN LIFE by Louis Bromfield; writer and future director Delmer Daves contributed to treatment.
The movie was directed by Lewis Seiler and filmed in black and white by Ernie Haller.
The Warner Archive print is from a 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative. It looks and sounds great.
Fairly minimal extras consist of the trailer plus a pair of cartoons, CIRCUS TODAY (1940) and THE SOUR PUSS (1940).
Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.
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posted by Laura @ 9:40 PM
3 Comments:
I will be ordering this film shortly, although as of this writing it is not yet available here in Canada. The principal reasons for my interst are your column and Jeffrey Lynn, a guy I admire on and off screen.
I ran It All Came True this evening, and while it is not a masterpiece, but it could not have been any better, not just the three leads, but a grand cast and beautifully controlled atmosphere from beginng to end. Claude and I had lunch at Louis Bromfield's estate about twenty-five years ago near Gambier,Ohio. That's Kenyon College territory. It All Came True was something of his. Well done, sir.
Thanks very much Laura for sharing with us your review of “It All Came True”. I enjoyed the movie for the players, although Felix Bressart seemed to me to be less wise and more buffoonish than he does in “The Shop Around the Corner” released about 3 months earlier.
I was curious about the source story and, as too often, various sources claimed that it was a short story, or a novel, and some claim that it was titled “It All Came True”. Yes, Louis Bromfield wrote the story “Better Than Life”. Goodreads, however, has its synopsis ridiculously wrong, claiming it is science fiction about virtual reality.
The 1937 original story is out of copyright in Canada. For Barry Lane and your other Canadian readers (I'm in the US), it's on the Fadedpage “free eBooks forever” website. Per its page, Bromfield's original novel (novella?) is in 46 chapters. It was originally published serially under the title of “And It All Came True”, and was published in England under the title of “It Had To Happen”.
It is 1 of 9 stories in the 1939 compilation “It Takes All Kinds”. Many of the same characters are in the novel, though its ending is somewhat different than the movie’s ending. For those wondering what else a Pulitzer Prize recipient wrote, here is his description of Sarah Jane: “There was a kind of what-the-hell atmosphere which she liked; and being Sarah Jane, she was able to take care of herself and never quite succumb to its blandishments, no matter how broke she got to be. When worst came to worst, she always found a refuge in the boardinghouse.” Appeals to me.
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