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).

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!

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.

Both these early '40s Bogart films were distinguised by stellar supporting casts; the faces in IT ALL CAME TRUE include Zasu Pitts, Una O'Connor, Grant Mitchell, Felix Bressart, Howard Hickman, and John Litel.

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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