Tonight's Movie: The Man I Love (1946) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

The marvelously entertaining Warner Bros. film THE MAN I LOVE (1946), directed by Raoul Walsh, has just been released on a restored Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

The Blu-ray is from a 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative. It looks wonderful.

The very best part of the restoration is that six minutes has been found and restored to the movie since the Warner Archive's 2009 DVD release. The restored scene, with Ida Lupino performing "Bill," hadn't been seen since 1956 due to music licensing issues.

I first saw THE MAN I LOVE in 2007, and if anything I love it even more with the passage of time. The movie offers great music, a terrific cast in a richly plotted story, and best of all a tour de force performance by the great Lupino, who never looked better.

THE MAN I LOVE is one of the rare movies set in my birthplace, Long Beach, California. Nothing of Long Beach is actually seen -- there are a couple references to then-local places such as the Pike -- but even a pretend Long Beach is fun.

Lupino plays the curiously named Petey Brown, who arrives in Long Beach to visit her family: Sister Sally (Andrea King), a waitress supporting her little boy (Patrick Griffin) while her soldier husband (John Ridgely) is hospitalized with PTSD; brother Joe (future screenwriter Warren Douglas); and little sister Ginny (Martha Vickers).

The Browns' lives are intertwined with those of a family across the hall in their apartment building: Johnny (Don McGuire), his unfaithful wife Gloria (Dolores Moran), and their infant twin boys. Gloria spends her evenings on the town with "girlfriends" while Ginny, who clearly crushes on Johnny, takes care of the babies.

Immediately after arriving in town Petey takes a job as a singer in a club owned by womanizing Nick (Robert Alda), who pursues Petey with determination. Petey, however, is soon hung up on pianist San Thomas (Bruce Bennett), despite San in turn being hung up on memories of his ex-wife. (Incidentally, take a close look at Nick and Pete's fourth fingers on their left hands...interesting.)

The movie probably has more plot than it knows what to do with -- Martha Vickers in particular gets short shrift -- but it's all absolutely irresistible and, if anything, I wish it ran longer than its 97 minutes. It's one of those movies which is many things at once, including musical, family drama, romance, and a bit of film noir, and it does them all well.

As I wrote here back in 2007, "There's great mood, with foggy beaches, musicians playing in smoke-filled joints, dramatic piano music, and Lupino singing in dazzling gowns by Milo Anderson." The cinematographer of this black and white dazzler was Sid Hickox.

The sharp, engrossing screenplay was by Catherine Turney, who scripted a pair of favorite Barbara Stanwyck films which also incisively captured family relationships, MY REPUTATION (1946) and NO MAN OF HER OWN (1950). (NO MAN OF HER OWN just came out on Blu-ray and will be reviewed here soon.) Turney also wrote another Stanwyck film which I'm fond of despite its flaws, CRY WOLF (1947).

Turney has a gift for snappy dialogue; the brisk exchanges between the confident Petey and pushy Nick are particularly good. I'd add that the movie is fairly adult for its era, addressing mental health, infidelity, and commitment difficulties. The movie ends optimistically but not necessarily happily.

Sharp-eyed viewers will notice a young Craig Stevens as the orchestra leader at Nick's club. Alan Hale (Sr.) is Nick's righthand man. Other cast members include Barbara Brown, Frank Ferguson, and Jane Harker of the Joe McDoakes movie shorts series. Lupino is dubbed very effectively by Peg La Centra, who also dubbed the actress in ESCAPE ME NEVER (1947).

An important note regarding the Blu-ray extras: Although the Blu-ray case indicates the disc contains the cartoons ROUGHLY SQUEAKING (1946) and SLICK HARE (1947), they are not included. The cartoons which are actually on the disc as extras are RABBIT TRANSIT (1947) and CROWING PAINS (1947).

The trailer is also included on the disc.

THE MAN I LOVE is highly recommended.

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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