Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Tockinit not horrible nor great

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Cineanalyst "Between Two Worlds" is a preachy and simplistic moral fantasy film, but it's somewhat interesting, for me at least, to compare it to the film it's a remake of, "Outward Bound" (1930), both of which are based on the original play. I haven't seen the play and, of course, I didn't see it originally in the 1920s. Like the character Scrubby, I've sailed back and forth with these other characters in their (relatively) eternal afterlife of film, but I never knew them in life, or live theatre. And like the films' other suicides, Henry and Ann, we the spectators willingly enter this other world, but we don't belong.One thing I like about this 1944 remake compared to the 1930 adaptation is that it adds a theatrical act within the film, with the characters performing and being spectators. It's a play-within-a-play. Tom Prior leads the performance to reveal, in his snarky way, to his fellow passengers that they're all dead. Unlike in the 1930 film, which also had no scene like this, the passengers' deaths are no surprise to us spectators of the film. The film is adapted to the then-current WW2, with most of the passengers dying from an air raid and the suicides being given a partially new reason, as well, as resulting from Henry's trauma from the war. Apparently, because of the Hays Code, the young couple are now married, and Tom Prior doesn't actually do much drinking on screen.I'm fine with doing away with the surprise, which actually wasn't much of one in the 1930 film, either. I suspected as much before Leslie Howard's version of Tom Prior exposed it, but, then, I had the knowledge it was a Hollywood film, so the fantastic mystery wouldn't remain unresolved or obscure surrealism à la Luis Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel" (1962), for instance. Classic Hollywood films such as "Outward Bound" and "Between Two Worlds" are too simple for that, and they're always resolved. Anyways, I wish this remake would've done away with the play's later surprise, too, involving the relationship of two of the passengers, because it felt tacked on and tacky in both films.Another improvement upon the 1930 version is the evolution of film style since the infancy of talkies from which "Outward Bound" failed to overcome. Thus, "Between Two Worlds" has a brisker pacing, with an average shot length of about 9 seconds compared to about 12.8 for "Outward Bound," despite the 1944 film also featuring several long tracking shots, the first of which references the 1930 film and the play's title on a sign. Another tracking shot I liked was the one involving a mirror, which Maxine--a character absent in the 1930 film and rather superfluous here--uses to examine herself in.Yet, "Between Two Worlds" remains almost as stage-bound as the former film. For most of it, we're stuck in ship rooms with lots of talking, regardless of the amount of editing and deliberate camera movement. Thus, a lot depends on the acting and the script, neither of which is especially divine here. John Garfield's Tom Prior is remade a journalist for the remake, which, I guess, is the reason for his barrage of rat-a-tat insults as though he's auditioning for "The Front Page" (1931) or "His Girl Friday" (1940). Meanwhile, Sydney Greenstreet turns in another airy yet dignified performance as the Examiner, which would've been just as appropriate had he been judging Humphrey Bogart in a noir setting.The 1930 film had more foggy and dreamlike atmosphere to it, including an obscured view of some kind of Heaven. The 1944 film, however, relies for atmosphere upon its score--another thing, as with most early talkies, missing from "Outward Bound." Fortunately, it's a rather good score.

ferbs54 Featuring a raft of experienced Warner Brothers lead and character actors as well as one up-and-coming future starlet, 1944's "Between Two Worlds" reveals itself to be a pleasing supernatural fantasy, indeed, and one that should hold up very well for modern audiences, now almost 75 years since its release. The film was based on the 1923 play "Outward Bound" by British playwright Sutton Vane, which had been adapted to film once before, as an early-sound vehicle for Leslie Howard, under that original title, in 1930. I have not seen that first version--it does not seem to be screened very often--but can say that the remake is a most interesting offering, with many eerie touches and some wonderful thesping by one and all.In the film, a disparate group is shown about to board an ocean liner in London, bound for New York. But just as the group departs via auto to their ship, a German aerial bombing results in their vehicle bursting into flames. At the same time, we meet a young Austrian ex-soldier, who is attempting to leave the country via that same ship. He is played by Paul Henreid, and the fact that he is having a rough time obtaining his "exit permit" from a wartorn country forcibly brings to mind his similar quandary in the classic "Casablanca." When his permit is denied, he decides to commit suicide by turning on the gas line in his flat's apartment, only to be discovered by his wife (Eleanor Parker, looking very beautiful and offering up a wonderful performance in this, her 4th film, and at the onset of one of Hollywood's great careers). She decides to join him in death rather than be left alone without him, and before the two of them know what is happening, they find themselves on that selfsame ocean liner on which they had intended to depart. They soon realize the truth: They are dead, this is the afterlife, and their ship is bound for...is it heaven or hell? And the other folks that had been blasted out of existence are there also, but unaware of the truth. They consist of a cynical and wisecracking newspaper reporter (expertly portrayed by John Garfield, here almost at the midpoint of his career); a sailor who is returning home to his wife and kids (the great character actor George Tobias, who provides much of the film's humor); an aloof and domineering manufacturing exec (George Coulouris); a sweet English biddy spinster (Sara "The Spiral Staircase" Allgood); a down-on-her-luck actress (Faye Emerson); a reverend who has decided to go out into the world for the first time and do his best to help others (Dennis King); an unhappily married, mismatched couple (Isobel Elsom and Gilbert Emery); and Scrubby, the only crewman/porter on the entire ship (Edmund "Them!" Gwenn). We do get to know all these characters in some depth as the film proceeds, and are thus prepared when they are ultimately sentenced to their eternal fate by The Examiner, who comes on board late in the film (and played by the great Sydney Greenstreet)."Between Two Worlds" was directed by someone named Edward A. Blatt, a Russian ex-stage director who, it seems, only directed two other films after this one. But he does a nice job here, and incorporates some interesting touches (I love the hissing gas vent that segues into the ship's whistle) into his picture. The musical score for the film, by the great Erich Wolfgang Korngold, is not nearly as rousing and memorable as had been his contributions to such films as "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The Sea Hawk" (two of this viewer's all-time faves), but does still go far in engendering an otherworldly mood. The film has a literate and adult script, provided by Daniel Fuchs (who would go on to pen two great film noirs, "Criss Cross" and "Panic in the Streets"), and many of the characters get to deliver lines that carry great weight. My favorite comes from The Examiner himself, in speaking of the afterlife: "Death...people have all sorts of notions. It's really very simple. You make your heaven and hell for yourselves on Earth; you only bring it with you here. Some people waste it tragically; others toss it aside...." All the actors in the film get their moment to shine, but I would especially like to say a word about young Eleanor here. She is just luminous in this early role of hers, easily matching the talents of her more experienced costars although just 21 at the time. No wonder Warners put her on the fast track to stardom. And yet, it would take another 15 months for her to really break through...oddly enough, in another film costarring John Garfield, "Pride of the Marines." Her performance here was worth the price of admission alone for this viewer, although this is very much an ensemble work by that great cast of pros. This film comes highly recommended by yours truly. Consider it a bucket-list item that you should see before your own ship sets sail....

gamay9 The John Garfield character is buried beside his mother. My burial plot is waiting beside my mother. It's a scary thought but I know I will die.This film makes one 'think,' unless you one is an atheist. Contrary to the IMDb synopsis, not all the 'passengers' go immediately to Heaven or Hell. The couple, Eleanor Parker and Paul Henreid, were never killed in the raid. Edmund Gywnn continues to go on as an 'angel.' What is the most thought-provoking is that one must live with his past; my stance is that we all have regrets about our past. According to the Bible, only one person lived without sin and He did not live on earth long enough to sin. Some say He sinned with Mary Magdalene. I say 'baloney' because there is no God, no Heaven, no Hell and no Father, Son and Holy Ghost. There is no life everafter.

robertguttman "Between Two Worlds" is one of the best examples of one of the rarest of move genres, a fantasy for grown-ups. I can't think of many other successful examples of this sort of thing off hand beyond, perhaps, Powell and Pressburger's "A Matter of Life and Death". By "adult" I do not, of course, mean that there is anything off-color or X-rated about the film. On the contrary, it's pretty tame by today's standards. This film is simply a fantasy for adults in the sense that it was not for or about children or adolescents. A small, ill-assorted group of people find themselves together at night on a fog-shrouded passenger ship with no other passengers, and no crew save for a single steward. Two of the passengers, who are slightly apart from the others, have committed suicide and are aware that they are dead. The others know nothing. The steward, who knows what is going on, caters to the passengers wishes and pretends that everything is normal.The film is very well done, with a first-rate cast of the sort of character actors they simply can't assemble anymore, wonderfully atmospheric sets, and set against an excellent Korngold musical score. I understand there was an earlier version with Leslie Howard, called "Outward Bound". I've never seen it, but it would be interesting to see it and compare it with this version.