Three Films

There are a ton of Hallmark Channel films and even more films like that during the Christmas season. 

Time For Them To Come Home For Christmas has an intriguing plot about a woman who loses her memory. Jessy Schram, a familiar face, also was in it. So, when it was on one morning -- holiday films are on all day on multiple channels -- I DVR-ed. 

I enjoyed it. The film has some mystery and earned pathos. The love interest turns out to have a burden he has to bear that is somewhat more serious than you might expect. Their road trip has a few interesting stops, including a cameo of another familiar Hallmark actress. The ending is satisfying.  

Jessy Schram is the best thing in the film. The actor is decent too. A film with a similar title also was enjoyable -- I watched it multiple times.  

The Prince and the Showgirl is summarized in a review book as Laurence Olivier (the prince) romancing Marilyn Monroe (the showgirl). This is somewhat misleading. The film has more weight than expected. I liked it overall.  

Monroe bought the rights to the story. Olivier co-starred and directed. She reportedly was some trouble during the production. This was during the later years of her career when she had fewer films and more personal problems. My Week With Marilyn (in the queue to watch) portrays the production.  

The prince regent expects to have a pleasant "dinner" with the showgirl (an American in Britain) but she is more self-aware than expected. He plans to cut his losses but she keeps on hanging around. 

In the end, she turns his offer to return with him down. She also gets involved with politics, including after she overhears something in German, that she speaks. Monroe does well with a complex performance. 

The film mixes romance, satire, and travelogue. It takes place in 1911, which adds an edge to the whole thing, especially when the British want to keep the Balkan country he is from happy. 

Hotel Berlin is from the same author as the famous Greta Garbo film Grand Hotel. This story takes place during the final days of Nazi Germany. The film was released in early 1945 before the war was over.

I liked the film. The DVD was glitched so I could not see the whole thing. Nonethless, the story kept my interest and there were various interesting characters. 

Some of the actors were also familiar including another role for Peter Lorre and Raymond Massey, who played various dramatic roles, including Abraham Lincoln. He played a proper German general who was part of the plan to assassinate Hitler. He could not realize his time was up. 

The storyline had many German characters with dubious goings on. The central story involved an escapee from the Dachau concentration camp. He was able to escape though some drama was mixed in until the end there too. So the plot summary tells me. 

Some reviews apparently were annoyed the film treated certain German characters sympathetically. Such is the path to a good drama. The book was written in the middle of the war. It is somewhat different when things are occurring c. 1945.  

(The assassination plot took place in 1944.) 

Vicki Baum, the author, was a Jewish German refugee. She wrote several books and screenplays. I will check one or more out. If they are of interest, as with the Marilyn film, I will say more.