The Guilt of Janet Ames

press release: 

THE GUILT OF JANET AMES

USA | 1947 | 35mm | 83 min.

Director: Henry Levin; Cast: Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas, Sid Caesar

The widowed and guilt-ridden Janet (Russell) sets out to meet the fellow platoon members of her late husband, who threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades’ lives. Struck by a car and overcome with hysterical paralysis, Janet is visited in the hospital by one of the men (Douglas) who tells her about himself and the other soldiers through a series of “vivid word pictures”. Dream therapy, shared visions, and Caesar’s spoof of Freudian analysis are just a few of the many wacky ingredients in this fascinating melodrama/love story, the sort of which “typify an era that encouraged risky storytelling choices” (David Bordwell).

Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen: Reinventing Hollywood

This lineup of great entertainments draws its inspiration from David Bordwell’s captivating new book, Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie Storytelling. The book and this series focus on just some of the storytelling methods that made the 40s period exciting, in particular the outrageous and outlandish use of flashbacks and subjective viewpoints, as well as an exploration of character psychologies and neuroses. The series begins on January 28 with a special lecture from Professor Bordwell and a screening of The Chase (1946).

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.