From my favorite movies..

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I always have trouble with this religious mumbo-jumbo. A group of people, killed by a German bomber, find themselves on board an ocean liner, seemingly alive. Two of them did not meet that fate but rather killed themselves. Of course, they are all white and don't know they are dead. They are bitter, mean spirited people. But the young pianist and his wife know the score. They weren't with the others when the ax fell. They are insufferable as are most of the others. There is a ridiculous, stereotypical priest who wants this pack of bandits, to pass time by playing games and other assorted activities. Eventually, Sydney Greenstreet shows up as "the Examiner." He decides who gets to go to heaven and the other place. There is much negotiating. Ultimately, old Sydney rejects his company orders and makes special cases. The whole thing is preachy and the dialogue stilted. I always like John Garfield, but even his antics got to me. The ending cheats us all.

I love the fantasy-themed movies from cinema's golden age about life after death, like "A Matter of Life and Death", "It's A Wonderful Life", "Heaven Can Wait" and many more. I likewise love the "time" plays of JB Priestley, like "An Inspector Calls", "Time And The Conways", "I Have Passed This Way Before" etc all of which this 1944 feature put me in mind of. The fact it co-starred possibly my favourite actor of that time, John Garfield, made it even more of a treat.Pretty obviously based on a popular recent stage play, you can almost see the actors lining up their positions and cues on this very studio-bound production, it's a very talky piece as it seeks to rather hammer home it's "do good to others as others would you" message similarly to the afore-mentioned "An Inspector Calls".The disparate characters gathered on the dark, empty ocean liner all pretty much get their just desserts, with the selfish and irredeemable going to bad places, the good or sinned against getting everlasting reward (one is promised endless games of golf with his chums, which sure sounds like heaven to me) which just leaves the borderline cases for special consideration.These include smart-aleck charlatan Garfield and his equally cynical, money-grabbing girlfriend, who both have to look to themselves for their own deliverance, the former assisted in this from an unexpected source. Then there's suicide victim Paul Heinreid and his devoted-'til-death wife who are accordingly considered special cases.Joining them on the journey are their on-board hosts, avuncular steward, Edmund Gwenn and as the heaven or hell decision-maker Sydney Greenstreet, the latter bedecked in an outsize Marty Hopkirk suit.I predicted the ending well in advance but other aspects of the film caught me by surprise. With a surprising lack of special effects, the director does a convincing job of putting across the extraordinary plights of all the individuals concerned.So there you have it, an other-worldly morality tale, meant to send you home thinking hard after viewing it then vowing no doubt to better yourself and help your poorer and downtrodden fellow man and woman and it's easy to see its message as a metaphor for the repudiation of the recent Nazi occupation of Western Europe. Of course you don't need to take it as seriously as all that, but whichever way you do, you'll be entertained.

First saw this film as a child on Bill Kennedy at the movies in Detroit. I thought it was so cool at the time, and spooky. I loved the acting and many of the character actors I had recognized from so many other films of that era. And the ending was so great because I didn't see it coming and I was such a romantic that I couldn't stand that the two main characters would be apart since she had done nothing wrong but out of love for him. A great screenplay! Ever since I have always preferred films from the 30s and 40s over today's offerings. They always gave the actors time on screen to develop the characters and events. This film is one of the reasons I grew up loving movies!!

"Between Two Worlds" is a remake of "Outward Bound" (1930), about a group of people aboard a fog-shrouded and otherwise-empty ship, seemingly sailing to nowhere. Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker are lovers, John Garfield is a brash reporter, George Coulouris is a pompous and wealthy English industrialist, Faye Emerson is a gold-digging party girl, and George Tobias is a modest sailor in the Merchant Marine. They are joined by a society couple, a matronly older woman, and a priest. Many of the people find themselves on the ship after their car was nearly bombed during a WWII air raid, while Parker and Henreid have just attempted suicide via gas in an apartment.The ship's steward is Scrubby (Edmund Gwenn), who quietly makes everyone feel at home. Parker and Henreid's characters discover that the ship's passengers are actually dead, and are awaiting judgment from a mysterious person called "The Examiner". All of the passengers soon find out the truth, and nervously await the arrival of The Examiner, who soon walks through the door—in the rotund, massive form of Sydney Greenstreet! Taking the deceased priest as a trainee, Greenstreet judges each person one by one, and sends them to their respective fates, depending on how honorably they had lived their lives. All are judged except Parker and Henreid, who find that because they committed suicide, they are doomed to sail on the ship forever. The movie ends with Parker searching the ship for Henreid, hearing the sound of breaking glass, and suddenly waking up with Henreid, both of them quite alive.This is quite a heavy message movie, and is kept interesting by the charisma of the cast. In particular, Garfield, Coulouris, Gwenn, Tobias, and Greenstreet turn in convincing and at times poignant performances. In contrast, Parker and Henreid just look frightened the whole time, begging to stay together, while Emerson is not given enough screen time. I really enjoy the movie as a glimpse at people who know they are dead and are about to be judged by the highest authority, with generally fine acting and an intelligent story. However, the contrived "happy" ending seems completely out of place, and I think it really ends the movie on a false note. Not classic 1940s Hollywood, but pretty good on its own terms.