Moviecut—The Guilt of Janet Ames

source: The Guilt of Janet Ames

Loved the premise for 'The Guilt of Janet Ames', back when the fascinating subject of psychiatry was very much fashionable to portray on film and stage. It has always been a brave one and interesting from a psychological standpoint. A further interest point was the opportunity to see Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas in atypical roles, darker and more tortured and not the sparkling comedy or debonair kind of roles they were better known for. 'The Guilt of Janet Ames' is not a perfect film, can see why it is not to others' tastes, and is not on the same level of relatively similar themed films that have already been named such as 'Spellbound' and especially 'The Snake Pit'. 'The Guilt of Janet Ames' still struck me as very interesting and atmospheric, and although the first half is better than the second it always engaged me enough and deserving of more credit. Am going to start with naming what could have been done better. The whimsy in the dream sequences for my tastes was overdone at times. Will agree with others that Sid Caesar was out of place, and not in a slight way but a case of when he appeared it took me out of the film and didn't gel tonally. It got a little too melodramatic and silly towards the end. However, 'The Guilt of Janet Ames' has so many good things. It looks great, being in particular beautifully and atmospherically shot. It is also beautifully scored, in a haunting and at times melancholic sense. The direction is always taut yet sympathetic. 'The Guilt of Janet Ames' also benefits from an on the most part thought-provoking script that is very insightful in what it has to say about guilt postwar and the consequences of paranoia. Which is depicted harrowingly often, and this is evident in the story which is often suspenseful and poignant. The characters are strongly defined and both Russell and particularly Douglas provide hard hitting portrayals of true intensity and raw emotional power without being overwrought. Overall, good if not great. 7/10.

I'm afraid that for one to appreciate The Guilt Of Janet Ames one would have to have seen the Gary Cooper film Peter Ibbetson which came out from Paramount a dozen years earlier. I think that in 1947 there were probably new adult moviegoers who did not get the reference. Based on a Daphne DuMaurier novel Peter Ibbetson is the story of a paralyzed and imprisoned man who meets and has a whole life with his true love through dreams. In this film Rosalind Russell plays an embittered war widow. Her husband was killed by jumping on a live grenade and saving five others around him. Russell feels that none of these people could have been worthy of the sacrifice he made that got him the Congressional Medal Of Honor. She resolves to meet them all to confirm her suspicion. One of them is Melvyn Douglas who has become quite an alcoholic since his war service. He was the editor of a newspaper and a crusading journalist before the war. Russell gets hit by a car and his name is found in her pocket along with the other four. Nothing too serious in physical injuries, but she has a hysterical paralysis now. Douglas is sent for when they find the scrap of paper and he's known to the hospital staff. Knowing who she is, but her not knowing him, Douglas stimulates her imagination and she discovers what the others could be like with some small bits of information. The fantasy scenes are really quite good, the best being a young Sid Caesar in a standup routine about psychological films of which this is surely one. Thinking of the recently released Spellbound, I wonder what Alfred Hitchcock must have thought when he saw Caesar's routine. It's worth seeing the film for that alone. In the end Russell and Douglas learn a good deal about each other and themselves. The Guilt Of Janet Ames is not on par with a film like Spellbound, but it does have its moments and the stars acquit themselves well.

Two years after the war, and what does this movie do? Attack war widows! Or, at least, one of them, in the person of Rosalind Russell, who is angry and bitter that her husband sacrificed himself to save his five comrades. She has now worked herself up to visit the five men, wanting to see, she says resentfully, if they were worth her husband's life (all the men, unbelievably but conveniently, live in the same town and still know one another). But Russell's quest turns out very differently than she, or the audience, could have thought: Instead of feeding her sense of having been cheated of life, the visits show her that she cheated her husband, and herself, of a good marriage. Her intense, extended mourning has been a way of hiding the truth from herself. Such a harsh and penetrating analysis of character would have been unusual at any time in the movies' history. Coming out in the wake of World War II, it must have been seen as literally attacking American motherhood, if not apple pie. One would love to know how Lenore Coffee came up with the idea--might she have been exasperated by a whining, hypocritical widow or gold-star mother in her family? It is astonishing that a film so destructive of American pieties was made, so all honour to those responsible. The movie also has an oddly theatrical slant--Janet's visits are conducted in a mildly expressionist manner. There is a bar and a nightclub in which nobody moves or speaks but the main characters; an outdoor scene that takes place before a painted backdrop. But the oddness is never so great as to become quaint, and it embodies and intensifies the emotional dislocation that the widow is experiencing. A further strangeness is that nearly everyone in the movie is cynical. True, Melvyn Douglas is a newspaperman, so it's not unexpected in that milieu--but a cynical child? a cynical hospital? This is a movie that is bleakly realistic (another word for cynical) every way you look. The two leads, especially the underrated Douglas, act with great conviction and style. It is a shame that this movie is not better known--honesty like this is rare anywhere; in the movies it has to be seen to be believed.

I'm surprised THE GUILT OF JANET AMES is not better known; I find it a very affecting film, even if the fey whimsy is a little overdone in the dream sequences. From its opening moments the movie has a palpable post-war atmosphere, a melancholy feel that must have resonated with audiences at the time, many of whom had suffered grief and loss due to the war. The movie also demonstrates the increasing prominence of psychoanalysis in American culture at that time. I will not rehash the plot in detail here, since other reviewers have already done so. Suffice to say that this is the story of two people scarred by the war and how they help each other to heal. It is a story about forgiveness, new beginnings and the possibility of new love blossoming from the ashes of death. The film rides on the great talents of Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas, two of classic Hollywood's finest actors. Russell, so well known as a comedienne, excels in the dramatic psychological role of the suffering war widow Janet Ames, and Douglas is imposingly brilliant as the depressed alcoholic journalist Smithfield Cobb. Look out for a young Sid Caesar portraying a stand-up comedian (not too much of a stretch there!) and Hugh Beaumont (Beaver's dad on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER) as another one of the war comrades whom Janet visits in a dream sequence.

I was in the middle of the movie when I thought that it is a really good one. This idea almost spoiled the rest of it as I tried to analyze the movie. But my opinion is quite subjective and I can see how many people would not like it at all. It's a psychological drama about a widow of a fallen soldier and an army comrade of the soldier. You might like the movie if you like classic dramas. You might also like it if you like theater dramas. In fact it was almost like watching a theater on screen. I've counted 7-8 settings. IMDb lists four writers, so the script must be a collaborative effort. The movie was made in 1947, soon after the end of World War II and might be trying to explain something to those who grieve for lost ones. I've found the movie quite sentimental and can not even imagine what it must be like to watch this movie if you are a close one or an army comrade of a fallen soldier. But I think I was able to understand how the characters in the movie feel. For some reason the movie did not become popular enough to enter IMDb's top 250. ***SPOILER ALERT*** One scene is quite off topic. In the scene there is a comedian who presents himself as a psychologist who advises movies on psychological matters. Here the writer seemed trying to explain how he thinks movies should be made and presents a "new" genre of movies. *******************

Hello, I am HUGE fan of Nina Foch. I lucked out and some really nice reader/reviewer on this site sent me a tape of My Name Is Julia Ross, which has become one of my all time favorite movies. If anyone has this one, or knows where I can find one, I would be thrilled to buy a copy. I am also desperately seeking "Strange Affair", and "Shadows In The Night".Hmmmm, now I see I have to fill ten lines in order to submit this, please bear with me... sorry...I guess I could ask if any of you have other out of print amazing old film noirs. I am not trying to undermine any copyright laws, merely to share movies that are NOT for sale commercially. I'd gladly pay the cost of making a copy and/or trade some of mine (I have a lot) A little help? Thanks in advance, Steven

The other IMDb reviews, positive and negative, make valid points about the virtues and flaws of this obscure 1947 film. It grabbed my interest immediately in the title sequence. Russell and Douglas, almost always cast up to then in comedies(romantic or otherwise),in a dramatic film. (Easy to know it was a drama from the title and from the title music.) And the music, all through the film--gorgeous, moving, and like no 1940's score I've ever heard. By George Dunning, it was straight out of the mid to late 1950's. A minor revelation to me, a film soundtrack buff. Back to the fascinating cast: Betsy Blair (Gene Kelly's surprisingly wafe-like wife, who I'd only seen in "Marty"), Nina Foch (a talented, skilled "serious" actress, who made too few films), Sid Caesar (before his genius TV comic career). Once into the film,I was grabbed by Melvyn Douglas's masterfully realistic and believable performance, not a hint of acting with a big A. Can't say the same for Russell--she hit the right emotional notes, but always seemed to be ACTING. One more grabber was the extended, purposely and artfully artificial trance sequences, playing out the heroine's mind. Very effective though obviously done on a low budget. As of this writing, in Nov. 2017, the film is uploaded on YouTube in murky but watchable 15 minute segments. Definitely worth a watch.

I got a problem: I think Rosalind Russell was/is a beautiful woman. The fact that she could stand up to the likes of Cary Grant and upstage him practically in His Girl Friday does not deter me from the Opinion, that there was something just so attractive about her, especially in the years she was a leading lady, a time which spans several decades actually. THIS film is an absolute GEM. I caught it early this AM, and I was completely interested in the well-being of Janet Ames. Dramatically, the story may not be the best, but the way the principals are played by Russell and leading man Melvyn Douglas, cause the viewer to get interested in what happens. The only slightly-out-of-place item is the semi-comedic section with Sid Caesar- But actually, that part is used as a bridge, and Russel played it totally straight, which put the attention on Sid Caeser and what he was doing, and so, instead of the film going potentially wholly offtrack into a comedic area, it is contained and the viewer is brought back into the solemnity of the story. This is a very wonderful film and shows a serious side to Russell that is actually refreshing.