There for the grace of...

 

For gripping stories featuring innocent characters, caught in the grips of unintentional crimes – and for which every bone in your body rails out against the injustice of it all – look no further than three film noirs from the 1940’s. Two of them star Edward G. Robinson, who we always think as the tough guy but who, in these films, he plays the naïve innocent. They are The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945) both by Fritz Lang. The third is The Suspect starring Charles Laughton (1944) directed by Robert Siodmak. In The Woman in the Window Robinson plays a mild mannered professor who is accused of a murder in a police procedural that will keep you on the edge of your seat. In every step, as he tries to cover his allegedly dastardly trail, he risks falling into the clutches of the law. In Scarlet Street Robinson plays an artist hobbyist who's ensnared in a plot by two criminals to exploit his naivete and art, leading to nasty consequences all around. In The Suspect, Laughton is a decent, kind professional man who, through no fault of his own, is accused of murder. Personal morality is the central theme here, leading to a conclusion we may or may not have expected. All three films are intriguing because of the contrast between the characters’ solid personalities and high principals and the accusations against them, the pace of the narrative as the films unwind, and the plot twists which are intriguing in themselves.

The Windsor Jewish Film Festival is back for its 20th season, running April 24 – 27 at Devonshire Mall. Ten films are on tap, ranging with themes about the Holocaust to modern Jewish life. Farewell Mr. Haffmann is set in Vichy France as Jewish residents are forced to identify themselves. Where Life Begins is a tale of an Orthodox family moving to rural Calabria and the freedom the family daughter experiences in her new surroundings. Hitler’s Aunt is a story about life in German-occupied Poland when a rural citizen risks his family’s life by hiding Jews. Barren is another tale of an Orthodox Jewish woman rebelling against the constraints of her “conservative” social structure by being forced to become a mother. Tango Shalom is a fun play on getting around Orthodox rules in a dance competition, all for the sake of saving the rabbi’s school from bankruptcy. In Image of Victory, set in 1948 Palestine, Hassanin attempts to liberate farmers, his values tested as “both sides re-evaluate what they understand about war.” The Replacement, set in Spain, is a police procedural about a strange murder of a police inspector the main character has replaced. Those Who Remained is a “lyrical story” through the eyes of a young girl about the healing process of surviving Holocaust victims. In Time to Say Goodbye, another comedy, set in contemporary Germany, a 12-year-old is humorously torn between the demands of his recently divorced Jewish parents. And in Four Winters, the “myth” of Jewish passivity during WW II is shattered through interviews with former partisan fighters.