1948 Directed by Felix Jacoves
Eddie, a small-time hoodlum is forced to care for Marie he accidentally hits with his car during a crime. He is broke and hits up his very displeased mob boss for cash. To make matters worse, Eddie and Marie begin to fall for each other.
USANR
USA
Schmaltz, but sometimes that's okay. Geraldine Brooks overplays, but Dane Clark delivers, and every time I see him I get why S.Z. Sakall was so beloved in Hollywood. He never really does anything different, but what he does do almost always works. His best moment here: after being roughed up by gangsters, he proudly says he'd never tell on his friend.
Dane Clark has been enjoyable in all the movies I’ve seen him in. This one has many hard-to-believe plot points, but it still works. The core romance is very believable—and the film nails the ending.
The foundation to the story is a little thin, but Geraldine Brooks puts on a quality performance as a terminally ill lady and the men in her life trying to help her stay happy makes for a heartwarming film. You got to take it for what it is and ignore the gangster element as much as possible, for the key to this is the fragile nature of this dying girl.
Thought this was a musical? Uh-uh. Despite its title, this is a crime drama of film-noiresque proportions. It's got Dane Clark and Geraldine Brooks in it, neither of whom could sing, to my knowledge. There was something dangerous about Mr Clark, almost psychotic, as though he could suddenly dart forward without warning and kill you. It's not a bad little drama, but its title is its undoing; IT'S NOT A MUSICAL!!! No wonder nobody's heard of it. x
You'll enjoy it, especially if you're a member of the Dane Clark Fan Club. Clark is here in a rare leading role.
Perhaps one of the only (or one of few) films where S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall gets punched.
Strangely, this is the film that inspired me to officially start keeping track of the movies I watch. After randomly catching this on TCM in January of 2014, I signed up for an IMDb account just so I could start a list of movies I love and put this on it. It left that kind of an immediate impression.
I don't see it anywhere to watch/rent/buy online, and don't think it's aired anywhere in the six years since then...until this past week, for TCM's S.Z. Sakall feature day (for good reason, as his performance in this is heartfelt and touching). I was excited (and apprehensive) to see if Embraceable You would hold up on my second viewing. I never had…
This almost shouldn’t work. It’s obvious where Embraceable You is going from the moment it starts, and it’s a pretty cheesy story. Despite all the cliches and corniness, it still got me by the end. Dane Clark is a bit of a lug, but Geraldine Brooks is good enough to make up for his shortcomings.
The climax embraces all of the corniness, and the end result is a really sweet finale that got to me. A pleasant surprise is the role SZ Sakall plays. While we so often see him in comedic roles, here he just plays it straight. In the process, he provides a very moving moment at the end.
For a minor and pretty unknown film, this was nice.
TCM Summer Under The Stars 2020
S. Z. Sakall
This is an unconventional romantic crime drama of a wheelman (Dane Stewart) who hits a female pedestrian (Geraldine Brooks) while leaving the scene of a murder. Feeling guilty, he comes to visit her at the hospital and find out that she has a terminal disease and won’t have long to live. He decides to take care of her and pretty soon, feelings start developing between the two of them.
It’s a bit sentimental as the circumstances sounds ridiculous but it works.
S. Z. Sakall plays a sweet shop owner who helps the couple and Wallace Ford plays the sympathetic cop. Running time is short so it doesn’t feel like you are wasting your time.
