In recent days I’ve watched William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives and now Tay Garnett’s One Way Passage, and even though they’re about as differently made as movies get with the former clocking in at over 170 minutes and this barely scraping an hour in runtime they share a most important similarity in being some of the best romance dramas I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. This one, like Wyler’s, shows how to perfectly use every minute of your run-time to tell the story you need to without skipping through too quickly or drawing it out, and although seeing that type of complete intentionality in the direction and storytelling produces more awe in such a massive format like The Best Years of Our Lives I’m just as impressed by the ability to achieve a similar level of that heartwarming romance charm in just over a third of that one’s runtime. I’ll get my one main flaw in terms of the story’s conception out of the way so I can focus on what I loved, the supporting character Skippy was a little hit or miss for me in terms of the comedy he was meant to bring to the table and even though he did have those hits the character is almost entirely a miss when you consider he took away from seeing more of Kay Francis and William Powell’s chemistry. That leads me to the praise this movie more than deserves though as said chemistry was phenomenal and made this an absolute delight, this is the second time now I’ve seen William Powell have impeccable chemistry with his female co-star (the last time with Myrna Loy in The Thin Man) which makes me really want to see more from him, it’s also the first time I’ve seen Kay Francis act and seeing this great performance from her makes me curious what the rest of her filmography has to offer as well. The script those two and the cast were working with was also delightful and one of my new favorites from the 30’s, its romantic charm holds up to this day as some of the best I’ve ever seen which is quite impressive and I liked the pace the story moved along at, it left not a second for a dull moment which made this whole experience that much more entertaining. I also thought it was shot quite nicely, the party scenes were gorgeous and just about everything in terms of the editing and cinematography looked quite ahead of its time for only being a handful of years after the silent film era, the editing choices with the script helped perfect that quick pace I was just talking about and the final product is truly gorgeous to watch. On top of that it also has an amazing score which almost seems like a must for these old romance dramas, it’s exactly what I expected when I thought of a 30’s-40’s era romance drama score and perfectly compliments every emotional and thematic beat intended by Garnett, screenwriters Wilson Mizner and Joseph Jackson, and the creator of the story (and Oscar winner for creating it) Robert Lord. Just as I hoped I would I had an absolute blast with this wonderfully charming romance drama but it honestly surpassed my expectations through the fantastic storytelling and beautiful filmmaking, I can’t wait to see more from everyone involved in this one as it surprisingly enters the elite class of my favorite watches of the year so far.
“I am running away - a fugitive condemned to death. I’ve tried to tell you but couldn’t. I will attempt to reach Mexico. If you can forgive me, come to me there. If not, know that I understand and love you always.”
In recent days I’ve watched William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives and now Tay Garnett’s One Way Passage, and even though they’re about as differently made as movies get with the former clocking in at over 170 minutes and this barely scraping an hour in runtime they share a most important similarity in being some of the best romance dramas I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. This one, like Wyler’s, shows how to perfectly use every minute of your run-time to tell the story you need to without skipping through too quickly or drawing it out, and although seeing that type of complete intentionality in the direction and storytelling produces more awe in such a massive format like The Best Years of Our Lives I’m just as impressed by the ability to achieve a similar level of that heartwarming romance charm in just over a third of that one’s runtime. I’ll get my one main flaw in terms of the story’s conception out of the way so I can focus on what I loved, the supporting character Skippy was a little hit or miss for me in terms of the comedy he was meant to bring to the table and even though he did have those hits the character is almost entirely a miss when you consider he took away from seeing more of Kay Francis and William Powell’s chemistry. That leads me to the praise this movie more than deserves though as said chemistry was phenomenal and made this an absolute delight, this is the second time now I’ve seen William Powell have impeccable chemistry with his female co-star (the last time with Myrna Loy in The Thin Man) which makes me really want to see more from him, it’s also the first time I’ve seen Kay Francis act and seeing this great performance from her makes me curious what the rest of her filmography has to offer as well. The script those two and the cast were working with was also delightful and one of my new favorites from the 30’s, its romantic charm holds up to this day as some of the best I’ve ever seen which is quite impressive and I liked the pace the story moved along at, it left not a second for a dull moment which made this whole experience that much more entertaining. I also thought it was shot quite nicely, the party scenes were gorgeous and just about everything in terms of the editing and cinematography looked quite ahead of its time for only being a handful of years after the silent film era, the editing choices with the script helped perfect that quick pace I was just talking about and the final product is truly gorgeous to watch. On top of that it also has an amazing score which almost seems like a must for these old romance dramas, it’s exactly what I expected when I thought of a 30’s-40’s era romance drama score and perfectly compliments every emotional and thematic beat intended by Garnett, screenwriters Wilson Mizner and Joseph Jackson, and the creator of the story (and Oscar winner for creating it) Robert Lord. Just as I hoped I would I had an absolute blast with this wonderfully charming romance drama but it honestly surpassed my expectations through the fantastic storytelling and beautiful filmmaking, I can’t wait to see more from everyone involved in this one as it surprisingly enters the elite class of my favorite watches of the year so far.
“I am running away - a fugitive condemned to death. I’ve tried to tell you but couldn’t. I will attempt to reach Mexico. If you can forgive me, come to me there. If not, know that I understand and love you always.”
