Winterset

The blank verse of Anderson's play, what Pauline Kael refers to as "soaring banalities that one might--in a romantic mood--mistake for poetry" certainly makes for some strange movie dialogue. The Brooklyn set is beautiful and moody--one can understand why it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction. The near-continuous melodramatic score, not so much. The totally altered, moralistic, Hays Code ending is too neat by a mile. Still, a fascinating curiosity.

It's a great story and the atmosphere really creeps in! Dark with morals, people out of luck, gangsters and guilt. This movie received 2 Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction and Best Music, Score which really sets the mood for this 'search for justice' story with haunting surrounding and chilling situations. If only they'd reworked the dialogue and done something about the stagy feel this might have been a universally loved movie!