The Fall of the House of Usher (Ivan Barnett, 1949)

4/10
One of many adaptations of Poe's story, this is the 1949 version by director Ivan Barnett. It's not particularly good, especially the story which gets muddled in a hurry. The director elects to use a strange device in which the story begins in the present day with a bunch of men sitting around a smoking lounge telling tales, and one of the men decides to recite The Fall of the House of Usher, which leads to the main story portion of the film. I'm not sure why this was done, but it was pretty unnecessary.
The movie gets points for making "the hag" creepy enough and there's some cool black and white gothic shots, but one of the other adaptations probably did this story better.

White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949)

8/10
Yow. Walsh returns again almost 10 years later and this one is pretty wild. Cagney is in tow again, looking 10 years rougher, and is perfect in the insane, mother-loving ("Made it, Ma! Top of the world!") lead. The plot features a lot of clever twists and turns and it's a lot of fun to watch and to anticipate what shoe is going to drop next. I enjoyed it a lot, might be my favorite in the set (which included The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, The Petrified Forest, The Roaring Twenties and this - good films all).

Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

8/10
I'd never seen any Ozu movies, and 7 were playing in a brief program...I managed to catch 5, this being the first. Ozu was infamous for his static camera but seeing it is a lot different than hearing about it. The long shots and the actors speaking directly into the camera - it's almost disorienting at first. Not to mention how low to the ground everything is, which makes sense considering Japanese culture of the time, but is still a bit of an adjustment. I struggle with just how uplifting and just how depressing it is, and I don't think it was a debate ever meant to be answered. But it's very touching, especially the father's speech to his daughter about marriage and relationships.