The Night Has Eyes (aka Moonlight Madness/Terror House) (1942)

In this by-the-numbers thriller released two years after Rebecca, two teachers hike the Yorkshire Moors hoping to learn what became of their missing, presumed dead teacher friend and when they stumble across James Mason's brooding Heathcliff-/Maximilian de Winter-type residing in a lonely mansion, they start to get dangerously close to solving the mystery: there's something loopy about him, he madly fondles a gun at night, and he broods like he is tormented by a boatshed argument with his first wife.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Holiday Inn (1942)

Cleverly built around the themed song-and-dances performed at an inn on occasions such as Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving, this amiable musical from Irving Berlin has a dancer (Fred Astaire) and a singer (Bing Crosby) competing for the affections of their co-stars, and even if you loathe musicals, this light and frothy one with its debut presentation of Crosby's White Christmas will make you smile.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS