Between Two Worlds (1944)

A very interesting movie based upon the play Outward Bound. It begins in London during World War II. Several people are at the docks waiting to get out of town before the next air raid. A man named Henry Bergner (Paul Henreid) is arguing with the man at the ticket counter. It seems that he does not have the proper paperwork to sail but he is desperate to leave. We learn that he is a musician and he can not play anymore. He runs home once the air raid begins and turns the gas on. When his wife Ann (Eleanor Parker) comes home they both are overcome by the fumes. When they wake up they are on a ship with all of the people Henry saw down on the docks waiting for the last boat. Ann and Henry learn from the bartender that they are all dead and the ship is delivering them to the place where they will learn their fate. He tells the couple that they can not tell the others because they do not know what has happened to them yet. Now they try to keep up the facade without letting the other passengers in on the secret.

I liked this movie. I liked that it did not have a typical depiction of heaven and hell. The "punishments" the people who deserved them received were interesting also. The acting was a little over the top - especially Parker as Ann - but that is very typical of the time period. This was a remake of a 1930 film Outward Bound starring Leslie Howard and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. There was also a made for TV version of this play made in 1972 called Haunts of the Very Rich starring Lloyd Bridges and Cloris Leachman. None of these are out on video but this one is worth watching the next time it comes on TCM.