Missed the beginning of the movie, so was a bit unclear on the Faye Emerson part. Was she sent to the worst place, somewhere in between? John Garfield, not an upstanding adult, was sent to a better place due to his mother's love for him and wanted to help him be his best in the afterlife. As I said, missed some of the movie, so where was the person Faye Emerson played sent?
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She was the actress right? Wife of the alcoholic journalist who goes with his mother? She went to heaven, didn't she? She realized that she had wasted her life but that seemed to be enough to save her soul. She was fearful for the soul of her husband - luckily he also realized that he had wasted his life and will be helped by his mother.
Just see this on TCM? Me too, I really liked it. A little melodramatic, but that's not always a bad thing. I'll have to keep a look out for the 1930 version, "Outward Bound." Someone here has said that the photography is even more eerie in that version and the characters take a longer time realizing that they're dead.
EDIT: In another thread, they discuss the same question. A poster pointed out that heaven and hell are really the same places - we make our own heaven and hell by our actions in life. And I still believe that the actress and the journalist will end up in "heaven," or at least they are both given the chance to earn heaven in a sort of purgatory. They both showed a realization of their wasted life, meaning that all hope for their souls is not lost. In the afterlife, they will become better people. They are certainly not destined for outright eternal damnation, like the business man and the rich wife, who don't admit that they had done anything wrong in life.
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Thank you for your thoughtful answer, jt-hix2112. Your post and your addition of another post's comment makes perfect sense, and a hopeful feeling. Looks like we were both watching TCM tonight!
shareReally good movie, I just watched it on a whim - the description and Osborne's introduction seemed interesting. Although from what was described, I thought the characters would have taken a longer time figuring out what was going on, but I actually think it works out better knowing from the beginning why they're on the boat. "Twists" don't really work as well if the viewer figures it out well before the characters, so I think the filmmakers did the right thing in letting us know very early on.
Again, I will have to keep a lookout for "Outward Bound," where the reveal as to why they're on the boat is delayed a little bit longer than in "Between Two Worlds."
My short films: http://www.youtube.com/user/jthix2554/videos?flow=grid&view=0
They weren't married.
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