1941-1950

  • Akira Kurosawa – Tora no o wo fumu otokotachi AKA The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)

    1941-1950AdventureAkira KurosawaClassicsJapan

    The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail, the fourth film from Akira Kurosawa, is based on
    a legendary twelfth-century incident in which the lord Yoshitsune, with the help of a group of samurai, crosses enemy territory disguised as a monk. The story was dramatized for centuries in Noh and Kabuki theater, and here it becomes one of the director’s lightest, most farcical films.Read More »

  • Frank Ryan – So Goes My Love (1946)

    1941-1950ComedyDramaFrank RyanUSA

    Plot:Jane Budden, a country girl goes to the big city, determined to find and marry a wealthy man. Instead, she meets and marries Herman Maxim, a struggling inventor. After their marriage, his inventions become successful. Their happiness is complete when they have two children, and Maxim’s portrait is given a place in the National Hall of Science. Written by Les AdamsRead More »

  • Ted Tetzlaff – The White Tower (1950)

    USA1941-1950AdventureClassicsTed Tetzlaff

    Synopsis:
    The White Tower, a Matterhorn-like mountain in the Swiss Alps, has never been climbed. Carla Alten’s father, a famous mountaineer, died in a long-ago attempt. Now, Carla, determined to fulfill her father’s dream, has assembled an unusual climbing party to tackle the nearly-impossible ascent.Read More »

  • Vincente Minnelli – Undercurrent (1946)

    1941-1950DramaFilm NoirUSAVincente Minnelli

    from 55th New York Film Festival program
    A bit of an anomaly within Minnelli’s often more colorful and ebullient oeuvre, this black-and-white, paranoiac romantic thriller finds the master harnessing his consummate stylishness to spin a haunting, noirish tale. Timid Ann (Katharine Hepburn) marries the highly eligible Alan Garroway (Robert Taylor), whose wealth and good looks conceal an underlying and profound cruelty. Ann grows increasingly obsessed with learning the truth about what happened to Alan’s brother, Michael (Robert Mitchum), who has been missing for some time… This gripping movie casts Hepburn, Taylor, and Mitchum all against type.Read More »

  • Joseph M. Newman – 711 Ocean Drive (1950)

    1941-1950Film NoirJoseph M. NewmanThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:
    A telephone repairman in Los Angeles uses his knowledge of electronics to help a bookie set up a betting operation. When the bookie is murdered, the greedy technician takes over his business. He ruthlessly climbs his way to the top of the local crime syndicate, but then gangsters from a big East Coast mob show up wanting a piece of his action.Read More »

  • Robert Siodmak – The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)

    1941-1950Film NoirRobert SiodmakUSA

    from Noir City 17
    Quote:
    Boozy assistant DA Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) reels from a stifling marriage into an affair with the mysterious Thelma Jordon (Barbara Stanwyck). He’s so smitten, and besotted, he misses the warning signs: Thelma has a sickly aunt loaded with dough and spends lots of time in the arms of shadowy and sinister Tony Laredo (Richard Rober). Something bad is bound to happen … and when it does Cleve winds up working both sides of the law. Noir master Siodmak does a spellbinding job with a terrific script, and Stanwyck—Queen of Noir—offers a terrific, two-faced turn in one of her most rarely screened films.Read More »

  • Busby Berkeley – The Gang’s All Here (1943)

    1941-1950Busby BerkeleyCampMusicalUSA

    Quote:
    Playboy Andy Mason, on leave from the army, romances showgirl Eadie Allen overnight to such effect that she’s starry-eyed when he leaves next morning for active duty in the Pacific. Only trouble is, he gave her the assumed name of Casey. Andy’s eventual return with a medal is celebrated by his rich father with a benefit show featuring Eadie’s show troupe, at which she’s sure to learn his true identity…and meet Vivian, his ‘family-arrangement’ fiancée. Mostly song and dance.Read More »

  • Frank Borzage – I’ve Always Loved You (1946)

    1941-1950DramaFrank BorzageUSA

    A late entry from Frank Borzage and hs first “prestige” picture in years, after being cut loose from the Majors during his personal heyday of the 1920s and 30s.

    This was Republic’s first Technicolor feature (and Borzage’s second). The color palette Republic concocted for the film is bizarre to say the least – dominant are pinks, purples, wedgewood blues, mauve, taupe, lilac, with highlights of orange aqua and apricot. The general tone of hyperreality is enhanced further with set design that extends to underfurnished rooms, and cavernous spaces and headroom, like the concert hall wiith virtually surreal intrusions of doric columns and poritcos as decorative objects.Read More »

  • John Ford – Rio Grande (1950)

    1941-1950John FordRomanceUSAWestern

    Plot synopsis:
    A cavalry officer posted on the Rio Grande must deal with murderous raiding Apaches, his son who’s a risk-taking recruit and his wife from whom he has been separated for many years.

    Rio Grande is a 1950 film and the third installment of John Ford’s “cavalry trilogy”, following Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). John Wayne stars in all three films, as Captain Kirby Yorke (York) in Fort Apache, then as Capt. of Cavalry Nathan Cutting Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and finally as a promoted Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (York) in Rio Grande.Read More »

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