1951-1960

  • Douglas Sirk – Sign of the Pagan (1954)

    1951-1960Douglas SirkEpicUSA

    Roman centurion Marcian is captured by Attila the Hun en route to Constantinople, but escapes. On arrival, he finds the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius plotting with Attila to look the other way while the latter marches against Rome. But Marcian gains the favor of Pulcheria, lovely sister of Theodosius, who favors a united Empire. As Attila marches, things look bleak for the weakened imperial forces. But the conqueror has an awe of the power of the Christians’ God…Read More »

  • Gilles Grangier – Le plus joli péché du monde (1951)

    1951-1960ComedyDramaFranceGilles Grangier

    Two lovers pretend they have a child, so that the man cannot marry his fiancee.Read More »

  • John Baxter – Judgment Deferred (1952)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaJohn BaxterUSA

    A group of very strange men, refugees and casualties of the war, rally round when one of their number is framed by a drug racketeer. Co-opting a well-known journalist to their cause, they scheme to bring the racketeer to justice in a home-made “trial” in the crypt of a ruined church.Read More »

  • Wojciech Has – Pozegnania AKA Farewells (1958)

    1951-1960DramaPolandRomanceWojciech Has

    Quote:
    Pawel and Lidka are from different worlds but they somehow meet each other in a night club. He’s a young lad from a wealthy family, she’s an attractive dancer. They fall in love and go out of town but their happiness doesn’t last long.Read More »

  • Steno – Letto a tre piazze AKA Triple bed (1960)

    1951-1960ComedyItalySteno

    Antonio married Amalia and went to fight in Russia during World War II. Since he didn’t return Amalia thought he was dead, so she married another man. Many year after the war end, Antonio returns, and Amalia has to choose between two husbands. But while the two fight over her, a third one may be lurking…Read More »

  • Ida Lupino – Screen Directors Playhouse: No. 5 Checked Out (1956)

    USA1951-1960Ida LupinoThrillerTV

    Quote:
    The 1950s was an incredible time for television. Many of the best actors, directors and writers had moved from the big screen to TV and shows like “Playhouse 90” and “Screen Directors Playhouse” assembled some amazing talent. Here, Ida Lupino directs Teresa Wright, Peter Lorre and William Talman in a drama about some crooks who have chosen Wright’s isolated hotel in which to hide out from the law. Wright plays a deaf woman who is terrified of these men and it is very reminiscent of many other films–including a few in which Miss Lupino appeared (such as “Deep Valley”, “On Dangerous Ground” and “Beware My Lovely”). It also is a bit like the later film “Wait Until Dark” (with Audrey Hepburn)–though in this case the terrified woman is blind, not deaf.Read More »

  • Victor Saville – The Long Wait (1954)

    1951-1960Film NoirUSAVictor Saville

    Anthony Quinn as an amnesiac who is wanted for murder? You got him in The Long Wait, and not one but four femmes noir. Three blondes and a brunette. All leggy and not backward in coming forward.

    This violent and brutal flick has Mickey Spillane all over it. The second Spillane novel to be filmed in Hollywood – after I, The Jury (1953) – The Long Wait takes pulp fiction down to a new level. A preposterous plot with more holes than a pair of fishnet nylons itches a perversely compelling pastiche of noir tropes: amnesia, corruption in high places, crooked cops, frame-ups, violence, duplicitous dames, and sex. But no Mike Hammer. Our protagonist is strictly an amateur. But that doesn’t make him any less able to dizzy the dames nor prove his innocence – even if the key to the frame is patently absurd.Read More »

  • Kôzaburô Yoshimura – Yoru no kawa AKA River of the Night (1956)

    1951-1960DramaJapanKôzaburô Yoshimura

    An artistically and commercially successful kimono designer begins an affair with a married man. But when his wife dies, her reaction is not as expected.Read More »

  • Gavin Lambert – Another Sky (1954)

    Drama1951-1960Gavin LambertUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    The real coup here is the presentation of the one movie Gavin directed. It is called Another Sky, made in 1954, and shot largely in North Africa in black and white. It is the story of a demure governess named Rose who comes to work in Marrakesh, and who is gradually seduced by the heat, the mystery and the latent sexuality of the desert. It is a picture made under the moon of Paul Bowles, a friend to Gavin, and the author only a few years earlier of The Sheltering Sky, a novel that has much the same themes… I don’t say that Another Sky is totally successful, but as soon as you think of it as a British film made in 1954, then its boldness, its mood and its attempt at something novel fall into place. The French took up the cause of Another Sky a long time ago, but in the two countries where Gavin lived most of his life — Britain and America — it is hardly known. – David Thomson, reviewing a retrospective of Lambert’s workRead More »

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