1951-1960

  • William A. Berke – Pier 23 (1951)

    1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirUSAWilliam A. Berke

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Pier 23 was one of three hour-long mysteries produced by Lippert Productions for both TV and theatrical release. Each of the three films was evenly divided into two half-hour “episodes,” and each starred Hugh Beaumont as San Francisco-based amateur sleuth Dennis O’Brien. In Pier 23, O’Brien first tackles the case of a wrestler who has died of a suspicious heart attack after refusing to lose a match. He then agrees to help a priest talk an escaped criminal into returning to prison. The film’s two-part structure leads to repetition and predictability, but it’s fun to watch TV’s “Ward Cleaver” making like Philip Marlowe.Read More »

  • René Vautier – Les Anneaux d’or (1956)

    1951-1960DocumentaryFranceRené VautierShort Film

    Quote:
    At the time of Tunisian independence, owners of large boats decide to sell, while many small fishermen soon find themselves without work. Their wives then decide to pool their gold rings to sell them and thus buy boats.Read More »

  • Robert Frank – Pull My Daisy (1959)

    1951-1960ArthouseExperimentalRobert FrankUSA

    Quote:
    From Wikipedia: Pull My Daisy (1959) is a short film that typifies the Beat Generation. Directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Daisy was adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of a never-completed stage play entitled Beat Generation. Kerouac also provided improvised narration. It starred Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, Peter Orlovsky, David Amram, Richard Bellamy, Alice Neel, Sally Gross, Delphine Seyrig and Pablo Frank, Robert Frank’s then-young son.Read More »

  • Alf Sjöberg – Barabbas (1953)

    Drama1951-1960Alf SjöbergSweden

    The story about the thief who didn’t get crucified because Jesus was chosen to take his place.

    This is the final cut, shown on Swedish TV for the very first time this Easter.Read More »

  • Keisuke Kinoshita – Karumen kokyo ni kaeru AKA Carmen Comes Home [+extras] (1951)

    1951-1960ComedyDramaJapanKeisuke Kinoshita

    Quote:
    A light-heartedly humorous take on post-war female emancipation, Carmen Comes Home is a fairly typical offering from Shochiku, a studio renowned at the time for its conservative output specialising predominantly in comedies and domestic dramas based firmly within the framework of the traditional Japanese family structure. Produced at a time when the company’s fortunes were still riding high, to celebrate their 30th anniversary studio head Shiro Kido (himself the subject of a retrospective at the Nederlands Filmmuseum in 1994) allowed director Keisuke Kinoshita to direct this light and breezy comedy drama in Fujicolor, and thus Japan’s first ever colour motion picture came to be made.Read More »

  • Alf Sjöberg – Karin Månsdotter (1954)

    1951-1960Alf SjöbergDramaSweden

    After failing to arrange a marriage with Elizabeth Tudor of England, king Erik XIV of Sweden needs a wife and children to secure his throne, fast. He falls in love with Karin Månsdotter, a very beautiful young girl, but of lowborn stock. The King’s secretary sees a chance to secure the good opinion of the populace, to act as a counterweight to the rich noblemen who always seek more influence. A marriage is made, but the king is not fully at his wits at a time when it is most needed…Read More »

  • Fred F. Sears – Escape from San Quentin (1957)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaFred F. SearsUSA

    Plot:
    Singing star Johnny Desmond (Calypso Heat Wave, China Doll) goes dramatic in this Sam Katzman production. Desmond plays convict Mike Gilbert, who goes on the lam with fellow prisoners Gruber (Richard Devon, The Undead) and Graham (Roy Engel, Rogue River) when he finds out his wife is divorcing him and feels he has nothing to lose. While hiding from the law, Gilbert falls in love with Robbie (Merry Anders, Tickle Me, The Quick Gun), his ex-wife’s sister. Through Robbie’s influence, Gilbert decides to go straight, but his cohorts aren’t quite so willing to reform. Like most Sam Katzman productions of the era, this was loosely based on a true story. Directed by Fred F. Sears and featuring an original score by Laurindo Almeida. Newly remastered. From Warner Brothers Website!Read More »

  • Irving Rapper – Marjorie Morningstar (1958)

    1951-1960DramaIrving RapperRomanceUSA

    While working as a counselor at a summer camp, college-student Marjorie Morgenstern falls for 32-year-old Noel Airman, a would-be dramatist working at a nearby summer theater. Like Marjorie, he is an upper-middle-class New York Jew (born ‘Ehrman’), but has fallen away from his roots, and Marjorie’s parents object among other things to his lack of a suitable profession, such as medicine or law. Noel himself warns Marjorie repeatedly that she’s much too naive and conventional for him, but they nonetheless fall in love. As they pursue an on-again-off-again relationship, Marjorie completes her studies at Hunter College, and works to establish an acting career, while Noel first leaves the theater for a job with an advertising agency, but later completes a musical he’d started writing before he and Marjorie had first met.Read More »

  • Edward D. Wood Jr. – Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

    1951-1960CultEdward D. Wood Jr.Sci-FiUSA

    Quote:
    Plan 9 From Outer Space has been unjustly deemed the worst movie of all time. It’s true that cardboard gravestones are knocked over, that scenes change from day to night at a moment’s notice, and that half of Bela Lugosi’s scenes are shot with a taller stand-in who has trouble keeping his vampire’s cape on his shoulders. But technical gaffes like these are shared by a number of low-budget sci-fi films with plots that equal the absurdity of this epic’s tale of extraterrestrial grave robbers.Read More »

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