David Bordwell wrote:
A bit like The Downfall of Osen (Orizuru Osen, 1935), this film centers on a woman who’s a cat’s paw for a gang involved in shady dealings. Okichi, played by Yamada Isuzu, is pulling scams for the sake of her lover. But she falls out with the gang and takes pity on one of the young men whom she victimizes.Read More »
The kid stars of Broadway’s Dead End were seasoned series vets by 1939, having already appeared in a number of films backing up the likes of James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Pat O’Brien. By 1939, their popularity propelled them to headliner status and the Kids were now the stars.
The Dead End Kids On Dress Parade features Leo Gorcey’s first appearance under the moniker “Slip,” playing the wise-mouthed, malcontent that would become his signature. The other Kids doff their kid gang guises for the starch dress of trainees at a military academy that the delinquent Slip is forced to attend.Read More »
Five poor musicians make up the worst traveling brass band in Japan. For a few days they hook up with an awful circus whose male performers are on strike.Read More »
In every prison, a war is being waged for the souls of men. This silent battle between the rogues who want to spread their evil and the devoted men who seek to rebuild prisoners’ lives explodes when a new convict arrives at the state pen. After forging a check to help his mother, Johnny Gate is sentenced to one to fourteen years. The prison chaplain, Father Joe, recognizes his good intentions and tries to steer Johnny on the right course. Unfortunately, his bunkmate Red Manson thinks Father Joe’s special attention could be exploited into a jailbreak. Red threatens to murder Johnny if he doesn’t cooperate, forcing him to choose between death and the path to redemption. Martin Mooney’s compelling story is based on his own time in jail and is dedicated to the real-life prison chaplain who helped him during his incarceration. .Read More »
Synopsis:
A Viennese opera house, early in the century. In attendance are lieutenants Kaiser and Lobheimer. Two young ladies on the balcony, Mizzi and Christine, drop their opera glasses, hitting one of the officers. The Baron von Eggersdorff arrives in his box. Lobheimer leaves early for his tryst with the Baron’s wife. The Baron soon arrives home, in a suspicious mood. Lobheimer rejoins Kaiser in a café with the two girls. Lobheimer soon falls for Christine… The Baroness wonders why her lover has been absent for so long; the two now part for good. But the Baron learns the secret and discovers that a key still in his wife’s possession opens the lieutenant’s door. He challenges Lobheimer to a duel…Read More »
An early short film by Douglas Sirk (Detlef Sierck) which takes a satirical look at dubious business practices during the Weimar Republic. It was banned under the title “Zwei Genies” but released as “Zwei Windhunde” after revisions were madeRead More »
Quote:
Released in America as The Song of Life, this German film stirred up quite a tempest back in 1931 for its depiction of a Caesarian birth. Though not much was really shown, it was enough to cause women filmgoers — and not a few men — to faint dead away. The film was banned outright in Germany and ran into some censorship problems in the US; still, by its very controversial nature it proved to be a hit wherever it was shown. And oh, yes, there was a plot, albeit a somewhat nonsensical one: After discovering that her elderly fiance has false teeth, a young bride-to-be becomes so distraught that she contemplates suicide! She is rescued by a young sailor, with whom she has a baby, leading to the aforementioned “C-section” sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviRead More »
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Boris Karloff is Valder, the creepy looking but trusted French refugee butler of British cabinet minister Arthur Bennett (Holmes Herbert). Valder might be a German spy, but is posing as a British spy. Also sent to the Bennett household as a guest is Frances Hautry (Margaret Lindsay), who is posing as a German spy but might be a British spy. She was previously seen as nurse Helene von Lorbeer, working in a French hospital to treat Frank Bennett (Bruce Lester).Read More »
A young salesman may inherit a wine-estate on one condition: he can’t drink a drop of alcohol for at least a month.Read More »