1941-1950

Ladd is as hardboiled as ever in this minor film noir classic. He is a tough reporter in Chicago (though he is never shown working at a typewriter) who first appears at a run-down south side rooming house, attempting to talk a runaway girl into returning home. In the next room he finds the emaciated but beautiful body of a girl who has died of tuberculosis (Reed). Before the police arrive Ladd pockets her address book and then systematically begins to look up the various venal people in her life who tell her story in flashbacks. There is Kroeger, a vicious gangster; Muir, a nervous banker; Freeman, an invalid writer; Lees, an addled boxer; Havoc, a call girl; Hervey, a gangster’s moll; and, in a startling performance, Strudwick, as a melancholy mobster. Read More »

A blind man’s sight is restored in time to solve the mystery of his girlfriend’s dead (or is he) brother and a gang of currency smugglers.Read More »

SPOILER ALERT
In 1932, Sam Doyle, a decorated World War I pilot, is a successful commercial pilot and a single parent to his ten-year-old son Danny. One night, after drinking too much, Doyle crashes his plane, killing his co-pilot, William Thompson. Remorseful, Doyle tries to make amends by giving all his money to the dead pilot’s wife and young daughter Susie. To conceal his charity, Doyle arranges for Joe Sanford, a legal guardian, to administer the fund. When Doyle offers no defense at his hearing of the Civil Aeronautics Board, his pilot’s license is permanently revoked. The dead pilot’s brother, Lt. John Thompson, believes Doyle’s sentence is too lenient, however, and vows revenge. Read More »

A reporter hears that a famous actress is dying in a hospital after being hit by a car. She goes to the hospital to interview the actress, who tells the reporter that her wealthy fiance, who was killed in an accident several years before, was actually murdered. Before long the reporter finds herself in a web of corruption, mental illness and murder.Read More »

Fictional account of the role played by a somewhat impetuous US Naval commander in developing the first means of launching missiles from submarines.Read More »

“Due to financial problems, the boarding-school of Saint-Loup is on the verge of closing its doors. In desperation, Jacquelin, the headmaster, has the idea to invite former students to a fund-raising reunion. Among the alumni, three men whose common point is to have been in love at the time with the headmaster’s niece. One is a banker, the second a priest and the last one a globetrotter. All of a sudden, the peace of the assembly is disturbed: Jacquelin’s niece has just been murdered.”Read More »

Body and Soul is a 1947 American film noir sports drama directed by Robert Rossen, and features John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere and William Conrad. The film, written by Abraham Polonsky with cinematography by James Wong Howe, is considered by some to be high among the best films about boxing, it’s also a cautionary tale about the lure of money—and how it can derail even a strong common man in his pursuit of success.Read More »

A movie director is approached by his old math teacher with a great movie idea: the Devil declares that the Earth is hell. The director rejects the idea, but subsequent events in the life of a writer, a friend of the director’s, and a young prostitute he loves seem to prove the math teacher’s idea.Read More »

Set in the late thirteenth century, Kakute kamikaze wa fuku (Thus Blew the Divine Wind, 1944) depicts an important historical event as the defense of southern Japan led by the Kono clan against the Mongol invasion in 1281. It features a full-scale hurricane destroying enemy ships, a cast of thousands to drown, and an all-star cast in the lead roles.Read More »