1941-1950

  • Ralph Foster & Charles Mountford & Lee Robinson – Namatjira the Painter (1947)

    1941-1950AustraliaCharles MountfordDocumentaryLee RobinsonRalph FosterShort Film

    Namatjira the Painter (1947)
    Australian contemporary art has no more interesting tale to tell than that of Aboriginal watercolour artist, Albert Namatjira. Namatjira was thirty years old before his hand first held a paintbrush. In about 1934 Rex Battarbee, a well-known Australian artist, visited Hermannsberg mission near Alice Springs. He took with him into the field as cook and general assistant the Arunta tribesman, Namatjira. This film tells the story of Namatjira’s preoccupation with Battarbee’s work, how he was determined to learn to paint and how Battarbee, realising the talent of his friend and assistant, taught him the elements of his craft. Today Namatjira’s watercolours sell for high prices. Despite controversy, the power of Namatjira’s rendering of his beloved ancestral land is not denied. Throughout his life and despite his success, he remained in the bush with his people and his paints. In this film, we see Albert Namatjira at work in the glowing country that he knows so well.

    This is the 1947 film re-edited by Lee RobinsonRead More »

  • Sam Newfield – State Department: File 649 (1949)

    1941-1950AdventureSam NewfieldUSAWar

    U.S. Foreign Service officer matches wits with a Chinese warlord to try to save American citizens threatened with execution.Read More »

  • Renato Castellani – Mio figlio professore AKA Professor, My Son (1946)

    1941-1950ComedyDramaItalyRenato Castellani

    Aldo Fabrizi plays a widowed school janitor with an infant son. The film depicts the joys and sorrows of father and son, as they journey through life. Maybe we could say that this is something like an Italian Goodbye, Mr. Chips; it is certainly no less affecting. Watch for author/director Mario Soldati in a small, but crucial, part as one of the professors at the school, where father and son live, study and work.Read More »

  • Jacques Tourneur – The Leopard Man [+Commentary] (1943)

    1941-1950ClassicsHorrorJacques TourneurUSA

    A seemingly tame leopard used for a publicity stunt escapes and kills a young girl, spreading panic throughout a sleepy New Mexico town.Read More »

  • Gunther von Fritsch & Robert Wise – The Curse of the Cat People (1944)

    1941-1950ClassicsGunther von FritschHorrorRobert WiseUSA

    The follow-up to the seminal Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People is the tale of a lonely young girl who conjures up the spirit of Irena – her father’s first wife – to provide herself with a companion. But Irena believed herself to be descended from a race of cat people, and before long the fiendish feline is on the prowl again.Read More »

  • Edmund Goulding – The Razor’s Edge (1946)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaEdmund GouldingUSA

    Synopsis:
    Well-to-do Chicagoan, Larry Darrell, breaks off his engagement to Isabel and travels the world seeking enlightenment, eventually finding his guru India. Isabel marries Gray, and following the crash of 1929, is invited to live in Paris with her rich, social climbing, Uncle Elliot. During a sojurn there, Larry, having attained his goal, is reunited with Isabel. While slumming one night Larry, Isabel and company are shocked to discover Sophie, a friend from Chicago. Having lost her husband and child in a tragic accident, Sophie is living the low-life with the help of drugs and an abusive brute. Larry tries to rehabilitate her, but his efforts are sabotaged by Isabel who has tried in vain to reignite Larry’s interest in her.Read More »

  • Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia – Violette nei capelli (1942)

    1941-1950Carlo Ludovico BragagliaComedyDramaItalian Cinema under FascismItaly

    Quote:
    Lilia Silvi stars as Carina, an orphaned little seamstress, who is in the habit of sneaking out of her window at night, and go to the theater. Once back in her small chamber, she will act out all the parts of the play she has just witnessed.
    Her longing is to be on the stage, and then she meets Oliva and Mirella, two sisters who share her ambition to enter the world of dance and drama. The three girls become inseparable friends, and we follow them in their aspirations to make it to the stage.

    2 small roles for Steno (still an assistant director of C.L. Bragaglia) and Marino Girolami (Fugitive lady).Read More »

  • William Beaudine – Voodoo Man (1944)

    1941-1950ClassicsHorrorUSAWilliam Beaudine

    Dr. Richard Marlowe uses a combination of voodoo rite and hypnotic suggestion to attempt to revivify his beautiful, but long-dead wife, by transferring the life essences of several hapless young girls he has kidnapped and imprisoned in the dungeon beneath his mansion.Read More »

  • Harold Young – The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)

    1941-1950CrimeHarold YoungHorrorUSA

    You cannot keep a good mummy down forever and Kharis is back in this sequel to The Mummy’s Hand, which itself was something of a remake of the classic Boris Karloff thriller of 1935, The Mummy. Although assumed to have been killed by Stephen Banning (Dick Foran) in the previous film, Andoheb (George Zucco) has miraculously survived and is now planning a terrible revenge on both Banning and his entire family in Mapleton, MA. With High Priest Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) as his faithful companion, Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) takes up residence in a Mapleton graveyard where the mysterious Mr. Bey somehow has obtained the job of caretaker. At the first full moon, the mummy is fed enough tanna leaves to break into the Banning residence and kill the now elderly Stephen. To find out what exactly happened, the dead man’s son, John (John Hubbard), gets in contact with Babe Hanson (Wallace Ford), one of the members of the original Banning expedition to Egypt. Read More »

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