1951-1960

  • Rudolph Maté – The Mississippi Gambler (1953)

    1951-1960RomanceRudolph MatéUSAWestern

    In 1854 Mississippi, honest riverboat card gambler Mark Fallon wins young Laurent Dureau’s diamond necklace, a family heirloom which, in the end, will bring him happiness and tragedy alike.Read More »

  • Alexander Hall – Up Front (1951)

    1951-1960Alexander HallComedyUSAWar

    Based on the famed W.W.II cartoons: Lowbrow G.I.s Willie and Joe, on the Italian front, are good soldiers in combat, but meet the antics of gung-ho Captain Johnson and other military snafus with a barrage of wry comments. On a 3-day pass in Naples, Joe’s penchant for wine and women involves the pair with luscious Emi Rosso and her moonshiner father, whose tangled affairs land them in ever deeper trouble.Read More »

  • Emil Berna & Leonard Steckel – Palace Hotel (1952)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaEmil BernaLeonard SteckelSwitzerland

    The Palace, a world-renowned hotel in St. Moritz, is preparing for the winter season under the guidance of its beautiful lady manager. In this hive buzz Staub, the old waiter, his daughter, the telephone operator, Fredy, the playboy kitchen porter who is very much in demand by lonely female customers, the chambermaids Speranza, Fredy’s fiancée, and Emilie, who lives with her young boy, the sommelier Loosli and many others who are all valiantly doing their work. All these people are upset one day when a robbery is discovered in room 126.Read More »

  • Frantisek Vlácil – Holubice AKA The White Dove (1960)

    1951-1960ArthouseCzech RepublicDramaFrantisek Vlácil

    A poetic film about a dove getting lost on its way to Prague getting shot down by a paralyzed boy. An artist who finds the dove becomes friends with the boy. Together they take care of it bringing it back to recovery.Read More »

  • Tomu Uchida – Sake to onna to yari AKA The Master Spearman (1960)

    1951-1960ActionDramaJapanTomu Uchida

    Kurando is a retired samurai. Granted a last-second reprieve from the obligation to commit Harakiri, he decides to settle down and marry one of two kabuki actresses who helped him enjoy what he thought would be his final days.Read More »

  • John Huston – Moby Dick (1956) (HD)

    1951-1960ActionClassicsJohn HustonUSA

    Set in 19th Century New England, the story follows the whaling ship Pequod and its crew. Leading them is Captain Ahab, who was almost killed by the “great white whale,” Moby-Dick. Now he is out for revenge. With the crew that has joined him, Ahab is out to destroy the huge mammal, but soon he learns that his obsession with vengeance is so great that he cannot turn back, eventually leading to the death of him and all save his newest able seaman, Ishmael.Read More »

  • Ottomar Domnick – Jonas (1957)

    Drama1951-1960ArthouseGermanyOttomar Domnick

    Synopsis:
    A simple act of purchasing a hat unexpectedly unleashes a man’s long suppressed feelings of fear and guilt and plunges him into the world of ever-increasing paranoia.Read More »

  • Edward Montagne – Man with My Face (1951)

    1951-1960Edward MontagneFilm NoirUSA

    Adapted by Samuel W. Taylor from his own novel, The Man with My Face is an acting tour de force for Barry Nelson. The star is cast as an accountant who returns home late one evening, only to discover that a look-alike has taken his place. So persuasive is the phony man that the real one is regarded as an impostor. Even his wife (Lynn Ailey) and business partner (John Harvey) seem to have fallen for the look-alike’s subterfuge. Accused of bank robbery, the poor man must rely on his ex-sweetheart Mary (Carole Mathews) and her brother Walt (Jack Warden in his film debut) to help him clear himself and expose his “evil twin.” The climax borrows a gimmick from an earlier “doppelganger” melodrama, The Black Room (1935). Man with My Face was filmed on location in Puerto Rico. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Akira Kurosawa – Hakuchi AKA The Idiot (1951)

    1951-1960Akira KurosawaArthouseDramaJapan

    After finishing what would become his international phenomenon Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa immediately turned to one of the most daring, and problem-plagued, productions of his career. The Idiot, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s nineteenth-century masterpiece about a wayward, pure soul’s reintegration into society—updated by Kurosawa to capture Japan’s postwar aimlessness—was a victim of studio interference and, finally, public indifference. Today, this “folly” looks ever more fascinating, a stylish, otherworldly evocation of one man’s wintry mindscape.Read More »

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