Michael Curtiz

  • Michael Curtiz – The Matrimonial Bed (1930)

    1921-1930ComedyMichael CurtizRomanceUSA

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    Plot:
    It is the fifth anniversary of the death of Adolphe Noblet who died in a train wreck. His servant and friends still worship him but don’t care much for his wife Sylvaine’s second husband Gustave with whom she has recently had a child. Sylvaine’s friends recommend that she use a new hairdresser, Leopold Trebel. However, when this womanizing coiffeur arrives, he turns out to be Adolphe suffering from amnesia. A doctor restores his memory using hypnosis but in the process wipes out everything that has happened to him over the last five years. Read More »

  • Michael Curtiz – We’re No Angels (1955)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyMichael CurtizUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    synopsis

    Samuel and Bella Spewack’s English adaptation of French playwright Albert Husson’s morbidly humorous stage piece My Three Angels was brought to the screen as the heavily laundered but still wickedly funny We’re No Angels. The scene is French Guiana, a few days before Christmas. Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray play three Devil’s Island “lifers” who escape from the infamous prison and hide out amongst the free colonists. In need of clothing and money, the trio makes plans to rob milliner Leo G. Carroll and his family. “We’ll cut their throats for a Christmas present”, Bogie, a convicted forger, remarks laconically. “That might spoil one’s belief in Santa Claus” replies philosophical wife-murderer Ustinov. The three escapees are deflected from their larcenous intent when they grow fond of Carroll, his wife Joan Bennett and their daughter Gloria Talbott. Discovering that Carroll is on the verge of bankruptcy, the convicts offer their services as household help (the sight of Bogie in an apron is worth the admission price in itself).Read More »

  • Michael Curtiz – White Christmas [+Extras] (1954)

    1951-1960ClassicsMichael CurtizMusicalUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    The Charge
    Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in a song and dance extravaganza.

    Opening Statement
    The 1954 musical White Christmas had the advantage of the biggest selling song of the time for its title, and adding the huge fame of stars like Bing Crosby made it one of the biggest films of the year and a Christmas tradition in many households ever since. The thin romantic comedy plot is overshadowed by the numerous song and dance numbers, making for a sentimental spectacle. Paramount has done an excellent job of bringing this classic to DVD in time for Christmas, and fans of the big Hollywood musicals can rejoice.Read More »

  • Michael Curtiz – The Unsuspected (1947)

    1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsFilm NoirMichael CurtizMysteryUSA

    http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3716/6ok6a5qt64hkkoah.jpg

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Noir of the Week review
    Don Malcolm

    What has Laura got that The Unsuspected hasn’t? All the romantic, mid-range melodramatic elements that make for an essentially safe, polished, none-too-threatening entertainment experience—a dynamic, exceptionally attractive couple in Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews; a marvelously b*tchy homme fatale in Clifton Webb; a celebrated score and theme song from David Raksin.

    You won’t find any of these things in The Unsuspected. What you have instead is the noir mastery of director Michael Curtiz and cinematographer Woody Bredell, who take aspects of the Laura plotline into new levels of intricacy and darkness, fueled by an almost lapidary sense of frame and scene construction. The camerawork and lighting in The Unsuspected, particularly in the studio scenes (inside the Croton mansion where most of the action takes place) is possibly the most sublimely sinister cinematography in the entire noir canon.Read More »

  • Michael Curtiz – Young Man with a Horn (1950)

    1941-1950DramaFilm NoirMichael CurtizQueer Cinema(s)USA

    Aimless youth Rick Martin learns he has a gift for music and falls in love with the trumpet. Legendary trumpeter Art Hazzard takes Rick under his wing and teaches him all he knows about playing. To the exclusion of anything else in life, Rick becomes a star trumpeter, but his volatile personality and desire to play jazz rather than the restricted tunes of the bands he works for lands him in trouble.Read More »

  • Michael Curtiz – The Breaking Point (1950)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirMichael CurtizUSA

    Plot: Fishing boat captain Harry Morgan charters his boat. Due to strained finances, he is none too careful as to whom he does business with. Real trouble erupts when Harry hires out his boat to transport four men who turn out to be criminals on the lam from a racetrack heist. Written by Jim BeaverRead More »

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