USA

  • 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 »

  • Clifford Odets – The Story on Page One (1959)

    1951-1960Clifford OdetsDramaUSA

    Synopsis:When Jo Morris’ marriage turned sour and heartless, she found sympathy and companionship with widower Larry Ellis. After Jo’s husband is accidentally killed in a struggle over a gun with Larry, the adulterous couple find themselves on trial for their lives, with their lawyers fighting the pair’s reluctance to turn against each other.Read More »

  • Vincent Sherman – The Damned Don’t Cry (1950)

    Drama1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsFilm NoirUSAVincent Sherman

    Quote:
    The Damned Don’t Cry – It’s a man’s world. And Ethel Whitehead learns there’s only one way for a woman to survive in it: be as tempting as a cupcake and as tough as a 75-cent steak. In the first of three collaborations with director Vincent Sherman, Joan Crawford brings hard-boiled glamour and simmering passion to the role of Ethel, who moves from the wrong side of the tracks to a mobster’s mansion to high society one man at a time. Some of those men love her. Some use her. And one a high-rolling racketeer abuses her. When the racketeer murders his rival in Ethel’s swanky living room, she flees a sure murder rap right back to the poverty she thought she had escaped. And this time there may not be a man to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.Read More »

  • Lionel Barrymore – The Unholy Night (1929)

    1921-1930Lionel BarrymoreMysteryThrillerUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    On a dark foggy London night, someone tries to strangle Lord Montague, but he escapes. Only to discover the four other men who did get killed were old regimental comrades in Gallipoli. When Scotland Yard gets Monty to gather the other nine surviving officers at his home, one of them is murdered, and no one else has entered the house. Now, they must determine who the murderer is. Written by Kathy Li Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – Eskimo (1933)

    1931-1940AdventureDramaUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Plot Synopsis
    The remarkable location-filmed Eskimo was adapted from two books: Die Flucht Ins Wiesse Land and Der Eskimo, both written by naturalist Peter Freuchen. Director Woody Van Dyke, in the tradition of his White Shadows on the South Seas and Trader Horn, took his cast and crew on location to the Arctic, arriving by whaling schooner at the topmost settlement in Alaska with author Freuchen as his guide. Van Dyke, Freuchen, and cinematographer Ray Wise also played prominent on-screen roles in the film. Eskimo Ray Mala (billed only by his last name) essays the title role, speaking in the tongue of his ancestors (even though his English was excellent).Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

    1931-1940AdventureClassicsUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) is the first feature-length talking (sound) version of the Tarzan series. [Tarzan films stretch into the silent film era back to 1918.] The Tarzan saga was based upon the original ‘Lord of the Jungle’ characters created by novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Tar-zan character (called various titles through the years, including John Clayton, Lord Bloomstoke (Greystoke)), first appeared in late 1912 in All-Story Magazine. Many actors have portrayed Tarzan, both on screen and on television, including Elmo Lincoln, Gene Pollar, P. Dempsey Tabler, James Pierce, Frank Merrill, Larry “Buster” Crabbe, Herman Brix (Bruce Bennett), Johnny Weissmuller, Lex Barker, Gordon Scott, Denny Miller, Jock Mahoney, Mike Henry, Ron Ely, Miles O’Keefe, Joe Lara, Wolf Larson, Christopher Lambert, and Casper Van Dien.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – Rose-Marie (1936)

    1931-1940MusicalRomanceUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Opera singer (Marie de Flor) seeks out fugitive brother in the Canadian wilderness. During her trek, she meets a Canadian mountie (Sgt. Bruce) who is also searching for her brother. Romance ensues, resulting in several love duets between the two.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – Marie Antoinette (1938)

    1931-1940ClassicsEpicUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    With a seven-figure budget and veteran director W.S. Van Dyke at the helm, MARIE ANTOINETTE is one of the most opulent period dramas produced in the golden era of Hollywood. The film chronicles the life of the 18th-century queen, following her emotional transformation from childhood as a young Austrian princess to her last days in the court of Louis XVI before the French Revolution. Led by the talents of Norma Shearer as Marie, John Barrymore as Louis XVI, and Tyrone Power as Marie’s childhood friend and aspiring lover, Count Axel de Fersen, the film exposes the power plays and chicaneries of the French court, painting the Duke d’Orleans as the villainous source of Marie’s public relations tragedy. With the extravagance of the court matched vociferously by the extravagance of the production, a romantic score by Henry Stothart, and a strong performance from Shearer, MARIE ANTOINETTE is a quality period drama.Read More »

Back to top button