1950s

  • Charles Guggenheim & John Stix – The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959)

    1951-1960Charles GuggenheimCrimeJohn StixUSA

    Synopsis by Eleanor Mannikka
    Based on an actual bank heist (and even using the St. Louis policemen who took part in thwarting the original robbery), this fairly ho-hum caper film stars Steve McQueen as the driver of the getaway car for the four bank robbers. The four men go over their plan several times, including dry runs to cover every possible contingent. These preparations take up most of the film, so that by the time the thieves are ready to do it, the audience has been ready forever. The actual scenario when the thieves walk into the bank is fast-paced, and as might be expected, even the best-laid plans cannot foresee everything.Read More »

  • James Algar – A True-Life Adventure: White Wilderness (1958)

    1951-1960DocumentaryJames AlgarUSA

    Quote:
    Six years worth of footage shot in Alberta, Canada has been condensed into a 72-minute documentary which offers a unique and touching look at the daily lives of animals such as polar bears, walruses, goldeneyes, wolverines, and, of course, lemmings. One of the most amusing and tender moments perhaps is when a young polar bear slips down a hill and as he slides, the music takes on a comical turn, as if it were a practiced circus act. This documentary is filled with such little moments which make it all the more enjoyable.Read More »

  • Alain Cavalier – Un Américain (1958)

    1951-1960Alain CavalierArthouseFranceShort Film

    An American sculptor settles in Paris, convinced that this city will be good for his work. However, to survive, he has to sell the New York Herald Tribune at night.

    The assistant director on this film was Maurice Pialat.Read More »

  • Henry Barakat – Doa al karawan AKA The Nightingale’s Prayer (1959)

    1951-1960DramaEgyptHenry Barakat

    Quote:
    This is a classical melodrama from Egypt and nicely shot in black and white. It is a tale of relations between man and woman, death, revenge and forgiveness. To watch a film is not just the moving images it is also a opportunity to travel in time and space. Here one is moved back too Egypt in the fifties. I do believe that with the travel back in time there is also and chance to learn something about norms and values, the society and how the relations between people was at that particular time in that particular environment. Doa al karawan AKA The Nightingale’s Prayer (1959) was chosen as one of the best Egyptian films of all time, and it also stars Faten Hamama and she is maybe the number one female screen icon of Egyptian cinema. This film is based on a novel by Taha Hussein and he is considered to be one of the finest and most influential writers of modern Egyptian literature.Read More »

  • James Algar – A True-Life Adventure: Secrets of Life (1956)

    1951-1960DocumentaryJames AlgarUSA

    Quote:
    Going for a dramatic approach, this installment takes a look at the changing world of nature, from the sky to the sea to the sun to the insects to volcanic action to the planet itself. It’s nature’s strange and intricate designs for survival and her many methods of perpetuating life in this spectacular story. It takes a lot to make nature footage dramatic but here we are and it’s quite a sight. It’s exciting, beautifully shot and photographed, sometimes a little suspenseful, though it might not look like it at the start of it. Experience nature’s Secrets of Life and witness the wonder of it all with this solid and visually splendid True-Life Adventure!Read More »

  • Pierre Chenal – La bête à l’affût AKA Beast at Bay (1959)

    1951-1960Film NoirFrancePierre ChenalThriller

    User Review by dbdumonteil
    Pierre Chenal’s last hurrah-although not his last movie, it’s easily the best of the four thrillers he made when he was back from Argentina. “Jeux Dangereux” the precedent year suggested a return to form for a director who made interesting film noirs in the thirties and a masterpiece in the forties (“La Foire Aux Chimères”). All promises were fulfilled in “La Bete A L’Affut” .Read More »

  • Carol Reed – Our Man in Havana (1959)

    1951-1960Carol ReedComedyCrimeUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Jim Wormold is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly. He owns a vacuum cleaner shop but isn’t very successful so he accepts an offer from Hawthorne of the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba. Wormold hasn’t got a clue where to start but when his friend Dr. Hasselbacher suggests that the best secrets are known to no one, he decides to manufacture a list of agents and provides fictional tales for the benefit of his masters in London. He is soon seen as the best agent in the Western Hemisphere but it all begins to unravel when the local police decode his cables and start rounding up his “network” and he learns that he is the target of a group out to kill him.Read More »

  • Fernando Birri – Tire dié AKA Throw Me a Dime (1958)

    1951-1960ArgentinaDocumentaryFernando BirriShort Film

    Fernando Birri’s Tire dié (Throw Me a Dime, 1958) begins with an aerial shot of the provincial city of Santa Fe, Argentina. The association of voice-of-God narration with perspective-of-God images only reveals the full extent of its parodic intent as the narration progresses and conventional descriptive data (such as geographical location, founding dates, population) give way to less conventional statistics (the number of streetlamps and hairdressers, loaves of bread consumed monthly, cows slaughtered daily, and erasers purchased yearly for government offices). Read More »

  • Raffaello Matarazzo – La nave delle donne maledette AKA The Ship of Condemned Women (1953)

    1951-1960AdventureDramaItalyRaffaello Matarazzo

    Caged of the sins of their past, they break for freedom climaxed by an orgy of wanton lust and revenge.
    This interesting twist to “the ship of lost souls” theme has a ship of women convicts being taken to the colonies to be kept under control. One of these, Britt, has been framed in the killing of her child. Manni, the lawyer responsible for her conviction, sneaks on board after suffering remorse for his deeds. Also on board ship is Britt’s cousin, Weber, the real murderer who has gained her passage through a marriage to a rich businessman. She allows her husband to die in order to inherit his riches, and then takes up with the captain. When Britt and Manni publically denounce her, the prisoners mutiny, killing Weber and the captain. A storm rises up, and despite the…Read More »

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