Alan Ladd

  • Lewis Allen – Chicago Deadline (1949)

    USA1941-1950Film NoirLewis Allen

    Ladd is as hardboiled as ever in this minor film noir classic. He is a tough reporter in Chicago (though he is never shown working at a typewriter) who first appears at a run-down south side rooming house, attempting to talk a runaway girl into returning home. In the next room he finds the emaciated but beautiful body of a girl who has died of tuberculosis (Reed). Before the police arrive Ladd pockets her address book and then systematically begins to look up the various venal people in her life who tell her story in flashbacks. There is Kroeger, a vicious gangster; Muir, a nervous banker; Freeman, an invalid writer; Lees, an addled boxer; Havoc, a call girl; Hervey, a gangster’s moll; and, in a startling performance, Strudwick, as a melancholy mobster. Read More »

  • Charles Vidor – Thunder in the East (1952)

    1951-1960Charles VidorClassicsDramaUSA

    During India’s first years of independence from Britain, Steve Gibbs lands his armaments loaded plane in Ghandahar province hoping to get rich. Pacifist Prime Minister Singh hopes to reach an agreement with guerilla leader Khan, the maharajah is a fool, and the British residents are living in the past. Steve’s love interest is Joan Willoughby, the blind daughter of a parson.Read More »

  • Frank Tuttle – Hell on Frisco Bay (1955)

    1951-1960CrimeFrank TuttleThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:
    When ex-cop Steve Rollins is released from San Quentin after five years, his only thoughts are of revenge on the men who framed him for manslaughter. Back in San Francisco, his quest for the truth brings him up against ruthless waterfront gang boss Victor Amato.Read More »

  • George Stevens – Shane (1953)

    1951-1960ClassicsGeorge StevensUSAWestern

    Synopsis:
    The simple story of a Wyoming range war is elevated to near-mythical status in producer/director George Stevens’ Western classic Shane. Alan Ladd plays the title character, a mysterious drifter who rides into a tiny homesteading community and accepts the hospitality of a farming family. Patriarch Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) is impressed by the way Shane handles himself when facing down the hostile minions of land baron Emile Meyer, though he has trouble placing his complete trust in the stranger, as his Marion (Jean Arthur) is attracted to Shane in spite of herself, and his son Joey (Brandon De Wilde) flat-out idolizes Shane. When Meyer is unable to drive off the homesteaders by sheer brute strength, he engages the services of black-clad, wholly evil hired gun Jack Wilson (Jack Palance)…Read More »

  • John Farrow – Calcutta (1947)

    1941-1950AdventureFilm NoirJohn FarrowUSA

    Dennis Schwartz writes:
    John Farrow’s Calcutta is a fast-paced old-fashioned adventure yarn, shot entirely in Paramount’s backlot. Seton Miller does the screenplay. It’s an entertaining potboiler, though a minor work … Ladd gives an icy action-hero performance as someone who revels in his disdain for women as untrustworthy companions. By Ladd’s politically incorrect moves, he takes on the characteristics of the film noir protagonist–which gives this programmer its energy. Ladd quotes an ancient Hindu saying ‘Man who trust woman walk on duckweed over pond,’ which tells us all we want to know about how he has stayed alive for so long while in the company of dangerous women, ones like Virginia, while Bill so easily succumbed to the beauty of the femme fataleRead More »

  • Stuart Heisler – The Glass Key (1942)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirStuart HeislerUSA

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    Quote:
    This is a solid remake of the 1935 film of the same name about big-city political corruption, and it starred Edward Arnold as the corrupt political boss and George Raft as his loyal lieutenant. Stuart Heisler directs this film noir in a workmanlike manner (though, the changed hard-edged ending from the novel is a copout). It is similar themed but less effective than The Maltese Falcon, which was also based on a Dashiell Hammet novel. The Glass Key was supposedly the inspiration for Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. The title refers to the political boss backing a candidate based on the expectation of being rewarded with the key to the governor’s house if all goes according to plan, but is breakable if there’s a betrayal. For Paramount this was a big box-office film because of the star team of Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, who sparkled as lovers with opposite personalities.Read More »

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