Jeff Chandler

Fuller admitted that he was obsessed by war and that he wouldn’t have made war movies unless he’d seen combat (he did, with distinction). This movie plays like a gutsy draft of his cherished project, The Big Red One, and looks as if it could have influenced Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (compare the steady destruction of the entrenched Japanese as the men advance on them). Merrill’s men are in Burma on a pitiless mission that we are dragged into emotionally, then almost physically, by Fuller’s up-front direction, as we gradually realize its suicidal nature.Read More »

Roman centurion Marcian is captured by Attila the Hun en route to Constantinople, but escapes. On arrival, he finds the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius plotting with Attila to look the other way while the latter marches against Rome. But Marcian gains the favor of Pulcheria, lovely sister of Theodosius, who favors a united Empire. As Attila marches, things look bleak for the weakened imperial forces. But the conqueror has an awe of the power of the Christians’ God…Read More »

An American gangster sent back to his home country falls in love with a widowed countess.

Letterboxd review
★★★½ Watched by Reza Said 04 Sep 2021

Deported (Robert Siodmak, 1950) 7/10

Atmospheric B-movie is very loosely based on events in the life of Lucky Luciano. An Italian-American gangster (Jeff Chandler) is deported to Italy after spending five years in jail for a robbery in New York. The tough, cynical man finds that the local people in his village look up to him, the street urchins love him and the local Countess (Märta Torén), a widow, is enamoured of him and likes his company. A local cop (Claude Dauphin) is suspicious and lies await for the crook to get the stolen loot across from America. Siodmak, back in Europe after many years in Hollywood, creates an interesting little film which also turns out to be an Italian travelogue with scenes shot by the great William Daniels in Naples, Siena and Tuscany. There is great chemistry between Chandler and Märta Torén while lovely Marina Berti adds to the local colour.Read More »

The town of Spurline is basically run at the beck and call of local cattle rancher Virgil Renchler (Orson Welles), who owns many acres of grazing land in the area. But with that kind of power comes a recklessness, and a lack of control over the worst instincts of his men, who he supports unconditionally no matter what. The breaking point may have arrived, however, when two of his employees march into the living quarters of the Mexican labourers Renchler employs and drag out one of the younger members, into a tool shed where he is beaten to death, it would seem these men believe they can get away with anything. But what they didn’t reckon on is a witness…Read More »