Lana Turner

  • Mervyn LeRoy – Johnny Eager (1941)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirMervyn LeRoyQueer Cinema(s)USA

    Ruthless hood Johnny Eager is pretending to his parole officer that he has chucked the rackets and is working as a taxi driver. In fact, he’s as deep into crime as he ever was and desperately needs official permission to open his new dog racing track. When he meets up with Lisbeth Bard, the step-daughter of the district attorney, he finds she is not only stunning but a possible way to get his permit.Read More »

  • Mark Robson – Peyton Place (1957)

    1951-1960DramaMark RobsonRomanceUSA

    Synopsis:
    It’s the pre-WWII era. Peyton Place is a small town in New England, whose leading adult citizens rule the town with their high moral standards, which they try to pass on to their offspring. The adults, especially those that wield power largely through their positions and/or through their wealth, will not tolerate anything they believe morally improper, even if there is a hint of impropriety without comprehensive evidence to back up the hints. As their offspring grow from teenagers to adults, the offspring learn that there is much hypocrisy by the adults lying underneath that façade of proper Christian morals. The offspring begin to rebel in different ways, which is brought to public scrutiny with the arrival into town of an “outsider”, the new young high school principal Michael Rossi, and through a murder trial.Read More »

  • Gottfried Reinhardt – Betrayed (1954)

    1931-1940DramaGottfried ReinhardtThrillerUSA

    Plot:
    Carla Van Oven becomes an allied spy in Holland during WW2, although she is suspected of having cooperated with and taken help from the Nazis. Colonel Pieter Deventer of Dutch Intelligence agrees that she may train to join a team in the resistance movement. The team starts to suffer heavy losses after she has joined them. Is she a traitor? Written by Mattias ThuressonRead More »

  • Vincente Minnelli – The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaUSAVincente Minnelli

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    Plot Synopsis [AMG]
    Kirk Douglas plays the corrupt and amoral head of a major film studio in this Hollywood drama, often regarded as one of the film’s industry’s most interesting glimpses at itself. Actress Gloria Lorrison (Lana Turner), director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), and screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) are invited to a meeting at a Hollywood sound stage at the request of producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon). Pebbel is working with studio chief Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), whose studio is in financial trouble and needs a blockbuster hit. If these three names will sign to a new project, he’s convinced that there’s no way he can lose. But there’s a rub — all three of these Hollywood heavyweights hate Shields’s guts. He dumped Gloria for another woman, he double-crossed Fred out of a plum directing assignment, and he was responsible for the death of James Lee’s wife. All three are ready to tell Pebbel to forget it, until they hear the voice of Shields, calling from Europe to discuss the project by phone. The Bad and the Beautiful won five Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Gloria Grahame.Read More »

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