Paul Lukas

  • Fyodor Otsep – Whispering City (1947)

    1941-1950CanadaDramaFilm NoirFyodor Otsep

    A reporter hears that a famous actress is dying in a hospital after being hit by a car. She goes to the hospital to interview the actress, who tells the reporter that her wealthy fiance, who was killed in an accident several years before, was actually murdered. Before long the reporter finds herself in a web of corruption, mental illness and murder.Read More »

  • Kurt Neumann – Secret of the Blue Room (1933)

    Kurt Neumann1931-1940MysteryUSA

    Twenty years after 3 murders occur in a castle’s “blue room”, three men who each want to marry a beautiful girl decide to spend a night in the room to prove their bravery to her.Read More »

  • James Whale – By Candlelight (1933)

    1931-1940ComedyJames WhaleRomanceScrewball Comedy

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    After directing three of Universal’s finest horror films, James Whale shifted gears with the elegant romantic comedy By Candlelight. Though quite miscast, Paul Lukas successfully conveys the role of Josef, ultra-dutiful valet to the libidinous Count Von Bommer (Nils Asther). Falling in love with Marie (Elissa Landi), whom he assumes to be a countess, Josef poses – quite convincingly – as his rakish master. The catch: Marie is herself a poseur, a mere maidservant to Count and Countess Von Rischenheim (Lawrence Grant, Dorothy Revier). Based on a play by Siegfried Geyer, By Candlelight is chock full of delightfully double-entendre pre-Code dialogue and dextrous directorial touches.Read More »

  • Edwin L. Marin – The Casino Murder Case (1935)

    1931-1940Edwin L. MarinMysteryThrillerUSA

    IMDB:
    When Philo Vance receives a note that harm will befall Lynn at the casino that night, he takes the threat seriously while the DA dismisses it. At the casino owned by Uncle Kinkaid, Lynn is indeed poisoned under the watchful eye of Philo. However, he recovers, but the same cannot be said for Lynn’s wife Virginia, who is at the family home. Only a family member could have poisoned Lynn and Virginia and everyone has their dark motives. Philo will follow the clues and find the perpetrator.Read More »

  • Dorothy Arzner – Anybody’s Woman (1930)

    1921-1930ClassicsDorothy ArznerDramaUSA

    New York Times Review

    In their enthusiasm for the idea of electric fans carrying voices across hotel courtyards, those concerned with the producing of “Anybody’s Woman,” the talking picture now at both the Times Square Paramount and the Brooklyn Paramount, favor coincidences that are absurdly unconvincing. This more or less ingenious notion can be accepted in an early episode, but when it crops up again in the climactic sequence the result is emphatically disappointing.Read More »

  • William Wyler – Dodsworth (1936)

    1931-1940DramaRomanceUSAWilliam Wyler

    After selling his Ohio auto-parts plant, Sam hopes to celebrate his retirement by taking his wife Fran on a romantic getaway to Europe. Instead, Sam and Fran begin to grow apart, realizing they want different things from life…Read More »

  • Richard Fleischer – 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

    1951-1960AdventureRichard FleischerSci-FiUSA

    A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo.Read More »

  • Jacques Tourneur – Experiment Perilous (1944)

    USA1941-1950Jacques TourneurRomanceThriller

    Plot:
    Dr. Hunt Bailey (George Brent) is fascinated by a portrait of breathtaking Allida Bedereaux (Hedy Lamarr) – and with the woman herself. Fragile and frightened, Allida confides to him that she and her young son are in great peril. Her husband (Paul Lukas) insists she is insane. And around them, people mysteriously die. Director Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, Out of the Past) brings his celebrated mastery of shadowy menace to this absorbing tale of madness and murder in an outwardly genteel world of wealth. Follow Dr. Bailey as he searches for the truth. And, like him, don’t believe everything you are told. From Warner Brothers!Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – The Lady Vanishes (1938)

    1931-1940Alfred HitchcockClassicsDramaUnited Kingdom

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    Quote:
    In this best-loved of Hitchcock’s British-made thrillers, a young woman on a train meets a charming old lady (Dame May Whitty), who promptly disappears. The other passengers deny ever having seen her, leading the young woman to suspect a conspiracy. When she begins investigating, she is drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure.

    If one film challenges the idea that Hitchcock ‘found himself’ as a director only after he arrived in Hollywood, it is The Lady Vanishes. Released in 1938 by Gainsborough, it is arguably the most accomplished, and certainly the wittiest of Hitchcock’s British films, and is up there with the best of his American work.Read More »

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