Zachary Scott

  • Jean Negulesco – The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)

    Jean Negulesco1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsClassicsFilm NoirUSA

    Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre make a marvelous team in this exhilarating and atmospheric Film-Noir that Daily Variety hailed as “one of the most brilliant crime dramas yet filmed.” When the body of Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott) washes ashore in Istanbul, there is cause for celebration all across Europe. The devious sociopath has left as his legacy an array of crimes including blackmail, thievery, murder and high treason. Interested in chronicling the dead man’s unscrupulous exploits, mystery writer Cornelius Leyden (Lorre) takes up his trail, aided by a mysterious man named Peters (Greenstreet).Read More »

  • Michael Curtiz – Flamingo Road (1949)

    1941-1950DramaFilm NoirMichael CurtizUSA

    Quote:
    A corrupt small town sheriff manipulates local candidates to the state legislature but he eventually comes into conflict with a visiting carnival dancer.Read More »

  • Richard Sale – Let’s Make It Legal (1951)

    1951-1960ComedyDramaMarilyn MonroeRichard SaleUSA

    Synopsis:
    The divorce of Hugh and Miriam Halsworth becomes final at midnight. Hugh wouldn’t dream of calling it off, but can’t abandon his rose garden. Things change that afternoon, though, when Miriam’s old suitor Victor Macfarland checks into the hotel where Hugh is publicity man. With Miriam’s daughter Barbara rooting for Hugh and son-in-law Jerry rooting for Victor, things are unlikely to be resolved by midnight…Read More »

  • Frederick De Cordova – Her Kind of Man (1946)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirFrederick De CordovaUSA

    Quote:
    Georgia King (Janis Paige) thought she was sitting pretty, Broadway-bound and the chosen gal of bad boy Steve Maddux (Zachary Scott). Things go awry when Steve plugs a mug in self-defense and goes on the lam while Georgia goes solo to the Great White Way. In New York, Georgia captures the attention of straight-and-narrow newsman Don Corwin (Dane Clark). When Steve returns to New York for a romantic reunion with Georgia, he and Don battle for their songbird’s heart, the law and the lawless begin to break apart around the budding triangle. As Steve’s past sins return to cause tragedy in the present, he faces the biggest night of his life as Prohibition comes to an end. Thanks to its crisp direction and pitch-perfect cast, including genre favorites Faye Emerson and George Tobias, this noir rises above the numbers.Read More »

  • Robert Florey – Danger Signal (1945)

    1941-1950Film NoirRobert FloreyUSA

    Quote:
    A mysterious artist – and psychopath – named Ronnie Mason, steals a dead woman’s wedding ring and money and leaves a fake suicide note. The woman’s husband, Thomas Turner, when questioned by the local police, believes his dead wife might have been seeing Mason behind his back. He also believes his wife was murdered, but in the absence of other evidence, the police list it as a suicide and drop the case.Read More »

  • Terence Fisher – Wings of Danger (1952)

    USA1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirHammer FilmsTerence Fisher

    Quote:
    “A former pilot suffering from blackouts discovers that a fellow flyer is suspected of being mixed up with a web of smugglers. While searching for his missing buddy, he unwittingly becomes entangled in a morass of suspicion!”Read More »

  • Michael Curtiz – Mildred Pierce (1945)

    1941-1950DramaFilm NoirMichael CurtizUSA


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    Quote:
    Mildred Pierce (1945) is a classic, post-war film noir mixed with typical soap-operish elements of the woman’s melodramatic picture or “weeper,” including a strand of a typical murder mystery often told by flashback. The family melodrama was significantly modified from its original source due to pressures of the Production Code regarding its sordidness – namely, the incestual behavior of the dissolute playboy character named Monte.Read More »

  • Edgar G. Ulmer – Ruthless (1948)

    1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsClassicsEdgar G. UlmerFilm NoirUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Multi-millionaire Horace Woodruff Vendig (Zachary Scott) shows himself to the world as an ambitious philanthropist, but that’s far from the case. Even as a young man he starts to exhibit an obsessive and selfish urge to make more and more money, loving and leaving women at will to further this end. Vendig steps on and rolls over anyone who stands in his way, including his lifelong friend Vic Lambdin (Louis Hayward), utilities executive Buck Mansfield (Sydney Greenstreet) and various women, among them his first and only love, Martha Burnside (Diana Lynn), socialite Susan Duane (Martha Vickers) and Buck’s wife, Christa Mansfield (Lucille Bremer). It is a tribute to the acting skills of Scott that he makes his despicable character somehow likeable and sympathetic. The stellar cast includes Raymond Burr, Edith Barrett, Dennis Hoey and Joyce Arling. One of the few big-budgeted projects helmed by cult director Edgar G. Ulmer (Detour).Read More »

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