1941-1950

PLOT: A depressed man hires an assassin to kill him when he least expects it, but when his life takes an upward turn, he finds he now wishes to live.Read More »

PLOT: A drifter’s (Richard Dix) claim to a dead bank account interests a newswoman (Janis Carter), storekeeper (Porter Hall) and two brothers.Read More »

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A story about a family after the Second World War. The petty bourgeois cashier Karl Weber of Berlin observes from a distance how his son Ernst participates in the building of a new socialist society. Karl does not understand Ernst’s visions, instead he confides in his other son Harry. However, Harry becomes involved in illicit business and Karl quickly realizes that it would be best to join his son Ernst in the citizen-owned factory. With this film, director Slatan Dudow (1903-1963) continued the traditions of proletarian German film from the Weimar Republic. As with his first feature film Kuhle Wampe, from a screenplay by Bertolt Brecht, Dudow wanted an art that “cultivates the viewer’s psyche.” His postwar films were intended to make the viewers realize the importance of supporting the “new order” in East Germany. Our Daily Bread became known as a premiere film of its day under the rubric of “socialist realism.” Slatan Dudow’s work was convincing mainly through his detailed descriptions of socialist everyday life. Music by Hanns Eisler was the centerpiece of contemporary review. After coming back from his exile in America, the composer created a score that challenged, thrilled, and focused. Berlin’s world of ruins is captured in almost documentary fashion.Read More »

Temujin, who later became Genghis Khan is wise, or sometimes cunning. He goes through several heroic episodes; competing at the Man of Men contest, falling in love with the enemy commander’s daughter, and struggling to restore his demolished hometown. Meanwhile his steps guide him to be a great conqueror. Khan’s witty, humorous side in his adolescent years before he takes the throne.Read More »

In a village in Brittany, a young maid and an old woman are spinning while the wind blows threateningly outdoors. In spite of the bad omen, the young maid’s boyfriend decides to sail away. Worried, the young maid ask for help to a mysterious old man and his magical crystal ball in order to calm down the rough seas.Read More »

A young Oriental man with a headscarf and bare torso shadowboxes indoors in front of a series of unadorned walls, light, dark, both shades. He is then shown exercising outside with a sword in an area surrounded by a low stone wall and overlooking a river, before there is a return to the first sequence.Read More »

James Cagney stars in this Oscar-winning smalltown drama as an ex-reporter turned drifter who arrives in a town where corruption is rife. Jailed for vagrancy, on release he meets up with Vinnie McLeod, editor of the local paper and one of the few honest citizens in town.Read More »

A killer of young women, dubbed Bluebeard, is loose in Paris. Lucille and her friends meet Gaston Morrell, a puppeteer. He invites them to a show the next night; they go. Afterwards, he walks with Lucille; she offers to make costumes for his next show, he accepts, and feelings develop that may lead to love. She suspects he has a tragic past. Meanwhile, his leaving the show with Lucille prompts the jealousy of Renee, Gaston’s sometime lover. Lucille’s younger sister, Francine, comes back to Paris – her boyfriend is Inspector Lefebre, who’s hunting for Bluebeard. Some clues point toward Lamart, a greedy art dealer. Who is in danger, and can Gaston be trusted?Read More »

Three daughters have graduated from the music school and have gone their separate ways. On the day of the outbreak of war, the three girls meet again for the first time since their graduation ceremony.

This film was made at the end of the war to promote the military song “Song of the Annihilation of the United States and Great Britain” and to raise the will to fight. It was made in 1945. There are some expressions in this film that would be considered inappropriate today, but in light of the historical value of the film, they have been omitted.

Because the original film and the video master are old there are some parts which are unsightly and some parts are missing. Thank you for your understanding in advanceRead More »