1941-1950

  • Robert Hamer – Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945)

    1941-1950DramaRobert HamerThrillerUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Absorbing period melodrama set in 1890s Brighton about an autocratic chemist and public analyst who rules his wife, daughters and son David with iron discipline. David, whose attempts at romance are thwarted by his father, seeks solace in a pub where he becomes dangerously infatuated with landlord’s wife.Read More »

  • Josef von Báky – Münchhausen AKA The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1943)

    1941-1950AdventureFantasyGermanyJosef von BákyThird Reich Cinema

    This lavish, impudent, adult fairy tale takes the viewer from 18th-century Braunschweig to St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Venice, and then to the moon using ingenious special effects, stunning location shooting.Read More »

  • A. Barr-Smith – The Hangman Waits (1947)

    1941-1950A. Barr-SmithCrimeUnited Kingdom

    This 1947 semi-documentary style featurette shot around the news of the world press, is a
    story of grisly murders by a cinema organist. A fascinating film produced by Five Star Films
    using the mediums of the Press and the cinema. Good historic scenes of the News of the
    World Printing Plant and Victoria Station.Read More »

  • Alexander Hall – My Sister Eileen (1942)

    1941-1950Alexander HallClassicsComedyScrewball ComedyUSA

    Rosalind Russell plays aspiring Ohio journalist Ruth Sherwood, who heads for New York to seek her fortune, accompanied by her sister, Eileen (Janet Blair), an aspiring actress. The girls take a basement apartment in Greenwich Village, which becomes a gathering place for several oddball characters, including a football jock (Gordon Jones), his silly wife (Miss Jeff Donnell) and an eternally drunken fortuneteller (June Havoc). Ruth tries to sell her writing, but is advised by a friendly magazine editor (Brian Aherne) that she’ll never succeed unless she writes from her own experiences. Meanwhile, Eileen is continually getting in trouble due to her ingenuous attractiveness.Read More »

  • Michael Gordon – An Act of Murder (1948)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaMichael GordonUSA

    A hard-line judge is tempted toward mercy-killing by his wife’s terminal cancer.

    Quote:
    I find it interesting that An Act of Murder, The Third Man (Carol Reed), Obsession (Edward Dmytryk), The Set-Up (Robert Wise), Act of Violence (Fred Zinneman), House of Strangers (Joseph Mankiewicz) and Without Honor (Irving Pichel) were all in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1949 – about one quarter of the competition were films that show up these days on classic film noir lists.Read More »

  • William C. Thomas – They Made Me a Killer (1946)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirUSAWilliam C. Thomas

    All Movie Guide Review:
    This Pine-Thomas Production was scripted by Geoffrey Homes (aka Daniel Mainwaring), best known as the author of the novel upon which the “film noir” classic Out of the Past was based. Robert Lowery plays victim-of-circumstance Tom Durling, in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bank robbery occurs. As the only witness to the crime, Durling is sought after by June Reynolds (Barbara Britton), who wants to prove that her brother, killed in the holdup, was innocent of complicity. Trouble is, the police have fingered Durling as their primary suspect, so he naturally wants to remain scarce. By film’s end, however, Durling and June have taken it upon themselves to track down the villains. Unusual for its time was the film’s depiction of its policeman characters, who are shown to be reasonable and intelligent rather than conclusion-jumping and dull-witted.Read More »

  • Richard Thorpe – Above Suspicion (1943)

    1941-1950DramaRichard ThorpeThrillerUSA

    Quote:
    If you believe all-American Fred MacMurray as an Oxford don, you’ll probably swallow the rest of Above Suspicion. Newly married to Joan Crawford, MacMurray goes on a honeymoon in prewar Germany. Actually it’s more business than pleasure: they are secret agents for the British, attempting to smuggle back information about a new superweapon being developed by the Nazis. Evil, mean, cruel and also wicked German officer Basil Rathbone imprisons and tortures Crawford (though she still looks like a million bucks), but McMurray comes to the rescue, paving the way for a suspenseful race-to-the-border climax. Read More »

  • Weyler Hildebrand – Lilla helgonet (1944)

    1941-1950ComedySwedenWeyler Hildebrand

    Celestin-Floridor is a singing teacher in a monastery and Denise is one of his best but worst students. They both dream about life, love and success in the world outside.Read More »

  • Hans Fischerkoesen – Das dumme Gänslein AKA Silly Goose (1945)

    1941-1950AnimationGermanyHans FischerkoesenShort FilmThird Reich Cinema

    A silly goose falls under the spell of a bad wolf, but all the other animals unite in helping her.Read More »

Back to top button