1941-1950

An extremely rare film by Roberto Rossellini, his third feature, made under the Fascist control of Italy. Basically rejected after the War because of the Fascist content of the film, “Rossellini produces a work which focuses upon the Italian expeditionary forces on the Eastern Front and upon a Catholic chaplain representative of Italy’s religious majority…the principal character’s humanity and sacrifice seem to prefigure the good-natured priest of Rome, Open City who works with leftist Resistance leaders…Rossellini underlines the common humanity in Fascist and Bolshevik alike” (Peter Bonadella, Italian Cinema from Neo-Realism to Present).Read More »

Quote:
Notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo rides into town to find his true love, who doesn’t want to see him. He hasn’t come looking for trouble, but trouble finds him around every corner.Read More »

Synopsis:
Erich von Stroheim is The Great Flamarion, a marksman who employs Mary Beth Hughes and Dan Duryea, a married couple, for his vaudeville act. Having decided to rid herself of her husband, Mary Beth plots to trick von Stroheim into doing the dirty work for her.Read More »

The Film:
The Flowers of St. Francis is Roberto Rossellini’s answer to the despair
of the Italian neorealism he had previously been credited with initiating;
through a disconnected series of events in the story of the popular saint,
it affirms Christian beliefs at their most pure. The original Italian title
‘Francesco, giullare di Dio’ translates as “Francis, the Jester of God.”
It is even more inspirational than Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According
to St. Matthew mainly because of the natural behavior of the characters.
. . . Glenn Erickson,Read More »

Quote:
After the death of her famous opera-singing aunt, Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is sent to study in Italy to become a great opera singer as well. While there, she falls in love with the charming Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). The two return to London, and Paula begins to notice strange goings-on: missing pictures, strange footsteps in the night and gaslights that dim without being touched. As she fights to retain her sanity, her new husband’s intentions come into question.Read More »

The story is taken from the drama “I Pescatori” (The Fishermen) by Raffaele Viviani, and is set in a fishing island off the coast of Naples (clearly identifiable with Ischia). Here lives Concetta, a widow with two children, who now lives with another man who however secretly lusts after his stepdaughter until when, on a stormy night…Read More »

Plot:
Upper class Mrs. Barrington (Jeanne de Casalis) takes in two child evacuees from London, including cocky teenager Ronald (George Cole), lodging them in a cottage she owns. However, it has already been let to annoyingly inquisitive Charles Dimble (Alastair Sim). To compound the confusion, Mrs. Barrington had also agreed to allow it to be converted into a military hospital. Spitfire pilot Flight Lieutenant Perry (John Mills) parachutes into the nearby loch and becomes the first patient, tended by Mrs. Barrington’s pretty daughter Helen (Carla Lehmann). Mrs. Barrington moves Ronald to the main house, while Dimble and Perry remain in the cottage.Read More »

Quote:
The soldiers, the conflicts, and the unimaginable horrors of war will never stop making compelling subjects for dramatic interpretation. But what of the effect the war had here at home? For insight into that part of the story, you have to look at material from the era. For my money, nothing has conveyed the complete and total disruption of everyday life here in the States quite as well as Walt Disney on the Front Lines, one of the most recent and, so far, the best entry in the ambitious Walt Disney Treasures line.Read More »

IMDB:
The Falcon rescues Louisa Braganza from kidnappers who want her father’s secret formula for making diamonds. Her father’s murder is pinned on the Falcon and, when he and she flee to Florida, another murder seems to confirm his guilt.Read More »