1941-1950

Quote:
Soviet agent Fedotov is air-dropped into Nazi occupied land. He changes over into Mr. Eckert, a German entrepreneur wishing to take advantage of eastern worker slave labor in occupied Ukraine. Eckert (Fedotov) enters into a partnership with a German entrepreneur whose son, Willy, is a high ranking Nazi. Together they go to Vinnitsa, Ukraine and start a factory. Fedotov begins seeking contacts with headquarters, but faces problems when a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator manages to infiltrate the Soviet partisans.Read More »

Russ Raymond, America’s number one crooner, disappears and joins the Navy under the name Tommy Halstead. Dorothy Roberts, a magazine journalist, is intent on finding out what happened to Russ and she tries everything she can to get a picture of him to prove he’s Russ Raymond. Tommy’s friends, Pomeroy Watson and Smokey Adams,help him while Pomeroy writes love letters to Patty Andrews. But because Smokey makes Pomeroy lie about himself in the letters, and when Patty comes to the Navy base, she’s furious at Pomeroy. When Pomeroy, Smokey, Tommy and the Andrews sisters set sail for Hawaii, Pomeroy discovers there’s a tomato in the potato locker, and she’s been snapping shots of Tommy the whole trip. Whether Pomeroy’s proving that 7 x 13 = 28 – three different ways, having Smokey help him play ship captain for Patty, or falling out of his hammock, it’s an Abbott and Costello classic.Read More »

A private detective is hired to retrieve a valuable antique coin that was stolen from its owner by her son, who used it to pay off a blackmailer. The private eye soon finds himself up to his ears in fights, more blackmail, hysterical women and murder.Read More »

Austrian Film Museum writes:
Bewitchedis an audaciously stylized psychodrama that marked the keenly anticipated directorial debut of Arch Oboler, a brilliant enfant terrible of radio drama whose popular horror series Lights Out and scandalous Adam and Eve parody – with none other than Charlie McCarthy and Mae West in the biblical roles -earned him regular comparison with Orson Welles. Obolian accepted the inevitable invitation to Hollywood where he worked successfully as a screenwriter before directing this striking adaptation of his own celebrated radio play Alter Ego. Bewitched.Read More »

Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Though Jack Benny made a cottage industry out of joking about the purported rottenness of his 1945 vehicle Horn Blows at Midnght, the film is in fact a delightful comedy-fantasy-certainly not Benny’s best film, but far from his worst. While dozing off during a radio broadcast, studio musician Athaniel (Benny) dreams he’s a trumpet player in Heaven’s celestial orchestra. At the behest of glamorous angel Elizabeth (Alexis Smith), Athaniel is brought into the lavish chambers of The Chief (Guy Kibbee), who has a job for our hapless hero. Read More »

Quote:
Two employees of a secluded hotel investigate a murder on the premises in which the goofy bellboy is the prime suspect.Read More »

Plot:
From the author of The Citadel and in the grand epic tradition of MGM’s adaptations, The Green Years is the moving story of a boy’s difficult growth to manhood. When young Robert Shannon is orphaned, he leaves his home in Ireland and travels to Scotland, home of his maternal grandparents. Growing up in the home of his stern grandfather (Charles Coburn, in an Academy Award®-nominated performance*) is made bearable by his great-grandfather, loving grandmother and kind aunt and uncle. After a rocky adjustment to his new school, Robbie is befriended by Gavin and Allison, whom he grows to love.Read More »

Two kids take a book from a trash can. They begin to read the story of a poor neighborhood in Mexico City. Carpenter Pepe “El Toro” (Infante) lives with his daughter Chachita (Munoz) and woos pretty “Chorreada” (Pavon). Around them, a group of fellows live their lives in many ways: a pair of always-drunk women known as “La Tostada” (The Toast) and “La Guayaba” (The Guava); a beautiful woman (Jurado) who always oversleeps; a hooker with pneumonia (La Tisica) with a dark past. Tragedy comes when Pepe is falsely accused of robbery and sent to the jail.Read More »

Quote:
While there is now at least a little bit of recognition for the early German and Austrian sound film, the same cannot be said for films from Switzerland. Although Switzerland never had a big film industry, especially not at that time, I assume there might be some real gems to discover, if this film here is any indication.Read More »