1941-1950

For their first independently-produced vehicle, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello chose to appear in a remake of the 1939 Universal programmer For Love or Money. Bud and Lou are cast as Ted and Tommy, two bumbling window washers hired by gangster Mike Craig (Joseph Calleila) to collect a $50,000 gambling debt. The boys manage to pick up the money, only to deliver it to the wrong person, a pretty private secretary named Carol (Cathy Downs). Ordered to retrieve the money within 24 hours “or else,” Ted and Tommy trace the cash to Carol, who has mistakenly distributed it amongst the entries in a mailing list. Read More »

Synopsis:
Rex Harrison stars in this stylish British drama that caused problems with U.S. censors, who forced the film to be trimmed due to what was considered graphically amoral and sexual content for its time. Harrison is Vivian Kenway, an unrepentant cad who embarks on a campaign of irresponsible behavior after being ejected from Oxford. Among his many sins are seducing Jill Duncan (Jean Kent), the wife of his best friend Sandy (Griffith Jones), marrying a rich Austrian Jew, Rikki Krausner (Lilli Palmer), for her money, and dallying with the secretary (Margaret Johnson) of his father, Colonel Kenway (Godfrey Tearle). Read More »

Synopsis:
When a fairground fortune-teller, Agnes (Jean Kent), is found strangled in her apartment, the police interview the people around her, but quickly establish that everyone saw the murdered woman in a different way. … Only when the police discover the true nature of the murdered woman, and the motive for her murder, will they be able to unmask the killer?Read More »

Synopsis:
In this light drama, Clark Gable once again played his stock-in-trade role of a rogue with a heart of gold. Charlie King (Gable) runs a casino, but, in a business that thrives among the unscrupulous, Charlie takes pride in running an honest game and treating his customers with fairness and respect. However, Charlie’s wife Lon (Alexis Smith) doesn’t care if he runs a fair game — she regards gambling as a dirty and corrupt business, and no matter how honest Charlie may be, he’s still involved in a wicked activity. Charlie’s son Paul (Darryl Hickman) is also against him; when Paul gets in trouble and Charlie bails him out of jail, he refuses to leave with him, instead going home with mother. Charlie invites Paul to see what his casino is like, and Lon agrees that Paul should know just what his father does.
— Mark Deming.Read More »

Late 1940s British horror drama inspired by the true story of bodysnatchers Burke and Hare who became serial killers in Edinburgh in the 1800s. In order to make money William Hart (Tod Slaughter) and Mr. Moore (Henry Oscar) begin digging up corpses and selling them to the medical school. As the demand for dead bodies grows, Hart and Moore decide to get more corpses by killing the living. While they choose victims whose disappearance will most likely go unnoticed it is only a matter of time before they make a mistake that could lead to their discovery..Read More »

Synopsis:
On Christmas Eve of 1938, the widow landlord of the boarding house at 10 Dulcimer Street, Mrs Vizzard (Joyce Carey), allows manipulative elderly dance hall coat checker Connie Coke (Ivy St. Helier) to put off payment of her back rent until after the holiday. The landlord rents out her basement room to phony medium Henry Squales (Alastair Sim), who performs a seance at her occult club. The mousey cockney Fred Josser (Wylie Watson) is given a clock at his retirement celebration by his firm after forty years of service and his crabby wife (Fay Compton) groans at his foolish contentment.Read More »

Synopsis:
In 1902 London, unhappily married Philip Marshall meets young Mary Gray, who is unemployed and depressed. Their deepening friendship, though physically innocent, is discovered by Philip’s wife who threatens him with exposure and scandal, driving him to kill her. Thereafter, fortune seems to smile on Philip Marshall; but does fate have a surprise in store?Read More »

In this romantic comedy, a wealthy heiress marries hastily and realizes her mistake on her honeymoon in New York. Though it is her wedding night, she decides not to consummate the union and so ends up hiding in the room of a fellow whose airplane cargo company is facing financial ruin. He assumes that the frightened girl is poor and homeless and so takes her in. She then overdoses on sleeping pills and cannot wake up. The fellow is forced to take her back to California. The flight back is tumultuous as she, a fugitive criminal, two enamored newlyweds, a cigar smoking chimp, a corpse, and a shipment of lobsters are aboard the plane. Mayhem really ensues when the plane crashes in a farmer’s field. By this time, the woman and the fellow have fallen in love.Read More »

Quote:

Carl Th. Dreyer’s beautiful documentary uses no words to show different aspects of this beautiful bridge in Denmark. It is one of over a dozen state-commissioned documentary shorts made by the famous director.

The Storstrom Bridge was built between 1933-37 to the designs of Anker Engelund with construction under the direction of civil engineer Guy Anson Maunsell.

Storstrom Bridge connects the island of Sjaelland (Zealand) at Vordingborg to the smaller island of Falster to the south. Some two miles long (3199 metres or 3520 yards), at the time it was built it was the longest bridge in Europe.Read More »