1941-1950

  • John Boulting – Brighton Rock (1948)

    1941-1950CrimeJohn BoultingThrillerUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Pinkie Brown is a small-town hoodlum whose gang runs a protection racket based at Brighton race course. When Pinkie murders a journalist called Fred Hale whom he believes is responsible for the death of a fellow gang-member, the police believe it to be suicide. This doesn’t convince Ida Arnold, who was with Fred just before he died, and she sets out to find the truth. She comes across naive waitress Rose, who can prove that Fred was murdered. In an attempt to keep Rose quiet Pinkie marries her. But with his gang beginning to doubt his ability, and his rivals taking over his business, Pinkie starts to become more desperate and violent.Read More »

  • Ray Enright – Kansas Raiders (1950)

    1941-1950Ray EnrightUSAWestern

    Having previously played Billy the Kid, Audie Murphy assumes the role of Jesse James in Kansas Raiders. The plot finds Jesse and his brother Frank, together with the Younger Brothers joining Quantrell’s Raiders. Idolizing Quantrell, Jesse believes that his hero’s mission — to save the Confederacy by sacking Kansas — is just. Only when it is too late does Jesse discover that Quantrell is little more than a bloodthirsty mercenary. The James and Younger Brothers are depicted as innocent dupes of a madman, which isn’t surprising considering how often Hollywood has whitewashed Jesse and Frank in other films.

    ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Anthony Mann – The Furies (1950)

    1941-1950Anthony MannClassicsUSAWestern

    Synopsis:
    The 1870s, New Mexico territory: T.C. Jeffords is a cattle baron who built his ranch, the Furies, from scratch. He borrows from banks, pays hired hands with his own script (“T.C.’s”), and carries on low-level warfare with the Mexicans who settled the land but are now considered squatters. He has enemies, including Rip Darrow, a saloon owner who’s father T.C. took land from. His headstrong daughter, Vance, has a life-long friend in one of the Mexicans, her heart set on Rip, and dad’s promise she’ll run the Furies someday. Her hopes are smashed by Rip’s revenge, a gold-digger who turns T.C.’s head, and T.C.’s own murderous imperialism. Is Vance to be cursed by fury and hatred?Read More »

  • Budd Boetticher – Behind Locked Doors (1948)

    1941-1950Budd BoetticherFilm NoirUSA

    Obscure Hollywood writes:
    Kathy Lawrence (Bremer), a reporter, has evidence that fugitive judge Finlay Drake (Hayes) is hiding in La Siesta Sanitarium. She hires private investigator Ross Stewart (Carlson) to pose as her mentally unbalanced husband and enter the sanitarium to search for Drake. Kathy gives Ross a picture of the judge. If he finds the fugitive, she will have an important story, and they can split the $10,000 reward offered for Drake’s capture.Read More »

  • Claude Binyon – Family Honeymoon (1948)

    1941-1950ClassicsClaude BinyonComedyScrewball ComedyUSA

    Synopsis:
    Grant Jordan, bachelor botany professor, marries Katie, a widow with three kids, despite the machinations of Grant’s former girlfriend Minna. But on the wedding day, Aunt Jo, who was to babysit, breaks a leg; so the kids come along on the honeymoon. After misadventures en route, they make it to the Grand Canyon, only to find Minna there, still scheming.Read More »

  • Hal Walker – At War with the Army (1950)

    1941-1950ClassicsComedyHal WalkerUSA

    Set on an Army base during World War II, Pfc. Alvin Korwin (Lewis) and 1st Sgt. Vic Puccinelli (Martin) were friends before the war and had a nightclub act. Private Korwin wants to go home to see his newly born baby and Sgt. Puccinelli wants to be transferred overseas. Confusion ensues when a pregnant old girlfriend arrives to visit Sgt. Vic PuccinelliRead More »

  • Richard Fleischer – Armored Car Robbery (1950)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirRichard FleischerUSA

    by Hans J. Wollstein
    Touching on both the film noir style of the 1940s and the “just the facts, ma’am” approach popular in the early television era, and incorporating both shadowy alleys and bright, almost flat sunlit street scenes, Richard Fleischer’s plebeian, no-nonsense Armored Car Robbery remains the quintessential low-budget heist melodrama. Starring tight-lipped Charles McGraw as the tough, unyielding police detective, the potboiler also benefited from a downright vicious performance by an unredeemable William Talman as the brains behind the ill-fated caper, as well as the presence of luscious B-movie icon Adele Jergens as one of those hardboiled dames seemingly born to destroy gullible dime-store gangsters like Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley).Read More »

  • Vladimir Kobrin – Future Continuous (1994)

    1941-1950ArthouseExperimentalUSSRVladimir Kobrin

    The film is based on the thesis of astrophysicist Nikolai Kozyrev on the materiality of time. The film creates an aesthetic model of the interaction between the present, the past and the future.

    Film draws a bleak picture of the mankind’s future, in which slender rows of depersonalized bodies march in the landings of the Tower of Babel under command of Imperial eagle.Read More »

  • Preston Sturges – The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)

    1941-1950ClassicsComedyPreston SturgesScrewball ComedyUSA

    Plot:
    One of Paramount’s funniest films of the forties is this Preston Sturges screwball classic staring Betty Hutton (The Greatest Show on Earth) and Eddie Bracken (Hail the Conquering Hero.) Hutton is Trudy Kockenlocker, a small-town gal who feels it is her patriotic duty to dance the night away with soldiers who are headed oversees.Read More »

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