Classics

  • John Ford – The Last Hurrah (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaJohn FordUSA

    Synopsis:
    An aging politician tries to get re-elected one last time in the changing world of the 1950s when TV started to play a bigger part in politics. Based loosely on the career of multi-term Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, this film examines the good and evil inherent in politics and all the things that go into an election. Tracy’s uphill battle to stay in office is set against the political machinery that preyed on ethnic hatred and old-time money.Read More »

  • Henry Hathaway – Call Northside 777 (1948)

    1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsClassicsFilm NoirHenry HathawayUSA

    Synopsis:
    When a woman places an ad in the Chicago Times offering a $5,000 reward for information that will exonerate her son, the newspaper assigns reporter P.J. McNeal to look into the case. He learns that eleven years earlier, Frank Wiecek was convicted of killing an on duty police officer in a speakeasy and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. McNeal is quite skeptical as to his innocence and only slowly comes to realize that there was a miscarriage of justice. The real question is whether he can find evidence that would convince the pardon board and obtain Wiecek’s release.Read More »

  • John Huston – In This Our Life (1942)

    Drama1941-1950ClassicsJohn HustonUSA

    Synopsis:
    A young woman, Stanley Timberlake, dumps her fiance, Craig Fleming, and runs off with her sister Roy’s husband, Peter Kingsmill. They marry, settle in Baltimore, and Stanley ultimately drives Peter to drink and suicide. Stanley returns home to Richmond only to learn that her sister Roy and old flame Craig have fallen in love and plan to marry. The jealous and selfish Stanley attempts to win back Craig’s affections, but her true character is revealed when, rather than take the rap herself, she attempts to pin a hit and run accident on the young black clerk, Parry Clay, who works in Craig’s law office.Read More »

  • Edmund Goulding – The Old Maid (1939)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaEdmund GouldingUSA

    Quote:
    The movie is about two cousins, Charlotte (Bette Davis) and Delia (Miriam Hopkins), who are in love with the same man (George Brent). Originally he was to marry Delia but looses her to a rich rival. He then turns to Charlotte. He is killed in the fighting before he and Charlotte can marry. Charlotte becomes an unwed mother, an impossible situation for a young woman in the mid-nineteenth century. Charlotte hides the baby among a group of civil war orphans she cares for. She later accepts recently-widowed Delia’s big house, where she installs herself and her daughter, who is told that she’s an orphan. Read More »

  • Frank Tashlin – Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyFrank TashlinUSA

    Carla Naples ran away from her small town life, her small town family, and a small town boy with a crush on her to become a big star. But while on a shoot in Mexico she got secretly married and turns up pregnant with no proof of marriage her agent suggests a little bit of help keeping her babies and keeping them secret, he suggests family but Carla knows there’s only one person who’ll do anything for her and that’s small town crush Clayton Pool. Carla’s little sister has had a crush on Clayton as long as Clayton has had a crush on Carla. Clayton agrees to find the baby on his doorstep and keep it for Carla until…. Carla fails to tell him it’s not one baby, but three..and the laughs go on from there.Read More »

  • Chetan Anand – Neecha Nagar (1946)

    1941-1950Chetan AnandClassicsIndia

    IMDB says:
    The films takes an expressionist look at the gulf between the rich and poor in the society. The film centers on a wealthy and capacious landlord, Sarkar (Rafi Peer) who lives in a palatial estate high up on a mountain while the poor toil and starve in the valley below. The villagers of ‘Neecha Nagar’ harbor hate for Sarkar and their hatred is fueled even more by the fact that Sarkar plans to direct all the sewage into the village in order to make way for his housing project. The villagers protest this move with their head, Balraj (Rafiq Anwar) leading a movement against Sarkar’s plan. Sarkar’s daughter Maya (Uma Anand) joins the movement against her father and falls in love with Balraj. With the sewage flowing through the village, epidemic starts to spread and the lives of the villagers comes under threat. Can poor people of ‘Neecha Nagar’ survive the greed and wickedness of the rich? Can Sarkar and his malicious ways be put to an end?Read More »

  • Paul Verhoeven – Das kalte Herz AKA The Cold Heart (1950)

    Germany1941-1950ClassicsFantasyPaul Verhoeven

    Peter Munk, a poor charcoal burner, lives with his mother in The Black Forest. Poverty prevents him from marrying Lisbeth, the girl he loves. When he comes across the Little Glass Man, the good spirit of the forest, the young man asks him for assistance. His wish is granted and he becomes rich. But the fool soon loses all his money after gambling at the inn. In desperation, he asks Dutch Michael, the evil spirit of the forest, to help him to become rich again. The mean giant agrees and gives Peter all the riches in the world, but on one condition: the young man will exchange his heart for a cold stone. He can now marry Lisbeth but can a heart of ice make you and the others happy…?Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – God’s Little Acre (1958)

    1951-1960Anthony MannClassicsDramaUSA

    Synopsis:
    A poor farmer is obsessed with finding gold on his land supposedly buried by his grandfather. To find it he conveniently moves a marker out of his way that designates the land on which it rests as as God’s Little Acre, where anything that comes from the ground will go to God’s work. Eventually he abducts an albino to help him find the gold. Meanwhile, his daughter-in-law is suspected of fooling around with a labor activist out of work since the mill closed, and a local political hopeful actively seeks his daughter’s hand in marriage.Read More »

  • John Boulting – I’m All Right Jack (1959)

    Comedy1951-1960ClassicsJohn BoultingUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Naive Stanley Windrush returns from the war, his mind set on a successful career in business. Much to his own dismay, he soon finds he has to start from the bottom and work his way up, and also that the management as well as the trade union use him as a tool in their fight for power.Read More »

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