1940s

Psychiatrist David Lamont is pressured into “analyzing” the madcap but glamorous niece of a judge. Then crooks on the lam intrude.Read More »

THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ‘ The Gay Sisters,’ Featuring Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Donald Crisp, at Strand
T. S.
Published: August 15, 1942
The New York Times

What a long, gray and pretentious film “The Gay Sisters” is! Another pointlessly caustic inquiry into the lives of the eccentric off-spring of a once grand family, the new film at the Strand not once offers the slightest reason to warrant the telling of its involved and trivial story. Read More »

Quote:
A film suite divided into three parts showing successively the defeat of Warsaw, the gradual awakening of the capital and the first post-war Warsaw spring. The film has no commentary, only music, whose mood and rhythm are closely related to the character of the presented images.Read More »

Plot
A man who becomes wealthy starts to have an affair and though his wife knows of it, she says nothing. Soon, the affair starts to have consequences and his business falls apart while the man’s sister starts to have a relationship with the brother of his wife.Read More »

Story:
The successful producer-director combination of Walter Wanger and Tay Garnett served up another winner with Slightly Honorable. Adapted from F. G. Presnell’s novel Send Another Coffin, the story concerns the efforts made by corrupt politician Cushing (Edward Arnold) to frame honest attorney John Webb (Pat O’Brien) for the murder of Alma Brehmer (Claire Dodd). In concert with his diligent and apparently slow-witted assistant Rus Sampson (Broderick Crawford), Webb hopes to squelch Cushing’s plan by locating the real murderer-who turns out to be a lot closer to Webb than he’d ever imagined. Ruth Terry has one of her best screen roles as a birdbrained nightclub hoofer who helps Webb clear himself. – Hal Erikson, All Movie GuideRead More »

Margaret Wyndham Chase wants to run for governor and approaches Eddie Ace, local political kingmaker/fringe gangster, to get his support. Ace’s belief is that “beautiful women and politics do not mix” and he declines to help. She decides to play the game rough-and-tough without him, but he shows he is even rougher-and-tougher, and she gives up and withdraws from the race. But Ace has fallen in love with her at about the 45-minute mark and, with his new-found ardor for clean politics, he makes some (unclean) manipulations behind the scenes, and she is picked to run on an independent good-government ticket.Read More »

Synopsis: Charlotte Danfield (Fay Bainter), a member of an old Maryland family with horse breeding in its blood, orders her entire stable sold after her husband meets his death in a hunting accident. She also forbids her son Lee (John Payne) to ride again, but when the boy remains friendly with Charlotte’s old horse trainer, William Stewart (Walter Brennan), and his granddaugther Linda (Brenda Joyce), Charlotte ships him off to school in Europe to remove him from Maryland’s horse-oriented environment. Horses are in Lee’s blood, however, so when he returns home a grown man and learns that “Uncle Bill” is grooming “Cavalier” for the Maryland Cup, he eagerly offers to ride the steed. Later, after acquiescing to Charlotte’s wish that he not ride, Lee, out of a sense of loyalty to Uncle Bill, defies his mother’s will. Read More »

A dedicated reporter is incensed by a killer’s two vicious murders and tries to track him down.

Quote:
At least Heartaches looks more ambitious than it is-no small feat for a PRC production. Ken Farrell plays Vic Morton, a popular movie crooner whose voice is actually supplied anonymously by the gloriously nicknamed Bogey Mann (Chill Wills). Not long after Morton begins receiving mailed death threats, his press agent Mike Connelly (Frank Orth) is murdered, the second such killing in as many days. Reporter Jimmy McDonald (Edward Norris) investigates, uncovering a complex conspiracy and exposing an unsuspected culprit. Incredibly, in addition to Chill Wills, the supporting cast of Heartaches includes a starlet named Chili Williams! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.Read More »