1940s

Synopsis:
Action takes place in a factory producing cables for barrage balloons shortly after the critical September days in 1938. British Intelligence try to discover the production secrets and one of their agents is very active in the factory. The agent plays on the vanity of the owner’s secretary, takes advantage of losses at the gaming tables of one of the firm’s employees and blackmails another. The son of the owner is led astray by the female accomplice of the British agent. The secretary’s courage together with the son’s patriotism finally unmasks the entire plot…Read More »

The first true Finnish movie musical, released in 1940 by Suomen Filmiteollisuus (“SF” for short, hence the title), though some would grant this honor to Suomi-Filmi’s Meidän poikamme merellä (“Our Boys at Sea”, 1933), a film showcasing the Finnish navy as well as the singing talents of composer Georg Malmstén. The songs for SF Parade were also composed by Malmstén, who appears in a small role, but the true stars of the film are Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen, already well-known from romantic comedies of the ’30s such as Everybody’s Love and Substitute Wife. They would go on to star in the studio’s next musical and one of the most popular Finnish films of all time, The Vagabond’s Waltz of 1941.Read More »

Two strangers share a sweepstakes ticket and then embark on an “imaginary” honeymoon with their “winnings”.Read More »

One of the last films directed by the great Elmer Clifton, whose career dates back to the mid-teens and D.W.Griffith, The Judge was also the first production of Ida Lupino’s production company, first called Emerald Productions, later called The Filmmakers.

This is a quirky film which is both hard-boiled and pretentious, raw and artsy. It is also a film that raises as many questions as it answers. Elements are introduced into the story, covered in detail, and then not developed. Dream sequences are introduced, but are unclear. The main character–who is a sleazy defense attorney, NOT a judge–is well-played by Milburn Stone, but his story is not really typical of anyone other than this one oddball character.Read More »

Plot
Dorothy Patrick, Republic Pictures’ all-purpose leading lady, heads the cast of Tarnished. Arthur Franz co-stars as Bud Dolliver, who returns to his hometown after a hitch in the Marines. Because of Bud’s previous bad reputation, the townsfolk assume that he’s been in prison. Despite his protestations, everyone chooses to believe the worst of Dolliver — everyone, that is, except his childhood sweetheart Lou Dolliver (Patrick). Eventually, a crisis arises which allows Bud to prove himself once and for all. Former “Henry Aldrich” James Lydon is most effective in an sympathetic supporting role.Read More »

If you love old adventure films with dashing rogues like Bulldog Drummond, The Saint, and Boston Blackie – Then the Lone Wolf movies are right up your alley.Read More »

Quote:
Life is hard in a Welsh mining town and no less so for the Morgan family. Seen through the eyes of the family’s youngest, Huw, we learn of the family’s trials and tribulations. Family patriarch Gwilym and his older sons work in the mines, dangerous and unhealthy as it is. Gwilym has greater hopes for his youngest son, but Huw has his own ideas on how to honor his father. Daughter Angharad is the most beautiful girl in the valley and is very much in love with Mr. Gruffydd, who isn’t sure he can provide her the life she deserves. Times are hard and good men find themselves out of work and exploited by unseen mine owners.Read More »

Quote:
Yasujiro Ozu’s frequent leading man Chishu Ryu is riveting as Shuhei, a widowed high school teacher who finds that the more he tries to do what is best for his son’s future, the more they are separated. Though primarily a delicately wrought story of parental love, There Was a Father offers themes of sacrifice that were deemed appropriately patriotic by Japanese censors at the time of its release during World War II, making it a uniquely political film in Ozu’s body of work.Read More »

Several survivors of a torpedoed ship find themselves in the same boat with one of the men who sunk it.
In the Atlantic during WWII, a ship and a German U-boat are involved in a battle and both are sunk. The survivors from the ship gather in one of the boats. They are from a variety of backgrounds: an international journalist, a rich businessman, the radio operator, a nurse, a steward, a sailor and an engineer with communist tendencies. Trouble starts when they pull a man out of the water who turns out to be from the U-boat.Read More »