1940s

  • Edgar Neville – Domingo de carnaval AKA Carnival Sunday (1945)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaEdgar NevilleSpainSpanish cinema under Franco

    The same morning that carnival begins, a serene finds in Madrid the corpse of a rich and greedy lender who has been murdered. The main suspect is a seller of watches that owed much money ​​to the old woman, but her daughter, not content with the arrest of his father, begins to investigate on their own …Read More »

  • Lawrence Huntington – Suspected Person (1942)

    1941-1950CrimeLawrence HuntingtonThrillerUnited Kingdom

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Suspected Person was one of several Associated British Pathe productions released in the U.S. by PRC pictures. Clifford Evans stars as Jim Raynor, one of a trio of American bank robbers. When Raynor flees to England with the loot, he leaves his two accomplices at the mercy of the Law. Winning unexpected acquittals, the two crooks chase after Raynor — while Scotland Yard, hoping to recover the money, chases after all three. A very young Patricia Roc essays one of her first major roles as Raynor’s sister, while future “Dr. Who” William Hartnell plays a minor role.Read More »

  • William A. Wellman – Yellow Sky (1948)

    USA1941-1950ActionWesternWilliam A. Wellman

    Synopsis:
    A band of bank robbers on the run from a posse flee into the desert. Near death from lack of water they stumble into what appears to be a ghost town, only to discover an old prospector and his granddaughter living there. The robbers discover that the old man has been mining gold and set out to make a quick fortune by robbing the pair. Their plan runs foul when the gang leader, Stretch, falls for the granddaughter, which sets off a showdown between the entire gang.Read More »

  • Lewis Allen – So Evil My Love (1948)

    1941-1950Film NoirLewis AllenUSA

    Berkeley Art Museum – Pacific Film Archive writes:
    Ray Milland is both repellent and compelling in this Victorian thriller, directed with bleak panache by Lewis Allen (The Uninvited). Milland plays a charming thief, forger, and all-around blackguard who spots a prime mark in Ann Todd, a missionary’s widow and proprietor of a boarding house where Milland takes up residence. Under the influence of Milland’s advances, the straitlaced Todd abandons her inhibitions, eventually becoming complicit in larceny and blackmail—but her seducer will learn that a woman’s passion, once unleashed, can be difficult for even the most calculating con artist to control. A carefully drawn backdrop of British respectability heightens the drama of Todd’s decline: as so many English mysteries have proven, crime can be all the more thrilling when draped in crinoline.Read More »

  • William Castle – Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirUSAWilliam Castle

    In order to smash a dope ring, a federal agent (Howard Duff) makes a deal with an Alcatraz convict (Dan Duryea) to help him infiltrate the ring.Read More »

  • Robert Stevenson – The Woman on Pier 13 aka I Married A Communist (1949)

    1941-1950Film NoirRobert StevensonUSA

    Quote:
    Brad Collins, former stevedore, is rising fast in a shipping company when local communist agitators use his former Party affiliation to extort his help in stirring up trouble. When Brad resists, communist femme fatale Christine works through his brother-in-law Don. But Brad’s new wife Nan sees that her husband and brother are under pressure; when she investigates on her own, party boss Vanning takes ruthless action.Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – Two O’Clock Courage (1945)

    1941-1950Anthony MannFilm NoirUSA

    UCLA Film and Television Archive writes:
    An amnesiac (Tom Conway), aided by a kindly taxi driver (Ann Rutherford), recovers his identity in a citywide search for clues, finding himself at the center of a murder intrigue involving theatrical writers and producers, a stolen play, jealousy and blackmail. It’s a heck of a way to reawaken to the world, but our hero reconstitutes both his identity and the truth in this taut thriller.Read More »

  • Fritz Lang – Cloak and Dagger (1946)

    1941-1950Fritz LangThrillerUSA

    The Harvard Film Archive writes:
    Released more than a year after V-J Day, Fritz Lang’s final anti-Nazi film follows Gary Cooper’s improbable nuclear scientist into war-torn Europe on a secret mission for the OSS. “The opposite of a James Bond,” writes Enno Patalas, “Cooper stumbles through a hostile world.” The character’s transformation from noble-minded rationalist to a realpolitik hero culminates in a remarkably brutal scene of hand-to-hand combat with a fascist agent. Lang would later complain that Warner Bros. excised his preferred ending of Cooper uncovering an abandoned Nazi bomb factory: a strikingly paranoid vision of the nuclear threat cut to fit the emerging Cold War eraRead More »

  • John M. Stahl – The Walls of Jericho (1948)

    1941-1950DramaJohn M. StahlUSA

    After County Attorney Dave Connors helps Julian Norman with her shiftless father, Jefferson Norman, she leaves Jericho, Kansas to college to study for a law degree.A few years later, Algeria Wedge, the new bride of Dave’s best friend, Tucker Wedge, makes overtures and plays for Dave, much to the displeasure of Dave’s hard-drinking wife Belle. Angered by Dave’s rebuffs, Algeria induces the state political boss to back Tucker for a Congress race against Dave. Meanwhile, Julia has returned to Jericho, with her law degree, and she and Dave fall in love.Read More »

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