1950s

  • Tay Garnett – The Fireball (1950)

    1941-1950ActionDramaTay GarnettUSA

    Plot: Johnny runs away from Father O’Hara’s orphanage and becomes a roller skating star with the help of Mary Reeves. He becomes involved with women, including Polly, who only love him because he is a champion, not, as with Mary, out of love for him. Then he gets polio. Written by Ed StephanRead More »

  • Nicholas Ray – Party Girl (1958)

    1951-1960250 Quintessential Film NoirsFilm NoirMusicalNicholas RayUSA

    Synopsis:
    Lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career defending crooks in trials. He has never realized that there is a downside to his success, until he meets the dancer Vicki Gayle. She makes him decide to get a better reputation. But mob king Rico Angelo *insists* that he continues his services…Read More »

  • Billy Wilder – Some Like It Hot [+Extras] (1959)

    USA1951-1960Billy WilderClassicsComedyMarilyn Monroe

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    Plot Outline:
    Two Chicago musicians are accidental witnesses to a gangland massacre and suddenly find themselves in even more urgent need of a job that will take them out of town for a while. Joe (Tony Curtis) is the smooth talker, and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) is the worrier. But both find themselves out of their depth with the disguise they have to adopt to avoid the mob – two new recruits to an all-girl jazz band.

    As “Josephine” and “Daphne” the boys have to avoid detection and stay out of trouble. Not easy when “Josephine” falls for “Sugar” (Marilyn Monroe) who is the singer in the band, and “Daphne” is targetted by an aged playboy (Joe E. Brown).

    Life gets really complicated when Joe adopts another male persona to seduce “Sugar”, and the Chicago mobs turn up for their convention at the hotel where our heroes are playing. Read More »

  • Budd Boetticher – Westbound (1959)

    1951-1960Budd BoetticherUSAWestern

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    A fast-paced western with a romantic twist, this was one of the last films pairing director Budd Boetticher and popular cowboy hero Randolph Scott before Scott’s retirement. John Hayes – Scott – left the Civil War behind him when he took on the job of managing the Overland Stage Lines out of a small Colorado town. Clay Putnam has not forgotten that the Confederacy lost and he plans on robbing Hayes Overland Stage of one of its gold shipments from California to the North. He wants the gold to stay in the South to revive the Confederate cause. Meanwhile, his wife Norma -Virginia Mayo – complicates matters since she was Hayes’ old flame, and Putnam’s cronies want the gold for themselves.Read More »

  • Richard Sale – A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950)

    1941-1950ComedyMarilyn MonroeRichard SaleUSAWestern

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    In 1876 Dawson wants to prevent a train from getting to Tomahawk CO on time, to keep it from competing with his stage coach line. Kit, who must get the train to its goal, forces Johnny aboard as the needed passenger. Madame Adelaide’s showgirls (including Marilyn as Clara) ride along and, en route to Tomahawk, join Johnny in Oh, What a Forward Young Man You Are.
    Read More »

  • Joseph Kane – The Man Who Died Twice (1958)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaJoseph KaneUSA

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    A nightclub singer loses her husband in an automobile accident, and soon afterward witnesses the murders of two narcotics agents, and suffers a nervous breakdown. The police come to believe that all three murders are related, as they had suspected her husband was involved in a heroin smuggling ring, and now they think she may have been involved in it – especially after they find a large stash of heroin hidden in her apartment. Read More »

  • Mario Soldati – La provinciale aka The Wayward Wife (1953)

    Drama1951-1960ItalyMario Soldati

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Description: The Wayward Wife (Italian: La provinciale) is a 1953 Italian drama film taken from an Alberto Moravia’s novel and directed by Mario Soldati. It was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.

    Gemma, daughter of a lodger, is in love with her half-brother, but since she cannot marry him she ends up marrying a teacher. She doesn’t love him and betrays him but is blackmailed by a Romanian countess who forces her to become a prostitute. She’s desperate but in the end she asks her husband for help. She has learned to love him in the meantime.Read More »

  • Robert Z. Leonard – Grounds for Marriage (1951)

    USA1951-1960MusicalRobert Z. LeonardRomance

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    In the film, Grayson plays Ina Massine, an opera diva, and Johnson is her ex-husband, Dr. Lincoln Bartlett, who is now engaged to Agnes Young (Paula Raymond), the daughter of a doctor. Ina wants Lincoln back and pulls all kinds of shenanigans to get her man. The film was really just an excuse to watch Grayson sing selections from La Bohème, although curiously, she was not the first actress cast in the role. June Allyson had the part but was later replaced. Likewise, Robert Walker was set to play Lincoln Bartlett but was replaced with Van Johnson.
    Read More »

  • Allan Dwan – Sweethearts on Parade (1953)

    USA1951-1960Allan DwanMusical

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot: Ray Middleton and Bill Shirley, Republic Pictures’ answer to Hope and Crosby, star in Sweethearts on Parade. Middleton and Shirley play Cam Ellerby and Bill Gamble, the featured singers in a travelling medicine show. While stopping over in a small town, Cam renews his acquaintance with his former wife Sylvia (Eileen Christy), who now has a pretty, grown-up daughter — Kathleen — played by Lucille Norman. When Kathleen makes noises about a show-business career, Sylvia won’t hear of it — nor does she approve of her daughter’s romance with Bill. One gets the sneaking suspicion that everything will turn out all right in the end for all four protagonists. With 26 songs in the picture, how could things not turn out all right? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

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