1950s

  • Sacha Guitry & Frédéric Rossif – Ceux de chez nous (1952)

    Sacha Guitry1951-1960DocumentaryFranceFrédéric Rossif

    “I dreamed of a new encyclopedia … “. Sacha Guitry attended, “according to his tastes” the greatest personalities of his time. He filmed “in their attitudes the most familiar, whenever that was possible.” We see André Antoine, Sarah Bernhardt, Edgar Degas, Anatole France, Lucien Guitry, Octave Mirbeau, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir at his side with his young son Claude Renoir, Henri-Robert, Auguste Rodin, Edmond Rostand, Camille Saint-Saëns . The silent version of 1915 lasted 22 minutes. This finall version redesigned in 1952, lasts 44 minutes, with plans Guitry in his office, and that this comment, shot by Frederic Rossif.Read More »

  • Ken Hughes – The House Across the Lake (1954)

    Ken Hughes1951-1960DramaFilm NoirHammer FilmsUSA

    Quote:
    Written and directed by Ken Hughes (the 1967 Casino Royale), Heat Wave employs the regular film noir convention of a man who has run out of rope confessing his story to an unseen presence (the audience). Novelist Mark Kendrick (the film’s requisite American, Alex Nicol, also known for Jacques Tourneur’s Great Day in the Morning) is found by a mysterious figure at the bar where he is drowning his sorrows, and Mark’s ready to spill them out. Cut to Mark wrestling with his typewriter at his lakeside home, looking across the water at an opulent house and the fancy lights on its dock (how Great Gatsby!). Carol Forrest (Hillary Brooke, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd), a rich and glamorous blonde, phones him and asks him to ferry her friends across the lake, and of course, he ends up ferrying himself to his own doom.Read More »

  • Montgomery Tully – Five Days (1954)

    1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirHammer FilmsMontgomery TullyUSA

    Quote:
    A failed business deal forces James Nevill to blackmail his weak-willed friend into murdering him so that his wife can collect his insurance, but circumstances suddenly change.Read More »

  • Tadeusz Makarczynski – Do redakcji nadszedl list AKA A Letter at the Editorial Office (1950)

    Tadeusz Makarczynski1941-1950DocumentaryPolandShort Film

    Quote:
    The documentary shows the work of journalists and the importance of the press in building socialism. It is an exemplary implementation of the socialist-realist convention imposed on Polish cinema in 1949, in which all elements of the film structure were subordinated to the persuasive function.

    In accordance with the convention of a propaganda documentary, the image in “Do redakcja nadszedł list” / “A letter has arrived to the editor” is exclusively an illustration of the propaganda commentary on which the construction of the entire film is based. As in many works of the 1950s, the authors combine in it few observational elements with staging, the documentary element with the fictional one. Read More »

  • Joachim Kunert – Tatort Berlin AKA Crime Scene: Berlin (1958)

    1951-1960CrimeGermanyJoachim Kunert

    Quote:
    Rudi Prange intends to have a fresh beginning once he is released from prison, and he’s off to a good start with a new job at a transportation company. Yet, despite his good intentions, Rudi is pulled into a smuggling incident by a colleague. Even though he has decided to remain silent on the issue to protect his new position, another unrelated crime—the murder of two police officers—leaves behind evidence that leads to Rudi. He finds himself defending his innocence until a new piece of evidence finally leads the police to the real perpetrator.Read More »

  • Nicholas Ray – Hot Blood (1956)

    Nicholas Ray1951-1960DramaMusicalUSA

    Stephen Torino (Wilde), who is tricked by his brother Marco (Adler) into an arranged marriage with tempestuous Annie Caldash (Russell). Annie is willing to give the union a go, but Torino wants none of it.Read More »

  • Jack Arnold – Man in the Shadow (1957)

    Jack Arnold1951-1960CrimeUSAWestern

    The town of Spurline is basically run at the beck and call of local cattle rancher Virgil Renchler (Orson Welles), who owns many acres of grazing land in the area. But with that kind of power comes a recklessness, and a lack of control over the worst instincts of his men, who he supports unconditionally no matter what. The breaking point may have arrived, however, when two of his employees march into the living quarters of the Mexican labourers Renchler employs and drag out one of the younger members, into a tool shed where he is beaten to death, it would seem these men believe they can get away with anything. But what they didn’t reckon on is a witness…Read More »

  • Herbert L. Strock – Battle Taxi (1955)

    1951-1960DramaHerbert L. StrockUSAWar

    In the Korean war, the commander of an Air Rescue helicopter team must show a hot-shot former jet pilot how important helicopter rescue work is and turn him into a team player.Read More »

  • Robert Siodmak – Katia AKA Adorable Sinner (1959)

    Robert Siodmak1951-1960DramaFranceRomance

    The Tsar Alexandre II meets a young student, Katia. He understands that he loves her and try to send her away but they end up seeing each other again and becomes his mistress. With the help of Katia, Alexandre prepares a liberal constitution, but these reforms make him hostile to the more privileged subjects without satirising the revolutionaries against the regime.Read More »

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