1950s

Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
In a seminal version of his Death Wish characterization, Charles Bronson plays Alan Avery, a mild-manned L.A. schoolteacher who elects to stay mum after witnessing a gangland slaying. Forced to testify against the killers by the cops, Avery is turn terrorized by the Mob, who subsequently bring about the death of Avery’s pregnant wife Edie (Gloria Henry). Meek and mild no longer, the outraged Avery embarks upon a one-man vendetta against the villains. The climax occurs in the posh mansion of gang boss Maxie Matthews (John Doucette)–who, as it turns out, isn’t really worth killing. Based on a novel by Ovid Demaris, Gang War was one of a group of inexpensive second features released by 20th Century-Fox for the drive-in crowd.Read More »

Shortly after the end of the war in 1945 in Germany: the doctor and former scientist Karl Rothe (Peter Lorre) works under a false name in a refugee and reception center. He is a “lost” man who has taken personal guilt on himself. He meets a newcomer named Nowak (Karl John). This was already in the war year 1943 his coworker and is actually Hösch. In flashbacks one learns that Rothes then fiancée, Inge Hermann (Renate Mannhardt) spied for the Allies and forwarded information to England. She agreed to an affair with the opportunist Hösch. Rothe killed his lover, more out of jealousy than loyalty to the line. But he was not punished for this crime. Hösch covered him out of “higher” interest. His research was more important to the Nazis than the atonement of murder. The terrible beginning of a deadly spiral …Read More »

Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
The 3D melodrama Dangerous Mission starts off with a bang when innocent Piper Laurie inadvertently witnesses the murder of her gangster boss. Though she doesn’t get a particularly good look at the killer, she knows she’s dead meat if she remains in town. Thus, Laurie skeedaddles to Montana’s Glacier National Park, where most of the film takes place. Following her westward are Victor Mature and Vincent Price. One of these men is a federal agent, bound and determined to bring Laurie back to the East to testify; the other is the murderer, who intends to silence our heroine for keeps. Laurie doesn’t know which is which, but the audience does. A bit poky at times (thanks in part to the uninspired editing of Gene Palmer), Dangerous Mission roars into life during a mid-film forest fire and a climactic chase through the glacier fields.Read More »

Synopsis:
Paris, 1865. Octave Mouret is a young man filled with great ambitions. He is also a consummate Don Juan and it his talent for seducing members of the opposite sex which he intends using to make a rapid ascent of the social scale. He finds work as a salesman in an upmarket drapers’ shop, Au Bonheur des Dames, and soon makes a positive impression on his employer, Madame Hédouin. When the latter repels his amorous advances, Octave resigns and finds work with a rival shop managed by Auguste Vabre, the weak-willed son of his landlord. When Auguste discovers that Octave is having an affair with his wife, Berthe, he challenges him to a duel…
— James TraversRead More »

Zoltan Fabri’s 1956 Hungarian feature about the persecution of an educator (played for both laughs and great pathos by Ernö Szabó) whose essay about Hannibal and the Punic Wars in a school bulletin is deemed unflattering to the Mussolini regime. A beautifully shot, modest masterpiece which is, as the cliche goes, as timely today as ever.Read More »

Synopsis:
Ferryboat Romance was the feature film directing debut of renowned Finnish actor Thure Bahne, who had been a mainstay in Finnish cinema since the 1930s. The film has the stunning journalist Sanni (Tuija Halonen) visiting the countryside to write about the timber industry. Looking for a room she is immediately thrust into the merry community of loggers, always up for a song, but one of them, Hurma-Jussi, is a little too persistent. Luckily, she is saved from Hurma-Jussi’s claws by the handsome lumberjack Eräs (William Markus). Sanni learns about the community by working as an assistant to cook Marleena (played by Finnish icon Siiri Angerkoski), who is pursued by the jolly oaf Metku (character actor Kalle Viherpuu). Persistently rejected by Sanni, Hurma-Jussi turns to drastic measures and kidnaps her, but he has underestimated her friends in the small logging community. The film is beautifully shot and not only wonderfully portrays the romance between a young couple, but even more so the love between the older Marleena and Metku.Read More »

Synopsis:
Paris, 1943. With the country still under Nazi occupation and commodities severely rationed, ordinary French people muddle through as best they can. Charles Michaud is a law-abiding man of impeccable morals who becomes duly anxious when he finds that his 17-year-old son Antoine has been regularly absconding from school. Little does he know that his wayward offspring has been busy engaging in black market activities with his friend Paul Tiercelin, so that he can earn enough money to keep his mistress Yvette in the manner to which she has grown accustomed.Read More »

IMDB wrote:
It’s 1876 and all the Indians are at peace except the Comanches lead by Black Cloud. When Black Cloud wipes out a town, only six soldiers are left and they head for the nearest fort. In the desert they are reinforced by members of a stagecoach and find some water at a deserted mission. Pinned down by Black Cloud they send an Indian boy who was Black Cloud’s prisoner on to the fort while they try to bargain with Black Cloud whom they learn is without water. Written by Maurice VanAukenRead More »

“Le septième ciel” became Raymond Bernard’s last film; a black comedy about a female brewery owner who donates vast amounts of money to charitable causes. The funds to do this, she raises through her liaisons with wealthy gentlemen… who just “happen” to end up dead!Read More »