1950s

  • Usmar Ismail – Lewat Djam Malam AKA After the Curfew (1954)

    Drama1951-1960IndonesiaUsmar Ismail

    Giving voice to the anguish of a nation fighting for its soul, Usmar Ismail’s After the Curfew follows the descent into disillusionment of a former freedom fighter who is unable to readjust to civilian life following the revolution that gave Indonesia its independence from the Netherlands. Steeped in moody atmospherics and psychological tension, the film struck its national cinema like a bolt of lightning, illuminating on-screen, for the first time and with unflinching realism, the emotional toll of Indonesian society’s postcolonial struggles.Read More »

  • Seymour Friedman – Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard (1950)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaSeymour FriedmanUSA

    Story
    When enemy agents obtain leaked secrets about a guided missile reservation, the chief of America’s counterspy division (Howard St. John) and Scotland Yard’s top sleuth (Ron Randell) get on an investigative trail which quickly leads to a reservation secretary (Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty, Amanda Blake).Read More »

  • Lesley Selander – Dakota Lil (1950)

    1941-1950Lesley SelanderUSAWestern

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Although Marie Windsor plays the title role in Dakota Lil, she is shunted away to third billing, right after male leads George Montgomery and Rod Cameron. Montgomery is cast as a secret service agent Tom Horn, sent West to round up a gang of counterfeiters. He starts by gaining the confidence of dance-hall girl Lil (Windsor), one of the ringleaders. She, in turn, leads Horn to the brains of the operation, Harve Logan(Cameron).Read More »

  • Stuart Heisler – The Burning Hills (1956)

    USA1951-1960Stuart HeislerWestern

    Synopsis:
    This beautifully-filmed CinemaScope western spins the familiar plot of a greedy cattle baron taking the law into his own hands to monopolize a rich valley before legal claims can be filed on the land. Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood are the headliners here and their chemistry works well. Hunter is okay as a cowboy who wants to square matters for his brother’s murder. However, Ms. Wood is not very convincing as a Mexican girl, in spite of her fetching looks. Predictably, romance blooms, and Hunter and Wood team up to battle the bad guys who trail them like bloodhounds. The action is spotty but a solid cast of familiar character actors nudges the story along. The film has a fine climax, a derring-do affair in the spirit of the old west. The movie was based on a good Louis L’Amour novel and nearly measures up to this great storyteller’s work.Read More »

  • Bernard Knowles – Park Plaza 605 (1953)

    Drama1951-1960Bernard KnowlesCrimeUSA

    Classic British mystery thriller starring Tom Conway as suave gumshoe, Norman
    Conquest. After intercepting a secret message, Conquest meets foreign femme fatale,
    Nadina Rodin (Eva Bartok), in room 605 of the Park Plaza hotel. When Conquest wakes up
    in the room the next morning he is lying next to a corpse and the mysterious Rodin is
    nowhere to be seen. Conquest is now the police’s number one murder suspect with
    Inspector Williams (Sid James) shadowing his every move. In order to clear his name,
    Conquest enlists the help of Pixie Everard (Joy Shelton), but things turn even uglier when
    he discovers that the murder is connected to a stash of stolen diamonds. As gun-toting,Read More »

  • William A. Berke – Roaring City (1951)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaUSAWilliam A. Berke

    Story
    A private detective gets hired for two jobs: the first is to bet on a fighter in a fixed boxing match, and the second is to pose as a woman’s husband.Read More »

  • George Blair – Destination Big House (1950)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaGeorge BlairUSA

    School teacher Janet Brooks innocently involves herself in a scandal while spending the week-end alone in the mountain cabin of her fiancée, Dr. Walter Phillips. She gives first aid to a wounded racketeer, Joe Bruno, who is running out on his mob with eighty thousand dollars in cash. Unknown to Janet, Bruno hides the money in the cabin. She goes on an errand and two mobsters, Ed Somers and “Stubby” Moore), make a call on Bruno and then depart after delivering a couple of soon-to-be-fatal gunshot wounds. Bruno manages to get to the highway and hitches a ride from a passing motorist who drives him to the Coniston hospital. In front of a number of doctors as witnesses, Bruno draws up a will leaving the eighty-thousand bucks to Janet, but dies before he can reveal where the money is located.Read More »

  • Peter Graham Scott – Account Rendered (1957)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaPeter Graham ScottUSA

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    The always reliable Griffith Jones is afforded the leading role in the British Account Rendered. Jones plays a victim of circumstance, accused of murdering his wife Ursula Howells. With the police breathing down his neck, Jones endeavors to prove his innocence. He is aided in this effort by the lovely Honor Blackman (“Pussy Galore” in Goldfinger and the first female star of the long-running TVer The Avengers).

    Account Rendered is based on a novel by Pamela Barrington.Read More »

  • William Witney – City of Shadows (1955)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaUSAWilliam Witney

    Gangster Big Tim Channing raises young newsboy Dan Mason as his own son.Read More »

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