Jeanne Crain

  • Charles Vidor – The Joker is Wild (1957)

    1951-1960Charles VidorDramaMusicalUSA

    Frank Sinatra stars in this biography of Joe E. Lewis – one of the great entertainers of the twenties and latterly as a stand up comic in the forties through to the sixties. This after he was beaten almost to death and his face slashed and part of his tongue cut off by the gangsters who ran the joint he worked out of when he threatened to leave. Sinatras performance is one of his very best as an actor and the supporting cast – including Eddie Albert, Jackie Coogan and Mitzi Gaynor – are also very good.Read More »

  • Henry King – Margie (1946)

    USA1941-1950ComedyHenry KingRomance

    A woman reminisces about her teenage years in the 1920s, when she fell in love with her teacher.Read More »

  • Lee Madden – The Night God Screamed (1971)

    1971-1980CrimeHorrorLee MaddenUSA

    A woman is persecuted by Jesus freaks after they’ve crucified her preacher husband.Read More »

  • Walter Lang – State Fair (1945)

    1941-1950DramaMusicalUSAWalter Lang

    Farm family Frake, with discontented daughter Margy, head for the Iowa State Fair. On the first day, both Margy and brother Wayne meet attractive new flames; so does father’s prize hog, Blue Boy. As the fair proceeds, so do the romances; must lovers separate when the fair closes?Read More »

  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz – A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

    Joseph L. Mankiewicz1941-1950DramaRomanceUSA

    A letter is addressed to three wives from their “best friend” Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands–but she doesn’t say which one.Read More »

  • Various – O. Henry’s Full House (1952)

    Drama1951-1960ComedyMarilyn MonroeUSAVarious

    Synopsis:
    John Steinbeck introduces five of O. Henry’s most popular short stores in this anthology film. In “The Cop and the Anthem” a homeless alcoholic is increasingly frustrated in numerous attempts to get arrested and jailed for 90 days in a warm cell rather than face the rigors of a New York winter. In “The Clarion Call” a NYPD detective has a crisis of conscience when he is torn between his duty to arrest a childhood friend for a murder only he knows he committed and the debt of honor he still owes to him. In “The Last Leaf” a naive young girl is stricken with pneumonia after being seduced and jilted by venal actor. Read More »

  • John Brahm – Hot Rods to Hell aka 52 Miles to Terror (1967)

    1961-1970CampExploitationJohn BrahmUSA

    This revolutionary masterpiece was, at first, misunderstood as a mere exploitation film. However, the subversive genius shown in its subtext and plot construction was eventually recognized. It now plays quarterly at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which has instituted a lecture series on the various intellectual facets of the film. While the series is still in its infancy we have already heard Barak Obama speak on, “Hope and Hot Rods,” and Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan on, “Christian symbolism and family values in Hot Rods of Hell,” to say nothing of the hilarious speech by Tim Curry, “What exactly is a ‘Hot Rod’.” Those interested in perusing the literature on the subject can contact the Hot Rods of Hell Research Department at Columbia University in NYC. However, you should be prepared to show your research credentials.
    @Unkabunk at TIKRead More »

  • King Vidor – Man Without a Star (1955)

    1951-1960ActionKing VidorUSAWestern

    Synopsis:
    Dempsey Rae, a cowboy with no clear aim in life, winds up working on a spread with a hard lady owner just arrived from the East. She needs a tough new top hand and uses all her means of persuasion to get Rae to take the job. But he doesn’t like the way the other settlers are getting treated and starts to side with them, despite their introduction of the barbed wire he loathes.Read More »

  • Elia Kazan & John Ford – Pinky (1949)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaElia KazanJohn FordUSA

    Synopsis:
    Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother’s house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school. Pinky tells her grandmother that she has been “passing” for white while at school in the North. In addition, Pinky has fallen in love with a young white doctor, Dr. Thomas Adams, who knows nothing about her black heritage. Pinky says that she will return to the North, but Granny Johnson convinces her to stay and treat an ailing white woman, Miss Em. Meanwhile, Dr. Canady, a black physician from another part of the state, visits Pinky and asks her to train some African American students, but she declines. Read More »

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