Individual Movie Titles: D to H

INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES

D - H

Daisy Kenyon (1947) - 99 mins

Starring Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda, Ruth Warwick, Martha Stewart & Peggy Ann Garner

Directed by Otto Preminger

Joan Crawford is the eponymous heroine, a Manhattan commercial artist in this powerful drama. Daisy is torn between two men: a handsome, married attorney (Dana Andrews) and an unmarried Henry Fonda. Deciding to do the "right thing", Daisy marries Fonda, but carries a torch for the dashing Andrews. When the lawyer divorces his wife, he calls upon Daisy and tries to win her back. She is very nearly won over, but her husband isn't about to give up so easily.

What a cast!

The Dam Busters (1955) - 120 mins

Starring Michael Redgarve, Richard Todd, Ursula Jeans, Charles Carson, Stanley Van Beers & Colin Tapley

Directed by Michael Anderson

The story of the development and utilization of the "bouncing bombs" in World War II. Michael Redgrave stars as Dr. Barnes Wallis, who developed these unorthodox explosives. Wallis' invention is put to practical use during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams in Germany. Most of the film is devoted to the two years spent in creating the bombs and training the pilots; the final sequence is a special-effects masterpiece.

Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from both Guy Gibson's book Enemy Coast Ahead and Paul Brickhill's The Dam Busters, this film was Britain's biggest box-office success of 1955.

Oscar Nominated for Best Special Effects as well as BAFTA Nominations for Best Film & Screenplay

The Damned Don't Cry (1950) - 103 mins

Starring Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Kent Smith & Hugh Sanders

Directed by Vincent Sherman

The murder of gangster Nick Prenta touches off an investigation of mysterious socialite Lorna Hansen Forbes, who seems to have no past, and has now disappeared. In flashback, we see the woman's anonymous roots; her poor working-class marriage, which ends in tragedy and her determination to find "better things." Soon finding that sex appeal is her only salable commodity, she climbs from man to man toward the center of a nationwide crime syndicate - a very perilous position. Typically powerful performance from Crawford.

Dangerous Corner (1934) - 66 mins

Starring Virginia Bruce, Conrad Nagel, Melvyn Douglas, Erin O'Brien-Moore & Ian Keith

Directed by Phil Rosen

Adapted from a typically tricky J. B. Priestley stage play, Dangerous Corner is a cautionary fable about the damage caused by telling the unvarnished truth. A burned-out radio tube is the catalyst for a series of painful and potentially dangerous revelations during a weekend party. The upshot of all this is the suicide of party guest Ian Keith and the mysterious theft of a large sum of money. Through an ingenious last-act plot twist (of the kind so beloved by Priestley and his ilk), the audience is treated to both a happy and a tragic denouement.

Great stuff!

Dangerous Crossing (1953) - 75 mins

Starring Jeanne Crain, Michael Rennie, Max Showalter, Carl Betz & Mary Anderson

Directed by Joseph M. Newman

Set aboard a transatlantic passenger liner headed to England, Jeanne Crain plays a new bride who's new husband immediately goes missing after boarding the ship in New York. This leaves her in a state of panic as she can not convince the ship's crew or passengers that he even exists. Suspicions rise as a hint of her mental instability comes to light, and bits of her past are made known. Questionable characters lurk around every dark corner of the ship during the fog-enshrouded crossing, offering an atmosphere of doubt and danger.

Keeps you guessing right to the very end!

Dangerous Exile (1957) - 88 mins

Starring Louis Jordan, Belinda Lee, Keith Michell, Richard O'Sullivan, Finlay Currie & Martita Hunt

Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst

What if the Dauphin of France managed to escape the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution? That's the premise of the opulent British swashbuckler Dangerous Exile. Louis Jourdan stars as the Duc de Beauvais, who manages, at great personal sacrifice, to smuggle the son (Richard O'Sullivan) of King Louis XVI into England. The boy takes up residence in Wales, where he is protected by local lass Virginia Traill (Belinda Lee) and her wealthy Aunt Fell (Martita Hunt). When time comes for the boy to return to France, he refuses, but local newspaper editor Patient (Finlay Currie), a spy for the French revolutionaries, has other ideas. Keith Michell, future star of TV's Six Wives of Henry VIII, is well cast as a French Republican with whom the Duc de Beauvais must inevitably cross swords

Dangerous Female (1931) (aka The Maltese Falcon)- 80 mins

Starring Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Robert Elliott, Dwight Frye & Thelma Todd

Directed by Roy Del Ruth

First of three film adaptations of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon sees Ricardo Cortez as a slick, rogueish edition of Sam Spade, using his office as a trysting place for his various amours. Bebe Daniels plays the Brigid O'Shaughnessy character, here rechristened Ruth Wonderly. Ruth hires Spade and his partner Miles Archer to locate her missing sister. Archer is killed while on duty, confirming Spade's suspicion that Ruth's lost-sister story was a subterfuge. In fact, Ruth is one of several disreputable types in search of a valuable falcon statuette encrusted with jewels. Others mixed up in the quest for the "black bird" are portly Casper Gutman (Dudley Digges) and Gutman's neurotic gunsel Wilmer (Dwight Frye)

Note : This film is part of a 2 DVD set which contains all three film versions of The Maltese Falcon - its available from the Classic Movie Combinations section of this website (under "Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon")

Dangerously They Live (1942) - 77 mins

Starring John Garfield, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey, Moroni Olsen & Lee Patrick

Directed by Robert Florey

Dr. Michael Lewis treats Jane, a mysterious woman claiming to be a British secret agent on the run from German spies. Ultimately convinced, Michael helps Jane escape and with her attempts to convince the authorities of a secret German U-boat fleet waiting off the American coast.

Dangerous Mission (1954) - 75 mins

Starring Victor Mature, Piper Laurie, William Bendix, Vincent Price & Betta St. John

Directed by Louis King

Witness to a mob killing and afraid to testify, young Louise Graham flees to Montana where she hopes to disappear by working in the gift shop at Glacier National Park. Staying at the park are vacationers Matt Hallett, ex-marine, and Paul Adams, amateur photographer, both obviously very interested in Louise and both vying for her attention. Louise is unaware that one is a mob hitman, hired to kill her to prevent her from testifying, and the other is a cop working for the New York D.A.'s office, sent to protect her.

A Dangerous Profession (1949) - 79 mins

Starring George Raft, Ella Raines, Pat O'Brien, Bill Williams & Jim Backus

Directed by Ted Tetzlaff

Ex-policeman Vince Kane is a partner with Joe Farley as bail bond brokers (The Dangerous Profession), but retains his ties and friendship with the police and Detective Nick Ferrone. Ferrone picks up Claude Brackette, a brokerage clerk, as a suspect in the securities robbery in which a policeman was killed, and Kane goes with him when the detective searches Brackett's apartment. Kane finds that Brackett's wife, Lucy, is his former sweetheart and she insists her husband is innocent and pleads with Kane to get him out on bail. She has only $4,000 of the $25,000 needed. A mysterious emissary puts up $12,000 and Kane, despite Farley's protest, makes up the rest from the company's money. Matters become very complicated when Brackett is murdered after his release.

Yep- its Raft & O'Brien together again and this interesting story!

Daredevils of the Clouds (1948) - 60 mins

Starring Robert Livingston, Mae Clarke, James Cardwell, Grant Withers, Edward Gargan, Pierre Watkin & Jimmie Dodd

Directed by George Blair

Terry O'Rourke (Robert Livingston) ,an American operating a small airline in Canada, is having a tough time making a go of it: he has to cope with unfavourable weather conditions, rocky terrain, and a large American company run by Douglas Harrison (Pierre Watkin) who is determined to buy him out at their low price. In addition, one of his primary employees, Johnny Martin (James Cardwell) is working against him. One of O'Rourke’s airplanes is transporting a cargo of gold and the Johnny arranges for the gold to be stolen. He planned to parachute to safety, letting the airplane be looted when it crashed, but a co-worker cuts his parachute cord and he is killed. O'Rourke, with the help of one of his best pilots, Kay Cameron (Mae Clarke), sets out to track down the culprits.

Excellent action-packed Republic production distinguished by the excellent special-effects work of the Lydecker Brothers

The Dark Avenger (1955) - see The Warriors (1955) elsewhere in this website

Dark City (1950) - 98 mins

Starring Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger, Jack Webb & Harry Morgan

Directed by William Dieterle

Danny Haley's bookie operation is shut down, so he and his pals need money; when Danny meets Arthur Winant, a sucker from out of town, he decoys him into a series of poker games where eventually Winant loses $5000 that isn't his - then hangs himself. But it seems Winant had a shadowy, protective elder brother who believes in personal revenge. And each of the card players in turn feels a faceless doom inexorably closing in.

Excellent Print

The Dark Corner (1946) - 99 mins

Starring Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens & Reed Hadley

Directed by Henry Hathaway

Lucille Ball plays the secretary to private investigator Bradford Galt (Stevens). Having already done time for manslaughter, Galt's looking for a fresh start. But before long he's being trailed by a mysterious white-suited thug (Bendix) and sucked into a nightmarish frame-up while Kathleen (Ball) looks on helpless. With its wheels-within-wheels plot it's a film that grows increasingly compelling and Stevens and Ball generate some tension of their own,

The Dark Man (1951) - 76 mins

Starring Maxwell Reed, Edward Underdown, Natasha Parry, Barbara Murray & William Hartnell

Directed by Jeffrey Dell

The Dark Man (Maxwell Reed) is a killer who opens the film by committing double murder. This is witnessed by young aspiring actress Molly Lester (Natasha Parry). The Dark Man's efforts to put Molly out of the way involve some intriguing settings: a provincial repertory theatre & a military rifle range. An effective suspense thriller shot on England's south-east coast. Although we know the bad guy from the start, the suspense is nevertheless well maintained through to the final act.

The Dark Mirror (1946) - 85 mins

Starring Olivia De Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long & Charles Evans

Directed by Robert Siodmak

De Havilland takes on dual good twin/bad twin roles in this melodrama, which once again demonstrates that identical siblings on film generally spell trouble. Here, the evil sister commits a murder and tries to pin the blame on her innocent sibling; the latter digs herself into deeper trouble by refusing to believe the other's guilt. And when a psychologist and detective become involved, matters become even more complicated.

Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Story

The Dark Past (1948) - 75 mins

Starring William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb, Adele Jergens & Stephen Dunne

Directed by Rudolph Maté

In this faithful remake of Blind Alley (1939), psychoanalyst Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb), his wife, his son, and some friends are taken hostage by escaped murderer Al Walker (William Holden) and his gang, including girlfriend Betty (Nina Foch). Collins, an advocate of rehabilitating criminals through psychiatry, induces his captor to talk about himself through the course of the night. By calmly and methodically piecing together the strands of the killer's unconscious motivation, Collins hopes to rid Walker of his literally murderous rage and prevents a massacre.

Blind Alley (1939) is also available from this website

Dark of the Sun (aka The Mercenaries) (1968) - 100 mins

Starring Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten, Jim Brown, Kenneth Moore & André Morell

Directed by Jack Cardiff

Curry (Rod Taylor) is a veteran soldier-of-fortune hired by the president of the Congo for a three day mission. He and native Congoan Ruffo (Jim Brown) are to oversee the safe passage of a train through hostile enemy territory and bring back some uncut diamonds and a human cargo of fugitives loyal to the Congo cause. The two employ the drunken Doctor Wreid (Kenneth More) and a suspicious ex-Nazi named Henlein (Peter Carsten). The quartet, along with 40 of the Congo's best soldiers, try to maneuver the train against the rebel forces and save the beautiful missionary Claire (Yvette Mimieux).

From the Wilbur Smith novel "Train From Katanga", this film presents Rod Taylor at his peak in a performance which underlines the brutality of the mercenary.

Fans of aussie actor Rod Taylor are well catered for on this website with the following titles available: The Time Machine (1960), Seven Seas to Calais (1962), The Birds (1963), Fate Is the Hunter (1964), 36 Hours (1965), Young Cassidy (1965), The Liquidator (1965), Chuka (1967), Dark of the Sun (aka The Mercenaries) (1968), The High Commissioner aka Nobody Runs Forever (1968), The Hell With Heroes (1968), Powderkeg (1971) & Cry of the Innocent (1980) - all of which are available from the INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section of this website.

The TV Series section of this website also contains DVD sets of Rod's two TV series: Hong Kong (1960-61) and Bearcats! (1971)

Dark Passage (1947) - 102 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Morehead & Tom D'Andrea

Directed by Delmer Daves

Bogart plays a man convicted of murdering his wife who escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence. Bogart finds that his features are too well known, and is forced to seek some illicit backroom plastic surgery. The entire pre-knife part of the film is shot from a Bogart's-eye-view, with us seeing the fugitive for the first time as he starts to recuperate from the operation in the apartment of a sympathetic young artist (played by Bacall) for whom he soon finds affection. But what he's really after is revenge. An engrossing caper with a bizarre twist.

Daughter of the Dragon (1931) - 79 mins

Starring Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, Sessue Hayakawa, Bramwell Fletcher & Frances Dade

Directed by Lloyd Corrigan

Princess Ling Moy, a young and beautiful Chinese aristocrat lives next door, unbeknownst, to Dr. Fu Manchu, a brilliant but twisted genius who is out to rule the world. She is involved with Ah Kee, a handsome young man, who also unbeknownst to her, is a secret agent out to thwart the heinous plots of Fu Manchu. As it turns out, Fu is not only her next-door neighbor, he is also her father. When she finds out, will she take her father's part and fight the men out to get Fu, or will she become a brave heroine and save the world even if it is from the devious doings of her own Dad?

An interesting entry in the Fu Manchu filmdom and as such it gets a separate guernsey here, despite the fact that it is part of the Fu Manchu Movie Series Collection which can be found in the Movie series section of this website

The Dawn Patrol (1938) - 103 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp, Melville Cooper & Barry Fitzgerald

Directed by Edmund Goulding

The story is set during World War I; the scene is the French headquarters of the British Royal Flying Corps, 59th division. The corps is suffering heavy losses, a fact that ace pilot Courtney (Errol Flynn) ascribes to the supposed ruthlessness of squadron commander Brand (Basil Rathbone). What the audience knows that Courtney doesn't is that Brand is distraught at losing his men, but is forced by his own superiors to push the pilots beyond their limits. After being accused day after day of being a butcher, Brand takes grim delight in turning over his command to Courtney. Soon Courtney finds himself enduring the "butcher" tag, especially after the younger brother of his best friend Scott (David Niven) is killed. To redeem himself, Courtney gets Scott drunk and takes his place in a suicidal bombing mission.

The star power of Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in their third screen teaming.

Daybreak (1948) - 78 mins

Starring Ann Todd, Eric Portman, Maxwell Reed, Edward Rigby, Bill Owen & Eliot Makeham

Directed by Compton Bennett

A dark melodrama, which tells the story of Eddie (Eric Portman) an unemployed hangman who marries Frankie (Ann Todd) after meeting her in a bar. The couple live on a barge and one day Portman returns home unexpectedly to find Frankie in the arms of handsome longshoreman Olaf (Maxwell Reed). A fight ensues, and Eddie is knocked overboard and disappears. But this is just the beginning of the story!

A film with many (plotwise) twists & turns, it boasts fine performances from Eric Portman and Ann Todd.

-NEW TITLE-

Day of the Outlaw (1959) - 92 mins

Starring Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal & Nehemiah Persoff

Directed by André De Toth

Set in an isolated, snow-covered town in the far West, this powerful western sees the renegade army officer Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives) and his henchmen riding into the town threatening their worst to the men and women there. Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) decides to agree to Bruhn's demands for someone to lead them away from the pursuing law to safety.

One of 4 westerns which Robert Ryan made in the 1950s in which he was star - the others being Best of the Badmen (1951), Horizons West (1952) & The Proud Ones (1956) - all of which are available from this website

Director André De Toth’s last western - his other westerns included Randolph Scott’s The Bounty Hunter (1954), Riding Shotgun (1954), Thunder Over the Plains (1953), The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953), Carson City (1952), Man in the Saddle (1951) as well as Joel McCrea’s Ramrod (1947) - all of which are available from this website.

From the prolific Oscar wining writer Philip Yordan, who also wrote the westerns: The Man From Laramie (1955) & Johnny Guitar (1954) both of which are available from this website.

Days of Glory (1944) - 86 mins

Starring Gregory Peck, Tamara Toumanova, Alan Reed, Maria Palmer & Lowell Gilmore

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

In late 1941, with the Nazi invasion of Russia still advancing, the Red Army leaves bands of guerillas behind in the forests. One such band is joined by beautiful ballet dancer Nina; initially inept, a series of bitter lessons gradually make her a seasoned soldier. The group still form human attachments, despite the shadow of grim death that makes their greatest hope one of selling their lives dearly.

Producer Casey Robinson took a gamble with the project, casting the leading roles with movie newcomers. Heading the cast is Broadway actor Gregory Peck as Vladimir, the leader of a band of Soviet guerilla fighters. Tamara Toumanova, former premier ballerina of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, costars as Nina, whose love for Vladimir is surpassed by her love for Mother Russia (Toumanova was at the time the wife of producer Robinson).

A spectacular climactic battle sequence!

Oscar Nominations for Best Special Effects

Like The North Star (1943) and Mission to Moscow (1943) - both of which are available from this website - Days of Glory presents the courage and resourcefulness of the Soviet Union during WW2 - long before the Russians became the stock villains in Hollywood films!

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - 92 mins

Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray & Lock Martin

Directed by Robert Wise

All of Washington, D. C. is thrown into a panic when an extraterrestrial spacecraft lands near the White House. Out steps Klaatu (Michael Rennie), a handsome and soft-spoken interplanetary traveler, whose "bodyguard" is Gort (Lock Martin), a huge robot who shawers forth laser-like death rays when danger threatens. After being wounded by an overzealous soldier, Klaatu announces that he has a message of the gravest importance for all humankind, which he will deliver only when all the leaders of all nations will agree to meet with him. World politics being what they are in 1951, Klaatu's demands are turned down and he is ordered to remain in the hospital, where his wounds are being tended. Klaatu escapes, taking refuge in a boarding house, where he poses as one "Mr. Carpenter". There the benign alien gains the confidence of a lovely widow (Patricia Neal) and her son, Bobby (Billy Gray) whilst seeking out the gentleman whom Bobby regards as "the smartest man in the world" -- an Einstein-like scientist, Dr. Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe). The next day, at precisely 12 o'clock, Klaatu arranges for the world to "stand still" -- he shuts down all electrical power in the world, with the exception of essentials like hospitals and planes in flight.

Perfectly directed by Robert Wise - an out-and-out classic!

The Day the Earth Stood Still was based on the story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates.

Day the World Ended (1955) - 79 mins

Starring Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Mike Connors & Paul Birch

Directed by Roger Corman

Jim Maddison (Paul Birch) had been expecting the worst, so when the world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, he's made provisions for himself, his daughter Louise (Lori Nelson) and their friend Rick (Richard Denning). They have enough supplies to last until the radiation abates but Jim's plans go awry with the unexpected arrival of Tony Lamont (Mike Connors) and his girlfriend Ruby (Adele Jergens). Not only does it affect the supply situation but Tony is far too slick and a schemer to be trusted. As the weeks go by however, they soon realize that they also have to face a mutated creature living in the nearby woods.

An earlier directorial effort from the legendary Roger Corman.

The Day Will Dawn (1942) (aka The Avengers) - 99 mins

Starring Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, Deborah Kerr, Ralph Richardson, Francis L. Sullivan & Finlay Currie

Directed by Harold French

At the outbreak of WW2, British foreign correspondent Lockwood (Ralph Richardson) is forced out of Norway by the Nazi invasion but returns to the occupied Scandanavian country at the request of the War Office. Lockwood's assignment is to guide the RAF to a heavily camouflaged German U-boat base for sabotage purposes. With the help of patriotic Norwegian seaman Alstad (Finlay Currie), Lockwood completes his mission, only to be arrested as a spy and sentenced to be shot. The final portions of the film detail our hero's attempt to escape back to England with Alstad's daughter Kari (Deborah Kerr), with whom he has fallen in love.

The intricately crafted screenplay is attributed to three of Britain's finest: Terence Rattigan, Anatole de Grunewald and Patrick Kirwen. One suspects that there were even more talented hands involved in this thrill-packed wartime adevnture.

Dead End (1937) - 93 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Wendy Barrie, Joel McCrea, Ward Bond, Sylvia Sidney, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall & Billy Halop

Directed by William Wyler

Adapted by Lillian Hellman from Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play, Dead End concerns itself with several denizens of New York's East River district. Here the elite and the slum-dwellers rub shoulders due to the close proximity of the riverfront tenements with the East Side luxury hotels. Slum girl Drina Gordon tries to prevent her younger brother Tommy from wasting his life as a member of the local street gang. Tommy and the other kids idolize Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart), a onetime East- sider who has hit the "big time" as a notorious gangster. Dodging the cops, Martin makes a sentimental journey to the neighborhood to visit his mother and his old girlfriend Francie. But Martin's mother coldly tells him to get lost, while Francie reveals herself to be a consumptive prostitute. Despite his depressed state, Martin is still admired by the local kids; this displeases sign painter Dave Connell, who hopes to escape the slums via his romance with wealthy Kay Burton.

The film introduces the Dead End Kids--Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Gabe Dell, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley and Bobby Jordan--all of whom were veterans of the Broadway version of Dead End and would be metamorphosed into the East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys.

Oscar Nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Claire Trevor), Best Art Direction & Best Cinematography

Humphrey Bogart meets The Dead End Kids - he was to meet them again a year later in a similar tough-guy role opposed to the boys in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) which also starred James Cagney & Ann Sheridan

The Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) which also stars Ann Sheridan & The Dead End Kids assaying similar roles sounds like it’s a sequel to Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) – but it isn’t.

Both Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) & The Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) are also available from this website.

Deadline U.S.A. (1952) - 87 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore, Kim Hunter, Ed Begley, Warren Stevens & Paul Stewart

Directed by Richard Brooks

Ed Hutcheson, tough editor of the New York 'Day', finds that the late owner's heirs are selling the crusading paper to a strictly commercial rival. At first he sees impending unemployment as an opportunity to win back his estranged wife Nora. But when a reporter, pursuing a lead on racketeer Rienzi, is badly beaten, Hutcheson is stung into a full fledged crusade against the gangster, hoping Rienzi can be tied to a woman's murder in the 3 issues before the end of 'The Day.' Bogie at his best and if you want to see a movie that actually shows you what life is like inside a newsroom, how reporters work together to get a story, and how "the story" is not always about the big expose but sometimes just about getting the little details right, this is your movie.

Deadly is the Female (1949) - see Gun Crazy elsewhere in this website

The Deadly Mantis (1957) - 79 mins

Starring William Hopper, Craig Stevens, Alix Talton, Donald Randolph & Pat Conway

Directed by Nathan Juran

The calving of an Arctic iceberg releases a huge, carnivorous praying mantis and it attacks several people in military outposts in a remote Arctic region. Dr. Ned Jackson (William Hopper), Col. Joe Parkham (Craig Stevens) and Ned's assistant Margie Blake (Alix Talton) track the predatory monster as it heads southward towards the warmer latitudes of Washington and New York.

Good sci-fi film with a great climax in the Manhattan Tunnel

In 1957 William Hopper emerged from supporting roles to lead the cast in two well-received sci-fi films directed by Nathan Juran: The Deadly Mantis & 20 Million Miles to Earth. These roles helped him score his career-defining (and Emmy nominated) role of Paul Drake in 255 episodes of TVs Perry Mason.

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) is also available from this website.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) - 84 mins

Starring Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Carl Reiner with cameos from: Alan Ladd, Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas, Joan Crawford, Ingrid Bergman, Veronica Lake & Lana Turner

Directed by Carl Reiner

Steve Martin and director Carl Reiner spoof the film noir yarns of the '40s with Martin playing gumshoe Rigby Reardon, who interacts with a legion of Hollywood greats - including Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Barbara Stanwyck, Ingrid Bergman, Veronica Lake, Bette Davis, Lana Turner and Joan Crawford - in a succession of intercut clips from seventeen vintage Hollywood films. Rigby is a low-rent detective (his fee is $10 per day) sitting in his office, waiting for something to happen. That something happens when the voluptuous Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward) arrives in his office and faints dead away at the sight of a newspaper that reports on her father's death in a car accident. Juliet is convinced that her father was murdered and offers Rigby $200 to investigate. Upon searching Mr. Forrest's office, he comes upon a list of names under the headings "The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta." The two delve deeper into the mystery and its requisite deceptions.

Fabulous homage to the great noirs of the 40s

Dead Reckoning (1947) - 100 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Morris Carnovsky & William Prince

Directed by John Cromwell

Rip Murdock and Johnny Darke are en route to Washington when Johnny disappears and then turns up dead. Rip learns that Johnny had been accused of murder and sets out to find out what he can. He falls in love with Coral whose husband Johnny is supposed to have killed.

An authentic film-noir, with all the necessary "ingredients": the fatal woman, lots of money, sordid environment, crimes and dirty cops. The story is magnificently developed in flashbacks and is very engaging, with many plot points, having a wonderful black and white photography, using perfectly the effects of the shadows, an attractive actress in Lizabeth Scott with a beautiful voice and, of course Humphrey Bogart.

Dear Murderer (1947) - 90 mins

Starring Eric Portman, Greta Gynt, Dennis Price, Jack Warner, Maxwell Reed & Hazel Court

Directed by Arthur Crabtree

When successful business man Lee Warren suspects his wife is having an affair, he sets out find her lover, kill him, and make it look like suicide. Complications set in, when he finds out she has another lover as well, so Lee has to change his plans.

Eric Portman - fabulous

Death Drums Along the River (1963) - 83 mins

Starring Richard Todd, Marianne Koch, Vivi Bach, Albert Lieven & Walter Rilla

Directed by Lawrence Huntington

Based on Edgar Wallace's Sanders of the River character, Richard Todd plays the British police investigator working in Africa. While counting the clues in a hospital murder case, Sanders is led to hidden diamond mine.

Excellent color print!

The first of two big budget color films starring Richard Todd as Sanders - the other being Coast of Skeletons (1965) Another Sanders story had been filmed 30 year previously with Sanders of the River (1935) - both titles are available from this section of the website

Note further that all three films are part of the Sanders Combination which can be found in the Classic Movie Combinations section of this website

Death Hunt (1981) - 97 mins

Starring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Andrew Stevens, Carl Wethers, Ed Lauter & Angie Dickinson

Directed by Peter R. Hunt

Set in the '30s, Mountie Millen (Lee Marvin) is assigned to track down accused murderer Johnson (Charles Bronson), who has escaped in the high passes of the Canadian Rockies. Johnson, a trapper, has extensive knowledge of wilderness living, but Millen has the resources of the Canadian police at his disposal.

The pitting of such great screen presences as Marvin & Bronson is the highlight here - allied to the fabulous location filming and great color cinematography - one of the very best "outdoors" movies

Well helmed by Peter Hunt who directed Marvin a few years earlier in the excellent Wilbur Smith penned Shout at the Devil (1976) - which is also available from this website

Decision at Sundown (1957) - 77 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, John Carroll, Karen Steele, Valerie French & Noah Beery Jr.

Directed by Budd Boetticher

Bart Allison arrives in Sundown planning to kill Tate Kimbrough. Three years earlier he believed Kimbrough was responsible for the death of his wife. He finds Kimbrough and warns him he is going to kill him but gets pinned down in the livery stable with his friend Sam by Kimbrough's stooge Sheriff and his men. Then Sam is shot in the back after being told he could leave safely.

Randolph Scott in great form in another top notch Budd Boetticher directorial effort with a sharp script by good friend Charles Lang (who was to also script Buchanan Rides Alone - Scott / Boetticher next collaboration)

Decision Before Dawn (1951) - 119 mins

Starring Richard Basehart, Gary Merrill, Oskar Werner, Hildegard Knef & Dominique Blanchar

Directed by Anatole Litvak

With the Third Reich disintegrating, several members of the German army are defecting to the Americans and offering their services as spies. US officer Gary Merrill trusts none of these last-minute "converts", but German prisoner Oskar Werner seems to be sincere. Werner insists that by helping the Americans, he is saving Germany from destruction. Merrill sends Werner behind enemy lines for counter-espionage with an American officer (Richard Basehart), who still isn't convinced that the German expatriate means what he says.

A thoughtful World War II drama, Decision Before Dawn was filmed on location in Europe and was Oscar Nominated for Best Picture & Film Editing

Decoy (1946) - 76 mins

Starring Jean Gillie, Edward Norris, Robert Armstrong & Sheldon Leonard

Directed by Jack Bernhard

This gripping, gritty noir begins as a mortally wounded physician staggers into the apartment of a vicious vixen, the leader of a notorious gang of thieves. Shots ring out, and the police rush to the scene. Sergeant Leonard gets there to find the doctor dead, and the woman failing fast. As she lay gasping she decides to tell the sergeant the whole terrible story that began when she got involved with a cop-killing robber who was captured and sentenced to death. Before his fateful date with the gas chamber, he lets the rest of the gang know where he hid the $40,0000 they netted from the caper; he, with her help, also arranges to ingest the doctor's newly developed drug, an antidote to cyanide, to escape his "execution." The plot works, and eventually, the gangster is back in business. He gives his girl half of the map, but unfortunately gets shot by a rival before he can give her the other half. The ruthless woman and another gang member then force the doctor to assist them with their search.

Great stuff!

The Deep Six (1958) - 108 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Dianne Foster, William Bendix, Keenan Wynn, James Whitmore & Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Directed by Rudolph Maté

A Quaker naval officer is called to active duty in WW II. He struggles to balance his beliefs with the need to serve, and is offered the chance to prove himself and redeem himself in the eyes of his mates with a dangerous mission.

Another great Ladd actioner.

Deep Valley (1947) - 104 mins

Starring Ida Lupino, Dane Clark, Wayne Morris, Fay Bainter & Henry Hull

Directed by Jean Negulesco

A young girl, raised on a small, remote farm by parents who haven't talked to each other in years, falls in love with a convict who has escaped from a nearby road gang. As the posse closes in, the couple realizes that the young convict's uncontrollable acts of rage have, and will, prevent them from enjoying the happy life they had planned for each other.

The fabulous Lupino at her star-crossed best!

Denver & Rio Grande (1952) - 89 mins

Starring Edmond O'Brien, Sterling Hayden, Dean Jagger, Kasey Rogers, Lyle Bettger & J. Carrol Naish

Directed by Byron Haskin

Edmond O'Brien plays Jim Vesser, a former U.S. Cavalry officer and hero, now the man in charge of getting the D&RG's tracks across the Rockies. He revels in the job, chosen for it by General Palmer (Dean Jagger), his former commanding officer, who is chairman of the D&RG. But he suddenly finds himself in competition with the somewhat less scrupulous Canyon City and San Juan line, led by the much less honest and more ruthless McCabe (Sterling Hayden). At their first meeting, McCabe provokes a fight in which he shoots his own chief engineer, Bob Nelson and manages to pin it on the unconscious Vesser. Although he avoids jail, Vesser is so torn up with guilt over what he thinks he has done that he leaves the railroad. Months go past, and in that time the Denver and Rio Grande steadily loses its lead over the rival company, as "accidents" and unrest among the men seem to plague their every move. Vesser finally decides to step back into the fight when one of these seeming accidents nearly wrecks the train on which he's hitched a ride.

Audiences got their money's worth and then some from Byron Haskin's large scale Denver and Rio Grande - yep, that's two locomotives crashing into each other head on! - no toy trains or computer effects - they really did it!

A nice color western shot on fabulous locales - and with Edmond O'Brien & Sterling Hayden going head-to-head … what more could one want!

Edmond O'Brien was famous for his tough noir roles on the big screen, notably his starring roles in The Web (1947), Fighter Squadron (1948), Backfire (1950), D.O.A. (1950), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), Between Midnight and Dawn (1950), Two of a Kind (1951), The Turning Point (1952), Denver & Rio Grande (1952), The Hitch-Hiker (1953), China Venture (1953), The Shanghai Story (1954), Shield for Murder (1954), 1984 (1956) & A Cry in the Night (1956) - all of which are available from the INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section of this website. In the late 1950's Edmond O'Brien also made an interesting noir-style detective TV series called Johnny Midnight - a nice set of episodes from this series can be found in the TV Series I-Z section of this website

Then there are his earlier "breakout" roles in Parachute Battalion (1941), Obliging Young Lady (1942), Powder Town (1942) & The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943) - all of which are available from this website.

Sterling Hayden: ever the maverick, ever the individual - he preferred to sail his yacht around the world rather than act in movies. Yet despite his lack of interest in film, he was lauded and chased by the very finest directors: John Huston, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola & Stanley Kubrick. In each of his roles, Hayden's individuality showed forth whatever the genre of film: noir, adventure, western & swashbuckler. He remains a huge favourite of my Dad (who introduced me to his films) and my son (to whom I, too introduced this powerful actor).

Sterling Hayden films which are available from this website are:

Manhandled (1949), Asphalt Jungle (1950), Denver & Rio Grande (1952), The Golden Hawk (1952), Fighter Attack (1953), Crime Wave (1954), Prince Valiant (1954), Johnny Guitar (1954), Naked Alibi (1954), Suddenly (1954), Battle Taxi (1955), Timberjack (1955), The Killing (1956), Crime of Passion (1954), 5 Steps to Danger (1957), Terror in a Texas Town (1958), Ten Days to Tulara (1958) & The Long Goodbye (1973)

Deported (1950) - 89 mins

Starring Märta Torén, Jeff Chandler, Claude Dauphin, Richard Rober, Marina Berti & Silvio Minciotti

Directed by Robert Siodmak

The real-life deportation of gangster Lucky Luciano was the inspiration for this tight crime drama. Jeff Chandler plays Vic Smith, who has just served 5 years in a US jail for stealing $100 000. The money has never been recovered and following his deportation to Italy, everyone wants a piece of Vic: his US associate in crime Berni Gervaso (Richard Rober) who has followed him to Naples; the US diplomatic service and especially the Italian police lead Vito Bucelli (Claude Dauphin). Despite being sent to Marbella, his home town, Vic renews his criminal activities. He masterminds a black-market operation to capitalize upon wartime shortages in Italy, using his ill-gotten US gains. But he doesn't count on falling in love with Countess Christine di Lorenzi (Märta Torén), the benign patroness of Marbella. Under her influence, Smith begins to see the light and wonders about of his involvement in Italian crime

Shot on location in and around Siena's beautiful country & beautiful people

Well told by director Siodmak

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) - 88 mins

Starring James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler, Everett Sloane, Leo G. Carroll & Richard Boone

Directed by Henry Hathaway

A superb filmed biography of German general Erwin Rommel, concentrating on the period between his retreat from North Africa and his government-decreed death. A brilliant tactician, Rommel earns the respect not only of his own men but of the enemy. Unfortunately, Adolph Hitler (Luther Adler), laboring under the delusion that he too is a military genius, demands more of Rommel than he's able to provide. Ordered to stand his ground in Africa to the last man, Rommel realizes that it's more intelligent in the long run to retreat; this incurs Hitler's wrath, but Rommel is a war hero, and as such is virtually "untouchable". Increasingly disgusted by Hitler's behavior, Rommel joins in a plot to assassinate the Fuhrer. The attempt fails, and Rommel's complicity is discovered. He is given a choice: either face a horrible death by torture, or commit suicide, thereby saving his family and his reputation.

A must for James Mason fans

Mason was to play Rommel again two years later in The Desert Rats (1953) - also available from this website - see below

Desert Fury (1947) - 96 mins

Starring Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, John Hodiak, Wendell Corey & Mary Astor

Directed by Lewis Allen

Desert Fury is a rarity for the 1940s, a Technicolor "film noir." Set in a Nevada gambling town, the story concerns the various misadventures, romantic and otherwise, of Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott), the rebellious daughter of gambling-house proprietress Fritzie Haller (Mary Astor). Though no better than she ought to be, Fritzie is determined that Paula will not grow up as a "shady lady", but she's fighting an uphill battle. John Hodiak plays crooked gambler Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak), who tries to exploit Paula's fascination with him for his own gain. Thank heaven that upright lawman Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster) is on hand to rescue the heroine from the machinations of Bendix and his partner-in-perfidy Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey).

Desert Fury was adapted from the far racier and more explicit novel by Ramona Stewart.

Excellent Color Print

Burt Lancaster also made a number of other powerful dramas & gritty noirs: The Killers (1946), Brute Force (1947), I Walk Alone (1948), Criss Cross (1949), Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Run Silent Run Deep (1958), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Seven Days in May (1964) & The Train (1964).

Then, of course there were his fabulous adventure films: The Flame and the Arrow (1950), Ten Tall Men (1951), The Crimson Pirate (1952), South Sea Woman (1953) & His Majesty O'Keefe (1954).

All of the above are available from this website

And how about a Lancaster film that includes elements of the above, namely a gritty & powerful action/adventure outing? - check out Rope of Sand (1949) - which is also available from this website

Desert Legion (1953) - 86 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Richard Conte, Arlene Dahl & Akim Tamiroff

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Captain Paul Lartal of the Foreign Legion, seeking guerilla Omar Ben Khalif in the remote Algerian mountains, is the sole survivor of an ambush. His superiors don't believe his tale of being rescued by a lovely, mysterious princess. But later, the princess invites Paul back to the hidden city of Medara, which is threatened from within by a demagogue, Crito. And what of the mysterious Ben Khalif?

Nice color print of this fine Ladd actioner

The Desert Rats (1953) - 88 mins

Starring Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton, Robert Douglas, Chips Rafferty & Charles Tingwell

Directed by Robert Wise

Rommel has the British in retreat on his way to the Suez Canal. All that stands in his way is Tobruk, held by a vastly out numbered force of Australian troops. Richard Burton plays an officer in the British Eighth Army, who is put in charge of an Australian unit. Burton rides his men ruthlessly, leading these troops on daring raids against Rommel, keeping him off balance as they earn the nickname 'The Desert Rats'. He is briefly captured by the Nazis and questioned by General Rommel himself, but Burton escapes to lead his surviving troops to safety.

Nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar

James Mason had played Rommel again two years earlier in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) - also available from this website - see above

The Desperadoes (1943) - 87 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes & Edgar Buchanan

Directed by Charles Vidor

Into Sheriff Steve Upton's peaceful Utah town rides outlaw Cheyenne Rodgers with trouble right behind him. When he finds romance with a local woman, and renews an old friendship with the sheriff, he is determined to turn his back on his old, lawless ways. But when the local bank is robbed, all fingers point to the innocent Rodgers.

An A league western thanks to Charles Vidor's direction and clever support play from Glenn Ford & Claire Trevor

Desperate (1947) - 73 mins

Starring Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Douglas Fowley & Jason Robards

Directed by Anthony Mann

When mobster Walt Radak tries to trick independent trucker Steve Randall into transporting stolen furs, Steve alerts the police, and Walt's young brother Al is caught and held for a cop-killing. When ruthless Radak tries to extort Steve's help in clearing Al, Steve and his young wife flee for their lives, only to find that the police are also in pursuit. With every man's hand against them, Steve and Anne must repeatedly abandon their temporary refuges. Finally, one midnight, the showdown.

Another classic "B" noir from Anthony Mann

The Desperate Hours (1955) - 112 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy, Martha Scott, Dewey Martin, Robert Middleton & Gig Young

Directed by William Wyler

Based on the novel and play by Joseph Hayes, which in turn was inspired by an actual event, this is the story of 3 escaped convicts led by cold-blooded Glenn Griffin, who seek an appropriate hideout until they can make contact with their money supply. Griffin deliberately chooses the suburban home of a family with children because he knows he can cower them into cooperating with him. As such he order Dan Hilliard, his wife Ellie, and their children Ralphie and Cindy to go about their normal activities so as not to arouse suspicion. Ralphie, upset that his father won't lift a hand against Griffin, assumes him to be a coward. Pushed to the breaking point, Dan begins subtly turning the tables on the convicts.

Two heavyweights in Bogie and March going head to head under Billy Wilder's direction fabulous

Desperate Journey (1942) - 107 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Coleman, Alan Hale & Arthur Kennedy

Directed by Raoul Walsh

One of the most exciting pictures ever made (in my humble opinion) Desperate Journey is fast-paced and very enjoyable! Directed by action film veteran Raoul Walsh, the story of British bomber 'D-for-Danny', shot down over occupied central Europe, offers a terrific cast, including Ronald Reagan and Arthur Kennedy (in their second teaming with Flynn), and Alan Hale (in his tenth of 12 Flynn films). The gifted Canadian actor, Raymond Massey, also making his second appearance with Flynn, is a thoroughly hiss-able Nazi Major (speaking the gobbly-gook Hollywood passed off as 'German' in these films) who 'loses' the captured fliers (after a brilliantly funny scene with Reagan) then pursues them across the continent. A great chase ensues and if you're like me, you'll be cheering as they approach the Dutch border and the Nazis close in.

Fabulous Max Steiner score.

Destination Gobi (1953) - 90 mins

Starring Richard Widmark, Don Taylor, Max Showalter, Murvyn Vye, Darryl Hickman & Martin Milner

Directed by Robert Wise

This nice blend of World War II drama and "Arabian Nights" escapism that it is allegedly based on fact sees Richard Widmark heading a group of US Navy men, sent to Mongolia for weather observation. Widmark must lead his men across the treacherous Gobi desert to the freedom of the seacoast. Rescued from the Japanese by a Mongolian chief (Murvyn Vye), the men are compelled to repay their rescuer by securing enough saddles for his sixty horses.

A good action / adventure film

Destination Moon (1950) - 92 mins

Starring John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson & Erin O'Brien-Moore

Directed by Irving Pichel

Scientist Dr. Charles Cargraves (Warner Anderson), former Air Force General Thayer (Tom Powers), and industrial tycoon Jim Barnes (John Archer) believe that it's time that the U.S. blazed new trails and found new adventures. Convinced that exploration of space is the wave of the future and that America's participation is vitally important to its place in the world, the three men begin planning and constructing a spaceship called "Luna" in the Mojave Desert that will take the men to the moon and back. However, anti-American forces begin flooding the press with propaganda against the moon mission, and finally the men make their way to moon without the aid of the federal government. While the men are thrilled to succeed in their mission, it turns out that they miscalculated the amount of fuel needed to return and that the rocket needs to drop a lot of weight if it is to return to Earth.

Producer George Pal assembled an impressive roster of behind-the-camera talent, including noted science fiction author Robert Heinlein (who wrote the novel on which the film is based) and artist Chelsey Bonestell for this pioneering sci-fi adventure.

Oscar winner for Special Effects as well as a Nomination for Art Direction & Set Decoration

Destination Murder (1950) - 72 mins

Starring Joyce Mackenzie, Stanley Clements, Hurd Hatfield, Albert Dekker & Myrna Dell

Directed by Edward L. Cahn

Joyce MacKenzie stars as Laura Mansfield whose father (Franklyn Farnum) is killed in cold blood by smalltime hoodlum turned messenger boy Jackie Wales (Stanley Clements). But the latter has a seemingly ironclad alibi and Laura goes undercover as a nightclub cigarette girl to trap him. Unbeknownst to the heroine, however, Wales is blackmailing Armitage (Albert Dekker), the ruthless nightclub operator who had hired him to murder Mansfield in the first place. But is Armitage the real "Mr. Big" or is someone else pulling the strings?

Producer-director Edward L. Cahn's Prominent Pictures produced this thriller-noir which was then sold outright to RKO.

Destination Tokyo (1943) - 135 mins

Starring Cary Grant, John Garfield, Alan Hale, John Ridgely, Dane Clark & Warner Anderson

Directed by Delmer Daves

Cary Grant is a tower of strength as Captain Cassidy, skipper of an American submarine U.S.S. Copperfin bound for Tokyo harbor. Its mission: to enter the bay undetected and place a landing party ashore to allow a Navy meteorologist to survey Japanese weather conditions - information vital to the upcoming Doolittle air raid on From the sub's embarkation in San Francisco to its climactic retreat from Japan, there's not a single solitary dull moment in the 135 minutes of Destination Tokyo.

A fabulous WWII submarine adventure!

Oscar Nominated for Best Writing

Destry (1954) - 95 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Mari Blanchard, Lyle Bettger, Thomas Mitchell, Lori Nelson & Edgar Buchanan

Directed by George Marshall

Tom Destry (Audie Murphy), the peace-loving son of a notorious gunslinger, is summoned to a wide-open western town in the hopes that he can stem the villainies of saloon owner Phil Decker (Lyle Bettger) and crooked mayor The Honorable Hiram J. Sellers (Edgar Buchanan). Though he prefers to talk rather than slap leather, Destry manages to keep the bad guys at bay. But when his best friend, town-drunk-turned-sheriff Rags Barnaby (Thomas Mitchell), is shot by Decker's minions, Destry straps on the shootin' irons and goes to work!

From the Max Brand's novel, Destry Rides Again, this film is a re-make of Jimmy Stewart's 1939 film Destry Rides Again (available below). Mari Blanchard essays the Marlene Dietrich role as vacillating saloon-hall chirp Brandy, while Lori Nelson is the "good"girl Martha Phillips.

Comedy craftsman George Marshall directed both pictures - 15 years apart!

Destry Rides Again (1939) - 94 mins

Starring Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger & Brian Donlevy

Directed by George Marshall

Tom Destry (James Stewart), son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn't believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent (Brian Donlevy). His detractors laugh even louder when Destry signs on as deputy to drunken sheriff Wash Dimsdale (Charles Winninger). But the laughter subsides when Destry casually proves himself a crack shot, despite his abhorrence of firearms. Later, when saloon chanteuse Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich), Kent's gal, takes umbrage at Destry's indifferent reaction to her charms, she vows to make a fool of the new deputy.

From the novel by Max Brand, this film was remade 15 years later as Destry (1954) with Audie Murphy in the starring role and with George Marshall again in the director's chair - available above

The fascinating and alluring Marlene Dietrich! - movies starring this amazing woman and which are available from this website are: Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Devil Is a Woman (1935), Knight Without Armour (1937), Destry Rides Again (1939), Seven Sinners (1940), Manpower (1941), The Spoilers (1942), Pittsburgh (1942) & Golden Earrings (1947)

Detective Story (1951) - 103 mins

Starring Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell, George Macready, Lee Grant & Horace McMahon

Directed by William Wyler

"Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Detective Story was praised for its realistic view of an event-filled day in a single police precinct station. The film, directed by meticulous taskmaster William Wyler, manages to retain this realism, even allowing for the star-turn performance of Kirk Douglas. A stickler for the letter of the law, Detective James McLeod (Douglas) is not averse to using strong-arm methods on criminals and witnesses alike in bringing lawbreakers to justice. He is particularly rough on a first-time offender (Craig Hill), on whom the rest of the force is willing to go easy because of the anguish of his girlfriend (Cathy O'Donnell). But McLeod's strongest invective is reserved for shady abortion doctor Karl Schneider (George MacReady); McLeod all but ruins the case against Schneider by beating him up in the patrol wagon. When McLeod discovers that his own wife (Eleanor Parker) had many years earlier lost a baby in one of Schneider's operations, and that the baby's father was gangster Tami Giacoppetti (Gerald Mohr), it is too much for the detective to bear. Punctuating the grim proceedings with brief moments of humor is future Oscar winner Lee Grant, reprising her stage role as a timorous shoplifter; it would be her last Hollywood assignment until the early 1960s, thanks to the iniquities of the blacklist. Despite small concessions to Hollywood censorship, Detective Story largely upheld the power of its theatrical original, and it forms a clear precursor to such latter-day urban police dramas as NYPD Blue"

An immensely powerful film with Douglas in top form

Nominated for 4 Oscars: Director, Screenplay, Actress & Supporting Actress

Detour (1945) - 69 mins

Starring Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund McDonald & Tim Ryan

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

"I can't believe you're in love with me"

It's amazing what can happen to a person who goes hitch-hiking, especially if he's a jazz pianist from New York trying to hook up with his nightclub singer girlfriend in L.A. Is the hitcher a deviant seeking a victim or a victim seeking a deviant?

With its raw action and raw characters, it becomes a parody of a generational attitude, where women hammer nails for the men who stupidly, eagerly climb onto the cross they construct themselves. Al gets a ride from a bent bookie who has gouges and scars on his wrists. How did he get them? "From the most dangerous animal in the world," says the pill-popping bookie. "A woman." That fate should make one man succeed the other and hook up with the sadistic Vera further on up the road seems like a conspiracy. Yet, is it?

The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961) - 126 mins

Starring Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, Kerwin Mathews, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Barbara Luna & Alexander Scourby

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy

American priest Father Doonan is tending to the natives of a South Sea island. He enlists the (reluctant) aid of three recently arrived convicts, in working at a children's hospital. When the island falls victim to a series of earthquakes, Father Doonan and the convicts work together to evacuate the hospital staff and the children. Harry, the least cooperative of the prisoners, becomes a hero during a volcanic eruption by going back to rescue the priest, who has been holding a bridge in order to allow the others to escape.

Excellent adventure story matching Tracy & Sinatra - good stuff!

The Devil is a Woman (1935) - 80 mins

Starring Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Atwill, Edward Everett Horton, Cesar Romero & Alison Skipworth

Directed by Josef von Sternberg

Antonio Galvan (Cesar Romero), a young military officer, meets a mysterious and alluring woman named Concha Perez (Dietrich) and soon falls under her seductive spell. Antonio excitedly confesses his love for Concha to his friend Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill), an older and higher-ranking officer. Pasqual is horrified when he learns of Antonio's infatuation; years ago, he met Concha, and it was the start of a long and disastrous relationship in which the cold-hearted woman would repeatedly lure him into her romantic web, drain him of his wealth, and then leave him for wealthier prospects elsewhere. While he has learned the hard way, Pasqual has never been able to cure himself of his addiction to Concha's charms, and when he encounters Concha with Antonio at a boisterous street festival, Pasqual is overcome with jealousy.

Director Josef Von Sternberg and his greatest discovery, Marlene Dietrich, worked together for the last time on this historical melodrama

The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947) - 62 mins

Starring Lawrence Tierney, Te North, Nan Leslie, Betty Lawford & Andrew Tombes

Directed by Felix E. Feist

Steve Morgan kills a man in a holdup and hitches a ride to Los Angeles with Fergie. At a gas station, they pick up two women. Encountering a roadblock, Morgan takes over and persuades the party to spend the night at an unoccupied beach house. The police close in as one by one, the others learn that Morgan is a killer.

Fans of Lawrence Tierney should also check out his lead roles in noir thrillers:

Dillinger (1945), San Quentin (1946), The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947), Born To Kill (1947), Bodyguard (1948) & Kill or Be Killed (1950) - all of which are available from this website

Dial 1119 (1950) - 75 mins

Starring Marshall Thompson, Virginia Field, Andrea King, Sam Levene & Leon Ames

Directed by Gerald Mayer

Louis B. Mayer's nephew Gerald proved himself an able director with this neat thriller. Marshall Thompson stars as an emotionally disturbed young man who pulls out a gun at a bar and holds the patrons hostage. As the police gather outside, the film concentrates on the various bar customers, each of whom has his or her own deep-rooted problems. Thompson seems on the verge of killing everyone around him in this raw-nerved 75 minutes' worth of entertainment. Dial 1119 was a personal favorite of actress Virginia Field, who played one of the hostages.

Dial Red 0 (1955) - 63 mins

Starring Bill Elliott, Helene Stanley, Keith Larsen, Paul Piceni, Jack Kruschen & Elaine Riley

Directed by Daniel B. Ullman

The first film where legendary cowboy Bill Elliott played a detective lieutenant in the L.A Sheriff's department, Dial Red "O" tells of a mentally unstable ex-GI who escapes from an institution and goes searching for his ex-wife who only recently divorced him. The man is not dangerous; he just wants to talk to her. Meanwhile the woman is murdered by her lover, a married man, because she is pregnant with his child. The fugitive soldier is framed for the murder. Police lieutenant Andy Flynn must work fast & smart if further bloodshed is to be spared.

The Elliott role name was changed to Andy Doyle for the following four films in the series, as there was a real Andy Flynn working in law enforcement in Los Angeles.

Nice Print Quality!

This is the first in Bill Elliott's "Suits & Fedoras" (Andy Doyle/Flynn) Series

Other films from the series Sudden Danger (1955), Calling Homicide (1956), Chain of Evidence (1957) & Footsteps in the Night (1957) are also available from the INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section of the website.

The whole series is also available from the Movie Series A-M section of this website (under "B" for "Bill")

Note: A variety of "Wild Bill" Elliott western DVD sets are available from the Westerns section of this website

Further Note: "Wild Bill" Elliott three serial outings are available from the Movie Serials section of this website

Dillinger (1945) - 70 mins

Starring Lawrence Tierney, Edmund Lowe, Anne Jeffreys, Eduardo Ciannelli & Marc Lawrence

Directed by Max Nosseck

Solid gangster yarn written by Philip Yordan. The rise of John Dillinger from petty criminal (including, unforgiveably, holding up a cinema) via prison and bank robbery with his new convict associates to the accolade of Public Enemy Number One. One of the best B movies of its kind.

A genuine tour-de-force for Lawrence Tierney in his first starring role.

Yes, that’s John Dillinger playing out his final scene: going to the cinema to watch Manhattan Melodrama (1934) - he was a big fan of Myrna Loy - the police were waiting for him when he came out!

Note that the superb Clark Gable / William Powell / Myrna Loy film Manhattan Melodrama (1934) is also available from this website

The story of John Dillinger was filmed again in 1973 - see entry below

Fans of Lawrence Tierney should also check out his lead roles in noir thrillers:

Dillinger (1945), San Quentin (1946), The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947), Born To Kill (1947), Bodyguard (1948) & Kill or Be Killed (1950) - all of which are available from this website

Dillinger (1973) - 107 mins

Starring Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Harry Dean Stanton & Richard Dreyfus

Directed by John Milius

Warren Oates stars as John Dillinger, whose short-lived career as Public Enemy No.1 was, according to Milius, promoted by Dillinger himself who is seen comforting his victims by telling them, "Someday you'll tell your grandchildren about this." The film captures the highlights of Dillinger's criminal career, as seen through the eyes of Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson), the FBI agent whose obsession with capturing Dillinger.

Writer John Milius's first directorial effort in its own small way set the stage in the 1970s for a subgenre of action films that depict a nostalgia for historical figures tinged with a hard-edged skepticism.

Note that the superb Clark Gable / William Powell / Myrna Loy film Manhattan Melodrama (1934) is also available from this website

The story of John Dillinger was previously filmed in 1945 - see above entry

Fans of Warren Oates should also check out his role in There was a Crooked Man … (1970) which are available from this website

Diplomatic Courier (1952) - 97 mins

Starring Tyrone Power, Patricia Neal, Hildegarde Neff, Stephen McNally & Karl Maldern

Directed by Henry Hathaway

State Department courier Mike Kelly ends up in postwar hotbed Trieste after failing to collect a package from a colleague. The Military Police are happy for him to get more involved, but things get a bit tough. Good story, cast & director!

Tyrone Power: that fabulous adventurer … other great Tyrone Power movies available from this website are: The Mark of Zorro (1940), Johnny Apollo (1940), Blood and Sand (1941), The Black Swan (1942), Son of Fury (1942), The Razor's Edge (1946), Captain From Castile (1947), Nightmare Alley (1947), Prince of Foxes (1949), The Black Rose (1950), American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950) & King of the Khyber Rifles (1953).

Dirigible (1931) - 110 mins

Starring Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Fay Wray, Hobart Bosworth, Roscoe Karns & Harold Goodwin

Directed by Frank Capra

Dirigible commander Jack Braden (Jack Holt) and Navy pilot 'Frisky' Pierce (Ralph Graves) fight over the glory associated with a successful expedition to the South Pole and the love of beautiful Helen, Frisky's wife (Fay Wray). After Braden's dirigible expedition fails, Frisky tries an expedition by plane. Unfortunately he crashes and strands his party at the South Pole. Braden must decide between a risky rescue attempt by dirigible and remaining safely at home with Helen.

From a story by the legendary U.S. Navy aviator turned screenwriter Frank "Spig" Wead.

All three principals (director Capra and stars Holt & Graves) combined previously, two years earlier, for a similar aviation-themed film: Flight (1929) which is also available from this website

Dishonored (1931) - 91 mins

Starring Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen, Gustav von Seyffertitz & Warner Oland

Directed by Josef von Sternberg

An espionage melodrama with Marlene Dietrich delivering a subtle and witty performance as a Viennese prostitute who offers her services as a spy during WWI. As "Agent X-27" our heroine proves invaluable to her superiors, seducing and betraying enemy officers with the greatest of ease. But when she falls in love with Russian spy Lt. Kranau (Victor McLaglen), she permits him to escape her clutches, and there are to be a consequence.

Another wonderful Marlene Dietrich / Josef von Sternberg vehicle!

A Dispatch From Reuters (1940) - 90 mins

Starring Edward G. Robinson, Edna Best, Eddie Albert, Albert Bassermann & Gene Lockhart

Directed by William Dieterle

Robinson is cast as Baron Paul Julius Reiter, who in 1833 inaugurates a "pigeon post" messenger service which is soon rendered obsolete by the invention of the telegraph. Eventually adapting to the new communications process, Reuters is able to extend his links to the major capitals of Europe, achieving success by scooping his competition with a transcription of a speech by Louis Napoleon. By 1858, Reuters has expanded his operation to the English-speaking countries, seriously over-extending himself financially. Ultimately, Reuters is rescued from bankruptcy in 1865 when he broadcasts on a worldwide basis the news of President Lincoln's assassination-even before the American ambassador in England has been informed of the tragedy. Throughout the highs and lows of his career, Reuters is encouraged by his loyal and loving wife Ida (Edna Best), who continually reminds him that he is a communicator and not a grandstander.

Edward G. at his very best!

Disputed Passage (1939) - 87 mins

Starring John Howard, Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, Judith Barrett, William Collier Sr. & Keye Luke

Directed by Frank Borzage

Based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas (The Robe, Magnificent Obsession) the film stars John Howard as young medical student John Wesley Beaven. In the course of his education, Beaven is torn between two philosophies: the cold pragmatism of Dr. Forster (Akim Tamiroff) and the humanistic attitudes of kindly Dr. Cunningham (William Collier Sr.), who of course is author Douglas' alter ego. The crisis within Beaven comes to a head when he must choose between his career and his impending marriage to Audrey Hilton (Dorothy Lamour). A literally explosive climax in war-torn China brings the story to a logical and satisfying solution.

Good film with John Howard at his peak - and just after concluding his excellent 7 film run as Bulldog Drummond (which is available from the Movie Series section of my website)

Distant Drums (1951) - 101 mins

Starring Gary Cooper, Mari Aldon, Richard Webb, Ray Teal & Arthur Hunnicutt

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Filmed on location in Florida's Everglades, Distant Drums stars Gary Cooper as Indian fighter Quincy Wyatt. At the height of the Seminole wars, Wyatt leads a small group of soldiers into the Everglades to offer resistance. Along the way, they rescue Judy Beckett (Mari Aldon), one of several white prisoners of the Seminoles. Judy proves to be as worthy a "soldier" as Wyatt and his men during the final Seminole attack.

A prominent role for Richard Webb - TV's Captain Midnight (which is available from the TV Series section of this website).

Gary Cooper: forever the great adventurer - these Gary Cooper titles are available from this website are:

Morocco (1930), A Farewell to Arms (1932), The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), The General Died at Dawn (1936), The Plainsman (1936), Souls at Sea (1937), The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938), Beau Geste (1939), The Real Glory (1939), The Westerner (1940), North West Mounted Police (1940), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Cloak and Dagger (1946), Unconquered (1947), Task Force (1949), Distant Drums (1951) & High Noon (1952)

Dive Bomber (1941) - 132 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith, Regis Toomey & Robert Armstrong

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Lee (Errol Flynn) insists on trying to save him with an immediate operation, and the mortally injured pilot dies on the table. This sets the stage for a long, lingering, and bitter hatred between Blake and Lee - which is only exacerbated when Lee chooses to become a flight surgeon so he can help to find a solution to the problem of high altitude blackout. Lee is assigned to medical research with Lt. Cdr. Lance Rogers (Ralph Bellamy), a flight surgeon whose dedication to high-altitude research has left him unfit for further flying. Their work proceeds through small triumphs and terrible tragedy, and Lee and Blake keep crossing paths, unwillingly - they not only don't like each other personally, but end up competing for the attentions of the same woman (Alexis Smith) at one point. But they're forced to work together for the good of the service, even after Lee grounds Tim Griffin as medically unfit to keep flying. A fresh tragedy shows Blake that Lee has always been looking out for the best interests of the pilots, and they begin working together in earnest, at last.

D.O.A. (1950) - 83 mins

Starring Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Beverley Garland & Nevill Brand

Directed by Rudolph Mate

Murder victim O'Brien discovers he has been poisoned and, in his remaining days, tries to track down his own killer. He's a CPA who arrives in San Francisco to get some time away from fiancee Britton but after a night on the town he grows ill and consults a doctor who tells him he has been poisoned and he will be dead in a few days. He then learns that he notarized a shipment of deadly iridium and that he is the only one who can provide proof against a criminal gang.

Please Note: This is an exceptional print - much better than those on commercial offering

Doc (1971) - 96 mins

Starring Stacy Keach, Faye Dunaway, Harris Yulin, Michael Witney, Denver John Collins & Dan Greenburg

Directed by Frank Perry

This "revisionist" and ground-breaking film is an attempt is make an accurate portrayal of the lives and persons of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and the now-legendary events that took place in the town of Tombstone. A psychological character-study-in-action story in which we see Sheriff Wyatt Earp (Harris Yulin) as a fairly ordinary politician, and a tough-as-teak romance between Doc Holliday (Stacy Keach) and Kate Elder (Faye Dunaway).

As it must, however, the film concludes with the well-known gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Expertly done!

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975) - 100 mins

Starring Ron Ely, Paul Gleason, William Lucking, Michael Miller, Eldon Quick, Darrell Zwerling & Paul Wexler

Directed by Michael Anderson

Conventional wisdom states that big screen adaptations of comic-book superheroes commenced with 1978's Superman The Movie. However several years earlier the legendary George Pal produced Doc Savage : The Man of Bronze (1975). Doc Savage (Ron "TV Tarzan" Ely) returns early from his fortress of solitude in the Antarctic as he senses something is wrong. He arrives at his home to find the members of the elite Amazing Five group all waiting for him with news that his father has died and that his last words are in a letter in his safe. One failed assassination attempt by a mysterious Indian and a fire later and Doc is left with no letter and no information. Along with the Amazing Five, he sets out for the Caribbean where they must confront the evil plot of Captain Seas and the threat of the mysterious "Green Death".

Dodge City (1939) - 104 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot, Frank McHugh, Alan Hale & Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Wade Hatton is a cattle man who arrives in the frontier community of Dodge City, which is overrun by footloose cowboys and outlaws. When Hatton helps Dodge City lawmen capture a gang of cattle rustlers led by Jeff Surrett, he's asked to help guide a wagon train into town with his friends Rusty Hart and Tex Baird. En route, an impulsive young cowpoke named Lee Irving needlessly fires off his pistol, sparking a cattle stampede that leads to his death. When Hatton and his men arrive in Dodge, they discover Surrett is once again at large, and his gang has taken over the city. Appointed the city's new sheriff, Hatton is determined to clean up the town and put the outlaws out of business.

A landmark western which, along with Stagecoach, has often been credited with revitalizing the genre.

A solid box office hit, Dodge City was the first of a series of westerns for swashbuckling star Flynn; his next oater, Virginia City, followed in 1940 (see below).

Donovan's Reef (1963) - 109 mins

Starring John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Elizabeth Allen, Jack Warden, Dorothy Lamour & Cesar Romero

Directed by John Ford

Michael "Guns" Donovan (John Wayne), Thomas "Boats" Gilhooley (Lee Marvin), and Dr. William Dedham (Jack Warden), a trio of navy veterans who fought on the Pacific island of Haleakalowa during the war, now live on the island. Donovan and Gilhooley, biding time and enjoying themselves, engage in rough-house hijinks among themselves, and are both part of the doctor's extended family, enjoying the good will of the islanders for whom they fought during the war. While Dedham is away on a call to a neighboring island, his grown daughter, Amelia (Elizabeth Allen), from his first marriage, whom he has never seen, announces that she is arriving from Boston to determine Dedham's fitness of character to inherit the majority shares in the family shipping business.

A rollicking adventure - Wayne directed by Ford - what more needs to be said!

The Doolins of Oklahoma (1949) - 90 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, George Macready, Louise Allbritton, John Ireland & Virginia Huston

Directed by Gordon Douglas

When the Dalton gang is ambushed by U.S. Marshals, Bill Doolin, the last surviving member, forms his own group of bank robbers. Although the gang is widely successful, things quickly heat up to a point where Doolin advises his men to lay low before reuniting after three months. Hiding out in a church in Claymore, Doolin is befriended by Deacon Burton, whose daughter, Elaine, he begins to court and eventually marries under the alias of Daley. But the past catches up with the former outlaw soon enough and he is forced to skip town. Resuming their illegal occupation, the Doolin gang is finally cornered and Doolin hides out at the former Daley homestead, where, to their surprise, Elaine has been patiently waiting for the return of her husband. Determined to leave his old life for good, Doolin plans to flee with Elaine to an unclaimed area between Kansas and Texas, but an old foe, Marshal Sam Hughes is waiting in the wings.

Randolph Scott co-produced and starred in this fabulous Western which chronicles the career of one of the last of the legendary Western outlaws.

Double Exposure (1954) - 61 mins

Starring John Bentley, Rona Anderson, Garry Marsh, Alexander Gauge & Ingeborg von Kusserow

Directed by John Gilling

A photographer (Barbara Leyland) clicks a few revealing pictures at the home of a wealthy woman. When the home's occupant commits suicide, the photographer is accused of prompting this tragedy. Inspector Pete Fleming (John Bentley) suspects there's more to the case than is readily apparent. It turns out that the dead woman was actually murdered by a local bookie, who rearranged the evidence to suggest suicide.

Filmed in London, Double Exposure was produced by Robert Baker and Monty Berman, the same team later responsible for the TV series The Saint.

Double Indemnity (1944) - 106 mins

Starring Fred McMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robertson, Porter Hall & Tom Power

Directed by Billy Wilder

A Raymond Chandler script packs fireworks in this story of a smooth talking insurance salesman Walter Neff who meets the attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and an affair begins. They cook up a scheme to murder Mr. Dietrichson for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go to plan...

A seminal work in the emergence of film noir as an explosive movement in American film.

Academy Awards nominations for Picture, Actress, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, Sound Recording.

A Double Life (1947) - 104 mins

Starring Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso, Edmond O'Brien & Shelley Winters

Directed by George Cukor

Anthony John is an actor whose life is strongly influenced by the characters he plays. When he's playing comedy, he's the most enjoyable person in the world, but when he's playing drama, it's terrible to be around him. That's the reason why his wife Brita divorced him; although she still loves him and works with him, she couldn't stand living with him anymore. So when Anthony accepts to play Othello, he devotes himself entirely to the part, but it soon overwhelms him and with each day his mind gets filled more and more with Othello's murderous jealousy.

Ronald Colman won the Best Actor Oscar for this film!

Dragnet (1954) - 89 mins

Starring Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Virginia Gregg & Dennis Weaver

Directed by Jack Webb

Yes, this is the original movie adaptation of that wonderful TV series - and its in color!

Saturday, April 9: A known bookie named Miller Starkie has been "cut in half" by a sawed-off, double-barrel shotgun. Working out of Intelligence Division, Sgt. Joe Friday and Off. Frank Smith piece together what little evidence they have, interview acquaintances, intimidate witnesses, interrogate suspects to the point of harassment, utilize a Minifon and a wiretap, and testify before the Grand Jury in a tireless effort to catch and convict Starkie's killers.

"It evokes its era better than almost anything"

Dr. Cyclops (1940) - 77 mins

Starring Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Paul Fix & Victor Kilian

Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack

A mad scientist Dr. Thorkel (Albert Dekker) has developed a process that will shrink human beings to doll size. His first victims include mining engineers Bill Stockton (Thomas Coley) and Steve Baker (Victor Kilian) and biologists Mary Mitchell (Janice Logan) and Dr. Bullfinch (Charles Halton). At first willing to play-act the role of benevolent despot with his miniaturized captives, Thorkel reveals the more sinister side of his personality by abruptly murdering Bullfinch in cold blood. The remaining captives escape and proceed to hack their way through a jungle of gigantic foliage and do battle with oversized wildlife.

The first Technicolor horror film since Mystery of the Wax Museum, Dr. Cyclops was directed by Ernest Schoedsack, of King Kong fame.

Oscar Nominated for Best Special Effects!

Drive a Crooked Road (1954) - 83 mins

Starring Mickey Rooney, Dianne Foster, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Kelly & Jerry Paris

Directed by Richard Quine

Auto mechanic and wannabe race-car driver Eddie Shannon (Mickey Rooney) allows himself to be led perilously astray when sexy Barbara Mathews (Dianne Foster) talks him into participating in a bank heist. Things then go from bad to worse to awful for both Eddie and Barbara, victims of circumstance in a larger-scale scheme masterminded by hoodlums Steve Norris (Kevin McCarthy) and Harold Baker (Jack Kelly).

The film was written by Blake "The Pink Panther" Edwards.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) - 97 mins

Starring Fredric Marsh, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart & Holmes Herbert

Directed by Rouben Mamoulian

Based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men - a good and an evil side. He believes that by separating the two man can become liberated. He succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes.

A fabulous adaptation from the book, this version scored a Best Actor Academy Award for Fredric Marsh.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) - 113 mins

Starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Donald Crisp & Barton MacLane

Directed by Victor Fleming

This version of the classic story boasts the trusted 1940's MGM production values and a fine performance by Spencer Tracy in the title role(s). Yes the film owns a lot to the original - filmed on same location & using same writers. Have the makers of this film had a decade to learn from the mistakes of the original and turn it around with better lines and nuances?

Followed by a sequel: The Son of Dr. Jekyll (1951) which is also available from this website.

Drum Beat (1954) - 111 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Audrey Dalton, Marisa Pavan, Robert Keith, Anthony Caruso & Charles Bronson

Directed by Delmer Daves

Though heavily advertised as Delmar Daves' Drum Beat, this film owed its existence to producer-star Alan Ladd. The star is cast as a veteran Indian fighter Johnny MacKay, who because of his close relationship with the Modoc tribe is sent out to negotiate a peace treaty. Once he has arrived in Medoc territory, Johnny (Ladd) must contend with the misspent emotions of his childhood sweetheart Toby (Marisa Pavan), the sister of Indian chief Manok (Anthony Caruso). Jealous over Johnny's relationship with pretty Nancy Meek (Audrey Dalton), Toby has cast her lot with renegade warrior Captain Jack (Charles Bronson), who honors no treaties. Though the film has a Native American villain, Drum Beat is largely sympathetic to the plight of the Indian. Based on a true story (Delmer Daves wrote the story & screenplay), the film is distinguished by J. Peverell Marley's breathtaking exterior photography, and by Victor Young's ballad-like musical score.

Beautiful Color Print!

Drums Across the River (1954) - 78 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Walter Brennan, Lyle Bettger, Lisa Gaye, Hugh O'Brian & Jay Silverheels

Directed by Nathan Juran

Gary Brannon (Audie Murphy) is a peaceful homesteader living a quiet existence with his father Sam (Walter Brennan). No-account Frank Walker (Lyle Bettger), hoping to open up the Ute Indian territory for gold-mining purposes, tries to foment a war between the Utes and the local whites. As an added filip, he steals a gold shipment and pins the blame on Brannon. Now a fugitive from justice, Brannon joins Walker's gang, much to his father's dismay. Actually, it's all part of a plan to expose Walker's perfidy and prevent Ute hostilities, but no one is aware of it.

Jay Silverheels, best known as Tonto on TV's Lone Ranger, co-stars as Ute warrior Taos.

Audie Murphy is at his taciturn best here.

The Duel at Silver Creek (1952) - 77 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Faith Domergue, Stephen McNally, Susan Cabot, Gerald Mohr & Lee Marvin

Directed by Don Siegel

A group of vicious claim-jumpers is killing the miners in a Western settlement. Their latest victim is Cromwell (Harry Harvey), who is shot to death at his mine just after his son Luke (Audie Murphy) leaves for town. Luke has three passions in life: poker, guns, and the silver ornamentation he carries on him - and is better known as the Silver Kid; he kills one of the claim-jumpers but can't catch the rest. The marshal of Silver Creek, "Lightning" Tyrone (Stephen McNally), is also trying to cope with the claim-jumpers, and he has a problem of his own, courtesy of a bullet in his shoulder - he can still draw faster than almost anyone, but he can't pull the trigger like he used to, and he doesn't know how long he can bluff some of the tougher citizens he's been riding herd on, especially a fellow named Johnny Sombrero (Eugene Iglesias), who's been itching to draw on him. These two cross paths and the Silver Kid ends up as Lightning's deputy, just in time to become suspicious of newcomers Opal Lacy (Faith Domergue) and her brother Rod (Gerald Mohr), who are in the mining business. Lighting's attraction to Opal and the Kid's distrust of her could just cost him the services of a deputy who is, literally, his good right arm.

Nicely balanced western helmed by famed Dirty Harry director Don Seigel

Duel in the Sun (1946) - 130 mins

Starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston & Charles Bickford

Directed by King Vidor

In David O. Selznick's Duel in the Sun, Jennifer Jones stars as Pearl Chavez who is taken into the home of wealthy, greedy rancher McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) and his kindly wife Laura Belle (Lillian Gish), who'd once been the sweetheart of Pearl's recently executed father (Herbert Marshall). Almost immediately, Pearl becomes the object of an emotional tug-of-war between McCanles' virtuous son Jesse (Joseph Cotten) and wicked ne'er-do-well offspring Lewt (Gregory Peck). After killing a man (Charles Bickford) who'd tried proposing to Pearl, Lewt becomes a fugitive, secretly working to undermine the railroad that threatens to cut across McCanles' land. The level-headed Jesse tries to negotiate with the railroad men, and as a result is ordered from the ranch by McCanles.

Duel in the Sun was based on the novel by Niven Busch, who'd written the work hoping that his wife Teresa Wright would play Pearl - but that was before Selznick set eyes on Jennifer Jones

A truly big-scale technicolor adventure western!

Oscar Nominations for Best Actress (Jennifer Jones) & Best Supporting Actress (Lillian Gish)

Dunkirk (1958) - 134 mins

Starring John Mills, Robert Qrquhart, Ray Jackson, Anthony Nicholls, Bernard Lee & Meredith Edwards

Directed by Leslie Norman

One of the most significant moments in the history of British warfare is given reverent treatment in this film about the evacuation of Allied troops across the English channel during the 1940. One party of British soldiers becomes detached from the rest of the retreating Allies. John Mills plays an inexperienced lance corporal (Cpl. 'Tubby' Bins) who resists an increase in rank, but when the chips are down performs with courage and authority in organizing the lost troop and shepherding them to Dunkirk.

Based on two novels: Eleston Trever's The Big Pick-Up and Lt. Col. Ewan Hunter & Maj. J. S. Bradford's Dunkirk.

A fabulous WWII story - well told as always for British cinema!

The Eagle and the Hawk (1950) - 104 mins

Starring John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Dennis O'Keefe, Thomas Gomez & Fred Clark

Directed by Lewis R. Foster

In his first western, John Payne stars as Texas Ranger Todd Crayden who is assigned a suicide mission South of the Border. Crayden is to smuggle government agent Whitney Randolph (Dennis O'Keefe) into Mexico, so that Crayden can defeat the European-backed foes of Mexican patriot Juarez. The tension level is raised by the fact that Crayden and Randolph are on opposite sides of the still-raging Civil War. Cast as a woman of questionable loyalties, Rhonda Fleming is shown to excellent advantage in Technicolor, courtesy of veteran cinematographer James Wong Howe.

Yes, it’s a Western but its included here as I'm a big fan of John Payne and the production team (Pine-Thomas Productions) - who also made Crosswinds (1951) with Payne which is also available from this website

Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (1956) - 83 mins

Starring Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum & John Zaremba

Directed by Fred F. Sears

Dr. Russell Marvin heads up Operation Skyhook, which is tasked with sending rockets into the upper atmosphere to probe for future space flights. Unfortunately, all the rockets are somehow disappearing. While investigating this strange occurrence, Russell and his new wife Carol are abducted by a flying saucer. The aliens demand to meet with certain people in order to negotiate - but its a trick, and the aliens only want to kill them. The invasion has begun and if Russell and Carol can't find a way to stop these creatures and get past their defenses, it may be the end of the human race.

An acknowledged Classic of Sci-Fi.

East of Sumatra (1953) - 82 mins

Starring Jeff Chandler, Marilyn Maxwell, Anthony Quinn, Suzan Bell, John Sutton & Jay C. Flippen

Directed by Budd Boetticher

Duke Mullane, manager of a Malayan tin mine, goes to a little-known island to open a new mine in the jungle. Initially, the natives there are friendly, especially Minyora who is engaged to local ruler King Kiang. A series of unfortunate incidents changes Kiang's attitude to hostility, and Duke is stranded with his crew, Minyora, and his old flame Lory and facing a native uprising.

This fabulous adventure yarn was based on a novel by Louis L'Amour, a western specialist who like Budd Boetticher proved quite capable of working outside his own particular genre.

Why not check other action / adventure films from Jeff Chandler which are also available from this website: Yankee Pasha (1954) & Raw Wind in Eden (1958)

Ebb Tide (1937) - 94 mins

Starring Oscar Homolka, Frances Farmer, Ray Milland, Lloyd Nolan & Barry Fitzgerald

Directed by James P. Hogan

In this South Seas adventure, Ray Milland, Akim Tamiroff and Barry Fitzgerald play three shifty sailors who commandeer a smallpox-ridden boat and set out to sea. A typhoon washes them ashore on a faraway Pacific island, which is ruled by a white religious fanatic (Lloyd Nolan) who has set himself up as the local god. The three sailors anxiously await an opportunity to appropriate the "god's" valuable stash of pearls and head for the mainland.

Technicolor was a major drawcard for this film when released to audiences in the late 1930's.

Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osborne.

Remade as Adventure Island (1947) which is also available from this website.

Quality Note: This color film is a bit average - smeary - but can stil be enjoyed for what it is: a rollicking South Seas adventure story!

Edge of Darkness (1943) - 119 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Nancy Coleman & Helmut Dantine

Directed by Lewis Milestone

In October 1942, a German observation airplane discovers a seaside village named Trollness where the Norwegian flag is flying over the town square. A ground patrol discovers an empty town littered with corpses, including a number of Nazi officials. The story of the massacre is told in flashback. Errol Flynn plays Gunnar Brogge, a fisherman engaged to Karen Stensgard (Ann Sheridan), whose father, Martin (Walter Huston), is the village physician. Gunnar and Karen are working to undermine the Nazis. The town is divided, with the minister leading a contingent which believes that violence, even against the sadistic Germans, is morally wrong. Karen is concerned about the imminent arrival of her brother, who is known to be friendly to the German occupiers; she fears he may learn of plans by the British to deliver a supply of guns to the resistance. The Nazi commandant, Captain Konig (Helmut Dantine), keeps up the pressure to learn of any opposition to his administration, eventually deciding to execute a selected number of the villagers to force someone to reveal the extent of the resistance's schemes.

One of Errol Flynn's very best WWII roles.

Edge of the City (1957) - 85 mins

Starring John Cassavetes, Sidney Poitier, Jack Warden, Kathleen Maguire & Ruby Dee.

Directed by Martin Ritt

In the railyards of New York. AWOL soldier John Cassavetes takes a job as a railroad worker, where he is taunted and bullied by supervisor Jack Warden, a union functionary appointed by the Mob. Cassavetes befriends his African-American co-worker Sydney Poitier, whose very presence enrages the bigoted Warden.

A classic of its day with echoes of On the Waterfront (which is also available from this website), Cassavetes & Poitier form a dynamic combination against the lightning rod of Warden. Ultimately a climactic one-on-one battle ensues.

Feature film debut of noted director Martin Ritt

Emperor of the North (1973) - 118 mins

Starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, Charles Tyner & Simon Oakland

Directed by Robert Aldrich

It is during the great depression in the US, and the land is full of people who are now homeless. Those people, commonly called "hobos", are truly hated by Shack (Borgnine), a sadistic railway conductor who swore that no hobo will ride his train for free. Well, no-one but "A" Number One (Lee Marvin), who is ready to put his life at stake to become a local legend - as the first person who survived the trip on Shack's notorious train. Beautifully filmed and acted with a taut script and great direction - and check out that brutal final clash between A No. 1 and Shack!

Keith Carradine appeared in Robert Altman's Depression era Thieves Like Us (1974), the following year - and in many respects the two films share a lot of common themes - as such the films are great companion pieces. (Thieves Like Us is also available from this website).

The Enforcer (1951) - 87 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel, Ted Corsia, Everett Sloane & Roy Roberts

Directed by Bretaigne Windust

After years of pursuit, Assistant D.A. Martin Ferguson has a good case against Murder, Inc. boss Albert Mendoza. Mendoza is in jail and his lieutenant Joseph Rico is going to testify. But Rico falls to his death and Ferguson must work through the night going over everything to build the case anew.

Fabulous Bogie crime flick with a winning role from Zero Mostel as Babe Lazick, a two-bit hood who begins weaving a tale of a murder-by-contract ring and its head operator, Joe Rico.

Escape (1940) - 98 mins

Starring Robert Taylor, Norma Shearer, Conrad Veidt, Ala Nazimova & Felix Bressart

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Based on a novel by Ethel Vance, Robert Taylor plays a young American who is the son of a widowed European woman (Alla Nazimova). The mother has been imprisoned in a German concentration camp, compelling her son to ignore America's neutrality and attempt a rescue. Sneaking into German-occupied Europe, Taylor is befriended by a countess (Norma Shearer) who is the mistress of a Nazi general (Conrad Veidt).

Escape Me Never (1947) - 104 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker, Gig Young & Reginald Denny

Directed by Peter Godfrey

Largely set in Italy, the story concerns the relationship between poverty-stricken musician Sebastian Dunbrok (Errol Flynn) and unwed mother Gemma Smith (Ida Lupino). Suspecting that her fiancé, Caryl (Gig Young), Sebastian's brother, is the father of Gemma's child, young heiress Fennella McLean (Eleanor Parker) retreats to the Italian Alps. Attempting to straighten out the situation, Sebastian finds himself falling in love with Fennella. For his brother's sake, Sebastian breaks off the relationship and marries Gemma, but while awaiting the birth of her child, he writes a heartfelt ballet score dedicated to Fennella. However, when Gemma's baby dies, the conscience-stricken Sebastian changes the dedication to his wife.

Stirring musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Based on a play and novel by Margaret Kennedy.

Escape to Burma (1955) - 87 mins

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, David Farrar, Murvyn Vye, Lisa Montell & Reginald Denny

Directed by Allan Dwan

A local prince in British Burma has been killed, apparently by his prospecting partner Jim Brecan (RobertRyan). The bereaved father wants Brecan's head, no questions asked, but Captain Cardigan (David Farrar) of the colonial police hopes to find him first for a fair trial. Meanwhile, Brecan finds refuge on the teak plantation of wealthy colonial Gwen Moore (Barbara Stanwyck), where mutual attraction soon makes him indispensable.

Excellent escapist adventure film.

Espionage Agent (1939) - 83 mins

Starring Joel McCrea, Brenda Marshall, Jeffrey Lynn, George Bancroft & Stanley Ridges

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

Unlike many another pre-WW II spy melodramas, Espionage Agent clearly identifies the villains as Germans. Joel McCrea plays Barry Corvall, the son of a recently deceased US diplomat. Boarding a Berlin-bound train, Corvall attempts to steal a briefcase stuffed with documents which will prove that the Nazis have been infiltrating vital industrial centers in the United States. He is helped along by Brenda Ballard (Brenda Marshall), whose behavior suggests at times that she might not be all that trustworthy.

According to the Warner Bros. publicity machine, Warren Duff's screenplay was based on actual events. Coming on the heels of the studio's Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Espionage Agent was indication enough that Warners had declared war on Germany long before President Roosevelt made it official.

The Ex-Mrs Bradford (1936) - 82 mins

Starring William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Blore & Robert Armstrong

Directed by Stephen Roberts

Relations between Dr. 'Brad' Bradford and ex-wife Paula are surprisingly romantic. They divorced because Brad hated being dragged into murder mysteries, to which mystery writer Paula is addicted. But through horse trainer Mike North, Brad is embroiled in the case of a jockey who died of "heart failure" during a race. As they pursue clues, Paula pursues Brad for remarriage, and assorted hoods pursue the Bradfords

William Powell recreates, for RKO, his Nick Charles character, now as Dr. Bradford, M.D. and Jean Arthur substitutes as Nora. How did it work? very well! This film works because Powell and Arthur have terrific chemistry, and a crackerjack good comic-mystery script. The mystery is clever, and the humor urbane and lighthearted.

Check out RKO's Star of Midnight (also available from this website) for another RKO "version" of The Thin Man (with Ginger Rogers instead of Myrna Loy or Jean Arthur)

Eye of the Needle (1981) - 112 mins

Starring Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Stephen MacKenna, Philip Martin Brown & Christopher Cazenove

Directed by Richard Marquand

WWII German superspy, the Needle, discovers vital evidence about the Allies D-Day invasion. He makes for the Scottish coast to escape on a U-Boat when his small boat is shipwrecked before being picked up and is washed ashore. He is saved by a man destined to never enter the war and his wife and child. The Needle quickly falls in love with the woman and both must decide between their love or country.

Sutherland is absolute chilling in this excellent WWII yarn!

Eyewitness (1956) - 82 mins

Starring Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig & Nigel Stock

Directed by Muriel Box

When she has a fight, with her husband, Lucy runs out of the house, and into a night of terror. She heads for the local cinema, and in doing so, becomes the only eyewitness to a couple of crooks, who are robbing the cinema's safe. In her haste to escape the thieves, she is knocked down by a passing bus, and is taken to the local hospital. The two crooks follow, and wait for a chance to finish her off, and thus eliminate the only person who can tie them to the robbery.

Good stuff from the Brits

Fail-Safe (1964) - 112 mins

Starring Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Ed Binns, Larry Hagman & Fritz Weaver

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe tells of what happens when a misguided transmission sends a squadron of bombers hurtling towards Russia, fully prepared to drop their atomic weaponry on Moscow. Air Force commander Frank Overton desperately tries to establish radio contact with the bombers, but once the pilots have passed the "fail safe" point, they've been instructed to disregard any reversal of orders. Racing against time, US President Henry Fonda, through his interpreter (Larry Hagman), informs the Russian premiere of the impending nuclear disaster. Working in concert with SAC, the Russians send up interceptors to shoot down the American bombers, while some of the planes run out of fuel and crash. Unfortunately, one aircraft, piloted by Edward Binns, manages to escape destruction and continues on its fatal mission.

Wonderful Cold War politics (& bloodshed)

Fair Wind to Java (1953) - 92 mins

Starring Fred MacMurray, Vera Ralston, Robert Douglas, Victor McLaglen & John Russell

Directed by Joseph Kane

Tough South Seas skipper Fred MacMurray goes hunting for pearls on a forbidden Javanese island. Native girl Vera Ralston falls in love with MacMurray and defies local laws to help him. She is punished by the island rulers, compelling MacMurray to spirit both Vera and the pearls off the island. As they make a last desperate attempt to escape, a lava-spewing volcano threatens to destroy the island.

Often described as a "Republic Pictures' epic", Fair Wind to Java was photographed in Trucolor and manages to pack in enough entertainment value to keep the adventure fans happy - the climactic volcanic eruption is masterfully staged by miniature experts Howard Lydecker and Theodore Lydecker.

I recall my first viewing of this great adventure flick: Mum wasn't impressed! - she said that Vera Ralstons' acting was "dreadful" (Vera looked good to me!)

Fallen Angel (1945) - 97 mins

Starring Dana Andrews, Alice Faye, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, Bruce Cabot & John Carradine

Directed by Otto Preminger

Eric Stanton, a penniless drifter, falls in love with Stella, who works in a small-town coffee shop. She refuses to marry him because of his poor financial condition. Desperate for money, Eric marries a wealthy local spinster, who he plans to divorce. His plans go awry when someone ends up dead and he's the prime suspect.

Otto Preminger's follow-up to Laura (1944) - he made one further noir thrillers with Dana Andrews: Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950). All 3 films are available from this website.

The Fallen Sparrow (1943) - 94 mins

Starring John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison & Martha O'Driscoll

Directed by Richard Wallace

Kit is an idealistic Spanish Civil War veteran who survives two torturous years in a fascist prison. Upon returning to New York, he is pounced upon by Nazi agents, who hope to learn the valuable secrets that Kit would not reveal to his captors during his ordeal. Among the methods of persuasion utilized by the Nazis is the beautiful Toni.

John Garfield was borrowed from Warner Bros. by RKO Radio for the tense espionage melodrama

The Fallen Sparrow was based on the best-selling novel by Dorothy B. Hughes.

The Far Country (1954) - 97 mins

Starring James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvert, Walter Brennan, John McIntire & Jay C. Flippen

Directed by Anthony Mann

Set in the Yukon, Jeff Webster (James Stewart) and his friends are driving cattle to market from Wyoming to Canada, where the boom towns pay top dollar for beef. When they arrive in Skagway, the corrupt sheriff of the town, Gannon (John McIntire) steals the cattle and Webster is forced to fight for their herd. Together with Ronda Castle (Ruth Roman), owner of The Skagway Castle & Dawson Castle saloons, they find themselves up against an evil they were not prepared for. When Webster's friend is killed, he is forced to go up against the evil Gannon.

Good versus evil in incredible Yukon settings makes this a highly entertaining Western.

Written for the screen by Borden Chase who also scripted two other Stewart/Mann westerns: Winchester '73 (1950) & Bend of the River (1952) - see below

Perfect Technicolor Print! - Fabulous

James Stewart & Anthony Mann: their 5 westerns together from 1950 to 1955, rewrote the cowboy story for the big screen - their's were tough, psychological though lyric masterpieces of western cinema - beautifully photographed and expertly written stories with intriguing characters and realistic action - a blueprint for westerns of the 50s (and embraced by Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott in their excellent collaborations in the late 1950s - see the Randolph Scott section of this website)

This, The Far Country (1954), was the fourth of this quintet of Stewart / Mann westerns - preceded by

Winchester '73 (1950), Bend of the River (1952) & The Naked Spur (1953) and followed by The Man from Laramie (1955) - each is available from this (the INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES) section of the website.

All 5 westerns in the series can also be obtained in an nice boxed set from within the Classic Movie Combinations section of this website

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) - 97 mins

Starring Robert Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton & Sylvester Stallone

Directed by Dick Richards

This adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel is much closer to the source text than the original, 'Murder, My Sweet', which tended to avoid some of the sleazier parts of the plot, but still concerns private eye Philip Marlowe's attempts to locate Velma, a former dancer at a seedy nightclub, and the girlfriend of Moose Malloy, a petty criminal just out of prison. Marlowe finds that once he has taken the case events conspire to put him in dangerous situations, and he is forced to follow a confusing trail of untruths and double crosses before he is able to locate Velma.

Note that this film is part of the Philip Marlowe "at the Movies" Combination which can be found in the Classic Movie Combinations section of this website

A Farewell to Arms (1932) - 90 mins

Starring Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Philips & Jack La Rue

Directed by Frank Borzage

Gary Cooper plays Lt. Frederick Henry, a World War I officer who falls in love with English Red Cross nurse Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes). Henry's friend, Major Rinaldi (Adolphe Menjou), is envious of the romance, and pulls strings to have Catherine transferred to Milan. When Henry is wounded in battle, he ends up in the very hospital where Catherine works. They resume the affair, which reaches an ecstatic peak just before Henry is returned to the front. The now-pregnant Catherine remains in Switzerland, sending many letters to Henry. But the jealous Rinaldi sees to it that Henry never receives those letters, leading Catherine to conclude sorrowfully that Henry has forgotten her. As the Armistice approaches, Henry makes his way to Switzerland, hoping to find Catherine.

Ernest Hemingway's wonderful novel A Farewell to Arms is brought to the screen in this stunning film.

Oscar wins for Cinematography & Sound Recording - also Oscar Nominated for Best Picture & Art Direction

Gary Cooper: forever the great adventurer - these Gary Cooper titles are available from this website are:

The Far Horizons (1955) - 108 mins

Starring Fred MacMurray, Charlton Heston, Donna Reed, Barbara Hale & William Demarest

Directed by Rudolph Maté

This romanticized retelling of the legendary Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-06 stars Fred MacMurray as Meriwether Lewis and Charlton Heston as Bill Clark. There's little love lost between the cerebral Lewis and the two-fisted Clark, complicated by the presence of Indian maiden Sacajawea (Donna Reed) and white-woman Julia Hancock (Barbara Hale).

This Technicolor-and-Vistavision film from the Pine-Thomas production team works best as an outdoor adventure - based on Sacajawea of the Shoshones, a novel by Della Gould Edmonds.

Father Brown, Detective (1934) - 68 mins

Starring Walter Connolly, Paul Lukas, Gertrude Michael, Robert Loraine & E. E. Clive

Directed by Edward Sedgwick

G.K. Chesterton's crime-solving cleric Father Brown was first brought to the screen in 1934, in the corpulent form of Walter Connolly. The good father spends most of the film trying to retrieve a valuable diamond cross from elusive thief Flambeau (Paul Lukas). Father Brown is convinced that Flambeau is eminently redeemable, but the double-crossing thief hardly proves to be a prime candidate for salvation. Amazingly, Father Brown's faith in Flambeau's essential decency proves well-founded, but it's certainly touch-and-go for a while.

The first of two Father Brown films preceding Father Brown (1954) - see below

There was also a very successful Father Brown TV Series starring Kenneth More - the complete series is available from within the TV Series section of this website

Also worth a thought: The Father Brown Radio Series - its available from within the Radio Shows on MP3 CD section of this website

Father Brown (1954) (aka The Detective) - 91 mins

Starring Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Peter Finch, Cecil Parker, Bernard Lee & Sid James

Directed by Robert Hamer

Alec Guinness stars as Father Brown, full-time priest and part-time sleuth, in this comic mystery based on the character created by novelist G.K. Chesterton. When Father Brown is entrusted with transporting a valuable religious artifact from London to Rome, he's understandably upset when it's stolen from him. Brown has reason to believe that the notorious international thief, Flambeau (Peter Finch) has lifted the cross he was carrying, and the good Father finds himself on a dual-purpose mission: to recover the stolen goods and to compel the thief to repent before God.

The second of two Father Brown films following Father Brown, Detective (1934) - see above

There was also a very successful Father Brown TV Series starring Kenneth More - the complete series is available from within the TV Series section of this website

Also worth a thought: The Father Brown Radio Series - its available from within the Radio Shows on MP3 CD section of this website

Fate is the Hunter (1964) - 106 mins

Starring Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Jane Russell & Wally Cox

Directed by Ralph Nelson

Suspense builds around the investigation of a plane crash that caused 53 deaths in this dramatic adaption of Ernest K. Gann's novel. Authorities systematically eliminate probable causes, finally placing blame on the pilot, who was seen drinking before the flight. The airline's director of flight operations, Sam McBane (Glenn Ford), knowing the pilot's excellent WW II record, refuses to accept the authorities' conclusions and begins his own investigation. With the help of the only survivor, a stewardess (Suzanne Pleshette), McBane re-creates the events leading to the crash in an attempt to discover the true cause. The character of the incriminated pilot, Captain Jack Savage (Rod Taylor), is revealed through a series of flashbacks, from a wartime army camp (with a cameo by Jane Russell) to the climactic moment of the thrilling crash.

Milton Krasner's crisp cinematography earned him an Oscar nomination.

Great movie and Rod Taylor has a stand-out role

The TV Series section of this website also contains DVD sets of Rod's two TV series: Hong Kong (1960-61) and Bearcats! (1971)

The Fat Man (1951) - 78 mins

Starring J. Scott Smart, Julie London, Rock Hudson, Clinton Sundberg & Jayne Meadows

Directed by William Castle

The popular radio detective series The Fat Man was brought to the screen in 1951, with the series' original star J. Scott Smart retained in the title role. Smart plays porcine sleuth Brad Runyon, who tackles the mystery surrounding the murder of a Los Angeles dentist. With the assistance of general factotum Bill Norton (Clinton Sundberg), Runyon follows the trail of clues all the way to a three-ring circus. Famed Barnum & Bailey clown Emmett Kelly makes his screen debut as one of the suspects; others essential to the action are such up-and-comers as Rock Hudson, Julie London and Jayne Meadows. The film's flashback-within-flashback structure helps to enliven its more verbose passages. For the most part, The Fat Man plays more like a radio show than a movie at least until the exciting climax, inventively staged by director William Castle.

Note: Dashiell "Maltese Falcon" Hammett created Brad Runyon, the Fat Man, specifically for radio and even wrote a few scripts to help "set" the series. This radio series is available from the Old Time Radio section of this website

F.B.I. Girl (1951) - 74 mins

Starring Cesar Romero, George Brent, Audrey Totter, Tom Drake & Raymond Burr

Directed by William Berke

Shirley Wayne (Audrey Totter) is an FBI clerk who is pressed into more active duties by her bosses FBI Agents Glen Stedman (Cesar Romero) & Jeff Donley (George Brent). Shirley's job is to uncover the criminal past of above-reproach politician Governor Owen Grisby (Raymond Greenleaf) who is to run for the U.S. Senate. Blake (Raymond Burr) is a hulking hoodlum who suspects that Shirley is working for the feds.

Loaded with then up-to-date crime-busting technology, FBI Girl was based on a story by Rupert Hughes, the uncle of Howard R. Hughes.

Fear is the Key (1972) - 103 mins

Starring Barry Newman, Suzy Kendall, John Vernon, Dolph Sweet & Ben Kingsley

Directed by Michael Tuchner

In this thriller based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, Barry "Vanishing Point" Newman plays John Talbot, an underwater salvage expert who witnesses the murder of his wife and child. After working with the police, Talbot hatches his own scheme to bring the killers to justice; posing as a criminal, he stages the phony murder of a police officer and kidnaps Sarah Ruthven (Suzy Kendall), the heiress to a petroleum fortune. Talbot's false daring attracts the attention of a criminal mastermind who wants to recover the valuables aboard a plane that recently crash-landed in the water; however, Talbot knows that the same man was responsible for his family's death, and he intends to see that he never returns from their exploratory search of the wrecked plane.

A fabulous car chase sets this film rolling and it unfolds at a terrific rate

A superb widescreen color print

Note: Fans of films based on Alistair MacLean's works might like to check out The Secret Ways (1961), The Satan Bug (1965), When Eight Bells Toll (1971), Puppet on a Chain (1971), Caravan to Vaccarès (1974), Golden Rendezvous (1977), Bear Island (1979) & River of Death (1989) elsewhere in the Adv INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section of this website.

Additionally, The Alistair MacLean Collection which can be found in the Classic Movie Combinations section of this website, comprises The Satan Bug (1965), When Eight Bells Toll (1971), Puppet on a Chain (1971) & Fear Is the Key (1972) in a special 4 DVD collection.

Further Note: Fans of Barry Newman (as I certainly am) should check out Vanishing Point (1971) & The Salzburg Connection (1972) which are also available from this website

The Fearmakers (1958) - 85 mins

Starring Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, Marilee Earle, Veda Ann Borg & Kelly Thordsen

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

A Korean war veteran, a victim of brainwashing while he was a POW, finally goes back to his home in Washington, DC, where he resumes his job at a public relations-opinion research firm. He soon discovers that his company is being run by communists after his partner mysteriously died. Now pro-communist propaganda seems to be their primary business. To stop them, the vet begins cooperating in a full-scale Senate investigation.

Federal Man (1950) - 67 mins

Starring Bill Henry, Robert Shayne, Pamela Blake , George Eldridge, Dennis Moore, Paul Hoffman & Noel Cravat

Directed by Robert Emmett Tansey

A government agent dogs the trail of illegal narcotics peddlers, requiring several trips south of the US-Mexico border and back again. Eventually he is lead via assorted characters to Harry, the lead smuggler.

Serial veterans including Pamela Blake abound in this neat story whilst veteran utility player George Eldredge enjoys one of the largest assignments of his career as the slimy gang leader. Like many crime films of the era, Federal Man adopts a documentary approach to its scripted scenes.

Ferry to Hong Kong (1959) - 103 mins

Starring Orson Welles, Curt Jurgens, Sylvia Syms & Jeremy Spencer

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Mark Conrad, a habitual drunk and troublemaker with a shady past, is expelled by Hong Kong police after one too many bar fights. He's sent to Macao on the Fa Tsan, a ferry owned by Captain Hart. Conrad's papers are out of order and Macao refuses him entry. Unable to go ashore, Conrad is a permanent passenger on the ferry with Hart, who detests him. It's all one long, lazy voyage for Conrad until one fateful trip when an encounter with a typhoon and pirates forces Conrad to choose between an aimless drifter's life and becoming a man again.

ffolkes (1979) (aka North Sea Hijack) - 96 mins

Starring Roger Moore, James Mason, Anthony Perkins, Michael Parks, David Hedison & Jack Watson

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen

Rufus Excalibur ffolkes - small "f" (Roger Moore), who for some reason prefers not to capitalize his last name, is a scuba-diving adventurer for hire with a sharp mind, a quick wit, a fondness for cats, and a certain distrust of women (he's also a wealthy mysogynistic eccentric). When terrorist Lou Kramer (Anthony Perkins) takes over an oil drilling platform in the North Sea and threatens to blow it sky high if his demands are not met, ffolkes is called in by Admiral Brinsden (James Mason) to foil Kramer's scheme before it's too late.

ffolkes, also released as North Sea Hijack was based on the novel "Esther, Ruth, and Jennifer" by Jack Davies, who also penned the screenplay ("Esther, Ruth, and Jennifer," incidentally, are the code names for the ship, drilling rig, and platform seized by Kramer in the film).

Roger Moore took a brief vacation from playing James Bond in this witty adventure drama.

Roger Moore made some interesting films in and around his James Bond tour of duty: Crossplot (1969), The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976), Shout at the Devil (1976), ffolkes (1979) & The Naked Face (1984) - all of which are available from this website

52 Pick-Up (1986) - 110 mins

Starring Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, Vanity, John Glover & Robert Trebor

Directed by John Frankenheimer

Wealthy metallurgist Harry Mitchell lives to regret his extramarital affair with pretty young Cini, when a trio of vicious blackmailers show Mitchell a videotape of his extra-marital escapades. They demand a huge amount of hush money, but Mitchell calls their bluff, going so far as to tell his politically ambitious wife Barbara (Ann-Margret) about the affair. But the extortionists haven't even gotten started yet. Tying Mitchell to a chair, they force him to watch a tape of Cini being horribly murdered-with the evidence arranged so that Mitchell will be accused of the crime. But Mitchell remains firm in his refusal to pay up, whereupon he mounts a "fight fire with fire" plan all his own.

52 Pick Up was based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, which was previously filmed in 1984 as The Ambassador (starring Robert Mitchum), which is also available from this website.

Fighter Attack (1953) - 80 mins

Starring Sterling Hayden, J. Carrol Naish, Joy Page, Kenneth Tobey, Arthur Caruso & Frank DeKova

Directed by Lesley Selander

Set during World War II, the film concerns an effort to destroy a Nazi supply depot. Though he's flown enough missions to be sent home, squadron leader Steve (Sterling Hayden) insists upon leading the offensive and is shot down behind enemy lines. Rescued by resistance fighters Nina & Bruno (Joy Page & J. Carroll Naish respectively), Steve becomes the "inside man" for his squadron, laying the groundwork for the destruction of the German supplies. Fighter Attack is a high energy action piece which was pleasingly filmed in the two-color Cinecolor process.

Sterling Hayden films which are available from this website are:

Fighter Squadron (1948) - 96 mins

Starring Edmond O'Brien, Robert Stack, Henry Hull, James Holden, Walter Reed, Tom D'Andrea & Jack Larson

Directed by Raoul Walsh

At an American air base in England in1943, insubordinate ace fighter pilot Ed Hardin (Edmond O'Brien) is promoted to commander of his group. Now he must fight his former anti-authority stance as well as the enemy - tension grows as D-Day approaches.

A few notables here: the excellent Technicolor photography; the performance of 15-year-old Jack Larson, making his screen debut in the role of a rookie pilot who grows up in a hurry after scoring his first kill (Larson later gained TV immortality as Jimmy Olsen on Superman); making his first screen appearance, in a role so small it isn't even billed, is a former truck driver named Rock Hudson

Fighting Father Dunne (1948) - 93 mins

Starring Pat O'Brien, Darryl Hickman, Charles Kemper & Una O'Connor

Directed by Ted Tetzlaff

"Boys Town" goes to turn-of-the-century St. Louis in this moving drama that chronicles the love of a determined priest struggling to turn around the lives of a street-wise gang of newsboys living at his homeless shelter. The good father has little money and must use his wits and ability to convince others to help out to supply the little shelter. Much of the story centres on his relationship with a troubled lad who accidentally kills someone

Pat O'Brien always delivers!

-NEW TITLE-

The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) - 100 mins

Starring John Wayne, Vera Ralston, Philip Dorn, Oliver Hardy & John Howard

Shortly after the Battle of New Orleans, John Breen (John Wayne), a Kentucky trooper making the long journey homeward with his confreres, becomes involved with a plan by robber baron Blake Randolph (John Howard) to deprive hundreds of French army refugees of land granted to them by an Act of Congress. Championing the cause of the refugees, Breen does his best to defeat Randolph and his minions--and to prevent the villain's marriage to Fleurette De Marchand (Vera Ralston), the daughter of a former French general (Hugo Haas). Oliver Hardy makes a rare appearance sans Stan Laurel as Wayne's pugnacious, philosophical sidekick Willie Payne.

Directed by George Waggner

Fighting Man of the Plains (1949) - 94 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, Bill Williams, Victor Jory, Douglas Kennedy & Jane Nigh

Directed by Edwin L. Marin

Jim Dancer is one of the members of Quantrill's Raiders, staging attacks on Kansas on behalf of the fallen Confederacy in the years following the Civil War. During one raid, he kills the man he holds responsible for the death of his brother. The dead man was innocent, and Dancer becomes a fugitive from justice. Months later, he resurfaces as the marshal of a Kansas town, where he confronts a vicious gang and must seek help from another social outcast, Jesse James!

Written by the legendary Frank Gruber, this film was one of a group of Randolph Scott westerns produced independently by Nat Holt and released through 20th Century-Fox.

Excellent B&W print but not available in Cinecolor

The Fighting Seabees (1944) - 100 mins

Starring John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Dennis O'Keefe, Grant Withers & William Frawley

Directed by Edward Ludwig

The Fighting Seabees is Republic Pictures' rip-roaring tribute to the US Navy's Construction Batallions (C.B.), without whom no plane would ever have gotten off the ground during WW2. John Wayne stars as Wedge Donovan, head of civilian construction company stationed in a pre-Pearl Harbor South Pacific war area. Despite Donovan's pleas to the Navy brass, he is denied permission to train his men for combat, the better to stave off imminent Japanese attack. Only after incurring heavy losses is Donovan given a commission and his men officially enlisted in the Navy.

An excellent production from a script (& story) by Borden Chase and using the Special Effects talents of Republic stalward, Theodore Lydecker

Oscar Nominated for Best Music

The Fighting 69th (1940) - 90 mins

Starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, George Brent, Jeffrey Lynn, Alan Hale & Frank McHugh

Directed by William Keighley

The US 69th division was a national guard contingent comprised of Irish Americans, who fought with the Rainbow Division in the WWI years 1917-1918. Into this ethnic stronghold comes cocky Jerry Plunkett, a streetwise tough who is certain that he can lick the Germans single-handedly. But during his first taste of real combat, Plunkett turns coward and inadvertently reveals the 69th's position. Held responsible for the deaths of his companions, Plunkett is sentenced to a firing squad. Thanks to a bomb that levels the stockade in which he is held, Plunkett set out to redeem himself on the battlefield.

The beauty of James Cagney's star performance is that he is as thoroughly convincing as a "yellow belly" as he is a hero.

The real-life personages depicted in The Fighting 69th include military priest Father Duffy (Pat O'Brien), future OSS leader Wild Bill Donovan (George Brent) and poet Joyce Kilmer (Jeffrey Lynn).

Another outstanding tour de force for Cagney!

The Fighting Westerner (1935) - see Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935)

Find the Lady (1956) - 56 mins

Starring Donald Huston, Beverley Brooks, Mervyn Johns & Kay Callard

Directed by Charles Saunders

In this comedy-thriller, a woman returns to the country to see her godmother only to learn that the old woman has mysteriously disappeared. She quickly enlists the aide of a doctor to help her. It appears that the fugitive thieves may be using the godmother's house as a hide-out and home base.

Neat little mystery from the Brits - well paced and directed by Charles Saunders

Finger Man (1955) - 82 mins

Starring Frank Lovejoy, Forrest Tucker, Peggie Castle & Timothy Carey

Directed by Harold D. Schuster

Treasury agents, desperate to get evidence on syndicate kingpin Dutch Becker, give ex-con hood Casey Martin a choice: life in prison or courting sudden death as a government 'finger man.' Finding that his sister is now a drug addict thanks to Becker, Martin agrees to go undercover. Becker's chief aide proves to be sadistic Lou Terpe, Martin's former cellmate whom he can't stand the sight of. And the danger hanging over Martin expands to threaten those around him.

Frank Lovejoy in a top flight actioner with just a tinge of noir.

The Fireball (1950) - 84 mins

Starring Mickey Rooney, Pat O'Brien, Marilyn Monroe, Beverly Tyler, James Brown & Ralph Dumke

Directed by Tay Garnett

Johnny Cesar (Mickey Rooney ) is an orphan kid who rises to fame and fortune on the basis of his skill on skates. As his popularity grows, so does Johnny's arrogance. It takes a bout with polio to bring Johnny back down to earth. Pat O'Brien is cast as the priest who encourages Johnny to hone his skating skills, then gives the boy moral support when he's stricken down by illness. Marilyn Monroe has a showy supporting role as one of Johnny's casual dates.

Fire Over Africa (1954) - 84 mins

Starring Maureen O'Hara, Macdonald Carey, Binnie Barnes, Guy Middleton & Hugh McDermott

Directed by Richard Sale

In this adventure, set in North Africa, a secret agent must find a band of smugglers. The man who recommended her for the job is another American agent who works in foreign law enforcement. Only he knows her real identity and he is soon killed leaving her to break up the ring with the assistance of another agent masquerading as a smuggler. Thye are also assisted by a friendly saloonkeeper.

The story was shot on location in Tangiers - an excellent color print!

First Man into Space (1959) - 77 mins

Starring Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards, Robert Ayres & Bill Nagy

Directed by Robert Day

Navy test pilot Lieut. Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards) in the experimental rocket plane Y-13, disobeys orders and becomes the first man to fly outside the ionosphere before vanishing in a mysterious cloud. The space capsule eventually returns to Earth, covered in a bizarre extraterrestrial coating. Shortly thereafter, a hulking, half-human creature raids a blood bank, killing the nurse on duty and gulping down the supplies. More bizarre, unexplained events occur before Prescott's older brother Cmdr. C.E. Prescott (Marshall Thompson) concludes that the monster is actually his missing brother, transformed by his experiences in space into a mutant, vampiric beast.

Filmed not long after the launch of Russia's Sputnik satellite, First Man Into Space benefited from a realism made possible by enhanced public knowledge of space-travel.

A good, tight sci-fi experience!

-NEW TITLE-

First Men in the Moon (1964) - 103 mins

Starring Edward Judd, Martha Hyer, Lionel Jeffries, Miles Malleson & Norman Bird

Directed by Nathan Juran

When scientists in the year 1964 are confused by evidence of a long-ago space flight, nonagenarian Arnold Bedford (Edward Judd) explains all. Back in 1899, Bedford, eccentric scientist Joseph Cavor (Lionel Jeffries) and heroine Kate Callender (Martha Hyer) took a trip to the moon in a home-made space vehicle. Once on the lunar surface, they encountered an alien civilization resembling an ant colony, complete with "queen," soldiers and workers. How they returned, and the aftereffects of their journey, comprise the film's final third.

H.G. Wells’ excellent story is brought to the screen here in a fabulous production courtesy of Visual Effects supremo (and producer) Ray Harryhausen

Screenplay by the legendary Nigel “Quatermass” Kneale

(Interesting Trivia: Peter Finch appears briefly as a messenger; he happened to be visiting the set when the actor hired to play the bailiff's assistant failed to show up)

The First Texan (1956) - 82 mins

Starring Joel McCrea, Felicia Farr, Jeff Morrow, Wallace Ford, Abraham Sofaer & Jody McCrea

Directed by Byron Haskin

The title character is Sam Houston, played with rugged assuredness by Joel McCrea. The film begins when Houston leaves Tennessee for Texas, where at first he keeps to himself and avoids politics. As events overwhelm him, however, Houston evolves into the territory's most conspicuous patriot. His efforts to thwart Mexican general Santa Ana's efforts to recapture Texas for Mexico culminate in the battle of the Alamo.

With Jeff Morrow as Jim Bowie, James Griffith as Davy Crockett and William Hopper as Colonel Travis>

That’s Joel McCrea's son Jody playing Lt. Baker.

First Yank into Tokyo (1945) - 82 mins

Starring Tom Neal, Barbara Hale, Marc Cramer, Richard Loo & Keye Luke

Directed by Gordon Douglas

An American agent undergoes plastic surgery to make him look Japanese so he can infiltrate Japan and help to free an American POW (who also happens to be a captured US atomic scientist. Of note is the fact that this is the first Hollywood film to acknowledge the existence of nuclear firepower. After the film's completion, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki necessitated the re-shooting of a few scenes and a re-jigging of the story.

A very interesting story with a few neat twists.

Five (1951) - 93 mins

Starring William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubes, James Anderson, Charles Lampkin & Earl Lee

Directed by Arch Oboler

Five people are miraculously spared when the fall-out from a super-atomic bomb eventually kills all of the rest of humanity on earth. They are Roseanne Rogers, a pregnant woman who was in an ex-ray room; Michael, a sensitive young poet and philosopher; Eric, a black man; Mr. Barnstaple, a banker; and Charles, a cosmopolitan Alpinist who was saved from the radio-active dust because he was climbing Mt. Everest at the time of the explosion and fall-out.

A out-and-out cult film directed by Arch Oboler who was one of the greatest radio writers of all time.

Five Came Back (1939) - 75 mins

Starring Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, Allen Jenkins, Joseph Calleia, Kent Taylor, Patric Knowles, C. Aubrey Smith, Casey Johnson & Elizabeth Risdon

Directed by John Farrow

Often cited as a "model" B picture, Five Came Back is set in motion when the twelve-seat passenger plane "Southern Star" crashes into a treacherous South American jungle. With a hostile tribe of headhunters drawing ever closer, pilots Bill (Chester Morris) and Joe (Kent Taylor) race against time to repair the crippled plane and rescue themselves and the nine other survivors. It soon becomes tragically apparent that the damaged aircraft will be able to carry only five of the marooned party. It now comes down to a question of who will survive, or who deserves to: Spineless socialite Judson Ellis (Patric Knowles), his embittered wife Alice (Wendy Barrie), elderly scientist Spengler (C. Aubrey Smith), Spengler's devoted spouse Martha (Elizabeth Risdon), trollop Peggy (Lucille Ball), condemned anarchist Vasquez (Joseph Calleia), Vasquez' detective-captor Crimp (John Carradine), likeable mob henchman Pete (Allen Jenkins), or gangster's son Tommy (Casey Johnson)?

Scripted by Nathaniel West and Dalton Trumbo and brilliantly directed by John Farrow, Five Came Back was a major critical and financial success for the beleagured RKO.

Chester "Boston Blackie" Morris to the fore in an excellent & intelligent action piece!

5 Fingers (1952) - 108 mins

Starring James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Herbert Berghof, Walter Hampden & Michael Rennie

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Based on a true story. In neutral Turkey during WWII, the ambitious and extremely efficient valet for the British ambassador tires of being a servant and forms a plan to promote himself to rich gentleman of leisure. His employer has many secret documents; he will photograph them, and with the help of a refugee Countess, sell them to the Nazis. When he makes a certain amount of money, he will retire to South America with the Countess as his wife.

Is this James Mason's best role ever? - it seems as though it was made for him!

Five Graves to Cairo (1943) - 96 mins

Starring Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Erich von Strohelm & Peter Van Eyck

Directed by Billy Wilder

June, 1942. The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border--Corporal John Bramble, who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel...soon to be German HQ. To survive, Bramble assumes an identity which proves perilous. The new guest of honor is none other than Rommel, hinting of his secret strategy, code-named 'five graves.' And the fate of the British in Egypt depends on whether a humble corporal can penetrate the secret.

Billy Wilder-Charles Brackett script manages to incorporate wit and humour into this genuinely exciting wartime adventure story.

5 Steps to Danger (1957) - 81 mins

Starring Sterling Hayden, Ruth Roman, Werner Klemperer, Rchard Gaines & Charles Davis

Directed by Henry S. Kesler

When his car breaks down during a trip from Los Angeles to Texas, John Emmett (Sterling Hayden) meets another motorist, Ann Nicholson (Ruth Roman), who offers him a lift. He learns that she is running away from her physician, Dr. Simmons (Werner Klemperer), and the police, who want to question her about a murdered Central Intelligence Agent in Los Angeles. Anne, as it also turns out, is a native of Berlin, Germany. She had come into possession of a valuable secret formula for a 4000-mile-per-hour rocket, which is written on the reverse side of a small pocket mirror she carries. She wants to deliver this to a scientist in the United States. But, the scientist is an enemy agent as is her doctor and they, and the F.B.I are after her.

Five Steps to Danger was adapted from the novel The Steel Mirror by Donald Hamilton.

Sterling Hayden films which are available from this website are:

The Flame and the Arrow (1950) - 88 mins

Starring Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas & Nick Cravat

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

Twelfth-century Lombardy lies under the iron heel of German overlord Count Ulrich 'The Hawk', but in the mountains, guerillas yet resist. Five years before our story, Ulrich stole away the pretty wife of young archer Dardo who, cynical rather than embittered, still has little interest in joining the rebels. But this changes when his son, too, is taken from him. The rest is lighthearted swashbuckling, plus romantic interludes with lovely hostage Anne.

Burt Lancaster also made a number of other adventure films of a similar vein: Ten Tall Men (1951), The Crimson Pirate (1952), South Sea Woman (1953), His Majesty O'Keefe (1954).

Then, of course there were his powerful performances in gritty noirs and dramas: The Killers (1946), Brute Force (1947), Desert Fury (1947), I Walk Alone (1948), Criss Cross (1949), Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Run Silent Run Deep (1958), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), The Train (1964).

All of the above are available from this website

And how about a Lancaster film that includes elements of the above, namely a gritty & powerful action/adventure outing? - check out Rope of Sand (1949) - which is also available from this website

Flame Over India (1959) - See North West Frontier (1959) elsewhere on this website

The Flemish Farm (1943) - 82 mins

Starring Clive Brook, Clifford Evans, Jane Baxter, Philip Friend & Brefni O'Rorke

Directed by Jeffrey Dell

Duclos is a Belgian airman who joins the British air corps at the outbreak of WW2. Feeling the need to do something more for his country than merely dropping bombs on Nazi installations, Duclos flies back to his German-occupied homeland to symbolically retrieve a Belgian Air Force flag he'd buried just before evacuating. He hides out in the farm of the title, where he is given aid and support by the Belgian underground. Ultimately, however, his presence becomes known to the Nazis, leading to a tension-filled denouement.

Based on a true story.

Flight (1929) - 110 mins

Starring Jack Holt, Ralph Graves & Lila Lee

Directed by Frank Capra

This early Frank Capra talkie stars popular screen action team Jack Holt and Ralph Graves as US marines Panama Williams & Lefty Phelps stationed in Nicaragua. The two guys are fighting over Elinor ( Lila Lee) in between flying their Curtis fighter-bomber on dangerous missions.

The flight scenes, shot without the benefit of special effects or back projection, are truly awe-inspiring, and served as stock footage for countless Columbia films in future years.

Flight which was adapted by Capra from a story by co-star Ralph Graves was a major success for the then tiny Columbia studios.

All three principals (director Capra and stars Holt & Graves) were to combine again, two years later for a similar aviation-themed film: Dirigible (1931) which is also available from this website

Flight from Glory (1937) - 67 mins

Starring Chester Morris, Whitney Bourne, Onslow Stevens, Van Heflin & Richard Lane

Directed by Lew Landers

This laudable RKO programmer casts Chester Morris as a fearless pilot whose misdeeds have exiled him to a remote flying field in the Andes mountains. Morris and his fellow pilots are all exiles of sorts, and as such are willing to take on the near-suicidal task of flying supplies to miners in the most treacherous mountain ranges. The all-male atmosphere is disrupted when young air ace Van Heflin shows up with his wife Whitney Bourne. Morris tries to keep the sex-starved pilots away from Whitney, buts ends up falling in love with her himself.

This is a great Chester Morris actioner with support from Richard Lane - they would both combine a few years later in Morris' Boston Blackie movie series in which Lane played the hapless Inspector Faraday (The Boston Blackie Movie series is available from Movie Series section of this website)

Flight to Hong Kong (1956) - 86 mins

Starring Rory Calhoun, Barbara Rush, Dolores Donlon, Soo Yong, Pat Conway & Werner Klemperer

Directed by Joseph M. Newman

On an airliner bound for Hong Kong, Tony Dumont (Rory Calhoun) is attracted to a pretty novelist, Pamela Vincent (Barbara Rush), who returns the attention. The plane is held up by a hi-jacking gang and a shipment of diamonds are stolen. Dumont is actually the master-mind of a diamond-smuggling syndicate operating from Macao but is so infatuated with Pamela, that he double-crosses the gang and follows Pamela to San Francisco, taking the diamonds with him. There, she brushes him off. Now hunted by both the police and the syndicate, he returns to Macao.

The Flim Flam Man (1967) - 104 mins

Starring George C. Scott, Sue Lyon, Michael Sarrazin, Harry Morgan, Jack Albertson & Slim Pickens

Directed by Irvin Kershner

Michael Sarrazin plays Curley, a young man gone AWOL from the Army who soon makes the acquaintance of Mordechai (George C. Scott), a veteran confidence man. Mordecai takes a liking to Curley, and offers to show him the tricks of the trade as they drift through the American South, pulling one scam after another. But when Curley meets Bonnie Lee Packard (Sue Lyon), romance rears its head and Curley decides to go straight. Mordecai is not so easily convinced to leave his trade behind, however, and when a car theft goes spectacularly wrong and Mordecai ends up in jail, Curley has to pull a fast one to got his pal out of stir.

This fun adventure movie (with echoes of Emperor of the North - also available from this website) finds George C. Scott looking vastly different than usual

Released in UK and Australia as One Born Every Minute

Fly By Night (1942) - 74 mins

Starring Richard Carlson, Nancy Kelly, Albert Bassermann, Miles Mander, Edward Gargan & Adrian Morris

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Young intern Jeff Burton (Richard Carlson) impulsively offers a lift to an odd-looking gentlemen who informs that he is an inventor who has just escaped from a shady sanitarium, where he has been held prisoner by Nazi spies. When the stranger turns up dead, poor Jeff is held on suspicion of murder. Escaping, he forces innocent bystander Pat Lindsay (Nancy Kelly) to pose as his wife and drive him around in search of the genuine killers.

The innovative direction of Robert Siodmak lifts this Hitchcock imitation well above the ordinary - a true delight

The Flying Irishman (1939) - 71 mins

Starring Douglas Corrigan, Paul Kelly, Robert Armstrong, Gene Reynolds & Donald MacBride

Directed by Leigh Jason

This is the story of the historic 1938 flight of Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan. Mr. Corrigan starred in this film, which chronicled his infamous flight. On July 17, 1938, Mr. Corrigan loaded 320 gallons of gasoline (40 hours worth) into the tiny, single engine plane. While expressing his intent to fly west to Long Beach, CA, Mr. Corrigan flew out of Floyd Bennett Field heading east over the Atlantic. Instrumentation in the plane included two compasses (both malfunctioned) and a turn-and-bank indicator. The cabin door was held shut with baling wire. Nearly 29 hours later, he landed in Baldonnel near Dublin. He forever claimed to be surprised at arriving in Ireland rather than California. He returned to the US as a hero, with a ticker tape parade in New York and received numerous medals and awards.

His (Corrigan's) acting is a bit limited but 'tis a great story with a strong supporting cast.

Flying Leathernecks (1951) - 102 mins

Starring John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Don Taylor, Janis Carter, Jay C. Flippen & James Bell

Directed by Nicholas Ray

Filmed at the behest of RKO chieftain Howard R. Hughes, Flying Leathernecks is a paean to the Marine Flying Corps of World War II. Wayne plays Major Dan Kirby, a squadron commander, whose no-nonsense attitude is sharply at odds with the easygoing approach of executive officer Captain Carl Griffin (Robert Ryan). Griffin eventually learns the value of discipline at all costs, while Kirby becomes more humanized as he gets to know his pilots. Jay C. Flippen steals the show as a supply sergeant who "borrows" from other companies to keep his men happy.

One of the great adventure / war films of the 1950s, filmed in Technicolor and exhibiting the combined talents of director Nicholas Ray and star Wayne.

The Flying Saucer (1950) - 69 mins

Starring Mikel Conrad, Pat Garrison, Hantz von Teuffen, Lester Sharpe & Denver Pyle

Directed by Mikel Conrad

The CIA sends secret agent Mike Trent (Mikel Conrad) to Alaska with agent Vee Langley (Pat Garrison), posing as his nurse, to find out whether or not UFO reports coming out of Alaska constitute a threat against American defenses. Installed in a hunting lodge, the two look for eyewitnesses to the flying-saucer phenomenon as well as conduct searches in the wilderness. Then they sight a saucer and whilst investigating, they clash with a gang of Soviet spies who are also after the saucer secret.

Filmed on location in Alaska

Striking while the iron was hot, actor/producer/director/writer Mikel Conrad registered the title The Flying Saucer for copyright not long after UFOs were allegedly spotted in Washington State.

Flying Tigers (1942) - 102 mins

Starring John Wayne, John Carroll, Anna Lee, Paul Kelly, Gordon Jones & Mae Clarke

Directed by David Miller

Jim Gordon (John Wayne) commands a unit of the famed Flying Tigers, the American Volunteer Group which fought the Japanese in China before America's entry into World War II. Gordon must send his outnumbered band of fighter pilots out against overwhelming odds while juggling the disparate personalities and problems of his fellow flyers. In particular, he must handle the difficulties created by a reckless hot-shot pilot named Woody Jason (John Carroll), who not only wants to fight a one-man war but to waltz off with Gordon's girlfriend.

Another excellent Republic WWII production: exciting stuff all-the-way

Oscar Nominated for Best Special Effects (Howard Lydecker), Music (Victor Young) & Sound Recording

Follow Me Quietly (1949) - 59 mins

Starring William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Cory, Nestor Paiva & Charles D. Brown

Directed by Richard Fleischer

For six months, a strangler has terrorized the city. Calling himself The Judge, he's a self-appointed destroyer of 'evil' who only strikes on rainy nights. Police Lieut. Harry Grant is obsessed with catching him but has failed so far, despite varied clues. And now Harry is further hampered by attractive tabloid reporter Ann Gorman dogging his footsteps. Compactly crafted noir with some effective thrills.

Richard Fleischer directed a string of impressive nourish "B" dramas in Bodyguard (1948), The Clay Pigeon (1949), Follow Me Quietly (1949), Trapped (1949), Armored Car Robbery (1950) & The Narrow Margin (1952) - with that latter earning an Oscar Nomination - before moving up to the majors with Violent Saturday (1955) - all of which are available from this website

Footsteps in the Dark (1941) - 96 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale, Lee Patrick & Allen Jenkins

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

A spritely comedy/mystery, starring Errol Flynn as a wealthy investment counsellor who secretly doubles as a dilettante detective, the better to write mystery novels. Brenda Marshall plays his wife, who can't understand why he is never home and begins to suspect hanky-panky. In fact, Flynn is investigating the murders of a jewellery smuggler and an exotic dancer.

Footsteps in the Dark was an attempt by Warner Bros. to create a "Nick and Nora Charles" team, in emulation of MGM's popular Thin Man series. And it comes off! Flynn fans will love this one.

Footsteps in the Night (1957) - 56 mins

Starring Bill Elliott, Don Haggerty, Eleanore Tanin, Douglas Dick, Robert Shayne & James Flavin

Directed by Jean Yarbrough

Lieutenant Andy Doyle of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department investigates the murder of a friend, who was killed shortly after a high-stakes card game. The principal suspect is Henry Johnson who was heavily in debt to the dead man. Doyle must deduce not only the identity of the actual killer but the misguided motivations that led to the crime.

Nice Print Quality!

This is the last in Bill Elliott's "Suits & Fedoras" (Andy Doyle/Flynn) Series

Other films from the series Dial Red 0 (1955), Sudden Danger (1955), Calling Homicide (1956) & Chain of Evidence (1957) are also available from the INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section of the website.

The whole series is also available from the Movie Series A-M section of this website (under "B" for "Bill")

Note: A variety of "Wild Bill" Elliott western DVD sets are available from the Westerns section of this website

Further Note: "Wild Bill" Elliott three serial outings are available from the Movie Serials section of this website

Forbidden Cargo (1954) - 85 mins

Starring Jack Warner, Nigel Patrick, Elizabeth Sellars, Terence Morgan & Greta Gynt

Directed by Harold French

After a successful operation against drink smugglers, Customs and Excise get wind of a planned large illegal drug shipment. An agent is sent to Cannes to follow the brother and sister apparently involved, though he starts to get rather closer to the attractive young lady than planned. The trail leads via a fashion house to a freighter bound for the Pool of London, and the net starts to close in.

Forbidden Planet (1956) - 98 mins

Starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly & Earl Holliman

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox

In the 23rd century, Cmdr. J.J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) guides United Planets cruiser C-57-D on a rescue mission to faraway planet Altair-4. Twenty years earlier, Earth ship Bellerophon disappeared while en route to Altair-4. Only the ship's philologist, Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), survived; in the intervening decades, Morbius has created an Edenlike world of his own, for the benefit of himself and his nubile young daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis). His private paradise is zealously guarded by Robby the Robot, a piece of technology far in advance of anything on Earth. When Adams and his crew land on Altair-4, Morbius announces that he has no intention of being rescued and returned to Earth. When Adams attempts to contact home base, he finds that his radio equipment has been smashed by some unseen force. Holding Morbius responsible, Adams confronts the scientist, who decides to tell all. At one time, according to Morbius, Altair-4 was populated by the Krel: a wise, intellectually superior race. Using leftover Krel technology, Morbius has doubled his intellect and gained the ability to shape a new world to his own specifications.

MGM's first big-budget science fiction film, Forbidden Planet, combined state-of-the-art special effects with a storyline based on Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Oscar Nominated for Best Special Effects

A terrific "thinking person's" sci-fi story - fabulous!

Note that one of the stars of this film is Robbie the Robot - an ingeniously constructed unit for the film (it was heavily used within and without the US as a promotional tool for the film).

Robbie the Robot was back one year later in The Invisible Boy (1957) - which is also available from this website.

Force of Evil (1948) - 78 mins

Starring John Garfield, Beatrice Pearson, Thomas Gomez, Roy Roberts & Marie Windsor

Directed by Abraham Polonsky

Garfield is Joe Morse, a slick, self-centered lawyer who knows the law but feels he's above it. He practices on Wall Street and has his eyes on millions, working on retainer for racketeer Ben Tucker (Roberts). The policy czar plans to have the number 776 come up on July 4; knowing that most people will bet on it, Tucker hopes to bankrupt and take over most of the city's smaller numbers operations. Without spilling the beans, Joe attempts to get his kindly brother Leo (Gomez) to shut down for one day, but the stubborn older man feels obligated to let his regulars take their holiday chances. Joe arranges for a police raid to break his brother's spirit, but to no avail. After Tucker achieves his expected success on the Fourth, Leo's people, including bookkeeper Doris (Pearson), become nervous about the gangsters suddenly in their midst. Dark and brooding, the film offers one of Garfield's greatest performances as the cynical, hard-as-nails lawyer. A tour de force for gifted writer Polonsky, this film was the only film he directed before he was blacklisted for being an uncooperative witness before HUAC in 1951; he didn't direct another feature for 21 years. At its best, the film achieves a style at once brutal and poetic, documentarian and noir.

Foreign Correspondent (1940) - 119 mins

Starring Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Edmund Gwenn & Eduardo Ciannelli

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Johnny Jones is an action reporter on a New York newspaper. The editor appoints him European correspondent because he is fed up with the dry, reports he currently gets. Jones' first assignment is to get the inside story on a secret treaty agreed between two European countries by the famous diplomat, Mr. Van Meer. However things don't go to plan and Jones enlists the help of a young woman to help track down a group of spies.

A fabulous adventure story with Hitchcock again in magnificent form. As always, there are certain scenes that are signature Hitchcock: The assassination chase through the sea of umbrellas, and later in the Dutch countryside. The tower murder scene. And the plane crash scene has inspired cinematic plane crashes for decades.

Academy Award nominated for Best Picture!

Foreign Intrigue (1956) - 96 mins

Starring Robert Mitchum, Geneviève Page, Ingrid Thulin, Frédéric O'Brady & Eugene Deckers

Directed by Sheldon Reynolds

A wealthy industrialist dies of a heart attack. His closest employee Dave Bishop (Robert Mitchum) suspects foul play when strangers take a too keen interest in his death. Bishop starts digging into his employers past, which leads him through The Riviera, Stockholm and Vienna. He subsequently learns that the dead man accumulated his wealth by blackmailing war criminals and Nazi collaborators. Suddenly the most peculiar persons are interested in his detective work, even the CIA and British Intelligence.

Top flight Mitchum and on-location filming - a great combo - excellent color print!

The Forest Rangers (1942) - 87 mins

Starring Fred MacMurray, Paulette Goddard, Susan Hayward, Lynne Overman, Albert Dekker & Eugene Pallette

Directed by George Marshall

Ranger Don Stuart fights a forest fire with timber boss friend Tana 'Butch' Mason, and finds evidence of arson. He suspects Twig Dawson but can't prove it. Butch loves Don but he won't notice her as a woman; instead he meets socialite Celia in town and elopes with her. Don's pursuit of the fire starter parallels Tana's comic efforts to scare tenderfoot Celia back to the city.

Great action outdoors adventure - nice color print!

Forever England (1935) (aka Born for Glory, aka Brown on Resolution) - 70 mins

Starring John Mills, Betty Balfour, Barry MacKay, Jimmy Hanley & Howard Marion-Crawford

Directed by Walter Forde

This war movie is set on the high-seas during WWI. It chronicles the exploits of a brave English sailor who is captured by a German cruiser. The courageous sailor, the bastard of a RN officer, soon escapes from the German ship. He also steals a rifle. He hides on the shore and begins taking pot-shots at the Germans. Due to his marksmanship, the ship's journey is delayed. While the Germans are hunting for him, the British ships sneak up on the enemy boat.

This drama is considered to be a landmark British film; it is the first to utilize the actual Royal Navy and it's ships.

Fort Algiers (1953) - 78 mins

Starring Yvonne De Carlo, Carlos Thompson, Raymond Burr, Leif Erickson & Anthony Caruso

Directed by Lesley Selander

A French cabaret singer in Algiers tries to expose the identity of an Arab leader who is conspiring to attack the French. She hopes that by cozying up to him in his palace that she will be able to steal his plans and thwart the conspiracy. Unfortunately, she is soon unmasked and must be rescued by her real lover, a soldier in the French Foreign Legion.

Fort Apache (1948) - 125 mins

Starring John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Pedro Armendáriz, Ward Bond, George O'Brien, Victor McLaglen & John Agar

Directed by John Ford

The first of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", Fort Apache stars John Wayne as Capt. Kirby York and Henry Fonda as Lt. Col. Owen Thursday. Resentful of his loss in rank and transfer to the West after serving gallantly in the Civil War, the vainglorious Thursday insists upon imposing rigid authority on rough-and-tumble Fort Apache. He is particularly anxious to do battle with the local Indians, despite York's admonitions that the trouble around the fort is being fomented not by the so-called savages but by corrupt white Indian agents. Thursday nonetheless ends up in a climactic set-to with Indian chief Cochise.

Fort Apache is an out-and-out classic western - a great story, superb B&W photography, excellent script and a wonderful cast carefully knitted together by director Ford.

The superb "Cavalry Trilogy", directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne consisted of Fort Apache (1948), followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) & Rio Grande (1950) - all of which are available from this website, separately in this (INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES) section or in a nicely presented 3 film set from within the Classic Movie Combinations section

Fort Massacre (1958) - 80 mins

Starring Joel McCrea, Forrest Tucker, Susan Cabot, John Russell, Anthony Caruso & Francis McDonald

Directed by Joseph M. Newman

The embittered cavalry Sergeant Vinson (Joel McCrea) must take over his regiment after their commanding officer is killed during an ambush. To save them, he leads the troop through Apache territory because it is the quickest way to reach the fort. The members of the regiment do not trust their new leader's reasoning. They suspect he is taking them through the restricted territory so that he can get revenge upon the Apaches who killed his wife and children several years before. The troop find themselves suffering a series of increasingly deadly attacks. Many die, until the soldiers, believe that the sergeant has lost his mind.

Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950) - 91 mins

Starring Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina, George Macready, Alfonso Bedoya & Dona Drake

Directed by Gordon Douglas

Based loosely on the same Rafael Sabatini novel which served as the inspiration for the 1935 Errol Flynn vehicle Captain Blood (also available from this website), Fortunes of Captain Blood stars Louis Hayward as Irish doctor Peter Blood, who is exiled from England after treating the wounds of an enemy to the crown. Blood and several other outcasts turn to piracy, terrorizing merchant vessels of all nationalities. Dogging Captain Blood's trail is the heavy of the piece, the Marquis de Riconete (George Macready).

A sort-of-sequel follows with Captain Pirate (1952) - which is also available from this website.

Both films were sumptuously produced by Harry Joe Brown - who was perhaps better known for the Randolph Scott westerns that he did at Columbia (check those out in the Randolph Scott section of this website)

Louis Hayward made a number of "swashbucklers" during his career - there was The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) and The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) followed by The Black Arrow in 1948. Then he filmed The Pirates of Capri (1949) in Italy for legendary director Edgar G. Ulmer, before combining again with The Black Arrow's director Gordon Douglas and co-star George Macready for Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950). Louis Hayward next played Dick Turpin in The Lady and the Bandit (1951) before Captain Pirate (1952) marked his last swordplay movie. He then moved to TV for The Lone Wolf TV series - each of the above films are available from this website, whilst the TV series is available in the TV Series section of this website.

Fort Worth (1951) - 80 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, David Brian, Phyllis Thaxter, Helena Carter & Dickie Jones

Directed by Edwin L. Marin

An gunfighter-turned-newspaperman, Ned Britt sets up shop in a Texas town and tries to expose the crooked machinations of cattle baron Gabe Clevinger. This brings him into conflict with his old friend Blair Lunsfold who has cast his lot with Clevinger. Further complicating matters is Lunsford's fiancee Flora Talbot who falls in love with Britt. As tensions threaten to erupt into all-out bloodshed, especially when Clevinger deploys brute force to prevent the arrival of the railroad, Ned Britt is forced to rethink his newfound philosophy that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Fabulous stuff from Randolph!

40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967) - 95 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Michael Burns, Kenneth Tobey, Laraine Stephens, Robert Brubaker & Michael Keep

Directed by William Witney

Bands of hostile Apaches are terrorizing settlers under the orders of their leader Chochise (Michael Keep). Cavalry Capt. Bruce Coburn (Audie Murphy) mission is to deliver a shipment of rifles, but it's stolen by greedy white traders with the help of mutinous soldiers - the most devious being the villainous Corporal Bodine (Kenneth Tobey), who runs a thriving business selling guns to the Indians.

The directorial reins of 40 Guns to Apache Pass are in the expert hands of actionmeister William Witney - remember his memorable Republic serials and B westerns? - fabulous!

Unfortunately this was Audie Murphy's last starring role - he was to appear on screen once more - in a small role as Jesse James in Budd Boetticher's A Time for Dying (1969). Audie Murphy was killed in a plane crash in 1971.

49th Parallel (1941) - 123 mins

Starring Lawrence Olivier, Richard George, Eric Portman, Raymond Lovell, Niall MacGinnis & Finlay Currie

Directed by Michael Powell

A damaged U-boat is stranded in a Canadian bay in the early years of World War II. The Fanatical Nazi captain and his crew must reach the neutral United States or be captured. Along the way they meet a variety of characters each with their own views on the war and nationalism. In this film director, Michael Powell and writer Emeric Pressburger show their ideas of why the United States should join the Allied fight against the Nazis.

Originally released in the US as The Invaders

Oscar winner for Best Original Story. Nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.

Powell and Pressburger had previously combined to great effect in 1939's The Spy in Black (aka U-Boat 29) and 1940's Contraband (aka Blackout) and later with One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942) and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) - all of which are available from this website.

Note that 49th Parallel (1941) is part of the Powell & Pressburger … their War Films … Combination which can be found in the Classic Movie Combinations section of this website

Forty Thousand Horsemen (1941) - 100 mins

Starring Chips Rafferty, Harvey Adams, Betty Bryant, Eric Reiman & Grant Taylor

Directed by Charles Chauvel

Set during WWI, the film is a tribute to the Australian Light Horse regiment, who distinguished themselves while encamped in Palestine on behalf of the British Empire. Aussie trooper Jim (the popular Chips Rafferty) and French mademoiselle Juliet Rouget (Betty Bryant) fall in love but Jim's destiny is tied to the spectacular cavalry-charge sequence which closes the film.

At the time of its release, 40,000 Horseman was acclaimed as one of the best productions to emanate from Australia.

Quality Note: not the greatest of prints of this rare film - but still of a quality that will not detract from the enjoyment of this excellent film!

Chips went on to star in two other iconic Aussie productions: The Overlanders (1946) & Bush Christmas (1947) - both of which are available from this website.

Note that fans of Chips Rafferty may like to check out his charismatic performances in the two Smiley films which were made in Australia in the late 1950s - the are available from within the Movies Series section of this website.

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) - 160 mins

Starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman & Akim Tamiroff

Directed by Sam Wood

Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a bridge in a cave. Pilar, who is in charge there, has an ability to foretell the future. And so that night she encourages Maria, a young girl ravaged by enemy soldiers, to join Jordan who has decided to spend the night under the stars. The all-time classic adventure from the pen of Ernest Hemingway

Gary Cooper: forever the great adventurer - these Gary Cooper titles are available from this website are:

4D Man (1959) - 85 mins

Starring Robert Lansing, Lee Meriwether, James Congdon, Robert Strauss & Patty Duke

Directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.

Two brothers, scientists Scott and Tony Nelson, (Robert Lansing & James Congdon respectively) develop an amplifier which enables a person to enter a 4th dimensional state, allowing him to pass through any object. Scott experiments on himself and discovers that each time he passes through something he ages rapidly. He begins killing people, sucking out their life energies and regaining his youth as a result. It falls to Tony and Scott's girlfriend, Linda (Lee Meriwether), to try to put a stop to his murderous rampage.

4D Man is exciting and played in a lively fashion with the careful use of Ralph Carmichael's jazz-based score to accent the action. This helps set the film apart from other science fiction films of the era.

Early roles for eventual TV stars: Robert Lansing (12 O'Clock High) and Lee Meriwether (The Time Tunnel & Batman, as Catwoman)

Four Faces West (1948) - 89 mins

Starring Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia, William Conrad & Martin Garralaga

Directed by Alfred E. Green

When the family land is threatened with foreclosure, honest, hard-working rancher Ross McEwen (Joel McCrea) resorts to bank robbery in order to come up with the necessary cash. Although he leaves the bank an I.O.U., Sheriff Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) is sent out to catch the criminal as he flees to escape capture.

In his trek across the desert McEwen comes upon a Mexican family who are desperately ill. They will die if he refuses to help and proceeds on his original journey. He shows his true nature and interrupts his pilgrimage to care for the family. Pat Garrett, who has sworn to catch the outlaw, overtakes McEwen at the poor hovel. The climax is suspenseful and is a fitting conclusion to this fine Western adventure which was originally titled They Passed this Way.

Frances Dee who plays Fay Hollister, a nurse who tends McEwen's wounds, was Joel McCrea's real-life wife (they were married for 57 years!) - the pair had also combined more than 10 years earlier for Wells Fargo (1937), below

The Four Feathers (1939) - 110 mins

Starring Ralph Richardson, John Clements, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Donald Gray & Jack Allen

Directed by Zoltan Korda

Harry Faversham (John Clements) is the son of a military man who expects his son to follow in his footsteps on the fields of battle. Gen. Burroughs (C. Aubrey Smith), the father of Faversham's sweetheart, Ethne (June Duprez), was also a hero in the Crimean War, and he often regales Harry with tales of his exploits under fire. However, Harry is not so sure he believes in the family's tradition of military service and resigns his commission in 1898, shortly before his company is scheduled to head into the Sudan. Three of Faversham's comrades in arms, Capt. John Durrance (Ralph Richardson), Lt. Peter Burroughs (Donald Gray), and Lt. Arthur Willoughby (Jack Allen), each present Harry with a white feather, symbolizing their belief that he is a coward; Ethne shares their belief, and gives him one as well. Disgusted with himself, Faversham disguises himself as a Sangali tribesman and travels to the Sudan so that he might be able to move behind enemy lines and serve the British forces as a scout and reconnaissance agent.

Fabulous production of the A.E.W. Mason's classic adventure novel - brought to the screen three times in the silent era, this is the first sound production. It was a great critical and commercial success and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography.

Director Zoltan Korda also helmed the 1955 remake: Storm Over the Nile - which is also available from this website

Four Frightened People (1934) - 79 mins

Starring Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland, William Gargan, Leo Carrillo & Nella Walker

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille

Four coastal steamer passengers jump ship when a deadly bubonic plague breaks out. They steal a lifeboat and land on a remote Malayan island. The frightened people are a wealthy, married rubber chemist Arnold Ainger (Herbert Marshall), a mousy schoolteacher Judy Jones (Claudette Colbert), a tough news correspondent Stewart Corder (William Gargan) and the supercilious wife of a British official Mrs. Mardick (Mary Boland). As the four adapt themselves to the rigors of jungle life, Judy sheds her glasses and becomes more attractive by the day and is subsequently fought over by the two men in the party.

As entertaining as any of DeMille's "big" pictures, Four Frightened People is a character study about a quartet of castaways whose fates are permanently altered by spectacular circumstances.

And it’s a great adventure filmed entire in Hawaii.

-NEW TITLE-

Four’s a Crowd (1938) - 92 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles & Walter Connolly

Directed by Michael Curtiz

This engaging late 30’s "screwball comedy" stars a quartet of Warner Bros' biggest stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Rosalind Russell and Patric Knowles. Robert Kensington 'Bob' Lansford (Errol Flynn) is a publicity agent who is hired to stir up "good press" for nasty millionaire John P. Dillingwell (Walter Connolly). Bob accomplishes this by going back to his old job as editor of a newspaper owned by Patterson 'Pat' Buckley (Patric Knowles), then using the paper to “talk up” Dingwell’s virtues. Along the way, he romances Dingwell’s daughter Lorri (Olivia de Havilland), and Jean Christy (Rosalind Russell), Pat’s star reporter.

Fast-moving and chucklesome!

Four Sided Triangle (1953) - 81 mins

Starring Barbara Payton, James Hayter, Stephen Murray, John Van Eyssen & Percy Marmont

Directed by Terence Fisher

Lena is a British girl raised in America who returns to her hometown on a sentimental journey. Here she is reunited with her childhood friend Bill, now a scientist. With the help of his pal Robin, Bill has developed a duplicating machine (a type of cloning device). When Robin and Lena fall in love, the heartbroken Bill decides to create a duplicate Lena, whom he names Helen.

Noirish Sci-Fi from the Brits!

Director Terence Fisher co-adapted the screenplay from a novel by William F. Temple.

Framed (1947) - 82 mins

Starring Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan, Edgar Buchanan & Jim Bannon

Directed by Richard Wallace

Mike Lambert, unemployed mining engineer, arrives in a small town with a bang when the brakes fail on the truck he's driving. After meeting seductive Paula at the La Paloma Cafe, he finds himself in trouble with the law. Paula pays his fine and finds him a room, but her motives are not what they seem. Mike lucks into a job with miner Jeff Cunningham, but against his will he's drawn ever deeper into Paula's schemes.

A superior film noir.

The Frogmen (1951) - 96 mins

Starring Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews, Gary Merrill, Jeffrey Hunter, Warren Stephens & Robert Wagner

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

During World War II, Lt. Cmdr. John Lawrence, replaces the popular commanding officer of a group of underwater demolition divers. The martinet Lawrence tightens the discipline of the unit, making him unpopular with the frogmen. A dangerous mission is upon them and Lawrence may well need to become one of the team and risk of his own life.

A great adventure which may well have been the blueprint for Lloyd Bridges TV series: Sea Hunt (which is available from the TV Series section of this website)

-NEW TITLE-

From Beyond the Grave (1973) - 98 mins

Starring Ian Carmichael, Ian Bannen, Peter Cushing, Diana Dors, Donald Pleasance, David Warner & Leslie-Anne Down

Directed by Kevin Connor

Anthology film adapted from four short stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes strung together about an antique dealer (Peter Cushing) who owns a shop called Temptations Ltd. and the fate that befalls his customers who try to cheat him. Stories include "The Gate Crasher" with David Warner who frees an evil entity from an antique mirror, "An Act of Kindness" featuring Donald Pleasence, "The Elemental" with Ian Carmichael and "The Door" starring Lesley-Anne Down & Ian “Return of The Saint” Ogilvy.

One of nice sextet of sci-fi / fantasy / horror films directed by legendary Brit, Kevin Connor: From Beyond the Grave (1973), The Land That Time Forgot (1975), At the Earth's Core (1976), The People That Time Forgot (1977), Warlords of the Deep (1978) & Arabian Adventure (1979) - all of which are available from this website

From Here to Eternity (1953) - 118 mins

Starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed & Frank Sinatra

Directed by Fred Zinnemann

It's 1941. Robert E. Lee Prewitt has requested Army transfer and has ended up at Schofield in Hawaii. His new captain, Dana Holmes, has heard of his boxing prowess and is keen to get him to represent the company. However, 'Prew' is adamant that he doesn't box anymore, so Captain Holmes gets his subordinates to make his life a living hell. Meanwhile Sergeant Warden starts seeing the captain's wife, who has a history of seeking external relief from a troubled marriage. Prew's friend Maggio has a few altercations with the sadistic stockade Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson, and Prew begins falling in love with social club employee Lorene. Unbeknownst to anyone, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor looms in the distance.

Eight (yes 8) Oscars including Best Picture, Director, B&W Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound and Writing as well as Supporting Actor (Sinatra) & Actress (Donna Reed)

This film is beyond any superlatives that can be given it!

Burt Lancaster also made a number of other powerful dramas & gritty noirs: The Killers (1946), Brute Force (1947), Desert Fury (1947), I Walk Alone (1948), Criss Cross (1949), Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Run Silent Run Deep (1958), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Seven Days in May (1964) & The Train (1964).

Then, of course there were his fabulous adventure films: The Flame and the Arrow (1950), Ten Tall Men (1951), The Crimson Pirate (1952), South Sea Woman (1953) & His Majesty O'Keefe (1954).

All of the above are available from this website

And how about a Lancaster film that includes elements of the above, namely a gritty & powerful action/adventure outing? - check out Rope of Sand (1949) - which is also available from this website

From the Terrace (1960) - 149 mins

Starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Myrna Loy, Ina Balin, Leon Ames & Elizabeth Allen

Directed by Mark Robson

An ambitious young executive chooses a loveless marriage and an unfulfilling personal life in exchange for a successful Wall Street career. His decisions are exacerbated by his inability to express love and affection, a trait he has inherited from his cold-blooded father. Myrna Loy heads up a large supporting cast as Newman's alcoholic mother.

From the John O'Hara novel, From the Terrace is a strong Newman-Woodward vehicle for the husband & wife pair.

Frontier Marshal (1939) - 71 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, Cesar Romero, Nancy Kelly, Binnie Barnes & John Carradine

Directed by Allan Dwan

Marshal Wyatt Earp of Tombstone and his brothers enforce the law as much by reputation as by gunplay. Occasionally the marshal's efforts are complicated by his "friendly enemy" Doc Halliday, a consumptive gunslinger who runs the gambling activities in town. When a murderous outlaw invades Tombstone and kills Halliday, Earp is moved to action and the result is the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

The Fugitive (1947) - 104 mins

Starring Henry Fonda, Dolores Del Rio, Pedro Armendariz, J. Carroll Naish, Leo Carrillo & Ward Bond

Directed by John Ford

Based of the Graham Greene novel about a revolutionary priest in Central America. A priest who is The Fugitive is trying to getaway from the authorities who have denounced Christianity and want anyone linked to it dead. The Fugitive finds shelter with an Indian Woman (The Woman), a faithful parishioner, who gives the priest directions to Puerto Grande, where he could then board a ship and sail to freedom in America. On his journey to Puerto Grande, he meets up with a man who says he will protect him. In reality, he is the Police Informer and once The Fugitive realizes this, he is back on the run, but the Police Informer is never far behind along with the authorities.

Director John Ford said that "The Fugitive " was his only perfect film

Fury (1936) - 90 mins

Starring Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot & Walter Brennan

Directed by Fritz Lang

Katherine leaves her boyfriend, Joe Wilson behind in their Midwestern hometown when she takes a job in another city. Joe is a decent, hard-working soul, who wants to save up to buy a gas station and looks forward to the future when he and Katherine can get married. A year later, Joe is travelling to meet Katherine so that they can be married. Driving through a small town, Joe is stopped by a deputy sheriff waving a shotgun. Apparently there has been a kidnapping, and the fact that Joe has peanuts in his pocket circumstantially incriminates him in the crime. Joe is arrested and jailed. As Joe sits in his jail cell, the local townspeople begin to talk and whisper and spread rumours. Finally, a lynch mob forms and heads toward the jail.

Fritz Lang's first American film is a vigorous and perceptive indictment of mob law.

Oscar nominated for Best Screenplay.

Gambling House (1950) - 80 mins

Starring Victor Mature, Terry Moore, William Bendix, & Zachary A. Charles

Directed by Ted Tetzlaff

Small time racketeer Marc Fury agrees to plead self-defense for a murder committed by gang boss Joe Farrow in exchange for Farrow's I.O.U. for $50,000. He is acquitted but is ordered deported by immigration authorities unless he can convince the judge to let him stay. After meeting volunteer worker Lynn Warren, his tough guy exterior begins to soften as he follows her through her efforts to settle a family of European refugees. Events lead to a dramatic conclusion as Farrow welches on his deal with him and Fury attends his final deportation hearing.

The General Died at Dawn (1936) - 98 mins

Starring Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, Dudley Digges, Porter Hall & William Frawley

Directed by Lewis Milestone

General Yang (Akim Tamiroff) is a politically ambitious Chinese bandit who holds the Northern districts in a grip of terror. Yang is opposed by O'Hara (Gary Cooper), an American mercenary who fights on behalf of the peasants. When he is entrusted with a large sum of money to buy guns, O'Hara becomes the target of Yang and his minions. Betrayed by a cowardly Caucasian (Porter Hall), O'Hara nonetheless falls in love with his betrayer's daughter Judy (Madeline Carroll). Yang captures both O'Hara and Judy and spirits them away on his junk, where the General intends to torture O'Hara so as to find out where the money is.

From the best-selling novel by Charles G. Booth.

Oscar Nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Akim Tamiroff), Cinematography & Score

Gary Cooper: forever the great adventurer - these Gary Cooper titles are available from this website are:

Gentleman Jim (1942) - 104 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, John Loder & Ward Bond

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Flynn stars as Jim Corbett, the 19th-century American pugilist who introduced "scientific" methods to bare-knuckle boxing. Originally an office clerk, Corbett is introduced to the then-illegal sport of fighting when one of the bank executives sponsors the young man's training at the Olympic Club. His arrogance wins Corbett a few enemies, including high-born lady Victoria Ware (Alexis Smith), whose dislike turns to casual affection when she realizes that Corbett is a sincere young fellow who can back up his boasts. What "Gentleman Jim" desires most in life is a match with reigning heavyweight champ John L. Sullivan (Ward Bond). Corbett and Sullivan finally meet in a bout governed by those new Marquis of Queensbury rules that Corbett has helped popularize.

Gentleman Jim is broad, boisterous entertainment thanks to a "knockout" performance by Errol Flynn - he was a capable boxer, and Gentleman Jim makes full use of this skill.

Gangster at Bay (1950) - see Gunman in the Streets below

The Ghost Ship (1943) - 69 mins

Starring Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Ben Bard & Edmund Glover

Directed by Mark Robson

Tom Merriam signs on the ship Altair as third officer under Captain Stone. At first things look good, Stone sees Merriam as a younger version of himself and Merriam sees Stone as the first adult to ever treat him as a friend. But after a couple strange deaths of crew members, Merriam begins to think Stone is a psychopathic madman obsessed with authority. He tries to tell others, but no one believes him. An absorbing mood-piece.

-NEW TITLE-

The Ghost Train (1941) - 85 mins

Starring Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Kathleen Harrison, Peter Murray-Hill, Carole Lynne & Morland Graham

Directed by Walter Forde

Mismatched travellers are stranded overnight at a lonely rural railway station. They soon learn of local superstition about a phantom train which is said to travel in this area at the dead of night, carrying ghosts from a long-ago train wreck.

Things go bump in the night! - an intriguing yarn from the Brits!

Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958) (aka Gideon's Day) - 91 mins

Starring Jack Hawkins, Dianne Foster, Cyril Cusack, Ronald Howard, Laurence Naismith & Billie Whitelaw

Directed by John Ford

Inspector George Gideon (Jack Hawkins) begins his working day by confronting one of his fellow officers who is believed to be accepting graft. The sergeant stubbornly denies the charge, but he dies later the same day in a mysterious hit-and-run accident that piques Gideon's curiosity. While confronting internal strife within Scotland Yard, Gideon also has more typical crimes to investigate, including a murder in Manchester and a burglary in London, both of which were performed by the same vicious criminal. Gideon himself becomes the victim of a hold up and is forced to take a bullet for his troubles, while on the home front he finds himself in disfavour with his family when he forgets to bring home salmon for dinner and lets his daughter's recital slip his mind.

Noted director John Ford (Stagecoach & The Quiet Man) traveled to England to film this adaptation of a novel by John Creasey which details a typical day in the busy life of a detective for Scotland Yard.

It then became an early 1960s TV series: Gideon's Way - which is available from the TV Series section of this website.

Gilda (1946) - 110 mins

Starring Rota Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia & Steven Geray

Directed by Charles Vidor

When wealthy Ballin Mundson (George Macready) rescues down at his heels gambler Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) and invites him to the Buenos Aires casino he owns, both men get more than they wagered on. Farrell convinces Mundson to hire him as casino manager, but is shocked when Mundson introduces his new bride, and Farrell's old flame, Gilda (Rita Hayworth).Though Farrell is unwavering in his loyalty to his employer, and he and Gilda treat each other with contempt, Mundson realizes that the torch never died for either of the former lovers. Ordered to guard Gilda, Farrell tries to convince himself that he's protecting Mundson's interests, but Gilda sees through his self-deception. Meanwhile, Mundson reveals to Farrell that his primary business is control of an international tungsten cartel that he plans to use to further his fascist ends.

An all-time classic noir!

The Girl Hunters (1963) - 96 mins

Starring Mickey Spillane, Shirley Eaton, Scott Peters, Guy Kingsley Poynter, James Dyrenforth & Charles Farrell

Directed by Roy Rowland

Novelist Mickey Spillane portrays his own creation, Mike Hammer, in The Girl Hunters. Hammer has spent seven years in an alcoholic funk after the supposed death of his secretary, Velda. He is brought back to the land of the living by his old friendly enemy, police lieutenant Pat Chambers (Scott Peters), who wants Hammer to extract some information out of a dying federal agent. This puts Mike on the trail of a subversive communist organization, the key to which seems to be sexy Laura Knapp (Shirley Eaton), the widow of a murdered senator. When Hammer determines that following this espionage trail may lead to relocating Velda, who might not be dead after all, he pursues matters with his usual fascistic tendency to pummel first and ask questions later.

The Girl Hunters is the film in which Mike Hammer incapacitates an opponent by literally nailing the latter's hands to the floor. But that's kid stuff compared to the fate in store for the treacherous Laura Knapp. The Girl Hunters was filmed in its entirety in England.

Girls on Probation (1938) - 63 mins

Starring Ronald Reagan, Jane Bryan, Anthony Averill, Sheila Bromley, Susan Hayward & Henry O'Neill

Directed by William C. McGann

Jane Bryan stars as innocent young Connie Heath, who is falsely accused of theft by Gloria Adams (Susan Hayward). Though Gloria withdraws her charge, the insurance company continues to persecute poor Connie, resulting in a charge of grand larceny. Championing her cause is crusading attorney Neil Dillon (Ronald Reagan), who gets Gloria off with probation. Alas, she resumes her friendship with "fast girl" Hilda Engstrom (Sheila Bromley), who was responsible for getting Connie into trouble in the first place.

Nicely turned Warner Bros "B" with Ronnie in good form!

The Glass Key (1942) - 85 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Brian Donlevy, William Bendix, Joseph Calleia & Bonita Granville

Directed by Stuart Heisler

In this Dasheill Hammett tale, Ladd stars as Ed Beaumont, the right-hand man to Paul Madvig (Donlevy), the head of the local voter's league. Madvig built his little empire by turning a blind eye and granting favors to low class criminals like Nick Varna (Calleia), but decides to back the reform candidate, Ralph Henry, in the governor's race after he gets a look at Henry's daughter Janet (Lake). Things turn ugly when Madvig tries to stop his baby sister (Granville) from dating Janet's brother Taylor (Denning), a young man with no future and a ton of gambling debts. When Taylor is found murdered, it's up to Ed to prove Madvig's innocence before Nick and his newspaper friends railroad Madvig into the big house as payback for all the trouble he's causing them. Ed has his hands full trying to save Paul's future from the malicious machinations of his enemies, the circling curiosity of the police and the furtive attacks by his sister and Janet, proclaiming Paul's guilt to anyone who will listen.

The Glass Wall (1953) - 82 mins

Starring Vittorio Gassman, Gloria Grahame, Ann Robinson, Douglas Spencer, Robin Raymond & Jerry Paris

Directed by Maxwell Shane

Peter Kaban (Vittorio Gassman) is a WWII ‘displaced person’ desperate to enter the United States. Because he can't be granted asylum due to the lack of proper papers, he resorts to jumping ship and sneaking in. In New York, he is assisted by two people who know about his past. One of them is a jazz musician, a former American pilot Tom (Jerry Paris) shot down in Europe during WWII. Peter helped the man then and hopes that he will now vouch for Peter in his attempts to obtain legal papers by showing that he was instrumental in aiding underground activities during the war to help the Allied cause.

"G" Men (1935) - 85 mins

Starring James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak, William Harrigan, Barton MacLane & Lloyd Nolan

Directed by William Keighley

James Cagney plays James "Brick" Davis, a young lawyer whose education has been financed by soft-hearted racketeer McKay (William Harrigan). When Cagney's best pal, detective Eddie Buchanan is killed in a gangland shooting, James decides to become a G-Man. Though scrupulously honest, Davis is looked upon with suspicion by his fellow agents because of his association with the crooked McKay. He proves he's a "good guy" when his former girlfriend, Jean Ann Dvorak, now the wife of mobster Brad Collins (Barton MacLane), tips him off to a "Little Bohemia"-style gangster hideaway.

Based on Gregory Miller's book Public Enemy No. 1

Oscar Nominated for Best Original Story

Golden Earrings (1947) - 95 mins

Starring Ray Milland, Marlene Dietrich, Murvyn Vye, Bruce Lester, Reinhold Schünzel & Dennis Hoey

Directed by Mitchell Leisen

WWII, British Intelligence officers Col. Ralph Denistoun and Richard Byrd were held captive by Nazis who wanted to know about Prof. Otto Krosigk's secret formula. Ralph and Richard escape, deciding to look for Krosigk separately with the plan to meet up again in Stuttgart. Then Ralph meets mysterious gypsy woman Lydia in the forest. She disguises him, gives him golden earrings to wear, and leads him through the forest. Must fight the gypsy leader Zoltan before joining the band of gypsies and heading to Stuttgart.

Based on a novel by Yolanda Foldes - a fabulous & bewitching film!

The Golden Hawk (1952) - 83 mins

Starring Sterling Hayden, Rhonda Fleming, Helena Carter, John Sutton, Paul Cavanaugh & Michael Ansara

Directed by Sidney Salkow

Kit Gerardo (Sterling Hayden), also known as The Hawk, is one of Frances's most daring privateers, rescues Rouge (Rhonda Fleming) from a Spanish ship. She is also a pirate, working to restore the fortune the French took from her. When Kit is captured by the governor of Cartagena, Luis del Toro (John Sutton), Rouge demands that he be hanged for piracy. Only one person knows it, but Kit is in fact, the governor's son.

Nice color pirate movie.

Sterling Hayden films which are available from this website are:

Golden Rendezvous (1977) - 101 mins

Starring Richard Harris, Ann Turkel, Gordon Jackson, John Vernon, David Janssen & Burgess Meredith

Directed by Ashley Lazarus

In this sea-faring thriller, based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, a combination cargo ship and floating casino is hi-jacked by mercenary Luis Carreras. Taking his orders from a mysterious mastermind, he installs an atomic device mid-ship, holding both the passengers and the bomb hostage, hoping to exchange them for the gold bullion of an U.S. Treasury ship. All seems to be going according to Luis's plan until First Officer John Carter (Richard Harris), the attractive Susan Beresford (Ann Turkel), and Dr. Marston (Gordon Jackson) arrive to put a crimp in Luis's escapade.

Note: Fans of films based on Alistair MacLean's works might like to check out The Secret Ways (1961), The Satan Bug (1965), When Eight Bells Toll (1971), Puppet on a Chain (1971), Fear Is the Key (1972), Caravan to Vaccarès (1974), Golden Rendezvous (1977), Bear Island (1979) & River of Death (1989) elsewhere in the INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section of this website.

Golden Salamander (1950) - 93 mins

Starring Trevor Howard, Anouk Aimee, Herbert Lom, Walter Rilla, Miles Malleson & Wilfred Hyde-White

Directed by Ronald Neame

Trevor Howard plays David Redfern, an archaeologist sent to Tunis to recover artifacts belonging to his English employer. However, he runs across a gun running operation headed up by Serafis (Walter Rilla). The suspense builds and a murder only adds to the danger for Redfern. Herbert Lom plays the evil, dangerous henchman, Rankl to perfection and Anouk Aimee is the beautiful, Anna.

A good actioner from the Brits - top supporting cast as well!

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) - 105 mins

Starring John Phillip Law, Caroline Munro, Tom Baker, Douglas Wilmer & Martin Shaw

Directed by Gordon Hessler

Sinbad and his crew intercept a homunculus carrying a golden tablet. Koura, the creator of the homunculus and practitioner of evil magic, wants the tablet back and pursues Sinbad. Meanwhile Sinbad meets the Vizier who has another part of the interlocking golden map, and they mount a quest across the seas to solve the riddle of the map, accompanied by a slave girl with a mysterious tattoo of an eye on her palm. They encounter strange beasts, tempests, and the dark interference of Koura along the way

The second of special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen's three Sinbad epics, features "Dynamation" highlights such as a six-armed statue, a one-eyed centaur and a flying griffin.

Preceded by The 7thVoyage of Sinbad (1958) and followed by Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1979) - both of which are available from this website. Other Sinbad films available include Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s Sinbad the Sailor (1947) & Son of Sinbad (1955).

The Gold Express (1955) - 58 mins

Starring Vernon Gray, Ann Walford, May Hallatt, Ivy St. Helier

Directed by Guy Fergusson

Two reporters end-up on a busman's holiday when they honeymoon aboard a train and find themselves investigating a robbery in this fun mystery.

Top flight British entertainment!

Grand Central Murder (1942) - 73 mins

Starring Van Heflin, Patricia Dane, Cecilia Parker, Virginia Grey & Sam Levene

Directed by Sylvan Simon

A convict being escorted in for retrial escapes at Grand Central and threatens his old girlfriend on the phone. She flees for her new beau's private railcar at the same station. When she is then found murdered the cops round up a motley group of suspects including the escapee, several guys feeling sore at the way the gold-digging broad had treated them, some jealous dames, and a private eye already on the case. Inspector Gunther soon has a problem - enough evidence to fry all of them.

The Great Manhunt (1950) - See State Secret (1950) elsewhere on this website

The Great Barrier (1937) - 83 mins

Starring Richard Arlen, Lilli Palmer, Antoinette Cellier, Barry MacKay, Roy Emerton & J. Farrell MacDonald

Directed by Geoffrey Barkas

The building of the great Canadian-Pacific Railroad that stretched from Montreal to Vancouver is chronicled in this realistic drama. Amidst the country's wild grandeur, two gambling vagabonds find themselves in a railroad boomtown where they hope to win a lot of the workers' money. While there, one of the gamblers falls in love with the daughter of the construction leader. He decides to abandon gambling in favor of good old- fashioned hard labor on the line. Meanwhile, the other gambler is robbed and complications begin to appear.

The Great Gatsby (1949) - 91 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Ruth Hussey, Barry Sullivan, Shelley Winters & Howard Da Silva

Directed by Elliott Nugent

F. Scott Fitzgerald's definitive jazz-age novel The Great Gatsby stars Alan Ladd in the title role of Jay Gatsby, formerly Jake Gatz, is a successful bootlegger with aspirations of being accepted in the highest social circles of Long Island. Once he's done this, Gatsby devotes his time to winning back the love of his former lady friend Daisy (Betty Field), now married to boorish "old-money" millionaire Tom Buchanan (Barry Sullivan). Gatsby's obsession with rekindling old flames results in disillusionment and, ultimately, tragedy. Sidelines observer Nick Carraway, the narrator of the original Fitzgerald novel, is expertly played by MacDonald Carey, while Shelley Winters makes an excellent impression as Buchanan's slatternly mistress Myrtle Wilson.

Often considered to be Alan Ladd's best role.

The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) - 85 mins

Starring Fess Parker, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff York, John Lupton & Kenneth Tobey

Directed by Francis D. Lyon

A dramatic retelling of the actual Civil War events involving James J. Andrews (Fess Parker), the famous Union spy who masterminded the theft of an entire Confederate train. To accomplish this mission, Andrews and his cohorts pose as Kentuckians, board the train, and bide their time until they can pull off the robbery. Unfortunately for the Northerners, plucky young conductor William A. Fuller (Jeffrey Hunter), resentful that his train was stolen out from under him, pursues Andrews' raiders by foot, handcar, and locomotive. No matter what obstacles are placed in his way by Andrews' men, Fuller persists in his chase. Eventually captured, Andrews and his cohorts plan a daring escape, which serves as the film's pulse-pounding climax.

Filmed on location in Georgia.

Note that this title along with Third Man on the Mountain (1959) & Swiss Family Robinson (1960) are part of a 3 DVD set of Disney's Fabulous Adventures which can be found in the Classic Movie Combinations of this website.

Note that Third Man on the Mountain (1959) & Swiss Family Robinson (1960) are also available from within this (INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES) section as well.

Green for Danger (1946) - 91 mins

Starring Alastair Sim, Trevor Howard, Sally Gray, Rosamund John & Leo Genn

Directed by Sidney Gilliat

At a World War II emergency hospital, a postman dies under anesthetic during a relatively minor operation. One of the nurses who was present announces that the man's death was no accident, but a murder and then she, too, is murdered. The police are called in, led by Inspector Cockrill (Alastair Sim) of Scotland Yard, and he soon determines that any one of the five surviving members of the surgical team might have had a motive for the murders. In the course of his investigation, he also uncovers an array of both eccentric and ugly personal information about most of those present, but no killer that he can ascertain for certain. He must finally draw the murderer out by putting one of the suspects at risk.

An absolute ripper: in the midst of the suspense are moments of droll comedy, of the sort that one would expect from a movie made by the authors of The Lady Vanishes (also available from this website).

Sim is beguilingly witty and charismatic in his eccentric way as Inspector Cockrill - he was play an Inspector of Police 8 years later in that legendary piece An Inspector Calls (1954) which is also available from this website (below)

Green Hell (1940) - 87 mins

Starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Bennett, John Howard, George Sanders, Alan Hale & Vincent Price

Directed by James Whale

Keith "Brady" Brandon (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is an archeologist leading a team of researchers: Richardson (Vincent Price), Loren (Alan Hale), Forrester (George Sanders), and Scott (John Howard) who are exploring the jungles of South America in search of Inca artifacts. The scientists discover they are not welcome when Richardson is felled by a poisoned dart, and a difficult situation is made all the more complicated when Stephanie (Joan Bennett), Richardson's wife, appears unannounced to pay her husband a visit. Stephanie must join Brandon's party as they make their way through the wilderness, with angry and armed natives surrounding them on all sides, and in the midst of the tension and danger, both Brandon and Forrester discover they're attracted to Stephanie, leading to a dangerous rivalry among the crew.

Green Hell would turn out to be the last feature film completed by the noted and idiosyncratic horror director James Whale (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man)

Another exciting Doug Fairbanks Jr. adventure with a great cast and director!

This is a great "companion piece" to Doug Fairbanks' other jungle adventure of the same year: Safari (1940) - which is also available from this website (INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section)

Green Light (1937) - 85 mins

Starring Errol Flynn, Anita Louise, Margaret Lindsay, Cedric Hardwicke, Walter Abel & Henry O'Neill

Directed by Frank Borzage

When Errol Flynn insisted that Warner Bros. come up with a non-swashbuckler for his next vehicle, the result was Green Light. Based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas (Magnificent Obsession, The Robe etc.), the film tells the story of a young surgeon (Flynn) who willingly takes blame for a fatal mistake committed by an older doctor (Henry O'Neill). Disgraced, Flynn takes the near-suicidal assignment of testing a new vaccine for spotted fever; to ascertain the serum's effectiveness, he must expose himself to the disease. Flynn's fiancee (Anita Louise), having learned that her lover was not responsible for the older doctor's error, is reunited with Flynn as he lies recuperating from the fever. Weaving in and out of Green Light is the kindly old spiritual leader (Cedric Hardwicke) who espouses the values of sacrifice and faith. Green Light did acceptable box office business, but Errol Flynn was back at his sword-wielding best in his next film, The Prince and the Pauper (which is also available from this website)

Green Mansions (1959) - 104 mins

Starring Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Perkins, Lee J. Cobb, Sessue Hayakawa & Henry Silva

Directed by Mel Ferrer

Rima is a woman living in the jungle with her adopted grandfather Nuflo. Abel escapes his pursuers and meets Rima after a local tribe has taken him under their wing. The unlikely couple fall in love but Abel is haunted by his desire to go back into his world to avenge his father's murder at the hand of his political rivals. While he is struggling with his own dilemma, the local tribe is beginning to believe that Rima is an evil spirit they must destroy.

Green Mansions is based on a novel by W.H. Hudson

Guadalcanal Diary (1943) - 93 mins

Starring Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan, William Bendix, Richard Conte & Anthony Quinn

Directed by Lewis Seiler

From Richard Tregaskis' best-selling book Guadalcanal Diary, this film does full justice to Tregaskis' eyewitness account of the personal lives of those involved, a war correspondent takes us through the preparations, landing and initial campaign on Guadalcanal during WWII. The incidents in the "diary" are tied together by an off-screen narrator into a cohesive storyline. The principal characters in this wartime chronicle are marine sergeant Lloyd Nolan, chaplain Preston S. Foster, Mexican enlistee Anthony Quinn, and a Dodgers-lovin' Brooklynite, played by William Bendix.

Gun Crazy (1949) (aka Deadly is the Female) - 86 mins

Starring Peggy Cummings, John Dall, Berry Kroeger, Harry Lewis & Russ Tamblyn

Directed by Joseph H. Lewis.

A stylish example of the doomed-lovers-on-the-run subgenre inspired by real-life outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and one of the best B movies ever made. Fourteen-year-old Bart Tare is sent to reform school for stealing a gun. Back home after a hitch in the army, the adult Bart (John Dall) falls for carnival sharpshooter Laurie (Peggy Cummins) and joins the show. But the lovers soon find themselves out of work and drift into a life of crime, for which Laurie shows a feral aptitude. She eventually commits murder during a heist, and the law--including Bart's boyhood friend, Clyde (Harry Lewis), now a sheriff--begins to close inexorably in. "We go together like guns and ammunition," says Bart to Laurie: this film was among the first in the US to make explicit the symbiotic connection between sex and violence, as well as the worship of guns and their role in American culture. It revels in Bart and Laurie's perverse psychology and the nihilistic aspects of their escapades, and Lewis made the most of his leads, playing off Dall's air of ambiguous sexuality and mental instability (as did Alfred Hitchcock in ROPE) and the Welsh-born Cummins' unbridled carnality. Blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo co-scripted under the name Millard Kaufman, and director Joseph H. Lewis is one of the great, unsung stylists of the American cinema. The film's four-minute bank robbery sequence is a tour-de-force shot in one continuous take from the back of the car, as the lovers talk while driving into town, park, get out, steal the money, beat up a cop, jump back into the car, and speed away. Lewis' sophisticated visual style is evident throughout in his use of deep focus, long takes, ornate compositions, and odd angles, punctuated by swift, violent camera movements and rapid cutting that signify the relationships of characters and their state of mind.

-NEW TITLE-

A Gunfight (1971) - 89 mins

Starring Kirk Douglas, Johnny Cash, Jane Alexander, Karen Black & Keith Carradine

Directed by Lamont Johnson

Will Tenneray (Kirk Douglas) and Abe Cross (Johnny Cash) are two ageing gunfighters with nary a dime between them. Although Will and Abe are fast friends, they agree to a winner-take-all gunfight - selling tickets to the momentous showdown between the two. The townspeople are certain that Will is going to win the shootout, but he knows that it would be a fatal mistake to underestimate Abe. Standing on the sidelines is Will's wife Nora (Jane Alexander), who seems curiously disinterested in the outcome, even though she may become a widow before the day is over.

An absolutely riveting finish finds the two (now) adversaries ranged against each other in a bullring surrounded by paying customers!

A Gunfight was the first mainstream American film to be produced by an Indian tribe -- specifically, the Jicarilla Apaches of New Mexico.

Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) - 90 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Ben Cooper, Colleen Miller, DeForest Kelley, Jan Merlin & Adam Williams

Directed by Frank McDonald

In 1875, an agent for the National Detective Agency, Bob 'Gif' Gifford (Audie Murphy) is assigned to find the murderous outlaw gang that has been breaking convicts out of prison and helping them to commit more crimes. The resulting crimes cause the bounties upon the fugitives' heads to rise. The outlaws then kill the convicts and reap the generous rewards. Gifford succeeds in infiltrating the group and sets about bringing the gang leader to justice

The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) - 81 mins

Starring Joel McCrea, Julie Adams, John McIntire, Nancy Gates, Richard Anderson & Walter Coy

Directed by Joseph M. Newman

With Gene Barry already riding the TV western range as legendary gunfighter-turned-lawman Bat Masterson, independent producer Walter Mirisch hired Joel McCrea to play a rather less-dandified version in this Cinemascope western. When his brother Ed (Harry Lauter) is cowardly shot in the back and killed, Bat accepts the offer to run for county sheriff against the corrupt Jim Regan (Don Haggerty), only to learn that the real killer is someone entirely different. Not wanting the job of sheriff in the first place but only accepting to please a lady friend, Pauline Howard (Julie Adams), Bat willingly breaks the law to aid an old friend (Walter Coy), almost losing both his position and his life in the ensuing shootout.

The Gunfighter (1950) - 85 mins

Starring Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden & Skip Homeier

Directed by Henry King

In this classic noir-influenced Western, Gregory Peck stars as aging gunslinger Jimmy Ringo, sick of killing but haunted by punks wanting to make a name for themselves by slaying a legend. After being warned by his old friend the Marshal Mark Strett (Millard Mitchell), Ringo decides to return East to see his estranged wife and the child he left behind. Knowing his death is an inevitability if he stays, Ringo leaves but before he can reach his destination his past catches up with him in the form of a young outlaw.

The Gunfighter was often imitated by other Westerns, most notably by High Noon (1952) and its minimalist, morally difficult, and compelling tale made it one of the most important films produced in the 1950s.

Oscar Nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (William Bowers & André De Toth!)

Note that High Noon (1952) is also available from this website.

Gunfighters (1947) - 87 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, Barbara Ritton, Bruce Cabot, Forrest Tucker & Charley Grapewin

Directed by George Waggner

A gunslinger who's vowed to kill no more, goes to work for a land baron who's been driving out neighboring ranchers by fair means and foul. The baron's daughter falls for Scott, while the girl's sister is obsessed by her father's vicious henchman. The gunslinger eventually chooses the right side in the ranch war, leading to a showdown with Cabot and the breaking of his vow to never again fire a gun.

Zane Grey wrote the novel upon which Gunfighters was based.

Gunga Din (1939) - 117 mins

Starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli & Joan Fontaine

Directed by George Stevens

RKO producer Pandro S. Berman surprised all and sundry by converting Rudyard Kipling's poem Gunga Din into an A-budgeted feature film. It’s the tale of three eternally brawling British sergeants stationed in colonial India: Cutter (Cary Grant), McChesney (Victor McLaglen) and Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Ballantine intends to break up the threesome by marrying lovely Emmy Stebbins (Joan Fontaine), while Cutter and McChesney begin hatching diabolical schemes to keep Ballantine in the army. All three sergeants are kept occupied with a native revolt fomented by the Thuggees, a fanatical religious cult headed by the napoleonic Guru (Eduardo Ciannelli). Unexpectedly coming to the rescue of our three heroes is humble water carrier Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe), who aspires to become the regimental trumpeter.

Fabulous adventure!

Oscar Nominated for Best Cinematography

Also available from this website is Soldiers Three (1951) - a similar film based on the Rudyard Kipling poem

Gung Ho!: The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (1943) - 88 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, Alan Curtis, Noah Beery Jr., J. Carrol Naish, Sam Levene & Richard Lane

Directed by Ray Enright

Seven weeks after Pearl Harbor, volunteers form the new 2nd Marine Raider Battalion whose purpose is to raid Japanese-held islands. The men selected come from different walks of life but have toughness in common. Under command of Colonel Thorwald, they're trained in all imaginable forms of combat. Then, after a perilous submarine journey, they face a daunting first mission: to annihilate the much larger Japanese garrison on Makin Island.

Another great Randolph Scott non-western!

Gunman in the Streets (1950) (aka Gangster at Bay) - 86 mins

Starring Dane Clark, Simone Signoret, Fernand Gravey, Robert Duke & Michel Andre

Directed by Frank Tuttle

Eddie Roback (Dane Clark), an American army deserter turned criminal, is going to trial in Paris after a ten-month delay when he is sprung on his way to court in a pitched gun battle. A manhunt ensues with the police just a few paces behind. Investigators try to get ahead of him by reaching out his girlfriend, Denise Vernon (Simone Signoret). Feigning innocence, she makes contact with the wounded Roback, who is turned away by his former associates in his attempts to find shelter and escape. She eventually finds him a hiding place in the studio of Max Salva, a lecherous photographer with a sadistic streak, who may have given Roback up to the police. Denise tries to find him a way out of the country, with money from an American writer, Frank Clinton (Robert Duke), while the police slowly catch on to Roback's whereabouts, drawing the net ever closer.

Several battles of wits unfold at once, drawing the viewer in, across intertwining, overlapping plot elements. Even nature raises its hand against Roback as a crippling fog slows his seemingly easy escape to Belgium. All of the players are drawn together for a final confrontation that is every bit as violent as anything seen in American crime films of the period.

A French production, shot on location, its a gripping man-on-the-run crime movie.

Uncut version.

-NEW TITLE-

Gunpoint (1966) - 86 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Joan Staley, Warren Stevens, Edgar Buchanan & Denver Pyle

Directed by Earl Bellamy

Colorado Sheriff Chad Lucas (Audie Murphy) pursues a ruthless gang of train robbers lead by murderous outlaw, Drago Leon (Morgan Woodward) Lucas tracks them into New Mexico, where he has no official jurisdiction. Accompanying him is a motley posse, including a sharp-shooting gambler whose fiancée the gang has kidnapped.

Good stuff!

-NEW TITLE-

The Gun Runners (1958) - 83 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Eddie Albert, Patricia Owens, Everett Sloane & Richard Jaeckel

Directed by Don Siegel

Ernest Hemingway’s short story “To Have and Have Not" is topically reset to the early days of Cuban revolution. Sam Martin (Audie Murphy) is a charter boat skipper who gets entangled in gunrunning scheme so that he can get money to pay off his gambling debts.

A very nice role for Audie - helped by the excellent direction of Don Siegel.

The Gun Runners was as topical as this morning's news when it came out in 1958 and was the third adaptation of Hemingway's ditty, the others being Humphrey Bogart’s To Have and Have Not (1944) and John Garfield’s The Breaking Point (1950) - both of which are available from this website

Gunsight Ridge (1957) - 85 mins

Starring Joel McCrea, Mark Stevens, Joan Weldon, Addison Richards, Darlene Fields, Slim Pickens & Jody McCrea

Directed by Francis D. Lyon

The latest of a series of stagecoach holdups in the Arizona Territory takes place on a stagecoach in which Mike Ryan (Joel McCrea), undercover agent for the stage line, and Molly Jones (Joan Weldon), daughter of the local sheriff, are passengers. The bandana masking one of the robbers slips and he is killed by the gang-leader Velvet Clark (Mark Stevens). The latter masquerades as a respectable piano-playing citizen of the community. The townspeople are aroused enough over the continued robberies that they ask Sheriff Tom Jones (Addison Richards) to resign but they agree to give him more time when he takes on Ryan as a deputy. Circumstantial evidence leads the sheriff to Clark, but the latter kills him and escapes. Ryan tracks him to Gunsight Ridge where there is a showdown gunfight.

Great western with Mark Stevens (never better) providing a good foil for McCrea

Gunsmoke (1953) - 79 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Susan Cabot, Paul Kelly, Charles Drake, Mary Castle & Donald Randolph

Directed by Nathan Juran

Gunslinger Reb Kittridge (Audie Murphy) rides into town expecting to take a job helping badman Matt Telford (Donald Randolph) get rid of Dan Saxon (Paul Kelly), now the only other farmer in the basin. Instead the wily Saxon arranges that Kittridge become owner of his ranch, so the gunman lands up with the job of getting a cattle herd to their buyer while he fights off Telford and his men. He also himself falling for Saxon's pretty but independent daughter, Rita (Susan Cabot).

The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957) - 82 mins

Starring Audie Murphy, Kathryn Grant, Hope Emerson, Jeff Donnell & Jeanette Nolan

Directed by George Marshall

Cavalryman Lt. Frank Hewitt (Audie Murphy) deserts the Union Army to warn former Texas neighbors of impending Indian attacks triggered by Army massacre. He overcomes initial distrust and convinces the homesteaders (all women whose men are away fighting in the Confederate Army) to take refuge in an abandoned mission. He trains them to fight and shoot in anticipation of the attack. The only other man at the mission runs away o save his scalp and ends up leading the Indians back to the mission. Surrounded and outnumbered, the defenders prepare for the final assault.

Guns of the Timberland (1960) - 91 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Jeanne Crain, Gilbert Roland, Frankie Avalon, Lyle Bettger & Noah Beery Jr.

Directed by Robert D. Webb

In this action drama, ranchers and lumberjacks are at loggerheads over the proper usage of the land. When the logging team finds a prime stand, the ranchers beg the loggers not to harvest it because the lack of trees will cause deadly mud slides during the rainy season that will destroy their homes. The battle becomes quite heated as the ranchers and the lumberman begin blowing each other up. In the midst of explosive tempers and fighting, a romance blooms between lovers on each side.

A great "outdoors" adventure with Alan Ladd doing what he does best in the thick of the action.

Halls of Montezuma (1950) - 113 mins

Starring Richard Widmark, Jack Palance, Reginald Gardiner, Robert Wagner, Karl Malden & Richard Boone

Directed by Lewis Milestone

Richard Widmark stars as Lt. Carl Anderson, a former schoolteacher who serves as a no-nonsense Marine officer during WW II. Anderson leads his patrol to a Japanese-controlled island, where the enemy has set up an experimental rocket base. The patrol's mission is to capture prisoners for interrogation, which proves a near-insurmountable task given the fact that the Americans are heavily outnumbered.

High adventure with Widmark!

Recall the song: "For the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli …"? - well The Shores of Tripoli (1942) is also available from this website

Hangman's Knot (1952) - 81 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, Frank Faylen, Richard Denning & Lee Marvin

Directed by Roy Huggins

It's 1865 in Nevada and a unit of Confederate soldiers attack a Union troop carrying gold. They kill the soldiers and capture the gold only to learn the war ended a month ago. Deciding to keep the gold they flee but get chased by a group of drifters that want the gold. They get pinned down at a stage relay station and when deals between the two sides fail, the drifters decide to burn them out.

Highly regarded western which ranks alongside the Scott-Boetticher vehicles of a few years later.

Hangmen Also Die! (1943) - 134 mins

Starring Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Nana Bryant, Dennis O'Keefe & Hans Heinrich von Twardowski

Directed by Fritz Lang

Czechoslovakia, during the Nazi occupation and Czech loyalist Dr. Franticek Svoboda (Brian Donlevy) assassinates the vicious Gestapo leader Heydrich, before going into hiding. The wounded patriot is sheltered by history professor Stephen Novotny (Walter Brennan), who is already under surveillance by the Nazis thanks to his veiled classroom attacks on the Third Reich. A Fifth columnist arranges for the professor and 400 other Prague citizens to be rounded up as hostages, to be killed if Heydrich's assassin is not revealed.

Persuasively directed by Fritz Lang, Hangmen Also Die was based on a story by Lang and expatriate German playwright Bertold Brecht.

Oscar Nominated for Best Music (Hanns Eisler) & Sound

Hangover Square (1945) - 77 mins

Starring Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Glenn Langan & Alan Napier

Directed by John Brahm

Set in turn-of-the century London, this period thriller stars Laird Cregar as George Harvey Bone, a composer who suffers from a rather severe case of artistic temperament. Driven to distraction by the discordant sounds of the city, the usually sensitive Bone occasionally snaps when exposed to undue stress, and the results can be deadly; he sometimes blacks out and commits murders that he can't quite recall the next morning. Working on a major concerto, Bone is at his wit's end, and when an antique dealer tries to cheat him, the salesman turns up dead. Dr. Allen Middleton (George Sanders), a psychologist with Scotland Yard, questions Bone about the crime; he claims to know nothing about it, but the perceptive doctor suggests that Bone needs to relax more. Taking Middleton's advice, Bone visits a music hall that evening and sees Netta London (Linda Darnell), a singer with whom Bone immediately becomes entranced. This makes the composer even less patient with his sweetheart Barbara Chapman (Faye Marlowe), whose father, the wealthy Sir Henry Chapman (Alan Napier), has commissioned Bone's latest work. When Barbara tells Bone that his concerto is not up to snuff, she only narrowly escapes with her life, and while Bone believes that he's found true love with the beautiful Netta, the singer finds herself in danger when Bone suspects her of infidelity.

Hangover Square gave character actor Laird Cregar his first starring role. Sadly, it was also his last film; Cregar, who struggled with weight problems all his life, tipped the scales at nearly 300 pounds when he made this film. Eager for more starring roles, Cregar went on a dangerous crash diet, and while he soon lost 100 pounds, it put his health into serious disarray, and the actor died of a heart attack at the age of 28, shortly before the release of this, his first starring vehicle.

This film also re-teamed the principals from The Lodger (1944): Cregar, Sanders & director (John Brahm) - also available from this website - see below

The Harder They Fall (1956) - 109 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Mike Lane & Max Baer

Directed by Mark Robson

Jobless sportswriter Eddie Willis is hired by corrupt fight promoter Nick Benko to promote his current protege, an unknown Argentinian named Toro Moreno. Although Moreno is a hulking giant, he possesses a powder-puff punch and a glass jaw. Benko relies on Willis' reputation and standing in the boxing community and a series of fixed fights to get the unsophisticated Moreno to the championship fight. The reigning champ, the sadistic Buddy Brannen, harbors resentment at the publicity Toro has been getting, and vows to viciously punish him in the ring. Eddie must now decide whether or not to tell naive Toro the truth.

Bogie's last film - but what a beauty!

-NEW TITLE-

The Haunting (1963) - 112 mins

Starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn & Lois Maxwell

Directed by Robert Wise

One of the most highly regarded haunted house films ever produced, Robert Wise's The Haunting (based on Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House) weaves the dark tale of a questionably sane young woman and a sinister house which holds a terrifying past. Invited to join anthropologist Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson), ESP expert Theodora (Claire Bloom), and probable heir to the estate Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) in order to dispel the near mythical tales that surround the house, unstable Eleanor Vance (Julie Harris) agrees to spend a few nights in the house following the death of her mother. As they slowly begin to discover, the horrific and seemingly unbelievable tales may hold more truth than the skeptical guests might have previously expected. With a seemingly unstoppable supernatural force lurking in every shadow, the probability of anyone escaping the evil clutch of the cursed mansion seems increasingly remote

Golden Globe Nomination for Best Director!

Hearts of the West (1975) - 102 mins

Starring Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasance, Blythe Danner & Alan Arkin

Directed by Howard Zieff

It’s the 1930s and Lewis Tater writes Wild West dime novels and dreams of actually becoming a cowboy. When he goes west to find his dream he finds himself in possession of the loot box of two crooks who tried to rob him. During his escape, Lewis stumbles on to the set of a Wild West movie and through mishap and chance becomes a star of Hollywood Westerns.

Although a comedy, its nonetheless an affectionate tribute to the "B" western genre.

Hell and High Water (1954) - 100 mins

Starring Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen, Cameron Mitchell & Gene Evans

Directed by Samuel Fuller

Richard Widmark plays a soldier-of-fortune sub commander who agrees to sell his services to noted atomic scientist Victor Francen and his assistant (and daughter) Bella Darvi. Francen intends to prove that the Communists intend to launch a nuclear attack on Korea from an Arctic island, then blame the attack on the United States. Before the Reds' evil intentions can be thwarted, however, Widmark must face down a Communist Chinese submarine loaded with highly volatile atomic weaponry.

The special effects are very impressive and were nominated for an Oscar.

An intriguing Cold War slant to this submarine melodrama.

Hell Below Zero (1954) - 90 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Joan Tetzel, Basil Sydney, Stanley Baker, Joseph Tomelty & Niall MacGinnis

Directed by Mark Robson

Duncan Craig, who sign onto a whaling ship to get the facts behind the death of Judy Nordahl's (Joan Tetzel) father. While on a whaling expedition near Antarctica, Craig becomes suspicious of skipper Erik Bland. These suspicions are confirmed when Craig and Judy are targetted for an "accidental" demise in the frigid waters of the Antarctic. The plot never interferes with the action highlights, which under the direction of Mark Robson are well worth the price of admission. Alan Ladd delivers again!

Based on a novel by Hammond Innes.

Great color print!

Hellcats of the Navy (1957) - 82 mins

Starring Ronald Reagan, Nancy Davis, Arthur Franz, Robert Arthur, Harry Lauter & William Leslie

Directed by Nathan Juran

Future Presidential 1st Couple Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis made their only joint film appearance in Hellcats of the Navy. Ronnie plays Casey Abbott, commander of a WW2 submarine, while Nancy portrays navy nurse Helen Blair, Abbott's off-and-on girlfriend. During a delicate mission in which his sub is ordered to retrieve a revolutionary new Japanese mine, Abbott is forced to leave frogman Wes Barton (Harry Lauter) behind to save the rest of his crew. But Abbott's second-in-command Don Landon (Eduard Franz) is convincing that Abbott's sacrifice of Barton was due to the fact that the dead man had been amorously pursuing Helen. Based on a book by former USN vice-admiral Charles A. Lockwood and retired USAF colonel Hans Christian Adamson, Hellcats of the Navy is a very good WWII film with Reagan in peak form!

-NEW TITLE-

Hellfire (1949) - 90 mins

Starring Wild Bill Elliott, Marie Windsor, Forrest Tucker, Jim Davis, Paul Fix & Grant Withers

Directed by R.G. Springsteen

Zeb Smith (Wild Bill Elliott) is a hard-bitten frontier gambler whose life is saved by a preacher. When the preacher dies as a result, Zeb vows to mend his ways. He becomes a minister himself, planning to finish constructing a church that his predecessor had started. To finance this project, he hopes to collect the reward on female outlaw Mary Carson (Marie Windsor). But she resists all attempts to bring her to justice, until a climactic shoot-out with the rest of the criminal element in town.

Hellfire was one of two Wild Bill Elliott westerns that was lensed in Republic's Trucolor process. The other being The Last Bandit (1949) - which is also available from this INDIVIDUAL MOVIE TITLES section of the website.

Both of these “adult-oriented” westerns were definitely A list films, benefiting from longer running times and Republic's strength in providing all action thrills.

Very nice Trucolor print!

Hell on Frisco Bay (1955) - 98 mins

Starring Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, Joanne Dru, William Demarest, Paul Stewart, Perry Lopez & Fay Wray

Directed by Frank Tuttle

A slam-bang return to the sort of gangster fare turned out by Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Alan Ladd plays ex-cop Steve Rollins, who serves five years on a manslaughter rap. Upon his release, Rollins dedicates himself to finding the real killer. He soon learns that the man responsible for the frame-up was Victor Amato (Edward G. Robinson), the crime kingpin who rules the roost on the docks of San Francisco. Hoping to keep the heat off his operation, Amato "invites" Rollins to join his gang. But Rollins instead, doggedly pursues the gang boss with the help of such allies as cast-off gangster moll Kay Stanley (Fay Wray) and police lieutenant Dan Bianco (William Demarest). Joanne Dru costars as Rollins' estranged wife Marcia, who believes in her husband but doesn't relish the notion of his being shot full of holes by Amato's goons. At the time of the film's release, the critics went overboard in their approval of Edward G. Robinson's full-blooded reprisal of the sort of role which made him famous.

Nice color print!

The Hell With Heroes (1968) - 95 mins

Starring Rod Taylor, Claudia Cardinale, Harry Guardino, Kevin McCarthy, Peter Duel & William Marshall

Directed by Joseph Sargent

Two former World War II pilots, Brynie MacKay and Mike Brewer (Rod Taylor & Peter Duel respectively) take to running an air-freight company in South Africa after the war. They get mixed up with Lee Harris (Harry Guardino), the dangerous black-market crime boss who flaunts his beautiful mistress Elana (Claudia Cardinale). The action starts at Al Poland's (William Marshall), a favorite watering hole where everyone has one ear on the live music as the other listens to the next sordid smuggling plan hatched by shadowy underworld types. Brynie and Mike get on the wrong side of Harris and his gun-wielding thugs who mean to bring down the high-flying operation.

Quality Note: This is an OK color print - but by no means perfect.

The TV Series section of this website also contains DVD sets of Rod's two TV series: Hong Kong (1960-61) and Bearcats! (1971)

He Ran All the Way (1951) - 77 mins

Starring John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford & Selena Royle

Directed by John Berry

Nick and his partner Al stage a payroll holdup. Al is killed, along with a policeman. Nick hides out in a public pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs. He goes back to her apartment with her and forces her family to hide him from the police manhunt. Not one of the more ambitious entries in the noir cycle, but like so many of the lurid, low-budget films that came out around this fertile period in cinema history, it has fascinating undertones that belie its simple plot.

Sadly, this was to be John Garfield's last film - he died of a sudden heart attack (aged 39) soon after completing He Ran All the Way.

He Walked By Night (1948) - 79 mins

Starring Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts, Whit Bissell & Jack Webb

Directed by Alfred L. Werker

Roy is a clever but psychopathic burglar who stays one step ahead of the law by listening in to the police band on his radio. To avoid detection, he changes his M.O. on each crime, making it seem that the string of burglaries is the work of several thieves. But Roy trips himself up when he kills a cop.

The final scene plays out in the Los Angeles sewer system - a stylish predecessor to the similar climax in The Third Man. Though the direction is credited to Hollywood old-timer Alfred Werker, most of the film is the handiwork of an uncredited Anthony Mann.

Featured in the film's cast is Jack Webb in the small role of a police lab technician. Impressed by first-hand experience with police procedure and by the semi-documentary quality of He Walked By Night, Webb expanded on these elements for his own radio and TV project, Dragnet.

The Hideout (1956) - 57 mins

Starring Dermot Walsh, Rona Anderson, Ronald Howard & Sam Kydd

Directed by Peter Graham Scott

In this thriller, a man discovers that the bank notes he has just received actually belong to someone else: a man who is attempting to save his near-bankrupt fur business by buying pelts infected with anthrax. Later the shady furrier is killed. Further complications arise amidst the ever present threat of an epidemic.

A neat little British noir with a highlight being the superb black and white cinematography around London's docklands.

The High Commissioner (aka Nobody Runs Forever) (1968) - 101 mins

Starring Rod Taylor, Christopher Plummer, Lilli Palmer, Carmilla Sparv, Daliah Lavi & Clive Revill

Directed by Ralph Thomas

Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer) is a high level negotiator with the British government who is approached by Scobie Malone (Rod Taylor), an Australian detective who has been instructed to arrest Quentin in connection with the murder of his first wife 25 years earlier. Quentin calmly asks Malone if he could wait until he completes his work at a diplomatic conference, and Malone agrees; Quentin even allows Malone to stay at his home with his second wife Shelia (Lilli Palmer). Malone's assignment soon proves to be more complicated (and dangerous) than he expected when he has to save Quentin from an assassination attempt. Quentin must protect a fellow diplomat also targeted by gunmen, and Malone learns that Shelia has a deadly secret.

Rod Taylor playing an outback aussie cop thrown into the high classes of London (& Wimbledon!) - fabulous

From the book by Jon Cleary

The TV Series section of this website also contains DVD sets of Rod's two TV series: Hong Kong (1960-61) and Bearcats! (1971)

Highly Dangerous (1951) - 88 mins

Starring Margaret Lockwood, Dane Clark, Marius Goring & Wilfred Hyde-White

Directed by Roy Baker

When British Intelligence discovers that an Iron Curtain country is developing insects as weapons they persuade eminent entomologist Frances Gray to get into the country to collect some specimens. Upon arrival, her cover is almost immediately blown and her contact murdered. A US reporter comes to her aid as she strives to still complete her mission.

Well paced action spy yarn with a likeable duo: Clark and Lockwood. The latter was the star of The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Night Train to Munich (1940) - both available from this website - and she is reunited here with Naughton "Caldicott" Wayne from those two films. The charismatic Dane Clark has a nice role here and top direction is provided by Roy Ward Baker.

High Noon (1952) - 85 mins

Starring Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly & Otto Kruger

Directed by Fred Zinnemann

This Western classic stars Gary Cooper as Hadleyville marshal Will Kane, about to retire from office and go on his honeymoon with his new Quaker bride, Amy (Grace Kelly). But his happiness is short-lived when he is informed that the Miller gang, whose leader (Ian McDonald) Will had arrested, is due on the 12:00 train. Pacifist Amy urges Will to leave town and forget about the Millers, but this isn't his style; protecting Hadleyburg has always been his duty, and it remains so now. But when he asks for deputies to fend off the Millers, virtually nobody will stand by him. Chief Deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges) covets Will's job and ex-mistress (Katy Jurado); his mentor, former lawman Martin Howe (Lon Chaney Jr.) is now arthritic and unable to wield a gun. Even Amy, who doesn't want to be around for her husband's apparently certain demise, deserts him. Meanwhile, the clocks tick off the minutes to High Noon -- the film is shot in "real time," so that its 85-minute length corresponds to the story's actual timeframe. Utterly alone, Kane walks into the center of town, steeling himself for his showdown with the murderous Millers.

Considered a landmark of the "adult western," High Noon won four Academy Awards (including Best Actor for Cooper) and Best Song for the hit, "Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling" sung by Tex Ritter.

Oscar Nominations for Best Picture, Best Director & Screenplay (Carl Foreman)

Gary Cooper: forever the great adventurer - these Gary Cooper titles are available from this website are:

High Road to China (1983) - 105 mins

Starring Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong, Jack Weston, Wilford Brimley, Brian Blessed & Robert Morley

Directed by Brian G. Hutton

O'Malley is a heavy-drinking, tough biplane pilot flying the skies of China for fun and profit when Eve seeks him out to help her find her father before he is declared dead and she loses an inheritance to the evil Bentik. O'Malley does not really want Eve around, but adventure and the challenge beckon.

Great fun, adventure film - shot on location and excellent John Barry score

High Sierra (1941) - 100 mins

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Joan Leslie & Henry Hull

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle is broken out of prison by an old associate who wants him to help with an upcoming robbery. When the robbery goes wrong and a man is shot and killed Earle is forced to go on the run, and with the police and an angry press hot on his tail he eventually takes refuge among the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, where a tense siege ensues. But will the Police make him regret the attachments he formed with two women during the brief planning of the robbery. An all-time classic written (in part) by John Huston.

Colorado Territory (also available from this website) is acknowledged by many as a westernized remake of High Sierra. Raoul Walsh returned to helm the remake, doing a grand job on both occasions. Joel McCrea stars in the Humphrey Bogart role, playing a veteran outlaw who hopes to pull off one last, spectacular heist. Virginia Mayo portrays the Ida Lupino counterpart, a "bad" dance-hall girl who proves to be the only person who genuinely cares about McCrea's well-being. As with High Sierra, the climax finds McCrea making a futile bid for escape in the mountains, with tragic consequences.

High Treason (1951) - 93 mins

Starring Liam Redmond, Andre Morell, Anthony Bushell, Kenneth Griffith, Joan Hickson & Patric Doonan

Directed by Roy Boulting

A British espionage thriller filmed in the style of such American "docudramas" as The House on 92nd Street. Enemy saboteurs infiltrate the industrial suburbs of London, intending to plant high-powered bombs at several factory sites. Their motivation is to cripple the British economy and enable subversive forces to insinuate themselves in the government. The saboteurs are thwarted not by the traditional counterintelligence agents but by workaday London police officers. Director Roy Boulting also cowrote the screenplay of High Treason is a high energy action thriller with a great finale.

High Wall (1947) - 99 mins

Starring Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall, Dorothy Patrick & Warner Anderson

Directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Former army pilot Robert Taylor is accused, on the basis of strong circumstantial evidence, of his wife's murder. Suffering from periodic blackouts, Taylor isn't so certain of his innocence himself. When offered a brain operation, Taylor refuses, knowing that if he is proven sane he will be executed for murder. Instead, he opts for confinement in a high-walled veteran's mental institution. A compassionate lady doctor (Audrey Totter) falls in love with Taylor, convincing him to have the operation. Even after emerging from the ether, Taylor cannot remember any of the details concerning his wife's death but he does recall that the dead woman had recently taken a job with a publisher (Herbert Marshall) of religious books. The search for answers begins.

Highway 301 (1950) - 83 mins

Starring Steve Cochran, Virginia Grey, Gaby Andre, Edmon Ryan, Robert Webber, Aline Towne & Richard Egan

Directed by Andrew L. Stone

Filmmaker Andrew Stone was always a staunch believer in realism at all costs. Thus it was that much of Highway 301 was lensed on a genuine (and very busy) interstate highway. Based on fact, the film recounts the bloody exploits of the notorious "Tri-State Gang," which preyed upon truck drivers. Gang leader George Legenza (Steve Cochran) will kill anyone who stands in his way, even his own henchmen. Legenza leads the authorities on a not-so-merry chase through Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland.

A perfect print!

Highway 13 (1948) - 58 mins

Starring Robert Lowery, Pamela Blake, Michael Whalen, Gaylord Pendleton, Clem Bevans & Dan Seymour

Directed by William Berke

Robert Lowery plays Hank Wilson, an honest truck driver who suspects foul play after a series of trucking "accidents". Offering his services to undercover detective George Montgomery (Gaylord Pendleton), Wilson finds himself at the mercy of the villains (who hope to put a major transportation firm out of business) when Montgomery is murdered in an unusually grotesque fashion.

There's a thrill a minute in this economical actioner.

High, Wide and Handsome (1937) - 110 mins

Starring Randolph Scott, Irene Dunne, Dorothy Lamour, Charles Bickford, Akim Tamiroff & Elizabeth Patterson

Directed by Rouben Mamoulian

The setting is the small town of Titusville in 1870s Pennsylvania. Sally Waterson (Irene Dunne) and her father have stopped in town with their traveling medicine show, but when their wagon catches fire, they find themselves stranded. They're taken in by Mrs. Cortlandt and her grandson, Peter (Randolph Scott), who is trying to set up a pipeline that will supply oil throughout the state. Sally and Peter soon fall in love and marry. Neither their marriage nor Peter's pipe dreams flow too smoothly. The villainous element is represented by Walt Brennan (Alan Hale), who does his best to block the project to serve his own evil ends. Sally’s old circus friends come to the rescue with a herd of trained elephants!

A historical musical western comedy melodrama with several rousing musical numbers by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein.

A nicely restored B&W print

Hi-Jacked (1950) - 65 mins

Starring Jim Davis, Marcia Mae Jones, Sid Melton, David Bruce, Paul Cavanaugh & House Peters Jr.

Directed by Sam Newfield

A truck driver stops on a rainy road at night to help a stranded motorist, but it turns out to be a ruse--he is attacked, knocked out and his truck stolen. Since he has a criminal record, the police immediately suspect he's involved in the hijacking, and their suspicions are reinforced later when he is discovered--unknown to him--to be hauling stolen merchandise. He realizes he is being set up as a fall guy by the organization behind the truck hijackings, and he and a friend set out to determine who is trying to set him up, and why.

An excellent noir with Davis in a powerful and believable role

His Kind of Woman (1951) - 120 mins

Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price, Tim Holt, Raymond Burr & Charles McGraw

Directed by John Farrow

This is an involved and involving mystery thriller in which Nick (Raymond Burr), a deported gang boss needs to get back to the United States to run his operation. Dan Miller (Robert Mitchum) is a hard-up guy, who is persuaded, both by a series of beatings and a substantial sum of money, to sell his identity to Nick. Lenore (Jane Russell) a singer, poses as a heiress, trying to marry a millionaire. They all meet up in a resort in Mexico where Nick intends to have plastic surgery to alter his looks. There, a number of double-crosses, shootings, and chases all culminate in an exciting confrontation aboard ship.

His Kind of Woman, a Howard Hughes production designed to be a showcase for Jane Russell is entertaining and Robert Mitchum is in his element as the loner anti-hero

His Majesty O'Keefe (1954) - 92 mins

Starring Burt Lancaster, Joan Rice, Benson Fong, Philip Ahn & Grant Taylor

Directed by Byron Haskin

In 1870, Yankee sea captain O'Keefe finds himself stranded after a mutiny on the Micronesian island of Yap, where the financial potential of copra (dried cocoanut) excites him. But a German company already has a monopoly...and very low production because hard work is alien to dwellers in paradise. On a later voyage, between affairs with island maidens, O'Keefe struggles to find the key to the wealth of Yap. But before he can carve out the empire of his dreams, he must also contend with assorted villains.

Burt Lancaster also made a number of other adventure films of a similar vein: The Flame and the Arrow (1950), Ten Tall Men (1951), The Crimson Pirate (1952), South Sea Woman (1953).

All of the above are available from this website

And how about a Lancaster film that includes elements of the above, namely a gritty & powerful action/adventure outing? - check out Rope of Sand (1949) - which is also available from this website

The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - 71 mins

Starring Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman & Jose Torvay

Directed by Ida Lupino

In arguably Lupino's best film and the only true noir directed by a woman, two utterly average middle-class American men are held at gunpoint and slowly psychologically broken by a serial killer. In addition to her critical but compassionate sensibility, Lupino had a great filmmaker's eye, using the gorgeous, ever-present loneliness of empty highways to set her characters apart.

Hitler's Children (1943) - 82 mins

Starring Tim Holt, Bonita Granville, Kent Smith & Otto Kruger

Directed by Edward Dmytryk

The "children" invoked in the title are borne on behalf of Adolf Hitler; according to the film, it is standard operating procedure in Nazi Germany for young girls to willingly submit to being impregnated by Aryan men (with or without the benefit of clergy) in order to sustain the "Master Race." Those who refuse are ticketed for sterilization, or worse. One of the holdouts is a German girl raised and educated in America whose taste of democracy has made her utterly resistant to Nazism. She is publicly flogged for her defiance, whereupon her lover, Tim Holt, suddenly has an awakening of conscience and stops the whipping. This act of courage leads to tragic consequences.

This modestly produced film version of Gregor Ziemmer's book Education for Death surprised everyone at RKO and in the film industry by becoming one the biggest hits of 1943.

Filmgoers and critics recognized the above-average artistic contributions of director Edward Dmytryk and scriptwriter Emmet Lavery both of whom received substantial cash bonuses for their work on this film.

A nice change of scenery for western hero Tim Holt .

Hollow Triumph (1948) - 83 mins

Starring Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks & John Qualen

Directed by Steve Sekely

John Muller (Paul Henreid), an intelligent, arrogant criminal who has been a medical student and a phony psychoanalyst, believes that people are only interested in themselves and do not notice what is happening around them. Paroled from prison to a boring job, Muller is more interested in a big score, and along with his old cronies robs a crooked gambling joint owned by Rocky Stansyck. Although he gets away with the money, some of his men are caught by Stansyck and identify John as the ringleader. On the run from Stansyck's gang, he is mistaken for Dr. Bartok, a psychiatrist also played by Henreid. Curious, Muller goes to the doctor's office, and meets Bartok's secretary and lover, Evelyn Nash (Joan Bennett). Needing to avoid capture, he assumes Bartok's identity, but first must scar his face like the doctor's.

An interesting film which was is also known as The Scar

Hong Kong (1952) - 94 mins

Starring Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, Nigel Bruce, Marvin Miller & Mary Somerville

Directed by Lewis R. Foster

This thriller is set in Asia and follows the exciting exploits of a villainous soldier of fortune (Ronald Reagan) involved in shady shenanigans with the communists who gets caught red-handed by the authorities. He manages to escape and during his flight encounters a charming Chinese orphan who carries with him a priceless old statue. Wanting the sculpture, the mercenary allows the child to travel with him. He next teams up with a beautiful Red Cross volunteer. The three use their considerable con-artist skills to make it into a Hong Kong hotel room. There he finds himself feeling drawn towards the honest life by the woman and the child, but not before he steals the lad's statue and takes it to an art-dealer, who turns out to be a major crook. Will the mercenary finally goes straight?

The first of two (color) films which combined the talents of Reagan & Fleming under the careful eye of director Lewis R. Foster - the other being 1953's Tropic Zone (which is also available from this website)

A fun film with Ronny donning garb (leather jacket & fedora) which would one day be made famous by Indiana Jones

-NEW TITLE-

Horizons West (1952) - 81 mins

Starring Robert Ryan, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson, John McIntire, Raymond Burr, James Arness & Dennis Weaver

Directed by Budd Boetticher

Home from the Civil War, young Neal Hammond (Rock Hudson) is happy to return to Texas ranching, but brother Dan (Robert Ryan) wants more. His attempt to enter business is thwarted when carpetbagger Cord Hardin (Raymond Burr) beats and humiliates him in a poker game. So Dan forms a rustling gang and parlays his ill-gotten gains into a land empire. But among the growing opposition to his gang is the new Marshal of Austin, his brother Neal!

One of 4 westerns which Robert Ryan made in the 1950s in which he was star - the others being Best of the Badmen (1951), The Proud Ones (1956) & Day of the Outlaw (1959) - all of which are available from this website

Director Budd Boetticher is perhaps best remembered for that fabulous run of 7 westerns that he did with Randolph Scott: Seven Men from Now (1956), The Tall T (1957), Decision at Sundown (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Westbound (1959), Ride Lonesome (1959) & Comanche Station (1960). But he also did a nice western with Glenn Ford: The Man from the Alamo (1953). All of these classic westerns are available from this website

From the pen of legendary western writer Louis Stevens, who also wrote the westerns: Border River (1954), Santa Fe (1951), Streets of Laredo (1949) & The Texas Rangers (1936) - all of which are available from this website.

-NEW TITLE-

Horror of Dracula (1958) - 82 mins

Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh & Valerie Gaunt

Directed by Terence Fisher

Jonathan Harker takes employment with Count Dracula, ostensibly to catalog his vast library. In fact, he is on a mission to kill the Count, a vampire. Before he can do so however, the Count gains the upper hand and Harker soon finds himself as one of the walking dead. Dracula has taken an interest in Harker's fiancée, Lucy Holmwood (Carol Marsh) and it is left to Harker's colleague, Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) to protect her. He has difficulty convincing Lucy's brother, Arthur Holmwood (Michael Gough), of the dangers or even the existence of vampires. Soon, however, Arthur's wife Mina (Melissa Stribling) is targeted by Count Dracula and Arthur and Van Helsing race to find Dracula's lair before she is lost to them forever.

Horror of Dracula (1958) is an UK's Hammer Studios classic - being far closer to the letter and spirit of the Bram Stoker novel than the Bela Lugosi film from three decades earlier. It is the second of Hammer's horror re-imagining of classic Universal Studios monster films (after The Curse of Frankenstein) and again pitches Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as adversaries.

(Sandwiched between the films is Cushing's The Abominable Snowman (1957) - also available from this website)

Fans of "Hammer Horror with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee" might like to check out The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) & The Mummy (1959) elsewhere in this Adventure, Mystery & Noir section of this website.

Also worth a look: Frankenstein, Dracula & The Wolf Man Movie Series - It can be found in the Movie Series section of this website.

Hotel Reserve (1944) - 85 mins

Starring James Mason, Lucie Mannheim, Raymond Lovell, Julien & Herbert Lom

Directed by Lance Comfort & Mutz Greenbaum

Based on the Eric Ambler novel entitled "Epitaph for a Spy," this is the story of a medical student on the Riviera during the Summer before WWII begins. A refugee from Austria, he has been photographing wildlife. When the film he develops contains secret installations, he must prove that he is not a German spy or be deported. With the police and help from a romantic interest that pops up along the way, he has to try to flush out the real spy to clear himself.

Interesting James Mason WWII spy adventure.

Note that Eric Ambler wrote Background to Danger, Journey into Fear, The Mask of Dimitrios, Highly Dangerous & The October Man - all of which are available from this website.

One of a trilogy of WWII UK films in which Mason played the "good" guy - the other two are Secret Mission (1942) and Candlelight in Algeria (1944) - which are also available from this website

House Across the Bay (1940) - 88 mins

Starring George Raft, Joan Bennett, Lloyd Nolan, Walter Pigeon & Gladys George

Directed by Archie Mayo

Joan Bennett is a nightclub singer Brenda Bentley, the wife of high-rolling gambler Steve Lawrett (George Raft). When Steve is railroaded into Alcatraz by duplicitous attorney Slant Kolma (Lloyd Nolan), Brenda promises to remain faithful to her husband during his incarceration, even going so far as to purchase an apartment "across the bay" from the island prison so that she can be near him. But while Steve is serving his time, he discovers that Brenda has succumbed to the charms of handsome Tim Nolan (Walter Pidgeon). Enraged, Steve vows to kill Nolan, staging a daring escape attempt to realize his goal. But will Steve be able to get off "the rock" in one piece, succeeding where so many others have failed?

Another great Raft vehicle!

House By the River (1950) - 88 mins

Starring Louis Hayward, Jane Wyatt, Lee Bowman, Dorothy Patrick & Ann Shoemaker

Directed by Fritz Lang

The unsuccessful writer Stephen Byrne tries to force his servant Emily Gaunt sexually while his wife Marjorie Byrne is visiting a friend and accidentally strangles her. His crippled brother John Byrne coincidently comes to his house in that moment, and Stephen asks him to help to get rid of the corpse and avoid an scandal, since his wife would be pregnant. The naive and good John helps his brother to dump the body in the river nearby his house. Stephen uses the disappearance of Emily to blame her and promote his book. When the body is found by the police, all the evidences points to John, and he becomes the prime suspect of the murder.

The legendary Fritz Lang was the guiding hand of this laudable Republic Studios melodrama.

The House in the Square (1944) - see I'll Never Forget You elsewhere on this website

House of Cards (1968) - 105 mins

Starring George Peppard, Inger Stevens, Orson Welles, Keith Michell, Perrette Pradier & Geneviève Cluny

Directed by John Guillermin

Reno Davis is an American writer (& retired boxer) wandering through France, who takes a job as a tutor for the son of a wealthy widow, Anne de Villemont. Reno is led to believe Anne's husband was a French general killed in the Algerian conflict. He is puzzled over Anne's fears that her eight-year-old son will be kidnapped. Reno discovers the family has ties to a fascist organization that plans to takeover France, Algeria and finally, all of Europe. He contends with the shady psychiatrist Morillon and mysterious family friend Leschenhaut, both of whom scare Anne whenever they are around. Reno is framed for his best friend's murder as he and Anne become the targets of the ambitious and maniacal schemers who wish to rule the entire European continent. Reno and Anne escape by car and plane, dodging bullets and kidnap attempts as they try to protect Paul from being abducted. The chase ends at the Coliseum in Rome, where Reno and the villains engage in a showdown in this gripping, mysterious crime thriller.

Great stuff - a big story, well told - bring on adventure!

House of Strangers (1949) - 101 mins

Starring Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Luther Adler, Paul Valentine & Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Italian-American banker, Gino Monetti, runs roughshod over his four grown sons. The ruthless Gino engages in several illegal activities to build up his business, and is arrested as a result. Though the sons have always been fully aware of their father's questionable business practices, they refuse to help him stay out of prison; led by oldest son Joe (Luther Adler), three of the sons take over the business and kick their father out. Only son Max (Richard Conte) remains loyal to his father, whereupon his three brothers conspire to have Max thrown into prison as well.

Great film with Edward G. in top form!

The House on 92nd Street (1945) - 88 mins

Starring William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso & Leo G. Carroll

Directed by Henry Hathaway

Exciting trend-setting spy drama - based on fact and staged at the actual locations - about FBI counter-espionage activities during WW2. Nazi agents operating in New York attempt to infiltrate the Atom Bomb project.

An exciting story, well told and filmed.

Academy Award winner for Best Original Story

The House on Telegraph Hill (1951) - 93 mins

Starring Richard Basehart, Valentine Cortese. William Lundigan, Fay Baker & Gordon Gebert

Directed by Robert Wise

Victoria Kopwelska is a Polish woman imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp near the end of World War II. Desperate to survive, Victoria learns that her best friend has family in the United States, and if they are ever freed, she pledges to take Victoria to America with her. Victoria's friend, however, is killed shortly before American troops can liberate the camp. With nowhere to go, Victoria steals her friend's papers and sails to America, where she is accepted as her friend by her family. Victoria learns that she is now the godmother to a young boy, as well as the heir to a sizable fortune, following the death of her "aunt." Alan Spender, the boy's guardian, has been making secret plans to get his hands on the money, and Victoria's arrival causes him to draft a new scheme. Alan begins wooing Victoria, hoping to take her hand in marriage and then murder her, gaining her estate in the process.

The Hucksters (1947) - 115 mins

Starring Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou & Ava Gardner

Directed by Jack Conway

Victor Norman (Clark Gable ) is just out of the service and looking for a job in advertising. By playing hard to get, he figures that he can get a good job and a large salary. The first thing he has to do is get a war widow to endorse Beautee Soap. He meets with Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr ) and gets the endorsement and Mr. Evans (Sydney Greenstreet), the head of Beautee Soap is temporarily happy. Victor's job is now to work with Mr. Evans, a man who is a strict and demanding client. Everything should be rosy, but bachelor Victor finds himself attracted to both Kay and the young Jean Ogilvie (Ava Gardner).

Great Gable vehicle

Hudson's Bay (1941) - 95 mins

Starring Paul Muni, Gene Tierney, Laird Cregar, John Sutton & Vincent Price

Directed by Irving Pichel

This sweeping drama chronicles the foundation a Canadian institution: the Hudson's Bay Trading Company. Set in the 17th century when the fur trade was at its peak the story centres on Radisson, a far-sighted entrepreneurial fur trapper, and his sidekick who dream of establishing a major trading post on Hudson's Bay. Opportunity arises when they encounter an exiled British aristocrat and begin teaching him frontier ways. He in turn has them travel to England with him. There the determined Radisson, must first convince King Charles that the proposed post would be a lucrative venture. The king eventually agrees to fund the first post and Radisson, his partner and the aristocrat return to the Canadian frontier. The company gets off to a good start until the aristocrat's brother-in-law gets drunk and kills a native thereby nearly starting a war.

Fabulous adventure!

Humanoids from the Deep (1980) (aka Monster!) - 80 mins

Starring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, Vic Morrow, Cindy Weintraub, Anthony Pena & Denise Galik

Directed by Barbara Peters

In a Pacific Northwest town, experiments with genetically treated salmon backfire when they are eaten by coelacanths, who mutate into humanoid monsters with giant craniums and sharp claws: halfman, halffish which terrorize a small fishing village by killing the men, raping & mating with the women and eventually creating total pandemonium at the annual salmon festival. This is the UK version which is uncut and has been re-titled Monster!

The Land That Time Forgot (1975) was the first of three Edgar Rice Burroughs tales that were adapted for film by British production house Amicus under the direction of Kevin Connor and starring American actor Doug McClure (remember Trampas from the 60's TV series The Virginian ?). The second was At The Earth's Core (1976), which also starred Peter Cushing and the lovely Caroline Munro, and the last was The People That Time Forgot (1977), a sequel to the first film in which Patrick Wayne goes in search for Doug. The Land That Time Forgot is also significant because well known Fantasy writer Michael Moorcock worked on the screenplay. A fourth Connor / McClure film in this series of period lost world films was also produced : Warlords Of Atlantis (1978). Although not based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it followed fairly much the formula set by the other films in the series - a journey by stalwart period English scientists into a lost world filled with monsters, a voyage that takes places in a marvellous vehicle of period technology.

McClure then returned to US TV but within two years was back on the big screen in the outrageous Humanoids from the Deep (1980). From the Roger Corman (low-budget shocker) stable this film achieved dubious notoriety for its gratuitous and uncompromising approach to the genre

The films all also feature charismatic acting from lantern-jawed lead man Doug McClure and talented support players.

All of these films are available from within this section of the website - they are also available in a 5 DVD set from within the Classic Movie Combination section of this website

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) - 115 mins

Starring Charles Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Maureen O'Hara & Edmond O'Brien

Directed by William Dieterle

The tragic tale from the pen of Victor Hugo, tells of a disfigured cathedral bellringer who falls for the beautiful gypsy, Esmeralda in medieval Paris, France. The film provides the stage for one of Laughton's greatest portrayals as the tragic title figure, backed up by Maureen O'Hara's sweet but fiery Esmeralda, and Hardwicke's chilling prosecutor, Frollo.

Atmospheric direction and stark yet lavish sets combine with the fine performances to build a genuinely moving experience.

Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952) - 84 mins

Starring Dirk Bogarde, Kay Walsh, Elizabeth Sellars & Geoffrey Keen

Directed by Charles Crichton

A criminal on the run after murdering his wife's lover in a crime of passion finds hope in an unlikely friendship with a fugitive orphan boy, who insists upon tagging along.

A revisiting for Crichton of the deeper themes of The Odd Man Out (also available from this website) - the outsider figure on the lam battling conflicting emotions of guilt and the will to live and the compassion and/or lack of it that he encounters along the way. The film, scripted by Jack Whittingham, also takes on the boy's story to make a comprehensive case for the substance of kindness over its appearance while Crichton's direction, particularly in the section covering the pair's cross-country adventures.

The Hunters (1958) - 108 mins

Starring Robert Mitchum, Richard Egan, Robert Wagner, Mai Britt, Lee Philips, John Gabriel & Stacy Harris

Directed by Dick Powell

Directed with crisp efficiency by Dick Powell, The Hunters is a romantic melodrama with an aviation angle. Robert Mitchum plays veteran Air Force pilot Maj. Cleve Saville, in charge of a group of young flyboys in 1952 Korea. Among the men under Saville's command are cocksure Lt. Ed Peil (Robert Wagner) and timorous Lt. Abbott (Lee Phillips). Much against his better judgment, Saville falls in love with Abbott's gorgeous wife Kris (Mai Britt). When Abbott crashes behind enemy lines, Saville and Peil are sent out to rescue the downed pilot-and Peil has an inkling of the Major's feelings towards Mrs. Abbott. During their grueling journey back to their own lines, both Peil and Abbott benefit from the military expertise of the no-nonsense Saville, who knows where and when to separate his private life from his responsibilities.

Distinguished by excellent aerial sequences, The Hunters is adapted from the novel by James Salter.

The Hurricane (1937) - 105 mins

Starring Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, Jerome Cowan & John Carradine

Directed by John Ford

Framed in a flashback related by Dr. Kersaint (Thomas Mitchell), The Hurricane is in essence the story of a struggle between individual freedom and colonial oppression. Terangi (Jon Hall) is a tempestuous native of the French-controlled island of Manakoora. After marrying childhood sweetheart Marama (Dorothy Lamour), Terangi takes a job on a ship. While docked in Tahiti, Teragni is goaded into a fight by a white man - an offense punishable by a stiff prison term. French governor DeLaage (Raymond Massey) has nothing personal against the native, but he is dedicated to upholding the strict letter of the law. Even the appeals made on behalf of Terangi by Dr. Kersaint, priest Father Paul (C. Aubrey Smith), ship's Captain Nagle (Jerome Cowan) and the governor's own wife (Mary Astor) fail to weaken DeLaage's resolve to do his duty. Thus begins a chain of events that entangles the freedom-loving Terangi in the impenetrable web of white "justice".

Largely the handiwork of art director James Basevi, the hurricane of The Hurricane was not directed by the film's official helmsman John Ford, but by an uncredited Stuart Heisler (a fact readily acknowledged by Ford).

Adapted by Dudley Nichols and Oliver H. P. Garrett from a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, The Hurricane won an Academy Award for Best Sound and also scored Oscar Nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Mitchell) and Best Music (Alfred Newman).

Note that this is an excellent quality print - much better commercial offerings