Golden Earrings (1947)

Golden Earrings (1947) is an immediatley post-war wartime Romany-gypsy adventure transformation prisoner of war with shades of screwball comedy in the shape of a misbehaving wild sexpot gypsy espionage kind of backdrop infused film noir flashback but no voiceover man on the run and behind enemy lines Eurowaldian soundtage based romancer flick about a man and a 'gypsy' who is at odds with English morality, obviously, and who drives a cliched caravan through Nazi Germany with the SS in cold pursuit, ultimately creating a fusion genre that could be described by the phrase serious comedy, and starring Ray Milland and Marlene Dietrich, with Murvyn Vye, Bruce Lester and Dennis Hoey.

The Reckless Moment (1949)

The Reckless Moment (1949) is a murder and blackmail domestic noirodrama Christmas film noir woman's picture suspense love melodrama and tragedy film noir classic of suburban panic and paranoia with Joan Bennett and James Mason, and a classic film noir as well, supported by Geraldine Brooks, directed by Max Ophüls and suggestive of the Suburban Disturbin 1950s to come, with the additional actor talents of Henry O'Neill, Shepperd Strudwick, David Bair and Roy Roberts as Nagel, and of course, Frances E. Williams.

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) is an autobiographical Tennesse Williams psychosurgery paranoid woman benevolent aunt madness or truth thinly veiled story about the unspeakable, homosexuality, Southern aristocracy and madness unsung surreal masterpiece of intriguing and twsited based on a play theatricals around a mad sister and a dead son, and a proposed lobotomy, and a pscyhoanalytico-religio-sacrificial erotomania suppression of women symbolic Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed film noir psycho-melodrama starring Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.

Kitty Foyle (1940)

Kitty Foyle (1940) is an almost or proto feminist classic woman's picture white collar girl class and women's rights flashback romance and melodrama Oscar-winning smoochie love and marriage triangle tale of high sadness and existential mid-century womanly angst in both Philly and Manhattan, facing death of hope and an illegitmate baby, and really not the only film of 1940 to make a massive deal out of a snow globe, starring Ginger Rogers, Katharine Stevens, Dennis Morgan, and James Craig, based on Christopher Morley's 1939 bestselling novel of the same name. 

The Glass Wall (1953)

The Glass Wall (1953) is a returning veteran post-Holocaust musical Manhattan based chase and race against time innocent man abroad man hunt cheap-boarding room bound ship and pavement immigrant stowaway thriller with Vittorio Gassmann and Gloria Grahame, and in the meantime, I would so assert bub, that this is a little known but effective film noir, notable for terrific street photography, as wella s starring Joe Turkel in an uncredited young punk son role, and being directed by Maxwell Shane, who became a screenwriter before becoming a director in 1947, after which he worked on noirish films, as a writer or director, like Hell's Island, Fear in the Night and the remake Nightmare, while also scripting City Across the River (1949) and directing1955's The Naked Street, generally some decent noirs, some decent noirs.

Terminal Station (1953)

Stazione Termini (1953) is a Italian American David O'Selznick produced melodrama Italian neo-realist collision of style romance angst and close up photography, and a deeply trroubled film as well as being Vittorio de Sica's only Amercian feature, as well as being a catalogued full motion picture fifties entry into the David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones marriage, and as such a tale of highest angst and romance and high flying vision, with its long and longing station tracking shots and super intense performance from Montgomery Clift, hacking the neo-realist style with Truman Capote dialogue, which is already served hacked, and Jennifer Jones as the high queen of station dramatics and real neo-realist expression of her self and her style, in a great career moment for all that is often side=stepped known as it is for being a quintessential mash up jam amid and below and atop the chasm of cultures between Hollywood melodrama and Italian neo- realism.

Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953)

Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953) is a David O. Selznick cut of the Italian co-prodcued Terminal Station (1953) commonly or preferably known as Staziona Termini (1953) and is the heavily altered US version of Vittorio De Sica’s Italian romantic drama, Terminal Station trimmed from 89 to 64-72 minutes by producer David O. Selznick to spotlight the screen miracle that was Jennifer Jones who was then his wife.

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) is a Sam Wood directed and produced adapted from the classic Ernest Hemigway novel epic Spanish Civil War tale of resistance, camarederie, and bridge blasting and romance amid guerilla warfare about an American International Brigades volunteer who is fighting against the fascists and who falls in love with a young woman guerrilla fighter during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge to protect Republican forces, starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Arturo de Córdova, Vladimir Sokoloff, Mikhail Rasumny, Fortunio Bonanova, Eric Feldary, Victor Varconi as Primitivo, the lookout and Joseph Calleia.

The Black Sleep (1956)

The Black Sleep (1956) is a mad scientist body horror induced coma uneven but effective talky but entertaining veteran actor overlooked house of crazies Lugosi, Chaney and Carradine in a final reunion matters of the brain throwback marquee exploitation influential monstrous experiments independent horror film with the American reissue title Dr. Cadman's Secret produced by Bel Air Productions, directed by Reginald LeBorg, and written by John C. Higgins from a story by Gerald Drayson Adams. It stars Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Bela Lugosi, and Akim Tamiroff. Tor Johnson appears in a supporting role, produced by Aubrey Schenck and Howard W. Koch, as part of a four-picture finance-for-distribution arrangement with United Artists, and assembling human wreckage, failed patients, mutilated minds, and ruined legends.

To Have and Have Not (1944)

To Have and Have Not (1944) is a Hemingway adaptation Howard Hawks Humphrey Bogart Lauren Bacall romaticn war adventure noir classic romance Hoagy Carmihcael historic appearance American expatriate French resistance volatile and memorably quotable 40s freelancing fisherman classic of the silver screen whistling and Casablance Part Two "was you ever bit by a dead bee" hot chemistry deriviate to the point of strange mini classic of the era, with Sheldon Leonard, Walter Surovy, Marcel Dalio, Walter Sande, Dan Seymour, and Paul Marion.

Unpublished Story (1942)

Unpublished Story (1942) is a Harold French wartime espionage and adventure journalism and media noir Valerie Hobson star attraction blitz and fifth columnist paranoid London under seige screwball comedy battle of the sexes conspiracy thriller woman in the media tale of British pluck and courage in the face of Nazi bombing and Nazi inflitration under rubbelous wartime conditions, and starring Richard Greene as second billing in everybody's opinion to Valerie Hobson, produced and co-written by Anthony Havelock-Allan set as a propaganda film during World War II with two main plots, the first one involving a journalist whose stories are repeatedly censored by the Ministry of Information and the second one the same folks involvin a pacifist organisation, whose members are actually agents of Nazi Nazi Germany.

Tender Comrade (1943)

Tender Comrade (1943) is a Edward Dmytryk and Dalton Trumbo anti-fascist furloughed wife home front World War 2 morale and community enrichment rousing patriotic drama that also managed to be interpreted by HUAC as a socialistic sinkhole of evidence of communist messaging and infiltration in Hollywood movie-making, melodramatic newlyweds flashback style 'pre-democracy' diverse female housemates drama and war baby and returning and departing veteran tear-inspirer or 'jerker' if you prefer, starring Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey and Kim Hunter.

No Trace (1950)

No Trace (1950) is a writer hero blackmail and bad disguise British mysterious sailor suspenser film noir which has a female seeker hero aspect as it is the writer stabber hero's secretary figure who solves the crime and legworks the solution out of the cheap boartding house walls with Hugh Sinclair and Dinah Sheridan, and starring John Laurie and Barry Morse, yes to le deux, a full and rare "British" combo, John Laurie and Barry Morse, and is at the same time a classic of classic actors who do not for various and whatever reasons feature on this weblog.

The Upturned Glass (1947)

The Upturned Glass (1947) is a British flashback and voiceover brain surgeon and love affair murder madness and suicide sanity-searching wicked lady and high quality limey 1940s criminologist revenge introspective and calculated insanity intriguer with star of the show James Mason, and Rosamund John, Pamela Kellino and Ann Stephens.

One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

One-Eyed Jacks (1961) is a classic epic Oedipal psychological drama revenge heist and horseback softly romantic and simultaneously sadistic arthouse western classic and favourite of many for its wildscapes and manly actions and is a film and maybe even a film noir which retains a certain uniquness insofar as it is directed by Marlon Brando and one of the very few elite one of a kind westerns that are set beside the seaside, beside the sea in southern California in this case and instance. 

Bigger Than Life (1956)

Bigger Than Life (1956) is a Cinemascope James Mason Nicholas Ray film noir masterpiece of drug addiction, marital survival school teaching depression mania, cortisone abuse, parenting folly and the suburban collapse of the male mind, pharmacy lurking and the horrors of drug abuse, drug cautionary and high dosage psychosis, pharmamerican tragedy, the American Dream | Nightmare scenario middle class suburban disturbin melodrama, starring James Mason, Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is a Hollywood-based flashback-told drama of hubris and mania in film production, of betrayal and ambition and which shines a harsh critical light on the lives and careers of the producers of the era, and earlier, notably looking at David O. Selznick, or maybe not since he did not sue Metro about it, and maybe it was Daryl F. Zanuck, or Val Lewton or Orson Wells, and a five Academy Award winning ironic homage to Hollywood showing fragmentary multiple POV the ruthless eighteen-year rise and fall of a tyrannical, manipulative Hollywood movie tycoon, directed by Vincente Minelli and Starring Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Barry Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Gloria Grahame, Paul Stewart and Leo G. Carroll.

All About Eve (1950)

All About Eve (1950) is a six Academy Award winning all time classic best films of all time cynical and feminist masterpiece of late golden age Hollywood acting, screen-writing and direction telling of deceit, ambition and betrayal in theatreland, which was written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and based on the 1946 short story (and subsequent 1949 radio drama) The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr, although Orr does not receive a screen credit, and stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star, and Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington, an ambitious young fan who manoeuvres herself into Channing's life, ultimately threatening Channing's career and her personal relationships, as well as starring George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, and Hugh Marlowe, and features Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates and Walter Hampden.

Backfire (1950 )

Backfire (1950 ) is a flashback-based female seeker hero returning veteran rambling tangled web of mystery and violence against women-style Los Angeles and Christmas and military hospital and PTSD adjacent film noir thriller from the tail end of the high period of the dark and foggy beginnings of the television era and which sees Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, Edmond O'Brien, und Great Dane Clark.

Jewel Robbery (1932)

Jewel Robbery (1932) is a pre-code comedy heist reefer-mad lad and lady gentleman thief and sexy Vienses bonbon romp and romance amoral fun and games feature directed by William Dieterle and starring William Powell and Kay Francis, based on the 1931 Hungarian play Ékszerrablás a Váci-utcában by Ladislas Fodor and its subsequent English adaptation, Jewel Robbery by Bertram Bloch.