Tag Archives: 1940s

Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he’s ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling. En route to the meeting, he tells girlfriend Ann his story. Flashback: Once, Jeff was a private eye hired by Sterling to find his mistress Kathie who shot Whit and absconded with $40,000. He traces her to Acapulco…where the delectable Kathie makes Jeff forget all about Sterling… Back in the present, Whit’s new job for Jeff is clearly a trap, but Jeff’s precautions only leave him more tightly enmeshed…
Read More »

Biopic of the famed scientist and the work she did with her husband Pierre in the discovery of radium. Marie was a student at the Sorbonne studying for her Master’s degree in physics when they first met. She received permission to use space in Professor Pierre Curie’s laboratory. They soon fall in love and are married, working together on trying to isolate a radioactive substance Marie has identified as radium. Years of painstaking research and experimentation led to success and Marie and Pierre Curie shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. Sadly, Pierre was killed crossing the street in the rain when he was run over by a horse and wagon. Marie continued to work and make major contributions to science.
Read More »

Funloving Pearl White, working in a garment sweatshop, gets her big chance when she “opens” for a delayed Shakespeare play…with a comic vaudeville performance.
Read More »

A police detective investigating a jewel robbery discovers evidence that points to his girlfriend as the culprit, although she claims she was framed. He arrests her anyway, and she is convicted and serves several years in prison. Finally out on parole, she is soon mixed up in a murder.
Read More »

Broadway gambler Gloves Donahue wants to find who killed the baker of his favorite cheesecake. He sees nightclub singer Leda Hamilton leaving the bakery. When her boss Marty’s partner Joe is murdered, Leda and her accompanist Pepi disappear. It turns out that beneath all the mystery is a gang of Nazi operatives planning to blow up a battleship in New York harbor.
Read More »

In the Atlantic during WWII, a ship and a German U-boat are involved in a battle and both are sunk. The survivors from the ship gather in one of the boats. They are from a variety of backgrounds: an international journalist, a rich businessman, the radio operator, a nurse, a steward, a sailor and an engineer with communist tendencies. Trouble starts when they pull a man out of the water who turns out to be from the U-boat.
Read More »

In the suburbs of Paris, an old maid has just been murdered. Every body talks about that, except the misanthrope Mr Hire. The same evening, Alice, just getting out of jail, arrives and meets up with her lover Alfred again. They act as they do not know each other, for Alice went to jail to spare Alfred. But Mr Hire falls in love with Alice, and he knows Alfred is the murderer…
Read More »

Tucson, Arizona, circa 1910: Emily Hefferan wants a divorce. In flashback, she recalls twenty years of marriage to Jim Hefferan, who sinks every cent of each new windfall in harebrained investments. Emily only keeps a roof over the family by taking in boarders…more and more of them. But Jim’s latest deal goes just a little too far.
Read More »

Twenty years ago, old Mrs. Barlow was killed in her home at 12, Pimlico Square for her priceless rubies. The murderer searched the whole house without finding them, then disappeared. The house has been empty since then, but now Paul and Bella Mallen move into the apartment.
Read More »

During the last half of the 19th century writer Richard Darrell saves Don Carlos from two robbers, and is entrusted by Don Carlos to take a valuable necklace to Spain. Richard leaves his fiancé, Oriana, and starts the trip. He meets Wycroft, a henchman for Sir Francis Castteldow, an aristocrat out to steal Oriana from Richard. The latter is assaulted, robbed and nearly killed and, as a result, loses his memory. He marries a gypsy girl, Rosal, while Oriana, thinking him dead marries the dastardly Sir Francis. Everybody will meet again. Complications will arise.
Read More »

A naive young girl, looking to escape from a bad family situation, falls in love with a man who turns out to be a cad, and leads her down the road to ruin.
Read More »

Shirley’s last film on her 20th Century Fox contract (aged 12). Her parents (Oakie, Greenwood) decide to retire from show biz so she can have a normal life.
Read More »

Dolly Payne is adored by two leaders of the fledgling American government, James Madison and Aaron Burr. She plays each against the other, not only for romantic reasons, but also to influence the shaping of the young country. By manipulating Burr’s affections, she helps Thomas Jefferson win the presidency, and eventually she becomes First Lady of the land herself.
Read More »

This musical biopic chronicles the vaudeville-to-Broadway story of 1920s’ star Marilyn Miller (June Haver). From her start on the boards in Findlay, Ohio, Marilyn sings and dances her way to Broadway stardom, frequently in company with her mentor, dancer Jack Donahue (Ray Bolger).
Read More »

The fiery performance, conducted by Giuseppe Morelli with the Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, knocks all recent digital efforts into a cocked hat. A few cinematic liberties seem permissible to me and this is surely one of the best films of an opera.
Read More »