People are afraid of the usurer Chazaj and are convinced that he is the bearer of evil. One day Chazaj pays a visit to the poor artist Simon Jordán and asks him to paint his portrait. Simon agrees but as he progresses with the work his mind conjures up terrible thoughts and in the end he commits suicide.
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Tag Archives: 1940s
The Phantom Rider (1946) Spencer Gordon Bennet, Robert Kent, Peggy Stewart, LeRoy Mason, Action, Adventure, Western
Indian agent Fred CArson is secretly the leader of a band of outlaws, using his official position to loot the U.S. Government if Indian allotment money. Aided by Ceta, the tribal Medicine Man, Carson directs raiding and robbing activities, both against the Indians and the local ranchers.
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The Trouble with Women (1947) Sidney Lanfield, Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, Brian Donlevy, Comedy
Milland is charming as Gilbert Sedley, an innocent professor – he’s apparently been isolated working in the Orient too long – who is baffled by his strong reactions to a young newspaper reporter, Kate Farrell (Teresa Wright). Why does he think of Niagara Falls whenever he’s around her?
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Wiener Blut / Viennese Spirit (1942) Willi Forst, Willy Fritsch, Maria Holst, Hans Moser, Comedy, Music
Willy Forst of course is famous for looking back on the ‘old Vienna’ in a mixture of nostalgia and gentle irony in his films, but “Wiener Blut” may be the one which most highlights the question of what makes the ‘true’ Viennese style. We get a first answer right at the beginning, when Forst himself masqueraded as a medieval alchemist mixes the ingredients for the brew of this film, which are ‘humour’, ‘frivolity’, ‘heart’, ‘history’ and most of all, ‘music’. And the film gets this mixture right.
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La Main du Diable / Carnival of Sinners (1943) Maurice Tourneur, Pierre Fresnay, Josseline Gaël, Noël Roquevert, Fantasy, Horror
A man arrives at an isolated mountain inn clutching a small box. The man is panic-struck when, during a sudden blackout, the box disappears. To the assembled guests at the inn he tells his tragic story. The man, Roland Brissot, was once a penniless artist who, one day, bought a talisman from the owner of a restaurant for one franc.
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The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944) Preston Sturges, Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, Comedy, Romance, War
Trudy Kockenlocker, a small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers, wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can’t remember–and she’s pregnant. Norval Jones, the 4-F local boy who’s been in love with Trudy for years, tries to help her find a way out of her predicament. Trudy complicates matters further by falling for Norval, and events snowball from there.
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My Reputation (1946) Curtis Bernhardt, Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Warner Anderson
Tongues begin to wag when a lonely widow becomes romantically involved with a military man. Problems arise when the gossip is filtered down to her own children.
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Berlin Express (1948) Jacques Tourneur, Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin
In divided Germany just after WWII, people from many different countries are passengers on a train. When one of the passengers, a German working for peace, is kidnapped by people who don’t want his ideas to work, the others must set aside their differences and work together to find him in time for an important conference.
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Träumerei (1944) Harald Braun, Hilde Krahl, Mathias Wieman, Friedrich Kayßler, Drama, Musical
Clara Wieck meets the talented Robert Schumann in her father’s Leipzig music school. And entirely against her father’s wishes, who thinks only of her future artistic career, she falls in love with Robert. The final break comes after a successful tour as a pianist at the side of Franz Liszt.
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Matto regiert / Madness Rules (1947) Leopold Lindtberg, Heinrich Gretler, Heinz Woester, Friedrich Braun, Crime, Drama
If any one man is responsible for the rejuvenation of the postwar Swiss film industry, that man was director Leopold Lindtberg. Matto Regiert (Madness Rules) was co-adapted for the screen by Lindtberg from a novel by Friedrich Glauser. Heinrich Gretler stars as Police Constable Studer, the hero of several of Glauser’s most popular works.
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Ladies of the Chorus (1948) Phil Karlson, Adele Jergens, Marilyn Monroe, Rand Brooks, Musical, Romance
Former burlesque star May and her daughter Peggy dance in the chorus. When May has a fight with featured dancer Bubbles, Bubbles leaves the show and Peggy takes her place. When Peggy falls in love with wealthy Randy, May fears class differences may lead to misery.
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Tobacco Road (1941) John Ford, Charley Grapewin, Gene Tierney, Marjorie Rambeau, Comedy, Drama
Shiftless Jeeter Lester and his family of hillbilly stereotypes live in a rural backwater where their ancestors were once wealthy planters. Their slapstick existence is threatened by a bank’s plans to take over the land for more profitable farming; subplots involve the affairs and marriages of son Dude and daughter Ellie May.
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Lady, Let’s Dance (1944) Frank Woodruff, Belita, James Ellison, Walter Catlett, Musical, Romance, War
Lady, Let’s Dance was a 1944 black and white film directed by Frank Woodruff that was nominated for two Oscars. Produced by Monogram Studios, the film is unique as an ice skating musical. Lady, Let’s Dance starred ice skaters Belita, James Ellison, Werner Groebli and Hans Mauch (more commonly known as ‘Frick & Frack’) and Walter Catlett.
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White Pongo (1945) Sam Newfield, Richard Fraser, Maris Wrixon, Lionel Royce, Adventure
Suspecting that a safari guide is a wanted killer, undercover policeman Geoffrey Bishop joins a safari led by the suspect for a scientist that hopes to find and prove that a fabled white gorilla is a missing link.
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The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) Lewis Milestone, Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
In 1928, young heiress Martha Ivers fails to run off with friend Sam Masterson, and is involved in fatal events. Years later, Sam returns to find Martha the power behind Iverstown and married to “good boy” Walter O’Neil, now district attorney. At first, Sam is more interested in displaced blonde Toni Marachek than in his boyhood friends; but they draw him into a convoluted web of plotting and cross-purposes.
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