Tag Archives: 1940s

Blues in the Night (1941) Anatole Litvak, Priscilla Lane, Betty Field, Richard Whorf, Crime, Drama, Music

Blues in the Night (1941)
“Jigger’ Lane forms a band that includes singer Ginger ‘Character’ Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powelll, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit and to play ‘blues’ music. The dedication isn’t paying off in money and, while riding the rails in a boxcar, they meet and befriend a gangster named Del Davis. He offers them a job at a New Jersey roadhouse, where Powell falls in love with Kay Grant, a former ‘real-good friend’ of Davis. But when Powell learns that ‘Character’ is about to have a baby, he returns to her. “Jigger” tries to make Kay the band’s singer and, when this fails, runs off with her. She leaves him with nothing to show for him except a nervous breakdown.Back at the roadhouse, after his recovery, Kay shows up, has a quarrel with Davis, shoots and kills him and plans to take back up with “Jigger”, who knows better but just can’t help himself. While she is waiting in a car for him, along comes cripple Brad Ames, who she put in …
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The Night Has Eyes (1942) Leslie Arliss, James Mason, Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

The Night Has Eyes (Leslie Arliss, 1942)
Two teachers, man-hungry Doris and restrained Marian, visit the Yorkshire moors a year after friend Evelyn disappeared there. On a stormy night, they take refuge in the isolated cottage of Stephen, one-time pianist shellshocked in the Spanish Civil War. Doris flees as soon as the flood subsides; but Marian’s suspicions about Evelyn’s fate, in conflict with her growing love for Stephen, prompt her to stay on among the misty bogs.
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Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945) Roy Rowland, Edward G. Robinson, Margaret O’Brien, James Craig, Drama, Family

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Life in small town Wisconsin. Selma and Arnold, aged 7 and 5, pal around together between their two farms. Selma has a newborn calf that her father gave to her which she named ‘Elizabeth’. Nels is the editor of the Fuller Junction Spectator and the kids just call him ‘editor’. Viola is the new school teacher from the big city. While Nels wants to marry Viola, Viola does not want to live in a small quiet, nothing happening town. The biggest news is that Faraassen has built a new barn.
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Love Letters (1945) William Dieterle, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Drama, Mystery, Romance

love-letters-1945
When a man asks another man more facile with words to do his wooing for him, there are always complications. The man with no talent for writing marries the girl, confesses one night he didn’t write the letters and ends up with a knife in his back. The writer of the letters fell in love with the woman he wrote to and wants to become her second husband even if she did murder husband number one. Singleton doesn’t remember the murder or anything about the first 22 years of her life as Victoria Remington. Then at her second wedding she wonders why she said “I take you, Roger,” instead of “I take you, Alan.”
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Whistle Stop (1946) Léonide Moguy, George Raft, Ava Gardner, Victor McLaglen, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

whistle-stop-1946
Beautiful Mary returns to her small hometown after many years from Chicago wearing a mink coat and carrying an expensive cigarette case. Her arrival causes long standing enmities to surface between two of her old boyfriends, Kenny Veech, a loafing gambler, and debonair Lew Lentz, owner of a local nightclub. Their deep-seated animosity repeatedly results in antagonism and fights as they compete for Mary’s affections. Kenny’s friend Gitlo, a bartender in Lentz’ club, enlists Kenny in an aborted plan to rob Lentz of $15,000 in profits from sponsoring a local carnival. Lentz retaliates by framing both men for murder.
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Too Many Husbands (1940) Wesley Ruggles, Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas, Comedy, Romance

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It’s been a year since Bill Cardew was declared dead by drowning, and his widow Vicky is now married to his old friend and business partner, Henry Lowndes. When Bill unexpectedly returns from the island where he was marooned, what is Vicky to do? Well, having twice been a rather neglected wife, Vicky finds all the attention from two husbands competing for her favors delightful, and is in no hurry to make a decision…much to the discomfiture of hapless Bill and Henry.
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Command Decision (1948) Sam Wood, Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, War, Drama

command-decision-1948
General Dennis of the US Force in England in World War II finds that he must order his planes deeper and deeper into Germany to prevent the production of military jet planes that will turn the tide of battle to the Germans. He must fight congressmen, and his own chain of command to win the political battle before he can send his planes out. His problem is complicated by a very narrow window of good weather necessary to allow his effort to be successful. Adapted from a stage play, it attempts to look at the challenges of command in the political arena.
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Deadline at Dawn (1946) Harold Clurman, Susan Hayward, Bill Williams, Paul Lukas, Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance

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Alex, a sailor on leave, recovers from a drink-induced blackout with a large sum of money belonging to Edna Bartelli, a b-girl who invited him home to “fix her radio.” He tries to return it with the reluctant aid of June Goth, a sweet but oh-so-tired dance hall girl; they find Edna murdered. Not quite sure he didn’t do it himself, Alex and June have four hours in the dead of night to find the real killer before his leave ends. Their quest brings them into contact with a sleazy kaleidoscope of minor characters; clues get more and more tangled…
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Stairway to Heaven (1946) Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Drama, Fantasy, Comedy

stairway-to-heaven-1946
Returning to England from a bombing run in May 1945, flyer Peter Carter’s plane is damaged and his parachute ripped to shreds. He has his crew bail out safely, but figures it is curtains for himself. He gets on the radio, and talks to June, a young American woman working for the USAAF, and they are quite moved by each other’s voices. Then he jumps, preferring this to burning up with his plane. He wakes up in the surf. It was his time to die, but there was a mixup in heaven. They couldn’t find him in all that fog. By the time his “Conductor” catches up with him 20 hours later, Peter and June have met and fallen in love. This changes everything, and since it happened through no fault of his own, Peter figures that heaven owes him a second chance. Heaven agrees to a trial to decide his fate.
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The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) Richard Thorpe, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson, Comedy, Crime, Mystery

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Nick and Nora head to Nick’s hometown of Sycamore Springs to spend some time with his parents. His father, a prominent local physician, was always a bit disappointed with Nick’s choice of profession in particular and his lifestyle in general. With Nick’s arrival however the towns folk, including several of the local criminal element, are convinced that he must be there on a case despite his protestations that he’s just there for rest and relaxation. When someone is shot dead on his doorstep however, Nick finds himself working on a case whether he wants to or not.
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