Tag Archives: 1950s

Royal Wedding (1951) Stanley Donen, Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Comedy, Musical, Romance

royal-wedding-1951
Tom and Ellen Bowen are a brother and sister dance act whose show closes in New York. Their agent books them in London for the same period as the Royal Wedding. They travel by ship where Ellen meets and becomes involved with Lord John Brindale. This causes her to miss a rehearsal. Tom (Astaire) uses the time to dance with a hat rack and gym equipment. Later Tom and Ellen attempt a graceful dance number as the ship rolls. Upon arrival Tom holds auditions and meets Anne. There is much indecision by the siblings about their romantic partners even though they are in-the-clouds. Tom dances on the walls and ceiling of his hotel room. All ends well in this light musical. By the way, there is a vaudeville-style dance number in their show that features slapstick. It’s a hoot.
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The Happy Road (1957) Gene Kelly, Barbara Laage, Michael Redgrave, Comedy

the-happy-road-1957
While setting up a business in Paris, American widower Michael Andrews has placed his adolescent son, Danny Andrews, in a Swiss boarding school as Mike has no time during this phase of the business set-up to look after Danny on his own. Mike receives distressing news that Danny has run away from the school with another student, Parisienne Janine Duval. This news does not sit well with either Mike or Janine’s divorcée mother, Suzanne Duval. Suzanne believes Danny is a delinquent influence on her daughter, while Mike believes Janine is an enabler as non-French speaking Danny could not manage outside the school without some language assistance. They learn from another student that Danny is heading to Paris to show Mike that he is independent enough to live in Paris with Mike, while Janine tagged along because she sees herself as Danny’s girl and as she has not seen her mother in some time. As the children have not been gone long and as there is only one road between the school and Paris,…
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He Ran All the Way (1951) John Berry, John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

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The uptight and dumb small time thief Nick Robey and his partner and only friend Al Molin steal $10,000.00 from a man, but the heist goes wrong. Al Molin is killed by a policeman and Nick shoots him in the spine. He hides out in a public swimming pool and meets the lonely spinster Peggy Dobbs in the water. Nick uses Peggy to lie low. He offers a ride in a taxi to her and she invites him to her apartment, where she introduces her family to him. When Nick discovers that he killed the cop, he decides to use Peggy’s apartment as hideout to wait the police manhunt cool down. When Nick finds that Peggy loves him, he invites her to leave town with him and asks her to buy a used car. However, Nick cannot trust anybody and believes Peggy has betrayed him.
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Pociag / Night Train (1959) Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Lucyna Winnicka, Leon Niemczyk, Teresa Szmigielówna, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

pociag-aka-night-train-1959
Two strangers, Jerzy (Leon Niemczyk) and Marta (Lucyna Winnicka), accidentally end up holding tickets for the same sleeping chamber on an overnight train to the Baltic Sea coast. While handsome, well dressed and rather laconic, Jerzy seems ill at ease, while Marta is not talkative and would prefer to be alone. Staszek (Zbigniew Cybulski) is a student and Marta’s spurned lover, and will not leave her alone. When the police enter the train in search of a murderer on the lam, rumors fly and everything seems to point toward one of the main characters as the culprit.
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Walk Softly, Stranger (1950) Robert Stevenson, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Spring Byington, Crime, Film-Noir, Drama

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A charming, smooth-talking gambler calling himself Chris Hale arrives in Ashton, home of the Corelli shoe factory. Claiming to have lived there as a boy, he soon ingratiates himself with the townspeople… including attractive heiress Elaine Corelli, wheelchair-bound since a recent accident. Chris, hoping to leave crime behind, seems to have excellent prospects; but of course, his past catches up with him…
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Bakurô ichidai / The Life of a Horse Trader (1951) Keigo Kimura, Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Takashi Shimura, Drama

bakuro-ichidai-aka-the-life-of-a-horse-trader-1951
This early gem starring the great Mifune Toshiba tells the tale of Katakana Yonetaro aka “The Shark,” a rough-and-tumble horse trader in Japan’s rugged northernmost territory of Hokkaddo.. always ready to drink, fight, gamble and chase women he falls victim to a crooked game with loaded dice. This little-known film captures the wild ways of early Japan after the fall of the shogunate when men had only their own strengths and skills to rely on. A brilliant yet tragic tale that can now be told.
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Ostatni dzien lata / The Last Day of Summer (1958) Tadeusz Konwicki, Irena Laskowska, Jan Machulski, Drama, Romance

ostatni-dzien-lata-aka-the-last-day-of-summer-1958
There is something vaguely mythical to the manner in which Konwicki introduces his characters, both to us and to each other, lapped as much by the ethereal eeriness of the score as by the seaside winds that send their hair aflutter. When they tend to speak to each other in whispers, it seems almost out of respect for the otherworldly aura of their locale, as though it is to their eyes as improbably beautiful as Konwicki’s camera renders it to us. They—referred to in the credits only as “He” and “She”, mysterious and mythical in themselves—do not whisper much; there’s a clear silent heritage at work here, conferring meaning to the motion of faces and the movement of the camera along this spectral shore.
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I Mobster (1958) Roger Corman, Steve Cochran, Lita Milan, Robert Strauss, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

I Mobster (1958)
Joe Sante wants to be the big man, and nobody is going stand in his way. In a world full of smoke, molls, shakedowns, muscle, and murder, Joe knows what he wants and how to get it. But can he disregard his poor old immigrant parents who are ashamed of his criminal life? Will he drag his sweet girlfriend into the life of the underworld? And most importantly, can Joe trust his mobster friends?
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