Tag Archives: 1950s

Based on the short story “Mr. Morgan” from “Return To Paradise” (James Michener’s sequel to “Tales of the South Pacific”). Morgan (Gary Cooper), a drifter and soldier-of-fortune washes up on a Pacific island that is a small dictatorial state under the puritanic rule of Pastor Corbett (Barry Jones), a missionary. They conflict but Morgan stays on and carves out a cozy life. He has a child out of wedlock with island native Maeva (Roberta Haynes), but departs the island after her death, leaving the young daughter behind. He returns years later in search of his daughter. It is circa the early years of WW II, and he finds that his daughter has fallen in love with an American pilot who has crash-landed on the island. It appears that the pilot will do for the girl what Morgan did for her mother, and then depart.
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During the closing days of WWII, a National Guard Infantry Company is assigned the task of setting up artillery observation posts in a strategic area. Lieutenant Costa knows that Cooney is in command only because of ‘connections’ he had made state-side. Costa has serious doubts concerning Cooneys’ ability to lead the group. When Cooney sends Costa and his men out, and refuses to re-enforce them, Costa swears revenge.
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Roman centurion Marcian is captured by Attila the Hun en route to Constantinople, but escapes. On arrival, he finds the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius plotting with Attila to look the other way while the latter marches against Rome. But Marcian gains the favor of Pulcheria, lovely sister of Theodosius, who favors a united Empire. As Attila marches, things look bleak for the weakened imperial forces. But the conqueror has an awe of the power of the Christians’ God…
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A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, and the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others…
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Confronted with the unfortunate news that their favorite Streetcar, no. 133, is going to be decommissioned, two Municipal Transit workers get drunk and decide to “take ‘er for one last spin,” as it were. Unfortunately, the “one last spin” ends up being an all-night and all-day scramble to stay out of trouble, as they are confronted with situation after sometimes bizarre situation that prevents them from returning the “borrowed” Streetcar!
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Sam and Felix are art thieves. Sam has just stolen a picture from a museum in Italy, but told Felix that it was lost in a boat accident. He wants copies made to sell while he will sell the original and get paid both ways. To find an artist, they pick the young, beautiful, naive Anna. When Anna has doubts, Sam strings her along and then marries her and go to Sicily on their honeymoon. Anna finds out that Sam is a thief and is very disappointed. Felix finds out that Sam has the original and is out to get it. The police are also waiting along with the buyer that Sam has for the painting.
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In 1864 Cavalry Captain John Hayes reluctantly follows orders to become the civilian boss of the Overland Stage Line, which keeps the flow of Western gold to the Union and will help it win the Civil War. Headquarters for the stage line is a small Colorado town with Southern sympathizers who will do anything they can to sabotage his mission. Resistance to his efforts is led by former friend ad colleague Clay Putnam, who has taken advantage of Hayes’ absence and married his former sweetheart.
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Released from jail, John Wesley Hardin leaves an account of his life with the local newspaper. It tells of his overly religious father, his resulting life of cards and guns, and his love for his step-sister replaced on her death during a gun fight with that for dance-hall girl Rosie.
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A year after a violent train robbery the Pinkerton detective agency hires a bounty hunter to find the three remaining killers. He tracks them to Twin Forks but has no clue to their identity. Tensions surface as just his presence in town acts as a catalyst.
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Based on an actual strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in New Mexico, the film deals with the prejudice against the Mexican-American workers, who struck to attain wage parity with Anglo workers in other mines and to be treated with dignity by the bosses. In the end, the greatest victory for the workers and their families is the realization that prejudice and poor treatment are conditions that are not always imposed by outside forces.
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A man in priestly robes, seemingly the long-awaited Father O’Shea, arrives at a little-frequented Catholic mission in 1947 China. Though the man seems curiously uncomfortable with his priestly duties, his tough tactics prove very successful in the Seven Villages, as around them China disintegrates in civil war and revolution. But he has a secret, and his friendship with mission nurse Anne (an attractive war widow) seems to be taking on an unpriestly tone…
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Betty Preisser, an attractive 24 year old divorcee, works as a secretary in the hard-boiled atmosphere of Manhattan’s garment district. Her workaholic boss Jerry (Frederick March) is feeling his own mortality. He’s overworked and lonely. He’s a 56 year old widower, but still enmeshed in his family obligations. His bossy older sister Evelyn has moved in with him and he has a married daughter Lillian and grandchild who live nearby.
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Follow-up to Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 from Outer Space” about the walking dead, It opens in a cemetery. Criswell, the “real” medium, rises from his coffin to tell us of “monsters to be despised.” Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan) is a phony medium aided by Valda Hansen, a bogus ghost, and big Tor Johnson, wearing rags and horrible scar makeup as Lobo. The doctor swindles people by pretending to contact dead relatives, but then accidentally succeeds in reviving a bunch of corpses that bury him alive! Sat unreleased for 23 years because Wood couldn’t pay the lab bill!
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Professor Immanuel Rath (Curt Jurgens)is a martinet botany professor at a German high school who finds post cards bearing the likeness of Lola-Lola (May Britt), “The Blue Angel”, in the possession of his pupils. He goes to the cafe where she is appearing to see if any of his pupils are there, and spots two of them. While chasing them, he encounters Lola-Lola and the troupe manager, Kiepert (Theodore Bikel.) He returns the next evening and becomes involved with Lola. His visit to the cafe, and the fact he spent the night with Lola, becomes common knowledge and he is forced to leave his school position. Despite the protests of his friends, he marries Lola, who is intrigued by the idea of being the wife of a professor. The intrigue doesn’t last long, as Rath is unable to get work because of his wife. He becomes a broken character, reduced to performing odd jobs around the troupe and living off the earnings of his wife.
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On August 15, ten years after the Pacific War, five people meet at a station. Their purpose is to dig out a cache of morphine — now worth sixty million yen — that HASHIMOTO, an army medical officer, buried in an air-raid shelter in this city on the day the war ended. The five are: SHIMA, a beautiful woman who claims that she is HASHIMOTO’s younger sister and that her brother is dead; NAKADA, a pharmacist; ONUMA, who owns a Chinese restaurant; YAMAMOTO, a thug; and SAWAI, who says he is a junior high school teacher. But HASHIMOTO originally had only three accomplices — and hid the morphine late at night, so they did not know each other’s identities. There is one person too many in the group, but they do not know whom. A butcher shop now stands over the old air-raid shelter. The five decide to rent a vacant house across the street, and dig a tunnel to the butcher shop.
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