Tag Archives: 1940s

The Monster and the Girl (1941) Stuart Heisler, Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Paul Lukas, Crime, Drama, Horror

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Scot Webster tries to save his sister Susan from the clutches of gangster W.S. Bruhl. When Scot comes to Bruhl’s rented room, one of the gangster’s henchmen collapses into his hands, killed by a gunman. The murderer tosses his gun to Scot and disappears. Since all the evidence points at him, Scot is arrested, tried and sentenced to death. A mad scientist uses his brain to transplant it into a gorilla. After the operation Scot wakes up in the body of a gorilla, eager to get his revenge…
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Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946) Spencer Williams, Francine Everett, Don Wilson, Katherine Moore, Drama

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An all-black Caribbean island resort welcomes flashy dancer Gertie La Rue, forced to perform in this remote spot because she two-timed Al, her Harlem lover and backer, once too often. As Gertie amuses herself by dazzling the local men with her sex appeal, sanctimonious Mr. Christian (shades of ‘Rain’) schemes to either reform her or have her thrown off the island. On opening night, her sensuous performance exceeds Christian’s worst fears…but more serious trouble awaits.
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The Blood of Jesus (1941) Cathryn Caviness, Spencer Williams, Juanita Riley, Drama, Fantasy

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In the rural south of the United States, a godly young woman is accidently wounded by her unchurched husband. She succumbs to the injuries, whereupon a good angel bids her to journey with him to the Crossroads of Life. Before she can travel far, the devil lures her with the temptations of juke joints and the city. Can she regain the straight and narrow before it’s too late? And what is to become of those she left behind?
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To the Ends of the Earth (1948) Robert Stevenson, Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, Maylia, Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

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Based on the files of the United States Department of Treasury. Commissioner Michael Barrows is an American Government Agent. On board a Coast Gaurd boat off the California coast he chases a ship. The Captain of the ship, the Kira Maru, panics and ruthlessly sends 100 Chinese slaves to a watery death. Barrows recovers a live preserver that tells him the ship is out of Shanghai. He travels there to track down the ship’s captain and discovers that these deaths point to a huge drug smuggling operation. In Shanghai, while searching for the captain of the Kira Maru, he becomes suspicious of a women, Ann Grant, believing she’s Jean Hawks the narcotics ringleader. He follows the narcotics trail “to the ends of the Earth” taking him from Shanghai to Cairo, Beirut and Havana to stop the drugs and the jean Hawks ring at the US border.
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The Princess and the Pirate (1944) David Butler, Sidney Lanfield, Bob Hope, Virginia Mayo, Walter Brennan, Adventure, Comedy, Romance

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Princess Margaret is travelling incognito to elope with her true love instead of marrying the man her father has betrothed her to. On the high seas, her ship is attacked by pirates who know her identity and plan to kidnap her and hold her for a king’s ransom. Little do the cutthroats know that she will be rescued by that unlikeliest of knights errant, Sylvester the Great, who will lead them on a merry, and madcap, chase.
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Bagdad (1949) Charles Lamont, Maureen O’Hara, Paul Hubschmid, Vincent Price, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

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A Bedouin princess returns to Bagdad after being educated in England, only to find that her father has been treacherously murdered by the head of the Black Robes, a group of renegades. She is hosted by the Pasha, who is the corrupt representative of the national government. She is also courted by Prince Hassan, who is falsely accused of the murder. The plot revolves around her attempts to bring the killer to justice while being courted by the Pasha.
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De Mayerling à Sarajevo / From Mayerling to Sarajevo (1940) Max Ophüls, Edwige Feuillère, John Lodge, Aimé Clariond, Drama

De Mayerling a Sarajevo (1940)
In the late 1800’s, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, falls for Sophie Chotek, a Czech countess. He’s already a problem to the Crown because of his political ideas; this love affair with someone not of royal blood breeches protocol. The Crown allows the union only after the couple agrees to a morganatic marriage. The emperor further neutralizes Franz by making him inspector general of the army, sending him afield for months at a time. In June of 1914, fearing for his safety, Sophie seeks permission to accompany Franz to Sarajevo; protocol dictates that no army troops attend Franz while she is present. An assassin strikes. Their deaths spark World War I.
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