Tag Archives: 1940s

Ziegfeld Girl (1941) Robert Z. Leonard, Busby Berkeley, James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Drama, Musical, Romance

Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl’s life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on Broadway: Susan, the singer who must leave behind her ageing vaudevillian father; vulnerable Sheila, the working girl pursued both by a millionaire and by her loyal boyfriend from Flatbush; and the mysterious European beauty Sandra, whose concert violinist husband cannot endure the thought of their escaping from poverty by promenading her glamor in skimpy costumes.
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Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942) Edward Dmytryk, James Craig, Bonita Granville, Frank Jenks, Action, Drama

Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942)
After Pearl Harbor, convicts at Alcatraz prison live in fear of bomb attacks, driving Champ Larkin and his pal Jimbo to a desperate escape attempt which lands them on a tiny lighthouse island, where they take over. The five inhabitants are stymied in their efforts to summon aid. But the island also figures in the schemes of a big Nazi spy ring; which will win out, the gangsters’ greed or their patriotism?
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The Man from Tumbleweeds (1940) Joseph H. Lewis, Bill Elliott, Iris Meredith, Dub Taylor, Western

The Man from Tumbleweeds (1940)
In the third of his four Wild Bill Saunders Westerns, Bill Elliott, “the Peaceable Man,” is assigned by Governor Dawson (Don Beddoe) to put a stop to the reign of terror, including cold-blooded murder, perpetrated by Powder Kilgore (Raphael Bennett). When the state legislature refuses to fund a legitimate rangers organization, Wild Bill instead enlists a group of tough convicts, whom he promises freedom if they help capture Kilgore and his chief lieutenant, Lightning Barlow (Francis Walker). Unfortunately, one of the convicts, Shifty (Ernie Adams), lives up to his name by betraying his comrades in arms to Kilgore but after a furious gun battle at the gang’s shootout, Wild Bill manages to bring peace to the area. Nevertheless, when asked to captain the newly founded rangers organization, the hero instead promotes his new friend, former convict Honest John (Al Hill), and heads off to new adventures.
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Honeymoon (1947) William Keighley, Shirley Temple, Franchot Tone, Guy Madison, Comedy

Honeymoon 1947
Pretty but scatterbrained Barbara Olmstead arrives in Mexico City to marry her soldier fiance, learns he’s been delayed, and runs off to find a place to stay. Meanwhile, fiance Phil arrives after all, just misses Barbara, and goes off in quest of her. As further complications ensue, American consul David Flanner (who has an impatient fiancee of his own) is caught in the middle and driven nearly frantic…
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Two-Faced Woman (1941) George Cukor, Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett, Comedy, Romance

Two-Faced Woman (1941)
While at a ski lodge, Larry Blake sees instructor Karin Borg and decides to sign up for private lessons. The next thing he knows, she is Mrs. Blake. When he announces that he is going back to work on his magazine in New York the next day, Karin refuses to go with him. She later comes to New York, buys expensive clothes, and goes to meet him when she sees he is with old flame Griselda. Caught by Blake’s business partner, O.O. Miller, before she can leave, she explains that she is really Karin’s twin sister Katherine. Hard to believe, but that is what she tries to make everyone, including Larry, believe. Larry, however, has serious doubts, but plays the game to the hilt as the worldly Katherine tries to take him away from both Griselda and Karin.
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The North Star (1943) Lewis Milestone, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Drama, Romance, War

The North Star (Lewis Milestone, 1943)
In a peaceful Ukrainian village, the school year is just ending in June 1941. Five young friends set out for a walking trip to Kiev, but their travels are brutally interrupted when they are suddenly attacked by German planes, in the first wave of the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union. When the village itself is attacked and occupied, most of the men flee to the hills to form a guerrilla unit. The others resist the Nazis as well as possible, but soon the village is placed under the command of a Nazi doctor who begins using the town’s children as a source of constant blood transfusions for wounded German soldiers. Meanwhile, the small group of young persons tries desperately to take a supply of firearms to the guerrillas.
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Gypsy Wildcat (1944) Roy William Neill, Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Peter Coe, Adventure

Gypsy Wildcat (Roy William Neill, 1944)
In an unspecified Renaissance kingdom, no sooner has Anube’s gypsy tribe encamped near Baron Tovar’s village when Count Orso is found murdered. The wicked baron blames the gypsies and imprisons them all in his castle. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger on a white horse has hidden the murder arrow and won the heart of gypsy belle Carla, to the discomfiture of her erstwhile fiancée Tonio. Baron Tovar is also fascinated by Carla…especially when he notices her heraldic pendant.
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