
Paul Merrick, a writer of hit musicals, prefers to lie in the sun or play golf. He does so until he goes broke and asks to borrow a large sum of money, against future earnings, from his producer, Alex Conway.
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Tag Archives: 1950s
Three for the Show (1955) H.C. Potter, Betty Grable, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, Musical

This musical reworking of TOO MANY HUSBANDS (1940), features Grable as a top singer and dancer who’s been widowed by WW II. She marries her late husband’s songwriting partner, Gower Champion, but the new marriage is thrown for a loop when Lemmon, her first husband, turns up very much alive and eager to see Grable.
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The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) Ken Annakin, Richard Todd, Joan Rice, Peter Finch, Action, Adventure, Family

Young Robin Hood, in love with Maid Marian, enters an archery contest with his father at the King’s palace. On the way home his father is murdered by hench men of Prince John. Robin takes up the life of an outlaw, gathering together his band of merry men with him in Sherwood Forest, to avenge his father’s death and to help the people of the land that Prince John are over taxing.
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Seven Men from Now (1956) Budd Boetticher, Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin, Action, Western

Ex-sheriff Ben Stride tracks the seven men who held up a Wells Fargo office and killed his wife. Stride is tormented by the fact that his own failure to keep his job was the cause of his wife’s working in the express office and thus he is partly responsible for her death.
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The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) Vincente Minnelli, Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Drama, Romance

Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer James Lee Bartlow, a star Georgia Lorrison and a director Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone – including the writer, star and director – on the way to becoming one of Hollywood’s top movie makers.
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The West Point Story (1950) Roy Del Ruth, James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Comedy, Music

Broadway director Bix Bixby, down on his luck (thanks to gambling), is reluctantly persuaded to go to West Point military academy (with Eve, his gorgeous assistant and on-and-off love) to help the students put on a show. Ulterior motive: to recruit student star Tom Fletcher for Harry Eberhart’s new production (Eberhart just happens to be Tom’s uncle). Then, Bixby finds that he himself must live as a cadet. Of course, sundered hearts come into the story also…
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Merry Andrew (1958) Michael Kidd, Danny Kaye, Pier Angeli, Salvatore Baccaloni, Comedy, Musical, Romance

Downtrodden but creative English school-teacher (Danny Kaye) on archeological trip discovers joys of love and circus life with acrobat (Pier Angeli).
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Kentucky Jubilee (1951) Ron Ormond, Jerry Colonna, Jean Porter, James Ellison, Comedy, Music

A Hollywood film-director has been sent to Hickory Kentucky to find material and acts for a hill-billy picture.He is kidnapped by henchmen of a big-town city slicker who has taken over the operation of the town’s annual jubilee..mostly using bottom-of-the-barrel acts from the swamps of Florida. A Hollywood trade-paper reporter, sent to cover the event, finally thwarts the gang’s plans to loot the civic coffers and the local bank. Jerry Colonna, between the 15 staging of acts from Florida that killed vaudeville, flits in and out as a hired emcee, who also gets kidnapped.
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The Night of the Hunter (1955) Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

It’s the Great Depression. In the process of robbing a bank of $10,000, Ben Harper kills two people. Before he is captured, he is able to convince his adolescent son John and his daughter Pearl not to tell anyone, including their mother Willa, where he hid the money, namely in Pearl’s favorite toy, a doll that she carries everywhere with her. Ben, who is captured, tried and convicted, is sentenced to death.
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Ung flukt / Young Sinners (1959) Edith Carlmar, Liv Ullmann, Atle Merton, Rolf Søder, Drama

The story of a young Gerd, played by Liv Ullman in her first leading role, who falls in love with a young boy. She is considered a ‘loose’ woman, and the boy’s family does not accept their relationship. The young couple run away to a cabin in the woods where they meet a rogue man who tests their relationship.
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