Apparently rejected by women all his life, a loner with a high-power rifle starts on a trail of murder. The police are baffled by the apparently random killings until their psychologist comes up with some ideas.
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Tag Archives: 1950s
Il generale della Rovere / General Della Rovere (1959) Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Hannes Messemer, Sandra Milo, Drama, War
Genoa, 1943. Grimaldi is a swindler, pretending to be a colonel in the Italian army to get money from the family of people put into jail by the Nazis. Once caught, the Gestapo makes a deal with him : he will stay alive if he impersonates the General Della Rovere, a leader of the Resistance who has just been shot by the Nazis, to be put into a political jail where he is supposed to identify another Resistance leader.
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I’ll See You in My Dreams (1951) Michael Curtiz, Doris Day, Danny Thomas, Frank Lovejoy, Biography, Comedy, Musical
Songwriter Gus Kahn gets the Hollywood treatment. The film chronicles his success and decline, with his wife Grace sticking by him the whole time.
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La città si difende / Four Ways Out (1951) Pietro Germi, Gina Lollobrigida, Renato Baldini, Cosetta Greco, Crime, Drama
As a soccer match is in progress, a group of four criminals robs the stadium office. Before they can make their getaway, a chase begins, and they must split up before they can divide the money. The police have little to go on, since it appears that none of the robbers were experienced criminals. Meanwhile, the thieves have to arrange for dividing the money while trying to avoid being captured.
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The Halliday Brand (1957) Joseph H. Lewis, Joseph Cotten, Viveca Lindfors, Betsy Blair, Drama, Western
As a man returns home to see his dying father, the story of the alienation between father and son is told in flashback. Purposely letting his daughter’s lover get lynched, shooting the lynched man’s father when he threatens him with a gun, and the bullying tactics used by him as a Sheriff causes the son to leave. The son now plans to ruin his father and get his Sheriff’s badge removed.
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Marguerite de la nuit / Marguerite of the Night (1955) Claude Autant-Lara, Michèle Morgan, Yves Montand, Jean Debucourt, Drama, Fantasy
An updating of the Faust legend, with a dash of Fritz Lang’s “Der Müde Tod”, to a 1950’s Paris recreated in vividly abstract expressionistic sets.
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Beginning of the End (1957) Bert I. Gordon, Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, Morris Ankrum, Sci-Fi
An attractive reporter investigating the mysterious destruction of an Illinois town stumbles upon a secret government laboratory conducting radiation experiments on vegetables. The lead scientist is eager to help find out what happened. Together they discover that giant grasshoppers are behind the devastation. Worse yet, thousands of them are headed toward Chicago! Can they be stopped… or is this the BEGINNING OF THE END?
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Fear Strikes Out (1957) Robert Mulligan, Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore, Biography, Drama, Sport
Jim Piersall is groomed by his loving but hard-driving father (living vicariously through his son) to play major league baseball. His desire to succeed to please his father leads to mental illness and a nervous breakdown. Can he overcome those difficulties and return to the major leagues?
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Cien (1956) Shadow – Jerzy Kawalerowicz
The plot consists of a Rashomon-like investigation into the life of a man found dead after having been hurled from a train. Read More »
The Steel Helmet (1951) Samuel Fuller, Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, Action, Drama, War
During the Korean War, strong but worn and cantankerous Sergeant Zack is aided by a young, orphaned Korean boy. Together they encounter and join a small group of American soldiers. The group stumbles upon a Buddhist temple where they decide to hold up, believing it to be empty…
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