
Middle-aged Oscar winning actress Margaret Elliot – Maggie to those that know her – is a Hollywood has-been. Her life is in shambles. She clings to the hope of resurrecting her past movie stardom as a leading ingénue. No one will hire her, she’s penniless with creditors selling off anything that she owns that is of monetary value, and she has no one to turn to that can see her through financially. She has in the past supported her sister and brother-in-law, who still want to use her as their meal ticket. Divorced from her actor husband, she shares joint custody of their teen-aged daughter Gretchen, from who Maggie tries to hide her problems. When it looks as if Maggie has hit rock bottom, Jim Johannsen re-enters her life. Jim, who once had the stage name Barry Lester, got his big break in Hollywood movies by Maggie. He came to the quick realization that he was neither good as an actor or that he wanted to do it as a profession. He now works as a boat parts supplier and mechanic.
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Tag Archives: 1950s
Un marito per Anna Zaccheo / A Husband for Anna (1953) Giuseppe De Santis, Silvana Pampanini, Amedeo Nazzari, Massimo Girotti, Drama

Anna Zaccheo is a beautiful young woman from a working class Neapolitan family. Her main concern is to find herself a suitable husband. She meets a young sailor Andrea one day and gets engaged to him. But while she is waiting for Andrea to return from the navy she gets raped by her boss. Her life suddenly takes a downward spiral.
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Little Red Monkey / The Case of the Red Monkey (1955) Ken Hughes, Richard Conte, Rona Anderson, Russell Napier, Action, Adventure, Crime

Several murders of nuclear scientists, that baffles Scotland Yard, occur in London about the same time that Bill Locklin, a special officer from the United States State Department, arrives to oversee the transfer of Professor Leon Dushenko, a Russian scientist who as fled the U.S.S.R. An attempt is made on Dushenko’s life with a monkey’s paw-print found at the scene. Newspaperman reporter Harry Martin is covering the story. Duskenko is moved secretly to a nursing home, while Locklin stumbles onto the hideout of the gang behind the killings. He is captured along with Julia Jackson, niece of Superintendent John Harrington. Locklin is tortured to reveal Dushenko’s hiding place but escapes in time to avert Duskenko’s murder at the hands of the gang’s hired-killer–-a midget who is aided by a monkey.
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The Purple Plain (1954) Robert Parrish, Gregory Peck, Bernard Lee, Win Min Than, Adventure, Drama, War

After losing his bride in a Luftwaffe air raid, bomber pilot Forrester becomes a solitary killing machine, who doesn’t care whether he dies. The reckless Canadian pilot is both admired and feared by the rest of his squadron in World War II Burma. The squadron physician is assigned to determine the embittered Bill Forrester’s fitness for duty. To break through the nightmare-haunted man’s wall of silence, the physician drives Forrester to visit an outpost of English-speaking refugees, which includes an alluring young Burmese woman.
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Tank Battalion (1958) Sherman A. Rose, Don Kelly, Leslie Parrish, Edward G. Robinson Jr., War, Drama

Four men in their tank, during the Korean War in 1951, find themselves behind enemy lines.
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Loan Shark (1952) Seymour Friedman, George Raft, Dorothy Hart, Paul Stewart, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

A vicious loan shark ring has been preying on factory workers. When several workers at a tire factory suffer violence at the hands of the loan sharkers, a union leader and the factory owner try to recruit ex-con Joe Gargan to infiltrate to the gang. At first Joe does not want to get involved, but changes his mind when his brother-in-law dies at the hands of a savage loan shark hood. Joe works his way into the mob, but in order to keep his cover, Joe can’t tell anyone what he is up to. This results in him being disowned by his sister and girl friend.
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Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) Roy Del Ruth, Karl Malden, Claude Dauphin, Patricia Medina, Crime, Horror, Mystery

After several women are murdered, the police are baffled who the suspect is. All evidence points to Dupin, but soon it becomes apparent that it is something that is stronger and more deadlier than man.
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Scuola elementare (1954) Alberto Lattuada, Riccardo Billi, Mario Riva, Lise Bourdin, Comedy

A primary school teacher Lazio, after years of teaching at the village, he won a competition in Milan. In the school which is intended meets an old childhood friend who does the janitor and temporarily hosting it at home. In school the teacher also meets a young colleague of which falls in love …
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The Stand at Apache River (1953) Lee Sholem, Stephen McNally, Julie Adams, Hugh Marlowe, Western

Sheriff Lane Dakota captures robbery-murder suspect Greiner just as the latter is wounded in an Apache ambush. At remote outpost Apache River, Lane and his prisoner spend the night with other travelers, including 2 women with a surprising number of fancy dresses. In the morning, who should appear but a band of ostensibly peaceful Apaches strayed from the reservation. And bigoted Colonel Morsby is strongly inclined to shoot first and ask questions afterward…
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The Fast and the Furious (1955) John Ireland, Edward Sampson, Dorothy Malone, Bruce Carlisle

A man wrongly imprisoned for murder breaks out of jail. He wants to clear his name, but with the police pursuing him, he’s forced to take a beautiful young woman, driving a fast sports car, hostage and slip into a cross-border sports car race to try to make it to Mexico before the police get him.
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