Tag Archives: 1950s

Toward the Unknown (1956) Mervyn LeRoy, William Holden, Lloyd Nolan, Virginia Leith, Drama, History, Romance

Toward the Unknown (1956)
The story of a US Air Force major who was captured during the Korean War, and cracked signing a confession. After his release he ultimately arrives at Edwards Air Force base and works for his old buddy, now base commander. And runs into an old love forming the romantic triangle sub plot. But the main story line is the testing of high speed aircraft and the two main characters restoring their trust in each other. The aviation story line centers on the testing of the testing of the Gilbert XF-120 fighter, which suffers structural problems. And who will test the rocket powered X-2, designed to fly to the edge of space.
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Sterne / Stars (1959) Konrad Wolf

Sterne (1959)
Bulgaria, 1943. A train carrying Greek Jews is bound for the Auschwitz extermination camp and stops over in a small town in southwest Bulgaria. The school is converted into camp. Passing by the barbed-wire fence, the the Nazi army sergeant Walter meets a young Jewess called Ruth and falls in love with her. His buddy, Lieutenant Kurt, who is in charge of the camp, has her brought to a party in the pub. There Walter has a chance to talk with her. Having grown indifferent to people suffering, he is now awakened to unsuspected emotions and experiences a change of heart. When he next meets the girl, Walter convinces her that Nazism and war. Her fate and love make anew man of him. He gives a package of medicine for the inmates of the camp to Petk, a Bulgarian antifascist worker, but the German find them and destroy them. Walter is making arrangements for Ruth’s escape. He asks Petko to hide her but it is too late. The train has left.
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The Tattered Dress (1957) Jack Arnold

The Tattered Dress (1957)
After a wild night, wealthy Michael Reston’s adulterous wife Charleen comes home with her ripe young body barely concealed by a dress in rags; murder results. Top defense lawyer J.G. Blane, whose own marriage exists in name only, arrives in Desert View, Nevada to find the townsfolk and politically powerful Sheriff Hoak distinctly hostile to the Restons. In due course, Blane discovers he’s been “taken for a ride,” and that quiet desert communities can be deadly…
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Verboten! (1959) Samuel Fuller

Verboten! (1959)
A young American serviceman, stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his position with the Marshall Plan relief effort by breaking the non-fraternisatiom rule and falling in love with a young German woman. He uses his position to obtain food and luxuries for her that are in short supply, and all seems to be going well for the couple. What he doesn’t realise is that the Werewolves, the Nazi guerrilla movement, have plans in which he features heavily.
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First Man Into Space (1959) Robert Day

First Man Into Space (1959)
Navy test pilot Lieut. Dan Prescott, in experimental rocket plane Y-13, disobeys orders and becomes the first man to fly outside the ionosphere. Unable to turn, he ejects…and is plastered with metallic meteor dust. The pilot compartment lands with no trace of the pilot… but first cattle, then people, are found with their throats cut as if with an axe, by something that seems to have a craving for blood…
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Un maledetto imbroglio / The Facts of Murder (1959) Pietro Germi, Claudia Cardinale, Franco Fabrizi, Crime, Drama

Un maledetto imbroglio (1959)
A masked bandit steals valuables from Commendatore Anzaloni’s apartment and flees, leaving Anzaloni unharmed. Inspector Ingravallo is called in. The robbery is suspicious; the thief found the jewellery too quickly. The neighbour, Liliana Banducci, employs a servant girl, Assuntina. Her fiancé, Diomede, tries to flee when he sees police tailing Assuntina. But Diomede has an alibi, a rich American woman… Liliana’s cousin, Dr. Valdarena, pays her a visit, only to find her body on the floor. But before calling police, Valdarena removes an envelope addressed to him from the sideboard… Liliana’s husband Remo was away from Rome at the time of the murder, but he is surprised to hear that Liliana had changed her will only the week before…
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Funny Face (1957) Stanley Donen, Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson

Funny Face (1957)
Fashion photographer Dick Avery, in search for an intellectual backdrop for an air-headed model, expropriates a Greenwich Village bookstore. When the photo session is over the store is left in a shambles, much to salesgirl Jo Stockton’s dismay. Avery stays behind to help her clean up. Later, he examines the photos taken there and sees Jo in the background of one shot. He is intrigued by her unique appearance, as is Maggie Prescott, the editor of a leading fashion magazine. They offer Jo a modeling contract, which she reluctantly accepts only because it includes a trip to Paris. Eventually, her snobbish attitude toward the job softens, and Jo begins to enjoy the work and the company of her handsome photographer.
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