Black Widow (1954)
Black Widow (1954) starring Van Helfin, Ginger Rogers
Synopsis
In Black Widow, an aspiring young writer is found dead …. In a Broadway producer’s apartment. Is the Broadway producer helping her guilty?
One for my Baby song lyrics
Song lyrics to One for my Baby
One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) is a hit song written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the musical The Sky’s the Limit and first performed in the film by Fred Astaire. It’s been recorded by dozens of performers, notable Frank Sinatra, and performed on film many times, including by Ida Lupino in Road House
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Road House
Editorial review of Road House (1948) courtesy of Amazon.com
Road House has acquired a cult as a prime film noir. Certainly the title location is archetypal, a lounge and bowling alley up toward the Canadian border, and Ida Lupino and Richard Widmark make the most of flavorful roles that would qualify them as exemplary noir denizens even if they hadn’t established that elsewhere.
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Moontide
Moontide (1942) starring Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, directed by Fritz Lang and Archie Mayo
Moontide is a variety of things — a forgotten movie with excellent acting, a character study, a film noir. It’s the story of a French wanderer named Bobo (Jean Gabin). Bobo is a handsome, hard-drinking man who considers himself a wandering gypsy. He wanders from place to place and job to job. His best friend Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) tails him. But this friend is more of a leech. He blackmails Bobo into paying his bills so that Tiny doesn’t have to work for a living.
Until they come to a small fishing town, and Bobo falls for a beautiful waitress (Ida Lupino). And after Bobo rescues her from an attempted suicide by drowning, the two begin falling in love. Then, Bobo begins to think about settling down for the first time … But that doesn’t fit in with Tiny’s plans. And an old man has been murdered. But Bobo remembers nothing about it since he was drinking at the time …
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Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944) starring Van Johnson, Phyllis Thaxter, Spencer Tracy, Robert Walker, Robert Mitchum
The old adage says that you shouldn’t judge a book by its’ cover — and that goes for DVD cases as well. Judging from the DVD case, you would think that Thirty Seconds over Tokyo is starring Spencer Tracy — and you would be wrong. Spencer Tracy does appear, and he does a fine job portraying James Doolittle, the man behind the World War II raid on Tokyo. But the central character in this movie is pilot Ted Lawson. Van Johnson portrays him excellently. The movie breaks into three parts:
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I Married a Witch
I Married a Witch (1942) starring Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Susan Hayward, Cecil Kellaway
I Married a Witch is a screwball comedy with a magical twist. The men in the Woolsey family are cursed — to marry the wrong woman. Ever since a pilgrim ancestor was instrumental in burning a father and daughter witch at the stake. Their evil spirits have been captured in a tree ever since. Until a lightning bolt strikes the tree, and frees them, and they decide to have their revenge on the last of the Woolseys … But something goes wrong!
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Modern Times
Summary of Modern Times, (1936), starring Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
Modern Times begins with Charlie Chaplin as Charlie the Little Tramp gainfully employed at a factory. However, the strict regimentation is driving him to the brink … Then over the brink, when the factory owner has him as the “guinea pig” for a “time-saving” feeding machine. This leads to Charlie spending time in a mental hospital. Cured after his breakdown. But then he is arrested and jailed when …. He innocently picks up a red flag that has fallen off the back of a truck and runs down the street to return it …. Just when a communist demonstration comes around the corner. He meets Paulette Goddard as ‘The Gamin’ (a street urchin) in the back of the police van. She is arrested for stealing bread. From then on the theme is about the two trying to get along in … modern times
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A King in New York
movie review of A King in New York (1957) starring Charlie Chaplin, Dawn Addams There are some people who consider A King in New York to be a bitter screed against the United States of…
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The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938), starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkins
Editorial review of The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, courtesy of Amazon.com
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse is a stylish, often amusing crime drama, this 1938 feature revolves around a central, improbable plot twist that consciously serves its casting against type: as the eponymous doctor, Edward G. Robinson, who had helped define the Warner Bros. style for gritty gangster sagas, jettisons his signature snarl in favor of a plummy, vaguely English accent that underlines his urbane sophistication. Dr. Clitterhouse is a creature of privilege who embarks on a criminal life not out of desperation, but rather through intellectual curiosity; instead of slouch hats and suits, he has marcelled hair and first appears in white tie and tails. He begins pulling off “perfect” jewel thefts as research into the criminal mind, but his gradual immersion in New York’s shadowy demimonde of thieves and fences eventually finds the good doctor between those two worlds.
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Black Legion
Black Legion (1936) starring Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, directed by Michael Curtiz
Editorial review of Black Legion, courtesy of Amazon.com
Black Legion – One of Humphrey Bogart‘s earliest starring vehicles, this 1936 melodrama typifies the Warner Bros. touch in its modest but potent production values and Depression-era social acumen. Prompted by contemporary news reports of new neofascist groups targeting political and religious minorities, the script conjures up a shadowy, Klan-like organization preying on factory workers to set them against blue-collar immigrants. Bogart is Frank Taylor, a hard-working drill-press operator hoping for a promotion that can help him better provide for his adoring wife and cherubic young son. Frank’s coworkers reassure him he’ll snag the foreman’s post, but when a studious young Polish American gets the nod, Frank’s bitter disappointment sets the stage for the tragedy that follows.
