49% OFF

• Director
• Joseph H. Lewis
• Writers
• MacKinlay Kantor(screenplay by)
• Millard Kaufman(screenplay by)
• Dalton Trumbo(screenplay)
• Stars
• John Dall
• Peggy Cummins
• Berry Kroeger

The definitive Joseph H. Lewis-directed melodrama, Gun Crazy is the "Bonnie and Clyde" story retooled for the disillusioned postwar generation. John Dall plays a timorous, emotionally disturbed World War II veteran who has had a lifelong fixation with guns. He meets a kindred spirit in carnival sharpshooter Peggy Cummins, who is equally disturbed -- but a lot smarter, and hence a lot more dangerous. Beyond their physical attraction to one another, both Dall and Cummins are obsessed with firearms. They embark on a crime spree, with Cummins as the brains and Dall as the trigger man. As sociopathic a duo as are likely to be found in a 1940s film, Dall and Cummins are also perversely fascinating. As they dance their last dance before dying in a hail of police bullets, the audience is half hoping that somehow they'll escape the Inevitable. Some critics have complained that Dall is far too effeminate and Cummins too butch, but Joseph H. Lewis was never known to draw anything in less than broad strokes: recall the climax of Terror in a Texas Town, wherein Sterling Hayden participates in a western showdown armed with a whaler's harpoon. The best and most talked-about scene in Gun Crazy is the bank robbery sequence, shot in "real time" from the back seat of Dall and Cummins' getaway car. Originally slated for Monogram release, Gun Crazy enjoyed a wider exposure when its producers, the enterprising King Brothers, chose United Artists as the distributor. The film was based on a magazine article by MacKinlay Kantor; one of the scenarists was uncredited blacklistee Dalton Trumbo.

• Director
• Fritz Lang
• Writers
• John Wexley(screenplay)
• Bertolt Brecht(adaptation and original story)
• Fritz Lang(adaptation and original story)
• Stars
• Brian Donlevy
• Walter Brennan
• Anna Lee

Hangmen Also Die is set in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. Czech loyalist Brian Donlevy assassinates the vicious Gestapo leader Heydrich, then goes into hiding. The wounded patriot is sheltered by history professor Walter Brennan, who is already under surveillance by the Nazis thanks to his veiled classroom attacks on the Third Reich. Fifth columnist Gene Lockhart arranges for the professor and 400 other Prague citizens to be rounded up as hostages, to be killed if Heydrich's assassin is not revealed. Ultimately Lockhart himself is framed by the citizenry, giving the actor full scope to cringe and cower as only he could. Persuasively directed by Fritz Lang, Hangmen Also Die was based on a story by Lang and expatriate German playwright Bertold Brecht.

• Director
• Sidney Poitier
• Writers
• Henry Rosenbaum
• David Taylor
• Stars
• Gene Wilder
• Gilda Radner
• Kathleen Quinlan

Gene Wilder stars as Michael Jordon, an architect on the run from false murder charges, who hooks up with Kate Hellman (Gilda Radner), the sister of a recent suicide victim.

• Director
• Edwin L. Marin
• Writers
• Florence Ryerson(screen play)
• Milton Merlin(screen play)
• W.C. Tuttle(based on a story by)
• Stars
• Frank Morgan
• Virginia Weidler
• Guy Kibbee

Frank Morgan stars as vaudevillian Henry Conroy, who puts show business behind him when he inherits a dilapidated Arizona ranch. For some reason, several interested parties, most of them wielding six-guns, are bent upon chasing Henry off his supposedly worthless land. Terrified of firearms (this despite the fact that he was a trick-shot artist in vaudeville!), Henry summons up his courage to go to the rescue when his young friend Molly (Virginia Weidler) is placed in danger's path. As a bonus, he solves the murder of his half-brother, who was responsible for Henry "going Arizona" in the first place. Though technically a B picture, this MGM production boasts better production values than most of the "A" efforts from any other studio.

• Director
• Luigi Cozzi
• Writer
• Luigi Cozzi
• Stars
• Lou Ferrigno
• Brad Harris
• Sybil Danning

The 12 labors of Hercules were not the objective of this film starring Lou Ferrigno as the semi-divine son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. Hercules must rescue Princess Cassiopea from her kidnappers, fight off grotesque laser-breathing monsters and in one case, jettison a giant bear up into space where it becomes Ursa Major, the Big Dipper or "Great Bear" constellation. Off-color (many scenes are in dim, bluish stage sets) and low-budget, this incarnation of Hercules may find unconverted viewers a difficult, 13th challenge to conquer.

• Directors
• Steve Sekely
• Paul Henreid(uncredited)
• Writers
• Daniel Fuchs(screenplay)
• Murray Forbes(based upon a novel by)
• Stars
• Paul Henreid
• Joan Bennett
• Eduard Franz

Pursued by the big-time gambler he robbed, John Muller assumes a new identity, with unfortunate results.

• Director
• Dave Fleischer
• Writers
• Dave Fleischer(original story)
• Dan Gordon(original story)
• Tedd Pierce(original story)
• Stars
• Kenny Gardner(voice)
• Jack Mercer(voice)
• Tedd Pierce(voice)

Two years after the release of Gulliver's Travels, the Fleischer brothers produced Mr. Bug Goes to Town, their second feature-length cartoon. The film is based in Bugtown, an insect community, and the insects that populate the picture are a sort of melting pot of the bug world. There is Hoppity the grasshopper, who is the dreamer of the bunch; Mr. Bumble the bee, who operates the honey shop, and his daughter Honey Bee, who loves Hoppity; C. Bagley Beetle, the ruthless businessman who plots against his own community for his personal greed; Smack the mosquito and Swat the fly, Mr. Beetle's comic-relief henchmen; and little Buzz, a young bee and a member of the Bee Scouts. The insects live in their isolated world, forever in dread of the increasing encroachment of the humans, but their world is shattered when their protective fence is knocked down and the humans begin making more and more excursions into their area and destroying their homes. Mr. Beetle sees this as his opportunity. He lives in what he believes to be a safe zone and wants Honey for his wife, so he continually pressures Mr. Bumble to let him marry Honey in exchange for moving Bumble into the safer area. But Hoppity has his own plans. Convinced that there are greener pastures elsewhere, he embarks on a journey with Bumble to the big house on the hill, the home of a struggling young songwriter named Dick Dickens and his wife, Mary. Hoppity and Bumble decide that the Dickens' garden is an insect utopia, and try to convince their community to abandon their homes and start fresh. Ultimately, Hoppity and Mr. Beetle must battle not only for control of Bugtown, but also for Honey's heart, and there are some songs by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser along the way.

• Director
• Eugenio Martín
• Writers
• Arnaud d'Usseau(screenplay)
• Julian Zimet(screenplay)
• Stars
• Christopher Lee
• Peter Cushing
• Alberto de Mendoza

This horror science-fiction thriller, a cult favorite, takes place in 1907. Professor Caxton (Christopher Lee), a fossil-hunter has discovered some sort of pre-human creature frozen in ancient Manchurian ice. He is traveling to London with his find on the Trans-Siberian Railway and is horrified to discover that his frozen man is missing, and corpses and zombies are appearing all over the train. It turns out that the frozen specimen is an alien with some unusual powers. The combined forces of Professor Caxton, his rival Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing), and a Cossack captain (Telly Savalas) are needed to save the world from this monstrous being. Skillfully told, with a good dose of humor, this film also features the train which appeared a year before in Nicholas and Alexandra.

• Director
• Arthur Hiller
• Writers
• Jameson Brewer(teleplay)
• Edward G. Dyson(based on a story by)
• Stars
• Errol Flynn
• Patricia Barry
• Peter Hansen

On his return to Nugget City, traveling medicine man Doc Boatwright is spotted by Adie Walter who, having been conned into buying Boatwright's saloon, has a score to settle with the charming medicine peddler.

• Director
• Leonard Freeman
• Writer
• Leonard Freeman(teleplay)
• Stars
• Thomas Mitchell
• Michel Petit
• Charles Lane

Sarge, an elderly checkers champ, can be beaten by only one person - Benny, a seven year old boy. When a local story offers a large sum of money to anyone who can beat a robot at checkers, Sarge decides to match Benny against the machine.

• Director
• Elliot Silverstein
• Writers
• Howard Rodman(teleplay)
• James Aswell(story)
• Stars
• Cliff Robertson
• David Brian
• Mary Murphy

A heated gubernatorial race is punctuated when a man comes around the apartment of Parker Sefton, one of the candidates, and asks questions pertaining to his drinking problem before he is thrown out, revealing that he was sent by Bard Kanger, the current governor. Sefton is convinced that Kanger and his “decadent” party are on the way out and that his governorship is assured, although Kanger’s people are not as forthcoming as he imagined. He waits with his wife Carli, whom he credits with helping rehabilitate him and make him a better person, and he wants to return the favor by becoming governor. He is briefly tempted to drink alcohol but remembers his promise to his wife to stop, and he resists the urge. One of Kanger’s men attempts to get Sefton to come downstairs to meet with him, but Sefton insists on having Kanger come up to his apartment to talk. Kanger finally arrives and Sefton’s behavior demonstrates that he had stopped drinking some time ago. Kanger asks Sefton to come downstairs with him, but Sefton doesn’t want to leave until Kanger signs off on a “program” of his. Sefton’s father was once governor and Sefton wants to follow in his footsteps, and he goes with Kanger.

• Director
• John Ford
• Writers
• Philip Dunne(screen play)
• Richard Llewellyn(based on the novel by)
• Stars
• Walter Pidgeon
• Maureen O'Hara
• Anna Lee

Spanning 50 years, director John Ford's How Green Was My Valley revolves around the life of the Morgans, a Welsh mining family, as told through the eyes of its youngest child Huw (Roddy McDowall). Over the years, the family struggles to survive through unionization, strikes, and child abuse. As they do so, their hometown and its culture begins to slowly decline. Donald Crisp portrays Gwilym, the patriarch of the Morgan household, who dreams of a better life for young Huw. Based on the novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley won five Academy Awards in 1941, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Crisp), Best Art Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Picture (beating Citizen Kane). The book was later adapted into a 1975 BBC miniseries.

• Director
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Writers
• George Tabori(screen play)
• William Archibald(screen play)
• Paul Anthelme(from a play by)
• Stars
• Montgomery Clift
• Anne Baxter
• Karl Malden

Based on the turn-of-the-century play Our Two Consciences by Paul Anthelme, Hitchcock's I Confess is set in Quebec. Montgomery Clift plays a priest who hears the confession of church sexton O.E. Hasse. "I...killed...a man" whispers Hasse in tight closeup--and, bound by the laws of the Confessional, Clift is unable to turn Hasse over to the police. But police-inspector Karl Malden has a pretty good idea who the guilty party is: all evidence points to Clift. It seems that the dead man had been blackmailing Anne Baxter, who was once in a factually innocent, but seemingly exploitable compromising position with Clift. Tried for murder, Clift is released due to lack of evidence, but he is ruined in the eyes of the community. Then it is Hasse's turn to make that One Fatal Error. I Confess is frequently dismissed as a lesser Hitchcock, due mainly to the quirky performance of Montgomery Clift (who, it is said, steadfastly refused to take direction). Today, four decades removed from its on-set intrigues, the film has taken its place as one of the best of Hitchcock's "between the classics" efforts.

• Director
• Frank Launder
• Writers
• Frank Launder(by)
• Sidney Gilliat(by)
• Wolfgang Wilhelm(by)
• Stars
• Deborah Kerr
• Trevor Howard
• Raymond Huntley

I See a Dark Stranger manages to be both an absorbing espionage yarn and a slyly amusing send-up of the entire genre. Deborah Kerr is terrific as Irish colleen Bridie Quilty, raised from childhood to despise the British and everything they stand for. Bridie's anglophobia proves useful to Nazi spy Miller (Raymond Huntley), who hopes to use the girl to help him steal the plans for the D-day invasion. Playing her "Mata Hari" role to the hilt, Bridie wholeheartedly throws herself into a world of clandestine meetings and coded messages, certain that by helping the Germans she is also helping Mother Ireland. Eventually she realizes the error of her ways, enabling her to turn the tables on Miller and his co-conspirators. Trevor Howard co-stars as David Baynes, with whom the impulsive Bridie falls in love despite his English forebears. I See a Dark Stranger was released in the U.S. as The Adventuress.

• Writer
• John Lee Mahin
• Stars
• Clark Gable
• William A. Hatcher
• Philip J. Hulls

A documentary recounting the experiences of the 351st Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces, based in England during the Second World War . The group's air and ground crews are followed through a number of bombing missions over Hitler's Germany.

• Director
• Val Guest
• Writer
• Val Guest
• Stars
• Frankie Howerd
• Margaret Rutherford
• Petula Clark

Lantern-jawed British comedian Frankie Howerd, best known to American TV fans as the star of the raucous historical satire Up Pompeii, heads the cast of The Runaway Bus. Howard plays Percy Lamb, a novice bus driver assigned to drive a coach from one London ariport to another. Alas, the city is enveloped in a thick fog, and poor Percy gets lost, along with his half-dozen passengers and a hidden cache of stolen gold. Most of the film's best moments go to Margaret Rutherford as a not-so-sweet old lady and Belinda Lee as a spy-novel addict. Petula Clark, who was already a top recording star in 1954, appears as a perky airline hostess.

• Director
• Mark Rydell
• Writers
• William Faulkner(novel)
• Irving Ravetch(screenplay)
• Harriet Frank Jr.(screenplay)
• Stars
• Steve McQueen
• Sharon Farrell
• Ruth White

Adapted from William Faulkner's final novel, The Reivers top-bills Steve McQueen, but the major character is feisty 11-year-old Lucius McCaslin, played by Mitch Vogel. Growing up in Mississippi in the early 1900s, Lucius finds himself (through a hectic series of circumstances) in a bordello, where he is nearly killed trying to defend the "fast lady" (Sharon Farrell) who has befriended him. He has been brought to the house of ill repute by ne'er-do-well farm hand Boon Hoggenbeck (Steve McQueen), with whom he has been tooling about the countryside in a vintage automobile, together with his very distant African-American relative Ned (Rupert Crosse). This adventure segues into the next, as the three-man combine their resources to train a broken-down racehorse. Meanwhile, Vogel's grandfather (Will Geer), who owns the fancy automobile that the "reivers" hope to win back, threatens to reappear at any moment to tan Lucius's bottom. Not exactly as wholesome as a Disney film, The Reivers is nonetheless acceptable family entertainment, with Steve McQueen delivering one of his best and most laid-back performances.

• Directors
• Michael Powell
• Emeric Pressburger
• Writers
• Hans Christian Andersen(fairy tale)
• Emeric Pressburger(original screenplay)
• Keith Winter(additional dialogue)
• Stars
• Anton Walbrook
• Marius Goring
• Moira Shearer

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's influential musical tragedy set the stage for the climactic dance ballets that became a staple of the Arthur Freed-MGM musicals (An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon) of the early 1950s. Hans Christian Andersen's tragic fairy tale forms the basis of this film about betrayal, love and art. The story begins as struggling composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring) attends a performance of the Lermontov Ballet Company and recognizes his own score in the production of "Hearts of Fire." Julian protests to ballet company director Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) about the unauthorized use of his music. Impressed by Julian's talent, Boris hires him to compose the score for his next ballet -- a dance version of "The Red Shoes." Boris also hires an attractive young dancer, Victoria Page (Moira Shearer), to perform in the ballet. When the lead ballerina announces that she plans to get married, Boris, in a pique over being abandoned, casts Victoria in the starring role. As Julian works on the score and Victoria struggles to perfect her dance technique, the two fall in love. When "The Red Shoes" ballet is premiered -- seen in a stunning and glorious fifteen-minute sequence -- it is a raging success and it makes Victoria a star. But when Boris learns that Julian and Victoria have fallen in love, Boris, who is secretly in love with Victoria, in a fit of rage forces Julian to leave the ballet company; Victoria leaves with him. Since Boris owns the rights to "The Red Shoes" ballet, he forbids Victoria to perform the dance and she becomes unemployable. Time passes and Julian and Victoria are now happily married. Julian's compositions have made him an international success. One day, with Victoria disembarking from a train in Paris, she meets Boris, who implores her to do one performance of "The Red Shoes" in Monaco. Victoria agrees as Julian cancels an engagement in London to travel to Monte Carlo in order to convince his wife not to perform the ballet. But Victoria goes on with the performance, with tragic results.

• Director
• Sean S. Cunningham
• Writers
• Stephen Gyllenhaal(screenplay)
• Brian Taggert(story)
• Stars
• Shannon Presby
• Lori Loughlin
• James Spader

Abby (Lori Loughlin) and her brother, Loren (Shannon Presby), seem to have it all: good looks, lots of friends, and a great relationship with their loving mom and their heroic, discipline-minded military dad. When their folks are killed in a car crash, however, the siblings must move to small-town Florida to live with their sweet but cash-impaired Uncle Charlie (Ed Jones) and Aunt Fay (Lucy Martin), who own a gas station and a struggling, bargain-bin amusement park. For Abby and Loren, life in the Sunshine State proves to be a mixture of hard work, new faces, and harassment at the hands of drug-dealing, skirt-chasing local scion Dutra (James Spader) and his gang of trailer-park psychopaths. Dutra places a bet with the wiry, reptilian Gideon (John Philbin) about which of the young villains will be able to bed Abby first, leading to a series of increasingly vile sexual come-ons. Abby, however, has other romantic ideas involving a kindly boy named Mark (Eric Stoltz). Between bouts of defending his sister's honor, Loren finds a similarly wholesome romance with pretty, blond Karen (Paige Lyn Price). With the help of these new friends, Loren and Abby make some headway in the local social hierarchy, but their skirmishes with Dutra and his minions escalate, climaxing with attempted rape, kidnapping, and bumper-car violence on the night of a high-school dance. Director Sean S. Cunningham also directed the original Friday the 13th.

This is a series of exciting films showing the rapidly maturing Army Air Force moving into high gear in the Fall of 1943. You'll see the B-17 "Berlin Sleeper" on one of her record breaking 102 missions. B-25 Mitchells battle the North African mud to move out to their new base in occupied Italy. "Thunderbolts Over Europe" shows P-47s taking on the Luftwaffe on a dramatic bomber escort mission. Thirty-three Martin B-26 bombers, protected by RAF Spitfires, hit ship yards, power plants and workshops near Le Trait, France.

• Director
• Frederick De Cordova
• Writers
• Nat Perrin(story)
• Bob Fisher
• Arthur Marx
• Stars
• Bob Hope
• Dina Merrill
• Tuesday Weld

In this Bob Hope generation gap comedy, a protective dad (Hope) hatches an ill-conceived plan to relocate to Sweden and keep his comely blonde daughter (Tuesday Weld) out of the clutches of her boyfriend Kenny (Frankie Avalon), not realizing that Scandinavia has an even more swinging attitude towards guys and gals getting together.

• Director
• Richard Fleischer
• Writers
• Stirling Silliphant(screenplay)
• Joseph Wambaugh(novel)
• Robert Towne(uncredited)
• Stars
• George C. Scott
• Stacy Keach
• Jane Alexander

Joseph Wambaugh's best-seller about patrol-car cops in urban Los Angeles is given a competent yet antiseptic treatment by director Richard Fleischer. The film has a bad-tasting us-versus-them mentality in its depiction of patrolmen-civilian interaction, and its hopeless atmosphere carries over into the bleak suicide of one of the principle characters. But behind its rancid veneer, the story is the old "B"-movie police story concerning a rookie cop being shown the ropes by a kindly and wizened old veteran. Roy (Stacy Keach) is the young patrolman introduced into the ways of Los Angeles street life by Kilvinsky (George C. Scott), the philosophical old pro. Kilvinsky is just short of retirement and wants to educate Roy to succeed him when he leaves. Roy, however, is on the edge because of a recent divorce, and it takes many speeches by Kilvinsky and the love and affection from his new black girlfriend Lorrie (Rosalind Cash) to keep from going over the deep end.

• Director
• Tom Laughlin
• Writer
• Tom Laughlin
• Stars
• Tom Laughlin
• Ron O'Neal
• Lincoln Kilpatrick

After the success of his three Billy Jack films, actor, director, and screenwriter Tom Laughlin decided to expand his range a bit with this Western, which was adapted from Goyokin, a popular Japanese samurai film. However, since Finley (Laughlin's character here) is trained in martial arts and often defends himself (and others) by violence, while frequently espousing a nonviolent philosophy, it could be said that this wasn't much of a stretch for the once and future Billy Jack. Don Santiago (Richard Angarola) is a vicious man who helps provoke an Indian massacre that will allow him to steal the Indians' land and claim it as his own. However, his son-in-law, Finley (Tom Laughlin), is an expert hand with both guns and swords and will not allow him to push around the peace-loving Indians or fellow settlers of the West. The supporting cast features Ron O'Neal and Barbara Carrera, who received a Golden Globe nomination for her work in this film. As with his first two films, Tom Laughlin directed The Master Gunfighter but didn't take screen credit, in this case listing the director as Frank Laughlin, who happened to be Tom's son.

• Directors
• Michael Curtiz
• William Keighley
• Writers
• Norman Reilly Raine(original screenplay: based upon ancient Robin Hood legends)
• Seton I. Miller(original screenplay: based upon ancient Robin Hood legends)
• Rowland Leigh(contributor to treatment)
• Stars
• Errol Flynn
• Olivia de Havilland
• Basil Rathbone

In order to avoid the material copyrighted by Douglas Fairbanks Sr. for his 1922 Robin Hood, the scripters of this Flynn version relied on several legendary episodes that had never before been filmed, notably the battle between Robin and Little John (Alan Hale Sr., who played this part three times in his long career) and the "piggy-back" episode between Robin and Friar Tuck (Eugene Pallette). The film ties together the various ancient anecdotes with a storyline bounded by the capture in Austria of Richard the Lionheart (Ian Hunter) on one end and Richard's triumphant return to England on the other. Robin Hood is already an outlaw at the outset of the film, while Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland) is initially part of the enemy camp, as one of Prince John's (Claude Rains) entourage. Marian warms up to Robin's fight against injustice (and to Robin himself), eventually becoming a trusted ally. James Cagney was originally announced for the role of Robin Hood, just before Cagney left Warner Bros. in a salary dispute. William Keighley was the original director, but he worked too slowly to suit the tight production schedule and was replaced by Michael Curtiz (both men receive screen credit). A lengthy opening jousting sequence was shot but removed from the final print; portions of this sequence show up as stock footage in the 1957 Warners film The Story of Mankind. The chestnut-colored Palomino horse ridden by de Havilland in the Sherwood Forest scenes later gained screen stardom as Roy Rogers' Trigger.

• Director
• William C. McGann
• Writers
• Kenneth Gamet(screenplay)
• William W. Brockway(screenplay)
• Stars
• Irene Rich
• Henry O'Neill
• Jackie Moran

In this family-style comedy, the trouble begins when a good father loses his job at the local newspaper when the publication is taken over by a major syndicate. To support his brood, he becomes a photographer. Meanwhile his son pursues his own hobby as a ham radio operator. When an enormous forest fire erupts nearby, both father and son find their occupations coming in mighty handy.

• Director
• Lloyd Bacon
• Writers
• Warren Duff(screen play)
• Michael Fessier(screen play)
• Frank Donoghue(screen play)
• Stars
• Joel McCrea
• Brenda Marshall
• Jeffrey Lynn

Unlike many another pre-WW II spy melodramas, Espionage Agent clearly identifies the villains as Germans. Joel McCrea plays Barry Corvall, the son of a recently deceased US diplomat. Boarding a Berlin-bound train, Corvall attempts to swipe a briefcase stuffed with documents which will prove that the Nazis have been infiltrating vital industrial centers in the United States. He is helped along by Brenda Ballard (Brenda Marshall), whose behavior suggests at times that she might not be all that trustworthy. According to the Warner Bros. publicity machine, Warren Duff's screenplay was based on actual events. Coming on the heels of the studio's Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Espionage Agent was indication enough that Warners had declared war on Germany long before President Roosevelt made it official.

• Director
• Felix Jacoves
• Writers
• Edna Anhalt(screenplay)
• Dietrich V. Hannekin(story)
• Aleck Block(story)
• Stars
• Dane Clark
• Geraldine Brooks
• S.Z. Sakall

In this drama, a killer and a driver accidently run over a girl while fleeing a murder scene. The pursuing detective is sure that the driver is guilty, but he cannot prove it. Instead of pressing his case, the detective has the driver begin caring for the victim who received a massive blood clot from the accident and does not have long to live. As time passes, the crook finds himself falling in love with her. To raise the needed money for her care, he starts blackmailing the killer. Eventually, the driver marries his victim but his happiness is short-lived.

• Director
• Basil Dearden
• Writers
• John Boland(novel)
• Bryan Forbes(screenplay)
• Stars
• Jack Hawkins
• Nigel Patrick
• Roger Livesey

An engrossing suspenser with dashes of comedy, League of Gentlemen is about a daring group of highly trained army men, turned bank robbers. When Hyde (Jack Hawkins) is drummed out of the army after years of devoted service, he decides to get back at society in general. One by one, he finds seven other army officers who are now broke and who walk on the shady side of the law. All eight men go into hiding as they plan the robbery with the care and attention of a behind-the-lines reconnaissance mission. As they undertake tasks like raiding a military depot for explosives and similar stunts, suspense and incidental humor increase, leading up to bank day when the really big show has to be pulled off without a hitch.

• Director
• Delmer Daves
• Writer
• Delmer Daves(screenplay)
• Stars
• Alan Ladd
• Audrey Dalton
• Marisa Pavan

Though heavily advertised as Delmar Daves' Drum Beat, this film owed its existence to producer-star Alan Ladd. The star is cast as a veteran Indian fighter Johnny MacKay, who because of his close relationship with the Medoc tribe is sent out to negotiate a peace treaty. Once he has arrived in Medoc territory, Johnny (Ladd) must contend with the misspent emotions of his childhood sweetheart Toby (Marisa Pavan), the sister of Indian chief Manok (Anthony Caruso). Jealous over Johnny's relationship with pretty Nancy Meek (Audrey Dalton), Toby has cast her lot with renegade warrior Captain Jack (Charles Bronson), who honors no treaties. Though the film has a Native American villain, Drum Beat is largely sympathetic to the plight of the Indian. Based on a true story, the film is distinguished by J. Peverell Marley's breathtaking exterior photography, and by Victor Young's ballad-like musical score.

• Director
• Christy Cabanne
• Writers
• George Holland(play "Once Over Lightly")
• Nat Perrin
• Stars
• Guy Kibbee
• Una Merkel
• Lynne Overman

Guy Kibbee, moviedom's archetypal small-town bigshot, stars in RKO Radio's Don't Tell the Wife. On this occasion, Kibbee, playing Malcolm Winthrop, has greatness thrust upon him when he buys a few shares of supposedly worthless mining stock. Though it looks as though he and the entire town will be ruined financially, Winthrop emerges triumphant when he manages to outwit up a gang of stock swindlers. Lynne Overman has some good moments as one of the crooks, Steve Dorset by name, who intends to go straight for the sake of his spouse Nancy (the "wife" of the title, played by Una Merkel), but he can't resist trying to pluck a fat goose like Winthrop. The supporting cast of Don't Tell the Wife is filled to overflowing with familiar faces, none more familiar than RKO contractee Lucille Ball.

• Director
• John English
• Writer
• Norman S. Hall(original screenplay)
• Stars
• Gene Autry
• Champion
• Gail Davis

Columbia's final release for 1950 was the Gene Autry western Indian Territory. Set during the Reconstruction Era, the story finds Autry working as an undercover agent for the U.S. cavalry. His mission: to neutralize a former Austrian army officer named Curt Raidler (Phil Van Zandt), who is leading a group of renegade Indians on a series of destructive raids. A subplot concerns the friendly rivalry between Autry and Union lieutenant Randolph Mason (played by Kirby Grant, later famous as TV's Sky King). Like most of Gene Autry's films from this era, Indian Territory co-stars Pat Buttram and Gail "Annie Oakley" Davis.

• Directors
• Howard Bretherton
• D. Ross Lederman
• Writers
• Harry Sauber(screenplay)
• John Fante(story)
• Frank Fenton(story)
• Stars
• Jackie Cooper
• Mary Astor
• Roger Pryor

Cast in the title role Dinky is Jackie Cooper, who wasn't all that dinky by 1935. Mary Astor co-stars as Mrs. Daniels, Dinky's mother, who has been framed on a fraud charge and sent to prison. By bundling her son off to military school, Mrs. Daniels is able to keep her shame a secret from Dinky. Upon learning the truth, our young hero voluntarily pulls out of the school and takes up residence in an orphanage. But now it's his turn to hide the truth from his mother, by pretending via correspondence that he's still a cadet in good standing. This surfeit of self-sacrifice comes to a merciful end when Mrs. Daniels is proven innocent. Featured in the cast as bullying cadet Jackie Shaw is Richard Quine, who like Jackie Cooper grew up to become a busy TV and movie director.

• Director
• Alfred E. Green
• Writer
• Laird Doyle(story)
• Stars
• Bette Davis
• Franchot Tone
• Margaret Lindsay

Not even considered a good film back in 1935, Dangerous is held together by the mesmerizing performance of Bette Davis. The star is cast as alcoholic, self-destructive stage actress Joyce Heath, a character obviously based on Jeanne Eagels. Wealthy architect Don Bellows (Franchot Tone) becomes convinced that Joyce can be rehabilitated with the "right" stage vehicle, and begins pulling strings to bring her back to the footlights. She rises to the occasion, falling in love with Don in the process. But Joyce becomes convinced that she's a jinx to any man who gets near her, as proven by her spineless, dissolute husband, Gordon Heath (John Eldredge), who refuses to give her a divorce. Deliberately hurting Don's feelings so he will escape her "curse," Joyce determines to rid the world of both herself and her husband. But things don't work out that way, and as a result Joyce is left in an inextricable Ethan Frome-like dilemma at film's end, while Don finds happiness with his socialite Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay). It is generally conceded that Bette Davis won her Academy Award for Dangerous because she was denied the Oscar for her performance in the previous season's Of Human Bondage. Dangerous was remade (and considerably reshaped) in 1941 as Singapore Woman.

• Director
• William Clemens
• Writers
• Richard Weil(screenplay)
• Joel Malone(screenplay)
• Daniel Mainwaring(novel "Forty Whacks")
• Stars
• Jane Wyman
• Jerome Cowan
• Faye Emerson

In this mystery, a detective and his secretary go on vacation and end up solving a murder.

• Director
• Lloyd Bacon
• Writers
• Robert Sloane(play "Howdy Stranger")
• Louis Pelletier(play "Howdy Stranger")
• Earl Baldwin(screenplay)
• Stars
• Dick Powell
• Pat O'Brien
• Priscilla Lane

Dick Powell stars as a Brooklynite who becomes a cowboy in spite of himself. Drifting into a small western town, Powell takes the only job available as a ranch hand. He likes to sing in his spare time, which attracts the attention of talent scout Pat O'Brien. Before you can say Gene Autry, Powell is promoted into America's favorite singing cowboy--though he's hard pressed to prove his western skills when the plot situations demand it. Rather condescending in its attitude towards western stars (as non-western movies tended to be in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s), Cowboy From Brooklyn was another step backward in the (temporarily) fading career of Dick Powell. The only good thing to come out of the film was the song "Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride", which became the leitmotif of many a Warner Bros. cartoon short.

• Directors
• Busby Berkeley
• John Farrow(uncredited)
• Writers
• Mark Hellinger(screen play)
• Robert Buckner(screen play)
• Faith Baldwin(story: from Cosmopolitan Magazine)
• Stars
• Kay Francis
• Ian Hunter
• John Litel

Despite the presence of Busby Berkeley in the director's chair, Comet Over Broadway contains nary a single musical number. Instead, the film concentrates on the lachrymose private life of stage star Eve Appleton (Kay Francis). While appearing in amateur theatricals, Eve indirectly causes the death of a fellow actor at the hands of her husband Bill (John Litel). When Bill is thrown into jail, Eve goes on the road, appearing in one cheap stock company after another to earn enough money for her husband's parole. Seven years pass, during which time Eve becomes the toast of Broadway. Falling in love with playwright Bert Ballin (Ian Hunter), Eve almost forgets the reason that she climbed to stardom in the first place, but by the final reel she elects to give up personal happiness to remain loyal to her incarcerated husband. Way, way down the cast list of Comet Over Broadway is Linda Winters, who as Dorothy Comingore achieved stardom in Orson Welles'Citizen Kane (1941).

• Director
• Edward Killy
• Writers
• Edmund L. Hartmann(screenplay)
• J. Robert Bren(screenplay)
• Taylor Caven(story)
• Stars
• Constance Worth
• Vinton Hayworth
• Leslie Fenton

A couple of American soldiers of fortune are hired by the wife of a Chinese general to deliver a priceless diamond to a shopkeeper in Shanghai in this low-budget whodunit from the RKO "B"-unit. Just as the gem reaches its destination all hell breaks lose. When the dust settles, the diamond is gone and Tom Baldwin (Vinton Haworth) and sidekick Joe Dugan (Gordon Jones) are left with a group of highly suspicious witnesses. The entire assembly, including pretty but mysterious Jane Dunn (Constance Worth), then boards a liner headed for San Francisco. After several shipboard murders and the revelation that Jane is a custom agent, the culprit is caught red-handed. A lady detective ought to have made a refreshing change but, sadly, China Passage delivers few surprises and the armchair detective is never truly tested. Usually a supporting player of little merit, Vinton Haworthproves a rather weak-chinned hero and is certainly no match for the ash-blonde Worth, an Australian actress turned Queen of Hollywood B-movies. The rest of the supporting cast perform their assignment in the expected manner, Dick Elliott being the standout as an eternally tipsy traveler. China Passage was directed by Edward Killy, who later helmed the studio's series of Tim Holt B-Westerns.

• Director
• Stuart Heisler
• Writers
• Lester Cole(story "These Many Years")
• Liam O'Brien(screenplay)
• Vince Evans(screenplay)
• Stars
• Humphrey Bogart
• Eleanor Parker
• Raymond Massey

This second-echelon Humphrey Bogart vehicle casts Bogie as a bomber pilot who becomes a free-lance flyboy after the war. Eleanor Parker, Bogart's wartime love, is now the secretary of aircraft manufacturer Raymond Massey. Partly out of an effort to link up with Parker again, Bogart signs on as a test pilot for Massey's firm. Richard Whorf, Massey's safety supervisor, dislikes Bogart's grandstanding. When Whorf is killed, Bogart feels responsible. He volunteers to test Whorf's experimental escape device by flying at high-speed. The test is a success (though it's nip and tuck for a while), and Bogart survives for a final clinch with Parker. Completed in early 1949, Chain Lightning was held back from release until 1950; it was Humphrey Bogart's final Warner Bros. film.

• Director
• Noel M. Smith
• Writer
• Thomas W. Blackburn
• Stars
• Dennis Morgan
• Philip Carey
• Amanda Blake

Cattle Town is a rare low-budget western from the Warner Bros. mills. Dennis Morgan plays Mike McGann, a troubleshooter sent out by the governor of Texas to keep a group of dispossessed ranchers from causing trouble. Disgusted by the activities of land baron Judd Hastings (Ray Teal), who has the law on his side, McGann casts his lot with the ranchers, though he still intends to keep violence to a minimum. He also finds time to sing four public-domain songs, a la Gene Autry. The supporting cast of Cattle Town is, in retrospect, a fascinating one, including future soap opera star Philip Carey, Amanda "Miss Kitty" Blake, and multi-award-winner Rita Moreno.

• Directors
• William Hamilton
• Frank Ryan
• Writers
• Frank Ryan(original screen play)
• William Hamilton(original screen play)
• Stars
• Victor McLaglen
• Edmund Lowe
• Binnie Barnes

This RKO Radio programmer reunites Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen in an enjoyable rehash of their earlier Quirt-and-Flagg antics in What Price Glory. The two venerable action stars are respectively cast as Curtis and McGinnis, who after several years' hiatus rejoin the Marines as sergeants. While stationed in San Diego, they duke it out over the attentions of toothsome cabaret singer Vi (Binnie Barnes), who turns out to be linked up with a gang of enemy saboteurs. The plot is secondary to the comedy in this outing, with most of the laughs generated by a tasteless but undeniably hilarious routine involving a speech impediment. In addition, the producers managed to cram six songs into the proceedings, most of them performed by the King's Men Quartet and Six Hits and a Miss.

• Director
• David Butler
• Writer
• James O'Hanlon
• Stars
• Doris Day
• Howard Keel
• Allyn Ann McLerie

Doris Day looks no more like the real Calamity Jane than you or I do, but this 1953 film is intended as a lighthearted musical, not a historical tract. As portrayed by the freckled Ms. Day, Jane is a rootin', tootin' shootin' hoyden in the western town of Deadwood. When she isn't tearing up the town, Jane spends her time cussing out Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel). The plot gets under way when Jane promises the citizens of Deadwood that she can persuade classy Chicago stage star Adelaide Adams (Gale Robbins) to perform at the local opry house. Through a case of mistaken identity, Jane brings Adelaide's maid Katie (Allyn Ann McLerie) back to town. Katie proves to be a success all the same, and out of gratitude promises to make a "lady" out of Jane, who is sweet on handsome Lt. Gilmartin (Philip Carey). When the lieutenant chooses Katie over Jane, our heroine is heartbroken--until she realizes that she has loved Wild Bill Hickok all along, and that the feeling is mutual so far as Hickok is concerned. The peppy musical score by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster includes the Oscar-winning Secret Love, which became a million-selling hit for Doris Day.

• Director
• Lloyd Bacon
• Writers
• Laird Doyle(screen play)
• H.C. Witwer(story)
• Stars
• Marion Davies
• Clark Gable
• Allen Jenkins

Previously (and uncomfortably) co-starred in Polly at the Circus, Marion Davies and Clark Gable were reteamed in Cain and Mabel, reportedly on the demand of Davies' "sponsor" William Randolph Hearst. The story concerns a hash slinger-turned-Broadway-star named Mabel O'Dare (Davies, endearingly miscast) whose career is in the hands of hotshot publicist Reilly (Roscoe Karns). To stir up interest in Mabel's latest musical show, Karns cooks up a phony romance between his client and boxing champ Larry Cain (Gable) -- even though Mabel and Cain have already developed a healthy dislike for one another. Unfortunately, Karns' brainstorm turns out to be a drizzle: Mabel's show is a flop, and Cain begins losing in the ring. By the time Cain and Mabel have fallen in love for real, both parties have had to virtually abandon their careers as proof that it is for real. Most of the comedy setpieces in the film fall flat, save for a terrific bit near the end: Told that "The show must go on!," a disconsolate Mabel asks "Why?" -- and no one can come up with a good answer! This is the film in which a studio stagehand allegedly pops up during one of the production numbers, but don't kill yourself looking for him. PS: The handsome actor billed as David Carlyle later enjoyed a substantial screen career as Robert Paige.