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• Director
• Anthony Pelissier
• Writers
• Arnold Ridley(play "Beggar My Neighbour")
• Monja Danischewsky(screenplay)
• Peter Myers(additional dialogue)
• Stars
• Stanley Holloway
• Peggy Cummins
• Jack Watling

Though Meet Mr. Lucifer reads rather better than it plays, the film is still good for a few healthy laughs. Stanley Holloway plays Hollingsworth, an actor who is playing Lucifer in a stage production. While being hoisted through a trap door, Hollingsworth is knocked cold. While unconscious, he is replaced by the real Lucifer. Seeking about for a new form of deviltry to inflict upon the public, Lucifer comes up with the most hellish device of all: Television! The rest of the film details the effects that the boob tube has on otherwise normal, rational British citizens (there's even time for a swipe at 3D movies). Based on a play by Arnold Ridley, Meet Mr. Lucifer is enhanced by an all-star cast, including Peggy Cummins, Kay Kendall and Ernst Thesiger.

• Director
• Lucio Fulci
• Writers
• Fernando Di Leo(story)
• Lucio Fulci(screenplay collaborator)
• Enzo Dell'Aquila(screenplay collaborator)
• Stars
• Franco Nero
• George Hilton
• Linda Sini

Although primarily known for gruesome 1980s horror films like L'Aldila and Lo Squartatore di New York, it took cult Italian director Lucio Fulci until this bloody spaghetti Western -- his 17th film -- before he began exploring the dark recesses of insanity and Sadean bloodshed which marked his later work. Bolstered by a commanding star turn from 24-year old Franco Nero, fresh from another Western success in the same year's Django, this dark, violent story -- which many fans consider the first "true" Lucio Fulci film -- begins with a man's murder at the hands of the insane Jason "Junior" Scott (Nino Castelnuovo) and the credits appearing over his victim's blood washing downriver. The rest of the film deals with the efforts of young prospector Tom Corbett (Nero) to avenge the death of his father...or the person whom he believes to be his father, for the familial relations in this film are as twisted as Fulci's violent imagery. At times, the film presages the hallucinatory atmosphere of L'Aldila, with Corbett returning to his family farm only to find it destroyed, and wandering the barren, windswept wreckage amidst a group of foraging pigs. George Hilton turns in a fine performance as Corbett's orphan half-brother, Jeff, an alcoholic whose years of dissolution have curbed neither his gunslinging talents nor his thirst for revenge, and the supporting cast does well by Fernando di Leo's somber script. Giuseppe Addobbati co-stars with Tom Felleghy, Salvatore Borgese, and Lynn Shayne.

• Director
• Rex Ingram
• Writers
• Vicente Blasco Ibáñez(by)
• Willis Goldbeck(scenario)
• Stars
• Apollon Uni
• Álex Nova
• Kada-Abd-el-Kader

Having struck box-office gold with his adaptation of the mystical Vincent Blasco-Ibanez novel The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, producer-director Rex Ingram adapted another Ibanez best-seller, Mare Nostrum, as a vehicle for his hauntingly beautiful actress wife Alice Terry. Set during WWI, the film casts Terry as Freya Talberg, a German secret agent. Though she seems to have ice water in her veins (there's even a hint that she prefers the company of women over men), Freya loses her heart to a Spanish sea captain, Ulysses Ferragut (Antonio Moreno). As a result, she is captured and sentenced to be executed, going to her death with a poise and dignity befitting a Joan of Arc. The firing-squad sequence is the film's piece de resistance, brilliantly photographed from the heroine's point of view by ace cinematographer John F. Seitz. Perhaps because virtually all the major characters die at the end, the film was a financial flop, even though its anti-war sentiments were perfectly attuned to the mid-1920s. For many years one of the most highly sought-after "lost" films, Mare Nostrum was restored to a reasonable approximation of its original tinted and toned glory in the late 1970s and has been shown several times over the Turner Classic Movies cable service.

• Director
• Basil Dearden
• Writers
• Ronald Millar(story)
• Angus MacPhail(screenplay)
• Stars
• David Farrar
• Glynis Johns
• Mai Zetterling

The problem of "enemy" war brides was eloquently addressed in the British drama Frieda. In her English-language film debut, Mai Zetterling plays the title character, the German wife of RAF officer Robert (David Farrar). Though an avowed anti-Nazi, Frieda faces acrimony and prejudice when introduced to Robert's friends and family. The problem is exacerbated by the arrival of her brother Ricky (Albert Levien), ostensibly a conscript in the Polish army but actually an unregenerate disciple of Hitler. A satisfactory ending is reached only when everyone-Ricky included-learns to stop hating and to bury the past. Based on a play by Ronald Miller, Frieda was released in the US by Universal, shorn of but one minute of its original running time.

• Director
• Basil Dean
• Writers
• John Paddy Carstairs(uncredited)
• Harold Dearden(additional dialogue)
• John Farrow(screenplay)
• Stars
• Owen Nares
• Betty Stockfeld
• Allan Jeayes

Grace Marwood and her husband, a hopeless hypochondriac, take a cruise where she falls in love with the ship's medical officer, young Dr Daventry. The two continue to meet chastely for several years, with Marwood's behaviour becoming ever more selfish and insufferable in the interim, until her husband finally becomes suspicious and accuses her violently of the adultery she has not in fact committed, provoking her to leave him for the man she loves. Meanwhile, the invalid's every whim is catered to by the mysterious well-educated footman Simpson, who is apparently prepared to put up with anything from his employer. But Marwood falls genuinely ill, and Daventry is the only doctor in England who may be able to save him... and the footman has a secret of his own...

• Director
• Edward L. Cahn
• Writers
• John Huston(story)
• Katherine Strueby(story)
• Stars
• Chili Bouchier
• Robert Douglas
• Miles Mander

The race car designer Kit Woods is in love with Kay Lord. Kay's father is against her relationship with Kit. Kit also has to do with the competition from his rival Garry Ames.

• Director
• Dick Lowry
• Writers
• Elmore Leonard(novel)
• Ronald M. Cohen(teleplay)
• Stars
• Tom Selleck
• Suzy Amis
• Rachel Duncan

Tom Selleck stars as a Confederate soldier who finds himself at a crossroads, in this made-for-television adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel. Paul Cable (Selleck) who returns to his Arizona homestead after the end of the Civil War, only to find it taken over by Union-sympathizing pioneers. Cable is forced to re-consider his loyalties and decide what he wants to fight for.

• Directors
• Norman Z. McLeod
• Busby Berkeley(musical numbers)
• Writers
• Jack McGowan(screen play)
• Kay Van Riper(screen play)
• John McClain(screen play)
• Stars
• Eleanor Powell
• Ann Sothern
• Robert Young

The 1924 George Gershwin stage hit Lady Be Good was brought to the screen by MGM; any resemblance (beyond the Gershwin score) to the original play is purely accidental. The MGM scriveners came up with a new story concerning married songwriters Ann Sothern and Robert Young, who can't live with each other and can't live without each other. Top billing goes to dancing star Eleanor Powell, who certainly deserves it. Red Skelton is around and about as well, inserting a few much-needed laughs. While such Gershwin songs as "So Am I", "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Hang on Me" are well showcased, the hit of the evening is a new song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, the Oscar-winning "The Last Time I Saw Paris". Our favorite scene: Ann Sothern and Robert Young composing "Lady be Good" out of thin air in two minutes flat!

• Director
• Agnès Varda
• Writer
• Agnès Varda
• Stars
• Philippe Noiret
• Silvia Monfort
• Marcel Jouet

Follow the story of a couple who goes to a small French fishing village to try to solve the problems of their deteriorating marriage.

• Director
• Delmer Daves
• Writers
• Russell S. Hughes(screenplay)
• Delmer Daves(screenplay)
• Paul Wellman(novel)
• Stars
• Glenn Ford
• Ernest Borgnine
• Rod Steiger

Jubal could just as easily have been titled Othello Out West, even though it was officially based on a novel by Paul I. Wellman. The Othello counterpart is likable (and extremely gullible) ranch owner Shep Horgan (Ernest Borgnine). Horgan hires handsome drifter Cassioer, Jubal Troop (Glenn Ford) as a cowhand, much to the delight of the film's "Desdemona", Horgan's hedonistic wife Mae (Valerie French). The "Iago" of the proceedings is psychotic ranch hand Pinky (Rod Steiger), who, envious of Jubal and hoping to enjoy Mae's sexual favors, sows the seeds of suspicion in Horgan's mind by falsely accusing Jubal of messing around with Horgan's wife. Amidst all this nastiness, there is at least one wholly virtuous character, pretty Naomi Hoktor (Felicia Farr), so guess who Jubal eventually winds up with?

• Director
• Otto Kanturek
• Writers
• Clifford Grey(adaptation)
• Bruno Hardt-Warden(operetta: "I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg")
• Richard Hutter(adaptation)
• Stars
• Grete Natzler
• Patric Knowles
• W.H. Berry

A Student's Romance was based on the operetta I Lost My Heart in Heidelburg, which in turn owed a lot to that old chestnut The Student Prince. In 1825, impoverished composer Max (Patric Knowles) enrolls at Heidelburg University. Local girl Veronika (Carol Goodner) falls in love with Max, helping him to finance his education and clear his debts. Alas, Veronika is left out in the cold when Max becomes enamored with gorgeous tourist Helene (Grete Natzler). Little does he know that Helene is the daughter of the Grand Duke (Ivan Simpson), meaning of course that their romance is doomed to disappointment. Leading lady Grete Natzler later changed her screen name to Della Lynd, and under that cognomen co-starred with Laurel & Hardy in Swiss Miss (1938).

• Director
• Ray Nazarro
• Writers
• Kenneth Gamet(screenplay)
• Richard Schayer(screenplay)
• Stars
• George Montgomery
• Audrey Long
• Carl Benton Reid

Columbia's Indian Uprising was neither expensive enough to qualify as an "A" picture nor inexpensive enough to qualify as a "B." It was simply a "programmer," and as such was eminently suitable for solo playdates or double-feature berths. George Montgomery stars as cavalry captain McCloud, whose job it is to keep the peace between Indians and Whites. McCloud's efforts are undermined by gold speculators Alsop (Hugh Sanders) and Taggert (Douglas Kennedy), whose underhanded activities foment the Indian uprising of the title. Placed under house arrest by Indian-hating Major Stark (Robert Shayne), McCloud escapes, racing against time to mollify Geronimo (Miguel Inclan) and prevent an all-out massacre. Indian Uprising was one of several economical Columbia films produced by Edward Small, who'd been one of the founders of the studio back in the mid-1920s before striking out on his own as an "independent."

• Director
• Thomas Bentley
• Writers
• Stanley Lupino(original screenplay)
• Victor Kendall(scenario)
• Stars
• Stanley Lupino
• Polly Walker
• Gerald Rawlinson

Stanley Lupino is a reporter who becomes involved with an heiress (Polly Walker) in this bright musical comedy set in Nice.

• Director
• Nicholas Ray
• Writers
• Andrew Solt(screenplay)
• Edmund H. North(adaptation)
• Dorothy B. Hughes(story)
• Stars
• Humphrey Bogart
• Gloria Grahame
• Frank Lovejoy

A haunting work of stark confessionalism disguised as a taut noir thriller, In a Lonely Place -- Nicholas Ray's bleak, desperate tale of fear and self-loathing in Hollywood -- remains one of the filmmaker's greatest and most deeply resonant features. It stars Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a fading screenwriter suffering from creative burnout; hired to adapt a best-selling novel, instead of reading the book itself he asks the hat-check girl (Martha Stewart) at his favorite nightclub to simply tell him the plot. The morning after, the girl is found brutally murdered, and Steele is the police's prime suspect; however, the would-be starlet across the way, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), provides him with a solid alibi, and they soon begin a romance in spite of Gray's lingering concerns that the troubled, violent Steele might just be a killer after all. During production, Ray's real-life marriage to co-star Grahame began to crumble, and his own vulnerability and disillusionment clearly inform the picture; the brooding, bitter Steele -- a role ideally suited to Bogart's wounded romanticism -- is plainly a doppelganger for Ray himself (the site of his first Hollywood apartment is even employed as the set for Steele's home), and the film's unflinching examination of the character's disintegration makes for uniquely compelling viewing.

• Director
• Wesley Ruggles
• Writers
• Mae West(story)
• Lowell Brentano(suggestions)
• Stars
• Mae West
• Cary Grant
• Gregory Ratoff

Mae West's second starring vehicle, I'm No Angel casts the divine Miss West as the star performer in a seedy circus. Though she lives with Ralf Harolde, West allows herself plenty of time for other men. When Harolde runs afoul of the law, West secures extra money by becoming a lion tamer. While thus employed, West is "discovered" by playboy Kent Taylor; she willingly accepts his gifts and other favors, but she only has eyes for Taylor's cousin Cary Grant. Still, love takes second place to commerce in West's life, and she ends up suing Grant for breach of promise. When Grant allows her to win the case, she realizes she's truly in love with him after all. By rights, I'm No Angel should have been as big and bawdy a success as West's earlier She Done Him Wrong, but by late 1933 the censors were beginning to have their way with Hollywood. Several of the more ribald (and more hilarious) elements of the film were toned down--not least of which was the title, which was supposed to have been It Ain't No Sin.

• Director
• Don Weis
• Writers
• George Wells(screenplay)
• Ruth Brooks Flippen(additional dialogue)
• László Vadnay(story)
• Stars
• Donald O'Connor
• Debbie Reynolds
• Una Merkel

Singin' in the Rain co-stars Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds were re-teamed in the ebullient little musical I Love Melvin. O'Connor plays Melvin Hoover, the hapless assistant to Look magazine photographer Mergo (Jim Backus). When he falls in love with chorus girl Judy LeRoy (Reynolds), Melvin claims that he's the magazine's head photographer. Carrying the ruse to the limit, Melvin arranges to shoot a portrait of Judy and her entire family, insisting that it appear on the cover of Look. On the verge of being found out, Melvin is saved when his boss decides that Judy is photogenic enough to be a cover girl for real. The plot is so lightweight that it threatens to blow away, but the stars are cute as can be, and the musical highlights even more so.

• Director
• Marcel Varnel
• Writers
• Roger Burford(scenario)
• Paul Knepler(original musical play)
• Frank Launder(adaptation)
• Stars
• Gitta Alpar
• Patrick Waddington
• Owen Nares

Jeanne works at a millinery shop. She is sent to Louis XV's palace with a hat for Madame de Pompadour, then meets a musician at the park and they fall in love, despite the fortune-teller announcing she will become rich and live in luxury.

• Director
• Roger Corman
• Writers
• Edgar Allan Poe(based on "The Fall of The House of Usher")
• Richard Matheson(screenplay)
• Stars
• Vincent Price
• Mark Damon
• Myrna Fahey

The first of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films, Fall of the House of Usher was originally released as simply House of Usher. Vincent Price stars as the foredoomed Roderick Usher. Living in his decaying family mansion with his young sister Madeline (Myrna Fahey), Roderick does his best to shoo away Madeline's fiance Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon). He tells the young swain that Madeline suffers from the family curse of encroaching madness, and thus cannot be permitted to bear children. After a series of suspicious, near-fatal accidents, Phillip insists that Madeline be allowed to leave with him at once. But Roderick sadly announces that this is impossible: Madeline has died, and is slated to be entombed. Informed by the family butler that Madeline has previously been prone to near-catatonic spells, Phillip angrily insists that the girl may very well have been buried alive. The climactic conflagration would be recycled as stock footage in future Corman/Poe efforts, as would the set representing the Usher home.

• Director
• Edward Buzzell
• Writers
• Herbert Fields(original story and screen play)
• Frank Partos(original story and screen play)
• George Oppenheimer(uncredited)
• Stars
• Eleanor Powell
• Robert Young
• George Burns

George Burns and Gracie Allen made their last screen appearance together in the 1939 MGM musical Honolulu; indeed, it would be Burns' last film until his 1976 "comeback" in The Sunshine Boys. The nonsensical plotline is carried by Robert Young as famous movie star Brooks Mason, who wants to go to Honolulu for a long rest but can't shake off his throngs of adoring female fans. As luck would have, Mason has an exact double, a Hawaiian plantation owner named George Smith. Mason convinces Smith to switch identities, with the expected comedy-of-error complications as a result. Things get really complicated when Smith, posing as Mason, proposes marriage to lovely Dorothy March (Eleanor Powell), who then can't understand why the real Mason seems to be so fickle. Clearly in support, Burns and Allen are cast respectively as Mason's personal manager Joe Duffy and Dorothy's scatterbrained friend Millie de Grasse. The film contrives to separate George and Gracie for most of the footage, bringing them together in the last reel for a characteristic comedy routine about Gracie's dizzy relatives. Also on hand in a minor role is another comedy giant, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Highlights include a masquerade-party production number in which Gracie Allen is serenaded by the King's Men Quartet (disguised as the Marx Brothers), and Eleanor Powell's blackface stair-tap tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (Powell also performs a tap-dance hula, which scores on its novelty value alone!)

• Director
• Walter Forde
• Writers
• Roger MacDougall(original screen play)
• Allan MacKinnon(original screen play)
• Stars
• Jimmy O'Dea
• Betty Driver
• Sonnie Hale

An Irish fellow is determined to become a singing radio star. Unfortunately, fate seems to be determined to thwart him at every turn in this comedy. The trouble begins when he leaves his Irish village to go to a British radio station where he believes he is going to get his big chance to sing. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that he is to be a contestant in a spelling bee. This enrages him and he winds up throwing a major fit on the air. The resulting publicity lands him a talent agent who believes that the recent press will make the Irishman a singing star. It is not to be, and the agent loses his job. He and the Irishman end up drowning their sorrows, commandeering a sports broadcast where their drunken comments and shenanigans inspire the station to hire them as comedians.

• Director
• Edward L. Cahn
• Writer
• Orville H. Hampton(screenplay)
• Stars
• Gene Barry
• Beverly Tyler
• Allison Hayes

During the Cold War, an American secret agent must find a kidnapped Arab prince who is being used by the Soviets to gain leverage against America's plans to install missiles in a Middle-Eastern country.

• Director
• William A. Wellman
• Writers
• Albert Sidney Fleischman(screenplay by)
• James Street(from the novel "Good-Bye, My Lady" by)
• Stars
• Walter Brennan
• Phil Harris
• Brandon De Wilde

The focus of this heartfelt family film is Skeeter (Brandon de Wilde), a 14-year-old orphan who lives with his aged Uncle Jesse (Walter Brennan) in the swamps of the deep South. Their lives are brightened by a stray dog that Skeeter discovers and takes in. He makes the basenji his own, but eventually finds out that the dog is missing and its owner has posted a reward for its return.

• Director
• Charles Vidor
• Writers
• E.A. Ellington(story)
• Jo Eisinger(adaptation)
• Marion Parsonnet(screenplay)
• Stars
• Rita Hayworth
• Glenn Ford
• George Macready

When wealthy Ballin Mundson (George Macready) rescues down at his heels gambler Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) and invites him to the Buenos Aires casino he owns, both men get more than they wagered on. Farrell convinces Mundson to hire him as casino manager, but is shocked when Mundson introduces his new bride, and Farrell's old flame, Gilda (Rita Hayworth).Though Farrell is unwavering in his loyalty to his employer, and he and Gilda treat each other with contempt, Mundson realizes that the torch never died for either of the former lovers. Ordered to guard Gilda, Farrell tries to convince himself that he's protecting Mundson's interests, but Gilda sees through his self-deception. Meanwhile, Mundson reveals to Farrell that his primary business is control of an international tungsten cartel that he plans to use to further his fascist ends. With the police closing in on the cartel, Mundson fakes his death, apparently leaving Gilda and Farrell free to marry. They do so: Gilda for love, but Farrell to punish her for being unfaithful to Mundson. When Mundson returns to kill them, it is he who dies, thereby freeing the lovers to apologize to each other and return to the U.S. Charles Vidor's Gilda is a voyeuristic film noir treat that engages the viewer in a complex web of sado-masochistic triangles. When, for example, Gilda performs her signature number, "Put the Blame on Mame," she is not simply enraging both Mundson and Farrell with her open sexuality, she is also crying out in pain for the love she is being denied.

• Director
• Pen Tennyson
• Writers
• James Curtis(novel)
• Sergei Nolbandov(uncredited)
• Pen Tennyson(uncredited)
• Stars
• Jimmy Hanley
• Edward Rigby
• Mary Clare

There Ain't No Justice turned out to be the "breakthrough" picture for youthful British actor Jimmy Hanley. The star plays a garage mechanic who has an inborn talent for boxing. Needing a lot of money in a hurry, he falls in with a crooked fight promoter (Edward Chapman), who advertises Hanley as the next champ with a series of fixed bouts. By the time he realizes he's being set up as the patsy for a gambling ring, our hero has figure out a way to flummox the crooks and arrange a financial windfall for his long-neglected father (Edward Rigby). Based on a novel by James Curtis, There Ain't No Justice was a fixture of American "Late Late Shows" in the early 1950s.

• Director
• Norman Taurog
• Writers
• Edmund Beloin
• Henry Garson
• Stars
• Elvis Presley
• Juliet Prowse
• Robert Ivers

Elvis Presley stars in GI Blues as Tulsa McLean, a soldier stationed in Germany, who pulls strings to stage a big show for his fellow GI's. In the tradition of the musical chestnut The Fleet's In, Tulsa also bets his buddies that he can date "ice princess" entertainer Lili (Juliet Prowse). Song highlights include "Wooden Heart," "Blue Suede Shoes" and the title number. The spectacular box-office performance of G.I. Blues proved that Elvis' popularity had not only survived his Army tenure, but had actually increased.

• Director
• Samuel Fuller
• Writer
• Samuel Fuller
• Stars
• Barbara Stanwyck
• Barry Sullivan
• Dean Jagger

Cult hero Samuel Fuller wrote and directed this visually inventive western, which didn't fare well with American audiences but earned a potent reputation with European cineastes. Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck) is a despotic landowner who, with a posse of hired guns, has made herself the law of Cochise County, Arizona, with the weak-willed sheriff Ned Logan (Dean Jagger) knuckling under to her demands. One day, Griff Bonnell (Barry Sullivan), a one-time gunfighter turned United States Marshall, arrives with his brothers Wes (Gene Barry) and Chico (Robert Dix) to restore democratic law and order to Cochise County. Griff soon tangles with Drummond's brother Brockie (John Ericson), though Jessica is attracted to the new lawman, and Griff finds love with female gunsmith Louvenia Spangler (Eve Brent). Griff and Louvenia marry, but on their wedding day, Brockie murders Wes, and Griff, who takes pride in the fact that he has never fired his gun since becoming a marshal, must now break his vow of non-violence.

• Director
• Robert Stevenson
• Writers
• Robert Stevenson(story)
• Roland Pertwee(dialogue)
• E.V.H. Emmett(additional dialogue)
• Stars
• Griffith Jones
• Anna Lee
• Seymour Hicks

In this gentle comedy, an aristocratic English fellow is not happy to be betrothed to a brewery heiress. One day he goes to a circus and ends up with a lively human cannonball in his life. He immediately falls for the daring young performer and they end up eloping and going to Paris to live out the rest of their lives.

• Director
• Ferdinando Baldi
• Writers
• Vincenzo Cerami(story and screenplay)
• Pier Giovanni Anchisi(story and screenplay)
• Mario di Nardo(story and screenplay)
• Stars
• Leonard Mann
• Luciana Paluzzi
• Peter Martell

Leonard Mann stars in this melodramatic spaghetti western from director Ferdinando Baldi. Mann plays Sebastian, a black-clad gunfighter searching for a killer in order to avenge his father's murder. While being dragged into a web of deceit, Sebastian falls in love with the beautiful Anna (Luciana Paluzzi), whose own past contains some startling revelations as well. Much of the film deals with secrets of the silent serial variety, in which relationships are never what they appear and mysteries are revealed in such a flamboyant manner that the viewer almost expects gnashing of teeth and wild exclamations of "A-ha!" Pilar Velazquez, Peter Martell, and Piero Lulli co-star in this silly Italian-Spanish co-production.

• Director
• Don Siegel
• Writers
• Clair Huffaker(screenplay)
• Nunnally Johnson(screenplay)
• Stars
• Elvis Presley
• Barbara Eden
• Steve Forrest

Tensely directed by Don Siegel, Flaming Star is the grittiest of Elvis Presley's post-Army films. Elvis plays Pacer Burton, a half-breed youth in the old West, torn between loyalty to the whites, as represented by his father (John McIntyre), and the Indians, represented by his mother (Dolores Del Rio). A series of brutal Kiowa raids, and the subsequent reprisals by the white settlers, sorely test Pacer's fortitude. Though offered moral support from his loved ones, Pacer is forced to work things out himself. The film was based on a novel by Clair Huffaker.

• Director
• Harry Hughes
• Writers
• Frank Atkinson(story)
• Aveling Ginever(additional scenes)
• Vernon Harris(screen play)
• Stars
• Stanley Holloway
• Betty Ann Davies
• Leslie Bradley

The brass band of a North of England town travel south to London to compete in a national contest.

• Director
• Walter Forde
• Writers
• Edgar Wallace(based on The Ringer by)
• Sidney Gilliat(screen play)
• Stars
• Sonnie Hale
• Wilfrid Lawson
• Louise Henry

In this mystery a Scotland Yard investigator and a police doctor unite to find "The Ringer" a mysterious killer and master of disguise before he can kill a lawyer who just received notice of his impending demise via a lovely bouquet with a note informing him that he has 48 hours to live. During their hurried investigation, the pair learn that the attorney's secretary had recently killed herself and that The Ringer blames the lawyer for the death. Time flies, and the lawyer does indeed die. It is only then that the investigators learn the killer's true identity. The story is based on an Edgar Wallace story.

• Director
• Edward Dmytryk
• Writer
• Harry Brown(play "A Sound of Hunting")
• Stars
• Bonar Colleano
• Arthur Franz
• Lee Marvin

Bonar Colleano, who spent the war years playing brash Americans in British films, makes his final screen appearance in the Stanley Kramer production Eight Iron Men. Set during WW II, the film follows the exploits of a small Army squadron, billeted in a bombed-out house on the front lines. Tensions mount as the men attempt to save one of their number, who is trapped behind enemy lines and heavily surrounded. Essentially a single-set film (it was based on A Sound of Hunting, a stage play by Harry Brown), Eight Iron Men works better as a character study than a war flick. Colleano dominates the proceedings as a self-styled Lothario, while Arthur Franz, Lee Marvin, Richard Kiley, Nick Dennis, James Griffith, George Cooper and former child-star Dick Moore likewise register well. For no discernible reason, the screenplay manages to include several extra characters, including Mary Castle as "The Girl" in a dream sequence.

• Director
• Harry Watt
• Writers
• Harry Watt(screenplay)
• Walter Greenwood(screenplay)
• Ralph Smart(additional scenes)
• Stars
• Chips Rafferty
• Jane Barrett
• Jack Lambert

Released in the U.S. as Massacre Hill, the Australian Eureka Stockade was one of that country's biggest and most expensive postwar productions (it was nearly two years in the making!) Set during the 19th-century Australian gold rush, the film top-bills Chips Rafferty as boisterous prospector Peter Lallor. The gold bonanza is threatened by the arrival of claim-jumpers, usurpers and government bean-counters. At first, the prospectors intend to use random mob violence to ward off the invaders, but Lallor organizes the group into a strong, united front, as willing to mediate as to bust heads. Future star Peter Finch is eighth-billed as "Humffray." Eureka Stockade was remade years later as a TV miniseries.

• Director
• Don Siegel
• Writers
• Marion Hargrove(screenplay)
• Richard Collins(screenplay)
• Ben Markson(story)
• Stars
• Cornel Wilde
• Victoria Shaw
• Mickey Shaughnessy

A well-dressed older man drives a car along the winding mountain road adjacent to the Grand Canyon. Another man lies in wait for him where the road ends. They fight, and the car and one of the men plunge into the mile-deep gorge. Thus begins a series of four killings that fall into the lap of newly hired Mojave County deputy Les Martin (Cornel Wilde) and his boss, Sheriff Edwards (Edgar Buchanan). Les is an experienced homicide detective trying to redeem himself and his career after a series of personal tragedies and professional disasters, unsteady in his confidence and uncertain of his ability -- the only people he's especially close to are the sheriff who hired him and Scotty (Mickey Shaughnessy), the big-hearted keeper of the local tavern. And complicating his investigation of the murder case at hand is his constant crossing of paths with the beautiful, wealthy Janice Kendon (Victoria Shaw), who seems to have a knack for turning up around every corner of this case. He has to sort out his feelings about her and work out what the murders have to do with the one clue left behind by one of the victims, about the "dancing bucket" that carries men and material more than 7,000 feet across the mile-high chasm.

• Director
• Roy Ward Baker
• Writers
• Daniel Taradash(screenplay)
• Charlotte Armstrong(novel "Mischief")
• Stars
• Richard Widmark
• Marilyn Monroe
• Anne Bancroft

Sex symbol Marilyn Monroe went dramatic in 1952's Don't Bother to Knock. Monroe plays Nell Forbes, a beautiful but suicidal young woman, recently released from a mental institution. She doesn't mention this on her resumé when she takes a baby-sitting job in a posh hotel. Jed Towers (Richard Widmark), a hotel guest, tries to make time with Nell after his own girlfriend, played by Anne Bancroft, has told him to take a hike. As Nell and Jed neck on the couch, the little girl whom Nell is tending (Donna Corcoran) surprises the spooning couple. This drives the psychotic Nell over the edge, forcing Jed to try to keep the baby-sitter from killing both herself and the child.

• Director
• Robert Florey
• Writers
• Isabel Dawn(story and screenplay)
• Boyce DeGaw(story and screenplay)
• Stars
• Warren William
• Claire Dodd
• Guy Kibbee

High-rolling gambler "Odds" Owen (Warren William) establishes an American insurance agency created along the lines of Lloyd's of London. Owen insures Kentucky colonel Jefferson Davis Youngblood (Guy Kibbee) against the possibility that Youngblood's actress daughter Marilyn (Claire Dodd) might get married, thereby cutting off the Colonel's allowance. After scaring away several prospective suitors, Owen messes things up by falling in love with Marilyn himself. Odds are that the 60-minute Don't Bet on Blondes would be completely forgotten were it not for the presence of new Warner Bros. contractee Errol Flynn, who appears in two brief scenes as one of Marilyn's boyfriends. It was Flynn's first speaking role at Warners, and he carried it off with class if not distinction.

• Director
• James Flood
• Writers
• Gerard Fairlie(screenplay)
• James Flood(uncredited)
• Anthony Kimmins(uncredited)
• Stars
• Clive Brook
• Victoria Hopper
• Nora Swinburne

Released in the U.S. as Scotland Yard Commands, The Lonely Road was based on a novel by Nevil Shute (of On the Beach fame). When his marriage proposal is rejected by his sweetheart, retired naval commander Stevenson (Clive Brook) goes on a bender and drives his car wildly along a country road. No, he doesn't hit anyone, but he does plow his way right into a gang of weapons smugglers. Fearing that he'll blow the whistle on them, the crooks knock out Stevenson and arrange the evidence so as to convince him that he suffered his cranial blow in an auto accident. Released from hospital, Stevenson heads to a cabaret, where he makes the acquaintance of dancer Molly Gordon (Victoria Hopper) -- who turns out to be the sister of one of the smugglers. Falling in love with Molly, Stevenson must wrestle with his conscience when afforded the opportunity to turn the crooks over to the authorities.

• Director
• Jack Bernhard
• Writers
• Nedrick Young(screenplay)
• Stanley Rubin(story)
• Stars
• Jean Gillie
• Edward Norris
• Robert Armstrong

This gripping, gritty film noir begins as a mortally wounded physician staggers into the apartment of a vicious vixen, the leader of a notorious gang of thieves. Shots ring out, and the police rush to the scene. Sergeant Leonard gets there to find the doctor dead, and the woman failing fast. As she lay gasping she decides to tell the sergeant the whole terrible story that began when she got involved with a cop-killing robber who was captured and sentenced to death. Before his fateful date with the gas chamber, he lets the rest of the gang know where he hid the $40,0000 they netted from the caper; he, with her help, also arranges to ingest the doctor's newly developed drug, an antidote to cyanide, to escape his "execution." The plot works, and eventually, the gangster is back in business. He gives his girl half of the map, but unfortunately gets shot by a rival before he can give her the other half. The ruthless woman and another gang member then force the doctor to assist them with their search. They are heading off to the location, when the double-crossing she-devil kills the other gangster in a horrible manner and continues on with the doctor. They find the chest containing the loot and they get an awful surprise. The woman begins laughing hysterically as if on the verge of a full-blown break down. She shoots the doctor and then flees, thereby bringing the story up to the present. Just before she dies, the ruthless woman reveals the astonishing contents of the chest.

• Director
• Bob Clark
• Writer
• Alan Ormsby(screenplay)
• Stars
• John Marley
• Lynn Carlin
• Richard Backus

This dark, brooding low-budget effort opens in Vietnam, where young infantryman Andy Brooks (Richard Backus) is struck down by a sniper's bullet. At the same time in Andy's hometown, his poor mother is uttering a desperate prayer for Andy to come home... and shortly thereafter, he does. Despite Mrs. Brooks' exultation at her son's safe return, it becomes apparent to the rest of the family that there's something terribly wrong with Andy; he won't do much more than sit in a chair, staring blankly at the walls of his room... that is, until nightfall, when he prowls the town in search of human blood, which he extracts from his victims through a syringe and injects into his own veins. The first horror effort from director Bob Clark, who followed with Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things! and the effective thriller Black Christmas, this haunting film (released as The Veteran in 1972) functions as a Vietnam-era variant on the classic story of "The Monkey's Paw" and was one of the first films of the genre to address the stateside reactions to the horrors of that war.

• Director
• William Castle
• Writers
• Arthur Lewis(screenplay)
• DeVallon Scott(screenplay)
• Stars
• John Hodiak
• Robert Stack
• Joy Page

Cashing in on the popularity of such pro-Native American films as Broken Arrow, Columbia's resident quickiemeister Sam Katzman came up with Conquest of Cochise. John Hodiak plays the eponymous Apache leader, who at the beginning of the film is seen conducting raids on the U.S.-Mexican border in the company of the Comanches. Eventually realizing that the whites are better armed and equipped than the Indians, Cochise wants to put an end to the raids and smoke the peace pipe, but the Comanches don't see things his way. In films of this nature, there is usually a foredoomed love affair between a white man and an Indian girl. This time, however, Cochise falls in love with Mexican aristocrat Consuelo de Cordova (Joy Page), whom he holds hostage while U.S. cavalry officer Burke (Robert Stack) searches for the killer of Cochise's Indian bride. Director William Castle does a nice job matching stock footage with his newly-shot scenes.

• Director
• Edmond T. Gréville
• Writers
• Jeffrey Dell(dialogue)
• Edmond T. Gréville(screenplay)
• Basil Mason(screenplay)
• Stars
• Brigitte Horney
• Neil Hamilton
• Raymond Lovell

A German-born woman works as a spy for the French in Switzerland during the First World War, and has to marry an interned French lieutenant in order to be able to stay in the country.

• Director
• Walter Lang
• Writers
• Rose Franken(screen play)
• William Brown Meloney(screen play)
• Vera Caspary(adaptation)
• Stars
• Dorothy McGuire
• Robert Young
• Mary Astor

Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young reprise their roles from the film Claudia, which followed the titular young couple as they dealt with the trials of parenthood. Claudia, a bit wiser than she was in the first film but still charmingly naive and a bit nervous, is struggling with the responsibilities of motherhood when a fortune teller predicts that something horrible will happen to her husband. Since David is soon to travel to the West Coast on business, Claudia tries to persuade him not to go, even though it could mean losing his job. Claudia is next convinced that the baby has contracted a fatal illness, though it turns out to be nothing more than the measles. And jealousy creeps into the relationship when Elizabeth (Mary Astor) starts consulting David on a building project, while Claudia is attracting the uninvited attentions of Phil (John Sutton), who happens to be married. Like its predecessor, Claudia and David was based on a series of short stories by Rose Franken, which also inspired a successful stage play and radio series.

• Director
• Victor Saville
• Writers
• Benn W. Levy(scenario)
• M. Logan(original story)
• Jan Lustig(original story)
• Stars
• Clive Brook
• Madeleine Carroll
• Emlyn Williams

Tale of a 18th-century doctor (Clive Brook) who became the confidant of Denmark's King and fell in love with the Queen (Madeleine Carroll). Christian VII: Emlyn Williams. Brandt: Alfred Drayton. Juliana: Helen Haye. Guldberg: Nicholas Hannen. Keith: Frank Cellier. Eyben: Isabel Jeans. Excellent cast, fine production. Based on fact.