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The Violent Men (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.9
Date Released : 1 January 1955
Genre : Western
Stars : Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Dianne Foster. A Union ex-officer plans to sell up to Anchor Ranch and move east with his fiancee, but the low price offered by Anchor's crippled owner and the outfit's bully-boy tactics make him think again. When one of his hands is murdered he decides to stay and fight, utilising his war experience. Not all is well at Anchor with the owner's wife carrying on with his brother who anyway has a Mexican moll in ..." />
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

A Union ex-officer plans to sell up to Anchor Ranch and move east with his fiancee, but the low price offered by Anchor's crippled owner and the outfit's bully-boy tactics make him think again. When one of his hands is murdered he decides to stay and fight, utilising his war experience. Not all is well at Anchor with the owner's wife carrying on with his brother who anyway has a Mexican moll in town.

Watch The Violent Men Trailer :

Review :

Great movie stars, great scenery, satisfying B-movie.

Caught this on TCM late last night. Could not resist watching a film with Glenn Ford, Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyyck Barbara is the attractive woman you love to hate and plays it to the hilt. Edward G. Robinson is convincing as always as the villain-in-chief. Glenn Ford always a pleasure to watch. The scene in the saloon where Glenn Ford faces down the murdering henchman, surrounded by his cronies, is just what you want to see a reluctant hero do.

But what caught my attention most was the scenery. I am sure this is one of the 100 or more movies filmed in Lone Pine, California amidst the Alabama Hills* lying just north of town. Rock formations provide the rugged scenery where over 100 cowboy movies have been filmed with every major cowboy movie star. It was the setting for "Bad Day at Black Rock" with Spencer Tracy, Ernest Borgnine and Jack Palance. Films were made here with John Wayne, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, and it was also the setting for, surprisingly, "Gunga Din". With snow-capped Sierra Nevada peaks in the background, I tried but could not possibly identify Mount Whitney, at just under 15,000 feet, the highest point in the lower 48 USA states.

One reviewer above complains about the use of stock footage for the cattle stampede as well as for stampeding the (enemies') horses. I just marvel at the motion picture arts that they could even create such scenes at all. Did they pay some huge rancher to allow a cattle stampede??? That must have run off many pounds of expensive beef. The horse stampede must likewise have been expensive. If these were wild horses filmed at large, they sure did a skillful job intercutting the clips with the ranchers' corrals in the film.

All in all, a standard oater but with great movie stars, scenery and action, I enjoyed watching. I think you will too.

(* Oh, yes. The Alabama Hills. In California? They were named during the Civil War by miners sympathetic to the Confederate cause. If you should drive North on California State 395 en route perhaps to ski at Mammoth Mountain, spend a few minutes to detour through the Alabama Hills. And take your camera! You'll be glad you did. Well worth the time.)

Three for the Show (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.0
Date Released : 24 February 1955
Genre : Musical
Stars : Betty Grable, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, Jack Lemmon. This musical reworking of TOO MANY HUSBANDS (1940), features Grable as a top singer and dancer who's been widowed by WW II. She marries her late husband's songwriting partner, Gower Champion, but the new marriage is thrown for a loop when Lemmon, her first husband, turns up very much alive and eager to see Grable." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

This musical reworking of TOO MANY HUSBANDS (1940), features Grable as a top singer and dancer who's been widowed by WW II. She marries her late husband's songwriting partner, Gower Champion, but the new marriage is thrown for a loop when Lemmon, her first husband, turns up very much alive and eager to see Grable.

Watch Three for the Show Trailer :

Review :

No One Can Copy Marilyn Monroe !

At the first half of the 1950s Betty Grable lived a war. The war of winning the rank of "Hollywood's Top Blonde". Naturally Miss Grable, along with every single blonde bombshell in history, couldn't win that *blond* war, because – simply – Marilyn Monroe was there. The thing is in her final battle, (Three for the Show – 1955), Grable made me feel rage for using some shameful ways to win.

Review well the (How Come You Do Me Like You Do?) number. Don't you notice something? Something that had been done before, precisely 1 year earlier. Yes, you're right. It is so-close-it's-sexual-harassment to Marilyn's number (Heat Wave) from (There's No Business Like Show Business – 1954)…yet without heat !

To assure my point, the main dancer's dress is the same; just the naked bellybutton was canceled. The costumes of the male dancers are the same, white this round. The fiery red background is the same. The electrifying jazzy tone, with the intense drums and loud trumpets, is the same. The dance moves are nearly the same; trying to be as bold to end up just cold. The lyrics approach being naughty, with some double meanings; but forget it, without Marilyn's performance it's only a theoretical ambition. Maybe Betty thought; Hey, let's put many girls with the same revealing customs to make it more hot, however that proved that she can't do it alone. And in general, the saucy spirit is present but with no effect. For example my heartbeats didn't whoop, because in this case, surely, my heart belongs to "Baby" !

Watch Betty endeavoring to capture Marilyn's quavering and suggestive motions pathetically. It was like Frank Sinatra coping Elvis Presley's dancing !! Mainly there is one Marilyn, and she's copying-proof.

Connect between all of that and some indicative history information like how "the dance numbers were choreographed by Jack Cole AND Betty Grable". Or how a song like Down Boy "was originally written for Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". How Gentlemen Prefer Blondes itself "had been firstly offered to Betty Grable". And finally how (Three for the Show) "was Betty Grable's last musical after Marilyn Monroe became officially Hollywood's Top Blonde". Hence, here, all of Grable's work, didn't eventually work !

(How Come You Do Me Like You Do?) has 3 differences than (Heat Wave) : wider stage, more cutting and too sedate Betty to be the coquetry factory Marilyn Monroe. Actually Betty Grable in this number is gold plated. Watch the original source to have the genuine gold alloy then.

The Square Jungle (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.9
Date Released : 5 March 1956
Genre : Drama
Stars : Tony Curtis, Pat Crowley, Ernest Borgnine, Paul Kelly. Grocery clerk Eddie Quaid, in danger of losing his father to alcoholism and his girl Julie through lack of career prospects, goes into boxing. His cop friend McBride finances him; ex-con Bernie Browne trains him. Three years later, he is a challenger for the championship, and Julie re-enters his life. Can she win him back from a predatory blonde? And why does the prospect of Eddie's winning worry..." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

Grocery clerk Eddie Quaid, in danger of losing his father to alcoholism and his girl Julie through lack of career prospects, goes into boxing. His cop friend McBride finances him; ex-con Bernie Browne trains him. Three years later, he is a challenger for the championship, and Julie re-enters his life. Can she win him back from a predatory blonde? And why does the prospect of Eddie's winning worry Bernie more than his losing?

Watch The Square Jungle Trailer :

Review :

It's a jungle in that ring

The Square Jungle finds Tony Curtis as an eager young man with limited prospects and an alcoholic father on his hands in the person of Jim Backus on his hand. A fact brutally pointed out by Clancy Cooper who is the father of Pat Crowley whom Tony is going out with. With the help of a friendly police captain Paul Kelly, Tony decides to become a boxer and Kelly even gets him former fighter Ernest Borgnine to train him.

Curtis is well cast in the part of the eager young middleweight who rises to the championship, but loses sight of some values along the way. That's Borgnine's other function besides training, but even he can't help Curtis when he starts casting eyes at curvaceous Leigh Snowden.

The film has some elements of Champion, The Crowd Roars, Kid Galahad and a few other boxing films. It's all a good mix for Tony Curtis who was in his salad days when he was making this for Universal Pictures.

In his memoirs he had nothing to say about this film, but I recall him on a television series where he spoke on the long past scandal of Paul Kelly committing a homicide in which he did some time. He said that Kelly was a first class gentleman and very helpful and gracious to a young actor on the way up. In his memoirs he did mention however David Janssen who plays a sports writer here and who was also part of Universal's stable of contract players then, that Janssen was convinced that he was the illegitimate son of Clark Gable. Looking at their ears I could see why he would think that.

The Square Jungle was definitely a boost for the career of Tony Curtis.

Geordie (1955)iMDB Rating: 7.2
Date Released : 1 September 1955
Genre : Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sport
Stars : Bill Travers, Alastair Sim, Norah Gorsen, Molly Urquhart
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

Concerned about his small stature, a young Scottish boy applies for a mail-order body building course, successfully gaining both height and strength. At the age of 21, he displays a talent for hammer-throwing, and is selected to represent Britain in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.

Watch Geordie Trailer :

Review :

Geordie... a WEE movie with a GIANT impact...

This movie is truly a classic... It is a classic story of a small boy who is tired of being small and rather than having sand kicked in his face, sends off for a "HE-MAN" mail order course... He then trains and dedicates himself to strength training and eventually grows to become an Olympic champion in the Hammer Throw, one of the Olympic strong man events... This movie is great and reminds us of days when Olympic champions were built from desire and hard work rather than todays steroids and other controversial techniques... A must see...

Finger Man (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.8
Date Released : 15 June 1955
Genre : Crime, Film-Noir, Drama
Stars : Frank Lovejoy, Forrest Tucker, Peggie Castle, Timothy Carey. An ex-con goes undercover for the government to "finger" the crime boss who made his sister a drug addict." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

Treasury agents, desperate to get evidence on syndicate kingpin Dutch Becker, give ex-con hood Casey Martin a choice...life in prison or courting sudden death as a government 'finger man.' Finding that his sister is now a drug addict thanks to Becker, Martin agrees to go undercover. Becker's chief aide proves to be sadistic Lou Terpe, Martin's former cellmate whom he can't stand the sight of. And the danger hanging over Martin expands to threaten those around him...

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Review :

pretty good noir-type film

Fingerman is a good example of a 50's style crime drama. The basic plot line is: a man who has spent a lifetime committing crimes is "back at work" after his latest release from prison. While committing a hold-up by hijacking a truck, he carelessly drops a pack of cigarettes on the road with his fingerprints all over them and is nailed by the feds. Given a choice to go free if he becomes a stool-pigeon, he has to decide if he'll work for the feds to nab a crime kingpin.

Although there are no major stars, the performances are mostly good. Frank Lovejoy specialized in this type of role, a cynical protagonist caught up in circumstances beyond his control. Forrest Tucker (as the crime boss) and Peggie Castle (as Lovejoy's girlfriend) do well also. Timothy Carey (one of the most bizarre actors in screen history) is a standout as a torpedo in Tucker's employ.

The direction is decent but not outstanding, yet there are a few good moments, such as when two of Tucker's henchmen toss an informer in front of an approaching vehicle. Much of the action occurs at night, thus adding to the "noir" feel of the movie.

The film is unquestionably dated, and may bore younger viewers who need explosions or special effects every five minutes, but if you like 50's crime drama, Fingerman is a good way to kill an hour-and-a-half.

Sissi (1955)iMDB Rating: 7.0
Date Released : 22 December 1955
Genre : Comedy, Drama, History, Romance
Stars : Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm, Magda Schneider, Uta Franz. In the first of a trilogy of movies about Elisabeth "Sissi" of Austria, the young vibrant princess catches the eye of her sister's fiancé, Emperor Franz Josef." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

16 year old princess Elisabeth, 'Sissi', follows her mother and sister Helene to the Austrian court in Ischl, where the engagement between Helene and the young emperor Franz Josef will be announced. But he meets Sissi when she's out fishing and falls in love with her. Sissi also loves Franz Josef but a marriage with him comes with a bonus, his arrogant and headstrong mother.

Watch Sissi Trailer :

Review :

Charming story of sweet love with young Romy Schneider in main role

There was a time, about thirty years ago, when Marischka's SISSI trilogy was considered kitschy by many critics. Fortunately, these times are gone and again we all can see these beautiful films without being influenced by the critics and their politics.

I must admit that Sissi has always been one of my favorite movies. Romy Schneider, her acting, gestures and her face are almost identical with real Sissi. Marischka could not make a better choice. However, I heard that this role had such an impact on Romy's life that she was associated with Sissi throughout her career. As a result, some people consider SISSI films the deepest insight into Romy's life. Hasn't she got through the terrible sorrows similarly as empress Elizabeth did?...

Other cast are also very, very good. Magda Schneider, Romy's mother, gives a fine performance as Ludovika, Karlheinz Bohm (Franz Josef) does an excellent job. Vilma Degischer is particularly memorable as a cruel Sophie. Only Gustav Knuth's portrayal of Duke Max is a historical travesty. He was not so much attached to family life...

Another reason why I like these films is the fact that despite its historical inaccuracies (their love did not look like that), these movies are very gentle, show the value of love between a man and a woman and as a result, they can be watched even by small children without harm done to their psyche.

Some say that Sissi is for sentimental girls and old women. This viewpoint is absolutely wrong. I am a 25 year old man and come back to these films with great pleasure and so do a lot of my friends. See it and you will not regret. Make your personal judgments, not being influenced by the unexplained criticism.

Soldat Ivan Brovkin (1955)iMDB Rating: 7.2
Date Released : 28 May 2014
Genre : Drama
Stars : Leonid Kharitonov, Sergei Blinnikov, Dariya Smirnova, Yevgeni Shutov." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

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Smoke Signal (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.1
Date Released : 1 March 1955
Genre : Action, Drama, Western
Stars : Dana Andrews, Piper Laurie, Rex Reason, William Talman
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

Capt. Harper's cavalry patrol returns to the fort to find it besieged by Ute Indians. The apparent cause is the recapture of Army traitor Brett Halliday, who deserted to the Utes in a previous war; but Brett has a different story. With capture imminent, the only chance for the surviving men (and one woman) is to boat down a wild, uncharted river, where Harper and Halliday must pull together, like it or not.

Watch Smoke Signal Trailer :

Review :

Why doesn't the cavalry ever learn to take back roads?

Dana Andrews is the soldier with a past who tries in vain to help the army get across the canyon before a band of Hollywood 'Indians' can scalp them and other stereotypical stuff.

Piper Laurie is along for laughs because she didn't have anything else going on. Bill Phipps ('Cat Women of the Moon', 'Five') and Milburn Stone ('Doc' on Gunsmoke) are two of the soldiers. Random movie western, done here for the zillionth time. Watch this only if you're bored, armed with some junk food, and have a pillow handy.

Bill Talman ('Mr. Berger' on Perry Mason) is fine as the cavalry commander.

Marty (1955)iMDB Rating: 7.8
Date Released : 9 September 1955
Genre : Drama, Romance
Stars : Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

Marty is a 34-year-old butcher whose Italian family is constantly after him to get married. He meets plain-looking schoolteacher Clara. They are both lonely, unglamorous people who have resigned themselves to their unloved lives. But they manage, in time, to grope their way to love.

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Review :

Out on its own .................

I have known, loved and seen this film many times in the past fifteen years and finally bought it recently on DVD in the UK. The story is timeless and I am very surprised that no-one has yet attempted a plausible re-make of it. Stangely made in black and white ( for economic reasons I suppose, as color was widespread enough in 1954 ), the film depicts the horrors of trying to find a soul-mate with family pressures on hand to boot. No doubt italo-Americans will appreciate even more. I found Betsy Blair extremely attractive although she is supposed to be portraying someone "ugly" - the subject is fascinating and endlessly complex as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The general impression given was one of a depiction of a real-life situation, which is of course to the credit of the film !! I remained hungry at the end and would have liked the film to continue just a little more to show the genesis of their amorous relationship !! But some would argue that at the end of a film you should be left wanting for more .......... I also loved the theme music which is actually sung at the end over the credits where they show the name of the actor plus a view of the actor from the film - this is a technique used all too little nowadays - and this absence is most regrettable as it enabled you to put a face to a name !! I was both surprised and amused that in the 1950's, ugly people were referred to as "dogs" - sounds so funny now - but I think the word "squares" or "cornballs" was also used disparagingly !! Definitely a most original film and which (exceptionally) seems to have attracted a unanimity of positive reviews on IMDb !!

De Lokkende Diepte (1955)iMDB Rating: 7.2
Date Released : 17 October 1955
Genre : Drama, Romance
Stars : Vivien Leigh, Kenneth More, Eric Portman, Emlyn Williams
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

A woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaves her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.

Review :

No Easy Answers

After her second Oscar in Streetcar Named Desire Vivien Leigh made only three more films and in all of them she played older women who are hungering for love. Hardly the image of the saucy Scarlett O'Hara which she won her first Oscar with, but it did allow her to transition into roles for older women. This one her in The Deep Blue Sea is way too uncomfortably close to her real life.

In this film it opens with her attempting suicide and being saved by prying neighbors. Her much younger second husband has left her and in flashbacks we learn what was going on. Vivien had been raised a prim and proper church girl with a country parson for a father. She learned the biblical view of sex that did not leave much room for later research into the field on a more clinical basis. She married the older and more settled Emlyn Williams who is a judge. But as they got older Emlyn got less interested in sex. Enter Kenneth More who was an RAF air ace and now a test pilot. That's real glamor for her and like Anna Karenina, another Leigh part she leaves Williams and runs off with More.

But More's got issues also, he's an alcoholic and deep down he's looking for a mother figure. Since she and Williams had no children, Leigh isn't recognizing this nor is she prepared to deal with it.

Terrence Ratigan adapted his own play to the screen and rather well since the play only takes place in Leigh's apartment. We get some scenes of London night life in 1955 and with More's job, part of the film takes place at an air show. On Broadway the play ran for 132 performances in 1952-53 and starred Margaret Sullavan.

Offering advice and counsel is defrocked psychiatrist Eric Portman who is a neighbor. But as Leigh finds out as does the audience there are no no easy answers.

The Deep Blue Sea is not as good a work from Ratigan as The Browning Version or Separate Tables. Still the cast performs well, especially Vivien Leigh who made very infrequent screen appearances now.

The Sea Chase (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.4
Date Released : 4 June 1955
Genre : Action, Drama, War
Stars : John Wayne, Lana Turner, David Farrar, Lyle Bettger
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

As the Second World War breaks out, German freighter captain Karl Ehrlich is about to leave Sydney, Australia with his vessel, the Ergenstrasse. Ehrlich, an anti-Nazi but proud German, hopes to outrun or out-maneuver the British warship pursuing him. Aboard his vessel is Elsa Keller, a woman Ehrlich has been ordered to return to Germany safely along with whatever secrets she carries. When Ehrlich's fiercely Nazi chief officer Kirchner commits an atrocity, the British pursuit becomes deadly.

Watch The Sea Chase Trailer :

Review :

No Sparks between Luscious Lana and Stoic Duke on the High Seas

John Wayne as the captain of a German ship during the early days of World War II? The same John Wayne who rode tall in the saddle, saved a doomed airliner, and led the Green Berets? All right, he does not support German policies, but, nevertheless, casting Wayne in the part of Captain Karl Ehrlich was a bizarre choice. The Duke does not even attempt a German accent, and he actually mispronounces the only German words that he utters, "Auf Wiedersehn." Perhaps the lure of starring opposite the luscious, if decidedly petite next to Wayne, Lana Turner was reason enough to ignore the mediocre script and listless direction by John Farrow.

Whatever Wayne's motives for appearing in "The Sea Chase," he plays John Wayne relatively well and outmaneuvers the pursuing British in the grand heroic style he pioneered. Of course, why the audience should be pulling for the Germans to escape the British during World War II is a moral dilemma with which to wrestle. However, somewhat akin to "Das Boot," only one dastardly German serves among the otherwise apolitical crew, and a Nazi flag only appears once and briefly.

As Ehrlich, Wayne sails from Sydney just after hostilities begin in Europe, and, with a British ship in pursuit, which is captained by an officer that Wayne managed to insult over a woman, the glowing Ms. Turner, Wayne maneuvers his ship through the South Pacific towards safety in Valparaiso. Just before leaving Sydney, the German counsel tells Captain Ehrlich that he will be carrying a passenger, a spy who also seeks refuge in Valparaiso. Of course, the increasingly stunning Lana Turner is the passenger, who has managed to escape Sydney with only one bag. And what a bag that must have been, because, throughout the voyage, she has endless changes from one glamorous costume to another. Her makeup is never less than perfect, and the hairspray alone to keep her immaculately coiffed must have weighed a ton. How she maintained the perfection of her platinum blonde hair without a dye specialist on board remains a mystery. Of course, "The Sea Chase" is pure Hollywood hokum, and such questions of logic should never be asked.

Unfortunately for the film and perhaps for Wayne, there appears to be little chemistry between the Duke and Turner. In the one kissing scene, Wayne seems to be biting Turner's jugular while holding his breath rather than exuding any passion. Turner does not turn up the heat either. In spite of her famous looks and figure, Lana exudes a chill towards most of the men in the film, although she tempts the sex-starved crew with tightly filled sweaters from her private deck. The decidedly non-Teutonic actors in the supposedly German crew include such familiar faces as James Arness, Tab Hunter, Claude Akins, Paul Fix, and Alan Hale, and each is decidedly superior to the lines they are forced to recite.

Although the film is a supposedly a chase, there is a shortage of action, and the film plods along with little suspense other than that provided by Turner's wardrobe changes. John Wayne fans likely will want to see "The Sea Chase," if only for the curiosity value. Others perhaps should steer clear unless it is a particularly rainy day with absolutely nothing else but reruns of "My Mother the Car" on the tube.

Smoke Signal (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.1
Date Released : 1 March 1955
Genre : Action, Drama, Western
Stars : Dana Andrews, Piper Laurie, Rex Reason, William Talman
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

Capt. Harper's cavalry patrol returns to the fort to find it besieged by Ute Indians. The apparent cause is the recapture of Army traitor Brett Halliday, who deserted to the Utes in a previous war; but Brett has a different story. With capture imminent, the only chance for the surviving men (and one woman) is to boat down a wild, uncharted river, where Harper and Halliday must pull together, like it or not.

Watch Smoke Signal Trailer :

Review :

Why doesn't the cavalry ever learn to take back roads?

Dana Andrews is the soldier with a past who tries in vain to help the army get across the canyon before a band of Hollywood 'Indians' can scalp them and other stereotypical stuff.

Piper Laurie is along for laughs because she didn't have anything else going on. Bill Phipps ('Cat Women of the Moon', 'Five') and Milburn Stone ('Doc' on Gunsmoke) are two of the soldiers. Random movie western, done here for the zillionth time. Watch this only if you're bored, armed with some junk food, and have a pillow handy.

Bill Talman ('Mr. Berger' on Perry Mason) is fine as the cavalry commander.

Simon and Laura (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.1
Date Released : 28 May 2014
Genre : Comedy
Stars : Peter Finch, Kay Kendall, Muriel Pavlow, Hubert Gregg. In the 1950's days of only BBC television, a wet-behind-the-ears producer has the idea of basing a family drama series on a real-life happily married actor couple. Unfortunately he chooses the Fosters, who need the money and so do the show. Actors they may be, but happily married they most surely are not." />
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

In the 1950's days of only BBC television, a wet-behind-the-ears producer has the idea of basing a family drama series on a real-life happily married actor couple. Unfortunately he chooses the Fosters, who need the money and so do the show. Actors they may be, but happily married they most surely are not.

Watch Simon and Laura Trailer :

Review :

Absolutely Delightful British Comedy

It absolutely astounds me that a film this fine is not more readily available to North American viewers.

A television producer (Ian Carmichael) in the early days of BBC Television sells the idea of a daily soap opera starring a "real life" show business couple. Unfortunately Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh are not available! However there is a suitable substitute in the Fosters (Peter Finch and Kay Kendall). What the producer doesn't know but which their agent (Hubert Gregg) does is that the Fosters are constantly at each others throat (and going home to mother!) and, of course, unemployed and broke. Reluctantly they set aside their fighting and accept the roles for the sake of solvency. To make the Fosters more comfortable in television their real life butler and maid (Maurice Denham and Thora Hird) are cast as their TV series butler and maid. Also along is the series writer (Muriel Pavlow) who has a crush on the producer. The series is a smash but its difficult playing lovey-dovey in front of the camera while fighting behind it. Naturally Carmichael is much more "understanding" of Kendall, than her husband is, and Pavlow is much more "admiring" of Finch, than his wife is. Complications ensue, not only from the couplings but from child actors as well. Eventually it becomes impossible to hide the off screen lives and they begin to cross over into live TV.

This "behind the scenes" movie plays off of the ego and self absorbation prevalent in show business. Finch is outstanding as an actor whose ego constantly needs constant nourishment. Kendall is outstanding as the jealous wife who must be the center of attention. Both characters are played large and the undercurrent of competition, relevant to today's dual career couples, is intense. Carmichael and Pavlow are more subdued "normal" people and subject only to the normal boy-girl misunderstandings. Denham and Hird steal every scene they can as the success of the show begins to effect their egos.

Technical credits, including color photography, are fine.

In all, an absolutely delightful movie. I saw this film once as a child and remembered the vivid characters ever since. It has taken me forty years before I could lay my hands on a copy. Never has a wait been as rewarded as it was with this film.

The Magnificent Matador (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.1
Date Released : 30 April 1956
Genre : Drama, Romance
Stars : Maureen O'Hara, Anthony Quinn, Manuel Rojas, Richard Denning. Karen Harrison is a spoiled, rich, American predator who falls head-over-heels for the brooding, tormented, about-to-retire matador, Luis Santos who has inexplicably run away prior to a corrida that was to occasion the "alternativa" of a young, up-and-coming bullfighter. The mystery is solved 94 minutes later, after Maureen has conquered Tony and Tony has saved Marueen's life by caping a toro ..." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

Karen Harrison is a spoiled, rich, American predator who falls head-over-heels for the brooding, tormented, about-to-retire matador, Luis Santos who has inexplicably run away prior to a corrida that was to occasion the "alternativa" of a young, up-and-coming bullfighter. The mystery is solved 94 minutes later, after Maureen has conquered Tony and Tony has saved Marueen's life by caping a toro bravo with his plaid horse blanket.

Watch The Magnificent Matador Trailer :

Review :

Ole !

Expensively filmed and orchestrated in colour Cinemascope, Maureen O'Hara and Anthony Quinn star in this slow romance set in the bullfighting milieu in Mexico.

Quinn is a matador in his last year that throws over a showing apparently because he chickens out and shacks up with the wealthy O'Hara.

Tedious portentousness passes for gravity in this slow drama, with some rough cutting especially the scene where the background shifts about six times, alternating between treeless plain, treeless mountain, and tree-filled mountain all in the same shot.

The greasy 'hombres' in tuxedos are a bit interesting, but the politics is rubbish and bullfighting is 'orrible anyway.

Chicago Syndicate (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.5
Date Released : 1 July 1955
Genre : Crime, Drama
Stars : Dennis O'Keefe, Abbe Lane, Paul Stewart, Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

Watch Chicago Syndicate Trailer :

Review :

Late and derivative organized-crime drama shows slackening momentum of noir cycle

There's little in the late noir Chicago Syndicate that hadn't already been done, and more memorably, in the cycle, but, given the limitations of its director and cast, it does its job. When a renegade syndicate bookkeeper is gunned down on a crowded street in broad daylight (incidentally triggering his wife's suicide), federal agents enlist Dennis O'Keefe, a forensic accountant working for the police, to infiltrate the underworld. In no time he's won the trust of boss Paul Stewart (whose start in movies was in Citizen Kane, as Raymond the sinister butler). Stewart idolizes his mother, who refuses to budge from his tough old neighborhood. But apparently she's the exception that tests his misogynistic rule (`Everything gets better with age, except women,' he observes).

He's right to be wary, because women hold the tools to destroy him. His current trophy (Abbe Lane), who sings with bandleader Xavier Cugat in mob night spots, drinks too much and endures humiliation and beatings at his hands. But even an attempt to `scare the girdle off her' fails, as she holds incriminating microfilm, stashed away as her insurance policy. Her rival for his attentions (Allison Hayes) has a secret agenda: she's the orphaned daughter of the slain bookkeeper, nursing a vendetta. When she thinks O'Keefe can grease her way to the top, she throws herself at him (`Now you're romancing me like I was Liberace,' he puzzlingly tells her.) She becomes his helpmate – and decoy.

In the style of the syndicate movies of the 1950s, in the wake of the Kefauver hearings on organized crime, there's an emphasis on the complex corporate structure of Stewart's illegal business operations. Too much exposition, however, is left to voice-over narration. And while the movie doesn't shy away from ugly incident, it's quite devoid of the atmospheric dread that distinguished, for instance, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat. O'Keefe, too, seems to have aged more than the eight years separating this movie from his similar role in Anthony Mann's T-Men, making it less of a surprise that his first movie role was in 1930. Chicago Syndicate holds interest less for its own sake than as evidence of how the noir cycle was running down, if not quite out; the same year offered Joseph H. Lewis' brilliant take on much the same territory, The Big Combo.

Rosen im Herbst (1955)iMDB Rating: 6.3
Date Released : 29 September 1955
Genre : Drama
Stars : Ruth Leuwerik, Bernhard Wicki, Paul Hartmann, Carl Raddatz." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

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Review :

A poor man's 'Madame Bovary'

'Rosen I'm Herbst', even by 1955 standards, did not contain the freshest of material - in fact, it was hodge-podge of banalities, but it had the fresh, appealing and unique radiance of Ruth Leuwerik; a down-to-earth, human approach; a painstaking direction; a top-notch supporting cast and situations and dialogue that were often tender, touching and true. All involved managed to turn 'Rosen I'm Herbst' into a 1955 smash of major proportions. Critics and public alike praised Miss Leuwerik's fresh, if muted, beauty and her intelligence and radiance as Effie Briest, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage.

Handsomely produced with a lush score that considerably enhanced the sorrow-laden ambiance, 'Rosen I'm Herbst' proved just the ticket for millions of women, who had cultivated an addiction to watching Ruth Leuwerik suffer in that glamorous style for which she had become noted.

Miss Leuwerik, one of Germany's most ladylike heroines in the 50's, was a handsome woman, whose aristocratic beauty graced many such drama. She was also an excellent actress with a stage-trained voice whose timbre enhanced her pictorial image.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)iMDB Rating: 7.8
Date Released : 27 October 1955
Genre : Drama, Romance
Stars : James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

Jim Stark is the new kid in town. He has been in trouble elsewhere; that's why his family has had to move before. Here he hopes to find the love he doesn't get from his middle-class family. Though he finds some of this in his relation with Judy, and a form of it in both Plato's adulation and Ray's real concern for him, Jim must still prove himself to his peers in switchblade knife fights and "chickie" games in which cars race toward a seaside cliff.

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Review :

Powerful

I agree with most of the reviewers. This movie is just as powerful as it was 44 years ago. Inside the cheesy braggadocio of an angry gangster is a confused kid. I can't think of a single person that did not feel alienated as a teenager. James Dean represents what every teenager would want to be. Individualistic: has a set of values and sticks to them Brave: engages in activities most of us would never consider (esp. chicky run) Kind: caring to Plato and Judy

James Dean is perfect in his role as Jim Stark. More is said in this movie through gestures than words. One lift of his eyebrow, one syllable can say so much. When he does speak, you know that he believes what he is saying. The shot of Jim rolling out of the speeding car is amazing. I can think of few modern action films that have had me riveted to the seat as I was during the switchblade fight.

Natalie Wood is superb in her role as well. Judy is looking for attention that isn't there. This is perfectly summed up when she says "I love somebody, all this time I was looking for someone to love me, but now I love somebody." She desperately looks for acceptance and acknowledgment in the wrong places because her father does not want to see her as a young woman.

Even though Dennis Hopper's role is rather small, you can see that he knows what he is doing. He portrays in my mind, someone easily pushed around when he tries to fit in. He seems different than the rest of Buzz' gang and even looks more boyish. He timidly tries to interject a comment in front of Buzz and is just brushed off.

I don't think that this movie is strictly an us versus them type of scenario. Trying to take care of Plato and to protect him, Jim realizes that being a parent is not as straightforward as he thought. His parents are more than just caricatures of the nagging wife and emasculated husband. Everyone in the film is confused about how they fit in to the big picture. The movie is simply told in the self centered manner any teenager would view it as. This can account for the sequences which many would see as over the top. I think the central theme of the cosmos presented in the planetarium show demonstrates how teenagers view themselves as the center of the universe. Thus all the scenes concerning each of the three teens conflicts are equally dramatic.