Pride and Prejudice (1940 - b/w) - Greer Garson is miscast. Everything feels American. Olivier looks out of place.
Miss Polly (1941 - b/w) - Hal Roach featurette with Zasu Pitts.
See also Niagara Falls (1941 - b/w), All American Co-Ed (1941 - b/w), Broadway Limited (1941- b/w), Yanks Ahoy (1943 - b/w), Curley (1947 - b/w).
Fiesta (1941) - Color Hal Roach featurette starring Jorge Negrete.
That Hamilton Woman (1941 - b/w) - Brits make a typical Hollywood British drama. Churchill loved it. Of course, he did. It's patriotic dirgery.
Twin Beds (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Joan Bennett and George Brent.
Young and Willing (1943 - b/w) - Rote ROMCOM with Susan Hayward and William Holden.
The Powers Girl (1943 - b/w)/The Fabulous Dorseys (1946 - b/w) -
Knickerbocker Holiday (1944 - b/w) - Thanksgiving musical with Nelson Eddy.
Guest Wife (1945 - b/w) - Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert.
The Great John L (1945 - b/w) - Forgettable boxing biography.
Getting Gertie's Garter (1946 - b/w) - As silly as the title. Allan Dwan B.
See also Up in Mabel's Room (1944 - b/w).
The Bachelor's Daughters (1946 - b/w) - Rote teen comedy.
Heaven Only Knows (1947 - b/w) - It's a Christian western starring Robert Cummings as an angel. As bad as that sounds.
Fun On A Week-End (1947 - b/w) - Annoying Eddie Bracken/Priscilla Lane vehicle.
My Dear Secretary (1948 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Kirk Douglas.
Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven (1948 - b/w) - Forgettable cowboy comedy with Guy Madison, Lionel Stander, Audie Murphy and Margaret Hamilton.
An Innocent Affair (1948 - b/w) - Rote Fred MacMurray vehicle.
Johnny Holiday (1949 - b/w) -Boys Town-alike with William Bendix and Hoagy Carmichael. Schmaltzy.
Cover Up (1949 - b/w) - More William Bendix.This time, CHRISTMAS NOIR!
Without Honor (1949 - b/w) - Dreary, noirish suburban melodrama.
Champion (1949 - b/w) - Rote boxing saga with Kirk Douglas.
A Kiss for Corliss (1949 - b/w) - David Niven looks out of place in this teen comedy with Shirley Temple whinging about Richard Widmark (he's not in the film- she's a fangirl). Her chirpiness is less annoying as an adult teenager, but still you can see that she was better off doing work for the UN. See also Miss Annie Rooney (1942).
The Great Dan Patch (1949 - b/w) - Always stunned to see sulky racing depicted as a massive spectator sport, and not the preserve of travellers on a motorway. Clarence Muse plays an accordion-playing narrator named Voodoo.
The Big Wheel (1949 - b/w) - Mickey Rooney racing tosh.
Impact (1949 - b/w) - Actually quite watchable seeing Brian Donlevy constantly beaten down. And Charles Coburn turns up.
Mrs. Mike (1949 - b/w) - Turgid Mountie melodrama with Dick Powell singing the Rose of Tralee.
The Crooked Way (1949 - b/w) - Almost-poverty row level noir with John Payne.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 - b/w) - It's like a farce without jokes.
Once A Thief (1950 - b/w) - Cesar Romero and Lon Chaney Jr in forgettable noir.
Three Husbands (1951 - b/w) - Forgettable B-comedy.
Pardon My French (1951 - b/w) - Forgetttable Euro-comedy with Merle Oberon.
He Ran All The Way (1951 - b/w) - Typical noir with John Garfield nearly dead and Shelley Winters doing her swimming acting.
The Tragedy of Othello (1951 - b/w) - Starring Orson Welles as a Nigerian grandmother.
One Big Affair (1952 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Evelyn Keyes.
Confidence Girl (1952 - b/w) - Rote Tom Conway vehicle.
Chicago Calling (1952 - b/w) - So generic this Dan Duryea vehicle I swore I had seen it. See also The Underworld Story (1951 - b/w).
Without Warning (1952 - b/w) - Bland, starless noir.
The Fighter (1952 - b/w) - Attractive but sluggish Jack London Mexican boxing story with Richard Conte.
The Ring (1952 - b/w) - Rote Hispanic poverty drama.
The Captive City (1952 - b/w) - Rote noir exotica with John Forysthe.
The Steel Lady (1953 - b/w) - Dreadful WW2 trash.
Captain Scarlett (1953) - Threadbare colour Mexican swashbuckler with Richard Greene. Not indestructible.
The Joe Louis Story (1953 - b/w) - Rote biopic.
The Fake (1953 - b/w) - Passable British-B with Dennis O'Keefe, and John Laurie as a Scottish-American art expert.
Vice Squad (1953 - b/w) - Rote Edward G. Robinson crime yarn.
SABRE JET (1953 - B/W) - Forgettable aviation nonsense with Rex Kramer.
Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953) - Rote piracy with John Payne, Donna Reed and Lon Chaney. See also Bandits of Corsica (1953 - b/w)
No Escape (1953 - b/w) - Generic nightclub vehicle with Lew Ayres.
The Steel Cage (1954 - b/w) - Thought I'd be disinterested in this otherwise unimaginative prison flick featuring Maureen O'Sullivan, but then they add a sinister comedy chef who sings, played by Walter Slezak. If you wonder why I watch noir, this is why. Also with John Ireland, Lawrence Tierney and Arthur Franz. Alas, everything else is bog-standard.
See also the more generic Big House USA (1955 - b/w) with Broderick Crawford and Charles Bronson.
Go Man Go! (1954 - b/w) - Forgettable story about the Harlem Globetrotters. Even then, you can see Sidney Poitier has more star quality than Dane Clark. Sidney Poitier didn't have to do Hammer films.
Beachhead (1954) - Lush Hawaiian locations help lift this generic WW2 vehicle with Tony Curtis, and the inevitable Frank Lovejoy.
Return to Treasure Island (1954) - Utterly generic Tab Hunter vehicle devoid of action.
See also The White Orchid (1954 ).
Crossed Swords (1954) - Italian swashbuckling rota with Gina Lollobrigida and Errol Flynn, who if he had lived probably would have been doing lots of this schlock, and perhaps a giallo, some Eurospy films. It's a half-baked knockoff of Flynn's own Adventures of Don Juan, and coproduced with his old mucker Barry Mahon.
The Big Bluff (1955 - b/w) - By W. Lee Wilder, Billy's less talented brother and Fred Freiberger, the notorious showrunner, this is a predictably dull faux-Latino lover noir.
Top of the World (1955 - b/w) - Polar aviation nonsense with Dale Robertson.
The Kiss Before Dying (1956) - Dreary high school crime with Robert Wagner.
Chicago Confidential (1956 - b/w) - Rote "true" urban noir with Brian Keith.
Dance With Me, Henry (1956 - b/w) - Abbott and Costello not at their best.
Huk! (1956) - Generic tropicana shot in the Philippines with George Montgomery.
Emergency Hospital (1956 - b/w) - Forgettable UA schlock - feels like a TV pilot. See also Hot Cars (1956 - b/w) and Three Bad Sisters (1956 - b/w) and Crime Against Joe (1956 - b/w).
Crime of Passion (1957 - b/w) - Barbara Stanwyck women's picture diverts into noir, with Sterling Hayden and Raymond Burr.
Hell Bound (1957 - b/w) - Forgettable maritime peril with John Russell and Stuart Whitman.
Saint Joan (1957 - b/w) - Amongst the sea of British character talent (2nd billed Richard Todd), Richard Widmark and Jean Seberg seem at sea. He at least seems to be trying, as a simple-minded comedy monk but she's such an American teenager of the 50s.
Bailout at 43,000 (1957 - b/w) - Pine/Thomas move from Paramount to United Artists, but the same old aviation peril.
See also The Big Caper (1957 - b/w).
Hidden Fear (1957 - b/w) - Unexpected car/helicopter/bike chase through Copenhagen in this Danish-made programmer with John Payne and Alexander Knox.
Spring Reunion (1957) - Dreary school reunion melodrama with Dana Andrews.
Monkey On My Back (1957 - b/w) - Rote alcoholism story with Cameron Mitchell and a frighteningly fresh-faced Jack Albertson.
The Careless Years (1957 - b/w) - Dean Stockwell thinks he's James Dean.
Men in War (1957 - b/w) - As generic as the title.
The Girl in Black Stockings (1957 - b/w) - Junky noir with Mamie Van Doren, Lex Barker, and Anne Bancroft, and John Dehner in a cowboy hat.
Street of Sinners (1957 - b/w) - More pulpy junk.
The Mugger (1958 - b/w) - Undistinguished crime-B with Kent Smith and James Franciscus at his most Hestonesque.
Lonelyhearts (1958 - b/w) - Rote journo drama with Montgomery Clift, Myrna Loy and Robert Ryan.
Cop Hater (1958 - b/w) - Rote crime with Robert Loggia.
Kings Go Forth (1958 - b/w) - Natalie Wood plays mixed-race. As bad as that sounds. Overlong.
Counterplot (1959 - b/w) - Rote exotic thriller with Forrest Tucker.
Girls, Guns and Gangsters (1959 - b/w) - Rote crime with Mamie Van Doren and Lee Van Cleef.
Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959 - b/w) - Surprisingly not starring Mamie Van Doren.
The Rabbit Trap (1959 - b/w) - Forgettable family drama with Ernest Borgnine.
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959 - b/w) - Rote though nicely shot programmer with Steve McQueen.
Take A Giant Step (1959 - b/w) - Rote juvenile delinquency drama with the difference that the kid is Johnny Nash.
Cry Tough (1959 - b/w) - Rote juvenile deliquency with John Saxon as a Puerto Rican.
Pork Chop Hill (1959 - b/w) - Rote though efficient Korean War saga.
The Last Mile (1959 - b/w) - Rote crime saga with Mickey Rooney in prison.
Vice Raid (1959 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Mamie Van Doren.
Inside the Mafia (1959 - b/w) - snooze.
No comments:
Post a Comment