An American western directed by William A. Wellman, starring Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark and Anne Baxter.
A group of outlaws rob a bank and cross salt flats to escape. They end up in a ghost town inhabited by a violent, young woman and her gold mining grandfather. The outlaws fight over gold and the woman.
This is the last film I'm watching from the acid western page. The plot and visuals mark it as the first acid western. There is a surprise ending which really breaks expectations. Lots of the film was shot during the day and underexposed or edited to create night. Usually, clouds are not that visible in a night sky. Generally, I found the whole film just odd enough to be cool. Those looking for a traditional western may not notice, but those versed in acid westerns will recognize the beginnings of the outlandishness which would follow. I rate it adequate. You might want to watch it.
An American western musical directed by William Witney, starring Roy Rogers, Trigger, Jane Frazee and Andy Devine.
Roy Rogers returns to his ranch home to celebrate 10 years of making films. His horse is stolen by a neighboring rancher and held for ransom.
I was trying to avoid this type of movie by skipping the rest of the black and white westerns, but that has apparently not worked. Color video does not help to differentiate this film from the vast herd of others just like it. Andy Devine helped a little bit. The plot and characters were clearly presented, but everything was standard, predictable and mediocre like the rest of Roy's westerns. I'm surprised that nobody called him on this in all the time he was making these loads of crap. Oh well. I rate it tolerable.
An American romantic mystery directed by Bernard Vorhaus.
A widow and her sister meet a man claiming to be a magician.
This was one of the most boring films I have ever had the displeasure to see. I turned it off at about the 45 minute mark because it was just the widow missing her husband, hearing a voice calling to her and an opportunist wizard looking to get laid. "Your husband is dead? Watch this! I can do a magic trick!". No matter how boring it was, there was some really good camera-work going on. Some of the shots were just immaculate. Perfect lighting and exposure can't save a bad movie though. I rate it shit because I had to turn it off.
An American romance directed by William Castle, starring Guy Madison, Diana Lynn and James Dunn.
A man orders a drink at a bar and the bartender tells him a story. A newspaper writer's grandfather dies and leaves him money so he heads for New York to write a play. On the way, he picks up a young woman who is a compulsive liar. The woman lies him into being her brother and also a bank robber. Another lie gets them a mother who is a pickpocket. When the bartender shows up at the hotel where the writer is staying they go to a shop with fake things to ride.
The main theme of this film was deception. I thought it was alright. The style was of the time and there were a few editing/continuity mistakes. These were mainly sloppy video editing with characters moving. The video was otherwise adequate and the audio wasn't too bad. I liked the complex plot that filled the entire duration correctly without using lots of pointless filler. The characters were good and unique. Overall, it's a decent old movie to watch. I rate it adequate. You may want to check this out.
An American romantic comedy directed by Charles Martin, starring Kirk Douglas and Laraine Day.
A writer hires a secretary and they have a roller coaster relationship.
The plot and characters were clearly communicated, but seemed a little sitcomesque to me. The audio and video quality were not bad for '48 and the editing was smooth. This is a pretty simple film that needs a simple review. It's a decent watch for an old romantic comedy and much better than today's romantic comedies. The part at the end repeating a part from the beginning with different characters in different roles was actually really cool. I thought it was adequately made and it wasn't a chore to watch. I rate it adequate. Watch this if you just want something to watch.
An American comedic mystery directed by Bernard Carr.
A group of children witness important events involved in a murder and are asked to testify in court.
The audio was poor quality and difficult to hear, just like the video was poor quality and difficult to see. The characters were EXTREMELY annoying and the plot got obfuscated by humor that didn't make me laugh. I thought the non-white children were quite funny though and a monkey putting on the clothes of one of them caught my attention. I'm not saying that I'm racist, just pointing out that the humor in the film was. Darkie jokes aside, this is not a good film and I would advise against watching it. I rate it bad.
An American drama directed by H. C. Potter, starring James Cagney.
A rich man sits in a bar and has his friend run strange errands for him. Various other customers enter the bar and reveal part of their life story.
This is why I watch obscure films. A diamond in the rough, this movie has a little bit of everything from song and dance numbers to fighting and insanity. It earns high respect from me by being mostly shot on a single set and showing character development, despite the large number of characters. There are actually surprises in this and my favorite involves the "marble game" (A.K.A. pinball machine). This is one that you have to see to appreciate and it shouldn't be too hard to find (being public domain and all). The real question here is: who would abandon such a wonderful movie? Shitkipedia says it was a "miserable failure in the box office" and that a remake was made in 1958. The original goes beyond the call of duty and ascends to the realm of high art. I rate it best.
An American science fiction adventure directed by Jack Bernhard.A Man and his girlfriend hire a ship's captain to take them to an island populated by dinosaurs. The captain knows a man who says he escaped from that island and he is brought along against his will.The dinosaurs look SO FAKE! It's almost funny how bad they are. The plot and characters were alright. The style was clear, but the production value was not good at all. I'm rating it o.k.
A musical directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.A womanizing actor comes to town and is attracted to a woman who is going to marry a man who she does not love. The actor then does anything he can to keep her from marrying the other man.I watched this because of Judy Garland and didn't really enjoy much else about it. I've got movie overload (336+ films in 5 months) so I'm giving it o.k. because it wasn't great, but it had Judy.
A musical directed by Charles Walters, starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire.When a dancing team breaks up, the man decides that he can dance just as well with any woman and recruits a young cabaret dancer for his act.I've got this strange Judy Garland obsession, otherwise I wouldn't be watching a film like this. The lyrics were extremely predictable and the spring-loaded relationships kind of put me off, but Judy's managers obviously fed her the right combination of drugs to put on a great performance. Fred Astaire was cool, but old (even in 1948) and I so saw the ending coming from a mile away complete with "epic" final song). I'm rating it o.k. for the balance of Judy Garland in a crap movie.
