Friday, August 12, 2011

Three Faces West (1940)




Starring John Wayne, Charles Coburn, Sigrid Gurie, Bob Burns, Byron Foulger, and Hank Patterson. Directed by Bernard Vorhaus. A fugitive from fascist oppression in Austria hopes to carve out a new existence for himself and his daughter by tilling the soil, but she is more interested in being reunited with her Austrian boyfriend once she arrives in Oregon.

Wheel of Fortune (1941)
(A Man Betrayed)




Starring John Wayne, Frances Dee, Ward Bond, Wallace Ford, Eaymond Bailey, and Minerva Urecal. Directed by John H. Auer. A Small town attorney investigating the murder of his friend in the big city falls in love with the daughter of his chief suspect, a above-suspicion politician who is actually a crook.

A Global Affair (1964)



Starring Bob Hope, Robert Sterling, Yvonne De Carlo, John McGiver, Nehemiah Persoff, Mickey Shaughnessy, and Hugh Downs. Directed by Jack Arnold. A United Nations department head stumbles across an abandoned baby in the hallway at work. Trying to find a home for newborn baby, he suddenly finds himself surrounded by assorted exotic beauties all trying to win the baby for their country.

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)




Starring Cary Grant, Josephine Hutchinson, Peter Lorre, Edward Everett Horton, Raymond Massey, James Gleason, and Jean Adair. Directed by Frank Capra. A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs who have buried 13 of their gentlemen boarders in the basement.

The Bride Walks Out (1936)



Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Young, Gene Raymond, Hattie McDaniel, Charles Lane, Ward Bond, Ned Sparks, and Billy Gilbert. Directed by Leigh Jason. A disillusioned bride whose new husband can't afford to support her in the manner to which she is accustomed secretly gets a job in order to make ends meet.

Pittsburgh (1942)



Starring John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Fix, Shemp Howard, and Thomas Gomez. Directed by Lewis Seiler. Two longtime friends rise from the ranks of miners to run their own foundry. Ruthlessly devoted to his work, one of the men eventually has a falling out with the other and jeopardized his romantic relationship with a beautiful woman.

The High and the Mighty (1954)



Starring John Wayne, Robert Stack, Laraine Day, Claire Trevor, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris, Sidney Blackmer, William Schallert, George Chandler, and Paul Fix. Directed by William A. Wellman. When a commercial airliner loses an engine on a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco the pilot loses his nerve and it is up to the washed up co-pilot to bring the plane in safely.

Clash By Night (1952)




Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Douglas, Keith Andes, and J. Carrol Naish. Directed by Mark Robson. Returning to live with her brother at her family's home in a small fishing village, a woman has begun dating a simple-minded fisherman. More her speed, though, is his slick, boozy pal who makes his feelings known for her right from the start, despite the fact that he is married.

Friendly Persuasion (1956)




Starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Marjorie Main, Doug McClure, William Schallert, Peter Mark Richman, Robert Middleton, Helen Kleeb, and Edna Skinner. Directed by William Wyler. The eldest son of a Quaker couple in Southern Indiana if afraid he will be thought of as a coward if he doesn't sign up for military service. He joins the Home Guard and proves his courage when he is wounded during a Rebel raid while his father is able to stay faithful to his religious calling by not killing a Southern soldier when given both a chance and a good reason to do so.

The Shepherd of the Hills (1941)





Starring John Wayne, Betty Field, Beulah Bondi, Marjorie Main, Ward Bond, Harry Carey, John Qualen, and Marc Lawrence. Directed by Henry Hathaway. A young Ozark moonshiner has sworn to kill his father who years earlier abandoned his mother. Against this personal crisis is played the larger drama of outsiders who threaten to push the man's friends and family off their land. Fate plays a hand when a mysterious stranger wanders into the community.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)




Starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. Directed by David Lean. British prisoners of war during World War II are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam Railway. Their insinct is to sabotage the bridge but their colonel persuades them that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale.

The Bridge on the River Kwai won 7 Academy Awards in 1957 including Best Picture. Alec Guinness won for Best Actor and David Lean won for Best Director.


By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)




Starring Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Rosemary DeCamp, Leon Ames, Mary Wickes, Billy Gray, Minerva Urecal, and Meredith MacRae. Directed by David Butler. At the end of World War I a soldier who returns to his small Indiana hometown refuses to marry his girl until he is financially able to do so. Meanwhile, her young brother suspects that the new French teacher is not only romancing his father but is also an enemy spy.

The Forest Rangers (1942)




Starring Susan Hayward, Fred MacMurray, Paulette Goddard, Albert Dekker, Regis Toomey, Eugene Pallette, George Chandler, and Rod Cameron. Directed by George Marshall. A dedicated forest ranger begins to suspect that a recent series of fires has been caused by arson so he investigates in a neighboring town. There he meets a beautiful rich girl and they fall in love and get married. Unfortunately, the other rangers do not react well to the female's intrusion into their domain.

Red River (1948)





Starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, Shelley Winters, Joanne Dru, Noah Beery Jr., Harry Carey Jr., John Ireland, Paul Fix, and Richard Farnsworth. Directed by Howard Hawks and Arthur Rosson. A man builds a cattle empire with his adopted son. Together they begin a massive cattle drive north from Texas to the Missouri railhead. But on the way, new information and the father's tyrannical ways cause the young man to take the herd away from him and head to a new railhead in Kansas. Swearing vengeance, the older man pursues.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO. . . . . . . . GEORGE HAMILTON



Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 12, 1939, actor George Hamilton turns 72 years old today.