HELLO FROM FRED & ETHEL'S HOUSE: 08/04/11

Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Gunfighter (1950)

Starring Gregory Peck, Karl Malden, Ellen Corby, Alan Hale, Jr., Skip Homeier, Richard Jaeckel, and Verna Felton. Directed by Henry King. A notorious aging gunfighter rides into town to spend a few hours with his sweetheart who doesn't want to see him. He hasn't come looking for trouble but trouble finds him around every corner.

High Sierra (1941)

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy, Joan Leslie, Jerome Cowan, Cornel Wilde, Barton MacLane, and Henry Travers. Directed by Raoul Walsh. A criminal career is broken out of prison by an old associate who wants him to mastermind the heist of a fancy California resort hotel.

Ball of Fire (1941)

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea, S.K. Sakall, and Oscar Homolka. Directed by Howard Hawks. The mobster boyfriend of a sexy nightclub singer is suspected of murder and her testimony could put him away for a long time. She meets a naive professor researching an article on slang and hides out with him and his fellow professors; everyone learns something new.

Africa Screams (1949)

Starring Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, Max Baer, Buddy Baer, and Hillary Brooke. Directed by Charles Barton. A meek book salesman poses as a big game hunter at the request of his shifty pal as part of a scheme to extract money from an adventuress who intends to search for a lost diamond mine in the heart of Africa.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, Jack Carson, and Fritz Feld. Directed by Howard Hawks. A Madcap heiress with a pet leopard meets an absent-minded paleontologist and unwittingly makes a fiasco of both their lives.

Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)

Starring Bob Hope, Elke Sommer, Phyllis Diller, Marjorie Lord, Cesare Danova, and Joyce Jameson. Directed by George Marshall. A European actress better known for her bubble bath scenes than for her acting decides she wants to be taken seriously as an actress and runs away in the middle of a scene while filming in Hollywood. She winds up in a hotel in Oregon where a telephone operator accidentally connects her with real estate agent Tom Meade. She asks him to bring her some food and when he does he suggests that she hide out in his cabin in the woods.

Along Came Jones (1945)

Starring Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest, Dan Duryea, Ray Teal, and Chris-Pin Martin. Directed by Stuart Heisler. Easygoing Melody Jones and his friend wander into a town where he is mistaken for a notorious gunman. Meanwhile, the real killer is wounded and hiding out in the home of his childhood sweetheart. At first, she tries to use the newcomer as a decoy to distract the townsfolk but as she gets to know Jones her feelings start to change.

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, George C. Scott, Eve Arden, Joseph Kearns, Howard McNear, Murray Hamilton, and Kathryn Grant. Directed by Otto Preminger. An Army lieutenant is arrested for the murder of a bartender who he claims had raped and beaten up his wife.

Brute Force (1947)

Starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Yvonne De Carlo, Charles Bickford, Ann Blyth, Jeff Corey, Jay C. Flippen, Howard Duff, Edmond O'Brien, Ella Raines, and Whit Bissell. Directed by Jules Dassin. A cruel and corrupt prison guard has his own less than ethical ways of dealing with the inmates, enough so that the toughest inmate in the cell-block has decides to break out.

Golden Boy (1939)

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Lee J. Cobb. Robert Sterling, Adolphe Menjou, Charles Lane, and Minerva Urecal. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian. A young boxer who has spent his days training around town in different gyms in New York is torn between his love of music and his love of boxing. He grabs an opportunity to take his first public fight when he meets a fight manager at a local gym. The young man is a gifted and accomplished violinist and his father played has bought an excellent violin which he plans to give to his son that night in celebration of his birthday.

The FBI Story (1959)

Starring James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton, Nick Adams, Larry Pennell, Diane Jurgens, Parley Baer, and Eleanor Audley. Directed by Mervyn Leroy. While giving a lecture at FBI headquarters, a veteran agent recounts his career with the bureau, starting in the days when the bureau was nothing more than an over-glorified law clerks office to the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country.

The Far Country (1954)

Starring James Stewart, Walter Brennan, Ruth Roman, John McIntire, Harry Morgan, Jack Elam, Kathleen Freeman, Royal Dano, Corinne Calvet, and Steve Brodie. Directed by Anthony Mann. In 1896 a man sees the start of the Klondike Gold Rush as a golden opportunity to make a fortune in beef. He drives a herd from Wyoming to Seattle, by ship to Skagway, and, after a delay caused by a larcenous town boss, through the mountains to Dawson.

Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Starring Gregory Peck, Dorothy Maguire, John Garfield, Jane Wyatt, Celeste Holm, Dean Stockwell, June Havoc, Albert Dekker, and Anne Revere. Directed by Elia Kazan. A recently widowed journalist is asked to write a series of hard-hitting articles on anti-Semitism is America. In order to obtain first-hand information, he decides to pose as a Jew. As the weeks go by he experiences all manner of prejudice.

"Gentleman's Agreement" was selected as the Best Picture of 1947, Celeste Holm won the Best Supporting Actress award, and Elia Kazan won for Best Director.