88% (2) The Narrow Margin 71 min, Not Rated, [Film-Noir, Thriller] [Richard Fleischer] [16 Aug 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Actors: Charles McGraw, Gordon Gebert, Jacqueline White, Marie Windsor
Writer: Earl Felton (screen play), Martin Goldsmith (story), Jack Leonard (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: When a mobster's wife decides to testify against his evil deeds, she goes under cover to avoid being killed. Now that he's coming to trial, she has to be escorted across country by train in order to testify. Cop Walter Brown and his partner are assigned the task, but the mob are on their trail.
Rotten Tomatoes: The Narrow Margin is generally considered a "model" B picture; some film buffs go farther than that, labelling this 1952 RKO suspenser as the best low-budget studio production ever made. Nail-hard detective Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) is assigned to protect gangster's widow Mrs. Neall (Marie Windsor) as she rides the train from Chicago to LA, en route to testifying at a grand jury. There's no love lost between the ill-tempered Neall and Brown, especially since Brown's partner (Don Beddoe) was killed by mobsters while shielding Neall from harm. On the train, Brown makes the acquaintance of a likeable woman (Jacqueline White) and her playful young son. He also comes in contact with a rather secretive fat man (Paul Maxey), who may well be a mob assassin. Not long before the train pulls into California, Brown is approached by small-time crook (Peter Brocco), who offers the detective a great deal of money if he'll permit Neall to be silenced. Brown appears to be tempted, but this is only a smokescreen to throw the crooks off the trail. The Narrow Margin was remade (and unnecessarily padded and attenuated) in 1990.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
87% (2) Force of Evil 79 min, Not Rated, [Crime, Drama, Film-Noir] [Abraham Polonsky] [01 Mar 1949]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Howland Chamberlain, John Garfield, Marie Windsor, Thomas Gomez
Writer: Abraham Polonsky (screenplay), Ira Wolfert (screenplay), Ira Wolfert (novel)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.
Rotten Tomatoes: Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into a single powerful organization. But, his older brother is one of these small operators, and he wants things to stay the way they are, rather than dealing with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
77% (2) The Sniper 88 min, Approved, [Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller] [Edward Dmytryk] [07 Aug 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, Rotten Tomatoes: 83%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 nomination.
Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Gerald Mohr, Marie Windsor
Writer: Harry Brown (screen play), Edna Anhalt (story), Edward Anhalt (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Apparently rejected by women all his life, a loner with a high-power rifle starts on a trail of murder. The police are baffled by the apparently random killings until their psychologist comes up with some ideas.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this police drama, a maverick San Francisco detective is assigned to find the crazed sniper who has been shooting women. In order to find the killer, the cop must ignore mounting pressure from his chief and the press and delve deeper into the criminal's psyche.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
46% (2) Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy 79 min, Approved, [Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror] [Charles Lamont] [23 Jun 1955]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 65%, Rotten Tomatoes: 27%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara
Writer: Lee Loeb (story), John Grant (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French Country: USA
Plot: In Egypt Peter and Freddie find the archaeologist Dr. Zoomer murdered before they can return to America. A medallion leads them to a crypt where a revived mummy provides the terror.
Rotten Tomatoes: Abbott and Costello are stranded in Egypt, where they enter an ancient crypt that's guarded by a living mummy.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
69% (1) Japanese War Bride 91 min, APPROVED, [Drama] [King Vidor] [29 May 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, External Reviews
Actors: Cameron Mitchell, Don Taylor, Marie Windsor, Shirley Yamaguchi
Writer: Anson Bond (story), Catherine Turney
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Japanese Country: USA
Plot: Korean War veteran returns home to rural Salinas, California with his new Japanese wife, whom he met at a war hospital. The couple are forced to deal with the sometimes subtle, sometimes ...
Rotten Tomatoes: Filmmaker King Vidor does wonders with the unpromising material at hand in Japanese War Bride. Don Taylor stars as Jim Sterling, a Korean war officer who is wounded and hospitalized in Japan. Sterling falls in love with his Japanese nurse Tae Shimizu (Shirley Yamaguchi), eventually marrying her. Upon his return to the U.S., Sterling and his new bride face hostility, bigotry and uncertainty from all sides. Particularly venomous is his sister-in-law Fran (Marie Windsor), who conducts a vicious letter-writing campaign aimed at convincing Sterling that his wife is unfaithful. Produced independently by Joseph Bernhard, Japanese War Bride was released by 20th Century-Fox.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
64% (1) Hell's Half Acre 90 min, APPROVED, [Action, Adventure, Crime] [John H. Auer] [01 Jun 1954]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 64%, External Reviews
Actors: Elsa Lanchester, Evelyn Keyes, Marie Windsor, Wendell Corey
Writer: Steve Fisher
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A woman who believes her missing husband is in prison in Hawaii on a murder charge travels there to see if it actually is him. However, he escapes before she sees him, when he hears that ...
Rotten Tomatoes: Hell's Half Acre was written directly for the screen by Steve Fisher, whose I Wake Up Screaming remains one of the definitive "film noirs". The scene is a rundown section of Honolulu, where there dwells a group of wannabes, hasbeens and never-weres. While trying to go straight in this environment, ex-racketeer Chet Chester (Wendell Corey) is shaken down by his former criminal cohorts. Chester's girl friend Rose (Nancy Gates) kills one of his tormentors, whereupon Chester takes the blame, assuming that he's still got enough pull to get off with a light sentence. Meanwhile, Dona Williams (Evelyn Keyes) arrives on the scene, certain that Chester is her long-lost husband. When Rose is murdered, Chester escapes from jail, intending to prove Dona's innocence--and to square accounts with the 10-year-old son he never knew he had. Elsa Lanchester provides much-needed laughs as a dotty cabdriver. Dismissed upon its first release, Hell's Half Acre is now considered one of the most durable of Republic's mid-1950s features.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
37% (1) Cat-Women of the Moon 64 min, APPROVED, [Adventure, Sci-Fi] [Arthur Hilton] [03 Sep 1953]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 37%, External Reviews
Actors: Marie Windsor, Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, William Phipps
Writer: Al Zimbalist (based on a story), Jack Rabin (based on a story), Roy Hamilton (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Five astronauts travel to the dark side of the moon on a scientific expedition. There they discover a cave which somehow retains a breathable atmosphere. They remove their space suits and venture on, soon finding a buried city where the last members of a 2 million year old civilization greet them with food and drink. Little do they know that these eight lovely leotard-clad women are planning to steal their ship.
Rotten Tomatoes: Cat Women of the Moon tells the tale of a group of American space travellers who confront a hostile tribe of females on the border between the light and dark side of the moon. The expedition is led by Laird Grainger (Sonny Tufts), whose polyglot crew--including co-pilot Kip Reissner (Victor Jory) and navigator Helen Salinger (Marie Windsor)--land on the lunar surface, where they soon discover that there's an atmosphere and water and everything. After a few minutes of wandering, the travellers come upon a huge modernistic city, populated by leotard-clad "cat women". The ruler, Alpha (Carol Brewster), reveals that she has telepathically brought the earthlings to her city, using Salinger as her unsuspecting go-between. The cat women perform a kinky dance to the tune of "Stranger in Paradise," while the shifty copilot Reissner tries to steal the city's cache of gold. Alpha enslaves the visitors via mind control, leaving only cat-woman Lambda (Susan Morrow), who has fallen in love with crewman Douglas Smith (Bill Phipps), to save the day.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]