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"The Golden Age of Cinema: Hollywood, 1929-1945" [2007] by Richard B. Jewell Wiley-Blackwell 9x6 pb [10/2007] for $27.90 Wiley-Blackwell 9x6¼ hardcover [10/2007] for $84.95 |
 | "Postwar Hollywood, 1946-1962" [2007] by Drew Casper Wiley-Blackwell pb [9/2007] for $42.95 |
 | "American Cinema of The 1940s: Themes & Variations" [2005] Edited by Wheeler Winston Dixon Rutgers Univ Press 9x6 pb [12/2005] for $21.80 Rutgers Univ Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [12/2005] for $62.00 |
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"Movies of The 40s" [2005] by Jürgen Müller Taschen 9¾x8 pb [11/2005] for $26.39 |
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"The 1940s: American Popular Culture Through History" [2004] by Robert Sickels Greenwood Press 9½x6¼ hardcover [4/2004] for $51.95 |
 | "Film Posters of The 40s: The Essential Movies of The Decade" [2002] Edited by Tony Nourmand & Graham Marsh Overlook 12½x10 hardcover [1/2003] for $22.05 Aurum pb [10/2002] for $18.47 |
 | "The Finest Years: British Cinema of The 1940s" [1998] by Charles Drazin I.B. Tauris 9x6 pb [10/2007] for $19.95 Andre Deutsch Ltd. hardcover [3/98] out of print/used |
 | "Boom and Bust: American Cinema In The 1940s" [1997] by Thomas Schatz (History of The American Cinema, Vol. 6) Univ CA Press 10x7 pb [11/99] for $27.50 Scribner's 10x7 hardcover [11/97] for $99.00 |
 | "Hollywood's Best: The '40s" [1997] artists include The Andrews Sisters, Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Bob Eberly, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Helen O'Connell, Jane Powell, Ann Sothern & Dooley Wilson, and the orchestras of Tex Beneke, Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey & Harry James Rhino Records/W.E.A. music CD [10/97] 16 tracks - out of prodn/used |
 | "The Films of The Forties" [1990] by Tony Thomas Citadel Press 11x8¼ pb [8/90] out of print/many used |
Sundog's 'The Forties' fansite
 | "Best of The 40's Collection" DVD Box Set [2003]
Warner Home Video DVD set [12/2003] 4 disks - out of prodn/used contains 4 feature films: Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" [1941] adapted & directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart; James M. Cain's "Mildred Pierce" [1945] directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Joan Crawford {won Oscar}; Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" [1946] directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart; and "Adam's Rib" [1949] directed by George Cukor, starring Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn |
 | "Best of The 40's Collection" DVD Box Set [2007]
Sony DVD set [2007] 3 disks out of prodn/used contains 3 feature films: "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" [1941] - film won 2 Oscars for the script; "Gilda" [1946] starring Rita Hayworth; and "All The King's Men" [1950] starring Broderick Crawford - film won 3 Oscars |
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"The Fabulous Forties: 50 Classic Features Movie Set" DVD Box Set [2012]
Mill Creek Ent. DVD set [7/2012] 12 disks for $16.88 contains 50 feature films, 1936-1950; four are in color: "The Adventures of Gallant Bess" [color 1948] starring Cameron Mitchell, Audrey Long, Fuzzy Knight & Gallant Bess the Wonder Horse; "The Adventures of Tartu" [1943] starring Robert Donat, Valerie Hobson, Walter Rilla & Glynis Johns; "The Black Book" aka "Reign of Terror" [1949] directed by Anthony Mann, starring Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart & Arlene Dahl; "Boys of The City" [1940] starring The East Side Kids (Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Frankie Burke, Dave O'Brien, Ernest Morrison); "Broadway Limited" [Hal Roach Studios 1941] starring Patsy Kelly, ZaSu Pitts, Dennis O'Keefe, Victor McLaglen & Marjorie Woodworth; "The Chase" [1946] starring Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, Peter Lorre & Steve Cochran ; "Cheers For Miss Bishop" [1941] adapted from the novel by Bess Streeter Aldrich, starring Martha Scott, William Gargan & Edmund Gwenn; "The Devil Bat" [1940] starring Bela Lugosi; "Dick Tracy's Dilemma" [1947] |
| starring Ralph Byrd, Kay Christopher & Jack Lambert; "Dishonored Lady" [1947] starring Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe & William Lundigan; "D.O.A." [April 1950] starring Edmund O'Brien, Pamela Britton & Beverly Garland; "Dr. Kildare's Strange Case" [1940] story by Max Brand, starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day; "Drums of Africa" aka "Jungle Man" [1941] starring Buster Crabbe; "Freckles Comes Home" [1942] starring Johnny Downs, Gale Storm & Mantan Moreland; "Guest In The House" [1944] starring Ann Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Ruth Warrick; "Gung Ho" [1943] starring Randolph Scott, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Mitchum & Noah Beery Jr.; "His Girl Friday" [1940] produced & directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy; "The Immortal Battalion" aka "The Way Ahead" [1944] directed by Carol Reed, starring David Niven, Stanley Holloway & Leo Genn; "Jack London" [1943] starring Susan Hayward & Michael O'Shea; Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" [Technicolor 1942] music by Miklós Rózsa, starring Sabu; "The Lady Confesses" [1945] starring Mary Beth Hughes & Hugh Beaumont; "Lady of Burlesque" [1943] directed by William A. Wellman, starring Barbara Stanwyck; "The Last Chance" [1945] starring E.G. Morrison, John Hoy & Ray Reagan; "Lil' Abner" [R.K.O. 1940] starring Granville Owen (Jeff York), Martha O'Driscoll, Mona Ray, Johnnie Morris & Buster Keaton; "Love Laughs At Andy Hardy" [1947] starring Mickey Rooney, Bonita Granville, Lewis Stone; "Meet John Doe" [Warner Bros./Vitagraph 1941] directed by Frank Capra, music by Dimitri Tiomkin, starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold & Walter Brennan; "My Man Godfrey" [1936] starring William Powell & Carole Lombard; "The North Star" aka "Armored Attack!" [1943] directed by Lewis Milestone, written by Lillian Hellman, starring Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Walter Huston & Walter Brennan; "Outpost In Morocco" [1949] starring George Raft, Marie Windsor & Eduard Franz; "Passport To Pimlico" [Rank/Ealing 1949] starring Stanley Holloway, Michael Hordern, Betty Warren & Margaret Rutherford; "Penny Serenade" [1941] directed by George Stevens, starring Cary Grant, Irene Dunne & Edgar Kennedy; "Port of New York" [1949] starring Yul Brynner, Scott Brady, K.T. Stevens & Richard Rober; "Pot o' Gold" [1941] directed by George Marshall, starring James Stewart, Paulette Goddard, Horace Heidt & Art Carney; "The Red House" [1947] adapted & directed by Delmer Daves, starring Edward G. Robinson, Judith Anderson, Allene Roberts & Lon McCallister; "Scared Stiff" aka "Treasure of Fear" [1945] starring Jack Haley, Ann Savage & Barton MacLane; "Second Chorus" [1940] starring Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith & Artie Shaw; "Shock" [1946] starring Vincent Price, Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore & Reed Hadley; "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" [1947] written & directed by Preston Sturges, starring Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Conlin, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Kennedy & Frances Ramsden; "Smash-Up: The Story of A Woman" [1947] co-written by Dorothy Parker, starring Susan Hayward, Lee Bowman, Marsha Hunt & Eddie Albert; "The Stork Club" [1945] starring Betty Hutton, Barry Fitzgerald, Don DeFore & Robert Benchley; "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" [1946] directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Van Heflin & Lizabeth Scott; "The Strange Woman" [1946] directed by Edgar G. Ulmer & Douglas Sirk, starring Hedy Lamar, George Sanders, Louis Hayward & Gene Lockhart; "Sundown" [1941] directed by Henry Hathaway, music by Miklós Rózsa, starring Gene Tierney, Bruce Cabot & George Sanders; "That Uncertain Feeling" [1941] directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith & Alan Mowbray; "This Is The Army" [Technicolor 1943] directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Ronald Reagan, George Murphy, Joan Leslie & Dolores Costello; "Topper Returns" [1941] directed by Roy Del Ruth, starring Roland Young, Joan Blondell, Billie Burke & Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson; "The Town Went Wild" [1944] starring Freddie Bartholomew, Jimmy Lydon, Edward Everett Horton & Tom Tully; "Trapped" [1949] directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton & John Hoyt; "Tulsa" [Technicolor 1949] starring Susan Hayward, Robert Preston & Pedro Armendariz; and "Whistle Stop" [1946] music by Dimitri Tiomkin, starring George Raft, Ava Gardner & Victor McLaglen |
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complete listings of February 1942 Academy Awards for films of 1941 calendar year
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"How Green Was My Valley" [Fox Oct 1941] Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck; directed by John Ford [1894-1973]; adapted by Philip Dunne from the novel by Richard Llewellyn; starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall, Sara Allgood & Barry Fitzgerald; won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best B&W Cinematography, Best B&W Art Direction, Best Supporting Actor [Crisp], Oscar nominations for Best Script, Best Supporting Actress [SA], Best Music Score [Alfred Newman], Best Film Editing & Best Sound • full credits from IMDb |
"Billy The Kid"
[M.G.M./Loew's May 1941]
full credits from IMDb
DVDs & videos, posters, books and more on the
Billy the Kid Page at 'Readers of The Purple Sage' Bookstore
"Blossoms In The Dust"
[M.G.M./Loew's July 1941]
full credits from IMDb
"Citizen Kane"
[Mercury/R.K.O. May 1941]
Generally considered the 'Best Film of All Time'
 | Produced, co-written & directed by Orson Welles [1915-85]; co-written by Herman J. Mankiewicz; cinematography by Gregg Toland; music by Bernard Herrmann; co-starring Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, William Alland, Thomas Anderson, Paul Stewart & George Coulouris
Turner b&w DVD [9/2001] 2 disks for $16.97 Turner b&w VHS [8/96] out of prodn/many used Varese Sarabande soundtrack CD [11/99] for $16.18 full credits from IMDb |
 | "Citizen Kane" screenplay [2002] by Orson Welles & Herman J. Mankiewicz includes the essay "Raising Kane" by Pauline Kael Methuen Drama pb [5/2002] for $18.42 |
Magic Lantern's "Citizen Kane" 1941 Movie Page
"Here Comes Mr. Jordan"
[Columbia Aug 1941]
full credits from IMDb
"Hold Back the Dawn" [Paramount Sept 1941]
full credits from IMDb
"The Little Foxes"
[Samuel Goldwyn/R.K.O. Radio Pictures Aug 1941]
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A ruthless matriarch in the South of the late 1800s needs her estranged husband to agree to a shady business deal. Manipulation of their naive daughter brings the father home from Chicago, but he refuses to agree to the deal with her two brothers. She hatches a cunning plan that soon gets out of hand ...
Directed by William Wyler; screenplay by Lillian Hellman [1905-84], from her play; starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, Patricia Collinge, Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid, Jessica Grayson, John Marriott & Russell Hicks; Oscar noms for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Davis), Best Supporting Actress (TW & PC), Best Music Score, Best Editing, Best Art Direction
MGM b&w DVD [9/2001] for $12.49 H.B.O. Home Video b&w DVD [7/98] out of prodn/used H.B.O. Home Video b&w VHS [9/97] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"The Maltese Falcon"
[Warner Bros. Oct 1941]
more details (synopsis, books, spoofs, posters, links) on
BlackHat Mystery Bookstore's "The Maltese Falcon" 1941 Movie Page
Noir Film Festival Pages at BlackHat Mystery Bookstore
"One Foot In Heaven"
[Warner Bros. Nov 1941]
full credits from IMDb
"Sergeant York"
[Warner Bros. Sept 1941]
full credits from IMDb
"Suspicion" [R.K.O. Radio Pictures Nov 1941]
full credits from IMDb
1942
complete listings of March 1943 Academy Awards for films of 1942 calendar year
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"Mrs. Miniver" [M.G.M. June 1942]
full credits from IMDb |
| | "Beyond The Line of Duty" 22-minute short [Warner/F.M.P.U. Nov 1942] Narrated by Lt. Ronald Reagan, featuring war hero Capt. Hewitt T. Wheless; won Oscar for Best Short Subject • video/DVD/Blu-ray not available • credits at IMDb |
"The Magnificent Ambersons"
[Mercury/R.K.O. July 1942]
Produced, co-written & directed by Orson Welles [1915-85]
full credits from IMDb
"The Pied Piper"
[Fox July 1942]
 | An Englishman visiting France when the Germans suddenly invade the country agrees to escort two children back to England; as they hurry across France, his brood grows in size and the dangers increase. Directed by Irving Pichel; script by Nunnally Johnson, from the novel by Nevil Shute; starring Monty Woolley, Roddy McDowall, Anne Baxter, Otto Preminger, J. Carrol Naish & Peggy Ann Garner; nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor {MW}, Best B&W Cinematography video not available; full credits from IMDb |
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"The Pied Piper" [1942 novel] by Nevil Shute
House of Stratus 8x5½ pb [1/2000] for $8.95 Amereon 9¼x6 hardcover [6/82] for $26.95 |
1943
| | "Casablanca" [Warner Bros. Nov 1942] "Of all the websites in the world, you had to wander into this one." Produced by Hal B. Wallis; directed by Michael Curtiz; starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, Dooley Wilson & Leonid Kinskey; won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director & Best Screenplay; Oscar noms for Best B&W Cinematography, Best Actor [HB], Best Supporting Actor [CR], Best Music Score [Max Steiner] & Best Film Editing; listed on the National Film Registry (1989); named the Best Screenplay of All Time by the Writers Guild of America (2006); full credits from IMDb Warner Home Video Special Edition b&w DVD [8/2003] 2 disks for $20.99
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more details (synopsis, books, posters, DVDs & videos) on
BlackHat Mystery Bookstore's "Casablanca" 1942 Movie Page
"The Ox-Bow Incident" [Fox May 1943]
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Directed by William A. Wellman; based on the Walter Van Tilburg Clark novel; starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn & Harry Morgan; Oscar nomination for Best Picture; listed at National Film Registry (1999)
Fox b&w DVD [11/2003] for $12.99 Fox b&w VHS [5/99] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
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Novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark [1940] Modern Library pb [3/2001] for $9.95 |
"Watch on the Rhine"
[Warner Bros. August 1943]
 | A family flees to America from war-torn Europe; the German-born husband's involvment in the anti-Nazi underground is found out, and blackmail leads to murder. Directed by Herman Shumlin; script by [blacklistee] Dashiell Hammett [1894-1961] from the play by [blacklistee] Lillian Hellman [1905-84]; starring Bette Davis & Paul Lukas; won Oscar for Best Actor, nominations for Best Picture, Best Script, Best Supporting Actress
Warner Video b&w VHS [3/2000] for $14.95 full credits from IMDb |
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"Going My Way" [Paramount May 1944] full credits from IMDb |
"Double Indemnity" [Paramount Sept 1944]
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An insurance salesman plots with a beautiful client to murder her elderly husband for the insurance. But a company investigator suspects foul play, the old man's daughter accuses the woman of murdering her mother in order to marry him, and suddenly the salesman fears a double cross.
Co-written & directed by Billy Wilder [1906-2002] Page; script co-written by Raymond Chandler [1888-1959] from the James M. Cain novel; starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Tom Powers & Edward G. Robinson; Oscar noms for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Script, Best Actress [BS], Best Cinematography, Best Music Score, Best Sound; listed on National Film Registry 1992; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (/2005)
Universal b&w VHS [4/98] for $13.99 Image Ent b&w DVD [10/2000] out of stock/used full credits on IMDb |
 | "Double Indemnity" script by Billy Wilder & Raymond Chandler Univ CA Press 9x6 pb [12/2000] for $11.17 critical textbook [1992] by Richard Schickel
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 | 1936 novel Vintage 8x5¼ pb [5/89] for $8.76 Amereon 9x6¼ hardcover [9/96] out of print/rare Caedmon UNABR audio CD [5/2005] for $18.87 |
1945
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"The Lost Weekend" [Paramount Nov 1945] Directed by Billy Wilder • full credits from IMDb |
1946
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"The Best Years of Our Lives" [Goldwyn/R.K.O. Nov 1946] full credits from IMDb |
"The Blue Dahlia"
[Paramount April 1946]
 | A bomber pilot returns from the war and finds his wife in the arms of the owner of the Blue Dahlia nightclub. He runs off, leaving his gun behind, and someone uses his gun to murder her. Seeking the real killer, he dodges the cops with the aid of the nightclub owner's estranged wife. Directed by George Marshall; script by Raymond Chandler [1888-1959]; starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Hugh Beaumont & Tom Powers; Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay
Universal b&w VHS [4/98] for $13.99 full credits from IMDb "The Blue Dahlia" screenplay by Raymond Chandler Warner pb [2/89] out of print/used |
Noir Film Festival Pages at BlackHat Mystery Bookstore
"It's A Wonderful Life" [Liberty/R.K.O. Dec 1946]
  | A despondent small-town banker is ready to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge, when his inept guardian angel appears and shows him what his town would be like if he had not been born. Co-written & directed by Frank Capra [1897-1991]; based on a Christmas card sent out by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943; music by Dimitri Tiomkin; starring James Stewart, Donna Reed , Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner & Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer; Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing & Best Sound; listed on National Film Registry 1990 {Some fool at a later distribitor let the motion picture copyright lapse, and since no royalties or permissions were required, this happy film was shown on television for many years during the Thanksgiving & Christmas seasons. But then the legal department realized that they still had a copyright on the music and other elements, so bootleg copies were stamped out and now royalties & permissions are required for any broadcast.}
Paramount b&w Blu-ray [11/2009] 2 disks for $25.95 Paramount b&w/color DVD [11/2007] 2 disks for $14.95 Paramount 60th Anniv Edition b&w DVD [10/2006] for $16.80 Republic Pictures b&w VHS [9/95] for 60˘ {sic} Republic Pictures Deluxe Anniv Edition b&w VHS [9/96] for $7.95 Sony soundtrack CD [10/97] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb • Broadway play [2005] credits at IBDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
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"The Greatest Gift: The Original Story That Inspired The Christmas Classic It's a Wonderful Life" [1943] by Philip Van Doren Stern Studio 7¾x5¾ hardcover [11/96] out of print/used |
"The Yearling" [1946]
1947
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"Gentleman's Agreement" [Fox 1947]
Directed by [blacklistee] Elia Kazan, starring Gregory Peckfull credits from IMDb |
"Crossfire"
[R.K.O. Radio July 1947]
 | Directed by [blacklistee] Edward Dmytryk; script by John Paxton, based on the novel "The Brick Foxhole" by Richard Brooks; starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene, Paul Kelly & George Cooper; Oscar noms for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Script, Best Supporting Actor [RR] & Actress [GG], BAFTA nom for Best Film
Turner b&w DVD [7/2005] for $17.99 Turner b&w VHS [11/96] out of stock/used full credits from IMDb |
1948
"Hamlet" [Rank/Universal May/Sept 1948]
 | The brother of the king of Denmark murders him, succeeds him, and then marries the queen. The son of the dead king seeks revenge, triggering murder by mistake, poisonings, madness & suicide. Co-produced, adapted & directed by and starring {Sir} Laurence Olivier; also starring Anthony Quayle, Peter Cushing, Stanley Holloway, Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie, Norman Wooland, Felix Aylmer, Terence Morgan & Jean Simmons; won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Olivier), Best B&W Set Decoration, Best B&W Costume Design, nominations for Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (JS) & Best Music Score; won BAFTA for Best Film
Criterion b&w DVD [9/2000] for $26.99 3-disk set: Criterion DVD [8/2006] for $63.99, includes "Henry V" & "Richard III" Paramount b&w VHS [undated] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
'Shakespeare On Film' Festival at Magic Lantern
"Bill and Coo" [Republic Pictures March 1948]
  | After years of unavailability, this cinematic wonder is now available on DVD, with 14 other films, a compilation of the truly weird and special. A family-friendly cinematic oddity: A cast of performing animals (mostly birds) in the tale of a town beset by a mean crow. Major sequences include a circus and a terrible fire. The characters display human traits – how did they do that? – and Love Triumphs In The End. A treasure, charming and astonishing. Presented by Ken Murray, co-written & directed by Dean Reisner; filmed in TruColor; won Honorary Oscar for 'artistry & patience' •
full credits from IMDb
available as part of DVD box set: Passport b&w/color DVD [11/2007] 5 disks for $17.99 11"x17" poster from Amazon for $9.99 |
1949
"All The King's Men"
[Columbia Pictures 1949]
 | Based on the novel by Robert Penn Warren [1905-89] about the life of Southern populist politician Willie Stark (based on Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana). Written & directed by Robert Rossen; starring Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, John Derek, Mercedes McCam- bridge, Shepperd Strudwick, Ralph Dumke, Anne Seymour, Raymond Greenleaf, Joanne Dru & Walter Burke; won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor [BC], Best Supporting Actress [MM], Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Script Adaptation, Best Supporting Actor [JI], Best Editing; won DGA & WGA awards, won 5 Golden Globes; listed in National Film Registry 2001
Sony b&w DVD [6/2001] for $21.99 Sony b&w VHS [6/94] out of stock/used full credits from IMDb |
 | 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren [1905-89] won the Pulitzer Prize for The Novel; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Novels (10/2005) Harvest 8x5½ pb [9/96] for $10.20 Harcourt 9¼x6¼ movie tie-in hardcover [11/2005] for $14.30 Recorded Books movie tie-in audio CD [10/2005] for $25.19 |
1950
| | "All About Eve" [Fox Oct 1950] Written & directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz; starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff, Marilyn Monroe & Thelma Ritter; 14 Oscar noms, won 6 • full credits from IMDb |
"The Asphalt Jungle"
[M.G.M. May 1950]
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Just out of prison, a legendary criminal recruits a safecracker, a driver, a financial backer, and a strong-arm man for a million-dollar burglary. At first the plan goes like clockwork, but little accidents accumulate and each partner proves to have his own fatal weakness. Co-written & directed by John Huston; starring Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe, John McIntire, Marilyn Monroe & Anthony Caruso; Oscar nominated for Best Picture, Best Script, Best Cinematography & Best Supporting Actor [SJ]; remade in 1958 as a cowboy movie, "The Badlanders", and in 1972 as the 'blaxploitation' film "Cool Breeze".
Warner b&w DVD [7/2004] for $17.99 Turner Home Video b&w VHS [2/92] for $19.99 full credits from IMDb |
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based on the novel by W.R. Burnett [Knopf 1949] Wm. Morrow pb [4/84] out of print/used |
| | "Sunset Boulevard: A Hollywood Story" [Paramount Aug 1950] |
 | Told in flashbacks, narrated by the murder victim. Joe is an unsuccessful screenwriter who has another script rejected by the studio; fleeing the men trying to repossess his car, he hides in a garage at a Sunset Blvd. mansion; the owner is Norma Desmond, a failed star who asks Joe to help polish the script intended to ignite her comeback on the screen. The butler moves Joe's possessions into the mansion where he is essentially a 'kept man'; that is okay, but Joe is horrified to learn that Norma thinks that she is in love with him. She sends the completed script to DeMille at Paramount, then drives her rare limousine to the studio for a confrontation. Joe has been working with a studio secretary on another script, and the pair have fallen in love. Joe tells Norma, Norma calls the girl to bad-mouth Joe, Joe invites the girl to the mansion to see for herself. After the girl leaves, Norma shoots Joe, his body falls into the pool. By the time the police arrive, Norma is lost in fantasy; the butler persuades her that the waiting cops and news reporters are part of her new movie, so she descends the staircase and utters the famous line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up". Co-written & co‑produced by Charles Brackett; co-written & directed by Billy Wilder; co-written by D.M. Marshman Jr.; starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Jack Webb, Julia Faye & Henry Wilcoxon; cameos by Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson & H.B. Warner; won Oscars for Best Original Script, Best Music Score & Best B&W Art Direction, also Oscar nomiations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor & Actress, Best B&W Cinematography & Best Editing; won W.G.A. Award; nominated for D.G.A. Award; listed on National Film Registry (1989)
not yet available on Blu-ray Paramount b&w DVD [11/2002] for $18.74 Paramount b&w DVD [11/2008] 2 disks out of prodn/used Paramount b&w VHS [1/96] for $14.95 Paramount b&w VHS [undated] for $7.40 full credits at IMDb • film entry at Wikipedia watch the theatrical trailer [3:14] for free at YouTube |
more details (synopsis & history, DVDs, books, posters) at
Magic Lantern's "Sunset Blvd." 1950 Movie Page
"The Third Man"
[British Lion U.K. Sept 1949; USA Feb 1950]
 | Offered a job in post-war Vienna, an American novelist arrives to find that his employer has been killed in a peculiar traffic accident. Further investigation leads to conflicting stories, so he sets out to uncover the truth. Directed by Carol Reed; script by Graham Greene from his novella; starring Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee & Wilfrid Hyde-White; zither music by Anton Karas; won Oscar for Best Cinematography {Robert Krasker}, Oscar & DGA noms for Best Director, won BAFTA for Best British Film; listed on the B.F.I. 100 Best British Films Ever (1999-2000)
Criterion b&w DVD [11/99] for $29.85 Homevision b&w VHS [7/95] out of prodn/used Jasmine Music Anton Karas CD [11/2002] for $13.99 full credits from IMDb |
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"The Third Man" [1950 novella] by Graham Greene
Penguin 7¾x5¼ pb [5/99] for $10.01 Audio PartnersUNABR audio CD [7/98] for $11.67 |
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