From the DVR: Gun the Man Down (1956)

“The only crime of which a person must be ashamed and for which there must be retribution is a double-cross.” – Danny Peary, in a Cult Movies 2 essay on Rowland Brown’s Blood Money (1933) Matt Rankin (Robert J. Wilke) is masterminding a bank heist in a pre-credits sequence of the underrated 1956 western Gun the Man Down.  His partners are…

Grey Market Cinema: Murder in the Blue Room (1944)

A seaside country manor owned by Linda Baldridge (Nella Walker) and her new husband Frank (John Litel) is once again open for the purpose of throwing a lavish shindig in the form of a housewarming party.  Frank is “new” because Linda’s first husband Sam Kirkland died a mysterious death in an area of the manse known…

“Want to get away from it all? We offer you…Escape!”

“Escape” is what I planned to offer you as this week’s entry of Overlooked Films on Tuesday; I had selected the 1948 feature starring Rex Harrison and Peggy Cummins, because I recently purchased a DVD copy from my very good friend Martin Grams, Jr. at his Finders Keepers website.  I have not seen the film—I’m not all that familiar with…

From the DVR: Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)

Agatha Reed (Joan Crawford) has capped off her successful career (among her former occupations: war correspondent) with her election to the U.S. House of Representatives (when we first see her, she is exiting a meeting of a committee she chairs).  But when a letter from Dr. James Merrill (Robert Young)—president of Good Hope College (For Women)—requests…

From the DVR: Chicago Confidential (1957)

Here’s the inconvenient truth about unions.  They have a tendency to attract the wrong element, and by that I mean they are an irresistible temptation for the M-O-B.  That’s the story behind Chicago Confidential (1957): Mickey Partos (John Morley), treasurer of the Workers National Brotherhood, arranges a meeting with Cook County State’s Attorney James Fremont (Brian Keith) to report that…

From the DVR: A Woman’s Face (1941)

Disfigured by a house fire that occurred when she was five years old, Anna Holm (Joan Crawford) is proprietress of a Swedish tavern that attracts the likes of seedy aristocrats such as Torsten Barring (Conrad Veidt).  Barring makes Anna’s acquaintance one night when he desperately needs the honky tonk to extend him credit…and because he is…

From the DVR: Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939)

Joe Riley (Glenn Ford) is getting ready to ride his thumb to Arizona.  He’s resided in the Big Apple for six years and toiled as a department store clerk (working in the bargain basement) during that time, scrimping and saving to purchase twenty acres of land ironically titled “Shady Acres.”  (Joe must not be familiar with both…