Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Leave Her to Heaven is a 1945 film noir, directed by John M. Stahl, starring Gene Tierney and Cornell Wilde. It tells the story of published author Richard who meets Ellen, while both are on vacation in New Mexico. Within a few days Ellen proposes to Richard, and two days later they marry. Very soon Ellen's extreme jealousy prompts Richard to question their marriage and the actions of his new wife.
This is a classic film noir with a rather surprising difference: it was shot in...
Kill Me Again (1989)
Kill Me Again is a 1989 film noir modelled on the classic films of the 1940s. A down on his luck private investigator owes money to some nasty loan sharks, which he is unable to repay. The loan sharks rough him up, and make it clear worse will happen if he doesn't repay on time. A beautiful woman enters his office and offers to pay him $10,000 if he will fake her death and give her a new identity. She claims she needs it to escape her abusive boyfriend. The private investigator doesn't...
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Love in the Afternoon is a romantic comedy film directed by Billy Wilder, starring Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn. The movie tells the story of Ariane, the daughter of a private investigator who specialises in cases of extra-marital affairs. Despite being discouraged by her father, Ariane always shows an interest in his cases. One day she sees photographs her father took of Mr. Flannagan, the subject of one of his investigations, and she is immediately smitten. Later the same day she...
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
How Green Was My Valley is the story of the Morgan family who live in a South Wales mining village around 1880. Their lives, loves, financial hardships & religious struggles are told through the eyes of the youngest son, Huw.
Scene of the village showing it built around the...
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Neilsen and Anne Francis star in this groundbreaking 1956 Science Fiction film. The crew of a United Planets Cruiser are despatched from Earth on a mission to discover the fate of a lost expedition from twenty years earlier. Upon arriving at the new planet they receive a less than warm welcome, discover a fantastic alien technology, meet the mysterious Dr. Morbius and his beautiful daughter, Altaira.
Fallen Angel (1945)
Fallen Angel is a 1945 black & white film noir directed by Otto Preminger, starring Alice Faye, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell.
Close-up of Stella (Linda Darnell)
Plot synopsis
Eric is on his way to San Francisco by bus, but he doesn't have the $2.50...
Memories
How does memory work? I really don't know. It seems logical that you remember the important events in your life: your child's first spoken word, scoring the winning goal, that time I left my car keys in a foreign country. You probably remember these events because you make an effort to do so. Memories will be reinforced by constant re-telling of the events by you or by friends & family. However, even for those important events it is possible for memories to be wrong. Two people can...
Johnny Weissmuller
A short while ago I was researching some statistics on past Olympic Games and came across some information about the swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. The name was immediately familiar to me but from a quite different context. During my childhood, showings of his Tarzan films were regulars on Saturday morning television and even now I can picture him in his various adventures alongside co-stars including Maureen O'Sullivan, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield ("Boy") and "Cheeta"...
David Niven - Happy 100th
St. David's Day1
Some time ago I decided to get a copy of David Niven's autobiography The Moon's A Balloon. I sourced a copy from a well known online purveyor of books (and just about everything else) for the princely sum of 1p. The book was a secondhand paperback yet it was in very good...