A Face in the Crowd (1957) Elia Kazan

A few thoughts from our library showing of A Face in the Crowd (1957) from last week.

A Call to Save Classic Movies? A Review of The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)

The Smallest Show on Earth is a quaint, quirky comedy, but maybe it’s also a call to save classic movies… Please read on!

Noirvember 2018, Episode 28: The Counterfeit Plan (1957)

When Zachary Scott enters your house, things can only go downhill. Find out more here!

Noirvember 2018, Episode 18: The Brothers Rico (1957)

We love Richard Conte here at Journeys in Darkness and Light and hope you do, too. If you haven’t seen The Brothers Rico, you’re missing a real treat. Read more about the film here.

Noirvember 2018, Episode 10: Plunder Road (1957)

Ten days into Noirvember! I can’t stop now… Read on!

Noirvember 2017, Episode 24: The Long Haul (1957)

The Long Haul (1957) Ken Hughes
TCM (1:40)

Former U.S. serviceman Harry Miller (Victor Mature) moves to his wife’s hometown of Liverpool and finds work as a lorry driver for a company in northern England. It’s not long before Miller discovers the trucking industry is corrupt, filled with thieves and crooks. One of the people controlling the illegal activity is a man named Joe Easy (Patrick Allen), but there’s nothing easy about him.

Noirvember 2016, Episode 2: Nightfall (1957)

Nightfall (1957) Jacques Tourneur
(1:23)
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics II DVD (library)

Happens all the time. A guy walks into a bar, meets a girl, they decide to meet up the next day and WHAM! You’re right in the middle of a film noir. That’s what happens here as Jim Vanning (Aldo Ray) meets fashion model Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft). They both take tentative steps to get to know each other (with unusually good dialogue), but when they’re outside the bar, they’re confronted by two men: John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond) are waiting for either Vanning or Marie and for a few tension-filled moments, we don’t know which.

The Enemy Below (1957) Dick Powell

The Enemy Below (1957)
Directed by Dick Powell
Produced by Dick Powell
Screenplay by Wendell Mayes, based on a novel by Commander D.A. (Denys) Rayner
Cinematography by Harold Rosson
Edited by Stuart Gilmore
Music by Leigh Harline
20th Century Fox
(color; Cinemascope; 1:38)

The crew members of the Navy destroyer escort U.S.S. Haynes are a bit nervous. They’re patrolling the South Atlantic during World War II with a new commander, Captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum) who has confined himself to his cabin since coming aboard. Several of the sailors wager that the new captain’s seasick. Or maybe just yellow.

Crime of Passion (1957) Noirvember 2015: Episode 6

Crime of Passion (1957) Gerd Oswald
(1:24)
Amazon streaming

I don’t think it’s possible to see a bad Barbara Stanwyck performance. She breathes fire into every role, every performance, and Crime of Passion is no exception. Stanwyck plays Kathy Ferguson, a wildly popular advice columnist at a San Francisco newspaper. She knows her readers so well that when two detectives (Sterling Hayden, above right and Royal Dano, left) come to the newspaper office looking for a wanted female fugitive, Kathy says she can gain the woman’s trust and lead them to her. And Kathy delivers. One of the detectives, Bill Doyle (Hayden) admires Kathy’s tough-minded independent style and falls for her, as she does for him.