Set in New Caledonia, Miss Sadie Thompson is the third Hollywood adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s Rain, with Rita Hayworth in the title role and José Ferrer as Alfred Davidson. The story was previously filmed in 1928 as Sadie Thompson with Gloria Swanson, and in 1932 as Rain, starring Joan Crawford. The source material began as […]

Requested by President Roosevelt to make a film supportive of America’s Russian allies, Warner adapted to the screen the memoirs of Ambassador Joseph H. Davies, who spent several years prior to WWII in the Soviet Union. Walter Huston plays Davies, a pillar of incorruptable integrity, reporting the facts “as I saw them.”  Sent to Moscow […]

James Garner plays a man who suffers from amnesia and awakens in Central Park with no memory at all. Director Delbert Mann this drama about search for identity, which is well acted by a terrific female cast, including Jeanne Simmons, as the Blonde,  Suzanne Pleshette  as Fiddle, Katharine Ross  as Jane,  and Angela Lansbury as Gloria. Oscar Nominations: […]

Based on a true story, Mister 880 is the whimsical tale of an elderly gentleman named Skipper Miller (Edmund Gwenn) who dabbles in counterfeiting. Miller makes only enough “funny money” to support himself, but he’s an amateur–he can’t even spell “Washington”—which makes the treasury department. Burt Lancaster plays Steve Buchanan, the hard-nosed treasury agent put […]

In The Mississippi Gambler, Tyrone Power plays Mark Fallon, an adventurer in New Orleans, who spends his time gambling, fighting and swordplay. He courts Angelique Duroux (Piper Laurie), but she chooses to marry wealthy Ron Randell; the other woman, Mark Fallon, is played Julie Adams, who’s enamored with Fallon The plot builds to a showdown […]