JUNE VINCENT AS THE FEMME FATALE BLONDE IN 'SHED NO TEARS'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLXWc4UOqT7Pmu7RKtTZyQL0yyIbDY-zBzSCiUc5IiAUAff-KEVyML70JQgjbTGIxA1QlC-3O56I4r9FIGS7kmO0lcofx0cTObry4xTtSRQh46HqMDZhxcmZuQIa9dWvTQ85CqPYH0l3GQf254YgwA4lOfvAszAMlHM2uM1T86GpoMQq7qxXgaDFUUyn8/s1946/Screen%20Shot%202025-10-01%20at%208.44.01%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="1946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLXWc4UOqT7Pmu7RKtTZyQL0yyIbDY-zBzSCiUc5IiAUAff-KEVyML70JQgjbTGIxA1QlC-3O56I4r9FIGS7kmO0lcofx0cTObry4xTtSRQh46HqMDZhxcmZuQIa9dWvTQ85CqPYH0l3GQf254YgwA4lOfvAszAMlHM2uM1T86GpoMQq7qxXgaDFUUyn8/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-10-01%20at%208.44.01%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: SHED NO TEARS Year: 1948 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Imagine Virginia Mayo with a crookedly wicked smile that visciously smooths into an entitled-pouting menace, and you have 1940's b-movie starlet June Vincent in what's yet another take on DOUBLE INDEMNITY: only this time the wife's bland older husband doesn't get killed by a handsome lover...<br><br>The poor dolt actually kills himself... or rather, they both do... as in, faking his murder in a rushed opening shot of a burning hotel room and, within minutes, as Vincent's driving with Wallace Ford, we learned everything through even more rushed expository dialogue... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

dick hogan, elena verdugo, film noir or melodrama, forties, johnstone white, june vincent, mark roberts, wallace ford

JUNE VINCENT AS THE FEMME FATALE BLONDE IN 'SHED NO TEARS'

Title: SHED NO TEARS Year: 1948 Rating: ***1/2 Imagine Virginia Mayo with a crookedly wicked smile that visciously smooths into an entitled-...

DIRECTOR ANTHONY MANN'S CONTERFEIT MONEY FILM NOIR 'T-MEN'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt_xY34hyphenhyphenIdOoon4xdhzVW_aPEeJ_eBscitMyg4do1TylxP9I9J2N45aURHPj0u1ETwHxqAQNniZmtgU7Rvq-fTFqXw69NdLnnyQSlwDWFQSmWsotS4gN7avcLnfnq5PnNyCdBI7ApgfG0sjthv6LC0Jihfa9BvAY7j54dmMTvmWIpNXQRUIWb4EeAJV2W/s1788/1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="1788" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt_xY34hyphenhyphenIdOoon4xdhzVW_aPEeJ_eBscitMyg4do1TylxP9I9J2N45aURHPj0u1ETwHxqAQNniZmtgU7Rvq-fTFqXw69NdLnnyQSlwDWFQSmWsotS4gN7avcLnfnq5PnNyCdBI7ApgfG0sjthv6LC0Jihfa9BvAY7j54dmMTvmWIpNXQRUIWb4EeAJV2W/s16000/1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: T-MEN Director: Anthony Mann Year: 1947 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Backed by offbeat, surreal music from a dream sequence... only here used for otherwise normal dialogue in a film noir governmental expose that begins as a documentary before escalating into the story of undercover agents Dennis O'Keefe and Alfred Ryder, thrust into a formidably dark underworld of pitiful motel rooms, seedy steam-baths and smoky taverns where a criminal gang deal in counterfeit money...<br></p><p>And they're so paranoid about the duo <i>possibly</i> being T-MEN, the agents are put through the ringer that includes getting beaten up within tense-filled moments where — on the edge of almost being revealed (especially by muggy hit-men Charles McGraw and Jack Overman) — the suspense level reaches a cascade of revolving peaks... </p><span></span>

alfred ryder, anthony mann, art smith, charles mcgraw, dennis o'keefe, docudrama, forties, jack overman, jane randolph, june lockhart, wallace ford

DIRECTOR ANTHONY MANN'S CONTERFEIT MONEY FILM NOIR 'T-MEN'

Title: T-MEN Director: Anthony Mann Year: 1947 Rating: ****1/2 Backed by offbeat, surreal music from a dream sequence... only here used for ...

JAMES STEWART WITH DONALD CRISP IN 'THE MAN FROM LARAMIE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizmRCoXCqF_tvhiH-ZKpz0UuoWe-HrEzXi9zSg_7cP2sNDtu5inH4VqyaUsFXQswoizZ0ah9qlDMM1CjNeZ04gUGmulz1KwReqeIyCEf6rAYp5FTNJF9YkQLdIluJGxiIbGP_tB59XP7C-QohBsdiRdbIqd9PmOUXe9DgXkrWeTm6Q_wBxoK_x3-Mrc_6E/s2166/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-25%20at%2011.33.19%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="2166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizmRCoXCqF_tvhiH-ZKpz0UuoWe-HrEzXi9zSg_7cP2sNDtu5inH4VqyaUsFXQswoizZ0ah9qlDMM1CjNeZ04gUGmulz1KwReqeIyCEf6rAYp5FTNJF9YkQLdIluJGxiIbGP_tB59XP7C-QohBsdiRdbIqd9PmOUXe9DgXkrWeTm6Q_wBxoK_x3-Mrc_6E/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-25%20at%2011.33.19%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE MAN FROM LARAMIE Year: 1955 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Within moments of Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, the old and new aspects of the beloved genre shift, and progress: opening with an old-fashion crooner singing about the title character and then, once we meet James Stewart's Will Lockhart, it's soon learned he's investigating the sale of repeating rifles to Apache Indians, causing his brother's death and leading to an edgy revenge plot popular in almost any Western to come...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And, although eventually revealed to be a Army officer, his agenda — having traveled from Laramie to the small town of Coronado — is like a film noir detective, making LARAMIE stand out from other Mann/Stewart Westerns along with a cerebral theme from William Shakespeare's fallen-monarch tragedy, King Lear...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, alex nicol, anthony mann, arthur kennedy, cathy o'donnell, donald crisp, jack elam, james stewart, mystery, thriller, wallace ford, western

JAMES STEWART WITH DONALD CRISP IN 'THE MAN FROM LARAMIE'

Title: THE MAN FROM LARAMIE Year: 1955 Rating: ****1/2 Within moments of Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, the old and new aspects of...

DIRECTOR JACQUES TOURNEUR'S 'WITCHITA' STARRING JOEL MCCREA

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCAJt2qWOCh27p8cS7U6E_SjJbANwpihQUA1ckhRe4Yy0kU8CJWzBWkTUg9JYC0t5Jc79WOYOLPgiE-ReonBNu3q9gJDk3Vb1Yf6lFWjVRsS4OWJV4N_rB5gzgj_lTSdEMkzt5WTX16d6Ie5tHanozdApRrvmx-g5Fs9St1nP6sNMRORqI9pG3sZNnDQ=s1181" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="1181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCAJt2qWOCh27p8cS7U6E_SjJbANwpihQUA1ckhRe4Yy0kU8CJWzBWkTUg9JYC0t5Jc79WOYOLPgiE-ReonBNu3q9gJDk3Vb1Yf6lFWjVRsS4OWJV4N_rB5gzgj_lTSdEMkzt5WTX16d6Ie5tHanozdApRrvmx-g5Fs9St1nP6sNMRORqI9pG3sZNnDQ=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: WICHITA Year: 1955 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This Jacques Tourneur's Western is as basic and entertaining as they come, centering on what begins as a distant dot viewed by men camped on the plain surrounded by cattle and all on their slow, deliberate pace to that Promised Land of WICHITA harboring many saloons...<br> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div><p> That dot nears, and turns out being buffalo hunter Wyatt Earp, played by Joel McCrea, visually perfectly suited (though too old) for the real life legendary lawman, at first reluctant to become Wichita's Sheriff until the rowdy cowboys ignite drunken gun-blazing pandemonium...</p><span></span>

edgar buchanan, fifties, jack elam, jacques tourneur, joel mccrea, john smith, lloyd bridges, peter graves, robert wilke, sam peckinpah, wallace ford, warner archives, western

DIRECTOR JACQUES TOURNEUR'S 'WITCHITA' STARRING JOEL MCCREA

Title: WICHITA Year: 1955 Rating: **** This Jacques Tourneur's Western is as basic and entertaining as they come, centering on what beg...

INSANELY BIZARRE CRIME MELODRAMA 'BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpufCfZdIbvv7xXtvmvzMJiznge5C38UUcBTLW3Q_fL6v8s60RdKfoj8CtZEKCO22DqI8Uck0H7muOCxxPSi5jCyKQn8LxzKymaMQG4SU0SNFjYWiPonNUzs5JjOceNvd4z4yi9IrAnLVq8CWnewgCCB0A6VGeZ6qQmwWTZg-T4d35-3_z-nbhZ2lPw/s1397/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="1397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpufCfZdIbvv7xXtvmvzMJiznge5C38UUcBTLW3Q_fL6v8s60RdKfoj8CtZEKCO22DqI8Uck0H7muOCxxPSi5jCyKQn8LxzKymaMQG4SU0SNFjYWiPonNUzs5JjOceNvd4z4yi9IrAnLVq8CWnewgCCB0A6VGeZ6qQmwWTZg-T4d35-3_z-nbhZ2lPw/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Wallace Ford and Patricia Ellis in BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN Year: 1939 Camp Value: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>One of the strangest, most awkwardly melodramatic and yet somehow insanely intriguing 1930's crime flicks ever made, beginning with the fact that a skinny Jimmy Lydon, as young harmonica thief Frankie Rogers... who shares a single scene in a classroom with kids that would turn into adult actors playing them later... bares absolutely no resemblance to bulky Wallace Ford, who always seemed as if he'd never been young...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>By the time Frankie's an adult, locked up in a prison after... having been locked up as a kid... a few minutes will pass before you realize it's supposed to be the same person... like a new character's introduced that will eventually meet the kid we've been following...  Yet now we're in the second act as if the first never happened...</p><span></span>

crime, jimmy lydon, melodrama, patricia ellis, thirties, van heflin, wallace ford, william redfield

INSANELY BIZARRE CRIME MELODRAMA 'BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN'

Wallace Ford and Patricia Ellis in BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN Year: 1939 Camp Value: *** One of the strangest, most awkwardly melodramatic and yet ...

BYRON HASKIN DIRECTS A VENGEFUL EDMOND O'BRIEN IN 'WARPATH'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbvCF9bC2Sn72YPEGTrkWLRbdP2aYIBZuswM2Htpi_UV0m2bqvJO4_38IPeP47oQJNB3GdjiF_-NX3Nx4_-4kAICgz1ImrZ5ap9KBXvlWuUFXgDQtgnK7fjF-3xvXBPyRzRxbcNOcscg0/s400/MV5BODhlMzEyZjUtNjk3Zi00NmI2LWI3ZDgtNjMzMjBjNWNlYzY2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzg1ODEwNQ%252540%252540._V1_.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="400" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbvCF9bC2Sn72YPEGTrkWLRbdP2aYIBZuswM2Htpi_UV0m2bqvJO4_38IPeP47oQJNB3GdjiF_-NX3Nx4_-4kAICgz1ImrZ5ap9KBXvlWuUFXgDQtgnK7fjF-3xvXBPyRzRxbcNOcscg0/w400-h241/MV5BODhlMzEyZjUtNjk3Zi00NmI2LWI3ZDgtNjMzMjBjNWNlYzY2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzg1ODEwNQ%252540%252540._V1_.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: WARPATH Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>An epitome of a filler b-Western that still looks pretty grand with all the epic outdoor shots, specifically the Cavalry vs Indians, eventually led by none other than Custer, not a bad sort here, quickly seeing a problem with middle-aged (and pudgy for a leading man) former captain Edmond O'Brien as a private... but there <i>is</i> a reason...<br></p><p></p><p>Enter the Revenge aspect where O'Brien, after killing one of three split-up badmen who killed his "true love" years earlier, has trouble with big bullying Forrest Tucker... </p><p>First saving pretty ingenue Polly Bergen from the drunken sergeant's clutches, and then serving in Tucker's regiment of old-timers like Wallace Ford and Paul Fix. The problem is how soon things are figured out, and O'Brien isn't kept the dark longer longer for that particular vengeful element to blend more smoothly with the gun-blasting Indian fighting, seeming like another picture altogether. But still, director Byron Haskin moves the camera nicely, and he was one of the most "capable" directors around: one reason he never got the due he's worth.  <br></p><p><span></span></p>

byron haskin, dean jagger, edmond o'brien, fifties, forrest tucker, paul fix, wallace ford, western

BYRON HASKIN DIRECTS A VENGEFUL EDMOND O'BRIEN IN 'WARPATH'

Title: WARPATH Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2 An epitome of a filler b-Western that still looks pretty grand with all the epic outdoor shots, spe...

ACTOR JOHN GARFIELD'S FINAL STRIDE FOR 'HE RAN ALL THE WAY'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZGx_YkqqnMTPIbcFhpxrTK1z5GmJ6DRku8RNInuTaPiDzHz4sAGAjYyv4C-o9a9nJabBl5x7rvGmVcU15L4jVz75TLpWdrzdwHrw7PHMrF8f_HE43lvpOwrAkJz54QIn55L_7bmknqDx-hpDYMRjzAEWVP5UvMquf4JDIjwb6XZif1Ke8ncTDBWYuvfF/s1805/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1805" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZGx_YkqqnMTPIbcFhpxrTK1z5GmJ6DRku8RNInuTaPiDzHz4sAGAjYyv4C-o9a9nJabBl5x7rvGmVcU15L4jVz75TLpWdrzdwHrw7PHMrF8f_HE43lvpOwrAkJz54QIn55L_7bmknqDx-hpDYMRjzAEWVP5UvMquf4JDIjwb6XZif1Ke8ncTDBWYuvfF/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Garfield in HE RAN ALL THE WAY Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The death of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE star John Garfield, especially for rabid fans of Film Noir, is that of a martyr; if ever there was a martyr caused by the Hollywood Blacklist, it's Garfield... <br></p><p>And fpr those who rely on fiction over fact, happening upon a "classic old movie" without knowing a backstory on the actor on screen, sadly enough, John – though still tough and sturdily handsome – looked that of a man nearly finished...<br></p><p></p><span></span>

dalton trumbo, fifties, film noir or melodrama, john garfield, shelley winters, wallace ford

ACTOR JOHN GARFIELD'S FINAL STRIDE FOR 'HE RAN ALL THE WAY'

John Garfield in HE RAN ALL THE WAY Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2 The death of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE star John Garfield, especially fo...