When Broadway producer Peter Denver (Van Heflin) meets young, aspiring writer Nancy Ordway (Peggy Ann Garner) at a party, he has no idea how the chance meeting will impact his life. (more…)
1950s movies
Movie Picks | Dial M for Murder (1954) | He thought he had planned the perfect crime…
Secretly aware of the fact his wealthy wife Margot (Grace Kelly) has been having an affair with mystery writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) concocts a seemingly airtight scheme to have Margot murdered. Of course, things don’t go as planned…
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by Frederick Knot (based on his 1952 stage play Dial M for Murder)
Produced by Alfred Hitchcock
Released by Warner Bros.
Movie Picks | St. Louis Blues (1958)
Based on the life of early 20th-century blues composer and musician W.C. Handy, this film tells the story of the man widely considered the “Father of the Blues.” Will (Nat King Cole) is a talented composer who has a knack for churning out rockin’ blues grooves.
Movie Picks | Giant (1956) | Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Boy brings girl home to ranch. Girl takes over ranch.
The pride of Jordan “Bick” Benedict (Rock Hudson) is his massive Texas cattle ranch Reata. When Bick journeys to Maryland to buy a stud horse for the ranch, he meets and falls hard for the beautiful, strong-willed socialite Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor). After a two-day courtship, Bick decides to marry Leslie and take her back to Texas to help him run the ranch. (more…)
Movie Picks | A Place in the Sun (1951) | The things a man will do for a pretty face…
George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) is a penniless, working-class fellow who gets a job working in his rich uncle’s factory. Things begin to look up when he begins a romance with fellow factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters).
Movie Picks | Rear Window (1954) | A view to (watch someone) kill
Immobilized by a broken leg, photographer L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) finds himself with nothing to do but look out the window of his New York City apartment.
Movie Picks | Carmen Jones (1954) | “You go for me, and I’m taboo. But if you’re hard to get I go for you.”
When femme fatale Carmen Jones (Dorothy Dandridge) sets her attentions on handsome soldier Joe (Harry Belafonte), the two find themselves embroiled in a drama of obsessive love and passion. (more…)
Movie Picks | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) | “Square-cut or pear-shaped, these rocks don’t lose their shape.”
Two bombshell friends, Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe), who loves diamonds, and Dorothy (Jane Russell), who loves men, travel by ocean liner from New York to Paris, while a private detective covers their tracks. This film has plenty of glamour and dazzling musical numbers to mesmerize every time.
Directed by Howard Hawks
Screenplay by Charles Lederer (based on Anita Loos’s 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady)
Produced by Sol C. Siegel
Released by 20th Century Fox
Movie Picks | Sunset Boulevard (1950) | “Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up!”
Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is a delusional former silent-movie queen who just can’t accept the fact her star has long since faded. Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a struggling screenwriter in need of some dough and a hideout from his creditors. When Gillis stumbles into Desmond’s mansion, she draws him into her fantasy world and gets him to assist her in orchestrating her long-overdue Hollywood comeback.
Directed by Billy Wilder
Screenplay by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, D. M. Marshman, Jr.
Produced by Charles Brackett
Released by Paramount Pictures
Movie Picks | All About Eve (1950) | Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
While veteran theater star Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is initially enchanted by young, wide-eyed Eve Harrington’s (Anne Baxter) idolization of her, Margo soon begins to doubt Eve’s motivations. With Bette Davis delivering delicious dialogue like “Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke,” this movie is a drama-filled treat!
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (based on the 1946 short story “The Wisdom of Eve” by Mary Orr)
Produced by Daryl F. Zanuck
Released by 20th Century Fox
