Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948), Out of the Past (1947), Song of the Thin Man (1947), The Mortal Storm (1940), Forbidden Planet (1956), Jane Eyre (1944), Bullitt (1968), Pillow Talk (1959) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Hollywood Golden Age movies.
Storyline: Steve Grey, reporter for the Daily Star, has a habit of scooping all the other papers in town. When Henry Mander is investigated for the murder of his shady business partner, Grey is one step ahead of the police to the extent that he often dictates his story in advance of its actual occurrence. He leads the police through an 'open and shut' case resulting in Mander being tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Columnist Mary Shannon is in love with Steve but she sees him struggle greatly with his last story before Mander's execution. When she starts typing out the story from his recorded dictation, she realizes why.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
Plot Keywords: crime, mystery, film noir, murder, detective, journalist, courtroom ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The trickster Madam Blanche Tyler lures the elder millionaire Julia Rainbird that believes she is a spiritualist. After a séance, she discovers that Julia is tormented by her past, when she forced her sister and single mother Harriet to deliver her baby for adoption to avoid a family scandal. Julia promises the small fortune of ten thousand-dollar to Blanche if she finds her nephew and heir of her fortune using her phony powers. Blanche asks her boyfriend George Lumley, who is an unemployed actor working as cab driver, to investigate the whereabouts of Julia's nephew. Meanwhile, the greedy jeweler and collector Arthur Adamson kidnaps wealthy people with his girlfriend Fran to increase his collection of diamonds with the ransom. When George concludes that Arthur Adamson might be the heir of Julia Rainbird, the reckless Blanche gets in trouble with the kidnappers.
Plot Keywords: mystery, thriller, crime, comedy, dark comedy, alfred hitchcock, kidnapping ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: It's the 1870s in the small Russian town of Ryevsk. The lusty Fyodor Karamazov, a bit of a cad who has lived off the wealth of his long deceased first wife, has never loved any of his four now adult sons, including his illegitimate epileptic son, Pavel Smerdjakov, who he employs as his personal servant. The four brothers were largely raised apart. Alexi, the youngest, is the only one who loves his father, but does so as he loves all mankind in his piety. Second eldest Ivan, who lives most of the time in Moscow working in the newspaper business, is the emotionally troubled one. And the eldest Dmitri, an army lieutenant and the only offspring on Fyodor's first wife, knows that he is most like their father, and as such has the greatest animosity toward him in their mutual depravity. Dmitri has knowingly racked up gambling debts in waiting for what he considers his fair share of his mother's wealth, something that Fyodor will not willingly give to him but will loan on a request by request basis which now does not include paying for Dmitri's gambling debts. As a matter of circumstance, Dmitri gets engaged to a virtuous young woman named Katya, for both as a matter of honor, although Katya mistakes that honor for love. The situation between all members of the Karamazov family becomes more complex when Fyodor takes measures to make it more difficult for Dmitri, who meets tavern owner Grushenka in the process. Dmitri falls in love with Grushenka and eventually wants to become an honorable man in all aspects of his life for her, their relationship despite Fyodor himself having asked her previously to marry him.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: drama, literary adaptation, family, moral dilemma, religion, father-son relationship, classic adaptation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The day WWII ends, Jimmy, a selfish and smooth-talking musician, meets Francine, a lounge singer. From that moment on, their relationship grows into love as they struggle with their careers and aim for the top.
Plot Keywords: musical, jazz, romance, drama, new york, 1970s, musical film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A South American plane loaded with an assortment of characters crash lands in a remote jungle area in the middle of a storm. The passengers then discover they are in an area inhabited by vicious cannibals and must escape before they are found.—Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
Plot Keywords: adventure, drama, survival, jungle, struggle for survival, human nature test, moral dilemma ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: It's the early twentieth century New York City. There exists a high level of animosity by Harry K. Thaw (Farley Granger), a wealthy Pittsburgh businessman, toward renowned architect Stanford White (Ray Milland) for Harry feeling those dealing with the New York City and social set giving Stanford many of the perks that should rightfully have gone to him. While Stanford is mature and refined, Harry is brash, impetuous, and volatile. That animosity is ratcheted up a notch when they both meet Evelyn Nesbit (Dame Joan Collins), a beautiful but poor model with whom they are both infatuated, she appearing in the chorus of her first Broadway musical revue. After getting to know Evelyn, married Stanford, who still loves his wife and thus will not divorce her, wants nonetheless to provide Evelyn with the comforts and breeding of those within his social circle. His infatuation with her is also despite he being old enough to be her father. Harry, who is more age appropriate, takes a more direct approach in his pursuit of Evelyn, he doing whatever to convince her that Stanford is taking advantage of her. Regardless of what the two men do for her, Evelyn admits that she is in love with Stanford, although she is not sure if she can assume the role of the hidden other woman. What happens within this triangle is affected more not by what the two men will do to win Evelyn, but rather the stronger feeling the two men have in not wanting to see Evelyn with the other.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: historical drama, romance, biography, crime, based on true events, new york, high society ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: After having served 5 years in prison, for killing a man while defending her disreputable lover, Harry (John Baragrey), Jenny Marsh (Patricia Knight) is set for parole. Her parole officer, Griff Marat Cornel Wilde is determined to make Jenny go straight. For lack of other prospects Griff finds Jenny a job in his own home, something totally against regulations. At first, Jenny still has feelings for Harry, but as Griff shows her more compassion and care, she falls in love with him - which Harry seems to encourage, because he has plans to crush Griff and his dreams of political office, and the situation soon becomes even more dangerous...—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: film noir, crime, romance, drama, suspense, thriller, 1940s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Charlie Reader is a successful theater agent. He is also successful with young ladies. One day he is visited by his old friend Joe, married with three children. Joe falls in love with Charlie's girl Sylvia while Charlie spends his time with young actress Julie.—Mattias Thuresson
Plot Keywords: romantic comedy, love, marriage, new york, 1950s, female independence, dating culture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Niles and Carole Nelson are married doctors who save one of gang lord Gurney's men. Gurney exploits them, then kills Niles leaving Carole to take the fall. He next kidnaps writer Bill Stephens to write his biography. Knowing Bill will be killed when the biography is finished, Carole takes matters into her own hands.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: crime, gangster, drama, thriller, action, suspense, classic ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Living in the big city, Anabel Sims, a shop girl at Roger Sanford and Co. Department Store, has matrimony at the front of her mind, but no potential husband discounting "Old Joe" back in her hometown of Greenville, he who she has no intention of marrying even if he asks her. She knows who she will want to marry once she sees the man, and believes that women should be able to take on the traditional male role in the courtship ritual in pursuing that man. It is love at first sight for her when she spots who she will learn is esteemed pediatrician Dr. Madison W. Brown, she indeed using every trick at her disposal to get him to want to marry her. She learns that he is a creature of habit, which makes it easy for her to stalk him, but she also learns that he considers himself a confirmed bachelor, and if he does decide to marry that he wants to choose his own wife rather than the other way around as he quickly learns what she is doing in constantly and "accidentally" running into him. As such, Anabel adds another measure of attack in her plan, namely to have a potential suitor in name only to make Madison believe that he has competition in garnering her affections. The name she comes up with is Roger Sanford, the owner of the department store. Complications ensue when Roger does actually get involved in Anabel's personal life, he a thrice married and currently single playboy who generally does fall for women if he knows someone else is after them, such as an esteemed pediatrician.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: romantic comedy, classic film, 1940s, love story, female lead, gender roles, dating culture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: At a Mayor's convention in San Francisco, California, ex-longshoreman Steve Fisk meets Clarissa Standish from New England. Fisk is Mayor of Puget City, and is proud of his rough and tumble background. Standish is Mayor of Winona, Maine, and is equally proud of her education and dedication to the people who elected her. Thrown together, the two opposites attract, and their escapades during the convention get each of them in hot water back home.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>
Plot Keywords: romantic comedy, classic film, black and white, 1950s, love story, small town life, political satire ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: At a party for Bright Young Things, a "treasure hunt" for attractive yet virtuous people nets Sir Christopher Strong, M.P., and Lady Cynthia Darrington, dashing aviatrix. Their acquaintance is innocent at first; but after he sees her in a spectacular silver moth costume, virtue begins to wane. Against their wills, they are drawn into an affair whose consequences threaten Strong's happy marriage and both their careers.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, female director, female protagonist, 1930s, classic film, female independence ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A movie musical centered on merrily befogged Merriweather's attempt to restore his career - all while reuniting with his three children (from his three alimony-seeking ex-wives!).
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, black and white, classic, hollywood, song and dance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Ellen (June Allyson) is kidnapped by father (Charles Bickford) after she ran off and got married to someone he thinks is a gold digger. She escapes and starts an adventurous trip back to Houston to be with her husband. Her Father hires a private investigator to stop her. On the bus to Houston, a newspaper man (Jack Lemmon) figures out who she is. Instead of cashing in on the big story and the reward money he falls in love with her.—Harold Thornton
Plot Keywords: romance, comedy, musical, remake, classic, hollywood, song and dance ...
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