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: In Vienna in 1900, Stefan Brand must face a duel the following morning. He has no intention of defending his honor however and plans to flee the city when he notices that he has received a letter from someone in his past. A struggling concert pianist at the time he met Lisa Berndle when she was just a teenager living next door. Brand has had many women in his life however and unaware that Lisa is genuinely in love with him, forgets all about her. They meet again but he only vaguely remembers ever having met her. Unknown to him she bears his child and eventually marries a man who knows of her past but loves her very much. When she runs into Brand many years later her love for him resurfaces and she is prepared to abandon her son and husband for him. Tragedy follows.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, classic, black and white, 1940s, austria, tragedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he's ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling. En route to the meeting, he tells girlfriend Ann his story. Flashback: Once, Jeff was a private eye hired by Sterling to find his mistress Kathie who shot Whit and absconded with $40,000. He traces her to Acapulco...where the delectable Kathie makes Jeff forget all about Sterling... Back in the present, Whit's new job for Jeff is clearly a trap, but Jeff's precautions only leave him more tightly enmeshed...
Plot Keywords: film noir, crime, mystery, romance, betrayal, fate, revenge ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Tommy Drake (Philip Reed), a musician aboard a gambling ship, is shot and killed while trying to break into a safe. Later, amateur sleuths Nick (William Powell) and Norah (Myrna Loy) receive a visit from Phil Brant, Drake's former boss and the the main suspect in his murder. After they give Brant up to the authorities, they start digging around for clues. The pair question Brant's wife and one of Drake's musician colleagues until they start to piece together the intricate puzzle.
Plot Keywords: film noir, detective, comedy, mystery, crime, new york, 1940s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Interesting to note that the film was made in 1940, one year before America's entry into the European war against Hitler. The movie depicts Germany in 1933. In 1938 the 'night of broken glass' took place. Interesting to note the attitudes portrayed in the film, definitely anti-Nazi.—Matt Goodwin
Plot Keywords: war, nazi, germany, romance, persecution, escape, racial discrimination ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When Adams and his crew are sent to investigate the silence from a planet inhabited by scientists, he finds all but two have died. Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira have somehow survived a hideous monster which roams the planet. Unknown to Adams, Morbius has made a discovery, and has no intention of sharing it (or his daughter!) with anyone.
Plot Keywords: science fiction, space adventure, artificial intelligence, psychological thriller, classic film, future technology, visual effects ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Small, plain and poor, Jane Eyre (Joan Fontaine) comes to Thornfield Hall as governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester (Orson Welles). Denied love all of her life, Jane can't help but be attracted to the intelligent, vibrant, energetic Mr. Rochester, a man twice her age. But just when Mr. Rochester seems to be returning the attention, he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanche Ingraham (Hillary Brooke) and her party to stay at his estate. Meanwhile, the secret of Thornfield Hall could ruin all of their chances for happiness.—A.L.Beneteau <albl@inforamp.net>
Plot Keywords: victorian era, female coming-of-age, moral dilemma, social class, independent woman, dark secret, british literature ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: High profile San Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt is asked personally by ambitious Walter Chalmers, who is in town to hold a US Senate subcommittee hearing on organized crime, to guard Johnny Ross, a Chicago based mobster who is about to turn evidence against the organization at the hearing. Chalmers wants Ross' safety at all cost, or else Bullitt will pay the consequences. Bullitt and his team of Sergeant Delgetti and Detective Carl Stanton have Ross in protective custody for 48 hours over the weekend until Ross provides his testimony that upcoming Monday. Bullitt's immediate superior, Captain Samuel Bennet, gives Bullitt full authority to lead the case, no questions asked for any move Bullitt makes. When an incident occurs early during their watch, Bullitt is certain that Ross and/or Chalmers are not telling them the full story to protect Ross properly. Without telling Bennet or an incensed Chalmers, Bullitt clandestinely moves Ross while he tries to find out who is after ...
Plot Keywords: action, crime, thriller, police, mystery, classic, car chase ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In New York, the interior decorator Jan Morrow and the wolf composer Brad Allen share a party line, but Brad keeps it busy most of the time flirting with his girlfriends. They do not know each other but Jan hates Brads since she needs the telephone for her business and can not use it. Coincidently Jan's wealthy client Jonathan Forbes that woos her is the best friend of Brad and he comments with him that he feels an unrequited love for Jan, who is a gorgeous woman. When Brad meets Jan by chance in a restaurant, he poses as a naive tourist from Texas named Rex Stetson and seduces her. But Jonathan hires a private eye to find who Rex Stetson is.
Plot Keywords: romantic comedy, romance, classic film, 1950s, misunderstanding, music, songs ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A witch's (Kim Novak) warlock brother (Jack Lemmon) helps a San Francisco publisher (James Stewart) break a love spell.
Plot Keywords: romantic comedy, fantasy, supernatural, 1950s, classic film, romance, magic ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: "O. Henry's Full House" is a film divided into five segments telling five tales at the beginning of the twentieth century. 1) "The Cop and the Anthem": The winter is coming and the homeless drifter Soapy wants to go to jail for three months to get shelter and food. His partner Horace suggests they look for shelter with the Salvation Army, but Soapy refuses. He forces many situations to be arrested, but he is always forgiven. When he goes to the church, there is a miracle and Soapy decides to seek a job position. Will he succeed? 2) "The Clarion Call": When a thief kills a man, the police investigators do not have any lead to follow. Police Sergeant Barney Woods sees a pen that was found in the crime scene and he seeks out a man called Johnny Kernan. He finds Johnny, who invites Barney to drink with him, and they go to his hotel room. Johnny recalls their youth, when they were friends, but Barney tells him that he must arrest him since he recognized the pen that belonged to Johnny. However, the criminal recalls that Barney owes him $ 1,000 that Barney lost in a card game. Barney unsuccessfully tries to raise the money to quit the debt. He decides to tell the chief of police, but out of the blue he sees the spotlight on "The Clarion Call" and runs to the newspaper. What did he see? 3) "The Last Leaf": When the lover of 21-year-old Joanna Goodwin breaks up with her, she wanders on the snow and gets pneumonia. Her older sister, Susan Goodwin, finds that Joanna does not want to live anymore and is following the leaves that keep falling from a tree. Their upstairs neighbor, the painter Behrman, tries to help the girls the best he can. Will he be able to save Joanna? 4) "The Ransom of Red Chief": The con men Sam 'Slick' Brown and Bill Peoria flee to the countryside in their car and plot to kidnap the boy J.B. Dorset to ask for ransom from his parents. But soon they find that the boy is a little devil. 5) "The Gift of the Magi": On Christmas Eve, Della and her beloved husband Jim are penniless and in love with each other. Jim dreams of giving a tiara to Della since she has wonderful hair, and Della wants to give Jim a chain for his pocket watch. On Christmas night, they each find a way to buy the gifts.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Plot Keywords: american movie, black and white film, 1950s, anthology film, drama, comedy elements, literary adaptation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A woman wanders the streets of Los Angeles in some sort of emotional distress. She is also under some delusion as she approaches many men, strangers who she calls "David." Eventually, an ambulance is called, the attendants who take her to the hospital, where she is eventually placed in the psychiatric ward. Placing her under some medication to help her remember, Dr. Harvey Willard, the psychiatrist on duty, is able to get some semblance of a story out of her over the ensuing days. This phase of her life begins just over a year ago when she, single RN Louise Howell, is employed by wealthy Dean Graham to take care of his chronically ill and largely bedridden wife, Pauline Graham, at their lake house outside of Washington, D.C. Due to her circumstances, Pauline believes that Dean and Louise are having an affair behind her back. Louise can see that Dean does have feelings for her that way in his loneliness. The "David" in question is David Sutton, a civil engineer who lives across the lake from the Grahams, and who has been having a secret affair with Louise. That relationship was meant to be casual, but David tries to break it off with her when he sees that she has fallen in love with him to an obsessional state. Louise begins to manipulate the situation to be in David's life, even if only peripherally. Louise also begins to feel that if she can't have David, nobody else should. Louise is eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia during this time--something she does not mention to anyone in her life--which places her story to Dr. Willard in some context, including what of the story is real and what is all part of her delusion.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: film noir, psychological thriller, crime, murder, mental illness, hallucination, romance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Richard Mason is slightly hurt in a car accident but pretends that his injuries are worse so that he cannot accompany his wife, Kathryn on a trip to the mountains. He does, however, kill her on a lonely mountain road. Or did he? He smells her perfume, finds her jewelry, sees an envelope addressed in her handwriting. He goes back to the scene of the crime to find ... what?—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: war, drama, film noir, crime, thriller, mystery, romance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Albert Lewin's interpretation of the legend of the Flying Dutchman. In a little Spanish seaport named Esperanza, during the 30s, appears Hendrick van der Zee, the mysterious captain of a yacht (he is the only one aboard). Pandora is a beautiful woman (who men kill and die for). She's never really fallen in love with any man, but she feels very attracted to Hendrick... We are soon taught that Hendrick is the Flying Dutchman, this sailor of the 17th century that has been cursed by God to wander over the seas until the Doomsday... unless a woman is ready to die for him...—Yepok
Plot Keywords: romance, fantasy, drama, adventure, supernatural, mythology, tragedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: George and Rose Loomis are honeymooning at a Niagara Falls motel. She plots with Ted Patrick to do him in, but all does not go smoothly. For one thing, after Loomis is reported missing Polly Cutler spies him at the motel but her husband Bud thinks she's imagining it. Marilyn sings "Kiss."
Plot Keywords: thriller, film noir, crime, mystery, romance, drama, murder ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Gangster Joe Krozac is in prison for ten years. Reporter Paul North is fired by his newspaper for writing articles sympathetic to Krozac's wife and young son. She divorces Krozac and marries North. When Korzac gets out he goes looking for his former wife and son.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: gangster, crime, drama, classic, 1930s, american film, film noir ...
Movie Details Click Here !