By David in TN
Saturday, May 20, 2017 at 9:27:00 A.M. EDT
TCM's Film Noir for Sunday, May 21, is Crime of Passion (1957). Barbara Stanwyck plays an advice to the lovelorn columnist in San Francisco who helps crack a murder case. She then falls in love with Los Angeles detective Sterling Hayden.
They marry after a quick romance. She finds suburban married life boring, and pressures her husband to climb the promotional ladder more quickly. Her scheming to advance this ends in murder.
Also starring Raymond Burr (just before he became Perry Mason) and Fay Wray. One of Stanwyck's femme fatale roles.
Back in 1957, this was part of a double feature.
On Memorial Day Weekend, TCM always shows several days of war movies. This Saturday, May 27, "The Forgotten War," Korea, is featured with seven films.
ReplyDeleteTarget Zero (1955) with Richard Conte and Charles Bronson. Peggie Castle appears to give the audience a female character.
The Hook (1963) stars Kirk Douglas. A group of American soldiers has to decide whether to kill a POW.
One Minute to Zero (1952) stars Robert Mitchum as a colonel who finds "romance and danger."
The Rack (1956) is one of Paul Newman's first big roles. He plays an American officer who supposedly "turned traitor" in the Communist prison camps. This was a big theme in the 1950's.
Men in War (1957) has Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray, who portrayed the tough NCO better so well. Ryan plays a platoon commander trying to keep his men alive, a more sympathetic character than Ryan usually played. Ray's character isn't likable, but his combat instincts save the outfit again and again. Vic Morrow plays a weak soldier, the opposite of his characterization in the later Combat TV show.
The Steel Helmet (1951) was directed by WW II combat veteran Sam Fuller. It has the themes Fuller always liked, better than The Big Red One in my opinion. Gene Evans is excellent as a cynical WW II veteran NCO.
Battle Hymn (1957) is a Douglas Sirk sentimentality with Sirk's favorite star, Rock Hudson.
The Rack, Men in War, and The Steel Helmet are the best of the group. The last one is considered one of the best war films of all time, but I think Fuller's Fixed Bayonets (another Korean War film) is as good or better. Evans played the sergeant again with Richard Basehart as the lead.