Reviews

Tip-Top Nightclub owners and former legionnaires Tony (Pierre Vaneck) and his pal Dick (Roger Hanin) are in desperate need of cash to pay off a $75,000 note to mobster Le Maltais. At the end of their rope, they're approached by Pepere (the former owner of their club) who offers them a solution to their problem if they will help him heist half a million in gold from a local smuggler. At issue is that the mark is the father of Tony's girlfriend Bridgitte (Mijanou Bardot, BB's younger and just as hot sister). Of course, the boys will need a little more convincing and we come to understand that Pepere's offer was only part of an elaborate setup a la ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW. In fact, some parts of this movie seem to have been lifted whole by director Robert Wise for his film a year later. Do I have to say that the plan goes horribly wrong? M

In Europe just after WW2 a jewel thief makes off with the Crown Jewels of Brandenburg. The clues point to Leonard Strong, a less than friendly club owner. Strong's club is in Lisbon, and is known as a place of back room deals where various shady items can be bought and sold. The US government sends ex-intelligence agent Richard Travis to investigate. Travis and Strong know each other from the war, with the later selling information to both the Allies and the Nazis. Knowing he needs a cover to explain his reappearance in Lisbon, Travis plays the role of a fascist / jewel smuggler taking jewels to South America. Once in Lisbon he reassembles his war-time spy ring and he infiltrate the villains who have stolen the gems (in order to finance a neo-Nazi movement). Will Travis get the goods before the jewel gang gets him? Directed by Eugene Forde (MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE EYE, DRESSED TO KILL, SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT, THE CRIMSON KEY, THE INVISIBLE WALL) with photography by Benjamin Kline (STRANGE ILLUSION, ARSON SQUAD, SHOOT TO KILL, THE CRIMSON KEY, THE INVISIBLE WALL, ROSES ARE RED, HALF PAST MIDNIGHT, THE JUDGE, TOUGH ASSIGNMENT, NO ESCAPE, Miami EXPOSE, ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN, RUMBLE ON THE DOCKS, TREASURE OF MONTE CRISTO , DETOUR .

Considered Norway's first film noir. Wealthy socialite Sonja meets handsome, muscular mechanic Erik when she drops off her car for repairs. Instantly attracted to each other, they break off relationships to be together and eventually marry - which is when of course the real problems begin. Few films have ever more effectively conveyed a kind of "male- hysteria", as Erik comes to regard his wife increasingly as an enigma whom he can't control or understand. The first film of Norway's first female director Edith Carlmar. The themes presented in the movie were scandalous enough to result in a cinema boycotting it and a death threat to the director.

Actor and director Robert Hossein's (RIFIFI, CHAIR DE POULE) noir masterpiece and one of the great French thrillers of the fifties. One dark night, in the deserted streets of Nice, an car slowly drives past Victor Menda (Robert Hossein) and then pulls up. A come-on from the mysterious blonde at the wheel and Victor finds himself kissing and making love with the gorgeous creature. But as soon as the embrace is over, the mantis-like beauty rejects him and, under the threat of a gun, makes him leave the car. Worse, she tries - and nearly manages - to kill him by running over him. After the twisted encounter, he traces the license plates to the address of the monstrous nymphomaniac. To his amazement he discovers that in the villa - in front of which the car is parked - two identical twin sisters live together, both of whom look sweet and harmless, but which one is the psycho? Turn out the lights before watching this psychological cat- and-mouse thriller. Based on a Frederic Dard's novel "Night Is Not for Sleep".

MILLION DOLLAR WEEKEND (1948) Stockbroker Gene Raymond embezzles $1 million from his company on a Friday and flees to Shanghai via plane. En route he encounters Frenchman Francis Lederer who is attempting to blackmail Patricia Shay, who has been accused of murdering her husband; the embezzler soon finds himself falling in love with her. Unfortunately, he's so preoccupied with her that he doesn't see the extortionist running off with his briefcase full of loot until it's too late. Following the crook back to San Francisco, he hopes to recover the cash before his boss discovers it missing come Monday morning. Produced and directed by lead actor Raymond (the mastermind head crook in PLUNDER ROAD) with a screenplay by Charles S. Belden (DOUBLE DEAL, THE STRANGE MR. GREGORY, BULLET SCARS, TEAR GAS SQUAD).

American author Mike Selby (imported American actor Alan Baxter)living in London gets involved former girlfriend Lilaine (Barbara Shelley) now married to underworld jewel fence Crawford. The trouble begins when Lilaine coerces Selby into robbing her husband. He pulls the job off admirably, but shortly afterwards, the disposable husband, Crawford, ends up dead. To make it worse, a blackmailer begins threatening to tell the authorities that Selby killed the victim. Not willing to take the extortion lying down, he heads for the police to turn himself in only to cross paths with the true killer. Entertaining second feature with Barbara Shelley as cool and sexy as they come. If fact her delivery at times reminded me of a young Lauren Bacall but sadly Baxter is no Humphrey Bogart. If possible, catch this film if only to see Shelley – she looks stunning. Directed by Charles Saunders (JUNGLE STREET, THE GENTLE TRAP, KILL HER GENTLY, BEHIND THE HEADLINES, NAKED FURY, MEET MR. CALLAGHAN, A TIME TO KILL, THE END OF THE LINE).

A very dark and spellbinding film of jealousy and murder set in a little village lost in the French Alps. At first glance you could be forgiven for assuming that director Christian-Jacque (UN REVENANT) was revisiting L'ASSASSINAT DE PERE NOEL which he made for Continental three years earlier; remote setting and wintry landscapes, but actually there is much more to offer, not least Madeleine Robinsion who was one of the finest French actresses of her generation. With a top rate script by Jacques Prevert and camera work of stunning images: a dead body in the snow raising a hand, a black horse galloping mount less as if it were demanding justice for his murdered master and a rural fete complete with quaint musicians and their rustic instruments; The whole movie is a feast for the eyes. The soundtrack essentially consists of the old French folk song "Aux Marches du Palais" which is played throughout the film.

Moody noir thriller that deals with the concept of guilt and the question – Can we ever move beyond the past? Almost twenty years after the close of the war, Charlie (Eddie Constantine) receives a call from a friend, he has found the man, a war criminal, which he has been chasing around the world for the previous two decades. Reluctantly, Charlie leaves his horse farm in France and travels to Greece to meet his friend. Upon arrival he finds the friend missing and that he's being followed by various people who don't want the chase to continue. Charlie must try to save his friend and find the man responsible for crimes so long ago, but he soon finds that the Nazi's philosophy and arrogance have hit closer to home than he thought. Eddie Constantine said in his German biography that this was his best and favorite film.

David Farrar stars as Giles Gordon, a blind, disillusioned Briton who whiles away his time on the French Riviera. Gordon falls in love with Alix Delaisse (Nadia Gray), the widow of a legendary French resistance leader. The romance encounters turbulence when it appears that Alix is involved with criminal activities and is possibly a murderess. Regaining his sight in an operation, Gordon pretends that he's still blind, the better to find out whether or not Alix has been lying to him. When he's satisfied that she's been truthful all along, he begins gathering evidence to entrap the genuine culprits. Adapted from the novel by Winston Graham and directed by Anthony Pelissier (THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER).

Derek de Marney is Peter Cheyney's tough British private eye Slim Callaghan who in this "pilot" for a proposed Callaghan movie series, requires him to solve the mystery behind the death of a much-hated rich man. Callagham, a fictional British private detective in the American "hard boiled" mode, was the central character in several popular Peter Cheyney novels, in a stage play by Gerald Verner, and in the 1948 movie programmer UNEASY TERMS (also available below), which starred Michael Rennie. Directed by Charles Saunders (JUNGLE STREET, THE GENTLE TRAP, KILL HER GENTLY, BEHIND THE HEADLINES, NAKED FURY, THE NARROWING CIRCLE, A TIME TO KILL, THE END OF THE LINE, DANGER BY MY SIDE).

Karin (Eva Bartok) is a brilliant student whose good looks give her an added advantage in assuming the role of a prostitute and exploring Berlin's thriving sex industry. Hired posthaste by nefarious Madame Clavius, the pretty blonde sets about gathering information for her thesis when she discovers that her old friend Madeline has been financing her luxurious lifestyle by working as a call girl in the very same brothel. The situation turns sinister when Madeline reveals to Karin that she has fallen in love and longs to start a new life, but any girl who tries to leave Madame Clavius soon turns up dead. When Madeline admits to considering suicide, Karin hatches a plan for both of them to make a clean break from the brothel and avoid Madame Clavius' deadly wrath. Fifties sexploitation dramas weren't the exclusive property of American studios, as this German melodrama of loose women and the men to whom their wicked, wicked ways lead them amply demonstrates.

Rare, obscure film version of David Goodis' novel has lawyer Juan Milford (Maurice Ronet) wanting to run away with exotic dancer Diana Lander. Unfortunately, he's also a kept, married man by wealthy older woman Amanda Merlino de Milford who promises to provide evidence of his criminal past to the police if he ever leaves her. One evening, when Juan is drinking at a bar, a drunk, panhandles some money for train fare and asks him for a ride to the station. The next morning, a body is found on the railroad tracks, completely destroyed beyond recognition but with a suicide note signed by Juan. Which poses the question - Can a dead man be accused of murdering his live wife? So begins French director Pierre Chenal's (LE DERNIER TOURNANT) bizarre Latin parboiled cross between DOUBLE IMDEMNITY and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN with a lead actress who's a Latin dead ringer for Joan Crawford in a truly psychopathic performance. And like most of Goodis' stories (THE BURGLAR, DARK PASSAGE, SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, NIGHTFALL, STREET OF NO RETURN) the initial crime is just the starting point for multiple twists and turns in the plot. External filming on location in Buenos Aries.