| 68 Products In This Category |
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Includes:Battles of Chief Pontiac (1952) Sitting Bull (1954) Against a Crooked Sky (1975) The Great Indian Wars: 1840-1890 Battles of Chief Pontiac Some sources have indicated that Battles of Chief Pontiac was originally intended as the pilot for a TV series. Erstwhile Tarzan Lex Barker stars as 18th-century frontiersman Kent McIntyre, while Lon Chaney Jr. essays the title role of Chief Pontiac. On behalf of the British, McIntyre tries to negotiate a peace treaty with Pontiac, who is understandably wary of white-man promises. Sure enough, a fierce anti-Indian policy is placed into effect when McIntyre's commanding officer is replaced by bigoted Hessian colonel Von Weber (played with Fuehrer-like intensity by Berry Kroeger). Practicing a particularly insidious form of genocide, Von Weber tries to decimate the Indians with smallpox-infested blankets. Eventually, the cruel commandant is hoist on his own petard, and peace is restored for awhile. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Sitting Bull This western offers one
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Walter Wanger's first production for Allied Artists, Kansas Pacific is more slick and polished than the usual budget western. Set just before the Civil War, the film concerts Kansas Pacific railroad's westward expansion, a project stymied by the sabotage activities of Southern sympathizers. Military officer John Nelson (Sterling Hayden) is assigned to make sure the railroad goes through. The film offers excellent performances from such usually stereotyped players as Barton MacLane, Harry Shannon, Douglas Fowley and James Griffith. Kansas Pacific's leading lady is Eve Miller, best known as Kirk Douglas' vis-a-vis in The Big Trees. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp risk their lives by taking in a young Jewish boy rescued from a Polish ghetto. The camp commander hears about the boy and tightens up on the already cruelly treated prisoners. They whisk the boy away from being discovered, always staying one step ahead of the Nazi guards and the livid commandant. The boy is eventually discovered and both he and the prisoners now face certain death. Only the Allied invasion and subsequent tank patrols can save the prisoners and their young friend from doom. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
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Produced by French New Wave founder Claude Chabrol, The Eye of Vichy is an extraordinary 110-minute account of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The film, narrated by Brian Cox, documents the pro-Nazi sentiments of Marshall Petain's Vichy regime and its efforts to spread propaganda against both the Allied Forces and the Jews. Authentic newsreels, advertisements, and feature-film footage produced by the Nazis and their collaborators make the documentary chillingly real. The black-and-white production contains English subtitles and commentary. ~ Kathleen Wildasin, All Movie Guide
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This is part one of a six-part series that chronicles the history of the wars of the 20th century in which the United States has played a part. Most of the material is presented through vintage black-and-white newsreels, which add an air of immediacy to the information imparted. There is also a presentation of a silent film production from the 1920s, which shows the horrors of trench warfare. The Battle of Ypres is presented at length, and relates the story of the three horrific battles fought near the Belgian town of Ypres. The volume also covers the phenomenon of war neurosis, the rise of the Nazi party, the Spanish Civil War, and the Sino-Japanese War. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
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So This is Washington is one of the better entries in the "Lum 'N' Abner" film series. Chester Lauck and Norris Goff recreate their popular radio characters of Lum and Abner, folksy general-store proprietors in the village of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. This time, the boys become convinced that they've developed a synthetic-rubber formula, so they head to the nation's capital to offer their invention to the government. Thanks to the wartime housing shortage, Lum & Abner are obliged to set up residence at a park bench. Before long they've transformed into a pair of backwoods Bernard Baruchs, dispensing sage wisdom to pedestrians and pundits alike. Very much a product of its times, So This is Washington seems more quaint than funny when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Mugs McGinniss (Leo Gorcey), top dog of the East Side Kids, takes a job at an airplane plant. Here he grows suspicious of Dr. Nagel (George Pembroke), operator of a flying ambulance service. Mugs becomes convinced that Nagel is using his plane to smuggle aviation secrets to a gang of enemy agents, but he can't prove his allegations. With the help of his East Side pals Danny (Bobby Jordan), Scruno ("Sunshine Sammy" Morrison), Peewee (David Gorcey) and Louie (Bobby Stone), Mugs gets the goods on the duplicitous Doc-but nearly gets killed in the process. A not-bad combination of comedy and melodrama, Flying Wild offers the viewers a more intelligent group of "East Side Kids" than they're accustomed to. Even so, this is the film in which Leo Gorcey introduces the comic malapropisms for which he became famous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Mystery Plane is one of the better-known entries in Monogram's "Tailspin Tommy" series, if only because of its frequent TV showings. In this one, aviation ace Tommy (John Trent) and his pal Skeeter (Milburn Stone) develop a revolutionary new bombsight which they hope to turn over to the Army Air Corps. But a gang of international spies would also like to get their mitts on the invention, and to that end they exploit the friendship between Tommy and his on-the-skids mentor Brandy (Peter George Lynn), now employed as the villains' pilot. An outsized climactic fistfight and the ultimate regeneration of Brandy bring the story to a rousing conclusion. In a charming fadeout bit, the main characters-Tommy, Skeeter and girlfriend Betty Lou (Marjorie Reynolds) come "out" of the picture to invite their fans to watch the next "Tailspin Tommy" entry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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To fully appreciate The More the Merrier, it is important to know that, during WW2, there was an acute housing shortage in Washington DC. This is why elderly Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) is obliged to share a tiny DC apartment with pretty Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) and handsome Joe Carter (Joel McCrea). After nearly two reels of misunderstandings, the trio becomes accustomed to their curious living arrangement. Joe takes a platonic liking to Connie, but she's engaged to stuffy bureaucrat Charles J. Pendergast (Richard Gaines). Sizing up the situation, foxy Benjamin contrives to bring Connie and Joe together, in spite of themselves. Things get dicey when Joe endeavors to complete a top-secret mission for the Air Force, which leads to all sorts of comic complications and misguided remonstrations. Throughout the film, director George Stevens and the four-man screenwriting staff deliberately tweak the noses of the Hays Office, getting by with any number of censorable offenses by deftly and tastefully sides
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A true story based on the life story of writer/director Eva Gardos, this film depicts the personal odyssey of a family's escape from Communist Hungary. One night, Margaret (Nastassja Kinski) and Peter (Tony Goldwyn) arrange to escape Hungary with their eldest daughter in tow, forcing them to leave behind their youngest, Suzanne, in the care of Margaret's mother. When the mother is separated from the young child, she goes to live in a peaceful Eastern European countryside with a loving man and woman who raise her until age six, where Suzanne is sent for by her birth parents, now living in America. She finds the adjustment difficult and does not fully comprehend that Margaret and Peter are her parents, but she is willing to stay, and if she feels the same way in several years, Peter has agreed to give her a ticket back to Hungary. Later, as a rebellious teenager (played by Scarlett Johansson), with Margaret becoming a highly overprotective mother, she takes her father up on his offer to go back and reconnect wi
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