A Walk in the Sun, 1945, b&w, Lewis Milestone (dir.), Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, Sterling Holloway, Huntz Hall. 1:57.
The walk is from the beach at Salerno to a farmhouse six miles inland; the time, the Allied invasion of Italy in World War II. Quite a good movie, with (as the sleeve says) “long quiet stretches of talk with random bursts of violent action whose relevance to the big picture is often unknown to the soldiers.†There’s some damage, but it’s a fine war movie with good performances. $1.50.
The Most Dangerous Game, 1932, b&w, Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack (dirs.), Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks, Robert Armstrong. 1:03.
Rich hunter on a boat trip; the buoys don’t look quite right to the captain, but he insists they continue—leading to a shipwreck which he alone survives. He winds up at a castle on a remote island, hosted by Count Zaroff, who recognizes him as a great hunter and boasts of hunting “the most dangerous game.†Other than a bunch of Russian-only servants, the only other ones there are a couple (also survivors of a shipwreck), with the man a somewhat drunken mess. Eventually, it becomes clear just what the most dangerous game is. Scratchy soundtrack but an effective, fast-moving flick. $1.50.
The Stars Look Down, 1940, b&w, Carol Reed (dir.), Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Emlyn Williams. 1:50 [1:40]
British drama set in a coal mining community and apparently full of social implications—the union’s pretty much deserted the working men, the mine owner’s hiding a map that indicates that the mine is in danger of being flooded, a strike doesn’t help. Strike leader’s son goes off to university on scholarship but somehow drops out before the last year to marry a gold-digger he’s barely met—and who is, of course, desperately unhappy (and indolent) in the mining town. The problem is that the movie doesn’t go anywhere—sure, there’s the expected flood, sure, the conniving wife runs off with someone else, but there’s no sense of conclusion. Maybe the missing 10 minutes would help? $1.00.
The Bigamist, 1953, b&w, Ida Lupino (dir.), Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Edmund Gwenn, Edmond O’Brien. 1:20.
Harry Graham is a traveling salesman for the company he and his wife run in San Francisco; he seems to spend most of his traveling time around LA. He’s grown a little distant from his wife of eight years, and somehow winds up in bed with Ida Lupino in LA—and that one occasion, naturally, leaves her pregnant. Thus the title, and the film seems to say “well, he’s a decent man who got mixed up.†I could suggest that decent men don’t cheat on their wives, but I suppose that would be Puritanical. Scratchy but well-acted (with Joan Fontaine and Ida Lupino, what would you expect?). $1.25.
