92% (3) The Maltese Falcon 100 min, Not Rated, [Film-Noir, Mystery] [John Huston] [18 Oct 1941]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 81%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, Metacritic: 96%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 4 wins.
Actors: Gladys George, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre
Writer: John Huston (screen play by), Dashiell Hammett (based upon the novel by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Spade and Archer is the name of a San Francisco detective agency. That's for Sam Spade and Miles Archer. The two men are partners, but Sam doesn't like Miles much. A knockout, who goes by the name of Miss Wonderly, walks into their office; and by that night everything's changed. Miles is dead. And so is a man named Floyd Thursby. It seems Miss Wonderly is surrounded by dangerous men. There's Joel Cairo, who uses gardenia-scented calling cards. There's Kasper Gutman, with his enormous girth and feigned civility. Her only hope of protection comes from Sam, who is suspected by the police of one or the other murder. More murders are yet to come, and it will all be because of these dangerous men -- and their lust for a statuette of a bird: the Maltese Falcon.
Rotten Tomatoes: After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally got it right in 1941--or, rather, John Huston, a long-established screenwriter making his directorial debut, got it right, simply by adhering as closely as possible to the original. Taking over from a recalcitrant George Raft, Humphrey Bogart achieved true stardom as Sam Spade, a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his own personal code of honor. Into the offices of the Spade & Archer detective agency sweeps a Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor), who offers a large retainer to Sam and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) if they'll protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. The detectives believe neither Miss Wonderly nor her story, but they believe her money. Since Archer saw her first, he takes the case -- and later that evening he is shot to death, as is the mysterious Thursby. Miss Wonderly's real name turns out to be Brigid O'Shaughnessey, and, as the story continues, Sam is also introduced to the effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and the fat, erudite Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet, in his film debut). It turns out that Brigid, Cairo and Gutman are all international scoundrels, all involved in the search for a foot-high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon. Though both Cairo and Gutman offer Spade small fortunes to find the "black bird," they are obviously willing to commit mayhem and murder towards that goal: Gutman, for example, drugs Spade and allows his "gunsel" Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.) to kick and beat the unconscious detective. This classic film noir detective yarn gets better with each viewing, which is more than can be said for the first two Maltese Falcons and the ill-advised 1975 "sequel" The Black Bird. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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89% (2) The Roaring Twenties 106 min, Not Rated, [Action, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Music, Thriller] [Raoul Walsh] [28 Oct 1939]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 79%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 2 wins.
Actors: Gladys George, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Priscilla Lane
Writer: Jerry Wald (screen play), Richard Macaulay (screen play), Robert Rossen (screen play), Mark Hellinger (from an original story by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: After the WWI Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.
Rotten Tomatoes: A pair of World War I buddies become underworld kingpins.
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72% (1) Madame X 72 min, PASSED, [Drama] [Sam Wood, Gustav Machatý] [01 Oct 1937]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, External Reviews
Actors: Gladys George, John Beal, Reginald Owen, Warren William
Writer: John Meehan (screen play), Alexandre Bisson (from the play by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Thrown out of her home after her husband discovers her infidelity, a woman sinks into degradation. Twenty years later, she is charged with killing a man bent on revealing her degraded status to her husband and the son she left behind. The son, unaware of her identity, becomes her defense attorney.
Rotten Tomatoes: Sam Wood directed this fourth version of the Alexandre Bisson weeper, buffed to a high gloss by shimmering M.G.M. production values. Gladys George plays Jacqueline Fleuriot this time around, the wife of a diplomat who has an affair and is compelled to leave her husband and son. After abandoning her family, she sinks into a sea of debauchery, becoming involved in prostitution, blackmail, and eventually murder. After the murder, her son Raymond (John Beal), now a grown man and a famous lawyer, is called upon to defend her. Unaware that the woman he is defending is his long lost mother, Jacqueline tries to hide her past from her successful son.
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67% (1) Hit the Road 61 min, APPROVED, [Action, Adventure, Comedy] [Joe May] [27 Jun 1941]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Actors: Barton MacLane, Billy Halop, Gladys George, Huntz Hall
Writer: Robert Lee Johnson (story), Robert Lee Johnson (screenplay), Brenda Weisberg (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Tommy (Billy Halop), "Pig (Huntz Hall)," "String(Gabriel Dell)," and "Ape (Bernard Punsly)" are all inmates of a reform school, along with little "Pesky" (Bobs Watson),and they are orphan sons of deceased members of the Valentine Gang which was wiped out by Spike the Butcher (edward Pawley') and his gang a few years earlier. The only survivor of the Valentine gang was Valentine and he was sent to prison. Later the boys are paroled to the custody of a man using the name of James J. Ryan (Barton MacLane), but Ryan is really Valentine, who has served his sentence, and is living quietly on a stock ranch with his wife Mary Ryan (Gladys George). Ryan (now reformed) is trying to raise $50,000 to build a trade school to help unfortunate boys. But Tom isn't all reformed yet and meets up with a stranger who enlists him in a conspiracy to steal the money. The stranger turns out to be none other than Spike the Butcher, the man responsible for killing Tom's and the other four boy's fathers. Tom raises a stink when he learns who Spike the Butcher really is, but Spike locks Tom and the others in a basement and goes off to kill Valentine/Ryan and steal the trade-school money.
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64% (1) They Gave Him a Gun 94 min, APPROVED, [Crime, Drama, Film-Noir] [W.S. Van Dyke] [07 May 1937]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 64%, External Reviews
Actors: Edgar Dearing, Franchot Tone, Gladys George, Spencer Tracy
Writer: William J. Cowen (book), Cyril Hume, Richard Maibaum, Maurice Rapf
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Jimmy is drafted and ends up in Fred's troop on his way to Europe. Jimmy becomes vicious with his gun, wins a medal, and weds Fred's nurse girlfriend, Rose. Back home years later, Rose discovers Jimmy is a gangster, has him arrested, and finds a job in Fred's circus as Jimmy escapes, determined to kill Fred.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this WWII-era drama, a timid, pacifistic clerk is befriended by a gutsy circus barker while they are in the military. Tensions arise between the friends after they fall for the same woman. The circus man is captured by the Germans, and shortly thereafter, the clerk marries the girl.
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