Watch Drive a Crooked Road (1954) Online

Drive a Crooked Road (1954)iMDB Rating: 6.7
Date Released : 10 March 1954
Genre : Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
Stars : Mickey Rooney, Dianne Foster, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Kelly
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

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Eddie Shannon is an undersized, sports-car mechanic who dreams of racing an expensive car in a European meet. He meets and falls in love with Barbara Mathews, and thinks she loves him. She introduces him to Steve Norris and Harold Baker, who ask him to drive the getaway car in a bank robbery they are planning. He refuses, but changes his mind after some gentle persuasion from Barbara. The job is pulled off and, following a wild getaway, Eddie learns that Barbara was just using him and that Steve and Harold have plans to kill him. Gritty retribution is just around the corner.

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Review :

Mickey Rooney in an understated performance

In his youth, and in particular his heyday over at MGM, Mickey Rooney would practically do cartwheels through his roles - he was that high energy. However, he was capable of something more than playing the energetic optimistic young man of pre-war America, and this film and 1950's Quicksand are probably the best examples of what that something was.

Here he plays auto mechanic Eddie Shannon that also does some race car driving. A mob of thieves take note of his talent behind the wheel at the race track and the gang leader's girl (Dianne Foster as Barbara) flirts with Eddie and gets him to believe that she loves him. Then the thieves lower the boom on him - they proposition him to drive their getaway car during a bank robbery in return for 15000 dollars. The reason that Eddie is so needed is that the road between the bank and the main highway past the point where any road blocks would be requires fast driving over what amounts to unpaved desert terrain. Eddie's an honest guy, willing to wait and work for the things he wants, but Barbara is holding out the need for this quick money as a condition of their relationship continuing, so he gives in and agrees to the robbery plan. To him, Barbara is his treasure, not any amount of money that he could land. Little does he know she's fool's gold.

Rooney is convincing as the little guy who takes it on the chin from a verbally abusive coworker at the garage who - like all bullies - doesn't seem to realize that high school is at least ten years behind him. Without saying much you can tell Rooney's character Eddie is a guy that has come to have low expectations of life, not so much abused as he is ignored and invisible to the opposite sex, and is surprised when a beautiful girl takes notice of him. Things are getting out of hand for Barbara too, as she feels deep remorse for using Eddie. Kudos also go to Kevin McCarthy and Jack Kelly as the two thieves. McCarthy's character has a very thin veneer of charm painted over what appears to be a soul of pure evil. When he kisses a rather apathetic Barbara and doesn't like her lack of enthusiasm, he warns her to never kiss him like that again in a way that will give you goosebumps. Jack Kelly's character is more of an all out wild man. You can just tell that he considers violence the most amusing pastime on earth.

I'd recommend this one for Rooney's performance, but I'd downgrade this one just a little bit on lost opportunities for what could have been some fine action shots during the bank robbery scene and the getaway thereafter.

Watch Dangerous Cargo Online

Dangerous Cargo (1954)iMDB Rating: 5.0
Date Released : 1 May 1954
Genre : Crime, Drama
Stars : Jack Watling, Susan Stephen, Karel Stepanek, Richard Pearson
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

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A gang tries to rob a cargo of bullion from an airport.

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Review :

Routine 'Cops and Robbers' British B film

The plot of DANGEROUS CARGO has most of the basic ingredients of a standard mid-fifties British B film. Tom Matthews is a trusted precious-cargo handler at a main airport. He has a chance meeting with an old wartime colleague Harry who takes Tom and his wife Janie to the dog track and they gratefully win some money. However Harry is chauffeur to a gang leader who intends to mount a raid on the airport secure vault but they need inside information about when precious cargos arrive. So Harry takes Tom to the dog track again and encourages him to bet but Tom ends up heavily in debt to a bookmaker, money that he cannot pay. This leaves him open to blackmail by Luigi, one the gang leaders, who forces Tom to reveal when the next precious cargo is due.

The film offers a fairly rare leading role for easy-going actor Jack Watling but his acting abilities are barely tested with this one. Susan Stephen who looks and sounds uncannily like Haley Mills plays Janie his wife. The villains try to be classic 1950s B film stereotypes complete with foreign accents (genuine in the case of Karel Stepanek who plays the gang leader Pliny and phoney in the case of second-in-command Luigi played by John Le Mesurier). In fact the latter's 'foreign' accent cannot be sustained and he frequently lapses into 'home counties'. Pliny preserves his anonymity from the other motley gang members by addressing them from an adjoining room with the aid of a microphone, speaker and two-way mirror. It's hilarious stuff and a novel system similar to that used by villain 'The Voice' in the early 1960s British TV serial 'Gary Halliday '. It's a bit of a shock though to see popular actor Terence Alexander playing the two-timing Harry but he is smooth and convincing.

As a British B film aficionado I found it mildly entertaining but not a lot.

Streaming The Adultress (1953) Online

The Adultress (1953)iMDB Rating: 7.4
Date Released : 6 November 1953
Genre : Crime, Drama, Romance
Stars : Simone Signoret, Raf Vallone, Jacques Duby, Maria Pia Casilio
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

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Therese has a boring life. She married Camille, her cousin, a sickly haberdasher, fully dominated by his mother (who lives with them). She dreams about passion. One day comes a truckdriver, Laurent... and of course they fall in love. But they will be pursued by fate.

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Review :

Vivid and brooding, a Euro-noir, with a cold, stunning Signoret...slow but alive

Therese Raquin (1953)

You may be familiar with the lead actress, Simone Signoret, from Les Diaboliques, made a year after this film, and she plays a similar conflicted or complex, strong type of woman in a sordid world. She plays the title character, based on a Zola story, who is swept into a romance she doesn't completely expect and then a murder that she doesn't completely abhor.

And she is rather brilliant, a slightly different type than American actresses of the time, but commanding in her stoic intelligence. The two men are both first rate, one a foreign (Italian) charmer and the other a sharper fellow who is only slightly over his head. In fact, everyone is just slightly extended into decisions they don't quite know how to make. The fact that things go wrong is just part of great drama, and part of life, too.

The filming (photography and editing) is totally gorgeous here, The plot progresses slowly enough it might seem to drag, but I think it works in the long run, setting a deliberate and inevitable pace to events. What is maybe weakest is the ending, where things get a little spectacular, perhaps in a fascinating way, but certainly no longer believable.

Director Marcel Carne is no household name in this country, but the strength of this film alone makes me want to find others and get a feel for his style. Recommended for those who like drama, melodrama, and a sort of Euro-noir style, and who don't mind reading subtitles.

Watch Crest of the Wave (1954) Online

Crest of the Wave (1954)iMDB Rating: 5.4
Date Released : 6 December 1954
Genre : Drama, War
Stars : Gene Kelly, John Justin, Bernard Lee, Jeff Richards. A top secret naval base is located on an island near the coast of Scotland. There, a small group of British naval officers and their staff are joined by an American scientist and his assistants to devise a new kid of torpedo..." />
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

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A top secret naval base is located on an island near the coast of Scotland. There, a small group of British naval officers and their staff are joined by an American scientist and his assistants to devise a new kid of torpedo... See full synopsis »

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Review :

Dry

Fine performances by Gene Kelly, David Orr and Bernard Lee (The original "M" from 007) cannot save this dull melodrama. Kelly plays an American Lt./Scientist, trying to determine why an experimental British torpedo carrying a new explosive warhead blew up four seconds after release, killing both the British scientist and torpedoman. It's pretty heavy stuff (no women, desolate island), unleavened by attempts at lame humour (Sidney James, doing his best with the material). The film fails at drama, because the subplots require too much coincidence. The film fails as mystery because the plotting require both Navy scientists to violate the most basic rule of fault isolation to forward the story. Once the solution is found, the film continues with some phony "derring do" which creates zero tension. Even the cinematography and score (by the usually reliable Miklos Rosza [BEN HUR, THE POWER]) are subpar. The score in particular is inappropriate and sounds like leftovers from better movies (BEN HUR, in particular).

For Gene Kelly fans looking for something different...

Watch The Black Dakotas Online

The Black Dakotas (1954)iMDB Rating: 5.6
Date Released : 2 September 1954
Genre : Romance, Western
Stars : Gary Merrill, Wanda Hendrix, John Bromfield, Noah Beery Jr.. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln sends an emissary with a peace treaty to the Sioux Indians. He also sends a gift of $130,000 in gold. This attracts the attention of Brock Marsh, the secret leader of a Confederate spy ring, who wants to keep the treaty from being signed and to also get his hands on the gold. Ruth Lawrence and Mike Daugherty work together against the machinations of..." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

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During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln sends an emissary with a peace treaty to the Sioux Indians. He also sends a gift of $130,000 in gold. This attracts the attention of Brock Marsh, the secret leader of a Confederate spy ring, who wants to keep the treaty from being signed and to also get his hands on the gold. Ruth Lawrence and Mike Daugherty work together against the machinations of Marsh.

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Review :

Murky Machinations Afoot.

Ray Nazarro directs from a screenplay written by Ray Buffum and DeVallon Scott. It stars Gary Merrill, Wanda Hendrix, John Bromfield, Noah Beery Junior, Jay Silverheels, Fay Roope and Howard Wendell. Music is by Mischa Bakaleinikoff and Technicolor cinematography is by Ellis W. Carter.

"During the Civil War, Southern sympathisers made desperate efforts to aid the Confederacy by inciting Indian uprisings against defenceless towns along the Western frontier. The objective was to force large withdrawals of Northern troops from the main battlefronts, leaving them more vulnerable to Southern attack. This is the story of one such attempt that took place in Dakota territory in the year 1864."

A colourful and brisk picture that finds the efficient Nazarro cramming as much Oater styled fun as he can into just over an hour of film. The core basics of the story is full of intrigue, with undercover Confederate operatives moving amongst Union denizens as the Sioux argue amongst themselves about the viability of Abe Lincoln's offer of peace. There's a bit of thought gone into the screenplay, even offering up one or two genuine surprises, while it's nice to find that the lead female role played by Hendrix gives us a feisty femme of substance as opposed to the many other dressage characterisations that so dominated other 50s Oaters. California location landscapes a bonus, as is Beery Junior's commitment to his role, and Nazarro knows his way around a violent action scene.

Fun enough while it's on without ever breaking out of its very basic "B" Western worth, The Black Dakotas is regardless above average and worth some viewing time by fans of such high spirited dusters. 6/10

Watch Aunt Clara Online

Aunt Clara (1954)iMDB Rating: 7.0
Date Released : 22 November 1954
Genre : Comedy
Stars : Ronald Shiner, Margaret Rutherford, A.E. Matthews, Fay Compton. A wealthy old man dies and leaves his holdings--including a brothel and a gambling den, racing greyhounds and a sleazy bar--to his eccentric Aunt Clara. Clara vows to "clean up" her new establishments, but complications ensue when she visits the crooked gambling den--just as it's being raided by the police." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

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A wealthy old man dies and leaves his holdings--including a brothel and a gambling den, racing greyhounds and a sleazy bar--to his eccentric Aunt Clara. Clara vows to "clean up" her new establishments, but complications ensue when she visits the crooked gambling den--just as it's being raided by the police.

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Review :

Perfectly Cast

This was Margaret Rutherford's favourite film and it's not difficult to see why as she is given full reign to her comic abilities. She is charming throughout and works well particularly in scenes with Ronald Shiner. She plays 'Clara' a middle - aged spinster who is left the task to clean up the acts of several members of her family who are engaged in rather unsavoury practices when her elderly uncle dies. As an angel of mercy, she visits each of her relatives in turn showing them the errors of their ways with hilarious results. Her last visit takes her to Fay Compton who employs a rather dilapidated brothel which includes a group of dishevelled ladies who work there. This scene is particularly moving and full of pathos. Unfortunately this film is rarely shown on British television - a great loss.

Watch War Arrow Online

War Arrow (1953)iMDB Rating: 5.7
Date Released : 1 January 1954
Genre : War, Western
Stars : Maureen O'Hara, Jeff Chandler, John McIntire, Suzan Ball
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

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Major Howell Brady and two non-coms are assigned to go to Indian territory and recruit peaceful Seminoles relocated from Florida to aid the army in fighting the larger, rampaging Kiowa tribe. Brady promises them better land than the subsistence reservation they have been assigned to. Maygro, their chief, although initially reluctant, finally agrees for the good of his people. However, Brady's superior, Col. Jackson Meade, is hostile to the idea and distrusts having Indians as allies. Beautiful widow Elaine Corwin, proves a pleasant distraction for Brady although her husband, a unrepentant Confederate whose body was never found, may still be alive and leading the savage Kiowas against the hated Yankees.

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Review :

Tepid western with stock characters

Jeff Chandler is a Major with the Calvary who wants to train the peaceful Seminoles to help the U.S. Army fight the savage, marauding Kiowas; Maureen O'Hara is a flirtatious widow whose Captain husband (found burned to death, yet still possessing his identification papers!) may be alive, having defected to fight alongside the Indians. Unconvincing Universal western with fine Technicolor photography but a flimsy, ridiculous script. No attempt is made to show why the Kiowas are so bloodthirsty; by the end, they are also portrayed as mercenary and stupid. Suzan Ball has the silliest role, that of feminist, citified Seminole whose education has apparently taught her the only way to get what she wants is by using her feminine wiles. There's the strong suggestion that Ball and Chandler have a one-night-stand, which is intriguing in and of itself, though screenwriter John Michael Hayes only utilizes the implication to drive cool-but-quickly-thawing O'Hara into Chandler's arms. A few interesting details, otherwise an assembly-line massacre for non-thinkers. *1/2 from ****