Cinematic Era: 1950s Vintage

Oil heiress Mame Carson takes an incognito cruise so that men will love her for her body, not her money.

The tale about a magic fish and resentful lover whose fiancee went to a lazy fool.

Based on the play ”Mabuta no haha” by famed author Shin Hasegawa, this is the first major starring role for Tomisaburo Wakayama. This heartfelt story concerns a wandering gambler from Banba by the name of Chutaro. Set during the Tenpo Period, Chutaro runs afoul of Boss Sukegoro of Iioka. Pursued by vengeance seeking swordsmen, Chutaro displays his phenomenal martial art skills. Abandoned as a child, he seeks to find his long lost mother, while at the same time fighting off numerous attacks by Iioka’s men.

Donatella is a simple and honest roman girl, daughter of a bookbinder and girlfriend of Guido, a gas station owner. One day she finds a woman's handbag containing valuables and documents, and decides to return it to her owner, a wealthy American lady, who offers Donatella a job as a secretary as a reward: she has to manage the lady's villa during her absences. There, Donatella casually meets Maurizio, a rich, elegant and well-educated young man, and ends up falling in love.

In Kyoto a young kimono maker with traditional ideas gets involved with a married professor.

The body of a woman was found in a manhole. Is it an affair? The victim is a clerk at a mannequin manufacturing company. At the age of 26, she was a widow with a child, and she went missing after he went to collect her salary from the bank. A colleague at work said the victim was wearing an opal ring, but the bank clerk says she wore a jade ring when he came to withdraw money.

Jirocho the gambler hits the road.

Fleeing to Dodge City after killing a man in self defence Masterson finds his brother Ed (Harry Lauter) running for sheriff of the town. When Ed is killed by hired guns of the corrupt incumbent Bat is determined to settle the score with violence but he is convinced by the townspeople that the best way to avenge his brother's death is by taking Ed's place on the ballot. Bat agrees and wins the election but his new role on the right side of the law will lead him to unexpected confrontations as he finds himself torn between his loyalties to his friends and his duties as sheriff.

This film was shot entirely at the Gettysburg National Military Park, where the decisive battle of the American Civil War was fought. Leslie Nielsen narrates the story while contemporary songs and the sounds of battle are heard in the background. The sites of the various engagements, the statues of the leaders of the Northern and Southern troops, and the battlefield cemetery are featured. President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is read at the end.

Alberto Nardi is a Roman businessman who fancies himself a man of great capabilities, but whose factory teeters perennially on the brink of catastrophe. Alberto is married to a rich and successful businesswoman from Milan, Elvira Almiraghi who has a no-nonsense attitude and barely tolerates the attempts of her husband to keep his factory afloat with her money.

The story of a novelist whose wife is confined in a mental hospital. His love for her drives him to write about her, though he runs into trouble when her parents accuse him of cashing in on her misfortune.

Captain Hunt of the cavalry is trying to promote good relations with the Indian chief Acoma. But Hunt's superiors in the military insist on pursuing policies that will provoke a conflict, and Chief Acoma is not willing to let himself be insulted.

In the early 16th century, Italy is ruled by the powerful Borgia family, led by César Borgia and his sister Lucrèce. In a ruthless power play, César plots to have his sister’s husband murdered. But without her brother’s knowledge, Lucrèce has taken a strong lover who will challenge the Borgias.

Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas.

Othello, a celebrated Moorish general, secretly marries Desdemona, angering her noble father and inciting the envious Iago’s hatred. Sent to Cyprus, Othello’s victories are overshadowed by Iago’s manipulations: he frames Desdemona as unfaithful with Othello’s lieutenant Cassio. Consumed by jealousy, Othello murders his wife. Discovering Iago’s treachery too late, Othello kills himself as Cyprus learns the bitter truth.

A samurai who slashes a young girl's mage appears in Edo, and she is never caught.

This little seen early work by Ichikawa was produced during the director's Shintoho period (1947-51). Written by Kaneto Shindô and featuring Ryô Ikebe as a young policeman it is part crime drama, part social study. Definitely not an undiscovered masterpiece, but still a must for Ichikawa buffs.

After listening to one of his favorite radio programs, Porky Pig receives a grand prize from the station. Out of the gift box pops Daffy Duck, who insists on living in Porky's house.

Jidai-geki starring Kanjuro Arashi

The film follows a young civil engineer, played by Toshiro Mifune, who is assigned to the Tase Dam construction site in what is now Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, and the human relationships involved in building the dam. A masterpiece by director Senkichi Taniguchi, who has worked on numerous films starring Mifune.

At the end of the Joseon Dynasty, shortly after the Eulsa Treaty has been forced to be concluded by Ito Hirobumi and the pro-Japanese courtiers, Japan pressures King Gojong to step down from the throne. Meanwhile, An Jung-geun, who is cultivating men of ability at Samheung school, is deeply impressed by a speech made by An Chang-ho, and heads for Russia to volunteer the army fighting for independence of the country. As both a lieutenant general of the Korean militia and a commander of the Korean expeditionary force in Manchuria, he carries on the independence movement in defiance of Japanese coercion.

This is a story based on fact that follows a husband and wife who emigrate from Scotland to Wisconsin in the 1850s. They work very hard and become welcome citizens of their new town, Eureka. They have six children. They prosper in the husband's boat-building business. But when their eldest is 12, tragedy strikes the family, and the 12-year-old is burdened with a terrible task which he handles as well as any adult could.

Residents at a posh Utah hotel become suspects when a girl is found murdered during a pool party. Local sheriff Jess Holmes takes charge of the investigation and must discover who among the terrified guests and staff -- including bodacious vixen Harriet Ames, the hotel's bitter, crippled proprietor, visiting lawyer David Hewson and his secretary, Beth -- is the culprit, even as murders continue to take place.

In one of the steppe regions of Kazakhstan arrives on Komsomol youth squad. Severe frosts, spring mud flows, exhausting work than their specialty - the development of virgin land does not come easy. But the young are young - they work, enjoy life, fall in love. In the center of the story - the touching romance secretary of the Komsomol organization and tractor driver Anne.

In the last of his four western programmers for Allied Artists, Wayne Morris plays frontiersman Jim Bisby. Mistaken for a notorious gunslinger, Jim is appointed deputy sheriff of a wide-open cattle town. Playing along, our hero gets down to business -- and by the time his true identity is revealed, it hardly matters, since most of the bad guys are pushing up daisies on boot hill.

After indulging in an affair with a man (a friend of the family) she truly loves, a woman returns to her young son and husband for good, and loses contact with the man. Her husband is unaware of the affair. Twenty years later, there is news that the friend has died and left all of his money to the younger son in the family, which leads us to question this younger son's biological origin.

A drama about relations between Japanese immigrants and the indigenous Ainu on Hokkaido, the most northerly island of Japan. From a novel by Taijun Takeda.

"The Sea Hornet" was a merchant ship sunk, supposedly by a torpedo, less than a mile off the California Coast during World War Two. Six years later when his buddy is killed, attempting to blow up the sunken ship, on the orders of Suntan Radford and Tony Sullivan, deep-sea diver "Gunner" McNeil has his suspicions aroused... especially since Suntan is the daughter of the ship's captain that died when the ship sunk, and Sullivan was a crew member. Plus the fact the ship had over a million dollars in cash on board. During the course of his investigation, he becomes romantically involved with Ginger Sullivan

A professional thief is sprung from prison with the assistance of a new partner who wants to know where he's hid his loot.

A lost baby woodpecker, that believes Jerry is its mother, does everything it can to save the mouse from Tom, who is once again in pursuit. A CinemaScope remake of the 1949 Tom and Jerry cartoon Hatch Up Your Troubles.

Trapped on a remote island by a hurricane, a group discover a doctor has been experimenting on creating half sized humans. Unfortunately, his experiments have also created giant shrews, who when they have run out of small animals to eat, turn on the humans.

Priestess Oma is forever young in this Jungle Jim knockoff of "She" or the La of Opar stories from "Tarzan". The Jungle Jim-type character is played by Weissmuller using his own name.

A local handyman saves a child in a fire, but the burns he receives disfigure his face so much that the townspeople avoid him.

Cantinflas works as a porter, who writes letters and speeches in his old writing machine to earn an extra money, despite the fact that he still goes to school. The sentimental issues come when Cantinflas falls in love of his pretty neighborhood (Silvia Pinal), who is handicapped and unable to walk. The thing wont be easy, because a young military man also has feelings for the girl. But the porter wants to see her happy, and he will become a sort of Cyrano De Bergerac, writing love letters to her signed by the young soldier. His plan is simple: to win money in the horse races in order to pay the operation which will make her walk again.

Chikuzen, a ronin named Yoh Daisuke, after pacifying some ruffians at the theater of Onna-Kata Ogino Sawanojiki, formed a bond with the theater's bodyguard, Maruhashi Tadayasu, and Kaku, a priest. He ended up settling at the Kasugaya, the house of Oko, whom he had saved. When Oko decided to go to Edo, where her biological father lived, Daisuke accompanied her. Along the way, at Suruga Abe River, they encountered Sawanojiki's theater group, which had departed from Osaka earlier heading to Edo. A scuffle initiated by Tadayasu over a ferry boat with the students of Yui Masayuki but was amicably resolved through Masayuki's intervention.

Tom is duck hunting, and he wings a little duckling that can't quite keep up with the flock. Jerry gets to the fallen duck before Tom, bandages his wing, and shelters him from Tom as he keeps running out to join his flock.

Four strangers board a plane and become fast friends, but a catastrophic crash leaves only one survivor. He then sets off on a journey to discover who these people were, but ultimately discovers the devastating truth about himself.

As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.

The film tells an episode of the life of a kindly hearted bootblack who becomes accidentally the tutor of an orphan but nevertheless spends all his time and effort for the sake of the boy.

The Great White Tiger Platoon was part of the Aizu clan's last ditch efforts to stop the advance of Imperial troops after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Meant to be a reserve unit as it was made of the young, 16-17 year old sons of Aizu samurai. Their story is one of the great tragedies of the Boshin War (1868-1869) as they were called into action. Getting cut off from the main body of their platoon, a group of 20 from the 2nd squad retreated to Iimori Hill, where they looked down upon fires surrounding Aizu Castle and thinking that the castle has fallen and all is lost, they choose to die as samurai by committing seppuku. A superb rendition of this true story that shows the true honor of the samurai.

A family comprised of a man, woman and their only son is torn apart when the father, who is a doctor with his own clinic, is to go off to war. Soon the wife and the son are left without an update of his status and whether he is alive or not. With the clinic lying dormant the doctor's wife rents the premises to her husband's underling. This is a man who does not accept payment from the poor. The woman, in the meantime, works at a restaurant whose owner being ill has given her additional duties. Her younger sister is an unmarried finance writer who also lives with them. It is both sisters, however, who receive marriage proposals.

After discovering a slaughtered corpse, the investigating team of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department began canvassing the area around the crime scene. As a result, they found a wallet with bloodstains that seemed to belong to the victim, a woman's wallet that did not fit the field, earrings, and other valuable materials, which led them on a foot search. The woman's purse had been picked up by a male prostitute on the subway, and from the prostitute's testimony, they were able to identify the pickpocket's face, but the next day, the man was found dead in a road accident, apparently murdered.

Back in 1959, air hostess was considered one of the most glamorous and privileged occupations for young girls with a dream. This first colour production of MP & GI details the ins and outs of the profession and takes the three lead actresses, Ge Lan (Grace Chang), Julia Ye Feng and Dolly Su Feng through a series of tough training. After their graduation, the film then brings them, and the audience, to exotic places like Bangkok, Singapore and Taiwan.

A government agent's son wins respect and love when he challenges counterfeiters.

Father Conroy has a parish which serves the acting and performance community. When one of his parishioners gets too sick to work, his daughter Holly finds a job working for a dance club of questionable character, which is run by Tony Vincent. Vincent never made the big time, and Father Conroy tries to look after Holly.

After successfully swindling thousands of dollars from hapless victims, conflicted con artist Mary (Hillary Brooke) decides to go straight, but her greedy boyfriend and partner, Roger (Tom Conway), convinces her to pull off one final scam before they get married. Written and directed by Andrew L. Stone, this classic crime film finds the police struggling to keep up with the deceptive duo's exceedingly complicated schemes.

A police shrink tries to identify and capture an elusive mugger that scars his female victims before stealing their purse.

A mad scientist, Dr. Aranya (Jackie Coogan), has created giant spiders in his Mexican lab in Zarpa Mesa to create a race of superwomen by injecting spiders with human pituitary growth hormones. Women develop miraculous regenerative powers, but men mutate into disfigured dwarves. Spiders grow to human size and intelligence.

A group of outlaws plan and execute a robbery in a small town. However, things go awry as the team attempt a getaway, when a couple of the locals attempting to follow them, are ambushed by marauding natives.

Wildcatter Jeff Dawson does his best to bring in a gusher in Mexico despite continual bandit raids. He asks for help from his ex-employer Ward Conway, but Conway, now married to Dawson's ex-lover Marina refuses, fearing that his wife will want to renew her romance with the other man.

In this animated retelling of the classic tale, Abdul Aziz Magoo -- an ancestor of Mr. Magoo -- is the lamp-selling uncle of Aladdin. Tired of his nephew's laziness, Abdul insists that Aladdin find a wife. To his uncle's surprise, Aladdin falls in love with the beautiful Princess Yasminda. Before he can make his move, however, Aladdin is whisked away by the evil Wazir on a quest to find a magic lamp that will grant its owner unlimited power in the form of three magic wishes.

In this contemporary update of Frank H. Spearman's Western hero, Whispering Smith is now a sleuth who arrives in London on holiday, but is soon called in to solve the case of a suicide which the father of the deceased woman thinks was murder.

An American intelligence agent is sent to Tokyo to track down a Communist spy ring.

England, first half of the 19th century. Edmund Kean is a celebrated theatre actor, notorious for his tumultuous private life. He is in love with the beautiful countess Koefeld, wife of the Danish ambassador, to the consternation of his friend, the Prince of Wales. He is also hounded by Anna Damby, who wants to become an actress to escape a marriage to Lord Mewill.

In the 1830s a Florida slave trader captures the wife of Chief Osceola, setting off a war between the Seminoles and the U.S. Army.

In World War II, the commanding officer of a sub, against his will takes on board two Western diplomats, to take them to the Canaries and arrange an armistice. When they get there, peace has been declared, but the sub's crew don't know as their radio has failed. They send their passengers ashore and go out to face a final battle...

Vallois, a vice inspector for the Paris police, takes special interest in the plight of drug-addicted Lucky (Najda Tiller), whom he considers to be more victim than criminal. Taking it upon himself to wean Lucky away from narcotics, Vallois also wins her love -- and, incidentally, smashes the dope ring responsible for her addiction.