Edith Angold Movies

In this, the third in the Matt Helm special-agent series, Dean Martin plays Helm who's called to save those aboard a hijacked U.S. spacecraft. Ambushers is generally regarded as the weakest of the Helm films, lacking inspiration at most levels. ~ All Movie Guide

One of Hollywood's great directors, Vincente Minnelli, turns a jaundiced eye towards the film industry in this drama about the inner workings of the movie business. Jack Andrus (Kirk Douglas) is an actor whose career has gone into a tailspin along with his personal life; after a severe bout with alcoholism, a messy break-up with his wife, a life-threatening auto accident, and a nervous breakdown, Andrus has spent three years in a private mental hospital in Connecticut. Andrus is approached by Maurice Kruger (Edward G. Robinson), a noted filmmaker who worked many times with Andrus in the past, offering him a small role in his next picture, and with the blessings of his doctors, the actor flies to Rome to return to work. However, once he arrives, Andrus finds the project is in chaos -- his role has been recast, Kruger is constantly battling with producer Tucino (Mino Doro), leading man Davie Drew (George Hamilton) is squabbling with both %Kruger and his girlfriend Veronica (Daliah Lavi), and the female lead (Rosanna Schiaffino) can't recite her dialogue in English. With the shooting in shambles, Kruger asks Andrus to take over the dubbing work in hopes of bringing the film in on schedule, and against his better judgement Andrus agrees. As Andrus tries to rise to this new challenge -- made all the more trying by the arrival of his ex-wife Carlotta (Cyd Charisse) -- the production receives its biggest setback when Kruger suffers a heart attack after a bitter argument with his wife (Claire Trevor). Andrus takes over the direction of the picture, and proves a capable hand for the job, bringing in the project on time and on budget. However, Kruger expresses resentment rather than gratitude, claiming that Andrus is trying to put an end to his career. Two Weeks In Another Town was adapted from a novel by Irwin Shaw. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

May Britt attempts to follow in the footsteps of Marlene Dietrich in this glossy Hollywood remake of the German classic. Professor Immanuel Rath (Curt Jurgens) is shocked to discover a number of his students have been frequenting a nightspot called the Blue Angel, where a scandalous entertainer named Lola (May Britt) performs. Rath attends the show one night in order to catch some of his boys in this den of wickedness, but he is soon drawn into Lola's sensual spell, and in time becomes involved in an obsessive romance with her that costs him his job, his savings and his dignity. Josef von Sternberg's original version of The Blue Angel was actually a good bit franker and more sensual than this version, which adds a happier ending, along with color and CinemaScope. A year after this film's release, star May Britt made headlines when she married entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This comedy is a remake of 1941's The Lady Eve, and tells the story of the vegetarian son of a prominent meat packer who is sailing back from an African safari when he meets and falls in love with a con-artist's lovely daughter. Posing as a military officer, the card-sharp and his boys have come to fleece a few wealthy passengers at poker. The daughter finds the milque-toast son irresistible and much to her father's dismay, they fall in love. Unfortunately their happiness is nearly destroyed when someone tells him the truth about her father. Fortunately, that is not the end of their affair. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Penny Edwards and Ross Elliot are top-billed in the Republic programmer Woman in the Dark. Though Edwards plays the title character, most of the film is carried by Elliot as an Italian-American priest named Father Tony Morello. The good father is saddled with a no-good brother named Gino (Richard Benedict), who gets mixed up in a jewel heist. With the help of Father Tony and his other brother, a lawyer named Phil (Rick Vallin), Gino is cleared of all charges. But the jewel thieves exact a violent revenge upon Gino, prompting Phil to retaliate and Father Tony to try to maintain peace in the family. Throughout it all, Phil's Park Avenue girlfriend Anna Reichardt (Penny Edwards) stands on the sidelines, with wide eyes and trembling lips. Woman in the Dark was based on Moon Over Mulberrry Street, a play by Nicholas Cosentino. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Secret Fury works best if one is willing to suspend one's disbelief from the outset. Claudette Colbert stars as Ellen, a famed concert pianist who, on the day of her wedding, is accosted by a stranger who insists that she's already married to someone else. Ellen is willing to laugh this off, until the stranger produces witnesses, records and the justice of the piece. Has Ellen lost her mind, or is she merely the victim of an elaborate scam. With the help of fiancé David (Robert Ryan), Our Heroine begins her own investigation -- and ends up accused of murder and shunted off to a mental institution. And the story isn't over yet! Featured in a pivotal role is future I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance, who'd previously worked in an L.A. theatre company with Secret Fury-director Mel Ferrer. For reasons best known to himself, Willard Parker, a fairly well-known film actor in 1950, appears unbilled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Glenn Ford stars as American pilot Martin Ordway, who joins an expedition to scale a treacherous Swiss mountain peak. Each of the climbers has a special reason to reach the top. Dissolute French author Paul DeLambre (Claude Rains) is searching for a purpose in life; guide Andreas (Oscar Homolka) is doing his job; British naturalist Nicholas Radcliffe (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) hopes to uncover new forms of flora and fauna; Carla Alton (Alida Valli) wants to conquer the mountain that claimed her father's life; Ordway has fallen in love with Alton and wants to be near her; and ex-Nazi Mr. Hein (Lloyd Bridges) hopes to escape his past. As the climb progresses, each member of the party reveals his or her true character, and it isn't always pretty. Originally slated to be produced by Adrian Scott and directed by Edward Dmytrk, The White Tower was assigned to Sid Rogell and Ted Tetzlaff when Scott and Dmytrk were blacklisted. Another future blacklistee, Paul Jarrico, adapted his screenplay from a novel by James Ramsey Ullman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just before its matriculation into Lippert Pictures, Screen Guild produced the fast-based boxing drama Ringside. Bantam-weight Don Barry stars as Mike, who forsakes a musical career for the boxing ring when his pugilist brother (Tom Brown) is blinded in a bout. Mike intends to confront the fighter (John Cason) who caused his brother's sightlessness, then "legally" kill the man in the ring. He is eventually talked out of this deadly strategy by his brother's girlfriend Janet (Sheila Ryan). The boxing sequences are well-lensed and tightly edited, compensation enough for the corny dialogue preceding them. Had it been made, say, 15 years earlier, Ringside might have been a suitable vehicle for James Cagney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

14-year-old Skip Homeier repeats his stage role as an unreconstructed Hitler Jugend in the film version of the James Gow/Arnaud D'Usseau stage play Tomorrow the World. A German orphan, Homeier is taken into the home of his American uncle (Fredric March), a gently liberal university professor. Though the son of an anti-Nazi, little robot-like Skip has become a parrot for the Third Reich, denouncing his late father as a traitor and being as nasty as possible to the professor's Jewish fiancee (Betty Field). Homeier accepts democracy only when the professor forgets his fuzzy-headedness and applies a little "physical culture." The moral really shouldn't be "Love America or We'll Break Every Bone in Your Body," but given the times in which it was made, Tomorrow the World can be forgiven its excesses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Underground is an average Warner Bros. suspenser, given a boost by its unrelenting portrayal of Nazis as verminous scum--several months before America's entry into World War II. Jeffrey Lynn plays an impressionable young European who is intoxicated by the "glories" of National Socialism. Lynn's brother, Philip Dorn, is on the opposite side of the fence as an announcer for an underground Resistance radio station. At first scornful of his brother's activities, Lynn soon learns that Hitler isn't the saint he believed him to be--especially after several of his friends are liquidated by the Gestapo. Lynn belatedly joins his brother's cause and, at the cost of his own life, helps the Resistance thwart a band of fifth columnists. Underground is a solid piece of film craftsmanship, lacking only the big star names that would have made it a box-office hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Zwischen Nacht und Morgen (During Night and Morning) was based on Dirnentragodie, a play by Wilhelm Braun. Aud Egede Nissen plays an aging prostitute who falls in love with a young, wealthy scapegrace. Soon her new swain leaves her in favor of a younger tart, compelling Nissen to murder her rival. Whether or not this will have any redemptive effect on the young man is left to conjecture; it is certain, however, that Nissen will pay for her crime. The film is a remake of a 1925 silent picture which starred Asta Nielsen and was directed by Bruno Rahn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide