Alex Akimoff Movies
- 1952
Something to Live For is the last of director George Stevens' "small" films, before he concentrated full-time on such blockbusters as Shane and Giant. Joan Fontaine plays a popular actress who descends into alcoholism. Ray Milland, in an unofficial extension of his Lost Weekend role, plays a reformed drunkard who comes to Fontaine's rescue. He encourages her to join Alcoholics Anonymous--one of the first times that this organization was given any kind of screen treatment. Milland's concern strains his relationship with his wife (Teresa Wright), who doubts that Ray's interest in Fontaine is merely humanitarian. But Milland refuses to endanger his marriage no matter how strong his feelings towards Fontaine--nor how much the audience wants him to. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Fontaine, Ray Milland, (more)
- 1949
Long before he became producer/director of The Tonight Show, Fred DeCordova helmed the Universal meller Illegal Entry. Howard Duff, who later worked with DeCordova on the TV series Mr. Adams and Eve, stars as Bert Powers, an undercover agent for the U.S. Department of Immigration. While attempting to bring a vicious gang of alien smugglers to justice, Powers falls in love with Anna Duvak (Marta Toren), a gang member who is Not What She Seems. The film leaves no cliché unturned, not even the familiar scene wherein the airborne smugglers dispose of their human cargo by way of a handy lever which causes the bottom of the plane's passenger section to drop out. Illegal Entry is staged in semi-documentary fashion, maintaining the then-prevalent tradition of such popular films as House on 92nd Street and Call Northside 777. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Howard Duff, Märta Torén, (more)
- 1946
- NR
Art critic and forgery expert George Steele (Pat O'Brien) is apprehended by the police as he desperately tries to break into the Manhattan Museum in the opening scene of Crack-Up, a noir mystery directed by Irving Reis. Steele does not understand his own bizarre actions, but explains that he was in a train wreck and had to get back to the museum. Questioned by Lt. Cochrane (Wallace Ford), who tells him there have been no train wrecks in months, Steele relates, in flashback, the events leading up to the incident. Earlier in the day the head of the museum had suspended him for alienating wealthy patrons by criticizing "art snobs" in a lecture. He then received a phone call informing him that his mother was sick, and caught the train to the hospital, but never got there. Though suspicious of Steele, Cochrane is persuaded by the shadowy Mr. Traybin (Herbert Marshall) to release him so he can follow Steele. The next day Steele retraces his steps and discovers that someone had set him up to be discredited, though he knows neither who nor why. Following the murder of a friend who was trying to help him, he discovers that forgeries of some very famous paintings are at the heart of the matter, but getting to the culprit is a more difficult task. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1944
More a romantic melodrama than the uplifting propaganda piece the producers perhaps envisioned, In Our Time stars Ida Lupino as Jennifer Whittredge, a young antique buyer marrying a Polish count, Stephan Orvid (Paul Henried), after a whirlwind romance in a Warsaw at the brink of World War II. The count's old-fashioned family in general and his aristocratic uncle (Victor Francen) in particular resist the union, but Jennifer brings a breath of fresh air and a sense of good Anglo-Saxon values into the stagnant rooms of the Orvid estate and soon the farm is prosperous once again. When the German military might finally enters Poland, Jennifer and Stephan join the country's scorched earth defense by burning both their property and are soon among the refugees waiting for the day when Poland is once again free from Fascism. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, (more)
