Joe Verdi Movies
- 1957
There's a curious, unsettling "feel" to MGM's The Vintage, perhaps because of its curiously selected cast. Mel Ferrer and John Kerr play a couple of Italian brothers, Giancarlo and Ernesto Barandero, who escape to France after Ernesto kills a man. Attaining jobs in a vineyard run by Louis Morel (played by the decidedly non-Gallic Leif Erickson), the Barandero brothers fall in love with two local lasses: Leonne (Michele Morgan), Monel's young wife, and Lucienne (top-billed Pier Angeli), Leonne's kid sister. Emotions simmer into a boil before the predictably violent climax. The Vintage was adapted from an Ursula Kier novel by Michael Blankfort, a blacklistee compelled to work in Europe during the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Mel Ferrer, (more)
- 1950
Farley Granger plays a casually larcenous New York City mailman who steals a shipment of money. Granger's excitement over this windfall turns to terror when he discovers that the money was part of a transaction between gangsters. Harassed by both crooks and cops, Granger lives to regret his impulsive theft--especially when it is tied in with a murder. The story is wrapped up in spectacular fashion with a climactic car chase. Farley Granger's costar in Side Street is Cathy O'Donnell; both were on loan to MGM from Samuel Goldwyn, and both were banking on their previous successful teaming in RKO's They Live By Night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, (more)
- 1935
One of several Liberty productions picked up for release by Republic, The Crime of Dr. Crespi is a modern-dress adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Premature Burial. Erich Von Stroheim stars as brilliant surgeon Dr. Anton Crespi, who seeks revenge against Ross (John Bohn), the man who stole his sweetheart away. When Ross is brought into the hospital E.R. for a crucial operation, Crespi is handed a golden opportunity to get even. Ross seemingly dies on the operating table, but in fact Crespi has administered a powerful drug that places his old enemy in a deathlike trance. Fully conscious and aware of what is happening, Ross is buried alive, but not before Crespi has some fun taunting his helpless victim. Meanwhile, Crespi's associate Dr. Arnold suspects that something is amiss, and with the help of Dr. Thomas (Dwight "Renfield" Frye in a rare non-lunatic role) he exhumes Ross to perform an autopsy. The "corpse" quickly revives?and then??AAAAAH!!!! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erich Von Stroheim, Dwight Frye, (more)
