Michael Golden

In this WW II psycho-drama, a wounded and traumatized American flyer becomes so obsessed with losing his virginity--lest he end up like his colleague who was castrated during a mishap on their last mission--that he goes AWOL. He eventually finds an obliging young streetwalker, but unfortunately the stress and fear render him impotent. He tries again with a kindly young woman, but at the crucial moment the MPs arrive and arrest him. He willfully resists in hopes that they will kill him for desertion. Unfortunately they don't. Instead they get him help from a caring chaplain and in time he begins to heal. Romance blooms after he returns to the young woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, two crooked brothers, an embezzler and a gambler, find themselves in deep trouble when the embezzler steals from a steel mill so he can buy his lover fancy clothes. During the theft, he kills a night guard. This spawns an investigation by the slain watchman's son who locates a sightless witness. The son then convinces the killer that the witness saw him and this causes him to confess. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime melodrama, a car salesman (and suspected safecracker) saves his fiancee from those who would kidnap her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, the trouble begins when a crook cheats his buddies at a dog track, stuffs his loot into a suitcase, and flees. He then gives the suitcase to his lover who in turn gives it to her sister just before she takes a bus to the coast. Her actions rouse the suspicions of an observant reporter. Later the crook manages to catch up with the sisters. Unfortunately, the sisters catch them at the same time and justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Green Scarf may be set in France, but its cast, crew, and overall tone is impeccably British. Michael Redgrave, hidden beneath a mattress of whiskers, portrays a French lawyer who takes on a seemingly hopeless case. His client, Kieron Moore, is a blind deaf-mute seaman accused of murder. Moore has already confessed to the crime, but Redgrave is sworn to give the best defense possible. At times, however, it is the dullest defense possible, despite a few random spurts of imagination. The Green Scarf was adapted from the novel The Brute by Guy des Cars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dane Clark plays a down-at-heels war vet who enters into an odd agreement. If he'll marry a gorgeous blonde (Belinda Lee), Clark will be paid a hefty sum of money. Unfortunately he's being set up as the fall guy in a murder scheme. Awakening from a drunken stupor, Clark finds that all the evidence in the murder points to him--and even he is convinced that he's guilty. Filmed in England, Blackout is based on the Helen Nielsen novel Murder by Proxy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The contentious world of prizefighting provides the setting of this episodic drama that chronicles the lives of five different fighters. Each of the fighters explains their reasons for becoming professional pugilists. One of the fighters, Kid Curtis, ends up dead after a particularly brutal beating. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

During the Irish "troubles", an IRA gunman (John Mills) wearies of the constant violence. He begins to preach a philosophy of peaceful persuasion, and refuses direct orders to blow up a London railway station. The gunman's impatient brother (Dirk Bogarde) find his sibling's new approach to be counterproductive to the movement. The rest of the IRA agrees, and soon the gentle gunman is branded a traitor and a price is placed on his head. Based on the stage play by Roger MacDougall, Gentle Gunman was seldom seen once the Troubles were resparked in the Ireland of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This deliberately paced British film about a black rural priest and a white landowner whose paths cross in 1940s South Africa remains one of the most powerful cinematic statements on racism. Based on Alan Paton's landmark novel, Cry the Beloved Country is, in hindsight, naïve in its belief that apartheid would be easier to overcome than history proved it to be, but its intentions are certainly in the right place and it never trivializes the importance of the issue. To the credit of both Paton and director-producer Zoltan Korda, the film maintains a dignity and relevancy that is not always true of other "message" movies from the 1940s and '50s. Partly, this is because the characters, both black and white, are much more fully developed than a Hollywood production would have allowed them to be. Another factor is that the filmmakers do not resort to heavy-handedness, and instead allow the story to speak for itself. Knowing that the film was actually shot on location in South Africa during the height of apartheid only compounds the impact of this film. Canada Lee, as the priest Kumalo, and Charles Carson, as the farmer Jarvis, give stunning, multi-layered performances as two men who must go through a wrenching emotional experience. The solid supporting cast includes Joyce Carey as Jarvis' wife and a twenty-something Sidney Poitier as a Johannesburg priest. More than forty years later, after apartheid's fall, Cry the Beloved Country was remade with James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. ~ Bob Mastrangelo, All Movie Guide

The Blue Lamp was an immensely popular British crime film (and the winner of the BFA Award), concentrating on interrelated episodes in the lives of several London policemen. Jack Warner heads the cast as George Dixon, a veteran "bobby" who is murdered by scuzzy small-time criminals Dirk Bogarde and Patrick Doonan. Rookie cop Jimmy Hanley, who'd looked upon Warner as a father figure, is instrumental in bringing the crooks to justice. The semi-documentary style of The Blue Lamp could not help but have been an influence on Jack Webb's Dragnet. Jack Warner proved so popular in the character of George Dixon that he was brought back from the dead to star in the BBC TV series Dixon of Dock Green. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama set in London, a prominent mobster in charge of a smuggling and counterfeiting ring operates his illicit business from a Soho night club. He and his loyal assistant are known for their ruthlessness and they do not hesitate to murder anyone who opposes them. Fortunately, an intrepid reporter begins looking closely at a recent murder, and the gangsters' days are numbered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this low-budget French crime drama, the captain of a charter boat is forced to work for jewel smugglers who use him to shuttle them between France and Great Britain. The trouble begins when they frame him for murder. Later, they throw him overboard and he is forced to swim to shore. He makes it to a tiny French fishing town. As he recovers, he falls in love with a lovely young woman who helps him prove his innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide