Konstantin Shayne Movies
Hollywood character actor Konstantin Shayne generally played threatening internationals during the '40s and '50s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1964
The seventh volume in a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology series focuses on a surveillance system, popular throughout the globe, which is actually the product of alien technology. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Fired for his sympathetic coverage of an Arab leader who has been executed for murder, disgraced reporter Ted Franklin (Gary Merrill) boards a flight from Tangier to Cairo. His traveling companion is the beautiful Barbara Denham (Patricia Cutts), who expresses fascination over his unorthodox treatment of the murder trial. Gradually, Franklin reveals just why he believed the Arab was innocent -- and in so doing puts a noose around his own neck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Dismissed when first released, later heralded as one of director Alfred Hitchcock's finest films (and, according to Hitchcock, his most personal one), this adaptation of the French novel D'entre les morts weaves an intricate web of obsession and deceit. It opens as Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) realizes he has vertigo, a condition resulting in a fear of heights, when a police officer is killed trying to rescue him from falling off a building. Scottie then retires from his position as a private investigator, only to be lured into another case by his old college friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore). Elster's wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), has been possessed by a spirit, and Elster wants Scottie to follow her. He hesitantly agrees, and thus begins the film's wordless montage as Scottie follows the beautiful yet enigmatic Madeleine through 1950s San Francisco (accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's hypnotic score). After saving her from suicide, Scottie begins to fall in love with her, and she appears to feel the same way. Here tragedy strikes, and each twist in the movie's second half changes our preconceptions about the characters and events. In 1996 a new print of Vertigo was released, restoring the original grandeur of the colors and the San Francisco backdrop, as well as digitally enhancing the soundtrack. ~ Dylan Wilcox, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Kim Novak, (more)
- 1956
American reporter Mary Prescott (Claire Trevor) has been given a safe conduct pass by the Iron Curtain dictator whom she has interviewed. En route to West Germany, Mary is approached by East German soccer player Jan Gubak (Jacques Bergerac), who tells her a sob story about a sick sister and an expensive operation. The upshot of all this finds Mary agreeing to smuggle a watch across the border on behalf of Gubak -- with surprising consequences. Hogan's Heroes fans will enjoy the brief appearances of the future Colonel Klink Werner Klemperer and Sgt. Schultz (John Banner) in key supporting roles, while comedy aficionados will recognize perennial Laurel & Hardy foil Charlie Hall as a pool player in Alfred Hitchcock's prologue sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
In this drama, a man is falsely accused of committing two murders, one of which is committed at the dog-track. Now he is pursued by the police and gangsters. To escape the latter, the fleeing fellow dives into a handy car, driven by the woman who really committed the hit-and-run. Mayhem ensues when the police arrest him, but justice eventually prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Lex Barker, (more)
- 1953
Treasure of the Golden Condor is a Technicolor remake of 1942's Son of Fury; both films were based on the same novel by Edison Marshall. Cornel Wilde stars in the old Tyrone Power role as Jean-Paul, a Frenchman cheated of his birthright by his duplicitous uncle (George Macready). Retreating to South America with lovable reprobate MacDougal (Finlay Currie), Jean-Paul searches for buried treasure in the jungles of Guatemala. He also romances MacDougal's comely daughter Clara (Constance Smith). Eventually, Jean-Paul must bid Clara goodbye and return to France, there to settle accounts with his uncle. Clara prays for the day that Jean-Paul will come back for her and as the closing music swells . . . . ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Constance Smith, (more)
- 1952
Based on a true story, 5 Fingers stars James Mason as a man known to his superiors only as Cicero. Ostensibly the valet of the British ambassador to Ankara during World War II, Cicero is actually a Nazi agent. He holds no particular political viewpoint: the Nazis offered the best price, so for the time being he is loyal to them. Falling in love with the beautiful Danielle Darrieux, Cicero uses her home as a contact point to meet his German associates. At great personal risk, Cicero secures secret British war files and smuggles them to the Germans; they find the information in the files too far-fetched to be taken seriously--and thus are caught unawares on the morning of the D-Day invasion. An ironic coda finds Cicero, setting himself up in luxury in Rio de Janeiro, double-crossed by both Darrieux and the Germans. What else can he do but laugh uproariously? 5 Fingers, based on the memoirs of the real-life "Cicero" L. C. Moyzisch, was adapted into a 1959 TV series, wherein the antihero was converted into a 100% good guy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, (more)
- 1951
The real Matt Cvetic was a borderline alcoholic with a nasty disposition (he once allegedly beat his sister-in-law so badly she required hospitalization). But Cvetic was also a fervent anti-communist, and so, for a brief period in the early 1950s, he was a folk hero. I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. is the semi-true story of how Cvetic (played by Frank Lovejoy) renounced his friends and family and embraced the Red cause--on behalf of the F.B.I., for whom he was a volunteer undercover agent. The film recounts how Cvetic used his job as a Pittsburgh steelworker to contact various American Communist cell leaders, and how he exposed their insidious plans to overthrow the American government. Since the script infers that among the Reds' "subversive" plans was the Civil Rights Movement, I Was a Communist for the FBI is an embarrassing experience when seen today. Cvetic's memoirs were better dramatized by a 1951 radio series of the same title, starring Dana Andrews. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Lovejoy, Dorothy Hart, (more)
- 1951
Highly respected defense attorney Dwight Bradley Mason (Walter Pidgeon) is able to clear young Rudi Wallchek (Keefe Brasselle) of a murder rap. When it's all over, however, Rudi lets slip a careless comment which leads Mason to believe that his client was guilty after all. Using the evidence at hand, the attorney retraces his steps, only to discover that one of the town's leading citizens is a criminal mastermind. The solution to this ethical dilemma is straight out of the "postman always rings twice" school of crime fiction. Even after justice has been served, however, Mason's conscience dictates that everyone responsible for all previous legal miscarriages be punished -- including himself! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Pidgeon, Ann Harding, (more)
- 1949
One of the more palatable of Hollywood's anti-communist tracts of the late 1940s-early 1950s was MGM's The Red Danube. Janet Leigh plays Maria Buhlen, an Eastern Bloc ballerina who seeks political asylum in the British-occupied zone of Vienna. Maria's plight turns into a political tug-of-war involving a British colonel (Walter Pidgeon) and a Soviet colonel (Louis Calhern). Their ideological hagglings spill over into spiritualism, as represented by Mother Superior Ethel Barrymore, and romance, as personified by Maria's ardent suitor Major John McPhimister (Peter Lawford). Like earlier anti-Red cinematic exercises, The Red Danube failed to connect at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, (more)
- 1948
This preposterous post-WWII drama stars Flame the dog as a retired military pooch who lost his beloved master to the murderous hands of a trench-coat wearing Nazi. After the war, Flame was sent to retire in a peaceful hunting lodge. One day, three visitors come to the cabin. One of the suspicious fellows wears a trenchcoat identical to the one the killer war. Overcome by memories, Flame attacks the trio. Later his instincts are proven true when the three are proven to be German spies come to steal information about a nearby nuclear project. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Russell, Virginia Christine, (more)
- 1948
Angel on the Amazon gives the viewer a pretty good notion of what Lost Horizon or She might have looked like had they been produced by Republic Pictures. Vera Ralston stars as huntress Christine Ridgeway, who embarks on one of her many hunting expeditions in the company of her husband Anthony Brian Aherne. While deep in the jungles of the Amazon, the Ridgeways and their party come across the wreckage of a plane. Among the survivors are pilot Jim Warburton George Brent and Dr. Karen Lawrence Constance Bennett. Warburton is impressed by the fact that, though apparently well on in years, Christine has retained her youthful appearance. Dr. Lawrence eventually discovers the secret of Christine's eternal beauty, which by film's end has atrophied considerably. The rambling screenplay whisks the viewer from Brazil to the Riviera to Pasadena, all courtesy of the Republic back lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Brent, Vera Ralston, (more)
- 1948
To the Victor is one of the first Hollywood films to touch upon the subject of war guilt. There are no high-ranking Nazis or gas ovens here; the people on trial are French citizens, accused of collaboration. This being a Warner Bros. production, the cast includes such authentic Frenchpersons as Dennis Morgan, Bruce Bennett and Dorothy Malone; leading lady Viveca Lindfors isn't from Burbank, but she's not from France either. Once past this obstacle, the film raises some interesting moral and ethical questions, but was made to close to the events for anything resembling objectivity. Plus there's a turgid romance between a French girl and a black marketeer, which adds nothing to the proceedings. To the Victor warrants B for effort, C for results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Morgan, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1948
The opening scene of Robert Siodmak's grim film noir depicts police lieutenants Candella (Victor Mature) and Collins (Fred Clark) observing wounded cop killer Martin Rome (Richard Conte) receive last rites. Though Rome recovers, he still must elude Candella and Collins in his desperate attempt to escape his fate. Rome has two visitors in the hospital: his girlfriend, Teena (Debra Paget), who goes into hiding, and Niles (Berry Kroeger), a crooked lawyer. Niles tries to bribe Rome to take a jewel theft and homicide rap for a client of his since Rome is facing the electric chair anyway. When Rome refuses, Niles threatens to frame Teena as the client's female accomplice. Worried that Candella might find Teena, Rome breaks out of jail and goes to Niles' office to accept the offer, but he actually plans to leave the country with Teena. When Niles reneges, Rome kills him, but not before learning the accomplice's identity and discovering the stolen jewels in the lawyer's safe. Rome finds the accomplice, Rose Given (Hope Emerson), and offers to trade the jewelry for the means to leave the country. She agrees, and they arrange a meeting in the subway, but Rome informs Candella of the plan. When the police arrive, Candella is shot, Rose is arrested, and Rome escapes to meet up with Teena in a church. As he is trying to convince Teena to run away with him, a wounded Candella shows up and tells Teena how Rome uses people and that everyone who helped in his escape will be paying a price. Teena rejects Rome, and he runs again, only to be shot down by Candella. The moral order is ultimately restored, but no one has been left unscarred. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Mature, Richard Conte, (more)
- 1947
Song of Love is the MGM-ified version of the lives and loves of 19th century musicians Clara Wieck Schumann (Katharine Hepburn), Robert Schumann (Paul Henreid) and Johannes Brahms (Robert Walker, who the previous year had played another composer, Jerome Kern, in Til the Clouds Roll By). Clara gives up her thriving career as a concert pianist to devote herself to her struggling composer husband Robert. Unable to cope with disappointment and failure, Robert dies in an asylum, leaving poor Clara to cope with seven children and mounting debts. At this point, the eminently successful Brahms, who has loved Clara all along, proposes to her, but Clara insists upon going it alone, perpetuating her husband's memory on the concert stage. Also represented in this musical "through the years" pageant is Franz Liszt, played with remarkable understatement by Henry Daniell. Clearly designed to capitalize on the popularity of Columbia's Chopin biopic A Song to Remember, Song of Love is slow and poky at times, though it's fascinating to see Katharine Hepburn at the piano (reportedly, she learned to play enough classical music to get by in the close-up scenes, though her music is dubbed in medium and long shots). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, (more)
- 1947
This episodic holiday film centers around a rich spinster aunt whose greedy nephew is attempting legal action to take her estate. Before he makes a final decision, a caring judge tells the spinster that she can rally together the three foster children she raised to help her keep the estate, he will delay the nephew's action. Now she must find her three grown boys who have gone in wildly different directions. One is a boozy cowboy involved in a baby racket, another is a deadbeat deeply indebted to the nephew, and the other is a successful owner of a South American cafe on the lam for a con-job he didn't commit. She endures and adventurous journey, but the three do manage to come together on Christmas Eve, save the estate, and give the conniving nephew his due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, George Brent, (more)
- 1947
James Thurber wasn't too happy with the Sam Goldwyn film adaptation of his 1939 short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but the Technicolor musical comedy proved to be a cash cow at the box office. Danny Kaye stars as Walter, a milquetoast proofreader for a magazine publishing firm. Walter is constitutionally incapable of standing up for himself, which is why his mother (Fay Bainter) has been able to arrange a frightful marriage between her son and the beautiful but overbearing Gertrude Griswold (Ann Rutherford). As he muses over the lurid covers of the magazines put out by his firm, Walter retreats into his fantasy world, where he is heroic, poised, self-assured, and the master of his fate. Glancing at the cover of a western periodical, Walter fancies himself the two-gun "Perth Amboy Kid"; a war magazine prompts Walter to envision himself as a fearless RAF pilot; and so on. Throughout all his imaginary adventures, a gorgeous mystery woman weaves in an out of the proceedings. Imagine Walter's surprise when his dream girl shows up in the flesh in the person of Rosalind van Horn (Virginia Mayo). The girl is being pursued by a gang of jewel thieves headed by Dr. Hugo Hollingshead (Boris Karloff), a clever psychiatrist who manages to convince Walter that he's simply imagining things again, and that Rosalind never existed. At long last, Walter vows to live his life in the "now" rather than in the recesses of his mind: he rescues Rosalind from the gang's clutches, tells his mother and Gertrude where to get off, and fast-talks his way into a better position with the publishing firm. Substituting the usual Danny Kaye zaniness for James Thurber's whimsy, Secret Life of Walter Mitty works best during the production numbers, especially Kaye's signature tune "Anatole of Paris." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, (more)
The Stranger is often considered Orson Welles' most "traditional" Hollywood-style directorial effort. Welles plays a college professor named Charles Rankin, who lives in a pastoral Connecticut town with his lovely wife Mary (Loretta Young). One afternoon, an extremely nervous German gentleman named Meineke (Konstantin Shayne) arrives in town. Professor Rankin seems disturbed--but not unduly so--by Meineke's presence. He invites the stranger for a walk in the woods, and as they journey farther and farther away from the center of town, we learn that kindly professor Rankin is actually notorious Nazi war criminal Franz Kindler. Conscience-stricken by his own genocidal wartime activities, Meineke has come to town to beg his ex-superior Kindler to give himself up. The professor responds by brutally murdering his old associate. If Kindler believes himself safe--and he has every reason to do so, since no one in town, especially Mary, has any inkling of his previous life--he will change his mind in a hurry when mild-mannered war crimes commissioner Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) pays a visit, posing as an antiques dealer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, (more)
- 1946
In this mystery, a millionaire shipping tycoon commands that eight of his relatives come to his Chinese mountain retreat upon his death. There each will be entitled to an equal share of his fortune. He dies, and the eight go to China. Trouble ensues in the remote cabin when two relatives are murdered. More murder attempts soon follow before the survivors learn the surprising truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kent Taylor, Dona Drake, (more)
- 1945
This tender but fluffy romantic comedy centers on the romantic travails of a beautiful European princesss who goes to New York to find the newspaper reporter she fell for when he was visiting her mythical country. She stays at the Big Apple's finest hotel and while there finds herself mistaken for a maid by a sweet-natured bellhop. Charmed by his confusion, she insists that he become her personal escort. She does not realize that the impressionable fellow has fallen in love with her and so misconstrues her every kindness. When not with her, the bellhop is visiting a beautiful invalid, who is secretly in love with him. Meanwhile the princess eventually finds the reporter. She makes him a proposition, but he, believing them to be too different, rejects the offer. Later, she takes the bellhop and goes to the reporter's favorite bar in hopes of seeing him. Unfortunately, the joint gets raided and she ends up in jail until the reporter shows up to bail her out. Soon afterward, she learns that her father has died and that she is now queen. Things get sticky then, as both the bellboy and the new queen find themselves faced with choosing between wealth and power or true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hedy Lamarr, Robert Walker, (more)
- 1945
In this thriller, a nurse begins having strange premonitions about an impending murder. So strong is her intuition that she soon begins searching for the intended victim to try and save him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1944
A scientist discovers that he can live forever by receiving gland transplants every ten years. Unfortunately, the unwilling donors must be killed for him to survive, something that doesn't bother the scientist until he falls in love. The girl, innocent of his grisly secret, falls for him too. Unfortunately, he is due for a new transplant and the endocrinologist who has been doing the operation gets a guilty conscience and refuses to help him any more. Desperate to remain young, the scientist finds someone else. This time though, Scotland Yard gets wind and begins investigating. The girl finds out, and remains true to the scientist causing him to abandon his mad quest for eternal youth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nils Asther, Helen Walker, (more)
- 1944
- NR
Designed as a followup to the enormously successful Casablanca, Passage to Marseille utilizes the talents of many of the on- and off-screen personnel of the earlier Warner Bros. classic. Unfolded in a complex flashback-within-flashback structure, this is the story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart), a freedom-loving French journalist who sacrifices his happiness and security to battle Nazi tyrrany. The film opens as French liason officer Freycinet (Claude Rains), stationed in London, tells Mantrac's story to a British reporter (John Loder). Freycinet reveals that Mantrac, happily married to Paula (Michele Morgan), was framed by pro-fascists and sentenced to Devil's Island. Here he engineered a daring escape with such lost souls as Marius (Peter Lorre), Garou (Helmut Dantine), Petit (George Tobias) and Renault (Philip Dorn). Adrift in a lifeboat, the escapees were picked up by a French vessel commandeered by pro-fascist Major Duval (Sydney Greenstreet). With the help of Mantrac and the prisoners, the ship's patriotic captain (Victor Francen) thwarted Duval's evil machinations, enabling Mantrac to continue his battle against Nazism as a member of the RAF. By modern standards, Passage to Marseille is overproduced, overdirected, overacted and overscored (by Max Steiner); however, it filled a definite need in wartime America, and proved a huge financial success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Michèle Morgan, (more)
- 1944
- NR
Fred Zinnemann directed this World War II drama, considered one of the best anti-Nazi dramas produced by Hollywood during the war years. The story concerns seven prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp who manage to elude the guards and the Gestapo. The commandant, in a rage over their escape, nails crosses to seven trees, planning to crucify each of the prisoners as they are captured. Gradually six of the prisoners are discovered by the Gestapo and crucified. The one remaining escapee, George Heisler (Spencer Tracy), has become embittered and cynical after his years in the concentration camp. But as an assortment of friends and strangers help him elude the Gestapo, Heisler finally makes it to neutral Holland, his faith in mankind restored. Jessica Tandy had her first screen appearance as Liesel Roeder, the wife of Paul Roeder (Hume Cronyn, Tandy's real life husband), one of the friends who helps Heisler make his way to freedom. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Signe Hasso, (more)
- 1944
One of Hollywood's favorite film titles (next to Never a Dull Moment and The Man Who Dared) is given another go-round with 1944's Till We Meet Again. Ray Milland stars as an American combat pilot forced to crash-land in occupied France. He is sheltered by nun Barbara Britton, who finds herself attracted to the brash flyboy. Britton poses as Milland's wife when the twosome becomes involved with the activities of the French underground. This being a 1944 film, it wouldn't do for Britton to renounce her vows in favor of connubial bliss, so someone (guess who?) has to conveniently die before the climax of Till We Meet Again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, Barbara Britton, (more)
