Bruno Wick Movies
- 1953
Taxi stars Dan Dailey as Ed Nielson, a been-there-done-that Manhattan cabbie. Nagged by his mother (Blanche Yurka) to find himself a wife, Ed must also contend with a blood-sucking loan company, demanding huge payments for his cab. His life is further complicated when he falls in love with one of his fares: Mary, a young Irish immigrant (Constance Smith), freshly arrived in New York in search of her husband. The girl discovers that her hubby is a louse, but she's forced to stay with him lest she face deportation. Despite his own problems -- not to mention the huge cab fare that Mary's running up while searching for her husband -- Ed vows to rescue his new love from an ungovernable fate. Though running only 77 minutes, Taxi boasts no fewer than six screenwriting credits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Dailey, Constance Smith, (more)
- 1952
Louis de Rochemont, former March of Time producer whose "docudrama" films proved so popular in the 1940s, offers more of the same in Walk East on Beacon. Based on an article written (or ghostwritten) by J. Edgar Hoover, the film concerns the efforts by the FBI to plug up a dangerous security leak. Federal agent Belden (George Murphy) is assigned to locate the communist mastermind behind the leak, and to trace all avenues of informational access utilized by the Bad Guys. Finlay Currie co-stars as an Einstein-like scientist who is being blackmailed by the Reds into cooperating with them, while Karel Stepanek is slime personified as the top Eastern-Bloc spy. Largely filmed on location in New York, Walk East on Beacon makes good use of several Manhattan-based actors, few of whom were seen in films either before or since. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Murphy, Finlay Currie, (more)
Long before trading her Park Avenue apartment for a ramshackle farm on Green Acres, Eva Gabor shed her Saks' Fifth Avenue duds for a South Seas sarong in Love Island. Gabor plays Sarna, a Balinese beauty, courted by stranded Navy pilot Lt. Richard Tabor (Paul Valentine). Bad guy Jaraka (Malcolm Beggs) doesn't like this arrangement, so he has Sarna's father arrested on a trumped-up charge. Jaraka then drops a few subtle suggestions that the old man will never survive his incarceration unless Sarna marries him. If nothing else, Love Island offers acres and acres of exposed male and female epidermis, lovingly photographed in Cinecolor. The film was directed by exploitation king Budd Pollard, who a few years earlier had specialized in films aimed at the African American market. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Gabor, Paul Valentine, (more)
- 1948
In this drama, filmed on location in Maine, the life of a young lobster fisherman is forever changed by an orphan boy. It was the fisherman's girlfriend that got him involved with the troubled lad who had been caught stealing while in a foster home. The fisherman was to provide a good role-model for the young man. With the help of one of his partners the fisherman succeeds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Andrews, Jean Peters, (more)
Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, House on 92nd Street is a "now it can be told" drama about the smashing of a Nazi spy ring operating the U.S. Thanks to covert surveillance, the FBI learns of the presence of several suspicious persons in NYC. William Eythe is a German-American college student approached by the spies to become a secret Nazi operative. Eythe instead heads directly to FBI chief Lloyd Nolan and offers his services as a double agent. His mission is to locate the head of the spy ring, an unseen figure known only as Mr. Christopher, and to that end Eythe infiltrates the ring, headquarted in a town house on 92nd street. Among the conspirators are an erudite German colonel (Leo G. Carroll) and the beautiful female owner of the house (Signe Hasso). Part of the plot involves the smuggling to Germany of America's atomic secrets by a weak-willed document clerk (played by Gene Lockhart, one of the best "cringers" in the business). Dwelling a bit too long on the meticulous research techniques of the FBI, House on 92nd Street picks up momentum in the final sequence, wherein "Mr. Christopher" is revealed and double agent Eythe barely escapes with his skin intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, (more)
