Ian Wolfe Movies

On the eve of the Chinese New Year, three strangers make a pact before a small statue of the Chinese goddess of Destiny. The strangers are Crystal Shackleford (Geraldine Fitzgerald), married to a wealthy philanderer; Jerome Artbutny (Sidney Greenstreet), an outwardly respectable judge; and Johnny West (Peter Lorre), a seedy sneak thief. The threesome agree to purchase a sweepstakes ticket and share whatever winnings might accrue. Alas, the pact brings little more than misfortune for all concerned. Jerome steals funds from a client, then kills Crystal (with the goddess statue!) when she refuses to hand over her sweepstakes winnings. Johnny and his girlfriend Icy (Joan Lorring) decide to abandon their life of crime, but when it is revealed that the ticket is a winner, he sets fire to it to avoid having his name tied to the crime. If it seems strange that Peter Lorre ends up the romantic lead in Three Strangers, remember that the film's director, Jean Negulesco, thought Lorre was the finest actor who ever lived--and as a result, he fought tooth and nail with Warner Bros. to cast Lorre in this film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The novel The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill had been filmed in 1928 as The Perfect Crime and again in 1934 as The Crime Doctor. This 1946 version was the best and marked the directorial debut of Don Siegel. It also paired the popular duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet for the last time. Greenstreet plays George Grodman, a veteran Scotland Yard chief who is forced out after a murderer that he helped convict is found innocent after his execution. His successor is the pompous Buckley (George Coulouris), who vows to do much better. Lorre plays Victor Emmric, an artist illustrating a crime book that Grodman is writing. A tenant in a building near Grodman's apartment is found dead by a landlady who summons Grodman to the scene. The victim's door appears to have been locked from the inside. Chief Buckley fingers Clive Russell (Paul Cavanagh), a friend of Grodman. With only circumstantial evidence, the superintendent railroads Russell into a conviction that carries the death sentence. Grodman tries to prove his friend innocent, but the only woman who can provide Russell an alibi is dead. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Elizabeth MacDonald (Claudette Colbert) is a newly married corporate librarian in 1918 Baltimore working for a chemical company owned by the Hamilton family and managed by Larry Hamilton (George Brent). Just as she is celebrating the armistice and anticipating the return of her husband John (Orson Welles), she learns he was killed in action, just days before the cease fire. Pregnant with their child and alone in the world, she is taken in by Larry Hamilton, who has loved her from afar and is driven by sympathy for her plight. She has her baby, a boy named Drew, and she and Larry marry, raising the child as his own and never telling the boy of his real father. Meanwhile, in an Austrian hospital, a horribly wounded and disfigured American officer (Welles) without any identification insists to the doctor treating him (John Wengraf) that he be allowed to die. The doctor saves his life, but the shock of his injuries and the strain of his recovery causes him to lose his memory, and he ends up adopting a new identity. Cut to 1939, and the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe. Drew (Richard Long) is about to graduate from college and wants to join his fraternity brothers, who are planning on going to Canada, signing up with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and heading to England to fly against the Germans. Drew is not yet 21, however, and needs the permission of his parents, but Elizabeth is appalled by the notion of losing Drew to war the same way that she lost John.

Into their family comes a visitor, Erich Kessler (Welles), a crippled, ailing Austrian refugee and chemical expert hired by Hamilton's company, who arrives in Baltimore with his young daughter Margaret (Natalie Wood). Kessler starts to recognize places in the city, including the home where Elizabeth lived, and when they meet, despite her discomfort at having an Austrian army veteran in the house, she does her best to welcome him. Elizabeth also starts to notice little aspects of Kessler that remind her vaguely of John. But much as she is haunted by these strange similarities, she is appalled when Kessler seems to encourage Drew to pursue his goal of fighting the Nazis. Even Kessler's presence in their home, despite his genial and deferential manner, is a vexation to Elizabeth, bringing the horror of the war and what the Nazis represent into their midst and making Drew even more fervent in his desire to join up and fight. When Margaret displays terrible fears and nightmares, it comes out that she isn't really Kessler's child at all, but the daughter of the doctor who saved his life (he and his wife had been executed by the Nazis).

Larry, meanwhile, must watch from the sidelines, not aware of Kessler's real identity and unable to resolve the conflict between his admiration for Drew's intentions and his love for his wife. When Drew decides to ignore his parents' wishes and go to Canada and enlist without their permission, Kessler follows and stops him (despite his own weakened condition), and brings the young man home. A confrontation ensues upon their return, and Kessler explains to her that, whomever she thinks he might have been, the past has passed. Elizabeth finds the strength and courage to face the future, and the coming of the new war and what it may bring. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Based on the prolific Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries, Sherlock Holmes is on the job again. This time the inmate of a British prison has incorporated stolen Bank of England engraving plates into a series of music boxes he has made and multiple criminals are out to find them. Holmes must be first. It's a weak, thin plot for the final of the Holmes/Watson series but it is still a joy to see Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce working off one another. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Three years after its previous "Lone Wolf" entry Passport to Suez, Columbia Pictures revitalized the B-picture series with The Notorious Lone Wolf. Gerald Mohr succeeds Warren William in the role of jewel thief-turned-detective Michael Lanyard, while Eric Blore is back as Lanyard's faithful valet Jamison. Returning from WW2, Lanyard is immediately involved in another baffling case: Several priceless jewels have been stolen from a museum, and you-know-who is the most likely suspect. Racing against time-the theft occured on the eve of his reunion with the gorgeous Carla Winter (Janis Carter)-Lanyard follows the trail of clues to a group of kidnapped foreign dignitaries. The film's highlight finds Lanyard and Jamison disguising themselves as Arab potentates, complete with beards and turbans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Graham Greene novel was the source of the Warner Bros. espionage thriller Confidential Agent. Charles Boyer stars as Denard, a former concert musician operating as anti-Fascist secret agent in the Spanish Civil War. While negotiating with the neutral British for some much needed fuel supplies, Denard falls in love with gorgeous Rose Cullen (Lauren Bacall) Sympathetic to his cause, Rose helps Denard contend with such backstabbing villains as Contreras (Peter Lorre) and Mrs. Melandy (Katina Paxinou, who'd ironically won an Academy Award for her sympathetic potrayal in another Spanish Civil War drama, For Whom the Bell Tolls). Critics in 1945 liked Confidential Agent but trounced leading lady Lauren Bacall, suggesting that she was merely a pretty amateur who'd coasted to stardom via her associations with actor Humphrey Bogart and director Howard Hawks. At this point in her career, Bacall was inclined to agree with her detractors-though in time, she certainly proved them wrong. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures' entree into the swashbuckling genre was the opulent 18th century costumer The Fighting Guardsman. Willard Parker stars as Baron Francois de Sainte Hermaine, who is in reality the Robin Hoodlike righter-of-wrongs Roland. Robbing the wealth-laden coaches of King Louis XVI (Lloyd Corrigan), Roland redistributes the wealth to the poor and oppressed. Complicating his mission is the fact that Roland has fallen in love with French aristocrat Amelie de Montreval (Anita Louise), whose family is perceived to be enemies of "the people". Everything is resolved during the French Revolution, which in this instance seems to exist solely to straighten out the hero's love life. Were it not for the presence of such Columbia contractees as Edgar Buchanan and George Macready, The Fighting Guardsman might well have been taken for an MGM or Warners epic. Stock footage from Fighting Guardsman would pop up for years to come in the cheapie adventure films of producer Sam Katzman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most successful filmed biographies of the 1940s, A Song to Remember alleges to be the true story of Polish composer Frederick Chopin. Actually, it has about as much relation to truth as a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon, but with such gorgeous creatures as Cornel Wilde and Merle Oberon in the leads, who cared? Though Wilde, as Chopin, is the nominal lead, top billing goes to Paul Muni, hamming his way through the role of Chopin's mentor Professor Joseph Elsner. Reportedly, Muni developed his characterization long before shooting started, refusing to allow the performances of the other actors to alter his interpretation in the slightest. This may explain why Muni seems to be acting in a vacuum, frequently completely out of rhythm with the film and its characters. Otherwise, Cornel Wilde does a nice job as the tempestuous Chopin, whose patriotic fervency frequently takes priority over his music. Merle Oberon plays novelist George Sand, who despite her preference for male clothing proves to be "all woman" during her torrid, decade-long affair with Chopin. The film's money scene--the one that everyone talked about, keeping the picture "alive" long after its original release--occurs towards the end, when the tubercular Chopin begins hemorrhaging as he performs his Polonaise for the first time (Jose Iturbi is heard on the soundtrack, "doubling" for Wilde's ivory-tickling). Sumptuously photographed in Technicolor by Tony Gaudio and Allen M. Davey, A Song to Remember was the usually penurious Columbia Pictures' top production of 1945. Fifteen years later, the studio hoped to make lightning strike twice with its Franz Liszt biopic Song Without End, but the magic just wasn't there. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama is based on a Broadway play, One Against Seven, which in turn is based on the Russian play Pobyeda. Set during WW II, it centers on a Russian officer, a Russian woman, and seven German soldiers who have been trapped in the ruined cellar of a bombed out factory in a Nazi-controlled town. While waiting for someone to rescue them, the two Russians try to keep the Germans away. Eventually the Russian officer begins toying with a German officer and vice versa as both seek to extract information from the other. The Russian lets on that his troops are planning to construct a tunnel beneath the river. The woman is appalled at this betrayal of information, but her companion reassures her that he can kill the enemy before they have time to share that information. But first they need to get rescued. As time slowly passes, the tension increases, especially when the Russian finds himself falling asleep. The film was made during the brief period after WW II when Russia and the US were allies and the political overtones of the film were unintentional. Later, with the advent of the Cold War, many of the actors who participated in this film were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and accused of being communist sympathizers and some were blacklisted. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Strange Confession was the fourth in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" B-picture series, all of which starred Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney plays an idealistic writer who allows himself to be used by a politically ambitious publishing mogul (J. Carroll Naish). Not only does the publisher distort the sociological content of Chaney's works for his own purposes, but he also steals the writer's wife (Brenda Joyce). Chaney exacts a grisly revenge and turns himself over to the police. This is a scene-for-scene remake of the 1934 Claude Rains vehicle, The Man who Reclaimed His Head, which in turn was based on a play by Jean Bart. Universal was forced to completely withdraw the remake from theatrical and TV distribution when the studio realized that it no longer controlled the rights to the original Bart play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This 1940s drama implies that children do indeed learn what they live as it tells the story of a teenage girl who runs away from her posh boarding school to be with her ne'er-do-well, blue-collar boy friend because she believes her wealthy parents do not care about her. Soon the idle kids are getting into minor trouble that turns major when they find themselves accused of murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in a brooding old home, this musical mystery chronicles the endeavors of a young couple attempt to solve a mysterious murder that occurred there. The victim was the first husband of the new bride. The groom was the victim's best friend. After the murder, the house was abandoned and rumors abounded that the place was haunted. The couple are determined to quell the rumors and solve the mystery themselves while holding a housewarming party. Unfortunately, soon after the guests arrive, the murders begin. Murder in the Blue Room was filmed twice before as The Missing Guest and Secret of the Blue Room. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This mystery is set upon the mighty Mississippi and within the dark bayous of Louisiana. Originally it was a 13- episode serial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide