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Männer im Trenchcoat, Frauen im Pelz (2004)
Character: Self
Film noir, which enjoyed particular success in the 1930s and 1940s, is probably the most profound genre of classic Hollywood cinema. Eckhart Schmidt tries to show the background and developments and speaks, among others, with directors such as Richard Fleischer and Robert Wise as well as with "femme fatale" actresses. Filmmakers of the following generations explain how the style and themes of noir continue to shape cinema today.
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Dancing in Manhattan (1944)
Character: Valerie Crawford
In this comedy, a garbage truck driver stumbles across $5,000. He decides to use the money for a wild night on the town. He and his girlfriend do not know that the money represents the spoils of a blackmailer's scheme.
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Lady Chaser (1946)
Character: Inez Marie Polk/Palmer
A poisoned aspirin creates headaches for a woman who received the deadly pill from a stranger, then passed it on to her uncle.
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Klondike Kate (1943)
Character: Kathleen O'Day
A young man in Alaska finds himself accused of murder, and must fight to clear his name.
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The Dark Horse (1946)
Character: Mary Burton
This 1946 film stars Phillip Terry as a war veteran, who is persuaded by machine politico Donald MacBride to run for alderman. Ann Savage plays the "honest government functionary" with whom the hero falls in love. Terry finds that disreputable politicians are using his war record to push through some shady legislation, so he renounces these hacks.
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Satan's Cradle (1949)
Character: Lil
Satan's Cradle was the fourth of producer Phil Krasne's "Cisco Kid" programmers for United Artists. This time, Cisco takes on a frontier megalomaniac, shyster lawyer Steve Gentry, who has taken over a mining town. Gentry's confederate is dancehall girl Lil who is as deadly as she is beautiful. When itinerant preacher Henry Lane is beaten to a pulp by Gentry's goons, Cisco and Pancho move in for the kill.
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Dangerous Blondes (1943)
Character: Erika McCormick
Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them. They get a chance when killings plague the fashion photography studio of Ralph McCormick (Edmund Lowe). After his secretary, Julie Taylor(Anita Louise) reports an attempt to murder her there, Erika McCormick's (Ann Savage) Aunt Isabel Fleming (Mary Forbes) is stabbed and the evidence points to Madge Lawrence (Bess Flowers) an older model and an apparent suicide. Police Inspector Joseph Clinton (Frank Craven) declares the case closed...but then Erika is murdered.
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Two-Man Submarine (1944)
Character: Pat Benson
Medical researchers Jerry Evans and Walt Hedges are assigned by a pharmaceutical company to work at a secret laboratory on a remote South Pacific Island in order to produce penicillium, the mold from which the magic drug penicillin is derived.
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The Last Horseman (1944)
Character: Judy Ware
Former Hopalong Cassidy sidekick Russell Hayden retains his nickname of Lucky in this average entry in his short-lived starring series for Columbia.
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My Winnipeg (2008)
Character: Mother
The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg, is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s film. Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this work, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome.
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Jungle Flight (1947)
Character: Laurey Roberts
Kelly Jordan and Andy Melton are former AAF fliers operating a cargo service over the South American mountain ranges in order to get enough money to return to Texas and buy a commercial line.
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Scared Stiff (1945)
Character: Sally Warren
A meek reporter happens upon a murder, an escaped gangster and a stolen jade chess set.
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The More the Merrier (1943)
Character: Miss Dalton (uncredited)
It's World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere - especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter - creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.
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Footlight Glamour (1943)
Character: Vicki Wheeler
Mr. Dithers is trying to encourage a businessman to build a war-time manufacturing plant on land he owns while Dagwood tries to prevent the businessman from learning his daughter is involved in a local theatre production.
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The Spider (1945)
Character: Florence Cain
An ex-cop is suspected of murder after he is found with a dead woman. The private detective is on the run -- attempting to prove his innocence.
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One Dangerous Night (1943)
Character: Vivian
Reformed jewel thief the Lone Wolf investigates the murder of a playboy who was blackmailing three socialites.
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Ever Since Venus (1944)
Character: Janet Wilson
The American Beauty Association is about to hold its annual trade show in New York City and songwriter "Tiny" Lewis (Billy Gilbert) has just sold a song to Ina Ray Hutton ('Ina Ray Hutton'), the leader of an all-girl band headlining the show. Lewis shares an apartment with Bradley Miller ('Ross Hunter') and Michele (Fritz Feld), an artist, and Miller has just invented a non-staining lipstick called "Rosebud." Preparing to get a booth at the show, Miller is told by J. Webster Hackett (Alan Mowbray), a very devious "Cosmetics King,", intent on selling a big lipstick order to buyer Edgar Pomeroy (Thurston Hall), that it will cost him a $1000 to join the association and get a booth, which is about $999 more than Miller and his roomies have between them. But Miller's beauty-parlor girl friend, Janet Wilson ('Ann Savage'), meets factory-owner P. G. Grimble (Hugh Herbert), and money is soon no issue.
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The Unwritten Code (1944)
Character: Mary Lee Norris
The Unwritten Code is an offbeat, better-than-average Columbia wartime "B" picture. Though Ann Savage and Tom Neal are top-billed, the central character is supporting-actor Roland Varno. He plays a Nazi spy who sneaks into the U.S., hoping to release hundreds of German prisoners. He fails, but not until plenty of bullets have been spent. The most interesting aspect of The Unwritten Code is the casting of Savage and Neal as the "good" characters: in 1945, these two cult favorites would play the decidedly unsavory protagonists of the film noir classic Detour.
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What a Woman (1943)
Character: Jane Hughes
An author and a literary agent become involved after selling film rights to his racy book.
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Saddles and Sagebrush (1943)
Character: Ann Parker
Krag Sabine has aroused the wrath of all the ranchers by stealing their land with the aid of his henchmen, led by Ace Barco; when Lafe Martin objects, the outlaws shoot him down. Lucky Randall promises Ann Martin he will avenge her wounded father. He sets up headquarters on the Martin ranch and sends for Bob Merritt and his men, the Texas Playboys (Jesse Ashlock, Leon McAuliffe, Cotton Thompson, Junior Barnard and Luke Wills). Krag organizes his remaining men for an attack on the ranch. Lucky's men get the upper hand but Krag escapes with Ann as his hostage.
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Murder in Times Square (1943)
Character: Miss Ruth
An actor becomes a suspect in the murders of four New Yorkers injected with rattlesnake venom.
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Woman They Almost Lynched (1953)
Character: Glenda
Laying on the Missouri-Arkansas border, the neutral Border City, its female mayor and city council, take no side in the ongoing Civil War and they're prepared to hang any troublemaker, Yankee or Confederate, who stirs the townsfolk up.
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Los Angeles Plays Itself (2004)
Character: Vera in Detour (archive footage)
From its distinctive neighborhoods to its architectural homes, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to countless movies. In this dazzling work, Andersen takes viewers on a whirlwind tour through the metropolis' real and cinematic history, investigating the myriad stories and legends that have come to define it, and meticulously, judiciously revealing the real city that lives beneath.
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Passport to Suez (1943)
Character: Valerie King
The Lone Wolf goes undercover in Egypt to foil a Nazi plot to bomb and disable the Suez canal, which is vital to England's war effort.
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Pygmy Island (1950)
Character: Capt. Ann R. Kingsley
Jungle Jim searches for a female Army captain who's gone missing.
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Detour (1945)
Character: Vera
The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
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Apology for Murder (1945)
Character: Toni Kirkland
Head over heels in love with a stern and cold older businessman's young wife, a reporter is seduced into conspiring to murder him so she can inherit his estate, while pinning the murder on another businessman.
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Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943)
Character: Maria
The Two Senoritas from Chicago are Gloria and Maria. When their goofy pal Daisy Baker passes off a discarded Portuguese play manuscript as her own, producer Rupert Shannon agrees to bankroll the production. With stars in their eyes, Gloria and Maria pretend to be a pair of Portuguese musical comedy stars, thereby winning parts in the new production. The fun begins when the play's original authors sell the same manuscript to a rival producer.
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Pier 23 (1951)
Character: Ann Harmon
Pier 23 was one of three hour-long mysteries produced by Lippert Productions for both TV and theatrical release. Each of the three films was evenly divided into two half-hour "episodes," and each starred Hugh Beaumont as San Francisco-based amateur sleuth Dennis O'Brien. In Pier 23, O'Brien first tackles the case of a wrestler who has died of a suspicious heart attack after refusing to lose a match. He then agrees to help a priest talk an escaped criminal into returning to prison. The film's two-part structure leads to repetition and predictability, but it's fun to watch TV's "Ward Cleaver" making like Philip Marlowe.
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