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Writer Don Birnam (Ray Milland) is on the wagon. Sober for only a few days, Don is supposed to be spending the weekend with his brother, Wick (Phillip Terry), but, eager for a drink, Don convinces his girlfriend (Jane Wyman) to take Wick to a show. Don, meanwhile, heads to his local bar and misses the train out of town. After recounting to the bartender (Howard da Silva) how he developed a drinking problem, Don goes on a weekend-long bender that just might prove to be his last. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Oct 20, 2022 - 4 comments

In the North African campaign a British straggler manages to pass himself off as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use. [more inside]
posted by Carillon on Jul 10, 2022 - 1 comment

Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.
posted by latkes on Oct 9, 2017 - 19 comments

When two escaping American World War II prisoners are killed, the German POW camp barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Jun 11, 2016 - 4 comments

A crooked lawyer persuades his brother-in-law to feign a serious injury. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on May 8, 2016 - 1 comment

When a bored Holmes eagerly takes the case of Gabrielle Valladon after an attempt on her life, the search for her missing husband leads to Loch Ness and the legendary monster. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Apr 18, 2016 - 2 comments

When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Sep 22, 2015 - 14 comments

This film-noir stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman, Barbara Stanwyck as a housewife who wishes her husband were dead, and Edward G. Robinson as a claims adjuster whose job is to find phony claims. The term "double indemnity" refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that doubles the payout in cases when death is caused while riding a railway or other public transport means. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Aug 25, 2015 - 17 comments

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity. The screenwriter's ambivalence about their relationship and her unwillingness to let go leads to a situation of violence and madness. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Aug 18, 2015 - 56 comments

Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole is one of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter who washes up in dead-end Albuquerque, happens upon the scoop of a lifetime, and will do anything to keep getting the lurid headlines. Wilder’s follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé of the American media’s appetite for sensation that has gotten only more relevant with time. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Feb 6, 2015 - 8 comments

Billy Wilder's penultimate movie, co-written with I.A.L. Diamond: Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress out of retirement. [more inside]
posted by Gin and Broadband on Jan 19, 2015 - 2 comments