No Down Payment
No Down Payment is a 1957 film drama directed by Martin Ritt. It was scripted by Philip Yordan, who fronted for a uncredited and blacklisted Ben Maddow, is based on the novel of the same name by John McPartland. Featured is an all star cast, including Joanne Woodward, Sheree North, Tony Randall, Jeffrey Hunter, Cameron Mitchell, Pat Hingle. Set in a California subdivision, the story follows four couples who have bought homes and are neighbors. Among the problems facing the couples are alcoholism and promiscuity; the story revolves around the idea of "no down payment" and the over-extended nature of families' economic situation. Tony Randall is in a car salesman looking for a good time. Other issues include discrimination against a former war hero for lack of education. New to the city's Sunrise Hills subdivision, electrical engineer David Martin and wife Jean are welcomed by their neighbors, they include appliance store manager Herman Kreitzer, auto mechanic Troy Boone and car salesman Jerry Flagg, plus their wives.
Leola, the unhappy wife of Troy, wants to have a child. A war veteran, Troy has applied for the position of police chief, he refuses to discuss children. Drunk, Jerry awkwardly makes passes at the other men's wives, humiliating his own spouse, Isabelle, he is in debt, spending far too much on things he can't afford. He pressures a family to buy a car beyond their means. David has money problems. Jean urges him to go into sales, a more lucrative field, but he is a skilled engineer. Herman has a valued employee, who wants to move into Sunrise Hills with his wife like anybody else, but the racial bias of the time is obvious and Herman's wife dislikes the idea of risking the wrath of neighbors by giving Iko a reference. The city council's president, Herman must inform Troy that he can't be police chief due to a lack of education; the ill-tempered Troy gets drunk and sexually assaults David's wife Jean beats David badly when confronted by the angry husband. Leola decides to leave. Troy is accidentally pinned under a car, by the time it is lifted from him, he is dying in his wife's arms.
Leola drives out of town. Joanne Woodward as Leola Boone Sheree North as Isabelle Flagg Tony Randall as Jerry Flagg Jeffrey Hunter as David Martin Cameron Mitchell as Troy Boone Patricia Owens as Jean Martin Barbara Rush as Betty Kreitzer Pat Hingle as Herman Kreitzer Robert Harris as Markham Aki Aleong as Iko List of American films of 1957 No Down Payment on IMDb
Friendly Persuasion (1956 film)
Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 American Civil War drama film starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love. The screenplay was adapted by Michael Wilson from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, was directed by William Wyler; the film tells the story of a Quaker family in southern Indiana during the American Civil War and the way the war tests their pacifist beliefs. The film was released with no screenwriting credit because Wilson was on the Hollywood blacklist, his credit was restored in 1996. The film is set in Jennings County, Indiana in 1862. Jess Birdwell is a farmer and patriarch of the Birdwell family whose Quaker religion conflicts with his love for the worldly enjoyments of music and horse racing. Jess's wife Eliza, a Quaker minister, is religious and steadfast in her refusal to engage in violence. Jess's daughter Mattie wants to remain a Quaker but has fallen in love with dashing cavalry officer Gard Jordan, a love, against her mother's wishes.
Jess's youngest child "Little" Jess is a feisty child whose comical feud with his mother's pet goose causes her heartache. Jess's elder son Josh is torn between his hatred of violence and a conviction that to protect his family he must join the home guard and fight the invaders. We are introduced to the family via its youngest member, "Little" Jess, forever at war with his mother's pet goose; the story begins as an easygoing and humorous tale of Quakers trying to maintain their faith as they go to meeting on First Day. The mood shifts when the meeting is interrupted by a Union officer who asks how the Quaker men can stand by when their houses will be looted and their families terrorized by approaching Confederate troops; when confronted with the question of his being afraid to fight, Josh Birdwell responds that it might be the case. His honesty provokes the wrath of Purdy, a Quaker elder who condemns people who don't believe as he does; the film returns to its lighter tone as the Quakers try to maintain their ways, despite the temptations of amusements at a county fair, a new organ, but one is always reminded that the Confederate Army is drawing closer.
On a business trip, Jess acquires a new horse from the widow Hudspeth, is able to defeat Sam in their weekly horse race. One day, Jess is cultivating his fields and notices an immense cloud of smoke on the horizon produced by the burning of buildings. Josh soon tells them the neighboring community has been reduced to ash and corpses. Josh believes. Eliza tells him that by turning his back to their religion he's turning his back on her, but Jess sees things a different way. Josh finds himself on the front line of the battle to stop the advance of the raiders, fires his gun, is injured by the Confederates. Meanwhile, Jess is reluctant to fight, only picking up a rifle when the family horse gallops back to the farm riderless; when Confederates arrive, they loot the farm for food when only Eliza and the younger children are present. Sam Jordan is bushwhacked by a "Reb" and Jess struggles with the Confederate soldier and takes away his gun, but lets him go free and unhurt; each member of the family faces the question of whether it is right for a Christian to engage in violence.
Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell Dorothy McGuire as Eliza Birdwell Anthony Perkins as Josh Birdwell Richard Eyer as Little Jess Birdwell Robert Middleton as Sam Jordan Phyllis Love as Mattie Birdwell Peter Mark Richman as Gard Jordan Walter Catlett as Professor Quigley Richard Hale as Purdy Joel Fluellen as Enoch Theodore Newton as Major Harvey John Smith as Caleb Cope Marjorie Main as the widow Hudspeth Edna Skinner as Opal Hudspeth Marjorie Durant as Pearl Hudspeth Frances Farwell as Ruby Hudspeth The film was in development for eight years. Wyler had shot two documentaries in color in 1944, The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress and the uncredited The Fighting Lady, and in 1947, he shot Thunderbolt in color. The film's shooting location was moved from southern Indiana to a combination of a Republic studio and a San Fernando Valley estate, it still ended up costing over $3 million; the film went over budget to the point that Allied sold the foreign distribution rights to MGM to raise more funds.
Jessamyn West spent a year with the production as both as technical adviser. Her novel covered a forty-year span of the Birdwell family history and was plotless, so to make the movie effective, she arranged the sequences selected for filming around the Civil War vignette from the novel and compressed the whole into a single year, 1862, using the war as the central plot conflict, she created new characters to fill in for others that had to be deleted, wrote out Laban, the second eldest son of the novel, substituting a new character, Josh's friend Caleb Cope, as a two-scene surrogate. The character Mattie was a composite of the two surviving Birdwell daughters in the novel. Cooper expressed initial reservations to West about his character, noting that since in his pr
Ace in the Hole (1951 film)
Ace in the Hole known as The Big Carnival, is a 1951 American film noir starring Kirk Douglas as a cynical, disgraced reporter who stops at nothing to try to regain a job on a major newspaper. The film co-stars features Robert Arthur and Porter Hall, it marked a series of firsts for auteur Billy Wilder: it was the first time he was involved in a project as a writer and director. The story is a biting examination of the seedy relationship between the press, the news it reports and the manner in which it reports it; the film shows how a gullible public can be manipulated by the press. Without consulting Wilder, Paramount Pictures executive Y. Frank Freeman changed the title to The Big Carnival just prior to its release. Early television broadcasts retained that title, but when aired by Turner Classic Movies – and when released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in July 2007 – it reverted to Ace in the Hole. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally or aesthetically significant".
Chuck Tatum is a fiercely ambitious, self-centered, newly sober reporter whose career has fallen into notoriety and decline. He has come west to New Mexico from New York City in a broken down car, out of options; the charismatic Tatum talks his way into a reporting job with Boot, the publisher for the tiny Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin. Tatum asks if Mr. Boot would like to make $200 a week, saying "Mr. Boot, I'm a 250 dollar a week newspaperman. I can be had for $50." Boot brings Tatum on. However, he remains skeptical of his new hire. Tatum works there uneventfully for a year. While unhappily on assignment to cover a rattlesnake hunt, he learns about Leo Minosa, a local man who has become trapped in a cave collapse while gathering ancient Indian artifacts. Sensing a golden opportunity, Tatum manipulates the rescue effort, forming an alliance with Kretzer, an unscrupulous sheriff by depicting him favorably in the newspaper to ensure Kretzer re-election; the pair coerce the construction contractor charged with the rescue into drilling from above, rather than the quicker method of shoring up the existing passages, so that Tatum can prolong his own stay on the front pages of newspapers nationwide.
Tatum directs Kretzer to prevent any other reporters from encroaching on the story, keeping it as his exclusive. Lorraine, the victim's wife, goes along with the reporter's scheme, she is eager to leave Leo and their struggling business, a combination trading post and restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Thanks to the publicity Tatum generates, she experiences a financial windfall from thousands of tourists who come to witness the rescue. Herbie Cook, the newspaper's young photographer on assignment with Leo loses his idealism as he follows Tatum's lead and envisions himself selling pictures to Look or Life. Boot makes a surprise visit to Tatum and tries to talk some sense to him and Herbie but is rebuffed by Tatum, who quits on the spot, having sold the exclusive rights to his copy to a New York editor for $1000 per day and, more his old job back. Thousands flock to the town; the rescue site becomes an all day carnival with rides, entertainment and songs about Leo. Tatum begins drinking again.
He takes up with Lorraine and is greeted heroically by the crowd each time he returns from visiting Leo in the cave. After five days of drilling, things get worse. A visiting doctor diagnoses Leo with a grim bout of pneumonia, his only chance for survival is by being rescued in 12 hours. Remorseful, Tatum sends a news flash, saying that Leo will now be rescued by shoring up the cave walls during the 12 hour period, but when he speaks to the contractor, he learns that the vibration from drilling has made this impossible. Tatum's mistreatment of Lorraine reaches its boiling point with his physical and mental abuse, leaving her to stab him in self-defense with a pair of scissors, mortally wounding him. Tatum gets the local priest, takes him into the cave to administer the Last Rites. Leo subsequently passes and Tatum, guilt ridden over what's transpired, orders the crew to stop drilling. Tatum announces to the crowd publicly of Leo's telling them to pack up and leave. Subsequently, many of the reporters that have come to the town, former colleagues with contempt for Tatum immediately get on their newswires and report Leo's death.
As the carnival breaks down, the public packs up and moves out en masse, Lorraine is amongst the departing as she misses her bus and tries hitching a ride with one of the passing cars. Tatum has neglected to send copy to the New York editor, furious that other newspapers have hit the streets with the news about Leo. Tatum is fired and the rival reporters come to Tatum's room to gloat before he kicks them out. Drunk and dying, Tatum calls the editor and tries to confess to killing Leo by delaying the rescue, but the editor hangs up on him. Tatum corrals Herbie into leaving in their car and they reach the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin. Tatum makes a dramatic entrance into the paper's offices. Tatum asks him "How'd you like to make yourself a thousand dollars a day, Mr. Boot? I'm a thousand dollar a day newspaperman. You can have me for nothin'." Tatum falls dead to the floor. The film's plot was inspired by two real-life events; the first
Hour of the Wolf
Hour of the Wolf is a 1968 Swedish psychological horror film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann. The story explores the disappearance of fictional painter Johan Borg, who lived on an island with his wife Alma while plagued with frightening visions and insomnia. Bergman conceived much of the story as part of an unproduced screenplay, The Cannibals, which he abandoned to make the 1966 film Persona, he took inspiration from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute and E. T. A. Hoffmann's novella The Golden Pot, as well as some of his own nightmares. Principal photography took place at Hovs Hallar, Stockholm and Fårö. Themes include insanity as experienced by an artist and relationships, conveyed in a surreal style and with elements of folklore. Analysts have found allusions to werewolf legend. Authors have connected the work to Bergman's life and his relationship with Ullmann; the film was met with negative reviews in Sweden. In years Hour of the Wolf received positive reviews and was ranked one of the 50 greatest films made in a 2012 directors' poll by the British Film Institute.
The film was followed by The Passion of Anna. Ullmann won awards in 1968 for her performances in both Hour of the Shame. Painter Johan Borg and his pregnant young wife Alma live on the small island of Baltrum, he shares sketches with Alma of frightening visions he has had, begins to give them names, including the Birdman, the Insects, the Meat-Eaters, the Schoolmaster and the Lady With a Hat. As his insomnia grows worse, Alma stays awake by his side. One day, an elderly lady stops by the house and tells Alma to read Johan's diary, which he hides under his bed. Alma discovers that Johan is haunted not only by the real or imaginary strangers, but by images of his former lover, Veronica Vogler, she reads that Johan was approached by Baron von Merkens, who lives in a nearby castle. The painter and his wife visit their household. After dinner, the baron's wife shows the couple into her bedroom, where she has a portrait of Veronica by Johan. After they leave the castle, Alma expresses to Johan her fears of losing him to the demons, as well as her will to persevere if such were to happen.
One night, Alma again stays awake with Johan. He tells her of the "vargtimmen", during which, he says, most deaths occur, he recounts his childhood trauma of being locked into a closet where, as his parents said, a small person lived. He recalls a confrontation with a small boy while out fishing on the island, which culminated with him killing the boy. Alma is shocked by Johan's confessions. Heerbrand, one of von Merkens's guests, shows up at the couple's house to invite them to another party at the castle, adding that Veronica Vogler is among the invitees, he places a pistol on the table, for protection against "small animals", leaves. Johan and Alma begin quarreling over his obsession with Veronica. Johan picks up the pistol, shoots Alma and runs to the castle. Johan attends the party; the baron's guests are revealed to be the demons. As he rushes through the castle searching for Veronica, he meets Lindhorst, who applies cosmetics to his pale face and dresses him in a silk robe, he leads Johan to her.
Johan finds Veronica. Johan is physically attacked by the flees into underbrush. Alma, injured by one of the shots but is only left with a scar, searches the forest for her husband, she witnesses the attacks on him before he disappears, leaving her alone in the woods. Alma shares her story and her husband's diary, she wonders whether the fact that she and Johan lived together for so long and became so similar was why she could see his Man-Eaters, whether she would have been better able to protect him if she had loved him less, or more. The cast includes: Inspirations for the story included Bergman's recurring nightmares, featuring a woman who took off her own face and an entity that walked on ceilings. Johan's description of being locked in a closet as a boy was based on Bergman's childhood. An external influence was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute, with the opera's character Papageno transformed into an evil Birdman. Bergman's interpretation of The Magic Flute is echoed through his character Lindhorst.
Bergman credited German author E. T. A. Hoffmann as an additional major influence. Elements of the story originated from Bergman's manuscript The Cannibals or The Maneaters, which he finished in 1964 and planned to shoot on Hallands Väderö. Bergman abandoned The Cannibals due to pneumonia, after which he directed Persona instead. Following Persona, he decided to make a reworked version of The Cannibals, under the new title Hour of the Wolf; the term was defined by Bergman in an explanatory note in his screenplay: The hour between night and dawn... when most people die, sleep is deepest, nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their worst anguish, when ghosts and demons are most powerful; the hour of the wolf is the hour when most babies are born. According to Professor Birgitta Steene, the title is drawn from Swedish folklore, where the "hour of the wolf" refers to the period from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. when the most deaths and births occur. Folklorist Bengt af Klintberg recalled that in 1964, Bergman tasked theatre manager Niklas Brunius to research legend about the hour, Brunius asked K
Greer Garson
Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson, was a British-American actress popular during the Second World War, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top-ten box office draws from 1942 to 1946. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record-tying five consecutive nominations for acting and all in the Best Actress category, winning the award for Mrs. Miniver. Greer Garson was born on 29 September 1904 in Manor Park, East Ham in Essex, now part of London, the only child of Nina and George Garson, a commercial clerk in a London importing business, her father was born in London to Scottish parents, her mother was born at Drumalore, a townland near Belturbet in County Cavan, Ireland. The name "Greer" is another family name, her maternal grandfather was David Greer from Kilrea, County Londonderry, an RIC sergeant stationed for a time in Castlewellan, County Down. In the 1870s or 1880s, he became a land steward to the Annesley family, wealthy landlords who built the town of Castlewellan.
While he lived in Castlewellan, David Greer lived in a large detached house built on the lower part of what was known as Pig Street, or known locally as the Back Way, near Shilliday's builder's yard. The house was called "Claremount", today the street is named Claremount Avenue, it was reported erroneously that Greer Garson was born in this house. Garson was educated at King's College and the University of Grenoble, where she earned degrees in French and 18th-century literature. While aspiring to be an actress, she worked at an advertising agency as a company secretary along with George Sanders, who wrote in his autobiography that it was Garson who suggested he take up a career in acting. Greer Garson's early professional appearances were on stage, starting at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in January 1932 when she was 27 years old, she appeared on television during its earliest years, most notably starring in a 30-minute production of an excerpt of Twelfth Night in May 1937 with Dorothy Black.
These live transmissions were part of the BBC's experimental service from Alexandra Palace, this is the first known instance of a Shakespeare play performed on television. Louis B. Mayer discovered Garson. Garson was signed to a contract with MGM in late 1937 but did not begin work on her first film, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, until late 1938, she received her first Oscar nomination for the role but lost to Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind. She received critical acclaim the next year for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1940 film and Prejudice. Garson starred with Joan Crawford in When Ladies Meet in 1941 and that same year became a major box-office star with the sentimental Technicolor drama Blossoms in the Dust, which brought her the first of five consecutive Best Actress Oscar nominations, tying Bette Davis's 1938–1942 record, which still stands. Garson won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1942 for her role as a strong British wife and mother in the middle of World War II in Mrs. Miniver.
The Guinness Book of World Records credits her with the longest Oscar acceptance speech, at five minutes and 30 seconds, after which the Academy Awards instituted a time limit. In 1942, Garson co-starred in the powerful, dramatic film Random Harvest with Academy Award winner Ronald Colman. Set at the end of World War I with Ronald Colman as a shell-shocked, amnesiac soldier and Greer Garson as his love interest, Random Harvest received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, it lost to Mrs. Miniver, Garson won the Academy Award for that role. Colman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Random Harvest, Garson could not be nominated for her role in that movie because she was nominated for her title role in Mrs. Miniver. Garson was nominated for Madame Curie, Mrs. Parkington, The Valley of Decision, she co-starred with Walter Pidgeon making eight pictures with him: Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie, Mrs. Parkington, Julia Misbehaves, That Forsyte Woman, The Miniver Story, Scandal at Scourie.
Garson was partnered with Clark Gable after his return from war service in Adventure. The film was advertised with the catch-phrase "Gable's back, Garson's got him!". Gable argued for "He put the Arson in Garson". Garson's popularity declined somewhat in the late 1940s, but she remained a prominent film star until the mid-1950s. In 1951, she became a naturalised citizen of the United States, she made only a few films after her MGM contract expired in 1954. In 1958, she received a warm reception on Broadway in Auntie Mame, replacing Rosalind Russell, who had gone to Hollywood to make the film version. In 1960, Garson received her seventh and final Oscar nomination for Sunrise at Campobello in which she played Eleanor Roosevelt, this time losing to Elizabeth Taylor for BUtterfield 8. Greer was special guest on an episode of the TV series Father Knows Best playing herself. On 4 October 1956, Garson appeared with Reginald Gardiner as the first two guest stars of the series in the premiere of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
She appeared a
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