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The Amazing Mr. X also known as The Spiritualist is a 1948 American film noir thriller film directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton.

Like Nightmare Alley (1947), this film tells the story of a phony spiritualist racket. The film is prominently featured in Alton’s book on cinematography Painting with Light (1949).

The film stars Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O’Donnell, and Richard Carlson. Eagle-Lion Films signed a contract with Carole Landis for the part played by Bari, but Landis committed suicide a few days before shooting began.

Two years after her husband’s death, Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) thinks she hears her late husband (Donald Curtis) calling out of the surf on the beach one night. She meets a tall dark man named Alexis (Turhan Bey) who seems to know all about her.

After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and her younger sister (Cathy O’Donnell) become enmeshed in the strange life of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper devilry than he had in mind.

Watch Classic Movie “The Amazing Mr. X”.

Summary: On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf…then meets a tall dark man, Alexis, who seems to know all about such things. After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and younger sister Janet become enmeshed in the eerie artifices of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper deviltry than he had in mind…

Starring: Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O’Donnell
Director: Bernard Vorhaus
Producer: Benjamin Stoloff
Writer: Crane Wilbur, Muriel Roy Bolton, Ian McLellan Hunter
Music: Alexander Laszlo
Cinematography: John Alton
Editor: Norman Colbert
Production Company: Ben Stoloff Productions
Distributor: Eagle-Lion Films

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His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, from an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur. This was the second time the play had been adapted for the screen, the first occasion being the 1931 film also called The Front Page.The major change in this version, introduced by Hawks, is that the role of Hildy Johnson is a woman.

The film stars Cary Grant as Walter Burns and Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson and features Ralph Bellamy as Bruce Baldwin.

The film was #19 on American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Laughs and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

IMDb Rating:8/10

Watch Classic Movie His Girl Friday.

Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is a hard-boiled editor for The Morning Post who learns his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildegard “Hildy” Johnson (Rosalind Russell), is about to marry bland insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and settle down to a quiet life as a wife and mother in Albany, New York. Walter determines to sabotage these plans, enticing the reluctant Hildy to cover one last story, the upcoming execution of convicted murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen).

Walter does everything he can to keep Hildy from leaving, including setting Bruce up so he gets arrested over and over again on trumped-up charges. He even kidnaps Hildy’s stern mother-in-law-to-be (Alma Kruger). When Williams escapes from the bumbling sheriff (Gene Lockhart) and practically falls into Hildy’s lap, the lure of a big scoop proves too much for her. She is so consumed with writing the story that she hardly notices as Bruce realizes his cause is hopeless and returns to Albany.

The crooked mayor (Clarence Kolb) and sheriff need the publicity from the execution to keep their jobs in an upcoming election, so when a messenger (Billy Gilbert) brings them a reprieve from the governor, they try to bribe the man to go away and return later, when it will be too late. Walter and Hildy find out in time to save Walter from being arrested for kidnapping.

Afterward, Walter offers to remarry Hildy, promising to take her on the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls, but then Walter learns that there is a newsworthy strike in Albany, which is on the way to Niagara Falls by train.

Starring: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Director: Howard Hawks
Producer: Howard Hawks
Screenplay: Charles Lederer
Based on The Front Page 1928 play by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
Music: Sidney Cutner, Felix Mills
Cinematography: Joseph Walker
Editor: Gene Havlick
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

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Kansas City Confidential is a 1952 American film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef and Jack Elam. The film was released in the United Kingdom as The Secret Four.

IMDb Rating:7.4/10

Watch Classic Movie Kansas City Confidential.

Summary: An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits.

Starring: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef
Director: Phil Karlson
Producer: Edward Small
Screenplay: George Bruce, Harry Essex
Story: Rowland Brown, Harold Greene
Music:Paul Sawtell
Cinematography: George E. Diskant
Editor: Buddy Small
Production Company: Associated Players and Producers
Distributor: United Artists

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Watch Classic Movie Detour an 1945 noir thriller film that stars Tom Neal and Ann Savage.

Chance events trap hitch-hiker Al Roberts in a tightening net of film noir trouble.

Starring: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Producer: Leon Fromkess
Screenplay: Martin Goldsmith
Based on the 1939 novel Detour: An Extraordinary Tale by Martin Goldsmith
Narrator: Tom Neal
Music: Leo Erdody
Cinematography: Benjamin H. Kline
Editor: George McGuire
Distributor: Producers Releasing Corporation, Peter Rodgers Organization

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Meet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

The film is about a “grassroots” political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man and pursued by the paper’s wealthy owner.

It became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. It was ranked #49 in AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Cheers. It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures.

IMDb Rating: 7.7/10

Watch Classic Movie Meet John Doe

Summary: A man needing money agrees to impersonate a nonexistent person who said he’d be committing suicide as a protest, and a political movement begins.

Starring: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck
Director: Frank Capra
Producer: Frank Capra
Screenplay: Robert Riskin
Story: Richard Connell, Robert Presnell, Sr.
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography: George Barnes
Editor: Daniel Mandell
Distributor: Warner Bros.

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Nothing Sacred is an American Technicolor screwball comedy film directed in 1937 by William A. Wellman, produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March. with a supporting cast featuring Charles Winninger and Walter Connolly. Ben Hecht was credited with the screenplay based on a story by James H. Street, and an array of additional writers, including Ring Lardner, Jr., Budd Schulberg, Dorothy Parker, Sidney Howard, Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman and Robert Carson made uncredited contributions.

The lush, Gershwinesque music score was by Oscar Levant, with additional music by Alfred Newman and Max Steiner and a swing number by Raymond Scott’s Quintette. The film was shot in Technicolor by W. Howard Greene and edited by James E. Newcom, and was a Selznick International Pictures production distributed by United Artists.

IMDb Rating:7.4/10

Watch Classic Movie Nothing Sacred an 1937 classic.

Summary: Hazel Flagg of Warsaw, Vermont receives the news that her terminal case of radium poisoning from a workplace incident was a complete misdiagnosis with mixed emotions. She is happy not to be dying, but she, who has never traveled the world, was going to use the money paid to her by her factory to go to New York in style. She believes her dreams can still be realized when Wally Cook arrives in town. He is a New York reporter with the Morning Star newspaper. He believes that Hazel’s valiant struggle concerning her impending death is just the type of story he needs to resurrect his name within reporting circles after a recent story he wrote led to scandal and a major demotion at the newspaper. He proposes to take Hazel to New York both to report on her story but also to provide her with a grand farewell to life. She accepts. Wally’s story results in Hazel becoming the toast of New York. In spending time together, Wally and Hazel fall in love. Hazel not only has to figure out what to do about her relationship with Wally, but also how to conclude her now very public story, which all of New York expects will be a public and imminent death. Others, however, may conclude the story for her.

Starring: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Walter Connolly
Director: William A. Wellman
Producer: David O. Selznick
Writer: Ben Hecht (screenplay)
Based on Letter to the Editor 1937 short story Cosmopolitan by James H. Street
Music: Oscar Levant
Cinematography: W. Howard Greene
Editor: James E. Newcom
Production Company: Selznick International
Distributor: United Artists

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