Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz spins a true story from World War II into a smart, ironic drama of spies and espionage.
Tag: Michael Rennie
‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ – the original science fiction classic
The original The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) remains the most thoughtful of the first contact films. Michael Rennie makes a striking American film debut as Klaatu, the well-spoken stranger from outer space who lands his saucer in Washington D.C. to speak to the world’s leaders. They shoot first, of course, and Klaatu escapes […]
The original ‘The Wicked Lady’ on VOD
Wicked is the operative term in The Wicked Lady (1945), an outsized, overwrought, gleefully excessive Gothic-pulp melodrama and the famous and most successful film made by the British studio Gainsborough. Margaret Lockwood takes title billing as the dark-hearted friend to the very model of generosity (played by Patricia Roc) and she begins the film by […]