An Act Of Murder
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An Act Of Murder
''An Act of Murder'' (also known as ''Live Today for Tomorrow'' and ''I Stand Accused'') is a 1948 American film noir directed by Michael Gordon and starring Fredric March, Edmond O'Brien, Florence Eldridge, and Geraldine Brooks. It was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Calvin Cooke, a principled but stubborn judge, presides over a murder case in which lawyer David Douglas is unsuccessful in proving that his client's state of mind was a mitigating factor. Cooke's daughter Ellie complains to her mother Cathy about how unyielding her father can be; Cathy insists that he is a loving husband. Anyway, it is their 20th wedding anniversary and she is planning to celebrate with friends at their house. Cooke does not know that Ellie (herself a law student) and Douglas are romantically involved until Douglas arrives during the party to take her on a date. Cooke and Douglas exchange sharp words of disagreement about their philosophies of the law. At the party, Cathy tal ...
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Michael Gordon (film Director)
Michael Gordon (born Irving Kunin Gordon; September 6, 1909 – April 29, 1993) was an American stage actor and stage and film director. Life and career Gordon was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Jewish parents: Paul Luis Gordon (1876-1957), who was born in Lithuania, and Eva "Rachel" Kuhen (1885-1940), who was born in Russia. Michael was the second of three boys born to the Gordon family; first born was Bertram Ira Gordon (1914-1985), who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, and the third born was Leo Allenby Gordon (1919-2005). Michael Gordon was a member of the Group Theatre (New York), Group Theatre (1935–1940), and was blacklisted as a Communism, Communist in the Joseph McCarthy, McCarthy McCarthyism, era. He later joined the faculty of the UCLA Theater Department. Gordon summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut. Pinebrook is best known for becoming the summer home of the Group Theatre. As a result of being blacklisted, Gordon's Hollywood career ...
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Will Wright (actor)
William Henry Wright (March 26, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an American actor.Obituary ''Variety'', June 27, 1962, p. 52. He was frequently cast in Westerns and as a curmudgeonly and argumentative old man. Over the course of his career, Wright appeared in more than 200 film and television roles. Career Born in San Francisco, Wright worked as a newspaperman before beginning a career in show business. He started his acting career in vaudeville and later moved to the stage. While on the NY stages, he picked up some film roles at Vitaphone Studios in Brooklyn; one confirmed sighting is in the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy short subject ''Pure Feud'' (1934) as 'Lem'. Wright also worked in radio, appearing in more than 5,000 radio programs. His radio performances have included Zeb on ''Al Pearce and His Gang'', George Honeywell in ''My Little Margie'', Mahoney on '' Glamour Manor'' and the title character, Ephraim Tutt in ''The Amazing Mr. Tutt''. He has also guest starred on ...
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American Crime Films
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * B ...
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1940s English-language Films
Year 194 ( CXCIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Septimius and Septimius (or, less frequently, year 947 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 194 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus and Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus Caesar become Roman Consuls. * Battle of Issus: Septimius Severus marches with his army (12 legions) to Cilicia, and defeats Pescennius Niger, Roman governor of Syria. Pescennius retreats to Antioch, and is executed by Severus' troops. * Septimius Severus besieges Byzantium (194–196); the city walls suffer extensive damage. Asia * Battle of Yan Province: Warlords Cao Cao and Lü Bu fight for control over Yan Province; the battle lasts for over 100 da ...
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1948 Crime Films
Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British Railways. * January 4 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic, named the ''Union of Burma'', with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President, and U Nu its first Prime Minister. * January 5 ** Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (''Tournament of Roses Parade'' and the '' Rose Bowl Game''). ** The first Kinsey Report, ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'', is published in the United States. * January 7 – Mantell UFO incident: Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of an unidentified flying object. * January 12 – Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death in Delhi, to stop communal violence during the Partition of India. * January 1 ...
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1948 Films
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1948 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events * May 3 – The Supreme Court of the United States decide in ''United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.'' holding that the practice of block booking and ownership of theater chains by film studios constituted anti-competitive and monopolistic trade practices. * Laurence Olivier's ''Hamlet'' becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture. Awards Top ten money making stars Notable films released in 1948 United States unless stated # *''3 Godfathers'', starring John Wayne A *''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'', starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello *''Act of Violence'', starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh *''Adventures of Don Juan'', starring Errol Flynn *''Albuquerque'', starring Randolph Scott and Barbara Britton *''The Amazing Mr. X'', starring T ...
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Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal. Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour, Universal is the oldest surviving film studio in the United States; the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont, Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film; and the oldest member of Hollywood's "Big Five" studios in terms of the overall film market. Its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. In 1962, the studio was acquired by MCA, which was re-launched as NBCUniversal in 2004. U ...
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Back To The Future
''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, the story follows Marty McFly (Fox), a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Emmett "Doc" Brown (Lloyd). While in the past, Marty inadvertently prevents his future parents from falling in love—threatening his existence—and is forced to reconcile the pair and somehow get back to the future. Gale and Zemeckis conceived the idea for ''Back to the Future'' in 1980. They were desperate for a successful film after numerous collaborative failures, but the project was rejected over 40 times by various studios because it was not considered raunchy enough to compete with the successful comedies of the era. A development deal was secured with Universal Pictures f ...
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Courthouse Square
Courthouse Square is a backlot located at the Universal Studios Lot in Universal City, California. The set is composed of several facades that form an archetypal United States, American town square with a courthouse as its centerpiece. The set was built for the 1948 film ''An Act of Murder'' and was featured as downtown Hill Valley (Back to the Future), Hill Valley in the Back to the Future (franchise), ''Back to the Future'' trilogy, as well as Kingston Falls in the ''Gremlins'' series. Prior to the ''Back to the Future'' series, the area was known as Mockingbird Square owing to its role in the film ''To Kill a Mockingbird (film), To Kill a Mockingbird''. It has been severely damaged by fire several times, including in 1957, 1990 and 2008. It was reconstructed after each incident. Fires A multiple-alarm fire, three-alarm fire broke out at the Universal back lot in the early morning hours on June 1, 2008. It was reported that Courthouse Square was destroyed, though the Courthou ...
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Frank Darien
Frank Darien (March 18, 1876 – October 20, 1955) was an American actor. He appeared in 225 films and between 1915 and 1951. Filmography References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Darien, Frank 1876 births 1955 deaths American male film actors Male actors from New Orleans 20th-century American male actors ...
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Clarence Muse
Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 – October 13, 1979) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, singer, and composer. He was the first African American to appear in a starring role in a film, 1929's ''Hearts in Dixie''. He acted for 50 years, and appeared in more than 150 films. He was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. Life and career Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Alexander and Mary Muse, he studied at Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for one year in 1908. He left because he believed he could not make a living in law as an African American. He later received an honorary doctorate of laws from Dickinson School of Law in 1978. By the 1920s Muse was acting in New York during the Harlem Renaissance with two Harlem theatres, Lincoln Players and Lafayette Players. While with the Lafayette Players, Muse worked under the management of producer Robert Levy on productions that helped black actors to gain prominence and resp ...
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Don Beddoe
Donald Theophilus Beddoe (July 1, 1903 – January 19, 1991) was an American character actor. Early years Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe was the son of Dan Beddoe, a Welsh classical singer, and his wife Mary. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with bachelor's and master's degrees and taught English for three years. Stage Beddoe gained much theatrical experience playing in stock theater in Boston, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He made his Broadway acting debut in 1929, receiving top billing (over a young Spencer Tracy) in ''Nigger Rich''. His other Broadway credits include ''Penny Arcade'' (1930), ''The Greeks Had a Word for It'' (1930), ''Sing High, Sing Low'' (1931), ''The Warrior's Husband'' (1932), ''Man Bites Dog'' (1933), ''The Blue Widow'' (1933), ''Birthright'' (1933), ''The Sky's the Limit'' (1934), ''Nowhere Bound'' (1935), ''First Lady'' (1935), ''Father Malachy's Miracle'' (1937), and ''Winged Victory'' (1943). Film After a ...
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