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The Brasher Doubloon
''The Brasher Doubloon'' (known in the UK as ''The High Window'') is a 1947 American crime film noir directed by John Brahm and starring George Montgomery and Nancy Guild. It is based on the 1942 novel ''The High Window'' by Raymond Chandler. Fred MacMurray, Victor Mature, and Dana Andrews were all mentioned at different times as having been cast as Philip Marlowe in the film before the studio settled on George Montgomery, appearing in the final film of his 20th Century Fox contract. ''The High Window'' had already been adapted for film in 1942 as a Michael Shayne adventure starring Lloyd Nolan. Plot Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy widow Elizabeth Murdock to investigate the theft of a rare coin, the Brasher Doubloon, from her deceased husband's private collection. Believing the case to be a fairly routine one, Marlowe soon finds himself confronted by murder and a succession of shady characters and lethal crooks. The course of his investigation leads Marl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Brahm
John Brahm (August 17, 1893 – October 12, 1982) was a German film and television director. His films include ''The Undying Monster'' (1942), '' The Lodger'' (1944), ''Hangover Square'' (1945), ''The Locket'' (1946), ''The Brasher Doubloon'' (1947), and the 3D horror film, ''The Mad Magician'' (1954). Early life Brahm was born Hans Brahm in Hamburg, the son of actor Ludwig Brahm and his wife. His family was involved in theater; his paternal uncle was theatrical impresario Otto Brahm. Career Brahm started his career in the theatre as an actor. After World War I, he traveled and worked among the cities of Vienna, Berlin and Paris, which had the most artistic cultures of the time. He eventually became a director, and was appointed as resident director for acting troupes at the Deutsches Theater and the Lessing Theater, both in Berlin. With the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s, Brahm left the country, first moving to England. After working as a mov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op and Sam Spade first appeared. Marlowe first appeared under that name in ''The Big Sleep'', published in 1939. Chandler's early short story, short stories, published in pulp magazines such as ''Black Mask (magazine), Black Mask'' and ''Dime Detective'', featured similar characters with names like "Carmady" and "John Dalmas", starting in 1933. Some of those short stories were later combined and expanded into novels featuring Marlowe, a process Chandler called "cannibalization of fiction, cannibalizing", which is more commonly known in publishing as a fix-up. When the original stories were republished years later in the short-story collection ''The Simple Art of Murder'', Chandler did not change the names of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Sleep (1946 Film)
''The Big Sleep'' is a 1946 American film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of the 1939 novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results". William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay. Initially produced in late 1944, the film's release was delayed by over a year due to the studio wanting to release war films in anticipation of the end of World War II. A cut was released to servicemen overseas in 1945 shortly after its completion. During its delay, Bogart and Bacall married and Bacall was cast in '' Confidential Agent''. When the movie failed, reshoots were done in early 1946 meant to take advantage of the public's fascination with "Bogie and Bacall". The film was finally released by Warner Bros. on August 31, 1946. The film was a critical and commercial su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Indemnity
''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American crime film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novel of the same title, which appeared as an eight-part serial for ''Liberty'' magazine in February 1936. The film stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman, Barbara Stanwyck as a provocative housewife who is accused of killing her husband, 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 the death is accidental. Praised by many critics when first released, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but did not win any. Widely regarded as a classic, it often is cited as having set the standard for film noir. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder My Sweet
''Murder, My Sweet'' (released as ''Farewell, My Lovely'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement). The film is based on Raymond Chandler's 1940 novel ''Farewell, My Lovely''. It was the first film to feature Chandler's primary character, the hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe.Mller, Frank and Feaster, Felicia (ndg"Why 'Murder, My Sweet' Is Essential" (article)TCM.com ''Murder, My Sweet'' is, along with '' Double Indemnity'' (released five months prior), one of the first films noir, and a key influence in the development of the genre. Plot With his eyes bandaged, private detective Philip Marlowe is interrogated by police lieutenant Randall about two murders. Marlowe tells how he was hired by ex-con Moose Malloy to locate Malloy's former girlfriend Velma Valento. They go to Florian's, the nightclub where Velma last worked as a si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reed Hadley
Reed Hadley (born Reed Herring, June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American film, television and radio actor. Early life Hadley was born in Petrolia, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was reared in Buffalo, New York, where he attended and graduated from Bennett High School. Career Before moving to Hollywood, he acted in ''Hamlet'' on stage in New York City, a last-minute substitute for the scheduled actor who failed to appear to portray Fortinbras. Radio In the 1950s, Hadley played Chad Remington on '' Frontier Town''. He also was one of the actors who portrayed cowboy hero ''Red Ryder'' on the ''Red Ryder'' series during the 1940s. On September 16, 1950, Hadley was on Tales of the Texas Rangers episode Candy Man. Television Hadley starred in two television series, ''Racket Squad'' (1950–1953) as Captain Braddock, and ''The Public Defender'' (1954–1955) as Bart Matthews, a fictional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marvin Miller (actor)
Marvin Elliott Miller (born Marvin Mueller; July 18, 1913 – February 8, 1985) was an American actor. Possessing a deep baritone voice, he began his career in radio in St. Louis, Missouri before becoming a Hollywood actor. He is remembered for voicing Robby the Robot in the science fiction film ''Forbidden Planet'' (1956), a role he reprised in the lesser-known ''The Invisible Boy'' (1957). Miller's next most notable role is that of Michael Anthony, the loyal assistant of Paul Frees's generous billionaire John Beresford Tipton Jr., on the TV series '' The Millionaire'' (1955–1960). Career Radio and recordings Born in St. Louis, Miller graduated from Washington University before commencing his career in radio. When a singer named Marvin Miller debuted on another St. Louis radio station, he began using his middle initial to distinguish himself from the newcomer. For the Mutual Broadcasting System, he narrated a daily 15-minute radio show titled ''The Story Behind the Stor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence Bates
Florence Bates ( Rabe; April 15, 1888 - January 31, 1954), was an American film and stage character actress who often played grande dame characters in supporting roles. Life and career Bates was the second child born to Jewish immigrant parents, in San Antonio, Texas, where her father was the owner of an antique store. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in mathematics, after which she taught school. In 1909, she met and married her first husband, Joseph Ramer, and gave up her career to raise their daughter. When the marriage ended in divorce, she began to study law and, in 1914 at the age of 26, passed the bar examination. She was one of the first female lawyers in her home state and practiced law for four years in San Antonio. After the death of her parents, Bates left the legal profession to help her sister operate their father's antique business. She became a bilingual (English—Spanish) radio commentator whose program was designed to fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Kortner
Fritz Kortner (born Fritz Nathan Kohn; 12 May 1892 – 22 July 1970) was an Austrian stage and film actor and theatre director. Life and career Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn into a Jewish family. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating, he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and then Leopold Jessner in 1916. After his breakthrough performance in Ernst Toller's ''Transfiguration'' in 1919, he became one of Germany's best-known character actors and the nation's foremost performer of Expressionist works. He also appeared in over ninety films beginning in 1916. His specialty was in playing sinister and threatening roles, although he also appeared in the title role of '' Dreyfus'' (1930). He originally gained attention for his explosive energy on stage and his powerful voice, but as the 1920s progressed his work began to incorporate greater realism as he opted for a more controlled delivery and greater use of gestures. W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Roberts
Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones, March 19, 1906 – May 28, 1975) was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen. Life and career Born in Tampa, Florida, Roberts began his acting career on stage with a stock company there. He left the Tampa company after a year to perform in touring stock theater for five years. He first appeared on Broadway in May 1931 before making his motion picture debut in '' Gold Bricks'', a 1936 two-reel comedy short released by 20th Century-Fox. He appeared in numerous films in secondary parts and returned to perform on Broadway in such productions as ''Twentieth Century'', ''My Sister Eileen'', and '' Carnival in Flanders'' until he began making guest appearances on television series. After appearing on Gale Storm's ''My Little Margie'' in 1956, he became part of several television series. In a show that was the precursor to ''The Love Boat'', Roberts p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad Janis
Conrad Janis (February 11, 1928 – March 1, 2022) was a jazz trombonist and actor who starred in film and television during the Golden Age Era in the 1950s and 1960s. He played the role of Mindy McConnell's father, Frederick, on television's ''Mork & Mindy''. Early life Janis was born in Manhattan on February 11, 1928. His father, Sidney, was an art dealer and writer; his mother, Harriet (Grossman), was also a writer. He had one brother, Carroll.Uhl, Jin. "For Conrad Janis, Acting and Jazz Share the Spotlight", ''The Mississippi Rag'', pp. 1-9, September 2002, Bloomington, MN. Janis successfully auditioned for a road company at the age of 13 and consequently spent the next two years with them. He also began doing radio voice work during this time. Career Film and television Janis secured a role in the play '' Dark of the Moon'' during its pre-Broadway run, in which he was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout. He stayed with the production when it ran in New York City, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
