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The Hidden Room
''Obsession'', released in the USA as ''The Hidden Room'', is a 1949 British crime film directed by Edward Dmytryk, based on the 1947 book ''A Man About a Dog'' by Alec Coppel, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. ''Obsession'' was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Clive Riordan, a wealthy London psychiatrist, learns that his wife Storm is cheating on him with an American, Bill Kronin. He resolves to get his revenge on both of them by committing the perfect murder of Kronin. Kidnapping Kronin at gunpoint, Riordan keeps him prisoner for months in a hidden room while authorities mount a search for the missing man. Riordan reveals to Kronin that he plans to kill him and dissolve his corpse in an acid bath to ensure no evidence remains to be found. Riordan's plot appears to be succeeding until a superintendent from Scotland Yard, Finsbury, visits the doctor's office enquiring about the case and hinting that he knows what Riordan is up to, having been tipped off ...
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Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for ''Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the McCarthy-era Red Scare. They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress. In 1951, however, Dmytryk testified to the HUAC and named individuals, including Arnold Manoff, whose careers were then destroyed for many years, to rehabilitate his own career. First hired again by independent producer Stanley Kramer in 1952, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1954), a critical and commercial success. The second-highest-grossing film of the year, it was nominated for Best Picture and several other awards at the 1955 Oscars. Dmytryk was nominated fo ...
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Naunton Wayne
Naunton Wayne (born Henry Wayne Davies, 22 June 1901 – 17 November 1970), was a Welsh character actor, born in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales. He was educated at Clifton College. His name was changed by deed poll in 1933. Stage actor His first London stage roles were in ''Streamline'' at the Palace in 1934 and in ''1066 and All That'' at the Strand in 1935 (where he provided comic continuity for other performers). His first full role was as Norman Weldon in ''Wise Tomorrow'' at The Lyric in 1937. He played Mortimer Brewster in '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' at the Strand for four years. He was a leading member of The Stage Golfing Society. From November 1956 he appeared in the long-running farce ''The Bride and the Bachelor'' at the Duchess Theatre. Film actor He became best known for his role as a supporting character, Caldicott, in the 1938 film version of '' The Lady Vanishes'', a role he repeated in three further films, alongside Basil Radford as his equally cricket-obsess ...
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John Haigh
John George Haigh (; 24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the Acid Bath Murderer, was an English serial killer convicted for the murder of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. Haigh battered to death or shot his victims and disposed of their bodies using sulphuric acid before forging their signatures so he could sell their possessions and collect large sums of money. His actions were the subject of the television film ''A Is for Acid''. Early life John Haigh was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and raised in the village of Outwood, West Riding of Yorkshire. His parents were engineer John Robert Haigh and his wife Emily (née Hudson), members of the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative Protestant sect. Haigh later claimed that he suffered from recurring religious nightmares in his childhood. He developed great proficiency at the piano, which he learned at home. He was fond of classical music and often attended concerts. Haigh won a scholarship to ...
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House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having either fascist or communist ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1945, and from 1969 onwards it was known as the House Committee on Internal Security. When the House abolished the committee in 1975, its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee. The committee's anti-communist investigations are often associated with McCarthyism, although Joseph McCarthy himself (as a U.S. Senator) had no direct involvement with the House committee. McCarthy was the chairman of the Government Operations Committee and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate, not the House. Hi ...
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John Wexley
John Wexley (1907 – February 4, 1985) was an American writer, best known for his play ''The Last Mile''. Early life and career Wexley was born in New York City. His early career involved acting as part of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre. Theatre In 1930, Wexley wrote the play ''The Last Mile'', one of the most prominent "prison dramas" of the 1930s. Brooks Atkinson of ''The New York Times'' called it "a taut, searing drama" and "an evening of nerve-racking tension in the theatre". A Pacific coast production was produced by Lillian Albertson at the Majestic Theatre in Los Angeles, and it was adapted for the screen in 1932 and 1959. In 1934, he wrote another play titled '' They Shall Not Die'', a dramatization of the Scottsboro case and trials. First performed at the Royale Theatre in March 1934, Brooks Atkinson described it as "a play of terrifying and courageous bluntness of statement". A film adaptation was planned in 1950 by Charles K. Feldman, with Wexley having ...
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Norman Krasna
Norman Krasna (November 7, 1909 – November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned Screwball comedy film, screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films during a forty-year career in Hollywood, California, Hollywood. He garnered four Academy Awards, Academy Award screenwriting nominations, winning once for 1943's ''Princess O'Rourke'', which he also directed. Biography Early life Krasna was born in Queens, New York City. He attended Columbia University and St. John's University (New York City), St John's University School of Law, working at Macy's Department Store during the day. He wanted to get into journalism and talked his way into a job as a copy boy for the Sunday feature department of the ''New York World'' in 1928. (He worked with Lewis Weitzenkorn who turned Krasna into a character in the play ''Five Star Final''.) He quit law school, worked his way up to being a drama critic, a ...
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Four Hours To Kill
''Four Hours to Kill!'' is a 1935 American drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Richard Barthelmess. Plot Taft, a policeman, has fugitive murderer Tony Mako in custody and in handcuffs, two thousand miles from the prison from which Mako escaped. With four hours to kill, Taft takes his prisoner to a theater where the cop's wife, Mae, is a hostess. Mae is an unfaithful schemer. She is trying to extort $200 from coat-check kid Eddie, insinuating she is pregnant. Eddie doesn't want his fiancee Helen to hear this, true or otherwise, so he tries to raise the money to pay Mae's blackmail. Eddie is also suspected of stealing an expensive piece of jewelry. Mako made the journey this far in the hope of gaining revenge against Anderson, a man who informed on him. After telling Taft he would prefer a quick death to a painful execution, Mako breaks free and shoots Anderson before being shot by Taft, dying the kind of death he wanted. Eddie is cleared and now free to marry Hel ...
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The Truth (Sydney Newspaper)
''Truth'' was a newspaper published in Sydney, Australia. It was founded in August 1890 by William Nicholas Willis and its first editor was Adolphus Taylor. In 1891 it claimed to be "The organ of radical democracy and Australian National Independence" and advocated "a republican Commonwealth created by the will of the whole people", but from its early days it was mainly a scandal sheet. Subsequent owners included Adolphus Taylor, Paddy Crick and John Norton. Norton established several subsidiaries, including the ''Sportsman'' (1900), the '' Brisbane Truth'' (1900), the Melbourne ''Truth'' (1902) and the Perth ''Truth'' (1903 to 1931), and an Adelaide ''Truth'' (1916-1964)''.'' Ezra Norton Although John Norton disinherited his estranged wife, Ada Norton and his son Ezra Norton at his death in 1916 (with the bulk of his estate going to his daughter, Joan), Mrs Norton persuaded the New South Wales Parliament to backdate the new ''Testator's Family Maintenance Act'' to tak ...
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The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia and "the most widely-read masthead in the country." The newspaper is published in compact print form from Monday to Saturday as ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' and on Sunday as its sister newspaper, '' The Sun-Herald'' and digitally as an online site and app, seven days a week. It is considered a newspaper of record for Australia. The print edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' is available for purchase from many retail outlets throughout the Sydney metropolitan area, most parts of regional New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South East Queensland. Overview ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' publishes a variety of supplements, including the magazines ''Good Weekend'' (included in the Saturday edition of ''The ...
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Sam Kydd
Samuel John Kydd (15 February 1915 – 26 March 1982) was a British-Irish actor. His best-known roles were in two major British television series of the 1960s, as the smuggler Orlando O'Connor in ''Crane'' and its sequel '' Orlando''. He also played a recurring character in ''Coronation Street''. Kydd's first film was '' The Captive Heart'' (1946), in which he played a POW. He made over 290 films, more than any other British actor, including 119 between 1946 and 1952. Early life and career An army officer's son, Kydd was born on 15 February 1915 in Belfast, Ireland, and moved to London as a child. He was educated at Dunstable School in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. During the mid-1930s Kydd was an MC for the Oscar Rabin Band and one of his "Hot Shots". He would warm up audiences with jokes and impressions (Maurice Chevalier was a favourite) and even some tap dance routines then introduce the other singers and attractions on the bill. During the late 1930s he had joined the T ...
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Russell Waters
Russell Waters (born 10 June 1908, Glasgow, Lanarkshire – died 19 August 1982, Richmond, Surrey) was a Scottish film actor. Waters was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School, Glasgow and the University of Glasgow. He began acting with the Old English Comedy and Shakespeare Company then appeared in repertory theatre, at the Old Vic and in the West End. On screen Waters generally found himself playing mild mannered characters. Waters played the leading man in Richard Massingham's amusing instructional short subjects, among them ''Tell Me If It Hurts'' (1936), ''And So Work'' (1937), ''The Daily Round'' (1947) and ''What a Life!'' (1948). In feature films, Waters played secondary roles such as Craggs in '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1949), Mr. West in '' The Happiest Days of Your Life'', Palmer in '' Chance of a Lifetime'' and "Wings" Cameron in '' The Wooden Horse'' (all three in 1950). In later years, Waters was briefly seen as the Harbour master in '' The Wicker Man'' (1973), and ...
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Olga Lindo
Olga Lindo (13 July 1899 – 7 May 1968) was an English actress. She was the daughter of Frank Lindo, a well-known actor, manager and author. She made her stage debut at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 26 December 1913. She later joined her father's touring company in a range of roles. For Basil Dean she appeared in '' R.U.R'' in 1923, and in 1925 she gave what ''The Times'' described as a formidable performance as Sadie Thompson in Maugham's ''Rain'' at the Garrick Theatre. She toured in South Africa in 1930 and 1934 in a variety of parts. Her repertoire ranged from the classics to farce. In 1935 she played Abigail Hill in Norman Ginsbury's historical work ''Viceroy Sarah''. She also acted in films. Partial filmography * '' The Shadow Between'' (1931) - Nell Baker * '' Royal Cavalcade'' (1935) - Tourist * '' The Case of Gabriel Perry'' (1935) - Mrs. Perry * '' Dark World'' (1935) - Eleanor * '' The Last Journey'' (1936) - Mrs. Holt * '' A Romance in Flanders'' (1937) ...
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