Classic Flix has recently made some jaw-dropping titles available from the classic age of Hollywood. Spanning all genres, these new titles showcase terrific stars and unforgettable stories. Here’s a sampling of some of the, well, classic offerings that are waiting for you!
Mystery writer Janet Frobisher (Bette Davis) got an unannounced visit at her Yorkshire moors home from her estranged criminal husband Preston…and finally got him out of her life by slipping him a toxin. However, the next knock at the door came from Preston’s crooked cohort George Bates (Gary Merrill), looking for his cut of their bank job haul. Bates decided to recoup his losses by blackmailing Janet…but the wicked wordsmith has another plot twist in mind. Convoluted crime melodrama co-stars Emlyn Williams, Anthony Steel, Barbara Murray.
His friend and colleague murdered and the case unsolved, FBI agent John Ripley (Broderick Crawford) takes over the deceased agent’s caseload in hopes of tracking down his killer. Pushing through his three remaining cases, Ripley encounters a mobster, a gang of auto thieves, and a victim of blackmail…but will solving any of these cases bring him closer to the justice he seeks? With Ruth Roman, Kenneth Tobey, Martha Hyer, Marisa Pavan.
Upon entering a Western town, mild-mannered cowpoke Melody Jones (Gary Cooper) is mistaken for Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea), an ornery outlaw with a price on his head. Jones quickly wins the respect of the townsfolk, and the attention of Cherry de Longpre (Loretta Young), the real crook’s gal who just wants to use the unsuspecting Jones to help Jarrad evade capture. But who is the comely cowgirl meant to ride off into the sunset with? William Demarest also stars in this funny sagebrusher, based on the book “Useless Cowboy” by Alan Le May.
Based on a true case, this fine film noir details the Los Angeles Police Department’s search for a technically adept but mentally unbalanced thief who killed a policeman. With Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Whit Bissell, and Jack Webb, who supposedly based his “Dragnet” radio show on this movie; directed by Alfred Werker and (uncredited) Anthony Mann.
Scarred and disabled in battle in World War I, American soldier John Andrew MacDonald (Orson Welles) goes into hiding in Austria while his wife (Claudette Colbert), assuming her husband is dead, remarries factory owner Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent). Eventually, MacDonald is hired by Hamilton and returns to America to find his wife and the son he never knew. Moving melodrama also stars Richard Long and Natalie Wood (in her first credited screen role).
Rollicking, warm-hearted farce, based on the play by Floyd Dell and Thomas Mitchell, features Gary Cooper as Casanova Brown, a college English professor whose planned second marriage is halted upon the news that his first wife (Teresa Wright) has just given birth to their daughter. Upset over her plans to put the child up for adoption, Casanova grabs the baby and decides to raise her on his own. What could possibly go wrong? Anita Louise, Frank Morgan, Mary Treen also star.
Newspaper columnist Kathy Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) surprised all when she chucked her career to marry plainclothes cop Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden). Soon bored with housework and Bill’s lack of ambition, she turns to covert schemes of seduction and blackmail for his advancement…and when a superior reneges on a promise to promote her spouse, Kathy plans a fatal response. Late-cycle noir co-stars Fay Wray, Raymond Burr, Virginia Grey.
Knockout film noir follows Joe Sullivan (Dennis O’Keefe), a crook serving time after taking the rap for mob boss Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr). In an effort to avoid paying Joe the $50,000 he owes him, Coyle arranges an escape in the hopes the con will be killed in the break-out. But when Sullivan survives, he must settle his score with Coyle while getting caught in a dangerous love triangle with two beautiful women (Claire Trevor and Marsha Hunt). John Ireland co-stars; Anthony Mann directs.
Stalwart Treasury agents Dennis O’Brien (Dennis O’Keefe) and Tony Genaro (Alfred Ryder) drew the duty of going undercover and infiltrating a counterfeiting ring whose reach spreads from Detroit to L.A. The deeper they’re drawn into the operation, however, the less likely they’ll both get out alive. Anthony Mann’s superior, fact-inspired “B” crime drama co-stars Wallace Ford, June Lockhart, Charles McGraw, Jane Randolph.
Witless window washers Ted (Bud Abbott) and Tommy (Lou Costello) get strong-armed by bookie Nick Craig (Joseph Calleia) into acting as his bagmen for a $50,000 payback. Of course, they wind up losing most of it! Can they raise what’s missing in the 36 hours before an angry and armed Craig comes knocking? Caper comedy, buoyed by classic A&C routines like “Mudder and Fodder,” “You’re 40, She’s 10,” co-stars Cathy Downs, Leon Errol, Mike Mazurki.