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Reviews
One Year Later (1933)
Well-done potboiler
Interesting little movie, starting with a young lovey-dovey couple just married, then all of a sudden the film jumps one year ahead and everything has changed. This works really well -- you are left wondering what the heck happened. Then the story slowly starts to fill in the missing pieces. Everything has gone wrong.
And just about all of the action takes place on s couple of train rides. That's right, the characters are all stuck together for a day or so, so you know things are going to happen. Those were the days -- if you want the train experience today, go to Europe or Asia.
OK, there are some weak moments. The movie uses the same tired old Hollywood script device -- a misunderstanding that the protagonist doesn't make any effort to explain. Now if you were a woman being harassed by your husband's boss, you wouldn't say anything to your husband? Really? And your husband wouldn't understand? OK, so let that one slide -- but it's a cheap plot device by the script writers when they could make it a bit more true-to-life.
Cash on Demand (1961)
Great little flic
What a nice little movie! Well-crafted, clever plot, wonderfully acted, genuinely dramatic. There is also a hint of Charles Dicken's "Christmas Carol" in this one if you watch closely*. That's all I'll say about the plot.
(*this was pointed out by a commentator on TCM).
City of Fear (1959)
Great only for the time and place
A completely awful film, from the wooden acting of the square-jawed, no-nonsense fat boys who are in search if the escapee, to the usual Hollywood plot device of not informing the public because "there will be mad panic!" (boy, has that one been milked over the years), to radioactivity that somehow leaves a contamination footprint behind even when the container was not opened. A lot of shots of police cars driving in formation, which I guess gives the appearance of men in action. But the low budget of this film meant a lot of actual street scenes of 1950s Hollywood, the cars, the stores, the people -- it is a nice time slip back a few decades, and fun to watch if for nothing else than the background.