TopBilled
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Posts posted by TopBilled
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Barry, Patricia
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SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (1960)
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NATIONAL VELVET (1944)
Next: Bernard Nedell, Barbara Britton & Lon Chaney Jr.
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DAY OF THE OUTLAW (1959)
Next: Bandit
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KINGS ROW (1942)
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BABY FACE (1933)
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NEVER SAY GOODBYE (1946)
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FOLIES BERGERE DE PARIS (1935)
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Ziemann, Sonja
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IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949)
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PURSUED (1947)
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Today's neglected film is from 1959. It has aired twice on TCM.
Vince Edwards appeared in a series of modestly budgeted crime flicks for Columbia in the mid-to-late 1950s. One of the later entries, CITY OF FEAR, is among the best. It starts with a jolt. Edwards and a cohort are traveling down the road, having just stolen a canister of what they think is heroin. The pal is burning with fever and soon slumps over in the passenger seat, dead. This means more money for Edwards, who keeps on driving.
What Edwards does not realize and will eventually learn is that they haven’t lifted a canister of heroin, they took a canister of Cobalt-60. For those who don’t know, Cobalt-60 is a dangerous radioactive substance that kills people who come into direct contact with it. The canister is emitting high levels of radioactivity and causes anyone near the substance to become ill. Edwards starts to figure out how fatal the contents of the canister are after he becomes sick like his pal.
However, this is not just a story about the medical ramifications of radiation sickness. It is a story about how one man’s greed and stupidity not only puts himself at risk but a whole city. Along the way, he has encounters with several other people who also are exposed to the radioactive substance he’s carrying. They are all doomed.
It becomes a matter of public safety to stop Edwards and retrieve the contaminant in his possession. But because he often travels wearing a disguise, the task to apprehend Edwards is considerably difficult for a lieutenant (John Archer) and his men.
The film’s screenplay, by Steven Ritch and Robert Dillon, expertly weaves a tale of danger with increasing paranoia. The jazz on the soundtrack is imbued with somber tones to suggest the fate of these characters.
In some ways the picture reminds me of Columbia’s earlier hit THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK (1950). That time poor Evelyn Keyes was roaming around a large metropolitan area, dying from a deadly virus, exposing everyone she met to the same horrible outcome.
These types of scenarios are great at increasing tension and involving us as viewers. We can certainly imagine, in a world recently affected by Covid, what it means for a society to be at risk…struggling to remain safe. The other thing I find interesting about these types of stories is how through tragedy, people unite. A single threat ripples across a wide community, and it causes everyone to band together and take action.
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two thousand five hundred eightieth categoryExtreme cinema
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)
SALO OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (1975)
HOSTEL (2005) -
40 CARATS (1973)
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DUST BE MY DESTINY (1939)
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GRACE KELLY (1983) a TV movie starring Cheryl Ladd
Next: lots of scenery chewing
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UNDERTOW (1949)...SHAKEDOWN (1950)...BRIGHT VICTORY (1951)
Next: Tony Curtis & Piper Laurie
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HIGH NOON (1952)
Next: Spy
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Gioberti, Maggie -- played by Susan Sullivan on TV's Falcon Crest
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AT SWORD'S POINT (1952)
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Dan Duryea
*****
Who was in:
SWEETHEARTS (1938)
LET FREEDOM RING (1939)
BITTER SWEET (1940)
THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER (1941)
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943)
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Edmund Goulding & Bette Davis / George Brent
Next: HELLFIGHTERS (1968) and THE UNDEFEATED (1969)
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THE GREAT JEWEL ROBBER (1950)
Next: THE GREAT GATSBY (1949)
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YOU WERE MEANT FOR ME (1948)
Movies about women
in Games and Trivia
Posted
JUKE GIRL (1942)