Beyond Tomorrow 1940  N/R, 84 min.
Genre: Drama / Fantasy / Romance
Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Cast: Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Winninger, Alex Melesh, Maria Ouspenskaya, Helen Vinson, Richard Carlson, Jean Parker, Rod La Rocque, J. Anthony Hughes, Robert Homans, William Bakewell, Virginia McMullen, James Bush, Gino Corrado
Three old, rich men (Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith, and Charles Winninger), who have been wrapped up in themselves all their lives, are lonely on Christmas, so they look for dinner guests. James and Jean (Richard Carlson and Jean Parker) are selected, and the couple falls in love. Later, tough times cause a parting of the ways. The three elderly men die in a plane wreck and return as spirits to help get the couple back together.
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Dr. Christian Meets the Women 1940  N/R, 65 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: William C. McGann
Cast: Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, Edgar Kennedy, Rod La Rocque, Frank Albertson, Lynn Merrick, Maude Eburne, Veda Ann Borg, Lelah Tyler, William Gould, Heinie Conklin, Phyllis Kennedy
Scam-artist "Professor" Kenneth Parker (Rod La Rocque) arrives in town to sell a miracle weight-loss pill, and sales are great despite the warnings from kindly Dr. Christian (Jean Hersholt). When the women become ill, Christian deals with Parker AND offers up a sensible diet. This is the third film in the series.
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International Crime 1938 N/R, 62 min.
Genre: Mystery
Director: Charles Lamont
Cast: Rod La Rocque, Astrid Allwyn, Thomas E. Jackson, Oscar O'Shea, Wilhelm von Brincken, William Pawley, Walter Bonn, Peter Potter, Lou Hearn, Tenen Holtz, John St. Polis, Jack Baxley
Based on the popular radio show, "The Shadow"–but without the ability to "cloud men's minds"–this film follows Lamont Cranston (Rod La Rocque), a radio and newspaper reporter, as he solves the murder of a banker.
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 Meet John Doe 1941   N/R, 123 min.
Genre: Drama / Comedy / Romance
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Brennan, Edward Arnold, James Gleason, Spring Byington, Gene Lockhart, Irving Bacon, Regis Toomey, Warren Hymer, J. Farrell MacDonald, Rod La Rocque, Harry Holman, Pierre Watkin, Andrew Tombes
Journalist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) has been fired from her newspaper job, and she thinks she has found the perfect way to get that job back by printing a fake letter from "John Doe" announcing that he is going to jump off City Hall on New Year's Eve. The stunt works, the newspaper's readership rises, John Doe gains incredible support, and Ann is rehired. Now, Ann must find someone to play "John Doe"–and she does in the form of a soft-spoken hobo, Long John Willoughby (Gary Cooper). His popularity rises, newspaper publisher D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold) puts John Doe on the radio to deliver inspirational speeches, and soon he is deeply involved in politics. But, the politics support those of fascist Norton who has a secret plan to become a dictator of the United States. Will Willoughby catch on in time to save the day? 1 User Review
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| | The darkest of the Frank Capra Films | 1fatts 07/22/2007 | It is the depression, and a failed baseball pitcher with a bum arm trying to get by in tough times, finds himself being trained by reporter Barbara Stanwyck to pretend to be John Doe, a symbol of the down-and-out who has promised to jump from the tallest building in town on New Year's Eve. Cooper as "Long John Willoughby" does "the decency of the simple man" quite wonderfully here. It's not as funny as "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", but more poignant for sure.
The movie is solid Capra, with a Robert Riskin screenplay. But there is a darkness here which other Capra films just hint at. Yes, John Doe doesn't commit suicide. (Love conquers all. Sorry.) But the mildly upbeat ending is artificial. The bad guys win, in effect. The little guys, whom John Doe comes to represent, really are outmatched, outsmarted and defeated by the power of crooked money and crooked politics.
When Capra did Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, he invited all the members of the Senate to a preivew. Hearing that the Senate was presented in something less than pure halo and glory, they stayed away in droves. But it is John Doe that is the real critique, hidden in a comic script and a romantic ending.
Real hollywood film buffs need to be conversant with Capra. This is the one that needs to be the center of the discussion of "The Optimistic Vision of Frank Capra". |
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S.O.S. Iceberg 1933  N/R, 77 min.
Genre: Adventure
Director: Tay Garnett
Cast: Rod La Rocque, Leni Riefenstahl, Sepp Rist, Gibson Gowland, Max Holzboer, Walter Riml, Ernst Udet, Nakinak
Based on an actual ill-fated expedition–with two survivors of the expedition party as advisers–this film follows the journey to Greenland in search of lost records, and the party becomes stranded on an iceberg. The leader's (Rod la Rocque) wife (Leni Riefenstahl) is a pilot who comes to the rescue, but her plane crashes on landing, and she joins the expedition. Eventually, a group of Eskimos arrives by kayak, along with pilot Ernst Udet, to save their lives.
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The Shadow Strikes 1937 N/R, 61 min.
Genre: Mystery
Director: Lynn Shores
Cast: Rod La Rocque, Lynn Anders, James Blakely, Walter McGrail, Kenneth Harlan, William Kellogg, Cy Kendall, Norman Ainsley, John Carnivale, John St. Polis, Wilson Benge, James C. Morton
The popular radio sleuth, Lamont Cranston/"The Shadow" (Rod La Rocque), who could "cloud men's minds" is brought to the screen as he pursues the killer of a wealthy man while the police try to pin the killing on him.
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 The Ten Commandments 1923  N/R, 146 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Cast: Theodore Roberts, Charles de Rochefort, Estelle Taylor, James Neill, Richard Dix, Leatrice Joy, Julia Faye, Rod La Rocque, Nita Naldi, Noble Johnson
This very successful silent film is an early version of the Biblical story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and bondage. Several scenes, including the parting of the Red Sea, are shot in two-color Technicolor.
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| 1. Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
2. Dr. Christian Meets the Women (1940)
3. Forbidden Paradise (1924)
4. International Crime (1938)
5. Meet John Doe (1941)
6. S.O.S. Iceberg (1933)
7. The Shadow Strikes (1937)
8. The Ten Commandments (1923)
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