Pawsome Pet Pictures: Ann Blyth

Looks like Ann has her hands full...

Getting to know: Monty.

Monty, is a good friend and one of the regular contributors here on Noir and Chick Flicks. I thought it would be fun for us to get to know Monty a little better. Monty, loves to write,draw,travel and spending time with his wife Stephanie, family and friends. He loves all kinds of movies, especially the classics. He also collects comic books.

Dawn: Who are your top 5 favorite classic movie actor/actresses?

Monty: Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne, William Holden and Myrna Loy.



















Dawn: Awesome, list of favorites! I think my only surprise was, William Holden. I do not remember you blogging much about him. Cary Grant's, acting he just made it all look so easy. Carole Lombard, was beautiful and talented. A woman full of wit and charm. Irene Dunne, amazing and in my opinion an underrated actress. Myrna Loy, popularity was at its peak in the late 1930s. She was named "Queen of the Movies". She defiantly made her mark in Hollywood. Describe why they are your favorite?

Monty: Cary is just perfect. The master of the screwball comedy. He was the one that got me hooked on the classics. More on that in one of your other questions. But Cary Grant to me is the greatest actor that ever lived. And close behind him is Carole Lombard, my favorite actress ever. I always loved how she handle comedy and drama equally and like Cary wasn't afraid to do slapstick. It's tragic that her life ended so soon.

Irene Dunne is just awesome. Her early roles where she played the classy lady who was always smarter than everyone else, including sometimes Cary Grant. William Holden was a great leading man and I loved the fact that there was no role he couldn't do. He may have played a lot of dramatic type films but every now and then he could loosen up and do comedy. I loved it when he appeared on I Love Lucy.

And finally Myrna Loy, forever known to me as Nora Charles. I loved Loy's great chemistry with William Powell and I loved her in all those wonderful screwball films she did. But I also loved her in The Best Years of our Lives. And I loved the fact that she was a great supporter of women and minority's rights. A great woman.


Dawn: I think Myrna Loy, gets little recognition for The Best Years of Our Lives. She really is the glue that holds the family together in the film. What movie got you hooked on classic movies?

Monty: His Girl Friday. I was 12 and it was the first classic movie I ever saw and was immediately attracted to it. It's just ironic that the very first classic movie I saw turned out to be my favorite film of all time and Cary is my favorite actor. Weird right? But I watch His Girl Friday 2-3 times a year and it is still an awesome film. I've seen it so many times I have lost count. It's a perfect mix of comedy and drama and has great classic characters.




Dawn: His Girl Friday, I agree.. is a perfect Classic romance, the typical battle of the sexes. :) What is your favorite classic movie?

Monty: I guess I sort of answered that with my last answer. Friday is just slightly ahead of Bringing Up Baby, another Cary Grant film. So either way you can't go wrong. I have watched these two films many a night as a double feature, laughing until it hurts. True classics.


Dawn: Bringing Up Baby, certainly is one of the fastest moving comedies ever filmed, and the whole cast is wonderful. I can totally understand why it is one of your favorite films. Who are your top 5 current favorite actors /actress?

Monty: Sandra Bullock (right from the very beginning of her career, she's is terrific), Denzel Washington, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Dawn: Sandra Bullock, love her, she seems like a nice person and full Of Life. Denzel Washington, is an awesome actor! I have loved every performance I have seen him in. Sarah Michelle Gellar, I have not seen many of her performances, but.. what I have seen, she can play any character. Kate Winslet, she has an inner grace that reminds me of, Grace Kelly. Gwyneth Paltrow, I agree.. is one of the leading actresses of today. She also has inner grace. Thank you, Monty for taking the time to chat with us. Please check out Monty's other blogs located on the side bar. :)

If any one else would like to share some thoughts about their favorite actresses/actors/movies, please let me know. I would love to spotlight you too.

Happy Birthday Pier Angeli

Pier Angeli Photos(1932-1971) Anna Maria Pierangeli was born June 19, 1932, in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. Anna and her twin sister, Marisa Pavan, both had their eyes on become film stars, since that was one of the big Italian pastimes. Anna adopted her surname and split it in half, and it was as Pier Angeli that she would find fame. Her first role was an uncredited part in 1948's The Million Dollar Nickel (1952), an Italian production. Pier was 16 at the time and it was to be the first of many roles for this beautiful woman. The film was largely forgettable but it was a start. The following year she played in another Italian production, Tomorrow Is Too Late (1950). Again it was a very small role, and she was not seen on the screen again until 1951. Between 1949 and 1951 she appeared in stage productions and found work in menial jobs. When she did return it was in the film The Light Touch (1952) as Anna Vasarri. Later that year she won the title role in Teresa (1951). However, she again hit a drought with only one film in 1952 and two in 1953. The next year things began to pick up, however, with Hollywood beckoning at her door. After the Italian Mam'zelle Nitouche (1954) she caught the eyes of Hollywood moguls, who cast her in Flame and the Flesh (1954) and The Silver Chalice (1954). Now she divided her time between Italy and the US making movies. She married Vic Damone in 1954, a union that lasted only four years and produced one son.

No film offers came in 1955, but in 1956 Pier landed the plum role of Norma Graziano (wife of fighter Rocky Graziano) in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) opposite Paul Newman. The film was well received at the box office and she had hopes that things were going to pick up again. She played Ynez in Port Afrique (1956) later that year and then another drought ensued. After The Vintage (1957), Merry Andrew (1958) and SOS Pacific (1959), she made three more films in 1960. Then once again 1961 saw no appearances. In 1962 Pier played Ildith in The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) and later that year played in a French production entitled White Slave Ship (1961). After the Italian production of Panic in Bangkok (1964) she returned in the hit European-American co-production Battle of the Bulge (1965).

After a handful of films between 1966 and 1970, Pier realized her dreams of superstardom were not to be. She had divorced her second husband (Armando Trovajoli) in 1969 and made her final appearance on the screen in 1971 in the low-budget sci-fi opus Octaman (1971). On September 10 of that year Pier was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her Beverly Hills home. She was only 39 years old. Thanks to Denny Jackson for this wonderful bio.

Happy Birthday Priscilla Lane

(1912-1995) Happy Birthday Priscilla

Priscilla Lane attended the Eagin School of Dramatic Arts in New York before she began touring with her sisters in the Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians Dance Band. She was a popular singer with her sisters and, after 5 years, she was signed to a Hollywood contract with Warner Brothers in 1937. Her first film was Varsity Show (1937) where she had the hard task of portraying a singer with the Fred Waring Band. Priscilla was to play the nice girl against the temperamental star played by her sister Rosemary Lane. Over the years, Priscilla would play an assortment of girlfriends, daughters and fiancees. She would team with her two sisters, Rosemary Lane and Lola Lane, to make a series of drama's beginning with the film Four Daughters (1938). That film would be the one that made John Garfield a star. In most of her films, all Priscilla had to do was to look attractive and give a good supporting performance. Priscilla would also co-star with Wayne Morris in three 1938 releases. In The Roaring Twenties (1939), she would play the girlfriend of James Cagney. In Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), which was release 3 years after it was filmed, she would play the fiancee of Cary Grant. When Alfred Hitchcock was unable to get Barbara Stanwyck, he cast Priscilla in Saboteur (1942) where she was on the run with the hero. By that time, her movie career was almost finished and she would appear in just a couple of films over the next five years before retiring in 1948. She was married twice and had 4 children.

Side note: Sorry Dawn I haven't been posting much this week, been so busy. But glad you were still making some wonderful blogs. Next week should be a little better for me. Hope you have a great weekend. And Hey to you Paul.

Pam Grier

Pam Grier has been a major African American actress from the early seventies. Her career started back in 1971 when Roger Corman of New World Pictures launched her into The Big Doll House (1971), about a woman's penitentiary and The Big Bird Cage (1972). Her strong role put her into a five year contract with Samuel Z. Arkoff of American International Pictures and from then Grier became a leading lady in action films such as two of the Jack Hill films: Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), and the comic strip character Friday Foster (1975) and the William Girdler film 'Sheba, Baby' (1975). She continued work with American International where she portrayed William Marshall's vampire victim in the 'Blacula' sequel, Scream Blacula Scream (1973).

During the eighties she became a regular on "Miami Vice" (1984) and played a supporting role as an evil witch in Ray Bradbury's and Walt Disney Pictures Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) and then returned to action as Steven Seagal's partner in Above the Law (1988). Her most famous role of the 90s was probably Jackie Brown (1997), directed by Quentin Tarantino, which was a homage to her earlier 70s action roles, but she occasionally did supporting roles as in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996), In Too Deep (1999) and her funny performance in Jawbreaker (1999). More recently, she appeared in John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) and co-starred with Snoop Dogg in Bones (2001). Her entire career of over thirty years has brought only success for this beautiful and talented actress.

My personal favorites are:

Jackie Brown
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Foxy Brown
Friday Foster
Jawbreaker

Happy Birthday Jeanne Crain

(1925-2003)

Jeanne Crain Photos

Jeanne Crain was born in Barstow, California, on May 25, 1925. The daughter of a high school English teacher and his wife, Jeanne was moved to Los Angeles not long after her birth after her father got another teaching position in that city. While in junior high school, Jeanne played the lead in a school production which set her on the path to acting. When she was in high school Jeanne was asked to take a screen test to appear in a film by Orson Welles. Unfortunately, she didn't get the part, but it did set her sights on being a movie actress.

After her high school career, Jeanne enrolled at UCLA to study drama. At the age of 18, Jeanne won a bit part in Fox Studio's film entitled The Gang's All Here (1943) and a small contract. Her next film saw Jeanne elevated to a more substantial part in Home in Indiana (1944) the following year, which was filmed in neighboring Kentucky. The movie was an unquestionable hit. On the strength of that box-office success, Jeanne was given a raise and star billing, as Maggie Preston, in the next film of 1944, In the Meantime, Darling (1944). Unfortunately, the critics not only roasted the film, but singled out Jeanne's performance in particular. She rebounded nicely in her last film of the year, Winged Victory (1944). The audiences loved it and the film was profitable.

In 1945, Jeanne was cast in State Fair (1945) as Margie Frake who travels to the fair and falls in love with a reporter played by Dana Andrews. Now, Jeanne got a bigger contract and more recognition. Later that year, Jeanne married Paul Brooks on New Year's Eve. Although her mother wasn't supportive of the marriage, the union has lasted to this day and produced seven children. Her 1947 was an off year for Jeanne as she took time off to bear the Brinkman's first child.

In 1949, Jeanne appeared in three films, A Letter to Three Wives (1949), The Fan (1949), and Pinky (1949). It was this latter film which garnered her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress for her role as Pinky Johnson, a nurse who sets up a clinic in the Deep South. She lost to Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress (1949). Jeanne left Fox after filming Vicki (1953) in 1953, with Jean Peters. She had made 23 films for the studio that started her career, but she needed a well-deserved change. As with any good artist, Jeanne wanted to expand her range instead of playing the girl-next-door types.

She went briefly to Warner Brothers for the filming of Duel in the Jungle (1954) in 1954. The film was lukewarm at best. Jeanne, then, signed a contract, that same year, with Universal Studios with promises of better, high profile roles. She went into production in the film Man Without a Star (1955) which was a hit with audiences and critics. After The Joker Is Wild (1957) in 1957, Jeanne took time off for her family and to appear in a few television programs. She returned, briefly, to film in Guns of the Timberland (1960) in 1960. The films were sporadic after that. In 1967, she appeared in a low-budget suspense yarn called Hot Rods to Hell (1967). Her final film was as Clara Shaw in 1972's Skyjacked (1972).

Jeanne died of a heart attack in Santa Barbara, California, on December 14, 2003. Her husband Paul Brooks had died two months earlier.

Donna Reed films tonight on TCM May 12th

Three solid films featuring TCM's star of the month Donna Reed airs tonight. Beginning at 8pm EST. The night begins with the classic film The Picture of Dorian Gray, with Donna giving a superb performance. Next up is The Last Time I Saw Paris with headliner Liz Taylor. And around midnight is Green Dolphin Street, co-starring the always entertaining Lana Turner. My viewing night is set. Hope everyone else can catch at least one film of Ms. Reed. Hey Dawn, if you watch some of her films this month, maybe we can discuss them next month when you guest on my blog.

Happy Birthday Anne Baxter

I didn't realize that Anne's birthday was yesterday. My apologies to Anne and all her fans, but Happy Birthday to another one of my favorite actresses. (7 May 1923 - 12 Dec 1985). My favorite Anne films include All About Eve, Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, The Fighting Sullivans, A Ticket to Tomahawk, The Ten Commandments and her guest appearances as the villaness Olga, Queen of the Cossacks on the 1960's Batman TV series.


Anne Baxter Photos

Anne Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana, on May 7, 1923. She was the daughter of a salesman and his wife, Catherine, who herself was the daughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, the world-renowned architect. Anne was a young girl of 11 when her parents moved to New York City, which at that time was still the hub of the entertainment industry even though the film colony was moving west. The move there encouraged her to consider acting as a vocation. By the time she was 13 she had already appeared in a stage production and had garnered rave reviews from the tough Broadway critics. The play helped her gain entrance to an exclusive acting school. In 1937 Anne made her first foray into Hollywood to test the waters there in the film industry. As she was thought to be too young for a film career, she packed her bags and returned to the New York with her mother, where she continued to act in Broadway and summer stock up and down the East Coast. Udaunted by the failure of her previous effort to crack Hollywood, Anne returned to California two years later to try again. This time her luck was somewhat better. She took a screen test which was ultimately seen by the moguls of Twentieth Century-Fox and she was signed to a seven-year contract. However, before she would make a movie with Fox, Anne was loaned out to MGM to make 20 Mule Team (1940). At only 17 years of age, she was already in the kind of pictures that other starlets would have had to slave for years as an extra before landing a meaty role. Back at Fox, that same year, Anne played Mary Maxwell in The Great Profile (1940), which was a box-office dud. The following year she played Amy Spettigue in the remake of Charley's Aunt (1941). It still wasn't a great role, but it was better than a bit part. The only other film job Anne appeared in that year was in Swamp Water (1941). It was the first role that was really worth anything, but critics weren't that impressed with Anne, her role nor the movie. In 1942 Anne played Joseph Cotten's daughter, Lucy Morgan, in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). The following year she appeared in The North Star (1943), the first film where she received top billing. The film was a critical and financial success and Anne came in for her share of critical plaudits. Guest in the House (1944) the next year was a dismal failure, but Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944) was received much better by the public, though it was ripped apart by the critics. Anne starred with John Hodiak, who would become her first husband in 1947 (Anne was to divorce Hodiak in 1953. Her other two husbands were Randolph Galt and David Klee). In 1946 Anne portrayed Sophie MacDonald in The Razor's Edge (1946), a film that would land her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had come a long way in so short a time, but her next two were let-downs by comparison. Her next two films were neither critical or financial successes: Mother Wore Tights (1947) and Blaze of Noon (1947), although she was just the narrator for both films. It would be 1950 before she landed another decent role--the part of Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950). This film garnered Anne her second nomination, but she lost the Osdar to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday (1950). After several films through the 1950s, Anne landed what many considered a plum role--Queen Nefretiri in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956). Never in her Hollywood career did Anne look as beautiful as she did as the Egyptian queen, opposite Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. After that epic, job offers got fewer because she wasn't tied to a studio, instead opting to freelance her talents. After no appearances in 1958, she made one film in 1959 (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1959) and one in 1960 (Cimarron (1960). After Walk on the Wild Side (1962), she took a hiatus from filming for the next four years. She was hardly idle, though. She appeared often on stage and on television. She wasn't particularly concerned with being a celebrity or a personality; she was more concerned with being just an actress and trying hard to produce the best performance she was capable of. After several notable TV appearances, Anne became a staple of two television series, "East of Eden" (1981) and "Hotel" (1983). Her final moment before the public eye was as Irene Adler in the TV film The Masks of Death (1984) (TV). On December 12, 1985, Anne died of a stroke in New York. She was 62.

Happy 93rd Birthday Celeste Holm

 Happy Birthday to Celeste Holm todayCeleste Holm was an only child, born into a home where her mother was a painter and her father worked in insurance. She would study acting at the University of Chicago and make her stage debut in 1936. Her Broadway debut came when she was 19. She appeared in many successful plays including "The Women", "Oklahoma!" and "Bloomer Girl". It was in the production of "Oklahoma!" that Celeste would sing the show stopper "I Cain't Say No". She was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1946 and appeared in her first film 'Three Little Girls in Blue'. With her third film 'Gentlemen's Agreement (1947)', she would win the Supporting Actress Oscar and a Golden Globe. Celeste would be nominated twice more for Academy Awards in the 'Come to the Stable (1949)' and 'All About Eve (1950)'. But Celeste was a star who loved the stage so she left Hollywood, only to return for two MGM musicals in the fifties. They were 'The Tender Trap (1955)' and 'High Society (1956). In addition to her stage career, Celeste appeared on Television in her own series "Honestly Celeste (1954)" and as a panelist on "Who Pays? (1959)". In 1970, Celeste returned to series Television as the chaperone to the president's daughter on "Nancy". For the next two decades, she would appear on Television in regular series, mini series and movies.

Top Ten: Recently Discovered Favorites

As we discussed earlier Dawn, here is my list of favorite actors and actresses that I have recently starting
following and watching their films. And it's thanks to you and your blog for making my first choice America's Mermaid. Here is my list:

1. Esther Williams
2. Joan Bennett
3. Miriam Hopkins
4. Dennis Morgan
5. Joan Caulfield
6. Joseph Calleia
7. Audrey Totter
8. Louise Brooks
9. Robert Taylor
10. Veronica Lake

Esther Williams Photos

Review: These Three (1936)

I watched this excellent film a few days ago and I thought it was one of the best films I've ever seen. Based on the Lillian Hellman play, The Children's Hour, the main storyline has been changed from lesbianism to a heterosexual triangle involving two women and a man. But the film still remains a solid dramatic effort. The film casts Miriam Hopkins as Martha and Merle Oberon as Karen, college roommates, who graduate and face the future with no place and no money.

Karen, however, has inherited a farmhouse from her grandmother, and gets the idea that she and Martha can turn it into a school for girls. They travel to the farmhouse, which turns out to be quite rundown, and all hope seems lost, until they meet Dr. Joe Cardin (played by Joe Cardin), who tells them not to give up, to take out a loan, fix up the farmhouse, and it will work out. And before you know it, the school is open and full of young girls. And Karen starts falling in love with Joe. Even though Martha longs for the good doc herself. All seems to go according to plan, until one student devises a scheme for revenge for being punished by the teachers. The student is Mary Tildford (played by Bonita Granville) as the child from hell. Her lie about an affair between Karen and Joe spreads quickly and all over town. And before you know it the parents quickly remove their kids from the school without an explanation to the titular three. Well Joe decides he wants answers and goes to Mary's grandmother's house to get some. Mary's grandmother is played by the wonderful Alma Kruger. Once there the story comes out to the three young people, they can't believe that this has happened. There is a trial and the whole town is against our three young individuals. After the trial Karen decides it's best if Joe leaves as she is preparing to close down the school. Flash forward a few months later and the truth finally comes out that Mary made the whole thing up and even bullied her classmate Rosalie (a superb Marcie Mae Jones) to corroborate her story. But the damage has been done, that has ruined the lives of three people. Martha finds out and is relieved but still saddened. Karen goes looking for Joe, who is living abroad and they end up together finally.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film from beginning to end. I thought all the actors involved gave very strong performances beginning with Hopkins who had the most delicate of the lead roles and she delivered it superbly. Hopkins shows that she can act when the need arises. Oberon was good also, but got kind of overshadowed by Hopkins in some scenes. It's not her fault, it's just that Martha is the juicier of the two roles. McCrea is his typical strong leading man self. Granville is truly monstrous as the child brat who is just teeming with hatred and deceit. But she finally gets what coming to her when her playhouse comes falling apart and gets one of the all time best film slaps in the face ever. And guess who delivers it.. none other than Margaret Hamilton, the wicked witch of the west, from The Wizard Of Oz. Hamilton plays the maid for Mrs. Tilford. And I cheered when she gave that slap to Granville. I was like finally someone steps up to give that girl what she truly deserved. These Three was expertly directed by the great William Wyler, who would also direct the remake, The Children's Hour (1962) with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. I haven't seen that version but I doubt it can be any better than this classic. This is what you get when you get all the stars aligned with great performances, solid direction, and that old Hollywood magic. These Three is a must see.
A-

Detective Story (1951)

Flixster - Share Movies

One day in a New York City police precinct where all kinds of people intersect. Kirk Douglas is the tough detective who is dealing with a case involving an abortionist. It also has a shoplifter, two dangerous burglars, and an embezzler. A taut in your face crime drama that features a strong performance by Mr. Douglas and another good one by Eleanor Parker who plays his wife. One of the best of the detective movies from the 1950's. Wonderfully directed by William Wyler.


Detective McLeod: "Take a couple of drop dead pills".

Happy Birthday Debbie Reynolds

To a wonderful actress and entertainer, Debbie celebrates her birthday today...She was born April 1, 1932 in El Paso, Texas

Debbie Reynolds Photos

Review: Five Came Back (1939)

Another great film from that golden year of 1939 that got overshadowed by the big guns of Gone with the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The  Wizard of Oz and others. But this little taut thriller is really good and deserves to be on that list of 1939's best films. Twelve people are aboard Coast Air Line's flagship the Silver Queen enroute to South America when the airplane encounters a storm and is blown off course. The people include Lucille Ball as Peggy, a woman with a past. C. Aubrey Smith as Professor Spengler with his wife Martha (Played by Elizabeth Risdon). Also on board is Wendy Barrie as Alice, a secretary secretly eloping with her boss/fiancee Judson Ellis (played by Patric Knowles). Then there is the always reliable Allen Jenkins as racketeer Pete who is escorting Tommy, the son of his boss back to America. Also on board is John Carradine as Crimp, who is escorting the criminal Vasquez (played by Joseph Calleia) to stand trial for his crimes. And finally the pilots Bill (Chester Morris) and Joe (Kent Taylor).

The pilots are able to land the plane into a remote jungle, but it is populated with headhunters. The pilots have to repair the plane before they can try to take off and it's a race against time. As the headhunters drums signal they are preparing to attack. Days turns into weeks and most everybody pull their own weight except for Crimp and Ellis who become full on alcoholics. Everyone else remains strong and vigilant. The top performances are by Calleia who actually turns out to be a fair and actually likable man. He is at ease with the current situation because he knows once the plane if fixed, he is that much closer to being hanged for his crimes. Lucille Ball is very good in a rare dramatic role that makes her tarnished lady trying her best to be a better person, despite the resistance from others. Wendy Barrie is also very good as the lovestruck secretary who manages to put her alcoholic fiancee in check. Allen Jenkins is tops as Pete, who believes in honor, despite being on the wrong side of the law. Morris and Taylor are very good in their roles as the pilots. And C. Aubrey Smith is excellent as the Professor who is very knowledgeable about the current situtation. The final twist at the end is a shocker and makes one take value of life and choices. There are a few deaths before then but when the climax comes you will be completely enthralled.

The running time is only about 75 minutes long but it is a taut, tension filled 75 minutes. It's to the director's skill and credit that we actually never see the headhunters but we know they're coming thanks to those constantly banging drums. Five Came Back is a top notch thriller that deserves more attention now since it didn't receive it back then. A pleasing little B thriller from yesteryear.
B+
MOVIE CLIP FIVE WHO CAME BACK.

Union Station (1950) is thrilling from start to finish

Flixster - Share Movies

Exciting thriller set in LA, about a train station policeman named Lt. Willie Calhoun (super performance by William Holden) chasing down a ruthless kidnapper. The bad guy has taken the blind daughter of a millionaire and holds her for ransom. The kidnapping is seen by the rich man's secretary (a solid Nancy Olson). Calhoun swears that he will find the girl and put the kidnapper down, and everyone believes him because Calhoun is one hell of a cop. A very short film at about 80 minutes long, but it is packed with riveting drama and some terrific action. Holden is top notch as the policeman, this being one of his best performances ever. And Lyle Bettger is memorable as bad guy Joe Beacon, the kind you love to hate. Union Station is one of those little films that not too many people have heard about, much less seen, but it is one terrific movie. One of my personal favorites. The film-makers of Mel Gibson's 1996 thriller Ransom should have watched this film and took some notes on how to craft an exciting thriller. I mean, that was ok, but Union Station is so much better.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marge Wrighter: Gonna send that kid home, aren't you, Joe? I mean after we collect.
Joe Beacom: She'll go home...they ever fish her out of the river. Let's have the coffee, huh?

http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=187256&titleId=94488

Click to view movie trailer.