| Biography |
At first glance, this poverty row quickie seems like any other Z-grade
thriller that studios like PRC and Republic cranked out during the
thirties and forties. It is certainly cheap, made for $10,000 with only
six interior sets and a cast so small that it seems to take place in
some hermetically sealed pocket universe. But there is a weird alchemy
at work in this movie the likes of which occurs very rarely (other films
in which this alchemy occurs include White Zombie and Night of the
Living Dead). There is a spark of otherness that transcends its
cheapness and turns that very cheapness into an asset. That hermetically
sealed universe is a microcosm where doom stalks every character.
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I am a devoted fan of:
Richard Conte
Birth: Mar. 24, 1910
Death: Apr. 15, 1975
Actor. The son of a barber, he held down jobs ranging from truck driver, to Wall Street clerk before becoming an actor. In 1935, he became a waiter/entertainer in a Connecticut resort where he was discovered by Elia Kazan and John Garfield. Through Kazan's help, Richard Conte earned a scholarship to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. His first Broadway appearance was in "Moon Over Mulberry Street." In 1939, while known as Nicholas Conte, the actor made his first film, "Heaven With a Barbed Wire Fence". 20th Century Fox promoted him as the "New John Garfield" upon signing him to a contract in 1943. Some of his better known roles while working for Fox included the wrongly imprisoned man who is exonerated by crusading reporter James Stewart in "Call Northside 777" (1947), and his role as a trucker in "Thieves' Highway" (1949). He also appeared in many TV roles, including a co-starring assignment with Dan Dailey, Jack Hawkins and Vittorio De Sica on the 1959 syndicated series "The Four Just Men." Appearing primarily in European films in his later years, he directed the Yugoslavian-filmed "Operation Cross Eagles." Richard Conte's most important Hollywood role in the 1970s was as rival Mafia Don Barzini in the Oscar-winning "The Godfather" (1972).
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=224
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"papyrus beetle" resides in Austin Texas USA, with 5  , and a fascination with "noir" (and most films of the 1940's and 1950's.)
Just saw, and loved:
LONELY HEARTS
PITFALL
DECOY
CRIME WAVE
ACT OF VIOLENCE
EASTERN PROMISES
HANGOVER SQUARE
BREACH
THE INVASION
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