A Generation (1955) Young Polish resistance fighters recruited by a very attractive young woman find that fighting Nazis is not as easy or as simple as they expected. One guy steals a semiautomatic pistol, only to realize that he does not know anything about it. When he shows his prize to the others, one notes that the safety is on. The guy did not even know what it was.
I have seen other such films, one being
Kanal (1956), which, upon reading <-- this Wikipedia page, is the 2nd film of a trilogy,
A Generation , being the 1st.
Kanal refers to the storm drains or sewers in which the resistance fighters took refuge.
Both tell the story of the price these people paid for their resistance; which, may be said to be their lives, because the Nazis would eventually eradicate them, given they had the time to do so.
City that Never Sleeps (1953) Gig Young, Mala Powers, William Talman, Edward Arnold
Classic noir with crooked cops, crooked lawyers, femme fatals, plot twists, and plenty of shadowy night sets. Lead actor Gig Young is a cop turned by his desire to leave his wife (and her nagging mother) and his job which he feels he was pressured into taking to uphold his father's wishes. He's out to arrest mob lawyer Edward Arnold's #2 man as Arnold no longer trusts him - and make a quick $5k in the process. But the #2 man is cunning and out maneuvers Gig Young. BTW, the #2 man just happens to be William Talman - the long suffering DA from Perry Mason. And Talman makes a great villain - downright chilling in fact.
A great film noir.
I am near certain that I saw this one; great example of the genre!
Sahara (1943) Humphrey Bogart
Superb war movie with Humphrey Bogart and a cast of first-rate supporting actors including a young Lloyd Bridges. Neither Peter Lorre nor Sydney Greenstreet are in this one, but we do get Dan Duryea and J. Carrol Naish.
The film is mainly about an American tank crew in retreat while being forced into the arid south Libyan desert. They pick up the surviving troops of a stranded British mobile hospital unit, a Royal Sudanese soldier and his Italian POW, and a downed German Luftwaffe pilot. The tank crew and their rescuees are in a constant search for water while trying to stay ahead of German advances. Sahara was filmed in the area around California's Salton Sea and looks remarkably real.
Of note is Italian POW Giuseppe's speech to the German Luftwaffe POW. He summarizes the difference between the Italian's devotion to Mussolini and the German's allegiance to Hitler. J. Carrol Naish received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this speech.
As far as the drama goes, this one is a winner. Yet, as a WWII tank enthusiast, I must critique.
The film takes place in the dunes; which, as I understand it, is death to tanks, as the fuel consumption is very much higher than driving on the hard ground. The tank itself, is about the worst it could be. An M3 (Grant), it was a quick & dirty attempt to build something that could go up against the German tanks, which were designed to fight other tanks. The U.s, British, & French tanks were all designed to support the infantry, not to go against other tanks. So the put a 75mm gun in the upper hull while mounting the 37mm in the turret. only the 75mm had any chance of defeating any German tanks, but its usefulness was limited by its lack of a fully rotating mount.
Enough about that.
Hey, Jeff.
As I remember him, McGraw was one of those actors that was a B-lister hero for a time but made his living later in TV, moving into character roles. My memory is confirmed by Wikipedia: He appeared in The Night Stalker along with another B-movie noir icon, Ralph Meeker. (The next movie, The Night Strangler, followed that by featuring Scott Brady.)
Randy M.
Thank, Randy M; yes, it is interesting how Noir actors made the transition to television. Some of the bad guys became Peary Mason or Ironside.