Alan Ladd
1913 - 1964Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but later relocated to North Hollywood, California when his mother re-married. He worked briefly as a studio carpenter (as did his stepfather) and for a short time was part of the Universal Pictures studio school for actors. Intent on acting, he found work in small theatres. He had short term stints at MGM and RKO, and eventually started getting steady work on radio. Ladd began by appearing in dozens of films in small roles, including Citizen Kane , before reaching recognition for his 1942 appearance in This Gun for Hire, invigorating Hollywood's desire for gangster-crime features. His cool, unsmiling persona proved popular with wartime audiences, and he was quickly established as one of the top box office stars of the decade.
Citizen Kane
Orson Welles
Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten
Newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
Citizen Kane
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Stanley Sheff, Bruce Goldstein
Gig Young, Bud Abbott
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
The Movie Orgy
Joe Dante
Goodman Ace, Jane Ace
Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.
The Movie Orgy
Photographic Intelligence for Bombardment Aviation
John Beal, Alan Ladd
When naval Lieutenant Phil Bowen encounters his friend, Air Forces Captain Grover, he inquires as to what Grover's aerial reconnaissance team is doing to protect ships from attack by submarine. Grover introduces him to Captain Smith, an expert at photographic intelligence. The two men explain to Bowen just how aerial photographic reconnaissance works and how their work in the air and on the ground is helping win the war even at sea.
Photographic Intelligence for Bombardment Aviation
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
Gene Feldman, Suzette Winter
Alan Ladd
In the 1942 This Gun For Hire, he was only a supporting actor. But his portrayal of a cold, ruthless killer with a core of gentle sadness had an impact on audiences everywhere. Teamed with diminutive Veronica Lake, he became an immediately saleable commodity, and in the process helped launch the age of film noir. By 1954, Photoplay Magazine voted him the world's most popular male film star; his fellow award-winner was Marilyn Monroe. But Alan Ladd's fabulous success already contained within it the mechanism to self-destruct.
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
I Look at You
Alan Ladd, Dona Drake
Alan Ladd was discovered by Sue Carol for his incredible voice in radio. And then she married him. In I Look At You, he is sweet and graceful. And at the very beginning of his career in film. He sings and leads Rita Rio's all-girl band while she dances around him.
I Look at You
This Gun for Hire
Frank Tuttle
Veronica Lake, Robert Preston
Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.
This Gun for Hire
Two Years Before the Mast
John Farrow
Alan Ladd, Brian Donlevy
In 1834, Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the spoiled, dissolute son of a shipping magnate, is shanghaied aboard the Pilgrim, one of his father's own ships. He embarks upon a long, hellish sea voyage under the tyrannical rule of Captain Francis Thompson (Howard Da Silva), assisted by his first mate, Amazeen (William Bendix). One of his crewmates is Richard Henry Dana Jr. (Brian Donlevy).
Two Years Before the Mast
The Proud Rebel
Michael Curtiz
Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland
Searching for a doctor who can help him get his son to speak again--the boy hadn't uttered a word since he saw his mother die in the fire that burned down the family home--a Confederate veteran finds himself facing a 30-day jail sentence when he's unfairly accused of starting a brawl in a small town. A local woman pays his fine, providing that he works it off on her ranch. He soon finds himself involved in the woman's struggle to keep her ranch from a local landowner who wants it--and whose sons were responsible for the man being framed for the fight.
The Proud Rebel
