Robert Siodmak was a German film director. His career spanned some 40 years, working extensively in the United States and France, as well as in his native country. Though he worked in many genres, he was best known as a skilled craftsman of thrillers and film noir, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for The Killers (1946).
Suspicion is a 1941 American romantic psychological thriller film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, and Leo G. Carroll. Suspicion is based on Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact (1932).
Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known for his gentlemanly sophisticate roles, with supporting roles by the 1950s. His acting crossed many genres including pre-Code romantic leads to noir layered roles and World War I films. He appeared as a guest star in episodes of several golden age television series, including The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour while continuing to act and produce in the theater and movies throughout the 1960s.
Paulette Goddard was an American actress and socialite. Her career spanned six decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s. She was a prominent leading actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Edna Mae Durbin, known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born American singer and actress, who moved to the U.S. with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill of a legitimate lyric soprano, she was known for singing opera and semi-classical music, which is today called classical crossover.
Virginia Mayo was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of popular comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Bros.' biggest box-office draw in the late 1940s. She also co-starred in the 1946 Oscar-winning movie The Best Years of Our Lives.
Murder, My Sweet is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley. The film is based on Raymond Chandler's 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely. It was the first film to feature Chandler's primary character, the hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe.
Ella Wallace Raines was an American film and television actress active from the early 1940s through the mid-1950s. Described as "sultry" and "mysterious", the green-eyed star appeared frequently in crime pictures and film noir, but also in drama, comedy, Westerns, thrillers, and romance.
Criss Cross is a 1949 American film noir crime tragedy film starring Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo and Dan Duryea, directed by Robert Siodmak and written by Daniel Fuchs based on Don Tracy's 1934 novel of the same name. This black-and-white film was shot partly on location in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. Miklós Rózsa scored the film's soundtrack.
Debra Paget is an American retired actress and entertainer. She is perhaps best known for her performances in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments (1956) and in Elvis Presley's film debut, Love Me Tender (1956), as well as for the risqué snake dance scene in The Indian Tomb (1959).
Whistle Stop is a 1946 American film noir crime film directed by Léonide Moguy and starring George Raft, Ava Gardner, Victor McLaglen, and Tom Conway. It was produced by Seymour Nebenzal's Nero Films and distributed by United Artists. The screenplay was written by Philip Yordan, based on a 1941 novel of the title by Maritta M. Wolff.
Christmas Holiday is a 1944 American film noir crime film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly. Based on the 1939 novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham, the film is about a woman who marries a Southern aristocrat who inherited his family's streak of violence and instability and soon drags the woman into a life of misery. After he is arrested, the woman runs away from her husband's family, changes her name, and finds work as a singer in a New Orleans dive. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score for Hans J. Salter.
Joan Harrison was an English screenwriter and producer. She became the first female screenwriter to be nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar when the category was introduced in 1940, and was the first screenwriter to receive two Academy Award nominations in the same year in separate categories, for co-writing the screenplay for the films Foreign Correspondent (1940) (original) and Rebecca (1940) (adapted), both directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with whom she had a long professional relationship.
The Dark Mirror is a 1946 American film noir psychological thriller film directed by Robert Siodmak starring Olivia de Havilland as twins and Lew Ayres as their psychiatrist. The film marks Ayres' return to motion pictures following his conscientious objection to service in World War II. De Havilland had begun to experiment with method acting at the time and insisted that everyone in the cast meet with a psychiatrist. The film anticipates producer/screenwriter Nunnally Johnson's psycho-docu-drama The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Vladimir Pozner's original story on which the film is based was nominated for an Academy Award.
Son of Dracula is a 1943 American horror film directed by Robert Siodmak with a screenplay based on an original story by his brother Curt Siodmak. The film stars Lon Chaney Jr., Louise Allbritton, Robert Paige, Evelyn Ankers, and Frank Craven. The film is set in the United States, where Count Alucard has just taken up residence. Katherine Caldwell (Allbritton), a student of the occult, becomes fascinated by Alucard and eventually marries him. Katherine begins to look and act strangely, leading her former romantic partner Frank Stanley (Paige) to suspect that something has happened to her. He gets help from Dr. Brewster (Craven) and psychologist Laszlo who come to the conclusion that Alucard is a vampire.
Jigsaw is a 1949 American film noir crime drama directed by Fletcher Markle starring Franchot Tone, Jean Wallace and Marc Lawrence. The feature was produced by the Danziger Brothers, Edward J. Danziger and Harry Lee Danziger from a screenplay by Vincent McConnor and Fletcher Markle, which was based on a story by John Roeburt.
The Suspect is a 1944 American film noir starring Charles Laughton and Ella Raines, and directed by Robert Siodmak. Set in Edwardian London in 1902, it is based on the 1939 novel This Way Out, by James Ronald, and was released by Universal Pictures.
She Knew All the Answers is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Wallace, and starring by Joan Bennett, Franchot Tone and Eve Arden. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film tells a story about a chorus girl who wants to marry a rich playboy, but first has to prove herself to his financial advisor. The screenplay was written by Kenneth Earl, Curtis Kenyon, and Harry Segall, adapted from a short story written by Jane Allen entitled "A Girl's Best Friend Is Wall Street," published in 1938 in Cosmopolitan Magazine.
The Unguarded Hour is a 1936 American drama film directed by Sam Wood and starring Loretta Young, Franchot Tone and Roland Young. In England, a prominent young prosecutor in a murder trial is unaware that his wife is involved.
The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, also known as Uncle Harry and The Zero Murder Case, is a 1945 American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Ella Raines. It is based on the stage play Uncle Harry by Thomas Job, which was first performed in 1938.
