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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Nato in Polonia, Rudolph Mate si rivelo' come operatore a Berlino, dove fu allievo di
Freund. Nel 1934 emigro' a Hollywood, dove lavoro' per Hawks, Wyler, Vidor, ecc. Nel 1947 esordi' alla
regia.
Dark Past (1948) is a thriller about an escaped psychopathic killer.
D.O.A. (1949) e`
un film noir rimasto celebre soprattutto per l'inizio.
Un uomo barcolla verso una
stazione di polizia, dove denuncia un omicidio: "chi e' stato ucciso?" "io!".
Da quell'istante la scenografia assume i toni dell'incubo,
della paranoia, della tragedia incombente.
Un flash-back spiega come l'uomo abbia scoperto di essere stato
avvelenato e di non avere alcuna speranza.
Si mette alla ricerca del colpevole e del movente, improvvisandosi lui,
la vittima, anche detective.
L'unico appiglio e' la segretaria fidanzata, che lo
aiuta e conforta per telefono.
Alla fine riesce ad uccidere il proprio assassino.
D.O.A. (1949) is a fast-paced thriller on the premise of a man who
reports to the police that he has been murdered.
The film is structured like a treasure hunt: the protagonist is sent from
one clue to the next one in an ever more hectic ghost chase.
It is as if Hitchcock was directing under an epileptic fit.
A man walks in a dark corridor. He is going to the police to report a homicide:
he tells the police chief that he himself was murdered.
The captain guesses who he is: he is a man they have been looking for.
Frank begins the tale of what happened. He lives in a small town in the desert
and works in an office. One day he decides go on a vacation to San Francisco
without telling her fiance and secretary Paula, who is obviously very upset.
He is clearly running away from her.
In San Francisco he is staying in a hotel that is crowded with beautiful women
partying all the time.
His secretary Paula calls him about a mysterious
individual who has been trying to get urgently in touch with him.
Frank follows the festive crowd and ends up in a noisy jazz club.
As he approaches a blonde girl at the counter, a man pours something
into his drink.
During the night he starts feeling sick and in the morning a doctor confirms
that he is about to die: the poison has already reached the vital organs,
there is no antidote and he has at most one day to live.
Incredulous, Frank walks to a hospital and asks for a second test: the hospital
confirms that he has been murdered and calls the police.
Frank runs away.
Frank decides to investigate his own murder. He, the victim, becomes
the detective. He only has one day to crack the case.
Frank starts with the hotel, trying to track down the party
of the evening before.
His secretary calls again about the mysterious individual who wanted to talk
to him and thinks of reassuring Frank by telling him that he died suddenly.
But, of course, Frank thinks that this could be a lead and rushes to Los Angeles
to find out why the man wanted to reach him and what he died of: the man
committed suicide by leaping from the balcony because the police suspected
him of selling some stolen uranium,
and nobody knows why the dead man wanted to speak to Frank.
But Paula finds a new clue: in her files she finds a record that
this man purchased uranium from somebody, and Frank was the notary public
who notarized the bill of sale. Frank rushes back to the dead man's widow
and learns from her that the uranium seller disappeared and so did the bill of sale.
Frank is the only other person who knows about the bill of sale...
Both the dead man's brother, Stanley, and his business partner, Halliday, behave
in a hostile manner, hurt by Frank's arrogance.
The dead man's secretary gives him another clue: the dead man had a lover.
Frank visits the lover just in time: she's about to leave on a vacation.
From a photograph found in her apartment he gets to learn the real name of
the uranium seller: Raymond.
As he walks out of the photographic shop, somebody starts shooting at him.
Then gangsters kidnap him and take him to the luxurious house
of the old man who protects the dead man's lover, an old man named Majak,
who happens to
be the uncle of the uranium seller. He tells Frank that his nephew died one month
earlier, therefore he had nothing to do with his poisoning.
Since he now knows too much, the gangsters would still want to kill him,
but Frank manages to escape.
Frank is driven crazy by the whirlwind of suspects.
He suspects
the dead man's brother, Stanley, after figuring out that he must have an
affair with the secretary, but instead he finds that Stanley has just been
poisoned. The next suspect is then the widow, the only one who could have
stolen the bill of sale and, according to Stanley, the one who is having
a love affair with her late husband's business partner, Halliday.
The woman, terrified by Frank's determination to get the truth out of her,
admits that Holliday is the one who did not want the bill of sale to surface:
Halliday is actually the real seller of the stolen uranium and had made sure
that his partner got accused of it.
Majak's gangsters are still on Frank's heels but Frank eludes their chase.
Frank finds Halliday walking out of his office and fills his body with bullets.
Frank has just killed his own murderer.
Back to the police office, Frank drops dead in front of the police chief.
Forbidden/ Scarlet Heaven (1949) is another thriller.
When Worlds Collide (1951), scripted by Sydney Boehm, e' invece un film di fantascienza.
Gli astronomi di un laboratorio americano scoprono che una stella si sta
avvicinando alla Terra e la colpira` nel giro di otto mesi. L'unica speranza
di far sopravvivere la specie e` di costruire un'astronave che riesca a
trasportare pochi eletti su un pianeta che viaggia con la stella. Gli astronomi
chiedono alle nazioni del mondo di fornire i fondi per costruire l'astronave,
ma altri scienziati sono scettici dei loro calcoli. La notizia intanto si
sparge sui giornali. Il principale scienziato convince un ricco cinico in
carrozzella a investire i soldi per costruire l'astronave: in cambio avra'
un posto garantito. Intanto l'ONU dirama l'ordine di evacuare le citta'
costiere. Arriva il giorno fatidico: il pianeta viene scosso da terremoti
e diluvi. L'astronave e` completata. Lo scienziato annuncia che verranno
estratti a sorte i nomi dei fortunati passeggeri, oltre a se stesso, sua
figlia, l'amico pilota della figlia e pochi altri indispensabili.
Quando pero` viene il momento, gli esclusi si ribellano e tentano
di imbaracarsi con la forza, come il ricco aveva previsto. Lo scienziato
non vuole concedergli la soddisfazione di aver previsto tutto e fa partire
l'astronave prima che lui e il ricco abbiano avuto il tempo di imbarcarsi.
L'astronave atterra sul nuovo pianeta.
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