Deceased turn-of-the-century playboy Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche) presents himself to the outer offices of Hades, where he asks a bemused Satan for permission to enter the gates of hell. Though the devil doubts that Henry’s sins qualify him for eternal damnation, Henry proceeds to recount a lifetime of wooing and pursuing women, his long, happy marriage to Martha (Gene...
When a conservative middle-aged professor engages in a minor dalliance with a femme fatale, he is plunged into a nightmarish quicksand of blackmail and murder. Magnificent is the twist at the end of the movie which comes as a total surprise.
A successful insurance salesman returns to his office late one night. Visibly in pain, he begins dictating a confession. The story, told primarily in flashback, involves a beautiful, yet dangerous, woman, Phillys Dietrichson. The two met when her husband's insurance policy expired. Widely regarded as a classic, it is often cited as a paradigmatic film noir that has set the ...
Gaston Morel, a puppeteer, falls in love with Lucille, a young modiste, and confesses to her to be a murderer. His story and his first murder are told in flashback. Morel was once a painter and fell in love with a model who became the main inspiration for his paintings, but when she betrayed the idealized image he had of her, he killed her. She is just the first victim of a ...
The story concerns three young people who meet in a small village near Canterbury. An American Army Sergeant who hasn't recently received any letter from his girlfriend, a British Army Sergeant, who, used to work as a pianist in a cinema, and a young shopping assistant, who joined the army after having lost her boyfriend in the war. Chaucer is a odd pretext for this pastoral...
Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura Hunt, found dead on her apartment floor. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from the suspects whom he interviews. He is helped by the striking painting of the late lamented Laura hanging on her apartment wall. But who would have wanted to kill a girl with whom every man she met seemed to fall in love?...
Architect Walter Craig arrives at a country house to be restored where he meets some guests invited for a party. He immediately experience a déjà vu, as if he was living in one of his recurrent dreams. He knows the dream has a scaring ending, but he doesn't remember it. When he reveals to the guests that he has already seen them all in a dream, they start entertaining each o...
Al Roberts, a piano player working in New York, hitchhikes to reach his girlfriend Sue in Los Angeles. Haskell, a rich man, gives him a ride and start telling him about the last hitchhiker he gave a ride to: a girl who scratched his face when he made advances to her. Al takes his turn driving while Haskel falls asleep. When he tries to wake him up, Al realizes that he is dea...
Hélène, a young widow, and Jean have pledged their love to each other, but are not engaged to marry. Their love affair allows dalliances with others, but they have promised to put each other first above all others. Hélène has been warned by a friend that Jean's love for her has cooled and fears this is correct. She tricks him into confessing, by pretending her own feelings f...
Joan Webster, twenty-five years old, knows exactly what she wants from life. She decides to take a ship for the island of Kiloran, in the Hebrides , to marry Sir Robert Bellenger, an old rich man. Because of the fog, the ship stops on the island of Mull, where Joan spends some time with Torquil, a young Marine officer. On the island, Joan gets to know some of the inhabitants...
