1954 - SEAGULLS OVER SORRENTO or CREST OF THE WAVE

We're on a Scottish island at a British navel testing station.  It seems there is a powerful explosive that the navy is trying to stick into the warhead of a torpedo to blow stuff up.  The trouble seems to be that the explosive tends to blow the submarine up before the torpedo can be fired out of the sub.  After several failures the British Navy sends for USN Lt. Gene Kelly (playing a scientist) to figure out what's going wrong.

The drama arises from the British personnel resenting the involvement of the United States Navy in solving their little torpedo problem.  Perhaps things could have been worked out if Kelly had performed one of his song and dance numbers, from Singing in the Rain or An American in Paris.

Kelly seems a little out of place in this film surrounded by all of these Limeys, but he's actually not to bad.  It just goes to show you that if you spend a life in the musical comedy genre it tends to really typecast you in more dramatic roles.

Seagulls Over Sorrento is capably by Roy Bolting who combines character studies of the sailors with humor and drama.

92 minutes, screenplay by Frank Harvey and Roy Boultingh

1956 - RUN FOR THE SUN, remake of a story that has been remade about 30 times

The basic situation of the big game hunter tired with hunting animals and now trapping humans as game has been remade a lot starting with The Most Dangerous Game and currently the 2010 release of  Predators.  Even an episode of Gilligan's Island used this plot line. 

This version was shot on location in Mexico and features every one's favorite movie villains, the Nazis. 

This is a very good thoughtful remake.  The screenplay is by Dudley Nichols, who was an old Hollywood professional when it came to putting together something with entertainment and substance.

Richard Widmark was always Mr Intense in his films and he doesn't disappoint here basically playing Ernest Hemingway if Hemingway were to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of Nazis trying to kill him.  Jane Greer who played femme fatales when she was a teenager in the 1940's is the love interest.  Trevor Howard is cleverly cast as a traitorous Englishman hiding out in Mexico.  The film is directed by Roy Boulting who was usually known for directing comedies.  Everyone's on top of their game for this film. 

The film comes in at a tight 90 minutes with strong emphasis on characters and story situations along with the action scenes.