Railroaded! (1947, USA, Mann) – Another tight, mean Anthony Mann noir.  When he made bad movies (which was long ago, the previous year), he was still pretty interesting – and now he’s making good ones.  Watched it all.  Favorite scene: The good guy’s sister beating up the femme fatale.

Unconquered (1947, USA, DeMille) – Didn’t Gary Cooper promise to stay away from costume dramas?  The opening scene could have been a Monty Python sketch, but it’s meant seriously: A woman defends herself in a 1763 court for killing a press gang officer that tried to press her brother.  It’s the way she adds “but, my brother was killed too!” at the end that is just hilarious.  Watched: 12 minutes.

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Good News (1947, USA, Walters) – There’s something that’s been missing from most of the musicals so far.  Now I know what it is: It’s whatever this movie has.  It’s ridiculously artificial, but with a hard satirical edge.  Watched it all.  Actually, what this movie has that earlier musicals didn’t was the writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who a few years later made Singin’ in the Rain.  Favorite scene: Pass That Peace Pipe, seen above, which just makes me really happy.

Variety Girl (1947, USA, Marshall) – I wonder if the studios would sometimes notice that a bunch of their stars were hanging around without anything to do, and say “Hey, let’s put them all together in an all-star movie! Script? Ah, just throw something together.”  Watched: 12 minutes.