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Side Street (1950, USA, Mann)

A postman tries his hand at being dishonest, which he’s not very good at.  Then he tries being honest, which turns out even worse.  It all takes place in that same hard, unforgiving universe as all the rest of Anthony Mann’s movies.  Watched it all.  Featuring possibly the earliest exciting car chase put on film.  Oh and that’s a fantastic movie intro, above.  Corny, but I love that kind of stuff.

Francis, God’s Jester (1950, Italy, Rossellini)

St. Francis and his band of masochists roam the medieval countryside, looking for opportunities to be abused and humiliated.  Watched: 11 minutes.  Look, I’m not judging.  I just personally find religious fetishes a bit freaky.

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The Men (1950, USA, Zinnemann)

There was a moment during the war when you got down to earth war movies, honest movies, with actors so real that many of them were fresh off the battlefield, and no fake Drama.  This is kind of a follow-up to that, but now all the soldiers are paraplegics, who’ve ended up in some dead-end hospital while the rest of the world moved on without them.  Watched it all.  Featuring young upstart Marlon Brando in his first role, setting his mark on the decade right from the start.

Paid in Full (1950, USA, Dieterle)

I can forgive many things of a movie, but starting with an interesting event, and then doing a flashback to the boring backstory, is not one of them.  Watched: 8 minutes.