Ken Drake

I Bury the Living -- (1957) Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel. This is a great movie. A cemetery map has white pins inserted on vacant plots, and black pins inserted on occupied graves...

I Bury the Living -- A bone-chilling story of cemetary manager Robert Craft (Boone), a disturbed man who comes to believe that he is actually God. Robert discovers that when he sticks a black pin into a wall-sized map of the cemetary, he can cause the owner of that plot to die. After several such untimely deaths, Robert believes he has the power of life and death. But will Robert still believe this once he discovers the true secret behind these deaths?

It says a lot about George Hamilton's acting skills that his first credited performance was this starring - and very demanding - role. He shines as Robert Cole, a troubled young man with a troubling belief: Exceptional people shouldn't have to pay for their crimes. After blacking out near the scene of a murder, Cole captures the attention of the police and proceeds to play a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a tenacious cop, a beautiful stranger and a family foe. 1950s Southern California is as far from 19th-century Moscow as you can get... or is it? By radically changing the setting of Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment, this moody thriller makes the dusty classic new, fresh and dangerous once again. Literary fans will be impressed, and film fans will delight in being reunited with this unique, sun-drenched, jazz-tinged noir opus.

While away on business, Harry Graham (Edmond O'Brien) hops a Hollywood tour bus. Sitting next to him is a tough-talking waitress, Phyllis Martin (Ida Lupino). He lights her cigarette and, a few more trips to Los Angeles later, Harry and Phyllis are wed. Back home in San Francisco, he and his wife, Eve (Joan Fontaine), are trying to adopt a child. Harry noticeably hesitates before signing a release granting the adoption agency permission to investigate their lives. The head of the agency, Mr. Jordan, senses that there is something amiss and decides to dig deeper. Harry is torn by his love and his desire to protect both women. Eve, though aloof, gives him a decent life. Phyllis, hardened by past disappointments, needs his love. Harry's situation becomes desperate as he tries to maintain his double life under the weight of Mr. Jordan's endless probing.