Lloyd Nolan

Decent special effects are the best reason to see this big-budget mess about the day that Los Angeles gets hit by the 'big one'.

Another night, another club. Jigger Pine's quintet is sockin' 'em solid before hopping a boxcar to the next gig. Not much money in this life. But plenty of tumult involving a criminal (Lloyd Nolan), a songbird (Priscilla Lane), a siren (Betty Field) and those Blues in the Night (the famed title tune and other songs are by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.) Anatole Litvak (The Snake Pit) directs this work packed with future filmmakers: scripter Robert Rossen (The Hustler), actors-turned-directors Richard Whorf (numerous TV series) and Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire), and Don Siegel (Dirty Harry), who provides the film's montages. Check your pulse if one of Siegel's inventive sequences doesn't provoke gasps of amazement!

Big-budget all-star disaster movie about a bomb set off on a passenger plane in flight. Many Academy Award nominations including Best Picture!

Seamy but entertaining account of the skeletons in the FBI founder's life. A zesty cast of veterans add spice to the scandalous and irresponsible dishing of America's great megalomaniacs. A guilty pleasure.