More classic Hollywood stuff here, I'll take them in the order I saw them, not the order of the title. First up is a film I've been intrigued about for a while because I like Jeanne Crain and this was her one oscar nominated performance in an Elia Kazan film : Pinky. The story is that the eponymous character is the granddaughter of a black woman, but can pass for white herself. On returning to where she grew up following going "north" to attend Nursing school, she encounters the usual problems of prejudice in the town. Due to the timeless subject matter, this more than stands up today. A few occasions may be taken too far (there's an attempted rape in there somewhere) and lay on the message too thickly (such as the manipulation of the court scene) but overall this is cracking stuff. Crain is superb, really given a chance with a meaty role and she runs with it, she is ably supported by Ethel Waters and Ethel Barrymore too. Definitely worth getting a hold of and shocking, not that this kind of thing happened, but that Hollywood was tackling this kind of thing in the 1940s.

The next one that caught my eye that I took the opportunity to watch was The Devil and Miss Jones, being such a fan of Jean Arthur and having enjoyed Charles Coburn in most of the things I've seen him in. I must say I was rather disappointed. It's about a businessman (Coburn) who decides to go undercover in one of his stores to root out the troublemakers who have got him adverse publicity. There he meets Miss Jones (Arthur) who is nice to him and whose boyfriend is one of the leading dissidents. The set-up is a bit overlong and the comedic payoffs don't really hit, it's one of those which isn't funny enough to be a successful comedy and too cute to be a satisfying drama. Both central performers (alongside legendary character actress Spring Byington) have enough appeal to ensure it's a decent watch but I didn't find anything revelatory here.

Gene Kelly ... & Gene Kelly

Moving on, I saw another Rita Hayworth musical, this time alongside Gene Kelly, called Cover Girl. I watched this in two goes because the beginning was rather underwhelming and sadly it continues in that vein. The basic set up is that Kelly and Hayworth are lovers and fellow dancers on a small stage, but following Rita's entering a contest to find a new cover girl for magazines she comes across a short cut to the top. Nothing you wouldn't expect to happen happens, and some of the dance routines are rather dull and waste the performers involved. When it's just Gene and Rita, or Gene dancing with himself it flirts with brilliance, but these moments are all too few and far between. The support ranges from inspired (Eve Arden) to maddeningly annoying (Phil Silvers), rather like the film itself. Worth it for the good bits, but only just.

Lastly I saw Build My Gallows High (or Out of the Past, as it's known in America), which is a Robert Mitchum film noir. It starts off a bit slowly but gets better the longer it goes, seeing our man being discovered as the owner of a gas station, then an extended flashback of him working for a gangster to retrieve the moll who's run off with $40,000. Mitchum does well and Jane Greer is incredibly appealing as the femme fatale so they make it very watchable throughout. A young Kirk Douglas is fine as the gangster, but there's a two-scene-turn from Rhonda Fleming which is so good it leaves you desperate for more from her - she was wasted. For the most part it goes where you expect it to, but the end is rather unsatisfactory (but possibly necessary due to the code?). The acting elevates this out of the ordinary but it wasn't something that got me too excited.