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The Argyle Secrets  /  Gentleman Joe Palooka

The Argyle Secrets
January 10, 2016 - 7:00 pm
Billy Wilder Theater
In-person: 
author Brian Neve.

The Argyle Secrets  (1948)


Based upon director Cy Endfield's own successful play for radio's Suspense series, this independent production concerned the pursuit by a dogged reporter of a rumored dossier containing the names of American businessmen who had sought to make deals with Nazi Germany, to buttress their own interests whatever the outcome of WWII.  A labyrinthine mystery, the economically-made film lent noirish interest to its grim geopolitical premise.

16mm, b/w, 64 min.  Production: Eronel Productions, Inc.  Distribution: Film Classics, Inc.  Producer: Alan H. Posner, Sam X. Abarbanel.  Director: Cy Endfield (as Cyril Endfield).  Based on the radio play The Argyle Album by Cyril Endfield on Suspense.  Screenwriter: Cy Endfield (as Cyril Endfield).  Cinematographer: Mack Stengler.  Editor: Greg Tallas.  Composer: Ralph Stanley.  With: William Gargan, Marjorie Lord, Ralph Byrd, Jack Reitzen, John Banner.

Print courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art

Gentleman Joe Palooka  (1946)


Championship boxer Joe Palooka is a publicist’s nightmare (too virtuous!) but a boon to scheming politicians who finagle Joe's endorsement of a land-use scheme that cloaks their actual corrupt designs.  Joe's morals and wits prove a match for his fists and wrong is soon put to right in this Poverty Row trifle written by Cy Endfield, whose attention to machine politics harmonizes with his later works.

16mm, b/w, 72 min.  Production: Monogram Pictures, Inc.  Distribution: Monogram Distributing Corp.  Producer: Hal E. Chester.  Director: Cy Endfield (as Cyril Endfield).  Based on the comic strip Joe Palooka created by Ham Fisher.  Screenwriter: Cy Endfield (as Cyril Enfield).  Cinematographer: William Sickner.  Editor: Ralph Dixon.  With: Leon Errol, Joe Kirkwood, Guy Kibbee, Elyse Knox, Lionel Stander.

Preceded by

Inflation  (1943)


This rarely seen, fanciful short about American consumer culture, made for MGM's short film unit, drew unfortunate attention to emerging director Cy Endfield.  Depicting a satanic business tycoon cozily assuring Adolf Hitler that rampant consumption and inflation will cripple America, the film was quickly withdrawn from distribution.

35mm, b/w, 17 min.  Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.  Distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.  Director: Cy Endfield (as Cyril Endfield).  Based on a story by E. Maurice Adler and Julian Harmon.  Screenwriter: Gene Piller, Michael Simmons.  Cinematographer: Henry Sharp.  Editor: Adrienne Fazan.  Composer: David Raksin, Max Terr.  With: Edward Arnold, Stephen McNally, Esther Williams, Vicky Lane.

Part of: 
Sound and Fury: The Films of Cy Endfield