A fast paced action movie, with a fair amount of drama, a wrong court decision, and the need to get revenge (and clear his name) were some of the parts that made The Fugitive a very famous and commercially successful movie. The movie was nominated for a clutch of Oscars, and also earned more than $500 million worldwide. It helped that it starred 2 famous actors in the person of Harrison Ford (very famous for Star Wars and Indiana Jones), and Tommy Lee Jones. The movie also got good reviews from critics, making it really successful (it is not always seen for a movie to be both commercially successful and earn praise from critics).
The movie was released in 1993, and was based on a television series that aired on ABC between 1963 and 1967. The series ran for 4 years (interestingly, the first 3 seasons were in black and white, and the fourth season was in color). The movie has the same premise, where a doctor is charged for the murder of his wife, and escapes in order to prove his innocence.

The movie has principally 2 characters – Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, and Tommy Lee Jones as Deputy United States Marshal Samuel Gerard. Dr. Kimble has been charged for the murder of his wife, based on the fact that his wife made a call to 911 which apparently led to Dr. Kimble being blamed for the murder. In addition, there was no evidence to back the claim of Dr. Kimble that a man with an artificial hand was responsible for the murder (there were no signs of somebody breaking into the house, there were no other fingerprints on the gun). Dr. Kimble was charged for murder, and convicted by a jury, sentenced to die.
However, on the way to prison in a bus (along with other convicts), there is a disturbance inside the bus that causes the bus to fall onto the path of an oncoming train. In the disturbance. Dr. Kimble manages to run away and is now being pursued by the United States Marshal service, led by officer Samuel Gerard. Kimble manages to change out of his prison uniform, shave, and alter his appearance, but Gerard is soon on the chase, and manages to corner him inside a storm drain inside a dam. The only option for Kimble to survive is by jumping into the flow of water falling from the dam, and he does so in a fairly spectacular shot.
Now, Kimble is on a mission to find people who have received a prosthetic arm, while striving to be hidden from the police who is chasing him. In the middle of this, while hidden in a hospital, he even saves a boy by altering the diagnosis and sending him to emergency surgery. Kimble even heads to the jail to try to find the one-armed man, but is not able to find him. He eventually gets into the home of a former police office called Frederick Sykes (Katsulas). Sykes was there in Kimble’s list since he had received a prosthetic arm. It is in Sykes’s home that Kimble finds evidence of what could have caused the attacks at Kimble’s home, as well as the involvement of somebody close to Kimble. Can Kimble save himself from the police, and expose the involvement of others ?

The Fugitive was nominated for 7 Oscars:
Won: Best Supporting Actor – Tommy Lee Jones
Best Picture (lost to Schindler’s List)
Best Cinematography (lost to Schindler’s List)
Best Sound Effects Editing (lost to Jurassic Park)
Best Film Editing (lost to Schindler’s List)
Best Original Music Score (lost to Schindler’s List)
Best Sound (lost to Jurassic Park)

Double indemnity is a clause or provision in a life insurance or accident policy whereby the company agrees to pay the stated multiple (e.g. double) of the face amount in the contract in cases of accidental death. An accidental death is a death that is neither intentionally caused by a human being, such as homicide, nor from natural causes, such as cancer or heart disease. The probability of a death in the United Stated arising from accidental reasons has a low probability, and hence double indemnity is an insurance scenario that is sold cheaply. As you might think, for a couple where either member is thinking of separating and is willing to become a criminal, the thought of bumping off your spouse in a way that the death can be claimed as an accidental death can seem very attractive. But not all the plans in life work out, and the insurance industry has sleuths who investigate accidental death cases in order to rule out any fraud.

Double Indemnity is a multiple Oscar nominated movie, released in 1944, and directed by Billy Wilder, based on the theme of Double Indemnity where a wife seeks to get her husband murdered, with the depiction as an accident. The movie was based on a novella by James M. Cain of the same name, that appeared over 8 issues of the 1935 edition of Liberty magazine. The story is based on the 1927 case of a lady based in Queens, Ruth Snyder, who along with her lover got her husband murdered after he took out an insurance scheme with a double indemnity clause.
The movie plays out in flashback, with Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), an insurance salesman for Pacific All-Risk dictating his story into a dictaphone for the benefit of his colleague, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), who is a claims adjuster, and investigating the same case that Neff is intimately involved in. Neff is in his death throes, being shot and badly wounded.
The story was that Neff met Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) at her house when he had gone to renew the car insurance of her husband. They flirt, and then Barbara asks Neff how to take out a new insurance policy on her husband without her husband getting to know, something that causes the suspicious antenna on Neff to start working, for a person in the insurance business, that question is very fishy, and he suspects that she wants her husband killed. He refuses, but she follows him to his house and persuades him to become part of a plan to kill her husband. They work out a plan where her husband falls from a moving train.
The insurance company sends Keyes to investigate, who after some initial hesitation, concludes that Barbara must have a hand in this murder. He has no knowledge about the involvement of Neff. Then Lola, the dead man’s daughter and the step-daughter of Phyllis comes to Neff for help, especially since her mother had died when Phyllis was taking care of her as a nurse. Neff soon realizes that Phyllis is also seeing Lola’s boy-friend, and soon realizes that he can get Phyllis and the boy-friend to become the main suspects.
Neff has a confrontation with Phyllis, and Phyllis shoots first, but does not shoot again, refraining from making the killing attack; accepting that her refusal to shoot again means she could now be in love with Neff. She hugs Neff, who then shoots her dead. Neff drives back to the office, for the end of the flashback, and collapses on the floor of the office after making his confession, in time for Keyes to hear everything.

Oscar nominations;
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Barbara Stanwyck)
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
Best Director (Billy Wilder)
Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Sound, recording
Best Writing, Screenplay

A Star is Born was a movie that has been made many times, with the version having Judy Garland being the most popular. Other versions of the movie have been made in 1937 (starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March) and in 1976 (starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson). The 1954 version has a huge amount of history related to Judy Garland. In the years preceding the movie, she had been dumped from her contract with MGM in 1950 (and had not made a movie since), and as you can imagine, for a movie with her to be released 4 years later made promotion of the movie as a comeback movie. She made it to the Oscar nominations as a nominee for Best Actress (and since the show was going on when she was in hospital after having delivered her son, a television crew was sent by NBC since they were sure that she would win), but the Oscar went to Grace Kelly for the Country Girl.

The movie talks about a story that does not seem so unfamiliar – a famous actor finds and promotes a young talent, they fall in love, she becomes successful and he starts falling down. This puts strain on their marriage, and leads to a tragic ending.
Norman Maine (played by James Mason) is a highly successful movie star, whose career has been good, but who is now moving slowly on the path downward. One day, he arrives drunk at an event, and refuses to listen to pleas not to go to on stage. A disaster is averted due to the quick action of the singer of the playing orchestra who makes it seem like his arrival on stage to greet fans was planned (this singer of the orchestra is Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland)).
He is impressed by her quick thinking, and later when watching her performance. He promises to help her get a break into movies the next day. However, the next day he has to leave early and is unable to get her a message; she has left her job already and feels like he was just flirting with her. She has to do odd jobs now to make ends meet. After the passage of some time, Norman hears her singing on TV, and finds her, convincing her that he will make good on his promise. He manages to get her into movies, and slowly, she starts becoming more successful. Her movie is successful, and she is now a major star. Their relations also progresses, and they get married.
However, things start reversing now. Her career (she is now called a new stage name, Vicki Lester) keeps on growing while Norman finds himself out of work and no longer as famous as he used to be. He is a drunkard, and only manages to get out of his alcohol addiction after an incident in which he strikes her. He manages to get out of alcohol, but reverts when an old associate accuses him of living off his wife’s earnings. He reverts to alcoholism, and is arrested by the police. Vicki takes him home, and it is then Norman hears her saying that she will even give up her career to take care of him. This is not something that Norman can take, and he drowns himself in the ocean, leaving Vicki devastated.
She withdraws from her career, until an old friend manages to talk her into agreeing to one of her older commitment to appear at a show, and she reaches the auditorium where the event is being held. There she sees again an old heart that Norman had drawn on the wall when they had met for the first time, and almost loses it. In the end, she decides to announce herself as Mrs. Norman Maine.

The name of the movie and the associated novel seem a bit strange when you consider the content of the novel. In the novel on which the movie is based, there is nothing to do with a postman, and there is no ringing of the bell or something similar. The name is seemingly more to do with the attempt of the author to find a great name for the book (and was seemingly derived from the fact that the postman would ring the bell twice to ensure that there was no doubt that the bell had been rung and the person would come to do the door; this was seemingly also based on the fact that the author was a struggling author whose manuscript had been rejected by 13 publishers, and he would wait for the postman to get the results). In the film, the title is used as a philosophical note in the end, when, sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, after having escaped any punishment for the murder that he did commit, the protagonist reflects that the second ringing of the bell by the postman was meant to signify that you will eventually get punishment, if not by the first ringing of the bell, then by the second. The movie was directed by Tay Garnett

The book that the movie was based was called the same name ‘The postman always rings twice’ (published in 1934), written by James M Cain, and the fast paced and racy action (including the depiction of violence inspired by sexuality and adultery) was such that the book was banned in some locations. The book, however, is seen as a great crime novel of the 20th century, leading to this movie (with additional movies on the same theme down the years). The 1946 movie, starring Lana Turner, John Garfield, and Cecil Kellaway, is now seen as a film noir.
The movie is based on a story of a triangle of love, lust, deceit, ambition, and violence (the typical strong human emotions that cause all the problems in life). A drifter, Frank Chambers (John Garfield), stops at a local food diner, and then decides to work over there. The diner is being run by a couple, with the husband Nick (Cecil Kellaway) much older than the wife Cora Smith (Lana Turner). Cora is not in love with her husband, and soon she and Frank are having a sexual relationship, an adulterous relationship. She convinces Frank that she is being mistreated by Nick, and soon they decide to murder Nick in such a way that there is no suspicion on them, as well as Cora gets to own the diner.
Their first attempt fails, when they try to show that Nick drowned in his bathtub, but they are unsuccessful, and are only saved when Nick does not remember what happened. Their second attempt to simulate a car crash is more successful, and Nick does indeed die, seemingly a drunk driving accident where Frank and Cora are injured. Not enough evidence lies to tie them to the murder, and even though the prosecutor tries to play them one against the other (by only trying Cora and getting her to try and confess), they are let off with Cora getting a suspended sentence.
Freed from any possible legal punishment, Cora and Frank get together and plan a life with each other, when the irony of the movie exhibits its full face. Cora dies in a car accident, and it is made to seem that Frank is behind this action; he is prosecuted and sentenced to death for this crime. He is incredulous, he is totally innocent; however, as his execution approaches, he is convinced that it is his punishment for his earlier murder (and Cora dying in the car accident was her punishment).