Blood On The Moon (1948, Robert Wise)

Five Graves To Cairo (1943, Billy Wilder)

Thank you Turner Classic Movies for showing this rare Wilder gem (and one of Tarantino's Favorite WW2 Films). Wilder's second feature as a director is an WW2 intrigue tale with all the Wilder prerequisites: colorful characters, social/political commentary, and inventive dialogue and set pieces.
In his book of interviews with Wilder, Cameron Crowe compliments the filmmaker by commenting that the opening of the film is like something out of Indiana Jones. And he's right! At the top of the film, we see a tank driving up the desert from the distance. A man hangs off the side. He wakes to find himself the only alive soldier amongst a renegade tankful of dead bodies. He jumps out and the tank drives off. He cant keep up and the tank drives into the distance. It's a great opening with my summary doing it no justice.
Classic bit of Wilder wit: The Field General Rommel (played by Erich von Stroheim) instructs his gopher that upon his return to Cairo he wants to see a specific opera, but "omitting the second act, because it is too long and not too good." Of course this happens during Five Graves' second act which was not too long and very very good.
This film has a great fight scene between the waiter/soldier and the German lieutenant takes place in the dark and we only see a dropped flashlight shining up at us from the floor. When it is picked up, we see who lost the fight.
This film needs to be released on disc.

Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)

All Movie Guide Synopsis:

This adaptation of Vera Caspary's suspense novel was begun by director Rouben Mamoulien and cinematographer Lucien Ballard, but thanks to a complex series of backstage intrigues and hostilities, the film was ultimately credited to director Otto Preminger and cameraman Joseph LaShelle (who won an Oscar for his efforts). At the outset of the film, it is established that the title character, Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), has been murdered. Tough New York detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates the killing, methodically questioning the chief suspects: Waspish columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), wastrel socialite Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), and Carpenter's wealthy "patroness" Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson). The deeper he gets into the case, the more fascinated he becomes by the enigmatic Laura, literally falling in love with the girl's painted portrait. As he sits in Laura's apartment, ruminating over the case and his own obsessions, the door opens, the lights switch on, and in walks Laura Hunt, very much alive! To tell any more would rob the reader of the sheer enjoyment of watching this stylish film noir unfold on screen. Everything clicks in Laura, from the superbly bitchy peformance of Clifton Webb (a veteran Broadway star who became an overnight movie favorite with this film) to the haunting musical score by David Raskin. Long available only in the 85-minute TV version Laura has since been restored to its original 88-minute running time.

A Foreign Affair (1948, Billy Wilder)

All Movie Guide Summary:

Writer/director Billy Wilder (in collaboration with producer/writer Charles Brackett) earned his first critical condemnation with A Foreign Affair. Reviewers accused Wilder (as they would so often in the future) of moral bankruptcy, challenging him to prove what could possibly be funny about the Nazi war guilt, the bombed-out city of Berlin, the postwar European black market or attempted suicide. All of these elements are in Foreign Affair, and all are very funny. John Lund is an American army captain carrying on a casual affair with Berlin songstress Marlene Dietrich, who accepts Lund's attentions so long as there are contraband cigarettes and nylons added to the bargain. Iowa congresswoman Jean Arthur is sent as part of an American fact-finding delegation to Berlin, and Lund is compelled to clean up his act--or at least pretend to. Despite her initial shock at the corruption all around her, straitlaced Arthur eventually falls for Lund, but Dietrich has been at this game a lot longer. For an interesting cinematic and sociological exercise, A Foreign Affair should be shown in tandem with Wilder's 1961 Cold War comedy One, Two, Three.