Monthly Archives: December 2014

Go West (1940) Edward Buzzell, Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx

Go West (1940)
Embezzler, shill, all around confidence man S. Quentin Quale is heading west to find his fortune; he meets the crafty but simple brothers Joseph and Rusty Panello in a train station, where they steal all his money. They’re heading west, too, because they’ve heard you can just pick the gold off the ground. Once there, they befriend an old miner named Dan Wilson whose property, Dead Man’s Gulch, has no gold. They loan him their last ten dollars so he can go start life anew, and for collateral, he gives them the deed to the Gulch.
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Sorekara / And Then… (1985) Yoshimitsu Morita, Yûsaku Matsuda, Miwako Fujitani, Kaoru Kobayashi

Sorekara AKA And Then... (1985)
This is a probing tale set in turn of the century Japan, involving three people trapped in a complex relationship of love and friendship. Daisuke (Yusaku Matsuda) is supposed to be out looking for a respectable job and equally respectable wife. He is 30 years old and devotes his attention to music and literature; his family is wealthy and can support his interests.
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College Holiday (1936) Frank Tuttle, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen

College Holiday (1936)
Sylvia Smith and Dick Winters share a romantic kiss at a dance, but Sylvia is called away before Dick can learn her full name. Sylvia’s father is about to lose his California hotel, the Casa Del Mar, thanks to the financial blundering of his new business partner J. Davis Bowster. The mortgage is held by eccentric heiress Carola P. Gaye, whose current fascination is with the ancient Greek-style eugenics championed by Prof. Hercules Dove.
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Anything for John (1993) Dominique Cazenave, John Cassavetes, Seymour Cassel, Peter Falk

Anything for John (1993)
An intimate portrait of actor-writer-director John Cassavetes and a loving tribute to his genius for studying and depicting the human character. In-depth, candid interviews with his wife and muse Gena Rowlands as well as his most trusted friends and co-workers like Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel, etc. Clips from Cassavetes’ greatest films, and many rare photos illustrate this touching documentary.
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Nietzsche and the Nazis (2006) Frank Michaels, Stephen R.C. Hicks

Nietzsche and the Nazis (2006)
One of the intellectual giants of the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche had an impact on countless future intellectuals and writers. In particular, the Nazis claimed his philosophy played a pivotal role in their ideology. In this title, Professor Stephen Hicks examines the history and writings central to both Nietzsche and the Nazi to explore the validity of their statement.
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La moustache (2005) Emmanuel Carrère, Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric

La moustache (2005)
Marc is sitting in his bath one morning and asks his wife, “how would you feel if I shaved off my mustache?” She doesn’t think it’s a great idea, for the 15 years they’ve been married, she’s never known him without his ‘stache. He shaves it off anyway, but when he sees his wife, she doesn’t notice, neither do their friends at dinner that night, neither do his co-workers. Marc finally flips out, shouts at everyone, tells them he’s tired of their little joke, and what do they really think. His wife and co-workers are appalled, what is he talking about, he’s never had a mustache. In fact, he’s imagining other things as well, or is he?
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The Big Boss (1941) Charles Barton, Otto Kruger, Gloria Dickson, John Litel

The Big Boss (1941)
The Big Boss is Jim Maloney (Otto Kruger), who pulls all the political strings in an unnamed major metropolis. Maloney’s chief antagonist is scrupulously honest “reform” governor Bob Dugan (John Litel). The fact that Maloney and Dugan are actually brothers, orphaned in childhood and raised separately, adds both texture and poignancy to their current adversarial relationship. Intending to reveal his fraternal ties to Dugan at a crucial moment in the latter’s anti-corruption campaign, Maloney is ultimately defeated by the forces of Righteousness. Outside of the always dependable Otto Kruger and John Litel, the film’s best performance is delivered by the underrated Gloria Dickson as a fairly realistic newspaperwoman.
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40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967) William Witney, Audie Murphy, Michael Burns, Kenneth Tobey

40 To Apache Pass One Sheet
In 1868 Arizona the Apaches led by Cochise are on a warpath and U.S. Army Captain Bruce Coburn is tasked with protecting settlers on their way to Apache Wells. A group of undisciplined soldiers, led by corporal Bodine, make Coburn’s task more difficult. When they’re sent after a shipment of repeating rifles Bodine and four others steal the weapons and desert. Captain Coburn manages to return to Apache Wells where he vows to capture Bodine and his fellow deserters. Meanwhile, Bodine mets Cochise to negotiate the sale of the stolen repeating rifles without knowing that Captain Coburn has recovered the stolen weapons and has killed the other deserters. Cochise and Bodine chase after Captain Coburn in an attempt to recuperate the rifles which both the Apaches and the settlers need in order to prevail. A race against time ensues.
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Boom (1968) Joseph Losey, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noel Coward

Boom! (1968)
Film version of playwright Tennessee Williams’ “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” involves very wealthy Flora ‘Sissy’ Goforth, supposedly dying, and living in a large mansion on a secluded island with her servants and nurses; into her life comes a mysterious man, Angelo Del Morte and “the Witch of Capri.” The mysterious man may or may not be “The Angel of Death”.
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Plagio (1969) Sergio Capogna, Ray Lovelock, Mita Medici, Alain Noury

Plagio (1969)
It was the story of a very rich young man who falls in love with a couple who are at college with him. He ‘plagiarises’ them in the sense that in the end he manages to go to bed with both of them. But the young man has problems – there’s a suggestion that he killed his parents, who were so much in love that he felt excluded.
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Liquid Sky (1982) Slava Tsukerman, Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Sheppard, Susan Doukas

Liquid Sky (1982)
Invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin. They land on top of a New York apartment inhabited by a drug dealer and her female, androgynous, bisexual nymphomaniac lover, a fashion model. The aliens soon find the human pheromones created in the brain during orgasm preferable to heroin, and the model’s casual sex partners begin to disappear. This increasingly bizarre scenario is observed by a lonely woman in the building across the street, a German scientist who is following the aliens, and an equally androgynous, drug-addicted male model. (Both models are played by Anne Carlisle, in a dual role.) Darkly funny and thoroughly weird.
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