Monthly Archives: September 2015

Nora Prentiss (1947) Vincent Sherman

Nora Prentiss (1947)
Quiet, organised Dr Talbot meets nightclub singer Nora Prentiss when she is slightly hurt in a street accident. Despite her misgivings they become heavily involved and Talbot finds he is faced with the choice of leaving Nora or divorcing his wife. When a patient expires in his office, a third option seems to present itself.
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Crime et châtiment / Crime and Punishment (1956) Georges Lampin

Crime et chatiment (1956)
Convinced of his own intelligence and talent, René Brunel (Robert Hossein) decide to try that is above the bourgeois and kills an old pawnbroker in cold blood morality. Gallet commissioner (Jean Gabin), case manager, we will pursue relentlessly and subtle, convinced it has something to do with it. Suffocating pressure that added to the ideas raised in his talks with Lili Marcelini (Marina Vlady), a prostitute he has met recently, make awareness of René fall on him without mercy.
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La balance (1982) Bob Swaim

La balance (1982)
Nicole is a Parisian streetwalker and Dede is her racketeer boyfriend, on the outs with his mob bosses because of a dispute over Nicole. When a police informant (“balance”) is murdered, the cops have to scramble for a replacement. Deciding on Dede, they begin to put a nasty squeeze on him and Nicole.
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Maria no Oyuki / Oyuki, the Virgin (1935) Kenji Mizoguchi

Maria no Oyuki (1935)
Oyuki, the Virgin is based on Kawaguchi Matsutaro’s adaptation of Maupassant’s “Boule de Suif” (“Lump of Fat,” also the inspiration for Ford’s Stagecoach). To this story Mizoguchi added some of his own elements. Maupassant’s original work, set during the Franco-Prussian War, is the story of a group of people who try to flee the battleground in a horsedrawn carriage. The bourgeois use the expression “lump of fat” to refer sarcastically to the prostitute who is riding along with them. When they are caught by the enemy, they offer to send her to the commander as a human sacrifice. This done, when they leave the battlefield the next day, all they do is censure her and call her vulgar.
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Holy Matrimony (1943) John M. Stahl

Holy Matrimony (1943)
Famed English painter Priam Farll has spent the last 25 years living in various remote locations with only his trusted manservant, Henry Leek, for company. While Farll is summoned to London to receive a knighthood, Leek falls ill and dies. Wishing to avoid the ostentation knighthood ceremony, the reclusive painter assumes his valet’s identity. Farll, posing as Leek, soon receives a letter from Alice Chalice, a widow who has been corresponding with Leek through a marriage bureau and is expecting to finally meet her beloved in person…
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Viimne reliikvia / The Last Relic (1969) Grigori Kromanov

Viimne reliikvia (1969)
A medieval love story with lots of adventures. The times are troubled – there’s a revolt of peasants going on. To secure its safety a monastery chases for a relics of a holy Brigitte. A nobleman promises to get it if he gets beautiful Agnes as a reward. But she fells in love with a handsome adventurer. The monastery has to act shrewd now and play double game. The movie is still the best achievement of the Estonian cinema. Based on a novel.
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Tiger Bay (1959) J. Lee Thompson

Tiger Bay (1959)
Gille Jenkins, a 12 year old tomboy and compulsive liar living in a sordid tenement with her single parent mother, witnesses the murder of an immigrant Polish woman living in an nearby apartment by her former boyfriend, Bronislaus Korchinski. The young merchant marine becomes distraught when he discovers that she has become the mistress of a married British sports announcer and shoots her with her own gun. Gillie lies about the circumstances in order to keep the gun which she discovers where Korchinsky hid it. She ultimately bonds with him and misleads the police in their investigation.
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Anklaget / Accused (2005) Jacob Thuesen

Anklaget (2005)
On the surface Henrik and Nina Christofferson are an ordinary family living happily. But they have a problem. Their daughter, Stine, a difficult 14 year old, has a habit of telling lies in class. When Stine accuses her father of sexual abuse, and is believed by seemingly eager social workers, their family is thrust into crisis. Could Henrik have done it? And when Stine prepares to return home, the ugly side of family life is exposed.
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Hachi no su no kodomotachi / Children of the Beehive (1948) Hiroshi Shimizu

Hachi no su no kodomotachi (1948)
The movie focuses on the plight of ten war orphans hailing from different cities across Japan. With nowhere to go, they scavenge around train stations, scratching out an existence by means of black market work for a one-legged tramp whilst avoiding being picked up by the police for vagrancy. Soon however, they find a more inspiring role model in the figure of a nameless soldier just repatriated after the war. An orphan himself, the soldier also has no home to return to, and so sets out across the country with the kids in tow in search of work before settling on the goal of leading them to the orphanage where he himself grew up.
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The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) W.S. Van Dyke, Howard Hawks

The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)
Steve is just a heavy duty bartender when Edwin J. Bennett, known as the Professor, starts training him for the ring. While doing road work, he is almost killed by a speeding car which crashes into a ditch. In the car is Belle Mercer and her driver. Steve takes Belle to a farmhouse and is smitten by her, but she is Willie Ryan’s Girl. The fight is a breeze and later, Steve again meets Belle with Willie. That night, Steve and Belle disappear and return married, much to the disappointment of Ryan. Then Steve starts training in ernest and is 19 for 19 in the ring. However, he has an eye for the women and an expanding ego to match.
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Rue des Prairies / Rue de Paris (1959) Denys de La Patellière

Rue des Prairies (1959)
Life in a one-parent family with a focus on the parent, Henri Neveu (Jean Gabin), is the topic of this standard drama with a dash of comedy. While Henri was a POW during the war, his wife passed away and he returned to face the challenges of bringing up three children alone. Henri may get drunk and angry at times but he also has a better side that will not stay buried. Since handling three children alone is no easy task, the single father has the choice of growing in the process or not.
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