Monthly Archives: March 2016

The Outrage (1964) Martin Ritt, Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Drama, Western, Crime

The Outrage (Martin Ritt, 1964)
Three disparate travelers, a disillusioned preacher, an unsuccessful prospector, and a larcenous, cynical con man, meet at a decrepit railroad station in the 1870s Southwest. The prospector and the preacher were witnesses at the singularly memorable rape and murder trial of the notorious Mexican outlaw Carasco. The bandit duped an aristocratic Southerner into believing he knew the location of a lost Aztec treasure. The greedy “gentleman” allows himself to be tied up while Carasco deflowers his wife. These events lead to the stabbing of the husband and are related by the three eyewitnesses to the atrocity: the infamous bandit, the newlywed wife, and the dead man through an Indian shaman. Whose version of the events is true? Possibly there was a fourth witness, but can his version be trusted?
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The Wonderful Country (1959) Robert Parrish, Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Gary Merrill, Romance, Western

The Wonderful Country (Robert Parrish, 1959)
Having fled to Mexico from the U.S. many years ago for killing his father’s murderer, Martin Brady travels to Texas to broker an arms deal for his Mexican boss, strongman Governor Cipriano Castro. Brady breaks a leg and while recuperating in Texas the gun shipment is stolen. Complicating matters further the wife of local army major Colton has designs on him, and the local Texas Ranger captain makes him a generous offer to come back to the states and join his outfit. After killing a man in self defense, Brady slips back over the border and confronts Castro who is not only unhappy that Brady has lost his gun shipment but is about to join forces with Colton to battle the local raiding Apache Indians.
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The Other (1972) Robert Mulligan, Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky, Drama, Horror, Mystery

The Other (Robert Mulligan, 1972)
In the summer of 1935, 12-year-old twins Niles and Holland Perry live with their family on a Connecticut farm. Their loving grandmother Ada has taught them something called “the game.” A number of accidents begin happening, and it seems to Niles that Holland is responsible. It is Ada who begins to see the truth, and she is the only one who can stop this macabre game of murder.
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Caligula II: The Untold Story (1982) Joe D’Amato, David Brandon, Laura Gemser, Luciano Bartoli, Adult, Drama, History, Erotic

caligula_ii
The deranged Roman emperor Gainus ‘Caligula’ (Little Boots) Caesar (12-41 A.D.) rules Rome with an iron fist and has anyone tortured and exectued for even the slightest insubordination. Mostly set during his last year of his reign, as Caligula loses support due to his brutal and crazed excess, a young Moor woman, named Miriam, becomes his lover while ploting to kill him to avenge the murder of a friend which Caligula was responsible for. But Miriam is torn between her personal vandeda against Caligula and her own personal feelings towards him despite his madness and debauched lifestyle of orgies and bloody torture murders.
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La Mansion De Los Muertos Vivientes (1985) Jesus Franco, Lina Romay, Antonio Mayans, Mabel Escaño, Horror, Erotic

la_mansion_de_los_muertos_vivientes
Four strippers get a great deal on a vacation at a remote island resort. They soon find out why it was such a great deal when they learn the place is empty except for them ,the Gardner and the hotel manager. Little do the women know that something sinister has been going on this island and one by one they soon find out its terrible secret.
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Brozer / Frailer (2014) Mijke de Jong, Marnie Blok, Lieneke le Roux, Leonoor Pauw, Drama

Brozer AKA Frailer (2014)
Frailer tells the story of an actress playing a part that reflects her real life story. Whilst playing a woman dying of cancer, Muis her doctor tells her she has not much more time left. She will die soon. The film follows the transition of her and her film sisters, shifting from their characters to who they really are, actresses dealing with their friend upcoming death. We watch Leonoor become physically frailer but mentally stronger as she is slowly accepting her faith. Whilst ending the film, she leaves her film sisters, her real life husband and children but also the viewer, behind forever.
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The Star (1952) Stuart Heisler, Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Drama, Romance

The Star (Stuart Heisler, 1952)
Middle-aged Oscar winning actress Margaret Elliot – Maggie to those that know her – is a Hollywood has-been. Her life is in shambles. She clings to the hope of resurrecting her past movie stardom as a leading ingénue. No one will hire her, she’s penniless with creditors selling off anything that she owns that is of monetary value, and she has no one to turn to that can see her through financially. She has in the past supported her sister and brother-in-law, who still want to use her as their meal ticket. Divorced from her actor husband, she shares joint custody of their teen-aged daughter Gretchen, from who Maggie tries to hide her problems. When it looks as if Maggie has hit rock bottom, Jim Johannsen re-enters her life. Jim, who once had the stage name Barry Lester, got his big break in Hollywood movies by Maggie. He came to the quick realization that he was neither good as an actor or that he wanted to do it as a profession. He now works as a boat parts supplier and mechanic.
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The Five Pennies (1959) Melville Shavelson, Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong, Biography, Drama, Music

The Five Pennies (Melville Shavelson, 1959)
Loring “Red” Nichols is a cornet-playing country boy who goes to New York in the 1920s full of musical ambition and principles. He gets a job playing in Wil Paradise’s band, but quits to pursue his dream of playing Dixieland jazz. He forms the “Five Pennies” which features his wife, Bobbie, as vocalist. At the peak of his fame, Red and Bobbie’s daughter, Dorothy, develops polio. Red quits the music business to move to Los Angeles where the climate is better for Dorothy. As Dorothy becomes a young teen, she learns of her father’s musical past, and he is persuaded to open a small nightclub which is failing until some noted names from his past come to help out.
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Zulu (1964) Cy Endfield, Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, Drama, History, War

Zulu (Cy Endfield, 1964)
Two Lieutenants, Chard of Engineers and Bromhead find that their 140 man contingent in Natal has been isolated by the destruction of the main British Army column and that 4,000 Zulu warriors will descend on them in hours. Each has a different military background in tactics and they are immediatly in conflict on how to prepare for the attack. Nearly a third of the men are in the infirmary, as the welsh company tries to somehow survive with no help in sight. Based on a true story.
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Little Red Monkey / The Case of the Red Monkey (1955) Ken Hughes, Richard Conte, Rona Anderson, Russell Napier, Action, Adventure, Crime

Little Red Monkey (1955)
Several murders of nuclear scientists, that baffles Scotland Yard, occur in London about the same time that Bill Locklin, a special officer from the United States State Department, arrives to oversee the transfer of Professor Leon Dushenko, a Russian scientist who as fled the U.S.S.R. An attempt is made on Dushenko’s life with a monkey’s paw-print found at the scene. Newspaperman reporter Harry Martin is covering the story. Duskenko is moved secretly to a nursing home, while Locklin stumbles onto the hideout of the gang behind the killings. He is captured along with Julia Jackson, niece of Superintendent John Harrington. Locklin is tortured to reveal Dushenko’s hiding place but escapes in time to avert Duskenko’s murder at the hands of the gang’s hired-killer–-a midget who is aided by a monkey.
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Our Mother’s House (1967) Jack Clayton, Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Leclere, Pamela Franklin, Drama, Thriller

Our Mother's House (1967)
Raised by their Bible-obsessed, invalid mother, seven children care for her and one another in a gloomy Victorian house. The mother dies, and the children, terrified of being separated and even more terrified of the outside world, build a graveside shrine to her in the backyard and carry on as if nothing has happened. When their long-lost father shows up, he seems to fall in with their plans. Then the children begin to realize he has a different plan altogether.
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The Flight That Disappeared (1961) Reginald Le Borg, Craig Hill, Paula Raymond, Dayton Lummis, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

The Flight That Disappeared (1961)
A transcontinental flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC, carrying three top scientists, unexplainedly begins a climb to 10 miles up. With all other passengers unconscious, the scientists find themselves in a dimension where time does not exist. There they are put on trial by denizens of the future for their potential involvement in the creation of “the ultimate weapon”.
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