Prepare yourself to be either infuriated or fascinated by this French film. There’s no in-between reaction available here.When people talk about seeing a really weird film where nothing happened and the end didn’t make any sense, this is the film they’re probably talking about. I’d call it fascinating, but I’m well aware that I’m probably in the minority.
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Mystery
Track 29 (1988) Nicolas Roeg, Theresa Russell, Gary Oldman, Christopher Lloyd, Drama, Mystery
A doctor’s wife tires of his obsession with model trains, and spends her days wondering about the son she gave up for adoption at birth. While eating at a roadside cafe, she encounters a British hitchhiker, who turns out to be her son. They spend time together trying to find a bond. The son begins to hate the husband, and the wife begins worrying about the safety of her husband and his train set.
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The Return of the Whistler (1948) D. Ross Lederman, Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, Richard Lane, Film-Noir, Mystery
On the eve of his marriage, a young man’s fiance disappears. He hires a private detective to help him track her down, but soon finds himself entangled in a web of lies, intrigue and murder revolving around his fiance’s dead ex-husband and his wealthy, corrupt family.
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Deadline at Dawn (1946) Harold Clurman, Susan Hayward, Bill Williams, Paul Lukas, Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance
Alex, a sailor on leave, recovers from a drink-induced blackout with a large sum of money belonging to Edna Bartelli, a b-girl who invited him home to “fix her radio.” He tries to return it with the reluctant aid of June Goth, a sweet but oh-so-tired dance hall girl; they find Edna murdered. Not quite sure he didn’t do it himself, Alex and June have four hours in the dead of night to find the real killer before his leave ends. Their quest brings them into contact with a sleazy kaleidoscope of minor characters; clues get more and more tangled…
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Midnight Killer / Morirai a mezzanotte (1986) Lamberto Bava, Valeria D’Obici, Leonardo Treviglio, Paolo Malco, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Nicola confronts his beautiful wife about the affair she’s been having. But someone brutally murders her in the shower, right after he leaves the house. Naturally Nicola is made prime suspect. But his colleague, Anna, sees signs that the murder may have been committed by the so-called “Midnight Ripper”. The only problem is that the Midnight Ripper has been dead for several years…
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The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) Richard Thorpe, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson, Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Nick and Nora head to Nick’s hometown of Sycamore Springs to spend some time with his parents. His father, a prominent local physician, was always a bit disappointed with Nick’s choice of profession in particular and his lifestyle in general. With Nick’s arrival however the towns folk, including several of the local criminal element, are convinced that he must be there on a case despite his protestations that he’s just there for rest and relaxation. When someone is shot dead on his doorstep however, Nick finds himself working on a case whether he wants to or not.
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Bodas de sangre / Blood Wedding (1981) Carlos Saura, Antonio Gades, Cristina Hoyos, Juan Antonio Jiménez, Mystery, Musical
In a sense, Carlos Saura’s first foray into filming classical dance, Blood Wedding, may be seen, not as a stark departure from the immediacy of his narrative films, but rather, as an oblique return to form towards the social interrogations implicit in his earlier work on the fundamental question of Spanish identity – a particularly timely and relevant re-assessment in the aftermath of a contemporary history marked by institutional repression, creative censorship, and historical revisionism. It is within this framework that the selected adaptation of the seminal “rural trilogy” play by Spanish playwright, Federico García Lorca – a writer who was executed by Falangists in the early days of the Civil War and whose work was generally banned throughout Franco’s regime – seems particularly suited to this post Franco-era cultural introspection in its dark and tragic tale of passion, betrayal, and revenge.
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Full Circle / The Haunting of Julia (1977) Richard Loncraine, Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Drama, Horror, Mystery
After the sudden accidental death of her small daughter, Julia Lofting, a wealthy American woman living in London, bolts her unhappy marriage and buys a house in Kensington which is haunted by the ghost of a quite obscenely nasty little girl who died in the 1950s and plans to use Julia as her pawn in a terrible revenge.
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Blind terror / See No Evil (1971) Richard Fleischer, Mia Farrow, Dorothy Alison, Robin Bailey, Mystery, Thriller
Sarah is a blind girl who has returned to her home, a country manor in which all of the occupants are dead. She unknowingly sleeps overnight, among a houseful of corpses, arising the next morning to quietly creep out of bed, in order not to awaken the other members of the household.
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La diosa arrodillada / The Kneeling Goddess (1947) Roberto Gavaldón, María Félix, Arturo de Córdova, Rosario Granados, Crime, Drama, Mystery
A artist model who leads the ever hapless Arturo de Córdova away from the arms of his innocent, blue-eyed wife and down, down, down into the ecstatic depths of degradation which include a stop at seedy Panamanian nightclub.
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The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1946) Lothar Mendes, Lee Bowman, Marguerite Chapman, Edgar Buchanan, Action, Adventure, Crime, Mystery, Romance
The Columbia mystery melodrama The Walls Came Tumbling Down is regarded in many circles as star Lee Bowman’s finest hour-and-a-half. Bowman is cast as Winchellesque Broadway columnist Gilbert Archer, who insists upon investigating the death of an old friend, a priest. The police insist that the priest hanged himself, but Archer believes otherwise, and together with Boston socialite Patricia Foster (Marguerite Chapman) he begins to play detective – though “play” is hardly the word. Key ingredients to the mystery are two rare Bibles and a painting of the fall of Jericho. The principal villainy comes at the grubby hands of Columbia contractees George Macready and Edgar Buchanan, while J. Edward Bromberg has a few amusing moments as a kooky art dealer.
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In a Lonely Place (1950) Nicholas Ray, Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Film-Noir, Mystery, Drama
When a gifted but washed-up screenwriter with a hair-trigger temper – Humphrey Bogart, in a revelatory, vulnerable performance – becomes the prime suspect in a brutal Tinseltown murder, the only person who can supply an alibi for him is a seductive neighbor (Gloria Grahame) with her own troubled past. The emotionally charged In a Lonely Place, freely adapted from a Dorothy B. Hughes thriller, is a brilliant, turbulent mix of suspenseful noir and devastating melodrama, fueled by powerhouse performances. An uncompromising tale of two people desperate to love yet struggling with their demons and each other, this is one of the greatest films of the 1950s, and a benchmark in the career of the classic Hollywood auteur Nicholas Ray.
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Kyua / Cure (1997) Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Masato Hagiwara, Kôji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Crime, Horror, Mystery
A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere. An odd young man is arrested near the scene of the latest murder, who has a strange effect on everyone who comes into contact with him. Detective Takabe starts a series of interrogations to determine the man’s connection with the killings.
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Time Without Pity (1957) Joseph Losey, Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, Leo McKern, Drama, Crime, Mystery, Film-Noir
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. Alec repudiates his father’s attempts for a final reconciliation. David Graham, convinced of his son’s innocence and, despite his preoccupation with himself and his own alcoholism, mounts a last-ditch effort to find the true murderer in the 24 hours remaining until the planned execution. Graham encounters the wealthy and famous car manufacturer Robert Stanford, tyrant at home and in the office and an apparent womanizer, Stanford’s young, curiously troubled wife Honar, their ill-at- ease son Brian, himself disturbed by his parents’ relationship, and Vicky Harker, a young, brainless secretary at Stanford’s factory who has been climbing up the career …
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The Great Flamarion (1945) Anthony Mann, Erich von Stroheim, Mary Beth Hughes, Dan Duryea, Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
Flamarion, expert marksman, is entertaining people in a show which features Connie, beautiful woman and her husband Al. Flamarion and Connie fall in love and decide to get rid of the alcoholic husband.
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