Dapper Inspector Vorobechik (‘Wens’ for short) is assigned the case of a serial killer who leaves a calling card on his victims; Monsieur Durand. Wens’ mistress, struggling actress Mila Malou, determines to get publicity for herself by helping him. Learning that Durand is one of the eccentric tenants of a boarding house at No. 21 Avenue Junot, Wens takes a room in the guise of a Protestant minister; only to be followed by Mila who hardly seems like a minister’s wife!
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Thriller
La ragazza di Trieste / The Girl from Trieste (1982) Pasquale Festa Campanile, Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti, Mimsy Farmer, Drama, Thriller
An aging artist sees a beautiful young woman drowning near the beach and helps her. They become lovers. At first he is smitten by her youth, beauty and free spirit but soon he starts worrying that she might actually be insane.
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Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958) Michael Anderson, Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A man shows up at Kimberley Prescott’s villa claiming to be her brother. But Ward Prescott died in a car accident a year ago, so how can this man be him? Despite Kim’s protests that the stranger isn’t her brother, everyone else accepts him, including their uncle. Kim begins to fear for her sanity and her life.
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Mark of the Phoenix (1958) Maclean Rogers, Julia Arnall, Sheldon Lawrence, Anton Diffring, Crime, Drama, Thriller
A sample of an advanced new metal is stolen and made into a cigarette case in Brussels ready for smuggling to the East. An American jewel thief accidentally finds it in his possession and becomes the centre of much attention
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The Escapist (2008) Rupert Wyatt, Brian Cox, Damian Lewis, Joseph Fiennes, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict fourteen years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to make peace with her before it’s too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists – misfits with unique skills required for their daring plan and united by desire to escape their hell hole of an existence. Much of the action takes place within the tunnels, sewers and underground rivers of subterranean London.
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Blast of Silence (1961) Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Allen Baron, Larry Tucker, Crime, Thriller, Drama
Having been ‘away’ for some time, professional killer Frankie Bono returns to New York to do another job: assassinate some mid-level mobster. Although intending to avoid unnecessary ‘contact’ while carefully stalking his victim, Bono is recognized by an old fellow from the orphanage, whose calm and unambitious citizen’s life and happy marriage contrast heavily with Bono’s solitary and haunted existence. Exhausted and distracted, Bono makes another mistake, but his contract is not one to back out of.
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The Karate Killers (1967) Barry Shear, Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Joan Crawford, Comedy, Crime, Thriller
U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin travel around the globe in an effort to track down a secret formula that was divided into four parts and left by a dying scientist with his four daughters, all of whom live in different countries. Evil THRUSH agent Randolph also wants the formula, and is aided by his karate-chopping henchmen.
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Suburban Mayhem (2006) Paul Goldman, Emily Barclay, Steve Bastoni, Laurence Breuls, Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Why does a 19 year-old girl plot to kill her own father? Katrina Skinner is stuck in suburbia with her toddler daughter and her devoted dad. Her brother Danny is in jail for life for murder. Her mother abandoned her years ago. The neighbors are scared of her. The police can’t keep up with her. Nobody can control her but everybody’s trying. Her dad won’t mind his own business. Katrina misses her brother. She needs money for his appeal. She’s bored and she’s sick of living with her dad. She’s not going to work a day in her life and she knows her dad’s not going to help her financially anymore. She’s first in line for the family inheritance. All she needs to do now is convince one of her lovers to do the deed and she’s never had much trouble getting men to do what she wants. All for the love of her brother. It’s John Skinner’s funeral, inside the Golden Grove Crematorium. Kat sits on the front pew between her cheeky fiancé Rusty and her toddler daughter Bailee.
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Scorpio (1973) Michael Winner, Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Paul Scofield, Action, Drama, Thriller
Cross is an old hand at the CIA, in charge of assassinating high-ranking foreign personalities who are an obstacle to the policies of the USA. He often teams up with Frenchman Jean Laurier, alias “Scorpio”, a gifted free-lance operative. One day, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross — and leaves him no choice but to obey. Scorpio is cold-blooded and very systematic; however, as a veteran agent, Cross knows many tricks. He can also rely upon a network of unusual personal contacts, some dating back to the troubled years preceding WWII. A lethal game of hide-and-seek is programmed, but what are the true motives of every single player?
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Marie Chantal contre Dr. Kha / Blue Panther (1965) Claude Chabrol
Marie-Chantal travels by train to her cousin’s place to spend a winter holiday, when a stranger – apparently a fugitive from someone aboard – entrusts her with a jewel in the shape of a tiger with ruby eyes. Unknown to her, these false jewels contain a virus powerful enough to destroy all humankind. Doctor Kha is just one among many spies from different nations trying to get their hands on the tiger, or Marie-Chantal… It will give any nation a tremendous control over all others! Marie-Chantal, a snob girl, will evade all attacks by sheer female cunning, and shows tigerish qualities in dealing with her male, and female foes.
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Die Screaming, Marianne (1971) Pete Walker
After their parents divorce, one daughter lives with her mother in England while the other lives with her father in Portugal. After the untimely death of her mother, the one daughter stands to inherit a large sum of money and also a number of documents containing information that will incriminate her father, who was a crooked judge. While her father wants the documents, her sister wants the money and they will each stop at nothing, even murder, to get what they want.
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L’espion / The Defector (1966) Raoul Lévy
Montgomery Cliff (in his last role) plays James Bower, an American physicist visiting West Germany who’s recruited by a shady CIA agent, named Adam, to help them with the defection of a Russian scientist. But an East German secret agent, named Peter Heinzeman, learns of Bower’s meeting with Adam and threatens Bower to mind his own business, while Bower learns of a back story to all this involving stolen microfilm that each side wants.
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La balance (1982) Bob Swaim
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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Tiger Bay (1959) J. Lee Thompson
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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Verboten! (1959) Samuel Fuller
A young American serviceman, stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his position with the Marshall Plan relief effort by breaking the non-fraternisatiom rule and falling in love with a young German woman. He uses his position to obtain food and luxuries for her that are in short supply, and all seems to be going well for the couple. What he doesn’t realise is that the Werewolves, the Nazi guerrilla movement, have plans in which he features heavily.
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