Tag Archives: english

Body Double (1984) Brian De Palma, Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Mystery, Thriller

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Jake Scully comes home to find his girlfriend with another man and has to find a new place. In between his acting workshops and his job in a vampire B-movie, he scans the paper looking for anything. He happens to meet Sam Bouchard, a fellow actor who needs a house sitter. Both are pleased with the arrangement that will have Jake staying in the house and for a sweetener, Sam shows him his favorite neighbor, a well-built woman who strips with her window open each night. Jake becomes obsessed with meeting her and is able to help recover her purse from a thief, but shows his own phobia, he is incapacitated by claustrophobia when the thief runs through a tunnel. When Jake witnesses a murder, he finds out that the police love to pin crimes on peeping Toms. Jake discovers that here are just too many coincidences but must hunt them down himself without the police.
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The Premonition (1976) Robert Allen Schnitzer, Sharon Farrell, Edward Bell, Danielle Brisebois, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

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This Thriller/horror movie tells the tale of a young girl who is terrified that her insane mother will take her away from her beloved foster mother. One day, the crazed real mother attempts to contact the girl at school, but her foster mother has a premonition and gets there in time to protect the girl. Eventually though, the real mother and her boy friend, a carnival clown, succeed and takes her away, leaving the bereaved foster parents to enlist the assistance of a parapsychologist to help them interpret the foster mother’s terrifying dreams and psychic connection to the girl and find her before it is too late.
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Glamorous Night (1937) Brian Desmond Hurst, Mary Ellis, Otto Kruger, Victor Jory, Drama

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The popular Ivor Novello musical play Glamorous Night was given a conservative film treatment in 1937–minus much of the Novello score that had made it famous. Opera singer Mary Ellis plays an opera singer (why not?) who falls in with a band of roguish but likeable gypsies. Mary manages to convince her Bohemian cohorts to rescue the King from the machinations of his ambitious prime minister. As “cast insurance” to make certain that Glamorous Night would get American bookings, Hollywood character actors Otto Kruger and Victor Jory are given leading roles. The US distributors also sliced the film down from 81 to 65 minutes, through the simple expedient of removing several songs.
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Afterimages (2014) Tony Kern, Sheena Chan, Pamelyn Chee, Daniel Jenkins, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller

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A group of film students burn paper effigy cameras for the wandering spirits during the ghost month in Singapore and receive a collection of horror movies in return. The first film received, GHOST POOL LEG, revolves around Chinese superstition in which ghosts are believed to pull swimmers legs to drown them. The second movie, XIAO BAO BAO, focuses on a young woman’s haunting experience after taking a postmortem photograph of a suicide jumper. The third movie, SKIN DEEP, finds a group of shoppers stuck in a mall elevator with a mysterious and beautiful woman who holds a terrible secret. The fourth film, REKINDLING, features a heartbroken hawker, a missing China bride, and the mysterious ring she left behind. The final film comes with a price.
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Bananas (1971) Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalbán, Comedy

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One of Woody Allen’s earlier, more slapstick-oriented efforts, Bananas tells the story of Fielding Mellish (Allen), a neurotic New Yorker who follows the object of his affections, Nancy (Louise Lasser), to the fictional Central American country of San Marcos, where she is involved in a revolution. Nancy wants nothing to do with Fielding, but he soon becomes a guest of the country’s dictator (Carlos Montalban), before accidentally becoming the leader of San Marcos himself. Fielding is eventually shipped back to the US and tried as a subversive, but being that this is a comedy, and an especially light one at that, everything works out in the end. A far cry from Allen’s later, more somber films, Bananas still works as an often hilarious amalgam of sight gags, one-liners, and bizarre asides.
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Fleisch / Spare Parts (1979) Rainer Erler, Jutta Speidel, Wolf Roth, Herbert Herrmann, Horror, Thriller

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A honeymooning couple (Jutta Speidel and Wolf Roth) are hunted down by mysterious kidnappers in cahoots with the evil landlady who runs a hotel. The woman manages to escape, but the man is whisked away by two medics in an ambulance. The bride enlists the help of a truck driver with a CB radio and uncovers a fiendish international plot to provide black-market organs. The ghouls take parts from the bodies of healthy young and extremely unwilling human victims.
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Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) Anatole Litvak, Edward G. Robinson, George Sanders, Francis Lederer, Drama, War

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Prior to the United States entry into World War II, Nazi spies try to steal American military secrets. Among those whose passions are roused is Kurt Schneider who was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the US Army. Schneider is not very bright and is easily swayed by the oratory of Dr. Karl Kassel, a prominent physician who is eventually made the head of the Nazi spy ring. When Schneider’s contact is arrested in Scotland, the US military asks the FBI to root out the spies. Agent Edward Renard is put in charge of the case and they methodically arrest all who have been spying.
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The Burglar (1957) Paul Wendkos, Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield, Martha Vickers, Film-Noir, Thriller, Drama

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Professional burglar Nat Harbin (Dan Duryea) and his two associates, Baylock (Peter Capell) and Dohmer (Mickey Shaughnessy), set their sights on wealthy spiritualist Sister Sarah (Phoebe Mackay), who has inherited a fortune – including a renowned emerald necklace – from a Philadelphia financier. Using Nat’s female ward, Gladden (Jayne Mansfield), to pose as an admirer and case the mansion where the woman lives, they set up what looks like a perfect break-in; even when Nat’s car is spotted by a couple of cops, he bluffs his way through, gets the necklace, and makes the getaway. But the trio – plus Gladden – can’t agree on how to dispose of the necklace, and soon their bickering becomes a lot less important than the fact that someone is on to what they’ve done – a woman (Martha Vickers) is working on Nat, while a man (Stewart Bradley) is working on Gladden. Equally serious, the trio kills a New Jersey state trooper while on their way to warn her. And among the cops chasing them is one with larceny in his heart and murder on his mind.
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Royal Wedding (1951) Stanley Donen, Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Comedy, Musical, Romance

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Tom and Ellen Bowen are a brother and sister dance act whose show closes in New York. Their agent books them in London for the same period as the Royal Wedding. They travel by ship where Ellen meets and becomes involved with Lord John Brindale. This causes her to miss a rehearsal. Tom (Astaire) uses the time to dance with a hat rack and gym equipment. Later Tom and Ellen attempt a graceful dance number as the ship rolls. Upon arrival Tom holds auditions and meets Anne. There is much indecision by the siblings about their romantic partners even though they are in-the-clouds. Tom dances on the walls and ceiling of his hotel room. All ends well in this light musical. By the way, there is a vaudeville-style dance number in their show that features slapstick. It’s a hoot.
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