Tag Archives: english

Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) Victor Saville, Walter Pidgeon, Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty, Crime, Mystery

calling-bulldog-drummond-1951
All the various Bulldog Drummond movie series had run their courses by 1951; nonetheless, MGM decided to revive the property (and simultaneously liquidate some “frozen funds”) with the British-filmed Calling Bulldog Drummond. Walter Pidgeon stars as novelist Sapper’s soldier-of-fortune, here retooled as a respectable retired military officer. Summoned to London by Scotland Yard, Drummond is assigned to break up a dangerous criminal gang. He is aided by female undercover officer Helen Smith (Margaret Leighton), who turns out to be not much help at all. Trapped in a bombed-out building and surrounded by hulking henchmen, Drummond seems to have run out of luck. Some of the film’s brightest moments are provided by David Tomlinson as a traditional “silly ass” type who is lot smarter than he seems. Bernard Lee, the future “M” in the James Bond films of the 1960s, appears as a secondary villain.
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A Night to Remember (1958) Roy Ward Baker, Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres, Action, Drama, History

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On April 14, 1912, just before midnight, the “unsinkable” Titanic struck an iceberg. In less than three hours, it had plunged to the bottom of the sea, taking with it more than 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers. In his unforgettable render­ing of Walter Lord’s book of the same name, the acclaimed British director Roy Ward Baker depicts with sensitivity, awe, and a fine sense of tragedy the ship’s last hours. Featuring remarkably restrained performances, A Night to Remember is cinema’s subtlest and best dramatization of this monumental twentieth-century catastrophe.
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A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923) Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Clarence Geldart, Carl Miller, Drama, Romance

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Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean when he fails to meet her at the railway station. She goes off to Paris alone. A year later, mistress of wealthy Pierre Revel, she meets Jean again. Misinterpreting events she bounces back and forth between apparent security and true love. Also misinterpreting, Jean commits suicide.
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A New Leaf (1971) Elaine May, Walter Matthau, Jack Weston, Comedy, Romance

A New Leaf (1971)
Playboy Henry Graham squanders his wealth and must seek out a new source to maintain his idle rich lifestyle. The easy alternative to work is to find a rich woman, marry her, and murder her. Klutzy, nerdy Henrietta Lowell is the ideal candidate. But in dealing with his klutzy, nerdy, trusting new wife, a botanist, and her ill-managed estate, Henry unwittingly begins to assume some sense of responsibility, not realizing this while planning to do away with Henrietta on one droll camping trip…
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48 Hrs. (1982) Walter Hill, Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Annette O’Toole, Action, Comedy, Crime

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Oddball cop and tough guy, Jack Cates is the only survivor of a cop shooting and in hunting down the murderer collects Reggie Hammond from jail for 48 hours. Hammond is oddly motivated to help. The killer is searching for his stash of cash. Cates and Hammond who have the Black-white, cop-crook thing to work out make surprisingly good partners as they navigate through the city looking for their suspect.
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Love Letters (1945) William Dieterle, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Drama, Mystery, Romance

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When a man asks another man more facile with words to do his wooing for him, there are always complications. The man with no talent for writing marries the girl, confesses one night he didn’t write the letters and ends up with a knife in his back. The writer of the letters fell in love with the woman he wrote to and wants to become her second husband even if she did murder husband number one. Singleton doesn’t remember the murder or anything about the first 22 years of her life as Victoria Remington. Then at her second wedding she wonders why she said “I take you, Roger,” instead of “I take you, Alan.”
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Beautiful Something (2015) Joseph Graham, Brian Sheppard, Zack Ryan, Colman Domingo, Drama, Romance

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Edgy, absorbing and carnal, BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING takes a fresh and unsentimental look at the links between young and old, black and white, sex and love, desire and art. Cute, twenty-two-year-old writer Brian continually crashes and burns with each guy he meets, but does not understand why. The stunningly gorgeous Jim is not afraid to break hearts except when it comes to his forty-something lover and world-renown metal sculptor Drew, who can’t seem to look past his latest masterpiece. Lastly there’s Bob, a successful talent agent from LA in his mid-sixties who leads a double life being a sugar daddy to the young men he picks up. While all four comb the streets looking for connection, they oftentimes settle for something quick and dirty except that tonight is much different. Each guy he meets, but does not understand why. The stunningly gorgeous Jim is not afraid to break hearts except when it comes to his forty-something lover and world-renown metal sculptor Drew, who can’t seem to look…
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A Taste of Honey (1961) Tony Richardson, Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens, Drama

A Taste of Honey (1961)
Black and white, gay and straight, mothers and daughters, class, and coming of age. Jo is working class, in her teens, living with her drunk and libidinous mother in northern England. When mom marries impulsively, Jo is out on the streets; she and Geoffrey, a gay co worker who’s adrift himself, find a room together. Then Jo finds herself pregnant after a one night stand with Jimmy, a Black sailor. Geoffrey takes over the preparations for the baby’s birth, and becomes, in effect, the child’s father. The three of them seem to have things sorted out when Jo’s mother reappears on the scene, assertive and domineering. Which “family” will emerge?
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