Tag Archives: USA

Le violon rouge / The Red Violin (1998) François Girard, Carlo Cecchi, Jean-Luc Bideau, Christoph Koncz, Drama, Romance, Mystery

Le violon rouge (Francois Girard, 1998)
Spans 300 years in the life of one famed musical instrument that winds up in present-day Montreal on the auction block. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin derives its unusual color from the human blood mixed into the finish. With this legacy, the violin travels to Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake.
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Gothika (2003) Mathieu Kassovitz, Halle Berry, Penélope Cruz, Robert Downey Jr., Horror, Mystery, Thriller

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Dr. Miranda Grey is a psychiatrist who works in a penitentiary, in the mental institution sector. She is married with Dr. Douglas Grey, the chief of department where Dr. Pete Graham also works. Chloe Sava, a patient of Dr. Miranda formerly abused by her stepfather, claims that she is frequently raped by the devil in her cell. After leaving the asylum in a stormy night, Dr. Miranda has a car accident, and when she wakes up, she is an inmate of the institution, being accused of an horrible crime and having no memory of the incident.
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The Fortune (1975) Mike Nichols, Stockard Channing, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Comedy, Crime, Romance

The Fortune (1975)
The early 1900’s with its Mann-Act (disallowing women to be transported across State lines for immoral reasons) brings a married man to devise a scheme for taking his upper-class girlfriend away with him… he simply has her marry his unmarried buddy. However, it doesn’t take very long before both men start laying claim to her affection… until, that is, she’s about to be cut out of her parent’s fortune. So, a new scheme is devised, which only adds to their problems, as well as to the sly whimsy of this film.
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Berlin Correspondent (1942) Eugene Forde, Virginia Gilmore, Dana Andrews, Mona Maris, Drama, Thriller

Berlin Correspondent (Eugene Forde, 1942)
American correspondent Bill Roberts is a thorn in the side of the Nazis, as his paper always scoops the world with the truth about Germany. Gestapo Captain Carl Von Rau means to plug the leak and assigns Karen Hauen, who he attends to wed, to the case. Roberts is obtaining his information for his stories and broadcasts from an elderly stamp collector who, defiantly opposed to the Nazis, sells the “proper” stamps to Roberts, giving him the information. Attracted to Karen, Roberts invites her to his apartment where she learns his secret. The old philatelist is sent to a concentration camp, and then Karen learns that he is her father. She appeals to Roberts for help and he, in loyalty to the old man and now in love with Karen, agrees to help.
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The Wraith (1986) Mike Marvin, Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn, Action, Horror, Romance

The Wraith (1986)
Packard Walsh and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can ‘win’ their vehicles. After Walsh stabs the decent teenager Jamie Hankins to death for being intimate with a girl whom Walsh wants for himself, the mysterious Jake Kesey arrives, an extremely cool motor-biker with an invincible car. Jake befriends Jamie’s girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie’s sweet brother Billy under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis can not – the methodical and otherworldly elimination of Packard’s criminal gang.
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Strange Cargo (1940) Frank Borzage, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, Drama, Romance

Strange Cargo (Frank Borzage, 1940)
Verne wants nothing more than to escape from a penal colony located off the northern coast of South America. He tries to involve Julie, a saloon girl, in his plans but she turns him in to the authorities. On Verne’s next try, he piggybacks on the escape of six other convicts and runs into Julie again in the process. One of the convicts is a spiritual figure who seems to know what will happen before anyone else. The group attempts to travel through the jungle, board a boat, and make it to the mainland.
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Desert Fury (1947) Lewis Allen, John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Desert Fury (Lewis Allen, 1947)
Fritzi Haller is a powerful casino owner in Chuckawalla, Nevada. Her daughter Paula (having quit school) returns at the same time as racketeer Eddie Bendix, who left under suspicion of murdering his wife. Paula and Eddie become involved; each for their own reasons, Fritzi, Paula’s old beau Tom, and Eddie’s pal Johnny try to break up the relationship. Then Eddie’s past catches up with him in an unexpected way.
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Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola / The Stranger Returns (1967) Luigi Vanzi, Tony Anthony, Daniele Vargas, Ettore Manni, Western

Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola (1967)
Taking the identity of a dead postal inspector found on the trail, a stranger rides into a small western town and finds himself in the middle of a stagecoach robbery perpetrated by a gang of twenty ruthless desperados. Finding out the object of the heist was not a strongbox as it seemed but a solid gold stagecoach, he enlists the aid of a down-and-out old preacher and tracks down the dangerous gang and their unsuspected ally.
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I Dream Too Much (1935) John Cromwell, Lily Pons, Henry Fonda, Eric Blore, Comedy, Romance, Musical

I Dream Too Much (John Cromwell, 1935)
Jonathan Street is a struggling composer when he meets and marries Annette. The problem is that Jonathan was drunk and does not want to be married. Annette does go with him to Paris and does the cooking and cleaning. To get his music published, Annette takes it to Paul and he is won over – by her voice and not the music. So he manages her career and she becomes a star as an opera singer everywhere she goes. Since Jonathan cannot sell anything he writes, he leaves Annette and that makes Annette sad as she wants only to be his wife.
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Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959) Charles Guggenheim, John Stix, Steve McQueen, Crahan Denton, David Clarke, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (Charles Guggenheim & John Stix, 1959)
George Fowler is drawn into a gang planning to rob a bank in St. Louis that they expect will have a $100,000 on hand on an upcoming Friday. George is drawn into the plan as the gang’s driver by Gino, an old girlfriend’s older brother. As the gang goes about its planning, George and Gino have to find a way to live for the next two weeks and they turn to Gino’s sister, Ann, for help. George is hoping to go back to college and the money he would make would go a long way to helping him do that. Not trusting George to keep his nerve, the gang’s leader John Egan moves him to the inside, but the robbery doesn’t go off as planned.
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Serial Killers: The Real Life Hannibal Lecters (2001) Sean Buckley, Richard Morgan, Melanie Porter, Jennifer Franks, Documentary, Crime

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In the 2001 documentary Serial Killers: Real Life Hannibal Lecters, director Sean Buckley profiles five of the most infamous and deadly serial killers of the 20th century, each of whom has inspired a number of big-screen fictional murderers. Featuring interviews with experts as well as the monsters themselves, the film attempts to offer insight into the minds and lives of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Andrei Chikatilo, and Albert Fish.
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Nicholas Stoller, Kristen Bell, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Comedy, Drama, Romance

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Peter is a composer and a likable sad sack who’s devastated when his girlfriend of five years, Sarah Marshall, the star of a cheesy CSI-style crime show, dumps him. He weeps, he rails, he mopes. Finally, his step-brother Brian suggests Hawaii, so Peter heads for a resort on Oahu where, as he’s checking in, he sees Sarah and her new beau, Aldous, a polymorphously perverse English rocker. The weeping and moping start again, until Peter is rescued by Rachel, a thoughtful hotel clerk who invites him to a luau and to hang out. Although he constantly runs into Sarah and Aldous, Peter starts to come alive again. Will Sarah realize what she’s lost, and what about Rachel?
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