Tag Archives: USA

Attack of the Puppet People (1958) Bert I. Gordon, John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney

Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
Deranged doll-maker Mr. Franz is deathly afraid of being left alone, so he creates a machine that can shrink humans down to only a few inches tall. He soon accumulates a troupe of shrunken prisoners whom he forces to perform for him and keep him company. When he shrinks his secretary Sally and her fiance Bob, the pair decide against spending their days as pint-sized playthings and try to find a way to escape and re-enlarge themselves.
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Black Market Babies (1945) William Beaudine, Ralph Morgan, Kane Richmond, Jayne Hazard

Black Market Babies (1945)
This George Morris story was based on an article that appeared in “Woman’s Home Companion” and later reprinted in “Reader’s Digest.” Eddie Condon, a two-bit racketeer, teams up with an alcoholic doctor, Judson, to set up a maternity home with free facilities to expectant mothers, with the proviso that the women sign away all rights to their newborns. The babies are then offered for adaptation to couples willing to make a substantial “contribution” to the home. Things go well for this borderline within-the-law business until a baby is still-born. Conden had already sold the baby for $5,000 and has no intention of returning the money, so he substitutes the child of the sister of his wife. There is a slip-up on the filing of the certificates and the District Attorney’s office gets involved.
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Go West (1940) Edward Buzzell, Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx

Go West (1940)
Embezzler, shill, all around confidence man S. Quentin Quale is heading west to find his fortune; he meets the crafty but simple brothers Joseph and Rusty Panello in a train station, where they steal all his money. They’re heading west, too, because they’ve heard you can just pick the gold off the ground. Once there, they befriend an old miner named Dan Wilson whose property, Dead Man’s Gulch, has no gold. They loan him their last ten dollars so he can go start life anew, and for collateral, he gives them the deed to the Gulch.
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College Holiday (1936) Frank Tuttle, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen

College Holiday (1936)
Sylvia Smith and Dick Winters share a romantic kiss at a dance, but Sylvia is called away before Dick can learn her full name. Sylvia’s father is about to lose his California hotel, the Casa Del Mar, thanks to the financial blundering of his new business partner J. Davis Bowster. The mortgage is held by eccentric heiress Carola P. Gaye, whose current fascination is with the ancient Greek-style eugenics championed by Prof. Hercules Dove.
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Anything for John (1993) Dominique Cazenave, John Cassavetes, Seymour Cassel, Peter Falk

Anything for John (1993)
An intimate portrait of actor-writer-director John Cassavetes and a loving tribute to his genius for studying and depicting the human character. In-depth, candid interviews with his wife and muse Gena Rowlands as well as his most trusted friends and co-workers like Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel, etc. Clips from Cassavetes’ greatest films, and many rare photos illustrate this touching documentary.
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Nietzsche and the Nazis (2006) Frank Michaels, Stephen R.C. Hicks

Nietzsche and the Nazis (2006)
One of the intellectual giants of the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche had an impact on countless future intellectuals and writers. In particular, the Nazis claimed his philosophy played a pivotal role in their ideology. In this title, Professor Stephen Hicks examines the history and writings central to both Nietzsche and the Nazi to explore the validity of their statement.
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The Big Boss (1941) Charles Barton, Otto Kruger, Gloria Dickson, John Litel

The Big Boss (1941)
The Big Boss is Jim Maloney (Otto Kruger), who pulls all the political strings in an unnamed major metropolis. Maloney’s chief antagonist is scrupulously honest “reform” governor Bob Dugan (John Litel). The fact that Maloney and Dugan are actually brothers, orphaned in childhood and raised separately, adds both texture and poignancy to their current adversarial relationship. Intending to reveal his fraternal ties to Dugan at a crucial moment in the latter’s anti-corruption campaign, Maloney is ultimately defeated by the forces of Righteousness. Outside of the always dependable Otto Kruger and John Litel, the film’s best performance is delivered by the underrated Gloria Dickson as a fairly realistic newspaperwoman.
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40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967) William Witney, Audie Murphy, Michael Burns, Kenneth Tobey

40 To Apache Pass One Sheet
In 1868 Arizona the Apaches led by Cochise are on a warpath and U.S. Army Captain Bruce Coburn is tasked with protecting settlers on their way to Apache Wells. A group of undisciplined soldiers, led by corporal Bodine, make Coburn’s task more difficult. When they’re sent after a shipment of repeating rifles Bodine and four others steal the weapons and desert. Captain Coburn manages to return to Apache Wells where he vows to capture Bodine and his fellow deserters. Meanwhile, Bodine mets Cochise to negotiate the sale of the stolen repeating rifles without knowing that Captain Coburn has recovered the stolen weapons and has killed the other deserters. Cochise and Bodine chase after Captain Coburn in an attempt to recuperate the rifles which both the Apaches and the settlers need in order to prevail. A race against time ensues.
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Liquid Sky (1982) Slava Tsukerman, Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Sheppard, Susan Doukas

Liquid Sky (1982)
Invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin. They land on top of a New York apartment inhabited by a drug dealer and her female, androgynous, bisexual nymphomaniac lover, a fashion model. The aliens soon find the human pheromones created in the brain during orgasm preferable to heroin, and the model’s casual sex partners begin to disappear. This increasingly bizarre scenario is observed by a lonely woman in the building across the street, a German scientist who is following the aliens, and an equally androgynous, drug-addicted male model. (Both models are played by Anne Carlisle, in a dual role.) Darkly funny and thoroughly weird.
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Automatic (1995) John Murlowski, Olivier Gruner, Daphne Ashbrook, John Glover

automaticposter
Robgen industries newest security system is “The J Series Automatic”, an android model designed and programmed to protect humans from violent attacks. But one night, an Automatic named J269 discovers a Robgen executive trying to rape a female employee named Nora Rochester. While trying to stop the crime, he inadvertently kills the executive. At this point, J269 then calls Goddard Marx (his creator and a Robgen chairman) to inform him of the incident. Marx tells the android to stay there with Rochester until help arrives, but Marx is intent on sweeping the fiasco under the rug by sending mercenaries to eliminate both J269 and Rochester. Now the two are fugitives on the run from a para-military hit squad.
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To All a Goodnight (1980) David Hess, Jennifer Runyon, Forrest Swanson, Linda Gentile

To All a Goodnight
It’s Christmas break at the Calvin Finishing School for Girls, and the students are planning a big party while the president of the school is away. A group of boys show up and the fun begins, until mysterious killer starts bumping off couples one by one. The police show up and promise to keep everyone safe, but they prove ineffectual against the crazed psycho. Could the killings have anything to do with the girl who was killed in an initiation stunt at the school a few years earlier?
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