Author Archives: rarefilm

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg, Thorley Walters, Horror

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
A dead and frozen Baron Frankenstein is re-animated by his colleague Dr. Hertz proving to him that the soul does not leave the body on the instant of death. His lab assistant, young Hans, is found guilty of murdering the local pub owner with whom he had an argument where he foolishly swore to kill the man and Frankenstein acquires his body immediately after the execution. Hans had been quite friendly with the dead man’s daughter Christina who returns just in time to see him guillotined. Distraught, she commits suicide and is brought back to life by the good Doctor but with Hans’ brain replacing her own. As memories return to her – Hans’ memories in fact – she sets out to pursue and kill those responsible for having sent him to his death.
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MADO (1976) Claude Sautet, Michel Piccoli, Ottavia Piccolo, Jacques Dutronc, Drama

MADO (1976)
Middle-aged businessman Simon Léotard finds his future in jeopardy when his partner Julien commits suicide after having accumulated a mass of debts. Simon’s unscrupulous business rival Lépidon offers to save him from bankruptcy by buying his company, at a discount rate. Reluctant to fall into Lépidon’s trap, Simon decides to resolve the crisis himself. A prostitute, Mado, provides him with the solution to his problems…
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Docteur Popaul / Scoundrel in White (1972) Claude Chabrol, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Mia Farrow, Laura Antonelli, Comedy

Scoundrel in White (1972)
Dr Paul Simay is a lady’s man who claims to prefer ugly women. He makes his point by winning a bet that he can sleep with the most ugly women in a year. He therefore has no qualms about marrying Christine, a paraplegic with buck-teeth, especially when her father is a wealthy doctor who can advance his career. His views change when he meets Christine’s beautiful sister, Martine. When she realises that Paul has been cheating on her and has given her sister a child, Christine decides to extract a cruel revenge…
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High Plains Drifter (1973) Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Western

High Plains Drifter (1973)
“Who are you?” the dwarf Mordecai (Billy Curtis) asks Clint Eastwood’s Stranger at the end of Eastwood’s 1973 western High Plains Drifter. “You know,” he replies, before vanishing into the desert heat waves near California’s Mono Lake. Adapting the amorally enigmatic and violent Man With No Name persona from his films with Sergio Leone, Eastwood’s second film as director begins as his drifter emerges from that heat haze and rides into the odd lakefront settlement of Lago. Lago’s residents are not particularly friendly, but once the Stranger shows his skills as a gunfighter, they beg him to defend them against a group of outlaws (led by Eastwood regular Geoffrey Lewis) who have a score to settle with the town. He agrees to train them in self-defense, but Mordecai and innkeeper’s wife Sarah Belding (Verna Bloom) soon suspect that the Stranger has another, more personal agenda. By the time the Stranger makes the corrupt community paint their town red and re-name it “Hell,” it is clear that he is not just another gunslinger. With its fragmented flashbacks and bizarre, austere locations, High Plains Drifter’s stylistic eccentricity lends an air of unsettling eeriness to its revenge story, adding an uncanny slant to Eastwood’s antiheroic westerner. Seminal western hero John Wayne was so offended by Eastwood’s harshly revisionist view of a frontier town that he wrote to Eastwood, objecting that this was not what the spirit of the West was all about. Eastwood’s audience, however, was not so put off, and an exhibitors’ poll named Eastwood a top box-office draw for 1973.
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The Dark Angel (1935) Sidney Franklin, Fredric March, Merle Oberon, Herbert Marshall, Drama, Romance

The Dark Angel (1935)
Kitty Vane, Alan Trent, and Gerald Shannon have been inseparable friends since childhood. Kitty has always known she would marry one of them, but has waited until the beginning of World War I before finally choosing Alan. Gerald graciously gives them his blessing. Then, Gerald and Alan go to war. Angered over a misunderstanding involving Alan and Kitty, Gerald sends Alan on a dangerous mission that will change all their lives forever.
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Boys Don’t Cry (1999) Kimberly Peirce, Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Biography, Crime, Drama

Boys Don't Cry (1999)
In Falls City, Nebraska, Brandon Teena arrives to start a new future for himself. The local community falls for his charms and everyone becomes drawn to his innocence and wit. However, behind the charming persona is a totally different person – Brandon is actually a woman. After falling for a local karaoke singer, Brandon moves in with her family and wins them over. But when Brandon’s secret is finally out, the rest of the family all turn against him, branding him sick and evil.
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Dressed To Kill (1980) Criterion Collection, Brian De Palma, Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Mystery, Romance, Thriller

Dressed To Kill (1980)
One of Brian De Palma’s most divisive films, Dressed to Kill is a spine-chilling Alfred Hitchcock update for the late 1970s. Sexually frustrated wife and mother Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) visits her New York psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), to complain about her unfulfilling erotic life. When she then goes to meet her husband at a museum, she meets an anonymous man whom she follows out to a cab. After an afternoon of satisfying sex, Kate discovers that the man has a venereal disease, but that information becomes a moot point when a razor-wielding blonde woman slashes Kate to ribbons in the elevator of the man’s building. Blonde prostitute Liz (Nancy Allen), who caught a glimpse of the murderer, becomes both the prime suspect and the killer’s next target. With the police less than willing to believe her story, Liz joins forces with Kate’s son Peter (Keith Gordon) to get the psychopath themselves.
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TANGUY (2001) Étienne Chatiliez, Sabine Azéma, André Dussollier, Éric Berger, Comedy

TANGUY (2001)
Edith and Paul Guetz are so happy with the birth of their son Tanguy that they promise he can live with them forever. Twenty-eight years later, Tanguy, a cultivated intellectual, is still ensconced in the family home – and his parents can hardly wait to see the back of him. When Tanguy reveals that it will be at least another year before he can complete his doctoral thesis and start looking for a full-time job, Edith’s nerves finally give way. She persuades her husband that the time has come to drive their stay-at-home son away, by whatever means possible..
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Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) Ernest R. Dickerson, Billy Zane, William Sadler, John Kassir, Action, Fantasy, Horror

Tales from the Crypt Demon Knight (1995)
Brayker is a man who carries the last of seven keys, special containers which held the blood of Christ and were scattered across the universe to prevent the forces of evil from taking over. If The Collector gets the last key, the universe will fall into Chaos, and he has been tracking Brayker all the way to a small inn in a nowhere town. And now the final battle for the universe begins……
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Here’s to Romance (1935) Alfred E. Green, Nino Martini, Genevieve Tobin, Anita Louise, Comedy, Musical

Here's to Romance (1935)
International singing sensation Nino Martini made his American film debut in the Jesse L. Lasky production Here’s to Romance. His career bankrolled by the beneficent opera diva Mme. Schumann-Heink (playing herself), singer Nino Donelli (Martini) hits the big time, and as a bonus falls in love with his leading lady Lydia Lubov (Anita Louise). For a while, however, their romance is nearly loused up by wealthy, self-centered art patrons Kathleen and Emery Gerard (Genevieve Tobin and Reginald Denny). Also complicating matters is amorous ballerina Rosa (Maria Gambarelli), but she leaves the scene after turning down both Nino and Emery. Often listed as a 20th Century-Fox release, Here’s to Romance was actually one of the last Fox releases before the merger with 20th Century.
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