
Two teenage friends conspire to find out how much their youthful sensuality can disrupt one of their households, headed by a dentist and his mentally-ill wife.
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Author Archives: rarefilm
Bad Men of the Border (1945) Wallace Fox, Kirby Grant, Fuzzy Knight, Armida, Music, Romance, Western

U. S. Marshal Ted Cameron (Kirby Grant), masquerading as a bandit, robs a mail coach. Delores Mendoza (Armida), a passenger, is an agent for the Mexican government, assigned to investigate a counterfeiting and smuggling gang operating below the border. She joins forces with Ted and his sidekick, Rockabye Jones (Fuzzy Knight), and together they expose the gang and bring them to justice.
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Yuki Yukite shingun / The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) Kazuo Hara, Kenzo Okuzaki, Riichi Aikawa, Masaichi Hamaguchi, Documentary, War

The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On is a brilliant exploration of memory and war guilt, a subject often ignored in modern Japan. In this controversial documentary, Kazuo Hara follows Kenzo Okuzaki in his real-life struggle against Emperor Hirohito. He proudly declares that he shot BBs at the Royal Palace, distributed pornographic images of the Emperor, and once killed a man for the sake of his strange crusade. As the film progresses, Okuzaki reveals a gruesome mystery: why were some Japanese officers killing their own soldiers during WWII? What happened to their bodies? Okuzaki begs, cajoles, and occasionally beats the story out of elderly veterans. When these old men do break down and talk, their testimonies are some of the most chilling, riveting descriptions of wartime desperation ever committed to film. In his desire to unearth these horrors, Okuzaki’s behavior grows increasingly extreme and bizarre. By the film’s end, Hara seems to ask whether the terrible nature of this buried incident is worth the violence of Okuzaki’s methods.
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Fear Is the Key (1972) Michael Tuchner, Barry Newman, Suzy Kendall, John Vernon, Action, Crime, Drama

Following the death of his family in an aeroplane crash, a man plots an elaborate revenge scheme on those responsible. By setting himself up as a criminal, he plans to get close to a certain tycoon who has been approached by the culprits to help them retrieve the cargo of the lost plane.
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Onna shinnyû-shain: 5-ji kara 9-ji made / Horny Working Girl: From 5 to 9 (1982) Katsuhiko Fujii, Junko Asahina, Nami Misaki, Yuki Yoshizawa, Comedy, Erotic

Beautiful young Chieko is hired as assistant manager at the office of a large corporation. Her boss is an oversexed married man whose advances and behavior make her uncomfortable. When she finds out from the other girls in the office that they have had the same problem with him, they get together and come up with a special plan to get their revenge.
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Le jaguar / The Jaguar (1996) Francis Veber, Jean Reno, Patrick Bruel, Danny Trejo, Adventure

A shaman from the South American rain forest visits France for a public relations campaign. In a hotel’s elevator in Paris he meets a French good-for-nothing named Perrin he’s fascinated with. He follows Perrin to his flat and although Perrin is not very enthusiastic about so much interest in his person, he lets the shaman spend the night in his flat. After an official meeting on the next day being part of the PR campaign the shaman suffers from a heart attack. Hardly being able to speak and laying in a hospital bed he demands to see Perrin. The latter is not very interested in meeting the shaman again. However it looks like it is to late for animosities as the shaman and Perrin seem to be tied mentally somehow since they’ve met in the elevator.
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Kung-fu master! / Le petit amour (1988) Agnès Varda, Jane Birkin, Mathieu Demy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Drama, Romance

Mary-Jane asks, “Do all women fall in love with a boy, or just those without sons?” She’s divorced with two daughters, Lucy and Loulou. Lucy has a party where Mary-Jane notices Julien, 14, small and brassy, but she sees a sensitive side. She contrives to spend time with him and lets him know she’s available to him. He’s on the cusp between child and man, alternating between playing a video game, Kung Fu Master, where he tries to rescue Sylvie, and joining friends in bluff talk about sexual exploits. As Lucy realizes what is happening, she’s repulsed, but Mary-Jane, encouraged by her own mother, carries on. Is it love or jealousy of lost youth? Is there any way this can end well?
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My Teenage Daughter (1956) Herbert Wilcox, Anna Neagle, Sylvia Syms, Norman Wooland, Drama

Anna Neagle, Sylvia Syms. Poor Anna just can’t seem to ‘straighten out’ her delinquent daughter. Her path eventually leads to crime, rebellion, death, and redemption. Her sleazy boryfriend leads her down a path of moral ineptitude. Good performance by Syms.
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The Bugle Sounds (1942) S. Sylvan Simon, Richard Thorpe, Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, Drama, War

Sergeant “Hap” Doan, heartbroken that the Nineteenth Cavalry, in which he has served for so many years, is to be mechanized and replenished with twenty recent draftees, goes on a drinking spree. He rails about leaving the Army, but is there when the draftees arrive, ready to make good soldiers out of them. When his horse, Cantigny, is killed by the explosion of a tank that had been sabotaged by Nazi-agents, he goes AWOL, and is court-martialed upon his return and given a dishonorable discharge. But he is under secret orders from his Commanding Officer to join the gang of German spies, who have every reason to believe they can trust the disgruntled ex-sergeant..
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Dead Men Are Dangerous (1939) Harold French, Robert Newton, Betty Lynne, Peter Gawthorne, Crime, Drama

A down-and-out writer being hounded by collectors stumbles upon dead man lying under a fallen tree limb. Little did he know the man had been murdered, and he concocts a scheme of exchanging clothes and identifications in hopes of making a clean slate of things. Coincidental happenings lead the police to his new alias. A secret diary and a murder weapon hold the truth to his innocence while Scotland Yard is now the hound on his trail. The true killers are eventually exposed to him and his sweetheart. Then the truth is exposed. A somewhat frustrating story as the viewer watches errors in judgement from all angles. But a good ending for all except the murderers.
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