Drama

The Group (1966) Sidney Lumet, Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Drama

The Group (1966)
It’s 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper- class group at a private girl’s school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows.
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L’Ora di Religione / Le Sourire de ma Mère (2002) Marco Bellocchio, Sergio Castellitto, Jacqueline Lustig, Chiara Conti, Drama

L'Ora di Religione 2002
Marco Bellocchio’s My Mother’s Smile was deemed blasphemous by the Roman Catholic Church for what the Church referred to as Bellocchio’s “systematic destruction of family and religious values.” Contrary to the Church’s presumptions about Bellocchio, My Mother’s Smile is a fascinating portrait of a man (Sergio Castellitto as Ernesto) who is forced to reconcile with his own atheism after receiving a shocking appeal from the Church requesting his participation in the canonization of his “saintly” mother.
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Midare karakuri / Murder in the Doll House (1979) Susumu Kodama, Shin Kishida, Koichi Kitami, Yûsaku Matsuda, Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror

Midare karakuri AKA Murder in the Doll House (1979)
In the best traditions of Japanese mystery stories which place fiendishly elaborate plots at their centre, Murder at the Doll House more than succeeds as a classic detective story. We’re presented with a set of strange occurrences which our master sleuth will explain to us in a long lecture at the end and even if one or two twists are a little obvious, the satisfaction involved in having figured them out ahead of time outweighs any kind of disappointment. Toshio may say he wants to be like Philip Marlowe but in actuality his detective is a little more in the European mould – almost like a more active Poirot or a slightly less obtuse Sherlock Holmes. Still, donning a trench coat with a turned up collar yet eschewing the classic hat which would have obscured his giant ‘70s perm, Matsuda once again turns in a very “cool” performance as super smart private eye.
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The Killing Kind (1973) Curtis Harrington, Ann Sothern, John Savage, Ruth Roman, Crime, Drama, Horror

The Killing Kind (1973)
Young Terry Lambert returns home from serving a prison term for a gang-rape he was forced to participate in. He seeks revenge on his lawyer and the girl who framed him. But his real problem is his overbearing mother, whose boarding house he resides in and who keeps bringing him glasses of chocolate milk. One of her boarders, Lori, becomes attracted to him. However, while he was serving his prison sentence, Terry developed an interest in rough, violent sex, and gory death. Now, one by one, some of the town’s women pop up dead.
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Odongo (1956) John Gilling, Rhonda Fleming, Macdonald Carey, Juma, Adventure, Drama

Odongo (1956)
Pamela Muir is a lovely veterinarian, who thinks the animals should run free. Steve Stratton is a hunter, who hires natives to assist with the capture and care of the animals. One day Stratton fires one of the locals. To get revenge, the former employee frees the animals just before a wealthy buyer is to arrive. Unfortunately, Stratton blames Odongo, an innocent young boy, for the crime. Heretofore, Odongo believed Stratton cared for him. The distraught Odongo runs off into the dangerous wilds. Muir and Stratton are forced to put aside their differences and search for him.
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Houdini (1953) George Marshall, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher, Biography, Drama

Houdini (1953)
The amazing career of master magician Harry Houdini is presented from his beginnings with a carnival “wild man” act to his emergence as an internationally-acclaimed illusionist, From his dramatic escape from a locked safe under the frozen Detroit River to an even more improbable one from a locked cell in Scotland Yard, he never failed to please and astound his audiences. Although Houdini’s tricks are achieved through his marvelous physical dexterity and innate sleight-of-hand, he courted death with the hazardous illusions he performed and his compulsive quest to make contact with the spirit world.
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A Month by the Lake (1995) John Irvin, Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox, Uma Thurman, Comedy, Drama, Romance

A Month by the Lake (1995)
For 16 years Miss Bentley has been spending April at an elegant hillside villa on Lake Como. This year, 1937, her London society artist father has recently died and the only other English-speaking guests are brash Americans. Then Major Wilshaw arrives. He suggests they meet for cocktails and Miss Bentley stands him up – not even thinking about it – as she helps the new nanny of an Italian family settle in. Miss Beaumont, a tall, young American who has dropped out of finishing school in Switzerland, is bored and finds some amusement in flirting with the major, whose libido is awakened for the first time since before the great war. And Miss Bentley now finds more about the major to admire than his ears.
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