
Getting lost, wandering home whilst on leave from his seminary, novice monk Khoma stays in the barn of an old woman. A scuffle breaks out. Later, he is summoned to stand and pray over a young dead woman, in the local church, for three nights. It is here that, while in the long, dark nights of the locked doors, the dead regain life, the souls of Hell taunt the young monk to near terrifying insanity, and the test of Faith will be as powerful as the witches, monsters and the mighty demon Viy who haunt his every step and bay for his very soul.
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Tag Archives: 1960s
Flight to Fury (1964) Monte Hellman, Dewey Martin, Fay Spain, Jack Nicholson, Adventure

This adventure is set in the Philippines and chronicles the exploits of two men who survive a plane crash in the jungle. One of the men is an avaricious killer who has come to the islands to search for a fortune in diamonds. The other is an international adventurer. Now they must somehow overcome their vast personal differences and desires to survive in the steamy wilderness.
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La llorona / The Crying Woman (1960) René Cardona, María Elena Marqués, Eduardo Fajardo, Luz María Aguilar, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

The Mexican horror film La Llorona begins with a very happy young woman named Margarita (Luz Mara Aguilar) who is planning her wedding to the love of her life. Her uncle (Carlos Lopez Moctezuma) refuses to give his blessing to the union. She goes through with the marriage and soon gives birth to a son named Jorgito. When he gets older, Jorgito learns that the family suffers from a curse that causes woman to kill their children. In order to keep the curse from perpetuating itself, Jorgito begins plotting the murder of Margarita.
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Il Mercenario (1968) Sergio Corbucci, Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Eduardo Fajardo, Comedy, Western

On the northern side of the Mexico–United States border, Sergei “Polack” Kowalski, a well-groomed, greedy mercenary, attends a circus performance where he recognizes the show’s lead rodeo clown as Paco Roman. During the performance, Kowalski reminisces on how he and Paco fought together as revolutionaries against the Mexican Government…
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Accattone (1961) Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini, Drama

In a seedy section of Rome, Vittorio Cataldi – “Accattone” (“beggar” in Italian) to those that know him – lives off the avails of prostitution, Maddalena being his one and only girl. He is married to Ascenza with who he has one young son named Iaio, but he does not live with them – they who live with her father and brother – provide for them, or play any important part of their lives. He generally hangs out with his similarly slack life friends playing cards and drinking. His source of income is threatened when Maddalena is injured being hit by a motorcyclist, then beaten by rivals of his, which leads to her being arrested and jailed for a year. Largely because of Iaio, Accattone contemplates going straight and getting a real job. Then he meets Stella, a young innocent woman who has had a hard life, but who is not as naive to the ways of the world as she first appears. Accattone falls in love with her, but as the thought of working a steady job now becomes abhorrent, contemplates …
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Five Day Lover / L’amant de cinq jours (1961) Philippe de Broca, Jean Seberg, Micheline Presle, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Comedy, Drama

During Madeleine’s fashion show Claire meets Antoine and becomes his mistress. Due to the fact that she’s married (to a wealthy man) she only spends a few days a week with him. Antoine is also rich, and often taken to meetings by his chauffeur, Marius. However things are more complicated: Antoine is Madeleine lover (Claire’s best friend) while George, Claire’s husband is quite rich and has a modest job. Everything works perfectly until Madeleine discovers the truth. She prepares her vengéance and organizes a celebration which she invites Antoine, Claire and George.
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Vrazda po nasem / Murder Czech Style (1967) Jirí Weiss, Rudolf Hrusínský, Kveta Fialová, Václav Voska, Comedy, Crime

The protagonist (Rudolf Hrusinsky) is a dull, fat, shy government clerk indulging in voyuerism and ego fantasies. In love with another clerk (Kveta Fiolova), he is urged on in his pursuit by a commiserate executive. The story is told in a flashback sequence as the cuckolded Hrusinsky attempts suicide by gassing himself in his bathtub. The “Murder” of the title is not a murder as such, rather the murder that Hrusinsky remembers planning upon discovering his wife’s unfaithfulness with his supposed friend and advisor. Both plots failing in his mind, he loses himself in fantastic reveries of his funeral and of hypocritical mourners. ‘ Deciding (perhaps) that this is not the way out either, he gives up the attempt and imagines a life of reconciliation and eventual affluence.
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Die endlose Nacht / The Endless Night (1963) Will Tremper, Karin Hübner, Louise Martini, Harald Leipnitz, Drama

A few hours at Berlin-Tempelhof airport. The thick fog force the travelers to persevere on the ground. Among them is a businessman who is facing ruin and not shy away, throwing his girlfriend to another man’s neck in order to save himself. A young actress has spent her last penny at the hairdresser and is stranded in a strange city. A farmer from Kenya falls spontaneously in love with a woman and offers her a new life.
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Zabitá nedele / Squandered Sunday (1969) Drahomíra Vihanová, Irena Boleslavská, Vladislav Drazdák, Alexandra Haskovcová, Drama

It’s Sunday morning. The church bells call people to the Mass, but the army officer Arnost is still sleeping in his austere and shabby room in the barracks. He wakes slowly, and attunes himself step by step to the world and what to do this arid Sunday. He loads his pistol and puts it to his head and in his mouth, without firing it off. While he turns around, he is now and then interrupted by short flashbacks in his memory of situations with frivolous women and much drinking, as well as some daydreams about enforced weddings. He has a relationship with three blond women. Two of them are adult. One is willowy and a bit aloof, the other voluptuous and possessive. The third is a little girl, who he likes to talk with. He goes to the gatekeeper of the barracks, and starts a chat. Through a spyglass he suddenly sees two young women sunbathing topless. As it is within the military area, he orders the gatekeeper to arrest them. The women don’t take him seriously, but he writes a report.
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Death of a Gunfighter (1969) Don Siegel, Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, Carroll O’Connor, Western

In the turn-of-the century Texas town of Cottownwood Springs, marshal Frank Patch is an old-style lawman in a town determined to become modern. When he kills drunken Luke Mills in self-defense, the town leaders decide it’s time for a change. They ask for Patch’s resignation, but he refuses on the basis that the town on hiring him had promised him the job for as long as he wanted it. Afraid for the town’s future and even more afraid of the fact that Marshal Patch knows all the town’s dark secrets, the city fathers decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the unwanted lawman.
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