Eleven separate vignettes are presented. In each, celebrities, playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves (with the exception of the characters of various wait staff, and one actor playing a lookalike cousin of herself), meet in a food service establishment with coffee/tea and cigarettes involved. Beyond the topic of discussion that brought them together, they often talk directly about coffee and cigarettes, more often that coffee and cigarettes, and by association caffeine and nicotine, are not healthy, especially if they are the only things constituting lunch. Other recurring themes include the Lee family, cousinhood, celebrity worship, the connection between the medical and musical careers, and Nikola Tesla’s belief that the Earth is a conductor of acoustic resonance. In all cases, the coming together for coffee/tea and smokes acts as a bridge to overcome disagreements, and/or makes uncomfortable situations less uncomfortable.
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Tag Archives: USA
The Breaking Point (1950) Michael Curtiz, John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fishing boat captain Harry Morgan charters his boat. Due to strained finances, he is none too careful as to whom he does business with. Real trouble erupts when Harry hires out his boat to transport four men who turn out to be criminals on the lam from a racetrack heist.
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The Swan (1956) Charles Vidor, Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Louis Jourdan, Comedy, Romance, Drama
Princess Beatrice’s days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant cousin when he pays a surprise visit to their palace. Prince Albert has searched all over Europe for a bride and he’s bored by the whole courtship routine. He is more interested in the estate’s dairy than Alexandra’s rose garden. And then he starts playing football with the tutor and Alexandra’s brothers. Invite the tutor to the ball that night and watch how gracefully Alexandra dances with him.
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Storm Center (1956) Daniel Taradash, Bette Davis, Brian Keith, Kim Hunter, Drama
A small-town librarian is branded as a Communist by local politicians when she refuses to withdraw a controversial book from the library’s shelves.
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Untamed (1955) Henry King, Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Richard Egan, Adventure, Drama, Romance
When the great potato famine hits Ireland, the diaspora begins as thousands emigrate. Among those leaving the Emerald Isle is Katie O’Neill and her husband, who decide that the promised land is South Africa and make their way there. Once there, they discover the hardships that are the reality of the homesteader experience. To complicate matters, Katie meets up with the love of her life, Paul van Riebeck. Will there be betrayal on the veldt?
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Huddle (1932) Sam Wood, Ramon Novarro, Madge Evans, Una Merkel, Drama, Romance
Tony, the son of Italian immigrants, works in a smoky steel mill in Gary, Indiana. He wins a company scholarship which will enable him to attend Yale college. Over the four years of his college career he learns about football, love, and class prejudice.
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The Light at the Edge of the World (1971) Kevin Billington, Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, Samantha Eggar, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Pirates take over a lighthouse on a rocky island. They then execute a devious plan to cause ships to run aground, pillaging their wrecks. A lone member of the lighthouse crew survives, and he deperately fights their plot. A shipwrecked maiden that avoids the pirates slaughter soon complicates the situation.
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Mysterious Intruder (1946) William Castle, Richard Dix, Barton MacLane, Nina Vale, Film-Noir, Mystery
A private detective is hired by the owner of a music store to find a young girl he grew up with. Suspicious as to why someone would pay a lot of money to find someone he hasn’t seen in years, the detective digs further and soon winds up in a scheme involving a set of valuable old phonograph records, a dead millionaire and murder.
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Chain Gang Women (1971) Lee Frost, Michael Stearns, Barbara Mills, Linda York, Crime, Thriller, Erotic
Two escaped convicts go on a robbery and rape spree. The husband of one of their victims arms himself and goes looking for them.
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The Night Stalker (1972) John Llewellyn Moxey, Darren McGavin, Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Horror, Mystery
Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter with an abrasive personality that has gotten him fired ten times from various big-city papers. Now he’s reduced to reporting for a relatively small-time paper in Las Vegas. It’s here he gets the story of his life. But will the local sheriff, or the D.A., or even his own boss, let him print it? He has an ally in the FBI agent brought in to investigate this strange case. It seems someone is biting the necks of young girls and draining their blood. Can this killer with supernormal powers really be a 70-year-old Rumanian millionaire? Can he really be a vampire? And can an aging reporter do anything to stop him?
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