A boy whose mother is forced into a sanitarium and father gets a job as a traveling salesman. The boy fends for himself in a seedy SRO hotel.
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Tag Archives: USA
The WIZ / Le Magicien d’Oz (1978) Sidney Lumet, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A Thanksgiving dinner brings a host of family together in a Harlem apartment, where a 24-year-old schoolteacher named Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry . Extremely introverted, she has, as Aunt Em teases her, “never been south of 125th Street”, and refuses to move out and on with her life. While Dorothy cleans up after the meal, her dog Toto runs out the open kitchen door into a violent snowstorm. She succeeds in retrieving him, but finds herself trapped in the storm…
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The Woman Disputed (1928) Henry King, Sam Taylor, Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland, Arnold Kent, Drama, History
In 1914 a girl of the streets is befriended by two dashing young officers, an Austrian and a Russian. Both fall in love with her, but she picks the Austrian. When the war begins, Her town is overrun by Russians, lead by the once charming, now vengeful officer, who takes her prisoner and threatens death if she won’t marry him.
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Ladies of Leisure (1930) Frank Capra, Barbara Stanwyck, Ralph Graves, Lowell Sherman, Drama, Romance
An upper-crust artist hires a ‘party girl’ as a model; romance follows.
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Casbah (1948) John Berry, Yvonne De Carlo, Tony Martin, Peter Lorre, Crime, Musical
Pepe Le Moko leads a gang of jewel thieves in the Casbah of Algiers, where he has exiled himself to escape imprisonment in his native France. Inez, his girl friend, is infuriated when Pepe flirts with Gaby, a French visitor, but Pepe tells her to mind her own business. Detective Slimane is trying to lure Pepe out of the Casbah so he can be jailed. Against Slimane’s advice, Police Chief Louvain capture Pepe in a dragnet, but his followers free him. Inez realizes that Pepe has fallen in love with Gaby and intends to follow her to Europe. Slimane knows the same and uses her as the bait to lure Pepe out of the Casbah.
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Hangmen Also Die! (1943) Fritz Lang, Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
On May 27, 1942 the Nazi Reichsprotector of Bohemia/Moravia, the “Hangman” Reinhard Heydrich, died from the bullets of unidentified resistance fighters. Hangmen Also Die is the story of Heydrich’s assassination in fictionalized form. It was Bertolt Brecht’s only comparatively successful Hollywood project; the money he received allowed him to write “The Visions of Simone Marchand”, “Schwyk in the Second World War” and his adaptation of Webster’s “The Duchess of Malfi”. Hanns Eisler won an Academy Award for his musical score.
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Dial M for Murder (1954) Alfred Hitchcock, Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) wants to have his wealthy wife, Margot (Grace Kelly), murdered so he can get his hands on her inheritance. When he discovers her affair with Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), he comes up with the perfect plan to kill her. He blackmails an old acquaintance into carrying out the murder, but the carefully-orchestrated set-up goes awry, and Margot stays alive. Now Wendice must frantically scheme to outwit the police and avoid having his plot detected.
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Dorm Daze (2003) David Hillenbrand, Scott Hillenbrand, Tatyana Ali, Boti Bliss, Gable Carr, Comedy, Crime, Mystery
As Christmas break approaches, the dormitories at Billingsley University are restless with sex-crazed students. Although eager to relinquish his burdensome virginity, Booker (Chris Owen) has thus far failed in this endeavor. His charitable older brother, Styles (Patrick Renna), does the sensible thing and hires a prostitute (Boti Bliss) to usher Booker into the realm of manhood. Unfortunately, some misunderstandings complicate this procedure, prompting sophomoric shenanigans.
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Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers (1984) Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Roy Dotrice, Comedy
Two brothers who can feel each others’ pain and pleasure mess up the French revolution.
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East of Eden (1955) Elia Kazan, James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Drama, Romance
In this film based on John Steinbeck’s epic novel, Cal Trask (James Dean), the son of a California farmer (Raymond Massey), feels that his father cares only about his brother, Aron (Richard Davalos). When Cal embarks on a business venture to gain the favor of his dad, he finds himself dealing with his estranged mother (Jo Van Fleet), now the owner of a brothel, and tensions in the family rise even further when he begins to fall for Aron’s girlfriend, Abra (Julie Harris).
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