Tag Archives: USA

I Wake Up Screaming (1941) H. Bruce Humberstone, Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

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Promoter Frankie Christopher, being grilled by police in the murder of model Vicky Lynn, recalls in flashback: First meeting her as a waitress, Frankie decides to parlay her beauty into social acceptance and a lucrative career. He succeeds only too well: she’s on the eve of deserting him for Hollywood…when someone kills her. Now Frankie gets the feeling that Inspector Ed Cornell is determined to pin the killing on him and only him. He’s right. And the only one he can turn to for help is Jill, the victim’s sister, who’s been cool toward him…
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Blood Simple. (1984) Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, Crime, Thriller

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Texas bar owner Julian Marty, who is generally regarded as not a nice person, hires shady private detective Loren Visser, who is able to obtain what Marty requests: evidence – in this instance, photographic – that his wife, Abby, and one of his bartenders, Ray, are having an affair. As Ray and Abby realize that Marty has found out about them, it allows them to plan for their future away from Marty, while be up front with Marty about the situation. Marty, in turn, decides to hire Visser once again, this time to kill Abby and Ray, and dispose of their bodies so that they won’t be found. The out in the open affair and the contract hit lead to some actions based on self interest, and a standoff of sorts between the four players, which is compounded in complexity by some wrong assumptions of what has happened, with an innocent bystander, another of the Marty’s bartenders, Meurice, potentially and unwittingly adding to the scenario.
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Centerspread Girls (1982) Gary Graver, Veronica Hart, Lisa De Leeuw, John Alderman, Comedy, Adult

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The Morality over Madness (MOM) committee tries to take down Sue Forbes’ adult magazine “Panther”. Alas, one by one the MOM members are seduced by Sue’s former centerfold models. Producer Beverly Martine seduces wore out porn star Lyndon Loveless to rediscover his prowess. While old member Thurman Parrish refuses the advances of the buxom stripping artist Vee Beacham and Anne the photographer, they enlist his younger wife Louella by causing her to out herself. After witnessing Gov. Hamilton Osmond with an overly patriotic girl, Celeste and Sean Carson seduce him themselves. Ellie Parker the reporter seduces Lay Rev. W. W. Williams and ends up sneaking the videotape he takes of their encounter into Sue. Jane Mohr takes a different approach by coming clean to Judge Roy Hammer. They fall in love after he reveals MOM got his support by pure political pressure. In the committee’s hearing.
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Yume / Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990) Akira Kurosawa, Ishirô Honda, Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baishô, Toshie Negishi, Drama, Fantasy

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Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.
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Phaedra (1962) Jules Dassin, Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, Drama

Phaedra (1962)
The powerful Greek shipowner and constructor Thanos proposes to marry Phaedra during the baptism of a ship with her name. Phaedra, who is the daughter of Thanos’greatest competitor, is a bored woman and has a son from her first marriage. Thanos gives an expensive ring to Phaedra and soon he learns that his estranged son from his first marriage, Alexis, has left the University of Economics in London to dedicate to paint. Thanos asks Phaedra to travel to London to bring Alexis to meet him in Greece. When Phaedra meets Alexis, she falls in love with her stepson and seduces him. Their doomed love affair leads the family to a tragedy.
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