
A businessman plans to solve his tax problems by financing a film version of “Romeo and Juliet”. He hires Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield to play the title roles, and Akim Tamiroff to direct. The finished film is shown at the Venice Film Festival, where it’s considered a witty parody and awarded a Golden Lion.
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Tag Archives: USA
Voice of the Whistler (1945) William Castle, Richard Dix, Lynn Merrick, Rhys Williams, Drama, Film-Noir

The 4th film of the Columbia series based on the CBS radio program, “The Whistler”, finds wealthy John Sinclair, with no health or friends, being advised by his doctor to take a long vacation. Heading for the Great Lakes, he becomes ill in the cab operated by Ernie Sparrow an is taken to a clinic where he meets nurse Joan Martin, who is engaged to intern Fred Graham. Doctors now tell him he has only a few months to live and advise him to go to Maine (where, evidently, it will seem longer.) He asks Joan to marry him, promising to leave her his fortune.
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Bad Men of the Border (1945) Wallace Fox, Kirby Grant, Fuzzy Knight, Armida, Music, Romance, Western

U. S. Marshal Ted Cameron (Kirby Grant), masquerading as a bandit, robs a mail coach. Delores Mendoza (Armida), a passenger, is an agent for the Mexican government, assigned to investigate a counterfeiting and smuggling gang operating below the border. She joins forces with Ted and his sidekick, Rockabye Jones (Fuzzy Knight), and together they expose the gang and bring them to justice.
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The Bugle Sounds (1942) S. Sylvan Simon, Richard Thorpe, Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, Drama, War

Sergeant “Hap” Doan, heartbroken that the Nineteenth Cavalry, in which he has served for so many years, is to be mechanized and replenished with twenty recent draftees, goes on a drinking spree. He rails about leaving the Army, but is there when the draftees arrive, ready to make good soldiers out of them. When his horse, Cantigny, is killed by the explosion of a tank that had been sabotaged by Nazi-agents, he goes AWOL, and is court-martialed upon his return and given a dishonorable discharge. But he is under secret orders from his Commanding Officer to join the gang of German spies, who have every reason to believe they can trust the disgruntled ex-sergeant..
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Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) Jim Jarmusch, Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni, Comedy, Drama, Music

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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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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