Adventure

Brisbane, Australia, late 1910s. A man on the run from a murder charge buys a place as a stowaway on a smuggler ship bound for Mexico, by way of a tiny coral reef atoll.

Quote:
Between 1923 and 1952 Maurice Gleize managed to direct twenty two films in France without distinguishing himself. This one, with a screenplay by top French scriptwriter Charles Spaak, had arguably the best cast he ever got to work with (on other occasions he directed Fenandel, Charles Vanel and Marie Bell) from co-stars Jean Gabin and Michele Morgan – hot on the heels of Quai des brumes that same year – to Saturnin Fabre, Gaston Modot and Julien Carrette but for all Gleize extracted from them it might as well have been John Lund and Maria Montez supported by Leo Gorcey and the Bowery Boys.Read More »

Having succeeded in making himself the enemy of the entire Arab world, Commander Bloch, a senior agent in the Israeli secret services, flees to Libya and soon finds himself holed up in the French Embassy in Tripoli. His only hope of leaving the country alive is by being smuggled out in a diplomatic suitcase. Captain Augier is tasked with this delicate mission, but before the suitcase can reach Paris an airport strike takes effect. As a result, Augier and Bloch end up being confined to a hotel, which just happens to be the same hotel where the Israeli spy met the one true love of his life, Françoise. As he recalls this earlier romantic interlude in his life Bloch manages to convince himself that Françoise is the person who betrayed him. Read More »

Synopsis:
Allan Karlsson’s life has always been pretty explosive – and not just because he’s had a penchant for dynamite since childhood. His greatest adventure begins on his 100th birthday when he slips away from his old people’s home in his slippers and discovers a suitcase full of money which he henceforth feels obliged to protect. Allan makes friends, meets crooks and gangsters and also the female elephant Sonja, with whom he undertakes a journey by air to Indonesia. None of which is special to Allan, whose travels over the last century have taken him around the globe and brought him together with some of the world’s most famous personalities. Unbeknown to him, he has also significantly contributed to turning international politics on their head.Read More »

Synopsis:
Christopher Powell is in Malaysia with his fiancée and her father, capturing wild animals. While out hunting, he is attacked by a tiger, and his native guides run away, leaving him for dead. But the tiger is the pet of Ulah, a beautiful young woman who grew up by herself in the jungle. She rescues Chris and takes him back to her cave, where she nurses him to health and falls in love with him. When he eventually returns to camp, she follows. The fiancée is jealous, and the natives don’t like Ulah or her pet tiger either, all of which leads to a lot of trouble.Read More »

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Ursula Andress star in another adventure comedy from Philippe de Broca (That Man from Rio), that’s roughly based on a Jules Vernes story of the same title. Belmondo plays a rich man tired of his life who arranges for a hitman to take him out so that his fiancee will get the insurance money. Only, wouldn’t you know it, Belmondo changes his mind. Andress is a fan-dancer who gets mixed up, thinking it’s all a gag. There’s a lot of slapstick, chases, fights, balloon rides, mountain climbing and exotic locales. Oh, did I mention that Belmondo attempts a striptease while in drag?Read More »

Synopsis:
A year after the accidental death of their father, three brothers — each suffering from depression – meet for a train trip across India. Francis, the eldest, has organized it. The brothers argue, sulk, resent each other, and fight. The youngest, Jack, estranged from his girlfriend, is attracted to one of the train’s attendants. Peter has left his pregnant wife at home, and he buys a venomous snake. After a few days, Francis discloses their surprising and disconcerting destination. Amid foreign surroundings, can the brothers sort out their differences? A funeral, a meditation, a hilltop ritual, and the Bengal Lancer figure in the reconciliation.Read More »

Antar, son of prince Chaddad and a black slave mother, longs to be recognized by his father and win the love of his cousin, the princess Abla. In order to prove himself worthy, he undergoes all manner of obstacles and eventually becomes the greatest warrior in all Arabia.

There have been several Middle Eastern movies made about Antar, dating back to the silent era. In western cinema, Antar was played by Victor Mature in The Veils of Bagdad (1953) and by Kirk Morris in Anthar l’Invincibile (Anthar the Invincible) although these films re-imagined the character as a generic Caucasian hero with little relation to the historical figure. In this picture, Antar is portrayed by Egyptian actor Farid Chawki wearing “blackface” makeup and a nappy wig.Read More »

In the third installment of the parodic Fantomas series, the eponymous arch criminal imposes the “right-to-live” tax on the rich, threatening to kill those who dare not to pay. Journalist Fandor (Jean Marais) and commissioner Juve (Louis de Funès) are invited to the Scottish castle of Lord McRashley (Jean-Roger Caussimon), one of Fantomas’ potential victims, who has decided to set a trap for the elusive fiend.Read More »

Synopsis:
During the Cold War, a scientific team refits a Japanese submarine and hires an ex-Navy officer to find a secret Chinese atomic island base and prevent a Communist plot against America that could trigger WW3.Read More »