Classics

  • King Vidor – The Wedding Night (1935)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaKing VidorUSA

    Because his finances are low and he is seeking background for a new book, author Tony Barratt and his wife Dora return to his country home in Conneecticut. While he is finding a theme for his book on the lives and customs of the local, immigrant tobacco farmers, his wife returns to New York and, alas, his Japanese servant deserts him. He meets a neighboring farm girl, Manya Novak, and hires her to cook his meals and clean his house. They soon fall in love. But, following the customs of the old country, her father has entered a ‘marriage bargain’ for her to wed a man, Fredrik Sobieski, not of her choosing.
    —Les AdamsRead More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka AKA What Did the Lady Forget? (1937)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyJapanYasujiro Ozu

    Synopsis:
    An affluent medical professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokio, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Setsuko is a liberated woman who does what she wants, including smoking, even though she is a minor. On Saturday, the professor does not feel like going to his weekend golf game, but his wife packs him off anyway. So he leaves his bag at the apartment of his student Okada, and goes to a bar with a friend. Setsuko traces him there, and insists that he take her to a geisha house. When she gets rather tipsy, the professor calls Okada to take her home, while he sleeps at Okada’s. The wife becomes suspicious of Setsuko when she sees Okada bringing her home, and also of her husband when she discovers that he did not go golfing.Read More »

  • Michael Anderson – The Dam Busters (1955)

    1951-1960ClassicsMichael AndersonUnited KingdomWar

    The story of the conception of a new British weapon for smashing the German dams in the Ruhr industrial complex and the execution of the raid by 617 Squadron ‘The Dam Busters’.Read More »

  • Arnold Leibovit – The Puppetoon Movie (1987)

    1981-1990AnimationArnold LeibovitClassicsUSA

    The Puppetoons Movie bridges ten classic Pal Puppetoons with an all new stop-motion framing story starring Art Clokey’s Gumby and Pokey (voiced by Dal McKennon), narrator Paul Frees (as Arnie the Dinosaur) and cameos by Speedy Alka Seltzer, King Kong and Spielberg’s GremlinsRead More »

  • Arne Mattsson – Hon dansade en sommar AKA One Summer of Happiness (1951)

    1951-1960Arne MattssonClassicsDramaSweden

    Synopsis:
    Student Göran is vacationing on his uncle’s farm. On the first day he meets the 17-year old Kerstin, who lives on a farm nearby. The young people in the area are trying to organize a youth club. The priest refuses to help them but Göran’s uncle let them use an old barn of his. Göran and Kerstin fall in love with each other, but neither Kerstin’s relatives or Göran’s father gives their consent to the relationship.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Sôshun AKA Early Spring (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaJapanYasujiro Ozu

    Quote:
    A young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.Read More »

  • Kihachi Okamoto – Samurai aka Samurai Assassin (1965)

    1961-1970AsianClassicsJapanKihachi Okamoto

    Synopsis:
    February 17 to March 3, 1860, inside Edo castle. A group of assassins wait by Sakurada Gate to kill the lord of the House of Ii, a powerful man in the Tokugawa government, which has ruled Japan for 300 years. They suspect a traitor in their midst, and their suspicions fall on Niiro, an impoverished ronin who dreams of samurai status, and Kurihara, an aristocratic samurai who befriends Niiro. Niiro longs to identify his father, knowing he is a high-ranking official who will disclose himself only if Niiro achieves samurai status. With American ships in Japan’s harbors, cynicism among the assassins, and change in the air, Niiro resolves to reach ends that may prove ephemeral.Read More »

  • R.G. Springsteen – When Gangland Strikes (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsFilm NoirR.G. SpringsteenUSA

    Plot:
    In this crime drama, mobsters swear to get revenge upon a zealous public prosecutor as he tries to get them put into prison. The desperate mobsters try to stop him by using his innocent daughter in a blackmail scheme.Read More »

  • Maurice Tourneur – The Blue Bird (1918)

    1911-1920ClassicsFantasyMaurice TourneurUSA

    Quote:
    Wildly inventive and effortlessly enchanting, Maurice Tourneur’s legendary 1918 fantasy The Blue Bird combines spectacular costumes, lavish sets, ingenious camera effects and disarmingly naturalistic performances in a wholly original American silent film masterpiece. Tourneur’s extravagant vision anticipates the spellbinding German Expressionism of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, made the following year, while affectionately evoking the whimsical theatricality of Georges Méliès’s pioneering cinematic genius.Read More »

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