Classics

  • George Roy Hill – The World of Henry Orient (1964)

    USA1961-1970ClassicsComedyGeorge Roy Hill

    Synopsis:
    Henry Orient (Peter Sellers) is a madly egocentric and overly amorous avant-garde concert pianist who is hilariously pursued all around New York City by two fourteen-year-old fans. The girls, Valarie “Val” Campbell Boyd (Tippy Walker) and Marian “Gil” Gilbert (Merrie Spaeth) chase a harassed Henry all over the city, thwarting his afternoon liaisons with a married woman and leaving utter chaos behind them – until Val’s sexually promiscuous mother, Isabel (Dame Angela Lansbury), appears on the scene to put a stop to the girls’ shenanigans.Read More »

  • Jean-Paul Le Chanois – Les misérables (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaFranceJean-Paul Le Chanois

    Synopsis:
    Jean Valjean (Jean Gabin) is paroled after serving 19 year term in a hard labor prison for stealing some bread. After spending a night in a missionary, he tries to steal some silverware, but he is set straight by a kindly bishop (Fernand Ledoux) who protects him from the police and gives him a set of expensive candlesticks and makes him promise that he has to become a new man that day. Nine years later, Valjean is now a wealthy industrialist and a mayor.Read More »

  • Billy Wilder – The Front Page (1974)

    1971-1980Billy WilderClassicsComedyUSA

    Quote:
    Billy Wilder’s 1974 remake of the Ben Hecht – Charles MacArthur play The Front Page, famously adapted 34 years before, by Howard Hawks as His Girl Friday, is widely regarded as that point in time when Wilder’s art went into rapid decline, that the picture demonstrated that the director of Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole, and The Apartment had lost his confidence, that he had become out of step with the times and could no longer connect with the tastes of a changing movie-going audience. In fact The Front Page is a reasonably successful adaptation, darkly cynical like most of Wilder’s best work. Wilder and collaborator I.A.L. Read More »

  • Akira Kurosawa – Dersu Uzala (1975)

    1971-1980AdventureAkira KurosawaClassicsJapan

    Synopsis:

    A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.Read More »

  • Victor Halperin – Torture Ship (1939)

    1931-1940ClassicsHorrorUSAVictor Halperin

    A mad scientist performs experiments on “the criminal mind” on captured criminals on board his private ship.Read More »

  • Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones – Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

    1971-1980ClassicsComedyTerry GilliamTerry JonesUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    History is turned on its comic head when, in tenth century England, King Arthur (Graham Chapman) travels the countryside to find knights who will join him at the Round Table in Camelot. Gathering up the men is a tale in itself but after a bit of a party at Camelot, many decide to leave only to be stopped by God, who sends them on a quest: to find the Holy Grail. After a series of individual adventures, the knights are reunited but must face a wizard named Tim the Enchanter (John Cleese), killer rabbits and lessons in the use of holy hand grenades. Their quest comes to an end however when the Police intervene – just what you would expect in a Monty Python movie.Read More »

  • Norman Z. McLeod – Monkey Business (1931)

    USA1931-1940ClassicsComedyNorman Z. McLeod

    Quote:
    On board a ship to America, four stowaways get involuntarily pressed into service as toughs for a pair of feuding gangsters while trying desperately to evade the ship’s crew. Prior to this, the film has no real plot, just the brothers causing unending uproar. Except in the credits and in the screenplay, the Brothers’ characters have no names in this film. They are referred to simply as “the stowaways”. After arriving stateside one of the gangsters kidnaps the other’s daughter, leaving it up to the brothers to save the day.Read More »

  • Robert Florey & Joseph Santley – The Cocoanuts (1929)

    1921-1930ClassicsComedyJoseph SantleyRobert FloreyUSA

    Mr. Hammer runs a bankrupt Florida hotel. He’ll try anything to make money, even make love to rich Mrs. Potter. But his main scheme, selling real estate, is in danger of sabotage from zanies Chico and Harpo, who also reduce the schemes of a pair of jewel thieves to chaos. A subplot involves the star-crossed love of Polly Potter and architect Bob Adams.Read More »

  • Norman Taurog – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)

    1931-1940AdventureClassicsNorman TaurogUSA

    Synopsis:
    In the 1850s, Tom Sawyer (Tommy Kelly), a troublemaking orphan, lives with his controlling Aunt Polly (May Robson) in the small town of St. Petersburg. Tom spends his days skipping school, charming adults and wandering along the Mississippi River with his best friends, Huckleberry Finn (Jackie Moran) and Becky Thatcher (Ann Gillis). But when Tom and Huck take an oath of silence after witnessing a murder, their innocent adventures become matters of life and death.Read More »

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