Classics

  • Cy Endfield – Zulu (1964)

    1961-1970ClassicsCy EndfieldUnited KingdomWar

    Synopsis:
    In 1879, the Zulu nation hands colonial British forces a resounding defeat in battle. A nearby regiment of the British Army takes over a station run by a missionary (Jack Hawkins) and his daughter (Ulla Jacobsson) as a supply depot and hospital under the command of Lieutenant John Chard (Stanley Baker) and his subordinate Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine). Unable to abandon their wounded soldiers even in dire circumstances, the regiment defend their station against the Zulu warriors.Read More »

  • Karl Freund – Moonlight and Pretzels (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsKarl FreundMusicalUSA

    IMDB:
    A song plugger is stranded in a small town. There he meets a girl who later helps him to put on a show on Broadway.Read More »

  • Konrad Wolf – Sonnensucher AKA Sun Seekers (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaGermanyKonrad Wolf

    Director Konrad Wolf’s gritty and controversial tale follows two young women who go to work at a uranium mine in Wismut, East Germany. With anarchists, former S.S. soldiers, and ex-Russian officers working in close proximity, the mine becomes a microcosm of world politics and social unrest.Read More »

  • John Huston – The Maltese Falcon [+commentary] (1941)

    1941-1950ClassicsFilm NoirJohn HustonUSA

    Synopsis:
    Spade and Archer is the name of a San Francisco detective agency. That’s for Sam Spade and Miles Archer. The two men are partners, but Sam doesn’t like Miles much. A knockout, who goes by the name of Miss Wonderly, walks into their office; and by that night everything’s changed. Miles is dead. And so is a man named Floyd Thursby. It seems Miss Wonderly is surrounded by dangerous men. There’s Joel Cairo, who uses gardenia-scented calling cards. There’s Kasper Gutman, with his enormous girth and feigned civility. Her only hope of protection comes from Sam, who is suspected by the police of one or the other murder. More murders are yet to come, and it will all be because of these dangerous men — and their lust for a statuette of a bird: the Maltese Falcon.Read More »

  • Juraj Jakubisko – Nevera po slovensky AKA Infidelity the Slovak Way (1981)

    Comedy1981-1990ClassicsCzech RepublicJuraj Jakubisko

    Jakubisko’s comedy about infidelity inside the community of lumberjacks in three chapters. First, Group of men gets to know that there comes a group of female brigadiers to a near village and tries to seduce them, which won’t come out as precisely as they wanted. In the next chapter, one girl got pregnant and lumberjacks tries to solve this by a wedding to a man called Domino. In the final phase, they’re struggling for the succesful wedding and are affraid of possible punishment from their wives.Read More »

  • John Ford – The Fugitive (1947)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaJohn FordUSA

    Museum of Modern Art writes:
    In 1946, John Ford effectively took over the crew of his friend and fellow spirit Fernández—including stars Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, and Miguel Inclán, and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa—and, with Fernández acting as his “first lieutenant,” filmed this abstract, ambitious work on locations in Mexico and at the Churubusco Studios. Ostensibly an adaptation of Graham Greene’s unfilmably scandalous The Power and the Glory, it derives many of its plot points from Ford’s 1935 The Informer, though the film’s ultimate subject is the Mexican landscape, as explored in all of its compositional possibilities by the incomparable duo of Ford and Figueroa.Read More »

  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Cleopatra (1963)

    1961-1970ClassicsEpicJoseph L. MankiewiczUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    In 48 B.C., Caesar pursues Pompey from Pharsalia to Egypt. Ptolemy, now supreme ruler after deposing his older sister, Cleopatra, attempts to gain favor with Caesar by presenting the conquerer with the head of Pompey, borne by his governors, Pothinos and Achillas. To win Caesar’s support from her brother, Cleopatra hides herself in a rug, which Apollodorus, her servant, presents to Caesar. The Roman is immediately infatuated; banishing Ptolemy, he declares Cleopatra Egypt’s sole ruler and takes her as his mistress. A son, Caesarion, is born of their union. Caesar, however, must return to Italy. Although he is briefly reunited with Cleopatra during a magnificent reception for the queen in Rome, Caesar is assassinated shortly thereafter, and Cleopatra returns to Egypt.Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

    1941-1950Alfred HitchcockClassicsFilm NoirUSA

    Synopsis:
    Charlotte “Charlie” Newton is bored with her quiet life at home with her parents and her younger sister. She wishes something exciting would happen and knows exactly what they need: a visit from her sophisticated and much travelled Uncle Charlie Oakley, her mother’s younger brother. Imagine her delight when, out of the blue, they receive a telegram from Uncle Charlie announcing that he is coming to visit them for awhile. Charlie Oakley creates quite a stir and charms the ladies’ club, as well as the bank President where his brother-in-law works. Young Charlie begins to notice some odd behavior on his part, such as cutting out a story in the local paper about a man who marries and then murders rich widows. When two strangers appear asking questions about him, she begins to imagine the worst about her dearly beloved Uncle Charlie.Read More »

  • Mervyn LeRoy – Moment to Moment (1965)

    1961-1970ClassicsDramaMervyn LeRoyUSA

    This is a good movie in the Hitchcock vein, in which small details form the key to intense pathos. Will the husband notice the thing she mentioned in passing? Will her child inadvertently play with the wrong toy? Will the best friend keep the story straight? It takes a tangled web of lies and omissions to keep silent an impulsive affair–and a possible murder–when everything is so interconnected. No real villains here, but faulted humans trying to be happy, and not upset the house of cards that comprise their private lives. Good performances by Honor Blackman and Jean Seberg. You will be on the edge of your seat, and clutching a hankie at the same time.Read More »

Back to top button