Classics

  • Norman Z. McLeod – Horse Feathers (1932)

    1931-1940Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtClassicsComedyNorman Z. McLeodUSA

    Synopsis:
    Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff has just been installed as the new president of Huxley College. His cavalier attitude toward education is not reserved for his son Frank, who is seeing the college widow, Connie Bailey. Frank influences Wagstaff to recruit two football players who hang out in a speakeasy, in order to beat rival school Darwin. Unfortunately, Wagstaff mistakenly hires the misfits Baravelli and Pinky. Finding out that Darwin has beaten him to the “real” players, Wagstaff enlists Baravelli and Pinky to kidnap them, which leads to an anarchic football finale.Read More »

  • Leo McCarey – Duck Soup (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyLeo McCareyUSA

    Synopsis:
    The small state of Freedonia is in a financial mess, borrowing a huge sum of cash from wealthy widow Mrs. Teasdale. She insists on replacing the current president with crazy Rufus T. Firefly and mayhem erupts. To make matters worse, the neighboring state sends inept spies Chicolini and Pinky to obtain top secret information, creating even more chaos!Read More »

  • Victor Heerman – Animal Crackers (1930)

    1921-1930ClassicsComedyUSAVictor Heerman

    Synopsis:
    Captain Spaulding, the noted explorer, returns from Africa and attends a gala party held by Mrs. Rittenhouse. A painting displayed at that party is stolen, and the Marxes help recover it. Well, maybe ‘help’ isn’t quite the word I was looking for–this is the Marx Brothers, after all…
    — Ken Yousten (IMDb)Read More »

  • Thomas Ostermeier – Hamlet (2008)

    2001-2010ClassicsGermanyPerformanceThomas OstermeierWilliam Shakespeare

    Hamlet is going crazy. His father has died suddenly of a strange disease, and his mother has married her deceased husband’s brother, of all people, after just one month. Hamlet has nighttime visions of his father, who claims his brother poisoned him, and exhorts Hamlet to take revenge and kill his new stepfather. Hamlet acts the part of the crazy man in order to hide his plans, and loses his grip on reality in the process. The whole world becomes a stagnant swamp to him. Desire and sexuality become a threatening abyss. The friends surrounding him turn out to be spies deployed by his stepfather to keep an eye on him. Read More »

  • George Stevens – Shane (1953)

    1951-1960ClassicsGeorge StevensUSAWestern

    Synopsis:
    The simple story of a Wyoming range war is elevated to near-mythical status in producer/director George Stevens’ Western classic Shane. Alan Ladd plays the title character, a mysterious drifter who rides into a tiny homesteading community and accepts the hospitality of a farming family. Patriarch Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) is impressed by the way Shane handles himself when facing down the hostile minions of land baron Emile Meyer, though he has trouble placing his complete trust in the stranger, as his Marion (Jean Arthur) is attracted to Shane in spite of herself, and his son Joey (Brandon De Wilde) flat-out idolizes Shane. When Meyer is unable to drive off the homesteaders by sheer brute strength, he engages the services of black-clad, wholly evil hired gun Jack Wilson (Jack Palance)…Read More »

  • George Melford & Enrique Tovar Ávalos – Drácula AKA Spanish Dracula (1931)

    1931-1940ClassicsEnrique Tovar ÁvalosGeorge MelfordHorrorUSA

    Synopsis:
    Englishman Renfield (Dwight Frye) visits Count Dracula (Carlos Villarías) in Transylvania and falls victim to his vampire brides. Dracula travels to London, arriving hidden in three crates of his native earth. While Renfield languishes in a sanitarium, raving about blood and obsessed with eating insects, Dracula dons evening wear and infiltrates the opera crowd, vampirizing Lucia (Carmen Guerrero) and menacing the beautiful Eva (Lupita Tovar). Only the wise Professor Van Helsing (Eduardo Arozamena) can read the telltale clues that spell the truth: Dracula is a vampire, an undead ghoul who preys upon the living.Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – The Man from Laramie (1955)

    1951-1960Anthony MannClassicsUSAWestern

    Synopsis:
    Mysterious Will Lockhart delivers supplies to storekeeper Barbara Waggoman at Coronado, an isolated town in Apache country. Before long, he’s tangled with Dave Waggoman, vicious son of autocratic rancher Alec and cousin of sweet Barbara. But he sticks around town, his presence a catalyst for changes in people’s lives, searching for someone he doesn’t know…who’s been selling rifles to the Apaches.Read More »

  • Cecil B. DeMille – Cleopatra (1934)

    1931-1940Cecil B. DeMilleClassicsEpicUSA

    Synopsis:
    In 48 BC, Cleopatra, facing palace revolt in her kingdom of Egypt, welcomes the arrival of Julius Caesar as a way of solidifying her power under Rome. When Caesar, whom she has led astray, is killed, she transfers her affections to Marc Antony and dazzles him on a barge full of DeMillean splendor. But the trick may not work a third time…Read More »

  • George Abbott – Damn Yankees! (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsGeorge AbbottMusicalUSA

    From IMDB:
    Film adaptation of the George Abbott Broadway musical about a Washington Senators fan who makes a pact with the Devil to help his baseball team win the league pennant.Read More »

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