Crime

Synopsis:
Lew Harper is a Los Angeles based private investigator whose marriage to Susan Harper, who he still loves, is ending in imminent divorce since she can’t stand being second fiddle to his work, which is always taking him away at the most inopportune of times. His latest client is tough talking and physically disabled Elaine Sampson, who wants him to find her wealthy husband, Ralph Sampson, missing now for twenty-four hours, ever since he disappeared at Van Nuys Airport after having just arrived from Vegas. No one seems to like Ralph, Elaine included. Read More »

In Montreal, the teenagers Manon, Anne, Isa, Claudie and Sophie are friends since their childhood. While spending a couple of days in the cottage of Sophie’s parents nearby a lake, the girls decide to give a party, and Manon and Sophie hitch for a ride to the town in a jeep to buy some beers and supplies and they invite the driver to the party. On the return, the same driver stops the car and later Sophie is found stabbed, raped and covered of blood. Fifteen years later, Manon sees the guy in a car-wash and she invites her former friends to return to the house nearby the lake, where wounds of their traumatic loss are disclosed.Read More »

Eastman Museum writes:
According to Quentin Tarantino, his eighth and latest film not only pays homage to that peculiar brand of the western set not in dust but in snow, but also an even more peculiar genre of the so-called parlor room mystery. André De Toth’s criminally underrated Day of the Outlaw happened to mine a similar territory in 1959: Set in an isolated, snow-covered town in the far West, the story has a renegade army officer named Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives) and his henchmen riding into the town threatening their worst to the men and women there. Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) decides to agree to Bruhn’s demands for someone knowledgeable to lead them away from the law and the town, to safety. Mortally wounded himself, Bruhn opts to take Starrett up on his offer in one last act of generosity toward the townspeople, sparing them the mayhem threatened by his men.Read More »

Quote:
Review (Popeye Pete, The Deuce: Grindhouse Cinema Database)
Director/Producer Perry Henzell created one of the most popular films to come out of Jamaica. The Harder They Come was a triumph for the Jamaican culture and it gave an honest look at life within the ghettos of that part of the world. It also became a legendary cult film. Ivan (Jimmy Cliff) is a country boy looking for fame and fortune in the big city of Kingston, Jamaica. He has dreams of becoming a star in the new reggae scene. When Ivan gets to town, he finds out things wont be as easy as he expected. When Ivan visits his mother and she explains that even though he has good intentions hes headed for a rough road ahead.Read More »

In the nineteenth century, a young police captain, Langlois, is sent to a remote snow-covered village to investigate the disappearance of a girl. He is helped in his investigation by a local magistrate, who is convinced that the murderer is an ordinary man who has killed merely to relieve his boredom. When he finally confronts the killer, Langlois becomes aware of his own identity and discovers that he too has the impulse to take the lives of others…Read More »

Synopsis:
“Uptight” is an updated remake of John Ford’s 1935 film, “The Informer”. Dublin becomes the Cleveland ghetto and the Irish Republicans are replaced by black revolutionary fighters. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Tank Williams (Julian Mayfield) is an unemployed and itinerant steelworker who turns over his militant friend, Johnny Wells (Max Julien) to the police for $1,000 reward, resulting in an underground all-points bulletin to exact vengeance on the squealer. Legendary director, Jules Dassin’s unrelenting directional pace is complemented by the driving score of Booker T. Jones. The stellar cast includes Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Frank Silvera.Read More »

Eddie Chapman (Christopher Plummer) is a smooth operator, blowing up safes under the noise of a back firing car outside of the buildings and leaving a calling card before absconding with the pick of the jewels he steals. But whilst in Jersey he is caught and locked up for his crimes on the island which is where he spots the invasion of German soldiers as they marched on to the island. Spotting an opportunity he convinces those in command to let him work as a spy for Germany at which point his execution is faked and he spends time in France being trained by the Germans before being sent to London. But he hands himself in and becomes a double spy working for the British as long as he is pardoned, compensated and receives a wartime commendation for his work.Read More »

Synopsis:
In Los Angeles, circa 1940, an embittered, once-corrupt cop named Tom Spellacy is investigating two murders: that of a priest found dead in a whorehouse, and that of a mutilated woman in a park. As he searches for the culprits, Spellacy uncovers an immense web of corruption, involving prostitutes, dirty cops and pornography. Even the Roman Catholic Church is implicated, particularly one Monsignor Des Spellacy, Tom’s brother. Although Des is innocent of any wrongdoing, his actions raise moral and religious issues that Tom must deal with, in order to solve these bizarre murders.Read More »

Little known 1980’s exploitation flic with violent ending

During the Second World War, a young man from a secluded village is denied the chance to serve in the Japanese army through his tuberculosis. Highly intelligent, although isolated, he lives with his kindly grandmother. Taking advantage of the times he enjoys the company of several married women, but once news of his disease spreads he becomes increasingly socially ostracised and plots revenge…Read More »