Drama

Synopsis:
Glenn Miller (James Stewart) is a poor trombone player with dreams of fame. Eventually, through years of hard work and determination, he is able to start his own band, and they become one of the most successful groups of the big-band era. With a beautiful wife (June Allyson) and one of the biggest songs in America, “Moonlight Serenade,” Miller has it all. But at the onset of World War II, Miller enlists, giving up his fame and success to help entertain the troops stationed in Europe.Read More »

Synopsis:
At Maria Vargas’ funeral, several people recall who she was and the impact she had on them. Harry Dawes was a not very successful writer/director when he and movie producer Kirk Edwards scouted her at a shabby nightclub where she worked as a flamenco dancer. He convinces her to take a chance on acting and her first film is a huge hit. PR man Oscar Muldoon remembers when Maria was in court supporting her father who was accused of murdering her mother. It was Maria’s testimony that got him off and she was a bigger star than ever. Alberto Bravano, one of the richest men in South America, sets his sights on Maria and she goes off with him – as much to make Edwards angry as anything – but he treats her badly. When she meets Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini they fall deeply in love. They are married but theirs is not to be a happy life.Read More »

Synopsis:
One of the biggest box-office attractions of the 1950s, Picnic was adapted by Daniel Taradash from the Pulitzer Prize-winning William Inge play. William Holden plays Hal Carter, a handsome drifter who ambles into a small Kansas town during the Labor Day celebration to look up old college chum Alan (Cliff Robertson, in his film debut). Hoping to hit up Alan for a job–or a handout–Hal ends up stealing his buddy’s fiancee Madge Owens (Kim Novak). Hal also has a catnip effect on spinster schoolteacher Rosemary Sydney (Rosalind Russell), so much so that Rosemary makes a fool of herself in front of the whole town, nearly driving away her longtime beau Howard Bevans (Arthur O’Connell).Read More »

Quote:
The film depicts the 1932-33 Soviet-engineered famine in Ukraine, and is based on the novel The Yellow Prince by Vasyl Barka.

Emanuel Levy writes in his blog (edited for spoilers): “Through the eyes of Katrannyk, his wife Kateryna, and their three children, pic shows the devastating effects of the mass famine caused by the state’s seizure of crops. It forcefully chronicles the brutality of Stalin’s army, their raids on fields and physical torture of farmers. Death is everywhere: the ground is covered with bodies; desolate farmers hang themselves on trees.Read More »

Synopsis:
Polly and Ray Cutler finally get to go on their long delayed honeymoon – they’ve been married three years – and arrive in Niagara Falls to find that the Loomises – Rose and George – are still in what is supposed to be in their cabin. Rose Loomis is a sultry blond who catches the eye of every man around. Husband George is older and keeps to himself a great deal. The Cutlers take a different cabin but when they go off to visit the falls, Polly sees Rose passionately kissing another man. Rose and her lover are out to kill George and run off together, but things don’t quite as planned and Polly soon finds herself kidnapped and in a boat racing to the edge of the Falls.Read More »

Synopsis:
Theodore Honey is an aeronautical engineer being sent to Labrador from London to examine the wreckage of a new passenger plane designed by his company. His theory is that the planes are susceptible to metal fatigue after a specific amount of time in the air. The absent minded Honey boards the Reindeer class plane and only realizes that this plane is due to fail in the next few hours after the plane is airborne. He decides to warn the crew and creates an incident regardless of whether he is right or wrong.Read More »

Frank, a man of action who worked his way up all by himself, dedicates his life to work. No matter the place or the circumstances, be it day or night, he’s on the phone, handling the cargo ships he charters for major companies. But when he has to deal with a crisis situation, Frank makes a brutal decision and gets fired. Profoundly shaken, betrayed by a system to which he gave his all, he has to progressively question himself to save the one connection that still matters to him: the bond he’s managed to maintain with his youngest daughter, Mathilde.Read More »

Maureen is trailing her boyfriend on the highway when his car drifts off to the shoulder. Out of nowhere, she finds herself holding vigil amid a cluster of beeping machines, trapped in the particular purgatory of hospital walls. Loss and reunion are complexly intertwined in this richly textured, precisely designed, emotionally haunting film.Read More »

Synopsis:
In Tokyo, a ruthless gang starts holding up U.S. ammunition trains, prepared to kill any of their own members wounded during a robbery. Down-at-heel ex-serviceman Eddie Spannier arrives from the States, apparently at the invitation of one such unfortunate. But Eddie isn’t quite what he seems as he manages to make contact with Sandy Dawson, who is obviously running some sort of big operation, and his plan is helped by acquaintance with Mariko, the secret Japanese wife of the dead American.Read More »