Drama

  • Hubert Cornfield & Stanley Kramer – Pressure Point (1962)

    1961-1970ClassicsDramaHubert CornfieldStanley KramerUSA

    Synopsis:
    Frustrated by his inability to help an African-American patient who hates whites, a psychiatrist (Peter Falk) asks his superior (Sidney Poitier) to release him from the case. The superior relates a case from his own past during World War II when he treated a young Nazi (Bobby Darin) who despised blacks. Explaining the tragic results of the case, the older psychiatrist encourages his younger colleague not to be swayed by the patient’s attitude, to remain objective and to stick with his treatment.Read More »

  • Godfrey Grayson – Innocent Meeting (1959)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaGodfrey GraysonUnited Kingdom


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    PLOT: ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

    A troubled teen discovers that reform isn’t always easy in this drama. The lad is on probation for robbery when he falls in love with a wealthy young girl.

    Wanting to help him out, she gets him a job in her father’s textile mill. Things are swell there until her father is unable to find his wallet. Due to the boy’s dubious recent past, he is naturally the first suspect. Afraid that no one will believe him innocent, the boy takes off. In desperate need of quick cash, he robs a store. Eventually the police catch up to him, but by this time the wallet has been found and the boy’s gal convinces him to go face his crime and go straight for good.
    Read More »

  • Mikhail Bogin – Dvoe AKA Two In Love (1965)

    1961-1970DramaMikhail BoginUSSR

    Quote:
    Dvoe aka Two aka Two in Love (Mikhail Bogin, 1965)

    (confusingly, the NY Times reviewer cited below refers to this as A Ballad of Love, the English title commonly given not to this but to Bogin’s second film, O lyubvi)

    A young musician courts a beautiful woman who refuses to respond to a word he says despite multiple encounters. Eventually he learns that she is completely deaf. The remainder of the film consists of their beautiful — and beautifully silent — romance.Read More »

  • Mitchell Leisen – Hold Back the Dawn (1941)

    Drama1941-1950Mitchell LeisenRomanceUSA

    Quote:
    This superior melodrama with a darkly comic tinge came out at a time when Mitchell Leisen’s career was running hot after a series of successes including films like Easy Living, Midnight, and Remember the Night. It was also the last film Billy Wilder (in partnership with Charles Brackett) was content with just writing the screenplay for. He was supposedly so annoyed by the way Leisen took liberties with his script that he resolved never to cede directorial control again.Read More »

  • Terence Young – Mayerling (1968)

    Drama1961-1970FranceRomanceTerence Young

    Synopsis:
    It’s the late nineteenth century Austria. The Emperor Franz-Joseph and his son, the Crown Prince, Archduke Rudolf, have never seen eye to eye. While the Emperor retains the traditions of the empire in the rapidly changing world keeping it a police state, Rudolf is liberal, wanting to see the people have a say in what happens in their lives. Rudolf even rejected the Emperor’s choice of a Spanish wife for him, he instead choosing Belgian Stephanie as his wife, that marriage which he himself never saw and will never see as anything more than a political alliance, Stephanie who he considers a shrew. Read More »

  • Ritwik Ghatak – Meghe Dhaka Tara AKA The Cloud-Caped Star (1960)

    1951-1960DramaIndiaRitwik Ghatak

    Quote:
    Nita (Supriya Choudhury), breaks a sandal while passing through the market square, and without complaining, continues barefoot on the graveled street, unable to buy a replacement pair of sandals for the walk home. Patently aware that Nita has received her monthly salary, her talented, but indolent older brother Shankar (Anil Chatterjee) pays an unexpected visit, and encountering Nita absorbed in reading a personal letter from a suitor named Sanat (Niranjan Ray), playfully snatches the note and reads aloud its affectionate contents, before asking her for spending money.Read More »

  • Franklin J. Schaffner – Patton (1970)

    Drama1961-1970Franklin J. SchaffnerUSAWar

    Synopsis:
    “Patton” tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton’s career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Europe and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton’s numerous faults such his temper and tendency toward insubordination, faults that would prevent him from becoming the lead American general in the Normandy Invasion as well as to his being relieved as Occupation Commander of Germany.Read More »

  • Danny Boyle – Strumpet (2001)

    2001-2010Danny BoyleDramaUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    Director Danny Boyle , Producer Martin Carr and Jim Cartwright have achieved what many would be afraid to do. This feature shot on dv has captured the heart of true movie making with is truthful, raw beauty. Strumpet is a coolly ambivalent study into a modern-day fairy tale, an outcast called Strayman, who lives by himself with a pack of dogs, writes what he feels about life on the walls of his flat. The savage but true poet who falls for a beautiful singer, they encounter a producer who sets both their poetry and music in motion. Instead of dwelling on the pretentious liaisons between artists and the industry, director Danny Boyle explores the changing relationships between people before and after their natural talent is stifled by the hold of the commercial music industry. Read More »

  • Carol Reed – The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)

    1961-1970Carol ReedDramaEpicUSA

    Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) pulls Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) from his life’s work making sculptures to instead throw a fresco up on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a dreary building the Church can’t afford to tear down. Michelangelo hates painting and does everything he can to dodge the assignment, but stays on thanks to the counsel of the Contessina di Medici (Diane Cilento), a married woman who can’t understand why the artist prefers his work to her company. Michelangelo drags his feet while architect Donato Bramante (Harry Andrews) tries to have the commission shifted to his favorite, Raphael (Tomas Milian).Read More »

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