USA

Boisterous gangster kingpin ‘Bull’ Weed rehabilitates the down-and-out ‘Rolls Royce’ Wensel, a former lawyer who has fallen into alcoholism. The two become confidants, with Rolls Royce’s intelligence aiding Weed’s schemes, but complications arise when Rolls Royce falls for Weed’s girlfriend ‘Feathers’ McCoy.

Adding to Weed’s troubles are attempts by a rival gangster, ‘Buck’ Mulligan, to muscle in on his territory. Their antagonism climaxes with Weed killing Mulligan and he is imprisoned, awaiting a death sentence. Rolls Royce devises an escape plan, but he and Feathers face a dilemma, wondering if they should elope together and leave Bull Weed to his fate.Read More »

This enjoyable film combines features of teen movie, coming-of-age film, and lesbian flic. Made by a female director, with attractive actors, it is a role-reversal farce. The appeal is not restricted to lesbians – this is particularly suitable for the male audience, and not only because of the erotically effective love scenes (and the undeniable fact that the two main actresses are well worth looking at). Most importantly the comedy works well. There is an intriguing reversal of roles. The white girl is poor, and the black girl is rich.The poor girl belongs to a sort of “family” of lesbians that is warm and caring, while the black girl’s parents are separated and she lives with her mother. There is the gift from the rich girl of Walt Whitman’s poetry collection “Leaves of Grass” to the poor girl, who reads some of the poems while smoking grass and wakes up to the meaning of the words. The story has a satisfying ending, allowing everyone to get on with their lives.Read More »

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In a European seaside village, a maiden takes clean sheets down from the clothesline. Carrying her basket of linens home, she stops to consult a fortune teller, whose been napping the the sun. The cartomancienne sees love in the cards. The young woman pauses to reflect. We then see water, swirling, and into view swims a man, as if just appearing on earth. He arrives on shore – is he just in her mind’s eye, or is he real? She weaves a garland of for her hair. Will they meet?Read More »

A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.Read More »

The ship on which Bill Roberts is a stoker has just put into port, giving the crew one night ashore. The ship’s bad-tempered third engineer orders the stokers to clean up, while the engineer heads for a dockside bar, where he has a confrontation with the wife he had abandoned. Then, as Bill himself goes ashore, he sees a young woman attempt to drown herself. Bill dives in, saves her, and then, assisted by the engineer’s wife, sees that she is cared for. Bill and the rescued woman begin to enjoy one another’s company, but they must contend with the malice of the engineer, as well as a number of other complications.Read More »

“Created by Maya Deren as part of a Toronto Film Society workshop, this unpublished film ‘poem’ is a luminous work of nighttime choreography. It was also a trial run for her later film, The Very Eye of Night” — from the dvdRead More »

Reclusive Dr. Zorba has died and left his eerie mansion to his penniless nephew Cyrus Zorba and his family. Along with the house, the Zorba family has also inherited the occultist’s collection of 12 ghosts, who can only be seen through Zorba’s special goggles. The family members, their lives at risk upon the discovery that Dr. Zorba’s fortune lies hidden somewhere in the house, receive aid from unexpected quarters as the threat to their lives is revealed.Read More »

Naive, but brash and sultry teenage runaway Bonnie finds herself lost and adrift in America. The lovely young lass runs afoul of a colorful array of evil oddballs who all treat her like an object: violent criminal Pat makes Bonnie help her kidnap the middle-aged Dan Daubrey; domineering lesbian painter Geraldine Mills wants Bonnie to be her kept girl and uses her as a model; and wicked misogynistic rich sicko Vincent Stackman desires poor Bonnie as the ultimate prized possession in his menagerie of caged female animals he keeps locked up in the basement of his swanky remote mansion.Read More »

Three outlaws come to the aid of a young girl after her father is killed.

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Bob Mastrangelo has called it “One of John Ford’s greatest silent epics.” The film possibly inspired the title for Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 film Three Bad Men in a Hidden Fortress, simply known as The Hidden Fortress in the rest of the world.Read More »