USA

Tex Avery’s first cartoon with Screwy Squirrel, a psychotic character that he would come to hate and kill off after only five cartoons. The first cartoon is generally considered the best of the bunch.Read More »

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U.S. security agent John Ireland suspects that someone is smuggling atomic devices into America. When he makes his report, Ireland is assured by his superiors that nothing untoward is going on. In fact, the higher-ups have had the wool pulled over their eyes by a clever Communist saboteur, who is assembling a super-bomb, with plans to detonate the doomsday weapon somewhere in the States. If we had to have cold-war thrillers, replete with Commie bad guys wearing baggy suits and calling everyone “Comrade”, it’s too bad that all of these films weren’t as entertaining as Columbia’s The 49th Man. The original story was written by Ivan Tors, later the producer of such classic TV series as Science Fiction Theater and Sea Hunt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

Donnie Smith wrote:
What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard follows two starving buzzards who plot to eat one another. Having characters in a desert wanting to eat each other in comical ways has been done countless times, but this short is one of the ones to thank for the trope. The random ways the two buzzards attempt to one-up each other are hilarious and screwy as is typical for an Avery short. Some classic cartoon gags are present, including dressing up as a woman and making a sandwich out of someone’s hand without them knowing. There is even a brief cameo from William Hanna, who provides one of his trademark screams when one of the buzzards is bitten.Read More »

This feature-length documentary explores the life of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen as seen through the prism of his internationally renowned hymn, Hallelujah.Read More »

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Humbert Humbert, a British professor coming to the US to teach, rents a room in Charlotte Haze’s house, but only after he sees her 14-year-old daughter, Dolores (Lolita), to whom he is immediately attracted. Though he hates the mother, he marries her as this is the only way to be close to the girl, who will prove to be too mature for her age. They start a journey together, trying to hide they’re not just (step)father and daughter, throughout the country, being followed by someone whom Humbert first suspects to be from the police. The profound jealousy, and maybe some guilt from the forbidden love, seem slowly to drive the man emotionally labile.Read More »

Prior to the United States entry into World War II, Nazi spies try to steal American military secrets. Among those whose passions are roused is Kurt Schneider who was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the US Army. Schneider is not very bright and is easily swayed by the oratory of Dr. Karl Kassel, a prominent physician who is eventually made the head of the Nazi spy ring. When Schneider’s contact is arrested in Scotland, the US military asks the FBI to root out the spies. Agent Edward Renard is put in charge of the case and they methodically arrest all who have been spying.Read More »

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Academy Award-winner William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) directs Al Pacino as an undercover cop pitched into New York’s seedy underbelly in Cruising – available for the first time on Blu-ray in a brand new director-approved transfer.

New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who is preying on the patrons of the city’s underground bars. Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) tasks young rookie Steve Burns (Pacino) with infiltrating the S&M subculture to try and lure the killer out of the shadows – but as he immerses himself deeper and deeper into the underworld, Steve risks losing his own identity in the process.Read More »

Dressed to Kill, also known as Prelude to Murder (working title) and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code (in the UK), is the last of fourteen films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson.

Though not directly based on any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories, the film features several references to “A Scandal in Bohemia”, with Holmes and Watson discussing the recent publication of the story in The Strand Magazine, and the villain of the film using the same trick on Watson that Holmes uses on Irene Adler in the story. The plot also bears some resemblance to “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons”.Read More »

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Legendary actor Ben Gazzara made his feature film debut in The Strange One, recreating his Broadway role in Calder Willingham’s gripping “End as a Man”. Gazzara stars as Cadet Sgt. Jocko De Paris, a sadomasochistic bully in a Southern military academy who uses his magnetism and the school’s own military code to manipulate his fellow cadets and officers. When he engineers the expulsion of a hated rival, his reign of terror begins to unravel.Read More »