USA

  • Sam Peckinpah – Ride the High Country (1962)

    1961-1970DramaSam PeckinpahUSAWestern

    Quote:
    Ride the High Country is the one Sam Peckinpah movie about which there has never been controversy–save at MGM in 1962, when a new studio regime opted to dump this beautiful, heartbreakingly elegiac Western into the bottom half of a double-bill. Westerns rarely even got reviewed back then, so it’s wellnigh miraculous that critics discovered the movie and raved about it. Newsweek called it the best American picture of the year.
    Veteran cowboy stars Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea portray aging gunslingers in the twilight of the Old West. McCrea’s character, Steve Judd, signs on to transport a shipment of gold from a remote mining camp. Gil Westrum (Scott), an old crony now trick-shooting in a carnival, agrees to help but really aims to seduce Judd into stealing the treasure. The slow-building tension between longtime friends–one still true to the code he’s lived by, the other having drifted away from it–anticipates the tortuous personal dilemmas played out to the death by Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Benny and Elita in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.Read More »

  • Nicholas Ray & Guy Green – 55 Days at Peking (1963)

    1961-1970DramaNicholas RayUSAWar

    Synopsis:
    This historical epic dramatizes the Battle of Peking, a turning point of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. When Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi (Flora Robson) orders the Boxers, a group of Chinese secret societies, to massacre foreigners within China, a group of ambassadors, their families and staff hole up in a diplomatic compound. Major Matt Lewis of the United States Marine Corps (Charlton Heston) leads the defense while romancing Russian baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner).Read More »

  • Joshua Waletzky – Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann (1992)

    1991-2000DocumentaryJoshua WaletzkyUSA

    Music For The Movies: Bernard Herrmann explores the work of a composer who created music for over 50 films, collaborating with such diverse directors as Orson Welles, Nicholas Ray, and Martin Scorsese. Best remembered for his twelve-year collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock in such classics as Vertigo, North By Northwest ,and the unforgettable Psycho, Herrmann pioneered many fundamental techniques of film scoring in the course of his 35-year career.Read More »

  • Michael Crichton – Pursuit (1972)

    1971-1980DramaMichael CrichtonThrillerUSA

    A political extremist plans to spread stolen nerve gas in a city where a political convention is being held. Government agents are sent to catch him.Read More »

  • Bruce Baillie – Quick Billy (1971)

    USA1971-1980Bruce BaillieExperimental

    A montage of images of film making is followed by a silent western story.Read More »

  • Edward F. Cline – The Villain Still Pursued Her (1940)

    1941-1950ComedyEdward F. ClineUSA

    Storyline
    The widow Wilson and her daughter Mary have just learned that old Mr. Middleton, who held the mortgage on their home, has passed away. They are now visited by Middleton’s lawyer, Cribbs, who informs them that Middleton’s son and heir Edward plans to foreclose and take possession of their home. When Mary goes to plead with Edward, she soon discovers that it is really the unscrupulous Cribbs who wants to drive them out of their home. When Mary and Edward become engaged to be married, it looks as if all is well. But the calculating Cribbs has a new plan, which begins with luring young Edward into a lifestyle of drinking and dissipationRead More »

  • Don Taylor – Jack of Diamonds (1967)

    1961-1970CrimeDon TaylorDramaUSA

    Plot Synopsis
    from IMDB
    The protege of a famous cat burglar reluctantly agrees to join forces with a lesser criminal in the daring heist of several famous jewels from a seemingly impenetrable vault.Read More »

  • Lambert Hillyer – Extortion (1938)

    1931-1940Lambert HillyerMysteryUSA

    The story takes place on a college campus, where a distinctively unpopular professor is murdered. When her physics-teacher father falls under suspicion, co-ed Betty Tisdale turns to campus newspaper editor Larry Campbell. Dissatisfied with the slowness of police procedure, Betty, Larry and their fellow students conduct their own investigation, unearthing a hotbed of scholastic intrigue and double-crossing.Read More »

  • D. Ross Lederman – The Lone Wolf in Mexico (1947)

    1941-1950ActionCrimeD. Ross LedermanUSA

    IMDB:
    A croupier is murdered in a Mexico City gambling casino and the Lone Wolf is suspected. Sharon Montgomery, wife of diamond merchant Charles Montgomery, becomes involved in a jewel heist, in which again the Lone Wolf is a suspect.Read More »

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