USA

  • John Ford – How Green Was My Valley [+commentary] (1941)

    Drama1941-1950ClassicsJohn FordUSA

    Quote:
    Life is hard in a Welsh mining town and no less so for the Morgan family. Seen through the eyes of the family’s youngest, Huw, we learn of the family’s trials and tribulations. Family patriarch Gwilym and his older sons work in the mines, dangerous and unhealthy as it is. Gwilym has greater hopes for his youngest son, but Huw has his own ideas on how to honor his father. Daughter Angharad is the most beautiful girl in the valley and is very much in love with Mr. Gruffydd, who isn’t sure he can provide her the life she deserves. Times are hard and good men find themselves out of work and exploited by unseen mine owners.Read More »

  • László Benedek – Death of a Salesman (1951)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaLászló BenedekUSA

    Reportedly unavailable on TV or video because Arthur Miller himself was unhappy with it, this 1951 film version of the classic play nevertheless features a bravura, barn-burning performance from Fredric March, who had been Miller’s original choice to play Willy Loman on the stage. (March turned down the part, and regretted it greatly, which led to his taking the movie part.)Read More »

  • J. Lee Thompson – Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

    1971-1980ActionJ. Lee ThompsonSci-FiUSA

    Synopsis:
    “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” is the final chapter in the sci-fi movie series. In this chapter, a tribute of human atomic bomb mutations are out to make life miserable for the peaceful ape tribe. The story is told primarily in flashback with the opening and closing taking place in the year 2670.Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Lifeboat (1944)

    1941-1950Alfred HitchcockDramaThrillerUSA

    Several survivors of a torpedoed ship find themselves in the same boat with one of the men who sunk it.
    In the Atlantic during WWII, a ship and a German U-boat are involved in a battle and both are sunk. The survivors from the ship gather in one of the boats. They are from a variety of backgrounds: an international journalist, a rich businessman, the radio operator, a nurse, a steward, a sailor and an engineer with communist tendencies. Trouble starts when they pull a man out of the water who turns out to be from the U-boat.Read More »

  • Roy Del Ruth – Taxi! (1932)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaRoy Del RuthUSA

    Amidst a backdrop of growing violence and intimidation, independent cab drivers struggling against a consolidated juggernaut rally around hot-tempered Matt Nolan. Nolan is determined to keep competition alive on the streets, even if it means losing the woman he loves.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – Guilty Hands (1931)

    1931-1940ClassicsCrimeUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Madge Evans, Kay Francis, C. Aubrey Smith, Polly Moran, Alan Mowbry

    Richard Grant (Barrymore) is a successful lawyer who believes that his many years of dealing with crime has taught him how to commit the perfect murder. He’s working for shady cad Gordon Rich (Mowbry) who informs Grant before a dinner party that he intends to marry his daughter, Barbara (Evans). Grant seethes with anger and, after dinner, kills Rich. It’s almost the perfect crime, but Rich’s troubled mistress Marjorie (Francis), becomes suspicious of Grant.Read More »

  • Peter Medak – A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaPeter MedakUSA

    Synopsis:
    A couple uses extremely black comedy to survive taking care of a daughter who is nearly completely brain dead. They take turns doing the daughter’s voice and stare into the eyes of death and emotional trauma with a humor that hides their pain.Read More »

  • Gregg Araki – Totally F***ed Up (1993)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaGregg ArakiQueer Cinema(s)USA

    Quote:
    Six queer teenagers struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of varying obstacles.

    Fernando F. Croce wrote:
    Gregg Araki once described Totally F***ed Up, his follow-up to the 1992 New Queer Cinema staple The Living End, as a “rag-tag story of fag-and-dyke teen underground…a kind of cross between avant-garde experimental cinema and a queer John Hughes flick.” The statement attests not only to Araki’s committed radicalism, but also to his sense of how the politics of pop culture play to alienated youth. He probably loved a rave from a San Francisco paper hailing the film as “a ‘90s version of The Breakfast Club.”Read More »

  • Lilyan Sievernich – John Huston and the Dubliners (1988)

    1981-1990DocumentaryDramaLilyan SievernichUSA

    John Huston and the Dubliners is a valentine to the late director and a relatively standard production film about his making of The Dead. Much time is devoted to the actors’ understandably admiring comments about Mr. Huston, and to the disposition of the prop department’s fake snow. The film has the potential to seem ordinary, but it becomes touched with magic whenever the director makes his presence felt. Mr. Huston displays his characteristic gallantry and his keen attention to seemingly unimportant touches (”Don’t worry about what you say, just keep talking,” he tells one actor, and gives precise instructions for reading the line ”Would you please pass the celery?”). He describes The Dead as ”lacework,” and this film makes the aptness of that description very clear.Read More »

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