USA

Synopsis:
John Steinbeck introduces five of O. Henry’s most popular short stores in this anthology film. In “The Cop and the Anthem” a homeless alcoholic is increasingly frustrated in numerous attempts to get arrested and jailed for 90 days in a warm cell rather than face the rigors of a New York winter. In “The Clarion Call” a NYPD detective has a crisis of conscience when he is torn between his duty to arrest a childhood friend for a murder only he knows he committed and the debt of honor he still owes to him. In “The Last Leaf” a naive young girl is stricken with pneumonia after being seduced and jilted by venal actor. Read More »

Quote:
A New York girl sets her father up with a beautiful woman in a troubled marriage while her stepsister gets engaged.Read More »

Synopsis
Spike Lee’s award-winning documentary follows the events that preceded and followed Hurricane Katrina’s catastrophic passage through New Orleans in 2005.Read More »

Quote:
“Mausoleum” follows Susan, recently turned thirty, who is plagued by an ancestral demon she encountered after her mother’s death in the family mausoleum. This pesky parasite causes her to transform into a grotesque monster and kill everyone around her.Read More »

Ambrose Wolfinger wants the afternoon off (his first in twenty-five years) to go to a wrestling match. He tells his boss that he must attend his mother-in-law’s funeral. The afternoon is no joy. He tries to please a policeman, assist a chauffeur, chase a tire, and ends up getting hit by the body of a wrestler thrown from the ring. A series of mishaps leads his boss to send floral tributes to the house and notify the papers of the death (due to poisoned liquor). His shrewish wife, judgmental mother-in-law, and good-for-nothing brother-in-law add to his burdens. In the end he enjoys their fawning loyalty, a raise in pay, and his first vacation.Read More »

FULL SYNOPSIS
In the desert resort town of Glorietta Springs, near Los Angeles, farm laborer Brad Clifton arrives at the Webb Ranch, looking for work. Mrs. Webb, the farmer’s wife, directs Clifton to the lemon groves, but there, he encounters Nick Foster and Pete Kimmel with Webb’s body. They order him to claim that he saw a drunken Webb fall off the tractor. When Clifton tries to get away, they shove money at him and threaten to tell the police that he murdered the man. Clifton does as he is told, and a coroner’s jury determines that Webb died as the result of an accident.Read More »

Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Pier 23 was one of three hour-long mysteries produced by Lippert Productions for both TV and theatrical release. Each of the three films was evenly divided into two half-hour “episodes,” and each starred Hugh Beaumont as San Francisco-based amateur sleuth Dennis O’Brien. In Pier 23, O’Brien first tackles the case of a wrestler who has died of a suspicious heart attack after refusing to lose a match. He then agrees to help a priest talk an escaped criminal into returning to prison. The film’s two-part structure leads to repetition and predictability, but it’s fun to watch TV’s “Ward Cleaver” making like Philip Marlowe.Read More »

Quote:
Injured in a car crash, Edna Mae McCauley has an out-of-body experience where she sees faces from her past trying to guide her into the hereafter. But instead she returns to life. Soon after she discovers that she now has the power to heal. Back in the Mid-Western town of her childhood, she begins a faith-healing mission and tries to use her powers for good. But she must also deal with the condemnation of fundamentalists and a boyfriend who becomes religiously crazed and tries to kill her.Read More »

Quote:
Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a scholar who achieved legendary status as an explicator of myths, is reverently profiled in this documentary that encompasses his long life and career. During his childhood in New York City, Campbell was taken to see “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show at Madison Square Garden. Young Campbell was fascinated by the Native Americans in Cody’s performing troupe and eventually became obsessed with mythology. Read More »