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  • George Stevens – Gunga Din (1939)

    1931-1940AdventureGeorge StevensUSAWar

    Based loosely on the poem by Rudyard Kipling, this takes place in British India during the Thuggee uprising. Three fun loving sergeants are doing fine until one of them wants to get married and leave the service. The other two trick him into a final mission where they end up confronting the entire cult by themselves as the British Army is entering a trap. This is of the “War is fun” school of movie making. It has the flavour of watching Notre Dame play an inferior high school team.Read More »

  • Ida Lupino – Never Fear (1950)

    1941-1950DramaIda LupinoUSA

    Quote:
    A dancer who has just gotten engaged to her partner and choreographer and is about to embark on a major career is devastated to learn that she has contracted polio.Read More »

  • David Hand – Bambi (1942)

    1941-1950AnimationClassicsDavid HandUSA

    Wikipedia wrote:
    In a forest thicket, a doe gives birth to a fawn whom she names Bambi. After he learns to walk, Bambi befriends Thumper, a young rabbit; then, while learning to talk, Bambi meets a young skunk whom he calls “Flower” (the skunk says that he does not mind this name at all, and the infant Bambi says, “Flower, pretty Flower”).Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Rope (1948)

    1941-1950Alfred HitchcockCrimeDramaUSA

    Quote:
    Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.Read More »

  • Jules Bass – Mad Monster Party? (1967)

    1961-1970AnimationComedyJules BassUSA

    Synopsis:
    When Dr Frankenstein decides to retire from the monster-making business, he calls an international roster of monsters to a creepy convention to elect his successor. Everyone is there including Dracula, The Werewolf, The Creature, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and many more. But Frankenstein’s title is not all that is at stake. The famous doctor has also discovered the secret of total destruction that must not fall into the wrong hands!Read More »

  • Ben Sharpsteen & Hamilton Luske – Pinocchio (1940)

    1931-1940AnimationBen SharpsteenFantasyHamilton LuskeUSA

    “Pinocchio” is a parable for children, and generations have grown up remembering the words “Let your conscience be your guide” and “A lie keeps growing and growing until it’s as plain as the nose on your face.” The power of the film is generated, I think, because it is really about something. It isn’t just a concocted fable or a silly fairy tale, but a narrative with deep archetypal reverberations. (“Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” share that quality, and so do the scenes involving Dumbo and his mother.)Read More »

  • Les Blank – Burden of Dreams (1982)

    1981-1990ArthouseDocumentaryLes BlankUSAWerner Herzog

    Quote:
    A documentary on the chaotic production of Werner Herzog’s epic Fitzcarraldo (1982), showing how the film managed to get made despite problems that would have floored a less obsessively driven director.

    Quote:
    Les Blank’s “Burden of Dreams” is one of the most remarkable documentaries ever made about the making of a movie. There are at least two reasons for that. One is that the movie being made, Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo,” involved some of the most torturous and dangerous on-location shooting experiences in film history. The other is that the documentary is by Les Blank, himself a brilliant filmmaker, who is unafraid to ask difficult questions and portray Herzog, warts and all.Read More »

  • John Huston – The Misfits (1961)

    1961-1970DramaJohn HustonMarilyn MonroeUSAWestern

    Synopsis:
    The final film of stars Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe is an elegy for the death of the Old West from writer Arthur Miller and director John Huston. Gable stars as Gay Langland, an aging hand traveling the byways and working at rodeos with his two comrades, Guido (Eli Wallach) and young Perce Howland (Montgomery Clift). The three men come up with a plan to corral some misfit mustangs and sell them for dog food, but Gay’s new girlfriend Roslyn Taber (Marilyn Monroe), a high-minded ex-stripper who has just divorced her husband Ray (Kevin McCarthy) in Reno, is appalled by the plan. Although both Guido and Perce are also in love with Roslyn, she stands by Gay, sure that in the end he will do the right thing, even as he and his pals begin their planned roundup.
    — Karl WilliamsRead More »

  • Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger – Oh… Rosalinda!! (1955)

    1951-1960ComedyEmeric PressburgerMichael PowellMusicalUSA

    Vienna 1955 – a city under occupation by the four Allied powers. Through the chaos Dr. Falke moves gracefully – an elegant man-about-town and friend to the highest echelon of power. He is decidedly less graceful, however, when he is deposited by a friend at the top of a giant Soviet statue, rather the worse for drink and dressed up as a giant bat.
    Falke swears revenge…Read More »

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