The Westward movement — and a woman’s perspective of that movement — emerges in the dramatic story of Delilah Fowler’s first year on the Kansas frontier in 1869. Based on diaries of the period, the program reveals the cruel violence, and even crueler loneliness, which early settlers encountered — but above all, it shows the quiet courage of those who lived it. Filmed on location in Kansas, starring Barbara Loden, who also directed the film.Read More »
Full Synopsis: from TCM
Johnny “Slick” Rawley flees the police and, after lying low with his partners John “Gloves” Baker and his moll Peggy Russell, goes into hiding at the Baldwin Medical College. There he hears Dr. Clifford L. Schuyler give a lecture. Schuyler has successfully performed brain surgery on violent animals, changing them into docile creatures, and wants to try the operation on a human. Slick volunteers, stipulating that his ghastly facial scars be corrected at the same time.Read More »
Synopsis from allmovie.com:
Essentially a chase film from beginning to end, this standard adventure yarn by director Ronald Neame is set in “Zahrain,” a barely-disguised Middle Eastern nation. Sharif (Yul Brynner) is a rebel who has taken up arms against the country’s corrupt government and the forces of Western imperialism. Now he and a small party of supporters (one a kidnapped woman about to become a supporter) take off across the desert with soldiers in hot pursuit. As the group flees through untamed country, there are brief moments of respite but no immediate escape in sight. –Eleanor MannikkaRead More »
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In ”Him and Me,” at the Film Forum, James Benning, one of our more highly regarded experimental film makers, appears to be looking back over his life, from the 1950’s to the 80’s, recalling it in terms of public events and private sorrows, landscapes, streets, music and colors.
I emphasize the word ”appears” because ”Him and Me” makes no attempt to be coherent in any conventional sense. The film is composed of dozens of sometimes startlingly beautiful fragments of images and sounds, involving people who are never identified, sometimes accompanied by off-screen voices that may take the form of first-person reminiscences or of inconclusive conversations.Read More »
from IMDB-
“A young Hollywood executive becomes the assistant to a big time movie producer who is the worst boss imaginable: abusive, abrasive and cruel. But soon things turn around when the young executive kidnaps his boss and visits all the cruelties back on him.”Read More »
Wanda is a 1970 American independent drama film written and directed by Barbara Loden, who also stars in the title role. Set in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania, the film focuses on a lone female protagonist with limited options for a better life. Wanda was chosen for the 31st Venice International Film Festival where it won the Pasinetti Award for Best Foreign Film. A restored version of the film was screened out of competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010.
In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.Read More »
Synopsis:
Donna and Michael are getting married. But first, they have to plan the reception, get the tux, buy the rings, and cope with their own uncertainty about the decision. Michael fears commitment. Donna has her doubts about Michael’s immaturity. Both are getting cold feet.Read More »
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Of the four movies Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together, Dark Passage is the forgotten stepchild. Sandwiched between The Big Sleep and Key Largo, Delmer Daves’ innovative and suspenseful mystery-thriller caused barely a ripple at the box office upon its initial release. Maybe the gritty, post-war themes of isolation and paranoia hit too close to home, or the use of a subjective camera alienated audiences. Whatever the reason, Dark Passage got a bum rap from critics and public alike. And while it may not rank up there with the best of Hollywood noir, the film flaunts enough style and substance to merit appreciation.Read More »
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Pickup on South Street opens with a striking omission of dialogue and score, heightening our awareness of the film’s pared images and the diamond-hard editing rhythms. On a subway, a beautiful woman, Candy (Jean Peters), is scrutinized by two men who are obviously tailing her. Everything about Candy’s pose is intensely erotic, from the crook of her arm that’s holding the subway railing to the sweat on her skin, to the way she’s cramped up against the other passengers. Soon saddling up to her is Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark), who approaches her as the prey she clearly represents to his hunter. Hovering over Candy, Skip makes a show of folding a newspaper, opening her purse, rifling through it, and snatching the contents of interest to him.Read More »