Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Only faintly related to the old stage play The Argyle Case, The Argyle Secrets is based on a half-hour radio program originally heard on CBS’ Suspense. In the immediate postwar years, several above-suspicion Americans attempt to hide their past collaborations with the Nazis. Reporter William Gargan refuses to let sleeping dogs lie, however, and tracks down some of these fifth columnists. The film’s “Macguffin” is a set of incriminating papers, which are stolen early in the proceedings. The supporting cast of this Film Classics programmer includes future Danny Thomas Show co-star Marjorie Lord and former “Dick Tracy” portrayer Ralph Byrd. The Argyle Secrets was written and directed by one-time MGM film editor Cyril Endfield, later the man behind the megaphone on Zulu (1964).Read More »

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Wyborny’s film is a startling modern take on Roman victor and dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Combining traditional togas and contemporary casual clothes, the German director stages a visually puzzling balancing act between the Roman era and the present. He examines Sullas inner world and his distorted relationship to nature as well as the outer influences in his building of a nation. Juxtaposing the functions of Sullas body and mind, Wyborny has created a stunning portrait of the politician, in which he blurs the lines between advanced civilization and pornography.Read More »

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University student Ryo works at a bar part-time to earn money. He is not enamoured with his job or life for that matter. He is introduced to a female pimp who first tests him, and once he passes the hurdle, employs him as a male escort. Ryo takes to his job like a duck to water and prides himself in satisfying his diverse clientele. Getting to know the needs and wants of his customers helps Ryo understand himself better.Read More »

The official U.S. government film about the 1st Nuremberg trial (The Trial of the Major Nazi War Criminals) which lasted from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946.Read More »

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The setting for this off-beat drama of love and jealousy is the Pushkin Poetry Festival in Boldino. Liosha (Oleg Yankovsky) and his wife Tania (Tatiana Drubich) are walking through the plush forest around Boldino when a mysterious figure pops up from behind a tree and asks the couple a question on an esoteric point of Pushkin scholarship. From that strange beginning, the man, whose name is Klimov (Alexander Abdulov), starts to ease himself into the couple’s private space, and trouble ensues. Complementing this story is the festival itself, enactments of Pushkin’s works, and emotional debates among the festival-goers over the meaning of his poetry.Read More »

Il castello (The castle) is a movie about Malpensa airport, a place where bureaucracy, procedures and control put a serious strain on the freedom of individuals, animals and goods passing through. The airport is a strategic place where all law enforcement agencies of a country come together. Here’s where new control measures are tested: a permanent security testing area unlike any other public place. Italian and foreign secret services, customs police, Guardia di Finanza (financial police), Carabinieri (police), security guards, sniffer dogs, currency dogs and explosive detector dogs, closed circuit tv cameras everywhere and the ever-growing fear of an impending unknown danger. By watching the law enforcement agencies in operation we put together a portrait of a customs border in four movements.Read More »

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Brilliant farce propels two ineffectual Christmas tree salesmen (played by Laurel and Hardy) into a prolonged bout of savage destruction directed against a customer who refuses to buy. Mutual insults, tie snipping, and small violence escalate from controlled disturbance to surrealist cataclysm, in which the American Home is levelled once and for all.Read More »

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Teetering on the one-dimensional, this romantic drama about the coming of age of a nineteen-year-old American woman in Paris is fairly straightforward. Ann (Jean Seberg) arrives in the city of light to visit her uncle, a doctor. But she soon finds herself taking care of a professional woman who is recovering from a suicide attempt and a broken heart. Ann slowly builds up a hatred for the man who drove her charge into such a desperate state but then begins to waver after contact with him. Aside from this association, she meets a different crowd than the one she knew back home in Nebraska, and changes in her attitude, dress, and hairstyle are the result. These alterations only lead her into trouble, as she starts an affair with the very man she had hated earlier. (Allmovie)Read More »

On a gray, foggy morning outside a large Polish city, Zhenia (Alec Utgoff), a masseur from the East, enters the lives of the wealthy residents of a gated community. Using hypnotic, almost magical techniques to get a residence permit, he starts working. The well-to-do residents in their cookie-cutter homes seemingly have it all, but they all suffer from an inner sadness, some unexplained longing. The attractive and mysterious newcomer’s hands heal, and Zhenia’s eyes seem to penetrate their souls. To them, his Russian accent sounds like a song from the past, a memory of their seemingly safer childhoods.Read More »