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This rich documentary follows the legendary Senagalese filmmaker Sembene Ousmane from the Pan African Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso back to the streets of Dakar and his Galle Ceddo home at Yoff, overlooking the sea. Revisiting several locations of his films, Sembene Ousmane reminisces about his career and discusses his craft.Read More »
Synopsis:
Glueckskinder (Children of Fortune) serves as yet another sprightly vehicle for European film favorites Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch. Unlike the stars’ previous musical concoctions, this one takes place in New York City (or a reasonable facsimile constructed on the UFA back lot). To save Ann Garden (Harvey) from going to jail, reporter Gil Taylor (Fritsch) pretends to be married to her. Gallantly, he hides her identity from his own newspaper’s society columnist, and gets fired as a result. The rest of the picture finds Ann and Gil trying to “play house” without such niceties as a steady income. Near the end, the story goes off on a new tangent when it is suspected that Ann is the long-lost niece of a millionaire; she isn’t, but Gil’s coverage of the story gets him his job back, and everyone lives (presumably) happily ever after.Read More »
From AMG (by Hal Erickson):
The Club de Femmes (Girl’s Club) of the title refers to a Parisian boarding house, populated in its entirety by beautiful, unwed damsels. The rules of the club are quite strict, with chaperones making certain that the ladies keep a safe and respectable distance between themselves and their gentleman callers. But the mischievous Claire (Danielle Darrieux) is determined to enjoy a rendezvous with her sweetheart Robert (Raymond Gall), and to that end she talks him into disguising himself as a woman. Things look bleak for Claire when she becomes pregnant, but things turn out OK when she gives birth to a girl, thereby upholding the club’s “No Males Allowed” edict. Featured in the cast is a young newcomer named Else Argell, who by an incredible coincidence was the wife of director Jacques Deval.Read More »
Based on the mid-eighteenth century novel by Cao Xueqin, the third version (previous version was 38 episodes) of “A Dream in Red Mansions” (aka Dream of the Red Chamber) is known by many to be the ultimate and best adaptation of the story either on TV or film. It is a story about the tragic love of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, and the prosperity and decline of the four notable feudal ruling-class families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue. Daiyu is a beautiful and talented girl, but prone to ill health. Baoyu, nonetheless, falls for her over the years and puts up with her sensitivity and ill-tempered personality. They, along with their family-favored and tactful cousin Xue Baochai, reside in the Grand View Garden. The garden was built to honor the visit of Baoyu’s sister, Imperial Consort Jia Yuanchun. Her installment marked the height of the families’ status, prosperity and power. This story also gives praise to the work and revolts of the many servants and nurses in the Grand View Garden. With its beautiful scenery, solid cast ensemble, haunting and superb music score and elegant songs, “A Dream in Red Mansions” remains one of the most beloved and popular Chinese TV-series to date.Read More »
Filmed on location; inside a woman’s soul.
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Deprived of a normal childhood by her ambitious mother, Katie (Jo Van Fleet), Lillian Roth (Susan Hayward) becomes a star of Broadway and Hollywood before she is twenty. Shortly before her marriage to her childhood sweetheart, David Tredman (Ray Danton), he dies and Lillian takes her first drink of many down the road of becoming an alcoholic. She enters into a short-lived marriage to an immature aviation cadet, Wallie (Don Taylor), followed by a divorce and then marriage to a sadistic brute and abuser Tony Bardeman (Richard Conte). After a failed suicide attempt, Burt McGuire (Eddie Albert)comes to her aid and helps her find the road back to happiness after sixteen years in a nightmare world, not counting the first twenty with her motherRead More »
Through hypnotism and telepathic mind control, a sinister music maestro controls the singing voice, but not the heart, of the woman he loves.Read More »
Two men get involved with a brother and sister that want to drive a local gang out of their neighborhood.Read More »
A jaded, wealthy couple watch a blue movie in their castle home along with her adult son. The son is testy, so they go into town and watch a circus-like thrill ride. The daredevil woman in the show looks exactly like one of the women in the movie, so the man invites her to join them for a nightcap. Tensions among the family seem to rise. She stays overnight, and during her 24 hours in the castle, each of its three residents involves her in a fantasy. She, in turn, keeps asking, “Who has the gun?” Will there be violence before it’s over?Read More »
