• Robert Stevenson – The Woman on Pier 13 aka I Married A Communist (1949)

    1941-1950Film NoirRobert StevensonUSA

    Quote:
    Brad Collins, former stevedore, is rising fast in a shipping company when local communist agitators use his former Party affiliation to extort his help in stirring up trouble. When Brad resists, communist femme fatale Christine works through his brother-in-law Don. But Brad’s new wife Nan sees that her husband and brother are under pressure; when she investigates on her own, party boss Vanning takes ruthless action.Read More »

  • Billy Wilder – Irma la Douce (1963)

    1961-1970Billy WilderComedyUSA

    Quote:
    Just three years after earning Academy Awards for Best Picture and Director for 1960’s The Apartment, Billy Wilder re-teamed with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine for another look at love and relationships. But this time the drab New York insurance building was traded for the bawdy streets of Paris, and secretaries replaced with prostitutes. Once again, Wilder poked fun at the taboo subject of sex and again, his instincts paid off: Irma La Douce was Wilder’s biggest commercial success yet, and received three Academy Award nominations, winning one for Andre Previn’s lush score.Read More »

  • Paul Verhoeven – Das kalte Herz AKA The Cold Heart (1950)

    Germany1941-1950ClassicsFantasyPaul Verhoeven

    Peter Munk, a poor charcoal burner, lives with his mother in The Black Forest. Poverty prevents him from marrying Lisbeth, the girl he loves. When he comes across the Little Glass Man, the good spirit of the forest, the young man asks him for assistance. His wish is granted and he becomes rich. But the fool soon loses all his money after gambling at the inn. In desperation, he asks Dutch Michael, the evil spirit of the forest, to help him to become rich again. The mean giant agrees and gives Peter all the riches in the world, but on one condition: the young man will exchange his heart for a cold stone. He can now marry Lisbeth but can a heart of ice make you and the others happy…?Read More »

  • Seijun Suzuki – “Kyôfu gekijô umbalance” Miira no koi AKA A Mummy’s Love (1973)

    1971-1980HorrorJapanSeijun SuzukiTV

    An editor goes to visit her lecherous old professor to discuss a new publication of Akinari Ueda’s Tales of Spring Rain, and he recounts the story of a revived mummified Buddhist monk who ran amok in a village in pre-modern Japan. In the present, he tells her that her late husband has been spotted roaming nearby lately…Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – God’s Little Acre (1958)

    1951-1960Anthony MannClassicsDramaUSA

    Synopsis:
    A poor farmer is obsessed with finding gold on his land supposedly buried by his grandfather. To find it he conveniently moves a marker out of his way that designates the land on which it rests as as God’s Little Acre, where anything that comes from the ground will go to God’s work. Eventually he abducts an albino to help him find the gold. Meanwhile, his daughter-in-law is suspected of fooling around with a labor activist out of work since the mill closed, and a local political hopeful actively seeks his daughter’s hand in marriage.Read More »

  • John Boulting – I’m All Right Jack (1959)

    Comedy1951-1960ClassicsJohn BoultingUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Naive Stanley Windrush returns from the war, his mind set on a successful career in business. Much to his own dismay, he soon finds he has to start from the bottom and work his way up, and also that the management as well as the trade union use him as a tool in their fight for power.Read More »

  • Carl Theodor Dreyer & Jørgen Roos – Et slot i et slot: Krogen og Kronborg AKA The Castle Within the Castle (1954)

    1951-1960Carl Theodor DreyerDenmarkDocumentaryJørgen RoosShort Film

    Within its walls, Kronborg Castle in Elsinore contains large sections of another, older castle, Krogen, built by Eric of Pomerania around 1420. Discoveries unearthed during the 1926-1935 restoration of Kronborg made it possible to form a picture of Krogen, illustrated in the film by reconstruction models.Read More »

  • Shinji Sômai – Gyoei no mure AKA The Catch (1983)

    1981-1990AsianDramaJapanShinji Sômai

    Tuna fishing. It doesn’t exactly evoke the stuff of drama, yet very dramatic is this gripping yarn (puns intended) about the solemn, solitary lives of the men who catch what ends up as our sushi and sashimi. Opening with a shot of a young couple traversing sand dunes, the woman posits a question – women or fishing? This question fuels the drama of the next two-plus hours. – See more at: linkRead More »

  • Sidney Lumet – The Pawnbroker (1964)

    Drama1961-1970ClassicsSidney LumetUSA

    Synopsis:
    In a poor neighborhood of New York, the bitter and lonely Jewish pawnbroker Sol Nazerman is a survivor from Auschwitz that has no emotions or feelings. Sol lost his dearest family and friends in the war and his faith in God and belief in mankind. Now he only cares for money and is haunted by daydreams, actually flashbacks from the period of the concentration camp. Sol’s assistant is the ambitious Latino Jesus Ortiz, who wants to learn with Sol how to run a business of his own. When Sol realizes that the obscure laundry business he has with the powerful gangster Rodriguez comes also from brothels, Sol recalls the fate of his beloved wife in the concentration camp and has a nervous breakdown. His attitude leads Jesus Ortiz to tragedy and Sol finds a way to cry.Read More »

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