King of Hearts (1966) Alan Bates stars as a Scottish WWI ornithalography specialist mistaken for a munitions expert who is sent into a small provincial French village of Marville to disarm a booby trap rigged by retreating Germans. only to accidentally release inmates from the local mental asylum who assume identities of the absent … More King of Hearts (1966)
Possessed (1947) Not to be confused with the 1931 pre-Code Crawford melodrama, Curtis Bernhardt brings his German expressionist style to bear on this Freudian study of a psychotic breakdown. Joan Crawford said this was the most difficult role she ever played. Van Heflen, as the cynical war vet, and Raymond Massey, as the stern … More Possessed (1947)
Kagemusha (1980) A common thief, discovered to bear a striking resemblance to his feudal lord, is employed as a decoy to keep civil war from breaking out. Akira Kurosawa drew from the Sengoku period, based upon a history of Takeda Shingen, known for his military skills. Mortally wounded by a sniper, the lord requests … More Kagemusha (1980)
Alibi Ike (1935) Wide-mouthed comedian Joe. E. Brown plays a baseball pitcher whose hayseed bashfulness leads to boasting with alibis to cover his mistakes. As a result, he winds up kidnapped by gamblers. Olivia de Havilland cameos as the doting love interest in this choppy, badly segued adaptation from a Ring Lardner classic short story, … More Alibi Ike (1935)
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The Wasp Woman (1959) Roger Corman directed, and has a brief cameo in this drive-in cult horror film, in which a cosmetics company owner, Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) tries to save her company from sliding sales by hiring a scientist, Dr. Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark) who proposes to use enzymes from the royal jelly … More The Wasp Woman (1959)
Pariah (2011) In cinéma vérité style, Dee Rees expands her original documentary, shooting on the streets of New York City, to capture this sexual awakening of a young black girl. Alike (Adepero Oduye) is a talented 17-year-old who struggles to come out to her parents and her community. Laura (Pernell Walker) is her best … More Pariah (2011)
La Promesse (1996) Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne draw from their documentary experience to fashion this savage critique of trafficking and exploitation of illegals in Liege, Belgium. The father [Olivier Gourmet] involves his son Igor [Jéréme Renier] to cover up the accidental death of a worker who falls from a scaffold. Igor makes the … More La Promesse (1996)
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) John Schlesinger adapts this true espionage story, based on the book by Robert Lindsey and screenplay by Stephen Zaillian. Timothy Hutton plays Christopher Boyce, who uncovers CIA projects to destabilize and depose Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of Australia. Using his friend, a drug dealer Daulton Lee, played by … More The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
The Wrong Man (1956) Alfred Hitchcock experiments with documentary realism, adapting The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson. Henry Fonda plays the everyman, accused of multiple armed robberies, and Vera Miles plays his emotionally troubled wife, as the full repercussions of false accusations split their marriage apart. The noir streets of Jackson … More The Wrong Man (1956)
