Select THREE movies or TV shows (end of list) you’d like to watch
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Bring vegetarian food and we’ll split the tab. We can order out if that is helpful. CONTACT: (818) 901-1981
THE
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) – 102 minutes
This 1938
swashbuckler, which won Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Interior
Decoration and Best Original Score, stars Errol Flynn as Robin Hood,
champion of the poor and disenfranchised. Robin Hood goes up against his worst
enemy, Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone), a cold-hearted royal who's after
the woman Robin Hood loves, Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland).
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone Director: Michael Curtiz
AFTER THE
THIN MAN (1936) - 113 minutes
Domestic
detectives Nick and Nora Charles (beloved on-screen duo William Powell and
Myrna Loy) are back for the second installment of their murder-mystery series,
this time to help Nora's cousin Selma (Elissa Landi) find her missing husband,
Robert. With the help of Selma's lovesick friend David (Jimmy Stewart),
the Charleses track a trail of dead bodies that reveals Robert's secret life
and leads to an unlikely killer. Drinking really can be funny, sexy and fun!.
The Thin
Man (1934) After … (1936) Another
... (1939) Shadow Of … (1941) ...Goes
Home (1945) Song Of … (1947)
Starring:
William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Jimmy Stewart
Director:
W. S. Van Dyke
ALFIE (1966) - 113 minutes
English
playboy Alfie (Michael Caine) is a charming Don Juan in the free-spirited 1960s
with an insatiable appetite for women. He lives for sex and steers clear of
emotional attachments, taking up with one "bird" after another. But
his carefree days are over when he impregnates multiple women … and discovers
one of them is married. This Golden Globe-winning comedy’ cool jazz
score IS as smooth as the title character.
Starring:
Michael Caine, Shelley Winters
Director: Lewis Gilbert
ALIENS (1986) - 137 minutes
Sigourney Weaver returns as Lt. Ripley in this action-packed
sequel to Alien. The only survivor from the first film, Ripley finds her
horrific account of the alien and her crew's fate is met with skepticism --
until the mysterious disappearance of colonists on LV-426 prompts a team of
high-tech Marines to investigate. This disc features a commentary by cast
and crewmembers and both the theatrical and special edition versions of
the film.
Starring:
Sigourney Weaver
Director: James Cameron
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent/guardian
ALL OF ME (1984) - 93 minutes
Just before stubborn millionaire Edwina Cutwater (Lily
Tomlin) dies, she asks her uptight lawyer, Roger Cobb (Steve Martin), to amend
her will so that her soul will pass to the young, vibrant Terry Hoskins
(Victoria Tenant). But when the spiritual transference goes awry, Edwina enters
Roger's body, forcing him to battle Edwina for control of his own being.
Director Carl Reiner's comedy nabbed Golden Globe nominations for Martin and
Tomlin. Best Steve
Martin film.
Starring: Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin
Director: Carl Reiner
PG
Parental guidance suggested.
ALL THE
PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976) - 139 minutes
The film
that launched a thousand journalism school students, All the President's Men
chronicles how reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein
(Dustin Hoffman) brought down Richard M. Nixon. The duo connected a Washington,
D.C., hotel break-in with a Nixon "dirty tricks" team assigned to
discredit Democratic rivals. Director Alan J. Pakula ratchets up the tension
(no small feat, as the outcome is assured). Oscars Best Supporting Actor:
Jason Robards : Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound
Starring:
Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman
Director:
Alan J. Pakula
AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) - 112 minutes
The film that put director George Lucas on the Hollywood map
also expertly showcased newcomers such as Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss,
Suzanne Somers and "Ronny" Howard. Lucas masterfully weaves together
the stories of a disparate group of high school students as they struggle with
adolescent rites of passage in 1962. Touching and timeless, American Graffiti
is a not-to-be-missed classic.
Starring:
Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Suzanne Somers, and “Ronny" Howard
Director: George Lucas
PG
Parental guidance suggested.
AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003) - 101 minutes
Harvey Pekar (Paul
Giamatti) was a working-class stiff, a file clerk who found an outlet for his
creativity by chronicling every minutia of his life in Cleveland, Oh., for more
than 20 years in a comic-book series called American Splendor. This
revealing biopic co-stars Hope Davis and
tells Pekar's story through two-dimensional images, archival footage and more.
Starring:
Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis
Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
R Restricted. http://www.netflix.com/Help?id=1632 For language
ANDREI
RUBLEV (1966) Russian language – 205 minutes
Widely
recognized as a cinematic masterpiece, this mesmerizing account of 15th century Russian monk
Andrei Rublev follows the icon painter as he faces violence, political
persecution and, eventually, a crisis of faith after leaving the monastery to
paint Vladimir Cathedral's interior. The Soviets suppressed this sweeping epic,
which was not seen as director Andrei Tarkovsky intended until its re-release
more than 20 years after completion. Well worth the 206 minutes! Resist being tethered to fast-food media.
Starring:
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
ANNIE HALL (1977) - 94
minutes
Listen closely and you can actually hear the stress
hormones pumping through the bodies of the characters in Annie Hall. Woody
Allen's real, funny ode to love among twitchy city dwellers scooped up Oscars
for Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Actress (Diane Keaton) and Best
Screenplay. And don't miss cameos of not-yet-stars Jeff Goldblum, Shelley
Duvall and Sigourney Weaver.
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Shelley Duvall, Carol Kane
Director: Woody Allen
PG Parental
guidance suggested.
ANOTHER
THIN MAN (1939) - 105 minutes
Upper-crust private eyes Nick
(William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) -- along with faithful canine Asta --
return for a third installment of the popular series. Invited to spend the
weekend at the estate of munitions mogul Col. Burr MacFay (C. Aubrey Smith)
after his ex-associate issues a death threat, Nick and Nora go into sleuthing
mode when someone indeed dispatches MacFay. But all is not what it seems in
this stylish and entertaining whodunit. Watch all 6 Thin Man films. The Thin Man (1934)
After … (1936) Another ... (1939)
Shadow Of … (1941) ...Goes Home (1945) Song Of … (1947)
Starring:
William Powell, Myrna Loy
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
THE APARTMENT (1960) - 125 minutes
C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) has his future mapped out -- all he
needs to do is cozy up to the top feeders in the corporate food chain. But his
fast track to the executive suite gets short-circuited when he falls for one of
the bosses' girlfriends. The Apartment features top-notch performances from
Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine and was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning five,
including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray
Director: Billy Wilder
ARSENIC
AND OLD LACE (1944) - 118 minutes
You are what
you eat -- and that's dead if it's teatime at Abby and Martha Brewster's house!
Mortimer Brewster's (Cary Grant) two maiden aunts have a peculiar avocation:
poisoning old men and burying them in the cellar. But now that the Brewster
sisters' secret is out, what's a dutiful nephew to do? Great cast, great fun in this adaptation
of a Hit Broadway Play.
Starring: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond
Massey and Peter Lorre
Director:
Frank Capra
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
- 106 minutes
Nominated for four Academy Awards and
long considered a noir classic, John Huston's heist film about a
million-dollar jewelry-store burglary stars Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern and
James Whitmore and features an early appearance by Marilyn Monroe (in her
seventh film). Special bonus features include an introduction by John Huston
and audio commentary from Whitmore and USC Cinema History professor Drew Casper
Starring:
Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Marilyn Monroe, and James Whitmore
Director: John Huston
AU HASARD
BALTHAZAR (1966) French language – 95 minutes
This religious
fable from director Robert Bresson traces the lives of a farm girl, Marie,
and her beloved pet donkey, Balthazar. The two eventually become separated, but
their experiences follow strangely parallel paths. As a young woman, Marie is
cruelly abused by her lover, while Balthazar suffers at the hands of a number
of different owners. But their torment ultimately becomes the vehicle for
their spiritual transcendence and redemption. Take a chance on this one. Everyone goes to the movies because they want
to be moved. Here you go!
Starring: Anne Wiazemsky, Francois Lafarge,
Director: Robert Bresson
THE AWFUL
TRUTH (1937) - 93 minutes
One of the most
captivating screwball comedies ever, The Awful Truth stars Cary Grant and
Irene Dunne as the perfect comic sparring partners. Grant and Dunne are facing
divorce while fighting tooth and nail over their beloved dog, Mr. Smith. Ralph
Bellamy is hilarious as Dunne's new suitor, and Grant and Dunne have rarely
been better. Leo McCarey won an Oscar for his sprightly
direction. TIME Magazine List: All-TIME
100 Movies - Irene
Dunne is terrific!
STARRING:
Cary Grant and Irene
Dunne
Director:
Leo McCarey
BABY DOLL (1956)
- 114 minutes
Written by Tennessee Williams, this black
comedy tells the story of cotton gin owner Archie (Karl Malden) and his sexy
teenage wife (Carroll Baker), who won't consummate the marriage until she turns
20. When Archie battles a rival (Eli Wallach), in a BAFTA-winning
performance), he could lose his business -- and his beloved child bride.
Director Elia Kazan received a Golden Globe for his steamy and,
at the time of its release, controversial film.
Starring: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach
Director: Elia Kazan
BABY FACE (1933) - 76 minutes
Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) may
look innocent, but she's far from naive. From her lowly beginnings serving
drinks in her father's basement speakeasy, she uses her looks and charm to hook
up with a series of men, dropping each of them after they've helped her advance
in the world. Leaving a trail of broken hearts and ruined lives, cynical Lily
eventually realizes that she, too, may be vulnerable to love -- and the pain
that goes with it.
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck
Director: Alfred E. Green
THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960) Japanese
language - 135 minutes
Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) is distraught after his
father's demise, which he blames on the cutthroat corporate environment in
which he worked. Desperate to avenge his father's senseless death, Koichi
begins to tamper with the sanity of each person who ever wronged the man. He
starts with the cake at his very own wedding; per Koichi's instructions, the
confection has been specially crafted to remind the attendees of their darkest
secrets. … Wow!
I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie since I read of it in the
1960’s!
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BALL OF FIRE (1941) - 116 minutes
Gary Cooper plays a serious but lovable English professor
working with his intellectual colleagues on a dictionary of American slang.
When Barbara Stanwyck, as a red-hot nightclub singer on the run from the mob,
takes refuge in their house, she also finds a place in their hearts. But where
there's a ball of fire there's bound to be trouble, and before they know it,
the professor and his colleagues are learning a lot about language -- and
life. Written by Billy Wilder
(last one written w/o direction)
Starring: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Dana
Andrews
Director: Howard Hawks
BALLAD OF A SOLDIER (1959) Russian
language – 88 minutes
During World War II, 19-year-old Russian soldier Alyosha wins a
10-day leave and tries to make it home. Along the way, he meets several
civilians, and his cheery presence is like a wartime tonic for them, uplifting
their lives. Carefully shot (in black and white) by director Grigori Chukhrai,
the 1960 movie is the perfect primer for film students and aficionados of
wonderful camerawork. 1962
BAFTA®: Best Film
Starring:
Vladimir Ivashov
Director: Grigori
Chukhraj
BAND OF OUTSIDERS (1964) French language
- 95 minutes
Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with dime-store
novels and American crime films with this free-spirited romp. Two friends,
Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), are searching for a way to make
a big score. When Franz meets the beautiful Odile (Anna Karina) and she informs
him of a large chunk of cash her aunt keeps hidden in her house, this could be
their lucky break. But a miscalculation delays the seemingly perfect plan. ... “BANDE À PART” is the name of Quentin Tarantino’s
production company
TIME® Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring:
Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur
Director:
Jean-Luc Godard
BANDIT QUEEN (1994)??? language - 113 minutes
Outcast. Outlaw. Legend. A woman's
life erupts in a feverish spree of vengeful violence, shocking the world — and
bringing a government to its knees — in this tale of modern day savagery run
wild. Based on a
true story. Bandit Queen later became an elected legislator.
Starring: Seema Biswas
Director: Shekhar Kapur
THE BANK
DICK (1940) - 72 minutes
One of
W.C. Field's best
comedies features two of his greatest made-up names: Egbert Sousé, the
henpecked husband (Fields) who foils a bank robbery and receives the position
of bank detective as a reward, and Mahatma Kane Jeeves, the pen name
Fields used for the original screen story. The climactic slapstick car chase is
imitated in many later films. Fields's on-screen opponents include frequent
dupe Grady Sutton and Stooge (my favorite) Shemp Howard.
Starring:
W.C. Fields
Director:
Edward Cline
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1965) French
language - 125 minutes
One of the most influential films in the history of political
cinema, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers focuses on the events of 1957,
a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Shot in the
streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film vividly re-creates the
tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French. The violence soon
escalates on both sides in this war drama that's astonishingly relevant
today.
Starring:
Director:
Gillo Pontecorvo
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) silent language
- 74 minutes
Propaganda
notwithstanding, director Sergei Eisenstein's masterwork remains a cinematic
landmark, charting events that ultimately led to the Bolshevik Revolution.
Fed up with the ship's officers' brutalities and with maggot-infested rations,
the crew of the battleship Prince Potemkin revolts. The sailors' actions ignite
an uprising by the citizens of Odessa, resulting in czarist troops' infamous,
systematic slaughter of insurgents and bystanders. Perhaps
the first ”art film” as well as the
first propaganda movie.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
BATTLING BUTLER & 2 shorts (1926) silent
language – 109 minutes
A wealthy businessman dispatches his
cosseted son, Alfred Butler (Buster Keaton), to the great outdoors hoping it
will make a man of him. While hunting one day, Alfred nearly shoots a beautiful
mountain girl (Sally O'Neil) -- and instantly falls in love. To win the
approval of her macho father and brother, Alfred poses as boxing champ
"Battling" Butler, and the subterfuge works perfectly, until the
genuine article (Francis McDonald) turns up.
Starring: Buster Keaton, Sally O'Neil
Director: Buster Keaton
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946) French language - 93 minutes
Film of the classic fairy
tale about a daughter who sacrifices herself to a hideous beast to save her
father. Features supplemental materials and commentary by Arthur Knight on
second audio track. If you enjoyed the
animated version…
Starring: Jean Marais, Josette Day
Director: Jean Cocteau
BELLE DE JOUR (1967) French langage
- 100 minutes
Severine (Catherine
Deneuve) is a wealthy young newlywed who's eager to live life to the
fullest. Although she loves her husband, Severine can't bring herself to be
intimate with him. To sate her physical desires, she indulges in erotic
daydreams, often blurring the line between reality and fantasy. When that's not
enough, she begins frequenting a classy Parisian brothel, working as a
prostitute while remaining celibate within her marriage.
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli
Director:
Luis Bunuel
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires parent or adult guardian
THE BICYCLE THIEF (1948) Italian
language - 89
minutes
See Umberto D (1952)
Widely
considered a landmark Italian film, Vittorio De Sica's tale of
Rome's post-World War II depression earned a special Oscar for
its devastating power. Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) relies on his
bicycle to do his job. But the same day he gets the vehicle back from the
pawnshop, someone steals it. Antonio and his young son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola),
search the city in vain, as Antonio confronts a looming desperation. Late, great New Yorker Magazine film critic Pauline Ksel says that
after seeing this, she went to her car and wept. GCTOP10 GCTOP10 GCTOP10 GCTOP10 GCTOP10
GCTOP10 GCTOP10
GCTOP10
Starring:
Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola,
Director: Vittorio De Sica
BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958)
Italian language - 106 minutes
Director Mario Monicelli delivers this deft satire of
the classic caper film RIFIFI, introducing a bungling group of amateurs --
including an ex-jockey (Carlo Pisacane), a former boxer (Vittorio Gassman) and
an out-of-work photographer (Marcello Mastroianni). The crew plans a seemingly
simple heist with a retired burglar (Totó), who serves as a consultant. But
this Italian job is doomed from the start (See RIFIFI)
Starring:
Carlo Pisacane, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni
Director: Mario Monicelli
THE BIG HEAT (1953) - 89 minutes
Gripping action as a dedicated cop (Glenn Ford)
investigates the murder of his wife and discovers corruption in the ranks.
Starring: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin
Director: Fritz Lang
THE BIG SLEEP (1946) - 125 minutes
Tough-as-nails private eye Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart)
takes on a blackmail case and soon falls for Lauren Bacall, the feisty daughter
of a wealthy general. The plot thickens when the murder victims pile up. The
film was blessed with stellar talent: Raymond Chandler wrote the novel on which
the movie is based, William Faulkner adapted the book for the screen, (check interesting special features) It’s like watching a Raymond Chandler
novel. Fun!
Starring:
Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart
Director:
Howard Hawks
BLAST FROM THE PAST (1999) - 111
minutes
Following a nuclear-bomb scare in the early 1960s, eccentric
inventor Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken) seals himself and his pregnant wife
in a state-of-the-art underground shelter. Thirty-five years later, Calvin's
son, Adam (Brendan Fraser), finally ventures into the daylight in search of a
potential bride. He soon meets the worldly Eve (Alicia Silverstone), who takes
a shine to his naïveté. Great
idea, great cast, but not quite a great movie.
Starring:
Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek
Director: Hugh Wilson
THE BLOOD OF A POET (1946) French language - ___ minutes
This disc includes the film The Blood of a Poet. Jean Cocteau
attempts to portray the mind of a poet, with artist Lee Miller playing a
reanimated statue and Enrique Rivero in the role of Cocteau. This disc features
a meticulously restored version of the classic film and includes
behind-the-scenes photographs, a documentary by Edgardo Cozarinsky, a1983
transcript of Cocteau's lecture, a screening and a 1946 filmography
Starring: Enrique Rivero
Director: Jean Cocteau
THE BLUE
ANGEL (1930) German language - 200 minutes
This Josef
Von Sternberg film stars Emil Jannings as Dr. Immanuel Rath, a
provincial prep school teacher who becomes incensed when he learns his boys
have become infatuated with Lola Lola (Dietrich), a cabaret singer. Heading to
The Blue Angel nightclub to catch his pupils, Rath instead becomes bewitched by
the sensuous Lola himself, beginning an obsession that drives him to the depths
of despair. Which of us
wouldn’t gladly follow her there?
English language
version included.
Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Emil
Jannings,
Director: Josef Von Sternberg
BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1956) French
language – 102 minutes
In
Jean-Pierre Melville's intelligent drama, Bob (Roger Duchesne) is
a compulsive gambler with a deep well of compassion. He's a father figure to
street kids Paulo and Anne and he cares for them as if they were his own. When
he runs out of money, the three hatches a plan to rob a Deauville casino. Can
they pull off the ultimate heist, or has Bob run out of luck?
Starring: Isabelle Corey, Daniel Cauchy,
Director:
Jean-Pierre Melville
PG Parental guidance suggested. Not
suitable for children
BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) - 111 minutes
Serial bank robbers, sometime lovers and folkloric heroes,
Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) and Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) barrel across depression-ravaged
America on a shooting spree that ended in a deathly rain of bullets -- for
them. Sexy and stylish, the film, directed by Arthur Penn, shattered the
crime film mold, layering comedy onto mayhem and youthful criminality. Gene
Wilder makes his first film appearance here.
1968 Oscars Best Supporting Actress: Estelle Parsons, Best
Cinematography
Starring:
Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty
Director: Arthur Penn,
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent/
BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) - 127 minutes
By turns touching and shocking, Boogie Nights is
ultimately an intimate drama about an unlikely family whose patriarch (Burt
Reynolds) produces hardcore pornography. Set in porn's golden age -- the '70s
-- Boogie Nights stars Mark Wahlberg as young stud Dirk Diggler and Julianne
Moore as vulnerable star/earth mother Amber Waves. Swell movie about my neighborhood, “The Valley”.
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
R
For strong sex scenes with explicit dialogue, nudity, drug use, language and
violence
BORN TO
KILL (1947) – 92 minutes
Meeting
aboard a train bound for San Francisco, Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) and Sam
Wilde (Lawrence Tierney, in a menacing performance) strike up a conversation.
Unaware of an existing connection between them -- Helen found a pair of
corpses, courtesy of Sam's murderous hands -- they embark on a depraved affair
that leads straight to hell. Walter Slezak and Elisha Cook Jr. provide
first-rate support in director Robert Wise's hardboiled gem.
Starring: Claire Trevor, Lawrence (Ironworkers Local 416) Tierney, Walter Slezak
Director: Robert Wise
BORN
YESTERDAY (1950) - 102 minutes
Boorish
business tycoon Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) fears that ditsy fiancée
Billie Dawn, Judy Holliday will prove an embarrassment in the presence of
politicos he wants to influence, so he hires a reporter (William Holden) to
tutor the ostensibly brainless blonde in the political and social graces. Brock
gets more than he bargained for, though, when the journalist transforms her
into the backroom dealmaker's most formidable foe.
1951 Oscar Best Actress (over Gloria Swanson’s renowned “Norma Desmond” from the noir
masterpiece SUNSET BOULEVARD)
Starring:
Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, and William Holden
Director:
George Cukor
THE BORROWERS (1997) - 86 minutes
The Borrowers are wee people who live in the walls of homes,
and when an unscrupulous lawyer tries to railroad the Lender family out of
their house, the Borrowers who live there strike back! DVD includes a production
documentary. Great for kids of all ages.
Starring: John Goodman, Jim Broadbent
Director: Peter Hewitt
BOUND (1996)
- 109 minutes
Andy and Larry Wachowski made their
directorial debut with this crime-thriller. Gina Gershon stars as a handywoman
who crosses paths with a gangster's moll (Jennifer Tilly) and likes what she
sees. Before you can say, "Unhook my brassiere," they decide to filch
$2 million and hit the road together. But Tilly's beau (Joe Pantoliano) isn't
keen on giving up his money or his girl.
Best Wachowski
brothers’ movie
Starring:
Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly, and Joe Pantoliano
Director: Andy Wachowski
PG Parents strongly cautioned for KIDS under 13.
BOUND FOR GLORY (1976) - 146
minutes
Frustrated sign painter Woodie Guthrie (David
Carradine) leaves his family in Depression-era Texas and heads to California.
Work is scarce and hope is even harder to find. But a socially conscious radio
performer (Ronny Cox) helps Guthrie bring his music to the masses and inspire
generations of Americans. Based on the folk singer's autobiography, the film
earned
Oscars for its lush cinematography and faithful score.
Starring: David Carradine, Ronny Cox
Director: Hal
Ashby
PG Parents strongly cautioned for KIDS under 13.
THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) - 119
minutes
A man (Matt Damon) washes up on an island in the
Mediterranean Sea, suffering from gunshot wounds and amnesia. He soon realizes
he's being hunted down by assassins and that he's very good at killing them.
This action thriller is based on Robert Ludlum's novel. Great cast in this smart thriller!
Starring: Matt Damon, Franke Potente, Chris
Cooper, Clive Owen, Julia Stiles
Director:
Doug Liman
PG-13 For violence and some language
BOWFINGER (1999) - 97 minutes
Lame producer Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) has a script
that's brimming with possibilities. The catch? To get seed money to produce the
film, it must feature Hollywood's leading box-office star, Kit Ramsey (Eddie
Murphy). Aided and abetted by a cast and crew of misfits, Martin makes one last
stab at overnight success. Hilarity is the result. Top notch Steve Martin!
Starring: Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy
Director: Frank Oz
BREATHLESS (1960) French language -
90 minutes
In Jean-Luc Godard's groundbreaking work that ushered in
the French New Wave movement, young thug Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) steals
a car and shoots a policeman pursuing him. He turns to his American girlfriend
and aspiring journalist Patricia (Jean Seberg) for help, and the two lovers
begin a life evading capture as they steal cars to raise money for an escape to
Italy. As the law closes in, their bold behavior and desperation grows.
Starring:
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1931) - 75
minutes
Bride of Frankenstein, the superior and very witty sequel
to Frankenstein, the monster (Karloff) gets his own made-to-order (almost!)
bride (Elsa Lanchester). Both classic Universal films were directed by
legendary horrormeister James Whale, who set the bar very high for all to
follow.
Starring:
Colin Clive, Boris Karloff, and Elsa Lanchester
Director: James Whale,
THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR (1993)
Chinese language - 89 minutes
Director Ronny Yu weaves a tragic tale as old as time,
based on Liang Yusheng's well-known novel. When a beautiful woman (Brigitte
Lin) saves a man (Leslie Cheung) from a pack of wolves, the bond she stitches
between them holds forever. Now on opposite sides of warring clans, the
star-crossed lovers must re-examine their loyalties. Thrilling swordplay drives
their aching romance to an uncertain end.
Better than Crouching
Tiger… House Of Flying…
Starring:
Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin
Director: Ronny Yu
BROKEN
BLOSSOMS (1918) silent language - 95 minutes
Gentle
ideologist Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) migrates to England hoping to sow
the seeds of Buddhism's pacifist canons. Instead, he ends up as an opium addict
in London's seedy Limehouse district. Enter ethereal waif Lucy (Lillian Gish),
who collapses at Huan's door thanks to another battering by her drunkard,
pugilist father (Donald Crisp). As Huan nurses Lucy back to health, a tacit
romance blooms … with tragic results.
Starring:
Richard Barthelmess, Lillian Gish
Director:
D.W. Griffith
Bukowski: BORN INTO THIS (2003) - 113 minutes HD
Shot over seven years by filmmaker John Dullaghan, this
intimate portrait of writer Charles Bukowski reveals a tortured man who
survived years of abuse to produce some of the most influential prose of his
generation. Packed with interviews with friends and colleagues, the film also
showcases rare footage culled from every phase of Bukowski's past, including a
few of his more explosive public readings in the 1960s.
Starring: Charles Bukowski
Director: John Dullaghan
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994) - 95 minutes
A light-as-air period comedy, this
ranks as one of Woody Allen's best films. The story follows a hack 1920s
playwright (John Cusack) who uses a mobster to finance his newest play. When
the gangster's bodyguard (Chazz Palminteri) starts rewriting the play to make
it more believable, he shows more talent than Cusack. Oscar winning
supporting actress, Dianne Wiest steals the show as a haughty actress.
Starring:
John Cusack, Chazz Palminteri, Dianne Wiest, and Jennifer Tilly
Director: Woody Allen
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
parent/guardian
THE BURMESE HARP (1956)
Japanese language - 116 min
Set during World War II's last days, this indelible antiwar
drama chronicles a Japanese soldier's transformation after coming face to face
with the human cost of war. Sent to inform another platoon the war is over,
Cpl. Mizushima (Shôji Yasui) can't persuade the men to surrender and becomes
the lone survivor when the British attack. But the casualties he sees on the
way to rejoin his unit overwhelms Mizushima, and he soon finds a higher
calling.
Starring:
Shôji Yasui
Director: Kon Ichikawa
BUSH
FAMILY FORTUNES: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2004) – 61 minutes
Musician and
staunch Democrat Moby lends his music to this documentary by Greg Palast, a
reporter and filmmaker who tailed the political clan, especially George W.
Bush, from the highly contested 2000 presidential election win in Florida to
the purported influence they exerted on behalf of the bin Ladens. Palast also
treads on the same ground that the iconic Michael Moore covered, connecting the
dots between the Bushes and the House of Saud.
Director:
Greg Palast
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
- 110 minutes
Legendary
outlaws Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford)
display perfect comedic timing and charisma as they pull off heist after heist
in this Oscar-winning film from director George Roy Hill. To evade a relentless
posse, the boys flee to Bolivia, thinking they'll find easier pickings there.
But trouble finds the fugitives wherever they go, and soon, the charming
desperadoes are on the run again. 1970 Oscars Best Song, Best Music Score,
Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay
Starring:
Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Katharine Ross
Director: George Roy Hill
PG
Parental guidance suggested.
THE CAINE MUTINY (1954) - 125 minutes
Captain
Queeg: madman or misunderstood taskmaster? That's the dilemma facing the first
officer (Van Johnson) of the U.S.S. Caine when its stern new captain (Humphrey
Bogart) drives the crew to the brink of mutiny. Part sea-going adventure, part
courtroom drama, The Caine Mutiny is a tale that manages to be both thrilling
and thought provoking. Bogart shines in one of his last roles.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray and Van
Johnson
Director: Edward Dmytryk
CAMILLE (1936) - 109 minutes
In this
late-1930s adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel, Greta Garbo plays the
titular role of
Camille, a
dying courtesan who falls in love with a young nobleman Robert Taylor and
heroically sacrifices her happiness to prove her love. George Cukor directed
this authoritative version of the story, which has seen many film adaptations.
Includes strong supporting performances from Lionel Barrymore and a
villainous Henry Daniell.
Starring:
Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor
Director:
George Cukor
CAPE FEAR
(1962) - 106 minutes
Released on
parole after eight years in stir for rape and assault, Max Cady (Robert
Mitchum) is hell-bent on vengeance. He heads straight for Sam Bowden (Gregory
Peck), the ex-prosecutor responsible for Cady's stint in the slammer. When
Bowden learns that Cady's payback plan includes the lawyer's wife and daughter,
he's forced to go to extraordinary lengths to protect his family as Cady
carries out a methodical crusade of terror.
Better than
the 1991 remake
Starring:
Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck
Director:
J. Lee Thompson
CAPTAINS
COURAGEOUS (1937) – 115 minutes
Based on a
novel by Rudyard Kipling, this classic adventure tale stars Spencer Tracy in
an Oscar-winning performance as Manuel, an old salt who fishes spoiled,
rich brat Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) out of the drink. When the
vessel's skipper (Lionel Barrymore) puts Harvey to work, the boy chafes at the
idea. But crusty Manuel takes the lad under his wing and teaches Harvey invaluable
life lessons through patience, forgiveness and resolve.
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew
and Lionel Barrymore
Director:
Victor Fleming
CASABLANCA (1942) - 102 minutes
As time goes by, this 1942 classic starring Humphrey
Bogart and Ingrid Bergman (as Rick and Ilsa, star-crossed lovers who just
aren't meant to be) only gets better. Of all the "gin joints" in
Morocco, Ilsa, with husband Victor (Paul Henreid) in tow, had to walk into the
one owned by Rick, a former beau she abandoned in Paris. War looms over them
all, and in a much-discussed ending, Rick and Ilsa make heroic but
heartbreaking choices.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman
Director: Michael Curtiz
CHAPLIN
MUTUALS: Vol. 1 (1917) silent language - 106 minutes
Equal
portions prankster, browbeaten public pariah and schmaltzy sap, Charlie
Chaplin's appeal lies not only in his ingenious farce but in his flouting of
authority, status and custom. Every comedy short Chaplin helmed at Mutual
Studios turns into a funnyman seminar as he explores the slapstick potential of
a hodgepodge of props and circumstances. Volume 1 includes "The
Immigrant," "The Adventurer," "The Cure" and
"Easy Street."
Starring:
Charlie Chaplin
Director: Charlie Chaplin
CHAPLIN
MUTUALS: Vol. 3 (1916) silent language - 106
minutes
Equal
portions prankster, browbeaten public pariah and schmaltzy sap, Charlie
Chaplin's appeal lies not only in his ingenious farce but in his flouting of
authority, status and custom. Every comedy short Chaplin helmed at Mutual
Studios turns into a funnyman seminar as he explores the slapstick potential of
a hodgepodge of props and circumstances. Volume 3 includes "One
A.M.," "The Pawn Shop," "The Floorwalker" and
"The Rink."
Starring: Charlie Chaplin
Director: Charlie
Chaplin
CHINATOWN (1974) - 130 minutes
Private eye
J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) uncovers intricate dirty dealings in the Los
Angeles waterworks and gets his nose slashed for his grief. Suspicious,
porcelain-skinned femme fatale Faye Dunaway (who harbors a nasty family secret)
finances Gittes's snooping. Director Roman Polanski reimagines 1930s Los
Angeles in this brilliant detective thriller. And Robert Towne's
onion-like script reveals itself one complex layer at a time. 1975
Oscar: Best Original Screenplay GCTOP10
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, john
Houston Director: Roman Polanski
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent/guardian.
CHUNGKING
EXPRESS (1994) Chinese language - 102 minutes
Hong Kong
director Kar Wai Wong established a unique style with this cerebral film that
tells two somewhat similar but unrelated stories about loneliness and
disconnection in the big city. In the first story, a policeman pines after his
former girlfriend and gives himself 30 days to find another woman; in the
second story, another policeman catches the eye of an attractive waitress, Canton
pop singer FAYE WONG, who's intent on completely rearranging his life. I’ve seen this 3 times in a theatre and everyone loves my Faye
Wong greatest hits CD.
Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro,
Faye Wong
Director: Kar Wai Wong
PG Parents strongly cautioned. Some
material may be inappropriate for kids under 13.
THE CIRCUS (1928)
silent language - 68 minutes
Chaplin stirs up a riotous time as his beguiling alter
ego, The Tramp, in 1928's The Circus, one his lesser-known (but just as
magical) films. On the lam once again, The Tramp joins a traveling circus and
falls for one of its superstars, leaving nothing but joy and love in his wake.
Starring:
Charlie Chaplin
Director: Charlie Chaplin
CITIZEN
KANE (1941) - 119 minutes
Orson Welles
reinvented movies at the age of 26 with this audacious biography of newspaper
baron Charles Foster Kane (in essence, a thinly veiled portrait of publishing
magnate William Randolph Hearst), who rises from poverty to become one of
America's most influential men. A complex and technically stunning film,
considered one of the best movies ever made.
Starring: Orson Welles
Director: Orson Welles
CITY
LIGHTS (1931) silent language - 87 minutes
City Lights
was Charlie Chaplin's last silent film and is widely considered one
of his best. Chaplin, once again playing the character known as the Little
Tramp, makes the acquaintance of a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill), who,
because she can't see him, believes the shabby tramp is a millionaire. The
tramp attempts to raise enough money for the blind girl to have an eye
operation, knowing she may eventually discover his true identity.
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill
Director: Charlie Chaplin
THE
CLASH: Westway to the World (2000) – 107 minutes
This
entertaining documentary tracks the rise and fall of the British punk group The
Clash, widely considered one of the greatest bands of all time. The group is
featured in a series of revealing interviews (many exclusive to this DVD
release) intertwined with hefty doses of previously unseen live footage that
encompass the legendary band's career in its entirety.
Starring: The Clash
Director:
Don Letts
CLEO FROM
5 TO 7 (1961) French language - 90 minutes
A woman
delves into the inner depths of her soul and resurfaces transformed in this
1962 film by French director Agnes Varda. Young singer Cleo (Corrine Marchand)
strolls along the bustling Paris streets, pondering the meaning of life and her
own existence as she awaits the results of her cancer biopsy. Cleo's
observations offer a close look at Paris's rich street life, and desperation
turns into hope when Cleo encounters a young soldier.
Starring:
Corrine Marchand
Director:
Agnes Varda
COLLEGE (1927) silent language – 132 minutes
To capture the heart of a winsome campus coed, cerebral
milquetoast Ronald (Buster Keaton) vows to become a college jock. Needless to
say, his floundering ineptitude leads to the agony of defeat. But when his
muscle-bound rival (Harold Goodwin) snatches Ronald's sweetheart, he turns into
a world-class athlete as he races to her rescue. An extended track-and-field
sequence showcases Keaton's inimitable gymnastic genius.
Starring: Buster Keaton
Director: James W. Horne
THE
CONFORMIST (1970) French language – 111 minutes
When the
government orders him to kill a political refugee, Marcello (Jean-Louis
Trintignant) agrees -- even though his target is his college mentor. Hence, he
is "the Conformist," a man who will do anything to belong. Bernardo
Bertolucci directs this thought-provoking drama set in 1930s fascist
Italy, a visually complex character study with production design by Nedo
Azzini and camera work by Vittorio Storaro.
Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania
Sandrelli
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
CONTEMPT (1963) French language - 103 minutes
Director
Jean-Luc Godard's cynical take on the world of filmmaking is a poignant
commentary about the sacrificial price of art. Screenwriter Paul Javal
(Michel Piccoli) must fight many battles to get his version of Homer's Odyssey
to the big screen. He's at odds with his conniving producer (Jack Palance)
and his egotistical director (Fritz Lang). What's more, his marriage to
his beautiful wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) is also
foundering. Carlo Ponti produced.
Starring:
Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli,
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
THE CONVERSATION (1974) - 113 minutes
Gene Hackman set the standard for 1970s film acting with
his portrayal of Harry Caul, a surveillance expert obsessed with his privacy. A
past mistake -- and the fear that he may repeat it -- haunts Caul. The
Conversation benefits from tremendous supporting performances (especially
that of the late, great John Cazale), excellent use of San Francisco
locales and Walter Murch's sound editing.
Starring:
Gene Hackman , John Cazale
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
PG Parental
guidance suggested
THE CORPORATION (2004)
- 145 minutes
This documentary charts the
spectacular rise of corporations as a dramatic, pervasive presence in our
lives. Filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott present a timely,
entertaining critique of global conglomerates as they chronicle the origins of
corporations, as well as their inner workings, controversial impacts and
possible futures. The pros and cons are weighed via interviews with social
critics such as Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore.
Should be viewed
regularly by everyone on the planet including children!
Director: Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott
CRANES ARE
FLYING (1957) Russian language – 95 minutes
Veronica and
Boris are blissfully in love, until the eruption of World War II tears them
apart. Boris is sent to the front lines, and Veronica must struggle to ward off
spiritual numbness while Boris's draft-dodging cousin tries to have his way
with her. Winner of the Palme d'Or award at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, The
Cranes Are Flying is a superbly crafted drama.
Starring: Tatyana
Samojlova
Director: Mikheil Kalatozishvili
CRISS CROSS (1949) – 88 minutes
Working man Steve (Burt Lancaster) makes an honest
living as an armored truck driver. His only downfall? His lingering feelings
for his ex-wife, Anna (Yvonne De Carlo), a greedy woman who recently married a
dangerous mob boss (Dan Duryea). When the two ex-lovers reunite and her husband
catches them, they manage to convince him they were plotting to rob the truck.
Now, Steve is now forced to go through with the crime … or face death.
Starring: Burt
Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo
Director: Robert
Siodmak
CRUMB (1994) - 119 minutes
Director
Terry Zwigoff spent six years compiling this portrait of the underground
cartoonist whose characters Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural became counterculture
icons. Candid interviews with Robert Crumb and his spouses, offspring, siblings
and peers render a compelling profile of a tormented man who transcended a
harrowing upbringing to produce stunningly original art. The film won the Grand
Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. GCTOP10
Starring: Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky
Director: Terry Zwigoff
R for graphic sex-related cartoons,
and for language
DARLING (1965) - 127 minutes
Up-and-coming
fashion model Darling (Best Actress Oscar winner Julie Christie), burns
with ambition. First, she falls hard for married television interviewer Robert
(Dirk Bogarde). Next, Darling meets Miles (Laurence Harvey), who knows all the
right people in London's swingin' '60s film industry. But he's just another
stepping-stone as she scrambles her way to the top. Trouble is, the pinnacle of
success can be deceiving.
Starring:
Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, Lawrence Harvey
Director:
John Schlesinger
DAYS OF
BEING WILD (1991) Chinese language - 94 minutes
After
learning that the woman who raised him is not his mother, Yuddy (Leslie Cheung)
acts out by manipulating two women -- quiet Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) and
glamorous Mimi (Carina Lau). Su Lizhen eventually catches the eye of Tide (Andy
Lau), while Yuddy's friend Zeb (Jacky Cheung) falls for Mimi. Meanwhile, Yuddy
learns the identity of his birth mother and heads off to find her. This film
won multiple awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung,
Director: Kar Wai Wong
PG Parents strongly cautioned, Inappropriate for KIDS
under 13.
DELIVER
US FROM EVIL (2006) - 106 minutes
This
unsettling Oscar-nominated documentary from filmmaker Amy Berg
investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes
the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless
children. A mix of victim stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady
provides a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from
parish to parish gaining the trust of congregations ... all the while betraying
so many.
Director:
Amy Berg
DESTRY
RIDES AGAIN (1939) - 95 minutes
Jimmy
Stewart stars as Tom Destry, a tough lawman who doesn't like guns. And that
could pose a problem when a saloon owner and a corrupt mayor plan to rob the
local cowpokes blind. Marlene Dietrich, as a crooked saloon waitress
with a heart of gold, hits a career peak with her rendition of "See
What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have." When sparks fly
between her and Destry, there's no doubt they'll be riding off happily into the
sunset. Best Western!
Starring:
James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich,
Director: George Marshall
DETECTIVE STORY (1951) - 103 minutes
This gritty urban drama chronicles a day in the lives of
detectives at a Manhattan police precinct, including James McLeod (Kirk
Douglas), a cop who sees everything in black-and-white terms. His
take-no-prisoners attitude could wreck the life of a young man arrested for a
minor offense, as well as McLeod's own marriage. Sidney Kingsley's Broadway
play is ably adapted by director William Wyler and co-stars Lee Grant in her
film debut.
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Lee Grant
Director: William Wyler
DETOUR (1945) - 67minutes
Classic film noir rules when down-in-the-dumps musician Al Roberts (Tom Neal)
decides to hitchhike cross-country to be with his chanteuse girlfriend. He
accepts a lift from high-roller Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald), who
promptly suffers a fatal coronary. Afraid the cops will finger him as a killer,
Al ditches the body and assumes Haskell's identity. But Al's trip quickly goes
downhill when he picks up a scheming hitchhiker (Ann Savage). TIME® Magazine
List: All-TIME 100 Movies - Unique, interesting with a very low budget.
Starring: Tom Neal, Ann Savage
Director:
Edgar G. Ulmer
DIABOLIQUE (1955) French language -
116 minutes
Henri-Georges Clouzot helmed this icy masterwork of
homicide and Grand Guignol suspense. Clouzot's real-life
wife, Vera, portrays Christina Delasalle, ailing spouse of the sadistic
headmaster (Paul Meurisse) of a moldering private boarding school, and sexy
Simone Signoret plays his manhandled mistress. Together, the women mastermind
and execute his murder, but their plan goes haywire when the corpse vanishes. Too scary for some.
Starring:
Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot,
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954) - 105
minutes
Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece of double-cross and intrigue stars Ray Milland as former tennis
champ Tony Wendice, who concocts a plan to kill his rich and philandering wife,
Margot Mary (Grace Kelly), who's embroiled in a heated affair with a writer, Mark
Halliday (Robert Cummings). When Tony's plans go awry, he improvises with a
second act of deceit, but the entire bloody affair turns out to be far messier
than he expected.
Starring:
Ray Milland, Grace Kelly
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
PG
Parental guidance suggested.
DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1964) French
language - 98 minutes
This wicked adaption of the
Octave Mirbeau novel is classic Luis Bunuel. Jeanne Moreau is Celestine,
a beautiful Parisian domestic who, upon arrival at her new job in provincial
1930s France, entrenches herself in sexual hypocrisy and scandal with Bunuel
regulars Michel Piccoli (as a philandering husband) and Muni (as l'amour fou).
Starring: Michel
Piccoli, Francoise Lugagne, Georges Geret,
Director: Luis Bunuel,
DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST (1950)
French language – 115 minutes
The priest of Ambricourt (Claude Laydu) is a reserved and
dedicated young man whose inability to mesh in social situations causes him to
feel isolated from the very population he's supposed to be serving. Adding to
his troubles are his health problems, which make him unable to carry out his
obligations. Growing ill and ever more confused as to what his life really
means, the priest is further distanced from his village and from God.
Starring:
Claude Laydu
DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (1929) silent language – 116 minutes
Louise Brooks stars as Thymiane, a
young girl whose life collapses when she is raped and made pregnant by her
father's young assistant. After a reform school escape she ends up in a
brothel, which, ironically, leads her to a salvation of sorts. Silent film with
piano and jazz ensemble score.
Starring:
Louise Brooks
Director: G.W. Pabst
THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (1972) French language - 101 minutes
In Bunuel's deliciously satiric, Oscar-winning
masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats,
their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both
actual and imagined. Perhaps his greatest film, Bunuel's absurdist view
of the upper class is a timeless satire about consumerism and class privilege
in a late capitalist world.
Starring: Fernando Rey, Stephane Audran
Director: Luis Bunuel
PG Parental guidance suggested.
D.O.A. (1950) -
87 minutes
While on vacation in San Francisco, an
accountant named Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien) ingests a dose of lethal,
slow-acting poison and begins a desperate search for the individual responsible
for his impending death. This great film noir contains the brilliant twist
of the "detective" trying to solve his own murder … before the
fact. D.O.A. was remade years later as Color Me Dead with Meg Ryan and Dennis
Quaid.
Starring: Edmond O'Brien
Director:
Rudolph Mate
DODSWORTH (1936) - 101 minutes
To escape an empty nest, an automobile tycoon (Walter Huston)
and his forty-something wife (Ruth Chatterton) plan a luxurious vacation in
Europe. But as Mrs. Dodsworth embarks on a series of indiscretions -- including
a romance with a gigolo -- it becomes apparent that the couple's plans for
their golden years don't mesh. From director William Wyler, the film is based
on the best-selling novel by Sinclair Lewis and an acclaimed stage play
TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring:
Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton
Director: William Wyler
DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975) - 124
minutes
An incredible true story about small-time punk Sonny Wortzik
(Al Pacino), who holds up a bank to raise money for his male lover's (Chris
Sarandon) sex-change operation. But the heist goes awry and turns into a tawdry
exposé when, during a two-day standoff with police, the media get wind of the
story. Sidney Lumet directed, and Frank Pierson won a Best Screenplay Oscar.
Starring:
Al Pacino, John
Cazale
Director: Sidney Lumet
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent/guardian.
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) - 108
minutes
Smitten insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) plots the
perfect murder with femme fatale client Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck):
Stage her husband's "accidental" death to collect double indemnity on
his life insurance, then abscond with the loot. But the lethal duo must first
get past a crafty claims investigator (Edward G. Robinson) who senses
something isn't kosher. What ensues is a cat-and-mouse game with fatal
consequences
Starring:
Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson
Director: Billy Wilder
DR.
STRANGELOVE (1964) - 95 minutes
In director
Stanley Kubrick's blackly comedic send-up of the nuclear age, deranged American
general Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) leads an attack against the Russians
that sets the stage for Armageddon. In a series of virtuoso comic performances,
Peter Sellers plays an impotent U.S. president, a harried British captain and
an ex-Nazi bomb maker. George C. Scott and Slim Pickens also appear in this classic
Oscar-nominated satire.
Only nominated!?!
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, GCTOP10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
DRUGSTORE
COWBOY (1989) - 104 minutes
In this
unrepentant look at the life of junkies, a quartet of addicts robs pharmacies
to fuel their habits. Ringleader Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon), along with his wife
(Kelly Lynch) and underlings Rick (James Le Gros) and Nadine (Heather Graham),
takes the show on the road after things get too hot at home. When Nadine goes
toes up from an overdose, Bob swears off drugs and tries to rebuild his life --
minus his wife, who's determined to stay hooked. 1990 Independent Spirit
Awards®: Best Supporting Male: Max Perlich, Best Male Lead: Matt Dillon
Starring: Matt Dillon, Heather Graham, James Le Gros
Director:
Gus Van Sant
DRUNKEN MASTER
II (1994) - 99
minutes
Jackie Chan
returns in a sequel to the film that made him famous. Wong Fei-Hung is a
dutiful son who must battle with thieves trying to smuggle artifacts out of
China. Using his "Drunken Boxing" fighting style, Chan kicks more
butt than you'd find at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. Final steel mill no-holds-barred (best ever!) fisticuffs are mind-blowing.
Starring: Jacky Chan, Anita Mui
Director: Jackie Chan, Lau Ka Leung
DUCK SOUP (1933)
- 68 minutes
The Marx Brothers are at their
sidesplitting best in this raucous political satire, which teems with
razor-sharp humor. Thanks to the patronage of well-heeled widow Mrs. Teasdale
(Margaret Dumont), Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) becomes dictator of the tiny
country of Freedonia. When the ambassador of the bordering nation of Sylvania
declares his love for Mrs. Teasdale, Firefly declares war. Chico, Harpo and
Zeppo costar as spies and counterspies.
Starring: Marx Bros, Margaret Dumont
Director: Leo McCarey
EAST OF EDEN: Special Edition (1955) - 115 minutes
Set in
California's Salinas Valley, Elia Kazan's epic adaptation of John
Steinbeck's novel centers on Cal Trask (James Dean), the black sheep son of
stern farmer Adam (Raymond Massey). Tired of being compared to his perfect
brother Aron, troublemaker Cal tries in vain to please his father, to no avail.
The two finally face off when Cal confronts his dad with the truth about his
long-lost mother. Julie Harris, Jo Van Fleet and Burl Ives costar. 1956 Oscar Best Supporting Actress: Jo Van
Fleet
Starring:
James Dean, Raymond
Massey, and Julie Harris
Director: Elia Kazan
8 1/2 (1963) Italian language - 138
minutes
Film director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is trying
to relax after his last big hit, no small task since he's being hassled by
former workmates hitting him up for jobs. What's more, he's out of ideas. Soon,
he retreats into reminiscences about all the women he's loved and left. Claudia
Cardinale co-stars in director Federico Fellini's semiautobiographical
rumination on moviemaking, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Starring:
Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale
Director: Federico Fellini
ELECTION (1999) - 103 minutes
Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon at her very best) appears to have the election for
student council president sewn up until one of her teachers, Mr. McAllister
(Matthew Broderick), rounds up a worthy opponent. McAllister convinces Paul
(Chris Klein), a popular and naïve varsity football player whose injury has put
him on the sidelines for the season, to take up politics. But Tracy is
desperate to win the election and turns the halls into a political war zone.
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon
Director: Alexander Payne,
R
For strong sexuality, sex-related dialogue and language, and a scene of drug
use
ELMER GANTRY (1960) - 147 minutes
Hollywood legend Burt Lancaster as glad-handing,
soul-redeeming charlatan Elmer Gantry, a huckster who spins his talent for
preaching into a métier behind the pulpit. Hopping aboard the barnstorming
evangelical crusade of Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), Gantry moralizes
his way to fame and fortune till an erstwhile ladylove (Shirley Jones)
threatens to expose his shady history as a skirt-chaser and scam artist.
1961 Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress: Shirley Jones,
Best Actor: Burt Lancaster
Starring:
Burt Lancaster, Jean
Simmons, Shirley Jones
Director:
Richard brooks
END OF THE CENTURY: The Story Of The
Ramones (2004) - 150 minutes
Variously dubbed "A punk Last
Waltz" and "One headbangin' helluva good time," this incisive
documentary about the Ramones by Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields traces the
seminal punk band's trajectory from obscurity to fame to induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's an insider look at the rockers -- blemishes
and all -- that will probably make your head spin. Includes interviews
with Joe Strummer, Debbie Harry, Nicolas Cage and others.
ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
- 110 minutes
Based on the book of the same name by Peter Elkin, director
Alex Gibney's documentary takes a behind-the-scenes look at the powerful energy
company whose downfall forever changed the landscape of the business world.
With a blend of fascinating footage, fast-paced interviews and a wealth of
information, this film is a serious lesson in the potential trappings of dishonesty
and unethical behavior dogging corporate America today.
Starring:
Peter Coyote
Director: Alex Gibney
THE ENTERTAINER (1960) - 104 minutes
Under the direction of Tony Richardson, Oscar-nominated
Laurence Olivier re-creates his stage role as Archie Rice, a third-rate,
vaudevillian-style performer headlining an end-of-the-pier show in a rundown
British seaside resort. As his life falls to pieces around him, Archie does
what it takes to keep his show going. Joan Plowright, Alan Bates and Albert
Finney, all making their film debuts here, play Archie's children.
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright,
Alan Bates and Albert Finney
Director: Tony Richardson
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960) French
language – 88 minutes
A plastic
surgeon (Pierre Brasseur) becomes obsessed with making things right after his
daughter Christiane's (Edith Scob) face is terribly disfigured in a car
accident that he caused. Overcome with guilt, Dr. Genessier and his vicious
nurse, Louise (Alida Valli), concoct a plan to give Christiane her face back by
kidnapping young girls and removing their faces ... and then grafting them onto
Christiane's. ‘‘Creepiest
movie ever.” LA WEEKLY
Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Edith Scob,
Director: Georges Franju
A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957) – 131 minutes
Elia Kazan's masterpiece proves that celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be.
When talent scout Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) spots drifter Larry
"Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith) and makes him a superstar, he gets
a taste of the good life. But his hunger for klieg lights, fed by run-ins with
famous people such as Burl Ives and Bennett Cerf (who play themselves), turns
desperate, and he loses sight of who he is and what he's truly about.
Starring: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Burl
Ives and Bennett Cerf
Director: Elia Kazan
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004) -
122 minutes
Michael Moore's hard-hitting documentary addresses the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, outlining the reasons the U.S. has
become a target for hatred and terrorism. Criticizing President George W.
Bush's response to the attacks and reinforcing his theory that the Bush
Administration used the tragic event to push its agenda, Moore also traces
alleged dealings that connect two generations of the Bush family with Osama bin
Laden's clan 2005 Cannes Film
Festival Best Picture
Starring: Michael Moore, Brittney Spears,
Donald Rumsfeld
Director: Michael Moore
THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN (1985) – 131 minutes
As a CIA employee in charge of guarding top secret documents,
all-American Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) becomes disillusioned with his
country and decides to make a deal with the Soviet Union. Boyce drags his
childhood friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn) into the arrangement, but the
drug-addicted Lee's reasons for committing espionage are strictly monetary.
John Schlesinger directs this provocative and sometimes humorous account.
Starring: Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn
Director: John Schlesinger
FARGO (1996) - 98 minutes
Frances McDormand earned an Oscar for her turn as pregnant Sheriff
Marge Gunderson, who's sharper than her Northern Minnesota dialect suggests.
The intrepid Gunderson bangs on doors and asks questions to unravel a
kidnapping plot and the string of murders it provokes. McDormand receives grand
support from William H. Macy as a car dealer who conspires with hotheaded
kidnappers Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare. 1997 Oscar Best Original
Screenplay - 1997
Best Picture Oscar mistakenly given to a different film! GCTOP10
Starring:
Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, and Steve Buscemi
Director: Joel Coen
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent/guardian
THE FILTH
AND THE FURY: A Sex Pistols Film (2000) – 108 minutes
Chronically cranky and famously out of control, the Sex
Pistols recorded only one album and imploded after 26 months. The godfathers of
punk are the subject of Julian Temple's backward-looking rockumentary, which
features Pistols hits such as "Anarchy in the UK" and "God Save
the Queen," as well as interviews with controversial manager Malcolm
McLaren and front man Johnny Rotten, plus a look at Sid Vicious's
tragic life.
Starring: Sex Pistols
Director: Julian Temple
FIRES ON THE PLAIN (1959) Japanese language - 104 minutes
In director Kon Ichikawa's harrowing film set in the
Philippines during World War II, a Japanese soldier, his emotional and physical
resources nearly depleted, endures the vicissitudes of war. Ichikawa,
whom some cineastes say was as talented as his better-known contemporaries,
including Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, had a way with infusing light in
the darkest places.
Starring:
Director: Kon Ichikawa
FLOATING WEEDS (1959) Japanese
language - 119 minutes
Director Yasujiro Ozu teamed with acclaimed
cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa to remake his 1934 masterpiece and came up
with an elegant update of a classic tale. An actor returns to his old hometown
with his girlfriend and discovers he still has feelings for an old love who
bore him a son he now wants to get to know. What results is awe-inspiring pain
and heartache that threatens to destroy them. Features commentary by critic
Roger Ebert.
Starring: Machiko Kyo, Ganjiro Nakamura
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
THE FOG OF WAR (2003) – 107 minutes
Former Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara worked for both Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson,
playing a key role in shaping both administrations' approaches to the Vietnam
War. This Oscar-winning documentary directed by Errol Morris traces McNamara's
career from government to the World Bank; but it's his work during the Vietnam
years that's highlighted in this film, which features extensive archival
footage and interviews.
Starring: Robert McNamara
Director: Errol Morris
FOOLISH
WIVES (1922) silent language - __ minutes
Foolish
Wives, the first film in this special double feature showcasing the work of
Erich von Stroheim, explores the boredom and disdain felt by one woman for her
husband, an American diplomat who's obsessed with his work during their holiday
in Monte Carlo. THE MAN YOU LOVED TO HATE, is a compelling documentary about
von Stroheim, the mysterious man whose role as a cinematic genius in the 1920s
is still highly regarded today.
Starring:
Erich von Stroheim
Director:
Erich von Stroheim
FORBIDDEN GAMES (1954) French
language – 102 minutes
Director
René Clément's bittersweet drama depicts the ravages of war on
its youngest victims. After being orphaned when a Nazi strafing kills her
parents and her dog, 5-year-old Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) is taken in by farm
boy Michel (Georges Poujouly) and family. While his parents are busy feuding
with their neighbors, the youngsters cope with the death surrounding them by
creating a cemetery for animals killed in the war. 1954 BAFTA: Best Film - One of the best films about children. Powerful anti-war film with only 5 minutes of
war.
Starring:
Georges Poujouly, Brigitte Fossey,
Director: Rene Clement
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940) - 120 minutes
Hitchcock's classic thriller stars Joel McCrea as Johnny Jones, a
naïve New York reporter sent on assignment to Europe on the eve of World War
II. Amidst the volatile atmosphere of the impending war, Jones stumbles on a
deadly conspiracy devised by Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall), whose spy ring
masquerades as a peace organization. Fisher's daughter Carol (Laraine Day)
lends a hand as Jones races to expose the story -- and tries to stay alive.
Starring:
Joel McCrea, Herbert Marshall, and Laraine Day
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
FRANKENSTEIN (1931) - 75 minutes
A mad scientist (Colin Clive) creates a monster (the
inimitable Boris Karloff) but errs by giving him a criminal brain. See BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Starring:
Colin Clive), Boris Karloff
Director: James Whale,
FREAKS (1932) - 62 minutes
Director Tod
Browning cast authentic circus folk, not actors, in this Greek tragedy
about sideshow "freaks." Normal-sized trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga
Baclanova) marries diminutive Hans (Harry Earles) with plans to poison him,
take his inheritance and marry the brute Hercules (Henry Victor). When the
freaks uncover Cleopatra's scheme and Hercules forces himself on an innocent
girl, they gang up on the two miscreants. Wallace Ford also stars.
Starring: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams,
Director: Todd Browning
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) - 104
minutes
Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman), a
foul-mouthed, violent narcotics detective, pursues a suave French drug dealer
(Fernando Rey) through New York City with Captain Ahab-like zeal. Director
William Friedkin took the provocative stance that both the narcs and the
smugglers use similar thuggish ends to get what they need. This thrilling 1972
Best Picture Oscar winner (based on a true story) is famous for its
riveting car-vs-elevated-train chase.
Starring:
Gene Hackman
Director: William Friedkin
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) - 118 minutes
The date which lives in infamy lives
on in this gripping adaptation of James Jones' novel about Army life in Hawaii
in the idyllic days just before December 7, 1941. Eight Oscars include Best
Picture, Screenplay, Cinematography, Supporting Actress (Donna Reed) and
Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra). Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr rolling
around in the waves and sand ranks as one of the hottest love scenes in
screen history.
Starring:
Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Ernest Borgnine
Director: Fred Zinnemann
FURY (1936)
- 93 minutes
Director Fritz Lang dishes up an
unflinching indictment of mob justice in this potent drama. Passing through
a small town en route to see his fiancée, upright Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy)
ends up charged with kidnapping based on flimsy circumstantial evidence. When
news of his arrest spreads, an irate mob storms the jail, burning it to the
ground -- with Joe ostensibly inside. Little do they know that he escaped and
is hell-bent on retribution …
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, and Walter Brennan
Director: Fritz Lang
GALAXY QUEST (1999)
- 102 minutes
Aliens mistake intercepted television
transmissions for "historical documents" and decide to kidnap the
cast of a popular sci-fi TV series, hoping the new allies can help them win a
war against a deadly adversary. Tim Allen stars. Better than you might think.
Starring:
Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver
Director: Dean Parisot
GASLIGHT (1940) - 198 minutes
Director George Cukor's
dramatic mystery garnered seven Oscar nominations and remains a classic.
Beautiful, naive socialite Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is slowly tormented by
strange happenings in her home -- the home in which her murdered aunt's jewels
are reportedly hidden. The suspect? Her devoted husband (Charles Boyer). 1945
Oscars: Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman, Best Art Direction Black and White
Starring:
Ingrid Bergman), Charles Boyer
Director:
George Cukor
THE GENERAL (1927) silent language -
98 minutes
Rejected by the Confederate Army as unfit and taken for a
coward by his beloved Annabelle (Marian Mack), Johnnie Gray (Buster
Keaton) sets out to single-handedly win the war with his cherished
locomotive. When Northern spies steal his train, the intrepid Confederate takes
on the entire Union army to get it back.
TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring: Buster Keaton, Marian Mack,
Director: Eddie Cline, Buster Keaton
GET CARTER (1971)
- 112 minutes
After learning that his brother has
died under mysterious circumstances, London gangster Jack Carter (Michael
Caine) heads to his hometown of Newcastle, England, in search of revenge. Once
there, Carter tangles with the local mob boss, a porn star and various other
colorful local characters. Directed by Mike Hodges (Croupier, Flash Gordon),
this classic action-thriller depicts a grim and brutal world.
Starring:
Michael Caine
Director: Mike Hodges
GO WEST
(1925) silent language – 108 minutes
After having
no luck in the big city, a downtrodden chap known as "Friendless"
(Buster Keaton) heads west, determined to succeed. His odyssey takes him to a
ranch, where he builds a relationship with a neglected cow dubbed Brown Eyes --
only to learn she's on the way to a Los Angeles slaughterhouse. The sidesplitting
climax finds Friendless -- clad in a red devil's costume -- trying to
prevent a wild stampede through downtown Los Angeles.
Starring: Buster Keaton
Director: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline
THE GODFATHER (1972)
- 175 minutes
Director Francis Ford Coppola brings
Mario Puzo's multigenerational crime saga to life in this Oscar-winning epic.
When an organized crime family patriarch (Marlon Brando) barely survives an
attempt on his life, his son Michael (Al Pacino) convinces his brother Sonny
(James Caan) to let him take care of the would-be killers. Amid betrayals and
corruption, Michael launches a campaign of bloody revenge that continues
through the film's two sequels.
1973 Oscars Best Actor: Marlon
Brando, Best Picture,
Best Adapted Screenplay
Starring: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, John Cazale,
and Diane Keaton
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
R Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent /
guardian
THE GODFATHER, Part II (1974) - 126
minutes
In this unique case of a sequel superseding the original, The
Godfather II follows the Corleone crime family as it relocates to Nevada in the
1950s, with Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Original cast returns with
Robert Duvall outstanding as consigliere Tom Hagen and John Cazale as the
tragic Fredo Corleone. This film spans two discs; 1975 Oscars, Picture,
Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro, Music Score,
Art Direction
Starring:
Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, and Diane Keaton
Director: Francis Ford Coppola GCTOP10
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent / guardian
GONE WITH THE WIND: Collector's
Edition (1939) - 223
minutes
Margaret Mitchell's sweeping Civil War saga remains one of
the greatest examples of cinematic storytelling. Vivien Leigh's tempestuous
Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable's handsome rogue Rhett Butler bicker and battle
from antebellum plantations to the streets of postwar Atlanta. This special
collector's edition features a beautifully restored print and many extras. This
film spans two discs; both discs will be shipped to you simultaneously.
Starring: Clark Gable's, Vivien Leigh,
Director: Victor Fleming
GONE WITH
THE WIND:
Collector's Edition: Bonus Material 2 - 125 minutes
The actors
of David O. Selznick's classic get the spotlight in this bonus DVD, which
includes the featurette "Melanie Remembers: Olivia de Havilland Recalls
Gone with the Wind"; "Clark Gable: A King Remembered," a
portrait of the MGM leading man's career; "Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and
Beyond," a revealing look at Leigh's tumultuous life, hosted by Jessica
Lange; mini-bios of prominent cast members; five theatrical trailers; and more.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)
- 180 minutes
Starring:
Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, and Claudia Cardinale
Director: Sergio Leone
GOODFELLAS: Special Edition (1990) - 145 minutes
Starring:
Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro
Director: Martin Scorse
R For profanity, graphic violence
THE GRADUATE (1967) - 105 minutes
Dustin Hoffman (in his first major film role) turns in a
landmark performance as a naïve young college graduate who is seduced by a
middle-aged neighbor (Anne Bancroft). He, in turn, falls in love with her
daughter (Katharine Ross). Mike Nichols won a Best Director Oscar, Simon
and Garfunkel achieved immortality with a score that includes "Mrs.
Robinson."
Starring:
Dustin Hoffman Anne Bancroft
Director: Mike Nichols
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent
THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) - 128
minutes
Based on Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel,
Grapes follows the Joad family's exodus from the Oklahoma Dustbowl to
California's fruit harvest.
Starring:
Henry Fonda, John Carradine, and Jane Darwell
Director: John Ford
THE GROUND TRUTH (2006 - 78 minutes
Patricia Foulkrod's powerful
documentary spotlights American soldiers sharing their experiences on the
battlefield in Iraq and back home as they try to reassemble their lives. With
aching honesty, these men and women discuss the anguish of war, the
difficulties of readjusting to life after their tours of duty, post-traumatic
stress disorder and the often callous treatment returning troops receive from
the military and the Veterans Administration.
Director: Patricia Foulkrod
GUN CRAZY (1949) – 86 minutes
Shockingly
dark and brutal for its time, this
drama was directed by Joseph H. Lewis and stars Peggy Cummins and John Dall. A
searing forerunner to Bonnie and Clyde, the film tells the story of a
gun-obsessed twosome who meet at a carnival, run off to get married and then
commit a string of daring robberies across the country. The screenplay was
adapted by Dalton Trumbo from novelist MacKinlay Kantor's magazine article.
Starring:
John Dall, Peggy Cummins
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
HAMLET (1948)
- 153 minutes
In 15th century Denmark, young Prince
Hamlet (Laurence Olivier) schemes to avenge his father's death when his uncle,
Claudius, murders the prince's father, promptly weds the queen and ascends to
his dead brother's throne. But Hamlet -- uncertain how to best carry out his
mission -- allows his anguish and indecision to lead to more carnage. Olivier
earned the Best Actor Oscar for his definitive performance as the
melancholy Dane. 1949 Oscar best
picture
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons
Director: Laurence Olivier
HARD BOILED (1992) Chinese language
– 126 minutes
In a
ruthless world of gun smugglers and mobsters, Tequila (Chow Yun-Fat) is a
die-hard cop who'll stop at nothing to see justice done. Determined to avenge
his partner's murder, Tequila joins forces with a rebel cop (Tony Leung Chiu
Wai) to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew. Soon, the body count
increases tenfold as the duo race to stop the mobsters from blowing up a
hospital full of hostages. John Woo directs this high-voltage
actioner. Climactic 55 minute hospital shootout is never contrived, repetitive
or uninspired.
Starring:
Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung Chiu Wai,
Director: John Woo
R for pervasive violence and some language
HARRY LANGDON: The Forgotten Clown (1926) - 193 minutes
While Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are the
silent film era's most famous clowns, this trilogy of short features showcases
their lesser-known but equally talented contemporary, Harry
Langdon. The Strong Man -- considered by some as Langdon's best film -- marked
the debut of legendary director Frank Capra, who also helmed
1927's Long Pants. In Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Langdon courts none other than Joan
Crawford.
Starring: Harry Langdon, Joan Crawford.
Director: Frank Capra,, Harry Edwards
THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972) - 106
minutes
While honeymooning with his new wife in Florida, Lenny
Cantrow (Charles Grodin) begins to rue his nuptials. So when his irksome spouse
gets stuck in their hotel room with a nasty sunburn and the footloose Lenny
meets gorgeous blond coed Kelly (Cybill Shepherd), it's all the incentive he
needs to ditch his brand-new bride. But Lenny isn't home free with Kelly -- his
hot pursuit of her quickly hits a brick wall of resistance: her loathing
father. Dark comedy
gem!
Starring: Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd), Eddie Albert
Director: Elaine May
HEAVEN
KNOWS, MR. ALLISON (1957) – 106 minutes
Hiding from
the Japanese on an island on the Pacific Ocean, a Marine (Robert Mitchum) and
an Irish nun (Deborah Kerr) search for food, shelter and help while trying to
avoid the burgeoning attraction that exists between them. Director John
Huston elicits amazing performances for a movie that eventually earned two
Academy Award nominations.
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr
Director: John Huston
THE HEIRESS (1949) - 115 minutes
From William Wyler's deft
directorial hand comes this powerful drama starring Olivia de
Havilland in the title role. Against the wishes of her wealthy tyrant father
(Ralph Richardson), homely spinster Catherine Sloper (de Havilland, who
snagged a Best Actress Oscar) plans to elope with handsome suitor
Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift). But when Catherine's suspicious father
threatens to disinherit her, will Morris do a disappearing act?
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery
Clift, Ralph Richardson
Director: William Wyler
HIDDEN
FORTRESS (1958) Japanese language – 139 minutes
A general
and a princess must dodge enemy clans while smuggling the royal treasure out of
hostile territory with two bumbling, conniving peasants at their sides; it's a
spirited adventure that only Akira Kurosawa could create. The Criterion Collection
is proud to present this landmark motion picture in a stunning, newly
restored Tohoscope edition Star Wars inspiration and foundation; look
for R2D2 & C3PO
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Misa Uehara,
Director: Akira Kurosawa
HIGH AND LOW (1963) Japanese
language - 143 minutes
Known for
his historical epics, director Akira Kurosawa was also a fan of American film
noir and detective novels -- which explains why he based High and Low (also
known as Heaven and Hell) on an Ed McBain story. Toshirô Mifune plays a wealthy
corporate boss who must choose between saving his company and paying the ransom
for his chauffeur's kidnapped child. Kurosawa uses his brilliant visual
style to reinforce the film's sociological themes.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
HIGH NOON (1952)
- 85 minutes
Retiring Marshall Will Kane (Gary
Cooper) insists on defending his town from a gang of hooligans who are due on
the noon train -- but he faces the task alone as the cowardly townspeople flee
like rats from a sinking ship. Director Fred Zinnemann creates an incredibly
tense Western (rightly considered one of the true genre classics) that unfurls
in real time -- as the clocks on the wall constantly remind us. 1953 Oscars Best Music Score, Best Actor:
Gary Cooper, Film Editing, And Best Song
Starring:
Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly
Director: Fred Zinnemann
HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) - 92 minutes
Starring:
Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
Director: Howard Hawks
I VITELLONI (1956)
Italian language - 103 minutes
Federico
Fellini directs this tale of a group of young men who are in no hurry to leave
their small town. Funded by their families, Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), Leopoldo
(Leopoldo Trieste), Alberto (Alberto Sordi), Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini) and
Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi) enjoy days of frivolous fun, but not without
apprehension: Are they missing out on all that life has to offer? Eventually,
one of the men breaks out of his self-imposed routine.
Starring: Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi
Director: Federico Fellini
IKIRU (1952) Japanese language – 143 minutes
After
finding out he's terminally ill with cancer, a government official (Takashi
Shimura) quits his job and prepares to face his last year alive, devoid of
family or friends. Determined not to die alone, he heads to a bar to get drunk
for the first time. Hoping to drink himself to death, he instead meets an
artist who takes him to bars all over the city, and later, a female co-worker
sways him on the value of leaving a legacy. TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100
Movies GCTOP10
Starring:
Takashi Shimura
Director: Akira Kurosawa
I’M ALL RIGHT JACK (1959) - 105
minutes
Recent Oxford graduate and old money aristocrat Stanley
Windrush (Ian Carmichael) takes a menial job in his uncle's factory -- and keep
his background a secret. His incompetence earns him both suspicion and
sympathy, and he becomes a pawn in the battle between management and a labor
union boss (Peter Sellers). But Windrush's innocence could destroy the economy
and become the symbol of integrity for a nation in this sly satire of class
struggle
Starring: Ian Carmichael, Peter Sellers, and Terry
Thomas
Director: John Boulting
IN A
LONELY PLACE (1950) - 94 minutes
Just when
Hollywood screenwriter Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bog art) sparks up a romance with
his neighbor Laurel (Gloria Grahame), the police begin to suspect him of
murdering a former lover. Laurel believes Dixon's innocent, but his alibi
doesn't wash with the police. As they continue to pressure Dixon, the
lovebirds' relationship suffers -- and after witnessing Dixon's increasing
hot-tempered behavior, Laurel suspects the police may be right.
TIME
Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring:
Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame
Director: Nicholas Ray
IN COLD BLOOD (1967) - 134 minutes
This chilling tale based on Truman Capote's nonfiction
novel follows two drifters who murder an allegedly rich Kansas family and flee
to Mexico. Filmed in the house where the real-life incident occurred, In Cold Blood
paints a compassionate portrait of the Clutter family … and their killers
(Robert Blake and Scott Wilson). Nominated for four Oscars, this disturbing
movie was shot in black and white but implies that the meaning of justice is
not.
Starring:
Robert Blake and Scott Wilson
Director: Richard Brooks
IN THE
MOOD FOR LOVE
(2001) Chinese language - 87 minutes
In director
Kar Wai Wong's delicately mannered tale of platonic romance set in 1962 Hong
Kong, neighboring married apartment-dwellers Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung, a
Cannes Film Festival best actor winner for his role) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie
Cheung) discover that their often-absent spouses are having an affair. The two
spend much of their free time together and find they have much in common, but
vow never to behave like their unfaithful mates
Starring:
Maggie Cheung, Tony
Leung
Director: Kar Wai Wong
IRAQ FOR
SALE: The War Profiteers (2006)
– 75 minutes
Private
contractors are getting rich while everybody else is suffering: This is the
point director Robert Greenwald makes -- passionately -- in this 2006
documentary. Using whistleblower testimony, firsthand accounts, financial
records and classified documents, Greenwald levels charges of greed, corruption
and incompetence against private contractors and shows the subsequent
devastating effect on Americans and Iraqis.
Director:
Robert Greenwald
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) - 105
minutes
Runaway socialite Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) is en
route to the Big Apple to elope with a fortune-hunting flyboy. Along the way
she meets crusty newspaperman Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who's just been sacked
and -- unbeknownst to Ellie -- plans to sell her story to get his job back. But
a string of zany misadventures leads them to realize they're madly, if
reluctantly, in love. It Happened One Night swept every major Academy
Award. GCTOP10
Starring:
Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert
Director: Frank Capra
IT'S A GIFT (1934)
- 71 minutes
The iconic W.C. Fields
stars in this comedy masterpiece as Harold Bissonette, owner of a
grocery store, husband of 20 years to the nagging, status-conscious Amelia
(Kathleen Howard) and father of two bratty children. When Harold hits upon a
scheme to strike it rich by buying an orange grove in California, thus begins a
hilarious adventure as the family sets off to the west coast. Needless to say,
things don't quite turn out as they expected!
TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100
Movies
Starring: W.C. Fields, Jean Rouverol, Shemp Howard
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) – 132
minutes
It's a wonderful film. Frank Capra's inverted take on A
Christmas Carol stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a good man who's spent a
lifetime giving up on his dreams in order to keep life in his small town
humming. When a guardian angel named Clarence finds a despondent George poised
to jump off a bridge, he shows George what life would've been like had he never
been born. GCTOP10
TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100
Movies
Starring: Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed
Director: Frank Capra
JESUS CAMP (2006) – 84 minutes
This riveting documentary offers an
unfiltered look at a revivalist subculture where devout Christian youngsters
are being primed to deliver the fundamentalist community's religious and
political messages. Building an evangelical army of tomorrow, the Kids on Fire
summer camp in Devil's Lake, N.D., is dedicated to deepening the preteens'
spirituality and sowing the seeds of political activism as they're exhorted to
"take back America for Christ."
Starring:
Pastor Ted Haggard
Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
JU DOU (1990) Chinese Language - 94 minutes
In this
romantic tragedy, Chinese director Zhang Yimou's visually sumptuous
cinematography perfectly complements the sensual story line in which the abused
wife (Gong Li) of a wealthy silk dyer (Li Wei) enters into an affair with her
husband's nephew (Li Bao-tian). Arresting images, exquisite use of color and a
classic yet complex plot combine for a richly satisfying drama. A very watchable tragedy.
Starring: Gong Li, Li Wei
Director: Yimou
Zhang
PG-13 Parents strongly cautioned. Some
stuff may be inappropriate for kids under 13
KANAL (1957)
Polish language - 96 minutes
In this second installment of
director Andrzej Wajda's World War II trilogy, resistance fighters wend their
way through Warsaw's sewer system on a quest for freedom. Fearless Madry (Emil
Karewicz) joins Halinka (Teresa Berezowska) and a crazy musician (Vladek
Sheybal) in one area; Daisy (Teresa Izewska) keeps her lover, Corporal Korab
(Tadeusz Janczar), alive in the second pack; and doubting Lieutenant Zadra
(Wienczyslaw Glinski) leads a third.
Starring:
Director: Andrzej Wajda
KEY LARGO
(1948) – 101 minutes
As a
hurricane wreaks havoc outside, Army veteran Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart),
Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall) and
her invalid father-in-law face a worse storm inside the Temples' tumbledown
Florida hotel. Frank stopped by merely to pay his respects to war-widow Nora,
only to find the hotel commandeered by exiled gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson)
and his band of goons. Will the war-weary Frank step up to the plate to save
the Temples?
1949
Oscar: Best Supporting Actress: Claire Trevor
Starring: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson
Director: John Houston
THE KILLERS (1946): disc 1
Ernest Hemingway's short story
"The Killers" was turned into two memorable films that bookended the
high period of the noir genre. Disc 1 contains the original 1946 Robert Siodmak
version starring Burt Lancaster as "the Swede," an aging boxer who's
brought in for an underground job. Also included on Disc 1 is an additional
short film version of the story directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. To
view the 1964 Don Siegel version, please see Disc 2.
Starring:
Burt Lancaster
Director: Robert Siodmak, Andrei Tarkovsky
THE KILLERS (1964): disc 2
Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers" was
turned into two memorable films that bookended the high period of the noir
genre. This disc contains the 1964 Don Siegel version starring Lee Marvin and
Clu Gulager as a pair of gunmen scouring a seedy underworld.
Starring:: Lee Marvin, Clu Gulager, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes, Ronald
Reagan
Director: Don Siegel
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) - 106 minutes
Kind Hearts and Coronets is perhaps
the best (and best-loved) of Alec Guinness's English Ealing comedies. Guinness
is in superb, droll form as he plays eight different members of the D'Ascoyne
clan. Louis (Dennis Price), the black sheep of the wealthy family, must murder
all the heirs in order to inherit the D'Ascoyne fortune. You'll be mesmerized
as the brilliant Guinness disappears into his various eccentric roles
Starring: Alec Guinness, Dennis Price
Director: Robert Hamer
THE KING OF MASKS (1999) Chinese Language - 101 minutes
Nearing the end of his life, Wang -- a locally renowned
street performer and wizard of the venerable art of mask magic -- yearns to
pass on his technique. But custom prescribes that he can only hand down his
craft to a male successor. Anxious to preserve his unique art, the heirless
Wang buys an impoverished 8-year-old on the black market. When the child
divulges a dreaded secret, Wang faces a choice between filial love and societal
tradition. Not to be
missed! Great performance by an eight
year old.
Starring:
Director: Tian-Ming Wu
KING RAT (1965) - 109 minutes
Oscar nominated film based on the
novel by James Clavell, King Rat deals with a group of allied prisoners
incarcerated in the infamous Japanese-run Changi POW camp in Singapore during
World War II. In the camp, an American corporal (George Segal) with a genius
for hustling does whatever he can -- including bribing guards -- to live as
comfortably as possible, even at the expense of his fellow prisoners. “If you liked Apocalypse Now or any
Steinbeck novels, you will enjoy this movie.”
Starring: George Segal, Tom Courtenay, James Fox
Director: Bryan Forbes
KISS OF DEATH (1947) - 98 minutes
Richard Widmark nabbed an Oscar nod for his memorable debut role as a
sadistic mobster in this classic crime noir. Caught red-handed during a heist,
two-bit hood Nick Bianco (Victor Mature, in a stellar turn) refuses to rat out
his underworld pals but turns stoolie after they renege on a promise. Coerced
by the prosecutor to get the goods on hit man Tommy Udo (Widmark), Bianco gets
chummy with him but becomes Udo's mark when he beats the rap.
Starring:
Richard Widmark, Victor Mature
Director: Henry Hathaway
KISS ME DEADLY (1955) - 106 minutes
Shortly
after sleazy detective Mike Hammer picks up a scantily clad hitchhiker, his car
is forced over a cliff. He awakens from unconsciousness to find his passenger
dead -- but it wasn't the fall that killed her. As Hammer sets out to uncover
the woman's deadly secret and find her unknown assassins, he ignores explicit
signs that he should mind his own business. This classic film noir was
adapted from Mickey Spillane's novel
Starring: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker
Director: Robert Aldrich
THE
KNACK...and How to Get It (1965) – 85 minutes
In this
risqué, rollicking 1960s sex farce from Britain, slimy skirt-chaser Tolen (Ray
Brooks) tries to give his straitlaced landlord, timid schoolteacher Colin (the
perfectly cast Michael Crawford), a tip or two about how to make it with the
ladies -- with riotously funny results. Rita Tushingham is hilarious as
their wide-eyed, innocent target. A swift, smart comedy adapted from the
play by Ann Jellicoe. 1966 Best Picture Canne Film Festival.
Starring: Rita Tushingham, Ray Brooks, Michael
Crawford
Director: Richard Lester
KNIFE IN
THE WATER (1962) Czech language - 94 minutes
Director
Roman Polanski ratchets up the suspense with a story that takes place almost
entirely within the confined setting of a sailboat owned by a wealthy
journalist and his much younger wife. On their way to the lake for a weekend of
sailing, the couple invites a young hitchhiker to join them. But hostility
looms as each man tries to humiliate the other in front of the woman
Starring:
Director:
Roman Polanski
LA DOLCE VITA (1960) Italian
language - 167
minutes
Federico
Fellini's lush and intoxicating masterpiece, La Dolce Vita, is a
meditation on the meaning of life and love and stars Marcello Mastroianni as
Marcello, a gossip writer who seeks the fleeting excesses and decadence of life
and sex. He sleeps with the beautiful Maddalena (Anouk Aimee), alienating and
driving his lover, Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), to suicide. When he meets an elusive
actress, Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), he dives deep into the abyss. 1962 Oscar:
Best Costume Design Black and White
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee
Director: Federico Fellini
THE LADY EVE (1941)
- 93 minutes
Seductive gold-digger Barbara
Stanwyck and her conniving father (Charles Coburn) set out to fleece wealthy
but naïve ophiologist Henry Fonda, the socially inept heir to a brewery
fortune. But the tables turn when Stanwyck falls for her prey and Fonda gets
wise to their scheme. Stanwyck then goes all-out to recapture his heart in this
raucous battle of the sexes from renowned writer-director Preston Sturges. TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Screwball gold with a platinum cast.
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles
Coburn
Director: Preston Sturges
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948) - 87 minutes
Batten down the hatches -- it's gonna
be one bumpy ride when Mike O'Hara (Orson Welles, who also wrote and directed)
becomes a crew member on Arthur Bannister's (Everett Sloane) yacht. In nothing
flat, sparks fly between O'Hara and Bannister's wife, Rosalie (Rita Hayworth),
with murder not far off. The hall of mirrors sequence at the end of the film
is classic Welles.
Starring:
Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth
DIRECTOR: Orson Welles
L'ARGENT (1983) French language - 81
minutes
This timeless drama by filmmaker Robert Bresson examines the
heights and depths of humanity and the transformative power of redemption. Yvon
(Christian Patey), a deliveryman, has his mettle tested when he loses his job
and then gets arrested for passing counterfeit cash. Unbeknownst to him, two
boys are behind the fake bill. No one believes Yvon is innocent, however, and
soon, fighting for justice feels futile. Can he hang onto his morals?
Starring: Christian Patey
Director:
, Robert Bresson
LAST
DAYS (1998) - 87 minutes
The
winner of the 1998 Academy Award for Best Documentary, this powerful
film traces the compelling experiences of five Hungarian Holocaust survivors
who fell victim to Hitler's brutal war against the Jews.
Director:
James Moll
THE LAST
DETAIL (1973) - 103 minutes
In this classic 1970s
road movie, Officers Buddusky (Jack Nicholson and Mulhall (Otis Young) must
escort a young sailor (Randy Quaid) to a New England military prison, where the
18-year-old is about to serve eight years for a trivial offense. Determined to
cram all the living they can into one lost weekend, the boys booze, brawl and
fornicate their way to their ultimate destination. Both Nicholson and Quaid
deliver Oscar-nominated performances.
Starring:
Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid
Director:
Hal Ashby
Screenwriter: Robert Towne
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent/guardian
THE LAST LAUGH (1924) silent
language – 91 minutes
One of
German director F.W. Murnau's most brilliant silent films, The
Last Laugh uses a constantly moving and subjective camera to capture the
emotional anguish of a man whose life is suddenly devoid of meaning. An elderly
hotel doorman is demoted to washroom attendant and must give up his prized
uniform. Crestfallen, he spends the day wandering the city, getting drunk and
trying desperately to hang on to a shred of hope.
Starring: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft,
Director: F.W. Murnau
THE LAST
PICTURE SHOW (1971) - 126 minutes
There's not
much to do in the windswept Texas hamlet of Anarene, where the town's only
cinema is about to close forever. High-school seniors Sonny (Timothy Bottoms)
and Duane (Jeff Bridges) lust after incorrigible flirt Jacy Farrow (Cybill
Shepherd) while trying to chart their uncertain futures. When Duane heads for
Korea after joining the service and Jacy gets shipped off to college, Sonny is
left behind in Anarene -- a ghost town in the making. Best Supporting Actor Oscars for Ben
Johnson & Cloris Leachman
Starring:
Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges,
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent/
THE LAST
TYCOON (1976) - 123 minutes
Starring:
Robert De Niro,
Ingrid Boulting, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Jeanne Moreau.
Director:
Elia Kazan
PG Parental guidance suggested.
THE LAST WALTZ
(1978) - 117 minutes
On Thanksgiving Day 1976, more than
5,000 cheering fans gathered for the historic farewell concert of The Band, a
Canadian country-soul-R&B group formed in 1960. Director Martin Scorsese
was present at the big event and later edited the concert footage to create
this documentary, interspersing band interviews with performances by legends
such as Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and
Emmylou Harris.
Director: Martin Scorsese
PG
Parental guidance suggested.
LA STRADA: Special Edition (1954) Italian language - 108 minutes
Italian auteur Federico Fellini helmed this powerful
rumination on love and hate, the Academy Award winner for Best
Foreign Film in 1956. This restored version (introduced by Martin
Scorsese) tells the story of gentle Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), sold by
her mother to the bullying circus performer, Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), with whom
she falls in love. When a clown, Il Matto (Richard Basehart), wins her heart, a
doomed love triangle inevitably develops.
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart
Director:
, Federico Fellini
L'ATALANTE (1934) French language - 87 minutes
Jean Vigo directs this romantic, slyly humorous
masterpiece. Naive village girl Juliette (Dita Parlo) wants to see the
world, so she marries Jean (Jean Daste), the captain of the river barge
L'Atalante. But their marriage is plagued by conflict early on, especially with
the appearance of a handsome traveling entertainer (Gilles Margaritis), who
entices Juliette with stories of Paris. Will Juliette choose the Paris lights
over her life with Jean?
Starring: Dita
Parlo), Jean Daste),
Director: Jean Vigo
LAURA
(1944) – 88 minutes
Otto
Preminger's classic mystery received four Oscar nominations, including Best
Director, and won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1944. Laura Hunt
(Gene Tierney) has been murdered. As New York detective Mark McPherson (Dana
Andrews) investigates, he finds that everyone seems to be in love with her --
and he, too, gradually falls under her spell. But things aren't always as they
seem, and McPherson soon faces a shockingly unexpected twist.
Starring: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney
Director: Otto Preminger
THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951) - 81
minutes
Mr. Holland (Alec Guinness) has supervised his bank's bullion
run for years. He's fussy and unnecessarily overprotective, but everyone knows
he's absolutely trustworthy. And so, on the day the bullion truck is robbed,
he's the last person to be suspected. But there's another side to Mr. Holland
-- he's also "Dutch," the leader of the titular mob. Ealing Studios
writer T.E.B. Clarke won an Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Starring: Alec Guinness,
Director: Charles Crichton
LE CORBEAU (1943) French
language - 91 minutes
The shadowy
writer known only as "Le Corbeau" drives a French provincial town --
via cryptic and damning letters -- into exposing the suspicion and hard
feelings hidden beneath the community's surface. Made during the Nazi
occupation of France, director Henri-Georges Clouzot's film was vilified by the
right-wing Vichy regime and other groups. But writers such as Jean Cocteau
recognized powerful subtext to Clouzot's anti-Gestapo tale.
Starring: Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc,
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
LE
SAMOURAI (1967) French language - 95 minutes
A little bit
gangster film, a little bit samurai flick, this 1960s French masterpiece
from Jean-Pierre Melville introduces the memorable anti-hero Jef Costello
(Alain Delon), a contract killer with the instincts of a Japanese warrior and
the features of Adonis. After offing a nightclub owner, Costello has two big
problems: his double-crossing employer, who now wants him dead, and the dogged
police investigator who's determined to rein him in.
Starring: Alain Delon, François Perier,
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
THE LEGEND OF FONG SAI YUK (1993) -
95 minutes
International action star Jet Li stars in this action-packed
martial arts story about Fong Sai Yuk, a young martial arts expert who must
fight to protect his father from the evil emperor. When the emperor discovers
that an underground organization is trying to overthrow his regime, he goes
after the members of this society, including
Fong Sai's father. Terrific
kung fu fun!
Starring: Jet Li, Josephine
Siao, Michelle Reis
Director: Corey Yuen
LIBELED LADY (1936) - 98 minutes
This Oscar-nominated classic film directed by Jack
Conway stars Spencer Tracy as Warren Haggerty, a newspaper editor who's prone
to postponing his nuptials to Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow) and who faces an even
greater problem when he's sued by a woman (Myrna Loy) who claims she's been libeled
by his publication. Haggerty hatches an intricate plot to put the woman in her
place before she can bilk the paper for all it's worth.
Starring:
Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy
Director: Jack Conway
LITTLE CAESAR (1931) – 79 minutes
Noted for Edward G. Robinson's
breakthrough performance, this gangster classic centers on Rico
"Little Caesar" Bandelli (Robinson), who stages an all-out coup to
become mob boss. After moving to the city, Rico and pal Joe (Douglas Fairbanks
Jr.) join Sam Vettori's (Stanley Fields) gang. Rico rises quickly through the
ranks, and his hit list expands -- but just when Rico needs his friend the
most, Joe wants out. Glenda Farrell also stars.
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks
Jr
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
LITTLE VOICE (1998) - 96 minutes
Telephone
repairman Ewan McGregor and music promoter Michael Caine play second fiddle to
Little Voice (Jane Horrocks), a young woman whose beautiful pipes could pack a
thousand cabarets. Trouble is, she can only sing along to records in her room.
This British charmer was a sleeper hit among the indie set thanks to its
winning mix of romance, hope and humor.
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks and
Michael Caine
Director: Mark Herman
R for language and brief nudity
THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996) - 120 minutes
Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) can't
remember anything before the day she woke up eight years ago, injured and two
months pregnant. Now a schoolteacher with only vague memories of the past, she
starts to exhibit bizarre, violent impulses. It's only after hiring two-bit
private detective Mitch Hennessey (Samuel L. Jackson) that she discovers that
she was once a top CIA assassin named Charley -- and that her old boss has kept
tabs on her. Maybe the
best Hollywood Hong Kong shoot-em-up ever.
If you like that sort of thing.
Starring: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson
Director:
Renny Harlin
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
parent/guardian
THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) – 101
minutes
Billy Wilder's searing, Oscar-winning portrait of an
alcoholic follows writer Don Birnem (Ray Milland), whose girlfriend (Jane
Wyman) and caring brother (Philip Terry) leave him alone for the weekend.
Aching to drink, Don heads to a bar and goes on a binge that sends him into an
alcoholic fog -- complete with petrifying hallucinations and an unnerving stint
in a hospital sanitarium. 1946 Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best
Writing, Best Director
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman
Director: Billy Wilder
LOVES OF A BLONDE (1965) Czech
language - 85 minutes
Milos Forman
directs this mood Czech -pleasing working-class drama in which a naive factory
worker falls in love after a one-night stand with a visiting pianist from
Prague.
Starring:
Hana Brejchova, Vladimir Pucholt,
Director: Milos Forman
THE LOWER DEPTHS (1957)
Japanese language - 125 minutes
Based on the play by Maxim Gorky,
this surprisingly comical tale focuses on the daily tribulations of a group of
lower-class people living in a small tenement. Osugi (Isuzu Yamada), the
landlady, bickers with Okayo (Kyôko Kagawa), her sister, over the man they both
want -- Sutekichi (Toshirô Mifune), a thief. Akira Kurosawa's tragicomic film
is especially notable for Mifune's remarkable performance as the edgy
yet sensitive Sutekichi.
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada
Director: Akira Kurosawa
M (1931) German language - 111
minutes
German-American
director Fritz Lang presents his first "talkie" -- and cinema's
first serial killer -- in this 1931 classic. Plump pedophile Hans
Beckert (Peter Lorre), propelled by a compulsion he can't control, escapes the
eye of the law -- but not the wrath of the Berlin underworld being blamed for
his crimes. The character of Beckert was later used in Nazi propaganda films to
illustrate the evils of sexual deviance.
Starring:
Peter Lorre
Director: Fritz Lang
PG Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be
inappropriate for KIDS under 13.
M. HULOT'S HOLIDAY (1953) French
language - 87 minutes
Jacques Tati followed his acclaimed directorial debut Jour de
Fête with this gently satirical comedy that introduced Tati's alter ego,
Monsieur Hulot. When Hulot spends a holiday at a seaside resort, he
accidentally (but good-naturedly) wreaks havoc wherever he goes. Falling all
over himself to impress a beautiful girl, Hulot inadvertently crashes a
funeral, topples a priceless vase and ignites fireworks with his pipe -- all to
hilarious effect. Very little dialog.
Starring:
Jacques Tati
Director: Jacques Tati
MAKE MINE
MINK (1960) - 100 minutes
Terry-Thomas plays the
military-officer head of an amiable gang of amateur British thieves. He is
recruited for this task by wealthy dowager Athylene Sayer, who merely wants to
retrieve stolen minks from genuine crooks. Any profits accrued by this undertaking
are to be turned over to charity. (Best bit: Terry-Thomas, backed by
Anton Karas' "Third Man" theme, skulking into what appears to be a
waterfront dive to make contact with a "fence," only to discover that
he's stumbled into a Salvation Army mission.)
Starring:
Terry-Thomas, Elspeth Duxbury, Hattie Jacques, Billie Whitelaw
Director: Robert Asher
THE
MALTESE FALCON (1941) - 100 minutes
The big bird
is “The stuff dreams are made of“ according to gumshoe Sam
Spade (Humphrey Bogart). When his partner gets snuffed, Spade starts digging
around for the murderer. But when the trail leads to Sydney Greenstreet, Peter
Lorre and Mary Astor, a sinister troika intent on nabbing the titular
solid-gold bird, Spade must make some tough decisions.
Starring:
Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
Director: John Huston
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962) - 129 minutes
Some thrillers remain as suspenseful -- and timely -- as when
they were first released. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is a Korean War hero
with a lethal secret: He's been brainwashed into being a sleeper agent for the
communist Chinese. With one phone call, the Reds can transform Shaw into a
deadly assassin -- unless fellow veteran Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) can stop
them first! TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra
Director: John Frankenheimer
A MAN ESCAPED (1957) French language
– 100 minutes
Director
Robert Bresson -- via a deceptively successful minimalist approach -- brings
high drama to this true tale of a French prisoner (Francois Leterrier) and his
single-minded determination to escape from a Nazi prison cell in occupied
France during World War II. A prodigious achievement and a truly enthralling
film.
Starring: Francois Leterrier, Charles Le
Clainche
Director: Robert Bresson
MANHATTAN (1979) - 96 minutes
One of Woody Allen's best films, Manhattan offers more drama than it
does comedy; it's a character-rich portrait of life and love among unhappy New
York City intellectuals. Allen essentially plays himself, a neurotic writer
involved with a high school girl (Mariel Hemingway). Then he meets his married
best friend's new lover (Diane Keaton) and falls hard.
Starring:
Woody Allen, Mariel Hemingway
Director: Woody Allen
PG Parents strongly cautioned. for KIDS under 13.
MARS
ATTACKS! (1996) - 103 minutes
They're
mean, they're green and they're jumping off the screen in this sci-fi comedy.
Martians land on Earth with insta-fry ray guns! Two trailers included. The
hidden feature on Mars Attacks is as funny as the film. Go to the soundtrack
selection in your menu; then, select "Martian Audio Track." You'll see
a screen shot and hear some amusing, garbled Martian dialogue.
Starring:
everybody
Director:
Tim Burton
PG-13 For sci-fi fantasy violence and brief sexuality
MARTY (1955) - 90 minutes
Marty has a
problem. Middle-aged and trapped by a smothering mother, his future looks
bleak. But when this butcher from the Bronx meets a lonely schoolteacher,
suddenly everything is possible. Marty swept the Academy Awards in 1955,
winning a Best Actor Oscar for Ernest Borgnine and a Best Screenplay
award for Paddy Chayefsky (Network), as well as Best Picture and Best
Director Awards.
Starring:
Ernest Borgnine,
Jerry Paris
Director:
Delbert Mann
MASCULIN FEMININ (1966) French language – 105 minutes
French new
wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard forays into the vibrant
world of 1960s counterculture in this fresh take on the age-old battle of the
sexes. Would-be writer/revolutionary Paul (Jean-Pierre Leaud) romances
Madeleine breezy pop singer, (Chantal Goya) but their fundamental differences
breed confusion. Can their stormy relationship survive a world characterized by
bourgeois sensibility & radical social concern?
Starring:
Jean-Pierre Leaud, Chantal Goya
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971) -
121 minutes
From director Robert Altman comes a dazzling
original film capturing the essence of a long-ago time while
overturning Old West myths. John McCabe (Warren Beatty), an entrepreneurial
vagabond, moves to a ramshackle Pacific Northwestern town to establish a
saloon/brothel. He soon meets the shrewd Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie), a
professional madam with years of experience; together, they start a booming
business and a blossoming relationship.
Starring:
Warren Beatty, Julie Christie
Director: Robert Altman
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires parent/guardian.
MEET JOHN DOE (1941) – 123 minutes
Sacked by her newspaper, spunky scribe Ann Mitchell (Barbara
Stanwyck) hatches a hoax to keep her job. In her final column, she pens a
missive from "John Doe," a fictitious hobo planning to leap to his
death from city hall. When the letter triggers a public flap, the paper --
looking to boost readership -- cons a suitable stooge (Gary Cooper) into posing
as Doe. Little does he know the paper's owner plans to use him as a ticket to
the presidency?
Starring:
Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck,
and Walter Brennan
Director: Frank Capra
MELVIN AND HOWARD (1980)
- 95 minutes
In this delightful American fable,
everyday loser Melvin Dummar (Paul LeMat) picks up a haggard old man (Jason
Robards) in the Nevada desert. Eight years later, the hitchhiker turns out to
have been Howard Hughes ... who has named Melvin as one of the heirs to his
multi-billion dollar fortune. Melvin becomes an instant celebrity and a
national punch line, gamely fighting to win the crapshoot that is the American
Dream. 1981 Oscars: Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress: Mary
Steenburgen
Starring: Paul LeMat, Mary
Steenburgen, and Jason Robards
Director: Jonathan Demme
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) - 115 minutes
Hayseed hustler Jon Voight comes to Manhattan to earn cash as
a freelance sex stud. There, he meets seedy gimp Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman),
and an improbable friendship blossoms. Rated X in 1969, the movie won Oscars
for Best Picture, Director (John Schlesinger) and Screenplay. Although
Hoffman didn't win a Best Actor Oscar, his Ratso characterization - the
vilified butt of everyone's jokes - is absolutely heartbreaking.
Starring:
Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman),
Director: John Schlesinger
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent
MIDNIGHT
EXPRESS (1978) – 121 minutes
The true story of Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is brought to life
by Oliver Stone's Academy Award-winning screenplay recounting the young
American's experience in a Turkish prison. When Hayes is caught attempting to
smuggle drugs out of Turkey, the courts decide to make an example out of him
and sentence him to 20 years in prison. With little hope of ever getting out,
Hayes decides to attempt a daring escape. 1979 Oscars®: Best Music Score,
Best Adapted Screenplay
Starring:, Brad Davis, Randy Quaid and John Hurt
Director: Alan Parker
MIRROR (1974) Russian
language - 106 minutes
In one of his most autobiographical films, Russian
filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky crafts a dizzying visual narrative by combining past
and present, dreams and reality, and color and black-and-white. The story
relies more on emotional ebb and flow than on linear plot points, subtly luring
the viewer into the faceless protagonist's world. A richly textured life
emerges, one so complex that it may require multiple viewings.
Starring::
Director: Andrei
Tarkovsky
MISTER ROBERTS (1955)
- 123 minutes
A hilarious and heartfelt military
comedy-drama co-directed by John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, Mr. Roberts stars Henry
Fonda as an officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of
World War II on a noncommissioned Navy ship run by the bullying Capt. Morton
(James Cagney). Jack Lemmon enjoys a star-making turn as the wheeling and
dealing Ensign Pulver 1956 Oscar Best Supporting Actor: Jack Lemmon
Starring:
Henry Fonda, James Cagney
Director: John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy
MODERN TIMES (1936) silent language
- 83 minutes
The Little Tramp battles it out with technology,
unemployment, jail, burglars, demanding customers and more in this classic
film. He wins some and loses more and in the end walks undaunted into the
sunrise. Known as Chaplin's last silent film, Modern Times is actually anything
but -- from the opening notes of the rich score to the first and last time the
star's voice is heard, the film speaks with a clear, well-rounded voice that
still resonates.
Starring:
Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
Director: Charlie Chaplin
MON ONCLE (1958)
French language - 116 minutes
Jacques Tati
plays Monsieur Hulot, a self-absorbed chucklehead wrestling with neoteric
gadgetry -- and losing -- in this satirical masterpiece
that makes sport of mechanization, class distinctions and modernity. While
visiting his sister's surreal, ultra-trendy home, Hulot finds himself
incessantly at odds with newfangled contraptions that get the better of him.
The tongue-in-cheek French comedy garnered a Best Foreign Language Film
Oscar.
Starring:
Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie,
Director: Jacques Tati
THE MORE
THE MERRIER (1943) - 104 minutes
During World
War II, civil servant Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) decides to turn the housing
shortage in Washington, D.C., to her advantage. But when she rents out her
four-room apartment to two men -- aging millionaire Benjamin (Charles Coburn)
and young, handsome sergeant Joe (Joel McCrea) -- Connie gets more than she
bargained for, including Benjamin taking on the role of matchmaking cupid. Best
Supporting Actor Oscar: Charles Coburn
Starring:
Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn
Director:
George Stevens
MOUCHETTE (1967) French language – 81
minutes
Starring: Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert
Director: Robert Bresson
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936) - 115 minutes
When a small-town tuba player (Gary Cooper) lands a $20 million
inheritance and moves to the big city, the sharks begin to circle. Jean Arthur
is the sassy reporter who'll do anything for a scoop on Deeds -- until she
falls for him. Director Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life) delivers a heartfelt
romantic allegory about daring to stand for principles in the face of greed
and malice. 1937 Oscar Best Director: Frank Capra
Starring:
Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur
Director: Frank Capra
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
- 129 minutes
When
idealistic junior senator Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) arrives in
Washington, he's full of plans and dazzled by his surroundings -- qualities he
retains even in the face of widespread corruption on the part of his
colleagues. Jean Arthur puts in a sharp performance as Smith's cynical
secretary, and former cowboy star Harry Carey makes a fine vice president in
this Academy Award-winning classic from director Frank Capra (Best
Screenplay Oscar).
Starring: Jean Arthur, James Stewart,
Director: Frank Capra
MURDER, MY SWEET (1944)
- 95 minutes
Starring Dick Powell and Claire
Trevor, this film noir captures the sharp wit and style of Raymond
Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely, about a gumshoe named Philip
Marlowe who's searching for a missing moll, Velma. Renamed so American
filmgoers wouldn't mistake it as a Powell musical, the film turned the actor's
career around, helping him to shed his choir-boy image. Edward Dmytryk directs.
Starring:
Dick Powell and Claire Trevor
Director: Edward Dmytryk
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946) - 97
minutes
As the
enforcer of law in the town of Tombstone, Ariz., Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) must
balance keeping unruly criminals in line with tracking down and bringing to
justice the men who killed his brothers, Morgan (Ward Bond) and Virgil (Tom
Holt). With help from Doc Holliday (Victor Mature), with whom he maintains a
tepid friendship, Earp's pursuit ultimately involves the history-making
confrontation at the OK Corral.
Starring: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell,
Director: John Ford
MY DOG SKIP (2000) - 95 minutes
Lonely, 9-year-old Willie Morris (Frankie Muniz) lives in the
flea-bitten town of Yazoo, Miss. He stinks at sports and has no playmates. So,
over the strenuous objections of his hardnosed father (Kevin Bacon), Willie's
mother (Diane Lane) buys him a dog that he promptly dubs "Skip."
Before you know it, Skip transforms Willie's life: He makes friends, plays
sports and develops an unbreakable bond with the spunky terrier. Based on a
true story. Best pet movie!
Starring:
Frankie Muniz, Kevin Bacon, and Diane Lane
Director: Jay Russell
MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) - 88 minutes
After a man's wife has gone 7 years missing at sea (and is
long believed dead), she suddenly shows up on the very day he's about to marry
wife No. 2! Cary Grant stars as the beleaguered husband, and Irene Dunne is
hilarious as his returning wife, who -- on top of everything else -- must
adjust to a hectic life far removed from the island where she was marooned.
Starring: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant
Director: Garsin Kanin
MY LIFE TO LIVE (1962)
French language - 85 minutes
Jean-Luc Godard
directs this tale about Nana (Anna Karina), a
Parisian salesgirl who drifts into a life of prostitution. Godard divides the
story into a series of 12 essentially unconnected tableaux that form a portrait
of a woman caught between her dreams of becoming an actress and that which
she's permitted or forced to do. The film's emotional centerpiece occurs when
Nana breaks down in a theatre showing The Passion of Joan of Arc
Starring:
Anna Karina
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
MY MAN GODFREY (1936) - 95 minutes
A high-society scavenger hunt leads to levity when
scatterbrained socialite Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) stumbles upon an
erudite vagabond named Godfrey (William Powell) living in the city dump and
offers him a position as the Bullocks' butler. As it happens, the seemingly bankrupt
bum is, in fact, the heir of a well-to-do family. While Godfrey sets out to
teach the pampered Bullocks a few lessons, Irene conspires to capture his
heart.
Starring:
William Powell, Carole Lombard Director: Gregory La Cava
NASHVILLE (1975) – 160 minutes
Director Robert Altman's sprawling
masterpiece about politics and country music astonishes. A huge cast of
characters (including Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, Ned Beatty and Karen
Black) gets caught up in a political rally that takes over the home of country
music. The many fine performances include Lily Tomlin's bored housewife and
Henry Gibson's pompous, patriotic country singer. The actors wrote and
performed their own songs.
Starring: Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, Lily
Tomlin, Ned Beatty and Karen Black
Director: Robert Altman
NETWORK:
Special Edition (1976) - 121 minutes
Paddy
Chayefsky predicted today's rash of trash television and shock-laden news
broadcasts. The writer of Marty created network news anchor Howard Beale (Peter
Finch), who loses his mind on the air. Unfortunately, his outrageous rants
boost the ratings and intrigue cutthroat
network
executives Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall. William Holden contrasts their
avarice as an old-school TV journalist hopelessly out of step.
Starring:
Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall
Director:
Sidney Lumet
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent/guardian
NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950) – 96 minutes
Shot in London, Jules Dassin's film noir centers on grifter
Harry (Richard Widmark), who schemes to take over wrestling promoter Kristo's
(Herbert Lom) racket. Harry pits Kristo's father, Gregorius, against his own
son and convinces nightclub owner Phil (Francis L. Sullivan) to invest in his
scheme. But his plan falls apart when Gregorius is killed and Phil learns that
his wife (Googie Withers) is leaving him for Harry. Gene Tierney also stars.
Starring: Richard Widmark, Herbert Lom, Googie
Withers
Director: Jules Dassin
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935) - 92 minutes
Starring: Marx Bros, Kitty Carlisle
Director: Sam Wood
THE NIGHT
OF THE HUNTER (1955) - 93 minutes
Bogus
"preacher" Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) learns that cellmate Ben
Harper has stashed a passel of stolen loot on his property. After the demented
Powell is released, he charms Ben's widow (Shelley Winters) into getting
hitched, and in time, only Ben's kids stand between Powell and the money. As he
stalks them relentlessly, they seek refuge with the indomitable Rachel Cooper
(Lillian Gish), setting the stage for an inexorable battle of wills.
Starring:
Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters,
Director: Charles Laughton
NIGHTMARE
ALLEY (1947) – 110 minutes
Always
looking for his next big chance, ambitious carnival barker Stan Carlisle
(Tyrone Power) moves in on Zeena (Joan Blondell), the widow of the carnival's
mentalist. After Zeena teaches Stan every mind-reading trick she knows, he
marries another beautiful performer (Cathy Downs) who becomes his nightclub act
partner. But Stan's new wife isn't prepared for her husband's callous plan to
con a millionaire by conjuring up the man's dead daughter. See Hollywood’s first onscreen geek!
Starring: Tyrone Power
Director: Edmund Goulding
NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957) Italian
language - 118 minutes
Despite an endless string of heartbreaks and misfortune,
Cabiria (Giulietta Masina), a prostitute working the streets of Rome, never
seems to give up on finding true love. One of Federico Fellini's best-known
efforts, this heartbreaking drama won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, and
Masina (Fellini's wife) won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
Starring:
Giulietta Masina)
Director: Federico Fellini
NINE TO FIVE (1980) - 110 minutes
A troika of female employees (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and
Dolly Parton) fed up with their "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical
bigot" of a boss (Dabney Coleman) entertains fantasies about evening the
score. But fantasy turns into reality when the women think they've
inadvertently poisoned his coffee. To cover their tracks, they concoct an
intricate scheme that will turn the tables on the chief and shred the
patriarchal old boys' network. Funny! Great script, sprightly direction
and, at least the Casting Director should have won an Oscar!
Starring:
Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman
Director: Colin Higgins
NINOTCHKA (1939) - 110 minutes
Ninotchka (Greta Garbo, in one of her greatest roles) is the
Communist Party's dream member: a stern-faced apparatchik who does things
entirely by the book -- the Soviet book. She's sent to Paris to arrange the
sale of Grand Duchess Swana's jewels for the Soviet government, but while
taking in the appalling materialism of Paris, Ninotchka meets a lawyer for the
Swana estate, Count Leon (Melvyn Douglas), who melts her icy heart. Co-Written by Billy Wilder
Starring:
Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) - 136
minutes
What if everyone around you was suddenly convinced you were a
spy? Cary Grant plays an advertising executive who looks a little too much like
someone else and is forced to go on the lam (helped along by Eva Marie Saint). Hitchcock's
sure-handed comic drama pits Grant against a crop duster and lands him in a
fight for his life on Mount Rushmore. A cliffhanger if ever there was one!
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) - 107
minutes
Terry Malloy
(Oscar-winner Marlon Brando) is a washed-up boxer turned longshoreman
who finds he has one fight left in him when he dares to take on corrupt union
boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). A landmark "issue" picture,
On the Waterfront is distinguished by great performances and excellent use of
New York locations. It's also the winner of eight Oscars, including Best
Picture and Best Director (Elia Kazan). Best Cinematography Black and White,
Best Supporting Actress: Eva Marie Saint
Starring: Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint
Director: Elia Kazan
ONCE
UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) - 185 minutes
This
Sergio Leone classic, a tribute to Hollywood Westerns, stars Henry Fonda
as Frank, a gunslinger hired by the powerful owner of a railroad conglomerate
to kill anyone who derails the project. But Frank contends with the wrong
person when he murders Brett (Frank Wolff), a landowner; after his death,
Brett's wife (Claudia Cardinale) demands revenge, hiring two renegades (Charles
Bronson and Jason Robards) to go after Frank.
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach
Director:
Sergio Leone
ONE BRIGHT SHINING MOMENT (2005) - 125 minutes
Retracing
presidential candidate George McGovern's unsuccessful run for office in
1972 -- despite his well-respected intellect and decency -- this political
documentary interviews McGovern himself, as well as supporters and activists
such as Gore Vidal, Gloria Steinem, Warren Beatty and Howard Zinn, to explore
the volatility of the electoral process. A period-appropriate soundtrack
features songs by Bob Dylan, Donovan and Elvis Costello.
Starring:
Gore Vidal, Gloria Steinem, Warren Beatty and Howard Zinn
Director: Stephen Vittoria
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)
- 133 minutes
The first movie since IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT to win all
five major Academy Awards (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay),
Cuckoo's Nest still has the ability to entertain and inspire. Implacable
rabble-rouser Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is committed to an
asylum and inspires his fellow patients to rebel against the authoritarian rule
of head nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher).
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher. Danny Divito
Director:
Milos Foreman
R Restricted. Under 17 requires parent or adult
guardian.
ONE, TWO, THREE (1961) - 109 minutes
Director
Billy Wilder's Cold War farce comes off at a breakneck pace that will
leave your head spinning. C.J. McNamara (James Cagney) is a
Coca-Cola executive who travels to Berlin to promote the product on the other
side of the Iron Curtain. But he soon learns that his real job is baby-sitting
his boss's teenage daughter, Scarlet (Pamela Tiffin), who has secretly married
volatile Communist Otto Piffl (Horst Bucholz).
Starring: James Cagney, Horst Buchholz,
Director: Billy Wilder
OPEN CITY
(1945) Italian language - 102 minutes
Director Roberto Rossellini's unsettling drama portrays the
harrowing struggle of everyday women and children as they try to shield resistance
forces from the Nazis and to maintain compassion and self-respect despite
Rome's de facto occupation during World War II's waning days. Rossellini's
landmark film, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay,
brilliantly depicts the Italian people's weary despair and collective resolve
Starring: Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi
Director: Roberto Rossellini
OUR HOSPITALITY / SHERLOCK JR. (1926) silent language - 119 minutes
Silent-film master Buster Keaton
directs and acts in this double feature. Both films in this classic combo
showcase Keaton's amazing physical comedy and captivating personality.
In OUR HOSPITALITY, Keaton resurrects a long-standing Southern feud when he falls
for a gal on the wrong side of the fence. Keaton's innovative visual effects
earmark SHERLOCK JR., in which he plays a daydreaming movie projectionist in
love with an unattainable woman.
Starring:
Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge
Director: Buster Keaton
ORPHEUS (1930) French language – ___ minutes
This trilogy from master filmmaker Jean Cocteau
examines the roles of artists in modern society and how they function as
observers, social critics and trailblazers in an increasingly fractured world.,
Starring: Enrique Rivero, Jean Marais, and
Elizabeth Lee Miller
Director: Jean Cocteau
OUT OF SIGHT (1998) - 123 minutes
Florida bank robber Jack Foley
(George Clooney) plays a genteel game of cat-and-mouse with Karen Sisco
(Jennifer Lopez), the stunning federal marshal he meets in the trunk of a
getaway car. Director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) displays his trademark
nonlinear storytelling in a film that received Oscar nominations for both
its crack editing (Anne V. Coates) and its brilliant adaptation (Scott Frank)
of Elmore Leonard's novel.
Starring: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez,
Director: Steven Soderbergh
R Restricted. Under 17 requires parent or adult
guardian.
OUT OF
THE PAST (1947) - 97 minutes
Jacques
Tourneur directs this definitive noir classic (remade in 1984 as Against
All Odds with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward) about a trio to reckon with --
troubled private investigator Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), drop-dead beauty
Kathie (Jane Greer) and moneyed mobster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas. Bailey is
hired to find Kathie, Sterling's former mistress. When he finds her, the
unexpected occurs.
Starring:
Robert Mitchum, Jane
Greer, Kirk Douglas
Director: Jacques Tourneur
R Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent
or adult guardian
OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on
Journalism (2004) - 77 minutes
Finally, a no-holds-barred
documentary on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, which has been criticized in some
quarters as running a "race to the bottom" in television news.
Offering an in-depth look at the dangers of burgeoning corporations that take
control of the public's right to know, the film explores Murdoch's
ever-expanding media empire and its impact on society. Media experts such as
Jeff Cohen and Bob McChesney are interviewed.
Director: Robert Greenwald
THE
OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943) -- 75 minutes
Director
William Wellman's Western digs into the mob-led lynching of three innocent men.
The film centers on cowboys Carter (Henry Fonda) and Croft (Harry Morgan), who
reluctantly join a hunt for murderous cattle rustlers. Led by ex-soldier Tetley
(Frank Conroy), the posse captures three transients (Dana Andrews, Anthony
Quinn and Francis Ford). When Tetley calls for their execution without proof of
their guilt, Carter faces a moral dilemma.
Starring:
Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews,
Director: William A. Wellman
THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942) - 88
minutes
Preston Sturges helmed this screwball comedy about Gerry Jeffers (Claudette
Colbert), a woman who'll do anything to help her struggling architect spouse,
Tom (Joel McCrea), succeed. When she realizes Tom will never strike it rich,
Gerry decides to divorce him, wed a wealthy man and finance Tom's projects --
so she heads to Palm Beach, Fla., where she tries to land eccentric billionaire
John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee).
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Rudy Vallee and Mary Astor
Director: Preston Sturges
PANDORA'S BOX (1929) silent language
- 133 minutes
Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner
Director:
G.W. Pabst
PAPER
MOON (1973) - 102 minutes
A con man
(Ryan O'Neal) and his precocious "daughter" (Tatum O'Neal, in an
Oscar-winning role as Best Supporting Actress) grift their way
across the heartland of depression-era America in director Peter Bogdanovich's
nostalgic look at the 1930s. As the two try desperately to scrounge up enough
money to live on, their "father/daughter relationship" soon becomes a
business partnership when they realize they need each other for survival.
Starring:
Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal,
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
PG
Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) silent
language - 82 minutes
Widely
considered director Carl Theodor Dreyer's finest achievement and one of the
greatest movies of all time, this stunning emotional drama recounts the
events surrounding Joan of Arc's 1431 heresy trial, burning at the stake and
subsequent martyrdom. Maria Falconetti turns in a haunting performance as the
young French saint. The film's original version, thought to have been lost
to fire, was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981.
Starring: Maria Falconetti
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
PEEPING
TOM (1960) - 101 minutes
A disturbed
filmmaker (Carl Boehm) literally kills with his camera in this ahead-of-its-time
shocker from revered British director Michael Powell. Like the same year's
Psycho, this film's combination of voyeurism, eroticism and horror repelled
some 1960 critics, but its cult reputation soared in later years. Moira Shearer
(star of Powell's The Red Shoes) makes an appearance, as does Powell himself
(as Boehm's father in flashback).
Starring:
Nigel Davenport
Director:
Michael Powell
PERSONA (1967) Swedish language - 83 minutes
To achieve
more effective treatment, a nurse (Bibi Andersson) and her patient (Liv
Ullmann), an actress who's lost the power of speech, check into a private
cottage by the sea. Isolated from most of the rest of society, the two women
become co-dependent and insanely jealous of each other. It's a case of the cure
being worse than the affliction in this classic directed by Swedish master
Ingmar Bergman. TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring:
Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann
Director:
Ingmar Bergman
PICKPOCKET (1959) French language -
75 minutes
Acclaimed French director Robert Bresson helms this stylized
black-and-white drama following the trials of a Paris pickpocket named Michel
(Martin LaSalle), a thief who grows so successful at his craft that he worries
his luck will run out. Despite his own fears -- and the persistent pleas from
his girlfriend and ailing mother that he take up a more honorable profession --
Michel remains chained to his compulsion to steal.
Starring:
Martin LaSalle
Director: Robert Bresson
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953) - 80 minutes
A routine subway ride turns out to be
anything but when Candy (Jean Peters) is mugged by a man named Skip McCoy
(Richard Widmark), who's in search of valuable microfilm that Candy is
carrying. Aware of the film's important nature but not its exact contents
(government secrets intended for Communist spies), Candy must now enlist the
help of her ex-boyfriend Joey (Richard Kiley) to find the thief and get the
microfilm back.
Starring:
Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, and Richard Kiley
Director: Samuel Fuller
THE PLAYER (1992) - 123 minutes
Director Robert Altman's viciously funny masterpiece
follows a happenin' Hollywood studio executive (Tim Robbins) whose life is
falling apart (a rival wants his job, and he's facing a murder rap). Will
Robbins face the music or turn his liabilities into assets? Packed with
irreverence, myriad star cameos, and DVD extras about the improbable but true
tales behind the film. 1993 Independent Spirit Awards®: Best Feature GCTOP10
Starring: Tim Robbins, Whoopi
Goldberg
Director: Robert Altman
R
For language, and for some sensuality
PLAYTIME (1967) French language - 124
minutes
The celebrated Jacques Tati directs and stars in this brilliantly
eccentric ode to humanity. Tati plays Monsieur Hulot, a Parisian who's
befuddled by the changes he witnesses in his beloved city, which has grown
increasingly touristy. As Hulot roams the uncomfortably modern Paris with a
group of American tourists, his story epitomizes the struggle of modern man to
maintain a soul in the face of an impersonal world.
Starring: Jacques
Tati, Barbara Dennek
Director: Jacques
Tati
PONETTE (1996) French language - 95 minutes
When her mother dies in a car accident, 4-year-old Ponette
(Victoire Thivisol) is left physically and emotionally scarred and in the care
of her grief-stricken father. Sent to live with family for a while, Ponette
sullenly navigates a world made up mostly of children's faces and slowly comes
to terms with her loss. Thivisol's powerful, haunting performance earned her
a Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival in 1996.
Starring: Victoire Thivisol
Director: Jaques Doillon
POWWOW HIGHWAY
(1989) - 87 minutes
This offbeat road film, awarded the Filmmaker's Trophy at
the Sundance Film Festival, tracks the journey of mellow Philbert
Bono (Gary Farmer), a Montana Cheyenne tribe member who has to drive hundreds
of miles to pick up a sister arrested in Santa Fe. Accompanying him is the
intensely political Buddy Red Bow (A Martinez). Together, the two discover that
they have much to learn from each other about life and strife. Co-authored by Janet Heaney, my writing partner
(1992-1996). Her first big break. Two thumbs up from Siskal & Ebert
Starring: Gary Farmer, A
Martinez
Director: Joanelle Nadine Romero, Jonathan Wacks
THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (1942) - 121
minutes
One of the great American stories
about one of the great American heroes: baseball phenomenon Lou Gehrig. The
film follows the Iron Horse (Gary Cooper) from childhood to his later glory on
the diamond. Gehrig embodied the American ethic of humility and hard work,
playing in 2,130 consecutive games until he was forced to retire because of the
disease that now bears his name.
Starring: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan
Director: Sam Wood
PROJECT A #2 (1991) - 101 minutes
After he defeats an evil pirate at sea, Dragon Mao (Jackie
Chan) gets offered the lead slot on the municipal police squad. But when he
discovers corruption seeded deep within the department, he must keep one eye on
the locals and the other on his fellow officers. He soon finds himself at the
center of a jewelry robbery, framed by malevolent forces who want him
destroyed. Chan also directed this sequel to Project A 1.
Starring:
Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung
Director: Jackie Chan
PUNK: ATTITUDE (2005)
- 88 minutes
From London's 1970 mod scene to Sonic
Youth, punk music has always been about attitude and anarchy. This
comprehensive rockumentary traces the roots of punk, from The Velvet
Underground and the New York Dolls to the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Punkers
Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Tommy Ramone and David Johansen share their wild
stories, and there's vintage performance footage of the Sex Pistols, the Ramones,
The Clash, The Damned and much more.
Starring: Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Tommy
Ramone and David Johansen
Director: Don Letts
QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933)
- 99 minutes
Hollywood icon Greta Garbo puts her
ambisexual persona to good use in this portrait of Sweden's Queen
Christina, a cross-dressing 17th century monarch who felt more comfortable in
men's clothing than in the frilly finery of females. John Gilbert (who
previously co-starred with Garbo in a string of silent films) appears as
Antonio, the queen's love interest, in one of his final film roles before his
death in 1936.
Starring:
Greta Garbo, John Gilbert
Director: Stanley Donen
QUEEN KELLY (1929)
silent language - 101 minutes
Kitty Kelly (Gloria Swanson), a young
woman living in a convent, is charmed by a prince who later kidnaps her. When
the Queen interrupts the intended tryst, the girl is beaten and humiliated to
the brink of suicide. Before she can kill herself, however, Kitty receives a
letter from her aunt who runs a brothel in East Africa and soon embarks on a
series of adventures … before things come full circle with the prince who
started it all.
Starring:
Gloria Swanson, Walter Byron
Director: Erich von Stroheim
RAGING BULL (1980)
- 129 minutes
Robert De Niro won the Oscar for his portrayal of
self-destructive boxer Jake Lamotta in Martin Scorsese's widely acclaimed
biopic. De Niro's powerful performance, combined with Scorsese's
black-and-white realism, paints a raw portrait of a tormented soul unable to
control his violent outbursts. Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci also star. This
edition includes commentary from Scorsese, producer Irwin Winkler and Lamotta
himself, among others.
Starring:
Robert De Niro, Jake Lamotta Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci
Director: Martin Scorsese
R For thematic material, violence and sexual content
RALPH NADER: An Unreasonable Man (2006) -
121 minutes
The personal and professional life of Ralph Nader, one of
America's most controversial consumer advocates and political activists, is the
subject of this biographical documentary. Nader's willingness to take on big
industry earned him a reputation as both a working-class hero and a public
pariah. Interviews and archival footage help illuminate this in-depth profile
of one of the most influential political figures in modern history
Starring:
Ralph Nader
Director: Henriette Mantel, Steve Skrovan
RASHOMON (1950) Japanese language -
88 minutes
Considered one of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's
masterpieces, this Oscar-winning crime drama unfolds as four witnesses
to a rape and murder report their versions of the attack. But the chain of
events depicted by the bandit (Toshiro Mifune), the rape victim (Machiko Kyo),
the murdered man's ghost (Masayuki Mori) and the woodcutter (Takashi Shimura)
are not only different; they're incompatible in Kurosawa's examination of the
nature of truth
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyo
Director: Akira Kurosawa
REAR
WINDOW (1954) - 115 minutes
As his
broken leg heals, wheelchair-bound L.B. Jeffries James Stewart becomes absorbed
with the parade of life across the courtyard: A dancer, a lonely woman, a
composer and a bedridden woman and her husband become like creatures in
Needham's voyeuristic zoo. But when one of them disappears, Needham suspects
foul play -- and suddenly he finds himself in the center of the action
with nowhere to run.
Starring:
James Stewart, Grace Kelly
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
RED BEARD
(1965) Japanese language - 185 minutes
A
testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (Akahige) chronicles the
tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate
clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a
powerhouse performance as the dignified yet passionate director who guides his
embittered intern to maturity, teaching him to appreciate the lives of his
destitute patients.
Starring: Toshirô Mifune,
Director:
Akira Kurosawa
RED RIVER (1948) - 133 minutes
It's mutiny on the cattle drive when irascible, ironfisted
trail boss Tom Dunson (John Wayne) relentlessly brutalizes his drovers, causing
adopted son Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift, in his first film appearance) to
intercede and take charge. Tom vows vengeance for Matt's unpardonable offense,
leading to the quintessential Western showdown. Walter Brennan costars as the
ornery camp cook in director Howard Hawks' immortal sagebrush saga.
Best Western!
Starring:
John Wayne, Montgomery Clift,
Director: Howard Hawks
REDS (1981) - 195 minutes 2 DISCS
A Best Director Oscar went to
Warren Beatty for this sweeping epic that deftly interweaves romance and
history. Beatty also heads the cast as radical American correspondent John
Reed, who, along with his paramour, Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton), gets caught
up in the spirit, euphoria and aftermath of Russia's 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Maureen Stapleton received an Oscar for her supporting turn as anarchist
Emma Goldman.
1982 Oscar for Best Cinematography
Starring:
Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, and Jack Nicholson
Director: Warren Beatty
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
- 100 minutes
Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut
is raw, violent, often mimicked -- and unforgettable. A botched robbery
indicates a police informant, and the pressure mounts in the aftermath at a
warehouse. Crime begets violence as the survivors -- veteran Mr. White (Harvey
Keitel), newcomer Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), psychopathic parolee Mr. Blonde
(Michael Madsen), bickering weasel Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), and Nice Guy Eddie
(Chris Penn) -- unravel.
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve
Buscemi, Laurence (local 416) Tierney, Chris Penn
Director: Quentin Tarantino
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires parent/guardian
RIFIFI (1955) French language - 118
minutes
Jules Dassin won the Best Director award at the Cannes
Film Festival for this French noir caper (with English subtitles) in
which jewel thieves pull off an elaborate store heist. Recently released from
prison, Tony le Stephanois (Jean Servais) gathers criminals Jo, Mario and Cesar
for one last heist. But when Tony refuses to give part of the loot to rival
gangster Pierre, Pierre retaliates by kidnapping Jo's son. (See Big Deal On
Madonna Street)
Starring:
Jean Servais, Carl Mohner,
Director: Jules Dassin
ROAD TO RIO (1947) - 100 minutes
In their fifth "road" comedy, Bob Hope and Bing
Crosby are framed for starting a fire and hop a boat to Rio de Janeiro.
Naturally, they meet Dorothy Lamour there and must rescue her from her evil
aunt (Gale Sondergaard, the queen of movie evil aunts). Bing serenades Dorothy
with "But Beautiful," and even the Andrews Sisters show up to croon a
tune.
Starring:
Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
ROAD TO ZANZIBAR (1941) - 92 minutes
The second installment of the "road" series is a hilarious
spoof of jungle-adventure movies. Chuck (Bing Crosby) and Hubert (Bob Hope)
are scheming carnival performers in Africa who thrive on trouble: They set fire
to the carnival, sell a phony diamond and pair up with two attractive women.
But when Chuck spends all the money to rescue Donna (Dorothy Lamour) from a
slave market, he's unaware they're being scammed for a trip around Africa.
Starring:
Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour
Director: Victor Schertzinger
THE RULES
OF THE GAME (1939) French language - 106 minutes
When
affluent Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio) hosts a party at his
sprawling property, emotions run high. Guests include Robert's mistress
Genevieve (Mila Parely) and pilot Andre Jurieu (Roland Toutain), who fancies
Robert's wife, Christine (Nora Gregor). Meanwhile, Schumacher (Gaston Modot) is
trying to keep Marceau (Julien Carette) from hitting on his wife (Paulette
Dubost). All the while, the servants watch with great interest. The Rules of the Game is ranked #1 on many
film critic lists.
Starring: Marcel Dalio, Mila Parely,
and Gaston Modot
RUN LOLA RUN (1998)
German language - 80 minutes
A thrilling roller-coaster ride, Run
Lola Run is the internationally acclaimed sensation about two
star-crossed lovers who have only minutes to change their lives. Set to a
throbbing techno score, Run Lola Run will thrill you! 2000 Independent
Spirit Awards®: Best Foreign Film
Starring:
Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu
Director: Tom Tykwer
SABRINA (1954) - 113 minutes
Industrious tycoon Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart)
has no room for love in his appointment book. But when a burgeoning romance
between his libertine brother David (William Holden) and the family chauffeur's
daughter, Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn), jeopardizes Linus' pending
business merger, the workaholic CEO clears his calendar to derail the
dalliance. The film collected an Oscar for Best Costume Design.
Starring:
Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden
Director: Billy Wilder
THE SACRIFICE (1988)
Russian language - __ minutes
Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky
opens his final film with friends gathering to celebrate Alexander's (Erland
Josephson) birthday. The party is interrupted when it's announced that World
War III has begun and mankind is hours away from annihilation. Alexander
responds with a promise to God that he'll give up everything, including his
child, if war is averted. The film won four awards at the Cannes Film
Festival, including the Grand Prix. Director: Andrei
Tarkovsky
SAFETY LAST (1923) silent language - ___ minutes
Comic genius of the silent screen Harold Lloyd stars
in this collection of eight short and feature-length classics, representing
some of the comedian's best work. In GIRL SHY (1924), gawky Harold
surprises everyone when he writes a love manual and woos a lovely lass. In THE
MILKY WAY (1936), a mild-mannered milkman becomes a boxing champ. And in
the famous SAFETY LAST (1923), a green country boy takes on the big city
by scaling a skyscraper.
Starring:
Harold Lloyd
Director: Harold Lloyd
SCARLET STREET (1945)
- 103 minutes
Unassuming cashier Christopher Cross
(Edward G. Robinson) falls hard when he meets Kitty (Joan Bennett). They become
involved, but Kitty keeps a petty crook, Johnny (Jess Barker), on the side as
her real love interest. Hoping to impress Kitty, Cross embezzles funds from his
employer. What he doesn't realize is that Kitty and Johnny are getting rich on
Cross's paintings, which have become a huge success under Kitty's name. Dark, audacious film noir classic
Starring:
Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett
Director: Fritz Lang
SCHINDLER'S
LIST (1993) - 133 minutes disc #1
Steven Spielberg's Holocaust epic won seven Academy Awards
(including Best Picture) and is an unforgettable testament to the
possibility of human goodness. Greedy factory owner Oskar Schindler (Liam
Neeson) was exploiting cheap Jewish labor, but in the midst of WWII became an
unlikely humanitarian, losing his fortune by helping to save 1,100 Jews from
Auschwitz. Film spans two discs.
Starring:
Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley
Director:
Steven Spielberg
R
For language,
some sexuality and actuality violence
SCHINDLER'S
LIST (1993) - 133 minutes disc #2
Steven Spielberg's Holocaust epic won seven Academy Awards
(including Best Picture) and is an unforgettable testament to the
possibility of human goodness. Greedy factory owner Oskar Schindler (Liam
Neeson) was exploiting cheap Jewish labor, but in the midst of WWII became an
unlikely humanitarian, losing his fortune by helping to save 1,100 Jews from
Auschwitz. Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley
Director: Steven Spielberg
R
For language, some sexuality and actuality violence
THE SECRET (2006) - 89 minutes
Believed to have been in existence for thousands of years,
The Secret is only now being shared to the world. It's supposedly what brought
success to such greats as Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein and Andrew
Carnegie. In this video, The Secret is revealed and taught by over 50 teachers,
including writers, philosophers, doctors and scientists, to empower viewers to
achieve success in their careers, relationships and health.
THE
SEARCHERS (1956) - 119 minutes
John Wayne
and Jeffrey Hunter spend years searching for Wayne's niece (Natalie Wood), who
was abducted as a child by Comanches. Far from a picaresque adventure yarn, The
Searchers is director John Ford's forceful meditation on racism, revenge and
obsession -- one of the most powerful ever filmed. And Wayne's portrayal of
a brutishly obsessed "savior" is downright frightening. TIME
Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies Best Western!
Starring:
John Wayne, Natalie Wood
Director:
John Ford
SERGEANT YORK (1941) - 134 minutes
In a career-defining performance that earned him his first
Academy Award, Gary Cooper stars as Alvin York, a poor Appalachian pacifist
drafted into World War I. Placed in an impossible position, York
single-handedly captures an entire enemy platoon and becomes a national hero.
This World War II-era Hollywood classic based on the real-life war hero
received 11 Academy Award nominations, including one for director Howard Hawks.
Starring: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan
Director: Howard Hawks
THE SERVANT (1963)
- 115 minutes
Using his
own sister as a sexual pawn, power-hungry manservant Barrett (Dirk Bogarde)
lures his pampered playboy employer (James Fox) into decadent
distraction. Meanwhile, Barrett takes control of his master's affairs with
sinister subtlety. The first of director Joseph Losey's brilliant collaborations
with playwright Harold Pinter, The Servant was nominated for eight
British Academy Awards and won three, including Best Actor for Bogarde.
Starring:
Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles
Director: Joseph Losey
SEVEN CHANCES (1925)
silent language - 96 minutes
Buster Keaton portrays Jimmie
Shannon, a young man who stands to inherit $7 million by 7:00 p.m. … today. But
Jimmie must be married to receive his inheritance. His long-time love, Mary
Brown (Ruth Dwyer), repeatedly refuses him, as she doesn't believe he's
sincere. Upon learning of this soon-to-be-wealthy man, thousands of hopeful
women chase Jimmie through city streets to vie for the position of Mrs.
Shannon, but his heart lies with only one.
Starring:
Buster Keaton, Ruth Dwyer
Director: Buster Keaton
SEVEN
SAMURAI (1954) Japanese language - 185 minutes
Akira Kurosawa's heroic
tale of honor and duty begins with master samurai Kambei (Takashi Shimura)
posing as a monk to save a kidnapped child. Impressed by his bravery, a group
of farmers begs him to defend their village from encroaching bandits. Kambei
agrees and assembles a group of six other samurai, and together they build a
militia with the villagers while the bandits loom nearby. Soon the raids begin,
culminating in a bloody battle. Remade
as THE MAGNIFICENT 7
Starring: Toshirô Mifune,
Director:
Akira Kurosawa
SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955) - 105 minutes
After packing off wife and son for the summer, doughy
middle-aged publisher Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) lets his imagination run
wild, fantasizing about erstwhile ladyloves -- and his curvaceous new neighbor
(Marilyn Monroe). Inviting her over for a drink, Richard plans to sweep her off
her feet and into the bedroom. But then he imagines that his flights of fancy
are airing nationwide, with his wife in the audience.
Starring:
Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell
Director: Billy Wilder
THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957) Swedish
language - 96 minutes
Exhausted and disillusioned, a medieval knight (Max von
Sydow) makes the journey home after years of combat in the Crusades. When the
black-robed figure of Death confronts him, the knight challenges him to a game
of chess. A powerful meditation on the existence of God and the meaning of
life, this drama is considered one of Ingmar Bergman's best and took the
Cannes Film Festival Prize in 1957.
Starring:
Max von Sydow
Director: Ingmar Bergman
SEX
PISTOLS: NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS (2002) - 100 minutes
Talk about
unplugged! Get the definitive story behind one of the classic albums from the
British punk era, and see surviving band members of the Sex Pistols talk
about how it all came together. Features classic tracks such as "God Save
the Queen (She Ain't No Human Bein')" and "Anarchy in the UK."
It's anything but … rotten.
Starring:
Sex Pistols
Director: Matthew Longfellow
SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN (1941) - 97 minutes
Retired from the sleuthing
game, Nick Charles (William Powell) would like nothing more than to enjoy life
with his charming wife, Nora (Myrna Loy), young son and family pooch, Asta. But
when a jockey is murdered at the local track, Nick and Nora return to familiar
turf, weeding through a rogues' gallery of suspects that includes a pair of
high rollers and a small-time tout. Co-stars Barry Nelson and Donna Reed
provide first-rate support
The Thin Man (1934) After … (1936) Another ... (1939) Shadow Of
… (1941) ...Goes Home (1945)
Song Of … (1947)Starring:
William Powell, Myrna Loy
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
SHAMPOO (1975)
- 109 minutes
Warren Beatty stars in this farcical satire of '70s sexual
practices, which was chosen as one of the AFI's 100 funniest movies. Beatty
plays George, a Beverly Hills hairdresser who simply can't resist the women he
glamorizes. He promises his girlfriend, Jill (Goldie Hawn, in a stand-out
performance), that they'll settle down once he owns his own salon -- the catch
is that he only has 48 hours to borrow the cash he needs. 1976 Oscar Best
Supporting Actress: Lee Grant
Starring:
Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Jack Warden
Director: Hal Ashby
Screenwriter: Robert Towne
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
parent/guardian
SHANE (1953)
- 117 minutes
Amid
stunning vistas, this Oscar-winning Western from director George Stevens
follows reformed gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd), whose determination to avoid a
fight is tested when greedy cattle barons threaten the community of
homesteaders he's joined. Jack Palance plays Shane's unabashedly evil nemesis,
and the film's enigmatic ending -- after Shane realizes he's become a disruptive
force in the family that's taken him in -- is a cinema classic. Best Western!
Starring:
Alan Ladd, Jack Palance, and Jean Arthur
Director: George Stevens
THE SHINING (1980) - 143 minutes
All work and no play make Jack a bloodthirsty boy. On the
wagon after his alcoholism created family troubles, aspiring novelist Jack
Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts a position as off-season custodian at an
elegant but eerie hotel so he can write undisturbed. No sooner have Jack, his
wife (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny settled in than the ominous hotel starts to
wield its sinister power over father and son.
Starring:
Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall
Director: Stanley Kubrick
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent/guardian
SHOOT
THE PIANO PLAYER (1960) - 84 minutes
Charlie
(Charles Aznavour), a once-famous pianist, is now stroking the keys in a
Parisian saloon. When his brothers get in trouble with gangsters, Charlie
inadvertently gets swept up in the chaos and is forced to rejoin the family he
once fled. This highly stylized melodrama from director François Truffaut employs
all of the hallmarks of French new wave cinema: extended voice-overs,
out-of-sequence camera shots, sudden jump-cutting and more.
Starring: Charles Aznavour
Director: François Truffaut
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940) -
98 minutes
In Ernst Lubitsch's charming, Budapest-set romance -- later
remade as You've Got Mail -- Klara (Margaret Sullavan) and Alfred (James
Stewart) fall in love, even though they've met only as pen pals and don't know
each other's names. Over Alfred's objections, Klara is hired in the shop where
he works. As they continue their loving correspondence, they embark on a
combative working relationship. What will happen when the truth comes to light?
TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring:
James Stewart, Margaret Sullivan
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
A SIMPLE PLAN (1998)
- 121 minutes
When two brothers (Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton) find a body
and a bundle of cash in a downed plane, they plot to hide the loot and split it
later. It's a simple plan … until things go murderously awry. Director Sam
Raimi's adaptation of Scott B. Smith's best-selling novel contains masterful
performances and a bone-chilling sense of mounting evil.
Starring: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget
Fonda
Director: Sam
Raimi
R For
violence and language
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) - 103 minutes
Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor
combine their talents in one of the best musicals ever made. When
Hollywood attempts the transition from silent movies to talkies, matinee idol
Kelly hopes to make the cut. Jean Hagen stands out as a silent movie queen with
a fingernails-on-a-blackboard voice. Musical fare includes "Good
Morning," "Make 'Em Laugh" and the title tune.
Starring:
Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor
Director: Stanley Donen
SLING BLADE (1996) - 135 minutes
A tour de force from writer-director-star Billy Bob
Thornton, Sling Blade is the story of Karl Childers, a man released from a
psychiatric hospital where he had been incarcerated since age 12 for murdering
his mother and her lover. Returning to his hometown, Karl (though mentally
handicapped) lands a job at a garage fixing motors and befriends a young boy.
But can he outrun his past? 1997 Oscar Best Adapted Screenplay
Starring:
Billy Bob Thornton,
Dwight Yoakum, John Ritter
Director: Billy Bob Thornton
R
Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent/
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) - 122
minutes
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon
Director: Billy Wilder
SONG OF THE THIN MAN (1947) - 86
minutes
In the sixth (and last) entry
in the popular series, high-class sleuths Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna
Loy) are called upon to investigate bandleader Tommy Drake's murder. While the
cops zero in on gaming-ship owner Phil Brant (Bruce Cowling) -- who was soon to
lose Drake to a rival -- Nick and Nora pursue other suspects, including
curvaceous chanteuse Fran Page (Gloria Grahame). Dean Stockwell plays the
detective duo's 5-year-old son.
The Thin
Man (1934) After … (1936) Another
... (1939) Shadow Of … (1941) ...Goes
Home (1945) Song Of … (1947)
Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gloria Grahame
Director: Edward Buzzell
STAGECOACH
(1939) - 100 minutes
With rumors
buzzing about a potential Indian raid, a mélange of troubled passengers climbs
aboard the Overland Stage headed for Lordsburg. En route they run into the
Ringo Kid John Wayne, a notorious outlaw who's bolted from jail seeking
vengeance on the men who framed him for murder. But the true threat looms down
the road, where marauding Apaches could strike without warning. Will the
travelers band together -- or unravel under the pressure? Oscars Best Music Score, Best Supporting
Actor: Thomas Mitchell
Starring:
John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell
Director:
John Ford
STALAG 17 (1953)
- 120 minutes
For the Allied prisoners of Stalag
17, every escape attempt ends the same way -- in disaster. The cynical Sgt.
Sefton (William Holden, in his Oscar-winning role) thinks they're all
fools for trying … but soon his hectoring starts to raise suspicions that there's
a German spy in the prison camp -- and that spy is him! Director Billy
Wilder effortlessly mixes broad comedy and high-tension drama in this World War
II classic
Starring: William Holden, Otto Preminger
Director: Billy Wilder
STEAMBOAT
BILL, JR. (1928) silent language - 111 minutes
A young
dandy (Buster Keaton) gets caught in the midst of a feud between his father,
Steamboat Bill Sr. (Ernest Torrence), and rival riverboat proprietor J.J. King
(Tom McGuire). As Bill Sr. goes about toughening up his foppish son, Junior is
busy falling for -- who else? -- King's daughter (Marion Bryan). The kids
attempt to defuse the rivalry, but when Bill Sr. ends up in the clink for
decking J.J., the lovebirds have their work cut out.
Starring:
Buster Keaton,
Director:
Buster Keaton
THE STORY OF QIU JU (1993) Chinese
language - 100 minutes
Gong Li delivers a superbly nuanced performance as the titular heroine in director
Yimou Zhang's droll take on the absurdities of bureaucratic impotency. Set in a
remote Chinese province, the film follows pregnant peasant Qui Ju on her
resolute quest for justice after the village elder kicks her husband in the
family jewels. Merely seeking an apology from the stubborn chief, Qui Ju soon
gets caught in the cogs of an exasperating legal system.
Starring:
Gong Li Director:
Yimou Zhang
THE
STRANGER (1946) - 95 minutes
Directed by and starring Orson
Welles, this Academy Award-nominated film tells the story of Franz
Kindler, a Nazi war criminal who has fled to Connecticut and assumed a new
identity: Prof. Charles Rankin. While an Allied War Crimes Commission detective
(the indomitable Edward G. Robinson) hunts down Kindler without knowing how he
looks, Kindler's new wife (Loretta Young) discovers the ugly truth about her
husband's evil past.
Starring:
Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, and Loretta Young
Director: Orson Welles
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN: Special Edition
(1951) - 101 minutes
Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) is a
mamma's boy a couple cans short of a six-pack who meets tennis star Guy Haines
(Farley Granger) on a train. Bruno desperately wants his rich father dead; Guy
wants a divorce from his shrewish wife so he can marry a senator's daughter and
mount a career in politics. Guy laughs off Bruno's suggestion that they
"trade" murders. But Bruno remains undeterred!
Starring:
Farley Granger , Robert Walker
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
STRAY DOG (1949) Japanese language -
117 minutes
Murakami
(Toshirô Mifune), a young police officer in 1940s Tokyo, finds that his gun was
stolen while he was riding a packed bus. With his position in jeopardy, Murakami,
aided by veteran officer Sato (Takashi Shimura), tries to locate his missing
weapon. Together, they head to some of the worst parts of the city … and to the
forefront of crime. When Murakami learns that his gun has been used in a
murder, his search escalates.
Starring: Toshirô Mifune,
Director: Akira Kurosawa
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951) -
125 minutes
Marlon Brando spellbinds as the brutish Stanley Kowalski in
Tennessee Williams' classic rumination on carnal attraction and faded
gentility. After losing the family plantation to creditors, Blanche DuBois
(Vivien Leigh) travels to New Orleans hoping to find comfort with her sister
(Kim Hunter), Stanley's wife. But Blanche gets more than she bargained for. Oscars
to Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter & Karl Malden for their monumental
performances.
Starring:
Marlon Brando,
Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter & Karl Malden
Director: Elia Kazan
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1942) - 90 minutes
Joel McCrea
plays a Hollywood director, tired of churning out comedies, decides to write a
serious, socially responsible film about human suffering. After his producers
point out that he knows nothing of hardship, he hits the road as a hobo. On his
journey he finds the lovely Veronica Lake and more trouble than he ever dreamed
of.
Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake
Director: Preston Sturges
SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) - 110
minutes
Billy
Wilder's noir
classic about Hollywood decadence remains as razor-sharp as ever.
Norma (Gloria Swanson), a faded silent film star plotting her return, employs
Joe (William Holden), a struggling screenwriter, to help edit a script that she
has penned. As the work progresses, Norma draws closer to Joe, engulfing him in
her fiery throes, but Joe wants out. GCTOP10
Starring: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, and Erich
von Stroheim
Director: Billy Wilder
SUSPICION (1941) - 99 minutes
Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for her performance as a young wife who fears for her
life in this Hitchcock thriller. Lina (Fontaine), a beautiful, shy woman from a
wealthy family, meets handsome gambler Johnny (Cary Grant) on a train and falls
head over heels for him. But after a whirlwind romance and elopement, Lina's
happiness slowly turns to dread as she discovers the true nature of Johnny's
carefree ways and gets a glimpse at his dark past.
Starring:
Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957)
- 96 minutes
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis,
Director:
Alexander Mackendrick
SWING TIME (1936)
- 104 minutes
Many claim that this is the best of
the 10 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, and Time Magazine named
it one of its All-Time 100 Movies. In this classic musical, Astaire plays
Lucky, a gambler who misses his wedding to a young socialite and must come up
with $25,000 for another chance at her hand. He ends up meeting the lovely
Penny, a dance instructor, and soon forgets about his old flame. Songs include
"The Way You Look Tonight."
Starring:
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Director: George Stevens
THE
TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (1933) German language – 121 minutes
Seasoned
criminal Doctor Mabuse (Rudolf Klein Rogge) has been locked in an asylum for
the past 10 years, straddling the line between life and death. One of his last
projects involves a mysterious manifesto that sets in place a crime-filled
future. Discovering that the creepy article's text seems to predict disturbing
events, detective Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) tries to put together the pieces of
this mind-bending case.
Starring: Otto Wernicke, Rudolf Klein Rogge
Director: Fritz Lang
TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS (1946) French language - ___ minutes
This disc includes the film Testament of Orpheus. Jean
Cocteau's last film is just as dreamy and brilliant as the ones that came
before. Testament of Orpheus has him interacting with gypsies and dead
poets, and features cameos by Yul Brynner, Pablo Picasso and more. This
disc also features a 16mm film by Cocteau, Villa Santo Sospir, along with the
director's thoughts on the movie.
Starring:
Director: Jean Cocteau
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (1998)
- 119 minutes
The Farrelly brothers nail the laughs in this hugely in style
comedy about a hugely popular girl. Mary (Cameron Diaz) is the ideal girlfriend
of every guy she meets, especially frustrated high school suitor Ted (Ben
Stiller). But he's got plenty of competition from Matt Dillon and other
unexpected rivals. This special edition disc includes the original theatrical
version and a new extended version with 15 minutes of extra footage. Very stupid, very funny!
Starring:
Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, and Matt Dillon
Director: Farrelly brothers
PG
For strong comic
sexual content and language
THE THIN
MAN (1934) - 91 minutes
The Thin
Man, the first installment in one of the most successful detective serials in
film history, introduces stylish sleuthing spouses Nick (William Powell) and
Nora Charles (Myrna Loy). Powell and Loy's quick-witted repartee set a
Hollywood tradition in their crackling debut as they investigate the
disappearance of a wealthy inventor. The convoluted mystery plot moves at a
rapid-fire pace that will delight modern viewers.
The Thin
Man (1934) After … (1936) Another
... (1939) Shadow Of … (1941) ...Goes
Home (1945) Song Of … (1947)
Starring:
William Powell, Myrna Loy
Director:
W. S. Van Dyke
THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1945) - 100 minutes
Director Richard Thorpe puts
the accent on levity in this breezy installment of the stylish detective
series. High-toned sleuths Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) head to
Nick's leisurely hometown of Sycamore Springs for a vacation, only to find
themselves enmeshed in a string of homicide cases and intercontinental
intrigue. The slate of eccentric murder suspects includes Leon Ames, Gloria De
Haven and Anne Revere.
The Thin
Man (1934) After … (1936) Another
... (1939) Shadow Of … (1941) ...Goes
Home (1945) Song Of … (1947)
Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy
Director: Richard Thorpe
THE THIRD
MAN (1949) - 104 minutes
Who was
Harry Lime? And who killed him? And is he really dead? These are just a few of
the questions writer-turned-sleuth Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) tries to
answer as he trolls the shadowy streets of postwar Vienna. Director Carol Reed
turns Graham Greene's classic mystery into a film noir without equal.
You'll be humming the zither theme for weeks!
1950 Oscar: Best Director GCTOP10
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton
Director: Carol Reed
THE 39 STEPS (1935) - 87 minutes
Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is vacationing in England when
he gets caught in a web of mystery in this early Hitchcock thriller.
Shots ring out at a show, and a terrified woman (Lucie Mannheim) begs Hannay to
help her. He's certain she's crazy -- until she appears at his flat with a map
in hand and a knife in her back, muttering something about 39 steps. Eluding
the police, Hannay travels through Scotland to unearth the truth.
Starring: Robert Donat
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
THIS
GUN FOR HIRE (1942) - 81 minutes
Phillip
Raven (Alan Ladd) is an assassin whose latest murder assignment is paid for
with counterfeit money by turncoat Willard Gates. Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake),
an entertainer and the girlfriend of the police lieutenant who's trying to
bring Raven down, is recruited by the government to probe Gates's illegal
activities. When Raven happens to meet Ellen on a train, they use their
relationship to get what they want -- and exact revenge.
Starring: Alan
Ladd, Veronica Lake
Director:
Frank Tuttle
THREE AGES (1923) - 111 minutes
Using a trio of story lines and a common theme -- the
timelessness of courtship -- Buster Keaton hilariously skewers romance. Keaton
portrays a hapless suitor in three historic eras who vies for the girl
(Margaret Leahy) against a stronger rival (Wallace Beery). In the Stone Age,
Keaton faces a test of brute strength; in ancient Rome, he's challenged to a
chariot race; and in the modern epoch, he's pitted against his adversary on the
gridiron.
Starring: Buster Keaton, Wallace Beery
Director: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975) -
117 minutes
His name is Joe Turner -- code name, Condor. In the next 24
hours, everyone he trusts will try to kill him. Robert Redford stars as the CIA
researcher who returns from lunch to find all his co-workers murdered.
Double-crossed and forced to go underground, he kidnaps a young woman (Faye
Dunaway) and holds her hostage as he unravels the mystery. Conspiracy films
don't come any better.
Starring:
Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway
Director: Sydney Pollack
THRONE OF
BLOOD (1957) Japanese language - 109 minutes
Director
Akira Kurosawa's magnificent rumination on Shakespeare's tragic
"Macbeth" is a dark samurai drama set in feudal Japan. Two
soldiers -- Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) find themselves
lost in a dense forest during a powerful thunderstorm. There, they encounter a
ghostly old woman who predicts that Washizu will soon rise to power. Indeed,
Washizu embarks on a murderously ambitious path and quickly fulfills the
prophecy.
Legendary
film critic Bosley Crowther called it an improvement on the original play.
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada GCTOP10
Director: Akira Kurosawa
TIME AFTER TIME (1979) – 112 minutes
Jack the Ripper (David Warner) is back to continue his
ghastly reign of terror; this time, he's found his way to the late 1970s,
intent on taking care of unfinished business. H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell)
uses a time machine to pursue Jack into the future, where he meets Amy (Mary
Steenburgen), a bank clerk who teaches Wells about life in the '70s while
helping him hunt for Jack.
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, and David
Warner
Director: Nicholas Meyer
TITANIC (1997) - 194 minutes
Winner of 11 Oscars, director James Cameron's effects-filled blockbuster weds
the historical tale of the doomed ocean liner with a fictional romance between
two of the ship's ill-fated passengers -- putting a human face on a tragedy of
epic proportions. Society girl Rose Dewitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and penniless
artist Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) struggle to survive both the sinking
ship and the wrath of Rose's wealthy fiancé (Billy Zane).
Last hour worth the admission price, despite glaring flaws,
a pretty good film.
Starring:
Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane
Director: James Cameron
TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) - 99
minutes
This 1942 comedy manages to eke out barrels of laughs from a
contentious time in history, World War II. Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) leads a
ragtag band of actors in Poland who come to the aid of an American soldier
(Robert Stack) who needs help carrying out his work in the Resistance efforts.
But it turns out that Tura's wife (Carole Lombard) is having an
affair with the military man, which severely undercuts Tura's sympathies for
the soldier.
Starring:
Jack Benny, Carole Lombard
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
TO DIE FOR (1995) - 106 minutes
Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) has always harbored one dream:
being on TV. She's dead-set on making that dream come true, but there's one
obstacle: her husband (Matt Dillon), who just wants her to stay at home, cook
the pasta and make babies. Some career path that is! So, Suzanne convinces a love-struck
teenager (Joaquin Phoenix) to get Larry out of the way -- for good. Written by Buck Henry.
Starring:
Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Matt Dillon
Director: Gus Van Sant
R
For strong sexual
content and language
TO HAVE
AND HAVE NOT (1944) – 100 minutes
Dynamic duo
William Faulkner and Jules Furthman scripted this Howard Hawks
classic starring Humphrey Bogart and
Lauren Bacall (who,
rumor has it, fell in love on the set) that's supposedly based on an Ernest
Hemingway tome. Bogie is Harry Morgan, a charter boat owner who falls for
Bacall's seductive petty thief, Marie Browning. Can't-miss scenes include the now-legendary
"You know how to whistle, don't you?" exchange b/t Bogie &
Bacall.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall,
Walter Brennan
Director: Howard Hawks
TO LIVE (1994)
Chinese language - 133 minutes
A bold, energetic masterpiece from
Zhang Yimou, the
foremost director from China's influential "fifth generation" of
filmmakers. Continuing his brilliant collaboration with China's best-known
actress, Gong Li, Zhang weaves a tapestry of personal and political events,
following the struggles of an impoverished husband and wife (Ge You and Li)
from their heyday in the 1940s to the hardships that accompanied the Cultural
Revolution in the 1960s.
Starring:
Gong Li, Ge You
Director: Yimou Zhang
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) - 111 minutes
Straight-arrow narcotics detective Mike Vargas (Charlton
Heston) sees his honeymoon cut short when a car crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
explodes before his eyes. Vargas forsakes his bride (Janet Leigh) to mount an
investigation but soon locks horns with corpulent Sheriff Hank Quinlan (Orson
Welles), a shady cop who's not above planting evidence or colluding with the
local crime lord to keep Vargas from discovering the ugly truth.
Starring:
Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, and Orson Welles
Director: Orson Welles
PG-13 Parental guidance suggested.
TOKYO STORY (1953) Japanese language - 135 minutes
Director Yasujiro
Ozu focuses on an elderly couple in post-World War II Japan who travel to Tokyo
to visit their children. The parents (Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama) are
received coldly by their two children; the only one who is happy to see them is
their widowed daughter-in-law (Setsuko Hara). The children shuttle their aging
parents off to a health spa in an attempt to get them out of the way, a
decision that could come back to haunt them. TIME Magazine List: All-TIME 100 Movies
Starring: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
TOOTSIE (1982) - 119 minutes
Few out-of-work actors go as far as Michael Dorsey (Dustin
Hoffman) does to bag a part. He transforms himself into everything he isn't:
sweet, employed and ... a woman! When his alter ego, Dorothy Michaels, gets
cast in a soap opera, Michael has reason to celebrate. But he also has a
problem: He's fallen for co-star Jessica Lange, who doesn't know Michael is
male! Best Supporting Actress Oscar: Jessica Lange
Starring:
Jessica Lange, , Dustin Hoffman) ,
Dabney Coleman,
Director: Sydney Pollack
PG
Parental guidance suggested.
TOUCING THE VOID (2003) – 107 minutes
Mixing
interviews with dramatic re-enactments of the event, this gripping docudrama
retells the mountaineering trek gone awry of Simon Yates (Nicholas Aaron) and
Joe Simpson (Brendan Mackey). While climbing in the Andes, Simpson falls and
breaks his leg. Yates, who's tethered to him, attempts to lower him to safety
but fails. He makes a pivotal decision that may or may not save both of their
lives. Was he right?
Starring:
Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron
Director: Kevin MacDonald
R for language
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
- 126 minutes
John Huston won Oscars for writing and directing
this powerful saga that pits gold against greed in the wilds of Mexico. Three
poverty-stricken dreamers (Walter Huston, Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) head to
the mountains south of the border in search of gold. Their fortune and
friendship grow at first, but soon, paranoia and greed begin to take over,
endangering all that they've gained. Walter Huston also won an Oscar for
his role. GCTOP10 GCTOP10
Starring:
Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Robert Blake
Director: John Huston
UMBERTO
D. (1952) Italian language - 89 minutes
See The
Bicycle Thief (1948)
Bankrupt and
lonely, an old man (Carlo Battisti) considers committing suicide. Since he has
only a devoted dog and a maid (Lina Genneri) as his companions, things look
bleak -- until one day when the old man's luck changes, giving him new hope.
Director Vittorio De Sica's touching portrait of one man's effort to retain his
pride in the face of adversity is a treasure of Italian
post-war cinema.
Starring:
Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio,
Director: Vittorio De Sica
UN CHIEN ANDALOU
(1929) silent language – 17 minutes
Artist
Salvador Dali and novice (at the time) director Luis Buñuel came together to
craft this unique film consisting of a jarring collage of absurd and deplorable
images aimed at raising more than a few eyebrows. Extras: Interview with director's son;
featurette; audio commentary. Originally
a silent film; a score was later added.
Starring:
Pierre Batcheff, Salvador Dali
Director: Luis Buñuel
UNCOVERED: The War on Iraq (2004) - 83 minutes
The updated version of this
controversial documentary -- which takes you behind the walls of the U.S.
government as CIA, Pentagon and Foreign Service experts address the
government's reasons for launching the "preemptive" war on Iraq in
2003 -- includes almost 30 minutes of brand new footage. Paired with this title
is director David O. Russell's controversial antiwar documentary, Soldier's
Pay.
Director: Robert Greenwald, David O. Russell
UNFAITHFULLY
YOURS (1948) – 105 minutes
In this pitch-black
comedy from legendary writer-director Preston Sturges, Rex Harrison
stars as Sir Alfred De Carter, a world-famous symphony conductor consumed with
the suspicion that his wife's having an affair. During a concert, the jealous
De Carter entertains elaborate visions of vengeance, set to three separate
orchestral works. But when he attempts to put his murderous fantasies into
action, nothing works out quite as planned.
Starring: Rex Harrison
Director: Preston Sturges
VALLEY GIRL (1983) - 99 minutes
A punk named Randy (Nicolas Cage) from the wrong side of the
Hollywood Hills falls for Julie (Deborah Foreman), a mall-dwelling Valley Girl,
and they begin a Romeo-and-Juliet-like romance … that is, until peer pressure
gets to Julie and she cuts off their relationship. But love-struck Randy
refuses to give up on Julie. Will he convince her that they're meant to be
together?
Starring:
Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman
Director: Martha Coolidge
R Restricted. Under 17 requires
accompanying parent/guardian
VIRIDIANA (1961) Spanish language -
90 minutes
Celebrated surrealist Luis Bunuel directs this controversial
satire, which was banned by the Spanish government for obscenity and blasphemy.
Before taking her final vows, the young nun Viridiana (Silvia Pinal) visits her
uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), who's supported her for years. But Jaime,
fixated on his niece because of her resemblance to his late wife, sets out to
corrupt her. Viridiana won the Golden Palm at the 1961
Cannes Film Festival. One of my very favorites since I first saw
it as a teenager. GCTOP10
Starring:
Silvia Pinal, Fernando Rey
Director: Luis Bunuel
WAGES OF FEAR (1952) French language
- 148 minutes
An oil company enlists four destitute drifters -- Mario (Yves
Montand), Luigi (Folco Lulli), Bimba (Peter Van Eyck) and Jo (Charles Vanel) --
for a dangerous mission transporting volatile explosives across Central
America's treacherous terrain. Packed with nerve-racking tension that never
lets up, director Henri-Georges Clouzot's gritty masterpiece took home the
Grand Prize at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
Starring: Yves Montand,
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE (2005) - 95 min
Producer,
director and activist Robert Greenwald takes aim at the corporate giant that's
come to symbolize big business in America: Wal-Mart. Blasting the box-store
Goliath for allegedly paying substandard wages, skimping on employee health
benefits and eviscerating communities, this hard-hitting, emotional documentary
profiles the struggle of everyday folks from around the country who've
committed themselves to fighting the mega-retailer.
Director: Robert Greenwald
WHITE
HEAT (1949) - 114
minutes
"Made it, Ma, top of the world!" James
Cagney is riveting as homicidal gangster Cody Jarrett (complete with an
"insane mother" complex) in this hard-boiled movie that costars
Virginia Mayo as his two-timing wife. Edmund O'Brien's the cop who infiltrates
Cody's gang to bring him down -- and that he does in the legendary finale that
plays out in an industrial yard filled with giant fuel tanks. Better watch
those stray bullets! Raoul Walsh directs.
Starring:
James Cagney, Virginia Mayo,
Director: Raoul Walsh
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? (2006) - 91 minutes
Amid ever-increasing gas prices, this
documentary delves into the short life of the GM EV1 electric car -- once all
the rage in the mid-1990s and now fallen by the roadside. How could such an
efficient, green-friendly vehicle fail to transform our garages and skies?
Through interviews with government officials, former GM employees and concerned
celebs (such as EV1 driver Mel Gibson), Chris Paine (former EV1 owner) seeks to
answer the question.
Starring: Martin Sheen, Mel Gibson, Tom
Hanks
THE WILD BUNCH (1969)
- 133 minutes
Faced with the prospect of
retirement, a group of aging desperadoes -- led by the venerable Pike Bishop
(William Holden) -- agrees to pull off one last job. But when a kink in their
plans forces them south of the border, hooking up with an evil Mexican general
(Emilio Fernández) is the only way they'll get their loot. The special
edition of Sam Peckinpah's Western classic includes never-before-seen outtakes
and a trio of exclusive documentaries.
Starring: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Warren Oates
Director: Sam Peckinpah
WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957) Swedish
language - 91 minutes
This contemplative
Ingmar Bergman film explores the disillusionment of aging physician
Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström) as he reflects on his life. Borg travels to Lund,
Sweden, to receive an honorary degree. Along the way, a string of encounters
causes him to experience dreams and hallucinations exposing his darkest fears,
and he realizes that the choices he's made have rendered a life devoid of
meaning. Can he find redemption before it's too late?
Starring: Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson,
Director: Ingmar Bergman
WING
CHUN (1994) Chinese language -
93 minutes
Martial arts expert Wing Chun
(Michelle Yeoh) battles bandits in this magical film that provides as many
laughs as it does wallops. Besides horse thieves, Wing Chun must deal with the
men around her who simply can't handle a strong, independent woman. Ultimately,
she must dish out "lessons" again and again until the respect for her
remarkable skills is finally won.
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen
Director:
Yuen Woo-ping
WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957) -
116 minutes
Based on an Agatha Christie play, this Oscar-nominated
mystery directed and co-written by Billy Wilder concerns an esteemed and
aging lawyer (Charles Laughton). On the eve of retiring, he takes on the
defense of an alleged murderer (Tyrone Power, in his final film performance)
accused of killing a wealthy widow. Things get complicated when the accused's
only alibi, his wife (Marlene Dietrich), decides to testify for the
prosecution.
Starring:
Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power
Director: Billy Wilder
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) - 103
minutes
Dreams really do come true. … Dorothy, the Tin Man, the
Munchkins and all of Oz's other fantastic characters spring to life in this restored
version of the 1939 classic starring Judy Garland. Featuring commentary
from film historian John Fricke and several cast members, this renewed version
will send fans soaring over the rainbow. Also included: a featurette about the
restoration process, a storybook and more. 1940 Oscars Best Song, Best Music
Score
Starring:
Judy Garland
Director:
Victor Flemin
A WOMAN
IS A WOMAN (1961) French language - 84 minutes
Beautiful striptease artist Angela (Anna Karina) is desperate
to have a child, but her boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), isn't as
anxious. Although he cares for Angela and wants to keep their relationship
going, he's not ready for a child. Instead, he suggests that she get together
with his buddy Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo) -- a proposal Angela ultimately
accepts, to Emile's shock and dismay.
Starring:
Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy),
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
YOJIMBO (1961) Japanese language -
110 minutes
Masterless
samurai Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Toshirô Mifune) finds himself in a feud-torn Japanese
village in legendary director Akira Kurosawa's darkly comic film. After
pretending to work for merchants on both sides of the feud, Kuwabatake is
imprisoned for treachery. He escapes in time to watch the two warring factions
destroy each other, just as he had intended. Yojimbo served as the prototype
for Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars.
Starring: Toshirô Mifune,
Director: Akira Kurosawa
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) - 106
minutes
Shot in glorious black and white, writer-director Mel
Brooks' finest work both parodies and salutes the 1930s Frankenstein
movies. Co-writer Gene Wilder soars as mad scientist Frederich Frankenstein
("Fronkensteen!" he insists), with hilarious support from Marty
Feldman as Igor, Peter Boyle as the monster, Teri Garr, and the late, great
Madeline Kahn. The DVD provides a beaker full of extras
Starring:
Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Teri Garr
Director: Mel Brooks'
PG
Parental guidance suggested..
Z (1969) French language - 127
minutes
Based on true events, director Costa-Gavras's Oscar-winning
Best Foreign Language film chronicles the overthrow of the democratic government
in Greece. The edge-of-your-seat action closely parallels the real-life
assassination of Gregorios Lambrakis, a Greek doctor and humanist whose murder
in 1963 led to an abortive public scandal. Part mystery and part thriller, Z
made its mark as a groundbreaking political roman à clef, and it resonates even
today.
Starring:
Yves Montand, Irene Papas, and Jean-Louis Trintignant
Director: Costa-Gavras
TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV
TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: TV Season 1 (1992)
Full of fashion, fun and wit, this award-winning British
comedy centers on over-the-top Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and promiscuous
Patsy (Joanna Lumley) -- best friends with a fondness for drugs, drink and
outrageous behavior. In Episodes 1 through 6, Edina and Patsy stage a Bizarre
Fashion Show, confront the seemingly useless action of Exercise,
"celebrate" Edina's 40th birthday and help Edina's
daughter with a School Project.
Starring:
Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, and Julia Sawalha Director: Bob Spiers
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: TV Season 2 (1994)
Full of
fashion, fun and wit, this award-winning British comedy series centers on
over-the-top Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and promiscuous Patsy (Joanna Lumley) --
best friends with a fondness for drugs, drink and outrageous behavior. In
Episodes 7 through 12, Edina and Patsy continue their winning ways through Face-Lifts,
an encounter with a couple's New Baby, a Trip To
Morocco and a Fire that nearly burns down Patsy's
house.
Starring: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley,
and Julia Sawalha Director: Bob Spiers
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: TV Season 1 (1951)
Before Christopher Reeve soared
across the big screen in the 1978 blockbuster, the "original"
Superman, George Reeves, was starring in this 1950s black-and-white television
series. Following the double life of mild-mannered Daily Planet reporter
Clark Kent and his secret pastime of saving the world, the series' first season
features Phyllis Coates as plucky newswoman Lois Lane and Jack Larson as crack
photographer Jimmy Olsen. Generally acknowledged as the best of
the series. The first 2 seasons were gritty and far more adult than subsequent
seasons. There is a very real Film Noir feel to the episodes
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: TV Season 2, disc #1 (1953)
Fans held their breath for the second exciting season of
"The Adventures of Superman," which aired two full years after the
show's 1951 debut. In the time that elapsed, the role of Lois Lane had to be
recast (Phyllis Coates was replaced by Noel Neill), but most of the original
characters -- including photographer Jimmy Olsen (Jack Larson) and the Man of
Steel himself (George Reeves) --
were back to save the world. "Five Minutes to Doom," "The Big Squeeze,"
"The Man Who Could Read Minds," "Jet Ace," "Shot in
the Dark" and "The Defeat of Superman."
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: TV Season 2, disc #2
(1953)
This disc
includes the following episodes: "Superman in Exile," "A Ghost
for Scotland Yard," "The Dog Who Knew Superman, "The Face and the Voice," "The Man in the Lead Mask"
and "Panic
in the Sky."
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: TV Season 2, disc #5 (1953)
This disc
includes the following episodes: "The Whistling Bird" and "Around the World with Superman." Extras include commentaries on two
episodes, "The First Lady of Metropolis," a featurette about the
return of Noel Neil to the role of Lois Lane, and "Stamp Day for
Superman," a specially produced short episode that was distributed to
schools in 1954 to promote the U.S. Treasury Department's Savings Stamp
program.
THE BEST OF THUNDERBIRDS (1965) – TV Season disc #1
Using an uncommon type of puppetry
called super-marionation, Gerry Anderson successfully created a sci-fi
television series that ran from 1964 to 1966 and developed a cult following.
"Thunderbirds" tracked a family of vigilantes whose sole purpose was
to journey through the outer galaxies searching for those in need of rescue.
This special collection was chosen directly by the show's fans and features the
very best episodes. This disc includes the following
episodes: "Trapped in the Sky," "Sun Probe,"
"The Uninvited" and "The Perils of Penelope
THE BEST OF THUNDERBIRDS (1965) - TV Season disc #2
This disc includes the following
episodes: "Terror in New York City" and "Attack of the
Alligators!" Also includes bonus features such as a pop-up trackv, a
profile of creator Gerry Anderson, character information, "The
Thunderbirds Story" featurette, a photo gallery and more.
BLACK ADDER: TV Season 2 (1986)
Set in separate centuries for each six-episode sequence, this
droll British TV series chronicling the exploits of the duplicitous Blackadder
dynasty aired four seasons between 1983 and 1989. In season two (spanning the
years 1558-1603), the reprehensible Lord Edmund (Rowan Atkinson) -- abetted as
usual by grungy manservant Baldrick (Tony Robinson) -- incessantly seeks the
benevolence of batty Queen Elizabeth I (Miranda Richardson). Hilarious!
Starring:
Rowan Atkinson, Miranda Richardson
Director: Mandie Fletcher
BLACK ADDER: TV Season 3 (1987)
In season three of the successful
British sitcom, Edmond Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) finds himself booted from
upper-crust society and serving the incompetent Prince Regent (Hugh Laurie).
This collection includes the first six episodes of season three, each cleverly
named to mimic a Jane Austen novel title: "Dish and Dishonesty,"
"Ink and Incapability," "Nob and Nobility," "Sense and
Senility," "Amy and Amiability" and "Duel and
Duality."
Starring:
Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Tony Robinson, Miranda Richardson
Director: Mandie Fletcher
BLACK ADDER: TV Season 4 (1989)
Rowan Atkinson portrays the clever
but arrogant British Capt. Edmund Blackadder, who'll do anything to avoid
becoming a casualty during World War I, including staging hilarious escape
antics. Black Adder Goes Forth (the last of the "Black Adder" series)
contains six half-hour episodes full of sarcasm and wit underscoring the
futility of war; a shocking finale; a "Black Adder" Who's Who; and
historical background.
Starring:
Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson
Director: Mandie Fletcher
THE BOB NEWHART SHOW: TV Season 3 (1974)
Despite his successful career,
Chicago psychologist Dr. Robert Hartley (Bob Newhart) has a knack for bungling
his own personal problems. In the third season of this popular 1970s sitcom,
Bob takes two of his therapy groups on an outing in the woods; the Hartley’s
decide that they should take up separate residences; and Bob agrees to run for
chairman of the local school board against an incumbent who's neglected his
duties.
Starring: Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette
THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: TV Show Stoppers (2001)
Fans of the beloved Carol Burnett show won't want to miss
this hilarious reunion show! Nearly 30 million viewers tuned in to this CBS
special when it aired in 2001. You'll see Burnett, Harvey Corman, Vicki
Lawrence and Tim Conway in vintage clips from some of the show's most
uproarious skits. This retrospective special also includes exclusive outtakes
and footage of the reunited cast reminiscing and answering audience questions.
Starring: Carol Burnett, Harvey Corman, Vicki
Lawrence and Tim Conway
THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: Let's Bump Up
The Lights! (2004) - 42 minutes
Cast members of Carol Burnett's
Emmy-winning CBS television variety show -- including Harvey Korman, Tim
Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner -- reunite with Burnett before an
audience to discuss the question-and-answer segment featured on each show and
to run clips of their favorite moments while talking with audience members.
It's completely off the cuff ... a classic example of a performance genre
that's now extinct.
COMBAT! : (1962) TV Season 1
One of television's most popular series, the groundbreaking
"Combat" offers a gritty, searing look at American soldiers battling
in Europe during World War II and confronting imposing odds while demonstrating
remarkable courage and ingenuity. Vic Morrow and Rick Jason head a stellar
cast in the first season of this long-running war series. Guest stars in
"Campaign 1" include Tab Hunter, Jeffrey Hunter, Walter Koenig, Ted
Knight and many more.
Starring:
Vic Morrow, Rick Jason
Director: Robert Altman, Richard Donner and more
THE
DICK CAVETT SHOW: Hollywood Greats
(1971) disc 2
Some
of Hollywood's most legendary movie stars take turns sitting in Dick Cavett's
guest chair in this four-disc compilation of memorable episodes from "The
Dick Cavett Show." An impressive lineup of A-listers includes bonus
footage capturing outtakes from Cavett's interview with Katharine Hepburn.
Bette
Davis, Groucho Marx, Debbie Reynolds &
Kirk Douglas.
THE
DICK CAVETT SHOW: Hollywood Greats
(1971) disc 3
Some
of Hollywood's most legendary movie stars take turns sitting in Dick Cavett's
guest chair in this four-disc compilation of memorable episodes from "The
Dick Cavett Show." An impressive lineup of A-listers includes bonus
footage capturing outtakes from Cavett's interview with Katharine Hepburn.
Mel
Brooks, Frank Capra, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, John Huston, Marlon
Brando
THE
DICK CAVETT SHOW: Hollywood Greats
(1971) disc 4
Some
of Hollywood's most legendary movie stars take turns sitting in Dick Cavett's
guest chair in this four-disc compilation of memorable episodes from "The
Dick Cavett Show." Special features include the featurette "Seeing
Stars with Dick Cavett and Robert Osborne."
Robert
Mitchum, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock
DINOSAURS: 1st and 2nd Seasons: disc 1 – (’91,’92)
This disc includes the following episodes: "The
Mighty Megalosaurus," "The Mating Game," "Hurling
Day," "High Noon" and "The Howling."
DINOSAURS: 1st and 2nd Seasons: disc 2 – (’91,’92)
This disc includes the following episodes: "The
Golden Child," " Family Challenge," "I Never Ate for My
Father," "Charlene's Tale," "Endangered Species,"
"Employee of the Month," "When Food Goes Bad" and
"Career Opportunities."
DINOSAURS: 1st and 2nd Seasons: disc 3 – (’91,’92)
This disc includes the following episodes: "Unmarried
With Children," "How to Pick Up Girls," "Switched At
Birth," "Refrigerator Day," "What "Sexual Harris"
Meant," 'Fran Live," Power Erupts" and "The Clip
Show."
DINOSAURS: 1st and 2nd Seasons: disc 4 – (’91,’92)
This disc includes the following episodes: "A New
Leaf," "The Last Temptation Of Ethel," "Nuts to War (Part
1)," "Nuts to War (Part 2)," "And the Winner Is...,"
"Slave to Fashion," "Leader of the Pack" and
"Wesayso Knows Best."
THE DONNER PARTY:
American Experience TV (2000) - 90 minutes
From the PBS series The American Experience comes this
documentary about a harrowing struggle for survival. Like many others with the
pioneering spirit, the Donner party headed west for California in 1846,
following their American Dream. Hitting difficult terrain and weather, they
were forced into some of the most excruciating survival techniques known to
man, and their name became synonymous with their hardship and their curse. TV at its best!
Director: Ric Burns
THE EDWARD R. MURROW COLLECTION
Distinguished journalist Edward R.
Murrow is honored in this extensive series hosted by Walter Cronkite, Dan
Rather and other top journalists. Included are rare clips from Murrow's
Person to Person chats with Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and
Marlon Brando; highlights from Murrow's documentary series "See It
Now"; an in-depth look at Murrow's anti-McCarthy Era coverage; Murrow's
expose on the plight of migrant farm hands; and more.
F TROOP: TV Favorites (1965)
Fort Courage was the setting for this mid-1960s TV series
that featured plenty of street-smart Indians and dimwit troopers. Bumbling
Capt. Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry) finds himself in charge of the fort and must
deal with the local Indian population and amorous attentions of Miss Jane
(Melody Patterson). Forrest Tucker and Larry Starch co-star in this hammy
comedy. This disc features six episodes from the show. Early example of political incorrectness
and very funny!
Starring:
Ken Berry, Forrest Tucker, and Larry Storch Director:
FAWLTY TOWERS: TV Disc 1 (1975)
This disc contains the following
episodes: "A Touch of Class," "The Builders," "The
Wedding Party" and "Hotel Inspectors." Funniest TV show of all time!
Starring:
John Cleese, Connie Booth, and Prunella Scales
Director: John Howard Davies, Bob Spiers
FAWLTY TOWERS: TV Disc 2 (1975)
Former Monty Python members John
Cleese and Connie Booth star in this award-winning, comedy series from the BBC.
Basil Fawlty (Cleese) and his overbearing wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) run the
struggling Fawlty Towers Hotel, but with his short fuse, arrogance and general
incompetence, they find themselves digging deeper into a financial hole. Both
the Python influence and Cleese's distinct style are ever-present in the
following episodes: "Gourmet Night," "The Germans,"
"Communication Problems" and "The Psychiatrist." Funniest TV show of all time!
Starring:
John Cleese, Connie Booth, and Prunella Scales
Director: John Howard Davies, Bob Spiers
FAWLTY TOWERS: TV Disc 3 (1975)
This disc contains the following
episodes: "Waldorf Salad," "The Kipper and the Corpse,"
"The Anniversary" and "Basil the Rat." Funniest TV show of all time!
Starring:
John Cleese, Connie Booth, and Prunella Scales
Director: John Howard Davies, Bob Spiers
THE FOG OF WAR (2003) – 107 minutes
Former Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara worked for both Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson,
playing a key role in shaping both administrations' approaches to the Vietnam
War. This Oscar-winning documentary directed by Errol Morris traces McNamara's
career from government to the World Bank; but it's his work during the Vietnam
years that's highlighted in this film, which features extensive archival
footage and interviews.
Starring: Robert McNamara
Director: Errol Morris
GET A LIFE: TV Season 1, Disc 2 (1990)
Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott)
may just be the reason the term slacker was coined. A bathrobe-wearing
30-year-old who still lives with his parents, Chris delivers newspapers as a
means of income, which is pretty much as ambitious as he wants to get. This
surreal and infinitely wacky 1990s sitcom co-stars Bob (& Ray) Elliott,
Elinor Donahue, and Brian Doyle-Murray.
GHOSTS OF RWANDA: Frontline TV (2004)
120 minutes
A decade after the genocide in which Hutu extremists killed some 800,000 Rwandans; PBS's Frontline takes a hard look at how such an atrocity occurred. The program examines the social, political and diplomatic conditions at the time of the genocide, provides firsthand accounts of the situation through interviews with officials, relief workers, U.N. peacekeepers, diplomats and survivors, and explores whether a similar situation could occur again.
Director: Eddie Cline
GIGANTOR: (1965)
TV Season 1
Premiering in the mid-1960s, the
"Gigantor" series blazed a new trail for Japanese animation.
The first of many friendly giant robots, Gigantor was controlled by Jimmy
Sparks, son of the man who created him. Using a remote-control joystick, Jimmy
sent the huge fighting machine into battle, defending the Earth against
continuous assaults by hostile robots and aliens.
HAVE GUN
WILL TRAVEL: TV Season 1, disc 1 - (1957)
Richard
Boone stars as the first "man in black," Paladin, in this seminal
1950s Western TV series. As well-versed in Shakespeare as in gunplay, Paladin
is a mercenary gun-for-hire who always seems to fight with the white hats on
the right side of any issue. Thirty-nine episodes of this cult favorite are
included in the first season, which featured guest appearances by Jack Lord,
Charles Bronson and Angie Dickinson
Starring:
Richard Boone, Lisa Lu
Director:
Andrew McLaglen, Lewis
Milestone, and Lamont Johnson
HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL: Season 2, disc 1
- (1958)
Catch all the episodes from the action-packed second season of this
popular Western TV series chronicling Paladin (Richard Boone), a mysterious
Renaissance man who resides in San Francisco's Hotel Carlton. A detective with
a penchant for seeking the toughest cases, he and his squire (Kam Tong) fear nothing
and no one -- except perhaps failure. Sophomore season guest stars include
Angie Dickinson, Jack Lord, June Lockhart and Charles Bronson.
Starring:
Richard Boone, Kam Tong
Director: Andrew
McLaglen, Lewis Milestone, and Lamont Johnson
Howard
Zinn: YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN (2004) - 78
minutes
Author of
the pivotal A People's History of the United States,
historian and activist Howard Zinn has been at the forefront of progressive
thought in America for decades. Through archival materials, interviews with
Noam Chomsky, Marian Wright Edelman, Daniel Ellsberg, Tom Hayden and Alice
Walker, and commentary from Zinn himself, this documentary chronicles the
influential thinker's inspiring commitment to social change. Matt Damon
narrates.
Starring:
Daniel Ellsberg, Tom Hayden, and Alice Walker
Director:
Deb Ellis
IRAQ FOR
SALE: The War Profiteers (2006)
– 75 minutes
Private
contractors are getting rich while everybody else is suffering: This is the
point director Robert Greenwald makes -- passionately -- in this 2006
documentary. Using whistleblower testimony, firsthand accounts, financial
records and classified documents, Greenwald levels charges of greed, corruption
and incompetence against private contractors and shows the subsequent
devastating effect on Americans and Iraqis.
Director:
Robert Greenwald
THE JACK
BENNY SHOW: Vol.
1 (1952) TV Season 1
Comedian Jack
Benny -- America's favorite violin-playing skinflint -- was a staple of
vaudeville, radio and the movies. But he was never seen to better effect than
on his television show, surrounded by his reliable stock company of characters,
including Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. This quartet of vintage
episodes features guest appearances by some of Hollywood's biggest stars.
"Oh, Rochester ... "
THE JACK BENNY SHOW: TV Season 2 (1952)
Comedian Jack Benny -- America's favorite violin-playing
skinflint -- was a staple of vaudeville, radio and the movies. But he was never
seen to better effect than on his television show, surrounded by his reliable
stock company of characters, including Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and
singer Johnnie Ray. This quartet of vintage episodes features guest
appearances by some of Hollywood's biggest celebrities. "Oh, Rochester
…"
Starring:
Jack Benny, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Liberace
THE JACK BENNY
SHOW: Vol. 3 (1950)
Comedian Jack Benny -- America's favorite violin-playing
skinflint -- was a staple of vaudeville, radio and the movies. But he was never
seen to better effect than on his television show, surrounded by his reliable
stock company of characters, including Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and
singer Johnnie Ray. This quartet of vintage episodes features guest appearances
by Fred MacMurray, Kirk Douglas, Dan Dailey and Dick Powell. "Oh,
Rochester … "
JESUS CAMP (2006) – 84 minutes
This riveting documentary offers an
unfiltered look at a revivalist subculture where devout Christian youngsters
are being primed to deliver the fundamentalist community's religious and
political messages. Building an evangelical army of tomorrow, the Kids on Fire
summer camp in Devil's Lake, N.D., is dedicated to deepening the preteens'
spirituality and sowing the seeds of political activism as they're exhorted to
"take back America for Christ."
Starring:
Pastor Ted Haggard
Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
THE LARRY
SANDERS SHOW: TV Season 1 (1992) disc 1
This
award-winning comedy show ran from 1992 to 1998 and relentlessly skewers the
talk show industry with wit, ingenuity and biting humor. Featuring Garry
Shandling as the sheltered host, Jeffrey Tambor as his insecure sidekick, Rip
Torn as Larry's gruff producer, and a slew of celebrity guests, the talk show
that airs is the least of the fun. The real laughs are in the crew's
interactions while the camera's not rolling. … This disc includes the
following episodes: 1. "What Have You Done For Me Lately,"
"Promise," "Spiders," "The Guest Host."
Starring:
Garry Shandling, Rip Torn, Janeane Garofalo
THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW: Season 1: disc 2
This disc includes the following episodes: "The New
Producer," "The Flirt," "Hank's Contract," "Out
of the Loop."
Starring:
Garry Shandling, Rip Torn, and Janeane Garofalo
THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW: Season 1: disc 3
This disc
includes the following episodes: "The Talk Show," "The
Party," "Warmth," "A Brush with the Elbow of
Greatness," "Hey Now."
Starring:
Garry Shandling, Rip Torn, and Janeane Garofalo
LIFE IN
THE UNDERGROWTH: disc 1 (2005) – ___ minutes
In this
landmark five-part documentary, actor David Attenborough serves as your guide
to a microscopic hidden world bustling with life … and death. Thanks to
astounding technological advances, you'll get up close and personal with antler
moths, cicadas, desert locusts, glowworms, silk-spinning spiders and a swarm of
other invertebrates. Despite their diminutive size, these remarkable creatures
live on a grand scale.
LIFE IN
THE UNDERGROWTH: disc 2 (2005) – ___ minutes
In this
landmark five-part documentary, actor David Attenborough serves as your guide
to a microscopic hidden world bustling with life … and death. Thanks to
astounding technological advances, you'll get up close and personal with antler
moths, cicadas, desert locusts, glowworms, silk-spinning spiders and a swarm of
other invertebrates. Despite their diminutive size, these remarkable creatures
live on a grand scale.
MAMA'S FAMILY: TV Season 1 (1983)
The squabbling, dysfunctional,
blue-collar Harper clan provides plenty of laughs in the first season of this
long-running early-'80s sitcom. When sharp-tongued Thelma "Mama"
Harper (Vicki Lawrence) and her spinster sister, Fran (Rue McClanahan), open up
their home to Thelma's recently divorced son, Vinton (Ken Berry), and his two
teenagers, life's about to get a bit bumpier for everyone. This two-disc set
contains 13 episodes from Season 1.
MAMA'S FAMILY: TV Season 2 (1983)
The squabbling, dysfunctional,
blue-collar Harper clan provides plenty of laughs in the first season of this
long-running early-'80s sitcom. When sharp-tongued Thelma "Mama"
Harper (Vicki Lawrence) and her spinster sister, Fran (Rue McClanahan), open up
their home to Thelma's recently divorced son, Vinton (Ken Berry), and his two
teenagers, life's about to get a bit bumpier for everyone. This two-disc set
contains 13 episodes from Season 1.
MARY TYLER MOORE: TV Season 1: Disc 1
This disc includes the following episodes: "Love Is
All Around (with commentary)," "Today I Am a Ma'am," "Bess,
You Is My Daughter Now," "Divorce Isn't Everything,"
"Keep Your Guard Up," "Support Your Local Mother
(with commentary)," "Toulousse-Lautrec Is One of My Favorite
Artists" and "The Snow Must Go On."
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: Mr. B's Lost
Shorts (1993)
The menacing Dr. Clayton Forrester serves up yet another
piece of rib-tickling torture for his captives: "Mystery Science Theater
3000" host Joel Hodgson and
his sidekicks, the robots Crow and Tom. The trio's cinematic victim? A short
titled "Mr. B. Natural," a disturbingly strange film about a weird
and overly friendly gnome who uses his musical talent to seduce a young boy
(which, of course, sends the trio over the moon with witty criticisms).
Noam Chomsky: DISTORTED MORALITY: America's War on Terror? (2002) 115
min
Noam Chomsky offers an eye-opening critique of America's
current "War on Terror" in this DVD featuring two of his lectures --
one at Harvard University and one at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where Chomsky's been a professor for over 40 years. Arguing that it's a logical
impossibility for such a war to be taking place, Chomsky presents his reasoning
with astonishing clarity by drawing from a wealth of historical knowledge and
analysis.
Starring:
Noam Chomsky
In two
lectures and a 45-minute interview, intellectual and political activist Noam
Chomsky -- credited as the father of modern linguistics -- delivers an
unabashed criticism of the Bush administration's record on terrorism, framing
the president's invasion of Iraq as part of an "imperial grand
strategy." Filmed in 2003, this collection of Chomsky's personal views
also provides an effective overview of the global political climate.
Noam Chomsky:
MANUFACTURING CONSENT (1993) - 167 minutes
Funny and provocative, this 1992 documentary explores the
political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, a world-renowned linguist,
intellectual and political activist. Chomsky illustrates how the media tacitly
manipulates public opinion to further the agendas of the powerful. A compelling
examination of the suppression of news about the U.S.-supported Indonesian
invasion and subjugation of East Timor brings home the point.
Noam Chomsky: POWER AND TERROR (2002) - 72 minutes
The focus
here is on intellectual Noam Chomsky and his post-9/11 political views. The
documentary includes an in-depth personal interview, along with snippets from
lectures Chomsky delivered around the country in 2001-2002. Known more for his
stance as a political theorist and charismatic speaker than for his work as an
M.I.T. linguist, Chomsky is revered by academics, intellectuals and leftist
thinkers around the world.
Director:
John Junkerman
Noam Chomsky: REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE (2003)
– 75 minutes
MIT professor and respected political
analyst Noam Chomsky speaks
his mind on sober issues including the U.S. war on terrorism, anti-American
sentiment, media manipulation, the after-effects of 9/11, and social activism
at high-profile gatherings. The film also features interviews with his wife,
activists, fans and critics, and examines the truths and myths surrounding
the anti-capitalist and longtime advocate of liberty and justice.
Director: Will Pascoe
PETER GUNN TV Season 1 (1958)
In this TV series created and
produced by Blake Edwards, Peter Gunn (as portrayed by the inimitable Craig
Stevens) is smart, handsome and straight-shooting -- and tough enough to win over
the mob, the cops and the critics. With a girlfriend who can melt butter at 20
yards and a network of informants throughout the Los Angeles underworld, Peter
Gunn is the perfect American noir detective.
Starring: Craig Stevens
Director: Blake Edwards
PUNK: ATTITUDE (2005)
- 88 minutes
From London's 1970 mod scene to Sonic
Youth, punk music has always been about attitude and anarchy. This
comprehensive rockumentary traces the roots of punk, from The Velvet
Underground and the New York Dolls to the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Punkers
Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Tommy Ramone and David Johansen share their wild
stories, and there's vintage performance footage of the Sex Pistols, the
Ramones, The Clash, The Damned and much more.
Starring: Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Tommy
Ramone and David Johansen
Director: Don Letts
SECRET AGENT A.K.A. DANGER MAN TV
Season 1 (1960)
Before he was The Prisoner, Patrick
McGoohan was Secret Agent John Drake, a hip super spy who relied on wits
instead of weapons to get the job done. A cult hit in England (where it was
known as "Danger Man"), the series may now be best known for its
chart-topping theme song -- Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man." The
series has been digitally restored for its DVD release, and the episodes shown here
are uncut.
SEINFELD: TV Season 1 (1989)
See how NBC's famous show "about nothing" -- one
of the most popular sitcoms of all time -- first became "must-see
TV." Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) leads the Manhattan foursome that also
includes frustrated George (Jason Alexander), sometimes-shrill Elaine (Julia
Louis-Dreyfus) and, of course, Kramer (Michael Richards), Jerry's big-haired,
eccentric neighbor with a knack for unique entrances. Keep an ear peeled for
your favorite catchphrases. ...
SGT. BILKO (1955) TV Season 1
Sgt. Bilko (Phil Silvers) always has a handful of tricks up
his sleeve, proving him to be one of the most likeable hustlers the military
has ever seen. Celebrate his brazen and hilarious disregard for law and order
in pursuit of the big payday in this collection of the television series' most
memorable episodes. Extras include Silver's appearances at the Emmy Awards,
at the Friar's Stag Roast for Humphrey Bogart and much more.
Starring:
Phil Silvers
SID CAESAR TV Season 1
Celebrated comic genius Sid Caesar
was a champion of sketch comedy long before anyone had ever heard of
"Saturday Night Live." This collection includes some of the renowned
comic's best work from his 1950s television shows "Your Show of
Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Gather together for some of the most
hilariously popular Caesar sketches, sure to produce hours of laughter for fans
of his landmark sketch comedy
Starring:
Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen
SID CAESAR TV Season 2
Celebrated comic genius Sid Caesar
was a champion of sketch comedy long before anyone had ever heard of
"Saturday Night Live." This collection includes some of the renowned
comic's best work from his 1950s television shows "Your Show of
Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Gather together for some of the most
hilariously popular Caesar sketches, sure to produce hours of laughter for fans
of his landmark sketch comedy
Starring:
Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen
SID CAESAR TV Season 3
Celebrated comic genius Sid Caesar
was a champion of sketch comedy long before anyone had ever heard of
"Saturday Night Live." This collection includes some of the renowned
comic's best work from his 1950s television shows "Your Show of
Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Gather together for some of the most
hilariously popular Caesar sketches, sure to produce hours of laughter for fans
of his landmark sketch comedy
Starring:
Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen
UNCOVERED: The War on Iraq (2004) - 83 minutes
The updated version of this
controversial documentary -- which takes you behind the walls of the U.S.
government as CIA, Pentagon and Foreign Service experts address the
government's reasons for launching the "preemptive" war on Iraq in
2003 -- includes almost 30 minutes of brand new footage. Paired with this title
is director David O. Russell's controversial antiwar documentary, Soldier's
Pay.
Director: Robert Greenwald, David O. Russell
WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE (2005) - 95 min
Producer,
director and activist Robert Greenwald takes aim at the corporate giant that's
come to symbolize big business in America: Wal-Mart. Blasting the box-store
Goliath for allegedly paying substandard wages, skimping on employee health
benefits and eviscerating communities, this hard-hitting, emotional documentary
profiles the struggle of everyday folks from around the country who've
committed themselves to fighting the mega-retailer.
Director: Robert Greenwald
WEEDS:
Season 1, disc #1
Living the high life as a suburban mom turned pot
dealer, Nancy Botwin (Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker) manages
motherhood and marijuana on a daily basis. Desperate times call for desperate
dealings once Nancy is struck with the need to provide for her family in this
hilarious and poignant tale of unique entrepreneurial opportunities. The Season
1 DVD from the Showtime hit series features cast commentary and smokin' bonus
material. "You Can't Miss the Bear," "Free Goat,"
"Good Shit Lollipop," "Fashion of the Christ," "Lude
Awakening" and "Dead in the Nethers
Starring:
Mary-Louise Parker
Director: Brian Dannelly
WEEDS:
Season 1, disc #2
This disc includes the following episodes (7-10): "Higher
Education," "The Punishment Light," "The Punishment
Lighter" and "The Godmother."
Starring:
Mary-Louise Parker
Director: Brian Dannelly
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? (2006) - 91 minutes
Amid ever-increasing gas prices, this
documentary delves into the short life of the GM EV1 electric car -- once all
the rage in the mid-1990s and now fallen by the roadside. How could such an
efficient, green-friendly vehicle fail to transform our garages and skies?
Through interviews with government officials, former GM employees and concerned
celebs (such as EV1 driver Mel Gibson), Chris Paine (former EV1 owner) seeks to
answer the question.
Starring: Martin Sheen, Mel Gibson, Tom
Hanks
WKRP IN CINCINNATI: (1978) TV Season 1: Disc 1
When ambitious program
director Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) arrives at WKRP, he shakes things up at the
sleepy radio station by changing to a rock format, in spite of opposition from
the station owner and the Lawrence Welk fan base. Hip DJs Dr. Johnny Fever
(Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) keep things hopping, while
levelheaded blonde bombshell receptionist Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson)
always manages to smooth over problems.Episodes: "Pilot: Part 1,"
"Pilot: Part 2," "Les On a Ledge," "Hoodlum
Rock," "Hold-Up," "Bailey's Show," "Turkeys
Away" and "Love Returns."
WKRP IN CINCINNATI: (1978) TV Season 1: Disc 2
This disc includes the
following episodes: "Mama's Review," "A Date With
Jennifer," "The Contest Nobody Could Win," "Tornado,"
"Goodbye, Johnny," "Johnny Comes Back," "Never Leave
Me, Lucille" and "I Want to Keep My Baby."
Starring: Howard
Hesseman, Tim Reid, Loni Anderson
Director:
Jay Sandrich, Asaad Kelada, Michael
Zinberg
WKRP in Cincinnati: (1978) TV Season 1: Disc 3
This disc includes the
following episodes: "A Commercial Break," "Who is Gordon
Sims?," "I Do, I Do…For Now," "Young Master Carlson,"
"Fish Story" and "The Preacher."
Starring: Howard
Hesseman, Tim Reid, Loni Anderson
Director:
Jay Sandrich, Asaad Kelada, Michael
Zinberg
Featuring 6 riotous episodes from what may be one of the most
hilarious game shows ever to grace the small screen, Groucho Marx's witty
"You Bet your Life," this three-disc collection boasts cameos from
legendary guest stars such as Edgar Bergen and his daughter, Candice; cinematic
strongman Johnny Weismuller; boxer Joe Louis; comedian Phyllis Diller;
and the show's eventual trademark Duck. Extras include three TV pilots by Marx
YOU BET YOUR LIFE: Best TV Episodes (disc 2)
The disc includes six episodes featuring Joe Louis, Boots
Bootzin, Edouard Cournand, Max Shulman and more. Extras include "What
Do You Want?" pilot filmed in January 1961, a "You Bet Your
Life" stag reel, commercials and outtakes.
YOU BET YOUR LIFE: Best TV Episodes (disc 3)
This disc includes six episodes featuring Wild Red Berry,
Phyllis Diller, Fencing Master & Miss Finland, Joy Harmon and more.
Extras include "Tell It to Groucho" pilot filmed in 1961, a "You
Bet Your Life" stag reel, commentary by Phyllis Diller and outtakes.