Old Movie Classics

Fritz the Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:49:00 +0000

The Inimitable Fritz the cat from the sixties cult cartoon character by Robert Crumb.

A hypocritical swinging college student cat raises hell in a satiric vision of various elements of the 1960's.
A persiflage on the protest movements of the 60s. It's hero is the bold and sex-obsessed tom-cat Fritz the Cat, as created by the legendary underground artist Robert Crumb. Quitting university Fritz the Cat wanders through the hash, Black Panther and Hell's Angels scenes to find to himself.

Fritz the Cat is a 1972 American animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi as his feature film debut. Based on the comic strip of the same name by Robert Crumb, the film was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States. It focuses on Fritz (voiced by Skip Hinnant), an anthropomorphic feline in mid-1960s New York City who explores the ideals of hedonism and sociopolitical consciousness. The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, the free love movement, and left- and right-wing politics. Fritz the Cat was the most successful independent animated feature of all time, grossing over $100 million worldwide.

Fritz the Cat had a troubled production history and controversial release. Creator Robert Crumb is known to have had disagreements with the filmmakers, claiming in interviews that his first wife signed over the film rights to the characters, and that he did not approve the production. Crumb was also critical of the film's approach to his material. Fritz the Cat was controversial for its rating and content, which viewers at the time found to be offensive. Its success led to a slew of other X-rated animated films, and a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, was made without Crumb's or Bakshi's involvement.

In a New York park, hippies have gathered with guitars to sing protest songs. Fritz and his friends show up in an attempt to meet girls. When a trio of attractive females walk by, Fritz and his friends exhaust themselves trying to get their attention, but find that the girls are more interested in the crow standing a few feet away. The girls attempt to flirt with the crow, making unintentionally condescending remarks about black people, while Fritz looks on in annoyance. Suddenly, the crow rebukes the girls with a snide remark and walks away. Fritz tries to pick up the girls by convincing them that he is a tormented soul, and invites them to "seek the truth", bringing them up to his friend's apartment, where a wild party is taking place. Since the other rooms are crowded, Fritz drags the girls into the bathroom and the four of them have group sex in the bathtub. Meanwhile, the police (portrayed as pigs) arrive to raid the party. As the two officers walk up the stairs, one of the partygoers finds Fritz and the girls in the bath tub. Several others jump in, pushing Fritz to the side where he takes solace in marijuana. The two officers break into the apartment, but find that it is empty because everyone has moved into the bathroom. Fritz takes refuge in the toilet when one of the pigs enters the bathroom and begins to beat up the partygoers. As the pig becomes exhausted, a very intoxicated Fritz jumps out, grabs the pig's gun, and shoots the toilet, causing the water main to break and flooding everybody out of the apartment. The pigs chase Fritz down the street into a synagogue. Fritz manages to escape when the congregation gets up to celebrate the United States' decision to send more weapons into Israel.

Fritz makes it back to his dormitory, where his roommates ignore him. He sets all of his notes and books on fire. The fire spreads throughout the dorm, finally setting the entire building ablaze. In a bar in Harlem, Fritz meets Duke the Crow at a billiard table. After narrowly avoiding getting into a fight with the bartender, Duke invites Fritz to "bug out". When Duke steals a car, Fritz is eager to join the illegal activity. Following a wild ride, Fritz drives the car off a bridge. Before the car crashes into the water and rocks below, Duke saves Fritz's life. The two arrive at an apartment owned by Bertha, a crow and former prostitute turned drug dealer. When Fritz arrives, she shoves several joints into his mouth. The marijuana increases his libido, so he rushes off into an alley to have sex with Bertha. While having sex, he comes to a supreme realization that he "must tell the people about the revolution!" He runs off into the city street and incites a riot, during which Duke is shot and killed, and Fritz is chased by several cops.

Fritz hides in an alley where his fox girlfriend, Winston Schwartz, finds him. She drags him on a road trip to San Francisco. On the road, she stops at a Howard Johnson's restaurant, and disenchants Fritz by her refusal to go to unusual places. When the car runs out of gas in the middle of the desert, Fritz decides to abandon her. Fritz meets up with Blue, a heroin-addicted rabbit biker. Along with Blue's horse girlfriend, Harriet, they take a ride to an underground hide-out where several other revolutionaries tell Fritz of their plan to blow up a power station. When Harriet tries to get Blue to leave, he hits her several times and ties her down with a chain. When Fritz objects to their treatment of her, he is hit in the face with a candle by the group's leader, a lizard. The group throws Harriet onto a bed and rapes her. In the next scene, Harriet is sitting in a graveyard, naked and traumatized. Fritz puts a coat over her and gets into a car with the leader to drive out to the power plant. After setting the dynamite, Fritz suddenly has a change of heart. The lizard lights the fuse and drives off as Fritz tries to get the dynamite out of its tight spot and fails. The dynamite explodes, blowing up both the power plant and Fritz. At a Los Angeles hospital, Harriet (now a nun) and the girls from the New York park come to comfort him. It is in this scene that, as John Grant writes in his book Masters of Animation, Fritz realizes that he should "stick to his original hedonist philosophy and let the rest of the world take care of itself."[1] In the final moments of the film, the audience sees Fritz have sexual intercourse with the girls from the park again.

The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (R) (1974)

Imdb Link - Fritz the Cat (1972)

Labyrinth (1986)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:34:00 +0000

Where everything seems possible and nothing is what it seems...
David Bowie stars in the 1986 childrens Fantasy Musical; Labyrinth.

Plot Synopsis;
Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly) was a teenager with a large imagination and love for fantasy stories, so much so that she enacted her favorite storybook, the Labyrinth, whenever she could. She happened to have been pretending that she was the heroine in her story while wandering in the park near her house when the clock on the near by city hall building struck, informing her it was 7pm. She realized she was an hour late and needed to get home to watch her baby stepbrother, Toby (Toby Froud). After arguing with her stepmother about her tardiness and feeling ignored by her father, Sarah was left alone with her fussy infant brother. Angered that her stepmother had given her brother one of her favorite teddy bears, a tattered toy called Lancelot, Sarah shouted into the air for someone to take her away from 'this awful place.' To get Toby to stop crying, she told him the story of how the Goblin King was in love with the girl who was 'forced to stay at home with the baby' and that he had 'given her certain powers.' But Sarah in no way believed this story could be real.

In anger that the child wouldn't stop crying, Sarah did call for the goblins to take her brother. They took Toby away and Jareth (David Bowie), the King of the Goblins, gave her an option; she could take her dreams or spend 13 hours in his kingdom, an ever-changing maze called the Labyrinth. If she was able to get to the castle at the center within the specified time, her brother would be spared from becoming a goblin. Sarah was resolved to save her brother and the king left her to do her task.

She immediately met an ancient looking dwarf with a feisty attitude who shows her how to enter the Labyrinth. His name was Hoggle (voice Brian Henson) and he told her not to take anything for granted in this place; she didn't seem to find him very helpful and basically told him to leave. However, eventually she got herself stuck in an oubliette, and the one sent by the Goblin King to 'rescue' her was Hoggle.

But Hoggle was beginning to like Sarah and against the orders he was given to send her back to the beginning of the Labyrinth, having her start all over again, he makes the choice to help her get to the center and reach her brother. This does not bode well with Jareth, who at Sarah's haughty attitude took three hours of her time away and threatened to send Hoggle to the most horrible place known in the Labyrinth, a stinky land of slimy mud called the Bog of Eternal Stench, for his betrayal. Then Jareth turned to Sarah and asked her how she was enjoying his Labyrinth. When she flippantly said it was a 'piece of cake,' the king sent a machine covered in spinning knives after her and Hoggle, then disappeared. They were able to escape, yet Hoggle got scared by the sound of a howling creature and said he was a friend to no one but himself, leaving Sarah to fend for herself.

Sarah forced herself not to be afraid, remembering she was told 'things aren't always what they seem in this place.' She found Ludo, a furry giant beast and a gentle creature despite his massive size, who became her friend when she saved him from being tortured by a bunch of goblins. But she became separated from Ludo too and found herself in a strange forest where she met the Firies, creatures that were able to dismember themselves and take off their heads. They tried to take off her head, which of course didn't work, but they didn't stop trying to mutilate her, so she threw their heads away. Hoggle came to her rescue, but she didn't know that the Goblin King had threatened him that if she ever kissed him, he would immediately be sent to the Bog. As soon as her lips touched the dwarf's bald head, the stones beneath them shook and they fell to the Bog. Thankfully they didn't fall in to the muck. They found Ludo here and met Sir Didymus, a fox knight with a sheepdog as his steed, who decided to aid Sarah in her quest for her brother. As the castle was not much further, there was hardly anything left to prevent her from reaching Toby in time.

Except one thing. The Goblin King had forced something on Hoggle; he was to give Sarah a peach that would make her forget about Toby. And Sarah was hungry, which left Hoggle no choice but to give the fruit to her. Handing it to her, he left in shame of having to obey the king.

By eating the peach, Sarah found herself in a dream, in a ballroom full of masked faces. She wore a beautiful silver gown and the Goblin King held tightly to her in a dance, but she knew there was something she had to do so she left his arms and broke free of the crystal ball he had placed her in.

She awoke in a junkyard, peach in hand, but she still couldn't remember what she was supposed to be doing. A goblin woman with a collection of knickknacks on her back led her to a room; her bedroom. Sarah ran to her bed and flopped down on it, burying her face in the pillow. It had all been just a terrible dream. But it wasn't a dream, for as soon as she opened her bedroom door, the goblin woman came in and tried to get her to begin a collection of knickknacks from her room for herself. One of the items happened to be her book of the Labyrinth and she was immediately reminded that she needed to save Toby. Her friends had followed her to the junkyard when she had been trapped in the crystal and pulled her to safety. They quickly hurried to the nearby castle, for she had less than an hour left.

They entered the Goblin City, which surrounded the castle, and soon found goblins attacking them in hordes. But eventually they made it through the chaos to the castle. The throne room was empty and a clock on the wall let Sarah know she had less than 5 minutes left to reach her brother. The only direction Jareth could have taken Toby was up the stairs, and Sarah went it alone, to the concern of her friends.

When she reached the room at the top she had to hold to the wall to keep from getting dizzy. This room had many stairways that led to nowhere and walkways between. There was no up or down and she didn't know which way to go. But the Goblin King made himself known, standing below her and she gasped when she saw him. He easily walked around the ledge to her, even walked straight through her, trying to intimidate her. With an evil grin he threw a crystal and she watched as it bounced across the multiple perspectives of the room, only to land in the hands of her brother, who seemed to be sitting upside down above her. Now that she knew where Toby was, all she had to do was get to him, but that was the whole problem. Toby would crawl somewhere different the second she thought she had neared him, and unlike her, he didn't know he wasn't supposed to be able to defy gravity and crawl on the ceiling. Finally she found him directly below her, sitting on the floor, dangling his feet over the ledge of a door. Toby was right there, twenty feet below her, and she had no way of getting to him. Sarah didn't know how long this had been taking her but knew she hardly had time left. All that she knew was that if she didn't hold Toby in her arms in time, he would never be the same again; she had to save him from becoming a goblin. So with a gulp and wincing her face at the thought of how broken her bones would be once she fell to the ground beside him, she jumped.

But she didn't hit the floor. In fact, as she kept falling, the room was breaking up around her. Finally her feet hit floor and she found the Goblin King slowly walking towards her from out of the shadows. He wore all white, his cape of feathers flowing about him as he neared her. She began to state the lines her story said would defeat him and finalize her brother's safety, but the king stopped her and offered her dreams to her once again; he even offered himself. But her only resolve was to save Toby, so she completed her dialog and found herself back in her home. The defeated Goblin King flew out the window, banished to live in an owl form.

Sarah ran up stairs to ensure that her brother had been returned and found Toby sleeping soundly. She went to her room and began to put away those things that were part of her childhood fantasies, but as she did so, she saw the faces of her friends from the Labyrinth staring at her in her mirror. They told her they would always be around if she needed them, and she told them that every now and again in her life, she would.

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 nominations
Imdb Link - Labyrinth

Dark Passage

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Bogart and Bacall spark off their wonderful acting chemistry in "Dark Passage";

Guy escapes prison (Bogart,) See? Girl (Bacall,) gives refuge to guy. Got that? Yeah. . . The exciting scénics of San Francisco become the backdrop for the ensuing manhunt. The escaped con is often recognized and suspected, heightening his wish to flee and hide detection, taking us with him through his Dark Passage into and out of film noir. He is able to do so but must brave a medical metamorphosis and battle the intervening finger of fate that slates him against the quirks of manipulators and those who would see him behind bars in a shake of this finger. Is he guilty? --no. San Francisco creates a symphony of noir elements with a twist. What. . .? A happy ending you say? Of course. It's Bogie and Bacall, likely the only couple to make it out of film noir alive, together and with a pretty colored tropical drink in hand, in B& W, of course.

Imdb Link - DarkPassage

Sahara (1943 U.S.A.)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:10:00 +0000

Starring Humphrey Bogart

After the fall of the Libyan city of Tobruk, Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) and his crew retreat in their tank across the Sahara. Along the way they pick up six Allied stragglers and a Sudanese corporal and his Italian prisoner. Tambul directs the group to a desert fortress, where they find desperately needed water. When a 500 strong detachment of German soldiers arrive, and is subsequently denied water, Gunn must lead his small group of weary men in a desperate battle.

Sahara is a 1943 war film directed by Zoltán Korda. Humphrey Bogart stars as a U.S. tank commander in Egypt during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The movie earned three Academy Award nominations: Best Sound, Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) and Best Supporting Actor by J. Carrol Naish for his role as an Italian prisoner.

A television remake starring Jim Belushi in Bogart's role was broadcast in 1995.

Plot Synopsis;
An M3 Lee tank, commanded by U.S. Army Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) and nicknamed Lulu Belle, becomes separated from its unit during a general retreat from Rommel's forces. At a bombed-out field hospital, the crew picks up a motley collection of stragglers, among them a British doctor, four assorted Commonwealth troops, and a Free French corporal (Louis Mercier). Later, they pick up a Sudanese sergeant major (Rex Ingram) and his Italian prisoner (J. Carrol Naish), who volunteeers to lead them to a well at Hassan Barani. En route, a Luftwaffe pilot (Kurt Kreuger) strafes the tank, killing one of the British soldiers (Lloyd Bridges), but is shot down and captured.

Running out of water, they are forced to detour to a desert well marked on Gunn's map. They find it, but it is almost empty, providing only a trickle of water. A German half track arrives soon afterwards and Gunn's group ambushes it. Gunn finds out from the two survivors of its crew that a German battalion, desperate for water, is following close behind. He decides to make a stand to delay the Germans any way he can, while he sends one of his men, Waco (Bruce Bennett) away in the captured German vehicle in search of help. The two Germans are released, to carry back an offer: "guns for water", even though there is barely enough for Gunn's men.

The well has completely dried up by the time the Germans arrive. A standoff and battle of wills begins. Gunn pretends the well is full of water and negotiates to waste time. Eventually, the Germans attack and are beaten off again and again, but one by one, the defenders are killed. However, the thirst-maddened Germans' final assault turns into a full-blown surrender as they drop their weapons and claw across the sand towards the well. To Gunn's shock, he discovers that a German shell that exploded in the well has refilled it by tapping into another source of water. Gunn and the only other Allied survivor disarm the Germans while they're drinking their fill and start marching them east, where they encounter Allied troops led by Gunn's courier Waco, who had managed to reach them. The movie ends with news of the allied victory at the First Battle of El Alamein, turning back the tide of Rommel's Afrika Corps.

The plot of the film (especially the scene with a bucket of water) closely resembles an earlier Mikhail Romm film The Thirteen (Russian: Тринадцать, 1937) which, in turn, was influenced by John Ford’s The Lost Patrol
Nominated for 3 Oscars
Imdb Link - Sahara (1943)

Smokey and the Bandit 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:55:00 +0000

Second film in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy, with Burt Reynolds

Smokey and the Bandit

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:47:00 +0000

Smokey and the Bandit - first of three sequels starring Burt Reynolds;

Bo Darville, aka The Bandit, is a semi-retired trucker legend, working in a trucking rodeo. He is approached by a shady father and son tycoon team (Big and Little Enos Burdette) who are planning a big party. Only problem is, in 1978 America, due to arcane liquor laws, it was illegal to ship Coors beer east of Texas, let alone east of the Mississippi...and the Burdettes wanted some for their Atlanta, Georgia shindig. 400 cases of it.

The Burdetts offer The Bandit $80,000 dollars to get the brews in Texarkana, Texas and bring them back to Atlanta in 28 hours. Enter Cledus Snow, "The Snowman." Bandit convinces Cledus to drive the beer truck, while he will run blocker--distracting Smokey, just like in their heyday. With Cledus convinced, the decoy is revealed...a 1977 black Pontiac Trans Am with gold eagle paint scheme and a Hemi engine, one of the most iconic automotive symbols in American film history.

Like the Battle of Troy is to Odysseus, securing of the brew is just the beginning. Now, they just gotta get it home. How hard could that be? They would have made it with hours to spare, save for their paths crossing with the disruption of the wedding of the soon to be blushing new couple, Deputy Buford T. and Mrs. Carrie Justice, Jr. Seems the almost-Mrs. Justice got second thoughts at the altar, and "danced back up the aisle", apologizing to Junior all the way. On her way out of the church, she flags down the first car to pass...Bandit Darville's Trans Am. She hops in, wedding dress and veil (for awhile at least), flapping in the T-tops. She introduces herself to The Bandit, who eventually names her Frog, as she's prone to hoppin'. Hey, you try getting out of a wedding train in a 70s American muscle car going 110 miles an hour.

Back at the Justice wedding, the father of the groom is beside himself with rage. As he exits the church, Sherriff Buford T. Justice--OF TEXAS!!--is informed that the harlot who has embarassed him in front of his town sped away at harrowing speeds...in a black Trans Am. The pursuit is on!!

Cledus is making good time in the beer truck, although an unscheduled swim with his co-pilot (Bassett Hound Fred) and a truck stop fight with a group of grizzled bikers lose him valuable minutes. Meanwhile, chemistry is sparking up ahead between Bandit and Frog. He even takes his hat off, which he only does for one thing...and one thing, only. As Texas turns to Arkansas, suddenly something becomes apparent...Sherriff Justice is still in pursuit, and he loses another marble with each new insult to his police vehicle.

Many, many police cruisers are destroyed. An unfinished suspension bridge is jumped...and then, not. Diablo sandwiches. The rocking chair. Hot Pants. Finally, the entire Georgia State Police force, complete with helicopter, join the chase. In a stunning climax of events, the deadline is met...and the money is collected from Enos and enos. OK, not really. A double-or-nothing deal is struck for some Boston clam chowder (in 18 hours), and off run Bandit, Frog, and the Snowman in their new candy apple red Cadillac. Bandit, via the police band of his ever-present CB, finally presents himself to Buford...eventually. Tipping him off to their next destination, they speed away...heading north to New England. Sherriff Justice peels out of the parking lot, leaving Junior behind...obediently chasing Daddy. Who else, after all, is going to hold his hat?

Ulysses

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:28:00 +0000

Ulysses (1954) - Kirk Douglas,Anthony Quinn

A movie adaptation of Homer's second epic, that talks about Ulysses' efforts to return to his home after the end of ten years of war.

According to Homer, Ulysses is king of Ithaca, and father, by his wife, Penelope, of Telemachus...
Homer portrays Ulysses as a man of outstanding wisdom, eloquence, resourcefulness, courage and endurance...
In the Iliad, Ulysses appears as the man best fitted to cope with crises in personal relations among the Greeks and his bravery and skill in fighting were demonstrated repeatedly...
Ulysses wanderings and the recovery of his house and kingdom are the central theme of our film, which also relates how he accomplishes the capture of Troy by means of the wooden horse...
The motion picture, fill in the gaps with flashbacks, describes Ulysses' wanderings between Troy and Ithaca... As a troubled man, Ulysses spends much time at the shore trying to remember his past...
He encounters Polyphemus, the Cyclops, son of Poseidon... He escapes from his cave by getting him drunk and running a ram into his eye...
Shipwrecked, his men gone, his memory lost, he is discovered by a beautiful young princess Nausicca (Rossana Podesta) who immediately falls in love with him... Ulysses defeats the champion wrestler of Phaeacia in a public exhibition, but remains distant trying to recall his past...

He then encounters the Sirens whose songs lure sailors to their death... Plugging the ears of his men with wax, he has himself tied to the mast with ropes so that he can hear their call...
Ulysses reaches the island of the enchantress Circe who casts her spell on him... Taking on the appearance of his wife Penelope, she held him captive and turned his crew into swine, but fails to keep him in her company...

After almost l0 years, Ulysses at last arrived in Ithaca, where his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, had been struggling to maintain their authority during his prolonged absence...
Kirk Douglas plays, with sensitivity, Ulysses, "the man of many turns" who had many opportunities of displaying his talent for ruses and deceptions; but at the same time, his courage and loyalty..
The full-figured Silvana Mangano plays a double role: Penelope, the faithful wife and Circe, the sorceress...
Anthony Quinn is the arrogant Antinous, the most persistent of Penelope's suitors, hanging around the palace with a group of vicious noblemen, trying to persuade the lovely queen that Ulysses is dead and that she should choose one of them as her next husband..
With the elements of an Italian epic adventure tale photographed in Technicolor, the film is quite entertaining in its attempts to translate episodes of Homer's Odyssey...

Tom Horn (1980)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:51:00 +0000

Tom Horne - A Romantic Western with Steve McQueen.

Tom Horn is a 1980 western film about the legendary lawman, outlaw, and gunfighter. It starred Steve McQueen as the title character and was based on Horn's own writings. A renowned former army scout is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy when he carries out his job too well. Tom Horn finds that the simple skills he knows are of no help in dealing with the ambitions of ranchers and corrupt officials as progress marches over him and the old west. Thomas "Tom" Horn, Jr. (November 21, 1860 – November 20, 1903) was an American Old West lawman, scout, soldier, hired gunman, detective, outlaw and assassin. On the day before his 43rd birthday, he was hanged in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the murder of Willie Nickell.

Watch now- Tom Horn

Horn's exploits as an assassin far overshadowed any other accomplishments he made during his lifetime, including during his time as a scout in tracking Apaches in southeastern Arizona Territory, southwestern New Mexico Territory, and into the states of Sonora and Chihuahua in northern Mexico along the Sierra Madre Occidental.

Steve McQueen as Tom Horn
Linda Evans as Glendolene Kimmel
Richard Farnsworth as John C. Coble
Billy Green Bush as U.S. Marshal Joe Belle
Slim Pickens as Sheriff Sam Creedmore
Peter Canon as Assistant Prosecutor
Elisha Cook Jr. as Stablehand
Harry Northup as Thomas Burke

The King and I (1956)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:05:00 +0000

The King and I is a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. The plot comes from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became school teacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. Starring Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno and Deborah Kerr.

Mrs. Anna Leonowens (Deborah Kerr), a widow from Wales, arrives in Bangkok with her young son, Louis, to teach English to the children of the royal household of King Mongkut (Yul Brynner). She is escorted to the palace by the King's sinister right-hand man, the Kralahome, of whom she is very apprehensive - she and her son must disguise their fear ("Whistle A Happy Tune"). She is greeted, but told she will stay in the palace, although the king promised her she would have a house. She demands to see the King and does see him. The King is pleased with her, and takes her to meet his wives and his fifteen children that live in the palace (he has sixty-seven more). She is charmed by the children, and agrees to stay and teach them. Here she meets a new, young wife - a Burmese girl named Tuptim, who arrived shortly before Anna did. She is unhappy living at the castle, because she is in love with Lun Tha, the man who had brought her to Siam from Burma.

Watch Movie - The King and I

Part One

Part Two

The King's wives come to help Anna settle in to her new home, and discover a photo of her husband. Anna reminisces about her days with Tom, and gives her blessing to other young lovers, who are like they used to be, ("Hello Young Lovers").

The King is troubled - he craves truth, but how can he learn the truth when different cultures say different things? ("Is A Puzzlement")

As Anna teaches her lesson to the children, she explains that getting to know people is her favorite thing to "teach" ("Getting to Know You"). The lesson goes on and the children start to not believe in the things she is teaching them, such as snow and Siam's small size. The King intervenes and scolds his children for not believing her.

Late one night, the King summons Anna to talk to her about the Bible, and how Moses says the world was created in six days. The King of Siam thinks Moses is a fool - he thinks that the world took many centuries to create. They have a small argument about the Bible in which Anna stands above the King. Due to the Siamese custom that no one's head should be higher than the King's, Anna is forced to sit on the floor as the King has her write a letter to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, telling him he will send male elephants to America to help with the Civil War. Anna tries to tell him that the elephants will not last long if only male elephants are sent, but the King loses interest and tells her to finish the letter herself. Before this, Anna has to have her head lowered than the king, which she first refuses, until the king loses his temper, forcing her to kneel and lie on the floor. Anna goes outside, where she meets Lun Tha and learns that he and Tuptim have been meeting in secret. He asks Anna to fetch Tuptim. Anna refuses at first, afraid of the consequences if the lovers are caught, but, remembering her own happy days with her husband, Tom, she relents. The lovers meet ("We Kiss In A Shadow"), and Lun Tha promises that when he comes again, he and Tuptim will escape from Siam.

Later, the King is told that England thinks him a barbaric leader, so he and Anna plan an English style feast for many European officials. Anna helps to make some of the ladies' European dresses, and also orders food and teaches the orchestra European music. She is appalled to find that she only has one week to do this in, but the King reminds her that according to Moses, the whole world was created in one week.

Anna dresses the ladies up in English clothes, but forgets to give them undergarments. She is horrified on discovering her mistake, and entreats the ladies to keep their backs to the wall when presented to the Ambassador. But at the sight of the Ambassador's spyglass, the ladies flee in panic, exclaiming that he has the head of a goat. The Ambassador arrives, along with his aide Sir Edward Ramsey, with whom Anna was in love before she met Tom - in fact, Edward did once ask for her hand in marriage. He waylays Anna as she goes to help the King with the seating, and they reminisce and dance together, which the King walks in on and is highly jealous. The King offers his arm to her and leads her to dinner, where the guest are entertained by the King's intellectual observations, and Tuptim's theatrical version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which she narrates. When the play is over, however, she escapes with her lover. Anna and the King talk after the feast, and he gives her one of his rings as a present. Anna is quite taken by this gesture. It is here that the movie seems to show that they have fallen in love with each other, even though the King rejects the idea. The king recites a poem, known as the "Song of the King" where he states that women are "blossoms" and that men are "like Honeybees", and declares that "honey bees must be free" to "Fly from Blossom to Blossom", however, "blossoms must not ever fly from bee,to bee to bee". Anna laughs at the poem, however, She then teaches him how to dance the polka ("Shall We Dance"). However, they are interrupted by the Kralahome, who explains that Tuptim has been found and the King is told of her lover. He decides to whip her, but Anna calls him a barbarian, and says that he has no heart. He is unable to beat Tuptim and runs off in humiliation, and Anna gives back the ring and decides to leave Siam. Tuptim is led off in tears after an official announces that the corpse of Lun Tha has been discovered in the river. She is not seen again in the film.

Anna, thinking that she can no longer be of any use, is just about to leave Siam when she is told that the King is dying. His health has steadily declined ever since Anna called him a barbarian, and he has refused any help. She goes to his bedside and he gives her back the ring, pleading with her to wear it and saying that she has always spoken the truth to him. She decides to stay in order to help his young son, the Crown Prince Chulalongkorn, rule the people. As the prince is making his first statements as King, declaring the end of slavery in Siam, and stating that the King's subjects will no longer bow down to him but rather stand at attention, the King dies, only Anna and the Kralahome noticing. The film ends with Anna laying her head on his hand.

The film makes Tuptim's ultimate fate more ambiguous. In the stage version, when she hears of Lun Tha's death, she exclaims "Then I shall join him soon", implying that the King's soldiers will execute her (which is what happens to her in the film Anna and the King of Siam and the 1999 Anna and the King). In the 1956 film version of The King and I, Tuptim, when hearing of Lun Tha's fate, exclaims "Dead! Oh, no!", and begins weeping uncontrollably as the soldiers drag her off.

Alternative Viewing Option

The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:43:00 +0000

Another Sherlock Holmes Classic old Movie from 1932.

young woman turns to Sherlock Holmes for protection when she's menaced by an escaped killer seeking missing treasure. However, when the woman is kidnapped, Holmes and Watson must penetrate the city's criminal underworld to find her.

Watch Movie - Sherlock Holmes - The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case

The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case is a 1932 British film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Arthur Wontner and Ian Hunter. The movie is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes story.

The film is also known as The Sign of Four.

Storyline of the book;

The story is set in 1887 or 1888. The Sign of Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in A Study in Scarlet. It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.

The Sign of Four has had three productions till now, the second and third being in 1987 and 2001 respectively.

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Winnie the Pooh needs no Introduction - the many adventures of Winnie the Pooh was a movie i looked forward to as a child because i had already got to know him well from the books.I think everyone has to love Winnie, Tigger and Co.

So watch it; The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

Pooh, a bear of very little brain, and all his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood sing their way through adventures that encompass honey, bees, bouncing, balloons, Eeyore's birthday, floods, and Pooh sticks.

he Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the 22nd full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on March 11, 1977.

The film is actually composed of material from three previously released animated featurettes based upon the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974). Because of this, it is seen by some as the last of the Disney "package films" (movies consisting of two or more short segments), the bulk of which were produced by the studio to keep costs down during World War II. Pooh was produced for similar economic reasons. This is also the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement, since one of the shorts (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) was released during his lifetime, and he was involved in the production of Blustery Day. A fourth and final featurette based on the original books, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, was released in 1983 and is included as a bonus feature on the VHS and DVD release of the feature film.

Its characters have spawned an industry of sequels, television programs, clothing, books, and toys. The film differs from the three individual shorts by having newly-created linking material, and an ending to give closure to the stories (based on the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner). It was always Walt Disney's intention to create a feature film, but he decided to make shorts instead — after production had begun — to familiarize US audiences with the characters. All three shorts as well as future feature films boast classic songs by the Sherman Brothers including "Winnie The Pooh" and "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".

The film also inspired an attraction of the same name at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Hong Kong Disneyland. A much more elaborate attraction, also based on the film, opened in Tokyo Disneyland as "Pooh's Hunny Hunt".

Links; official winnie the pooh site

Captain Horatio Hornblower

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:25:00 +0000

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (released in the U.S. without the 'R.N.') is a 1951 naval adventure film. It was directed by Raoul Walsh and stars Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty and Terence Morgan.

It was based upon three of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, The Happy Return (Beat to Quarters in the United States), A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours. Forester is credited with the adaptation; as a result, the film is faithful to his novels and features an occasionally introspective tone unusual for an old-fashioned swashbuckler.

Watch Movie; Captain Horatio Hornblower

Plot Synopsis;

In 1807, Royal Navy Captain Horatio Hornblower (Gregory Peck), commanding the 36-gun frigate HMS Lydia, is on a lengthy secret mission to Central America. He is to provide arms and support to a megalomaniac calling himself "El Supremo" or "The Almighty" (Alec Mango) in his rebellion against Spain, an ally of Britain's enemy France during the Napoleonic Wars. As Hornblower observes to First Lieutenant Bush (Robert Beatty), "War breeds strange allies."

Upon his arrival, the Englishman is told that a larger, much more powerful Spanish warship, the 50-gun Natividad, has been sighted. When it anchors nearby, Hornblower and his crew board and capture it in a surprise nighttime attack. He then reluctantly hands the ship over to El Supremo to appease the madman and they go their separate ways.

Later, he encounters a small Spanish vessel with a pair of troublesome passengers. First, a Spanish official informs him (and provides proof) that Spain has switched sides. Then Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo) "requests" passage back to England for her and her maid. Due to a deadly epidemic raging ashore and her influential relations (she is the fictitious sister of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington), Hornblower is in no position to refuse, even though he has to sink the Natividad. Using masterful tactics, he accomplishes his mission. With the danger gone, the Spaniards insist he leave.

On the voyage back to England, Lady Barbara falls gravely ill and is nursed back to health by him. They spend many enjoyable nights talking and playing whist. They fall in love, but he rejects her advances, explaining that he is married.

After arriving home, he learns that his wife Maria has died. Hornblower is given command of the Sutherland, a powerful ship of the line captured from the French and is assigned to a squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Rodney Leighton (Denis O'Dea), Lady Barbara's pompous new husband. The squadron's mission is to help enforce the British blockade against Napoleonic France.

At a conference on Leighton's flagship, Hornblower urges a wide deployment to counter any sortie of the French Navy in support of Napoleon's campaign on the Iberian Peninsula. However, a suspicious Leighton expressly forbids Hornblower from taking any independent action without his permission.

Hornblower's French-built ship is subsequently mistaken for a friendly vessel by a French ship, making for its easy capture. Hornblower learns the enemy's recognition signal for the day, as well as vital intelligence that four French ships of the line carrying troops and supplies have slipped the blockade and are heading to Spain.

Faced with the urgency of the situation, Hornblower decides on his own initiative to attempt to find and sink the ships. He locates them anchored in a harbour guarded by a well-armed fort. By flying a French flag and the recognition signal, as well as taking advantage of the appearance of his ship's French design, Hornblower fools the garrison into believing that the Sutherland is friendly, enters the harbor unhindered, and proceeds to sink or damage all four enemy ships. The French fort then opens fire, and Hornblower and the rest of the surviving crew have to abandon ship, but not before deliberately sinking the Sutherland in the harbor channel to bottle up the French ships.

The rest of the British squadron arrives shortly afterward to complete the job; Leighton is killed in the ensuing battle. Hornblower and Bush, accompanied by seaman Quist (James Robertson Justice), are taken by carriage to Paris to be tried on the trumped-up charge of espionage and executed. However, they manage to escape en route and make their way to a port. Disguised as Dutch officers, they board The Witch of Endor, a captured British ship, overpower the skeleton crew, free a working party of British prisoners of war to man her and sail away to freedom.

At his mandatory court-martial, Hornblower is acquitted and is hailed as a national hero. With their spouses both deceased, the two lovebirds are free to pursue their romance.

White Heat (1949)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:53:00 +0000

The Raoul Walsh Classic Production - White Heat with James Cagney;

After killing two men in a train robbery, Cody Jarrett pleads guilty to a far less serious crime that occurred at the same time, but in a distant location, thereby giving him a perfect alibi. The Treasury Department decides to plant one of their officers, Hank Fallon, in the prison to see if they can learn where Jarrett hid the Treasury Bonds he stole. Jarrett and Fallon become good friends and when Jarrett makes a break for it, Fallon goes with him. Jarrett s next robbery involves stealing the nearly half-million dollar payroll from a chemical factory, but using modern technology the Feds are able to track him down and bring his robbery and killing spree to an end.

Bracingly directed by Raoul Walsh, this fast-paced thriller tracing Jarrett's (James Cagney) violent life in and out of jail is also a harrowing character study. Jarrett is a psychological time bomb ruled by impulse. He murders a wounded accomplice and revels in the act. He neglects his sultry wife (Virginia Mayo) and adores his doting mother. It is among the most vivid screen performances of Cagney's career.

Alternative Viewing Options;

Funny Stuff;

If the surprise expressed by James Cagney's fellow inmates during "the telephone game" scene in the prison dining room appears real, it's because it is. Director Raoul Walsh didn't tell the rest of the cast what was about to happen, so Cagney's outburst caught them by surprise. In fact, Walsh himself didn't know what Cagney had planned; the scene as written wasn't working, and Cagney had an idea. He told Walsh to put the two biggest extras playing cons in the mess-hall next to him on the bench (he used their shoulders to boost himself onto the table) and to keep the cameras rolling no matter what.

Angels with Dirty Faces

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:39:00 +0000

The Immortal Classic Movie with Jimmy Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, from 1938 ; Angels with Dirty Faces. My dad tookme to see this when i was a kid. I loved Jimmy Cagney, i thought he was the coolest guy("think your a wise guy huh?") of all. Looking back i wonder how this was done because the fellow is pretty much of a small guy with a bit if a spazzy face. Wierd how Hollywood can take ugly people and make total crooners and sex symbols out of them (see Sigourney Weaver).

Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 American gangster film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, the Dead End Kids and Humphrey Bogart, along with Ann Sheridan and George Bancroft. The film was written by Rowland Brown, John Wexley and Warren Duff with uncredited assistance from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

Alternative Viewing Option;

Plot Synopsis - Angels with Dirty Faces

Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connolly (Pat O'Brien) are childhood friends who robbed a railroad car as kids. Rocky saved Jerry's life during the chase by pulling him out of the way of a steam train while running from the guards that saw them. Rocky was then caught by the police, but Jerry - who could run faster - escaped. Rocky, after being sent to reform school, grows up to become a notorious gangster, while Jerry has become a priest.

Rocky returns to his old neighborhood, where Jerry is running a home that intends to keep young boys away from a life of crime. Six of those boys, Soapy (Billy Halop), Swing (Bobby Jordan), Bim (Leo Gorcey), Patsy (Gabriel Dell), Crabface (Huntz Hall), and Hunky (Bernard Punsly), idolize Rocky, and Jerry attempts to keep his former friend from corrupting them. (These boys were to star in Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/The Bowery Boys films).

Meanwhile Rocky gets involved with Frazier (Humphrey Bogart), a crooked lawyer, and Keefer (George Bancroft), a shady businessman and municipal contractor. They try to dispose of Rocky, but he finds the record book that they keep where they list the bribes to city officials. Jerry learns of these events and warns Rocky to leave before he informs the authorities. Rocky ignores his advice and Jerry gets the public's attention and informs them all of the crooked government, causing Frazier and Keefer to plot to kill him. Rocky overhears this plot and kills them to protect his childhood friend.

Rocky is then captured following an elaborate shootout in a building, and sentenced to die. Jerry visits him just before his execution and asks him to do him one last favor - to die pretending to be a screaming, snivelling coward, which would end the boys' idolization of him. Rocky refuses, and insists he will be "tough" to the end, and not give up the one thing he has left, his pride. At the very last moment he appears to change his mind and has to be dragged to the electric chair. The viewer is never told whether Rocky genuinely was afraid, a "rotten sniveling coward", or if he does it for the Father and the boys. The boys hear about what happened and decide he was a coward. Then Father Jerry asks them to say a prayer with him, "for a boy who couldn't run as fast as I could".

Watch Easy Rider (1969)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:19:00 +0000

Easy Rider is one of the all time Cult Classics of the latter part of the 60s Era. Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda play a group of bikers who decide to hit the road, and make a journey from L.A.to New Orleans in search of America.

Watch Movie; Easy Rider

Peter Fonda as Wyatt, Dennis Hopper as Billy and Jack Nicholson as George Hanson.

Plot;

Two young "hippie" bikers, Wyatt and Billy sell some dope in Southern California, stash their money away in their gas-tank and set off for a trip across America, on their own personal odyssey looking for a way to lead their lives. On the journey they encounter bigotry and hatred from small-town communities who despise and fear their non-conformism. However Wyatt and Billy also discover people attempting 'alternative lifestyles' who are resisting this narrow-mindedness, there is always a question mark over the future survival of these drop-out groups. The gentle hippie community who thank God for 'a place to stand' are living their own unreal dream. The rancher they encounter and his Mexican wife are hard-pushed to make ends meet. Even LSD turns sour when the trip is a bad one. Death comes to seem the only freedom. When they arrive at a diner in a small town, they are insulted by the local rednecks as weirdo degenerates. They are arrested on some minor pretext by the local sheriff and thrown in jail where they meet George Hanson, a liberal alcoholic lawyer. He gets them out and decides to join them on their trip to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras.

Please report dead links and deleted movies by commenting in the comment box below the post where the movie is missing

classic old movies

The Sea Chase (1955)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:27:00 +0000

The elusive Sea Captain and his blonde woman in an explosive, suspense-packed story of high daring on the high seas! A rare John Wayne Classic Old Movie.

The Sea Chase is a 1955 World War II film starring John Wayne and Lana Turner. The film was directed by John Farrow and written by James Warner Bellah. The plot is basically a nautical cat and mouse game, with Wayne determined to get his German freighter home during the first few months of the war, all the while being chased by British and Australian naval ships.

Watch Movie- the Sea Chase

Starring;
John Wayne as Capt. Karl Ehrlich
Lana Turner as Elsa Keller
David Farrar as Cmd. Jeff Napier
Lyle Bettger as Chief Officer Kirchner
Tab Hunter as Cadet Wesser
James Arness as Schlieter
Richard Davalos as Cadet Walter Stemme (as Dick Davalos)
John Qualen as Chief Engineer Schmitt
Paul Fix as Max Heinz
Lowell Gilmore as Capt. Evans
Luis Van Rooten as Matz
Alan Hale, Jr. as Wentz (billed as Alan Hale)
Wilton Graff as Counsel General Hepke
Peter Whitney as Bachman
Claude Akins as Winkler (billed as Claude Akin)

The Dam Busters

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:12:00 +0000

The Dam Busters is a 1955 British war film, set during the Second World War, and based on the true story of the RAF's 617 Squadron, the development of the "bouncing bomb", and Operation Chastise, the attack on the Ruhr dams in Germany. It stars Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis and Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson and was directed by Michael Anderson. The film was based on the books The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill and Enemy Coast Ahead by Guy Gibson. It was re-mastered and re-released in September 2007 in the United Kingdom.

Watch Movie - The Dam Busters (1955)

Plot Synopsis;

The film falls into two parts. The first part involves Wallis struggling to develop a means of attacking Germany's dams in the hope of crippling German heavy industry. Working for the Ministry of Aircraft Production, as well as doing his own job at Vickers, he works feverishly to make practical his theory of a bouncing bomb which would skip over the water to avoid protective torpedo nets. When it came into contact with the dam, it would sink before exploding, making it much more destructive. Wallis calculates that the aircraft will have to fly extremely low (150 ft) to enable the bombs to skip over the water correctly, but when he takes his conclusions to the Ministry he is told that lack of production capacity means they cannot go ahead with his proposals.

Angry and frustrated, Wallis secures an interview with Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris (played by Basil Sydney), the head of RAF Bomber Command, who at first is reluctant to take the idea seriously. But he is eventually convinced and takes the idea to the Prime Minister, who authorises the project.

The second part of the film involves Bomber Command forming a special squadron of Lancaster bombers, 617 Squadron, to be commanded by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. He recruits experienced crews, especially those with low-altitude flight experience. While they train for the mission, Wallis continues his development of the bomb but has problems, such as the bomb breaking apart upon hitting the water. This requires the drop altitude to be reduced to 60 feet. With only a few weeks to go, he succeeds in fixing the problems and the mission can go ahead.

The bombers attack the dams. Several Lancasters and their crews are lost, but the overall mission succeeds and two dams are breached. The film's reflective last minutes convey the poignant mix of emotions felt by the characters – triumph over striking a successful blow against the enemy's industrial base is greatly tempered by the sobering knowledge that many died in the process of delivering it.

In the unlikely case of missing content, please report dead links and deleted movies by commenting in the comment box below the post where the movie is missing

Angel Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:22:00 +0000

Angel Heart is a 1987 mystery-thriller film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. The film is adapted from the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and is generally faithful to the novel with the exceptions being the introduction of a child of Epiphany Proudfoot conceived at a voodoo ceremony by "a devil", and that the novel never leaves New York City, whereas much of the action of the film occurs in New Orleans.

A highly atmospheric film, Angel Heart combines elements of film noir, hard-boiled detective stories and horror.

Angel Heart gained attention and controversy even before its release. Bonet was previously known for her role on the family-oriented sitcom The Cosby Show, and several seconds of her extended, graphic and blood-drenched sex scene with Rourke had to be trimmed in order to secure the film an 'R' rating on initial release.

Some blamed the controversy for Bonet's departure from The Cosby Show, even though she starred in another Cosby-produced program, A Different World which premiered in 1987.

Rotten Tomatoes counted 21 reviews with 76 percent of them being "fresh" or favorable; Average Rating: 7.2/10.[1] Angel Heart broke even at the box office with its budget of $17 million.[2] After being released on home video it became something of a cult film, appreciated for its unsettling tone, bleak cinematography (by Michael Seresin), its sad and eerie score (by Trevor Jones), and its blend of genres.

Plot Synopsis

The movie opens in January 1955. Mickey Rourke plays Harry Angel, a seedy private investigator in New York City. Louis Cyphre (De Niro) hires Angel to locate Johnny Favorite, a popular big band crooner who was severely injured in World War II and hospitalized with profound neurological trauma. Cyphre has discovered that the hospital may have falsified Favorite's records and wants Angel to find out what happened, as Favorite owed a debt to Cyphre.

But there's more to the case than initially appears, as the doctor who treated Johnny at the hospital is soon found dead after Harry questions him. The detective also has some serious reservations about the enigmatic Mr. Cyphre, who is vague about the "debt" that Favorite owes to him. At the same time Angel begins to detect hints of bizarre religious underpinnings to the case. Despite his misgivings, Harry accepts Cyphre's offer of $5,000 to continue with his investigations.

Angel travels to New Orleans as he digs deeper into the case, delving into a world of voodoo and Satanism and growing increasingly worried for his own safety. One informant after another that he speaks to turns up dead. Angel fears becoming a suspect in their murders and he begins experiencing terrifying dreams. One contact, Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet), the beautiful 17-year-old daughter of a deceased voodoo priestess and, she eventually admits, Favorite's daughter, becomes his lover. In the film's twist ending, Angel is faced with the fact that he is Johnny Favorite himself, having attempted to escape the selling of his soul to the Devil by taking the place and identity of the original Harry Angel, a soldier returning from the war whom Favorite had abducted, ritually killed, and cannibalized. Angel's conviction that he is simply being framed for the bloody murders is shown to be wrong. Acting under the influence of Cyphre, who is ultimately revealed to be the Devil himself (his name, Louis Cyphre, is a play on the name Lucifer), he has committed and suppressed the memory of each of the murders, the last being that of Epiphany, murdered with a pistol shot in her vagina. With Johnny finally remembering the truth, and since he will be executed for the murders, Cyphre can at last claim what is his: Favorite's immortal soul. Over the end credits, there is a lengthy sequence of a silhouetted Angel descending in an ancient iron Otis elevator cage, apparently on his way to Hell.

Cast;

* Mickey Rourke as Harry Angel
* Robert De Niro as Louis Cyphre
* Lisa Bonet as Epiphany Proudfoot
* Charlotte Rampling as Margaret Krusemark
* Stocker Fontelieu as Ethan Krusemark
* Brownie McGhee as Toots Sweet
* Michael Higgins as Dr. Albert Fowler
* Elizabeth Whitcraft as Connie
* Eliott Keener as Det. Sterne
* Charles Gordone as Spider Simpson, bandleader
* Dann Florek as Herman Winesap
* Kathleen Wilhoite as Nurse
* George Buck as Izzy

In the unlikely case of missing content, please report dead links and deleted movies by commenting in the comment box below the post where the movie is missing

Prizzi's Honor

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:19:00 +0000

Prizzi's Honor - a Romantic Crime Comedy

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia

Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy film that tells the story of a mob hit man and hit woman who fall in love, even though they have been hired to kill each other. It stars Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia and Anjelica Huston.

The movie was adapted by Richard Condon and Janet Roach from Condon's novel. It was directed by John Huston. Its score, composed by Alex North, adapts the music of Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossini .

Pauline Kael wrote of it: "This John Huston picture has a ripe and daring comic tone. It revels voluptuously in the murderous finagling of the members of a Brooklyn Mafia family, and rejoices in their scams. It's like The Godfather acted out by The Munsters. Jack Nicholson's average-guyness as Charley, the clan's enforcer, is the film's touchstone: this is a baroque comedy about people who behave in ordinary ways in grotesque circumstances, and it has the juice of everyday family craziness in it."

It won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Anjelica Huston), and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Nicholson), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (William Hickey), Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing (Kaja Fehr and Rudi Fehr), Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

Cast;

* Jack Nicholson as Charley Partanna

* Kathleen Turner as Irene Walker

* Robert Loggia as Eduardo Prizzi

* Anjelica Huston as Maerose Prizzi

* William Hickey as Don Corrado Prizzi

* C. C. H. Pounder as Peaches Altamot

* John Randolph as Angelo "Pop" Partanna

* Lee Richardson as Dominic Prizzi

* Michael Lombard as Rosario Filangi "Finlay"

* George Santopietro as Plumber

* Ann Selepegno as Amalia Prizzi

* Lawrence Tierney as Lt. Hanley

* Vic Polizos as Phil Vittimizzare

* Dick O´Neil as Bluestone

* Sally Boyar as Casco Vasorne

In the unlikely case of missing content, please report dead links and deleted movies by commenting in the comment box below the post where the movie is missing

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:20:00 +0000

When rich M. Ballon's spanish driver is found shot dead, Inspector Jacques Clouseau is the first official on the scene. All evidence suggests Maria Gambrelli, the maid, to be the murderer. But Clouseau, being attracted to the beautiful girl, is convinced that she is hiding something. So, he has her released from jail and tries to follow her secretly. Things do not work out the way the inspector wanted and people keep being murdered, and each time innocent Maria seems to be the killer. But with someone important wanting Clouseau and nobody else to cover this case, his tolerance-challenged boss Charles Dreyfuss is close to losing his mind when casualties keep turning up. And Clouseau keeps on causing trouble without knowing it.

A Shot in the Dark saw the great Peter Sellers reprise what is probably his most iconic role as the inept Inspector Clouseau. It's always obvious why Sellers is so well remembered for this role, as he's absolutely great in it. His mannerisms and quirks help to add to the personality of the character, and despite the fact that this man is overblown to comic book proportions, Sellers succeeds in making the role believable and, more importantly, very fun to watch. The majority of the humour in the film is of the slapstick variety, and while that can be very funny if done the right way; it's not my favourite type of humour. That being said, A Shot in the Dark does many of it's gags correctly, and while the film isn't consistently hilarious; there's enough good humour to ensure a good time to whoever's watching it. Also abundant in this film is classic Brit-flick style, which is great in my opinion. From Hammer Horror to Ealing comedy, I'm a big fan of classic British movies and so this film fits into that nicely.

The plot follows the accident-prone detective as he investigates the case of 'a shot in the dark', which resulted in the death of a man at a country house. The facts add up rather quickly to the maid, Maria (Elke Sommer), who was found at the scene of the crime with a smoking gun in her hand. Things are never that simple when Clouseau is on the case, however, and, convinced that she is a decoy to protect someone higher up the food chain, he proceeds in investigating this open and shut case. Aside from Sellers, this movie also features the talents of Herbert Lom, Elke Sommer and George Sanders, among others. This makes up a good support cast for yours truly, as I'm a big fan of horror and all of these are names in the British section of that genre. The plot of A Shot in the Dark is relatively simply done, but it always manages to find time for gags and humorous set pieces, and even when it appears to be slowing down; you can always count on another laugh being just around the corner. I don't love this movie, but it's definitely very good and marks a highlight in British comedy during the sixties.

In the unlikely case of missing content, please report dead links and deleted movies by commenting in the comment box below the post where the movie is missing

Return of the Pink panther

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:55:00 +0000

The Return of the Pink Panther is the fourth film in the Pink Panther series, released in 1975. The film stars Peter Sellers in the role of Inspector Clouseau in his third Panther appearance, after the original The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark.

Herbert Lom also reprises his role as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus. The film also features the return of the character Sir Charles Lytton (the notorious Phantom), now played by Christopher Plummer rather than David Niven, who was unavailable but would later return for Trail of the Pink Panther. The Pink Panther diamond once again plays a central role in the plot.

Plot Synopsis;

The bumbling of Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) has resulted in his being demoted to beat cop by his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who despises Clouseau to the point of obsession. However, the French government forces Dreyfus to reinstate Clouseau as the Inspector of the Sûreté so that he can go to the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Lugash to investigate the theft of the fabled Pink Panther diamond, which has once again been stolen.

Clouseau's investigations at the Lugash National Museum, which he nearly destroys, lead him to believe that Sir Charles Lytton (Christopher Plummer), the notorious Phantom, is re-creating the most infamous heist of his career. Clouseau is delighted at this, and sees this as his only chance to get his revenge on Lytton for framing him and temporarily sending him to prison in the first film. Although Clouseau fails to uncover any leads into the theft, his bumbling allows him to survive several attempts on his life by a mysterious assassin. After staking out, and nearly demolishing, Lytton Manor in Nice, Clouseau is tricked into leaving France. He follows Sir Charles' wife, Lady Claudine (Catherine Schell) to a resort hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland, where his attempts to investigate her repeatedly fail.

Meanwhile, Sir Charles reads about the theft and realizes that he has been framed. He goes to Lugash to investigate, encountering various underworld figures of old acquaintance, and foils several attempts on his life. Lytton eventually manages to discover the identity of the true thief – his wife, Lady Claudine. Because they were both bored with their quiet retirement, she stole the diamond for her own excitement, then sent her husband on a wild goose chase for his. Sir Charles makes a daring escape from Lugash and goes to Gstaad to find his wife and the diamond.

Inspector Clouseau, who has unknowingly been on the trail of the real thief all along, receives a telephone call from Chief Inspector Dreyfus telling him to arrest Lady Claudine. However, when Clouseau calls Dreyfus back to ask why, he is informed that Dreyfus has been on vacation for the past week. Dreyfus, now revealed as the assassin trying to kill Clouseau, prepares to shoot him with a sniper rifle as soon as he enters Lady Claudine's room.

Lady Claudine playfully confesses the theft to her husband, and hands the diamond over to him, so he can go about proving his innocence. They are cornered by Colonel Sharky (Peter Arne) of the Lugash Secret Police, who intends to kill them both. It turns out the Lugashi government has been using the theft of the diamond as an excuse to purge their political opponents. Just then, Clouseau barges into the room to arrest the Lyttons. Sir Charles points out that Colonel Sharky is going to kill them all, and Clouseau buffoonishly attempts to arrest Sharky. Suddenly, Dreyfus opens fire on the room, and manages to accidentally kill Sharky while aiming at Clouseau, who has ducked at the last minute to check his fly. During the fray, Clouseau is forced to allow the Lyttons to escape.

For his work in recovering the Pink Panther, Clouseau is promoted to Chief Inspector, and vows to bring Sir Charles, who has resumed his crime spree, to justice. Lady Claudine's fate is not revealed to the audience, but it is implied she was not arrested. Dreyfus is committed to a lunatic asylum, where he is straightjacketed and placed inside a rubber room, vowing revenge on Clouseau.
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The Guns of Navarone

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:46:00 +0000

Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven are the Allied saboteurs assigned to infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island to destroy the guns of Navarone in this thrilling World War II adventure.

The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 film based on the 1957 novel of the same name about World War II by Scottish thriller writer Alistair MacLean. It stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Anthony Quayle and Stanley Baker. The book and the film share the same basic plot: the efforts of an Allied commando team to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea, and prevents 2,000 isolated British troops from being rescued.

Watch Movie - The Guns of Navarone

The film opens with an aerial view of the Greek Islands, and a narrator (James Robertson Justice), setting the scene. The year is 1943, and 2000 British soldiers are holed up on the island of Keros in the Aegean near Turkey. Rescue by the Royal Navy is impossible because of massive guns on the nearby island of Navarone. Time is short, because the Germans are expected to launch an assault on the British forces, to draw Turkey into the war on the Axis' side.

Efforts to blast the guns by air have proven fruitless, so a team has been hastily assembled to sail to Navarone and blow up the guns. Led by Major Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle), they are Capt. Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck); Andrea Stavros (Anthony Quinn), a Colonel in the defeated Greek army; Corporal Miller (David Niven), an explosives expert; Greek-American street tough Spyros Pappadimos (James Darren); and "Butcher" Brown (Stanley Baker), an engineer and expert knife fighter.

Disguised as Greek fishermen on a decrepit boat, they sail across the Aegean Sea. They are intercepted by a German boat and boarded. On Mallory's signal, they attack and kill all the Germans and blow up the patrol boat. Afterwards, Mallory confides to Franklin that Stavros has sworn to kill him after the war, because he was inadvertently responsible for the deaths of Stavros' wife and children.

Their landing on the coast that night is hampered by a violent storm. The ship is wrecked and they lose part of their equipment, most notably the food and medical supplies. Franklin is badly injured while scaling the cliff, the injury later becoming infected with gangrene. They find that the cliff is in fact guarded after all. Miller, a friend of Franklin, suggests that they leave Franklin to be "well cared for" by the enemy. Mallory, who assumes command of the mission, feels that Franklin would be forced to reveal their plans, so he orders two men to carry the injured man on a stretcher.

After Franklin tries to commit suicide, Mallory lies to him, saying that their mission has been "scrubbed" and that a major naval attack will be mounted on Navarone. Attacked by German soldiers, they split up, leaving Andrea behind with his sniper rifle, while they move on to their next rendezvous point. They contact local resistance workers, Spyros's sister Maria (Irene Papas) and her friend Anna (Gia Scala).

The mission is continually dogged by Germans - clearly there is a major intelligence leak - but they make their way across the rugged countryside, but are captured by German Lieutenant Muesel (Walter Gotell) when they try to find a doctor for Franklin. Muesel and later Captain Sessler (George Mikell) of the SS fail to persuade the commandos to tell them where Miller's explosives are. A ploy on Stavros' part where he pretends to betray the others and instead attacks the Germans, allows the group to overpower their captors.

They take the Germans' uniforms and leave, but leave Franklin behind so he can get medical attention. Franklin is injected with the truth drug scopolamine by Sessler and gives up the false "information", as Mallory had hoped. As a result, German units are deployed away from the guns and in the direction of the supposed "invasion" route.

While making final preparations for the destruction of the guns, Miller discovers that most of his explosives have been sabotaged and deduces that Anna is the saboteur. She pleads that she was coerced by the Germans into treachery, but while Mallory and Miller argue over her fate, complicated by Mallory's seduction by Anna the night before, Maria shoots her dead as a price of disloyalty. The team splits up to carry out their objectives: While Mallory and Miller go for the guns, Stavros and Pappadimos are to create a distraction in the city; Maria and Brown are assigned to steal a boat for their escape. Mallory and Miller find a way into the heavily fortified gun emplacements. Locking the main entrance behind them, Mallory and Miller set obvious explosives on the guns and hide more below the elevator leading to the guns. The Germans finally cut through the thick emplacement doors, but Mallory and Miller make their escape by diving into the sea. Despite Miller's inability to swim, they make it to the stolen boat, but learn that Pappadimos and Brown have been killed. Stavros is wounded and has difficulty swimming, but Mallory manages to pull him in.

The destroyers appear on schedule. The Germans remove the explosives planted on the guns and fire. The first salvo falls short. The second brackets the lead ship, which means the third will likely be on target. However, just as the guns are prepared to fire again, the elevator descends low enough to trigger the hidden explosives. The guns and fortifications are destroyed in a spectacular explosion. Franklin hears it from his hospital bed and smiles.

Mallory and Miller are taken on board the destroyer, while Stavros, who has fallen in love with Maria, decides to return to Navarone with her and shakes hands with Mallory, having given up his planned vengeance when Mallory risked his life to save him.

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The Way Ahead (1944)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:27:00 +0000

War Movie Starring: David Niven,Peter Ustinov, Stanley Holloway, Trevor Howard, William Hartnell, John Laurie and Jimmy Hanley.

After an infantry battalion has suffered casualties at Dunkirk, the gaps in the ranks must be filled by `call-ups'. The men that arrive range from a boilerman and a rent collector to a nervous business man.

At the outset of World War II, a disparate group of civilians undergo basic training and prepare to fight - and die - for their country. The recruits include men from all classes, education and professions. At first, they object to their regimented lifestyle and resent the constant supervision of their training sergeant. Gradually, they learn their new skills and develop pride in what they are doing. Destined to be part of the invasion of French North Africa, their ship is nearly sunk. They soon find themselves fighting the Germans and putting their training to good use.

This is a good film that was intended to bolster morale during World War II. The cast is very good and headed by David Niven. This is a story primarily of 8 men of different backgrounds who survive their basic training and end up driving Rommel out of North Africa. The film is primarily about how men develop character when push comes to shove and there isn't a whole lot of action. Good story and worth seeing for the strong cast alone.
Memorable Quotes from the Film;

Pvt. Ted Brewer: Only one good man ever got into Parliament.
Pvt. Herbert Davenport: Oh really? Who?
Pvt. Ted Brewer: Bleedin' Guy Fawkes.

Watch Movie; The Way Ahead

Related Trivia;

THE WAY AHEAD (1944) Directed by: Carlo Reed Cast: David Niven (Region 2 PAL Import Edition) NON-U.S. FORMAT

David Niven reports in his autobiography that the film was shown for many years for training at Sandhurst (the British Army's officer training school).

The film was still used for officer training in Australia as recently as 1983.

At the time the movie was made, David Niven, who plays a lieutenant, was actually a British Army major serving on operations in WWII.

This started life as an Army training and instructional film, "The New Lot," written by Peter Ustinov and Eric Ambler and starring some of the cast that finished up in "The Way Ahead" (Niven came in later). The training film had upset some Army top brass with its frankness and was suppressed. It has recently re-emerged thanks to a copy found in an archive.

This movie is an expanded remake of the Army Kinematograph Service film The New Lot (1943).

First cinema film of Renée Asherson.

This film's opening prologue is a quote of the definition of the word Army from Enyclopedia Brittanica. It states: "AN ARMY - A considerable body of men, armed, organised and disciplined, to act together for purposes of warfare."

This film's writers Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov and director Carol Reed all previously worked together and made the training film, The New Lot (1943). The following actors John Laurie, Raymond Huntley and Peter Ustinov appeared in both The New Lot (1943) and this movie.

In the United States of America, this film was edited down and shortened and re-titled as "The Immortal Battalion", while an edited shorter version was also made for American television.

In the United Kingdom, this movie was released on the famous World War II date of D-Day i.e. the 6th of June, 1944.

This film stars David Niven who himself was a Major in the British Army.

Apparently, Wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked star David Niven about the possibility of making a film which would pay homage to the British Army the way In Which We Serve (1942) had paid homage to the British Navy. Niven then contacted director Carol Reed with the proposal of expanding their earlier training film, The New Lot (1943).

First film screen debut of English actor Trevor Howard in an uncredited role as an Officer on a Ship.

The book The Film Business - A history of british cinema 1896-1972 by Ernest Betts states this film " . . . was originally made as a War Office instructional film under the title The New Lot, but was later developed into a full-length commercial feature at the suggestion of Filippo Del Giudice."

According to the book A History of the Cinema from its origins to 1970 by Eric Rhode, "Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov were commissioned to write a script that would encourage enlistment in the infantry and were obliged to show . . . skepticism give way to admiration."

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Alice in Wonderland (1915 and 1951)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:39:00 +0000

Both classic versions of Alice in Wonderland from 1915 and 1951

Alice in Wonderland (1915)

This version of Alice in Wonderland is a 1915 silent film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, directed and written by W.W. Young and starring Viola Savoy as Alice.

Alice in Wonderland (Disney Animated Classic - 1951)

Alice in Wonderland is an American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass. Thirteenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released in New York City and London on July 26, 1951 by RKO Radio Pictures. The film features the voices of Kathryn Beaumont as Alice (also voice of Wendy Darling in the later Disney feature film, Peter Pan) and Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter. Made under the supervision of Walt Disney himself, this film and its animation are often regarded as some of the finest work in Disney studio history, despite the lackluster, even hostile, reviews it originally received, especially in the United Kingdom.

Plot; On the bank of a tranquil river, Alice grows bored listening to her older sister read aloud from a history book about William I of England. Alice's sister scolds her, gently but firmly, for her lack of attention. At that moment, Alice dreams of living in a world of nonsense ("A World of My Own", as she explains and sings to her little kitten Dinah). Alice sees a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a large pocket watch. She and Dinah follow him into a rabbit hole, where Alice suddenly falls down into a deep well, leaving Dinah behind. At the bottom, she follows the Rabbit into a large chamber-like hall, but he escapes through a tiny door. The Doorknob suggests Alice drink from a bottle marked "Drink me." The contents shrink her to a tiny fraction of her original size. The door is locked, and the key appears on the table, which she can not reach. The Doorknob directs her to a cookie marked "Eat me." The cookie makes her grow so large that her head hits the ceiling. She begins to cry; her massive tears flood the room. The Doorknob points out that the "Drink me" bottle still has some fluid left inside, so she finishes the last drop. She becomes so small that she drops inside the bottle. Both she and the bottle drift through the doorknob's keyhole mouth and out to a sea made from Alice's tears.

On shore, a Dodo bird leads a group of animals in a futile caucus-race to get dry. Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, two fat twin brothers who recite "The Walrus and the Carpenter", in a sequence that first appeared in Through the Looking-Glass. After sneaking away to the White Rabbit's house, Alice is at first mistaken by him for his maidservant; and then grows to such a large size that she gets stuck inside the house. The Dodo tries to help by first sending Bill the Lizard Chimney Sweep down the chimney, and then setting the house on fire; but Alice eats a carrot from the garden and shrinks down to three inches.

Alice chases after the Rabbit again, and in another example of a vignette borrowed from Through the Looking-Glass, she finds herself in a garden of talking flowers and strange insects. The flowers at first befriend Alice, but then mistake her for a weed and angrily drive her out of the flowerbed before she can "take root." She engages a hookah-smoking caterpillar who turns into a butterfly, though not before giving her cryptic advice about the mushroom she is sitting on. Alice breaks off two pieces and nibbles them alternately (first growing very large and unintentionally aggravating a Nesting Mother Bird, who accuses Alice of being a "serpent", then shrinking very small). Finally Alice manages to restore herself to her normal size and stores the pieces in her apron pockets.

Alice receives mysterious directions from the Cheshire Cat, an eerily grinning feline that can disappear and reappear at will, which lead her to the garden of the March Hare, who is celebrating his "unbirthday" with the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse. Alice, growing tired of their rudeness and wackiness, decides to go home, abandoning her pursuit of the White Rabbit. She is lost and despondent among the strange creatures (See Below) of the Tulgey Wood, until the Cheshire Cat reappears and shows her a short-cut out of the forest and into the garden of the Queen (and King) of Hearts.

Image via Wikipedia

In the hedge maze garden, Alice meets some playing cards painting white roses red. The White Rabbit heralds the arrival of the bellicose Queen of Hearts, the diminutive King, and a card army. She invites Alice to a strange game of croquet using flamingos as mallets, hedgehogs as balls, and card soldiers as wickets. The Cheshire Cat plays a prank on the Queen, who blames Alice and orders her execution. The King suggests that Alice be put on trial instead. At the trial, Alice's nonsensical acquaintances (the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse) are of no help to her. The Cheshire Cat appears and causes enough distraction to allow Alice to eat the remaining portions of mushroom, causing her to grow to gigantic proportions. At this size, Alice scolds the terrified Queen for her rash behavior, but then starts shrinking back to her normal size all too soon. At the Queen's command of "Off with her head!" all the crazy inhabitants of Wonderland give chase.

Coming back to the Doorknob, Alice is told by him that he is still locked, but that she is already on the other side. Looking through the keyhole, Alice sees herself asleep in the park. As the mob draws nearer, she calls, "Alice, wake up!" to her sleeping self until she gradually awakens from the dream to the sound of her sister's voice. The two of them return home for teatime; while Alice muses on her adventures in Wonderland and realizes that perhaps logic and reason exist for a purpose, her sister realizes (affectionately) that Alice is still young, but will grow-up in time.

Starring

Kathryn Beaumont
Ed Wynn
Richard Haydn
Sterling Holloway
Jerry Colonna
Verna Felton
J. Pat O'Malley
Bill Thompson
Heather Angel
Joseph Kearns
Larry Grey
Queenie Leonard
Dink Trout
Doris Lloyd
James MacDonald
The Mellomen
Don Barclay

1971 saw an erotic version of Alice in Wonderland hit the screens - watch here!

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Stalag 17

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Sparrow 007) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:10:00 +0000

A group of airmen are in a German Prisoner of War camp. Each escape attempt has resulted in failure and a spy is suspected. When the materially successful operator comes under suspicion, he becomes an outcast. When a new arrival is accused of being a spy and saboteur, the camp unites to hide him as the operator looks for the real plant.The Movie was adapted from a Broadway play.

Produced and directed by Billy Wilder, it starred William Holden, Don Taylor, Robert Strauss, Neville Brand, Harvey Lembeck, and Peter Graves (Strauss and Lembeck both appeared in the original Broadway production); Wilder also cast Otto Preminger in the role of the evil camp commander.

The movie was adapted by Wilder and Edwin Blum from the Broadway play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski who were both prisoners in Stalag XVII-B. (Trzcinski appears in the film as a prisoner.) The play was directed by José Ferrer and was the Broadway debut of John Ericson as Sefton. It began its run in May 1951, continued for 472 performances and was based on the experiences of its authors, both of whom were POWs in Stalag 17B in Austria.

Stalag 17 begins on "the longest night of the year" in 1944 in a Luftwaffe prisoner-of-war camp located somewhere along the Danube River. The story of a Nazi spy in Barracks Four is narrated by Clarence Harvey "Cookie" Cook (Gil Stratton).

Prisoners Manfredi and Johnson try to escape through a tunnel the inmates have dug under the barbed wire. They are immediately shot by waiting prison guards when they emerge outside the fence. The other prisoners conclude that one of their own must have informed the Germans of the escape attempt, and suspicion falls on Sefton (William Holden), a cynical and somewhat antisocial prisoner who barters openly with the German guards for eggs, silk stockings, blankets and other luxuries. He also organizes mouse races and various other profitable enterprises that net him his hoard of "luxuries." The other prisoners are suspicious of his fraternization with the enemy, though envious of his dealmaking success — for instance, he wins a large number of cigarettes from the other prisoners by betting against Manfredi and Johnson's successful escape, then trades the cigarettes to the Germans for an egg the next morning.

The lives of the prisoners are depicted in a somewhat sanitized way. They receive mail, eat terrible food, wash in the latrine sinks, and collectively do their best to keep sane and defy the camp's cruel and ruthless commandant, Oberst von Scherbach (Otto Preminger). They use a clandestine radio, smuggled from barracks to barracks throughout the entire camp, to pick up the BBC and the war news. (The antenna is their volleyball net.) Their German guard, Sergeant Schulz (Sig Ruman), confiscates the radio, another success for the "stoolie," whoever he is.

Sefton bribes the guards to let him spend the day in the women's barracks in the Russian section of the camp. The other prisoners spot him through Sefton's own telescope and conclude that this is his reward for having informed the Germans about the radio. When he returns, he is accused of being a spy. At that moment, von Scherbach pays a visit to the barracks to apprehend new prisoner Lieutenant James Dunbar (Don Taylor), who had previously told the other prisoners that he had blown up a German ammunition train while he was being transported to the camp. The men are convinced that Sefton divulged Dunbar's act of sabotage to the Germans, and they viciously beat Sefton, after which he is ostracized. His considerable property is taken and redistributed to the rest of the prisoners. Sefton then decides to investigate and uncover the identity of the spy in order to clear his name. Eventually he remains in the barracks during a fake air raid and successfully discovers the identity of the spy: the barracks security chief, Price (Peter Graves), who Sefton overhears conversing with Schulz in German and divulging the means by which Dunbar destroyed the ammunition train.

Sefton divulges the theory to his only friend in the camp, Cookie. He points out that the stoolie may not be an American traitor at all but a German spy posing as an American to ferret out information. However if he reveals and proves Price is the stoolie the Germans would simply remove him and put him in another camp.

On Christmas Day, the men find out that SS men are coming to take Dunbar to Berlin for interrogation. The entire camp creates a distraction and Dunbar is freed and hidden. Nobody but the compound chief Hoffy (Richard Erdman) knows of Dunbar's whereabouts, and he refuses to divulge the information to anybody, even the supposedly trustworthy Price. Dunbar is thus successfully kept from the Germans despite extensive search efforts. After von Scherbach threatens to raze the camp to find Dunbar, the men decide one of them must help Dunbar escape. Price volunteers for the job, and when he appears to have convinced the other prisoners to let him do it, Sefton reveals him as the spy. After accusing Price, Sefton asks him "When was Pearl Harbor?" Price knows the date, but Sefton traps him by quickly asking what time he heard the news. Without thinking, Price betrays himself by answering 6 p.m. — the correct time of the attack in Berlin, Germany, and not Cleveland, where he claims to have come from. After that, Sefton reaches into Price's jacket pocket and extracts the "mailbox" used to exchange messages with the Germans, a hollowed-out black chess queen.

With his fellow POWs convinced of Price's guilt, Sefton decides to take Dunbar out of the camp himself, first because he likes the odds of escape and second due to the reward he can expect from Dunbar's wealthy family. The men give Sefton enough time to get Dunbar out of his hiding place (the water tower above one of the camp latrines) then throw Price out into the yard with tin cans tied to his legs. The ruse works: Price is killed in a hail of bullets (to the later consternation of von Scherbach and Schulz) by camp guards who believe him to be Dunbar or one of the other prisoners, creating a distraction that allows Sefton and Dunbar to cut through the barbed wire and make their escape.

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Old Movie Classics

Fritz the Cat

Labyrinth (1986)

Dark Passage

Sahara (1943 U.S.A.)

Smokey and the Bandit 2

Smokey and the Bandit

Ulysses

Tom Horn (1980)

The King and I (1956)

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Stalag 17