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552,847 | 989,035 | 89,424 | 6 | Complex , well-acted , but not all that satisfying . . . | Intricate character study from director Hector Babenco involving the relationship between a gay movie-lover and a political prisoner serving time as inmates in a South American jail cell . Allegorical talk-fest won William Hurt an Oscar as the flamboyant Luis Molina , though Raul Julia is just as fine in his role and t... |
553,349 | 989,035 | 72,070 | 6 | American TV remake of Henri-Georges ' " Diabolique " | A tough schoolmaster ( Sam Waterston ? ? ) , who ignores his wife and beats up on his mistress , is killed by the two women who then dump his body into the private school's murky pool - - where it vanishes completely ! John Badham directed this television-adaptation of the French thriller " Diabolique " ( which was rem... |
553,168 | 989,035 | 358,273 | 6 | Heartfelt film is impassioned without being energetic . . . | Strangely low-keyed musical-bio on country great Johnny Cash , his humble beginnings in a dysfunctional household to his first , unsuccessful marriage and quick rise to stardom often alongside future wife June Carter , with whom he had a rocky courtship . Based on two separate books by Cash , the film has very fine mus... |
551,861 | 989,035 | 80,790 | 6 | See it on video - - with one finger on the fast-forward button | For years I watched this movie on a personal videotape with all the dross edited out - - - most of which contains Don Novello ( aka Father Sarducci ) filling up time while Gilda Radner changes costumes backstage . Recently seeing the film " uncut " , I cannot begin to say how Novello drags this down . He is the worst k... |
552,241 | 989,035 | 340,855 | 6 | Yes , she's a revelation - - but she's the whole picture . . . | Charlize Theron as convicted murderess Aileen Wuornos . Intriguing true story becomes a fashion-staple's Oscar ticket , and for good reason : the speech , the mannerisms , the fierce stare , the bravado of a dead-end life on a ruinous road are all letter-perfect , and Theron's make-down gives our imagination just what ... |
553,555 | 989,035 | 41,260 | 6 | Romantic casualties of the Cold War . . . | Excellent young adult performance by 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor playing newlywed American living abroad whose soldier husband is up to no good : he's living a double life and is really a communist traitor ! Underpopulated , underwritten melodrama does have one strong aspect : a surprisingly strong , spunky woman at t... |
550,598 | 989,035 | 51,074 | 6 | Charmingly unconvincing | Jean Simmons never performed without vanity . Even here as a struggling sophisticate ( a schoolteacher who takes a part-time secretarial job in a " sleazy " nightclub run by guys named Tony and Rocco ) , Simmons is coiffed to the gills and everything about her breathes Park Avenue . This inconsequential drama-lite is p... |
553,490 | 989,035 | 297,884 | 6 | Transmits its message about ignorance very clearly , but it is still surface-pretty and shallow | Well-acted , but ultimately disappointing examination of morals in the 1950s , with a prominent married society couple torn apart by his need to cheat on her ( with men ) and her friendship with their black gardener . The scenes between Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert ( as the handsome groundskeeper ) are wonderfull... |
552,332 | 989,035 | 41,253 | 6 | Don't get the trigger itch . . . I want no funerals on this picnic ! | W . R . Burnett's book " High Sierra " , filmed in 1941 with Humphrey Bogart as a jewel thief , gets a rousing ( and uncredited ) western reworking here , with the main character's vocation changed to train robber . In 1871 Missouri , a criminal set for execution breaks out of prison and holes up in the valley with two... |
552,390 | 989,035 | 71,970 | 6 | An ambitious , but ultimately dissatisfying paranoia thriller from Pakula . . . | Fascinating premise gets somewhat pretentious , lugubrious treatment from acclaimed director Alan J . Pakula . Conspiracy thriller has newspaper reporter Warren Beatty investigating years-old assassination of a U . S . Senator wherein witnesses to the shooting are all mysteriously dying . Beatty gives one of his better... |
551,100 | 989,035 | 51,047 | 6 | Intense western with good characterization , but a sour undermining . . . | Former cowboy-turned-rancher Randolph Scott loses his horse in a bet and hitches a ride back home with a private coach carrying the daughter of a wealthy businessman and her sniveling new husband ; of course they run afoul of bloodthirsty crooks who , upon learning of the woman's background , hold the travelers for ran... |
552,527 | 989,035 | 51,051 | 6 | Not as unctuous as you might think . . . | Debbie Reynolds plays a 17-year-old girl from the bayou who goes to stay with a friendly pilot ( Leslie Nielsen ) and his society folks after her grandfather gets thrown into jail . Corny , yet also surprisingly sensitive growing-pains comedy-drama is silly and trite mostly in retrospect . The film treats its protagoni... |
550,569 | 989,035 | 71,959 | 6 | Sensitive , well-wrought teen nostalgia with pathos . . . nicely-done of its type | Strict all-girl boarding school in 1955 Massachusetts is the setting for thoughtful , gentle , if familiar tale of two senior dorm roommates ( one tall and lovely , the other a flat-chested hoyden ) obsessed with boys and " doing it " for the first time . From " Blue Denim " in the 1950s to " Love With the Proper Stran... |
550,924 | 989,035 | 58,672 | 6 | Brilliant use of color and locales makes the whole thing look like a piece of candy . . . | Jules Dassin's film version of Eric Ambler's book " The Light of Day " seems more like a light-hearted variation of his French heist-drama " Rififi " from 1955 . A glamorous Greek thief and her Swiss lover concoct an ingenious plan to rob an emerald-studded dagger from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul with help from a di... |
551,868 | 989,035 | 156,391 | 7 | Fairly strong and involving for a television movie . . . | Jean Smart is a tower of strength as married mother of two who follows a hunch one afternoon and tracks her husband of 20 years to a hotel room - - where he's cozily wrapped in a white terrycloth robe and making chit-chat with a strapping man in a matching towel . His secret's out ! Of course this is all cliché by now ... |
551,292 | 989,035 | 382,625 | 7 | Implausible but fast and exciting ; a good ride . . . | Dan Brown's bestseller had all the surprising twists and turns of a Sidney Sheldon novel - - add to that a plot concerning a secret sect of the Catholic Church involved in a conspiracy and a treasure hunt to the Holy Grail and you've got a pretty entertaining thriller . Ron Howard directs this adaptation fluidly ( it m... |
551,658 | 989,035 | 35,279 | 7 | Patented ' wrong man ' plot becomes top-flight Hitchcock . . . | Screenwriters Peter Viertel , Joan Harrison , and ( of all people ) Dorothy Parker enable director Alfred Hitchcock to expound on what may have been his favorite movie theme : innocent man , wrongly fingered for crime , takes it on the lam . Hitchcock , who some credit with originating the story , engineers a great dea... |
551,635 | 989,035 | 112,818 | 7 | Often quite powerful . . . | Susan Sarandon is wonderful in Oscar-winning role as real-life Sister Helen Prejean , an opponent of the death penalty who stirred controversy for befriending a scurrilous killer on Death Row - - and finding his heart in the process . Writer-director Tim Robbins , obviously an opponent of the death penalty himself , la... |
550,528 | 989,035 | 70,489 | 7 | Remember those great ABC movies-of-the-week ? ? | Cold , unhappy Diana Muldaur schemes with young lover James Stacy to leave her overbearing husband stranded in the middle of the Mojave desert with a broken leg . Who of us cannot wonder : Could this happen to me ? Could I survive if it did ? Arthur Hill is the perfect chap for this rigorous acting workout : he's an Ev... |
552,011 | 989,035 | 61,252 | 7 | The squirreliest sister in South America ! | A novice nun at Convent San Tanco has the Reverend Mother up in arms ; it seems she's so light that the winds pick up her starched habit and away she goes ! Fun TV-series , adapted from Tere Rios ' book " The Fifteenth Pelican " , has Sally Field basically reprising her " Gidget " character in nun regalia . Although sh... |
552,173 | 989,035 | 87,968 | 7 | Very likable , but benign . . . | Coming-of-age piece set in small town America during WWII . Sean Penn has seldom been so youthfully exuberant and amiable playing a young working-class man about to go off to war , finding love for the first time with a sweet lass he presumes is wealthy ( " a Gatsby girl " ) . Richard Benjamin's direction is sensitive ... |
551,697 | 989,035 | 78,326 | 7 | Excellent character study goes a little cockeyed near the end . . . | Dustin Hoffman is surprisingly serious , surprisingly gritty playing a recently paroled thief named Max Dembo who can't seem to straighten out his life . After meeting a new lady who is very supportive of him , Dembo reverts back to the only thing he really knows : robbery . Tough and vivid character study based on rea... |
551,460 | 989,035 | 52,722 | 7 | Shies away from treacle - - and Albert Sharpe is wonderful | Until " Mary Poppins " came along , I don't think Hollywood took Walt Disney seriously as a live-action movie producer . James Baskett got a special Oscar for " Song of the South " , as did Hayley Mills for " Pollyanna " , but a good many of the performances in Walt's early output deserved a more substantial recognitio... |
551,533 | 989,035 | 35,140 | 7 | Enlightenment without true love | Olive Higgins Prouty's novel becomes near-classic Bette Davis vehicle about a dowdy , unloved spinster in Boston who finds enlightenment through psychology ( and , naturally , a way to make herself more attractive through this newfound wisdom ) , but that true love still alludes her . Davis ' Charlotte Vale is one of h... |
552,282 | 989,035 | 112,697 | 7 | A refreshing change from the John Hughes / " Breakfast Club " generation | A silky-smooth , vanilla-coated pleasure about matchmaking in modern-day high school . Far from the insufferable smugness of all those ' 80s teen-flicks , " Clueless " is bright - - in both senses of the word - - clever , funny , fanciful and yet grounded in reality ( a rich one ) . Alicia Silverstone is adorable , but... |
550,717 | 989,035 | 61,395 | 7 | Ironic , often incredible film about sex - - as a repression and as a freedom | French-Italy co-production , directed with tricky élan by Luis Buñuel , has Catherine Deneuve playing another frigid beauty , this one a wealthy doctor's wife who can't seem to get her married life off the ground ( after one year of marriage , she and her husband still sleep in separate beds ) . She fantasizes about se... |
552,232 | 989,035 | 87,747 | 7 | Another slice of bittersweet melancholia from Paul Mazursky . . . | Robin Williams is excellent as a Russian circus performer in New York City with his troupe for the first time , deciding to defect and become a U . S . citizen . After appropriately dark , but heavy-handed opening , this comedy-drama from director Paul Mazursky suddenly finds its niche and seldom wavers . It appears fr... |
553,720 | 989,035 | 757,361 | 7 | Watching the neighbors through the fence . . . | Writer-director Noah Baumbach's style is almost unlike anyone else's in the movies right now ; and , as both a writer and a director , he's amazingly compatible working both sides of his talent ( his dialogue is the music while his direction - - and the nimble editing - - provides the rhythm ) . A small group of errati... |
551,779 | 989,035 | 77,841 | 7 | It's too bad Nick at Nite doesn't come up with a cable-channel for TV movies like this | Young people just discovering " Three's Company " from Nickelodeon would probably love to see the TV-movies the cast made during their summer hiatus ( Suzanne Somers played a nightclub singer in " Happily Ever After " , Joyce DeWitt played a prospective bride in " With This Ring " and John Ritter takes a dramatic leap ... |
551,935 | 989,035 | 202,470 | 7 | Comic book cynicism | Surprisingly well-acted , well-written movie about hard rockin'-but-decent young man getting that much-hoped-for ticket to stardom : his favorite heavy metal band wants him to replace their lead singer . Not far-fetched , the film tries keeping things in perspective and doesn't go over-the-top ; it certainly makes you ... |
551,818 | 989,035 | 70,337 | 7 | Deadly-earnest camp musical ; often deliriously enjoyable . . . | Ross Hunter's musical remake of the 1937 fantasy , based on James Hilton's enduring bestseller , was written off by critics and audiences almost immediately in 1973 , sounding off a backlash against musicals in general that gave the genre a bad reputation in Hollywood for years . Group of disparate British and American... |
552,072 | 989,035 | 121,982 | 7 | Orphaned Annette vs . the rich teen set . . . | Walt Disney was always big on stories about orphaned kids and their predicaments ; here , it's Annette Funicello's turn , playing Nebraskan farm girl Annette McCleoud , who must go to live with her aunt and uncle in Small Town , U . S . A . after a family tragedy , immediately pitted against the wealthy teenage clique ... |
550,833 | 989,035 | 53,065 | 7 | Stark human drama in the " Marty " vein | Paddy Chayefsky adapted his own Broadway play about an elderly workaholic ( Fredric March , in a stupendous performance ) who reaches out to a beautiful woman half his age , but she's got problems of her own , beginning with her shaky self-confidence . Their sometimes-rocky , sometimes-tender courtship provides the bas... |
552,798 | 989,035 | 53,084 | 7 | A predictable comedic triumph for Peter Sellers . . . | Side-splitting fracas has fictional European country , the Duchy of Grand Fenwick ( billed as " the smallest country in the world " ) facing a financial crisis after the United States takes over their main export : wine . Hoping to derive sympathy bonds for their efforts , the powers that be declare war on the U . S . ... |
551,345 | 989,035 | 70,012 | 7 | Tense , atmospheric , well-acted . . . but still not satisfying | Married couple driving through the desert stop off at a diner ; the husband goes into the men's restroom and never comes out . A fascinating premise for a so-so TV-made thriller which does give Cloris Leachman ( Phyllis on " The Mary Tyler Moore Show " ) one of the four best roles of her career ( the others being " The... |
550,555 | 989,035 | 43,338 | 7 | Terse , hard-bitten microcosm of America , exposing its lack of morals and ethics | New Mexico man , searching through an old mine for Indian artifacts , is trapped after the floors caves in ; by chance , an over-zealous reporter from Albuquerque is in the area , hungry for a story that will get him out of the hick towns and back to New York City . An exceptionally well-written , embittered , not-happ... |
551,954 | 989,035 | 53,247 | 7 | Polite and well-heeled melodrama . . . and surprisingly quite enjoyable | Provincial University professor from England chances to meet his diabolical , selfish twin while on vacation in Paris . Daphne Du Maurier's novel gets a highly polished screen-treatment , with star Alec Guinness very fine in the dual role , the split-screen photography and editing pulled off with skill . After being tr... |
550,905 | 989,035 | 104,511 | 7 | Featherweight dark comedy about a sexy bloodsucker , though exceptionally well-done | John Landis is not the type of director who goes for any deeper meaning in his films outside of the occasional well-staged car chase in heavy traffic ; however , this time , working with Michael Wolk's first-rate screenplay , he excels in narrative as well as in visual form . An undercover cop in Pittsburgh , posing as... |
550,577 | 989,035 | 70,047 | 7 | Mechanically engineered for scares | Young daughter of a famous actress demonstrates such strange , violently self-inflicted behavior that her mother is eventually told about the Catholic practice of Exorcism . Some audiences start giggling during " The Exorcist " right about the time Linda Blair's bed starts shaking , an understandable response since the... |
551,887 | 989,035 | 43,278 | 7 | Gorgeously designed showcase for Gene Kelly , who is better than usual . . . | Though rightfully regarded as one of the top musical-comedy talents of the 1940s and ' 50s , Gene Kelly's performances as an actor never get much notice - - and that's because as an actor he makes a terrific dancer . Partly due to his insistence on playing much the same role over and over again ( sort of an overripe , ... |
550,565 | 989,035 | 87,354 | 7 | Surprisingly pointed , surprisingly funny black comedy . . . | Katharine Hepburn in a Cannon production ? Yes , and though the color process on the photography is typically brackish and the technical aspects of " Grace Quigley " seem slapdash , this turns out to be a quirky , exceptionally funny piece about a hit-man's friendship with an elderly woman in New York . Reportedly , He... |
550,491 | 989,035 | 43,286 | 7 | Highly enjoyable family film of the 1950s . . . | Baseball and Heavenly fantasy make comfortable movie partners here , as the hot-headed , foul-mouthed ( for 1951 ) manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team learns to clean up his act after he and his losing team receive Divine Intervention on the playing field . Potentially sticky premise gets some heavenly assi... |
552,671 | 989,035 | 236,576 | 7 | Harrowing look at persecution | The golden days of decadent Berlin , Germany came to a bloody halt when Hitler's regime took over in the early 1930s and gay men were brought down by simple innuendo and gossip ( lesbianism was considered curable , but homosexuality was " catching " ) . Early talk of homosexuality in Hitler's ranks precipitated the rei... |
552,136 | 989,035 | 70,083 | 7 | Strange , strange , strange . . . | Truly bizarre mix of elements : character study , romance , crime melodrama , and action flick . Terrifically filmed on vivid Los Angeles locales by a French director and crew , story follows foreign hit-man on assignment in L . A . being tracked down and targeted for death . Some of the characters here are delicious :... |
552,920 | 989,035 | 78,754 | 7 | A dance with Death . . . | Bob Fosse's autobiographical look at his life , with Roy Scheider fabulously standing-in for Fosse as Joe Gideon , pill-popping , womanizing director-choreographer on the verge of collapse in New York City . Fosse paints himself as suspicious , paranoid , driven , indifferent , exhausted and horny . It's more than most... |
553,504 | 989,035 | 53,125 | 7 | I never make love on an empty stomach . . . | Smashing suspense-thriller from director Alfred Hitchcock stars Cary Grant as an ordinary Madison Avenue businessman who is falsely accused of being a spy and a killer , jetting all over the States to solve the tangled mystery . Even when covered with crop-dust , Grant always appears dapper and dry-as-a-martini ; both ... |
550,725 | 989,035 | 1,231,602 | 7 | Rossellini knows her bugs ! | Isabella Rossellini wrote ( or co-wrote ) , co-produced , directed ( or co-directed ) , and stars in these cheeky mini-films describing the sex lives of eight garden variety insects . " There's nothing porno about it , " Rossellini says in the promotional introduction , " It's just fun ! " And so it is , with Isabella ... |
553,705 | 989,035 | 52,832 | 7 | Wordy , good-looking soaper for grown-ups | Tennessee Williams and Meade Roberts co-adapted Williams ' play " Orpheus Descending " about a reluctant stud drifting through backwater town , stirring up the passions of an Italian shopkeeper who's married to a cranky invalid . Eerie and fabulously atmospheric piece gives the women in particular ( Anna Magnani , Joan... |
550,694 | 989,035 | 201,796 | 7 | Bitchy , funny , surprisingly telling . . . | Nancy Sinatra playing Las Vegas in 1973 , headlining at the Riviera to a VERY quiet , stony audience , but giving it all she's got . Filmed by a Swedish crew for television ( I assume ) , this forgotten special is more than a showcase for our Boots : it's a very telling tale about pop stars , the Vegas scene in the ' 7... |
553,696 | 989,035 | 60,453 | 7 | No matter what I want . . . God always has a custard pie up His sleeve . | Marvelous film , an extension of the British kitchen-sink dramas from earlier in the decade ( but with a friskier spirit ) , introduced audiences to Vanessa Redgrave's kid sister , Lynn ( in an Oscar-nominated performance ) . She's Georgina , a too-tall , plain and frumpy , kissless clown , a nursery school teacher who... |
552,063 | 989,035 | 78,341 | 7 | Sentimental tale with an uncompromising ending . . . | A touching story told with tenderness : awkward young Jewish girl in WWII America befriends an escaped Nazi POW who is hiding out in her clubhouse . They discuss their lives , she sneaks him food , he becomes her only friend and ally . All this reminded me of the much-better theatrical film " Whistle Down The Wind " , ... |
552,381 | 989,035 | 60,522 | 7 | Chic , but somewhat enervated caper comedy . . . | Jaunty star-driven fare makes for fun , colorful entertainment in a low-key ( if you're not too demanding ) . Audrey Hepburn ( lovely as always ) attempts to get her art-forging father out of trouble , hitching up with crafty Peter O'Toole to steal back a phony antique out of the art museum . Handsome production , fine... |
552,247 | 989,035 | 69,762 | 7 | Not just a dramatization of real events , but a romanticized portrait of crime . . . | In the 1950's , a quiet but quick-thinking young man who postures like James Dean stirs up trouble for a simple young girl living with her father ; he eventually takes her on a journey across several states by car , leaving dead bodies in their wake . Dreamy , somewhat vacuous ( and intentionally so ) drama by debuting... |
551,872 | 989,035 | 43,014 | 7 | The ghosts of Hollywood's ravaged past . . . | Hack screenwriter chances upon mansion of a faded Hollywood silent screen star who ' hires ' him to ghost-write her return project " Salome " , but who really wants him for her lover . Poor Norma Desmond : she's 50 years old and over the hill ! Literate , but queasy black comedy has a great script but creeps its way to... |
551,437 | 989,035 | 113,443 | 7 | Thoughtful and poignant , not a downer . . . | Writer-director Randal Kleiser does very nice , fluid work with this moving hybrid of " The Boys in the Band " and " ' Night , Mother " . When an upwardly-mobile gay man in Southern California gets a dreaded HIV-positive diagnosis , it helps to end the relationship he had with his lover ; one year later , the two men f... |
551,108 | 989,035 | 60,271 | 7 | Strange , fascinating drama continually eludes viewer perceptions | Just when you think you've got a handle on this picture , it tosses in a curveball . Flirtatious Jane Fonda , married ( but bored ) to an older millionaire , has a tricky relationship with her 20-ish stepson which leads to a steamy secret affair . Director Roger Vadim shows off an amusingly twisted sense of humor ( odd... |
550,916 | 989,035 | 36,326 | 7 | Spirited , if minor | Disney animators ( along with Donald Duck ! ) tour South America to soak up new cartoon ideas . This long-unseen Disney item is full of color and music , but is obviously a holding-pattern release for the company . I saw it on video with the additional 20-minute documentary regaling more of the non-animated adventures ... |
552,731 | 989,035 | 71,424 | 7 | K-i-s-s o-f-f ! | Ostensibly a mindless , flashy car-chase - & - crash B-flick has all the usual drive-in elements , but there's more going on here than at first appears . Two NASCAR enthusiasts , needing to buy a new entry vehicle , concoct an elaborate plan to rob a grocery store ; Larry is the talent behind the wheel , Deke is the co... |
552,006 | 989,035 | 79,219 | 7 | First-half is great , but it loses its impetus and steam . . . | Three elderly friends concoct a scheme to rob a bank . . . but what will they do with all that money ? Although bank robbery is hardly endearing , director Martin Brest ( doing very nimble work ) glosses over the extremities and gives us George Burns , Art Carney and Lee Strasberg at their most amiable . Brest isn't af... |
552,519 | 989,035 | 87,010 | 7 | Fawcett is good , though maybe too tough and resilient to be convincing as a battered wife | Farrah Fawcett works very hard here at making herself willowy and one-dimensional - - helpless , in other words - - but one can sense right away she's a tough cookie . The deep growl in her voice , the ire in her manner when she gets angry . Portraying a battered wife in " The Burning Bed " , Fawcett is holding herself... |
553,008 | 989,035 | 60,182 | 7 | A man , a woman , and a pussycat . . . | A true story set in the African wild which plays like a wild-life fantasy : childless couple working in Kenya ( he's a game warden who hunts ferocious animals ) adopt three orphaned lion cubs and rear them like babies . When they start growing and becoming a household nuisance , two cubs are sent to a zoo but the runt ... |
551,430 | 989,035 | 60,395 | 7 | Very touching | Young British working-class newlyweds are having trouble consummating their marriage whilst living with the in-laws , and it gets even worse when neighbors start speculating about the groom's " performance " . A realistic play on a modern-day situation that is still timeless . The elders in this film are especially ama... |
552,298 | 989,035 | 44,863 | 7 | You remind me of a girl nicknamed The Sphynx . . . . " Are you partial to girls made out of stone ? " | Cheeky , compact crime-drama in an exotic locale off the southern coast of China . Former Army Lieutenant Robert Mitchum , on the run from the law , winds up in the gambling and jewel-smuggling town of Macao without his wallet - - seems pack-up-and-go lounge singer Jane Russell has fleeced him on the boat coming over f... |
551,689 | 989,035 | 36,104 | 7 | Taut little B-movie | Slimly-plotted but handsomely-produced second-biller about an escaped leopard in a small dirt town in New Mexico apparently the cause behind several deaths . . . or is it ? Intriguing premise given stylish film-noir treatment . Performances are solid , and Jacques Tourneur's crafty direction lets you see just enough be... |
552,803 | 989,035 | 51,666 | 7 | Tobacco Road redux | Erskine Caldwell's two most popular books ( " Tobacco Road " and " God's Little Acre " ) were both made into controversial films , but John Ford's 1941 film-adaptation of " Tobacco Road " made it to the screen with memorably eccentric characters and smoothly segued from absurdity to pathos . Anthony Mann's work on " Go... |
551,144 | 989,035 | 51,677 | 7 | Not a great movie partner for " Sleeping Beauty " , but beautiful in its own way . . . | Academy Award-winning short subject was the movie prelude for many of the early showings of Walt Disney's " Sleeping Beauty " in 1959 - - and while the two pictures could not be further apart in subject matter , each includes the sweep and spectral beauty ( one live action , one animated ) courtesy of the Disney Studio... |
553,289 | 989,035 | 71,240 | 7 | Christine Parker , hardened criminal . . . | Disturbing , controversial NBC TV-movie , one of the most popular television-made dramas from the 1970s ( regularly shown right into the ' 80s ) has young Linda Blair fresh off " The Exorcist " and well-cast as a teen runaway facing hard time in a girls reform school . Gritty , documentary-like production filmed on a l... |
551,766 | 989,035 | 44,706 | 7 | Classic confrontation . . . | Gary Cooper won a Best Actor Oscar for his solid portrayal of a retiring marshal in a tumbleweed town facing down a band of cutthroats all by himself . Confrontation between good and evil still resonates today , cannily filmed in " real time " ( with lots of clocks on-screen reporting the upcoming showdown ) . Edited t... |
551,561 | 989,035 | 218,839 | 7 | Dizzying satire , outrageous humor . . . acted and presented with cutting style | Philadelphia is home to the 125th Annual Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show , which brings out several colorful couples and their prize pooches for competition ( the prize , a silver cup , is big enough to take a sponge-bath in ) . Mockumentary extraordinaire ! Endless pithy witticisms from actor-co-writer-director Christo... |
551,706 | 989,035 | 78,872 | 7 | Moments of spare , quiet beauty . . . | Spellbindingly pretty tale of a young boy and an Arabian horse becoming ' friends ' while shipwrecked on a deserted island . Once they are rescued , the boy attempts to keep the animal as a pet , but the Stallion is more comfortable on the racetrack . Although Mickey Rooney gives one of his very finest performances as ... |
552,806 | 989,035 | 529,600 | 7 | Idolizing Hoss . . . | Ross Martin guests as an Italian immigrant and single father making his way from San Francisco to New York City in order to finance his young son's gift for the classical guitar ; the two stop off in Virginia City to find temporary work and raise the ire of a couple of roughnecks who seem to have no course of business ... |
552,810 | 989,035 | 44,672 | 7 | Not the greatest script on Earth . . . | High-flown malarkey under the Big Top ! With the cooperation of Ringling Bros . and Barnum & Bailey behind him , director and showman Cecil B . DeMille delivers a colorful circus-spectacular full of animals and acrobatics , however the overripe screenplay ( worked on by four credited scenarists ) combines " stardust an... |
551,325 | 989,035 | 36,027 | 7 | Swooning , spooky-romantic atmosphere ; lots of fun | A bright-eyed nurse from Canada ( Frances Dee , who amusingly resembles Judith Light ) takes a position to help an invalid woman down in the West Indies ; upon her arrival , she realizes that the lush , tranquil island is not what it seems , that her employer and his brother have a dark family history , and that her " ... |
553,137 | 989,035 | 51,383 | 7 | She's the Pied Piper ! | From the cartoon kaleidoscope opening to the last walk up the staircase for Mame Dennis , this comically-contrived and highly theatrical movie version of the celebrated Broadway success is nevertheless pleasing in almost every sense . Director Morton DaCosta , who also helmed the stage version , uses the theatricality ... |
552,714 | 989,035 | 244,094 | 7 | I wanna grow old with you . . . . " I'm already old . " | Thoroughly charming ! Jill Clayburgh masterfully plays another savvy , divorced woman attempting to date again , and though some viewers may say she has mined this territory before , Clayburgh absolutely nails the love / hate relationship fifty-somethings have with getting back into the swing of things ( sometimes it's... |
550,999 | 989,035 | 71,398 | 7 | Flashes of style and suspense on a nothing-budget | Young British man offers stranded , pretty girl a lift , but is he the psychopathic killer all the police are searching for ? Damp , chilly film from the UK does boast a stylish direction ( the rolling compact , the chase in the parking structure ) and very fine performances from the principals , particularly Hayley Mi... |
552,375 | 989,035 | 86,619 | 7 | Surprisingly frisky . . . | Despite an ostensibly somber tone and an autumnal look that gives the film a burnished coffee-table feel , Barbra Streisand's directorial debut about a turn-of-the-century Jewish girl disguising herself as a boy to study the Talmud has a lot of heart , a romantic soul and a ticklish sense of humor . Her strengths as an... |
550,644 | 989,035 | 71,358 | 7 | Despite formula , quite moving | Pat Conroy's autobiographical book " The Water Is Wide " proves to be something of a Southern " Up The Down Staircase " , yet despite the teacher - going - against - the - odds formula , " Conrack " really does move the audience with each little breakthrough and creative flash . These students ( uneducated black kids o... |
551,171 | 989,035 | 106,273 | 7 | It may seem a little hopeless . . . . " That's because it is . " | American doctors from the under-funded Center for Disease Control scramble to figure out the origin of - - and the causes behind - - the alarming rate of homosexual male deaths in the early 1980s ; as a fatal strain of pneumonia and hepatitis B cases begin appearing , as Reagan-era Washington apparently vetoes the myst... |
551,467 | 989,035 | 44,418 | 7 | A more gentlemanly John Wayne | The Duke ( in ties and jackets ? ) ferrets out Commies in Hawaii along with strapping partner James Arness . For a movie so obviously filled to the brim with machismo , the results surprise us with just a scene or two of fisticuffs and much more romance between Wayne and Nancy Olsen ( who moves quickly , and can you bl... |
552,309 | 989,035 | 59,742 | 7 | Mary Poppins vs . the Nazis | She runs , she sings , she prances ! Julie Andrews is back as another nanny ( or , governess ) to rambunctious children ( this time 7 ) but her magical powers are confined to a guitar and a lilting soprano . The love story between she and Christopher Plummer doesn't work because his haughty decadence seems more in tune... |
551,756 | 989,035 | 79,638 | 7 | More than one actress's tour-de-force , an indelible and moving human story | In trying to get the textile mill she and her family work for unionized , Sally Field's Norma Rae Webster also tries to earn self-respect at any cost . She's been leading a dead-end existence : a single mother , still living with her family , sleeping with married men who abuse her . But after being inspired by a union... |
552,982 | 989,035 | 395,972 | 7 | Uneven handling alternates between sympathetic , heavy-handed and mawkish . . . | In the iron mines of Northern Minnesota , circa 1989 , a young woman ( a single mother of two with a shady-lady past ) goes to work as a miner and encounters personally degrading harassment from the mostly male crew . A compassionate and sensitive rewriting of a true incident - - one that took some ten years to resolve... |
553,009 | 989,035 | 359,203 | 7 | Documentary on a golden era in Hollywood which didn't go sour so much as it evaporated . . . | After 20th Century-Fox's " The Sound of Music " raked in big box-office and Academy Awards , every Hollywood studio was busy for the next couple of years trying to duplicate its success ( it isn't specified here , but Fox itself was one of the hungriest at pilfering from this genre ) . Unfortunately , " The Sound of Mu... |
551,480 | 989,035 | 36,777 | 7 | Has spare , beautiful moments , with the horrors of war vividly portrayed | When hard-working China is attacked by the power-hungry Japanese , a pre-feminist Chinese woman struggles with her family for survival ; eventually she and her husband become fighters in the Resistance and help to influence their family and fellow villagers to join them . Hollywood product , with intentions that seem s... |
553,280 | 989,035 | 36,775 | 7 | How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle ? | Fred MacMurray is a Southern California insurance salesman who stops by a client's house one afternoon to renew a contract and meets the client's wife , an anklet-wearing , glinty-eyed dame with blonde hair styled like a lascivious doll . They flirt a little , but when she starts inquiring about taking out a life insur... |
552,448 | 989,035 | 381,061 | 7 | Daniel Craig gets the royal 007 treatment . . . | Taking James Bond back to the basics - - literally , back to square one - - might have seemed a daunting task , as the 007 franchise had been waning in recent years ( for a myriad of reasons ) and the idea of a " prequel " , if you will , may have been rather risky . Fortunately , this fined-tuned Bond is what a lot of... |
550,646 | 989,035 | 105,572 | 7 | I'm just a girl who lived across the street from you . . . and I don't now ! | Extremely sensitive and touching film about childhood , and a youngster's need to be " saved " from her own age of innocence . Juliette Lewis is fantastic as vampy young woman in 1960s suburbia whose affair with a greasy-haired rebel becomes the focal point for a little girl who lives across the street . The film's dre... |
551,690 | 989,035 | 36,733 | 7 | Horror-movie buffs will be disappointed . . . | . . . there are no cats or curses in evidence , but nevertheless this is a strange and haunting little movie about an alienated child . Now-deceased cat woman Simone Simon appears as a ghost , visiting her husband's new daughter and coming to her aid when the child is in danger . Slim story , beautiful visuals . Doesn'... |
551,051 | 989,035 | 59,885 | 7 | Robust war epic with hearty Sinatra performance . . . | Superior WWII adventure has American Colonel Frank Sinatra leading large group of English POW's in takeover of a Nazi train near Milano , Italy . Fine characterizations and a full-bodied direction by Mark Robson give this epic a vivid sweep . Full of humor and pathos , the film doesn't present the Nazis as weak targets... |
553,463 | 989,035 | 36,641 | 7 | Underrated remake . . . | Terrific film , a remake of 1930's " Outward Bound " , has a disparate group of people ( John Garfield , Paul Henreid , Sydney Greenstreet and Eleanor Parker among them ) on-board a mysterious ocean-liner , unaware they are actually souls being transported to their final destinations . Solemn fantasy is talky , sometim... |
553,732 | 989,035 | 44,391 | 7 | Entertaining backstage business | Glossy MGM soaper has many things to recommend it , not the least of which is a surprisingly grounded , natural Lana Turner ( looking great , even in ordinary jammies ) playing a successful movie actress who , along with a top screenwriter and director , help producer-on-the-skids Kirk Douglas stage a comeback . Not es... |
551,556 | 989,035 | 52,190 | 7 | Thoroughly enjoyable western with romance asides . . . | Terrific M-G-M oater with both a comedic and romantic slant has Glenn Ford playing the new sheep farmer in a cattle community ; he deliberately stirs up trouble for himself with the locals , particularly villainous old acquaintance Leslie Nielsen , to remind them that the grazing land is his to use as well - - and if t... |
552,138 | 989,035 | 79,384 | 7 | Friendly sitcom | On the run from an abusive drug dealer , foster kid Brooke Shields hides out with ex-vaudeville entertainer George Burns . There are little side-plots here and there ( the drug dealer tracking Brooke down , George's daughter trying to get her hands on his money , best friend Burl Ives stuck in an institution ) , but th... |
551,463 | 989,035 | 51,745 | 7 | Cozy romp with some surprising emotional resonance | At first glance , " Houseboat " looks like the worst type of sitcom : stern father gets saddled with his estranged children , later hiring a governess who is really a runaway from high society . Saccharin-prone viewers might bail early , but give it time . Cary Grant plays the dad with an amusing mixture of concern , c... |
553,554 | 989,035 | 70,707 | 7 | Woody Allen slapstick is wacky but takes some disappointing turns . . . | Woody Allen is such a staple of New York and city-living that it's a hoot to see him at the center of the far-out futuristic surroundings in " Sleeper " . His nuttiness isn't tempered by the visual gimmicks , and the movie is both recklessly daffy and wonderful to look at ( it's great eye-candy , one of his best design... |
551,524 | 989,035 | 79,477 | 7 | You'll want to see Venice ( and the Bridge of Sighs ) | Smashing romantic comedy-drama about two youngsters in love . A movie-loving French boy and the American daughter of a movie actress meet and eventually run away from France to Venice to seal their love within the bonds of a legend - - never suspecting the romantic story they've been told is a tall one , thought up by ... |
553,734 | 989,035 | 304,328 | 7 | The unpredictable results of needing forgiveness . . . | A recently paroled convict , who as a teenager shot and killed a young convenience store worker , is left to find his way in society ; he's offered a custodial job from a hot-tempered , streetwise pastor , and hopes to connect with the sister of his victim in order to complete the cycle of redemption - - but he finds i... |
552,861 | 989,035 | 359,045 | 7 | Dreamily disconnected from reality . . . | Bear Cub isn't really a comedy or a drama , it's a gay fantasy with a bit of reality thrown in for balance . Director and co-writer Miguel Albaladejo opens the film with a very sexy lovemaking scene between two woofy chubs , but he quickly and quietly moves on ( it turns out the sex at the beginning is between two se... |
553,567 | 989,035 | 79,495 | 7 | Bizarre , surreal melodrama | Jill Clayburgh is peculiarly cast as the opera-singing mother of a teenage heroin addict whose motherly warmth towards her son has sensual overtones - - yet , even within this decadent , bizarre scenario , Clayburgh manages to make her presence work , giving a very courageous and colorful performance . It's rather hard... |
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