He's dynamite with a gun or a girl. One of Hollywood's classic hard-boiled thrillers and a favorite of suspense film lovers. The picture marked the first hit pairing of tough guy Alan Ladd in the role that made him an instant star and sultry blonde bombshell Veronica Lake. Adapted from a novel by Graham Greene it's the hard-edged story of love power and betrayal set in the seamy underworld of the 1940's. Raven (Alan Ladd) is a cold-blooded professional killer who's been double-crossed by his client. Ellen (Veronica Lake) is a beautiful nightclub singer who's spying on her corrupt boss. Lt. Michael Crane (Robert Preston) is a dedicated cop who wants Ellen's love and Raven's capture. The tension mounts and before the case is wrapped up someone will pay with his life.
Although indisputably a film by Woody Allen, Interiors is about as far from "a Woody Allen film" as you can get--and maybe more people could have seen what a fine film it is if they hadn't been expecting what Allen himself called "one of his earlier, funnier movies." An entirely serious, rather too self-consciously Bergmanesque drama about a divorcing elderly couple and their grown daughters, it is slow, meditative and constructed with a brilliant, artistic eye. There is no music--a simple effect that Allen uses with extraordinary power. In fact, half the film is filled with silent faces staring out of windows, yet the mood is so engaging, hypnotic even, that you never feel the director is poking you in the ribs and saying, "sombre atmosphere". Diane Keaton, released for once from the ditzy stereotype, shines as the "successful" daughter. Some of the dialogue is stilted and it's hard to tell whether this is a deliberate effect or simply the way repressed upscale New Yorkers talk after too many years having their self-absorption sharpened on the therapist's couch. Fanatical, almost childish self-regard is the chief subject of Allen's comedy--it's remarkable that in this film he was able to remove the comedy but leave room for us to pity and care about these rather irritating people. --Richard Farr
In Season Six Amy and Ty continue as a couple but the weight of the 'almost-proposal' takes its toll with touching and humorous results until the midpoint of the season in a pair of episodes (609 and 610) that will enthral and delight fans of the series. Lou and Peter's new home turns into a renovation nightmare which results in a tragic and near fatal situation. Jack's European vacation did not work out as well as he leads Lisa to believe and a newcomer an 11-year-old runaway by the name of Georgie becomes a new fixture at the Heartland Ranch. Of course horses are always an important part of the episodes as Heartland is first and foremost a horse ranch. Heartland continues to be a multi-generational saga about a family getting through life together in both happy and trying times. The series tells real stories about real people people who the audience has grown to love and welcome into their homes. It takes a realistic edgy and humorous approach to its stories with a balance of comedy and drama adventure and romance all against the glorious backdrop and stunning vistas of the foothills of Alberta. Episodes Comprise: Running Against The Wind Crossed Signals Keeping Up Appearances The Natural Trial Run Helping Hands Life Is A Highway Do The Right Thing Great Expectations The Road Ahead Blowing Smoke Playing With Fire Waiting For Tomorrow Lost And Gone Forever After All We Have Been Through Born To Buck Breaking Point Under Pressure
The Forsyte Saga is often cited as the first television miniseries; it wasn't, but there's no question that it was a singular, powerful cultural phenomenon that deservedly got under the skin of European viewers in 1967. Today the 26-episode production, based on several novels and short stories by John Galsworthy, is a more timeless enterprise than many of the protracted British TV dramas that have followed. While it would be wrong to consider The Forsyte Saga high art, it's certainly a mesmerizing and inspired mix of theater, sprawling Victorian narrative, thinking man's soap opera, and some finely tuned, 1960s black-and-white production values that (especially when shot outdoors) are strikingly handsome. Above all, Forsyte is driven by its characters--perhaps to an extreme, though the two-generation storyline makes no apologies for creating compelling people whose capacity for short-sighted blundering, bursts of grace, and slow-brewing redemption make them recognizably human. Eric Porter towers over everything as Soames Forsyte, a humorless attorney whose guiding principles of measurable value cause great heartache but slowly evolve, leaving him a graying, good father, arts patron, and sympathetic repository of memory. From the cast of 150 or so, other standouts include Susan Hampshire as Soames's troubled daughter, Nyree Dawn Porter as the wife of two very different Forsyte men, and Kenneth More as the family's artistic black sheep. --Tom Keogh
Vicky Barton (Jean Simmons) and her Brother Johnny take a trip to the 1896 Paris Exhibition. They both stayed at a hotel and booked separate rooms, but something happened? The next morning Vicky discovers her brother has disappeared along with his room and no one even acknowledge his existence. Vicky seems certain her brother was with her and is in search for clues in this mystery filled drama.
It may have been underrated when first broadcast, but executive producer Martin Scorsese's homage to the blues is a truly significant, if imperfect, achievement. "Musical journey" is an apt description, as Scorsese and the six other directors responsible for these seven approximately 90-minute films follow the blues--the foundation of jazz, soul, R&B, and rock & roll--from its African roots to its Mississippi Delta origins, up the river to Memphis and Chicago, then to New York, the United Kingdom, and beyond. Some of the films (like Wim Wenders's The Soul of a Man and Charles Burnett's Warming by the Devil's Fire) use extensive fictional film sequences, generally to good effect. There's also plenty of documentary footage, interviews, and contemporary studio performances recorded especially for these films. The last are among the best aspects of the DVDs, as the bonus material features the set's only complete tunes. Lou Reed's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and the ElektriK Mud Kats' (with Chuck D. of Public Enemy) hip-hop-cum-traditional updating of Muddy Waters's "Mannish Boy" are among the best of them; on the other hand, a rendition of "Cry Me a River" by Lulu (?!) is a curious choice, even with Jeff Beck on hand. The absence of lengthier vintage clips, meanwhile, is the principal drawback. For that reason alone, Clint Eastwood's Piano Blues is the best of the lot; a musician himself, Eastwood simply lets the players play, which means we get extensive file footage of the likes of Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Nat "King" Cole, as well as new performances by Ray Charles, Dr. John, and others. Overall, this is a set to savor, a worthwhile investment guaranteed to grow on you over the course of repeated viewings. --Sam Graham
Before creating Duel in the Sun, legendary producer David O Selznick dreamed of making another magnum opus like his 1939 production of Gone with the Wind; he also proposed to make Jennifer Jones, his ladylove then second wife, a megastar. Thus Duel in the Sun (Lust in the Dust to some) was created as an extravagant Technicolor epic about the collision of the old West with the new, offering wide-open spaces with railroads and barbed wire, and juxtaposing character traits such as hot-blooded outlaws alongside civilised folk who are often wimpy or unwell. The film begins among giant rocks drenched in a blood-red sunset, with velvet-voiced Orson Welles intoning the legend of doomed Pearl Chavez and her demon lover; Duel in the Sun never strays far from lush romanticism, spiced with a dash of S/M. The cast is huge (a lubriciously wicked Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish, Joseph Cotton, Lionel Barrymore, Walter Huston, Harry Carey, Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford, Butterfly McQueen) and there are unforgettable set pieces, the most notable being the lovers' final shootout among those red rocks, as orgiastic a finale as you could ask for. --Kathleen Murphy, Amazon.com
Season 8 begins with Amy arriving back from the European Equestrian circuit, still riding high on the opulent lifestyle and adrenaline of working with Prince Ahmed's high-performance horses. But if she thought life at HEARTLAND was going to pick up where it left off, she is sorely mistaken. Amy's time away has changed her and everyone else back home. As the family struggles through secrets, rivalries and misunderstandings, Amy and Ty must find solid ground in their relationship. By the end of the season they have persevered and grown as a couple, moving forward into their future.
The sequel to hit series Marchlands, the supernatural saga centred around a family home, Lightfields delves further back in time to tell a ghost story which spans the generations. 1944, a young evacuee joins the Felwood family at Lightfields Farm to help the war effort. The days are filled with hard work and camaraderie, the evenings by dances and innocent romance, until one terrible night. Tainted by tragedy the house is abandoned and its history fades from memory. As time goes by, new fami...
Available on DVD for the first time! When a group of college kids get together for a weekend of partying they find themselves mixed up in a murderous plot. Having planned on a weekend of hard-core debauchery the English students and their visiting American friends do not notice when a series of mindless murders and acts of terrorism are carried out around them. Soon it becomes clear that one amongst them is a member of the 'Conceptualists' a group of net-based terrorists.
In this hysterical satire of Reagan-era values, written and directed by ALBERT BROOKS (Modern Romance), a successful Los Angeles advertising executive (Brooks) and his wife (Airplane's JULIE HAGERTY) decide to quit their jobs, buy a Winnebago, and follow their Easy Rider fantasies of freedom and the open road. When a stop in Las Vegas nearly derails their plans, they're forced to come to terms with their own limitations and those of the American dream. Brooks's barbed wit and confident direction drive Lost in America, a high point in the string of restless comedies about insecure characters searching for satisfaction in the modern world that established his unique comic voice and transformed the art of observational humour. Special Features: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack New conversation with director Albert Brooks and filmmaker Robert Weide New interviews with actor Julie Hagerty, executive producer Herb Nanas, and comic writer and director James L. Brooks Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Tobias
In this rousing celebration of love and laughter in America's heartland each member of the Frake family is up for a different prize when they attend their state fair: Father wants a blue ribbon for his favorite pig first prize (and only first prize) will do for Mom's entry in the pie-baking contest and for their son and daughter the hunt is on for true love...
Sgt. Bilko is back and up to his old tricks. The arrival of Major Thorn threatens to put a stop to the casino under-the-table deals and Bilko's other illicit businesses...
Here is just one of the many mishaps chronicled in Tora! Tora! Tora!: "Sir, there's a large formation of planes coming in from the north, 140 miles, 3 degrees east." "Yeah? Don't worry about it." The epic film shows the bombing of Pearl Harbour from both sides in the historic first American-Japanese coproduction: American director Richard Fleischer oversaw the complicated production (the Japanese sequences were directed by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, after Akira Kurosawa withdrew from the film), wrestling a sprawling story with dozens of characters into a manageable, fairly easy-to-follow film. The first half maps out the collapse of diplomacy between the nations and the military blunders that left naval and air forces sitting ducks for the impending attack, while the second half is an amazing re-creation of the devastating battle. While Tora! Tora! Tora! lacks the strong central characters that anchor the best war films, the real star of the film is the climactic 30-minute battle, a massive feat of cinematic engineering that expertly conveys the surprise, the chaos and the immense destruction of the only attack by a foreign power on American soil since the Revolutionary war. The special effects won a well-deserved Oscar, but the film was shut out of every other category by, ironically, the other epic war picture of the year, Patton. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Haunting passionate and unforgettable this beautiful version of Emily Bronte's timeless masterpiece stars Anna Calder-Marshall and Timothy Dalton as Cathy and Heathcliff star crossed lovers destined for a doomed romance.....
Get ready for a surprise, with a mind-blowing 4K restoration of the much loved sci-fi action classic, TOTAL RECALL, directed by Paul Verhoeven. In celebration of Total Recall's 30th anniversary, this collection is one you won't forget. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (Douglas Quaid) and Sharon Stone (Lori Quaid), accompanied by an iconic soundtrack by Academy Award-winner Jerry Goldsmith this is the ultimate version of the cult classic. A brand new 4K 30th anniversary restoration, approved by Paul Verhoeven. Extras: Total Excess: How Caralco Changed Hollywood Open Your Mind: Scoring Total Recall Audio Commentary by Paul Verhoeven & Arnold Schwarzenegger Total Excess: How Caralco Changed Hollywood Audio Commentary by Paul Verhoeven & Arnold Schwarzenegger Models and Skeletons: The Special Effects of Total Recall The Making of Total Recall Imagining Total Recall
The excitement, love, and drama continue in season 13 of 'Heartland'. As Amy and Ty continue to build their business together, the inevitable ups and downs of entrepreneurship will test the strength of their marriage. The added pressures of building a new home, raising their young daughter, Lyndy, and keeping an eye on Luke, a young boy they are fostering, will also challenge the couple along the way. Extras: Behind-the Scenes Featurettes Cast & Crew Interviews Heartland Imagery Season 14 Sneak Preview Episodes: Snakes and Ladders Wild One Rearview Mirror The Eye of the Storm Fairytale A Time to Remember The Art of Trust Legacy Fight or Flight The Passing of the Torch
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