Posts Tagged ‘great-depression’

Sting, The (1973)

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Genres: Comedy | Crime
Countries: USA
Actors: Newman, Paul | Redford, Robert | Shaw, Robert | Durning, Charles | Walston, Ray | Brennan, Eileen | Gould, Harold | Heffernan, John | Elcar, Dana | Kehoe, Jack | Arliss, Dimitra | Jones, Robert Earl | Sloyan, James | Dierkop, Charles | Paul, Lee
Directors: Hill, George Roy
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Johnny Hooker is a young con-man who is being taught by Luther. One day they pull one of their con jobs and net themselves a huge roll. What they don’t know is that the man they conned is the courier for a numbers runner. And it turns out that the boss, Doyle Lonigan, considers it an attack on him and orders all the people involved terminated. Hooker is shaken down by a crooked cop, Snyder, who threatens to turn him over to Lonigan unless he pays him off. Hooker pays him, he then tries to warn Luther but is too late. He then goes to see Henry Gondorf, a friend of Luther’s and a one time great con-man, who has had a bit of bad luck. After hearing what happened to Luther and seeing how hungry Hooker is for payback, he assembles a gang and decides to con Lonigan. While everything seems to be going ok, there is just the problem of the hit on Hooker and Snyder, whom Hooker paid off with counterfeit money.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Fonda, Jane | Sarrazin, Michael | York, Susannah | Young, Gig | Red Buttons | Bedelia, Bonnie | Conrad, Michael | Dern, Bruce | Lewis, Al | Fields, Robert | Darden, Severn | McLerie, Allyn Ann | Kennedy, Madge | Hyde, Jacquelyn | Orlandi, Felice
Directors: Pollack, Sydney
Download: DivX iPod 

Gloria (Jane Fonda) is a young woman of the Depression. She has aged beyond her years and feels her life is hopeless, having been cheated and betrayed many times in her past. Fantasizing about movies, she sees herself as an actress and decides to head for Hollywood, having got the idea from a movie magazine while recuperating in the hospital from a suicide attempt which resulted from another unhappy love affair. Robert (Michael Sarrazin), a desperate Hollywood citizen unsuccessfully trying to become a director, never doubting that he’ll eventually make it. Robert and Gloria meet and decide to enter a dance marathon, one of the crazes of the thirties. The grueling dancing takes its toll on Gloria’s already weakened spirit, and she tells Robert that she’d be better off dead, that her life is hopeless - all the while acting cruel and bitter, alienating those around her, trying to convince him to shoot her and put her out of her misery. After all, they shoot horses, don’t they?

Day of the Locust, The (1975)

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Genres: Drama | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Sutherland, Donald | Black, Karen | Burgess Meredith | Atherton, William | Page, Geraldine | Dysart, Richard | Hopkins, Bo | Serna, Pepe | Goldoni, Lelia | Barty, Billy | Haley, Jackie Earle | LeRoy, Gloria | Hoffman, Jane | Leavitt, Norman | Kennedy, Madge
Directors: Schlesinger, John
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Tod Hackett, fresh out of Yale, wants to make it as an art director in late 1930’s Hollywood - but he finds himself increasingly distracted by his new neighbor Faye, a would-be starlet with possible designs of her own on a lonely, morose accountant. As Tod is drawn deeper into the lurid private lives of studio bosses and film industry workers, he gradually becomes desperate to know if Faye - or anyone - is capable of real love.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Friday, December 26th, 2008
Genres: Drama | Family | Fantasy | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Stewart, James | Reed, Donna | Barrymore, Lionel | Mitchell, Thomas | Travers, Henry | Bondi, Beulah | Faylen, Frank | Bond, Ward | Grahame, Gloria | Warner, H.B. | Albertson, Frank | Karns, Todd | Hinds, Samuel S. | Treen, Mary | Patton, Virginia
Directors: Capra, Frank
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On Christmas eve, all of the citizens of the small town of Bedford Falls pray to the heavens to help George Bailey. It’s then decided that Clarence, an angel who hasn’t earned his wings, is to help George. Before he does, he should know who George Bailey was. George Bailey grew up in Bedford Falls, a small town where he dreams of leaving it and making his mark on the world. His family’s business is the only thing stands between the good citizens and Mr. Potter, a rich miser who takes sick pleasure in taking from everybody, without even caring how it affects them. George was all set to leave when his father died and had to take care of the business. George would forever be hindered by his plans to leave and thinks that he is nothing but a failure, he decides to kill himself. That’s when Clarence comes in and tries to convince him that he has made something with his life, and that he had a “Wonderful Life”.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Genres: Drama | Mystery
Countries: USA
Actors: Cotten, Joseph | Comingore, Dorothy | Moorehead, Agnes | Warrick, Ruth | Collins, Ray | Sanford, Erskine | Sloane, Everett | Alland, William | Stewart, Paul | Coulouris, George | Bonanova, Fortunio | Schilling, Gus | Van Zandt, Philip | Backus, Georgia | Shannon, Harry
Directors: Welles, Orson
Download: DivX iPod 

Considered by many to be the best film ever made, this is the story of Charles Foster Kane. The film opens with a long shot of Xanadu - the private estate of one of the world’s richest men. In the middle of the estate is a castle. We see, inside the castle, a dying man examining a winter scene within a crystal ball. As he drops it, it smashes, and one word is heard - “Rosebud…” What follows are pieces of newsreel-like footage detailing how Kane amassed his fortune, and turning around full circle at the end.

Hands Across the Table (1935)

Monday, December 15th, 2008
Genres: Comedy | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Lombard, Carole | MacMurray, Fred | Bellamy, Ralph | Allwyn, Astrid | Prevost, Marie | Donnelly, Ruth | Tozer, Joseph R. | Demarest, William | Gargan, Edward | Munier, Ferdinand | Minjir, Harold | Corday, Marcelle | Conti, Albert | Bing, Herman | Allen, Peter
Directors: Leisen, Mitchell
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Hotel manicurist Regi Allen is a cynical golddigger who meets her match in Theodore ‘Ted’ Drew III. After a date with Ted, she lets him sleep on her couch when he’s too drunk to go further; but what is she to think when he wants to extend the arrangement?

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Monday, December 15th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Peck, Gregory | Megna, John | Overton, Frank | Murphy, Rosemary | White, Ruth | Peters, Brock | Evans, Estelle | Fix, Paul | Paxton, Collin Wilcox | Anderson, James | Ghostley, Alice | Duvall, Robert | Windom, William | Denton, Crahan | Hale, Richard
Directors: Mulligan, Robert
Download: DivX iPod 

In the rural American south during the depths of the Depression, two children watch as their principled father takes a stand against intolerance.

Chinatown (1974)

Friday, December 12th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Mystery | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Nicholson, Jack | Dunaway, Faye | Huston, John | Lopez, Perry | Hillerman, John | Zwerling, Darrell | Ladd, Diane | Jenson, Roy | Bakalyan, Richard | Mantell, Joe | Glover, Bruce | Hinds, Nandu | O'Rear, James | Hong, James
Directors: Polanski, Roman
Download: DivX iPod 

Los Angeles detective Jake Gittes is hired by a woman claiming to be a Mrs. Mulwray to spy on her husband. Shortly after Gittes is hired, the real Mrs. Mulwray appears in his office threatening to sue if he doesn’t drop the case immediately. Gittes pursues the case anyway, slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy centering on water management, state and municipal corruption, land use and real estate, and involving at least one murder.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Genres: Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Music
Countries: France | UK | USA
Actors: Clooney, George | Hunter, Holly | Turturro, John | Root, Stephen | Goodman, John | Durning, Charles
Directors: Coen, Joel
Download: DivX iPod 

Loosely based on Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ the movie deals with the grotesque adventures of Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississipi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everetts home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters. Among them sirens, a cyclops, bankrobber George ‘Babyface’ Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname), a campaigning Governor, his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet, who warns the trio that “the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find.”

12 Dogs of Christmas, The (2005)

Friday, December 5th, 2008
Genres: Family
Countries: USA
Actors: Billingsley, John | Friedericy, Bonita | Hicks, Adam | Jackman, Jim | Lutes, Eric | Riehle, Richard | Sterling, Mindy | Wood, Susan | Flory, Travis T. | Mullally, Alisha | Green, Jordan-Claire | Lycette, Monique Jeanine | Burns, Chris | Howard, Charles Michael | Howard, Michael
Directors: Merrill, Kieth
Download: DivX iPod 

A girl who uses dogs to teach people about the true meaning of Christmas during the Depression.