Classics

  • Chetan Anand – Neecha Nagar (1946)

    1941-1950Chetan AnandClassicsIndia

    IMDB says:
    The films takes an expressionist look at the gulf between the rich and poor in the society. The film centers on a wealthy and capacious landlord, Sarkar (Rafi Peer) who lives in a palatial estate high up on a mountain while the poor toil and starve in the valley below. The villagers of ‘Neecha Nagar’ harbor hate for Sarkar and their hatred is fueled even more by the fact that Sarkar plans to direct all the sewage into the village in order to make way for his housing project. The villagers protest this move with their head, Balraj (Rafiq Anwar) leading a movement against Sarkar’s plan. Sarkar’s daughter Maya (Uma Anand) joins the movement against her father and falls in love with Balraj. With the sewage flowing through the village, epidemic starts to spread and the lives of the villagers comes under threat. Can poor people of ‘Neecha Nagar’ survive the greed and wickedness of the rich? Can Sarkar and his malicious ways be put to an end?Read More »

  • Paul Verhoeven – Das kalte Herz AKA The Cold Heart (1950)

    1941-1950ClassicsFantasyGermanyPaul Verhoeven

    Peter Munk, a poor charcoal burner, lives with his mother in The Black Forest. Poverty prevents him from marrying Lisbeth, the girl he loves. When he comes across the Little Glass Man, the good spirit of the forest, the young man asks him for assistance. His wish is granted and he becomes rich. But the fool soon loses all his money after gambling at the inn. In desperation, he asks Dutch Michael, the evil spirit of the forest, to help him to become rich again. The mean giant agrees and gives Peter all the riches in the world, but on one condition: the young man will exchange his heart for a cold stone. He can now marry Lisbeth but can a heart of ice make you and the others happy…?Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – God’s Little Acre (1958)

    1951-1960Anthony MannClassicsDramaUSA

    Synopsis:
    A poor farmer is obsessed with finding gold on his land supposedly buried by his grandfather. To find it he conveniently moves a marker out of his way that designates the land on which it rests as as God’s Little Acre, where anything that comes from the ground will go to God’s work. Eventually he abducts an albino to help him find the gold. Meanwhile, his daughter-in-law is suspected of fooling around with a labor activist out of work since the mill closed, and a local political hopeful actively seeks his daughter’s hand in marriage.Read More »

  • John Boulting – I’m All Right Jack (1959)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyJohn BoultingUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Naive Stanley Windrush returns from the war, his mind set on a successful career in business. Much to his own dismay, he soon finds he has to start from the bottom and work his way up, and also that the management as well as the trade union use him as a tool in their fight for power.Read More »

  • Sidney Lumet – The Pawnbroker (1964)

    Drama1961-1970ClassicsSidney LumetUSA

    Synopsis:
    In a poor neighborhood of New York, the bitter and lonely Jewish pawnbroker Sol Nazerman is a survivor from Auschwitz that has no emotions or feelings. Sol lost his dearest family and friends in the war and his faith in God and belief in mankind. Now he only cares for money and is haunted by daydreams, actually flashbacks from the period of the concentration camp. Sol’s assistant is the ambitious Latino Jesus Ortiz, who wants to learn with Sol how to run a business of his own. When Sol realizes that the obscure laundry business he has with the powerful gangster Rodriguez comes also from brothels, Sol recalls the fate of his beloved wife in the concentration camp and has a nervous breakdown. His attitude leads Jesus Ortiz to tragedy and Sol finds a way to cry.Read More »

  • Robert Wise – The Haunting (1963)

    1961-1970ClassicsHorrorQueer Cinema(s)Robert WiseUSA

    Synopsis:
    Dr. John Markway, an anthropologist with an interest in psychic phenomena, takes two specially selected women to Hill House, a reportedly haunted mansion. Eleanor (Julie Harris), a lonely, eccentric woman with a supernatural event in her past, and the bold Theodora (Claire Bloom), who has ESP, join John and the mansion’s heir, cynical Luke (Russ Tamblyn). They are immediately overwhelmed by strange sounds and events, and Eleanor comes to believe the house is alive and speaking directly to her.Read More »

  • Terence Fisher – Dracula AKA Horror of Dracula (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsHammer FilmsHorrorTerence FisherUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    After Jonathan Harker attacks Dracula at his castle (apparently somewhere in Germany), the vampire travels to a nearby city, where he preys on the family of Harker’s fiancée. The only one who may be able to protect them is Dr. van Helsing, Harker’s friend and fellow-student of vampires, who is determined to destroy Dracula, whatever the cost.Read More »

  • John Frankenheimer & Charles Crichton – Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

    1961-1970Charles CrichtonClassicsDramaJohn FrankenheimerUSA

    Synopsis:
    In 1912, the notorious and violent prisoner Robert Franklin Stroud is transferred to the Leavenworth Prison convicted for murdering a man. When a guard cancels the visit of his mother, Elizabeth Stroud, due to a violation of the internal rules, he stabs and kills the guard and goes to trial three times. He is sentenced to be executed by the gallows, but his mother appeals to President Woodrow Wilson who commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. However, the warden, Harvey Shoemaker, decides to keep Stroud in solitary for the rest of his life. One day, Stroud finds a sparrow that has fallen from the nest in the yard and he raises the bird until it is strong enough to fly. Stroud finds a motivation for his life raising and caring for birds and becomes an expert in birds. He marries Stella Johnson and together they run a business, providing medicine developed by Stroud. But a few years after, Stroud is transferred to Alcatraz and has to leave his birds behind.Read More »

  • Vincente Minnelli – Gigi (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsMusicalUSAVincente Minnelli

    Synopsis:
    Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship, but it may not stay platonic for long. Gaston, the scion of a wealthy Parisian family finds emotional refuge from the superficial lifestyle of upper class Parisian 1900s society with the former mistress of his uncle and her outgoing, tomboy granddaughter, Gigi. When Gaston becomes aware that Gigi has matured into a woman, her grandmother and aunt, who have educated Gigi to be a wealthy man’s mistress, urge the pair to act out their roles but love adds a surprise twist to this delightful turn-of-the 20th century Cinderella story.Read More »

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