Joseph Losey

  • Joseph Losey – Modesty Blaise (1966)

    1961-1970ComedyCrimeJoseph LoseyUnited Kingdom

    Monica Vitti is Modesty Blaise, fabulous international spy-slash-jewel thief. She is hired by Sir Gerald Terrant (Harry Andrews) of the British government — I think, but I’m not sure, for reasons I’ll explain momentarily — to make sure £50 million in diamonds gets to the proper Middle Eastern sheik in exchange for oil reserves. Modesty warns them that if she is not told the full story about the diamonds and the plans to rob them en route, she will consider herself a free agent and steal the diamonds for herself. Thus begins a strange series of events that are part spy spoof, part random stream of consciousness events, and partly based on the long-running comic strip begun in 1963.Read More »

  • Joseph Losey – Time Without Pity (1957)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaJoseph LoseyUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    One of the powerhouses of the 1950s, Time Without Pity is the first film that Joseph Losey signed with his own name after being blacklisted and fleeing the U.S. In effect, it’s the film in which Losey proclaimed himself a Brit, as eager and willing to skewer the establishment there as he had done on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s the one with Michael Redgrave, in a bravura performance, as the alcoholic father in a race against the clock to save his son, whom we know is innocent, from being executed for murder. The film takes aim at capital punishment.Read More »

  • Joseph Losey – Figures in a Landscape (1970)

    1961-1970ActionJoseph LoseyThrillerUnited Kingdom

    THE BIRD HAS COME FOR ITS PREY.

    Two escaped convicts (Robert Shaw and Malcolm McDowell) are on the run in an unnamed Latin American country. But everywhere they go, they are followed and hounded by a menacing black helicopter.Read More »

  • Joseph Losey – The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)

    1951-1960DramaJoseph LoseyRomanceUSA

    Greek actress Melina Mercouri made her English-language film debut in The Gypsy and the Gentleman. Mercouri plays tempestuous gypsy girl Belle, while the “gentleman” is Sir Paul Deverill (Keith Michell). Escaping an arranged marriage, Sir Paul weds the bewitching Belle,who intends to take him for every penny he’s got, then move on to other lovers. Imagine her disappointment when she discovers that her prize catch is flat broke. All sorts of bizarre complications ensue, including the kidnapping of an heiress (June Laverick) by Belle’s gypsy compadres. Gypsy and the Gentleman was directed by American expatriate Joseph Losey, whose British film career wouldn’t truly get off the ground until his collaborations with Harold Pinter in the 1960s.by Hal EricksonRead More »

  • Joseph Losey – Accident (1967)

    Drama1961-1970Joseph LoseyUSA

    Synopsis:
    Stephen is a married Oxford professor experiencing the pangs of a mid-life crisis as he begins to bristle at the stifling emotional repression of the society in which he lives. Things begin to change for him when he meets Anna, a beautiful student who is engaged to William, another of Stephen’s students. Though he begins to feel alive again in her presence, Stephen’s feelings for Anna can only end in tragedy for them and those around them.Read More »

  • Joseph Losey – The Big Night (1951)

    Drama1951-1960Film NoirJoseph LoseyUSA

    A film noir treatise about the coming of age of a young man is beautifully realized by the great Joseph Losey. John Drew Barrymore zigzags through the sordid vortex of downtown Los Angeles while seeking vengeance on the man who beat his Father. This superbly crafted “trial by fire” tale with memorable dialogue and shaded photography co-stars Preston Foster, Joan Lorring, Harold St. John and Dorothy ComingoreRead More »

  • Joseph Losey – The Prowler (1951)

    USA1951-1960Film NoirJoseph LoseyThriller

    Quote:
    Poor Susan Gilvray. One night she sees a peeping tom watching her through her bathroom window, so she does the sensible thing and calls the cops. But that prowler was but a fleeting invasion of her privacy. The cop who comes to her rescue brings a more sustained intrusion into her life. She has made a mistake in inviting this emotional vampire into her home. He sizes up what he sees–a huge suburban mansion, and a shapely blonde within-and decides he wants it all. The prowler scampers off into the night, never to be seen again. The cop, however, stays.Read More »

  • Joseph Losey – Don Giovanni (1979)

    1971-1980ArthouseFranceJoseph LoseyMusical

    From IMDB:
    Screen adapatation of Mozart’s greatest opera. Don Giovanni, the infamous womanizer, makes one conquest after another until the ghost of Donna Anna’s father, the Commendatore, (whom Giovanni killed) makes his appearance. He offers Giovanni one last chance to repent for his multitudinious improprieties. He will not change his ways So, he is sucked down into hell by evil spirits. High drama, hysterical comedy, magnificent music! Written by frankpatRead More »

  • Joseph Losey – The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) (HD)

    1971-1980DramaJoseph LoseyUnited Kingdom

    By Peter Hanson
    Saturday, April 7, 2012

    A closely observed character drama with a few thriller elements thrown in for added tension, The Romantic Englishwoman has all the hallmarks of director Joseph Losey’s best work: evocative European locations, immaculate performances, subtle writing, and an undercurrent of menace. So, even though the story is nominally about Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson), the dissatisfied wife of successful novelist Lewis (Michael Caine), it’s also about Thomas (Helmut Berger), a German freeloader who claims to be a poet but really makes his living as a drug courier. These characters muddle through life, the Brits narcotized by their boring routine and the German energized by the dangerous unpredictability of his existence, until their collision produces an emotional explosion with lasting repercussions.
    […]Read More »

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