Classics - Movies

Hell's Half Acre

Classics

Martin Scorsese Presents REPUBLIC REDISCOVERED—over 20 rarely seen films from the storied Republic Pictures library, restored and remastered by Paramount and personally curated by Martin Scorsese. In Hell’s Half Acre the titular notorious quarter of Honolulu, Hawaii serves as a background to a complex tale of transgression and redemption. Wendell Corey is a reformed racketeer whose past catches up with him when his lover shoots and kills one of his former partners in crime.

Targets

Classics

In his directorial debut, Peter Bogdanovich weaves two disparate story lines into a terrifying moment of confrontation. In seemingly unrelated events, aging horror film star Orlok (Boris Karloff) announces his retirement, and an apparently average young man (Tim Kelly) accumulates an arsenal of rifles and handguns. As the pace quickens, Kelly turns into a murderous sniper, showing up at a drive-in theater where Orlok is making his final personal appearance.

Center Stage

Classics

International superstar Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love) embodies tragic screen siren Ruan Lingyu, known as the "Greta Garbo of China," in this unconventional biopic by Hong Kong New Wave master Stanley Kwan (Rouge). Praised for her moving and emotive onscreen presence, Ruan’s private life, which was frequent fodder for the vicious Shanghai tabloids, began to mirror the melodramas which brought her fame, culminating in her suicide at age 24. Kwan and Cheung paint a kaleidoscopic yet intimate portrait of the ill-fated actress, deftly blending lush period drama, archival footage, and metatextual documentary sequences of Cheung reflecting on Ruan’s legacy. The result is, much like the films of Ruan Lingyu themselves, “tender, vivid and almost overwhelmingly moving” (Time Out).

We're No Angels (1955)

Classics

Humphrey Bogart plays one of his rare comedy roles in this jaunty excursion about three convicts - Joseph (Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov) - who are plotting their escape from Devil's Island. Fate intervenes when they hide out with kindly, but inept Felix (Leo G. Carroll) and his family. Felix manages a store for his arrogant cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone), who makes the fatal mistake of stealing Albert's pet, a poisonous snake. After resolving Felix's problems, the convicts return to prison, convinced that the world is much too wicked. Based on the play by Albert Husson.

Once Were Warriors

Classics

Maori couple Jake and Beth Heke are deeply in love, but Jake's alcoholic-fueled rage turns into domestic violence that threatens to tear their family apart. As their home life grows increasingly dangerous, Beth must do all she can to protect their three children. Set against the backdrop of traditional tribal culture, this classic and contoversial 90's indie sleeper hit put New Zealand on the cinema map.

Knock on Wood

Classics

Discovering that a ventriloquist (Danny Kaye) is travelling to Zurich, a spy ring hides plans for a deadly secret weapon in his dummies' heads. When a second spy ring learns of the secret plans in his possession, they descend upon his hotelroom. The result is two dead agents, and Jerry is blamed. Hunted through London as the "Red-Headed Ripper", Jerry flees both police and spies. Eventually, the ringleader of the spies is apprehended by Jerry who is hailed a hero and is free to marry his beautiful lady psychiatrist Ilse Nordstrom (Mai Zetterling).

The Maggie

Classics

Maggie is one of the fifty-odd puffer boats which chug among the Western Isles of Scotland. Squat, unprepossessing, and badly in need of paint, she is destined for the scrap yard unless her skipper can get her repaired. This seems a forlorn hope - until Mr. Pusey makes his mistake. Mr. Pusey works for the highpressure American businessman, Calvin B. Marshall, who has a valuable cargo to be shipped to one of the isles. And Mr. Pusey's disastrous error is in allowing, through a misunderstanding, the cargo to be entrusted to the humble Maggie with her crew of four. From Ealing Studios and the director of "The Man in the White Suit" and "Whisky Galore!" Originally released in the US as "High and Dry".

Fritz Lang's Destiny

Classics

A young woman (Lil Dagover) confronts the personification of Death (Bernhard Goetzke), in an effort to save the life of her fiance (Walter Janssen). Death weaves three romantic tragedies and offers to unite the girl with her lover, if she can prevent the death of the lovers in at least one of the episodes. Thus begin three exotic scenarios of ill-fated love, in which the woman must somehow reverse the course of destiny: Persia, Quattrocento Venice, and a fancifully rendered ancient China.

Kamikaze 89

Classics

In his final acting role, legendary auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder (clad in an iconic leopard skin suit) stars as hardboiled detective Jansen. In a neon-drenched futuristic dystopia ruled by a multimedia conglomerate called The Combine, Jansen is sent on a labyrinthine investigation when their headquarters is threatened with mass destruction by a phantom bomber. This essential cult classic features an hypnotic electronic score by Tangerine Dream's Edward Froese as well as a gleefully mind-bending production design.

Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies

Classics

It was a race to the finish... if only they could finish. It's "Monte Carlo or Bust" as Tony Curtis, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore lead a riotous road rally in this 1920s-era delight. Curtis is a distracted playboy racing the irrepressible Terry-Thomas for ownership of an auto plant, and trying to win the attentions of beautiful Susan Hampshire along the way. Cook and Moore play a team of bumbling British officers who survive every peril by the skin of their teeth (and the seat of their pants!). And Gert Frobe (Goldfinger) is the escaped convict more interested in smuggling than driving. Hang on for a fall-down-funny, knock-down-everything caravan of comedy where the laugh's the limit!

No Man of Her Own (1950)

Classics

A pregnant wanderer is involved in a train crash and assumes a dead girl's identity. When a man who discovers her true identity blackmails her, she decides to kill him. Based on a novel by William Irish.

College

Classics

Keaton’s ode to varsity life demonstrates the performer’s trademark brand of visual comedy as well as his remarkable agility. He stars as Ronald, a small-town, academically-inclined freshman who applies his wiry physique to a series of sports, in order to impress a fellow student (Anne Cornwall). He seems destined for failure, but when Mary is accosted by an overzealous rival (Harold Goodwin), Ronald discovers within himself an untapped wellspring of athleticism.

The Enforcer

Classics

Crusading District Attorney Martin Ferguson, unable to penetrate the organized crime network because his witnesses are being murdered before they can testify, finally gets a break when he questions Teresa Davis, the roommate of latest victim Nina Lombardo. To his horror, Ferguson discovers that Murder, Inc., the gangland contract killers, disposed of the wrong roommate: It is Teresa who actually witnessed the murder by mob boss Albert Mendoza. And when the gangsters learn of the mistake, Teresa is next marked for disposal in this gripping drama of underworld intrigue.

Ismail Yasin is Tarzan

Classics

A rich man dies, leaving behind a large fortune, which cannot be touched, according to his wish, before his son gets found. The deceased's family start searching for his son, who got lost in the jungle long time ago, and became Tarzan.

Purple Noon

Classics

Alain Delon was at his most impossibly beautiful when Purple Noon (Plein soleil) was released and made him an instant star. This ripe, colorful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s vicious novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by the versatile René Clément, stars Delon as Tom Ripley, a duplicitous American charmer in Rome on a mission to bring his privileged, devil-may-care acquaintance Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) back to the United States; what initially seems to be a carefree tale of friendship soon morphs into a thrilling saga of seduction, identity theft, and murder. Featuring gorgeous on-location photography in coastal Italy, Purple Noon is crafted with a light touch that allows it to be suspenseful and erotic at once, while giving Delon the role of a lifetime.

Laughter in Paradise

Classics

Famed practical joker Henry Russell leaves 50,000 pounds to each of his four surviving relatives. But his will has one last joke - they each have to undertake a task completely out of character within a month. As each sets out on their objective they find that quite apart from the promised riches, they are unexpectedly getting a lot out of the challenge. All except caddish Simon Russell, that is. Released in 1951, Laughter in Paradise was Britain's top-grossing film. Watch carefully and see a young Audrey Hepburn in a bit part as a cigarette girl. Featuring Alastair Sim. Available in HD in North America.

On the Double

Classics

A musical comedy starring Danny Kaye as Ernie Williams, a G.I. with weak eyes, a weak stomach and weak nerves but an uncanny resemblance to British Colonel MacKenzie. Williams is asked to impersonate the Colonel, allowing him to make a secret trip East – but what Williams is not told is that the Colonel has recently been a target of Nazi assassins.

Storm Over Lisbon

Classics

Martin Scorsese Presents REPUBLIC REDISCOVERED—over 20 rarely seen films from the storied Republic Pictures library, restored and remastered by Paramount and personally curated by Martin Scorsese. In Storm Over Lisbon the owner of a Portugal nightclub works as a freelance spy. He tries to seduce information out of a US agent with the help of his nightclub dancer, but when she falls for the agent, both of their lives are endangered.

The Damned

Classics

In 1945 at the close of the war, a submarine leaves Oslo for South America with German leaders and several pro-Nazi officials aboard hoping to escape their fate in Europe. A young French doctor is forced to join them to tend a wounded passenger. The stage is set for scheming, intrigue and mutiny. A claustrophobic and gritty post-war rediscovered gem from director Clément.

Fair Wind to Java

Classics

In Soerabaja, an Indonesian whose life Captain Boll once saved reveals that legendary diamonds from the sunken ship Pieterzoon were salvaged by native divers, and Boll is directed to a Chinese junk captain who has "cargo" that will lead him to the diamonds. The "cargo," Boll discovers, is a woman named Kim Kim, a dancer from the sultan's palace who was taken as a slave by the Chinese. Boll buys her and smuggles her onto his ship, risking slavery charges when his first mate, Flint, discovers her and blackmails him for half of the fortune.

Classics Movies