STELLAR FILMS

DRAMA LIBRARY

A KILLING AFFAIR Peter Weller, John Glover, Kathy Baker. A wife helps protect her abusive husband's killer. Evil goings on in the Southern backwoods, circa 1943, where Weller kills Baker's hateful husband, and then develops a turbulent relationship with her. Based on Robert Houston's novel Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, this marks writer  David  Saperstein's directing debut. 1988 Color  

A Taste of Honey  Rita Tushingham, Murray Melvin. Shelagh Delaney's screenplay for "A Taste of Honey," based on her play of the same name, remains a moving period drama. Beautifully directed by Tony Richardson, this film evokes all the stark realism of the famed English "New Wave/kitchen sink" dramas (made popular by John Osborne) of the late 50s/early 60s. Black and white, gay and straight, mothers and daughters, class, and coming of age. Jo is working class, in her teens, living with her drunk and libidinous mother in northern England. When mom marries impulsively, Jo is out on the streets; she and Geoffrey, a gay co-worker who's adrift himself, find a room together. Then Jo finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with Jimmy, a Black sailor. Geoffrey takes over the preparations for the baby's birth, and becomes, in effect, the child's father. The three of them seem to have things sorted out when Jo's mother reappears on the scene, assertive and domineering. Which "family" will emerge? 1961 color 100 minutes.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN, THE  Cicely Tyson, Odetta. In February, 1962, as the civil rights movement reaches Bayonne, Louisiana, a New York journalist arrives to interview Jane Pitman, who has just turned 110. She tells him her story dating back to her earliest memories before slavery ended, a long walk toward freedom, marriage to Joe Pitman, her adopted son Ned's work as an educator, helping to raise Jimmy, who returns as a civil rights worker, and her own decision to become involved in contemporary issues. In between the chapters of her life, the present-day struggles of Blacks in Bayonne, urged on by Jimmy, are dramatized/ Emmy Award winning production. 1974 color

ABSOLUTION Richard Burton. A boyhood prank goes horribly wrong. A student confesses to a grizzly murder. There is a killing ... but was there one at the time of the confession? And who actually is responsible? Very suspenseful well acted and directed film. 1981 Color GB  

AFFAIR, THE  Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood. A young crippled girl who writes songs is impressed with an older visitor. The only film Wagner and Wood starred in together. Color 1973 74 minutes.

BOY WHO HAD EVERYTHING. THE Jason Connery, Diane Cilento, Lewis  Fitz Gerald, Ian Gilmour. College boy deals with hazing in Australian school in 1965 and alcoholic mother. A correspondent in Australia alerts this site to the fact that Australian Playright Michael Gow makes a rare  screen appearance. Color 1984 94 minutes Australia  

CAT O'NINE TAILS Karl Malden, James Franciscus, Catherine Spaak.  A blind man and a report team up to investigate the murder of a guard at a Hospital where genetic research is conducted. Violence erupts as crazed killer goes on a bloody spree to cover up the original crime. Warner Bros release. Directed by Italian horror master Dario Argento. Color 1971 112 minutes. Rated R 

CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS Cornel Wilde, Belinda Lee. The marching orders are ... "In this sign thou shalt conquer!" Here is a  Bible drama with elaborate costumes and lavish production values. The final battle at the Milvian Bridge is powerful and protracted  (but you know who is going to win.)  1962 Eastman Color 120 minutes

DAVID COPPERFIELD,  Richard Attenborough, Dame Edith Evans, Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Richardson, Robin Phillips as David Copperfield. Charles Dickens' favorite child was David Copperfield. His is the tale of success triumphing over adversity. A must‑see for the entire family. What a cast of stars! 1969 Color 188 minutes

DEVILS RAIN William Shatner, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, John Tavolta and Ida Lupino. For hundreds of years the Preston family has been able to keep hidden a book with the names of those who had given their souls to the Devil making it impossible for the Lord of Evil to claim them. Satanic rituals, a very young John Travolta, good performance by Shatner and what was described as the most incredible ending to any film. 1975 Color 87 minutes. Digital Master. Color 1975 85 minutes  

Divorce His, Divorce Hers Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Thomas Bapiste. This is a two part movie with each part being a stand alone feature film treating a divorce from both husband's and the wife's perspective. Directed by Warren Hussein and written by John Hopkins, 1973 Color 93 MIN.

REHEARSAL FOR MURDER Patrick Mcnee, Lynn Redgrave, Robert Pressman, Robert Preston. A superior T V movie, has Robert Preston as a playwright, trying to convince his friends, that his wife has been murdered, and not as the police think, that she committed suicide. He rents a theatre, then proceeds to put on a basics of a new play, in order to bring the killer to justice. Any film like this with such a good twist in the tail, is well worth watching. 1982 COLOR 96 Minutes.

ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR with Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer. Escape from Nazi death camp weeks before the end of World War II. An important film well acted and authentic. Both Arkin and Hauer were nominated for 1988 Golden Globe awards. Hauer won. Directed by Jack Gold. This is one of the finest and most important films we offer. 1987 Color 143 minutes   

FIVE CORNERS,  (1988 color) Jody Foster, Tim Robbins. Life in the Bronx in 1964. A psycho gets out of prison and picks up where he left off, affecting the lives of people he knew. Despite the subject matter this is an interesting and sometimes captivating glimpse into the 60’s. 1988 Color 93 minutes USA/GB  

FLAME OVER INDIA (1960, COLOR, 130 MIN) Lauren Bacall, Kenneth More, Herbert Lom, Wilfrid Hyde‑White, directed by J. Lee Thompson. During a Moslem uprising in India, a professional soldier spirits a Hindu prince and his American governess to safety aboard a rusty old train. Loaded with action and suspense. (AKA Northwest Frontier). GB  

HOME MOVIES Kirk Douglas, Vincent Gardenia. A Brian DePalma Film. A boy's life through the movie lens. Actually a very good and largely over looked film. Many surprises and an excellent performance by a mature Kirk Douglas.Color PG 1979 Color 90  

QUEEN OF THE STARDUST BALL ROOM Maureen Stapelton, Charles Dunning. A lonely widow and a postman find romance late in life at the local dance hall. 1975 Color 100 min, ON HOLD

IN THIS HOUSE OF BREEDE Dianna Rigg. A well-to-do London businesswoman gives her comfortable life, including the man who loves her, to become a cloistered Benedictine nun. 1975 color 105 min.

INDISCRETIONS OF AN AMERICAN WIFE Montgomery Clift, Jennifer Jones. A woman is torn between romance with a handsome Italian and her marriage. All the action takes place in a railroad terminal where Jones and Clift meet for one last desperate rendezvous, which threatens to expose their illicit affair. Thanks to the intervention of understanding railroad-commissioner, Jones is permitted to go back to her husband with an unsullied reputation, while Clift departs. Directed by Victorio De Sica. 1954 B&W 63 minutes.

ISADORA Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, James Fox. Based on the life of Isadora Duncan 1920's dancer famous for her scandalous performances. interpretive dancer Isadora Duncan. Trained in classical dance, Duncan shattered the traditional conformities in her art and her personal life. The film begins at the end of her life as she recalls the past while dictating her memoirs to her male secretary. Her uninhibited sexuality and insistence on personal freedom and expression shocked more conservative patrons and audiences. She brought in elements of classic Greek dance during the height of the jazz age and had children in and out of wedlock. Married to sewing-machine heir Paris Singer (Jason Robards) and the Russian poet Sergei Essenin (Ivan Tchenko), her life was a rollercoaster ride of success and tragic failures. Two of her children drowned when her chauffeur left the car unattended and the vehicle plunged into a river. Duncan lived by her own rules, often shunned by the very people who had so passionately embraced her pioneering efforts in dance, women's liberation and free thinking.Duncan comes to a tragic end as a flowing scarf tangles with the rear wheel of a Bugatti Sports Car, bringing an end to her life but not the speculation about the way she lived it.  Redgrave was nominated for an Oscar for her performance. 1969 color 153 min

JANE EYRE  (1974, COLOR, 106 MIN) George C. Scott, Susannah York, Ian Bannen, Rachel Kempton, Jack Hawkins, Jean Marsh, directed by Delbert Mann. Although filmed in color with great production values, this is a darker, more brooding and gothic version of the classic Bronte novel. Scott gives a powerful performance as the tortured Mr Rochester, and Jean Marsh of "Upstairs Downstairs" fame does a turn as his first wife. GB  

Joe (1970) Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick, Susan Sarandon, Patrick McDermottck, Joe (Peter Boyle) is a factory worker who's widely known to proclaim his hatred for "hippies and niggers". He's a loudmouth who despises them saying that if he had the chance he'd go on a killing spree. He meets Bill, a businessman who had just murdered the lover of his drug addict young daughter Jill (Susan Sarandon). Finding this out Jill runs away and joins a hippie commune at the outskirts of town. Bill turns to Joe for help. Their search leads them through the seediest part of town where both men's inner hatred and loath is furthered tested. They finally discover Jill at the commune and the hatred consumes as climax that ensues turns extremely bloody. 1970 Color 102 minutes. Extremely Violent 

Maurice  Hugh Grant. Young man deals with sexual identity in an English school. Two male English school chums find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. To regain his place in society, Clive gives up his forbidden love, Maurice (pronounced "Morris") and marries. While staying with Clive and his shallow wife, Anne, Maurice finally discovers romance in the arms of Alec, the gamekeeper. Written from personal pain, it's E.M. Forster's story of coming to terms with sexuality in the Edwardian age. 1987  Color (nudity/homosexual themes) 147 minutes GB 

MISTER JOHNSON Pierce Brosnan, Edward Woodward, Maynard Eziashi. A young well meaning man African pretends to be something he isn't and has to face the dreadful consequences. Very well crafted film with social implications. Filmed in Africa.  PG  1991 Color 97 minutes USA  
 

RETURN TO FANTASY ISLAND Ricardo Mountalban, Karen Valentine, Jospeh Cotton, Lauraine Day, Hervé Villechaize. A movie length revival of the hit TV series. 1978 Color hold

ROGUE MALE,  Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim . Early in 1939 Sir Robert Thorndyke takes aim at Adolph Hitler with a high powered rifle, but the shot misses its mark. Captured and tortured by the Gestapo and left for dead, Sir Robert makes his way back to England where he discovers the Gestapo has followed him. Knowing that his government would turn him over to German authorities, Sir Robert goes underground in his battle with his pursuers. 1976 Color 100 minutes GB  

SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR Charles Bronson, Anthony Perkins. Psychological thriller. A neurosurgeon with a cheating wife takes an amnesiac into his home and conditions him to believe that the cheating wife is his own and to take the "appropriate" action. PG  1971 Color France.  

SOUTH OF RENO,  Directed by Mark Rezyka. Jeffrey Osterhage, Lisa Blount. A Nevada dreamer’s weird behavior drives his wife into the arms of another man. Scenes with thousands of lights strung on oil wells in the desert are memorable. 1988 Color 96 m R  

STRIKE FORCE,  Directed by Barry Shear. Richard Gere, Cliff Corman. Gang drug deals are investigated. From the producer of the “French Connection” Phil D’Antoni. Made for TV movie. 1974 Color 74 minutes  

TWELVE MILE REEF, Robert Wagner, Gilbert Roland, Richard Boone, Terry Moore Mike and Tony Petrakis are a Greek father and son team who dive for sponges off the coast of Florida. After they are robbed by crooks, Arnold and the Rhys brothers, Mike decides to take his men to the dangerous 12-mile reef to dive for more sponges. Mike suffers a fatal accident when he falls from the reef leaving Tony to carry on the business. But now he has a companion, Gwyneth Rhys. 1953 Color 102 minutes

TOBY MCTEAQUE An Alaska wilderness family keeps a string of sled dogs for sport and survival. Described by critics as a ‘Disney like’ film. Plenty of action with dog races and dramatic rescues. Toby McTeague (Yannick Bisson) is a teen-aged boy, living in a flyspeck town in Northern Canada with his father and younger brother. Toby's thriving livelihood, raising and training sled dogs, is threatened by a dip in the local economy. His problems are intensified by the ongoing hostilities between Toby and his dad (Winston Reckert). Running away from home, Toby makes the acquaintance of elderly Indian chief George Wild Dog (George Clutesi), who years earlier had been "shaman," or spiritual advisor, to Toby's father. It is Chief Wild Dog who mystically brings father and son together at the film's climax, in addition to rescuing Toby's sled-dog business in a near-miraculous fashion. . Color 1987 94 Canada PG 

WHO AM I THIS TIME? with Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken. As a play within a play (contains scenes from Streetcar Named Desire) it is a showcase for the range of these excellent actors -- Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken. It is also a sensitive tale of lonely people finding each other and their hearts. Walken plays a hardware store clerk becomes the character he plays in a local little theater group. 1981 Color 60 minutes

WOMAN ACCUSED Barbara Hershey, Chad Everett, Carol Cook, Howard Duff, Diana Scarward.The ex-girlfriend of a laywer/detective, who left him for a lesbian lover, asks him to defend her lover in a murder case. Also known as In The Glitter Palace. Made for TV. 1977 Color 97 Minutes.

ZULU Michael Caine, Jack Hawkins, Stanely Baker,  Ulla Jacobsson, Richard Burton Narrator. Filmed on an epic scale, Zulu is a lusty recreation of the January 22, 1879 siege of Rorke's Drift in Natal, Africa. An army of 4,000 Zulu warriors have already decimated a huge British garrison; now they are on their way to the much smaller Rorke's Drift. A Royal Engineers officer (Stanley Baker) is determined to stand his ground, despite having only a skeleton garrison at his command. His blood and guts tactics are at odds with those of a by-the-book lieutenant (Michael Caine), who feels that a retreat is indicated, but it becomes clear that if the garrison is to survive, they'd better pay heed to this upstart. Jack Hawkins and Ulla Jacobsson are also on hand as an idealistic missionary and his somewhat more pragmatic daughter. Richard Burton provides the narration for Zulu, closing the film with the observation that 11 of the 1344 Victoria Crosses awarded since 1856 were bestowed upon the survivors of Rorke's Drift.1964 COLOR 136 Minutes. Stunning print.