Torn Curtain
TORN CURTAIN was Alfred Hitchcock’s 50th film and signals a return to the espionage-romance theme the director showcased in such films as SECRET AGENT and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Hitchcock created a distinct look for the film, subduing lighting and gauzing the lens to give a more natural, less studio-produced feel. Notably, it was the strength of studio influence that contributed another change in the look of the film relative to most Hitchcock pictures, casting leads that departed from tradi…
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Marnie
In terms of psychological power and innovative visual techniques, MARNIE ranks alongside VERTIGO and PSYCHO as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most exceptional films. This thriller, based on a best-selling novel by Wilson Graham, revolves around Marnie (Tippi Hedren), a pathological liar and compulsive thief who is befriended by her latest victim, Mark Rutland (Sean Connery). Despite his sincere love, dashing looks, and wealth, some deep-seated neurosis makes her emotionally inaccessible, causing him…
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Frenzy
Alfred Hitchcock’s first British film since ‘Stage Fright’ (1950) stars Barry Foster as market trader Robert Rusk, a psychopathic killer who strangles women with ties. Suspicion falls, however, on the innocent Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), after Rusk kills Blaney’s ex-wife Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) and his current girlfriend (Anna Massey). Set-pieces include Rusk’s desperate attempt to prise an incriminating tie-pin out of one of his victim’s hands (now rigid with rigor mortis) and a leisurely t…
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Shadow Of A Doubt
A favourite of Alfred Hitchcock himself, with an exceptional script by the playwright Thornton Wilder, ‘Shadow Of A Doubt’ anticipates such family menace dramas as ‘Cape Fear’. Young Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) lies on her bed in Santa Rosa, California, bored with her small-town life and family. Meanwhile, her namesake, Uncle Charlie, lies on another bed thousands of miles away in Philadelphia surrounded by discarded bills, deep in secret thoughts. The two are linked - psychic twins - and whe…
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Topaz
Alfred Hitchcock adapted this political thriller from Leon Uris’s dense, complex spy novel, loosely based on actual events in the life of French spy Philippe de Vosjoli. The title refers not to the stone but to the Topaz Group, a nefarious band of French spies. Traveling through Cuba, Denmark, New York, and Virginia, among other locations, Hitchcock’s tale tells of a Soviet scientist’s defection that sparks an international furor extending way beyond the act itself. The story begins with America…
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The Interpreter
Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn star in the action-packed thriller, The Interpreter. In one of the hidden corridors of power at United Nations headquarters, translator Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a potentially explosive secret about a planned assassination attempt. But when federal agent Tobin Keller (Penn) investigates her claim and digs deeper into Silvia?s dangerous past, he begins to question whether she is a victim - or a suspect. From Oscar-winning director Sydney Po…
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Hannibal
After a decade in abeyance, the courtly cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, returns to the screen, again played by Anthony Hopkins, under the direction of Ridley Scott. When F.B.I. Agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) is blamed for a botched drug bust, her boss Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta) makes a media circus of her humiliation, which catches the attention of Lecter. Now a hardened veteran, she begins receiving letters from the twisted genius, who remains obsessed with her. Yet she’s not the only one i…
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Raising Cain
John Lithgow goes bananas in a crazed multiple role as a child psychologist haunted by his deranged twin in this film from Brian De Palma (who explored similar territory in his earlier feature SISTERS). Inspired by Hitchcock as well as Michael Powell’s classic PEEPING TOM, this study in abnormality has child psychologist Dr. Carter Nix (Lithgow) beginning to go bonkers around his young daughter. Wife Jenny (Lolita Davidovich) is a little concerned but too guilty over her affair with another man…
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Nighthawks
Two N.Y. cops whose regular beat is street crime, get involved in a fight against international terrorists. Tense suspense in a tram car high above Manhattan. An ITA Award winner….
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Into The Night
An average suburbanite becomes involved in international intrigue centred on the Shah of Iran’s emeralds….
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Resurrection Man
Loosely based on real events in 1970s Belfast, Victor Kelly is a young Protestant man who hates Catholics so much that one night he begins to brutally murder them. Ryan, a reporter, soon tries to uncover the murderer and gain prestige for himself, while emerging as a local legend, Victor sinks deeper into madness. A disturbing, chilling look at one of the more gruesome episodes of Northern Irish history….
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Red Dragon
The first chapter in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, this is the story of FBI agent Will Graham who is assigned the task of catching ‘The Tooth Fairy’. In order to do so he must try to persuade Lecter to advise him. Lecter knows who the murderer is and only feeds small scraps of information to Graham, but now the Tooth Fairy has got he sights set on Graham’s family……
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The Escapist
Dennis returns home to find that his pregnant wife has been murdered… The culprit is caught and sent to prison. Dennis hatches an elaborate plan to get revenge by turning in a criminal. He is punished for his crimes by being placed in prison. He attempts to break out on a number of occasions until he is finally placed in the same on as his wife’s murderer……
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The Skulls 3
In this sequel to the popular THE SKULLS, Taylor Books (Clare Kramer) becomes the first female undergraduate to try to gain entry into the secret society of The Skulls. The ensuing chaos of blackmail and lies eventually leads to a shocking murder!…
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The Life Of David Gale
David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is a Texas professor and anti-death penalty activist who, ironically enough, winds up on death row for the rape and murder of a colleague. Kate Winslet plays Bitsey Bloom, the brave journalist who sets out to tell to his story. In the days leading up to his execution, Gale fills her in on his life via flashbacks, which include political debates, lectures, sex with a student, rape allegations, alcoholism, divorce, and despair. As the hour of his doom approaches, Bitsey b…
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Stranger, The / Orson Welles On Film
In ‘The Stranger’ the hunt is on for a top Nazi who has removed all traces of his origin and has become a professor in a New England school. ‘Orson Welles On Film’ is a documentary which looks at the man’s achievements. Includes an introduction by Tony Curtis and the original theatrical trailer for ‘A Touch Of Evil’….
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Day Of The Jackal
This suspense thriller about a daring plot to murder Charles De Gaulle is based on Frederick Forsyth’s best-seller. The movie’s suspenseful pace is tied to the incredibly careful and intricate planning the man code-named the Jackal does in preparation for the hit. This classic was watered down and remade in 1997 as The Jackal….
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Red Dragon (2 Disc)
Based on the novel by Thomas Harris, RED DRAGON stars Edward Norton as Will Graham, the intuitive FBI agent who captured the notorious Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’ Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). When another killer, dubbed ‘the Tooth Fairy,’ begins a series of bizarre, seemingly random killings, the now-retired Graham reluctantly agrees to aid in the investigation. In order to get further into the mindset of the murderer, Graham consults the imprisoned Lecter, who offers cryptic commentary that the determ…
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Exotica
Centres mainly on the going-ons of the nightclub ‘Exotica’, where the young workers are paid to satisfy their customer’s needs. Two such workers are Eric and Christina, whose sharing of experience provides them with a strong, but complex, relationship….
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Suddenly
A tense, somewhat prescient drama in which Sinatra plays a psychopathic triggerman hired to kill the United States President. On the way he and his two partners take over a widow’s house, which is perfectly situated for an ambush. After Kennedy’s assassination, the film was shelved and Sinatra tried to have the prints destroyed….
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