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The Hustler
: essential video:Paul Newman shines as cocky poolroom hustler 'Fast' Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen's atmospheric adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel. Newman's Felson is a swaggering pool shark punk who takes on the king of the poolroom, Minnesota Fats (a cool, assured Jackie Gleason in his most understated performance). After losing big and crashing into a void of self-pity, Eddie meets down-and-out Sarah (Piper Laurie in a delicate performance), an alcoholic blue blood who's dropped into Eddie's world of dingy bars and seedy poolrooms. ...
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No Time for Sergeants
: :Andy Griffith burst to stardom with this surprisingly funny film adaptation of the Broadway comedy (by, of all people, Ira Levin of Rosemary's Baby fame). Griffith plays a hillbilly who is drafted into the army where, among other things, he has to wear shoes regularly for the first time. Griffith brings an engaging glee to the role of this likable bumpkin, whose happy-go-lucky demeanor is impervious to insult. Ask him to clean the latrines and he rigs the toilet seats to stand up and salute. ...
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Drowning Pool
:Description:Harper, the wisecracking private investigator, goes to New Orleans to help out an old flame, Iris Deveraux. After the murder of her mother-in-law, someone implicates Iris and attempts to blackmail her. Harper has more suspects than he needs - Iris' sixteen-year-old Lolita-esque daughter, a former chauffer, a businessman and his kinky wife, and even Iris herself. What he uncovers is a web of tangled affairs and distractions all clouded by the murky water of the drowning pool.
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Maltese Falcon
: essential video:Still the tightest, sharpest, and most cynical of Hollywood's official deathless classics, bracingly tough even by post-Tarantino standards. Humphrey Bogart is Dashiell Hammett's definitive private eye, Sam Spade, struggling to keep his hard-boiled cool as the double-crosses pile up around his ankles. The plot, which dances all around the stolen Middle Eastern statuette of the title, is too baroque to try to follow, and it doesn't make a bit of difference. The dialogue, much of it lifted straight from Hammett, is delivered with ...
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Anatomy of a Murder
: essential video:Otto Preminger turned this 1959 courtroom drama, based on the popular novel, into terrific adult drama. James Stewart stars as a small-town lawyer who defends an army officer (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a bartender who assaulted his wife (Lee Remick). The taut script, large performance by Stewart, and then-daring elements of the story (words like 'panties' are spoken in the context of discussing a sex crime) give the action a certain immediacy--which you don't find very often in today's movies about jurisprudence. ...
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Hustler
: essential video:Paul Newman shines as cocky poolroom hustler 'Fast' Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen's atmospheric adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel. Newman's Felson is a swaggering pool shark punk who takes on the king of the poolroom, Minnesota Fats (a cool, assured Jackie Gleason in his most understated performance). After losing big and crashing into a void of self-pity, Eddie meets down-and-out Sarah (Piper Laurie in a delicate performance), an alcoholic blue blood who's dropped into Eddie's world of dingy bars and seedy poolrooms. ...
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Seconds (1966)
: :Rock Hudson stars in this unsettling look at second chances. Banker Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) lives a comfortable, stifling life until he is contacted by a mysterious caller offering 'what every middle-aged man wants: complete freedom.' Hamilton, with the help of an enigmatic corporation, fakes his own death and starts over in his new swinging-bachelor persona (now played by Rock Hudson). A change of life, though, is not just a change of scenery, and Seconds, for all its thriller aspects, contains some sad and disturbing ...
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Darby's Rangers
:Description:Depicts the gallant exploits of the American Rangers and their leader, Colonel William Darby, as he leads his men through the landing assault on North Africa and the invasion of Italy. Suggested by the book by Major James Altieri.
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If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium
: : Suzanne Pleshette, who never got the career she deserved, achieved TV success as the skeptical wife on The Bob Newhart Show, but If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium--a 1969 comedy about tourists on a speed tour of Europe--shows off the movie star that Pleshette could have been. The movie sounds like an excuse for a lot of cheap gags, and there are plenty of broad jokes, but they're balanced by sly satirical bits that cut both ways (the vulgar Americans and the cynical ...
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Caddyshack
: :A no-brainer that has become a low-brow classic, this 1980 comedy makes anarchy the rule of the day, unleashing the antics of Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Chevy Chase. Caddyshack is about the scheme of a vulgar land developer (Dangerfield) who wants to build condominiums on the site of a ritzy country club. Director Harold Ramis (who later reunited with Murray to make Groundhog Day) is content to let the comedy follow a variety of wacky detours, most notably Murray's maniacal war with ...
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