This 1997 thriller For Hire ponders the question of what terrible things a person might be persuaded to do, given the right circumstances and the right price. Rob Lowe plays Mitch, a Chicago cab driver trying to make it as an actor, married to the pregnant Faye. Among his clients are bestselling writer Lou Weber (Joe Mantegna), who befriends Mitch and confides in him that a drug dealer is trying to kill him. Over the next few days, Mitch begins to suffer severe stomach pains, collapsing in Weber's apartment after a fare and is diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer. With only a short time to live, he decides to take up Weber's offer to rub out his drug dealer stalker for $50,000, a nest egg for his family after he's gone. A not entirely unpredictable twist follows, hinted at by the Lucifer-like beard sported by Mantegna and the film alights only briefly to meditate on the potential for evil in all of us before resuming its journey along conventional, though certainly passable Hollywood thriller lines. An intriguing precept--it's just a slight shame that neither the players nor director's hearts seem really to be in this movie. On the DVD: Features a trailer. --David Stubbs
Breath-taking footage of an underwater expedition by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's team of researchers to find the ill-fated R.M.S Titanic which sank more than 70 years ago nearly two-and-a-half miles down in the icy Atlantic. Now along with Dr. Robert Ballard and his team be among the first humans to see the Titanic since its sinking as on-location footage presents this historic expedition as it happened.
Johann Radek (Franchot Tone) is an impoverished Parisian medical student who overhears Bill Kirby (Robert Hutton) saying that he wished somebody would murder his wealthy aunt so that he could collect the inheritance. Radek decides to kill the old lady and her maid but is surprised by an incredibly shortsighted burglar, Heurtin (Burgess Meredith). When Heurtin stumbles over the dead body he unwittingly incriminates himself and becomes the focal point of the police investigation.Inspector Maigret (Charles Laughton) has to solve one of his most infamous cases as he persues the murderer across the rooftops and streets of Paris. As the two protagonists play a deadly game of cat and mouse, Maigret confronts his suspect in a stunning climax on top of the Eiffel Tower.
Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the lone survivor when her crippled spaceship crash lands on Fiorina 161 a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. Ripley's fears that an Alien was aboard her craft are confirmed when the mutilated bodies of ex-cons begin to mount. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind Ripley must lead the men into battle against the terrifying creature. And soon she discovers a horrifying fact about her link with the Alien a realisation that may compel Ripley to try destroying not only the horrific creature but herself as well.
Narrated by Charles Gray (Diamonds Are Forever) On the Game is a riotous look at the history of the oldest profession from the ancient Hebrews who decreed all women must prostitute themselves once to the Roman Emperor Claudius' wife who was the most famous part time hooker to the Victorians who were austere on the surface but not when their clothes were off! Starring some beautiful girls with lashings of nudity and some true British greats such as Carmen Silvera (Allo Allo) and David Brierley (Voice of K9 in Doctor Who) On the Game is a vintage slice of Slap & Tickle.
Raid On Entebbe
A photographer finds himself framed when his photographs develop into evidence against him.
In the melting pot of 1890s London, Sergeant Cork works for Scotland Yard's newly formed Criminal Investigation Department, enthusiastically employing the pioneering techniques of the new science of forensics to tackle crimes born of poverty and deprivation, passion, vengeance and greed. Ably assisted by youthful detective Bob Marriott, the astute Cork is years ahead of his time, and knows that even the most convincing evidence can all too often deceive. John Barrie (Z Cars) and William Gaunt (The Champions) star in this richly atmospheric, meticulously researched police drama. Devised and written by Dixon Of Dock Green creator Ted Willis, this series sees Cork and Marriott pitting their wits against poisoners, forgers, murderers and, of course, their own superiors.
Based on the memoirs of Josephine Marcus Earp a young opera singer from San Fransisco this docudrama tells the story of how she became the wife of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp....
Among the more charming--and improbable--of pre-millennial success stories is the left-field crossover triumph for this Welsh soprano, 12 years old at the time of her debut, and still on the near side of her teens in this concert video. At a time when "teeny pop" reigns over MTV and radio playlists, Church's serene programme of Welsh and Irish folk airs, devotional hymns, and generally tranquil classical melodies gives alternative music an entirely new meaning.Then again, it's just possible that Church's very appeal rests on the delicate balance between the unapologetic sweetness of her music and the unforced girlishness she flashes between songs, rare qualities indeed against the harsher foil of sexualised pop culture. Given the degree to which various predecessors, from Brenda Lee to Tanya Tucker to LeAnn Rimes, have been groomed to transmit a precocious "maturity", Church's virginal typecasting may be methodically anachronistic, but at least it offers a calming refuge from the mixed messages and soft-core spin offered by Britney Spears.Director David Mallet, who has become the DeMille of up-market music videos, applies a familiar balance of sure technical craft and slick sentimentality. He dresses the Brixton Academy concert site with a faux stained glass window, flickering candlelight and delicate laser lighting units that imbue Church with a backlit radiance, just so we won't miss the angel connection. Sceptics will also note her Andrew Lloyd Webber connection (the signature Pie Jesu), as well as canny nods to Celtic chic in the inclusion of such war-horse choices as "Danny Boy" and "My Lagan Love". Still, whether or not the young star achieves her dream of singing Tosca at La Scala, for the moment Church achieves a poised lyricism that is no mean feat. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
A unique concert filmed in Rome in 1989 featuring many of the pioneers of rock 'n' roll music performing their best known songs. The incredible line-up features Jerry Lee Lewis Fats Domino James Brown B.B. King Little Richard Ray Charles and Bo Diddley - every one a legend. Tracklist: 1. Papa's Got A Brand New Bag - James Brown 2. I Got You (I Feel Good) - James Brown 3. Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley 4. I'm A Man - Bo Diddley 5. Mess Around - Ray Charles 6. I'm A Fool For You - Ray Charles 7. Great Gosh A'mighty - Little Richard 8. The Wild One (Real Wild Child) - Jerry Lee Lewis 9. Great Balls Of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis 10. Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On - Jerry Lee Lewis 11. I'm Ready - Fats Domino 12. Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino 13. Let The Good Times Roll - B.B. King 14. How Blue Can You Get - B.B. King 15. All-Star Jam - Everyone
On the morning of an unwonted marriage reluctant bride Annette runs away to Paris. On the train she is robbed of her purse and meets a dashing wealthy young man Max who allows her to stay with him for 24 hours. Detectives trace the runaway and take her home but Max follows her and together they elope after eluding her captors.
In a way, Scarlet Street is a remake. It's taken from a French novel, La Chienne (literally, "The Bitch") that was first filmed by Jean Renoir in 1931. Renoir brought to the sordid tale all the colour and vitality of Montmartre; Fritz Lang's version shows us a far harsher and bleaker world. The film replays the triangle set-up from Lang's previous picture, The Woman in the Window, with the same three actors. Once again, Edward G Robinson plays a respectable middle-aged citizen snared by the charms of Joan Bennett's streetwalker, with Dan Duryea as her low-life pimp. But this time around, all three characters have moved several notches down the ethical scale. Robinson, who in the earlier film played a college professor who kills by accident, here becomes a downtrodden clerk with a nagging, shrewish wife and unfilled ambitions as an artist, a man who murders in a jealous rage. Bennett is a mercenary vamp, none too bright, and Duryea brutal and heartless. The plot closes around the three of them like a steel trap. This is Lang at his most dispassionate. Scarlet Street is a tour de force of noir filmmaking, brilliant but ice-cold. When it was made the film hit censorship problems, since at the time it was unacceptable to show a murder going unpunished. Lang went out of his way to show the killer plunged into the mental hell of his own guilt, but for some authorities this still wasn't enough, and the film was banned in New York State for being "immoral, indecent and corrupt". Not that this did its box-office returns any harm at all. On the DVD: sparse pickings. There's an interactive menu that zips past too fast to be of much use. The full-length commentary by Russell Cawthorne adds the occasional insight, but it's repetitive and not always reliable. (He gets actors' names wrong, for a start.) The box claims the print's been "fully restored and digitally remastered", but you'd never guess. --Philip Kemp
The Painted Desert: Filmed at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona The Painted Desert follows the lives of two feuding cowboys J. Farrell MacDonald and William Farnum who clash over who will raise an orphaned boy they find at a deserted waterhole. Farnum takes the boy whom he names Bill but several years later the feud continues this time over water their adjacent ranches share. Tension escalates until the grown Bill played by William Boyd must choose between h
Nothing ever happens in Suddenly. It's a just small town with small concerns. That is until the President decides to show up... In this intelligent 1954 film noir thriller Frank Sinatra delivers an electrifying lead performance as psychotic undercover assassin John Baron. Alleged to have been viewed by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 only days prior to the shooting of President Kennedy 'Suddenly' was subsequently withdrawn from circulation by United Artists at Sinatra's personal request. Chillingly prophetic in it's subject matter 'Suddenly' is a killer addition to any noir collection.
Two teachers vie for the right to stage a play written by Jane Austen when she was twelve years old...
Rossini: La Gazzetta (Barbacini) (2 Discs)
Yul Brynner stars as one of seven master gunmen who aid the helpless farmers of an isolated village pitted against an army of marauding bandits in this rousing action tale based on Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai. Released in 1960 John Sturges' masterpiece garnered an Oscar nomination for Elmer Bernstein (for Best Score) and launched the film careers of Steve McQueen Charles Bronson Robert Vaughn and James Coburn.
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