cryptexcode/MPST huggingface dataset:
The Littlest Rebel

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in the ballroom of the Cary plantation on Virgie’s (Shirley Temple) sixth birthday. Her slave Uncle Billy (Bill Robinson) dances for her party guests, but the celebration is brought abruptly to an end when a messenger arrives with news of the assault on Fort Sumter and a declaration of war. Virgie’s father (John Boles) is ordered to the Armory with horse and side-arms. He becomes a scout for the Confederate Army, crossing enemy lines to gather information. On these expeditions, he sometimes briefly visits his family at their plantation behind Union lines.
One day, Colonel Morrison (Jack Holt), a Union officer, arrives at the Cary plantation looking for Virgie‘s father. Virgie defies him, hitting him with a pebble from her slingshot and singing “Dixie”. After Morrison leaves, Cary arrives to visit his family but quickly departs when slaves warn of approaching Union troops. Led by the brutal Sgt. Dudley (Guinn Williams), the Union troops begin to loot the house. Colonel Morrison returns, puts an end to the plundering, and orders Dudley lashed. With this act, Morrison rises in Virgie’s esteem.
One stormy night, battle rages near the plantation. Virgie and her mother are forced to flee with Uncle Billy when their house is burned to the ground. Mrs. Cary (Karen Morley) falls gravely ill but finds refuge in a slave cabin. Her husband crosses enemy lines to be with his wife during her last moments. After his wife’s death, Cary makes plans to take Virgie to his sister in Richmond. When Colonel Morrison learns of the plan, he aids Cary by providing him with a Yankee uniform and a pass. The plan is foiled, and Cary and Morrison are sentenced to death.
The two are confined to a makeshift prison where Virgie and Uncle Billy visit them daily. A kindly Union officer urges Uncle Billy to appeal to President Lincoln for a pardon. Short on funds, Uncle Billy and Virgie sing and dance in public spaces and ‘pass the cap’. Once in Washington, they are ushered into Lincoln’s (Frank McGlynn Sr.) office where the President pardons Cary and Morrison after hearing Virgie’s story. The film ends with Virgie happily singing “Polly Wolly Doodle” to her father, Colonel Morrison and a group of soldiers.

Tags: historical fiction

Review:
Satte Pe Satta

Plot synopsis:
Satte Pe Satta is the story of seven brothers living on a large farmhouse. The first half of the movie shows the life of the brothers who grew up under the leadership of their oldest brother Ravi (Amitabh Bachchan). Being orphans and uneducated, all seven brothers are unsophisticated bumpkins and lack social etiquette and hygiene. They live on a small farm among animals. A sequence of events leads Ravi to fall in love with a nurse named Indu (Hema Malini). Indu despises unruliness and chaos. Therefore, Ravi tricks her into believing that he has only 1 younger brother, Shani and thus Indu eventually marries him only to realize he has five more brothers, all uneducated and uncouth. Ravi's six brothers learn to adjust with new woman in their lives as she does with them, trying to civilize them. Soon enough, they all fall in love with a group of six women, friends with an heiress (and the feeling is mutual). Shortly things take a turn when Babu, Ravi's lookalike, is hired by the heiress's guardian, Ranjit Singh, to kill her for possession of her ancestral property.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Fei hap siu baak lung

Plot synopsis:
In a twist departing from the standard superhero formula, White Dragon is a narcissist, forever worried about her good looks, even as she's fighting with Feather, a blind assassin nicknamed "Chicken Feathers" because of his propensity for using chicken feathers as his calling card.
Chicken Feathers is first challenged by White Dragon, an elderly woman with proficient skills in martial arts to almost match his, but not quite enough. Thinking that she has been fatally wounded, White Dragon transfers her kung-fu knowledge into empty shell Black Phoenix, turning the young woman into the prettiest martial arts expert around. The downside to having these extraordinary powers, which she does not fully understand, is bad acne, which she manages to prevent only by doing "noble" deeds like robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.
Phoenix is reluctant to take on her new role at first, but soon becomes interested in tracking down Chicken Feathers when she learns that her love interest, Second Prince Tian Yang, might become his next target. Using her flute-playing as bait, White Dragon finally faces Chicken Feathers in an attempt to defeat him before he can carry out the assassination. Chicken Feathers proves to be too good for the new White Dragon, however. When White Dragon tries to exploit his "weak points," she ends up injured(breaking her leg while trying to kick Feathers in the nuts) and dependent on Feathers, who does nurse her back to health after their heated battle. While Chicken Feathers plays nurse, White Dragon seeks to find his true weak point to stop him once and for all. What she finds instead is that Chicken Feathers has fallen in love with her, and that he is growing on her as well.
After a while her leg healed and Chicken Feathers found a letter for Second Prince Tian Yang and had it read by the town's doctor. This letter made Chicken Feathers thinking that Black Phoenix already has a boyfriend, namely the Second Prince Tian Yang. Chicken Feathers confronted Phoenix Black with this and they ended up struggling. Accidentally the girl stabbed her flute into the back of Chicken Feathers, which gave him a moment of sight. She ran away.
The Third Prince, brother of the Second Prince, apparently hired Chicken Feathers to kill his brother, this was revealed at the very last scene.

Tags: romantic

Review:
The Purple Rose of Cairo

Plot synopsis:
Set in New Jersey during the Great Depression in 1935, the film tells the story of Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a clumsy waitress who goes to the movies to escape her bleak life and loveless, abusive marriage to Monk (Danny Aiello), whom she has attempted to leave on numerous occasions.
The latest film Cecilia sees is a fictitious RKO Radio Pictures film, The Purple Rose of Cairo. It is the story of a rich Manhattan playwright named Henry (Edward Herrmann) who goes on an exotic vacation to Egypt with companions Jason (John Wood) and Rita (Deborah Rush). While in Egypt, the three meet archaeologist Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels). Tom is brought back for a "madcap Manhattan weekend" where he falls head-over-heels for Kitty Haynes (Karen Akers), a chanteuse at the Copacabana.
After Cecilia sits through the film several times, Tom, noticing her, breaks the fourth wall, and emerges from the black-and-white screen into the colorful real world on the other side of the cinema's screen. He tells Cecilia that he is attracted to her after noticing her watching him so many times, and she takes him around her New Jersey town. Later, he takes her into the film and they have a great evening on the town within the film. The two fall in love. But the character's defection from the film has caused some problems. In other copies of the film, others have tried to exit the screen. The producer of the film learns that Tom has left the film, and he flies cross-country to New Jersey with actor Gil Shepherd (Jeff Daniels) (the "real life" actor playing the part of Tom in the movie). This sets up an unusual love triangle involving Tom, Gil, and Cecilia. Cecilia must choose between them and she decides to choose the real person of Gil rather than the fantasy figure of Tom. She gives up the chance to return with Tom to his world, choosing to stay with Gil and have a 'real' life. Then she breaks up with her husband.
But Gil's professions of love for Cecilia were false—he wooed her only to get Tom to return to the movie and thereby save his own Hollywood career. Gil abandons Cecilia and is seen quietly racked with guilt on his flight back to Hollywood. Having been left without a lover, job, or home, Cecilia ends up immersing herself in the frothy escapism of Hollywood once again, sitting in a theater watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to "Cheek-to-Cheek" in the film Top Hat, forgetting her dire situation and losing herself in the film.

Tags: fantasy, depressing, whimsical, psychedelic, humor, satire, romantic

Review:
Army Girl

Plot synopsis:
Capt. Dike Conger and M/Sgt. "Three Star" Hennessy are sent with their new light tank for tests against horse cavalry under desert conditions. In an extended hell for leather race amongst a variety of obstacles, their tank wins against Col. Armstrong's 31st Cavalry.
During this period the Colonel's daughter Julie masquerades as a Southern Belle with no connection with the army to date Dike who vows to have nothing to do with Army Girls; the daughters of officers or soldiers. Enjoying each other's company Dike discovers that Julie is actually the Colonel's daughter but has fallen in love with her.
Due to the tank winning the competition, Army Headquarters orders that Captain Dike Conger take over the command of the 31st Cavalry from the kindly old Colonel Armstrong. Though Julie and the officers and troopers of the Regiment despise Dike for doing this, the gentlemanly Colonel Armstrong suggests a scheme to win his Regiment over; the Colonel and Dike swap mounts. However, in a wild ride inside the tank both the Colonel and "Three Star" are killed when the tank goes out of control.
Dike is court martialled but all discover an unsavoury truth.

Tags: romantic

Review:
The Great Seer

Plot synopsis:
The Great Seer begins during the reign of King Gongmin (Ryu Tae-joon). But despite being about seers, geomancers, divinators and the like, this drama is less about the fantasy and more about the political movers and shakers — people who had the power to advise, and therefore control, kings. Yi Seong-gye (Ji Jin-hee) is the general who led the overthrow of Goryeo and established the Joseon Dynasty, becoming its first king.
Mok Ji-sang (Ji Sung) is a gifted seer/geomancer, born with the ability to see into people’s pasts and futures. There are those who believe falsely that he has dark supernatural powers, thinking him possessed by ghosts. When he comes of age in the late Goryeo era, he becomes a scholar of divination, and a reader of geography, faces, and the like to tell fortunes — an area with much influence at the time. He eventually becomes a "king-maker," who holds the key to a major political shift in the overthrow of Goryeo and the rise of Joseon when he backs General Yi and effectively shapes the future of Korea as we know it.
Lee Jung-geun (Song Chang-eui) is General Yi's other advisor and Ji-sang's rival. Hae-in (Kim So-yeon) is a healer whose destiny is tied to General Yi, but she falls in love with the seer. Ban-ya (Lee Yoon-ji) is a woman who was sold off as a gisaeng at a young age, but becomes a concubine to King Gongmin's advisor, and bears a son. King Gongmin takes in that son as his, and the boy becomes Woo of Goryeo (Lee Min-ho) — the king that General Yi dethrones in a coup d'état.

Tags: murder

Review:
Tony Rome

Plot synopsis:
Tony Rome is an ex-cop turned private investigator who lives on a powerboat in Miami called the Straight Pass. This a reference to the fact that Tony also has a gambling problem.
He is asked by his former partner, Ralph Turpin (Robert J. Wilke), to take home a young woman who had been left unconscious in a hotel room.
The woman, Diana (née Kosterman) Pines (Sue Lyon), is the daughter of rich construction magnate Rudolph Kosterman (Simon Oakland), who subsequently hires Rome to find out why his daughter is acting so irrationally.
After regaining consciousness, Diana discovers a diamond pin, which she had been wearing the night before, has gone missing.
Diana and her stepmother Rita (Gena Rowlands) also hire Rome, in this instance, to find the lost pin.
Rome is chloroformed and beaten by a pair of thugs, and Turpin is found murdered in Rome's office. Lt. Dave Santini (Richard Conte) of the Miami police investigates the crime scene and demands information from Rome, who's an old friend.
Preferring to work on his own, Rome gets help from a seductive divorcee, Ann Archer (Jill St. John).
An attempt is made on Kosterman's wife, and a jeweler is found murdered.
Rome discovers that Diana has been selling her stepmother's jewels and giving the money to Lorna, her real mother.
The trail leads to Rita's ex-husband, Adam Boyd, a doctor, who ordered the killings.
The case solved, Rome invites Ann for a romantic getaway on his boat, but, she has decided to go back to her husband.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
Legend of the Seeker

Plot synopsis:
The story takes place in the world created by author Terry Goodkind in his fantasy novel series, The Sword of Truth. The three main provinces are Westland, the Midlands and D'Hara. Westland is separated from the Midlands by a magical boundary, which was created to prevent any magic from entering Westland. On the other side of the Midlands is D'Hara, which is ruled by Darken Rahl. Seekers are accompanied by a Wizard of The First Order and Confessors, an ancient order of women, who oversee the welfare of the people of the Midlands and the Seeker.
The first season is loosely based on the first book of The Sword of Truth series Wizard's First Rule. Some of the stories feature events and characters not encountered in the books, while others loosely adapt events from the book. The story begins after the invasion of Darken Rahl's army into the Midlands. Kahlan Amnell, a Confessor, ventures into Westland in search of a wizard and the Seeker, who has been prophesied to defeat Rahl. Kahlan finds the wizard, Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander, and the Seeker, a young man named Richard Cypher, who is forced to accept a destiny he never knew about. Together, they set off on a quest to seek out and defeat Darken Rahl. The second season is loosely based on Stone of Tears, the second book in Goodkind's series. It tells the story of how Richard, Kahlan, and Zeddicus discover that their quest during the first season caused them to unintentionally help the Keeper of the Underworld create tears in the veil which separates the land of the dead from the world of the living. Their new quest is to find the Stone of Tears, seal the rifts between the worlds, and defeat the Keeper. They are joined in this quest by Cara, a Mord-Sith and their former enemy.

Tags: good versus evil

Review:
Dillinger è morto

Plot synopsis:
Glauco, a middle-aged industrial designer of gas masks, is growing tired of his occupation. Having discussed alienation with a colleague at the factory, he returns home. His wife is in bed with a headache but has left him dinner, which has become cold. He is dissatisfied with the food and begins preparing himself a gourmet meal. While collecting ingredients he discovers an old revolver wrapped in a 1934 newspaper with the headline "Dillinger is dead" and an account of the famous American gangster's death. Glauco cleans and restores the gun while continuing to cook his dinner, then paints it red with white polka dots. He also eats his meal, watches some television and projected home movies, listens to music and seduces their maid. With the gun he enacts suicide a number of times. At dawn he shoots his wife thrice in the head as she sleeps. Then he drives to the seaside where he gets a job as a chef on a yacht bound for Tahiti.

Tags: psychedelic, cult, murder, violence, home movie

Review:
Target

Plot synopsis:
Charlie Snow (Stephen Baldwin) was a highly decorated war hero, a sniper who never placed emotion before the mission. Except once. Providing cover for an undercover arms dealer sting operation, he was forced into a predicament, as through his scope he saw a hostage crisis unfold.
The decision he made cost his fellow soldiers their lives. But he also managed to ventilate the hostage-taker, arms dealer Lendl Bodnar (Mio Deckala).
Back in the USA, Charlie is now a shell of the man he used to be. He has been ostracized from the government, and his family is falling apart. His wife Maggie (Deborah Worthing) is close to finalizing their split. He is an empty soul, as conveyed by the look in his eyes.
But Charlie's world is about to get rocked. Lendl Bodnar has a brother named Yevon Bodnar (Yorgo Constantine), an arms dealer who wants revenge on Charlie for Lendl's death.
Charlie's existence gets body-slammed when he learns that Maggie has been kidnapped, his daughter Lisa (Steffani Brass) and son Sam (Rory Thost) are in danger, and everywhere he turns, he's being attacked by Yevon's men.
Charlie must summon all the tactics that made him such an effective killer and reconnect with his secret ops government links to rescue Maggie and take Yevon down.

Tags: comedy, revenge, suspenseful, murder, violence

Review:
Melrose Place

Plot synopsis:
On May 21, 2009, Ausiello reported that Leighton's character Sydney dies in the pilot and sets off a murder mystery, but noted that the actress would continue to appear in multiple episodes of the season through flashbacks. The Los Angeles Times later confirmed that Sydney would be found dead in the first 10 minutes of the premiere episode, a turn of events which means "anything could happen" in the new series, according to executive producer Slavkin. "It will feel nostalgic, but it's not the old Melrose," Slavkin said. The Times added that initial episodes would revolve around the interrelationships of the apartment complex's seven residents and the theme that "no one is exactly who they seem," with Sydney's murder solved mid-season. As the series opens, new Melrose Place resident Violet finds Sydney floating dead in the courtyard pool. Student doctor Lauren reluctantly accepts cash for sex to pay her medical school tuition, as aspiring filmmaker Jonah is offered a directing deal in exchange for his silence about a famous director's indiscretion. David, Sydney's ex-lover and the police's initial suspect in her death, is bailed out of jail by bisexual publicist Ella, who provides a false alibi and has her own reasons for wanting Sydney out of the way. While David steals a valuable painting from his own father Michael Mancini in the dark of night, sous chef Auggie — seemingly the resident most upset by Sydney's death — burns a bloody chef's uniform.
Holding onto her job puts pressure on Ella, whose efforts to further secret crush Jonah's career do not help his relationship with his new fiancée Riley. Lauren is compelled to continue prostituting herself, and while Sydney's sister Jane's attempt to blackmail Ella fails, she follows through on her promise to clue in the police on Ella's motives for Sydney's murder. Violet is revealed to be Sydney's secret daughter, and schemes to both get close to Auggie, and punish Michael for mistreating Sydney.

Tags: insanity, murder

Review:
The Man Without a Face

Plot synopsis:
The film takes place in 1968. For the past seven years, Justin McLeod (Gibson) has been living an isolated existence as a reclusive painter following a car accident which left him disfigured on the right side of his face and chest by burns sustained in a post-crash fire.
Young Chuck Nordstadt (Nick Stahl) endures a dysfunctional relationship with his sister and their widowed mother. One day, Chuck meets McLeod on a ferry; Chuck is both intrigued and slightly scared of him. Chuck needs a tutor to help him pass a military academy's entrance exam; McLeod is the only one who openly believes Chuck can and will succeed. Eventually, Chuck persuades McLeod to become his teacher; although he is initially baffled by McLeod's unorthodox methods, the two develop a close friendship.
Chuck keeps his daily meetings with McLeod a secret, to avoid being scorned for associating with a disfigured man whose past is shrouded in mystery. No one knows much about McLeod, and few people have ever made an effort to know him; this has made McLeod the object of gossip, speculation, and suspicion.
Ultimately, Widow Nordstadt learns that her son has been visiting McLeod. She and the rest of the town convince themselves that McLeod is molesting Chuck, despite Chuck's adamant denials. Chuck researches McLeod's car accident, which involved the death of another boy, hence McLeod's fear of another attachment. Chuck is forcibly taken to a psychiatrist, who Chuck (accurately) suspects is also biased against McLeod.
Chuck inevitably confronts McLeod to learn the truth of his disfigurement, and to discover the identity of that youth who was killed in the same car crash. As it turns out, the other boy was a student of McLeod's. Consequently, McLeod was (unjustly) branded a pedophile, was exiled from his hometown, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and served three years in prison. Once his relationship with Chuck is openly known, McLeod is once again run out of town, and ordered by the authorities to have no contact with Chuck.
On his way out of town, McLeod leaves Chuck a note; it wishes him the best of luck in his academic goals, and reminds him to be tolerant with people who are different. In the film's finale, Chuck is shown graduating from the military academy as his sister and their mom look on proudly. Chuck sees a familiar figure in the background, and recognizes it as his "faceless" tutor.

Tags: dramatic, romantic, flashback

Review:
My Boyfriend's Back

Plot synopsis:
Eager to impress his crush, Johnny Dingle arranges a fake robbery in the store where Missy McCloud works. Dingle intends to foil the robbery and save McCloud. The plan backfires, and Dingle is shot. As he lies dying in the store, he asks her to the prom, and McCloud agrees. After his funeral, Dingle inexplicably returns as a zombie and attempts to reintegrate into society. Though he faces anti-zombie discrimination, Dingle is allowed back in school, where he eats a bully. McCloud, though reluctant to follow through with her promise, eventually agrees to attend the prom with Dingle. As McCloud slowly falls for him, Dingle wrestles with his urge to cannibalize McCloud. Dingle eventually overcomes his urges and takes McCloud to the prom, where he finally decays to point of destruction. As he goes to heaven, Dingle learns that a mishap in heaven was the cause for his return as a zombie. Because he was never meant to die, he is sent back to Earth and given a second chance at life. Dingle again sacrifices himself for McCloud during the robbery, but his life is spared when the bullet is deflected by a locket he bought as gift for McCloud. McCloud, overcome by his sacrifice and the gift of the locket, agrees to attend the prom with him.

Tags: dark, comedy, violence, cult, absurd, revenge

Review:
Woodstock Villa

Plot synopsis:
Zara Kampani (Neha Oberoi) meets Sameer (Sikandar Kher) in a pub and lands in his flat asking him to kidnap her so that she can test her husband, Jatin's (Arbaaz Khan) love. Samir can’t refuse because he is in desperate need of money. He hasn’t paid his rent for months and has to return a huge sum of money to a bhai (Gulshan Grover).
Zara takes Sameer to Woodstock Villa, the location of the kidnapping. Sameer orders Jatin to hand over 5 million to him. After returning, Sameer discovers Zara dead. An anonymous caller then threatens him that he has only 30 minutes to bury the body and clear up all the evidence. He disposes her body in a forest and returns.
To be on the safer side, he goes to Bangalore. Sameer sees Zara's video on television and heads back to find the truth. He finds Zara and convinces her to tell him the truth. Zara reveals that she and Jatin truly loved each other. Once in a fight, Jatin's real wife, Zara, accidentally died and as her and Zara's face was quite similar, she played the role of Zara. The kidnapping plan was hatched by Jatin and his girlfriend to get out of this murder and trap somebody else. Sameer calls Jatin to Woodstock Villa with the money and he pays his rent and loan.
He goes to the airport while Jatin gets caught by the police. Jatin tells the police that he is not the only one to commit the crime. Sameer gives the bag of money to Zara but there was no money inside that bag, he took the real bag of money. The ball was in Zara's court. If she would have boarded the plane, Sameer would have trusted her. She decided to cheat Sameer and got cheated herself. Sameer's flight takes off while Jatin's partner gets arrested.

Tags: tragedy, neo noir, murder, flashback

Review:
Sidekicks

Plot synopsis:
Barry Gabrewski is an asthmatic boy who lives with his widowed father, Jerry Gabrewski (Beau Bridges), in Houston, Texas. A loner, Barry has vivid daydreams about being Chuck Norris' sidekick, battling against Norris's movie enemies, who are often personified by Barry's everyday bullies such as Randy Cellini (John Buchanan). Noreen Chan (Julia Nickson-Soul), his favorite teacher, often plays the damsel in distress in these daydreams.
Barry wants to learn the martial arts, but is rejected by the arrogant dojo owner Kelly Stone (Joe Piscopo) for being too weak. Instead, he is taken on as a student by an old Chinese man called Mr. Lee (Mako), the sly uncle of his teacher and the owner of a local Chinese restaurant, "Frying Dragon". Mr. Lee finds creative ways to teach Barry to defend himself from his bullies. Lee devises training methods that increase Barry's endurance, which helps his asthma. Lee also deduces Barry's hero worship of Norris and from that, deduces at least some of Barry's daydreams. He creatively incorporates this into Barry's training, creating training scenarios that seem more dangerous than they are so that Barry will feel heroic for succeeding at them.
Lee enters himself, Barry, and Chan into a local team Karate tournament but is a bit stymied to learn that a team must have four members. Norris is attending the tournament as a guest. Chan (at Lee's urging) convinces Norris to join the team. Norris is both willing to help an ardent fan and has his own motivation for participating: he has encountered Stone on several prior occasions and wants to teach him "a lesson in humility." Barry is stunned to find himself working together with his hero.
The tournament involves four events: Breaking, Mens Weapons, Female Kata, and Freestyle fighting. Stone's team narrowly defeats Chan in the Female Kata, but Lee defeats Cellini, one of Stone's students, in Breaking. True to his word, Norris defeats Stone in Freestyle fighting. Barry -- aided by a vivid daydream -- scores well in the Mens Weapons. The result is a tie between Stone's team and Lee's team. In the tie-breaker, Lee is allowed to choose the participants, and chooses Barry and Cellini, saying Barry is the member of the team with "something to prove." Stone chooses the event, Breaking. Barry is dismayed to be confronting Cellini in the latter's best event but Lee tilts the odds in Barry's favor by using a small amount of lighter fluid to set Barry's bricks on fire. Faced with a much more heroic-seeming task, Barry wins.
After the tournament, Barry is seen talking to Norris, thanking him for his help. Norris vanishes, and it is implied that Barry has found the strength to live his life without the need for his daydreams. Before the movie fades to black, a young boy finds Barry's Chuck Norris magazine. With an excited "Wow" the camera pans out to reveal the young man is in a wheelchair.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
Killers

Plot synopsis:
The Killers is an adaptation of a short story by Ernest Hemingway. The story is divided into three scenes. The first and third scenes were directed by Beiku and Tarkovsky, the second by Gordon.
The first scene shows Nick Adams (Yuli Fait) observing two gangsters (Valentin Vinogradov and Boris Novikov) in black coats and black hats entering a small-town diner where Adams is eating. They tell the owner, George (Aleksandr Gordon), that they are searching for the boxer Ole Andreson and that they want to kill him. They tie up Nick Adams and the cook, and wait for Ole Andreson to appear. Three customers enter the restaurant and are sent away by George. One of the customers is played by Tarkovsky, who whistles Lullaby of Birdland.
The second scene shows Nick Adams visiting Ole Andreson (Vasiliy Shukshin) in his hide-out, a small room. He warns Andreson about the two gangsters, but Andreson is resigned to his fate and unwilling to flee.
The third scene shows Adams returning to the diner and informing the owner of Andreson's decision.

Tags: murder

Review:
The Strangler

Plot synopsis:
Leo Kroll (Buono) is a mother-fixated lab technician who collects dolls. He is also a serial killer, responsible for the death of a number of nurses, and is questioned by the police regarding those murders, but is released. Kroll claims his next victim, Clara (Bates), the nurse who has been looking after his possessive mother, who is in hospital after a heart attack. However, he leaves a doll behind at the murder scene. (A subplot features Kroll becoming enamored of Tally (Davison), one of the girls who works at the amusement park stall from which he won this doll.)
Kroll is again questioned by the police, but successfully passes a lie detector test and is released. He visits his mother in hospital and tells her how he killed Clara, which induces a second, fatal heart attack. Returning to the amusement park, he sees Barbara (Sayer), Tally's co-worker, talking to the police. This makes Kroll frantic. As Kroll is talking to Barbara about the police, he is visibly nervous. He misses ring after ring while he plays the game. When Barbara mimics one of the dolls by saying "Mama", this reminds Kroll of his mother and finally sets him off. Kroll goes to Barbara's apartment and strangles her as she is stepping out of the shower. The killing of a girl that works at an amusement park stand and not a nurse throws the police off.
Meanwhile, it seems with his mother dead, Kroll finally feels free and it seems his hatred for woman is fading. He visits Tally and proposes to her. After he is rejected, Kroll begins to believe in his mind that all the bad things his mother told him about women are true. After questioning Tally and getting a description, the police finally find their strangler. Kroll hides in Tally's apartment and waits to kill her when she comes home. The police, believing Tally could be the strangler's next victim, bug her room and stay close by to catch Kroll. Tally is packing her bag to leave town and ends up covering the bug in her room. The police are unable to hear what is going on when Kroll comes out and begins to strangle Tally. By the time they are able to realize Tally is in trouble they are too late. The police burst into the room right as Kroll finishes Tally off and they open fire. Kroll is hit, goes through the window, and plunges to his death. After taking his final victim, the strangler is dead.

Tags: murder

Review:
Ikiru

Plot synopsis:
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for thirty years. His wife is dead and his son and daughter-in-law, who live with him, seem to care mainly about Watanabe's pension and their future inheritance. At work, he sees constant inaction, including a group of parents who are referred to one department after another when they want a cesspool cleared out and replaced by a playground. After learning he has stomach cancer and less than a year to live, Watanabe attempts to come to terms with his impending death. He plans to tell his son about the cancer, but decides against it when his son does not pay attention to him. He then tries to find escape in the pleasures of Tokyo's nightlife, guided by an eccentric novelist whom he just met. In a nightclub, Watanabe requests a song from the piano player, and sings "Gondola no Uta" with great sadness. His singing greatly affects those watching him. After one night submerged in the nightlife, he realizes this is not the solution.
The following day, Watanabe encounters a young female subordinate, Toyo, who needs his signature on her resignation. He is attracted to her joyous love of life and enthusiasm and tries to spend as much time as possible with her. She eventually becomes suspicious of his intentions and grows weary of him. After convincing her to join him for the last time, he opens up and asks for the secret to her love of life. She says that she does not know, but that she found happiness in her new job making toys, which makes her feel like she is playing with all the children of Japan and that he should find a purpose in his own life. Inspired by her, Watanabe realizes that it is not too late for him and that he still can do something. Like Toyo, he wants to make something, but is unsure what he can make in the city bureaucracy until he remembers the lobbying for a playground. He surprises everyone by returning to work after a long absence, and begins pushing for a playground despite concerns he is intruding on the jurisdiction of other departments.
Watanabe dies, and at his wake, his former co-workers gather, after the opening of the playground, and try to figure out what caused such a dramatic change in his behavior. His transformation from listless bureaucrat to passionate advocate puzzles them. As the co-workers drink, they slowly realize that Watanabe must have known he was dying, even when his son denies this, as he was unaware of his father's condition. They also hear from a witness that in the last few moments in Watanabe's life, he sat on the swing at the park he built. As the snow fell, he sang "Gondola no Uta". The bureaucrats vow to live their lives with the same dedication and passion as he did. But back at work, they lack the courage of their newfound conviction.

Tags: romantic, philosophical, flashback

Review:
Too Much, Too Soon

Plot synopsis:
Fourteen-year-old Diana Barrymore is being raised by her domineering mother, a poet. Her father, the famed actor John Barrymore, has not laid eyes on Diana for 10 years, but they share an evening on his boat before John abandons her again.
At 18, Diana has become an actress and has a steady boyfriend, Lincoln Forrester. When a Hollywood contract comes her way, Diana's mother warns her not to live with John, now a washed-up alcoholic.
She finds her father living in a nearly empty mansion, having sold or pawned his belongings to pay his bills. He keeps a bald eagle in a cage indoors and has a servant, Gerhardt, who must physically knock out John to put him to bed.
Diana's famous name gains her some publicity, but her performances are panned. Her new husband, actor Vince Bryant, is away a lot, so Diana turns to drink and leaves Vince for tennis player John Howard. When her father dies alone, a penniless and often drunk Diana and her husband move in with her mother, who can only stand so much before making them leave.
After marrying again, this time to recovering alcoholic Bob Wilcox, she discovers after her mother's death that she has been left no inheritance. Diana takes demeaning jobs, including a striptease. She becomes violent and is hospitalized. Her only hope at salvation is an offer to write her memoirs, and old friend Linc returns to her life, offering some badly needed kindness.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
Supernatural

Plot synopsis:
Roma Courtenay (Carole Lombard) is approached by phony psychic Paul Bavian (Alan Dinehart) who claims to have a message from Courtenay's recently deceased brother. After attending a staged seance, Roma suddenly becomes possessed by the malevolent spirit of the executed murderess Ruth Rogen (Vivienne Osborne), who has unfinished business, including killing Bavian, her one-time lover. Fearing that Roma is actually under the charlatan's control, her fiancé (Randolph Scott) tries to rescue her.
H.B. Warner plays a scientist who is a friend of the Courtenay family. At the film's beginning he visits the warden of the penitentiary where Rogen is incarcerated. He tells the warden that violent crime always increases following the execution of a murderer, and he believes this is because some kind of malevolent spiritual influence is released after the killer dies. The warden agrees to give him Rogen's body after the execution so that he can attempt to contain the evil force.
Roma becomes possessed by Ruth Rogen's spirit when she walks into the scientist's laboratory while he is experimenting with her body. Just as she enters the room the corpse receives a jolt of electricity and the eyes flick open and make contact with Roma.

Tags: paranormal

Review:
Klansman

Plot synopsis:
In a small town in the South, a young white woman, Sheriff Track Bascomb breaks up a crowd of black and white men molesting a black woman. He visits Breck Stancil, a local land owner who is politically liberal.
White woman Nancy Poteet is sexually assaulted and beaten by a black man. Sheriff Track Bascomb tries to find the guilty party while the Ku Klux Klan - whose members include Bascomb's deputy, Butt Cutt Cates - takes matters into its own hands.
Members of the Klan - not wearing their uniform - approach a bar frequented by blacks. They chase after two men, one of whom is Garth. Garth escapes but his associated is captured and shot by the Klan.
Loretta Sykes, a girl who grew up in the town, returns home. She is approached by members of the civil rights movement. They try to get Breck Stancill involved.
Nancy Poteet's husband leaves her and she finds herself an outcast for the town. She is befriended by Stancill.
Garth dresses up as a Klansman and kills one of the vigilante gang who killed his friend. At a funeral for the dead man, held by the Klan, Garth shoots another Klansman from a tree.
In response, members of the Klan, including Cates, rape Loretta Sykes.

Tags: violence, blaxploitation, melodrama

Review:
Alpine Antics

Plot synopsis:
One day at the Swiss mountains, Oswald is milking a goat which would then run away upon being called by another one passing by. As Oswald's goat jumps out of the scene, the bucket used is kicked off and was all over the rabbit's head. Oswald struggles to remove the pail but is able to get it off on time when he stumbles. Just then, his faithful St. Bernard dog comes to him, carrying a message. The message is a distress note from the girl cat seeking Oswald's help.
Oswald and the dog move forth and head upland. Obstacles on the way include large rocks and a canyon, both of which they get through with little trouble. After a few more paces, they find the girl cat up a cliff and hanging onto a branch. To reach her, they stuck a ladder on top of a boulder. Oswald climbs up and collects the feline. It turns out momentarilly that the boulder is in fact a wolverine which wakes up and isn't happy to see them. Frightened by this, the dog runs off, carrying the ladder with Oswald and the girl cat still on it.
Keeping away from the fierce predator, the three friends run into a cave. When they reach the opened end, they find themselves on an edge thousands of feet above water. They then move further from the exit and around the mount to hide themselves. The wolverine also enters the cave but is unaware of what lies ahead and therefore picks up speed. As a consequence, the wolverine overshoots the edge and plunges into the sea. Oswald and the girl cat ride the dog on their way back.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Ride Out for Revenge

Plot synopsis:
Chief Yellow Wolf and son Little Wolf walk to town (the plight of Yellow Wolf's tribe is so dire they walked to town to save their horses) to meet with army Captain George (Bridges) to seek provisions for the upcoming winter. He wants the Indians relocated off of their own land. He pretends to be interested in Yellow Wolf's offer of living together in peace, then his man Garvin murders him in the street. George protests he had only instructed his man to "rough up" Chief Yellow Wolf.
Marshal Tate (Calhoun) sides with the tribe and also is in love with Yellow Wolf's daughter, Pretty Willow. His attitude disgusts George, who demands the marshal turn in his badge. Tate does so willingly and tells son Billy it is time they move to another town. Amy Porter (Grahame), a widow who runs the boardinghouse and loves Tate, tells him she cannot abide his feelings for an Indian woman instead.
After ignoring Tate's warnings that there will be reprisals, George panics when they attack. At first be pleads with Tate for help in killing Little Wolf, then conspires with lies to turn Little Wolf and the Indian natives against Tate, claiming he has selfish motives. Pretty Willow turns against Tate after being convinced he plans to kill her brother.
Angry with his father and trying to sneak away, the boy Billy is killed. Tate and Little Wolf end up in a knife fight, while Amy, now regretting her prejudice, takes in Pretty Willow at her home. Capt. George believes he has the situation under control, until Tate turns up alive and well and takes matters into his own hands.

Tags: revenge

Review:
The Mad Monster

Plot synopsis:
The story begins on a fog-bound moonlight night in a swamp; a wolf howls. The scene shifts to the nearby laboratory of Dr. Lorenzo Cameron (George Zucco), who draws blood from a caged wolf. Secured to a table is Dr. Cameron's simpleminded but strong gardener, Petro (Glenn Strange), who is to be the doctor's subject in an experiment. Cameron injects a serum made from a wolf's blood into the cooperative Petro, who loses consciousness, grows fur and fangs and awakens after he has turned into a wolfman.
Cameron then turns to an empty table and visualizes his former colleagues sitting there—four professors who ridiculed his theory that transfusions of wolf blood could be used to give a human being wolf-like traits. He recalls how the scientific community, the press and the public joined in a resounding chorus of ridicule, which cost him his position at the university.
Addressing the spectral professors, Cameron declares, "Right now, we're at war. At war with an enemy that produces a horde that strikes with a ferocious fanaticism". Cameron proposes giving wolfman traits to the army to help with the war. When the professors scoff, Cameron says that his proposal doesn't really matter; he is now going to have his wolfman kill his former colleagues. He then administers an antidote to Petro that transforms him back into a human; Petro remembers nothing.
The following night, Cameron turns Petro into a wolf and sends him to the swamp. Before the night is over Petro has entered a nearby home and killed a little girl. When Cameron hears of the child's fate, he knows his formula works. He turns to his real priority, which is destroying the scientists who ruined his career. The rest of the film involves Cameron setting up elaborate scenarios in which Petro is alone with each scientist when he becomes a wolf. However, the more he does this, the more Petro's transformations into a wolfman become unpredictable.
Cameron's daughter Lenora (Anne Nagel) is romantically involved with Tom Gregory (Johnny Downs), a newspaper reporter who is investigating the death of the little girl. As the professors are killed off one by one, Gregory begins to suspect that Cameron is behind the slayings.
The principals are in the Cameron home when a thunderstorm begins and a bolt of lightning sets Cameron's laboratory on fire. Lenora and Tom escape from the house after encountering Petro in wolf form. Petro turns on Cameron and kills him, just before the fire brings the house down on both of them.

Tags: murder

Review:
Ke tu qiu hen

Plot synopsis:
In 1973, 26-year-old Cheung Hueyin is abroad in London studying media. Upon her graduation, she learns that she, unlike her Caucasian roommates, has been rejected the chance for a job interview by the BBC. Receiving a letter from her mother, she returns to Hong Kong to attend her younger sister's wedding. The relationship between Hueyin and mother Aiko, who is Japanese, has been strained since childhood, partly a result of Aiko's nationality and the cultural problems she encountered living in Hong Kong. From many flashbacks, we see it was Hueyin's paternal grandparents who did much of the early child-rearing, however, they would often overstep boundaries, resulting in family dysfunction.
Before the end of World War II and before eventually becoming Mrs. Cheung and Hueyin's mother, Aiko spent time living in Manchukuo. There, she and other Japanese faced serious dilemmas after Japan's defeat and the subsequent uncertainties of imprisonment and punishment. The most intense of these dilemmas came with the serious illness of Aiko's infant nephew. His illness was eventually cured by Mr. Cheung after a chance encounter and desperate roadside plea for help by Aiko. Mr. Cheung was an army translator from Guangdong, China with a background in traditional Chinese medicine. Aiko developed a sense of fondness for him upon seeing his actions and character. Aiko's brother concurred, mentioning that kindness toward children usually indicates a man of integrity. After Mr. Cheung escorted Aiko's family to the Japanese repatriation site, he revealed to Aiko a strong desire to be a romantic couple.
In 1973, Hueyin reluctantly agrees to accompany Aiko on a visit to her birthplace in Beppu, Japan. Hueyin initially feels very out of place, not being able to speak the language and having no understanding of Japanese culture. Eventually, though, she bonds with an uncle, learns to accept her Japanese heritage, and finally reaches an understanding with her mother. The experience encourages Hueyin to move beyond the BBC's rejection and become a successful television journalist in Hong Kong. Some time later, Aiko encourages Hueyin to visit her paternal grandparents in Guangdong, where Hueyin finds out one of her very youngest relatives has a mental disability. The film ends with Hueyin praying before a dimly lit, incense-choked ancestral altar, contrasting the open-air shrine she visited in Japan and the outdoor political rallies she now reports on.

Tags: dramatic

Review:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Plot synopsis:
The gypsy Esmeralda captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but especially Quasimodo and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust for Esmeralda and the rules of the Notre Dame Cathedral. He orders bandits to kidnap her, but the hunchback is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda.
The following day, Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and turned on the pillory for one hour, followed by another hour's public exposure. He calls for water. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water. It saves him, and she captures his heart.
Later, Esmeralda is arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo actually attempted to kill in jealousy after seeing him trying to seduce Esmeralda. She is sentenced to death by hanging. As she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary, temporarily protecting her from arrest.
Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeralda's right to sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the cathedral and will be taken away to be killed. Clopin, the leader of the Gypsies, hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the citizens of Paris to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda.
When Quasimodo sees the Gypsies, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Likewise, he thinks the King's men want to rescue her, and tries to help them find her. She is rescued by Frollo and her phony husband Gringoire. But after yet another failed attempt to win her love, Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is being hanged.
When Frollo laughs during Esmeralda's hanging, Quasimodo pushes him from the heights of Notre Dame to his death. Quasimodo later goes to Montfaucon, a huge graveyard in Paris where the bodies of the condemned are dumped, where he stays with Esmeralda's dead body until he dies. About eighteen months later, the tomb is opened, and the skeletons are found. As someone tries to separate them, they crumble to dust.

Tags: tragedy, romantic, murder, melodrama

Review: