Remake of the Garbo classic, with Leigh as the ill-starred Anna, who leaves her stuffy husband for the eminently more exciting Vronsky. But forbidden love turns sour when Vronsky puts his duty above his mistress, leaving Anna alone to face the cruelty of a disapproving society. Tragic melodrama.
find out more...
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (1950)
CertificationU Our Rating
Betty Hutton (as Annie Oakley) and Howard Keel (as Frank Butler) star in this sharpshootin' funfest based on the Broadway smash boasting Irving Berlin's beloved score, including Doin' What Comes Natur'lly, I Got the Sun in the Morning and the anthemic There's No Business like Show Business. Directed by George Sidney this lavish, spirited production showcases songs and performances with bull's-eye precision, earning an Oscar for adaptation scoring. The story is brawling boy-meets-girl-meets-bucks
find out more...
BEND OF THE RIVER (1952)
CertificationPG Our Rating
The second of the terrific Stewart/Mann Westerns is characteristic of their pairings: adult themes played out against prairie vistas in which betrayal and violence can erupt at any time. Formerly a vicious Missouri raider, Stewart now leads an Oregon bound wagon train that, having brushed aside ineffective Native American resistance to the invasion, becomes embroiled in a conflict over resources between farmers (decent folk) and miners (womanising, drinking, thieving, scumbags). Welcome to Middl
find out more...
BROKEN BLOSSOMS / ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1919)
CertificationU Our Rating
Two works from the father of narrative cinema. In "Broken Blossoms" (1919); a Chinaman arrives in London to teach the locals the ideals of Buddhism but finds them most unreceptive and, instead, opens a shop which becomes the refuge for a xenophobic boxer's abused daughter. Lillian Gish is brilliant and Griffith poetic. "Abraham Lincoln", (1930), was Griffith's first talkie and is a straightforward biopic from childhood to his premature assassination.
find out more...
CALAMITY JANE (1953)
CertificationU Our Rating
OhtheDeadwoodStageiscomin'upoverthehill (fortissimo). Doris, bless her, belts her heart out as the pistol-packin' tomboy who has to clean up her act when she falls for Wild Bill Hickock. Much spunkier than 'Annie Get Your Gun' and with better tunes, most notably 'Secret Love'. A fine musical comedy.
find out more...
Charu lives a lonely and idle life in 1870s India. Although her husband devotes more time to his newspaper than to their marriage, he sees her loneliness and asks his brother-in-law, Umapeda, a would-be writer, to keep her company. At this point Bhupati's cousin, Amal, visits and spends a long vacation and, after several months, Charu and Amal's feelings for each other move beyond friendship and toward tragedy. A classic piece of early drama from the great Satyajit Ray.
find out more...
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
Certification15 Our Rating
David Lean's epic romance set against the turbulant backdrop of the Russian revolution. One man's struggle for moral political and personal survival amidst the complex web of intrigue and tangled loyalties that accompanied the fall of the Tsar.
find out more...
DODGE CITY (1939)
CertificationPG Our Rating
Michael Curtiz's epic Western 'Dodge City' stars Errol Flynn as Wade Hatton, a wagon master turned sheriff who tames the cow town at the end of the railroad. Flynn brings his trademark swash buckling charisma to the role of the justice-seeking sheriff, and Olivia de Havilland is both tough and lovely as Hatton's ally and inevitable love interest. The film also features one of the liveliest bar room brawls in cinematic history.
find out more...
EL CID (1961)
CertificationPG Our Rating
One of the very finest epics produced, equally impressive in terms of script and spectacle. Heston is aptly heroic as the 11th Century patriot destined to die in the fight to evict the Moors from Spain, Mann's direction is stately and thrilling and Miklos Rosza's superb score perfectly complements the crisp and simple widescreen images. Sobriety and restraint, in fact, are perhaps the keynotes of the film's success, with the result that a potentially risible finale, in which Cid's corpse is born
find out more...