Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris
Requiem for a Heavyweight is a very powerful, very hard-hitting movie about boxing. Rod Serling wrote a teleplay that shows the steamy underbelly of professional boxing — and it’s not a pretty picture. In short, Rocky it isn’t. The movie begins with Anthony Quinn, the ‘Heavyweight’ of the title, losing his final boxing match to (a very young) Cassius Clay. Anthony Quinn’s character, Louis ‘Mountain’ Rivera, has become punch-drunk and is on the verge of losing his eyesight in the boxing ring. His corrupt manager (played extremely well by Jackie Gleason, in a very serious role) needs to find a way to pay back the mob … and if that means ruining Rivera’s chance at happiness, then so be it.
Night Flight (1933) starring John Barrymore, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, William Gargan, Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy
Product Description of Night Flight (DVD)
Polio breaks out in Rio de Janeiro, the serum is in Santiago and there’s only one way to get the medicine where it’s desperately needed: flown in by daring pilots who risk the treacherous weather and forbidding peaks of the Andes.
Counsellor at Law (1933) starring John Barrymore, Doris Kenyon, Melvyn Douglas, Bebe Daniels
Product Description of Counsellor at Law
In Counsellor at Law, John Barrymore stars as George Simon, a high-powered attorney who frantically juggles scandals, crimes and crises that pass through the chrome-and glass doors of his art deco office high in the Empire State Building. Balanced on an ethical tightrope, Simon engages in insider trading and bleeds funds from wealthy clients, while tending to the needs of the less fortunate New Yorkers who come from his own working-class (Jewish) background. A political enemy uncovers a past legal indiscretion and begins disbarment proceedings, causing Simon’s socialite wife (Doris Kenyon) to seek comfort in the arms of another man (Melvyn Douglas). With the unflagging support of his faithful secretary (Bebe Daniels), Simon attempts to exercise his legalistic wizardry to defend his reputation and protect those who rely upon him for justice.
A Tale of Two Cities (1935). Starring Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allan, Donald Woods, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen, Blanche Yurka, Basil Rathbone
Synopsis of A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities (1935) “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” Charles Dickens‘ tale of love and tumult during the French Revolution comes to the screen in a sumptuous film version by the producer famed for nurturing sprawling literary works: David O. Selznick (David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, Gone with the Wind). Ronald Colman (The Prisoner of Zenda) stars as Sydney Carton. He’s sardonic, dissolute, a wastrel…And destined to redeem himself in an act of courageous sacrifice. “It’s a far, far better thing I do than I’ve ever done,” Carton muses at that defining moment.
David Copperfield (1935) starring Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, W.C. Fields, Basil Rathbone There’s a lot of good things to be said about David Copperfield — fine acting all around, interesting characters that the audience cares…
Leave Her to Heaven (1945) starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jean Crain, Vincent Price
reviewed by The Masked Reviewer
Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) elopes with a charming young socialite Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney). Only to find her family surprised by his appearance more than the sudden marriage. All seems to be going well for the happy couple until Richard decides to invite his little brother Danny (Darryl Hickman) to Ellen’s special summer home. Danny’s visit changes into Danny moving in permanently. All Ellen wants is to live a quiet happy life with Richard. Richard doesn’t understand that so he also invites her mother, and cousin to live with them for the summer. Ellen can’t stand this invasion of privacy anymore. You must watch Leave Her to Heaven for yourself. Because it has one of the finest portrayals of madness in film. This is an excellent film.
Mr. Skeffington (1944), starring Bette Davis, Claude Rains
Product Description of Mr. Skeffington
Bette Davis stars as a beautiful but vain society woman who, to pay her brother’s gambling debts, marries a financier she does not love — Mr. Skeffington. The marriage does not last, and the former Mrs. Skeffington flits from beau to beau casually leaving a trail of broken hearts. But when she contracts a near-fatal case of diphtheria, her beauty is destroyed by the terrible scars left by the disease. Now middle-aged, scarred and unable to win men’s hearts with her beauty, she finally finds love with the now-blind man she had wed years before–Mr. Skeffington