frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
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Playing a character far older than herself, Bergman portrays a society woman whose life is in ruins after her son's suicide. Attempting to give her life some purpose, she takes the advice of a leftist friend, and begins working with the ill and destitute of Rome. Her insensitive husband Alexander Knox finds Bergman's charitable activities distasteful; when the opportunity presents itself, he has her committed to a mental institution. - Director:
- Roberto Rossellini
- Cast:
- Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini
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Charismatic but ruthless film producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) needs a blockbuster after producing three consecutive flops and falling out of favor with the studio. To help him make a comeback, he appeals to three Hollywood heavyweights - a director (Barry Sullivan), an actress (Lana Turner) and a writer (Dick Powell) - who owe their success to Shields. Unfortunately, they all hate his guts and have vowed never to work for him again. - Director:
- Vincente Minnelli
- Cast:
- Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon
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Frontiersman Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) is travelling up the wide Missouri river with his best friend Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin) to trade with the Black Feet Indians. Boone's uncle Zeb (Arthur Hunnicutt) is travelling with them; he's returning kidnapped Black Foot princess Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt) to her people. It's a perilous journey, pitting them against the brutal elements and rival traders who want them dead and just when their troubles couldn't get even worse - Jim realises he's in love with Teal Eye. - Director:
- Howard Hawks
- Cast:
- Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt
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On the day Lawman Will Kane (Gary Cooper) trades in his tin star for his beautiful bride (Gracy Kelly), news arrives that a killer he helped send to jail is returning on the noon train to seek revenge. At the behest of his friends and concerned for his new bride's safety, they quickly leave town to avoid a confrontation. But Cooper release they'll never run far enough away, and heads back to town to face the killer. But when Kane tries to drum up support, one by one the townspeople he had protected turn their backs on him...until Kane stands alone to face four killers on the deserted streets of town in one of the most famous showdowns ever! - Director:
- Fred Zinnemann
- Cast:
- Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell
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Set in the harsh environment of post war Rome, Vittorio De Sica's masterpiece examines society's indifference toward the poor and downtrodden. An old age pensioner, receiving a totally inadequate pension, struggles to survive and is driven to desperation and the contemplation of suicide. Set in real locations with a non professional cast, 'Umberto D.' conveys the harshness and wretchedness of old age in a simple but devastatingly realistic way, avoiding sentimentality but evoking great emotion. - Director:
- Vittorio De Sica
- Cast:
- Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari
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The Golden Coach (1952)Le carrosse d'or
A band of Italian strolling players has come to perform, seeking fame and wealth. Lusty Camilla, the troupe's fiery prima donna, soon turns the heads of the Spanish viceroy, a soldier and a famous bullfighter. To prepare for an impending war the viceroy demands great financial sacrifices from the local aristocrats, but when he then gives his official gilded coach to Camilla in order to win her love, the noblemen rebel. Camilla is pursued by the three infatuated men, but her first love is always the stage. - Director:
- Jean Renoir
- Cast:
- Anna Magnani, Odoardo Spadaro, Nada Fiorelli
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While away on business, Harry Graham (Edmond O'Brien) hops a Hollywood tour bus. Sitting next to him is a tough-talking waitress, Phyllis Martin (Ida Lupino). He lights her cigarette and, a few more trips to Los Angeles later, Harry and Phyllis are wed. Back home in San Francisco, he and his wife, Eve (Joan Fontaine), are trying to adopt a child. Harry hesitates before granting the adoption agency permission to investigate their lives. - Director:
- Ida Lupino
- Cast:
- Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Edmund Gwenn
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In this Vincente Minnelli-directed backstager, Fred Astaire dazzles in numbers set in a train station (By Myself), a penny arcade, a backlot Central Park and a smoky cafe, the latter two with the incomparable Cyd Charisse. And when he, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan play infants who "hate each other very much!" in the merry Triplets, it's one more reason to love this movie very, very much. As the hallmark song which originated here goes, That's Entertainment! - Director:
- Vincente Minnelli
- Cast:
- Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant
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Madame De. (1953)The Earrings of Madame de... / Madame de...
When, beset by debt, Madame de... (Danielle Darrieux) decides to sell a pair of earrings that were a wedding gift from her husband Andre (Charles Boyer), she unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will have serious consequences, not only for the Parisian couple but for Andre's mistress and for an Italian Baron (Vittorio De Sica) who purchases the, by then, much-travelled jewellery. - Director:
- Max Ophüls
- Cast:
- Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica
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In this landmark film, passion and tragedy collide on a military base as a fateful day in December 1941 draws near. Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a soldier and former boxer being manipulated by his superior and peers. His friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) tries to help him but has his own troubles. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) tread on dangerous ground as lovers in an illicit affair. Each of their lives will be changed when their stories culminate in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. - Director:
- Fred Zinnemann
- Cast:
- Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr
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Tokyo Story / Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1953)Tôkyô monogatari / Todake no kyôdai
Tokyo Story- Director:
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast:
- Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura
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"Roman Holiday" was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and Audrey Hepburn captured an Oscar for her portrayal of a modern-day princess, rebelling against the royal obligations, who explores Rome on her own. She meets Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), an American newspaperman who, seeking an exclusive story, pretends ignorance of her true identity. But his plan falters as they fall in love. Eddie Albert contributes to the fun as Peck's carefree cameraman pal. - Director:
- William Wyler
- Cast:
- Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert
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The Wages of Fear (1953)Le Salaire de la peur
Part road movie, part suspense thriller, the plot is high-tension simplicity itself. In the South American jungle, supplies of nitro-glycerine are urgently needed at a remote oil field. The unscrupulous American oil company pays four out-of-work men (Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli and Peter Van Eyck) to deliver the supplies in two sets of drivers: a tension magnified thousand fold by the unforgiving heat, the lure of filthy lucre and the rough and rocky roads where the slightest jolt can result in agonising death. Which of the disparate, desperate desperadoes will survive the white-knuckle journey and claim the loot and the glory? - Director:
- Henri-Georges Clouzot
- Cast:
- Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck
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"Plain arithmetic. Money splits better two ways instead of three," smooth-talking outlaw Ben Vandergroat reasons to his captors, three bounty hunters thrown together by chance. They're taking him to justice in Abilene, but Ben has other ideas. If he can set the men against each other - play on their greed, their fears, their vanities - he may be able to make his break to freedom. In the third of his five landmark Anthony Mann-directed Westerns, James Stewart stars as the relentless leader of bounty hunters caught in the snare of the hunted (Robert Ryan). Tough, sweating with tension and towering as tall as its breathtaking Colorado Rockies setting, The Naked Spur is simply "one of the best Westerns ever made." - Director:
- Anthony Mann
- Cast:
- James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan
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The film tells the tale of shady pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) who steals a wallet belonging to Candy (Jean Peters) who, unbeknownst to her, is carrying microfilm containing government secrets. Anxious to recover the film, Joey, Candy's ex-lover and the man using her as courier, convinces her to find the thief. - Director:
- Samuel Fuller
- Cast:
- Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter
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