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Drama movies
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True-life account of the military career of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in WWII. Native of Texas, he was placed in charge of his many younger siblings on the death of his mother and decided to join the military at the age of 18 to provide for them. His many acts of bravery and heroism during the US military advance through Italy, France and into Germany earn him increasing rank and responsibility as well as the respect of his comrades in arms. Eventually he receives two dozen of the highest medals the US and France can bestow, culminating in the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor. |
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Cary, a wealthy widow, falls in love with the much younger nurseryman, Ron Kirby. This provides gossip for the country club set, and her children are ashamed that she plans to remarry below her station. Ron is an independent man who can ignore the petty conventions of society, but can Cary also ignore them? |
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The morning of a small town Labor Day picnic, a drifter (Hal Carter) blows into town to visit an old fraternity buddy (Alan Benson) who also happens to be the son of the richest man in town. Hal is an egocentric braggart - all potential and no accomplishment. He meets up with Madge Owens, the town beauty queen and girlfriend of Alan Benson. |
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Cal Trask is a particularly unhappy young man. He sees himself as the black sheep of the family and is always competing with his brother Aron, who seems to be perfect in almost every way. Aron is also their father's favorite and Cal desperately wants his father's love and affection. It's the period leading up to America's entry into World War I and these are tumultuous times. After his father loses most of his fortune trying to ship refrigerated lettuce to New York, Cal decides to speculate on a crop of beans and makes a small fortune but he soon realizes that he can't buy his father's loves either. Cal's discovery that his mother is alive - he and Aron were told that she had died - and that she is a madam leads to a final, tragic result for all three of the Trask men. |
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Lucas Marsh (Robert Mitchum), an intern bent upon becoming a first-class doctor, not merely a successful one. He courts and marries the warm-hearted Kristina (Olivia de Havilland), not out of love but because she is highly knowledgeable in the skills of the operating room and because she has frugally put aside her savings through the years. She will be, as he shrewdly knows, a supportive wife in every way. She helps make him the success he wants to be and cheerfully moves with him to the small town in which he starts his practice. But as much as he tries to be a good husband to the undemanding Kristina, Marsh easily falls into the arms of a local siren (Gloria Grahame) and the patience of the long-sorrowing Kristina wears thin. She reasons he no longer needs her and asks for a divorce. A calamity now brings Marsh to his senses. Dr. Runkleman (Charles Bickford), Marsh's gruff and wise employer, is stricken with a heart attack and requires emergency surgery. Marsh is forced to operate. |
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In a lower-class London community of small shops, open-air vendors and flea-marketers, Joe, a small boy, lives with his mother, Joanne, who works in and rooms above the Kandinsky tailor shop. Joe is innocently and earnestly determined to help realize the wishes of his poor, hard-working neighbours. Hearing from Mr. Kandinsky the tale that a captured unicorn will grant any wish, Joe uses his accumulated pocket change to buy a kid with an emerging horn, believing it to be a unicorn. His subsequent efforts to make dreams come true exemplify the power of hope and will amidst hardship. |
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The tranquility of a small town is marred only by sheriff Tod Shaw's unsuccessful courtship of widow Ellen Benson, a pacifist who can't abide guns and those who use them. But violence descends on Ellen's household willy-nilly when the U.S. President passes through town... and slightly psycho hired assassin John Baron finds the Benson home ideal for an ambush. |
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While in the burial of Countess Torlato-Favrini, her friend Harry Dawes and her acquaintance Oscar Muldoon recalls parts of her past. When the wealthy Kirk Edwards hires director and screenplay writer Harry Dawes, they travel to Spain with the public relations Oscar Muldoon to see the dancer of a nightclub Maria Vargas and invite her for an audition, since they need a new face for their next movie. Maria, a naive woman with simple origins, is convinced by Harry to go to Hollywood and becomes a famous star and a close friend of Harry and his girlfriend Jerry. Along her successful career, Maria lives personal dramas including lack of adaptation for her new lifestyle, is unable to love and is disputed by the powerful millionaires Kirk Edwards and Alberto Bravano. When she meets the noble and handsome Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini in the French Riviera, she believes that she found her prince charming and her life becomes a fairy tale. But after the wedding, she sees that her Cinderella's castle of dreams has become a pumpkin. |
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Adam, the eldest of seven brothers, goes to town to get a wife. He convinces Milly to marry him that same day. They return to his backwoods home. Only then does she discover he has six brothers — all living in his cabin. Milly sets out to reform the uncouth siblings, who are anxious to get wives of their own. Then, after reading about the Roman capture of the Sabine women, Adam develops an inspired solution to his brothers' loneliness . . . kidnap the women they want! |
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The Waterfront Crime Commission is about to hold public hearings on union crime and underworld infiltration. As workers are turned against each other, Terry Malloy inadvertently participates in the murder of fellow longshoreman Joey Doyle. Union boss Johnny Friendly orchestrates the murder along with other illegal dockside activities, aided by Terry's brother Charley. Terry begins to feel pangs of conscience. When Joey's sister Edie sees more in Terry than he sees in himself and Father Barry urges him on, Terry reassesses his past and begins to regain responsibility for his actions. |
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The oceans during the late 1860-92s are no longer safe; many ships have been lost. Sailors have returned to port with stories of a vicious narwhal (a giant whale with a long horn) which sinks their ships. A naturalist, Professor (Pierre) Aronnax, his assistant, Conseil, and a professional whaler, Ned Land, join an US expedition which attempts to unravel the mystery. |
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Lorelei and Dorothy are just "Two Little Girls from Little Rock", lounge singers on a transatlantic cruise, working their way to Paris, and enjoying the company of any eligible men they might meet along the way, even though "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." Based on the Broadway musical based on the novel. |
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In the reign of emperor Tiberius, Gallilean prophet John the Baptist preaches against King Herod and Queen Herodias. The latter wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him due to a prophecy. Enter beautiful Princess Salome, Herod's long-absent stepdaughter. Herodias sees the king's dawning lust for Salome as her means of bending the king to her will. But Salome and her lover Claudius are (contrary to Scripture) nearing conversion to the new religion. And the famous climactic dance turns out to have unexpected implications... |
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Having missed connections with a maharajah, gorgeous, adaptable playgirl Eloise Kelly descends upon white hunter Vic Marswell. After brief resistance, they fall into each other's arms. Then anthropologist Donald Nordley arrives; Vic is inexplicably drawn to Mrs. Nordley, a blonde twit. Kelly, her departure delayed, must go along on the Nordley safari where the two women clash over Vic. Much local color along the way. |
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"It wasn't a particularly good story, but I liked the atmosphere of Berlin after the war, and I wanted to work again with James Mason." Thus did director Carol Reed explain his decision to return to thrillers with The Man Between. Unfortunately, political conditions forced Reed out of Berlin before shooting wrapped, compelling him to complete the picture in the studio. Even so, the story of East Berliner Ivo Kern (Mason) who rescues Susanne Mallison (Claire Bloom), a British woman trapped in the Soviet Zone, is a minor masterpiece of suspense. Despite great danger to himself, Kern takes it upon himself to escort Mallison back to her family in West Berlin. After a daring dash through the countryside, the seeming impossible is achieved—but only through a conspicuous act of self sacrifice. Never completely satisfied with The Man Between, Carol Reed grudgingly admitted "It made back its money." |
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American Frank Pryor (Lloyd Bridges) arrives in London to take up an interrupted romance with Pauline French (Moria Lister), whom he hasn't seen in six years. At the airport a man standing alongside Pryor is slain by an unseen sniper, and he is detained by Scotland Yard for questioning. Released, he goes to Pauline's apartment, and learns that she had an intimate association with the slain man and is not interested in talking about it. Scotland Yard also knows this and Pryor and Pauline are kept under surveillance. After complications involving the dead man's wife, it is found that the man Pauline knows isn't dead at all and isn't who he is supposed to be. |
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Princess Anne embarks on a highly publicized tour of Europian capitals. When she and her royal entourage arrive in Rome, she begins to rebel against her restricted, regimented schedule. One night Anne sneaks out of her room, hops into the back of a delivery truck and escapes her luxurious confinement. However, a sedative she was forced to take earlier starts to take effect, and the princess is soon fast asleep on a public bench. She is found by Joe Bradley, an American newspaper reporter stationed in Rome. He takes her back to his apartment. The next morning Joe dashes off to cover the Princess Anne press conference, unaware that she is sleeping on his couch! Once he realizes his good fortune, Joe promises his editor an exclusive interview with the princess. |
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Marcellus is a tribune in the time of Christ. He is in charge of the group that is assigned to crucify Jesus. Drunk, he wins Jesus' homespun robe after the crucifixion. He is tormented by nightmares and delusions after the event. Hoping to find a way to live with what he has done, and still not believing in Jesus, he returns to Palestine to try and learn what he can of the man he killed. |
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A gang of forty motorcyclists, the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, gate-crash a legitimate motorcycle race. They are eventually thrown out, but one of the gang steals the second prize trophy and gives it to their leader, Johnny. The gang then ride into Wrightsville, where they race up and down the main street before piling into Bleekers - the local bar. The owner of the bar is happy to let the bikers spend their money, so does not support the sheriff's attempt to address any disturbances. Stuck in town following an accident to a Black Rebel, Johnny falls for the sheriff's daughter and tries to impress her with the trophy. When a rival gang, The Beetles, ride into town, trouble is just around the corner. |
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Shane rides into a conflict between cattleman Ryker and a bunch of settlers, like the Starretts, whose land Ryker wants. When Shane beats up Ryker's man Chris, Ryker tries to buy him. Then Shane and Joe take on the whole Ryker crew. Ryker sends to Cheyenne for truly evil gunslinger Wilson. We wonder about Shane's relation to Joe's wife Marian. Shane must clear out all the guns from the valley before he can ride off with Joey hollering "Shane ... Shane ... Come Back!" |
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