In this Pete Smith Specialty short, clips from several unidentified silent films are woven into a story, with humorous commentary by Smith.
Social & External
Narrator (voice)
This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.
This horror documentary is not the same as the 1986 TV special Stephen King's World of Horror nor the 1988 VHS release of the same name, which runs 45 minutes, was distributed by Front Row Entertainment and is about King himself. Instead, This Is Horror (copyright 1989) was a TV special which ran in four 60 minute increments. This new special used some framing footage from the original 'World of Horror' but is primarily newer interviews and behind-the-scenes footage about what was hot in horror in the late 80s. Here in the U.S., a condensed 90-minute version made its way onto video courtesy of Goodtimes in 1990. Elsewhere, the entire special was released as 2 different tapes running 90 minutes apiece. In the UK these were titled This is Horror: A Video Encyclopedia of Horror (Volumes 1 and 2) and in Germany they were called Best of Stephen King's World of Horror (Parts 1 & 2).
The Death of 'Superman Lives': What Happened? feature film documents the process of development of the ill fated "Superman Lives" movie, that was to be directed by Tim Burton and star Nicolas Cage as the man of steel himself, Superman. The project went through years of development before the plug was pulled, and this documentary interviews the major filmmakers: Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, Jon Peters, Dan Gilroy, Colleen Atwood, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and many many more.
Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Peter Fonda host an examination of the history of decency standards for movies from the early 1920s onwards.
A Turner Classic Movies (TCM) documentary about Keaton's discontented relationship with MGM and the events that eventually led to his career downfall.
“This film was a gift to me. I make no claims for it, nor do I offer any apologies. It comes from work on The Thoughts That Once We Had. There was one shot we had to cut whose loss I particularly regretted. It was a shot of a train pulling into Tokyo Station from Ozu’s The Only Son (1936). So I decided to make a film around this shot, an anthology of train arrivals. It comprises 26 scenes or shots from movies, 1904-2015. It has a simple serial structure: each black & white sequence in the first half rhymes with a color sequence in the second half. Thus the first shot and the final shot show trains arriving at stations in Japan from a low camera height. In the first shot (The Only Son), the train moves toward the right; in the last shot, it moves toward the left. A bullet train has replaced a steam locomotive. So after all these years, I’ve made another structural film, although that was not my original intention.”
This film features highlights of MGM's productions from 1924 through 1943, in honor of the studio's twentieth anniversary.
Jack Shepard is an out-of-shape auto shop owner, far removed from the man who once protected the world's freedom. Reluctantly called back into action by the government, Jack is tasked with turning a ragtag group of kids with special powers into a new generation of superheroes to save the world from certain destruction.
Ben Healy and his social climbing wife Flo adopt fun-loving seven year old Junior. But they soon discover he's a little monster as he turns a camping trip, a birthday party and even a baseball game into comic nightmares.
Earl Montgomery, a bombastic police academy reject, and Hank Rafferty, a disgraced, mild-mannered cop, can't seem to escape each other. They met on opposite sides of the law during a routine traffic stop that escalated out of control; now as lowly security guards they're thrown together to bust a smuggling operation.
Swedish efficiency researchers come to Norway for a study of Norwegian men, to optimize their use of their kitchen. Folke Nilsson (Tomas Norström) is assigned to study the habits of Isak Bjørvik (Joachim Calmeyer). By the rules of the research institute, Folke has to sit on an umpire's chair in Isak's kitchen and observe him from there, but never talk to him. Isak stops using his kitchen and observes Folke through a hole in the ceiling instead. However, the two lonely men slowly overcome the initial post-war Norwegian-Swede distrust and become friends.
Back from their trip abroad, the family must meet the people of the neighborhood while preparing for the 25th anniversary of Zonnedael. Ma falls in love with a bum that is not exactly what he seems to be.
When loser Marvin Mange is involved in a horrible car accident, he's brought back to life by a deranged scientist as half man and half animal. His newfound powers are awesome -- but their adverse side effects could take over his life. Now, Marvin must fight to control his crazy primal urges around his new squeeze, Rianna, and his rival, Sgt. Sisk, who both think he's one cool cat.
In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.
Mommsen Gymnasium director Taft secretly places his nephew as a spy with the difficult class of Pepe Nietnagel. During the celebration for the 100th anniversary, a simulated fire forces the school to shut down for a week. The director's attempt to get a tough teacher assigned by the department of education results in the exact opposite because of Nietnagel's intervention.
Andreas, a young German student comes to Hungary on an exchange programme. In the Hungarian village he falls in love with the stationmaster's daughter Piroschka and spends much of his time with her. They have an enchanting summer until Andreas gets an invitation to join another young woman at a nearby resort. Piroschka is jealous and follows him there, causing trouble. It takes a long time for Andreas and Piroschka to even talk to each other again. When Andreas has to leave Hungary at the end of his holiday, he is determined to return some day.
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, Dr. Harold E. Edgerton demonstrates stroboscopic photography, which he helped develop. This process allows us to see in slow motion what happens during events that occur too fast to be seen by the naked eye. Examples shown here include a bullet in flight as it shatters a light bulb, the moment of impact when a kicker kicks a football, and the motion of a hummingbird's wings as it hovers.
After blowing his professional ballet career, John's only way to redeem himself is to concoct the demise of his former partner, Leah, who he blames for his downfall; he rehearses his salvation in his mind in the way that he rehearses a dance, but being able to break from the routine will be the key to his success.
A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.
When Crystal Wyatt was 16 her father passed away. From that time her life would never be the same. Crystal is banished from the family ranch, and starts a new life as a singer in a San Francisco nightclub.
It's the end of the century at a corner of the city in a building riddled with crime - Everyone in the building has turned into zombies. After Jenny's boyfriend is killed in a zombie attack, she faces the challenge of surviving in the face of adversity. In order to stay alive, she struggles with Andy to flee danger.
Chow Sing Sing returns, only this time he doesn’t go back to school. Instead, Chow goes undercover as the husband of a wealthy socialite, which doesn’t sit well with his fiancée, who tries to convince Chow to quit working as undercover.
When Jason Dyson refuses to make his prized fighter throw an MMA match, a notorious gangster collects his debt by killing the fighter and kidnapping Jason's daughter. Now he must train a prisoner to endure five consecutive underground fights to save her.
The execution was scheduled and the last meal consumed. The coolness of the poisons entering the blood system slowed the heart rate and sent him on the way to Judgement. He had paid for his crime with years on Death Row waiting for this moment and now he would pay for them again as the judgment continued..
A group of friends try to defeat an evil king, and meet some quirky characters along the way.
After the Civil War, a former Union colonel searches for the two traitors whose perfidy led to the loss of a close friend.
8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.
On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small, Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.
Best friends Mimmi and Rönkkö support each other unconditionally. They want to live adventurous lives, loaded with experiences and passion. Emma on the contrary has given her whole life to figure skating. Nothing gets between her and success. But when the girls meet, life opens whole new paths, and they all rocket in new directions. While Mimmi and Emma experience the earth moving effects of first love, Rönkkö is on a quest to find pleasure. Three Fridays is all it takes to turn their worlds upside down.
This time the "amici" (friends) are just four: Necchi, Meandri, Mascetti and Sassaroli. Nevertheless they are older they still love to spend their time mainly organizing irresistible jokes to everyone in every kind of situation. Mascetti is hospitalized in a geriatric clinic. Of course the place become immediately the main stage for all their jokes. After some jokes they decided to place an ultimate incredible and farcical joke to the clinic guests.
In this experimental short film, a young man and woman enter into a relationship with one another and quickly learn the ups and downs of intertwining their life with the one they love.
I was somewhere between the beggining and the end of life. After winter became spring, and summer became fall, and fall winter again. I always knew change would be constant.
Jura is 23 years old - and Lena is 23. They live in Budennovsk, play computer games, walk and learn. They live in a city where Shamil Basayev entered 23 years ago with militants, and know almost nothing about the events of that time.
Box is a story of two people who meet at a crossroad. Two different destinies, two different lives, face to face in a game of sweat, blood and tears. Rafael (19) is a young boxer who dreams to conquer the world; Cristina (33) is a single mother who lost her balance. Two lives; one running very close to the earth, the other trying to fly high up, too high.
Ambitious overachiever Hanna just needs one more kid before her life is perfect. Instead, her baby daddy unexpectedly dumps her. Suddenly, she finds herself without a place to live, job or family. With every fiber of her being set for victory, Hanna refuses to give up and decides to win him back. But to get there means having to win something much more important, love and desire for herself and who she is.
