Author Archive: Retro

Special Forces commander Captain Tadamori returns to Kyoto after successfully defeating the uprising of pirates in the western sea of Japan. But because the high courtiers dislike career soldiers gaining power and influence, they ignore the will of ex-Emperor Toba and refuse to reward the captain. Reward recommender Lord Tokinobu is punished, and the captain sends his son Kiyomori to the Lord’s residence, where he falls in love with Tokiko, the Lord’s daughter. Meanwhile, Kiyomori finds out that he is possibly the ex-Emperor’s son.

Mario (Fernandel), a bumptious sheep-shearer, discovers he has a inimtable touch that makes women, as well as sheep, swoon at his professional caress. He is soon the most sought-after hairdresser in France and is awarded the Legion of Honor. Among the women whose lives are changed by a hairdo(and his “touch”) are Renee Devillers, his understanding wife; Arlette Poirier, a busy demimondaine, and Blanchette Brunoy, his most appreciative customer who sets up his ritzy establishment.

Fear and Desire is a 1952 American independently-produced anti-war film directed, produced, and edited by Stanley Kubrick, and written by Howard Sackler. With a production team of fifteen people, the film, which originally premiered at the Venice Film Festival under the title Shape of Fear, was Kubrick’s feature directorial debut.

American editor of a Japanese newspaper uncovers a sinister plot for world dominance when two of his friends are mysteriously murdered; and he might be next! Based on a true story. Produced by William Cagney. Dir. Frank Lloyd

When a young woman deserts her rancher husband and, with her son Ben, goes to live with the drunken Tom Blair. Blair raises Ben as his son, but kills Ben’s mother, causing the boy to return to his natural father. There, Ben falls in love with Florence Winthrop. Later, Ben gains revenge for his mother’s death by killing Tom, but he loses Florence, who decides to live in the East. When Ben learns that Florence has become engaged, he goes after her and issues an ultimatum: if she does not take him back, he will kill her fiancé. After first resenting Ben for his demand, Florence realizes that she loves him and returns West with him.

A sci-fi/espionage film in which world powers vie for control of a death ray during World War I.

Dustin Farnum and Winifred Kingston are a couple of poor Irish is to get married and have a cow. When Farnum reads that New York City has the finest police force in America, because it’s all Irishmen, Farnum decides that’s the place for him. So Miss Kingston sells her pig, Farnum borrows the rest, and it’s off to the New World for him. It takes him half the movie to get on the force, and he promptly loses his job, when he refuses to accept pay-offs from women who wear kimonos for his boss.

Tough, Irish tomboy Pickford mothers her policeman father while getting into trouble with the ethnically diverse denizens of the ghetto. Dir. Charles Chaplin.