Author Archive: Retro

Juliette (Jeanne Moreau) and her husband, Valmont (Gérard Philipe), are an attractive, much-gossiped-about couple who help one another find lovers on the side in order to keep their own relationship interesting. Neither Juliette nor Valmont has ever taken these dalliances seriously, until Juliette’s newest beau ditches her for the chaste Cecile (Jeanne Valerie). Scorned, Juliette enlists Valmont to seduce Cecile and ruin her good name, but the plan results in betrayal and violence.

Juliette (Jeanne Moreau) and her husband, Valmont (Gérard Philipe), are an attractive, much-gossiped-about couple who help one another find lovers on the side in order to keep their own relationship interesting. Neither Juliette nor Valmont has ever taken these dalliances seriously, until Juliette’s newest beau ditches her for the chaste Cecile (Jeanne Valerie). Scorned, Juliette enlists Valmont to seduce Cecile and ruin her good name, but the plan results in betrayal and violence.

Spectacular medieval adventure with a count’s son plotting revenge for his father’s death. Disguising himself as the mysterious “Black Archer”, he wins the day after plenty of rousing swordplay and swashbuckling.

Beautiful but poor shopgirl joins a dance troupe and inspires patronage by dancing the Mambo. Dir. Cecil B. DeMille.

Bank robber’s plans for a wealthy lifestyle gradually turn to more noble aims.

As he is about to retire, a police officer discovers that his daughter is mixed up with a criminal gang and is about to go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit. Against his better judgment, he comes up with a plan to keep her from going to prison.

A destitute, suicidal man is offered a contract for 18 months to act as a front for an unscrupulous businessman, with his life being forfeit. He carries out his agreement, also writing a successful novel and falling in love, wanting to break the contract early. He is refused

Charlie as a boy on a trip to the local museum, falls in love with a green Portland vase (Wedgwood), and decides that this is his quest in life to find it. So as a grown up and an antique dealer he is still searching, does he achieve his goal though ?

Produced in Italy in breathtaking Technicolor, this biographical story of Puccini (played by L’avventura’s Gabriele Ferzetti) spans his creative life from early student days to the height of success, including his early flop Madama Butterfly and his incomplete Turandot. Along the way he encounters three women who change his life, including a sexy, beautiful singer (Two for the Road’s Nadia Gray) whom he drops for a small town girl (Sirocco’s Marta Toren), and a servant girl who commits suicide over him. Well-selected excerpts from Manon, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Turandot are featured along with other Puccini music, including the voice of Beniamino Gigli. Sets, costumes and production values are first class, all sumptuously filmed by Claude Renoir.