Forever Amber 1947 N/R, 140 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Otto Preminger Cast: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, George Sanders, Richard Haydn, Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, Leo G. Carroll, John Russell, Robert Coote
Living in London during the 17th century, Amber (Linda Darnell) rises from life as a prisoner to Lady in the Court of Charles II by trading sex for power. Too long, but still holds the interest fairly well.
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The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947 N/R, 104 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Edna Best, Vanessa Brown, Anna Lee, Robert Coote, Natalie Wood, Isobel Elsom, Victoria Horne
When widowed Mrs. Muir (Gene Tierney) and her small family move into Gull Cottage, they find it is already inhabited–by the ghost of sea Captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison). Although she thinks she is in love with Miles Fairley (George Sanders), it is really the captain with whom Mrs. Muir is destined to become a soul mate.
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Gunga Din 1939 N/R, 117 min. Genre: Adventure / Action / Comedy / Drama
Director: George Stevens Cast: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine, Montagu Love, Robert Coote, Cecil Kellaway, Abner Biberman, Lumsden Hare, Reginald Sheffield, Roland Varno, Charles Bennett, Jamiel Hasson
Rudyard Kipling's poem about British soldiers crushing revolts during the 1800s in India is the source for this outstanding film. After a British outpost is raided by the rebelling Thugges who want the British off their land, Sergeants Cutter (Cary Grant) MacChesney (Victor McLaglen), and Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) are ordered to the outpost to annihilate the raiders. They are accompanied by Indian troops and water-bearer Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe) and manage to complete their mission. Later, Cutter and Gunga Din search for gold and find it–in the Thugges' headquarters, and the dangers reach new heights.
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The Horse's Mouth 1958 N/R, 96 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Ronald Neame Cast: Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renee Houston, Mike Morgan, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, Robert Coote, Reginald Beckwith, Veronica Turleigh, Arthur Macrae, Gillian Vaughn, Peter Bull, Clive Revill, Richard Leech, Mary Davies
This insightful satire is about Gully Jimson (Alec Guinness), a weird artist who cannot adapt to the world around him. Gully has served time in jail for vagrancy, and is now released when, uninvited, he moves into Sir William and Lady Beeder's (Robert Coote and Veronica Turleigh) flat while they are out of town. Gully puts his latest art work on their walls, which is NOT what they want. Next, Gully paints a culmination of his artistry in a deserted church, but the church is slated for demolition, and his art work is destroyed. Finally, Gully boards his houseboat and sails off to another world.
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The League of Gentlemen 1960 N/R, 114 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Basil Dearden Cast: Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey, Richard Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Kieron Moore, Terence Alexander, David Lodge, Patrick Wymark, Robert Coote
To aid in his efforts to rob a bank, ex-Army Colonel Hyde (Jack Hawkins) recruits former officers and uses military discipline with great success.
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Lured 1947 N/R, 102 min. Genre: Mystery aka: Personal Column
Director: Douglas Sirk Cast: George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn, Alan Mowbray, Cedric Hardwicke, Boris Karloff, George Zucco, Joseph Calleia, Alan Napier, Robert Coote
Lucille Ball plays a chorus girl who police enlist as bait for a serial killer–a psychopath who uses the personal columns when contemplating his next murder.
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A Matter of Life and Death 1946 PG, 104 min. Genre: Drama / Horror / Fantasy / Thriller aka: Stairway to Heaven
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Richard Attenborough, Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kathleen Byron, Bonar Colleano, Abraham Sofaer, Joan Maude, Robert Atkins, Bob Roberts, Edwin Max, Betty Potter
Returning from a World War II bombing run, Squadron Leader Peter Carter (David Niven) realizes his plane will not make it. He talks on his radio to RAF worker June (Kim Hunter) and then jumps, certain that he will die. But a miracle occurs, and Carter awakens in the surf (the angels couldn't find him in the fog, so he didn't die). He and June meet, fall in love, and talk Heaven into waiting.
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The Merry Widow 1952 N/R, 105 min. Genre: Musical
Director: Curtis Bernhardt Cast: Lana Turner, Fernando Lamas, Una Merkel, Richard Haydn, Thomas Gomez, Marcel Dalio, King Donovan, Robert Coote, Gwen Verdon, John Abbott
This is the third film based on France Lehar's operetta about the aristocratic prince (Fernando Lamas) who woos the wealthy American widow (Lana Turner).
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Mr. Moto's Last Warning 1939 N/R, 71 min. Genre: Mystery
Director: Norman Foster Cast: Peter Lorre, Ricardo Cortez, Virginia Field, John Carradine, George Sanders, Robert Coote, John Davidson, E.E. Clive, Holmes Herbert, Leyland Hodgson
A plot to disrupt agreements between France and England over the Suez Canal is thwarted by Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre).
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Othello 1952 N/R, 90 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Orson Welles Cast: Orson Welles, Suzanne Cloutier, Michael MacLiammoir, Robert Coote, Michael Laurence, Fay Compton, Joseph Cotten, Joan Fontaine
This is the classic tale by Shakespeare in which the Moor Othello (Orson Welles) marries Desdemona (Suzanne Cloutier), but happiness turns to tragedy when Othello heeds Iago's jealous advice. Restored, with new sound recording, and rereleased in 1992.
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The Prisoner of Zenda 1952 N/R, 100 min. Genre: Adventure / Drama / Romance
Director: Richard Thorpe Cast: Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Louis Calhern, Jane Greer, Lewis Stone, Robert Douglas, Robert Coote, James Mason, Peter Brocco, Francis Pierlot, Jay Adler, Kathleen Freeman, John Goldsworthy, Forbes Murray, Thomas Browne Henry
In this remake of the 1937 film, Stewart Granger stars in the Ronald Colman role of an Englishman, Rudolf Rassendyll, who vacations in Romania where it is discovered that he has a surprising resemblance to Romania's Prince Rudolph (also played by Granger). The Prince's brother Michael, Duke of Strelsau (Robert Douglas) plans to usurp the throne and drugs the Prince the night before his coronation. Because he looks so much like the Prince, Rudolf is asked to impersonate the Prince during the coronation and foil the plot of his evil brother. Once he catches on to the subterfuge, the brother imprisons the real Prince, and now Rudolf, while carrying out the ruse, begins to fall in love with the Prince's fiancee Princess Flavia (Deborah Kerr).
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The Red Danube 1949 N/R, 119 min. Genre: Drama
Director: George Sidney Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, Louis Calhern, Francis L. Sullivan, Melville Cooper, Robert Coote, Alan Napier
This post-World War II film depicts Soviets as BAD in a story involving the plight of Russian refugees living in Austria and is a good example of propaganda used by the film industry during the Red Scare.
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Scaramouche 1952 N/R, 118 min. Genre: Adventure
Director: George Sidney Cast: Stewart Granger, Eleanor Parker, Janet Leigh, Mel Ferrer, Henry Wilcoxon, Nina Foch, Robert Coote, Richard Anderson, Lewis Stone, Elisabeth Risdon, Frank Mitchell
This excellent adventure film takes place in pre-Revolutionary War France as nobleman Andre Moreau (Stewart Granger) seeks to avenge his friend's murder. The climax is an unsurpassed sword fight between Moreau and the Marquis de Maynes (Mel Ferrer).
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The Swan 1956 N/R, 112 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Charles Vidor Cast: Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Louis Jourdan, Agnes Moorehead, Jessie Royce Landis, Brian Aherne, Leo G. Carroll, Estelle Winwood, Robert Coote, Doris Lloyd
Set in 1910's Hungary, Princess Alexandra (Grace Kelly) finds herself falling in love with Dr. Nicholas Agi (Louis Jourdan) although she is promised in marriage to Prince Albert (Alec Guinness).
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Theater of Blood 1973 R, 104 min. Genre: Horror / Thriller aka: Theatre of Blood
Director: Douglas Hickox Cast: Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Ian Hendry, Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins, Robert Coote, Robert Morley, Coral Browne, Diana Dors, Michael Hordern
When critics pan his work, actor Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price) murders them using methods based on those used in Shakespeare's plays. Lots of gore and fun.
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The Three Musketeers 1948 N/R, 128 min. Genre: Adventure / Action / Drama / Romance
Director: George Sidney Cast: Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Vincent Price, Gig Young, Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn, Reginald Owen, Frank Morgan, John Sutton, Robert Coote, Ian Keith, Patricia Medina, Richard Wyler
For the sheer fun of spotting many MGM stars, this is a good rendition of the Alexandre Dumas classic novel about D'Artagnan (Gene Kelly) and the musketeers'–Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (Van Heflin, Gig Young, and Robert Coote)–reaction to Louis XIII (Frank Morgan) and the calculating Cardinal Richelieu (Vincent Price).
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The V.I.P.s 1963 N/R, 119 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Anthony Asquith Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, Orson Welles, Margaret Rutherford, Rod Taylor, Maggie Smith, Michael Hordern, Robert Coote
The acting is top notch in this film about four V.I.P.s who are stranded overnight by fog at London's Heathrow Airport. Margaret Rutherford won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
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| 1. Forever Amber (1947)
2. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
3. Gunga Din (1939)
4. The Horse's Mouth (1958)
5. Institute for Revenge (1979)
6. The League of Gentlemen (1960)
7. Lured (1947) aka: Personal Column
8. A Matter of Life and Death (1946) aka: Stairway to Heaven
9. The Merry Widow (1952)
10. Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939)
11. Othello (1952)
12. The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)
13. The Red Danube (1949)
14. Scaramouche (1952)
15. The Swan (1956)
16. Theater of Blood (1973) aka: Theatre of Blood
17. The Three Musketeers (1948)
18. The V.I.P.s (1963)
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