Annie Ross
Told in Count Basie's own words, this biography sheds light on both the professional and the private life of the world-famous bandleader and pianist who became a jazz icon for his generation.
The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.
A tribute to jazz diva Anita O'Day, completed just weeks before her death in November 2006.
Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?
Henelotter up's the ante in the final part of his trilogy by introducing a new member to the family; the potentially monstrous fruit of hideously deformed Belial's loins. With the pair still enjoying relative anonymity and comfort in their new found home (presided over by Granny Roth), things however take a downward turn on a trip to the Georgia Clinic of Uncle Hal, which leads to an encounter with an especially nasty redneck sheriff and his similarly blinkered band of merry men.
Mark Hunter is an intelligent but shy teenager who has just moved to suburban Arizona from New York. Unbeknownst to his parents and peers, at 10pm each school night Mark takes to the shortwave radio in his basement and transforms into pirate DJ "Hard Harry". Mark's show, at once thoughtful and profane, becomes an underground hit with students at his high school, inspiring the wrath of his principal and the Federal Communications Commission [FCC].
Having eluded the authorities after a series of grisly murders, the pair find sanctuary at the palatial home of Granny Ruth, an eccentric philanthropist who rallies the cause of "Unique Individuals". But even amongst "friends" the pair soon find themselves having to confront their murderous past.
The deserted island hotel hides a dark and sinister secret. Hundreds of years ago a witch held sway there, dominating her coven and spreading an evil that has seeped deep into the earth. Two centuries later, a photographer and his virginal fiance sneak onto the island to research its gruesome history. Soon all will find themselves falling victim to a horror that has survived the ages....
Larry Donner, an author with a cruel ex-wife, teaches a writing workshop in which one of his students, Owen, is fed up with his domineering mother. When Owen watches a Hitchcock classic that seems to mirror his own life, he decides to put the movie's plot into action and offers to kill Larry's ex-wife, if Larry promises to murder his mom. Before Larry gets a chance to react to the plan, it seems that Owen has already set things in motion.
Aiming to defeat the Man of Steel, wealthy executive Ross Webster hires bumbling but brilliant Gus Gorman to develop synthetic kryptonite, which yields some unexpected psychological effects in the third installment of the 1980s Superman franchise. Between rekindling romance with his high school sweetheart and saving himself, Superman must contend with a powerful supercomputer.
Crime, drama. In Las Vegas, young Barry Nichols inadvertently steals a fortune from the Mob and is slashed to death by a limping hood. Later, his girlfriend Cass arrives in London with a stack of stolen credit cards looking for Ben Turtle, a talented pianist whose fingering is famous in the world of credit card crime. Their stormy relationship is hindered by hotel detective Keith Banks and assistant manager Diana Sharman. -- BFI synopsis from http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b69480238
During WWII, the United States set up army bases in Great Britain as part of the war effort. Against their proper sensibilities, many of the Brits don't much like the brash Yanks, especially when it comes to the G.I.s making advances on the lonely British girls. One relationship that develops is between married John, an Army Captain, and the aristocratic Helen, whose naval husband is away at war. Helen loves her husband, but Helen and John are looking for some comfort during the difficult times.
Kitty runs a brothel in Nazi Germany where the soldiers come to "relax". Recording devices have been installed in each room by a power hungry army official who plans to use the information to blackmail Hitler and gain power himself. A girl named Margherita discovers the little ploy and with Kitty's help plans to take on the dangerous task of exposing the conspiracy.
Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there.
Brenda moved to London to begin living those intoxicated fantasies that all young women imagine city life to offer. Soon after her arrival she begins a relationship with Peter with whom she is tremendously happy. When she becomes pregnant Peter's behaviour towards her alters as he reveals the most frightening and unpredictable side of his personality. He forces Brenda to listen to a series of recordings, exposing a past of shocking cruelty of sadistic murder.
Documentary film in which Marty Feldman looks at humour through the people who create it.
Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.
Alfalfa gives up being "King of the Crooners" to sing opera, but a nightmare of being under the thumb of an evil producer sends him back to his roots.
