#410 – His Girl Friday, 1940, Howard Hawks
Hildy, the journalist former wife of newspaper editor Walter Burns, visits his office to inform him that she’s engaged and will be getting remarried the next day. Walter can’t let that happen and frames the fiancé, Bruce Baldwin, for one thing after another, to keep him temporarily held in prison, while trying to steer Hildy into returning to her old job as his employee.
#411 – An Autumn Afternoon, (秋刀魚の味), 1962, Yasujirō Ozu
Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
#412 – Strangers on a Train, 1951, Alfred Hitchcock
A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder—a theory that he plans to implement.
#413 – The Bad Sleep Well, (悪い奴ほどよく眠る), 1960, Akira Kurosawa
In this loose adaptation of “Hamlet,” illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi’s father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father’s death.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#414 – Sherlock, Jr., 1924, Buster Keaton
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocketwatch.
#415 – Blow-Up, 1966, Michelangelo Antonioni
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he accidentally captures on film the commission of a murder. The fact that he has photographed a murder does not occur to him until he studies and then blows up his negatives, uncovering details, blowing up smaller and smaller elements, and finally putting the puzzle together.
#416 – Dazed and Confused, 1993, Richard Linklater
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a “no drugs” pledge.
#417 – Day of Wrath, (Vredens dag), 1943, Carl Theodor Dreyer
In a Danish village in the early 1600s, a young woman named Anne, whose mother was thought to be a witch, develops sympathy toward an old woman, Marte, who is accused of witchcraft. The intervention of Anne’s older but kindly husband, Pastor Absalon saved her mother – but now, urged on by his overbearing mother, he refuses to help Marte. When Absalon’s son returns home and is attracted to Anne, it’s a matter of time before her family destiny catches up with her.
#418 – The Sting, 1973, George Roy Hill
Set in the 1930s this intricate caper deals with an ambitious small-time crook and a veteran con man who seek revenge on a vicious crime lord who murdered one of their gang.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#419 – Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003, Gore Verbinski
Jack Sparrow, a freewheeling 18th-century pirate, quarrels with a rival pirate bent on pillaging Port Royal. When the governor’s daughter is kidnapped, Sparrow decides to help the girl’s love save her.
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 