Witness for the Prosecution (1957), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Island of Lost Souls (1933), O. Henry's Full House (1952), Rembrandt (1936), The Old Dark House (1932), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), The Canterville Ghost (1944) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Charles Laughton movies.
Storyline: Britain, 1953. Upon his return to work following a heart attack, barrister takes on a murder case,. The case is defending American war vet Leonard Vole, a poor, out of work, struggling inventor who's accused of murdering his middle-aged lonely and wealthy acquaintance, Emily French. The evidence is circumstantial but points to Leonard as the murderer, butr the csse has constant revelations.
Plot Keywords: courtroom drama, mystery, crime, drama, film noir, classic, murder ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: King Louis XI is a wise and old king and Frollo is the Chief Justice. Frollo gazes on the gypsy girl, Esmeralda, in the church during Fool's Day and sends Quasimodo to catch her. Quasimodo, with the girl, is captured by Phoebus, Captain of the Guards, who frees the girl. The courts sentence Quasimodo to be flogged, and the only one who will give him water while he is tied in the square is Esmeralda. Later, at a party of nobles, Esmeralda again meets both Frollo, who is bewitched by her, and Phoebus. When Phoebus is stabbed to death, Esmeralda is accused of the murder, convicted by the court and sentenced to hang. Clopin, King of the Beggars; Gringoire, Esmeralda's husband; and Quasimodo, the bellringer, all try different ways to save her from the gallows.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: paris, religion, social injustice, love, tragedy, adaptation, classic ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: After his ship goes down, Edward Parker is rescued at sea. Parker gets into a fight with Captain Davies of the Apia and the Captain tosses him overboard while making a delivery to the tiny tropical island of Dr. Moreau. Parker discovers that Moreau has good reason to be so secretive on his lonely island. The doctor is a whip-cracking task master to a growing population of his own gruesome human/animal experiments. He does have one prize result, Lota the beautiful panther woman. Parker's fortunes for escape look up after his fiancée Ruth finds him with the help of fearless Captain Donohue. However, when Moreau's tribe of near-humans rises up to rebel, no one is safe...—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
Plot Keywords: horror, science fiction, classic, black and white, adaptation, 1930s, island ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: "O. Henry's Full House" is a film divided into five segments telling five tales at the beginning of the twentieth century. 1) "The Cop and the Anthem": The winter is coming and the homeless drifter Soapy wants to go to jail for three months to get shelter and food. His partner Horace suggests they look for shelter with the Salvation Army, but Soapy refuses. He forces many situations to be arrested, but he is always forgiven. When he goes to the church, there is a miracle and Soapy decides to seek a job position. Will he succeed? 2) "The Clarion Call": When a thief kills a man, the police investigators do not have any lead to follow. Police Sergeant Barney Woods sees a pen that was found in the crime scene and he seeks out a man called Johnny Kernan. He finds Johnny, who invites Barney to drink with him, and they go to his hotel room. Johnny recalls their youth, when they were friends, but Barney tells him that he must arrest him since he recognized the pen that belonged to Johnny. However, the criminal recalls that Barney owes him $ 1,000 that Barney lost in a card game. Barney unsuccessfully tries to raise the money to quit the debt. He decides to tell the chief of police, but out of the blue he sees the spotlight on "The Clarion Call" and runs to the newspaper. What did he see? 3) "The Last Leaf": When the lover of 21-year-old Joanna Goodwin breaks up with her, she wanders on the snow and gets pneumonia. Her older sister, Susan Goodwin, finds that Joanna does not want to live anymore and is following the leaves that keep falling from a tree. Their upstairs neighbor, the painter Behrman, tries to help the girls the best he can. Will he be able to save Joanna? 4) "The Ransom of Red Chief": The con men Sam 'Slick' Brown and Bill Peoria flee to the countryside in their car and plot to kidnap the boy J.B. Dorset to ask for ransom from his parents. But soon they find that the boy is a little devil. 5) "The Gift of the Magi": On Christmas Eve, Della and her beloved husband Jim are penniless and in love with each other. Jim dreams of giving a tiara to Della since she has wonderful hair, and Della wants to give Jim a chain for his pocket watch. On Christmas night, they each find a way to buy the gifts.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Plot Keywords: american movie, black and white film, 1950s, anthology film, drama, comedy elements, literary adaptation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This character study joins the painter at the height of his fame in 1642, when his adored wife suddenly dies and his work takes a dark, sardonic turn that offends his patrons. By 1656, he is bankrupt but consoles himself with the company of pretty maid Hendrickje, whom he's unable to marry. Their relationship brings ostracism but also some measure of happiness. The final scenes find him in his last year, 1669, physically enfeebled but his spirit undimmed.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: biography, historical, drama, art, painter, netherlands, black and white ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Seeking shelter from a pounding rainstorm in a remote region of Wales, several travellers are admitted to a gloomy, foreboding mansion belonging to the extremely strange Femm family. Trying to make the best of it, the guests must deal with their sepulchral host, Horace Femm and his obsessive, malevolent sister Rebecca. Things get worse as the brutish manservant Morgan gets drunk, runs amuck and releases the long pent-up brother Saul, a psychotic pyromaniac who gleefully tries to destroy the residence by setting it on fire.—Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net>
Plot Keywords: horror, mystery, thriller, gothic, dark, storm, family secrets ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1845 London, the Barrett family is ruled with an iron fist by its stern widowed patriarch, Edward Moulton-Barrett. His nine grown children are afraid of him more than they love him. One of his rules is that none of his children are allowed to marry, which does not sit well with youngest daughter Henrietta as she loves and wants to marry Captain Surtees Cook. Of the nine, the one exception is his daughter Elizabeth, who abides faithfully to her father's wishes. Elizabeth does not think too much about the non-marriage rule as she has an unknown chronic illness which has kept her bedridden. She feels her life will not be a long one. With her time, she writes poetry, which she shares by correspondence with another young poet, Robert Browning. Elizabeth's outlook on her life changes when she meets Mr. Browning for the first time, he who has fallen in love with her without even having met her. She, in return, falls in love with him after their meeting. With Mr. Browning's love and support, Elizabeth tries to get well and enjoy life, this all against the thoughts of her father, who physically and emotionally traps Elizabeth and by association all of his children, all in the name of protecting her and them in the name of God.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: romance, drama, biography, historical, victorian era, poet, family conflict ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the 1600s, cowardly Sir Simon of Canterville flees a duel and seeks solace in the family castle. His ashamed father seals him in the room where he is hiding and dooms him to life as a ghost until one of his descendants performs a brave deed. Simon believes he may be saved when he meets Cuffy Williams, an American kinsman stationed with a troop of soldiers at the castle in 1943. Will this blood relative save the family honor, or will his blood be as yellow as the rest of the Cantervilles?—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>
Plot Keywords: comedy, horror, fantasy, family, classic, black and white, ghost ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In early 19th century Cornwall, a young orphan, Mary, is sent to live with Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss who are landlords of the Jamaica Inn. Mary soon realises her uncle's inn serves as the base for a gang of ship wreckers - who lure ships to their doom on the rocky coast, and Mary begins to fear for her life.—Claudio Sandrini <pulp99@geocities.com>
Plot Keywords: adventure, mystery, historical, crime, drama, thriller, film noir ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Tony (Charles Laughton), a successful but illiterate middle-aged grape farmer, sends the photograph of his handsome young foreman, Joe (William Gargan), instead of his own, hoping to woo and marry Amy (Carole Lombard), a waitress in a San Francisco restaurant. Through a series of letters, the two become close and Tony invites his "future wife" to visit. When the beautiful, young Amy arrives at Tony's Napa, California ranch she falls for the wrong man thinking that Joe is the wealthy Tony. When Tony tries to win her over in broken English, she is at first furious and then charmed. But Tony breaks his legs while showing off to impress Amy, and -- left alone to care for a cripple -- she reluctantly succumbs to Joe's charms and becomes pregnant. Although Tony discovers that he has been cuckolded and that Joe has run off, his anger turns to genuine love and he offers to take Amy back unconditionally for the sake of the child and his own true feelings for Amy.—E. Summer
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, comedy, classic, black and white, american film, 1940s ...
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