Black Gold (1947)
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A misfit group of New Mexico cowboys find themselves on the journey of a lifetime when they learn their crooked-footed racehorse qualifies to run in the Kentucky Derby. Based on the true story of Mine That Bird, the cowboys must overcome impossible odds even before they reach Churchill Downs and the land of Kentucky's blue bloods.
Housewife and mother Penny Chenery agrees to take over her ailing father's Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge. Against all odds, Chenery - with the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin - manages to navigate the male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.
Horse trainer Shawn O'Hara and his lovely niece, Margaret, come to America to escape the memory of an accident involving Margaret's brother, Danny. Working with thoroughbreds in Kentucky, Shawn takes a liking to a yearling named Seabiscuit, and fights to convince the horse's owner that the tiny horse with big knees will become a top-notch racehorse. Meanwhile, Margaret begins a tentative relationship with jockey Ted Knowles, but is haunted by her brother's death in a steeplechase spill. Written by Ray Hamel
True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.
Phar Lap, the big bold chestnut reigned as the king of the turf in the depression that gripped Australia of the 1930s. From his humble beginnings the New Zealand bred horse raced on to become the hero of a nation.
Sonny Steele used to be a rodeo star, but his next appearance is to be on a Las Vegas stage, wearing a suit covered in lights, advertising a breakfast cereal. When he finds out they are going drug the horse in case its too frisky, he rides off into the desert...
Ruffian is an American made-for-television movie that tells the story of the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame Champion thoroughbred filly Ruffian who went undefeated until her death after breaking down in a nationally televised match race at Belmont Park on July 6, 1975 against the Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure. Made by ESPN Original Entertainment, the film is directed by Yves Simoneau and stars Sam Shepard as Ruffian's trainer, Frank Whiteley. The producers used four different geldings in the role of Ruffian. Locations for the 2007 film included Louisiana Downs in Shreveport, Louisiana and Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
Kentucky Pride is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by John Ford. It is the story of a Beaumont race horse, and it told through from the point of view of the horse via intertitles. A print of the film exists at the Museum of Modern Art film archive
Tycoon J.L. Higgins controls his whole family, but one of his sons- in-law, Dan Brooks and his daughter Alice are fed up with that. Brooks quits his job as manager of J.L.'s paper box factory and devotes his life to his racing horse Broadway Bill, but his bank- roll is thin and the luck is against him, he is arrested because of $150 he owes somebody for horse food, but suddenly a planed fraud by somebody else seems to offer him a chance...
A strange and ultimately tragic tale of a young boy who learns how to pick winners at the racetrack by riding his rocking horse to aid his parents out of their endless round of debts.
A romance set in the world of the sport of kings. The Curzons are a racehorse breeding family, who need to strengthen their blood stock to re-establish a fading reputation.
A drama based on an ancient Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four emotional cornerstones: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. A businessman bets his life on a horse race; a gangster sees the future; a pop star (Gellar) falls prey to a crime boss; a doctor must save the love of his life.
A story set against the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the film is based upon the tragedy which occurred in Utah in 1857. A group of settlers, traveling on wagons, was murdered by the native Mormons. All together, about 140 souls of men, women and children, were taken.
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no manâs land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amarâs two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his fatherâs land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Melodrama about two girls whose fortunes run on very different paths.
Drew Baylor is fired after causing his shoe company to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. To make matters worse, he's also dumped by his girlfriend. On the verge of ending it all, Drew gets a new lease on life when he returns to his family's small Kentucky hometown after his father dies. Along the way, he meets a flight attendant with whom he falls in love.
Samantha Hughes, a teenaged Kentucky girl, never knew her father, who died in Vietnam before her birth. Samantha lives with her uncle Emmett, who also served in Vietnam. Emmett hangs around with Tom, Earl, and Pete, three other Vietnam vets who, like Emmett, all have problems of one kind or another that relate to their war experiences. Samantha,becomes obsessed with finding out about her father.
The fourth of seven films that Raffaello Matarazzo made with Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson in the starring roles during the fifties. These films were the epitome of operatic melodrama, and were hugely successful with the Italian public.
In a hypothetical country in South America, Jeff Dawson and his partner Dutch Peterson have invested all their savings in a lease contract to explore oil. However, their expectation ruins when bandits blow the derrick of the oil well with dynamite and they get stranded in the town without any money. In despair, they accept the risky transportation of nitroglycerin to raise US$ 800.00 and Dutch is shot in the leg by road thieves; but Jeff discovers that their employer is a trickster and they are not paid for their job. When their former friend Paco Conway meets them, Jeff finds that he is a local tycoon and is married with Marina Conway, who had a past with him. Paco hires Jeff his foreman to help him with his eighteen oil wells while Dutch is recovering in the hospital. Meanwhile the criminals press Paco to pay US$ 50,000.00 otherwise they will blow his wells and Marina revives her love and desire for Jeff, leading the trio to a tragedy.
In the poor, desolate northern provinces of the mountainous feudal Sunni kingdom of Afghanistan (before the Soviet-engineered republican revolutions), the status of the proud men and their clans is determined less by wealth or even military power (both rare) then by victories in the ancient, though game of buskashi, a vicious form of polo dating back to Genghis Khan, in which the chapendaz (participating horsemen) use their horse-whips on both mounts and rivals in a ruthless fight for a heavy 'ball', a dead calf, which must be carried a long way, almost impossible with all the others mercilessly assailing. Tursen, a former champion, now holds the status of village notable thanks to his position as stable-keeper of the regional lord Osman Bey, and has finally bred a horse without equal, the white stallion Jahil, in time for the royal tournament on the plain of Bagrami, just outside the capital Kabul...
Melodrama about a woman who marries a bigamist, then a drunk, and falls in love with another man, all while working at a carnival.
Based on the 1932 play of the same name by Phillip Dunning and George Abbott. Lilly Turner is a very precode character in a very precode film. She starts out with all the best intentions and does nothing wrong, only to find herself in a highly unfortunate situation that society of the time couldn't approve of: an unmarried mother to be. She then gets out of it through the kindness of another, becoming half of an open marriage, very progressive for the times. Lilly Turner would have needed to be completely rewritten to have been made during the code years.
At the heart of this true story is Damien Oliver, a young jockey who loses his only brother in a tragic racing accident, hauntingly reflecting of the way their father died 27 years earlier. After suffering through a series of discouraging defeats, Damien teams with Irish trainer Dermot Weld, and triumphs at the 2002 Melbourne Cup in one of the most thrilling finales in sporting history.
The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.
When bored courtesan Zelie de Chaumet begs her lover, the corrupt and powerful Stetz, to take her slumming, the pair encounter Pierre Boucheron, alias 'The Rat' , boy-king of the Paris underworld, and the innocent Odile. Love, life and jewels are risked and lost in this powerful romantic melodrama as the four characters' lives are changed by this chance encounter for ever.
Based on the novel by the same name from Nicholas Evans, the talented Robert Redford presents this meditative family drama set in the country side. Redford not only directs but also stars in the roll of a cowboy with a magical talent for healing.
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When a high school football star is suddenly stricken with irreversible total blindness, he must decide whether to live a safe handicapped life or bravely return to the life he once knew and the sport he still loves.
Glossy melodrama starring Lana Turner as a young woman from Kansas who moves to New York, becomes highly successful at a prestigious modeling agency, and falls in love with a married man.
Tilo, the titular "Mistresses of Spices" is a shopkeeper and an immigrant from India who helps customers satisfy their needs and desires with spices. Her life changes when she falls in love with an American man.
The fates of horses, and the people who own and command them, are revealed as Black Beauty narrates the circle of his life.
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Frederick Bolton has to solve two problems. First, his boss has instructed him to come up with a reasonable campaign to promote a new product, a stomach pill named "Aspercel" - by tomorrow. The second problem is Fred's daugther, Helen. She is absolutely fond of horses, takes riding classes and has already had decent success in some competitions. Her biggest wish is to own a horse herself, a dream her father cannot afford at all. Now Fred tries to solve both problems at once by simply combining them: A horse named "Aspercel", ridden by his daugther should bring the name of the pill into the papers and make Helen happy, too. But there's still one more obstacle: Helen and Aspercel of course have to win a few prices to make this idea work...
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Harper is brought to Louisiana to investigate an attempted blackmail scheme. He soon finds out that it involves an old flame of his and her daughter. He eventually finds himself caught in a power struggle between the matriarch of the family and a greedy oil baron, who wants their property. Poor Harper! Things are not as straight-forward as they initially appeared.
Davis and Rains shine in a romantic melodrama set in the world of concert music. Davis is a pianist torn between her wealthy, jealous patron and her cellist husband.
A country romance about the human streak in the horse and the horse in the human. Love and death become interlaced and with terrible consequences.The fortunes of the people in the country through the horses' perception.
A prominent New York doctor (Kay Francis), unable to have a child, discovers her philandering husband (Warren William) has impregnated her best friend (Jean Muir). Director William Keighley's 1934 melodrama also stars Verree Teasdale, Emma Dunn, Phillip Reed, Louise Beavers and Ann Shoemaker.
The Jesse Owens Story is a biographical film about the black athlete Jesse Owens. Dorian Harewood plays the Olympic gold-winning athlete. The drama won a 1985 Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for two more.
Melodrama set in Victorian Brighton. Scheming pub landlady uses the timorous son of a domineering pharmacist to assist in the poisoning of her drunkard husband. (The title is from the way pharmacists used to wrap parcels containing poison).
The year is 1949. A young Texan named John Grady finds himself without a home after his mother sells the ranch where he has spent his entire life. Lured south of the border by the romance of cowboy life and the promise of a fresh start, Cole and his pal embark on an adventure that will test their resilience, define their maturity, and change their lives forever.
Linda Darnell plays a beautiful Russian peasant in this moody Sirk melodrama, based on Chekhov's "The Shooting Party." Trying to pull herself out of serf-ish poverty, she works her charms on an engaged aristocrat (George Sanders) with tragic results.
A British soldier escapes from 1880s Khartoum and goes down the Nile river with a fellow soldier, a governess and the daughter of an emir.
A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
Biography of Loretta Lynn, a country and western singer that came from poverty to fame.
George Sanders stars in this engrossing melodrama about a very domineering sister who holds a tight grip on her brother -- especially when he shows signs of falling in love.
A story about two girls, CJ and Hanna. CJ lives on a ranch, Hanna comes to visit and decides to photograph wild horses for a school project
Judge Priest, a proud Confederate veteran, restores the justice in a small town in the Post-Bellum Kentucky using his common sense and his great sense of humanity.
An elderly businessman (Frank Morgan) plans what he thinks is an innocent night on the town while his wife is away. Instead, he finds himself involved in a showgirl's murder.
New York detective Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in which the victims are found beheaded. But the locals believe the culprit to be none other than the ghost of the legendary Headless Horseman.
action melodrama
The film features the leading actress Greta Garbo as Yvonne, an artist's model. Other stars include Robert Montgomery, Lewis Stone, Marjorie Rambeau and Judith Vosselli. It is a romantic melodrama, portraying a Parisian belle with a past returning to haunt her. The film is the only one where Montgomery played opposite Garbo.
Openly gay banker Daniel debates whether to return to Australia or stay in Hong Kong when he meets Kafka, a straight swimming instructor. The young men fall in love, believing that their love can bridge anything, despite their difference in sexuality and Kafka's increasing drug use. Daniel does not regret his love for Kafka, who tries to love him back against his nature. But a flashback memory from Kafka's past makes it difficult for their relationship to work.
In this morbid Nazi sanctioned pro-euthanasia melodrama, a successful doctor is forced to make a heart wrenching decision after his beautiful young wife is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
The Killing was Stanley Kubrickâs first film with a professional cast and the first time he achieved public recognition as the unconventional director heâs now known for. The story is of ex-prisoners who plan to set up a racetrack so they can live a life without monetary worries. One of the more exceptional films of the 1950âs.
As youths in Azusa, Vinnie, Carter, and Rosie pull off a racing scam, substituting winners for plodders and winning big bucks on long odds. When an official uncovers the scam, they set him up for blackmail. Jump ahead twenty years, Carter and Rosie are married, successful racers in Kentucky about to sell their prize stallion, Simpatico. Vinnie is a drunk in Pomona. Vinnie decides to make a play for Rosie, lures Carter to California, steals his wallet and heads for Kentucky with the original blackmail material. Carter begs Vinnie's friend, a grocery clerk named Cecilia, to follow Vinnie and get the stuff back that he has in a box. Will she succeed?
Vénus aveugle (Blind Venus) is a 1941 French film melodrama, directed by Abel Gance, and one of the first films to be undertaken in France during the German occupation. Although the film is not set in any specified period, Gance wanted it to be seen as relevant to the contemporary situation in France. He wrote, "...La Vénus aveugle is at the crossroads of reality and legend... The heroine ... gradually sinks deeper and deeper into despair. Only when she has reached the bottom of the abyss does she encounter the smile of Providence that life reserves for those who have faith in it, and she can then go serenely back up the slope towards happiness. If I have been able to show in this film that elevated feelings are the only force that can triumph over Fate, then my efforts will not have been in vain."
Rootless Hungarian émigré Willie, his pal Eddie, and visiting sixteen-year-old cousin Eva always manage to make the least of any situation, whether aimlessly traversing the drab interiors and environs of New York City, Cleveland, or an anonymous Florida suburb.
A Kentucky woman whose mine-worker husband is nearly killed in a cave-in, and whose father is slowly dying of black lung disease, joins the picket lines for a long, violent strike.
Based on the childhood memories of actor Michael Degen, the movie deals with the everyday struggle to survive as a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany. As his father had died in 1940 after being released from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Michael and his mother fear to be deported themselves. They manage to live in Berlin with false names and faked papers, hidden by several, often broken, people...
Slevin is mistakenly put in the middle of a personal war between the cityâs biggest criminal bosses. Under constant watch, Slevin must try not to get killed by an infamous assassin and come up with an idea of how to get out of his current dilemma. A film with many twists and turns.
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