Without a Trace (1983)

Director
Stanley R. Jaffe

Main cast
Kate Nelligan; Judd Hirsch; David Dukes; Stockard Channing; Jacqueline Brookes

Genres
Drama, Mystery

Description
Based on the case of young New Yorker Etan Patz, who disappeared in the early 1980s, this film casts Kate Nelligan as the distraught mother who lashes out at the police (in the person of a relentless detective played by Judd Hirsch), who make her and her husband suspects, even as she hounds them to find her child and drives away her husband (David Dukes) and friends (including Stockard Channing) with her intensity and single-mindedness. Squandered on a Hollywood ending that doesn't square with the real case: Etan Patz was never found.


Similar movies

A blackout leaves the distinguished halls of the Löwanderska Hospital in complete darkness. Doctor Sverker Löwander hears the alarm when one of the ventilators go off, and rushes to the intensive care unit only to find the nurse in charge dead in the stairwell and the other disappeared without a trace. When DI Irene Huss arrives, the only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds. There's only one slight problem: Nurse Tekla committed suicide at the hospital sixty years ago.
The Naked City portrays the police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. A veteran cop is placed in charge of the case and he sets about, with the help of other beat cops and detectives, finding the girl's killer.
When teacher Simon arrives in a small, secluded village to take over the local school, he is surprised to discover that his predecessor has disappeared without a trace - and that nobody seems too concerned about it. As Simon probes deeper into the disappearance, the inhabitants of a forbidding estate called "Summerfield" take on more and more significance - until events reach a tragic, shattering and unforeseen climax.
Thirteen years ago, Aiden Ashley's world was torn apart after an online stalker followed her into the real world and broke into the Ashley family home to claim the object of his desire. The resulting night of terror ended with the murders of both Aiden's mother and father. The stalker escaped the scene without Aiden seeing his face; he is gone without a trace, an unknown man, a murderer now watching Aiden's every move. To escape this danger Aiden spends the next 13 years offline, in therapy and secluded anonymity. Who should Aiden trust in a web of deception where no one may be who they seem? There is nowhere for Aiden to hide when someone wants to love her to death.
Struggling actor John Person agrees to drive a blue suitcase from Los Angeles to the small town of Baker, Calif., and hand it over to a mysterious cowboy in return for having his credit card debt of $27,000 paid off. Upon his arrival, John can't find the cowboy but receives an ominously head-shaped package he's supposed to hang onto. While waiting, John gets close to Ruthie, whose psychotic boyfriend, Randy, keeps threatening to kill him.
Small-time police chief and struggling alcoholic Jesse Stone looks into the murder of a teen-age girl whose body is found floating in a local lake. The case brings the former LAPD cop up against the Boston mob and into the affluent world of a bestselling writer who exploits troubled teens.
The story is set in 1947, following a long-retired Holmes living in a Sussex village with his housekeeper and rising detective son. But then he finds himself haunted by an unsolved 50-year old case. Holmes' memory isn't what it used to be, so he only remembers fragments of the case: a confrontation with an angry husband, a secret bond with his beautiful but unstable wife.
An arrogant, high-powered attorney takes on the case of a poor altar boy found running away from the scene of the grisly murder of the bishop who has taken him in. The case gets a lot more complex when the accused reveals that there may or may not have been a 3rd person in the room. The intensity builds when a surprise twist alters everyone's perception of the crime and what happens next...
A Bishop from Australia comes to Perry to ask him to take a case of a woman wrongly accused of manslaughter 22 years before. The case would involve the wealthy Mr. Brownley and the fact that his alleged granddaughter may be an imposter. With that, the Bishop leaves and is clubbed in his hotel room. Soon after, he leaves on a boat and Perry meets the woman - Ida Gilbert. Perry goes to see Mr. Brownley, but gets nowhere. Later that night, Brownley is to meet Ida, but he is shot by a woman who drops Ida's gun. Ida is arrested for the murder of Mr. Brownley and Perry gets involved. Written by Tony Fontana
A serial killer stalks a mute servant girl in a remote mansion.
Three couples are staying at a lakeside cottage with their children. They want them to prepare intensely for a prestigious high school's entrance exam with the help of a private tutor. One night, one of the wives confesses to her husband that she has killed his mistress...
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden. Ingmar Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, and it is the legendary director’s warmest and most autobiographical film, a four-time Academy Award–winning triumph that combines his trademark melancholy and emotional intensity with immense joy and sensuality.
1851, Manitoba's Red River Valley. As winter sets in, a young woman on the edge of madness arrives exhausted at the fort, a wilderness station, claiming she murdered her husband. She's placed in a cell; for the next several months, she sews while the local prefect, Henry Mullen, investigates.
Once again set in the oceanfront Florida city of Blue Bay, "Wild Things 3" tells the tale of snobby rich girl Marie Clifton. Although she lives the life of luxury, Marie's distraught over her stepfather not giving her a pair of diamonds, valued at over $4 million, that are entitled to her in her late mother's will. That is, until one of her classmates, the local bad girl Elena Sandoval, accuses her stepfather of rape. Soon, it's deja Vi all over again as Detective Michael Morrison and probation officer Kristen Richards investigate, but as with the first "Wild Things" everything is not what it seems to be, and everybody has secrets to hide.
Based on the actual case files for one of the most intriguing unsolved crimes in America, "Zodiac" tells the story of a serial killer that terrified the San Francisco Bay Area, taunting police with his ciphers and letters. The case becomes an obsession for four men as their lives and careers are built and destroyed by the endless trail of clues.
When the body of Army Capt. Elizabeth Campbell is found on a Georgia military base, two investigators, Warrant Officers Paul Brenner and Sara Sunhill, are ordered to solve her murder. What they uncover is anything but clear-cut. Unseemly details emerge about Campbell's life, leading to allegations of a possible military coverup of her death and the involvement of her father, Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell.
An investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster discovers the involvement of an organisation of time travellers from a future Earth irreparably polluted who seek to rejuvenate the human race from those about to die in the past. Based on a novel by John Varley.
With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman. A conservative American businessman travels to a South American country to investigate the sudden disappearance of his son after a right-wing military takeover. Accompanied by his son's wife he uncovers a trail of cover-ups that implicate the US State department which supports the right-wing dictatorship.
Plagued with grief over the murder of her daughter, Valerie Somers suspects that her husband John is cheating on her. When Valerie disappears, Detective Leon Zat attempts to solve the mystery of her absence. A complex web of love, sex and deceit emerges -- drawing in four related couples whose various partners are distrustful and suspicious about each other's involvement.
A woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search for the woman, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.
A psychological thriller about a senior at one of America's most prestigious universities. Under enormous pressure to complete her thesis and earn a top job at one of the world's most competitive consulting firms, Katie is still coping with the sudden unexplained disappearance of her first love two years prior. As the investigation continues, Katie is forced to choose between past passions and new possibilities, even as new facts are uncovered.
Colonel Pete Moore (Glenn Ford) is commander of the Whitney Radar Test Group, which has been experiencing electrical difficulties aboard its aircraft. To ferret out the problem, he sends a four-man crew on Flight 412. Shortly into the test, the jet picks up three blips on radar, and subsequently, two fighters scramble and mysteriously disappear. At this point, Flight 412 is monitored and forced to land by Digger Control, a top-level, military intelligence group that debunks UFO information. The intrepid colonel, kept in the dark about his crew, decides to investigate the matter himself.
A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA's role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing cocaine into California. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.
Sean Penn’s 2001 drama with Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright, Sam Shepard, Helen Mirren and Vanessa Redgrave. A police chief about to retire pledges to help a woman find her daughter's killer. Based on a story by Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Early in his crime-solving career, Sherlock Holmes attempts to prevent Moriarty from cornering the heroin market.
After the death of their loved ones in a tragic plane crash 'Harrison Ford' and Kristin Scott Thomas find each others keys in each others loved ones posessions and realize that they were having an affair and must figure out all the details. Written by Andy HeitzThe wife of Police Sergeant Dutch Van Den Broek and the husband of politician Kay Chandler are killed in a plane crash. Now Dutch discovers some anomalies in what he told her before she left and discovers that she and Chandler's husband were travelling together. Dutch then goes to Chandler and tells her that he suspects that they were having an affair. He tells her that he wants to know the truth; she tells him that she doesn't but she later joins him and they grow close.
Two brothers get into a sudden tragic accident and they both fall into a coma at the same time. A year later, the younger brother Dae-jin wakes up believing he is his older brother Ho-jin.
A young painter stumbles upon an assortment of odd characters at an English estate where he has been hired to give art lessons to beautiful Laura Fairlie. Among them are Anne Catherick, a strange young woman dressed in white whom he meets in the forest and who bears a striking resemblance to Laura; cunning Count Fosco, who hopes to obtain an inheritance for nobleman Sir Percival Glyde, whom he plans to have Laura marry; Mr. Fairlie, a hypochondriac who can't stand to have anyone make the slightest noise; and eccentric Countess Fosco who has her own dark secret. The artist also finds himself drawn to Marion Halcomb, a distant relation to Laura for whom the Count also has plans.
A young woman searches for her missing sister who has become involved with a group of Satan worshippers in Greenwich Village.
A young man is confined in a mental hospital. Through a flashback we see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers: he saw his father cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the heretical church of Santa Sangre ("Holy Blood"), and then commit suicide. Back in the present, he escapes and rejoins his surviving and armless mother.
In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with an unhappy sponsor, an overbearing boss and a soon-to-be ex-husband who desperately wants her back. As the broadcast begins, a mysterious voice breaks the broadcast and suddenly members of the cast turn up dead. It's up to her husband Roger, to find out whodunit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN.
Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor), a psychiatrist, has a new patient, Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling), who claims to be suicidal. In trying to diagnose him, Sam visits Henry's prior therapist (Janeane Garofalo) and also finds Henry's mother -- even though Henry has said that he murdered both of his parents. As reality starts to contradict fact, Sam spirals into an unstable mental state. Then he finds a clue as to how and when Henry may try to kill himself, and races to try to stop him.
Glengarry Glen Ross, follows the lives of four unethical Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to go to any lengths (legal or illegal) to unload undesirable real estate on unwilling prospective buyers.
After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesic, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Telly Paretta is a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of her 8-year-old son. She is stunned when her psychiatrist reveals that she has created eight years of memories about a son she never had. But when she meets a man who has had a similar experience, Telly embarks on a search to prove her son's existence, and her sanity.
Remy McSwain is a New Orleans police lieutenant who investigates the murder of a local mobster. His investigation leads him to suspect that fellow members of the police force may be involved.
On a trip home to visit her father, Jenny is thrown into a world of mystery, horror and legend when she is called upon by 3000 year old spirits of the Neverlake to help return their lost artifacts and save the lives of missing children.
Two young sisters recovering from an unnamed trauma must face a mysterious past in this excellent South Korean shocker. A worldwide hit upon its release and based on an old Korean fairy tale; two sisters come to live with their cold and distant father and turn-on-a-dime stepmother in a house where nothing is as it seems. A wonderfully haunting score, starkly beautiful imagery, and a labyrinthine plot that twists and turns at every dark corner all set the stage for a riveting and often terrifying guessing game of a movie. Equal parts drama, mystery, and ghost story, A Tale of Two Sisters is a richly complex and challenging cinematic treat that may very well demand repeat viewings.
After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.
Country girl Yu Hong leaves her village, her family and her lover to study in Beijing. At university, she discovers an intense world of sexual freedom and forbidden pleasure. Enraptured, compulsive, she falls madly in love with fellow student Zhou Wei. Driven by obsessive passions they can neither understand nor control, their relationship becomes one of dangerous games - betrayals, recriminations, provocations - as all around them, their fellow students begin to demonstrate, demanding democracy and freedom. Was the only Asian film selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in 2006. In September of 2006, director Lou Ye was barred from making movies for five years because the film incorporated footage of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and wasn't screened for Chinese officials. The Chinese government also demanded that all copies of the film be confiscated
Norberto Lopez Amado's They're Watching Us is about a cop who becomes obsessed with a case. Juan (Carmelo Gomez) is ordered to head up an investigation concerning a businessman who has been missing for almost three years. The officer who worled on the case previously now resides in a mental institution and is unable to say anything other than, "They're watching us." A priest (Roberto Alvarez) explains how a series of disappearances in the area have supernatural underpinnings. As Juan is absorbed deeper and deeper into the case, his mother is concerned for him.
NERV faces a brutal attack from SEELE, but with Asuka in a coma, and Shinji in a nervous breakdown, things soon turn into the surreal. This movie provides a concurrent ending to the final two episodes of the show "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
Based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s.
While hiding from bullies in his school's attic, a young boy discovers the extraordinary land of Fantasia, through a magical book called The Neverending Story. The book tells the tale of Atreyu, a young warrior who, with the help of a luck dragon named Falkor, must save Fantasia from the destruction of The Nothing.
Once again, Bastian is transported to the world of Fantasia which he recently managed to save from destruction. However, the land is now being destroyed by an evil sorceress, Xayide, so he must join up with Atreyu and face the Emptiness once more.
Based on the true story of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker, two close friends who share a love of fantasy and literature, who conspire to kill Pauline's mother when she tries to end the girls' intense and obsessive relationship.
Me and Orson Welles is a period-drama film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay and Claire Danes. Based on Robert Kaplow's novel of the same name, the story, set in 1937 New York, tells of a teenager hired to star in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar, where he becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant.
Truman Burbank is the star of "The Truman Show", a 24-hour-a-day "reality" TV show that broadcasts every aspect of his life -- live and in color -- without his knowledge. His entire life has been an unending soap opera for consumption by the rest of the world. And everyone he knows -- including his wife and his best friend -- is really an actor, paid to be part of his life.
A young girl from an affluent family rebels and becomes involved with a much older photographer.
Hubert is a French policeman with very sharp methods. After being forced to take 2 months off by his boss, who doesn't share his view on working methods, he goes back to Japan, where he used to work 19 years ago, to settle the probate of his girlfriend who left him shortly after marriage without a trace.
Karsten Aslaksen, chief engineer of a large chemical company, disappears without trace. His married lover, a successful Christian politician named Vibeke Farang, approaches private investigator Varg Veum to track him down discreetly.
A television program is interupted by a news network announcing that three meteors have hit the United States, France and China. At first it seems natural but after interviews by scientists and eyewitness seems to suggest that it is not. Three more meteors are coming and the various Earth governments combine forces to stop them.
After his best friend dies in an unexpected accident, black market dealer Young-gyu decides to wash his hands off his illegal activities and start a new life with his girlfriend Yu-ri. But his dream stalls when he learns that Yu-ri needs money for her father's surgery. To help her out, Young-gyu decides to do the job one last time. His smuggling ring operates out of a boat that runs between Korea and China, picking victims from its voyager pool and harvesting their organs. Meanwhile, a married couple, Sang-ho and Chae-hee, boards Young-gyu's passenger boat heading to Weihai, China. That very evening, just when the boat enters international sea waters where countries' laws cannot be enforced, Chae-hee goes missing and all her pictures and belongings vanishes without a trace. Young-gyu finds Yu-ri on the same ship, and she claims to be the only witness to Chae-hee's disappearance.
The 5th woman unfolds autumn 1994. An elderly man found in a gillrad pitfall impaled to death on the sharp sharpened bamboo poles, ecstatic praise of crows. Shortly afterwards disappears a florist without a trace and he also found executed in the forest. Kurt Wallander and his colleagues will soon understand that the attacks is all about revenge.
This movie follows the story of three friends in Korea, all three of whom drop out of school. The main character is Min, a tough guy whose widowed mother is a drunk. The story traces his journey from high school to the underworld as one of his friends introduces him to life in the mob. Complicating Min's life further is his romance with Romi, a girl from an upper-class family with dreams of going to a prestigious college.
Victor is a man who gets to Paris to join his family around their seriously ill father, Max. As the chance of selling the family business begins to disrupt the family relationships, Victor is desperately asked for help by Max. What seems in the beginning mere delusions of an old man losing his mind, begin to show traces of some sort of real 'secret' that is troubling Max's last days. Victor decide to help his father to find that something (maybe just peace) he is searching for. Written by Snatcho
When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep.
Based on an attraction at Disneyland, the Country Bear Jamboree, "The Country Bears" is one in a long line of live action Disney family films. A satirical, behind-the-music look at rock & roll bands. Beary, a young bear raised by a human family in a world where humans and talking bears coexist, attempts to trace his roots. He meets up with the Country Bears, a long-since broken-up band.
Based on a true story. The story is set on the sweeping French countryside where Serge Duval (François Cluzet), a veterinarian, lives with his wife, Elisabeth (Brigitte Roüan) and their two young children. One day, their young son Olivier vanishes without a trace. Unable to accept the loss of her favourite child, the mother, Elizabeth, redirects her anguish and guilt at everyone. Little by little the fragile family falls apart. Six years later Olivier suddenly appears again, now as a teenage boy living on the streets of Paris, but is he really their missing son?

© Valossa 2015–2024