Elizabeth Taylor

Richard Burton

Kate Burton

Geneviève Bujold

King Henry VIII (Richard Burton) of England discards one wife, Catharine of Aragon (Irene Papas), who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of a young and beautiful woman, Anne Boleyn (Geneviève Bujold), whose one-thousand-day reign as Queen of England ends with the loss of her head on the block. Henry weds Anne and soon she gives him a child. The girl, Elizabeth (Amanda Jane Smythe), is a bitter disappointment to Henry, who desperately wants an heir. Anne promises Henry a son "next time", but Henry is doubtful. Shortly thereafter, rumors begin that the King's eye has already wandered. One Jane Seymour (Lesley Paterson) is at court for a moment. The Queen has her sent away, but, if Anne will bring Jane back to court, the King promises to sign the Act of Succession to insure that Elizabeth will be Queen.—alfiehitchie

Anne of the Thousand Days

Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

A shy lady's companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter (Sir Laurence Olivier). She and Max fall in love, marry, and return to Manderley, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Dame Judith Anderson), and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderley.—Col Needham

Rebecca

Rebecca (1940)

A screenplay entitled "A Star Is Born" is stamped with the words, "Final Shooting Script," then opened to reveal the following story: Esther Blodgett returns one winter evening to her home, an isolated farmhouse in North Dakota, after seeing a movie with her little brother Aleck, which starred her screen idol, Norman Maine. Esther's Aunt Mattie disdains Esther's obsession with the movies, and her father and grandmother Lettie are surprised to hear that Esther wants to be a movie star. After Mattie berates her, Esther runs to her room in tears. Lettie then tells Esther of her own past dreams of coming across the country in a "prairie schooner," and although she cautions Esther about the heartbreak that always comes to those who pursue their dreams, Lettie encourages Esther and gives her money to take a train to Hollywood. In Hollywood, Esther goes to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where she steps in the footprints of Norman Maine. Esther naively expects to begin immediately as an extra, but she learns the depressing news that no extra has been signed by Central Casting in the past two years. When she is told that she has only a one in one hundred thousand chance to succeed, she replies that maybe she is that "one." Esther makes friends with Danny McGuire, an out-of-work assistant director who lives in her rooming-house, and when he gets a job, they go to a performance at the Hollywood Bowl, where Norman arrives drunk with actress Anita Regis and then starts a fight with a persistent photographer. Danny gets Esther a job as a waitress at a party his director is giving. Norman arrives at the party following another drunken escapade, which his exasperated press agent, Matt Libby, has kept out of the newspapers. Anita catches Norman in the kitchen flirting with Esther, and after she breaks a plate over his head, Norman and Esther leave together. Although he invites her to his place to talk over her career plans, Esther refuses, and after he gives her a goodnight kiss, he asks her to wait a moment so that he can take one last look at her before she goes in. Norman then phones and awakens studio head Oliver Niles at nearly three in the morning to arrange for a screen test for Esther, whose sincerity and honesty he praises. After the test, Esther signs a contract, and she is soon transformed by posture and voice coaches, and makeup artists into "Vicki Lester." Unable to find a suitable female lead for his next picture, Norman talks Oliver into using Esther, and she is a smash hit with the preview audience, who disparage Norman's performance. Norman and Esther celebrate at the Cafe Trocadero overlooking the city, where Norman tells Esther that she now can have anything in the world, but reveals that stardom has not made him happy and that he feels he has thrown his life away. Esther comforts him and tries to convinces him that it is not too late, and they hug. At a boxing match, Norman proposes marriage, and the couple marry quietly at a small town courthouse, which spoils Libby's plans to cash in on the publicity. Soon after their honeymoon trip in a trailer, Norman's contract is canceled, and he is relegated to the role of house husband, while Esther becomes a top star. Norman starts drinking again, and during the Academy Awards ceremonies, he drunkenly interrupts Esther's acceptance speech for the award for finest performance by an actress and accidentally slaps her in the face. Sometime later, at Esther's instigation, Oliver visits Norman, now in a sanitarium, to offer him a role in a picture, but when Norman learns that it is not the lead, he good-naturedly declines. During Christmas week, Norman, out of the sanitarium and on the wagon, visits Santa Anita Racetrack, where he runs into Libby. Although Norman tries not to get riled as Libby brutally razzes him, when Libby crudely suggests that he is sponging off his wife, Norman hits Libby, who belts him. Norman then orders a bottle of scotch, and four days later, Esther learns that he has been arrested for crashing his car into a tree while intoxicated. Through Esther's pleading with the judge, Norman is released to her custody, but the newspapers make the incident into a front-page story. At their beach house in Malibu, Norman overhears Esther tell Oliver that she must now quit the movies so that she can go away with Norman. After Oliver leaves, Norman finds Esther crying. He tells her that he is going for a swim, and before he leaves her, he asks, as he did the night they met, for one last look at her. He then walks into the ocean and drowns. Outside the church where Norman's funeral is held, the uncaring comments and actions of Esther's fans cause her to scream hysterically. She is about to leave town, when Lettie arrives and convinces her that tragedy is a test and that she must not run away from herself. Later, as Esther is about to be interviewed on radio at a premiere in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, she sees Norman's footprints and starts to swoon, but she recovers and says with pride into the microphone, "Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine." The last page of the screenplay, which contains the above line, is shown, and the screenplay is closed.

A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born (1937)

After two Chicago musicians, Joe and Jerry, witness the the St. Valentine's Day massacre, they want to get out of town and get away from the gangster responsible, Spats Colombo. They're desperate to get a gig out of town but the only job they know of is in an all-girl band heading to Florida. They show up at the train station as Josephine and Daphne, the replacement saxophone and bass players. They certainly enjoy being around the girls, especially Sugar Kane Kowalczyk who sings and plays the ukulele. Joe in particular sets out to woo her while Jerry/Daphne is wooed by a millionaire, Osgood Fielding III. Mayhem ensues as the two men try to keep their true identities hidden and Spats Colombo and his crew show up for a meeting with several other crime lords.—garykmcd

Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot (1959)

After just being released from a five-year stint in prison, Johnny Clay has assembled a five-man team, including two insiders, to carry out what he estimates will be a $2 million heist at Lansdowne Racetrack, the take to be split five ways, minus expenses. Besides Johnny, none of the men truly are criminals in the typical sense. In addition to the other four team members, Johnny has hired two men outside of the team to carry out specific functions for a flat fee; the other four will not meet the two men for hire or know who they are, while the two men for hire will not be told of the bigger picture of the heist. None involved are to tell anyone, even their loved ones, about the job. Each of the five have a specific reason for wanting his share of the money: Johnny, in wanting to get married to his longtime girlfriend Fay, the two who have known each other since they were kids, realizes that to live comfortably, he has to shoot for the moon instead of carrying out the penny-ante stuff that put him behind bars; Marvin Unger, a bookkeeper who is bankrolling the plan, is doing it out of his friendship and loyalty to Johnny; Randy Kennan, a crooked police officer, is already late with his repayment to a loan shark; Mike O'Reilly, one of the track's bartenders, wants to be able to provide better overall care, most importantly medical, to his bedridden wife, Ruthie O'Reilly; and milquetoast George Peatty, one of the track's ticket clerks, is trying to buy back the love of his shrew of a wife of five years, Sherry Peatty, if he ever had her love at all. The elaborate plan requires meticulous timing by all seven men. Beyond any unforeseen problems causing the plan to fail, what the other four team members are unaware of is that weak-minded George told Sherry of the broad issue that he will be involved in a heist in an effort to hold on to her emotionally; she, in turn, told her boyfriend Val Cannon, with Sherry and Val having their own ideas of absconding with the entire take of the heist after the fact.—Huggo

Filmz

Anne of the Thousand Days

1969

Action/ Biography/ Drama/ History

Watch online:

Duration: 145 min

IMDB Rating: 7.4

Language: en

MPA Rating:

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Plot Summary

Top Cast

Elizabeth Taylor as -Masked Courtesan

Richard Burton as -King Henry VIII

Kate Burton as -Serving Maid

Geneviève Bujold as -Anne Boleyn

Filmz

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