Yellow backs in fancy dress. Stars in My Crown is directed by Jacques Tourneur and written by Joe David Brown and Margaret Fitts. It stars Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell, Alan Hale, Lewis Stone, James Mitchell, Amanda Blake and Juano Hernandez. Music is by Adolph Deutsch and cinematography by Charles Schoenbaum. It's post the American Civil War and we are in the Southern town of Walsburg. Preacher Josiah Gray (McCrea) arrives in town and promptly settles down to become an important part of the community. Soon he will come face to face with two killer diseases, that of typhoid and racial hatred. First off it should be noted that some plot synopsis' and poster art are off base, McCrea's preacher is not a gun toting dude willing to use guns to further his causes, it's a brief scene flecked with humour. Also note that the Ku Klux Klan is not mentioned in this, the gang at the centre of the race hatred here are called The Night Riders (Nightriders perhaps?). A veer from what we know as the norm for a Tourneur movie, this only really suffers from being a little too precious and naturally dated in its depictions of small town church life and racial bigotry. But that said, it's such a warm involving picture that is performed and directed with skill, it's almost impossible not to feel good about things come the closure of the play. Story thrives on community strengths and weakness, delicately blending both to show optimism on offer in spite of human fallibilities. The battle between faith and medicine in nicely played, refusing to force feed one or the other, whilst the key scene as the racial hatred reached its vilest peak is potent and hits all the right notes. Cliches and stereotypes are within, perhaps unsurprisingly for the era of film making, while Hernandez's black character is written as far too passive to be utterly comfortable. It also would have been nice to have had more of Charles Kemper's ebullient medicine show host, but complaints are small here and Stars in My Crown is a worthy and comfort food kinda picture. 7/10
The imprint of the past is made present by the return of three migrants to a community in the upper Mixteca region of Oaxaca, where the three stories intersect.
Movie Star Rating : 7 Read More
The new reality changes the usual life in the village of Babylon. Attempts to communize the small town are met with resistance from the rich people living in the town. The Red Army finally puts down the resistance. Amidst the resistance philosopher Fabian returns to Babylon and tries to prevent bloodshed, but he meets a tragic fate.
Movie Star Rating : 3 Read More
A loose remake of “12 Angry Men”, “12” is set in contemporary Moscow where 12 very different men must unanimously decide the fate of a young Chechen accused of murdering his step-father, a Russian army officer. Consigned to a makeshift jury room in a school gymnasium, one by one each man takes center stage to confront, connect, and confess while the accused awaits a verdict and revisits his heartbreaking journey through war in flashbacks.
Movie Star Rating : 6.7 Read More
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind and water. It is cold enough to crack stones, and, when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the warmer south, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there.
Movie Star Rating : 7 Read More
In a dystopicly polluted rightwing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
Movie Star Rating : 6.1 Read More
Young Native American man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family, and Victor hasn't seen his father for 10 years. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold's remains.
Movie Star Rating : 6.7 Read More
Through a series of flashbacks, four Chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China explore their pasts.
Movie Star Rating : 7.2 Read More
Quiet, withdrawn 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs lives peacefully in her home in a New England beach town. Whenever the prying landlady inquires after Rynn's father, she politely claims that he's in the city on business. But when the landlady's creepy and increasingly persistent son, Frank, won't leave Rynn alone, she teams up with kindly neighbor boy Mario to maintain the dark family secret that she's been keeping to herself.
Movie Star Rating : 7 Read More
Autumn and the Black Jaguar 2024 - Movies (Jun 22nd)
Agent Recon 2024 - Movies (Jun 22nd)
Blackwater Lane 2024 - Movies (Jun 22nd)
Time Addicts 2023 - Movies (Jun 22nd)
Open Heart 2023 - Movies (Jun 22nd)
Protocol-7 2024 - Movies (Jun 22nd)
Lisa Frankenstein 2024 - Movies (Jun 22nd)
All of Us Strangers 2023 - Movies (Jun 21st)
The Boys in the Boat 2023 - Movies (Jun 21st)
Triumph Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics 2024 - Movies (Jun 21st)
Monkey Man 2024 - Movies (Jun 19th)
No Time to Spy A Loud House Movie 2024 - Movies (Jun 21st)
The Girl in the Trunk 2024 - Movies (Jun 21st)
Trigger Warning 2024 - Movies (Jun 21st)
Millers Girl 2024 - Movies (Jun 21st)
Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play. 2024 - Movies (Jun 21st)
American Fiction 2023 - Movies (Jun 21st)
Clotilda The Return Home 2024 - Movies (Jun 20th)
Kuramerukagari 2024 - Movies (Jun 20th)
Peter Doherty Stranger In My Own Skin 2023 - Movies (Jun 20th)
Baltimore 2023 - Movies (Jun 20th)
Spicks and Specks - (Jun 23rd)
Weekends with Jonathan Capehart - (Jun 23rd)
Later... with Jools Holland - (Jun 23rd)
Match of the Day - (Jun 22nd)
The Beat with Ari Melber - (Jun 22nd)
The Fable - (Jun 22nd)
The Ingraham Angle - (Jun 22nd)
Love Island - (Jun 22nd)
WWE SmackDown - (Jun 22nd)
Casualty - (Jun 22nd)
The Last American Vagabond - (Jun 22nd)
Symons Dinners Cooking Out - (Jun 22nd)
RV There Yet? - (Jun 22nd)
Happy to be Home with the Benkos - (Jun 22nd)
Miss Night and Day - (Jun 22nd)
The Kelly Clarkson Show - (Jun 22nd)
Gutfeld! - (Jun 22nd)
Hannity - (Jun 22nd)
The Five - (Jun 22nd)
The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle - (Jun 22nd)