Combining a gripping story, intense action and ground-breaking special effects, Airport paved the way for a whole new style of disaster film and became a trend-setting box office blockbuster. The tension-filled adventure stars Burt Lancaster as the manager of an international airport who must juggle personal crises with professional responsibilities as he attempts to keep his blizzard-torn facility open to rescue a bomb-damaged jetliner.
The idea of pairing two of the hottest contemporary actresses with a Golden Age Hollywood director--in a remake of an old Bette Davis vehicle, no less--makes Rich and Famous a curiosity straddling two ages. Jacqueline Bisset, then at the height of her sex-symbol status, stars with Candice Bergen, who was morphing from glamourpuss to comedienne in the wake of her hilarious Starting Over turn. They play the roles first essayed by Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins in the 1943 Old Acquaintance: Bisset is the serious writer, Bergen the flighty married pal whose trashy novels become bestsellers.
Although it was unfortunately ignored during its brief theatrical release, this sumptuously seductive production is that rarest of cinematic breeds, the (barely) respectable guilty pleasure. Combining historical fact with hysterical anachronisms of language and mannerism, it's been tailored for maximum contemporary appeal but maintains a lush, romantic feel for its factual 16th-century tale of Venetian love, lust, and political repression.
San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial.
Ex-crime reporter Raymond St. Ives has elegant taste, a yen for gambling and an unfinished novel in his typewriter. When he crosses paths with sinister Oliver Procane, he gets something else: a price on his head. St. Ives is a hard-boiled update of classic mystery thrillers, particularly The Maltese Falcon. Charles Bronson is smoothly right as the clever title character, at odds with petty crooks and high-rollers, among them Maximilian Schell as a whining lackey and Jacqueline Bisset as a modern femme fatale.
This lavish, suspense-filled film was made from Peter Benchley's best-selling novel. Gail Berke (Bisset) and David Sanders (Nolte) are on a romantic holiday in Bermuda when they come upon a sunken wreck of a WWII freighter. Near it, they find an ampule of morphine, one of tens of thousands still aboard the wrecked ship. Their discovery leads them to a Haitian drug dealer, Cloche (Gossett), and an old treasure hunter, Romer Treece (Shaw). With Cloche in pursuit, Gail, David and Treece try to recover the sunken treasure.
In the early 1930s London, the black jazz group known as the Louis Lester band is on the rise. managed by the compassionate yet short-tempered Wesley Holt, the band lands a gig at the imperial Hotel, thanks to the cunning journalist Stanley Mitch. They prove to be a hit, and their star begins to rise. Countless aristocrats - including the royal family - ask the band to play at parties, catching the eye of the ambitious American businessman Walter Masterson and his enthusiastic employee, Julian.
