Released Date:
1972-03-15
Languages:
English, German
Countries:
USA
Runtime:
104 min
Rated:
R
IMDB Ratings:
(9004 Reviews)
Director:
George Roy HillKurt Vonnegut Jr. (novel)
Stephen Geller (screenplay)
Using his own terminology, Billy Pilgrim is "unstuck in time", which means he is moving between different points in his life uncontrollably, although he is aware of it at certain of those points as witnessed by the letter to the editor he writes to the Ilium Daily News about his situation. Primarily, he is moving between three general time periods and locations. The first is his stint as a GI during WWII, when, as a pacifist, he was acting as assistant chaplain for his squad. This time is largely as a POW, where he was in Dresden the day of the bombing, spending it with among others an older compassionate GI named Edgar Derby, and a brash loudmouth GI named Paul Lazzaro. The second is his life as an optometrist in Ilium in upstate New York, eventually married to the wealthy and overbearing Valencia Merble, and having two offspring, Robert, who would spend his teenaged years as a semi-delinquent, and Barbara, who would end up much like her mother. And the third is as an abductee on the planet Tralfamadore, along with his devoted dog Spot, and Hollywood starlet Montana Wildhack - who was not averse to taking off her clothes to further her career - the Tralfamadorians who have put them on display. The more time he spends on Tralfamadore, the more he understands the meaning of what is happening to him.
Released Date:
1977-07-04
Languages:
English
Countries:
USA
Runtime:
93 min
Rated:
PG
IMDB Ratings:
(1302 Reviews)
Director:
Robert BentonIra Wells is an aged retired Los Angeles based private investigator, who is slightly overweight, needs to wear a hearing aid, has a bum leg and an ulcer-laden stomach, and can only afford to rent a room in a house as a place to live. He decides to come out of retirement when a still active contemporary, Harry Regan, shows up on his doorstep with a bullet wound to the gut, from which he eventually dies. Ira wants to find out who killed Harry. Ira is contacted by another long-time acquaintance, Charlie Hatter, a self-proclaimed loser and Hollywood hack, about Harry's last case, something about which probably led to Harry's death. Harry's client was Margo Sterling, a former client of Charlie's who is a flaky penniless new-ageist actress/agent/dress maker. She hired Harry to retrieve her missing cat, Winston, who is still being held ransom by an acquaintance named Brian Hemphill. Ira learns from Margo that Brian hired her to transport goods for him, she unconcerned that those goods probably stolen and the drop-off person probably a fence. Brian stole Winston because Margo "borrowed" some money from one of those jobs. Ira will also eventually learn that Brian was recently involved in a high profile robbery gone wrong, that resulted in one person dead. With all these things Brian was involved in, Ira has to figure out what would be the reason for someone wanting to kill Harry. As big a problem for loner Ira is Margo, who wants to add another "/" to her already large resume, namely that of private investigator partner despite its inherent dangers.
Released Date:
1999-10-08
Languages:
English
Countries:
USA
Runtime:
90 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.2 (505 Reviews)
Director:
Robinson DevorGenres:
ComedyCharles Willeford (novel)
Robinson Devor
Set in 1950s Los Angeles, Richard Hudson (Warburton) is a shrewd car dealer who moves from San Francisco and sets up a used-car dealership. Tiring of this job, he turns the lot over to an assistant and starts writing his first movie, The Man Who Got Away. It turns out to be an uncommercial picture chronicling the story of a truck driver who goes berserk, runs over a little girl and dies fending off a platoon of police officers. In making his film, Richard enlists the help of his father-in-law, Leo (Paul Malevich), a washed-up former film director whose notable possession is a Rouault painting of a clown. Through Leo, Richard pitches his idea to the Man (Ernie Vincent), the chief executive of Mammoth Pictures who green-lights the project. Conflict inevitably arises when Richard's obsession for making the movie his way clashes with the Man. Other kooky characters include Richard's mother (Lynette Bennett), a former ballerina who lures her hirsute lug of a son into a comic pas de deux ; Richard's sexually curious stepsister, Becky (Marilyn Rising), who seduces him, and his secretary, Laura (Emily Newman), whom he impregnates with a boorish indifference.
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