89% (2) The Pawnbroker 116 min, Approved, [Drama] [Sidney Lumet] [20 Apr 1965]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 8 nominations.
Actors: Brock Peters, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jaime Sánchez, Rod Steiger
Writer: Morton S. Fine (screenplay), David Friedkin (screenplay), Edward Lewis Wallant (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Spanish, German Country: USA
Plot: In a poor neighborhood of New York, the bitter and lonely Jewish pawnbroker Sol Nazerman is a survivor from Auschwitz that has no emotions or feelings. Sol lost his dearest family and friends in the war and his faith in God and belief in mankind. Now he only cares for money and is haunted by daydreams, actually flashbacks from the period of the concentration camp. Sol's assistant is the ambitious Latino Jesus Ortiz, who wants to learn with Sol how to run a business of his own. When Sol realizes that the obscure laundry business he has with the powerful gangster Rodriguez comes also from brothels, Sol recalls the fate of his beloved wife in the concentration camp and has a nervous breakdown. His attitude leads Jesus Ortiz to tragedy and Sol finds a way to cry.
Rotten Tomatoes: "The Pawnbroker" is the dark exploration into the soul of a man who is tortured by the unbearable pain of his past. In order to most effectively reveal his character, rather than relying on a traditional plot sequence, the film carefully extracts the events of a few days in the life of Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger). A man who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps but lost his wife and children, Nazerman is now alone, cold, embittered, and completely without faith in God or humanity. With indifference, he operates a pawnshop in New York's Spanish Harlem as a front for Rodriguez (Brock Peters), a black pimp and slumlord. Despite the continued efforts of his assistant, Jesus Ortiz (Jaime Sanchez), and a determined social worker, Marilyn Birchfield (Geraldine Fitzgerald), to break through his impenetrable walls, Nazerman remains detached and emotionless. This total noninvolvement extends to his loveless affair with Tessie (Marketa Kimbrell), a woman who lost her husband in the camps and whose father, Mendel (Baruch Lumet) disapproves of their current relationship. Flashbacks triggered by current daily events provide more detail of Nazerman's past, some which are so quick and disturbing as to be borderline subliminal. The most explicit flashback occurs when Ortiz's girlfriend, a black prostitute (Thelma Oliver) enters the shop to pawn a gold locket and bare her breasts to him hoping to increase his offered price. For Nazerman this causes pain, as it only reminds him of being forced to watch his wife raped by Nazi officers. Ortiz, the young, exuberant, lovable Puerto Rican assistant, continues to wear away at Nazerman's defenses, seeking some kind of emotional response. When Nazerman snaps back in thoughtless cruelty, Ortiz retaliates by arranging a robbery of the pawn shop. Nazerman's refusal to submit to the robbers results in gunfire, with Ortiz selflessly taking the bullet meant for his employer. His dying breath in the arms of Nazerman is at last the only thing the young man has done which breaks the stone barrier around the older man's heart, and evokes an expression of tenderness. Filmed in stark black-and-white,"The Pawnbroker" is a harshly realistic vision. Steiger's portrayal of an insensitive miser was pegged as anti-Semitic, civil rights organizations objected to Peter's totally unscrupulous character, and the Legion of Decency condemned the film based on Oliver's partial nudity scene. Nonetheless, the film received recognition from numerous critics' groups and Steiger, in what was his first starring role, picked up "Best Actor" honors from both the Berlin International Film Festival and the British Academy Awards.
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82% (2) Black Girl 97 min, PG, [Drama] [Ossie Davis] [09 Nov 1972]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, Rotten Tomatoes: 95%, External Reviews
Actors: Brock Peters, Claudia McNeil, Leslie Uggams, Louise Stubbs
Writer: J.E. Franklin (play), J.E. Franklin (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: An aspiring dancer and her wicked sisters resent their mother's love for a foster daughter.
Rotten Tomatoes: The first major work of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene, this 1966 film is widely recognized as one of the founding works of African cinema. Diouanne Therese N'Bissine Diop, a young Senegalese woman, is employed as a governess for a French family in the city of Dakar. She soon becomes disillusioned when the family travels to the Riviera, where her comfortable duties as a nanny in a wealthy household are replaced by the drudgery and indignities of a maid. In a series of escalating confrontations with her mistress (Anne-Marie Jelinek), Diouanne is painfully reminded of her racial identity. She is caught in the tension between the French upper-class and post-colonial West Africa and finds herself alienated from both worlds. Along with narration and dialogue in French, this film also shares the sparse tone and visual style of French cinema of its period. Nevertheless, the influence of Sembene's European counterparts does not diminish this subtle but striking examination of racial and cultural prejudice. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, Rovi
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
80% (2) The Incident 107 min, Approved, [Crime, Drama, Thriller] [Larry Peerce] [26 Jan 1968]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 83%, External Reviews
Awards: 4 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Beau Bridges, Brock Peters, Martin Sheen, Tony Musante
Writer: Nicholas E. Baehr (story by), Nicholas E. Baehr (screenplay by)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Stark melodrama about two thrill seeking tough guys who terrorize late-night passengers on a New York City train. The random victims are more concerned with their own problems than helping each other and pray that they won't be next. But it's going to take a lot more than prayer to end this nightmare of fear and violence. Film debut of both Martin Sheen and Tony Musante as the hoodlums.
Rotten Tomatoes: After mugging a helpless old man, switchblade-wielding punks Martin Sheen and Tony Musante take over a subway car, terrorizing its occupants. In Stagecoach fashion, all the best and worst qualities of the passengers are brought to the surface by the presence of danger.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
67% (1) Ace High 122 min, PG-13, [Comedy, Western] [Giuseppe Colizzi] [03 Sep 1969]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Actors: Brock Peters, Bud Spencer, Eli Wallach, Kevin McCarthy, Terence Hill
Writer: Giuseppe Colizzi (screenplay)
External Links: IMDb Language: Italian Country: Italy
Plot: After Cacopoulos (Eli Wallach) saves himself from being hanged on a false charge, he robs Cat Stevens (Terrence Hill) and Hutch Bessy (Bud Spencer) and steals their horses. This results in Stevens and Bessy becoming unwilling allies in Cacopoulus' revenge against the people who framed him.
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66% (1) Lost in the Stars 97 min, G, [Drama, Musical] [Daniel Mann] [08 Apr 1974]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Actors: Brock Peters, Clifton Davis, Melba Moore, Raymond St. Jacques
Writer: Maxwell Anderson (play), Alfred Hayes, Alan Paton (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Brock Peters (To Kill a Mockingbird) is Stephen Kumalo, a black South African minister searching the unfamiliar back alleys and shantytowns of Johannesburg for his son, Absalom.
Rotten Tomatoes: Lost in the Stars was an American Film Theatre adaptation of the musical play by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill--which in turn was based on the Alain Paton novel Cry the Beloved Country. Brock Peters portrays a South African minister who goes to the Big City to locate his son Raymond St. Jacques, who is now a criminal in the eyes of the white rulers. The minister forges a curious, foredoomed friendship with a white farmer (Paul Rogers). Lost in the Stars has sometimes been accused of blunting the edge of Paton's angry study of the cruelties of Apartheid; fans of musical theatre will be more politely inclined to this loving filmization of the Broadway play. On its own, Cry the Beloved Country was previously filmed in 1951, with Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier and Charles Carson.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
64% (1) P.J. 109 min, APPROVED, [Action, Drama, Mystery] [John Guillermin] [07 Oct 1968]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 64%, External Reviews
Actors: Brock Peters, Gayle Hunnicutt, George Peppard, Raymond Burr
Writer: Philip H. Reisman Jr. (screenplay), Philip H. Reisman Jr. (story), Edward Montagne (story)
External Links: Wikipedia IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Private eye P.J. is reluctant when he gets a new job: he shall protect Maureen Preble, mistress of millionaire Orbeson, mainly from attacks by his wife and her greedy family. In truth Orbeson plans a deadly intrigue in which P.J. is to play a central part. Meanwhile P.J. falls in love with Maureen and Orbeson's money.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
59% (1) Slaughter's Big Rip-Off 94 min, R, [Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller] [Gordon Douglas] [04 Mar 1974]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 59%, External Reviews
Actors: Brock Peters, Don Stroud, Ed McMahon, Jim Brown
Writer: Charles Eric Johnson, Don Williams (character)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Vigilante Slaughter comes under attack from Duncan, a local money launderer whose hit-man traps Slaughter in a car at a cliff, but Slaughter escapes, arms himself, and goes after Duncan's hideout.
Rotten Tomatoes: The sequel to Slaughter, this film follows the adventures of Slaughter (Jim Brown) as he struggles to kill a group of vengeful mobsters, led by the sinister Duncan (Ed McMahon), before they kill him.
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