robert-bucknor's - FAVOURITES List

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Arthur Bach is a very rich man - and very drunk most of the time, with a bar bill that reads like the national debt. He also stands to lose his $750 million inheritance if he doesn't marry the most boring blonde on Long Island within a month.

Unfortunately, Arthur's just discovered the girl of his dreams. And in his case, love's not only blind but blind drunk. Dudley Moore stars in Arthur, the bubbly box-office hit that solidified his standing as one of the most gifted comedians ever. Liza Minnelli is Linda Marolla, the actress/waitress who catches our hero's eye and heart. And in his Academy Award -winning performance as acerbic manservant Hobson, Sir John Gielgud steals the show. When Arthur intones his intention to bathe, Hobson dryly replies, "I'll alert the media." No alerts are necessary, Arthur, which picked up a second Oscar. for its delightful title tune, has already become a contemporary comedy classic.

Grieving for the loss of their infant son, a couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) retreat to the solace of their remote woodland cabin to repair their troubled marriage. But once there, nature itself turns against them and a terrifying journey into violence and chaos begins.

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Boy meets girl - and the press tracks their every move, rivals fire broadsides and a Presidency with a 63% popularity rating plunges to 41% in seven weeks. When you're the President, everyone knows where you live.

Michael Douglas portrays the widower Chief Executive who falls for a lobbyist (Annette Bening), then freefalls in the polls in this winning romantic comedy directed by Rob Reiner. Bustling staff members (Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, David Payner, Anna Deavere Smith), a sneering opponent (Richard Dreyfuss), state dinners, formal protocol, informal moments, global crises - all come into focus as Reiner and his stars explore the balance between private romance ad public Presidency.

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December 1944. Rumours are flying among the battle-weary infantrymen of the Fragile Fox Company: they're being sent to the rear! But the rumours vanish in the dust of the approaching tanks as Germany unleashes a savage surprise counterattack. The Battle of the Bulge is underway.

Oscar Winner Jack Palance stars as Lieutenant Joe Costa, a heroic soldier fighting on two fronts. One pits Costa and his men against the thundering Panzer 88s and spitting machine-guns of Nazi armoured units. And the other - a cowardly and incompetent captain is perhaps even more destructive than the enemy's elite troops. Breeding uncertainly and alarm within the ranks, his lack of leadership forces Costa into a fateful choice: continue to risk the lives of his men...or take the life of the captain!

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In a world of wealth and desire, high-end male escort Julian Kay (Richard Gere) offers his love and attention to women in need. But when a client, the wife of a sadistic finance magnate, is found dead, all eyes turn to Julian as the prime suspect.

Realising he's being framed, Julian races to prove his innocence, determined to unravel the mystery behind the setup. As he digs deeper into the case, he embarks on a journey that forces him to confront his own identity.

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One of the most controversial - and popular - comedies ever made, Johnny Speight's classic sitcom caustically satirised the less acceptable aspects of entrenched working-class culture in the form of highly opinionated, true-blue bigot Alf Garnett - as played by Warren Mitchell.

Making the jump to feature films in 1968, 'Till Death Us Do Part' sees the return of all four series regulars and is featured here as a brand-new High Definition restoration from original film elements. 1939. War is declared. But Alf Garnett's got bigger problems on his plate - he's only been married to Else for a few weeks and they're already sick of the sight of each other!

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All Quiet On The Western Front is an acclaimed version of Erich Maria Remarque's devastating story of a generation destroyed. In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their chauvinistic schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'.

With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. Their disenchantment begins during the brutal basic training and then, as they board the train to the front, they see the terrible injuries suffered on the frontline - their first glimpse of the reality of war. In the trenches, one by one the boys begin to fall....

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Featuring Robert Hays as an ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning; Julie Hagerty as his girlfriend/ stewardess/ co-pilot; and a cast of all-stars including Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem

Abdul-Jabbar…and more! Their hilarious high jinks spook airplane disaster flicks, religious zealots, television commercials, romantic love…the list whirls by in rapid succession. And the story races from one moment of zany fun to the next!

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The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna (Lea Massari), and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), who doesn't fit in with the wealthy jet-setters' dissolute

ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro's emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and - when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever - become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him.

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Jimmy Stewart plays the bungling but charming big-city lawyer determined to rid the fair village of Shinbone of its number one nuisance and bad man: Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). And as if all that weren't enough, the biggest star that ever aimed a six-shooter plays the man of the title: John Wayne.

Super-sincere Stewart and rugged rancher Wayne also share the same love interest (Vera Miles). One gets the gunman but the other gets the gal.

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Afflicted with a terminal illness, John Bernard Books (John Wayne), the last of the legendary gunfighters, quietly returns to Carson City for medical attention from his old friend Dr. Hostetler (James Stewart).

Aware that his days are numbered, the troubled man seeks solace and peace in a boardinghouse run by a widow (Lauren Bacall) and her son (Ron Howard). However, it is not Books' fate to die in peace, as he becomes embroiled in one last valiant battle.

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How does bitter convict Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster) cope with a lifetime of solitary confinement? The answer, in a sense, comes from above - in the form of a feeble sparrow he finds in the isolation yard.

Stroud brings this new-found companion to his cell, nurses it to health and, from that point on, there's no turning back. Despite having only a third grade education, and no hope of parole, Stroud becomes a renowned ornithologist - and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind prison walls than many in the outside world will ever know.

Lady Susan Walker runs her plantation as a cruel mistress, mistreating her subordinates until they can take it no more. By the end the exploited revolt, and take bitter revenge against their tormentors...

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Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) leads a group of Anglican nuns to a remote Himalayan range of mountains, there to set up a mission in an abandoned harem.

This is her first position of authority and she finds both her physical and her spiritual limits being taxed as she has to maintain order and discipline in a claustrophobically hostile environment. Slowly but surely, however, the privations and hardship they must endure, the extremes of climate and the peculiar amorality of the local natives all combine to slowly corrupt the women's faith, pushing them further into jealousy, anger and madness...

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At the height of the Chinese civil Megan Davis Megan Davis, an American missionary, travelled to Shanghai to marry her childhood sweetheart.

Separated during a raid, Megan is taken prisoner by the local warlord, General Yen (Nils Asther), who, intrigued by her innocence and strength, spirits her away to his summer palace. Initially repulsed by her captor's barbaric behaviour, Megan soon realises that beneath Yen's ruthless demeanor lies the soul of a poet and philosopher. And as war rages around them, these two strangers find themselves hopelessly entangled in a dangerous web of desire, betrayal and unattainable love.