“Fast” Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary “Minnesota Fats” to a high-stakes match, but he loses in a heartbreaking marathon. Now broke and without his long-time manager, Felson faces an uphill battle to regain his confidence and his game. It isn’t until he hits rock bottom that he agrees to join up with ruthless and cutthroat manager Bert Gordon. Gordon agrees to take him on the road to learn the ropes. But Felson soon realizes that making it to the top could cost him his soul, and perhaps his girlfriend. Will he decide that this is too steep a price to pay in time to save himself? Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie and George C. Scott.

Won 2 Oscars

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2475557145/

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A classic film by Otto Preminger. In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case? I like the twists in this film, you never know what really happened, until the end. With James Stewart, Lee Remick and Ben Gazzara.

Plot:

Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara), a lieutenant in the army, is arrested for the murder of a bartender, Barney Quill. He claims, in his defense, that the victim had raped and beaten up his wife Laura (Lee Remick). Although Laura supports her husband’s story, the police surgeon can find no evidence that she has been raped. Manion is defended by Paul Biegler (James Stewart), a rather humble small-town lawyer. During the course of interviews, Biegler discovers that Manion is violently possessive and jealous, and also that his wife has a reputation for giving her favors to other men. Biegler realizes that the prosecution will try to make the court believe that Laura was the lover of the bartender and than Manion killed him and beat her up when he discovered them together. Manion pleads “not guilty” and Biegler, who knows that his case is weak, sets his assistants to try to find a witness who will save Manion.

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3736469785/

What a great John Huston movie with an incredible cast; Kirk Douglas, George C. Scott, Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis. Because of that gimmick with Curtis, Mitchum, Sinatra and Lancaster people seem to regard this film as a sort of spot-the-star contest. But it is much more than that. If you like mysteries, this is among the best. The clever use of cameo appearances only makes it better.

Plot:

Messenger asks a friend to check into a list of names before leaving on a trip. When his plane is blown out of the sky, the matter becomes more serious. As his friend checks into the list, each seems to have died in mysterious circumstances. As he goes down the list, the deaths become more recent and a race to find the remaining survivors and what put each of them on this list ensues.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2WbOmkut9E

Crazy good film from Mr. Kubrick. Dr. Strangelove does exactly that. Kubrick’s masterpiece illustrates in brilliant fashion the idiocy of nuclear war and the idiots who are orchestrating it.

Plot:

U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the “precious bodily fluids” of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a “Doomsday Machine” which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. Peter Sellers portrays the three men who might avert this tragedy: British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the only person with access to the demented Gen. Ripper; U.S. President Merkin Muffley, whose best attempts to divert disaster depend on placating a drunken Soviet Premier and the former Nazi genius Dr. Strangelove, who concludes that “such a device would not be a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious”. Will the bombers be stopped in time, or will General Jack Ripper succeed in destroying the world ?

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3114467609/