Robert Towne

Robert Towne

Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz; November 23, 1934 - July 1, 2024) was an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest screenplays ever written. He later said it was inspired by a chapter in Carey McWilliams's Southern California Country: An Island on the Land (1946) and a West magazine article on Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles. Towne also wrote the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990); the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975); and the first two Mission: Impossible films. Towne directed the sports dramas Personal Best (1982) and Without Limits (1998), the crime thriller Tequila Sunrise (1988), and the romantic crime drama Ask the Dust (2006). Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Towne, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

  • Title: Robert Towne
  • Popularity: 1.5924
  • Known For: Writing
  • Birthday: 1934-11-23
  • Place of Birth: San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As: P. H. Vasak, Роберт Таун
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Robert Towne Movies

  • 1961
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    Creature from the Haunted Sea

    Creature from the Haunted Sea

    3.6 1961 HD

    A crook decides to bump off members of his inept crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea creature. What he doesn't know is that the creature is real.

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  • 1960
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    Last Woman on Earth

    Last Woman on Earth

    4.4 1960 HD

    Harold Gern, a shady businessman from New York, is spending a holiday in Puerto Rico with his attractive wife Evelyn. They are joined by Martin Joyce, Harold's lawyer, who has come to discuss the latest indictment. Harold invites him along on a boat trip during which all three try out some newly bought scuba diving equipment. When they resurface, they find out that the world has changed forever.

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  • 1971
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    Drive, He Said

    Drive, He Said

    5.7 1971 HD

    Hector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards. His girlfriend, Olive, doesn't know whether to stay with him or leave him. And his friend, Gabriel, who may have dropped out from school and become a protestor, wants desperately not to get drafted for Vietnam.

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  • 2008
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    Revolution! The Making of 'Bonnie and Clyde'

    Revolution! The Making of 'Bonnie and Clyde'

    4.6 2008 HD

    The making-of documentary of Bonnie and Clyde.

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  • 2005
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    Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That

    Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That

    6.7 2005 HD

    Documentary about filmmaker Budd Boetticher.

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  • 1975
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    Shampoo

    Shampoo

    6 1975 HD

    On Election Day, 1968, irresponsible hairdresser and ladies' man George Roundy is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his girlfriends and mistress Felicia Karpf, whose husband Lester is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend Jackie.

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  • 2004
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    Suspect Zero

    Suspect Zero

    5.5 2004 HD

    A killer is on the loose, and an FBI agent sifts through clues and learns that the bloodthirsty felon's victims of choice are other serial killers.

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  • 2019
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    What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

    What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

    6.7 2019 HD

    Pauline Kael (1919–2001) was undoubtedly one of the greatest names in film criticism. A Californian native, she wrote her first review in 1953 and joined ‘The New Yorker’ in 1968. Praised for her highly opinionated and feisty writing style and criticised for her subjective and sometimes ruthless reviews, Kael’s writing was refreshingly and intensely rooted in her experience of watching a film as a member of the audience. Loved and hated in equal measure – loved by other critics for whom she was immensely influential, and hated by filmmakers whose films she trashed - Kael destroyed films that have since become classics such as The Sound of Music and raved about others such as Bonnie and Clyde. She was also aware of the perennial difficulties for women working in the movies and in film criticism, and fiercely fought sexism, both in her reviews and in her media appearances.

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  • 1987
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    The Pick-up Artist

    The Pick-up Artist

    5.6 1987 HD

    A womanizer meets his match when he falls for the daughter of a gambling addict who is in debt to the mob.

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  • 1997
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    Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature

    Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature

    1 1997 HD

    Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.

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  • 1971
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    The Zodiac Killer

    The Zodiac Killer

    4.7 1971 HD

    The San Francisco area is beset by a series of seemingly random murders without motive or pattern. The police are taunted by phone calls and letters. Could the maniac be the violent truck driver, or the seemingly mild-mannered mailman, or even a cop?

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  • 1998
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    Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy

    Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy

    6 1998 HD

    A profile of writer-director Billy Wilder

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  • 2001
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    A Sad Flower in the Sand

    A Sad Flower in the Sand

    1 2001 HD

    About a largely unsung writer of the twentieth century: John Fante, the renegade author whose highly autobiographical novels illustrate his deep-rooted love of Los Angeles and his struggles working through poverty and prejudice.

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  • 2013
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    Salinger

    Salinger

    6.3 2013 HD

    An in-depth investigation into the private world of the American writer J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), who lived most of his life behind the impenetrable wall of a self-imposed seclusion: how his dramatic experiences during World War II influenced his life and work, his relationships with very young women, his obsessive writing methods, his many literary secrets.

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  • 2001
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    Rescued from the Closet

    Rescued from the Closet

    6 2001 HD

    Rescued from the Closet is a 2001 documentary consisting of interviews originally recorded for the 1995 film The Celluloid Closet. It explores the history and impact of LGBT representation in cinema, providing insights into the portrayal and evolution of LGBT characters and themes within the film industry.

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  • 2008
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    You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

    You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

    8.5 2008 HD

    Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner and Sam Warner were siblings who were born in Poland and emigrated to Canada near the turn of the century. In 1903, the brothers entered the budding motion picture business. In time, the Warner Brothers moved into film production and would open their own studio in 1923.

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  • 2003
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    A Decade Under the Influence

    A Decade Under the Influence

    7.9 2003 HD

    A documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of today's best filmmakers interview the influential directors of that time.

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  • 2002
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    Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film

    Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film

    1 2002 HD

    illustrates how directors pushed boundaries and altered the art of filmmaking during the turbulent, swinging 1960s. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, "Reel Radicals" features clips from such seminal films as Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967); Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" (1967); Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" (1969); John Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962); Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968); John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" (1969); Richard Brooks' "Elmer Gantry" (1960) and "In Cold Blood" (1967); and Norman Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) and "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968). Frankenheimer, Jewison, Hopper, Schlesinger, Penn, Buck Henry, Paul Mazursky, Roger Corman and Arthur Hiller are among the filmmakers who discuss the decade.

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  • 1970
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    Robert Towne

    Robert Towne

    1 1970 HD

    A portrait of the legendary Hollywood screenwriter, director, producer and actor that examines the man whose work couples the surface of modern America's economic and cultural success with dark underbelly conspiracy.

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  • 1988
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    Tequila Sunrise

    Tequila Sunrise

    6.1 1988 HD

    In a seaside California town, best friends Mac and Nick are on opposite sides of the law. Mac is a former drug dealer trying to clean up his act, while Nick is a high-profile detective trying to take down a Mexican drug lord named Carlos. Soon Nick's loyalties are put to the test when he begins an affair with restaurateur Jo Ann -- a love interest of Mac's -- unwittingly leading his friend into a police-orchestrated trap.

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  • 1988
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    Tequila Sunrise

    Tequila Sunrise

    6.1 1988 HD

    In a seaside California town, best friends Mac and Nick are on opposite sides of the law. Mac is a former drug dealer trying to clean up his act, while Nick is a high-profile detective trying to take down a Mexican drug lord named Carlos. Soon Nick's loyalties are put to the test when he begins an affair with restaurateur Jo Ann -- a love interest of Mac's -- unwittingly leading his friend into a police-orchestrated trap.

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  • 2006
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    Ask the Dust

    Ask the Dust

    5.378 2006 HD

    Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.

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  • 2006
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    Ask the Dust

    Ask the Dust

    5.378 2006 HD

    Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.

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  • 1996
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    Mission: Impossible

    Mission: Impossible

    7.021 1996 HD

    When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.

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  • 2000
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    Mission: Impossible II

    Mission: Impossible II

    6.141 2000 HD

    With computer genius Luther Stickell at his side and a beautiful thief on his mind, agent Ethan Hunt races across Australia and Spain to stop a former IMF agent from unleashing a genetically engineered biological weapon called Chimera. This mission, should Hunt choose to accept it, plunges him into the center of an international crisis of terrifying magnitude.

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  • 1990
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    Days of Thunder

    Days of Thunder

    6.3 1990 HD

    Talented but unproven stock car driver Cole Trickle gets a break and with the guidance of veteran Harry Hogge turns heads on the track. The young hotshot develops a rivalry with a fellow racer that threatens his career when the two smash their cars. But with the help of his doctor, Cole just might overcome his injuries-- and his fear.

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  • 1998
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    Without Limits

    Without Limits

    6.6 1998 HD

    The life of renowned runner Steve Prefontaine and his relationship with legendary coach Bill Bowerman.

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  • 1998
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    Without Limits

    Without Limits

    6.6 1998 HD

    The life of renowned runner Steve Prefontaine and his relationship with legendary coach Bill Bowerman.

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  • 1975
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    Shampoo

    Shampoo

    6 1975 HD

    On Election Day, 1968, irresponsible hairdresser and ladies' man George Roundy is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his girlfriends and mistress Felicia Karpf, whose husband Lester is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend Jackie.

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  • 1990
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    The Two Jakes

    The Two Jakes

    6 1990 HD

    Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for some run-of-the-mill matrimonial work. After Berman shoots his wife's lover, who happens to be his business partner, Gittes is drawn into a web of conspiracy and deceit involving the oil reserves beneath Los Angeles. While investigating, Gittes hears a voice from his past that causes him to revisit a traumatic case in Chinatown.

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  • 1982
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    Personal Best

    Personal Best

    5.922 1982 HD

    Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.

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  • 1974
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    The Yakuza

    The Yakuza

    7.123 1974 HD

    When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.

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  • 1964
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    The Tomb of Ligeia

    The Tomb of Ligeia

    6.3 1964 HD

    Verden Fell is shattered after the death of his lovely wife. But, after an unexpected encounter with Lady Rowena Trevanion, Fell soon finds himself married again. Nevertheless, his late wife's spirit seems to hang over the dilapidated abbey that Fell shares with his new bride. Lady Rowena senses that something is amiss and, when she investigates, makes a horrifying discovery -- learning that Fell's dead wife is closer than she ever imagined possible.

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  • 1993
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    The Firm

    The Firm

    6.733 1993 HD

    Mitch McDeere is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by 'The Firm' and made an offer he doesn't refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice - work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan...

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  • 1973
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    The Last Detail

    The Last Detail

    7.026 1973 HD

    Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but decide to show him one last good time along the way.

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  • 1994
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    Love Affair

    Love Affair

    5.4 1994 HD

    Ex-football star Mike Gambril meets Terry McKay on a flight to Sydney, which is forced to land on a small atoll. They become romantic on board a ship sent to take them to a larger island. They agree to meet in New York three months later to see if the attraction is real. One shows up but the other doesn't. However, a chance meeting brings them together again.

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  • 1968
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    Villa Rides

    Villa Rides

    6.2 1968 HD

    Pulled into the Mexican Revolution by his own greed, Texas gunrunner and pilot Lee Arnold joins bandit-turned-patriot Pancho Villa and his band of dedicated men in a march across Mexico battling the Colorados and stealing women's hearts as they go. But each has a nemesis among his friends: Arnold is tormented by Fierro, Villa's right-hand-man; and Villa must face possible betrayal by his own president's naiveté

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  • 1960
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    Last Woman on Earth

    Last Woman on Earth

    4.4 1960 HD

    Harold Gern, a shady businessman from New York, is spending a holiday in Puerto Rico with his attractive wife Evelyn. They are joined by Martin Joyce, Harold's lawyer, who has come to discuss the latest indictment. Harold invites him along on a boat trip during which all three try out some newly bought scuba diving equipment. When they resurface, they find out that the world has changed forever.

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  • 1982
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    Personal Best

    Personal Best

    5.922 1982 HD

    Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.

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  • 1990
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    The Two Jakes

    The Two Jakes

    6 1990 HD

    Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for some run-of-the-mill matrimonial work. After Berman shoots his wife's lover, who happens to be his business partner, Gittes is drawn into a web of conspiracy and deceit involving the oil reserves beneath Los Angeles. While investigating, Gittes hears a voice from his past that causes him to revisit a traumatic case in Chinatown.

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  • 1971
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    Drive, He Said

    Drive, He Said

    5.7 1971 HD

    Hector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards. His girlfriend, Olive, doesn't know whether to stay with him or leave him. And his friend, Gabriel, who may have dropped out from school and become a protestor, wants desperately not to get drafted for Vietnam.

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  • 1986
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    8 Million Ways to Die

    8 Million Ways to Die

    5.479 1986 HD

    Scudder is a detective with the Sheriff's Department who is forced to shoot a violent suspect during a narcotics raid. The ensuing psychological aftermath of this shooting worsens his drinking problem and this alcoholism causes him to lose his job, as well as his marriage.

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  • 1978
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    Heaven Can Wait

    Heaven Can Wait

    6.6 1978 HD

    Joe Pendleton is a quarterback preparing to lead his team to the superbowl when he is almost killed in an accident. An overanxious angel plucks him to heaven only to discover that he wasn't ready to die, and that his body has been cremated. A new body must be found, and that of a recently-murdered millionaire is chosen. His wife and accountant—the murderers—are confused by this development, as he buys the L.A. Rams in order to once again quarterback them into the Superbowl.

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  • 1988
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    Frantic

    Frantic

    6.7 1988 HD

    The wife of an American doctor suddenly vanishes in Paris. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.

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  • 1971
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    Cisco Pike

    Cisco Pike

    5.6 1971 HD

    A down on his luck former drug dealer is forced by a corrupt LAPD policeman to sell 100 kilos of confiscated marijuana in one weekend.

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  • 1974
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    The Parallax View

    The Parallax View

    6.836 1974 HD

    An ambitious reporter gets in trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.

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  • 1967
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    Bonnie and Clyde

    Bonnie and Clyde

    7.494 1967 HD

    In the 1930s, bored European-American waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with a European-American ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.

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  • 1987
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    Tough Guys Don't Dance

    Tough Guys Don't Dance

    4.67 1987 HD

    Tim Madden awakens one morning to discover a fresh tattoo on his arm, his car covered in blood, his girlfriend in bed with the town sheriff, and a woman's severed head in his weed stash. Sensing a setup and in desperate need to clear his name, he begins an investigation that soon begins to expose a web of corruption in the small coastal community of Provincetown.

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  • 1983
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    Deal of the Century

    Deal of the Century

    4.6 1983 HD

    Arms dealers from several companies vie to sell the most expensive and highest tech weapons to a South American dictator. There are complications; understanding the exact nature of how 'gifts' are used to grease the wheels of a sale, a religious conversion from one of the salesman and a romance that begins to grow between two competitors.

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  • 1971
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    McCabe & Mrs. Miller

    McCabe & Mrs. Miller

    7.163 1971 HD

    A gambler and a prostitute become thriving business partners in a remote Old West mining town until a large corporation arrives on the scene.

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  • 1972
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    The New Centurions

    The New Centurions

    6.6 1972 HD

    An idealistic rookie cop joins the LAPD to make ends meet while finishing law school, and is indoctrinated by a seasoned veteran. As time goes on, he loses his ambitions and family as police work becomes his entire life.

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  • 1982
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    Personal Best

    Personal Best

    5.922 1982 HD

    Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.

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  • 1986
    imgMovies

    8 Million Ways to Die

    8 Million Ways to Die

    5.479 1986 HD

    Scudder is a detective with the Sheriff's Department who is forced to shoot a violent suspect during a narcotics raid. The ensuing psychological aftermath of this shooting worsens his drinking problem and this alcoholism causes him to lose his job, as well as his marriage.

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  • 1990
    imgMovies

    Days of Thunder

    Days of Thunder

    6.3 1990 HD

    Talented but unproven stock car driver Cole Trickle gets a break and with the guidance of veteran Harry Hogge turns heads on the track. The young hotshot develops a rivalry with a fellow racer that threatens his career when the two smash their cars. But with the help of his doctor, Cole just might overcome his injuries-- and his fear.

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  • 1987
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    The Bedroom Window

    The Bedroom Window

    6.3 1987 HD

    Baltimore, Maryland. Sylvia sees a girl being attacked from her lover Terry's bedroom window. The assailant flees and his victim is saved. But that same night another girl is found murdered.

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  • 1970
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    Battle of Britain

    Battle of Britain

    1 1970 HD

    A story set during the famous WWII air battle between the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe.

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  • 1974
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    Chinatown

    Chinatown

    7.91 1974 HD

    Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

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  • 1984
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    Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

    Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

    6.4 1984 HD

    A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.

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  • 1972
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    The Godfather

    The Godfather

    8.687 1972 HD

    Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

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  • 2011
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    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    7.7 2011 HD

    A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

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  • 1970
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    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    5 1970 HD

    The Lloyd Bridges Show is an American anthology drama series produced by Aaron Spelling, which aired on CBS from September 11, 1962 to May 28, 1963, starring and hosted by Lloyd Bridges.

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  • 1970
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    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    7.8 1970 HD

    The Outer Limits is an anthology tv series of self-contained sci-fi-horror stories, sometimes with a plot twist at the end.

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  • 1970
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    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    1 1970 HD

    Welcome To The Basement is a show about watching, discussing and having fun with movies. The series stars Matt Sloan as the preponderant host; with close friend and Chad Vader alum Craig Johnson as his Second Banana.

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  • 1970
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    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    The Story of Film: An Odyssey

    7.1 1970 HD

    Agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin work for a secret intelligence service working under the auspices of the U.N. Their immediate superior is Mr. Waverly. Together they operate out of a secret base beneath the streets of New York City, and accesses through several cover business such as Del Floria's Tailor Shop and the Masque Club. This secret intelligence service is called U.N.C.L.E. United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

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