Nicholas Ray

Nicholas Ray

Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle; 7 August 1911 – 16 June 1979) was an American film director best known for the films Rebel Without a Cause and Johnny Guitar. Described by the Harvard Film Archive as "Hollywood's last romantic" and "one of postwar American cinema’s supremely gifted and ultimately tragic filmmakers," Ray was considered an iconoclastic auteur director who often clashed with the Hollywood studio system of the time, but would prove highly influential to future generations of filmmakers. His best-known work is the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean. He is appreciated for many narrative features produced between 1947 and 1963, including They Live By Night (1948), In A Lonely Place (1950), Johnny Guitar (1954), Bigger Than Life (1956), and King of Kings (1961), as well as an experimental work produced throughout the 1970s titled We Can't Go Home Again, which was unfinished at the time of Ray's death. During his lifetime, Ray was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause, twice for the Golden Lion, for Bigger Than Life (1956) and Bitter Victory (1957), and a Palme d'Or for The Savage Innocents (1960). Three of his films were ranked by Cahiers du Cinéma in their Annual Top 10 Lists. Ray's compositions within the CinemaScope frame and use of color are particularly well regarded and he was an important influence on the French New Wave, with Jean-Luc Godard famously writing in a review of Bitter Victory, "... there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray."

  • Title: Nicholas Ray
  • Popularity: 1.6053
  • Known For: Directing
  • Birthday: 1911-08-07
  • Place of Birth: Galesville, Wisconsin, USA
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As: 니콜라스 레이, Raymond Nicholas Kienzle
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Nicholas Ray Movies

  • 1979
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    Hair

    Hair

    7.3 1979 HD

    Upon receiving his draft notice and leaving his family ranch in Oklahoma, Claude heads to New York and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to boot camp.

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  • 1977
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    The American Friend

    The American Friend

    7.076 1977 HD

    Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.

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  • 1980
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    Lightning Over Water

    Lightning Over Water

    6.6 1980 HD

    Director 'Nicholas Ray' is eager to complete a final film before his imminent death from cancer. Wim Wenders is working on his own film Hammett (1983) in Hollywood, but flies to New York to help Ray realize his final wish. Ray's original intent is to make a fiction film about a dying painter who sails to China to find a cure for his disease. He and Wenders discuss this idea, but it is obviously unrealistic given Ray's state of health.

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  • 2005
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    Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents

    Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents

    1 2005 HD

    Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents is a documentary chronicling the production of the film.

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  • 1979
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    Nicholas Ray: Especially for Pierre

    Nicholas Ray: Especially for Pierre

    1 1979 HD

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  • 1963
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    55 Days at Peking

    55 Days at Peking

    6.882 1963 HD

    Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.

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  • 2011
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    Don't Expect Too Much

    Don't Expect Too Much

    6 2011 HD

    Documentary about director/artist Nicholas Ray and his time as a University professor

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  • 1975
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    I'm a Stranger Here Myself

    I'm a Stranger Here Myself

    6.4 1975 HD

    A portrait of legendary filmmaker Nicholas Ray while he is working as a film professor at a college in upstate New York.

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  • 1955
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    Rebel Without a Cause

    Rebel Without a Cause

    7.502 1955 HD

    After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.

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  • 1945
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    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

    7.524 1945 HD

    In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.

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  • 1975
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    James Dean: The First American Teenager

    James Dean: The First American Teenager

    6 1975 HD

    Stacy Keach narrates this documentary that chronicles the abbreviated life and career of iconic brooding bad boy James Dean, from his obscure early days working in television to his rise to stardom in films such as Rebel Without a Cause. Clips from Dean's movies are intermingled with candid interviews with the star's friends and Hollywood colleagues, including Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dennis Hopper.

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  • 1977
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    Profile of Nicholas Ray

    Profile of Nicholas Ray

    1 1977 HD

    An interview with the American film director which was first broadcast on the CBS-TV television series "Camera Three."

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  • 1990
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    Vanity Fair: Jeanette Starion the Pet of the Year

    Vanity Fair: Jeanette Starion the Pet of the Year

    2 1990 HD

    Jeanette Dyrkjær, better known as Jeanette Starion, was a sought after nude and porn model in the 1980s. Her career took her to the United States, where she won the Million Pet of the Year Pageant and millions of dollars. But she ended up in the porn industry. The story of Jeanette Dyrkjær is the story of the girl who became famous, hit the wall and fell to the absolute rock bottom.

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  • 1973
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    We Can't Go Home Again

    We Can't Go Home Again

    6.029 1973 HD

    Nicholas Ray plays himself, acting as mentor, friend, and artistic inspiration to his students at Binghamton. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.

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  • 1973
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    Horizons

    Horizons

    8.5 1973 HD

    Working with Virgil’s four-part poem “Georgics” and Antonio Vivaldi’s concertos “The Four Seasons” as models, Gottheim arranged his painterly compositions into four distinct sections, each edited according to its own exacting pattern. The seasonal flux thus informs both the form and content of the image, with the basic elements of trees, sky, hills and the occasional crisscrossing clothesline filmed in every imaginable light.

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  • 1995
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    James Dean: A Portrait

    James Dean: A Portrait

    1 1995 HD

    A look at the legacy of icon actor James Dean on the 40th anniversary of his tragic death. The special follows his life and career, with obvious attention to the three big films that made him a legend; and interviews with the people who knew him.

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  • 2025
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    Films to Die For

    Films to Die For

    1 2025 HD

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  • 1955
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    Rebel Without a Cause

    Rebel Without a Cause

    7.502 1955 HD

    After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.

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  • 1952
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    Macao

    Macao

    6.222 1952 HD

    Nick Cochran, an American in exile in Macao, has a chance to restore his name by helping capture an international crime lord. Undercover, can he mislead the bad guys and still woo the attractive singer/petty crook, Julie Benson?

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  • 1951
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    On Dangerous Ground

    On Dangerous Ground

    6.616 1951 HD

    A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.

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  • 1956
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    Bigger Than Life

    Bigger Than Life

    7.179 1956 HD

    A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.

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  • 1958
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    Party Girl

    Party Girl

    6.8 1958 HD

    Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life than winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.

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  • 1954
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    Johnny Guitar

    Johnny Guitar

    7.4 1954 HD

    On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small, Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.

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  • 1954
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    Johnny Guitar

    Johnny Guitar

    7.4 1954 HD

    On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small, Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.

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  • 1954
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    Johnny Guitar

    Johnny Guitar

    7.4 1954 HD

    On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small, Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.

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  • 1963
    imgMovies

    55 Days at Peking

    55 Days at Peking

    6.882 1963 HD

    Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.

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  • 1949
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    Knock on Any Door

    Knock on Any Door

    6.174 1949 HD

    An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.

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  • 1961
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    King of Kings

    King of Kings

    7.2 1961 HD

    Who is Jesus, and why does he impact all he meets? He is respected and reviled, emulated and accused, beloved, betrayed, and finally crucified. Yet that terrible fate would not be the end of the story.

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  • 1980
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    Lightning Over Water

    Lightning Over Water

    6.6 1980 HD

    Director 'Nicholas Ray' is eager to complete a final film before his imminent death from cancer. Wim Wenders is working on his own film Hammett (1983) in Hollywood, but flies to New York to help Ray realize his final wish. Ray's original intent is to make a fiction film about a dying painter who sails to China to find a cure for his disease. He and Wenders discuss this idea, but it is obviously unrealistic given Ray's state of health.

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  • 1980
    imgMovies

    Lightning Over Water

    Lightning Over Water

    6.6 1980 HD

    Director 'Nicholas Ray' is eager to complete a final film before his imminent death from cancer. Wim Wenders is working on his own film Hammett (1983) in Hollywood, but flies to New York to help Ray realize his final wish. Ray's original intent is to make a fiction film about a dying painter who sails to China to find a cure for his disease. He and Wenders discuss this idea, but it is obviously unrealistic given Ray's state of health.

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  • 1952
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    The Lusty Men

    The Lusty Men

    6.7 1952 HD

    Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of this rough sport.

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  • 1950
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    Born to Be Bad

    Born to Be Bad

    5.838 1950 HD

    Christabel Caine has the face of angel and the heart of a swamp rat. She'll step on anyone to get what she wants, including her own family. A master of manipulation, she covertly breaks off the engagement of her trusting cousin, Donna, to her fabulously wealthy beau, Curtis Carey. Once married to Curtis herself, Christabel continues her affair with novelist Nick Bradley, who knows she's evil, but loves her anyway.

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  • 1950
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    In a Lonely Place

    In a Lonely Place

    7.605 1950 HD

    A violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.

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  • 1949
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    They Live by Night

    They Live by Night

    6.9 1949 HD

    An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.

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  • 1949
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    They Live by Night

    They Live by Night

    6.9 1949 HD

    An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.

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  • 1946
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    Swing Parade of 1946

    Swing Parade of 1946

    4.2 1946 HD

    A struggling young singer falls for a nightclub owner whose father, a millionaire, is trying to shut it down.

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  • 1951
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    Flying Leathernecks

    Flying Leathernecks

    5.838 1951 HD

    Major Daniel Kirby takes command of a squadron of Marine fliers just before they are about to go into combat. While the men are well meaning, he finds them undisciplined and prone to always finding excuses to do what is easy rather than what is necessary. The root of the problem is the second in command, Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin. Griff is the best flier in the group but Kirby finds him a poor commander who is not prepared to make the difficult decision that all commanders have to make - to put men in harm's way knowing that they may be killed.

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  • 1957
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    Bitter Victory

    Bitter Victory

    6.2 1957 HD

    During the second world war, two British officers, Brand and Leith, who have never seen combat, are assigned a vital mission. Their relationship and the operation are complicated by the arrival of Brand's wife, who had a tryst with Leith years earlier.

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  • 1958
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    Wind Across the Everglades

    Wind Across the Everglades

    5.9 1958 HD

    Set in the early 20th century, the film follows a game warden who arrives in Florida to enforce conservation laws. He soon finds himself pitted against Cottonmouth, the leader of a fierce group of bird poachers.

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  • 1957
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    The True Story of Jesse James

    The True Story of Jesse James

    6.255 1957 HD

    Having fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War, Jesse James and his brother Frank dream of a farm life in Missouri. Harassed by Union sympathizers, they assemble a gang of outlaws, robbing trains and becoming folk heroes in the process. Jesse marries his sweetheart, Zee, and maintains an aura of domesticity, but after a group of lawmen launch an attack on his mother's house, Jesse plans one more great raid -- on a Minnesota bank.

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  • 1949
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    A Woman's Secret

    A Woman's Secret

    5.6 1949 HD

    A popular singer, Marian Washburn, suddenly and unexplainably loses her voice, causing a shake-up at the club where she works. Her worried but loyal piano player, Luke Jordan, helps to promote a new, younger singer, Susan Caldwell, to temporarily replace Marian. Susan finds some early acclaim but decides to leave the club after a few performances. Soon after Susan quits, she is gunned down, and Marian quickly becomes a suspect.

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  • 1973
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    We Can't Go Home Again

    We Can't Go Home Again

    6.029 1973 HD

    Nicholas Ray plays himself, acting as mentor, friend, and artistic inspiration to his students at Binghamton. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.

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  • 1956
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    Hot Blood

    Hot Blood

    5.3 1956 HD

    Stephen Torino, who is tricked by his brother Marco into an arranged marriage with tempestuous Annie Caldash. Annie is willing to give the union a go, but Torino wants none of it.

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  • 1955
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    Run for Cover

    Run for Cover

    6.705 1955 HD

    An ex-convict drifter and his flawed young partner are made sheriff and deputy of a Western town.

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  • 1960
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    The Savage Innocents

    The Savage Innocents

    6.7 1960 HD

    An Eskimo who has had little contact with white men goes to a trading post where he accidentally kills a missionary and finds himself being pursued by the police.

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  • 1973
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    We Can't Go Home Again

    We Can't Go Home Again

    6.029 1973 HD

    Nicholas Ray plays himself, acting as mentor, friend, and artistic inspiration to his students at Binghamton. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.

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  • 1964
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    Circus World

    Circus World

    6.213 1964 HD

    Circus owner Matt Masters is beset by disasters as he attempts a European tour of his circus. At the same time, he is caught in an emotional bind between his adopted daughter and her mother.

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  • 1974
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    The Janitor

    The Janitor

    1 1974 HD

    Nicholas Ray short film from 1974, originally a segment from the anthology film "Wet Dreams."

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  • 1949
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    Roseanna McCoy

    Roseanna McCoy

    5.583 1949 HD

    It's the Hatfields vs. the McCoys in this 1949 film, with Farley Granger and Joan Evans as the hillbilly Romeo and Juliet whose forbidden romance rekindles a long-standing feud between their respective families.

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  • 1945
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    Tuesday in November

    Tuesday in November

    1 1945 HD

    A propaganda short about the 1944 United States presidential election, produced by the Office of War information, for overseas distribution. It is meant to explain how the democratic process in America works. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

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  • 1952
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    Androcles and the Lion

    Androcles and the Lion

    5.8 1952 HD

    George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.

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  • 1956
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    Bigger Than Life

    Bigger Than Life

    7.179 1956 HD

    A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.

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  • 1978
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    Marco

    Marco

    1 1978 HD

    A short film, this is technically the last film Nicholas Ray directed.

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  • 1967
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    Made in U.S.A

    Made in U.S.A

    6.14 1967 HD

    Paula Nelson goes to Atlantic City to meet her lover, Richard Politzer, but finds him dead and decides to investigate his death. In her hotel room, she meets Typhus, whom she ends up knocking out. His corpse is later found in the apartment of David Goodis, a writer. Paula is arrested and interrogated. From then on, she encounters many gangsters.

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  • 1957
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    Bitter Victory

    Bitter Victory

    6.2 1957 HD

    During the second world war, two British officers, Brand and Leith, who have never seen combat, are assigned a vital mission. Their relationship and the operation are complicated by the arrival of Brand's wife, who had a tryst with Leith years earlier.

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  • 1974
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    Wet Dreams

    Wet Dreams

    5 1974 HD

    Experimental anthology film consisting of nine segments - Contrasts, The Janitor, The Plumber, Another Wet Dream, The Happy Necrophiliacs, On a Sunday Afternoon, A Face, Politfuck, Flames - all focused on 70s sex, love and politics.

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  • 1960
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    The Savage Innocents

    The Savage Innocents

    6.7 1960 HD

    An Eskimo who has had little contact with white men goes to a trading post where he accidentally kills a missionary and finds himself being pursued by the police.

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  • 2024
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    Wilder Demons #2

    Wilder Demons #2

    1 2024 HD

    A scene from Ray's They Live by Night reimagined in the style of Matsumoto's Demons. With sound improved from Wilder Demons #1.

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  • 1945
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    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

    7.524 1945 HD

    In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.

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  • 1955
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    Rebel Without a Cause

    Rebel Without a Cause

    7.502 1955 HD

    After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.

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  • 1951
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    On Dangerous Ground

    On Dangerous Ground

    6.616 1951 HD

    A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.

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  • 1954
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    “General Electric Theater” High Green Wall

    “General Electric Theater” High Green Wall

    1 1954 HD

    Having survived a plane crash in the jungle, Henty finds a fortress-like home in the middle of nowhere, belonging to the affable Mr. McMaster. The latter doesn’t want Henty to leave.

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  • 1970
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    6.4 1970 HD

    General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.

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