Pandora's Box
The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
Louise Brooks
Lulu
Fritz Kortner
Dr. Ludwig Schön
Francis Lederer
Alwa Schön
Carl Goetz
Schigolch
Krafft-Raschig
Rodrigo Quast
Alice Roberts
Countess Anna Geschwitz
Daisy D'Ora
Charlotte Marie Adelaide von Zarnikow
Gustav Diessl
Jack the Ripper
Michael von Newlinsky
Marquis Casti-Piani
The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
Louise Brooks is Peter Pan-esque in this stylishly depicted story of "Lulu". She is beautiful and sexy, and she uses her gifts to effortlessly ensnare the wealthy "Dr. Schön" (Fritz Kortner). When it comes to marriage, however, she is tainted goods and so he becomes affianced to the more suitable "Charlotte" (Daisy D'Ora). He's still the jealous type, though, and is determined she will love no other. To that end he facilitates her joining the theatrical show of his adult son "Alwa" (Francis Lederer), who is none to immune to her charms either! Predictably, this plan only serves to throw oil on the fire and soon the now completely compromised, but smitten, doctor must make a decision he is loathe to - with tragic consequences ensuing for him, and for "Lulu". The performances ooze charisma and personality, the light and shade cleverly create atmospheres of passion, frustration and even some menace as the woman and her life rise and and fall before us. Carl Goetz is quite effective as "Schigolch" - one of her previous examples of collateral damage - as is Krafft-Raschig as the muscle-bound "Quast". By any modern day standard, this is a soap - a very good, well photographed and charming soap - but a soap nonetheless and it stretches the bounds of serendipity and plausibility just once too often for my liking. That said, Brooks turns her hand to just about everything here and is superb - and I did rather enjoy this.
New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.
Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.
A devious femme fatale steals her husband’s drug money and hides out in a small town where she meets the perfect dupe for her next scheme.
After Faye and her psychotic boyfriend, Vince, successfully rob a mob courier, Faye decides to abscond with the loot. She heads to Reno, where she hires feckless private investigator Jack Andrews to help fake her death. He pulls the scheme off and sets up Faye with a new identity, only to have her skip out on him without paying. Jack follows her to Vegas and learns he's not the only one after her. Vince has discovered that she's still alive.
In 1860s Paris, a young woman, Therese, is trapped in a loveless marriage to the sickly Camille by her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin. She spends her days behind the counter of a small shop and her evenings watching Madame play dominos with an eclectic group. After she meets her husband’s alluring friend, Laurent, she embarks on an illicit affair that leads to tragic consequences. Based on Emile Zola’s novel, Thérèse Raquin.
In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.
An expat PI is hired to investigate a suspicious death in Crete, Greece, where jealousies run deep amongst the victim's powerful family.
In the late 1940s, a murderous couple known as the 'The Lonely Hearts Killers' kills close to a dozen people. Two detectives try to nab the duo who find their targets via the personals in the paper.