The Harder They Come
Classic Cinema
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1h 42m
Leaving January 1
Directed by Perry Henzell | 102 mins | 1972
Star Jimmy Cliff holds down both the screen and the soundtrack in this rude-boy cult classic, Jamaica’s first feature film, which draws on the legend of folk hero prison escapee Ivanhoe “Rhygin” Martin. Cliff plays Ivan, a bumpkin naif freshly arrived in Kingston with dreams of making it as a singer who soon enough acquires a new skintight wardrobe, the nickname “Pretty Boy,” and a hit single—though none of the profits, thanks to a corrupt record exec.
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Tom Kalin’s coruscating debut returns to the scene of the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder case, likewise a key inspiration for Hitchcock’s Rope, but in this telling the unspoken homosexual undercurrent of the crime is put boldly front and center. A heavily ... -
The Man With The Golden Arm
Directed by Otto Preminger | 119 mins | 1955
Incendiary at the time for its depiction of drug addiction, Otto Preminger’s noir-ish expedition through the caliginous slums and backdoor casinos of ’50s Chicago was so popular that it incited an investigation into cinema censorship—and an eventual lo...
