Cons & Scams

Fallen Angel (Fox Film Noir)

Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) thrown off a bus for not having the fare begins to frequent a diner called "Pop's Eats" whose main attraction is a beautiful waitress by the name of Stella seems disinterested in Eric he decides if he had money she would pay attention to his advances. He marries June Mills ( Alice Faye ) for her money and stella is mysteriously murdered. Even though June Learns of Eric's dishonest plans she still loves him. It is with her support that he investigates the killing on his own eventually discovering the shocking identity of the real killer.DVD Features: Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.1 Stereo) English (Dolby Digital 2.1 Mono) Audio Commentary with Film Noir Historian Eddie Muller and Susan Andrews Publicity Gallery Production Stills Gallery Unit Photography Gallery Theatrical Trailer Fox Noir: The House on Telegraph Hill No Way Out If you liked this movie you may want to try... System Requirements:Running Time 98 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE UPC: 024543227786 Manufacturer No: 2232778

House of Games

David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut was this mesmerizing study of control and seduction between two kinds of detached observers: a gambler who is also a con artist, and a psychotherapist who is also an emerging pop-psych guru in the book market. The latter (played by Lindsay Crouse) meets the former (Joe Mantegna) when one of her clients is driven to despair from his debts to the card shark. Mantegna's character agrees to drop the IOUs in exchange for Crouse's attention at the seedy House of Games in Seattle, a mecca for con men to talk shop and hustle unsuspecting customers. The shrink gets so caught up in the arcane rules and world view of her guide over subsequent days that she observes--with no false rapture--various stings in progress inside and outside the club. Mamet's story finally becomes a fascinating study of two people protecting and extending their respective cosmologies the way rival predators fight for the same piece of turf. The psychological challenge is compelling; so is the stylized dialogue, with its pattern of pauses and hiccups and humming meter. Mostly shooting at night, Mamet also gave Seattle a different look from previous filmmakers, turning its familiar puddles into concentrations of liquid neon and poisonous noir. --Tom Keogh

It's the shrink vs. the shark in the ultimate mind game! Starring OscarÂ(r) nominee* Lindsay Crouse (The Insider) and Joe Montegna (The Godfather III) as an unlikely team of conartists, this "witty and devious" (Time) psychological thriller is OscarÂ(r) nominee** David Mamet's directorial debut. It's an "extraordinary" (Newsweek) and "thrilling funhouse" (New York Post) of mental gamesmanship that will keep you guessing until its exciting end! When a suicidal patient reveals that his gambling debt has him at the end of his rope, dedicated psychiatrist Margaret Ford (Crouse) enters into the shadowy underground world of gaming to help him out. At a seedy casino, she boldly confronts Mike (Montegna), the con man who holds her patient's markers. Duped into a high-stakes poker match, Margaret becomes intoxicated by Mike's mastery, as he both cheats at the game and charms her. She quickly falls for him, turning a blind eye to the fact that he's a swindler who can't be trusted. And before long she finds herself sparring in a mental poker match of the heart with deadly consequences! *1984: Supporting Actress, Places in the Heart **1982: Writing, Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium, The Verdict; 1997: Writing, Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium, Wag the Dog

Wild Things (Unrated Edition)

Wild Things is the kind of lurid, trashy thriller that you'll either dive into with unabashed pleasure or turn away from in prudish disgust; it's entirely your choice, but we suggest the former option since it's obviously much more fun. The plot's so convoluted it's hardly worth describing, except to say that it's set in humid Florida and involves a respected high school teacher (Matt Dillon--yes, Matt Dillon as a teacher!) who is faced with accusations of rape by a student (Denise Richards, from Starship Troopers) who had been giving him the kind of attention most people would consider improper for such a "nice" young lady. Another student (Neve Campbell) raises a similar charge against the teacher, and that's when a police officer (Kevin Bacon) begins to investigate the allegations. Just when you think the movie's gone overboard with its shameless sex and absurdly twisted plot, in drops Bill Murray as an unscrupulous lawyer (of course) to spice things up with insurance scams and welcomed comic relief. As directed by John McNaughton (who has a way of making just the right moves with this kind of film noir melodrama), Wild Things is a bona fide guilty pleasure--the kind of movie you may be ashamed to enjoy, but what the heck, you'll enjoy it anyway. --Jeff Shannon

The scheme is far from tame. But whose scheme is it? Assume nothing as you venture beyond Blue Bay's elite beach communities and into the murky waters of the Everglades for a mystery of deceit sex and greed as unpredictable as a hungry gator. And please keep your hands inside the boat at all times. Kevin Bacon Matt Dillon Neve Campbell Denise Richards and Bill Murray star in a swamp-steamy thriller about two high school students the guidance counselor they accuse of rape and the detective who knows there's more to the story.System Requirements:Running Time: 114 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: UNRATED UPC: 043396016286 Manufacturer No: 01628

Out of Time

Two-time Academy Award® winner* Denzel Washington (Training Day) is fantastic [in this] inventive exciting and spellbinding thriller ( The Movie Network ) co-starring Eva Mendes (2 Fast 2 Furious) and Dean Cain ( Lois & Clark ). In Banyan Key a small Florida town surrounded by azure seas and sultry secrets Chief of Police Matt Whitlock (Washington) finds himself caught in the eye of a storm and about to get blown away. Investigating the murder of a woman he is secretly seeing Matt races to uncover a murky trail of stolen money drugs and deceit all the while staying two steps ahead of his own detectives because all the evidence points to him!Special Features:Audio Commentary by Director Carl Franklin Out of Time: Crime Sequence FeaturetteCharacter ProfilesOuttakesScreen Tests: Sanaa Lathan Dean CainPhoto GalleryOriginal Theatrical TrailerSystem Requirements: Running Time 105 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 027616901798 Manufacturer No: 1005949

Partly inspired by 1948's The Big Clock and its nominal 1987 remake No Way Out, the Denzel Washington thriller Out of Time is quite enjoyable if you ignore its implausible plotting. Like those earlier films, this reunion of Washington and his Devil in a Blue Dress director Carl Franklin is about a man--in this case the police chief (Washington) of sleepy Banyan Key, Florida--who falls into a trap set by others, sinks into legal quicksand of his own making, and must race the clock to extricate himself from a series of incriminating setbacks. The Florida setting adds welcome character to the potboiler plot, and Washington's screen-cred makes it easy to overlook the absurdities of rookie writer David Collard's screenplay. Eva Mendes is sharp and sensible as Washington's estranged wife (do you think they'll reconcile for a happy ending?), and the talented John Billingsley--whose portrayal of "Dr. Phlox" on TV's Enterprise is vastly underrated--is a constant delight as Washington's medical examiner, beer buddy and wily co-conspirator. It's hardly a classic, but Out of Time goes well with a big tub of popcorn. --Jeff Shannon

Gleaming the Cube

To 16-year-old Brian, life is an empty pool and a skateboard, until his brother is found dead and it's declared a suicide. Determined to uncover the truth, Brian risks all as he crosses into a world of deceit, contraband, and murder. Special Features include: Cast and crew filmographies, trailer, behind the scene footage, film facts, and scene access. Christian Slater

Pacific Heights

Ever a had neighbor from hell? You know, the one who never cleans, makes too much noise at night with his jigsaw, and breeds cockroaches and pumps them into your apartment? Never have? Well, pump up your paranoia with this outlandish if mildly enjoyable thriller starring Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine as San Francisco yuppies-cum-landlords who rent out an apartment in their Pacific Heights house to mild-mannered Michael Keaton in order to make the mortgage payment. What seems like a happy arrangement all around turns hellish when: (a) Keaton refuses to pay the rent; (b) firmly entrenches himself in the apartment thanks to some legal maneuvering; and (c) starts playing with the cockroaches. Ostensibly, Keaton wants to drive Griffith and Modine to bankruptcy and then pick up their fab Victorian house for cheap, but as is the way of all thrillers, he's got a sadistic and homicidal bent to back up his real-estate envy. Director John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) manipulates the thrills somewhat effectively, if not gratuitously, especially with Griffith's damsel-in-distress character, turning on the tension in the don't-go-to-the-attic/garage/basement set pieces. Part of the problem of the film lies in its schizophrenic tone: one moment it's a what's-in-the-dark? thriller, at other times a nifty cat-and-mouse game of psychological wills between Keaton and his landlords. Both sides of the movie are effective in their own right, and Keaton is a great psycho, but Schlesinger doesn't quite bring it together, despite a considerably amped-up climax. Still, if the sight of a beautiful house being slowly destroyed is your idea of the ultimate horror, you'll be chilled to the bone. Look for Griffith's mother, Tippi Hedren of The Birds fame, in a small role. --Mark Englehart

The Lady from Shanghai

Legend has it that Orson Welles more or less conned studio boss Harry Cohn over the phone into making this movie by grabbing the title from a nearby paperback. In any case, The Lady from Shanghai is one of Welles's most fascinating works, a bizarre tale of an Irish sailor (Welles) who accompanies a beautiful woman (Rita Hayworth) and her handicapped husband (Everett Sloane) on a cruise and becomes involved in a murder plot. But never mind all that (the aforementioned legend also claims that Cohn offered a reward to anyone who could explain the plot to him). The film is really a dream of Welles's driving preoccupations on- and offscreen at the time: the elusiveness of identity, the mystique of things lost, and most of all the director's faltering marriage to Hayworth. In the tradition of male filmmakers who indirectly tell the story of their love affairs with leading ladies, Welles tells his own, photographing Hayworth as a deconstructed star, an obvious cinematic creation, thus reflecting, perhaps, a never-satisfied yearning that leads us back to the mystery of Citizen Kane. --Tom Keogh

The Maltese Falcon

Still the tightest, sharpest, and most cynical of Hollywood's official deathless classics, bracingly tough even by post-Tarantino standards. Humphrey Bogart is Dashiell Hammett's definitive private eye, Sam Spade, struggling to keep his hard-boiled cool as the double-crosses pile up around his ankles. The plot, which dances all around the stolen Middle Eastern statuette of the title, is too baroque to try to follow, and it doesn't make a bit of difference. The dialogue, much of it lifted straight from Hammett, is delivered with whip-crack speed and sneering ferocity, as Bogie faces off against Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, fends off the duplicitous advances of Mary Astor, and roughs up a cringing "gunsel" played by Elisha Cook Jr. It's an action movie of sorts, at least by implication: the characters always seem keyed up, right on the verge of erupting into violence. This is a turning-point picture in several respects: John Huston (The African Queen) made his directorial debut here in 1941, and Bogart, who had mostly played bad guys, was a last-minute substitution for George Raft, who must have been kicking himself for years afterward. This is the role that made Bogart a star and established his trend-setting (and still influential) antihero persona. --David Chute

Sam Spade is caught in a frantic search for the jeweled falcon of Malta and his partner's killer. His pursuit leads him to a group of desperate individuals who also want the bird.

The Spanish Prisoner

Campbell Scott plays a green young technocrat who invents a secret and highly successful high-tech process that, it appears, most of the free world would like to get their hands on. His own company may not be dealing with him fairly, and competitors are lurking around every street corner and kiddie carousel in New York (not to mention Caribbean hideaways) hoping to steal, cajole, or trick him out of the formula. The plot is as full of switchbacks as a mountain highway, and the delights are in watching it unfold around Scott, who is not so much of a naif that he doesn't catch on that not only his formula, but his life, are in dire danger. Steve Martin is consummately assured--and scary as hell--as a wealthy big shot determined to come out on top. David Mamet's script is refreshingly free from his trademark mannerisms; it's his most satisfying film since 1987's House of Games. --Anne Hurley

Romeo is Bleeding

Romeo Is Bleeding is the flawed black comedy from director Peter Medak (The Krays) about a bad cop who slowly gets his due. Gary Oldman plays yet another quirky character, this time a New York detective on the take. His life goes haywire as he squares off with a Russian hit woman. Despite an intriguing cast and great dialogue, the movie becomes a bit too eccentric for its own good as several actors have nothing to do. The high point is Lena Olin, who finally has a role she can sink her teeth into: her zesty, monstrous assassin, Mona Demarkov, is one of the great movie villains. --Doug Thomas

Gary Oldman delivers an uncanny performance (The New York Times) and Lena Olin is 'the most astoundingly vicious and sexy female villain in movie history (Variety) in this spine-tingling, erotic film about a crooked cop and the sadistic hit woman who lures him into a lethal dance of deceit. Co-starring Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis and Roy Scheider, Romeo Is Bleeding is a mind-blowing, crazy, outrageous movie (WNBC-TV)! Jack Grimaldi (Oldman) leads more than a double life: He's a veteran cop, a two-timing husband and a corrupt mob informant. But when the Feds enlist him to protect Russian gangster Mona Demarkov (Olin) at the same time that the Mafia orders himto kill her, Jack's world of greed and lust begins to crack. Complicating this already dangerous situation is Mona herself, a seductive schemer who entangles Jack in a deadly, depraved plan of her own!