夜之眼1942
New York private detective Duncan Mac MacLain is blind but has keenly developed all his other senses. He pursues his work assisted by his faithful guide dog Friday, his butler, Alistair, and his assistant, Marty. Retired actress Norma Lawry, an old friend, comes to Mac seeking advice. Her headstrong 17-year-old step-daughter Barbara, herself a promising actress, is enamored with her leading man in a small theater production, the much older Lothario Paul Gerente. Paul, who had once been Norma's lover, has convinced Barbara that Norma actually wants Paul for herself and has only married her father Stephen for his money. At Mac's urging, Norma tried to reason with Paul, but he insists that he loves Barbara and laughs her off. Barbara is equally disdainful of her and agrees to meet Paul for dinner that night at his apartment.  Norma's husband Stephen Lawry is a scientist leaving that night on a trip to test a secret invention on which he has been working for the government and the war effort. Worried about Barbara, she uses a pretext not to accompany Stephen and goes to the apartment. When Barbara arrives, she finds Paul's dead body and thinks that Norma has killed him, even though Norma insists that he was dead when she arrived. Barbara threatens to call the police unless she leaves Stephen. Fearing that a scandal will hurt him, Norma agrees. Norma then turns to Mac, who goes to Paul's apartment with Friday and Marty, only to find the body and the rug under it missing. A man arrives to replace the rug and Mac hides in a closet, overhearing a telephone call to Norma's number from Gabriel to Vera. Mac accidentally gives himself away, but with Friday's help overpowers Gabriel, who refuses to talk. Mac has Marty hide him to keep him under wraps.  Norma returns to her country home unexpectedly, which discourages an espionage ring that includes her butler, Hansen, from breaking into Stephen's safe and stealing his plans. They have killed Gerente, who was also an agent, and hidden the body. Mac arrives with Friday at Norma's house and pretends to be her curmudgeonly Uncle Mac who has come for a visit. His blindness lulls any suspicions Hansen might have about him. Shortly thereafter, Barbara comes home from an emergency rehearsal, called to get her out of the house by her director, Cheli Scott, who inveigles an invitation to spend the night at the Lawry home. Unknown to Barbara and Norma, Cheli is the ringleader of the spies. Cheli ordered Paul killed because his affection for Barbara was beginning to limit his effectiveness, and she immediately suspects Mac is not what he seems.  Gabriel's wife Vera, the Lawrys' maid, is also a part of the plot. When Gabriel does not return home, Vera becomes hysterical with worry. Mac secretly asks Vera to meet him in the greenhouse, using her worry about Gabriel as a lure. She is observed by the others, however, and is killed by Hansen before she can reach Mac. The spies cut the house's telephone wires so that Mac and Norma cannot call the police, and Cheli has Mac locked up under guard. Using his blindness as a distraction, Mac overpowers his guard and releases Friday out a window with instructions to go home and get Marty. Stephen arrives home and Cheli threatens his family if he does not give her the final step in creating his invention, which was not in the safe. Barbara finally realizes how much Norma actually cares for her. Mac tries to stall for time, but is locked in the cellar. When Hansen goes to kill him, Mac has broken the light bulb and his advantage of total darkness helps him overcome the spy. Marty and Friday return with the police. When Friday is spotted by a lookout, Mac overpowers him and is saved from being shot by another lookout by Friday. After the spies are captured, Stephen and Norma are off to Washington, D.C., with Barbara remaining behind to care for her new Uncle Mac.
天才反击
Siskel and Ebert once ran a special show entitled Movies I'm Embarrassed to Admit I Liked. I suppose that if I composed such a list of guilty pleasures, this one would be one of them . . . but upon reflection, it's really a lot better than that. Fifteen year-old science prodigy Mitch (Gabe Jarret) is recruited by ambitious college professor William Atherton (in yet another of his patented roles as a loathsome character) to work on the professor's prize laser project, not knowing that the prof is really developing a government weapon. Along the way, Mitch is befriended by Chris (Val Kilmer), another prodigy a few years his senior who teaches the Mitch how to loosen up.  This could have degenerated into nothing more than just another teen revenge comedy, but there's so much more the dialogue is laced with sharp wit; there are some lovely scenes that have nothing to do with the story yet are carefully set up, almost as blackouts (e.g., Mitch goes to a lecture at which a few students have left tape recorders instead of attending; later, at another lecture there are more tape recorders than students; and, in a final scene, one large tape recorder gives the lecture to a room populated by nothing but other small recorders!); and throw-away scenes that make you want to stop and back up the tape (e.g., Chris off-handedly cutting a slice off a bar of solid nitrogen to make a slug for the coffee machine).  It's also one of the few movies to boast the presence of the memorable Michelle Meyerink -- as Jordan, the girl-nerd who made being smart and female something to be emulated. And there's Tears for Fears great song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World providing the perfect coda as the closing credits begin to roll . . . . Yes really now, what's there to be embarrassed about
西部联盟
While surveying a telegraph line in 1861, Western Union engineer Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger) is severely injured in an accident. He is discovered by Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott), an outlaw on the run from a posse. Forced to travel on foot after his horse was hurt, Shaw at first considers stealing Creighton's horse, but changes his mind and takes the man with him, saving his life.  Sometime later, following his recovery, Creighton returns to Omaha, Nebraska and plans the construction of a telegraph line from Omaha to Salt Lake City, Utah. Facing considerable opposition to the line from Confederate soldiers, Indians, and outlaws, Creighton elicits the help of his sister Sue (Virginia Gilmore), foreman Pat Grogan (Minor Watson), and assistant Homer Kettle (Chill Wills).  Looking to put his outlaw past behind him, Shaw arrives at Creighton's Western Union office looking for honest work and is hired as a scout by Grogan who is unaware of his past. Creighton recognizes him among the men and allows him to stay despite his suspicions. Creighton also hires tenderfoot Richard Blake (Robert Young), a Harvard-educated engineer as a favor to Blake's father. Shaw and Blake are both attracted to Sue and vie for her attention, but their romantic rivalry is cut short when construction of the telegraph line starts on July 4, 1861.  After work commences on the line, one of the men is killed apparently by a mysterious band of cattle-rustling Indians. Unconvinced that Indians are to blame, Shaw rides out to investigate and follows the rustlers' trail to the camp of Jack Slade, a former friend and cohort, whose gang committed the killing disguised as Indians—the gang Shaw left following his last bank robbery. Slade reveals that they are working for the Confederacy to disrupt Western Union because they believe the telegraph service will help the Union. Shaw rides away and returns to the line. Not wanting to turn in his former friends, Shaw tells Creighton that a large band of Dakota Indians stole the cattle, and recommends that they simply replace the herd and not risk a fight with the Indians.  Sometime later, a confrontation takes place between men working on the forward line and a band of drunken Indians. When one of the Indians tries to steal some equipment, a nervous Blake shoots him, ignoring Shaw's order to remain calm. After word arrives that the main camp is under attack by other Indians, the Western Union men rush back to help with the defense. At the main camp, Slade's men, who are again disguised as Indians, steal the Western Union horses. The company discover the ruse when one of the wounded Indians turns out to be a white man. Forced to buy back their stolen horses from Slade, Creighton becomes suspicious of Shaw's involvement, especially when he admits to knowing the gang.  Soon the U.S. Army arrives and announces the Indians have now refused to allow the telegraph lines to go through their territory in response to Blake's shooting of the drunken Indian. Creighton, Shaw, and Blake ride out to convince Chief Spotted Horse to allow them to build the line through Indian territory, even though the man Blake wounded was Spotted Horse's son. Creighton is finally able to persuade the Indians to allow them passage, and work continues until the company approaches Salt Lake City.  Sometime later, Shaw receives word that Jack Slade wants to meet with him. On the way to see Slade, Shaw is captured and bound by Slade's men. Slade says his group is going to burn down the Western Union camp and they don't want Shaw to interfere. After Slade and his men ride off, Shaw escapes from his ropes but arrives back too late to prevent the fire. He helps rescue some of the Western Union men from the flames and burns his hands in the process.  After the fire, Creighton confronts Shaw for an explanation, but Shaw does not reveal what he knows and is fired by Creighton. As Shaw leaves the camp, he tells Blake that Slade is actually Shaw's brother and that he, Shaw, will find Slade's gang and stop them from interfering with the telegraph project. Shaw rides off and finds Slade and his men in a nearby town. At the barber shop, Shaw confronts his brother, whose gun is concealed under the barber's sheet. Slade shoots Shaw through the sheet. Shaw fights back in spite of his wound, killing some of the gang members, and then dies. Blake arrives and continues the fight with Slade who dies from his wounds. Soon after, the Western Union line is completed and the workers celebrate. When Sue laments the absence of Shaw, Creighton tells her that Shaw can hear them.
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