James Wong Howe

The story of an unsung hero in filmmaking and the racial barriers he faced growing up and into his career, through archival footage of himself and his films, and what made his camerawork so innovative and unique.

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Cinematographer John A. Alonzo was one of the driving creative forces in the resurgence of expressionistic American movies of the late 1960s and '70s. Director Axel Schill's documentary explores Alonzo's work on key films of that era and beyond. Clips from Chinatown, Scarface, Internal Affairs and other movies accompany interviews with stars such as Richard Dreyfuss, Sally Field and contemporary cinematographer Haskell Wexler.

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Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.

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1973 documentary about the Oscar-winning director of photography, featuring lighting tutorials with Howe.

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The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

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An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar.

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The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

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Famous singer Fanny Brice has divorced her first husband Nicky Arnstein. During the Great Depression she has trouble finding work as an artist, but meets Billy Rose, a newcomer who writes lyrics and owns a nightclub.

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Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1876. A secret society of Irish coal miners, bond by a sacred oath, put pressure on the greedy and ruthless company they work for by sabotaging mining facilities in the hope of improving their working conditions and the lives of their families.

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A new bride gets caught between her decadent husband and his black half-brother.

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Singer is a deaf-mute whose small world brings him in contact with a young girl, Mick, who cherishes a seemingly hopeless dream of becoming a concert pianist. At first hostile, Mick soon becomes friends with Singer, hoping to enlarge his small world. Three other central characters come to Singer for help also, each of them seeing in him a powerful force.

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John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Indians, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.

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An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity; one that comes with its own price.

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Owen Legate, a railroad official, comes to Dodson, Mississippi to shut down the local railway - the town's main income. But Owen unexpectedly finds love with Dodson's flirt and main attraction, Alva Starr.

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Though a fictionalized Western based on George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the film is almost a generic war story covering the enlistment, training, and operational deployment of a group of recruits that could take place in any time period.

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At a disused railway station, three men -- a con artist, a preacher, and a prospector -- discuss the recent trial and sentencing of the outlaw Juan Carrasco for the murder of a man and the rape of his wife. In their recounting, the three explore the conflicting testimonies of the parties involved in the crimes. Disconcerting new questions arise with each different version of the event.

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Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

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In this unsold television pilot for a proposed travelogue series, Richard Erdman visits with the children and townsfolk of the Sacromonte district of Granada, Spain. Directed and photographed by noted master cinematographer and multi-Academy Award winner, James Wong Howe.

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Fourth reworking of the classic Grace Miller White novel, this time updated to the 60s, with young Scottish lassie Tess (Diane Baker) becoming embroiled in a conflict about a toxic chemical plant near her new home in Pennsylvania.

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The romantic story of Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt, whose scandalous love affair forced him to abandon his adoring audiences.

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An adulterous couple is accused of murder after the woman's husband is shot and killed during a scuffle. A high-profile court case tells the story.

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Dr. Sam Abelman is a Jewish doctor contentedly spending his autumn years serving his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But when his nephew, would-be journalist Myron, writes an article about him, it draws the attention of a producer, Woodrow Thrasher, who believes Dr. Abelman a good candidate for a TV show. The doctor, however, is suspicious of the whole enterprise, thinking both Myron and Thrasher are simply out to make a fast buck.

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Gillian Holroyd, a modern-day witch, becomes smitten with her handsome upstairs neighbor, Shep Henderson. Using her magical powers, she casts a love spell on him, only to face unexpected complications when genuine feelings emerge, threatening her supernatural abilities.

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Santiago is an aging, down-on-his-luck, Cuban fisherman who, after catching nothing for nearly 3 months, hooks a huge Marlin and struggles to land it far out in the Gulf Stream.

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New York City newspaper writer J.J. Hunsecker holds considerable sway over public opinion with his Broadway column, but one thing that he can't control is his younger sister, Susan, who is in a relationship with aspiring jazz guitarist Steve Dallas. Hunsecker strongly disapproves of the romance and recruits publicist Sidney Falco to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method.

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A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Re-edited version of The North Star (1943), to remove positive references to Soviet Union and include narration about the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.

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A few months after the end of the civil war, Major Drango is sent as military governor in a southern small town, whose citizens he must face the obstility.

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A Czech refugee uses women to advance his business interest.

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A grieving widow embarks on a new romance when she discovers her late husband had been cheating on her.

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Labor Day in a small Kansas farm town. Hal, a burly and resolute drifter, jumps off a dusty freight train car with the purpose of visiting Alan, a former college classmate and son of the richest man in town.

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A lonely young woman sings two melancholy ballads in her Manhattan high rise apartment.

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A young woman is hired to take care of an eerie old mansion, where she finds herself entangled with an enigmatic murderer.

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In New York, a surly, down-on-his-heels playwright meets a country girl who's giving up trying to act and returning home. He goes with her for inspiration when his agent convinces a stage star to take his next effort. When he returns to Broadway, his girl stays behind and starts seeing a local businessman.

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A mismatched couple's marital problems come to the surface when the husband develops an interest in their pretty boarder.

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James Wong Howe follows artist Dong Kingman over the course of a day, in which the maestro starts and finishes a watercolor of a street in New York City.

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The feminist author of a national best-seller titled The Lady Says No meets a sexist magazine photographer and decides she'd rather say yes.

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A young man takes in a dog that turns out to be wanted by mobsters.

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A crook on the run hides out in an innocent girl's apartment.

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Texas Ranger Todd Crayden is assigned a suicide mission South of the Border, to smuggle a government agent into Mexico...

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The U.S. government recognizes land grants made when the West was under Spanish rule. This inspires James Reavis to forge a chain of historical evidence that makes a foundling girl the Baroness of Arizona. Reavis marries the girl and presses his claim to the entire Arizona territory.

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Joe spends a lot of his time at Nick's Pacific Street Saloon. Tom, who credits Joe with once saving his life, stops by regularly to run errands for Joe. Today, Tom notices a woman named Kitty when she comes into Nick's, and he quickly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, a distraught young man repeatedly calls his girlfriend, begging her to marry him. Nick himself muses on all the various persons who come into his bar, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time.

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An advertising executive dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems.

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Charley Davis, against the wishes of his mother, becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts, who tempt the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices.

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