Turhan Bey

Joan Crawford's close-up in Humoresque. Michelangelo's David and Boticelli's "Birth of Venus". Stendhal was overwhelmed by the cultural overstimulation in Florence, which Graziella Magherini described scientifically in 1979 as Stendhal syndrome. Mark Rappaport describes his fascination for the Austrian actor Turhan Bey, who made a career in exotic roles in Hollywood in the 1940s. A very personal essay about the effect of close-ups, the canvas idols of the dream factory and the role of their admirers and fans.

A washed up Hollywood director is trapped in a remote castle by his own fears until the arrival of a mysterious woman offers him possible salvation. Inspired by Dostoevsky's 'Notes from the Underground', Johnny Walker attempts to answer the burning question: Is living a long life vulgar, immoral or just plain bad manners?

Hollywood Chinese is a captivating look at cinema history through the lens of the Chinese American experience. Directed by triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker, Arthur Dong, this documentary is a voyage through a century of cinematic delights, intrigues, and treasures. It weaves together a wondrous portrait of actors, directors, writers, and movie icons who have defined American feature films, from the silent era to the current new wave of Asian American cinema. At once entertaining and enlightening, Hollywood Chinese reveals long-untold stories behind the Asian faces that have graced the silver screen, and weaves a rich and complicated tapestry, one marked by unforgettable performances and groundbreaking films, but also by a tangled history of race and representation.

A documentary from Universal about their Phantom of the Opera movies.

A horror writer buys an odd looking mutant embryo creature, pickled in a jar, from a shop in Chinatown, hoping it will be a creative inspiration for his work. Instead, the odd mutation provokes a rage of violence and lust to envelop the suburban villa where the writer lives with his wife and sexy secretary.

In Year 2025 Two Nevada border officers, Dave Quarry and John, amuse themselves off duty by honing their kick-boxing skills via virtual reality combat. Elsewhere, a computer tycoon prepares to market his company's latest invention, a combination of DNA and virtual reality that creates beings and creatures who look and feel real.

A documentary about the era of classic monster movies that were made at Universal Studios during the 1930s and 1940s.

Take a roller coaster ride full of high octane adventure as 12 year old Sammy takes to the skies. With the help of a magical flying skateboard, Sammy ends up the hottest skateboarder in town. But a group of local thrashers don't like the extra competition. They plot to destroy any chance of Sammy competing against them in a local tournament. But they don't have a clue of what they're up against.

Old-aged and ailing Russian immigrant, Igor Vostovich, affects the lives of all those he meets in a retirement town.

A low-born thief loves a Moroccan Princess. She must marry to escape death at the hands of her enemies. The groom is able to wed or cast away his bride simply by saying "I Marry You" or "I Divorce You" three times.

An American gets caught up in wartime action in Turkey.

Two half brothers battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of sensual, gorgeous dancing girl Scheherazade.

On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf...then meets a tall dark man, Alexis, who seems to know all about such things. After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and younger sister Janet become enmeshed in the eerie artifices of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper deviltry than he had in mind...

Dr. Hohner, theatre physician at the Vienna Royal Theatre, murders his mistress, the star soprano when his jealousy drives him to the point of mad obsession. Ten years later, another young singer reminds Hohner of the late diva and his old mania kicks in. Hohner wants to prevent her from singing for anyone but him, even if it means silencing her forever.

Life in a small Chinese village is turned upside down when the Japanese invade it. A heroic young Chinese woman leads her fellow villagers in an uprising against the Japanese invaders.

A university chemistry professor experiments with an ancient Mayan gas on a medical student, turning the would-be surgeon into a murdering ghoul as part of a plan to steal his lover.

Orphaned as a young child and adopted by a band of notorious thieves, now-grown Ali Baba sets out to avenge his father’s murder, reclaim the royal throne, and rescue his beloved Amara from the iron fist of his treacherous enemy.

A high priest of Karnak travels to America with the living mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) to kill all those who had desecrated the tomb of the Egyptian princess Ananka thirty years earlier.

A safari sets out to find a meteorite that fell in the African jungle.

While an escaped convict, Moose Malloy, goes in search of his ex-girlfriend Velma, police inspector Michael O'Hara attempts to track him assuming him to be a prime suspect for a number of mishaps.

During World War II, all the studios put out "all-star" vehicles which featured virtually every star on the lot--often playing themselves--in musical numbers and comedy skits, and were meant as morale-boosters to both the troops overseas and the civilians at home. This was Universal Pictures' effort. It features everyone from Donald O'Connor to the Andrews Sisters to Orson Welles to W.C. Fields to George Raft to Marlene Dietrich, and dozens of other Universal players.

This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.

Having forsaken the detective business for the safer confines of personal insurance, Gay Laurence is compelled to return to his sleuthing ways. Along with sidekick Jonathan "Goldie" Locke, he agrees to look into a series of home party robberies that have victimized socialite Maxine Wood. The duo gets more than they bargained for when a murder is committed at Wood's home, but Lawrence still finds time to romance the damsel.

A movie serial in 12 chapters: The famous comic strip character is on a mission to protect a secret tunnel passage between China and India.

Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are Broadway stars who return to Universal Studios to make another movie. The mere mention of Olsen and Johnson's names evacuates the studio and terrorizes the management and personnel. Undaunted, the comedians hire an assistant director and unknown talent, and set out to make their own movie.

Set in an apartment building whose occupants include Arthur Earthleigh, a meek and mild type married to the beautiful-but-domineering Mae; a Bohemian artist, David Galleo and his always-there model, Deborah Tyler; and Olive Jensen, a Greenwich Village type who is always slightly-but-continuously inebriated, and whose motto is "love and let love." She calls on George while his wife is out, and when she passes out during his attempts to get her out before his wife returns, he thinks she is dead and deposits her on Galleo's terrace. Galleo takes advantage of the situation by using it in a blackmail scheme against Arthur, which is shaky, at best, as Olive refuses to stay dead.

A truck convoy traveling the Burma Road is menaced by a group of smugglers.

An insane scientist doing experimentation in glandular research becomes obsessed with transforming a female gorilla into a human...even though it costs human life.

A high-society gent has a secret life - he writes murder mysteries and hangs out with the police attempting to solve crimes. This causes him no end of problems when his wife wants to know about his little disappearances and exceptionally late nights out.

Occupants of a London boarding house become suspects as a string of murders are discovered.

A group of street kids battle a terrorist gang led by a Japanese spy.

A desert pickpocket, his sidekick, and an escaped slave help an incognito queen in danger.

Aesop of fable fame poses as an old man and woos away a princess who wants a king for his gold.

Scientist-explorer David Lynd leaves wealthy bride-to-be June Claymore at the altar to join photographer Andy Parker and British secret service agent Leo Marzeli in search of rare minerals. They soon run afoul of crooked trader Tagani, who's been busily stockpiling weapons in the hills on behalf of his Nazi partners.

A federal agent's life is in danger when he's exposed while investigating a parole scheme.

Jungle adventure drama about a young man and his wild animal friends attempting to thwart a government-approved hunting expedition.

Casanova, a young patriot in 18th-century Sicily, upon learning that his father and sister have been murdered, returns to Palermo and engages in guerilla tactics against the forces of the Governor. Lady Bianca, the Governor's daughter, is in love with one of the patriots, Lorenzo, and desires to escape from the palace. Her lady-in-waiting, Zanetta, enlists the aid of Casanova and he rescues them and takes them to the partisan's camp. The rebels are victorious. Lady Bianca makes plans to marry Lorenzo, and Casanova and Zanetta have similar plans.

Two Bowery vaudevillians find success in producing shows on Broadway, but when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman, a feud erupts.

Two American leave a ship where they had stowed away, in a Middle Eastern port and wind up in the fighting in a brutal civil war

Foreign spies and police pursue an attractive Dutch spy throughout Peking.

The Unseen Enemy in this wartime meller is Nick (Leo Carrillo), the outwardly effusive manager of a San Francisco waterfront café. To make enough money to ensure his daughter Gen's (Irene Hervey) entree into society, Nick sells his services to a gang of foreign spies, who then use Nick's establishment as a rendezvous point. The plan is to covertly send out a Japanese vessel for the purpose of raiding and destroying American merchant ships. The spies' secret code is hidden in the lyrics of a song called "Lydia", which the unwitting Gen performs on request day after day.

The Dead End Kids join the war effort in this feature-length version of the Universal serial Junior G-Men of the Air. The fiendish Black Dragon Society, led by the sinister Baron (perennial B-movie villain Lionel Atwill) plots to pave the way for an Axis invasion of the U.S.A. by destroying America's defenses. When their plans are discovered by the Dead End Kids, the gang is too suspicious of "the coppers" to ask for help. The FBI send in their Junior G-Men to stop the spies, but when one of the Dead Enders is kidnapped, the two groups must work together to smash the Black Dragons once and for all!

A native boy plays Cupid for a shark fisherman and a South Sea Islands princess.

Someone has absconded with $4,000,000 worth of diamonds, and that someone may very well be a passenger on the Bombay Clipper.

Sal comes to the Barbary Coast from New England to find out who murdered her brother. She gets a job signing in Dude's saloon, falls in love with Dude, then wonders if he might be involved in the murder.