Elephant Boy (1937) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch

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  Elephant Boy (1937) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch  British Film, Adventure Venice Film Festival, 1937- 2 wins including: Best Director National Board of Review, 1937- Winner: Top Foreign Films Long before CGI could conjure up entire jungles at the click of a button, cinema had to rely on the real deal. In 1937, Robert Flaherty and Zoltan Korda teamed up to deliver Elephant Boy , an adventure film that stands as a fascinating bridge between raw documentary realism and classic Hollywood storytelling. More on Wikipedia or Mubi The Raw Magic of Elephant Boy  The movie is adapted from "Toomai of the Elephants," a short story out of Rudyard Kipling’s iconic The Jungle Book . It follows a young, spirited Indian boy who dreams of becoming a great hunter, just like his father and grandfather before him. When a massive elephant hunt is organized, Toomai sets out to prove his worth, forming an unbreakable bond with a legendary, giant elephant named Kala Nag. W...
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Watch Identité judiciaire (1951)

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Identité judiciaire (1951)
French Film, Crime, Thriller
English title: Paris Vice Squad

Official Selection, Nominee: Grand Prix

Commissioner Basquier tries to unmask the sadist who assaulted several women in Paris. One of them committed suicide after being drugged with curare…

Although there's no Inspector Maigret-type character here, this film is like a Simenon crime novel come to life on the screen. The film does not feautre gunfights, wild car chases, or exotic locales. Instead, it features some hard-working, unglamourous French police officers working on a case step-by-step, slowly, carefully. Each "shady" character has an interesting story and each witness has some kind of personal agenda. The police officials are not supermen or Bogart-like; they are office-based men who are professionals. In the US, the film was redubbed, changing character names, although I haven't viewed the French original, so I don't know if plot elements were changed. It was also released as an exploitation film, which is really a stretch. There is a white slavery element to the plot, but it's not sexy at all and there are NO scantilly clad women anywhere to be seen. Anyone taken in by that advertising angle had better like routine police dramas, or he will be let down! Overall, an interesting police detection drama, but no cheesecake and definitely not "shocking" or "daring" as advertised on the risque poster used to promote the film originally! More on Wikipedia or Mubi

Cannes Film Festival, 1951- Nominee: Grand Prix 

Full Film (No English subtitle)

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