Relja Basic Movies

This disappointing, pretentious farce by writer and director Peter Ustinov, who also stars as the incompetent but powerful Abki Aga, is based on a novel by Yashar Kemal about Memed (Simon Dutton) a man who escapes into the Turkish hills with the woman he loves (Leonie Mellinger), a woman already betrothed to the nephew of the region's governor (Aga). Even though Memed joins a band of brigands he is not successful when he first tries to kill Aga, who lords it over five different villages and has a sizeable army, and so he tries again. Unfortunately, Turkey is not only the setting, but an apt descriptive term for this 105-minute film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This historical drama is about the turbulence in Yugoslavia between 1946 and 1956 when Tito instituted his own version of socialism, thereby alienating both East and West. The political climate and divisions at that time are reflected in actual documentary footage within the narrative itself. The story is about the installation of a high-voltage generator and what happens when people unite to work for their own common cause (either a generator or national autonomy) - if only people could agree on what the common cause is. A young dissident is arrested, imprisoned, escapes, and is shot by a border guard. A woman who supports Tito speaks up for him at the factory where the generator will be installed, and later manages to smuggle the plans for the generator into Yugoslavia. Another white-collar worker opts for residing in Austria where all these troubles do not exist. In these images of a nation at odds with itself and the world, a vague foreboding is bound to affect viewers who know that civil war in the 1990s would destroy whatever fragile unity was promoted by this film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A young man is sent to enter the Austrian army by the village headman. The headman has done this because the girl the headman has marked out for his son's marriage is in love with the young man being sent away. Years later, he returns with the army to prevent the villagers from celebrating a pagan ritual which predates the Austrian conquest of the region. Tragedy springs from the efforts by everyone to do what they believe is right. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Yugoslavian epic depicts the World War II military exploits of Marshall Tito (played here by Richard Burton), who later became the unrivalled ruler of that troubled country. During that war, he was instrumental in resisting Nazi efforts to exterminate the Yugoslav partisans. The film details the events surrounding the climactic battle with the Germans along the Sutjeska River. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A man is found one morning in the bushes of a city plaza in Prague. He is taken to a hospital where the doctors confirm that, although his eyes are wide open, he is dead. There is no heartbeat or sign of life, except, strangely enough, his body temperature is normal. No matter, he's certified as dead and sent into cold storage to wait for an autopsy. "I'm alive," the man thinks, "can't you see I'm alive?" The man, Gregory (Jean Sorel), isn't dead but he's paralyzed and helpless to alert his condition to anyone. As the doctors prepare for the autopsy, Gregory thinks back to yesterday, when he was making plans to help his girlfriend (Barbara Bach) get out of the country. Gregory begins piecing together the mystery of what happened to him in fractured bits of memory -- but will solving the puzzle do him any good? ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi

A group of small-town idlers wander around one Sunday. Critical of older people and the Establishment, the cynical youths steal a bus for a joyride to the seashore. They contemplate a fatal demise by going out in a blaze of glory, but the end of the journey finds them frolicking in the waves. What was to be a dead-end trip leads to renewed hope for the future as they review their life situations and decide to continue. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Rooney (Don Gordon) is the career card shark who is set up by Del Isolla (Massimo Serato) for a big loss in this fast-paced gambling story. Traveling on a luxury liner, an international group of gamblers conspire to turn the tables on each other. Rooney wants to win but is more than satisfied to take Candace (Suzi Kendall) as the beautiful consolation prize. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Two Yugoslavian patriots try to scuttle a seized warship from World War II rather than let it fall into the hands of the Germans. They contemplate sailing to England to use the boat in the fight against the Nazi invaders. The captain is bound to follow orders while a Nazi collaborator on board secretly plots to take over the vessel. The two friends vow they will take the ship apart one piece at a time rather than give it up. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This World War II drama is based on an actual incident. Two Nazi soldiers desert and help a Canadian cook when the unit takes over a concentration camp. Trudeau (Richard Johnson) is the Canadian captain who respects his German counterpart (Helmut Schneider). An escape attempt has the Nazis capturing the deserters and the Germans demand they be turned over to them. The Canadians refuse, but the Germans insist the deserters face court martial. The Canadian commander forces the cook to turn over the two men who are shot by the Germans with Canadian rifles five days after the official end of the war. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A priest discovers that being the leader of the Catholic Church can be hazardous to your health in this satiric comedy. Cardinal Rocco (Alex Rocco) and Monsignor Vitchie (Paul Bartel) are two high-ranking Vatican officials who have been using the church's business dealings to launder funds for Vittorio Corelli (Herbert Lom), a crime boss involved in illegal arms trading. After the death of the aging and infirm Pope, Rocco and Vitchie plan to nominate a successor who will go along with Corelli's schemes, but quite by accident, small town priest Giuseppe Albinizi (Robbie Coltrane) is named the new Pontiff. Albinizi is a reluctant spiritual leader who prefers cars, women, and rock & roll to church business, but when he discovers the level of Rocco's corruption, he has him removed from the Vatican. Rocco and Vitchie are not taking Albinizi's plans to clean up Vatican finances lying down, and they discover that the new Pope's has a not-so-little secret. Before he joined the priesthood, Albinizi fathered a son out of wedlock with Veronica Dante (Beverly D'Angelo); the boy grew up to be Joe Don Dante (Balthazar Getty), a rock star who's romancing Corelli's daughter. After complaints from Catholic groups in the U.S., the distributors of The Pope Must Die changed the title to The Pope Must Diet. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi