John Stacy Movies

On the eve of her sister's wedding, suburban teenager Samantha (Molly Ringwald) suffers silently as her family forgets her birthday. Even worse, some total dork (Anthony Michael Hall) keeps propositioning her with sophomoric innuendo when she really craves romantic attention from high-school hunk Jake (Michael Schoeffling). Moving from Samantha's family home as it's invaded by outre relatives to a high-school dance where nothing seems to go her way, this bittersweet teen comedy traces the hopes and disappointments of not only Samantha, but also a host of incidental but memorable characters, from a hapless Japanese exchange student to a prom queen and a posse of barely pubescent nerds. A climactic party scene at which these various strata of young America overcome their rigid hierarchies sets the stage for resolutions both tender and torrid. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

In this inventive psychological horror story from Italian director Pupi Avati, an aspiring novelist named Stefano (Gabriele Lavia) receives an old portable typewriter as a gift from his girlfriend Alessandria (Anne Canovas). One day while playing with the machine, he notices the impressions on the ribbon left behind by the previous owner and becomes curious enough to copy them down and find out what had been written on the typewriter in the past. Stefano is startled to discover that it was once owned by a noted scientist named Paolo Zeder (Luigi Costa), and that Zeder was working on a report on his theories about "K Zones" -- places where supernatural energy is concentrated so heavily that the newly dead will rise from the grave and walk among the living. Stefano sets out to find out the facts about the K Zones, and he discovers that the truth is horrifying indeed. Zeder was originally released in the United States as Revenge of the Dead, and it was marketed as a standard-issue zombie movie, where it predictably failed to find an audience until more thoughtful genre enthusiasts rediscovered the original Italian version several years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Rod Steiger portrays Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in this internationally produced "how the mighty have fallen" biopic. In the waning days of the war, the once-strutting Il Duce hides from his pursuers like a common thief. He's hoping to fall into the hands of his former Axis comrades or the benign Allied troops, rather than suffer the vengeance of the out-for-blood Italian freedom fighters. But it is the latter group who reaches Mussolini first, ignominiously executing both the dictator and his mistress Clara Petracchi (Lisa Gastoni). This strangely cast period piece features Henry Fonda as a German cardinal and Franco Nero as an Italian officer. Originally titled Mussolini: Ultimo Atto, The Last Days of Mussolini was also issued as The Last Four Days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

David Niven is Alex, a scholar who has won the Nobel Prize for developing a universal language. The U.S. State Department has decided to honor him with a statue, to be displayed in London's Grosvenor Square. The commission for the project went to Alex's wife Rhonda (Virna Lisi), who has designed a statue that is completely nude, without even a fig leaf. Husband Alex sees that is it a perfect replica of himself, except for the part usually covered by fig leaves. He accuses his wife of using one of her lovers as a model and begins a hilarious search for the original. Robert Vaughn has some good lines as the American Ambassador, discussing the couple's controversy with the President. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Philip Dunne from the novel by Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstacy is the story of the 16th century war of wills between Renaissance artist Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) and "warrior pope" Julius II (Rex Harrison). Commissioned to paint a religious fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the independent-minded Michelangelo balks at the assignment. He is virtually strongarmed into accepting the job by Pope Julius, who wants to leave something for future generations to remember him by. Director Carol Reed deftly juggles screen time between the Pope's activities on the battlefield and Michelangelo's slow, arduous completion of his monumental task. The film also gingerly approaches the subject of Michelangelo's sexual orientation vis-a-vis his relationship with the Contessina de Medici (Diane Cilento). Too long and limited in subject matter to score at the box office, The Agony and the Ecstacy holds up pretty well when seen today, especially when viewed in a wide-screen print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fresh off of the international success of La Dolce Vita, master director Federico Fellini moved into the realm of self-reflexive autobiography with what is widely believed to be his finest and most personal work. Marcello Mastroianni delivers a brilliant performance as Fellini's alter ego Guido Anselmi, a film director overwhelmed by the large-scale production he has undertaken. He finds himself harangued by producers, his wife, and his mistress while he struggles to find the inspiration to finish his film. The stress plunges Guido into an interior world where fantasy and memory impinge on reality. Fellini jumbles narrative logic by freely cutting from flashbacks to dream sequences to the present until it becomes impossible to pry them apart, creating both a psychological portrait of Guido's interior world and the surrealistic, circus-like exterior world that came to be known as "Felliniesque." 8 1/2 won an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, as well as the grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival, and was one of the most influential and commercially successful European art movies of the 1960s, inspiring such later films as Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), and even Lucio Fulci's Italian splatter film Un Gatto nel Cervello (1990). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this spooky film, three American exchange students visit an English castle purported to be haunted. The lads want to see if the local legend is true. At sundown the boys are accosted by a spirit who leaps down from a portrait. He asks the lads if they will help a second ghost locate his missing head. They agree to help, but they find themselves plagued by a third spirit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Cat Gang is a group of precocious pre-teen British kids. They have a habit of hanging around a grown-up customs official who wishes that they'd beat it. But the Gang comes in handy when a smuggling gang arrives on the scene. Off and on the screen in 50 minutes, The Cat Gang seems predestined for weekend TV showings. Of interest is the presence in the cast of future British leading-lady Francesca Annis (Dune, Lillie etc.), making her film debut as one of the older children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide