Georges Pappas Movies

Love blooms amidst the backdrop of czarist Russia in Nikita Mikhalkov's The Barber of Siberia. The story opens in 1905 Springfield, MA, when a woman writes a letter to a young man in a military summer-training camp. He is currently being punished by one of his superiors, who forces him to wear a gas mask until he acknowledges that Mozart was a worthless composer. The woman has an important story to tell her addressee, and our story flashes back 20 years to Russia, where American Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond) is traveling to Moscow. A man who may or may not be Jane's father, Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), is trying to perfect a machine, christened "The Barber of Siberia," that will harvest trees from the vast Siberian forests. Douglas hopes Jane can charm Gen. Radlov (Alexei Petrenko), the head of a Russian military academy, into arranging the financing that will enable him to complete his work on the harvester. En route, Jane meets a friendly Russian soldier, Andrei Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov), and the two soon fall in love. Jane then meets and flirts with Radlov, who grows reciprocally fond of her -- enough so that he asks her to marry him. When it becomes evident she'd rather be with Tolstoy, he finds himself shipped off to Siberia after allegedly attacking a grand duke. Merging romance, costume drama, and slapstick comedy, The Barber of Siberia was screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Businessman Chester Grant (Danny Aiello) will do anything it takes to get the sale, but finds himself getting older and must choose a successor. Instead of the logical man for the position (James Karen), Grant decides that he will invite two rival salesmen to dinner and then make a decision. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Alan Rudolph directed this offbeat, boy-meets-girl romance in which boy dies, dead boy meets dead girl, dead boy loses dead girl, and dead boy tries to find dead girl again. The tale begins is a small Pennsylvania town, where Mike Shea (Timothy Hutton) dreams of escaping small town life and moving to California with his girlfriend Brenda (Mare Winningham). But Brenda leaves him with his motor running and Mike takes off alone. On the way, he rescues a woman and her children from an icy river but perishes himself. He finds himself in Heaven, where he is greeted by Aunt Lisa (Maureen Stapleton), who explains the rules and regulations. Once in the ethereal realm, Mike falls in love with a heavenly lass with flaxen locks named Annie (Kelly McGillis). But their love is torn asunder because Annie has not yet earned her wings on Earth; she must leave on a tour of duty and put in time inhabiting a human body. Mike is beside himself in despair, but the heavenly powers, in the form of Emmett (Debra Winger), chain-smoking and sporting an orange crewcut like a ghostly Laurie Anderson, offer him a deal. Mike can return to Earth, but only on the stipulation that neither he nor Annie will remember each other. They then have thirty years in which to find one another again. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The First Deadly Sin was Frank Sinatra's final starring movie vehicle. Based on a novel by Lawrence Sanders, it casts Sinatra as Edward Delaney, a big-city detective on the verge of retirement. Beset with profound personal problems--including a gravely ill wife (Faye Dunaway)--Delaney nonetheless tackles the case of an axe murderer who seemingly strikes at random. Be on the lookout for an unbilled Bruce Willis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Duke Turnbeau (David Soul) has come to England, in the 1930s, as a way to improve his fortunes. For some reason, he believes that his larcenous ways will bring him prosperity in the country which at one time or another has had rulership over a large portion of the globe. While there, he meets Rosie McCratchit (Pamela McMyler), a lovely Irish gal who could do with some improvement in her fortunes as well. Together, they have a series of legal, quasi-legal and definitely illegal adventures, including Duke's cow-roping and Rosie's response to the mud-wrestling challenge of the Amazon Lady, as well as an attempted armored-car robbery. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1942 as The Falcon Takes Over and in 1944 as Murder, My Sweet, Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely was given its third cinematic go-round under its original title in 1975. Spouting the Chandlerish prose as if it were second nature, Robert Mitchum stars as 1940s private eye Philip Marlowe, hired by the goonish Moose Malloy (Jack O'Halloran) to locate his former girl friend. This involves Marlowe in the theft of a jade necklace, which in turn leads to murder. All roads seemingly lead to adventuress Mrs. Grayle (Charlotte Rampling), wealthily married but far from satisfied. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy from director Aram Avakian, New York police officers Cliff Gorman and Joe Bologna turn crooked. Their plan is to steal $10 million worth of investment certificates, using a Manhattan parade as their "cover". Gorman and Bologna display an amazing degree of dexterity and foresightedness in breaking down the investment firm's sophisticated security system. Too bad they didn't take fate into consideration. Cops and Robbers was based on a novel by Donald Westlake (The Hot Rock). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Best known for their award-winning Zorba the Greek, director Michael Cacoyannis and writer Walter Lassally tackle both the grievous flaws in a selfish approach to life and the strength of character to overcome them in this cutting drama. The setting is the home of an elite Athens family that is quickly running out of money. The self-seeking mother more or less forces her daughter (Ellie Lambetti) to reject her two interesting suitors for a much-less attractive but wealthy Greek American -- he can give the family what it needs. In the meantime, their maid (Eleni Zafiriou) needs her overdue wages to cover her legitimate debts, many incurred when her little boy was traumatized and lost his ability to speak. The impoverished maid with valid concerns and the self-centered mother have a verbally violent confrontation on the issue which in the end, affects the daughter and her decisions about her own life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide