The Molly Maguires (1970)
Drama | History
In the Pennsylvanian coal mines of 1876, a group of Irish immigrant workers begin to retaliate against the cruelty of their work environment.
Starring: Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Frank Finlay, Anthony Zerbe
Director: Martin Ritt
Cross Creek (1983)
Biography | Drama | Romance
In 1930's Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida's backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editor and confused neighbors, but soon she connects and writes The Yearling, a classic of American literature.
Starring: Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, Peter Coyote, Dana Hill, Alfre Woodard, Joanna Miles
Director: Martin Ritt
Conrack (1974)
Drama
White Pat Conroy was born and raised in Beaufort, South Carolina. In March 1969 under the Beaufort School District, he starts a job teaching at a small poor school located on Daufuskie Island, an island in a South Carolina river delta, the island accessible only by boat. The island is inhabited exclusively by blacks. He quickly learns that his students, who have never left the island, lack not only a basic understanding of academic items such as the alphabet and simple arithmetic, but also of other basic necessities of life such as personal hygiene. They can't even pronounce his name, they who call him Conrack. The teachers before him, including the school principal Mrs. Scott, have always treated the students as being slow and basically unteachable of academics. Conrack, a free thinking man, decides to expose his students not only to the academic subjects, but also to the gamut of life skills from brushing one's teeth to human anatomy, and some of the fun things in life like classical music, art, baseball, movies, swimming (despite living on an island, the islanders live in fear of the river because they don't know how to swim), and Halloween. He does so with compassion and without being patronizing. His teaching methods come under question by both Mrs. Scott and the Beaufort School District administration led by its superintendent, Mr. Skeffington. These differences in viewpoint may place Conrack's tenure at the school in jeopardy.
Starring: Jon Voight, Paul Winfield, Madge Sinclair, Tina Andrews, Antonio Fargas, Ruth Attaway
Director: Martin Ritt
Casey's Shadow (1978)
Drama | Family | Sport
Casey is a young boy in a family that trains racehorses. His best friend, a foal they call "Casey's Shadow", looks to be a loser, but comes out a champion.
Starring: Walter Matthau, Alexis Smith, Robert Webber, Murray Hamilton, Andrew Rubin, Steve Burns
Director: Martin Ritt
Stanley & Iris (1990)
Drama | Romance
Stanley Cox is a shy, illiterate short-order cook who has never taken a chance at love. Iris King is a newly widowed factory worker who has vowed never to love again. But as their friendship slowly blossoms and Iris helps Stanley learn to read, his strong yet gentle kindness helps mend her broken heart. And where two lonely strangers stood trapped within the past, Stanley and Iris can now begin a new chapter of their lives – together.
Starring: Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Swoosie Kurtz, Martha Plimpton, Harley Cross, Jamey Sheridan
Director: Martin Ritt
Murphy's Romance (1985)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
Field plays a gutsy divorced mother eager to make it as a horse trainer on a small desert ranch. Enter the town's most eligible widower, Murphy Jones (Garner). The lovable, free-wheeling pharmacist befriends Emma and eventually comes a-courting.
Starring: Sally Field, James Garner, Corey Haim, Brian Kerwin, Anna Levine, Dennis Burkley
Director: Martin Ritt
Nuts (1987)
Drama | Thriller
A high-class call girl accused of murder fights for the right to stand trial rather than be declared mentally incompetent.
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, Robert Webber
Director: Martin Ritt
Edge of the City (1957)
Drama
New York City longshoremen Nordmann an Army deserter & Tommy Tyler an easy-going freight car loader who's growing friendship is threatened by Charles Malik, notably repellent punk.
Starring: John Cassavetes, Sidney Poitier, Jack Warden, Kathleen Maguire, Ruby Dee, Val Avery
Director: Martin Ritt
The Front (1976)
Comedy | Drama
In the early 1950s Howard Prince, who works in a restaurant, helps out a black-listed writer friend by selling a TV station a script under his own name. The money is useful in paying off gambling debts, so he takes on three more such clients. Howard is politically pretty innocent, but involvement with Florence – who quits TV in disgust over things – and friendship with the show's ex-star – now himself blacklisted – make him start to think about what is really going on.
Starring: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Michael Murphy, Andrea Marcovicci, Lloyd Gough, David Margulies, Herschel Bernardi
Director: Martin Ritt
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Drama | Thriller
Richard Burton stars as Alec Leamas, a bitter, world-weary secret agent who is taken out of his everyday field operations after a mission goes wrong, and after a bleak spell on Civvy Street finds himself going undercover into East Germany. Subterfuge and double-crossings ensue as Leamas battles to discover the truth behind his mission. Based on the novel by John Le Carre.
Starring: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Sam Wanamaker, George Voskovec, Rupert Davies
Director: Martin Ritt
The Sound and the Fury (1959)
Drama
This movie follows the lives and passions of the Compsons: a once-proud Southern family now just barely scraping by both financially and emotionally. Howard passes the time in a bottle; his brother Bengy is child in a man's body; sister Caddy has come crawling home after years of being kept by a string of "admirers." Only Jason, the cruel, cold-hearted adopted head of the family, and Quentin, who was abandoned at birth by Caddy, have the fire and the fury needed to put the family back on its feet again.
Starring: Yul Brynner, Joanne Woodward, Stuart Whitman, Jack Warden, John Beal, Albert Dekker
Director: Martin Ritt
Hud (1963)
Drama
Hud Bannon is the rebellious son of a respectable rancher who's continually at odds with his aging father.
Starring: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Whit Bissell, Brandon De Wilde
Director: Martin Ritt
The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Drama
Accused barn burner and con man Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.
Starring: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury
Director: Martin Ritt
