General questions about movies, TV and more

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Around 1970-2010, I am searching for a movie I watched in the late 1990's, but it may have came out earlier, (not the movie Gorillas in the Mist) about a women raising a gorilla in her huge beautiful mansion, she raised him from a monkey in a crib with a bottle, she raised him along with other animals. the Family was sitting at dinner when the gorilla got out of hand, slammed his hand on the table and stormed out like a child. I remember the house was huge, beautiful stairs as soon as you walk in, full of animals she was raising. the main plot of the story is her raising the gorilla who was sick,and close to death when it was young, she saved its life but was too much to handle.

Answer: Sony Pictures' 1997 film "Buddy" starring Rene Russo. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118787/.

Phixius

I watched a movie (in the nineties, maybe late eighties) and I could have sworn a character was played by Kevin Bacon, but I have checked his films. The movie was based on a young woman who moved or arrived back into a town and she keeps on seeing a ghost of a little girl. There was also maybe an apparent murder or mystery in that town and Kevin Bacon was a young local who worked in a car workshop. From my memory she was warned off him, he was somewhat frowned upon, maybe from locals? She eventually got into a relationship with him and as I recall they had a love scene in a lighthouse? I just cannot remember the name of the movie or any actors.

miagrace

Chosen answer: This movie is called "Stir of Echoes"

There's some movie (or it could be a TV episode, but I really can't remember) where two army recruits who aren't very good are dropped in the middle of the desert with a missile being sent at them. It is a test of a missile sent by the army they are training with. Somehow one or both of them manage to escape alive. Does anyone know what this scene is from?

Answer: This was an episode of the Showtime series Weeds.

The main character is an elderly man who can't speak. He has some kind of device which makes it possible for him to speak and eat through his neck. He lives alone in what I remember as being a big old house. His wife is dead and he somehow keeps her body in her tomb in his house. The tomb is very beautiful. It's a very special tomb because it keeps her body fresh. It is build down in the floor and he can somehow open it and look at her. It sounds very freaky, weird and perverse but this is not the mood at all. You really feel sorry for this man. He still loves her very much and in a scene he watches a kind of slideshow with pictures of her. I think she was a horseback rider and this is the cause of her death but I'm not sure. A young woman visits him. I don't remember why or what their connection is but I think it is a friendly relationship. They have dinner together. In the end he lies down next to his dead wife and dies beside her. I don't know what year the movie was released but it was in color and was shown on Danish television some time between the years 1995-2000. I was very young at the time and didn't understand English very well so I don't remember any quotes, but I don't think there was a lot of talking. I really hope you can help me - thank you.

Answer: I think you are referring to "The Abominable Dr Phibes" starring Vincent Price.

I've been trying to find the title to this film for ages. It has a huge structure that rises from a dirty lake when a young boy visits the lake and then sinks back under the water when he goes. I was only young when I watched it so not sure if it was classed as a horror. Can you help me?

Answer: The Quest (1986) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091810/combined.

Grumpy Scot

This is a pretty old movie. I have part of a movie stuck in my head and it is about a boy who goes in a white room. There are people with big vertical tubes over each of them and they appear to be asleep. Eventually the boy plays music and the tubes rise up and the people are free. Does anyone know which movie this is?

Answer: This is the 1953 film, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T" starring Hans Conreid and Tommy Rettig. The screenplay was written by Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). This was the only film ever written by Geisel, who was do disappointed by the film's box office failure that he never even mentioned writing it in any of his biographical material.

raywest

I saw this film about twenty years ago and was wondering if anyone else has any idea of information on it. It was black and white about a fort set in old west and it was a comedy. It had a song saying something like "if you could only hear the hoofbeats on the ground" which was accompanied with footage of a horse running. Anything that comes to mind would be greatly appreciated. I saw it one time with my mom and the ten year anniversary of her death is coming up, and I would like to watch it again. Thanks.

razoprill

Chosen answer: I saw it over fifty years ago on TV. I think the film was called, "The Slaughter Trail". It was an strange western with almost wall-to-wall singing in place of narration or dialogue. The main chorus went something like, "You could only hear the sound of the hoofbeats on the ground as the horses went down the Slaughter Trail". The tune of that line burned itself into my memory, but I remember nothing else about the movie.

What is the name of an old movie where either an escaped convict or asylum patient kidnaps a boy who turns out to really be a girl, the girl falls in love with him. He gets caught when he goes to town to buy her special curtains?

Answer: You may be thinking of "Sweet Hostage" starring Martin Sheen and Linda Blair?

I saw this film 15-20 years ago. There were giant ants in the Amazon jungles. I think the forest is eaten. Then the ants came to the city and I think the ants were eating humans. Finally they died by fire or being drowned under water (maybe dam water). Does anybody have any idea?

cabbage

Chosen answer: There is a movie from 1954 by Gordon Douglas called "Them". It's about giant ants that invade the city and eat humans but as far as I know, that's about it. Can't remember any jungle or dam water so it's quite possible it's not the one you're after. Or there is a movie called The Naked Jungle. It doesn't have giant ants, but it does have an army of ants. They cut a swath through the amazon jungle, consuming everything and everyone in their path. A plantation owner tries to destroy them by blowing up a dam.

Is there an alien that looks like a praying mantis in any of the Alien movies? I used to have a toy of it.

toby1kenobi

Chosen answer: I don't think so, but I do remember the toy line. They made several "species" of alien that weren't featured in the films.

Phixius

Answer: In Alien 3, there is an alien that runs on two legs, keeping its arms like a praying mantis. Ripley, says it's different from the other aliens she encountered.

There's a movie that was most likely released in the later 90's about a woman whose daughter dies by falling out of the car. Later in the movie the woman sees a drawing at a school that looks just like her daughter's old drawings. Then, when she sees the girl who did the drawing, the girl looks just like her daughter. She follows the girl home and then finds that the girl's mother is her doppelganger or twin sister, I can't remember which. I do remember a man in the movie warning the woman never to come face to face with her doppelganger after explaining to her what a doppelganger was.

MissLynne

Chosen answer: This movie was called "The Lookalike" (TV 1990). She was rescued from a river after falling from a car on a bridge. Later as an adult she sees a child that resembles her deseased daughter. Turns out to be the daughter of her twin sister that is passing through town.

Boobra

Trying to think of a movie (possibly mid-80s) that was about a winter. And this pregnant lady wanted a particular kind of food and it only grew in someone else's garden. He was trapped. Sorry, that's all I have.

shortdanzr

Chosen answer: Sounds like an episode of the Showtime series "Faerie Tale Theatre" titled "Rapunzel". It aired in February of 1983. Starred Sherry Duval and Jeff Bridges.

Phixius

I was wondering if anyone knows the name of a movie about two people who fall in love in heaven before being born. Then the woman is chosen to be born and the man asks to be born too, to try to find her on earth. They keep almost meeting throughout the movie before finally finding each other.

Lori Kaminsky

Chosen answer: You're thinking of the 1987 film, "Made in Heaven," starring Kelly McGillis and Timothy Hutton.

raywest

I remember seeing a movie a long time ago about a woman who sleeps with a country singer at a concert and ends up pregnant with his baby. She chases him down to tell him and I vaguely remember a scene in a diner where the pregnant woman is eating a lot of food and the waitress says something about being careful to always feed a pregnant woman to the country singer guy who was across from the pregnant woman. I really want to know what movie this is from because I liked it a lot. Does anyone know?

Answer: Love Notes - 2007.

What is the name of a movie in which the plot is basically about a young girl who lives by a river. A boy her age is a little chubby but really likes her and tries to become friends with her, but she rejects him. He ends up drowning in the river toward the end. The girl also tries to go swimming in the same river afterwards during a storm and almost drowns. She then ends up seeing the boy's face in the moon or something along that line. I believe this movie is somewhere around the 80's or 90's?

lehua1645

Chosen answer: The Bridge to Tarabithia.

I saw a movie in the late 1970's (prior to 1982 anyway) about two boys who were best friends. I think it was set in Africa, possibly South Africa, since the movie focused a lot on the difficulties of their inter-racial friendship. One memorable scene is the two of them rolling down a hill in large tires. I believe one of the boys ends up in an American city (New York?) looking for someone (his friend?), but he can't speak English, which is a problem until he encounters another person from his country. Any ideas? I can't place a date on it, except probably produced sometime between 1960 to 1980. I think it was in colour.

Answer: I believe the movie is E-Lollipop. The movie was made in 1976 and 22 years later a reunion was planned. Muntu Ndebele (the black kid) had descended into a life of crime and drug abuse but with the help of his crew and co-stars he turned his life around.

I'm looking for a movie that might have been made in the 80's. All i remember is a family with kids, the oldest son i remember is hauling a fridge up many flights of stairs with one or two other people and there was dramatic opera-type music while doing this. I also remember the family going on a road trip and finding this place that had hundred of yard decorations (wind chimes and sun-catchers and statues). And I think at the end of their trip was a cabin in the woods. It's all I remember, though I watched it many times when I was very young. Any ideas?

Sakai

Chosen answer: I believe the movie you are thinking about is called Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. Here's a link to a synopsis so you can see if it sounds like the movie you remember: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollie_Hopnoodle%27s_Haven_of_Bliss.

I would be incredibly grateful to anyone who finds what I'm looking for. There was this movie trailer or TV show premiere, probably a few years back but released after 2000. I vaguely remember it starting up with a person saying something about a woman was found dead with her face sliced with a knife from ear to ear. Then they flash for a short time the woman, lying on the pavement, who was killed and it looks like there is a neat accurately curved slash from one ear to the other, in between her lips. Does anyone know the name of this movie/ TV show?

Answer: The Black Dahlia (2006)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387877/combined.

Grumpy Scot

I remember a movie from the 80's where a redheaded girl had pigtails that spun around and her father was a pilot. What was the name of that movie?

Answer: I believe you are thinking of the 1988 film, "The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking." It is based on the classic children's book, "Pippi Longstocking," by Swedish author, Astrid Lindgren.

raywest

I'm trying to find the name of a movie I saw a long time ago but can't remember the name of. It's a black and white film, and I think Mickey Rooney was in it but I'm not sure. It's about a guy who grows up to be a gangster and all these kids in an orphanage home who idolize him. The priest (or the person who runs it) visits him in jail and asks him to put up a big stink and go out a coward on his way to get executed. At first he refuses but as the time comes he does chicken out and make a scene about not wanting to die. The kids read about it the papers and agree he was no good. Any ideas on what movie this is? It's driving me crazy trying to figure it out.

Answer: It's Angels With Dirty Faces, a 1938 classic starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029870/.

Jean G

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