Little-seen Likes 2016
An update of my Little-seen Likes list from 2013-2014, adding movies I've seen since, expanding to include movies with less than 2,000 votes (instead of 1,000, as now Shawshank Redemption has over 1.6 million votes instead of just over 1 million), while simultaneously getting pickier as to what I like.
Note that these are in ascending order of # of IMDb ratings as of this writing, so if they are no longer in that order it's because the # of ratings have changed.
Note that these are in ascending order of # of IMDb ratings as of this writing, so if they are no longer in that order it's because the # of ratings have changed.
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- DirectorSvetla TsotsorkovaStarsMonika NaydenovaAlexander BenevSvetlana YanchevaThe Mother, the Father and their 16-year-old son live on a hill, at the end of a village. They wash hotel sheets for a living. The water supply is inconsistent and they often find themselves without any water. A couple of drillers - a father and his daughter - arrive, in order to solve the water supply problem. The family's harmonious world shatters into pieces. Everyone loves and hates everyone else. The thirst for love is so great that only death could quench it.
- DirectorBelinda ChaykoStarsJohn HurtLily Bell TindleyEmily BarclayA tender story about 11-year old Lou and her befuddled grandfather. After her father walks out and grandfather Doyle comes to stay, Lou discovers the healing power of love.
- DirectorJames CruzeStarsBen LyonClaudette ColbertErnest TorrenceAn investigative reporter romances a suspected smuggler's daughter.
- DirectorMasahiro KobayashiStarsFusako UrabeNene ÔtsukaTakayuki KatôYuko volunteered to be an aid worker in Iraq and was taken hostage there. When freed she returned to Japan, but after being home six months she is still the ongoing object of harassment from her own countrymen. A co-worker finds many angry postings on the Internet denouncing her and spreads them very vocally, causing her boss let her go. He tells her that the atmosphere at the hotel where she works as a chambermaid has changed negatively as a result. Several anonymous phones are made daily to her at home where she lives with her father and stepmother, saying that she is an embarrassment and disgrace to Japan. She is even harassed by strangers on the street after buying soup at a local convenience store, ruining her dinner. Her boyfriend dumps her, calling her actions as a volunteer in a foreign country selfish, that she should have stayed in Japan and only helped her own community. Yuko's father supported her decision to go to the Middle East, and he defends her actions after her return, but his company is also receiving threatening phone calls over his daughter's actions. At the loss of her father, she dreams of returning to the only place where she felt her life had meaning, where children greeted her warmly as she gave them Japanese treats. She realizes that staying in Japan might cause her to become as cold as those around her, simply to survive.
- DirectorDorothy ArznerStarsSylvia SidneyFredric MarchAdrianne AllenA drunken newspaperman is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.
- DirectorRobby HensonStarsChris CooperPatricia ClarksonKris KristoffersonDuring the American Civil War, a Union Army captain leads his rag-tag cavalry troop up a misty creek to a remote farm to appropriate enemy (Confederate) livestock. The farm is worked by Sarah Anders, whose husband is away fighting for the Confederate Army. Far from the great armies and battlefields, a very private civil war erupts. The Captain and Sarah are pulled apart by the war's undertow into choices they can not fully control or understand. Each character in this drama must decide whether loyalty will be paid in blood. This story has a relevance to current partisan conflicts. Armies are not filled with murdering psychopaths. Good people can be driven to do bad things. The story chronicles the pathology of war, how escalating events can trigger unasked-for tragedy. Based on a true story about a southern child who shot and killed a union soldier during the Civil War.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleJoseph LeveringStarsMary PickfordJack HoltRaymond HattonA young American has her ship torpedoed by a German U-boat but makes it back to ancestral home in France, where she witnesses German brutality firsthand.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsBetty GrableJohn PayneJune HaverTwo sisters from Hungary become famous entertainers in the early 1900s. Fictionalized biography with lots of songs.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsAlice FayeDon AmecheCarmen MirandaAn entertainer in Rio impersonates a wealthy aristocrat. When the aristocrat's wife asks him to carry the impersonation further, complications ensue.
- DirectorAaron J. WiederspahnStarsDavid StrathairnIan SomerhalderDaniel GilliesThis off-beat drama about man's search for meaning amidst the ache of despair chronicles Finn, an introspective English teacher entering a mid-life crisis impelled by a recent tragedy, as he sets afoot selling encyclopedias to the town locals.
- DirectorErnst MarischkaStarsRomy SchneiderAdrian HovenMagda SchneiderEngland, the 19th century. Young Victoria is crowned to be the queen of England. She aims to do her best in order to help her country prosper. However, the family and her trustful advisor, Lord Melbourne, plan marriage for her. She is to get married to a German prince Albert. But Victoria sees her future differently and decides to leave London for a few days. She goes to Paris. On her way to France, she stays incognito in a little tavern in Dover with a baroness. There by chance she meets a handsome man and falls in love head over heels. Later, however, in very strange circumstances, it turns out that the handsome man is prince Albert himself...
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsPola NegriVictor JansonPaul HeidemannA charismatic lieutenant newly assigned to a remote fort is captured by a group of mountain bandits, thus setting in motion a madcap farce that is Lubitsch at his most unrestrained.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsIrene RichMay McAvoyBert LytellA society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsDon AmecheBetty GrableCarmen MirandaAn American girl on vacation in Argentina falls for a wealthy racehorse owner.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsDon AmecheBetty GrableRobert CummingsSisters Kay and Barbara arrive in Miami from Texas looking for rich husbands.
- DirectorRichard WallaceLewis MilestoneGilbert PrattStarsJanet GaynorDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Roland YoungThrown out of the Riviera, a family of grifters meets a lonely, vulnerable rich old woman and insinuate themselves into her life while they sponge off her.
- DirectorGustaf MolanderStarsIngrid BergmanGösta EkmanInga TidbladAn innocent young pianist falls into an affair with a married violinist.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsFlorence VidorMonte BlueMarie PrevostProfessor Stock and his wife Mizzi are always bickering. Mizzi tries to seduce Dr. Franz Braun, the new husband of her good friend Charlotte.
- DirectorShinobu YaguchiStarsMasanobu AndôHikari IshidaChikara IshikuraA bullied employee has a run-in with yakuza, a shy nurse, and a stuffed suitcase. So begins his new life of excitement and adventure with the nurse.
- DirectorRobert Z. LeonardW.S. Van DykeStarsJeanette MacDonaldNelson EddyFrank MorganIn order to avoid a prearranged marriage, a rebellious French princess sheds her identity and escapes to colonial New Orleans, where she finds an unlikely true love.
- DirectorMarcel PagnolStarsRaimuPierre FresnayOrane DemazisHonoré Panisse is dying, cheerfully, with friends, wife, and son at his side. He confesses to the priest in front of his friends; he insists that the doctor be truthful. But, he cannot bring himself to tell his son Cesariot that his real father is Marius, the absent son of César, Cesariot's godfather. Panisse leaves that to Fanny, the lad's mother. Dissembling that he's off to see a friend, Cesariot then seeks Marius, now a mechanic in Toulon. Posing as a journalist, Cesariot spends time with Marius and leaves believing tales he is a petty thief. Only after the truth comes out can Marius, Fanny, César, and Cesariot step beyond the falsehoods, benign though they may be.
- DirectorClarence BrownMaurice TourneurStarsWallace BeeryBarbara BedfordAlan RoscoeIn the midst of the French and Indian War, the eldest daughter of a British officer develops an attraction towards an Indian ally who is the last living warrior of his tribe, the Mohicans.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsJames GarnerNatalie WoodNina FochJames Garner put in a winning performance as a similarly unreconstructed capitalist in the grip of merger mania.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsMargaret SullavanHerbert MarshallFrank MorganA naive girl just out of a cloistered orphanage finds that being a 'good fairy' to strangers makes life awfully complicated.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerBetty GrableJohn SuttonAn American pilot impulsively joins His Majesty's Royal Air Force in Britain in an attempt to impress his ex-girlfriend.
- DirectorSeijun SuzukiStarsTamio KawajiYumiko NogawaIsao TamagawaIn WW2 Manchuria, a prostitute grows to resent an abusive adjutant and falls in love with his aide.
- DirectorKing HuStarsPolly Ling-Feng Shang-KuanChun ShihYing BaiWhen the children of an executed General are pursued in 1457 China, some heroic martial arts swordsmen intervene.
- DirectorAlexander HallStarsAdolphe MenjouDorothy DellCharles BickfordBookie Sorrowful Jones receives a little girl as an IOU.
- DirectorA.J. EdwardsStarsJason ClarkeDiane KrugerBrit MarlingThe story of Abraham Lincoln's childhood in the harsh wilderness of Indiana and the hardships that shaped him, the tragedy that marked him for ever and the two women who guided him to immortality.
- DirectorWilliam K. HowardStarsWilliam PowellMyrna LoyUna MerkelThe neglected wife of a high profile attorney dallies with a unscrupulous womanizer and finds herself involved in blackmail and murder.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsShirley TempleRandolph ScottJack HaleyRebecca's Uncle Harry leaves her with Aunt Miranda who forbids her to associate with show people. But neighbor Anthony Kent is a talent scout who secretly sets it up for her to become a radio broadcaster.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsShirley TempleVictor McLaglenC. Aubrey SmithPriscilla Williams, a young girl living with her widowed mother and paternal grandfather at the post he commands in northern India, becomes enamored of military life and embroiled in brewing rebellion against the crown in the early 1900's.
- DirectorJonathan KaplanStarsBonnie BedeliaBeau BridgesDiane DelanoShirley Muldowney is determined to be a top-fuel drag racer, although no woman has ever raced them before. Despite the high risks of this kind of racing and the burden it places on her family life, she perseveres in her dream.
- DirectorMarc AllégretStarsRaimuPierre FresnayFernand CharpinAfter Fanny's boyfriend leaves her and sails away, she finds out she's pregnant.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJohn BarrymoreKatharine HepburnBillie BurkeA man, Hilary Fairfield returns home after fifteen years in a mental asylum. However, he finds things are not the way they were when he left.
- DirectorBusby BerkeleyStarsAlice FayeCarmen MirandaPhil BakerA soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsVictor JansonOssi OswaldaHarry LiedtkeAn American heiress seeks the hand of an impoverished German prince.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsOssi OswaldaHermann ThimigVictor JansonForced into marriage by his uncle, a man decides to fool him by marrying a life-like mechanical doll instead.
- DirectorNorman TaurogBusby BerkeleyStarsMickey RooneyJudy GarlandGil StrattonA philandering young playboy is sent to college somewhere in the American West, and organizes a show, together with his sweetheart, to save the college from closure due to falling enrollments.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsRobert MitchumShirley MacLaineEdmon RyanRobert Wise directs Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine in this spicy and poignant love story about a free-spirited Greenwich Village girl who hooks up with a brooding Nebraska lawyer. In HD.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsFred AstaireVera-EllenRed SkeltonThe story of the successful Tin Pan Alley songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby is told loosely and lightheartedly.
- DirectorGeorge B. SeitzStarsMickey RooneyJudy GarlandLewis StoneAndy has problems raising the last payment for a used car and juggling three pretty girls with an upcoming country club dance scheduled.
- DirectorMichael CurtizBusby BerkeleyStarsJack CarsonJanis PaigeDoris DayRomantic misunderstandings abound when spouses suspect each other of being unfaithful, and a nightclub singer takes a cruise under a false identity.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsGinger RogersAdolphe MenjouGeorge MontgomeryRoxie Hart signs a murder confession in order to attract publicity for her dancing career as dames don't swing in Cook County. Will everything go as planned?
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsRobert TaylorMargaret SullavanFranchot ToneThe close friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman, who is dying of tuberculosis.
- DirectorCathy RandallStarsDanielle CatanzaritiCassandra JinmanTalia MonaghanA coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old girl trying to fit into both a posh private school and an ordinary public school.
- DirectorMitchell LeisenStarsGene TierneyJohn LundMiriam HopkinsEllen McNulty loses her hamburger joint and goes to see her son, who marries a socialite at the same time. Due to her modest background and a case of mistaken identity, Ellen poses as the newlyweds' cook.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsGary CooperAnn HardingJohn HallidayA Victorian-era architect commissioned by the Duke of Towers to design his stables falls in love with the Duchess.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerAlice FayeDon AmecheThis send-up of ragtime song and dance begins in 1915 San Francisco when society boy Roger Grant decides to pursue popular rather than serious music.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldLupino LaneThe queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.
- DirectorAlexander KordaStarsRaimuPierre FresnayFernand CharpinMarius is faced with a choice whether to fulfill his passion by sailing the seas or stay and marry the woman he loves.
- DirectorGeorge CukorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldGenevieve TobinAn unhappily married couple try to come between a happy one.
- DirectorBoris KhlebnikovAlexei PopogrebskyStarsGleb PuskepalisIgor ChernevichEvgeniy SytyyA widowed aeronautics engineer, who has lost his job, travels with his son hopping freight trains from Moscow to Koktebel, a town by the Black Sea, to start a new life with the father's sister. After they are stopped by a train guard, they continue their travel on foot. The father battles against his alcohol addiction and the son is fascinated with the idea of flight. One rainy day an old man accepts them in his house in return for the repair of the roof. The father gives in to the alcohol offered by the old man, who in a drunken brawl accuses him of stealing money and shoots him. A young female village doctor takes care of him and a romantic relationship between the two ensues. The father feels reluctant to continue the journey. The son leaves alone and a truck driver gives him a ride to Koktebel. However, his aunt has left for the summer.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsLeslie CheungGong LiKevin LinNot far from Shanghai, in a country town stands the palatial home of the Pang family. Old Master Pang is an addict who brings up his beautiful daughter Ruyi on opium smoke. Her older brother, Zhengda, is addicted as well, and then paralysed and effectively brain-dead. Zhongliang, Zhengda's brother-in-law, is a successful gigolo in Shanghai who seduces older married women and then blackmails them. When Older Master Pang dies, the clan elders make Ruyi take over the role as the head of the household. Zhongliang returns to the Pang family on the death of Old Master Pang, re-encounters Ruyi, and they are secretly attracted to each other. Wanting to seem sophisticated, she succumbs to Zhongliang's attempts to seduce her. But then an emotional maelstrom follows - for the angry, jealous and sexually frustrated sister (Zhengda's wife) is also part of the picture.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsHideko TakamineItsuo WatanabeMakoto MiyagawaSchoolteacher Hisako Oishi forms an emotional bond with her pupils and teaches them various virtues, while at the same time worrying about their future.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsDebbie ReynoldsWalter BrennanLeslie NielsenAn unsophisticated young woman from the Mississippi swamps falls in love with an unconventional southern gentleman.
- DirectorMichael ShowalterStarsSally FieldMax GreenfieldTyne DalyA self-help seminar inspires a sixty-something woman to romantically pursue her younger co-worker.
- DirectorMark JoffeStarsBen MendelsohnBarry OttoToni ColletteLewis is a young Sydney amateur theater director at his first experience: he is offered a job with a Governmental program for the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients in a Sydney institution for mentally ill. His project is overrun by one of the patients Roy who wants to put on stage Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart). None of the patients in the cast is able to sing and none of them knows Italian which is the language of the libretto. Through a lot of difficulties Lewis and his cast develop a deep understanding. The play smartly adapted for the unusual cast is finally produced: lots of unforeseen situations solved 'a la crazy way'but indeed brilliantly. Great success and sad farewell of the director from his cast.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsIrene DunneRex HarrisonLinda DarnellIn 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.
- DirectorCharles WaltersStarsFrank SinatraDebbie ReynoldsDavid WayneSuccessful theater agent Charlie Reader lives a playboy's life in New York City. When his childhood friend shows up with a desire to leave his wife, the two are awestruck by each other's lifestyle.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChikage AwashimaRyô IkebeTeiji TakahashiA young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsFrank SinatraDoris DayGig YoungThe life of the youngest of three sisters in a musical family is complicated by the separate arrivals of a charming composer and a cynical music arranger.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsCharles BoyerJennifer JonesPeter LawfordA free-spirited parlor maid and a Czech refugee surprise an English village with their unconventional ways.
- DirectorHilary BirminghamStarsGlenn FitzgeraldAnson MountBob BurrusTully can get any girl he wants and often does every night - until he meets the new girl, Ella - who reveals something within him and his family they've long buried.
- DirectorRobert SiodmakEdgar G. UlmerRochus GlieseStarsErwin SplettstößerBrigitte BorchertWolfgang von WaltershausenTwo men and two women enjoy a pleasant Sunday at the beach amid the unending toil of the working week.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsCary GrantCarole LombardKay FrancisAfter a wealthy man finds out his wife is a gold digger, he meets and falls for a widowed mother, and complications ensue.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsPaul NewmanJoanne WoodwardMyrna LoyAn ambitious young executive chooses a loveless marriage and an unfulfilling personal life in exchange for a successful Wall Street career.
- DirectorGregory RatoffStarsIngrid BergmanLeslie HowardEdna BestA violinist's piano accompanist retires. He hears his daughter's piano teacher (Ingrid Bergman) play, asks her to play on his next international tour, and they fall in love.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldEdward Everett HortonWhen a small kingdom's main taxpayer leaves for Paris, its king dispatches a dashing count to win back her allegiance.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsMae ClarkeDouglass MontgomeryDoris LloydA prostitute's self-loathing makes her reluctant to marry an idealistic soldier during World War I.
- DirectorDavid M. RosenthalStarsAbigail BreslinAlessandro NivolaElisabeth ShueA young girl who has been abandoned by her former-groupie mother informs a fading rock star that she is his daughter.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliBusby BerkeleyStarsEthel WatersEddie 'Rochester' AndersonLena HorneA compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsSetsuko HaraSusumu FujitaDenjirô ÔkôchiThe daughter of a politically disgraced university professor struggles to find a place for herself in love and life, in the uncertain world of Japan leading into WWII.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsSetsuko HaraIneko ArimaChishû RyûTwo sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot take the truth of being abandoned as a child.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsAnil ChatterjeeMadhavi MukherjeeJaya BachchanLife at home changes when a house-wife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a saleswoman.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsBette DavisFranchot ToneMargaret LindsayAn alcoholic actress who is considered a dangerous jinx is rehabilitated, but she then shows that she's as dangerous as ever.
- DirectorClaudia MyersStarsPablo SchreiberMichelle MonaghanRon LivingstonAfter returning home from an extended tour in Afghanistan, a decorated U.S. Army medic and single mother struggles to rebuild her relationship with her young son.
- DirectorSerge BourguignonStarsHardy KrügerNicole CourcelPatricia GozziStory of a lonely young girl who is befriended by an innocent but emotionally disabled veteran of the French Indochina War.
- DirectorMichael VerhoevenStarsLena StolzeHans-Reinhard MüllerMonika BaumgartnerWhen a young woman investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.