Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to collectively as Poverty Row. The idea behind the studio was that when the Monogram logo appeared on the screen, everyone knew they were in for action and adventure. It is now a division of Allied Artists International. The original sprawling brick complex that was home to both Monogram and Allied Artists remains in place today at 4376 Sunset Drive, utilized as part of the Church of Scientology Media Center (formerly KCET television).
In deep space, a race of gelatinous creatures abandon their dying world. Pushed through space by the solar wind, they make their way to Earth and land in San Francisco. Some fall on plant leaves, assimilating them and forming small pods with pink flowers. Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams), an employee at the San Francisco Health Department, is one of several people who bring the flowers home. The next morning, Elizabeth's boyfriend, Geoffrey Howell, DDS (Art Hindle), suddenly becomes distant, and she senses that something is wrong. Her colleague, health inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), suggests that she see his friend, psychiatrist Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy). While driving to a book party Kibner is attending, they are accosted by a hysterical man (Kevin McCarthy, in a direct homage to the original film). The man runs off, and is soon seen dead, surrounded by a crowd of emotionless onlookers. At the party, Matthew calls the police about the incident, and finds them strangely indifferent. An agitated party attendee starts declaring that her husband is not her real husband. Kibner works to reconcile them. He also suggests that Elizabeth wants to believe that Geoffrey has changed because she is looking for an excuse to get out of their relationship.
Three The Hard Way was released in 1974 and is considered one of the classic action movies of the blaxploitation genre. Directed by the acclaimed Gordon Parks Jr., son of Gordon Parks (Shaft 1971) and director of Super Fly (1972), the film stars the three biggest black action stars of the era; Jim Brown (The Dirty Dozen, El Condor, Slaughter) as record producer Jimmy Lait, Fred Williamson (Black Caesar, Bucktown) as entrepreneur Jagger Daniels, and Jim Kelly (Enter the Dragon, Black Samurai, Black Belt Jones, One Down Two to Go) as martial arts master Mister Keyes.
In 1931 Berlin, young American Sally Bowles performs at the Kit Kat Klub. A new British arrival in the city, Brian Roberts, moves into the boarding house where Sally lives. A reserved academic and writer, Brian gives English lessons to earn a living while completing his doctorate. Sally tries seducing Brian and suspects he may be gay. Brian tells Sally that on three previous occasions he has tried to have physical relationships with women, all of which failed. They become friends, and Brian witnesses Sally's anarchic, bohemian life in the last days of the German Weimar Republic. Sally and Brian become lovers despite their earlier reservations; they conclude that his previous failures with women were because they were "the wrong three girls".
Lonnie Beale (Elvis), an out-of-work rodeo star, is trying to make ends meet until the season starts up again. He comes to the town of Zuni Wells (a fictional town somewhere in the American West) because a friend says Lonnie can get a job on a ranch, but his friend is nowhere to be found.
Triffids are tall plants capable of aggressive and seemingly intelligent behaviour. They are able to move about by "walking" on their roots, appear to communicate with each other, and possess a deadly whip-like poisonous sting that enables them to kill their victims and feed on their rotting carcasses. Their appearance is vaguely similar to gigantic asparagus shoots topped with a flower-like 'head' that somewhat resemble a Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid and houses their deadly stinger.
Journalist Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) thinks that the quickest way to a Pulitzer Prize is to uncover the facts behind a murder at a mental hospital. He convinces an expert psychiatrist to coach him to appear insane; this involves relating imaginary accounts of incest with his "sister", who is impersonated by his exotic-dancer girlfriend (Constance Towers). Barrett convinces the authorities and is locked up in the institution where the murder took place. While pursuing his investigation, he is disturbed by the behavior of his fellow inmates.
A gang of bank robbers led by Amos Troop (DeForest Kelley) uses a technique where they break prisoners out of jail, use them to commit crimes, then later kill them to collect the reward. A detective, Gifford (Audie Murphy), goes undercover with the gang to bring them to justice.
Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la jeune Alexandra Bastegar, blessée et épuisée, est recueillie par un groupe de soldats américains. Cette femme est en réalité une espionne nazie qui tente d'infiltrer la patrouille et de se procurer de précieuses informations pour ses supérieurs...
Mysterious hypnotist Desmond (Jacques Bergerac) comes to town to present his act, just as a series of women gruesomely disfigure themselves, apparently while in a trance. A local doctor and a detective try to find the reason.
Young Johnny Rocco (Richard Eyer) is disturbed after seeing his gangster father Tony (Stephen McNally) involved in a murder. The gang, fearing young Johnny might tip the police, decide to silence both him and his father. Frightened, Johnny seeks help from schoolteacher Miss
Young cello student Ariane Chavasse (Audrey Hepburn) eavesdrops on a conversation between her father, widowed private detective Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier), and his client, "Monsieur X" (John McGiver). After learning of his wife's daily trysts with American business magnate Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper), Monsieur X announces he will shoot Flannagan later that day. Claude is nonchalant, regretting only the business he will lose (Flannagan is a well-known international playboy with a long history of numerous casual affairs). When Ariane cannot get the police to intervene (until after a crime has been committed), she decides to warn him herself.
The Bowery Boys' landlady Mrs. Kelly believes in a theory proposed by Dr. Simon Noble. The theory is that through hypnosis, one can regress into a former life that they supposedly lived centuries ago. The boys believe that Noble is a phony until Sach manages to get himself hypnotized. Evidently Sach once lived as Algy Winkle, an English tax collector in Charleston, South Carolina. Winklemanaged to receive a map from Captain Blackbeard leading to buried treasure.
Duke recounts the days of when he and the rest of the Bowery Boys served in World War II. During the war, the boys' sergeant, who gets fed up with Duke and Sach, gladly gives them the duties of a suicide mission. The duo go under cover as German soldiers to deliver a message to a sultan.
Café owner Mike Clancy is told by his doctor that he needs to take a rest in the mountains due to his asthma. A crooked real estate agent sells Mike an old house that once belonged to the widow of a gangster. Mike and the Bowery Boys head out to the house, and eventually find a large pile of money hidden inside. Pretty soon, old friends of the deceased gangster who once owned the house catch wind of the Boys' discovery, and decide to rob the place. To add to this madness, the Bowery Boys find the house to be supposedly inhabited by ghosts.
The Bowery Boys have been collecting money to help a young polio victim in the neighborhood. At Mike Clancy's café, Sach is entrusted with taking the ninety dollars they collected to the bank. Sam, a new customer of Mike's, offers to give Sach a ride to the bank, but takes him instead to a phony bookie joint where, unaware that the operation is not legitimate, he loses all the money to con men Tony and Al. After Duke berates him for losing the cash, Sach tells Blinky that he would give his very soul to get even with the bookies. Seconds after Blinky leaves, Sach receives a visit from the devil, sporting a morning coat and two small horns under his hat. The devil offers Sach a deal: he will provide Sach with the name of a winning horse every day for a week in return for Sach's soul. Although scared, Sach ultimately agrees and, after signing the devil's contract, is provided with his winner of the day.