Ruthless People

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)

IMDB rating: 7.80

Plot: Gloria (Jane Fonda) is a young woman of the Depression. She has aged beyond her years and feels her life is hopeless, having been cheated and betrayed many times in her past. Fantasizing about movies, she sees herself as an actress and decides to head for Hollywood, having got the idea from a movie magazine while recuperating in the hospital from a suicide attempt which resulted from another unhappy love affair. Robert (Michael Sarrazin), a desperate Hollywood citizen unsuccessfully trying to become a director, never doubting that he’ll eventually make it. Robert and Gloria meet and decide to enter a dance marathon, one of the crazes of the thirties. The grueling dancing takes its toll on Gloria’s already weakened spirit, and she tells Robert that she’d be better off dead, that her life is hopeless – all the while acting cruel and bitter, alienating those around her, trying to convince him to shoot her and put her out of her misery. After all, they shoot horses, don’t they?

Sam Whiskey (1969)

IMDB rating: 5.70

Plot: Sam Whiskey is an all-round talent, but when the attractive widow Laura offers him a job, he hesitates: he shall salvage gold bars, which Laura’s dead husband stole recently, from a sunken ship and secretly bring them back to the mint before they are missed. But how shall he manage to get several hundred pounds of gold into the mint without anyone noticing?

Rascal (1969)

IMDB rating: 6.50

Plot: A comedy filled with tenderness as a baby raccoon snuggles his way into the life of a lonely boy. He becomes the boy’s only companion during his father’s frequent absences. Because of Rascal, both father and son realize their responsibility to each other.