Strange Testament

Nov 15, 1941

0h 11m

★ 5.0

Overview

This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Julian Poydras, whose encounter with a girl at Mardi Gras had a profound effect on his later life.

Genres

History

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Strange Testament Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator (voice)

John Nesbitt

Julian Poydras

Edward Ashley

Waitress (uncredited)

Ava Gardner

Cissie Lerand (uncredited)

Dorothy Morris

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6.9

America America

Dec 15, 1963

A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America.

5.4

Lady Oscar

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Oscar François de Jarjayes was born female, but her father insisted she be raised as a boy as he had no sons. She becomes the captain of the guards at Versailles under King Louis XVI and Marie Antonette. Her privileged, noble life comes under fire as she discovers the hard life of the poor people of France. She is caught up in the French Revolution, and must choose between her loyalty and love.

6.0

Clues to Adventure

Apr 11, 1949

This MGM Passing Parade series short presents how separate events led to the creation of three provisions - freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and prohibition of the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments - in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights.

6.6

Blackboards

Sep 1, 2000

Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?

6.6

Black Venus

Oct 27, 2010

The true story of Saartje Baartman, a black South African worker who moves to London with her master in the early 19th century. Although she dreams of being an artist, once in Europe she is exploited as a sideshow attraction due to her large buttocks and genitalia.

7.0

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles

Apr 18, 2019

Paris, 1930. Luis Buñuel is penniless after the scandal surrounding the release of his last movie. Sculptor Ramón Acín, a good friend, buys a lottery ticket and promises Buñuel that he will pay for his next movie if he wins the prize.

0.0

The Hidden Master

Apr 20, 1940

Shows how important luck can be in a person's life.

6.5

Souvenirs of Death

Jun 19, 1948

This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short tells the story of how a Mauser pistol used on the battlefield by Germans during WWII makes its way into the hands of an American gangster.

6.0

Angel of Mercy

May 20, 1939

This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross.

7.2

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Oct 15, 2011

A tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.

6.0

The Story of Alfred Nobel

Feb 18, 1939

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite, and later established the Nobel Prize.

10.0

Laissez-faire

Jan 30, 2015

A historical perspective to understand Neoliberalism and to understand why this ideology today so profoundly influences the choices of our governments and our lives.

7.0

The Lovers of Montparnasse

Apr 4, 1958

Biographic film chronicling the last year of the life of the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, 1919, who falls in love with a girl from a wealthy family. Her parents are against this relationship and stop financial help. Modigliani worked and died in abject poverty in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, France.

6.3

The Fifteen Streets

Jan 1, 1989

In northern England around 1900, the worker John O'Brien lives near poverty in a small house in the worker's district. He falls in love with Mary, the teacher of his highly intelligent younger sister Kathy and daughter of a rich family. Their love is doomed by the social difference, but the vigorous Mary refuses to allow outer circumstances destroying their love.

4.1

Louisiana

Jan 25, 1984

Virginia Tregan returns to her home in the U.S. Deep South from a sojourn in Paris only to discover that her family plantation and its holdings have been lost. She determines to recoup her family's fortune.

6.8

Piccolo mondo antico

Apr 10, 1941

Franco, a young man of noble descent, marries Luisa, daughter of a humble clerk, against his grandmother's will.

5.0

Dreams

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This entry in MGM's Passing Parade series looks at the meaning of dreams, including one by Abraham Lincoln that foretold his death.

6.3

Old Man

Feb 10, 1997

A prisoner set on serving his time gets recruited to save a pregnant woman trapped in a tree during the Great Flood of 1927. A massive storm drives them farther from their destination and they soon must decide to go off on their own or find their way home.

5.4

The Face Behind the Mask

Mar 19, 1938

This dramatized short film describes the historical mystery of France's "man in the iron mask". King Louis XIV imprisoned a man who was never identified, but who was forced to wear an iron mask for the length of his captivity, which ended only in his death. Several candidates for the identity of the man are investigated.

Strange Testament

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Strange Testament Trailers