Michael Murphy

At the beginning of the 20th century, coal was the engine of American industrial progress. Nearly three quarters of a million men across the country spent ten or twelve hours a day underground in coal mines. The Mine Wars brings to life the struggle that turned the coalfields of southern West Virginia into a blood-soaked war zone where basic constitutional rights and freedoms were violently contested.

Allen portrays Isaac Davis, a successful comedy writer whose wife, having left him for another woman, is now embarking on a book about their failed marriage. Isaac happily consoles himself in the arms of an adoring 17 year-old schoolgirl until he meets someone closer to his own age, who happens to be his best friend's mistress.

As a young man, Wyatt Earp was a caricature of the Western lawman, spending his days drinking in saloons, gambling, and visiting brothels. He gained notoriety as the legendary gunman in the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, but shortly after his death in 1929, distressed Americans down on their luck transformed Wyatt Earp into a folk hero.

In 1969 off the California coast, a US Navy crane carefully lowered a massive tubular structure into the waters. It was designed for an elite group of divers to spend days or even months at a stretch living and working on the ocean floor. The video tells the little-known story of the daring program that tested the limits of human endurance and revolutionized undersea exploration.

A four-hour mini-series that tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Drawing upon a vast and rich visual archive, the film follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era when Circus Day could shut down a town, and circus stars were among the most famous people in the country.

Set in 1934 Kansas City. A telegraph operator named Blondie kidnaps Carolyn Stilton, wife of a powerful businessman who commutes to Washington to advise President Roosevelt. Blondie figures she can use Carolyn to gain safe passage for her husband Johnny, who is in the grip of the city's top gangster, a club owner named Seldom Seen. The movie unfolds in the dark streets of the downtown Kansas City night.

Documentary about Thomas Edison that explores the complex alchemy that accounts for the enduring celebrity of America's most famous inventor. It offers new perspectives on the man and his milieu, and illuminates not only the true nature of invention, but its role in turn-of-the-century America's rush into the future.

Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a turn-of-the-century Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. Shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to help McCabe run his business and the whorehouse thrives. McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation,...

A hazard of hearts: Gambled away by her father, contested by two men and stalked by a a contraband queen, Serena Staverley fights for her life and her love. Arch of triumph: Set in Paris during World War II, the ill-fated romance between an illegal refugee and an unstable, insecure singer. Bail out: Three down-on-their-luck bounty hunters promise to deliver the daughter of a millionaire to trial on drug charges. Concrete cowboys: Two Montana saddle...