Subgenre Sampler
Classics: 3626 Films to Buy & Rent
White Heat (1949)
- Dir. Raoul Walsh
Feat. James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
- Intense, verging–on–primal performance from a greying James Cagney blasts this straight into the pantheon of greatest–ever crime…
Yasujiro Ozu Boxset (Early Summer; Tokyo Story; An Autumn Afternoon; Floating Weeds; Good Morning; The Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice; Late Spring) (1949-1959)
- Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
- Eight masterpieces from the great Japanese filmmaker.
Young Man With a Horn (Young Man of Music) (1949)
- Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Doris Day, Lauren Bacall…
- Sharp biopic based on legendary jazz trumpeteer Bix Beiderbecke (played here by Kirk Douglas), who rose from obscurity to possess one of the most…
A Woman's Vengeance (1948)
- Dir. Zoltan Korda
Feat. Charles Boyer, Ann Blyth, Jessica Tandy…
- Murder caper based on the short story "The Gioconda Smile" by Aldous Huxley.
Charles Boyer (GASLIGHT) plays a philanderer who's accused of…
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
- Dir. Charles Barton
Feat. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi…
- One of the best of the 35 features A&C made between 1940 and 1956 sends up those golden–age monster mashes with winning gags and detailed…
Anna Karenina (1948)
- Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Kieron Moore
- Transplanted French director Duvivier – one of the key figures of 1930s "poetic realism" movement – brings grit and thoughtfulness to a…
Bicycle Thieves (The Bicycle Thief, Ladri di biciclette) (1948)
- Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell
- A huge sentimental favourite about a man whose chance at meaningful labour is taken from him when his precious bicycle is stolen from him. Though not…
Big Clock, The (1948)
- Dir. John Farrow
Feat. Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester
- Fine clockwork suspenser lands Ray Milland in a murder–mystery bind instigated by his manipulative media baron boss (Laughton). Texbook noir…
Blanche Fury (1948)
- Dir. Marc Allegret
Feat. Valerie Hobson, Stewart Granger, Michael Gough…
- Gothic melodrama set around a sombre English country estate, soon to be home to upwardly–ambitious Valerie Hobson. When her secret lover…
Call Northside 777 (1948)
- Dir. Henry Hathaway
Feat. James Stewart, Lee J. Cobb, Richard Conte…
- An enjoyable 'noir' yarn, based on the true story of a man unjustly imprisoned for the murder of a policeman in 1930s Chicago.
Jimmie Stewart…