Subgenre Sampler

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When Harry Met Sally (1990): Dir. Rob Reiner
Feat. Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal; Thirtysomething favourite that amicably flirts with the subject of platonic relationships between men and women. Meg Ryan's priceless 'fake orgasm'…
Scrooged (1988): Dir. Richard Donner
Feat. Bill Murray, Karen Allen, Alfre Woodard…; Bill Murray is hilariously mean–spirited as a yuppie incarnation of Charles Dicken’s ‘Scrooge’ who eventually gets a change of attitude…
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987): Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Steve Martin, John Candy; Well–matched comic coupling Steve Martin and John Candy go astray in the Midwest transport system. Reliably funny "mature" comedy is a pleasant…
Spaceballs (1987): Dir. Mel Brooks
Feat. Rick Moranis, Mel Brooks, John Candy…; A rollicking and fairly successful Mel Brooks take–off of STAR WARS and the space–opera genre, with Rick Moranis irresistibly hilarious…
Amadeus (1984): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham; Academy–award winning biopic of Mozart's illustrious but brief existence that spawned much of the greatest music ever written. A humourous yet…
Gandhi (1982): Dir. Richard Attenborough
Feat. Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox…; Epic retelling of the life of the inspirational Indian leader with Ben Kingsley as 'The Mahatma'. Won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Fedora (1978): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. William Holden, Marthe Keller, Jose Ferrer…; Fascinating later work from dir. Wilder, in which an impoverished film producer travels to the Greek islands to track down an elusive European star…
Black Sunday (1977): Dir. John Frankenheimer
Feat. Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller…; A suspenseful, violent terrorist thriller based on Thomas Harris' fictional novel about the pro–Palestinian "Black September" group who…
Bad News Bears (1976): Dir. Michael Ritchie
Feat. Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow; Delightfully cynical baseball comedy starring Walter Matthau as an alcoholic ex–baseball pitcher who becomes a coach for a youth baseball team…
Gambler, The (1974): Dir. Karel Reisz
Feat. James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton…; A typically gritty 70s crime drama, adapted from a story by Dostoevsky, that boasts a fine performance by James Caan as a well–respected…
Friends of Eddie Coyle, The (1973): Dir. Peter Yates
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan…; A superlative, cold–hearted, downright unforgiving crime classic of the 70s, with Robert Mitchum (never better) as an aging Boston gunrunner…
Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (1972): Dir. Brian Clemens
Feat. Horst Janson, Caroline Munro, John Carson; British cult TV writer Brian Clemens (THE AVENGERS) assumes directing duties on this spirited historical vampire romp he wrote for Hammer Studios,…
Brotherhood of Satan, The (1971): Dir. Bernard McEveety
Feat. Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Charles Bateman…; Low budget horror set in the American Southwest, where a couple on a road trip discover a coven of elderly Satanists who are holding a town's…
Little Murders (1971): Dir. Alan Arkin
Feat. Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd; Actor Alan Arkin directs this black comedy about a girl who brings her boyfriend home to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of…
Deep End (1970): Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski
Feat. Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown, Diana Dors; Remarkable, darkly comic story of 15–year–old Mike who takes a job at the local swimming baths and becomes obsessed with a beautiful…
Model Shop (1969): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Gary Lockwood, Alexandra Hay; A mesmerizing, shamefully neglected stateside film from French New Wave director Jacques Demy that follows an aimless, unemployed architect who ends…
Pit Stop (1969): Dir. Jack Hill
Feat. Brian Donlevy, Richard Davalos, Sid Haig; Stock car racing movie tracking the rise and fall of a rookie Figure Eight driver who breaks into the racing circuit with the help of a ruthlessly…
Devil Rides Out, The (1968): Dir. Terence Fisher
Feat. Christopher Lee; Devilishly straight–faced Hammer with Christopher Lee orchestrating a scheme to save the life (and soul) of his long–time confidant from…
Kuroneko (1968): Dir. Kaneto Shindo
Feat. Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi; Visually exquisite black and white horror film from Japanese director Kaneto Shindo (ONIBABA). An adaptation of a supernatural folktale set during…
No Way to Treat a Lady (1968): Dir. Jack Smight
Feat. Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal…; Macabre cat–and–mouse thriller from the pen of suspense–master William Goldman (MARATHON MAN), about a psychotic master of disguise…
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968): Dir. Sergio Leone
Feat. Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards Jr.…; A 13–minute credit sequence opens this riveting frontier saga, arguably the finest film of the genre. Charles Bronson steps in to Clint…
Up Tight (1968): Dir. Jules Dassin
Feat. Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Frank Silvera…; In this landmark collaboration between activist and actress Ruby Dee and director Jules Dassin, Black revolutionaries are betrayed by one of their…
Bonnie and Clyde (1967): Dir. Arthur Penn
Feat. Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman…; One of the seminal films of the late 1960s, an artful depiction of the exploits of Depression–era bank–robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde…
Graduate, The (1967): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katherine Ross; An endearing Dustin Hoffman in his first leading role, is seduced by a middle–aged woman and then falls in love with her daughter. A brilliant…
Mummy's Shroud, The (1967): Dir. John Gilling
Feat. Andre Morell, John Phillips, David Buck…; An archaeological expedition discovers the tomb of an ancient Egyptian pharoah and ignoring warnings of a deadly curse they unleash a vengeful spirit…
Rage (1966): Dir. Gilberto Gazcón
Feat. Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, David Reynoso; Sweaty Mexican American thriller with Glenn Ford playing a self–pitying alcoholic doctor who lives alone in a border town, and finds himself…
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor; High powered melodrama with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in peak form as a married couple whose dinner party turns into a violent debacle.…
Shakespeare Wallah (1965): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendall, Madhur Jaffrey; The first major film from the Merchant–Ivory collaboration, this elegaic drama follows the progress of an English theatre troupe through India…
Carpetbaggers, The (1964): Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Carroll Baker…; Drama based on the best–selling 1961 novel by Harold Robbins about a cheerfully vulgar business tycoon (perhaps modelled off Howard Hughes),…
Chalk Garden, The (1964): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Deborah Kerr, Hayley Mills, John Mills…; British melodrama based on the eccentric stage play by Enid Bagnold, with Hayley Mills playing a rebellious teenager who meets her match in governess…
Kitten with a Whip (1964): Dir. Douglas Heyes
Feat. Ann-Margret, John Forsythe, Peter Brown…; Ann–Margaret brings white–hot intensity to this cult classic about a teenage girl on the run from the law who blackmails a clueless…
My Fair Lady (1964): Dir. George Cukor
Feat. Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison; Ever–popular, though rather long musical version of George Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion', starring Audrey Hepburn as riffraff transformed into…
Train, The (1964): Dir. John Frankenheimer
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau…; Burt Lancaster leads the French Resistance in stopping (or at least diverting) a train used by the Nazis to steal precious French art treasures in…
Dr. Strangelove (or; How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) (1963): Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Feat. Peter Sellers, George C. Scott; A brilliant black comedy in which the U.S. president and his henchmen await imminent nuclear retaliation from the Russians. A landmark satire with…
Hands Over the City (Le mani sulla città) (1963): Dir. Francesco Rosi
Feat. Rod Steiger, Salvo Randone, Guido Alberti; An astute and ever–pertinent story of political corruption in post–World War II Italy starring Rod Steiger as a ruthless developer and…
Leopard, The (Il Gattopardo) (1963): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale…; An Italian classic, concerning the decline of the 19th century Sicilian aristocracy – represented by Burt Lancaster– that fulfils its…
Harakiri (Seppuku) (1962): Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Feat. Tatsuya Nakadai, Shima Iwashita, Akira Ishihama…; Japanese jidaigeki (period drama) set at the beginning of the Edo period, following a masterless samurai (ronin) who wishes to commit suicide…
Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Dir. David Lean
Feat. Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn…; Superlative epic biography of enigmatic adventurer T.E. Lawrence played by a charismatic Peter O'Toole in his first leading role. The spectacle is…
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962): Dir. Robert Aldrich
Feat. Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono…; Joan Crawford and Bette Davis scheme and brood in this memorable gothic melodrama about an aged child star and her embittered and jealous sister who…
Hustler, The (1961): Dir. Robert Rossen
Feat. Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott…; Classic Paul Newman, playing a pool–shark with potential who gets into a match with the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). George C…
Spartacus (1960): Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton…; First–rate epic details the revolt of the ancient Roman slaves as led by Kirk Douglas in the title role. Production spares little expense but…
Rio Bravo (1959): Dir. Howard Hawks
Feat. John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson…; John Wayne plays a sheriff who has captured a high profile bandit. With the state Marshall many days away and a gang of thugs planning a raid from…
I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958): Dir. Gene Fowler Jnr.
Feat. Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott; An exceptional, well–directed 1950's B–movie in which a race of monster–like aliens try to conquer Earth by taking over a…
Room at the Top (1958): Dir. Jack Clayton
Feat. Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret; Matters sexual are treated with rare maturity in this stunning, landmark British drama about an ambitious, working–class cad who falls in love…
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): Dir. David Lean
Feat. William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins; Another rousing, grand scale production from director Lean, about a group of British POW's employed by the Japanese to build a bridge, while their…
China Gate (1957): Dir. Samuel Fuller
Feat. Gene Barry, Angie Dickinson; In 1954, during the French Indochina War, an Eurasian female smuggler and a group of French Foreign Legion mercenaries, infiltrate the enemy…
Eddy Duchin Story, The (1956): Dir. George Sidney
Feat. Tyrone Power, Kim Novak, James Whitmore; Tearjerking, CinemaScope biopic of the beloved but short–lived pianist and bandleader Eddy Duchin. Nominated for four Academy Awards.
Night of the Hunter, The (1955): Dir. Charles Laughton
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish; A disturbing yet poetic masterpiece in which Robert Mitchum is mighty mean as a psychopathic preacher pursuing two runaways across the American…
Desiree (1954): Dir. Henry Koster
Feat. Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons; Marlon Brando plays a young Napoleon whose first romance, with Desiree Clay (Jean Simmons), is strained when he is swept into the cut–throat…
Gate of Hell (Jigokumon) (1953): Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa
Feat. Machiko Kyo, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata; Tragic story of unrequited love set during the Heiji Rebellion in 1159, where a samurai warrior falls in love with a married…
Quiet Man, The (1952): Dir. John Ford
Feat. John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara; Ex–boxer John Wayne retires to his Irish homeland in search of tranquillity and maybe the hand of Maureen O'Hara. This romantic comedy was a…
An American in Paris (1951): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Gene Kelly; Ebullient, multi–styled musical with Gene Kelly dancing his socks off. Terrific George Gershwin score.
Five (1951): Dir. Arch Oboler
Feat. William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubeš, James Anderson…; Apocalyptic 50's sci–fi set in the aftermath of an atomic bomb disaster where five survivors (a pregnant woman, a philosopher, a black man, a…
Quo Vadis? (1951): Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Feat. Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov…; Lavish Roman epic, set during the decadent reign of Nero, has legionnaire Robert Taylor falling for lion–bait Christian Deborah Kerr, amid…
All About Eve (1950): Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Feat. Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders…; Bette Davis is in her element as ageing Broadway star Margot Channing, under threat of the hidden menace of an ambitious young actress. A scathing…
Outrage (1950): Dir. Ida Lupino
Feat. Mala Powers, Tod Andrews, Robert Clarke; One of the earliest post–Code Hollywood films to deal with the subject of rape, this black–and–white B–movie follows a young…
Sunset Boulevard (1950): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim…; Faded screen vamp Gloria Swanson and screenwriter William Holden exploit each other mercilessly in this searing dissection of Hollywood decadence,…
Red Shoes, The (1948): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, Marius Goring…; Beloved dance classic is a strikingly realised story of a young ballerina who, in an echo of the Hans Christian Andersen story, becomes torn between…
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944): Dir. Arthur Lubin
Feat. Jon Hall, Maria Montez, Leif Erickson…; Adventure film based on 'The Book of One Thousand and One Nights' about a boy prince who takes revenge on the Mongol invaders who murdered his father…
Double Indemnity (1944): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson; The jewel in the crown of all things film noir has hardly dated an iota despite countless imitations. You'll savour each moment as…
Henry V (1944): Dir. Laurence Olivier
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks; Brimming with zest, this Shakespeare adaption became an instant classic when released, featuring Laurence Olivier in full sail as the youthful…
Casablanca (1942): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman; The role that immortalised Bogart is that of Rick, the laconic cafe–owner who assists old flame Ingrid Bergman to escape the Nazis with her…
Citizen Kane (1941): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead; Orson Welles ground–breaking work chronicles a publishing tycoon's rise to power, told through a reporter's efforts to discover the meaning of…
Face Behind the Mask, The (1941): Dir. Robert Florey
Feat. Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes; Film noir following the descent of a kind watch maker whose face is disfigured in a fire shortly after immigrating to America, and despite being a…
Gone with the Wind (1939): Dir. Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
Feat. Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland…; One of the greatest examples of story–telling on film, this maintains one's firm interest for nearly four hours with its romantic story, strong…
Jour Se Leve, Le (Daybreak) (1939): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Jean Gabin, Arletty; A renowned example of 'poetic realism', Jean Gabin gives another consummate performance as a doomed anti–hero. His tragic story is told in…
Wizard of Oz, The (1939): Dir. Victor Fleming, King Vidor
Feat. Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr…; The world's best loved film down through and across the generations, and a key cultural icon. MGM pulled out all the stops to realise L. Frank…
Steamboat Bill Jr (1928): Dir. Charles Riesner
Feat. Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, Tom McGuire; One of Buster Keaton's best films begins as sly farce, with his wimpish city–slicker meekly tussling with a thuggish steamboat–captain…
Variety (1925): Dir. E.A. Dupont
Feat. Emil Jannings, Lya de Putti; A cautionary fable of romantic treachery set in the since–vanished vaudeville world, lent depth through its sophisticated visual style. Emil…

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Subgenre Sampler