Subgenre Sampler

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Staying On (1980): Dir. Silvio Narizzano
Feat. Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Saeed Jaffrey; Drama based on the award–winning novel by Paul Scott (The Jewel in the Crown), and reuniting BRIEF ENCOUNTER actors Celia Johnson and Trevor…
Chapter Two (1979): Dir. Robert Moore
Feat. James Caan, Marsha Mason, Valerie Harper; Neil SImon's hit play is competently adapted for the big screen. James Caan in a rare romantic role plays a man recently widowed who falls for a…
Boy in the Plastic Bubble, The (1976): Dir. Randal Kleiser
Feat. John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Robert Reed; A cult telemovie starring John Travolta as an immune–deficient youngster with potentially fatal allergies, who has to exist in a sealed…
Last American Hero, The (1973): Dir. Lamont Johnson
Feat. Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald…; Jeff Bridges' mix of redneck roughness and choirboy sweetness is just right for this 1973 true story of a country kid running moonshine and making…
Angel Levine, The (1970): Dir. Jan Kadar
Feat. Zero Mostel, Harry Belafonte, Ida Kaminska…; In order to earn his wings Belafonte must convince the embittered Mostel that life still has value. Gentle yarn gets by chiefly on the charm of the…
Baby Maker, The (1970): Dir. James Bridges
Feat. Barbara Hershey, Sam Groom, Scott Glenn; Somewhat ahead of its time, this portrays a middle–class American couple who pay a hippy woman to be a surrogate mother for a child.…
Only Game in Town, The (1970): Dir. George Stevens
Feat. Warren Beatty, Elizabeth Taylor; An aging showgirl stumbles into a clandestine affair with a brash young gambler. Based on a stage play by Pulitzer Prize winner Frank D. Gilroy.
Rabbit Run (1970): Dir. Jack Smight
Feat. James Caan, Carrie Snodgrass, Anjanette Comer…; James Caan stars in this adaptation of John Updike's acclaimed 1960 novel about a has–been basketball star who impulsively abandones his life…
Arrangement, The (1969): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway; Advertising exec Kirk Douglas follows a mid–life suicide attempt with some desperate hi–jinks and a cry of rage at his hollow life.…
Virgin Soldiers, The (1969): Dir. Norman Cohen
Feat. Lynn Redgrave, Hywel Bennett, Nigel Davenport…; Comdey–drama following a squad of naive young British soldiers in 1950's Singapore who fall for the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major.
Charly (1968): Dir. Ralph Nelson
Feat. Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala…; Child–minded Cliff Robertson has experimental brain–surgery, but his resulting super–intellect proves a mixed blessing. Credible,…
Milky Way, The (1968): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Paul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff, Alain Cuny…; Bunuel experiments with narrative in relating theories of traditional Catholicism to the encounters of two wandering vagrants.
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The (1968): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin…; Schoolteacher at a private girls school, Maggie Smith grooms and instructs her pupils with a passionate sense of vocation, unfortunately making more…
Oedipus Rex (1967): Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Feat. Silvana Mangano, Franco Citti, Alida Valli; Striking visual achievement, filmed amidst the Moroccan desert and Bologna, describes the Oedipal tale of a tortured soul who murders his father and…
Poor Cow (1967): Dir. Ken Loach
Feat. Carol White, Terence Stamp, Malcolm McDowell; Striking the tone of much of his subsequent work, Ken Loach's debut film gives a semi–documentary edge to the story of 'poor cow' Carol White,…
Before the Revolution (1966): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Adriana Asti, Francisco Barilli; Bertolucci's second film – made at the age of 22! – demonstrates his bravura visual style fully formed around this coming of age in the…
Guerre Est Finie, La (1966): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Yves Montand, Ingrid Thulin, Genevieve Bujold…; (The War is Over). Deeply romantic film in which Spanish Civil War refugee Yves Montand tries in vain to keep alive the memory of his struggle.
Inside Daisy Clover (1965): Dir. Robert Mulligan
Feat. Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Ruth Gordon; Curious account of the rise and fall of a starlet in 30s Hollywood has improved with age thanks to off–kilter performances from Natalie Wood as…
Hamlet (1964): Dir. Grigori Kozintsev
Feat. Innokenti Smoktunovsky; The legendary Russian version of Shakespeare's play, which visually at least, stands as the greatest yet. Staged amidst the massive battlements of…
Empty Canvas, The (La Noia) (1963): Dir. Damiano Damiani
Feat. Bette Davis, Horst Buchholz, Catherine Spaak; Unsuccessful painter Buccholz falls for a young model who spurns his love and drives him to both ruin and his overbearing mother. Based on the novel…
Lilies of the Field (1963): Dir. Ralph Nelson
Feat. Sidney Poitier; Helping to repair a chapel for a convent of German nuns and rewarded with an Oscar for Best Actor, this sees Sidney Poitier giving one of his quieter…
Live it Up! (Sing and Swing) (1963): Dir. Lance Comfort
Feat. David Hemmings; Low–budget, but historically fascinating musical wraps some great mid–60s pop music around its slender plot. Hemmings plays a…
L-Shaped Room, The (1962): Dir. Bryan Forbes
Feat. Leslie Caron; Defining slice of gritty Brit realism tackles the issue of pregnancy outside marriage with considerable pathos. French girl Leslie Caron crosses the…
Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962): Dir. Sidney Lumet
Feat. Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards Jr.…; Faithful and masterful adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's play about family life, love and losers drinking and tearing each other apart in leafy New…
Madame (1962): Dir. Christian-Jaque
Feat. Sophia Loren, Robert Hossein; Rags–to–riches tale set in Napoleonic France mirrors the real life of its Italian bomb–shell star, Sophia Loren.
Pity Me Not! (Without Each Other) (1962): Dir. Saul Swimmer
Feat. Tony Anthony, Anne Hegiba, Saul Swimmer; A trapeze artist has the unfortunate duty of informing the wife of a fellow performer that her husband has been crushed by an elephant.
Intruder, The (I Hate Your Guts) (1961): Dir. Roger Corman
Feat. William Shatner, Leo Gordon; The only Corman film ever to lose money is not surprisingly perhaps his best. William Shatner excels as a small–time drifter who preaches the…
Platinum High School (1960): Dir. Charles Haas
Feat. Mickey Rooney, Terry Moore, Dan Duryea…; Mickey Rooney overheats in investigating his son's death at a military academy. Casting quirks includes singer Conway Twitty.
World of Apu, The (1959): Dir. Satyajit Ray
Feat. Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty; Final installment of the 'Apu trilogy' sees the complexities of adulthood painfully and euphorically realised for Apu through ambition, marriage and…
Young Philadelphians, The (1959): Dir. Vincent Sherman
Feat. Paul Newman, Barbara Rush; Engaging drama with Paul Newman as an attorney of dubious background who defends an affluent friend in a murder trial while hussling his way into the…
Magician, The (The Face) (1958): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow; Bergman's allegorical self–portrait of a controversial travelling magician who exacts revenge on a cynical doctor, but becomes trapped in his…
Marjorie Morningstar (1958): Dir. Irving Capper
Feat. Gene Kelly, Natalie Wood; Would–be actress Natalie Wood gives up her Jewishness and independence to get ahead in this mild adaptation of Herbert Wouk's novel.
Some Came Running (1958): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley Maclaine…; Frank Sinatra gives an affecting, lowkey performance as soldier returning from WW2 to pick up his writing career again. Effective representation…
Brothers Karamazov, The (1957): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, Claire Bloom…; A sumptuous Hollywood version of Dostoyevsky's classic novel of Czarist Russia. Centred around Karamazov (Cobb) and his four disparate offspring,…
Saint Joan (1957): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. Jean Seberg, Richard Widmark, John Gielgud…; Colourized version of the Joan of Arc story with Jean Seberg in her acting debut.
Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955): Dir. Richard Fleischer
Feat. Joan Collins; Glossy account of a truelife scandal in early 20th century NYC.
Long Gray Line, The (1955): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp; Engrossing true life tale of military instructors Marty Maher and his rise to the top of his profession.
Picnic (1955): Dir. Joshua Logan
Feat. Kim Novak, Cliff Robertson, William Holden…; Epitome of the 50s smalltown melodrama has the sultry Kim Novak relieved of boyfriend Cliff Robertson and the general Mid–West tedium, by…
Queen Bee (1955): Dir. Ranald MacDougall
Feat. Joan Crawford; Archetypal glamour–bitch Joan Crawford is deliciously hammy as a compulsive socialite who brings destruction to an blue–blooded Southern…
Bigamist, The (1953): Dir. Ida Lupino
Feat. Edmond O'Brien, Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino…; A San Francisco adoption agency, investigating salesman Edmond O'Brien and wife Joan Fontaine, discover he has a second life, and wife, in LA.…
Life of Oharu (1953): Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune; The prolific, though rarely seen dir. Mizoguchi came to attention with this chronicled downfall of a court–concubine in 17th century Japan,…
Deadline U.S.A. (1952): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Humphrey Bogart; Tightly scripted account of the newspaper business. Editor–in–Chief: Humphrey Bogart.
Gentle Gunman, The (1952): Dir. Basil Dearden
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, John Mills; Dirk Bogarde and John Mills are Irish brothers sent to London by the IRA during the Blitz, but one succumbs to pacifism.
Phone Call from a Stranger (1952): Dir. Jean Negulesco
Feat. Bette Davis; Fine acting, from Bette Davis among others, lifts story of aircrash survivors coming together.
Summer with Monika (1952): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Harriet Andersson; Early Bergman turns his lens on a pair of working class, teenage lovers. At first this rebellious holiday boat ride comes across as dreamy escapism…
Men, The (1950): Dir. Fred Zinnemann
Feat. Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, Everett Sloane…; Famous as Marlon Brando's film debut, playing a paraplegic war veteran struggling to come to terms with post–war life. Brando's smouldering…
Stromboli (1950): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Ingrid Bergman; After his neo–realist masterpieces, this is one of the dir.'s best films, concerning a WW2 refugee who hastily marries an Italian fisherman and…
Summer Interlude (1950): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin; Perhaps Bergman's first significant work, about an aging ballerina who reflects on a youthful romance with her now–deceased lover in moody…
Three Secrets (1950): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Ruth Roman; Three women exchange handkerchiefs and spill their secrets while awaiting news of their children after a plane crashes. You may need the tissues…
Quartet (1949): Dir. Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold French
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Basil Radford, Honor Blackman; Four W Somerset Maugham stories are given exemplary treatment by the best of British, incl. Dirk Bogarde, Basil Radford and Honor Blackman. Unlike…
Humoresque (1946): Dir. Jean Negulesco
Feat. Joan Crawford, John Garfield; Elegant drama features Joan Crawford in a towering performance as wealthy patron who falls in love with a gifted musician. A masterpiece of the…
Paisa (1946): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Carmela Sazio, Robert Van Loon, Benjamin Emmanuel; Six short films focusing on the minor victories and losses of ordinary folk during WW2. Pioneering the now–familiar use of documentary footage,…
Diary of a Chambermaid (1945): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Paulette Goddard; Chambermaid Paulette Goddard upsets an aristocratic household brimming with secrets and intrigues. One of Renoir's early Hollywood pictures.
Seventh Veil, The (1945): Dir. Compton Bennett
Feat. James Mason, Ann Todd; Renowned film serves up psychiatry in bite sized chunks as a concert pianist is cured of her complexes by a shrink intent on fixing her up with the…
Fighting Sullivans, The (1944): Dir. Lloyd Bacon
Feat. Anne Baxter, Edward Ryan; Early telling of the true story that inspired SAVING PRIVATE RYAN about five brothers who served in WWII (in reality, at Guadacanal).
Passage to Marseille (1944): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre; Distinguished by the use of flashbacks within flashbacks, this WW2 propaganda piece re–unites the director with CASABLANCA alumnae.
Torment (Hets) (1944): Dir. Alf Sjoberg
Feat. Stig Jarrel, Alf Kjellin, Mai Zetterling…; Impressionistic study of authoritarian education and adolescent love was scripted by a young Ingmar Bergman, and its universe of cruel twists and…
White Cliffs of Dover, The (1944): Dir. Clarence Brown
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowall, Irene Dunne…; Patriotic sentiment up full–bore, this extended saga of English–American fraternising over both World Wars, has Irene Dunne and family…
Eternel Retour, L' (1942): Dir. Jean Delannoy
Feat. Jean Marais, Madeleine Sologney, Yvonne de Bray…; (Love Eternal) A contemporary take on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, lovers united after death. Jean Cocteau's script is realised with the…
Kings Row (1942): Dir. Sam Wood
Feat. Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan…; Celebrated and infamous melodrama of the titular smalltown, a seemingly placid American community, around which insanity, poverty and sadism hover…
Les Visiteurs Du Soir (1942): Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Arletty, Marie Dea, Fernand Ledoux…; Two of the Devil's henchmen are dispatched to a fairytale–like 15th century castle with an eye to corrupting its inhabitants, especially a pair…
Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942): Dir. Orson Welles
Feat. Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Dolores Costello; Following up CITIZEN KANE, Orson Welles again drew a bead on the American rich, chronicling the dynastic squabbles of a…
Random Harvest (1942): Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Feat. Ronald Colman, Greer Garson; A shell–shocked WW1 officer marries and is contented until he remembers his past life in the aristocracy. Far–fetched but very enjoyable…
Penny Serenade (1941): Dir. George Stevens
Feat. Cary Grant, Irene Dunne; Cary Grant and Irene Dunne adopt a infant, then lose it, in a brilliantly crafted tear–jerker.
Long Voyage Home, The (1940): Dir. John Ford
Feat. John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter…; John Wayne is a Swedish sailor aboard a doom–ridden tramp steamer circa. WWII, in this portmanteau of four stories by Eugene O'Neill. An…
Our Town (1940): Dir. Sam Wood
Feat. Frank Craven, William Holden, Martha Scott; Affectionate study of small–town American life, set in New Hampshire over a twelve year period. Frank Craven narrates our tour of the community…
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…
Good Earth, The (1938): Dir. Sidney Franklin
Feat. Paul Muni, Luise Rainer; Pearl S. Buck's epic novel is given the proud, grand and serious treatment by Hollywood. The tale told is about greed and gain amongst Chinese…
Great Waltz, The (The Life of Johann Strauss) (1938): Dir. Julien Duvivier
Feat. Fernand Gravey, Luise Rainer, Lionel Atwill; The lIfe story of Johann Strauss is given a rich if somewhat corny treatment in this otherwise well–mounted musical biopic.
I Accuse (J'Accuse) (1938): Dir. Abel Gance
Feat. Victor Francen, Line Noro, Marie Lou; Dir. Gance’s own remake of his 1919 silent classic, in which a soldier traumatised by the slaughter of WWI attempts to prevent future…
Marseillaise, La (1938): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Pierre Renoir, Lisa Delamare, Leon Larive…; Renoir's classic depicts events leading up to the French revolution in the 18th Century, electing to extract history from the heart of the common…
Stella Dallas (1937): Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles; Definitive family melodrama in which Barbara Stanwyck compels as the social–climbing Stella, ultimately driven to painful self–knowledge…
Dangerous + Hell's House (1935/32): Dir. Alfred Green, Howard Higgin
Feat. Bette Davis; Bette Davis in two early roles – her lead performance as a star–turned–alcoholic in DANGEROUS fetching her the first of two Best…
David Copperfield (1935): Dir. George Cukor
Feat. W.C. Fields; Top–line Hollywood–ization of the Dickens classic.
Informer, The (1935): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Victor McLaglen; Stunning character study unfolds when an IRA leader is sold out by his dim–witted friend for reward money. Full–blooded acting by all was…
Le Crime De Monsieur Lange (1935): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Rene Lefevre, Florelle , Jules Berry; One of the dir.’s early classics. Rene Leferve rises to newsprint fame as the author of the serial “Arizona Jim” after his boss, a…
Tale of Two Cities (1935): Dir. Jack Conway
Feat. Ronald Colman; A model screen adaptation of a classic novel. Script and spectacle are in perfect accord to tell Charles Dickens' story of courage and honour in 18th…
Liebelei (1933): Dir. Max Ophuls
Feat. Arthur Schnitzler; An early work from the German maestro of the tracking shot, whose tale of doomed romance between a young soldier and fraulein (taken from a play by…
American Madness (1932): Dir. Frank Capra
Feat. Walter Huston; Vivid parable in which Walter Huston portrays a bank president facing the threat of commercial failure during the Great Depression.
Bill of Divorcement, A (1932): Dir. George Cukor
Feat. John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Billie Burke…; Shell–shocked war veteran John Barrymore returns to the world after 15 years in an asylum, to find that wife Katharine Hepburn (in her screen…
Possessed (1931): Dir. Clarence Brown
Feat. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable; Vivid and detailed early drama about a rich NYC lawyer and his mistress, made when its lead performers were both on the verge of stardom. Centred…
Blood of a Poet (1930): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Lee Miller, Pauline Carton; Cocteau's first film is a surrealist gem that sewed the seeds of his style. The Dali/Bunuel influence is clear, but this goes one step further with…
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929): Dir. G.W. Pabst
Feat. Louise Brooks; Exceptional follow–up to the eye–opening PANDORA’S BOX, with Louise Brooks again provoking disorder with her unrestrained vitality and…
Mother (1926): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin
Feat. Vera Baranovskaya, Nikolai Batalov; In one of the masterpieces of early Russian cinema, a fable of pre–revolutionary worker–resistance and Tsarist oppression is heightened…

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Subgenre Sampler