Murray Melvin

Michael Caine

Julia Foster

Shelley Winters

For Alfie, the only real life is sex life. Only then, can he kid himself he is living. Sex is not used as the working-class boy's way to "the top". Executive status has no appeal for Alfie. Nor has class mobility. He is quite content to stay where he is, as long as the "birds" are in "beautiful condition", as he assures us they are in one of the candid, over-the-shoulder asides to the camera which this movie carries over from Tom Jones (1963). This movie shows how much of the "swinging 60s" quality of London life was a male creation, and through the dominance of the fashion photographers, a male prerogative.—alfiehitchie

Alfie

Alfie (1966)

Lloyd Nolan

Hugo Haas

Lucille Ball

Criminal Ace Connors agrees to return to New York and stand trial for stealing $500,000 worth of bonds so he can serve a light five-year sentence and enjoy his loot (safely stowed away in the cover of a cook book) when he gets out. Detective Bob Simms is tasked with escorting Connors back to New York. With five days for the cross-country trip, Connors plans for stops in Texas and New Orleans to have a few final days of fun before he goes to prison. Ricki Woodner, a con artist who met Connors at his hotel, is persuaded by Fly Feletti (a bitter colleague of Connors) to get close to Connors and take the bonds. She joins Connors and Simms on the train and Ricki and Ace start falling for each other. Feletti wants the bonds and keeps an eye on Ricki to make sure she doesn't double-cross him. After a romantic detour into Mexico, Ace, Ricki, and Simms head to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras celebration, with Feletti close behind.—Jimmy L.

Two Smart People

Two Smart People (1946)

Robert De Niro

Bruce Dern

Pamela Dunlap

A psychological gangster film based on fact. Machine gun totin' Ma Barker lead her family gang (her sons) on a crime spree in the Depression era. Her loyal brood have every perversion imaginable. The sadistic Herman sleeps with his Ma. When Fred Barker is released from prison, he brings home his cellmate and lover Kevin Dirkman, who also sleeps with Ma, much to Fred's chagrin. Lloyd Barker is a spaced-out drug addict who sniffs glue if nothing better is around. Ma kidnaps happy-go-lucky millionaire Sam Adams Pendlebury and holds him for ransom. Arthur Barker, Ma's wallflower son, and Herman's hooker lady friend Mona Gibson also figure in the story. The bloody finale is virtually choreographed, and a visual stunner. Filmed in the Ozarks.—alfiehitchie

Bloody Mama

Bloody Mama (1970)

Stella Stevens

Beverly Garland

Michael Burns

A remake of 1941's "Ladies in Retirement" has Stella Stevens playing companion to a wealthy, loony widow and bringing her brother and sister to live with them after their are released from a psychiatric institution where they had been since brutally murdering their parents years before. Now the skeletons that she worked so hard to keep hidden are ready to tumble out of her closet.—alfiehitchie

The Mad Room

The Mad Room (1969)

Peter Falk

Lee Grant

Leonard Nimoy

Shelley Winters is the madame of a house where customers play out their erotic fantasies, oblivious to a revolution which is sweeping the country. When her old friend, the chief of police (Peter Falk), asks her to impersonate the missing queen in order to reassure the people and halt the revolution, she offers instead three of her customers to play the general, bishop and chief justice, all of whom have died in the revolution.—bajac

The Balcony

The Balcony (1963)

Oliver Reed

Wilfrid Hyde-White

Liz Smith

Happily engaged to her handsome fiance, Charles, Fanny is soon hit with one misfortune after another until she is forced to become a prostitute to survive. This is the story, with many erotic asides, of her struggle to regain her pride in herself and find happiness in life once again.—Jean-Marc Rocher

Fanny Hill

Fanny Hill (1983)

Robert J. Anderson

Paul Frees

Montgomery Clift

A chance meeting with his uncle after his father's passing leads to George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) being caught in the middle of two worlds and not truly belonging in either one. The son of poor missionaries, George meets his wealthy paternal uncle Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes) while working as a bellhop in his uncle's hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Wanting a better life for himself, George takes his uncle up on his offer for a placement somewhere in one of the Eastman factories, Charles' want in this offer being for any Eastman to take his proper place in the world. Under his cousin Earl's (Keefe Brasselle) directive, George is placed on the factory assembly line. Largely neglected by the Eastmans, George still sees this position as a stepping stone to something better, which he's willing to work hard to achieve. Lonely in his new surroundings, George breaks the company rule of no fraternizing with fellow employees when he starts to date fellow Eastman assembly-line worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). Several months later, Charles remembers his nephew and promotes him both professionally and personally. Although uncomfortable in society gatherings, George is eventually befriended by one person in this new world, beautiful society lady Angela Vickers (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), with whom he fell in love at first sight even before arriving in town. Angela too falls in love with George, which does not sit well with her parents, if only because they know nothing of him. George is caught between his want for prosperity and Angela, whom he truly loves, and his obligation to needy Alice who, as she learns of Angela and his other rich society friends, realizes she's pregnant by him and tries to get him to marry her.—Huggo

A Place in the Sun

A Place in the Sun (1951)

Jackie Gleason

Rick Lenz

Maureen O'Hara

Stanley Waltz (Jackie Gleason) is seeking forgiveness in Lourdes, France, after a good deed had backfired at him, regarding a poem "How do I love thee?".

How Do I Love Thee?

How Do I Love Thee? (1970)

Otto Kruger

Nina Foch

Mary Chan

A military nurse recovering at an inn from a nervous breakdown keeps having dreams where she sees two men trying to murder a third. When she meets a man who is a federal agent at the inn, she is astounded to discover that he is the man in her dream who is the intended murder victim.—lisirose51@aol.com

Escape in the Fog

Escape in the Fog (1945)

Hope Emerson

Debra Paget

Victor Mature

Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?—Rod Crawford

Cry of the City

Cry of the City (1948)

Isabelle Adjani

Bruce Lee

Roman Polanski

In Paris, the shy bureaucrat Trelkovsky rents an old apartment without bathroom where the previous tenant, the Egyptologist Simone Choule, committed suicide. The unfriendly concierge (Shelley Winters) and the tough landlord Mr. Zy establish stringent rules of behavior and Trelkovsky feels ridden by his neighbors. Meanwhile he visits Simone in the hospital and befriends her girlfriend Stella. After the death of Simone, Trelkovsky feels obsessed for her and believes his landlord and neighbors are plotting a scheme to force him to also commit suicide.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Tenant

The Tenant (1976)

Gloria Grahame

Robert Earl Jones

Wayne Rogers

Dave Burke looks to hire two men to assist him in a bank raid: Earle Slater, a white ex-convict, and Johnny Ingram, a Black gambler. Both are reluctant, but Burke arranges for Ingram's creditors to pressure him, while Slater feels humiliated by his failure to provide for his girlfriend; they eventually accept. But Slater loathes and despises Black people, and the tensions in the gang rapidly mount.—David Levene

Odds Against Tomorrow

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

John Qualen

Sidney Poitier

Elizabeth Hartman

Accidentally blinded by her prostitute mother Rose-Ann when she was 5, Selina D'Arcey spends the next 13 years confined in the tiny Los Angeles apartment that they share with "Ole Pa", Selina's grandfather. One afternoon at the local park, Selina meets Gordon Ralfe, a thoughtful young office worker whose kind-hearted treatment of her results in her falling in love with him, unaware that he is Black. They continue to meet in the park every afternoon and he teaches her how to get along in the city. But when cruel, domineering Rose-Ann learns of their relationship, she forbids her to have anything more to do with him because he is Black, but Selina continues to meet Gordon, despite Rose-Ann's furious determination to end the relationship for good.—alfiehitchie

A Patch of Blue

A Patch of Blue (1965)

Mickey Rooney

Billie Mae Richards

Long ago the Lady Borealis placed the evil Winterbolt under a magic spell, and put the last of her magic into the nose of a newborn reindeer: Rudolph. But now Winterbolt's awake. He gives Frosty's family magic amulets to keep them from melting until the Fourth of July so that Frosty and Rudolph can help Lilly's circus and Milton can marry his girlfriend on the high-wire, and Santa will use his sleigh to make sure everybody gets back to the North Pole in time...which leaves Winterbolt alone at the North Pole on the Fourth...—Kathy Li

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979)

Gene LeBell

Esther Rolle

Tamara Dobson

Cleopatra Jones is a United States Special Agent assigned to crack down on drug-trafficking in the U.S. and abroad. After she burns a Turkish poppy field, the notorious drug-lord Mommy is furious at the loss of her supply and vows to destroy Cleopatra Jones. Mommy uses her connections with bad cops on the force to cause trouble for Cleopatra's friends and set her up for an attack. Meanwhile, Mommy is having trouble with some of her pushers, like the renegade Doodlebug.—Tad Dibbern

Cleopatra Jones

Cleopatra Jones (1973)

Jack Palance

Jean Hagen

Rod Steiger

Charles Castle is a successful Hollywood actor who has opted for screen success over art. He must make critical decisions regarding his career, his marriage, his art and morality. Castle is pressured by his studio boss, and manipulated into a potentially murderous cover-up to protect his career. An indictment of the amoral world of Hollywood and its corrosive effect upon the artist.—Thomas Robbin

The Big Knife

The Big Knife (1955)

Burt Lancaster

Dabney Coleman

Ossie Davis

Trapper Joe is on his way to the town with all of his gain of hides of the last winter. However a group of Indians stops him and takes all of his hides, leaving him the escaped slave Joseph instead. But Joe has no use for Joseph and is determined to get his property back and follows them. Before he can do anything, the Indians are raided themselves by a group of scalphunters under the greedy Howie. Not only the hides, but also Joseph falls into their hands. Now Joe follows them alone and tries to trick the numerical superior group out of his hides.—Tom Zoerner

The Scalphunters

The Scalphunters (1968)

James Stewart

Tony Curtis

Rock Hudson

In a marksmanship contest, Lin McAdam wins a prized Winchester rifle, which is immediately stolen by the runner-up, Dutch Henry Brown. This "story of a rifle" then follows McAdams' pursuit, and the rifle as it changes hands, until a final showdown and shoot-out on a rocky mountain precipice.

Winchester '73

Winchester '73 (1950)

Corey Allen

Billy Chapin

Robert Mitchum

It's the Great Depression. In the process of robbing a bank of $10,000, Ben Harper kills two people. Before he is captured, he is able to convince his son John and his daughter Pearl not to tell anyone, including their mother Willa, where he hid the money, namely in Pearl's favorite toy, a doll that she carries everywhere with her. Ben, who is captured, tried and convicted, is sentenced to death. But before he is executed, Ben is in the state penitentiary with a cell mate, a man by the name of Harry Powell, a self-professed man of the cloth, who is really a con man and murderer, swindling lonely women, primarily rich widows, of their money before he kills them. Harry does whatever he can, unsuccessfully, to find out the location of the $10,000 from Ben. After Ben's execution, Harry decides that Willa will be his next mark, figuring that someone in the family knows where the money is hidden. Despite vowing not to remarry, Willa ends up being prey for Harry's outward evangelicalism; she is a pious woman who feels she needs to atone for her sins which led to Ben doing what he did, especially as Harry presents himself as the preacher who worked at the prison and provided salvation to Ben before his death. Harry quickly figures out that John and Pearl know where the money is. Conversely, John doesn't trust Harry, John who first tries not to show to Harry that he indeed does know where the money is, and then second constantly reminds a more-trusting Pearl of their promise to their now-deceased father. With Willa devoted to her new husband, John and Pearl become more desperate in evading Harry's veiled threats.—Huggo

The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Richard Beaumont

Ralph Richardson

Mark Lester

A retelling of the old tale of Hansel and Gretel, but set in 1920's England. To the children and staff at the orphanage, Auntie Roo is a kindly American widow who gives them a lavish Christmas party each year in her mansion, Forrest Grange. In reality, she's a severely disturbed woman, who keeps the mummified remains of her little daughter in a nursery in the attic. One Christmas, her eye falls upon a little girl who reminds her of her daughter and she imprisons her in her attic. Nobody believes her brother, Christopher, when he tells them what's happened, so he goes to rescue her.—Mark

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)

7 / 10

Action
Comedy

6.4 / 10

Action
Crime

5.7 / 10

Action
Crime

5.7 / 10

Action
Drama

6 / 10

Action
Drama

5.2 / 10

Action
Comedy

7.7 / 10

Action
Drama

5 / 10

Action
Comedy

5.9 / 10

Action
Adventure

7.2 / 10

Action
Crime

7.5 / 10

Action
Drama

7.4 / 10

Action
Crime

8 / 10

Action
Drama

6.3 / 10

Action
Adventure

5.9 / 10

Action
Crime

6.8 / 10

Action
Crime

6.7 / 10

Comedy
Drama

7.6 / 10

Action
Drama

8 / 10

Action
Crime

6.1 / 10

Action
Horror