Black Friday (1940)
[3] Boris Karloff stars as a doctor who transplants the brain of a gangster into the body of a dying professor (both played by Stanley Ridges), then tries to get the convalescing professor to remember -- with his new brain…
Night Nurse (1931)
[8] Barbara Stanwyck stars in this pre-code drama about a scrappy young nurse trying to save two sick children from an evil chauffeur (Clark Gable) whose poisoning them so he can marry their drunk mother (Charlotte Merriam) and steal their…
Murder! (1930)
[5] Alfred Hitchcock's first sound film is emblematic of his usual content, if not his his trademark style and suspense. Murder! centers around an actress (Diana Baring) found in a fugue state next to a bloody fire poker and a…
Twilight (1998)
[5] Paul Newman stars in this L.A. detective story from director Robert Benton (Kramer vs Kramer), about a down-on-his-luck P.I. who lives with two movie stars (Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman) who are married to each other. Newman starts to…
Set It Off (1996)
[7] Four struggling women successfully rob a bank, but push their luck with additional robberies while the L.A. police is on their tail. Director F. Gary Gray (Friday, Straight Outta Compton) doesn't glorify the crime in Set It Off. Instead,…
Showgirls (1995)
[6] Director Paul Verhoeven (Spetters, RoboCop) and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct) reteam for this stripper-style twist on A Star is Born and All About Eve. Elizabeth Berkley (Saved by the Bell) stars as a tough but naïve young woman…
The Day After (1983)
[7] Citizens of Kansas City, Missouri, experience nuclear attack and radioactive fall-out in this horrific drama helmed by director Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, Time After Time). Two-time Oscar winner Jason Robards leads the ensemble cast…
The Plague Dogs (1982)
[7] In perhaps the grimmest animated movie ever made, two dogs escape certain death at a laboratory research facility only to find themselves forever on the run from the scientists and the local sheep farmers. Director Martin Rosen (Watership Down)…
Quest for Fire (1981)
[7] Director Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear, The Name of the Rose) takes us on a prehistoric adventure about three cave-dwelling early humans who embark on a search for fire after an attack by animalistic Neanderthals extinguishes the flame their tribe…
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
[7] Near the end of the silent film era, Carl Theodor Dreyer (Vampyr) would deliver one of the medium's most powerful titles -- The Passion of Joan of Arc. Maria Falconetti stars as the nineteen-year-old French heroine who fought to…