It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

The first of the classic series of adaptations following the investigations of Sherlock Holmes. A malevolent curse is blamed for the death of an aristocrat and Holmes is called in to investigate, using his scientific method and dry Victorian wit. Superb nuanced performances from Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as the pudgy Watson. Cracking stuff. find out more...

The original and best version of the detective thriller classic. Philip Marlowe is hired to investigate the gambling debts of a rich man's daughter, but is plunged into a twilight world of intrigue, blackmail and violence. Stylish and gripping. find out more...

Burt Lancaster makes his debut, in this adaptation of a short story by Ernest Hemingway, as Swede, a washed-up boxer who finds himself manipulated and double crossed thanks to the charms of femme fatale Ava Gardner. A definitively noir gangster film about an unusual contract killing that stands out thanks to Lancaster's performance as the lovesick palooka taken for a ride.

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