August 1944. German flying bombs are raining down on London and directly under their flight path is a small cottage hospital. Inside the tension is almost unbearable for the dedicated team of surgeons and nurses, and not just because of the 'doodlebugs' and near misses, the close-knit community is torn apart by jealousy, emotional turmoil, the horrors of war and terrible secrets. When the local postman is brought in, delirious but trying to impart an urgent message, the murders begin. The eccent find out more...

Noirish, black and white thriller, adapted by Kurosawa from a novel by Ed McBain. Wealthy tycoon Kingo Gondo is prepared to face financial ruin when his young son is kidnapped, but it soon emerges that the ruthless abductor has accidentally snatched the chauffeur's child instead. With the ransom demand still standing, Kingo faces a terrible moral dilemma, while wily policeman Inspector Tokuro employs ever more cunning methods in his hunt for the kidnapper. Tense and thought-provoking. find out more...

Brilliantly directed story about a psychotic Hollywood scriptwriter, who is suspected of murder but given a false alibi by his gorgeous neighbour. Bogart's character never lets up and you're never sure if he's guilty or not, and nor is his lovestruck neighbour. As the police close in, it develops into a beautifully tense psychological thriller, did he do it and will the girl stand by her man? Awesome, awesome, awesome!!! find out more...

Melville's masterful take on the American crime thriller perfectly combines the Hollywood gangster film with his uniquely French style. Alain Delon as a master thief, Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop and Gian-Maria Volonte as an escaped criminal plot a daring heist of an upmarket Parisian jewellery store against impossible odds. find out more...

One of Melville's own favourite films in which ambiguity is the name of the game as a convicted burglar completes his incarceration only to get himself straight back into trouble... find out more...

The inimitable Sellers in the second of the Pink Panther farces. Although the overall standard is high, it would be worth watching just to see Clouseau impersonating a dentist with a wax nose, or to see him get the girl in the end without even taking his socks off. find out more...

Set within the vibrant dancehalls and low-life hang-outs of 1940s Paris, ambitious young actress Jenny, her covetous, piano-playing husband/manager Maurice Martineau and their devoted confidante Dora Monier attempt to cover one another's tracks when a sexually ogreish high-society business acquaintance is murdered. Enter Inspector Antoine whose seasoned instincts lead him down a circuitous path in this classic whodunit murder mystery. find out more...

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...

Murakami is a young detective who loses his gun to a pickpocket, but, before he can get it back, the weapon is sold to a gangster and, before long, a woman has been robbed and shot. In desperation Murakami turns to his wily older partner, Sato, and, together, the two set out across the humid and seamy streets of Tokyo to track down the gun before more people die. Stray Dogs is one of Kurosawa's earlier works and is a highly stylish film, a gritty slice of noir from somewhere other than the North find out more...

Sinatra yet again shows that he was no mere crooner as he plays the psychopathic gunman who, with colleagues, seizes a suburban house, taking the inmates hostage, as he prepares to assassinate the president of the USA. find out more...