The best film in the history of comic British cinema. A black tale of sex, adultery, murder and social class told with low key irony. Alec Guinness plays all the leading roles, and the delightfully witty and sardonic script is ideal for him. A landmark of British film. find out more...

Lang's first sound film, and perhaps his most imaginative. The plot concerns the police search for a Berlin child-molester. The underworld is forced to look amongst its own for the perpetrator. Lang draws fascinating parallels between police and criminals in this radical masterpiece. find out more...

This blistering little black comedy was well ahead of its time when released in 1947. Originally, Orson Welles had wanted Chaplin to star in his drama about a French mass murderer, but Chaplin was hesitant to act for another director and used the idea himself. He plays a dapper gent named Henri Verdoux (who assumes a number of identities), a civilised monster who marries wealthy women, then murders them. A dark Chaplin gem. find out more...

Critically maligned on its release, this tale of a twisted lens-man who lures unsuspecting female victims to their grisly death is an interesting study in the voyeuristic implications of cinema. The killer is an eternal victim whose crimes are cries of rage against his father and stepmother and, at the same time, pathetic rehearsals for his own inevitable death. A Freudian script of notable maturity teases limitless implications from this premise, while maintaining a healthy sense of humour. find out more...

Do you really need to be told about this film? The Bates' Motel, the shower sequence and, of course, Mother! THE Hitchcock movie! 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...

One of the first horror movies, about a hypnotist who uses a somnambulist to do his murders, and a landmark in the history of cinema. The dark shadows, crazy angles and doom laden atmosphere of German Expressionism and the film's extraordinary use of painted light have rarely been copied, and its influence, on film noir in particular, is indisputable. find out more...

When the desperate, obese Martha meets handsome Ray, who leeches off rich widows, she falls madly in love and teams up with him as he scours the lonely hearts clubs, but her jealousy is to lead to murder and betrayal. A bleak, unsentimental thriller loosely based on the real-life 'lonely hearts killers' Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez. find out more...

Camp-it-up Hammer horror with Vincent Price on top form as a deranged actor who exacts stylishly horrible revenge on his critics. When he fails to win the Actor of the Year Award he takes a few leaves out of Shakespeare's books to bump off the judges one by one. Imaginatively over the top.

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