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Like Netflix and HBO Max, Amazon’s Prime Video has a film and TV library that is vast and deeper than most of its subscribers may realize. Hidden beneath its most easily accessible recommendations are underrated, oft-forgotten movies that you likely have never seen before. These films run the complete genre gamut, which means that, regardless of whether you are in the mood for a light-hearted Hollywood adventure or a darker thriller, you can always find exactly the kind of movie you’re looking for on the platform.

With all that in mind, here are seven great hidden gem movies that are streaming on Prime Video right now.

“The Third Man” (Selznick Releasing Organization) “The Third Man (1949)

Rightly regarded as one of cinema’s greatest films, director Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” is a jovially constructed noir about betrayal, justice and loss. Written by Graham Greene, it follows an...

There’s a reason Alfred Hitchcock is still talked about with awe decades after his heyday. The man didn’t just make thrillers—he practically invented the rulebook for them. Whether it was turning everyday things into pure nightmares or diving deep into the minds of his characters, Hitchcock had a knack for making the audience squirm, lean in, and sometimes hold their breath. His movies weren’t just scary; they were clever, stylish, and often way ahead of their time.

His works redefined the way people thought about storytelling in film. Trying to pick only a handful of “must-watch” Alfred Hitchcock films is a bit like choosing the best slice of cake at a French patisserie. Why? Because it’s almost impossible. Still, twelve of his movies stand tall. While the range of his work is massive, here are twelve unforgettable gems that show why he remains the king of suspense.

“Soylent Green” is a 1973 movie from the director Richard Fleischer starring big names like Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters, Paula Kelly, and more. “Soylent Green” is set in a bleak and troubling future. While it may not be a full-fledged dystopia, it certainly borders on one. Due to overexploitation, global warming, and unchecked human greed, Earth’s natural food resources have been severely depleted. Power is scarce, clean water is rare, and the comforts and luxuries people once took for granted are now relics of the past.

The story takes place in New York City, which astonishingly holds a population of 40 million. With such overwhelming numbers, society is divided into two starkly contrasting classes: the wealthy elite and the struggling poor. The rich live in a heavily guarded, walled-off enclave, protected by high fences and armed guards authorized to shoot trespassers. Inside this privileged society,...

After making what many people cite as the greatest film ever made, "Citizen Kane" (1941), multi-talented actor, writer, director and producer Orson Welles struggled to live up to the success he achieved when he was just 26 years old. Yet seen today, many of the films he made afterwards have attained a similar acclaim. Let's take a look back at all 13 of his completed feature films as a director, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1915, Welles first came to prominence as a stage director, mounting groundbreaking productions of "Macbeth," "Dr. Faustus," and "The Cradle Will Rock" before forming his own repertory company, The Mercury Theater. In addition to Welles, the Mercury Theater Players included Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorhead, Everett Sloane, George Coulouris, Norman Lloyd, Martin Gabel and Paul Stewart, many of whom would go onto appear in the director's films.

It was the Mercury Theater's transition into radio that brought them the most acclaim.

Hundreds of war movies exist, designed to thrill audiences, sometimes at the behest of the summer movie season -- we're looking at you "Pearl Harbor." Too often, Hollywood neglects to tell the whole story, resulting in cookie-cutter pictures like John Wayne's "The Green Berets" or generic action extravaganzas like John Woo's "Windtalkers." Sure, they may contain state-of-the-art special effects, A-list stars, and rousing battle scenes, but they too often rely on genre cliches or wrap their historical backdrops around sappy romantic subplots.

What's missing? Well, all great war movies contain a pivotal ingredient: realism. Far too many pictures nix this key element and wind up as shallow cash grabs that exploit history for their own benefit. Luckily, plenty of directors also went to great lengths to achieve optimal realism, ensuring audiences walked away from their pictures with a greater understanding of the strength and sacrifices of those who died on the battlefield.

Warning: This article discusses topics of racism, violence, and death.

The 1960s is a great era for murder mystery movies. The decade is remembered for several classic movies everyone must watch in their lifetime, and while the earliest murder mystery films are typically from the ‘40s and ‘50s, the subgenre truly blooms in the ‘60s. Plenty of classic 1960s movies were ahead of their time, and to this day, audiences are still enthralled by these old titles.

No murder mystery is the same. Although audiences nowadays are treated to the complex narratives of movies like Knives Out, for example, these ‘60s titles prove that an old-fashioned murder investigation is a timeless concept. From secret villainous protagonists to strained and exhausted detectives, murder mystery movies from the ‘60s are like no other, and they play a significant part in how the titles we see today are formed.

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte...

While preparing for his role as a titan of industry in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” Guy Pearce had a specific image in his imagination. It was of a trophy hunter standing next to his prized kill, a lion or tiger or rhino, so proud of himself for having tamed nature.

“I was struck by the idea of recognizing something beautiful in the world and then feeling the need to destroy it,” Pearce said. “Or the need to control it as a way to feel less powerless. The psychology behind that is so fascinating and horrible to me.”

Pearce’s character in the film, the stately-named Harrison Lee Van Buren, is one of the year’s most intriguing creations. He’s not a trophy hunter in the literal sense, but a rich, immoral rogue who’s also dashing and cultured within the film’s 1950s Pennsylvania setting.

The patriarch of a family dynasty,...

Feud: Part 2

We kicked off December with a look at the vastly underseen 2019 gem I See You (listen) before heading to Paris for Joel Schumacher’s 2004 adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (listen). For our third episode of the month, Trace and I are headed to Louisiana for Robert Aldrich‘s unofficial Hagsploitation sequel, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).

In the film, Bette Davis plays Charlotte, the “mad woman” recluse who purportedly killed her lover John Mayhew (Bruce Dern) with an axe at a party thirty years earlier. In the interim, she’s been shunned by society and she’s on the cusp of eviction so a new highway can be built on her property.

Enter cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), who arrives to help pack, much to the chagrin of Charlotte’s maid, Velma (Agnes Moorhead in an Oscar-nominated performance) and to the delight of Miriam’s former flame,...

A nice bit of foreshadowing can make any movie even more fascinating to watch. These subtle clues about events yet to come will often go over the heads of the audience the first time around, but can be exciting to notice upon a rewatch. After all, these brief moments can prove that the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing all along, having thought about exactly how the film would end from the moment it started.

Some iconic movies, however, take this idea even further. Every once in a while, a film is made that subtly reveals key details of the ending within the very first sequence. A carefully constructed opening scene has the ability to hint at where the film may be heading, even if viewers don't realize that it is all being laid out right in front of them. While they may be overlooked on their first viewing,...

Westerns generally fall into two categories: all-out action, with gunfights and barroom brawls, or slower-paced, more contemplative works that focus on the characters and narrative. Though there is an obvious allure for the former, a slow-burning Western that doesn't fully rely on action allows the roles, storyline, and visuals to fully bloom and create a film that is dramatic and thought-provoking. Also, just because a Western is described as a slow-burner doesn't mean it will be a slow, dialogue-heavy drama, but rather, it can be an eloquently paced film full of palpable tension, dark atmospheres, and brutal combat.

Some of the best Westerns, like Rio Bravo and No Country for Old Men, are slower and more character-based films that take their time in drawing out the narrative, but the selective action and nuanced chemistry between leads make the runtime fly by. Slow-burn films use a combination of editing, meditative visuals,...

The Western genre has always been synonymous with, sweeping narratives that leave an audience captivated for hours. Some of the best Westerns feature grand cinematography, slow-burning tension, and generational storytelling that can't be wrapped up in a typical 90-minute runtime. From extraordinary Western characters and their development to the complex moral dilemmas that usually form the basis of the plot, longer Westerns can create an immersive experience that goes beyond a simple film.

Westerns like Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves need to break down intense conflicts and show the tentative bonding experience of Native Americans and a Union soldier in a beautiful, contemplative work. Other iconic Westerns, like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, pack in action throughout the film, with moments of contemplation and reflection only heightening the tension. Whether it's a thought-provoking masterpiece or an explosive, epic battle, Westerns over three hours generally mean it's a...

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After a 14-year run as a feature filmmaker in England (which began during the silent era), Alfred Hitchcock was lured to Hollywood by the bold producer David O. Selznick to direct a big-screen adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's thriller novel "Rebecca." Though the two headstrong men clashed throughout the making of the movie, the finished 1940 film was a commercial and critical smash, topping the box office for the year and taking home the Academy Award for Best Picture. If there had been any doubts as to whether the British director's precise manner of visual storytelling, already perfected in triumphs like "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes," would translate to Hollywood, they were instantly dispelled.

"Rebecca" would prove to be the least Hitchcockian movie the director would make in America, as the master of suspense wasted no time in reverting...

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of much-loved British Classic The Third Man which arrives on 4K Uhd for the first time on 4 November, we are giving away a 4K Uhd to a lucky winner!

Written by Graham Greene (Brighton Rock, The Fallen Idol), directed by Carol Reed and featuring iconic performances from Joseph Cotten (Gaslight), Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), Alida Valli (Eyes Without a Face) and Trevor Howard (Brief Encounters, Sons and Lovers), The Third Man is celebrated for its endlessly quotable lines, superb Oscar-winning cinematography, iconic musical score and for so many wonderfully entertaining, quintessentially cinematic moments.

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an American writer of pulp Westerns, arrives in a bombed-out, post-war Vienna at the invitation of his childhood friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find him recently dead. His suspicions are raised after learning of a ‘third man’ present at the time of Harry’s death, and...

New York-based Rialto Pictures is gearing up for the release of Studiocanal’s 4K restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1961 musical comedy “A Woman Is a Woman.”

The film, Rialto’s first release of 2025, stars Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film will hit selected U.S. theaters on Feb. 7.

The new restoration, which premiered this year in Locarno, was made from the negative 35mm original copy, digitized by Paris-based post production company Hiventy and realized by Studiocanal with the collaboration of France’s National Center of Cinema (Cnc).

Rialto’s biggest success this year was the 75th anniversary of “The Third Man,” Rialto Co-President Adrienne Halpern told Variety at the Lumière Film Festival’s International Classic Film Market (Mifc) in Lyon, France.

‘The Third Man’

The 4K restoration of Carol Reed’s 1949 classic, starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, was carried out by Deluxe Restoration on behalf of Studiocanal.

Few horror villains have had the impact of John Jigsaw Kramer. Portrayed by Tobin Bell, Kramers onscreen presence commands nothing less than absolute respect. He appears as a main character in only four of Saws ten movies, yet he constantly drives each films plot. Like every other cinema icon, Jigsaw is an amalgamation of many inspirations. His elaborate schemes recall the mythos that surround H. H. Holmes. When clad in his robes and mask, his terrifying presence harkens back to Texas Chainsaw Massacres Leatherface. Yet, by his creators own admission, he is designed to counter contemporary horrors marquee villains. His tragic personal life and warped sense of justice recall sympathetic anti-heroes like Candymans Daniel Robitaille.

However, one of Kramers most surprising inspirations comes from a film thats more comedy than horror. In 1971, Robert Fuest directed a campy delight by the name of The Abominable Doctor Phibes. The decidedly comedic take...

When it comes to getting into noir films, it's always worth asking, "Where should I start?" After all, the genre is so time-specific -- it existed in its purest form only in the 1940s and early '50s -- and so full of familiar signifiers -- dame with a secret, jaded investigator, corrupt systems -- that it can sometimes be tough to tell noir titles apart. Start digging into the best the genre has to offer, though, and you'll discover that film noir encompasses much more than the striking style choices and cynicism that have become its cultural shorthand over the years.

Take the two highest-rated noir films on Rotten Tomatoes, for example. According to the aggregate site, only two film noirs have a 100% score on the website, meaning that every single critic included in the site's tally reviewed the movie positively. The first, "Shadow of a Doubt," is an early,...

Released 75 years ago this year, Carol Reed’s towering masterwork of film noir, The Third Man, has entered generation upon generation. Now, in celebration of its landmark anniversary, a new book by John Walsh uncovers more about its making. The Third Man: The Official Story of the Film, arriving on shelves October 1 from Titan Books, explores the making of the Graham Greene-scripted classic starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles.

The beautifully illustrated book dives deep into the making of the film, from Reed’s filmmaking approach to the battle for ownership between U.S. producer David O. Selznick and British producer Alexander Korda, which developed into protracted legal proceedings to the film’s resonance today for filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and beyond. Featuring unpublished photos and new interviews on the identity of the real-life Third Man and its connections to James Bond, we’re pleased to unveil a handful of materials today.

Is there a more iconic image in noir history than a camera slowly zooming into a freshly illuminated Harry Lime (Orson Welles) staring straight into the eyes of his childhood friend, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) in The Third Man? 75 years later, Carol Reed's seminal film still remains a giant of the genre, the strangely playful tones of a zither ominously accompanying its brooding developments. Each of its elements possess a timeless quality, from its masterful camerawork blended with supreme chiaroscuro technique reminiscent of its German expressionist forebears, to its bleak, post-wwii narrative hopelessness, elucidating the copious amounts of destruction that has befallen Europe. It is reckless, unforgiving, and remains to be, arguably, the standard for which all film noir continues to follow a high that they have been perpetually chasing ever since its release. Perhaps it is a pursuit for naught, as the shadow of influence that The Third...

It’s Showtime for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as the Warner Bros sequel releases into 717 cinemas across the UK and Ireland this weekend.

Tim Burton’s follow-up to his 1988 cult hit sees Michael Keaton return as the titular ghoul alongside Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara. New faces include Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux and Monica Bellucci.

The original Beetlejuice made nearly $75m at the box office (numbers not adjusted for inflation) with the sequel expected to exorcise that number within its opening weekend.

Burton’s last theatrical release was in 2019 with the Disney live-action Dumbo opening on £6.1m from 661 sites. His...

It’s Showtime for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as the Warner Bros sequel releases into 717 cinemas across the UK and Ireland this weekend.

Tim Burton’s follow-up to his 1988 cult hit sees Michael Keaton return as the titular ghoul alongside Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara. New faces include Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux and Monica Bellucci.

The original Beetlejuice made nearly $75m at the box office (numbers not adjusted for inflation) with the sequel expected to exorcise that number within its opening weekend.

Burton’s last theatrical release was in 2019 with the Disney live-action Dumbo opening on £6.1m from 661 sites. His...

Quick Links The Story of Heaven's Gate The Effect of Heaven's Gate Flopping At the Box Office Why Heaven's Gate is Worth Revisiting

Even though the Western genre has been making quite a comeback through the medium of television, with shows like Paramount's Yellowstone reaching high levels of success, it has had a rather difficult time having the same impact on theatrical films over the years. Of course, there has been the occasional western or neo-western by the Coen Brothers or Taylor Sheridan, like True Grit or Sicario, which have both been critically and commercially successful. Unfortunately, however, none of them have managed to restart the same renaissance of interest that audiences had in them over fifty years ago. While Westerns have slowly been regaining their steam, 1981's Heaven's Gate has been credited by many for not just killing the public's interest in them for as long as it did.

"As soon as I get to the bottom of this, I'll get the next plane." Studiocanal has unveiled a brand new trailer to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the noir cinema classic The Third Man, long considered Carol Reed's all-timer masterpiece that has remained prominent all these years later. This black & white film noir thriller is set in Vienna, Austria, following a pulp novelist from America who's investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime. Written by Graham Greene, directed by Carol Reed and featuring iconic performances from Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli, and Trevor Howard. 1949 Cannes Film Festival winner The Third Man is celebrated for its endlessly quotable lines, the Oscar-winning cinematography, iconic musical score and for so many wonderfully entertaining, quintessentially cinematic moments. With a 4K re-release in UK theaters this fall - plus a 4K Blu-ray release. "Screening in beautifully restored 4K, the...

When you think of the very best Alfred Hitchcock movies, you might think of, say, "Psycho" or "Vertigo." You might consider "The Birds" — controversial though it may be — as the director's finest moment, or "Rear Window" might spring to mind. But while these are all excellent examples of Hitch's undeniable directing talent, there's an impressive array of underrated Hitchcock movies worth watching.

Take "Strangers on a Train" for example. This 1951 thriller stars Farley Granger as Guy Haines and Robert Walker as Bruno Antony, who are, believe it or not, two strangers who meet on a train. The thing about Bruno, however, is that he's also a psychopath, and suggests to Guy that they "swap murders" so as to do away with Guy's estranged wife and Bruno's overbearing father. From Bruno's perspective, because both men will essentially be killing strangers, no one will suspect either of them. When Guy laughs off this nefarious plot,...

I grew up in the time of the Chuck Norris joke. I didn’t even really know who he was apart from the Walker, Texas Ranger guy who Conan O’Brien would pull a lever to get just the most random, out of context clip. I remember seeing the Chuck Norris joke book in a Barnes and Noble store and leafing through it only to find a bunch of absolutely absurd and comically over the top things that Chuck Norris could and would do to you or what he kept behind his beard. It was enough for me to start looking at his overall contribution to film and much of it was action. I found him teaming up with the likes of Lee Marvin in The Delta Force or going up against the great Christopher Lee in An Eye for an Eye. There’s also a great fight he had with...

Airport '77 featured an ensemble cast of legendary older stars, similar to what The Expendables did with action heroes in the 21st century. The star-studded cast of Airport '77, including James Stewart and Jack Lemmon, contributed to its massive box office success. Despite facing competition from Star Wars, Airport '77 was a major blockbuster, grossing $91.1 million worldwide in 1977.

Sylvester Stallone famously assembled a star-studded cast of old-school screen legends for The Expendables, but the classic disaster movie Airport 77 pulled that casting trick first. The Expendables launched Stallones third franchise after Rocky and Rambo with the conceit of bringing all of Hollywoods action movie legends together for one big all-star action epic. Stallone was joined by Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, and many more. The sequels brought in Jean-Claude Van Damme, Wesley Snipes, Harrison Ford, and Mel Gibson.

While The Expendables is the most iconic...

In a generation where streaming services rule the world, the small-scale but high-quality Kanopy is fast proving itself worthy of mention in the same sentence as Hulu, Prime Video, and Disney+. Library members can get the streaming service for free, and considering how many good films they have on hand, with more every month, it sure seems like a strong bargain.

As April showers prepare to give way to May flowers, a new batch of Hollywood classics, foreign films, and indie darlings will join the service next month. Today, were counting down the best of the best to come to Kanopy in May.

Manhunter (1986) Streaming on May 3 Your browser does not support the video tag.

In 1991, Jonathan Demmes The Silence of the Lambs became a horror classic, a smash hit, and an unexpected Oscar juggernaut, but the iconic Hannibal Lecter had actually seen his big screen debut five years before.

Mark Shelmerdine, the BAFTA L.A. co-founder and producer who is credited with reviving Alexander Korda’s London Films, died Oct. 26 in Santa Barbara after a long illness. He was 78.

Shelmerdine was diagnosed with a rare form of bile duct cancer in 2016. After being treated in a trial program between Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital, he received a liver transplant in 2018 and became the longest living survivor among those in the program. Friend and fellow producer Brian Eastman confirmed the news of Sherlmerdine’s death to Variety.

Shelmerdine got his start in the entertainment industry after joining the Taylor Clark group, led by the Scottish businessman Robert Clark. As the group’s company secretary and finance director, Shelmerdine was placed in charge of preparing weekly reports and analyses on the box office returns of the Caledonian Associated Cinema and ABC Cinema chains, which Clark owned.

Mark Shelmerdine, the veteran producer who revived London Films as an indie powerhouse and played a pivotal role in the development of the international TV distribution market, died October 26 in Santa Barbara surrounded by his family. He was 78.

Among his achievements, he was among the first UK indie TV producers to retain rights to a broadcast production and was a founder of the LA branch of BAFTA.

Shelmerdine’s death was confirmed to Deadline by his friend Brian Eastman. The producer had survived a rare and potentially deadly form of bile duct cancer by receiving a life-saving liver transplant in 2018 through a trial in Houston, and was one of the longest living survivors of the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital program.

Born on March 27, 1945, Shelmerdine spent part of his childhood in Singapore before moving to the UK. He was awarded a place to attend Sidney Sussex College...

Mark Shelmerdine, the Emmy-nominated producer who remade Alexander Korda’s dormant London Films label into an independent production powerhouse behind projects including I, Claudius, has died. He was 78.

Shelmerdine died Oct. 26 in Santa Barbara after a long illness, friend and fellow producer Brian Eastman told The Hollywood Reporter. After being diagnosed with a rare form of bile duct cancer in 2016, he had a life-saving liver transplant in 2018.

In the 1980s, Shelmerdine co-founded the Los Angeles branch of BAFTA and the Association of Independent Television Producers, which helped shape the sector that now dominates British TV production. He also published self-help books written by his late wife, Susan Jeffers.

The first of three children, Shelmerdine was born on March 27, 1945, in Buckinghamshire, England. His father, Dick, worked as a police office in Singapore and the Bahamas and as a postmaster in Gloucestershire, England.

Shelmerdine started out as an accountant at Coopers & Lybrand and Taylor Clark Ltd.

Linda Haynes, who appeared in films including “Rolling Thunder,” “Drowning Pool” and “Brubaker,” died July 17 in South Carolina. She was 75.

Her son Greg Sylvander reported her death on Facebook.

“As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely,” he wrote.

In 1977, Haynes co-starred in John Flynn’s psychological thriller “Rolling Thunder,” written by Paul Schrader and starring William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones and James Best. The film follows former Vietnam prisoner of war Charles Rane who, after surviving a violent home invasion and losing a hand, sets out on a crusade to get revenge with help from a friend. Haynes played Linda Forchet, a Southern belle who welcomes Rane back...

Exclusive: Nina Bloomgarden (The Resort), James Tupper (Big Little Lies), Theo Germaine (They/Them) and Paige Collins (Big House) have signed on to star alongside Mary Beth Barrone in the indie erotic thriller Good Girl, which Lauren Garroni is directing, in her feature debut. No details on their roles have been disclosed.

The film currently shooting in Los Angeles watches as an enterprising Sugar Baby, offered ten grand to move in with her Sugar Daddy, comes to discover the dark secrets trapped within his home. Pic is described as part biting dark comedy, part erotic thriller — but above all, a story about sex work through a feminist and queer lens.

Kelly Parker’s Mary Ellen Moffat is producing the film based on Bree Essirig and Garroni’s script. Exec producers include Barrone, Garroni, Essrig, Simon Brook and Brook Productions.

Bloomgarden was part of the core cast of Peacock’s darkly...

Ingrid Bergman was one of the most iconic actresses of the 20th century and a frequent collaborator with Humphrey Bogart. Born in 1915 in Stockholm, Sweden to a struggling family, her mother encouraged her to pursue acting at a young age and she made her film debut at 18 in the Swedish movie Munkbrogreven (1935).

Ingrid Bergman

Bergman rose to fame quickly due to her serene beauty, intelligence and strong acting skills. Her career reached new heights when she was cast opposite Charles Boyer in the romantic drama Gaslight (1944), for which she won her first Academy Award. Following this success, she found herself working with some of Hollywood’s biggest names — Cary Grant, Joseph Cotten and, most famously, Humphrey Bogart — with whom she starred alongside in movies like To Have And Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946) and Casablanca (1942).

Despite being married three times during her life, Ingrid Bergman never stopped working on movies.

Harry Lime in "The Third Man" is one of cinema's greatest villains and certainly not the kind of person you'd want to spend much time with in real life. He's a sociopathic black marketeer whose cynical line in diluted penicillin causes untold suffering and death to his many child victims. Yet, played with typical charm and devilment by Orson Welles, he is simply irresistible. Even on repeat viewing with full knowledge of his heinous activities, it's impossible not to be captivated by him from the moment he first appears in a doorway with an incorrigible smirk spread across that big moon of a face.

Lime is onscreen for less than 10 minutes but he may be Welles' greatest performance as an actor, tapping into the elusive enigma of the multi-faceted artist and self-proclaimed charlatan. After leaving the U.S. for self-imposed exile in Europe in 1947, he took the role for money,...

Pop quiz — what's the best movie that stars Orson Welles, but that he didn't direct? I'll bet that most of you answered "The Third Man," and rightfully so.

Released in 1949, "The Third Man" is set and filmed in post-World War 2 Vienna. Pulp author Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives in the city to meet his old friend Harry Lime, only to find himself investigating Lime's death. As it turns out, Lime isn't so dead after all.

Who better to play this old friend than Cotten's old director? Across their long partnership, Welles had directed Cotten at the Mercury Theatre, on the radio, and in film. "Citizen Kane" was actually a smoother career launcher for Cotten than it was for Welles himself.

Now, who did direct "The Third Man"? That would be Carol Reed, a British director and pioneer of European film noir. He'd previously directed "Odd Man Out," about an injured...

When cameras rolled on the Viennese location shoot of "The Third Man" in October 1948, director Carol Reed's villain wasn't even in the city. Orson Welles had signed on to play shady racketeer Harry Lime, but in a bid to raise his fee (via BBC Four), he wouldn't agree to arrive until absolutely necessary. With Welles' reputation as an unreliable troublemaker, Reed might have been forgiven for privately wondering if he was going to show up at all. In the meantime, he shot around him, using a body double and hiding the character in the film's celebrated shadows (via Financial Times). Would Reed's decision to fight powerful producer David O. Selznick on casting the maverick come back to haunt him?

Thankfully, Welles kept to his word and arrived by train in Vienna on the date agreed -- Reed said in an interview with journalist and author Charles Thomas Samuels for...

Orson Welles directed Citizen Kane in 1941. This film features Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten

Citizen Kane is one of those landmark movies in the History of Cinema because of the melancholic overtunes and the rivers of ink (which weren´t so necessary) that the movie caused for reasons we will explain below even though it is too evident to me to explain them again.

Story line

The life of the press mogul Charles Foster Kane, based on the figure of W.R. Hearst.

The Stoty with Hearst Citizen Kane (1941)

For many years it was considered to be the best movie in the History of Movies, for other things besides its merits, which are brutal too. Indeed: This is not even the best movie of its director but the gamble was perfect with the use of the marketing strategy.

The film is created after Welles created a sensation with the broadcasting...

Nearly 80 years after its premier, Gaslight has never felt more relevant. Adapted from Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gas Light, George Cukor’s 1944 film follows a young newlywed named Paula (Ingrid Bergman) as she’s slowly driven to the brink of insanity by her nefarious husband Gregory (Charles Boyer). The film’s title has since been verbified to describe an extended period of psychological manipulation designed to make the victim doubt their sanity and “gaslighting” was recently named the Merriam-Webster word of the year. The dictionary’s official definition is “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage;” a perfect description of the way Gregory abuses his wife in the film. Gaslight hit theaters 78 years ago, but Gregory’s tactics are all too familiar today, an intimate and terrifying version of the large-scale manipulation we see all around us.

Set in 1875 London, Gaslight begins with...

Severin Films is bringing out the big guns and starting 2023 with a bang, exclusively telling Bloody Disgusting this afternoon about the first two releases they’re bringing to the new year.

On January 31st, Severin Films unleashes two definitive action releases: Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi/Tomas Milian Collection includes Almost Human, Syndicate Sadists, Free Hand For A Tough Cop, The Cynic, The Rat And The Fist and Brothers Till We Die. January also brings the North American debut of the 1981 Australian action classic Attack Force Z, starring Mel Gibson, Sam Neill and John Phillip Law.

Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection: Italian director Umberto Lenzi had recently completed a landmark string of kinky gialli with Hollywood outcast Carroll Baker. Cuban-born/Actor’s Studio-trained Tomas Milian had become one of Spaghetti Westerns’ most popular stars. But when these two notoriously mercurial talents came together for a series of...

Leave it to Edgar Allan Poe. While many probably associate the mercurial author and poet with horror milestones like “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” he’s also widely credited with inventing the detective story with his 1841 publication, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Since then the genre of detective fiction has spanned untold numbers of short stories, novels, plays, radio shows, TV series, and of course, movies.

One of the subsets of detective fiction, the whodunit, remains almost interchangeable with the genre itself and one of its most popular variations. From the urbane, eccentric likes of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot to the more grizzled Sam Spade and Mike Hammer, to the shapeshifting meta-detective Ellery Queen, stories that allow the reader or viewer to solve the mystery right alongside the protagonist are an entertainment staple to this day, as borne out by...

Motion pictures, for better or worse, shape the way that we view history. They bring the past to life using realistic costumes, production design, and visual effects. They tell vivid stories about real-life figures and important events that shaped the world around us to this day, and which provide meaningful parallels to the lives we currently lead.

And yet, if the movies have taught us anything, it's that every single historical figure, at some point in their storied life, has also solved at least one murder mystery. Or at least they fought a mummy or something. The desire to tell tales of historical fiction is perfectly understandable, but our collective and very specific urge to transform biographies into pulpy fan fiction is a little weird, if you think about it.

Consider, if you will, Scott Cooper's "The Pale Blue Eye," which co-stars Harry Melling as a young Edgar Allan Poe,...

Filmmaker Sally Potter discusses a few of her favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Orlando (1992)

Look At Me (2022)

The Roads Not Taken (2020)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

On The Town (1949)

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Whisky Galore! (1949) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

8 ½ (1963) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953)

Jules and Jim (1962) – Michael Peyser’s trailer commentary

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Persona (1966)

On The Waterfront (1954) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Citizen Kane (1941) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Third Man (1949) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Come And See (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Cranes Are...

Director Robert Fuest’s grisly black comedy is a sumptuously produced bit of pulp hokum as well as a gruesomely satiric salute to the career of its star, Vincent Price. Our genial anti-hero plays Anton Phibes, a crazed physician seeking revenge on the doctors who (he believes) allowed his wife to die in the aftermath of a car accident. This 1974 film is a riff on 1949’s like-minded Kind Hearts and Coronets in which a number of eccentric characters are gleefully extinguished in the most garish manner possible. The picturesque supporting cast of victims includes Joseph Cotten, Terry-Thomas and Hugh Griffith.

The post The Abominable Dr. Phibes appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Mandy is a 2018 action/horror film. It is a bloody, trippy, stylish movie which shows revenge served as cold as it gets. When you see Nicholas Cage take off on a revenge mission armed with an axe and a crossbow – the latter weapon has a name, by the way – you realize you expect Cage to be armed with an axe and a crossbow – one with a name, hell yeah.

Be prepared to see more blood than a heart surgeon sees as this tale of an unhinged man avenging his wife’s murder spins off into the ozone. There is no denying that the bad guys have it coming to them – they are the sort of bad guys who scare away other bad guys. And, if you’ve ever wondered how you would handle this kind of revenge situation – I’ll bet you’d want to handle it just like Cage’s character does.

Talk about a Back-to-School disc promotion! CineSavant digs into Severin’s MegaBox The Incredibly Strange films of Ray Dennis Steckler — 10 discs, 20 films — just enough to sample this demented offering that some have nominated for the honor of worst film ever. It’s a glorified home movie by a guy bitten by the movie-making bug — and a friend with some cash who wanted to be a producer. Steckler’s movie found real screenings in real theaters, launching the Auteur from Lemon Grove Street on one of the oddest Hollywood careers ever.

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?

Blu-ray

Part of the Severin Films ‘The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler’ Boxed Set

1964 / Color / B&w / 1:78 widescreen/ 82 min. / Street Date September 27 2022, 2022 / Available from / 219.95

Starring: Cash Flagg, Brett O’Hara, Atlas King, Sharon Walsh, Madison Clarke, Erina Enyo, Toni Camel, Jack Brady, Bill Ward, Neil Stillman, Joan Howard,...

Wendell Corey plays bank clerk Leon Poole whose mild-mannered demeanor disguises a ruthless killer. Joseph Cotten plays the detective who killed Poole’s wife and makes his own wife a target for the deranged Poole. Director Budd Boetticher and cinematographer Lucian Ballard took a break from sagebrush dramas to shoot this atmospheric crime picture on the mean streets of L.A. in just 15 days—those authentic locales and that harried schedule made this 1956 thriller even more riveting.

The post The Killer is Loose appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Portrait of Jennie (1948).We are floating in the heavens, soaring between black and white clouds. A throaty voice reaches out to us from on high. “What is time? What is space? What is life? What is death? Nothing ever dies, but only changes,” the voice declares in the overly serious tone of a kitschy 1950s educational film narrator. Soon a quote from Euripedes fades onto screen, “who knoweth if to die be but to live,” followed by John Keats’ classic lines, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.” These hackneyed epigraphs might normally feel stultifying in their obvious pretentiousness, yet tonight they take on a special significance. There hasn’t been a title card yet and there won’t be until the very end, but this film is Portrait of Jennie (1948), the movie that ruined Selznick’s Hollywood career...

One of Orson Welles’ best has arrived in 4K! Kino Lorber has revived Universal’s 3-version study of the bordertown crime & corruption drama, that knocks us out with Welles’ colorful, weird characters, intricate scene blocking and infinitely creative camera work. Almost all of the extras from the earlier DVD and Blu-ray editions are here, with added expert commentary (the tally of tracks is now five). The performances are superb — Welles won’t lay off the candy bars, Janet Leigh wisely avoids the motel shower and Charlton Heston is actually fine as a ‘pretty unlikely’ Mexican. We’ve seen this show ten times — it’s so dense that each viewing brings new revelations.

Touch of Evil 4K

4K Ultra HD

Kl Studio Classics

1958-1998 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 96, 109, 111 min. / Street Date March 15, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Ray Collins, Joanna Moore,...

Set in the distant future of 2022, Soylent Green is an ecological thriller with a twist ready-made for The Twilight Zone. Charlton Heston is a detective who discovers the synthetic food produced by the omniscient Soylent Corporation features a stomach-churning special ingredient. Richard Fleischer directs a terrific supporting cast including Chuck Conners, Joseph Cotten, and, most movingly, Edward G. Robinson in his final film appearance.

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The Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr. Phibes Rises Again

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1971, 1972 / 1.85 : 1 / 94, 89 Min.

Starring Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Terry Thomas

Written by James Whiton, William Goldstein, Robert Blees

Directed by Robert Fuest

Though he thrived in light comedies and upmarket melodramas, Vincent Price didn’t really find himself till he found Henry Jarrod, the high strung sculptor-turned psychopath in 1953’s House of Wax. The role reinvented the Jekyll/Hyde story and gave Price the key to his long-lasting persona; the well-mannered fiend and the unhinged romantic merged into one tormented soul. Ticket buyers were both moved and terrified by Jarrod and the box office receipts reflected their fascination. Price was happy to dish up more of the same and though he would occasionally play no nonsense villains like the unambiguously evil Matthew Hopkins of 1968’s Witchfinder General, the actor rarely strayed too far from his comfort zone.

There was...

Hello, everyone! We’re back with another rundown of this week’s horror and sci-fi home media releases. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Don Mancini’s Chucky TV series, you can finally catch up with it as of this Tuesday. Arrow Video is giving Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the 4K treatment, and Kino Lorber is keeping busy with an assortment of releases on the 12th as well, including New Year’s Evil, Tentacles, and a Dr. Phibes Double Feature. IFC Films is also set to release their psychological thriller The Novice on Tuesday, too (and it’s great).

Chucky: Season One

The notorious Chucky slashes his way to television in a killer new series written and executive produced by creator Don Mancini, who penned the iconic film franchise. After teenage loner Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) discovers a vintage 'Good Guy' doll at a suburban yard sale,...