Anchored by Paul Muni's gut-wrenching performance, Mervyn LeRoy's socially outraged "Gang" is based on real-life escapee Robert Elliott Burns's Depression-era memoirs. In fact, LeRoy's gritty, unflinching depiction of ...

“Promise” unfolds as a frank, penetrating look at the challenges facing educators working in a troubled school district plagued by poverty and racism. Director Raymond proves herself an excellent listener as her film ...

Rescued from the dustbin of history by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese and released in 1995, Russian director Kalatozov's sweeping, stylized "I Am Cuba" is communist agit-prop, to be sure-but also exhilarating, ...

Visually sumptuous film stimulates all the senses as its tale of forbidden romance and simmering family dysfunction unfolds. Swinton, a Brit who speaks Italian and Russian throughout, gives a virtuosic performance that ...

This tender, touching tale is beautifully realized on film, spinning celluloid magic out of the wild, craggy Scottish landscape and the hearty, rugged spirit of its people. Hiller is enchanting as the willful Joan and ...

Adapted by Robert Anderson from his own stage play, this poignant study of a father and son and the void between them is heartbreaking in its power and truth. Douglas and Hackman were both nominated for Academy Awards; ...

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s made-for-TV masterwork—an underexposed highlight in a career full of gems—has been unavailable for far too long. This searing drama about a man driven to the edge by childhood demons sneaks up ...

Based on a hit play adapted from Kathryn Forbes's autobiographical story collection, this precious, poignant film is suffused by an aura of nostalgia. Narrated in flashback by younger daughter Katrin (Bel Geddes), ...

The justly celebrated Czech New Wave pioneer (“Closely Watched Trains”) Jiri Menzel brings his characteristic mix of dark humor and absurdist fantasy to this buoyant story of social climbing in WWII-era Eastern Europe. ...

Fellini's touching, semiautobiographical first feature-the title translates to "wastrels" or "layabouts"-is the quintessential recounting of a now-clichéd tale, so it's no surprise that Coppola, among others, borrowed ...

One of the first Hollywood whodunits to build an atmosphere of torment and menace around its two protagonists, Humberstone's enthralling psychological thriller opens with two police interrogations that quickly establish ...

These titles are two of Lewton's best, with "Zombie" a stand-out, due to its sublimely creepy atmosphere, a literate script (reputedly based on "Jane Eyre"!), and charismatic turns by both Dee and Conway. Exploration of ...

In this somewhat fictionalized account of a true-crime story, Hayward gives a passionate, Oscar-winning portrayal, by turns defiant and achingly vulnerable. While the actual murderer is never conclusively identified, ...

Based on Octavio Paz’s novel about Spain’s great Golden Age poetess, who was persecuted for her proto-feminist attitudes by the ferociously repressive Catholic hierarchy of her time, Bemberg’s drama examines hypocrisy ...

You’ve got to love Orson Welles for appearing in Winner’s trippy anti-establishment satire. It’s a small but significant role, and Welles clearly had fun with it. Reed is more muted and hangdog sincere as the ...

Written, produced, and directed by John and Roy Boulting, this hilarious, equal-opportunity satire of working-class struggle and good ol’ boy nepotism in 1950s England caustically expressed the frustrations of a nation ...

Manoel de Oliveira’s elegiac "I’m Going Home" avoids the usual cliches of the bereavement film, focusing instead on the courage, dignity, and resolve of a serious actor attempting to revive his daily routine in the wake ...

With her signature sashaying and come-hither innuendoes, Mae West became a one-of-a-kind screen legend. In her second starring role (which she also conceived of and wrote for herself), her caustic wit and voluptuous ...

Told from the point-of-view of innocent children who are victims of desperate and corrupt adults, this vivid suspense tale by the director of the Oscar-winning "Mediterraneo" speaks to the fleeting nature of innocence ...

Claudel’s intelligent, exquisitely directed drama handles the central mystery of Juliette’s crime with such graceful restraint that the shock of its revelation earns every bit of the director’s desired emotional impact. ...