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Otto Preminger directs a political story of devious and ruthless government officials trying to make backroom deals.  The president (Franchot Tone) wants to appoint a controversial man (Henry Fonda) to be Secretary of State.  The action takes place among the Senate subcommittee and the bickering leads to devious games and ruined careers.  Advise & Consent was considered to be very daring and shocking when released.  It still holds up.

Charles Laughton, Peter Lawford, Walter Pidgeon, and Gene Tierney play key roles.

 

In this British mystery, a young boy is killed.  Set in a small town on a remote island, everyone knows everyone.  Each life in this town of Broadchurch is connected, which is why it is such a mystery. The killer is someone you would never expect.  There are two detectives on the case, DC Ellie Miller and her boss, Alec Hardy.  Both are excessively driven.  Alec Hardy is an outsider, who applied for the Head job and got it.  Ellie wanted that job, was promised that job but didn't get it.  And she's angry and bitter about it.  It makes the relationship between Hardy and Ellie very stressful at times.

Broadchurch is a fast-paced, in your face, TV series with twists and turns.  The Latimers are the family whose son has been killed.  They are a family in crisis.  Heck, the entire town is in crisis. And the writers have cleverly intertwined three stories in one, which are related to each other. Watching this series will keep you up at night trying to identify the murderer.  Check out our list of British Detective Series...Now.

It’s 1946 and the infamous ex-Nazi Franz Kinzler is living under an assumed name while teaching at an elite private school in small-town Connecticut.  He’s charmed the townspeople, including the headmaster’s daughter played by Loretta Young.  They marry, then Kinzler’s true identity is revealed to her, but is she too blinded by love to see the truth about her husband?

This post-WWII noir classic was directed by and stars Orson Welles.  Fabulous shadow effects, long camera shots, and dramatic angles are hallmarks of Welles’ style and make this movie a visual delight.  The Stranger was nominated for an Academy Award and was the first Hollywood feature film to include documentary footage of the Holocaust.  It’s a must see for lovers of classic noir and fans of suspense. Check out our list of other 1940s Noir Classics too!

5 out of 5 stars for me. Not knowing the story kept me engaged and absorbed. The ending took me by surprise--a very good surprise--and totally unexpected. The actors were top notch, intense and mysterious, but still believable. The scenery was spectacular. The photography, especially the close-ups of the characters' faces, helped the mystery develop.

Check out the most recent adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic Murder on the Orient Express. Looking for a review of the book? Check out Jennifer’s take on Current Picks from December.

I loved Code of a Killer. Told in three parts, it follows a serial killer who was killing young teenage girls. And you didn’t see who did it, but the way they showed different people, you formed suspicions.

We also learn about Dr. Alec Jeffreys, whose DNA studies were not going well. When a woman asked him to prove her son was her biological child to prevent his deportation, his test actually worked. At the same time, the police were not getting anywhere with solving the murder. When the killer struck again, someone suggested that Jeffreys could help.

Based on the true story of how the police started using DNA to catch killers, Code of a Killer is a very intense, fast paced mystery.

Set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, this classic courtroom drama features a winning cast of small town characters. Jimmy Stewart plays Paul, the ex-District Attorney who would much rather be fishing or playing jazz piano than practicing law. He is perfectly content with getting by on the odd legal job, but his perpetually tipsy (yet surprisingly astute) sidekick, Parnell, has other ideas. At Parnell’s urging, Paul takes on a local murder case that brings them both out of their semi-retirement.

Other engaging characters abound, including a visiting judge, Paul’s secretary, and of course, the defendant and his wife. These characters along with a well-placed plot, the almost light-and-breezy tone—despite its dark subject matter—and the hip music of Duke Ellington make Anatomy of a Murder just plain fun.

Check out our list of Lawyers in the Movies for other films.

Once again, Tom Cruise is great in this fast-paced action adventure movie where he has to save the world. What is different in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is the high suspense situations: Tom and his crew find themselves in trying to save lives and make the world safe again.

What happens when you plot to murder your wife? Watch Alfred Hitchcock’s melodramatic and suspenseful classic Dial M for Murder, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings, to find out.

Before the story starts, Margot Mary Wendice has a brief affair with mystery writer Mark Halliday while her tennis player husband, Tony, is away. A love letter was stolen, and she is being blackmailed. Mark comes to visit the couple, and Tony sets a diabolic plan in motion.

This movie was based on a play and filmed in 3D, a method prominently used in the 50s. The remastered and released in 3D version (2012) can be requested through SWAN.

For other Alfred Hitchcock films, see The Genius of Alfred Hitchcock: His Movies & TV Shows.

This film has an eerie feel to it from start to finish, and when you finally figure out what’s happening, you will be blown away. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense follows child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) as he tries to redeem himself after his last patient committed suicide. He is now trying to help young Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who has an ominous secret. Cole’s mom is beside herself with worry over Cole, whose numerous phobias make life frightening and unbearable. Can Dr. Crowe figure out the secret?

Also titled Reign of Terror, The Black Book is a suspense film that is as film noir as you can possibly get.  Yet instead of being set in a large American city during the 1930s, 40s, or 50s, it is set in 1794 Paris during the reign of terror. Charles D’Aubigny (Robert Cummings), is a French patriot looking to overthrow Maximilian Robespierre (Richard Basehart).

Robespierre is planning to become dictator of France, so that he can more easily continue his reign of terror wherein he sends anyone opposed to him to the guillotine without trial or hearing. One of D’Aubigny’s coconspirators is Madelon (Arlene Dahl). D’Aubigny and Madelon have a past and D’Aubigny is bitter about it; neither is sure they can trust the other.

In fact, almost none of the characters in this film trust each other and with good reason.  And the man most in the middle the man who no one should trust and who trusts no one is Fouche (Arnold Moss), the chief of police. He would like to destroy Robespierre but he will happily kill a friend or foe of Robespierre if it will advance his career. Moss does a great job with this character.

I will borrow a sentence from a review on IMDB to describe this film: “The atmosphere is particularly effective, with the dark photography and claustrophobic settings helping to establish the rampant fear, uncertainty, and paranoia that characterized the era.”

This film is nonstop suspense.  About the only criticism I could make is this is a film badly in need of restoration. The current DVD was supposedly restored but it’s far from what I usually experience in a restored film; I have seen worse copies of this film so it is an improvement, but even in its not-so-restored state, it is wonderful film.

American born director Jules Dassin made the French thriller Rififi after being blacklisted in Hollywood. In this masterfully suspenseful heist movie, four jewel thieves plan the perfect crime. They gather the team. They plan. They rehearse. Then they execute the perfectly choreographed theft and getaway--all in perfect silence. But one mistake draws the unwanted attention of a local crime boss and all plans go astray.

In French with English subtitles.

What would you do if your daughter was kidnapped? This is the question one father had to ask himself when his daughter and her friend are kidnapped by a serial killer. The movie makes you wonder how far you would go if you knew the kidnapper and took him prisoner. At the end of Prisoners, there is a twist. The ones you think are guilty may not be the only ones.

Suspense, adventure, humorous charm, and romance are blended in Young and Innocent, an early English Alfred Hitchcock directed gem. When an innocent man who is a suspected murderer escapes from the courthouse, he finds help from an unlikely quarter--the police chief's daughter! To escape the police and find the real murderer, they race along in her temperamental jalopy, hide out in a dilapidated barn, crash a children's party, and hunt for a switched raincoat. Great fun.