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Every six months or so I post of list of movies which I think deserve to be better known. Here is the latest batch:The Black Panther (1977) - Directed by Ian Merrick. This is the story of serial killer Donald Neilsen, aka the Black Panther. This flopped in the UK because it was made too soon after the crimes committed by Neilsen. It's a pity because it's a genuinely suspenseful movie. I don't think it's ever been available in the US.
Le Pont du Nord (1981) - Directed by Jacques Rivette. This is a surreal, twisty crime caper set in Paris and starring the mother and daughter acting team of Bulle and Pascale Ogier. For lovers of the weird.
Death Watch (1980) - Directed by Bernard Tavernier. This is a strange, trippy movie starring Romy Schneider who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour, and who then gets invited by producer Harry Dean Stanton to star in the hit reality TV show "Death Watch," where viewers get to watch her every moment while she dies. Unbelievably prescient.
Violent Saturday (1955) - Directed by Richard Fleischer. Solid B pic fusion of melodrama and noir about a bank heist and the people who are caught up in it. Ernest Borgnine plays an Amish farmer who goes psycho.
10 Rillington Place (1971) - Also directed by Richard Fleischer. Richard Attenborough plays serial killer John Christie who carries out a reign of terror in London in the 1940s and 50s.
Operation Amsterdam (1959) - Directed by Michael McCarthy. British agents have to infiltrate Amsterdam and make off with all the industrial diamonds in the country before they fall into Nazi hands. Seriously suspenseful actioner starring Peter Finch. Based on a true story.
White of the Eye (1987) - Directed by Donald Cammell. Cammell is probably best remembered as the co-director (with Nic Roeg) of Performance, but unlike Roeg, Cammell's career never took off. This is a seriously weird movie. The ending lets the movie down, but it's still worthwhile. You've got to love a protagonist who makes his living by modifying NAD amplifiers!
Naked Kiss (1964) - Directed by Samuel Fuller. Deliberately B-grade trippy, film noir psychological thriller about a hooker who moves to a small town to escape her past. She ends up getting engaged to the local rich guy, who not only knows about her past, but seems okay with it. But why, you may ask? This is my favourite Fuller.
The Swimmer (1968) - Directed by Frank Perry. Starring Burt Lancaster, and based on a John Cheever short story. This really does deserve to be more widely known. Fantastic looking Blu-Ray. Also notable is a very young Joan Rivers in a bit part.
Fedora (1978) - Billy Wilder's last movie. Not as good as classics like Sunset Boulevard, which this movie shares some similarities with. But nevertheless a solid mystery story.
Safe (1995) - Directed by Todd Haynes. Julianne Moore stars as a suburban housewife who develops an aversion to the modern world. I saw this when it came out in 1995 and I didn't like it. But recently it's grown on me. It's quite creepy overall.
Crumb (1994) - Directed by Terry Zwigoff. This is the best documentary I've ever seen. It's about comic book artist Robert Crumb and his family. I don't even like comic books, but this is fascinating, and also sad. Every member of the Crumb family is completely f***ed up.
Inland Empire (2006) - Directed by David Lynch. Be warned, this is a three hour movie shot on a comsumer-grade handycam, so the picture quality sucks. It's also Lynch's least accessible movie. However...I think it's a masterpiece. Be warned, you are now entering hardcore Lynchian territory!
The Shooting (1966) - Directed by Monte Hellman. Monte Hellman is incapable of making a movie that's not a total weird-out freak-a-thon, and this is no different. It's basically a deconstructed, existential western starring Warren Oates and Millie Perkins, with some help from Jack Nicholson
The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927) - Directed by Walter Summers. Exceptional late silent film about Britain's naval exploits in WWI against the Germans in the waters around South America. Recently re-discovered by the British Film Institute.
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) - Directed by John Huston. Hitchcockian mystery thriller starring George C Scott who inherits a list of dead men and must crack the case. Interesting for its cameos (in rubber face disguises) of big name actors like Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum and Tony Curtis.
Edits: 02/23/15Follow Ups:
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