Inspired by the Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill affair, Vincent Sherman’ skillful crime drama The Damned Don’t Cry is Joan Crawford’s second best Warners movie.
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Starring gay MGM contract actor William Haines, the pre-Code comedy Western Way Out West features gay innuendoes just about everywhere you look.
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The genius of Lon Chaney and the best production values that MGM could buy make William Nigh’s ‘exotic’ Mr. Wu movie adaptation a must-see.
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In Tom Forman’s Victorian but engrossing melodrama Shadows, Lon Chaney brings dignity to his Chinese victim/savior stranded in racist England.
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Silent era veterans Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson deliver quality performances in James Cruze’s engrossing psychological drama The Great Gabbo.
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MGM star Ramon Novarro delivers a charismatic performance in Fred Niblo’s still impressive silent era mega-blockbuster Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
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Man of a Thousand Faces Lon Chaney delivers another phenomenally creepy portrayal in Wallace Worsley’s top-notch revenge thriller The Penalty.
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Samuel Fuller’s B crime drama The Naked Kiss is an underrated gem that teaches audiences a couple of valuable lessons re: Good Citizens and phones.
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A capable ensemble of below-the-title names is put to good use in the Damon Runyon-esque B comedy Sing and Like It. ZaSu Pitts stars.
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One man’s disastrous romantic heartbreak is great comedy fodder in Nicholas Stoller”s Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jason Segel and Kristen Bell star.
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‘Lurid’ is an understatement when describing Screaming Mimi, Anita Ekberg’s 1958 foray into the realm of American B noir. Philip Carey and Gypsy Rose Lee costar.
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Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterwork The Passion of Joan of Arc will leave viewers as anguished as its magnificent martyr. Maria Falconetti stars.
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Silent era icon John Gilbert is flawless in the pre-Coder Downstairs, which is evidence that they don’t make racy social dramas like they used to. Paul Lukas costars.
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The Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich Pre-Code melodrama Blonde Venus is their best joint effort and the high point of their respective careers.
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Deemed controversial due to its central premise and explicit orgy sequence, Lars von Trier’s The Idiots is indeed disturbing - but for very different reasons.
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Cecil B. DeMille’s The Godless Girl is a thoughtful theological drama that will convert even the most hardened of cynics. Lina Basquette stars.
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Rouben Mamoulian’s early musical Applause showed what the newfangled talking pictures could achieve. Legendary torch singer Helen Morgan stars.
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Set (and filmed) in pre-World War II Japan, Kenji Mizoguchi’s female-centered Sisters of the Gion is a fine ‘feminist’ melodrama. Isuzu Yamada stars.
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Cecil B. DeMille’s Russian Revolution epic The Volga Boatman lets viewers decide on whose – cruel, despicable – side they’re on. Piercing-eyed William Boyd stars.
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American political refugee Jules Dassin’s heist thriller Rififi remains one of the greatest films noirs made away from Hollywood. Jean Servais stars.
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A sexually liberated Greta Garbo is great in the thoroughly enjoyable silent melodrama The Single Standard. Nils Asther and Johnny Mack Brown costar.
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Werner Herzog’s ‘minor’ period psychological drama Woyzeck is superior to most acclaimed Hollywood fare. Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes star.
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Michelangelo Antonioni’s acclaimed 1957 neorealist drama Il Grido stars an outstanding Steve Cochran. Also in the cast: Alida Valli and Betsy Blair.
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Zombie movie 28 Weeks Later offers flesh-eaters and gore with a side of some unsettling sociopolitical commentary. Jeremy Renner and Rose Byrne star.
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Ingmar Bergman’s sumptuous big-screen swan song, the 1982 period family drama Fanny and Alexander is even more engrossing in its longer form.
An homage to unconventional families mixed with social commentary, Charles Chaplin’s 1921 movie The Kid remains just as touching 9 decades after its release.
In the memorable Sparrows, silent era icon Mary Pickford meets Jesus while fighting the evils of child trafficking. They don’t make them like they used to.
Featuring an unusual cast, the anti-bigotry melodrama Night of the Quarter Moon succeeds as a tabloid version of more serious-minded ‘race dramas.’
Veteran Olivia de Havilland delivers a tour de force in the horror cult classic Lady in a Cage, which offers a side of scathing social commentary. James Caan costars.
Joan Crawford shows in Berserk that she could still command the action, seduce hunks half her age and look fabulous while parading around in fishnet leggings.
Had the Oscars been around a decade earlier, silent era superstar Mary Pickford would’ve been an early winner for her dual performance in Stella Maris.
9 (mostly) hard-to-find movies worth digging include titles starring Jean Harlow, Douglas Fairbanks and Clint Eastwood precursor William S. Hart.