Perhaps the best of several good movies Connery made with Sidney Lumet. Here, he plays a disturbed cop determined to nail a suspected paedophile (Ian Bannen). Excellent gritty drama.

Brilliant film noir featuring Robert Mitchum and a very young Kirk Douglas. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, who made a number of classic horror B-movies for producer Val Lewton in the 1940s.

One of the best in a series of westerns Jimmy Stewart made with Anthony Mann. He plays a mysterious stanger seeking those who sold a tribe of renegade Indians the rifles used to kill his brother.

Lynch's weirder, more typical work is great on its own terms but this film serves as a reminder that he's capable of so much more. Sad, funny, moving, horrifying and uplifting.

A film of stunning power marred at times by corn & cliché. A rare movie appearance sans light-saber by Mark Hamill and a late masterpiece for Lee Marvin.

Because of the inevitable shifts in tone a comedy-horror is the most difficult of genre movies to get right - witness "The Lost Boys", which is neither funny nor scary; this succeeds better than most.

An affectionate horror spoof by Polanski, scrappy but with much to recommend it, not least Alfie Bass' performance and Krzysztof Komeda's score, one of the greatest of all time in my opinion.

Exceptionally brutal for its time. WARNING: The UK DVD promises both endings (upbeat & downbeat) but includes only the upbeat one, which is a shame since one imagines it was forced on the director.

Delightfully funny and surprisingly moving Holmes spoof by Billy Wilder. The film was famously edited down to 2 hours and cinephiles have been trying to track the missing components for years now.

Peerless British Film noir. Much has been written about how Orson Welles' Harry Lime steals the film with precious little time on-screen. Music, photography, performaces all marvellous.