Hitchcock's masterpiece. A news photographer is confined to his apartment by an injury and spends his days watching the neighbours. He comes to believe that he is witnessing the preparations for a murder. Based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich. Suspense, ambiguity and voyuerism; total brilliance! find out more...

A young tennis star meets a looney on a train who proposes that they swap murders. The looney, to the star's dismay, starts to carry out his side of the bargain. A film that shows Hitchcock's technique at its suspenseful best. find out more...

The classic heist movie, adapted from WR Burnett's novel. A tense, satisfyingly objective study of a gang of hardened villains who fall apart after attempting an ambitious robbery. Sounds familiar? Much imitated but never equalled, this is one of the late John Huston's finest accomplishments. find out more...

'The Day Of The Locust' is a harrowing fable about delusion and false hope delving into the lives of those trying to achieve the glamorous lifestyle of pre-war Hollywood. The story revolves round an art director trying to get work, who falls for his young actress neighbour, her attempts to become a movie star and the men in her life. Donald Sutherland plays the estranged and deeply religious but now famously named Homer Simpson. find out more...

Curtis and Poitier both bagged Oscars for their portrayal of two chain-gang prisoners, one black, one white. Forced to make their escape still manacled together, their fight for freedom through the swamps makes a powerful metaphor for the rampant racial hatred of the times. Great support cast too. find out more...

Johnny Clay has the perfect plan, to steal 2 million from a racetrack in a scheme which is as close to perfection as a robbery can be. There is just one thing Johnny hasn't reckoned on, Sherry Peatty, one mother of a femme fatale with no discernable moral compunction and a determination to make the money hers that is so strong....Johnny and his band of hardened criminals may not survive. The Killing is an early Stanley Kubrick film (in the days when a studio could still tell him what they wanted find out more...

Treachery and deception in this classic film noir as various groups of low life characters try to lay their mits on the ancient treasure. Sam Spade is the honest fall guy. One of the best Hollywood films ever and certainly one of the best of its type. Initiated the move away from gangster movies. find out more...

Cagney's original gangster performance, he plays Powers, a big time mobster on the up and up. The film's impact derives from its acknowledgement of crime as partly due to poor social conditions, rather than the product of evil individuals. Cagney's role installed him as the definitive gangster hero. find out more...

After WW1, Lloyd returns to practice law, out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver and former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging. Good guy Eddie builds up a fleet of cabs through the reluctant delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. Ruthless George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere. An archetypal gangster thriller. find out more...

A very dated but still entertaining slice of 60s kitsch. McQueen is the incredibly debonaire playboy millionaire, led to commit robbery through boredom, countered by Dunaway, the implausibly glamorous fraud investigator. Much period posing and split-screen shenanigans, with fun results. find out more...