Fritz Lang, one of the masters of the German expressionist cinema, turns his sinister imagination and shadowy techniques to a web like take of wartime espionage. Set in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation, the film depicts an Eastern Europe populated by spies, traitors and revolutionaries, a deadly funhouse of political intrigue in which every personal encounter brings with it the threat of betrayal. Much of the nightmarish quality of Hangmen Also Die is attributable to playwright Bertolt find out more...

High Sierra follows a failed robber broken out of prison by an old associate, who takes part in a failed robbery in which a man is killed, and makes a getaway into the Sierra mountains for a final doomed stand. find out more...

Two classic Bogart films for the price of one! High Sierra follows a failed robber broken out of prison by an old associate, who takes part in a failed robbery in which a man is killed, and makes a getaway into the Sierra mountains for a final doomed stand. Treasure of the Sierra Madre; 'Gold does funny things to a man's soul'. That's the issue tackled by this seminal movie about the pursuit of money and its effect on the brotherhood of man. Bogart plays the down-and-out Dobbs who hooks up with find out more...

Stanley Kubrick won much acclaim for his second film, a noir about a struggling New York boxer (Jamie Smith) whose life is imperilled when he protects a nightclub dancer (Irene Kane) from her gangster boss (Frank Silvera). Killer's Kiss not only lends considerable insight into future Kubrick classics - such as 'The Killing' and 'Full Metal Jacket'- but is also a remarkable film in its own right: the boxing match may be the most vicious this side of 'Raging Bull and the famed final battle remains find out more...

Two-time loser Nick Bianco is caught during an armed robbery and pressured to squeal on his cohorts. Nick refuses and does time, but after his wife commits suicide and his daughters are put in an orphanage, he relents and agrees to work for the prosecutor. He gets paroled and straightens out his life, but when psychopathic killer Tommy Udo, a nasty little creep with wild eyes and a high-pitched laugh, is released, he's out to get even with Nick. find out more...

Adapted from Zola's novel, this powerful tale concerns a triangle of love and murder in which a train driver becomes passionately involved with a femme fatale. With its images of trains and railways as symbols of human destiny this is a visually arresting film; Gallic and tragic. find out more...

Melville's masterful take on the American crime thriller perfectly combines the Hollywood gangster film with his uniquely French style. Alain Delon as a master thief, Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop and Gian-Maria Volonte as an escaped criminal plot a daring heist of an upmarket Parisian jewellery store against impossible odds. find out more...

The studied peace of a small provincial town is slowly unravelled when a series of poison pen letters signed "The Raven" begin to circulate amongst the residents. What began as an uncomfortable embarrassment for the more prominent members of society begins to take on ever-darker tones as the mysterious revelations begin to tear the town apart. Banned upon its release, in 1943, Clouzot's dark thriller is a gripping study of fear and suspicion, and also a fascinating observation of a battered, une find out more...

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and kindness turn him into front-page news. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, 'Quai Des Brumes' is a quintessential example of cinematic poetic realism/romantic crime thriller, starkly portraying an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with their own destinies. find out more...

The manipulative Oedipally-fixated Ellen (Tierney) lures the handsome Richard (Wilde) into marriage, despite knowing him just a few days and being engaged to another. Richard soon learns that Ellen's selfish, jealous, possessive love has previously ruined other people's lives and when his brother drowns while in Ellen's care Richard grows increasingly suspicious of her insatiable devotion. Dark, brooding and highly subversive find out more...