Excellent courtroom comedy starring Joe Pesci as an offbeat just-qualified lawyer, dispatched to the Deep South to defend his young cousin (and friend) from a bogus murder charge. Pesci is superb, as is Marisa Tomei, his nasal New York fiancee who's sassy performance peps up the whole thing and won her an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. find out more...

Laughton's only stab at directing, with Mitchum giving a stunning performance as the psychopathic preacher who, whilst in jail for a minor offence, hatches a devious plan to get his hands on the loot stashed by his condemned cell-mate. Set in '30s rural America, the film polarises into a struggle between good and evil for the souls of innocent children. Laughton's deliberately old-fashioned direction throws up a startling array of images: an amalgam of Mark Twain-like exteriors (idyllic riversid find out more...