'High Noon' works on many levels; the second-to-none screenplay, the subtle direction, the clock, Gary Cooper's Oscar-winning performance... It's about a small town sheriff who must basically stand alone to defend the people from a wild gang of outlaws, who have just been let out of jail and will arrive on the noon train. Although he does not have to, and the town does not deserve saving, Cooper decides that he will do the job that he was hired to do. A classic amongst Westerns, it strips the ge
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STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)
CertificationPG Our Rating
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.
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THE GENERAL (BUSTER KEATON) (1927)
CertificationU Our Rating
Arguably Keaton's finest film, and rated as one of the funniest comedies ever made. Keaton is the Confederate train driver who refuses to hold up the white flag when his engine is hijacked by Union soldiers during the Civil War. The visual gags come thick and fast as Buster fearlessly risks life and limb in a desperate race to claim back his train, and his girl! A classic.
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THE LADY VANISHES (1938)
CertificationU Our Rating
A girl travelling on a trans-European express strikes a friendly acquaintance with a middle-aged tweedy woman who promptly disappears. When everyone on the train denies ever having seen the lady the plot thickens, but what is brilliant is how the script resolves this and other conundrums. Superb.
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