Fresh off her star-making turn in the smash hit Gilda, Rita Hayworth was cast in another quintessential noir of the forties, this one directed by none other than her then husband Orson Welles.

Both an ingeniously plotted mystery and a profoundly disturbing tale of romantic obsession, Vertigo is an emotional experience like no other—an astonishment on the level of image, sound, and storytelling.

A red-hooded coat gains an ominous significance in Nicolas Roeg’s masterful thriller adapted from a haunting novella by Daphne du Maurier.

The funniest movie ever made about the experience of being snubbed for an Oscar nomination stars Catherine O’Hara in one of her greatest screen roles as Marilyn Hack, who discovers, much to her detriment, that she has been tapped for a possible nomination.

Peter Bogdanovich closed out his most celebrated decade with an underappreciated gem, adapted from a novel by Paul Theroux, starring 1970s king Ben Gazzara in one of his most charming and complex star turns.

This spare and chilling entry in Val Lewton’s hallowed 1940s run of B horror movies stars a brilliant Boris Karloff as a struggling cab driver in 19th-century Edinburgh who helps procure bodies from freshly dug graves for a local doctor.

Fritz Lang’s jolt of pure fatalism featured Edward G. Robinson in a career-best lead performance as a browbeaten, retired Greenwich Village cashier and amateur painter who falls into a trap set by a shady local girl.

Ivan Passer’s gripping neonoir gave Heard the meatiest role of his career, a performance of remarkable, implosive rage as Cutter, a broken-down, one-eyed Vietnam veteran determined to exact revenge on the death of a young woman. Co-starring Jeff Bridges.

Paul Schrader’s directorial debut gave Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto two of their greatest roles, as Detroit auto workers who take matters into their own hands after being mistreated by both management and their Union bosses.

Director Richard Maurice, who created his independently financed silent films in Detroit, himself stars as a down-on-his-luck Black street violinist who makes it his mission to protect an orphaned child from hoodlums and criminals.

Dorothy Dandridge rightfully and historically received a Best Actress nomination for her blazing, charismatic lead performance, yet Harry Belafonte, certifying his newfound stardom, was as fiery, sensual, and magnetic as Joe, whose obsession leads to his downfall and to the film’s explosive climax.

Taylor Hackford’s rousing romantic melodrama gave Richard Gere one of his most complex and acclaimed starring roles, as Zack Mayo, who, down on his luck after his mother’s suicide, attempts to turn his life around by entering Aviation Officer Candidate School.