Thriller

  • Tony Markes – Last Dance (1992)

    Tony Markes1991-2000ThrillerUSA
    Last Dance (1992)
    Last Dance (1992)

    Someone is killing off contestants of a skimpy dance off.Read More »

  • Elia Kazan – The Visitors (1972)

    Elia Kazan1971-1980DramaThrillerUSA
    The Visitors (1972)
    The Visitors (1972)

    synopsis
    Set in January 1969, Bill (James Woods) is living in a remote cabin in Connecticut with his girlfriend Martha and their little child, and Martha’s stepfather (Patrick McVey) living nearby. They are spending a quiet winter Sunday in their cosy house when they get an unexpected visit from two of Bill’s old army acquaintances, Mike (Steve Railsback) and Tony (Chico Martinez). Mike and Tony have recently left the army themselves, and it soon becomes apparent that they are not just making a friendly call. As the men discuss their experiences in Vietnam, we start to wonder what happened, and why Mike and Tony have come to visit Bill.Read More »

  • George Roy Hill – The Little Drummer Girl (1984)

    USA1981-1990DramaGeorge Roy HillThriller
    The Little Drummer Girl (1984)
    The Little Drummer Girl (1984)

    Synopsis:
    A Palestinian bomber has killed an Israeli diplomat and his family and the Israeli plot to neutralise him becomes convoluted as they select an American Actress (Charlie) to impersonate the Bomber’s brother’s girlfriend after the Israeli’s capture and kill the brother. Charlie is placed into a world where she begins being an actress, then becomes a spy, then is trained by the Palestinians as a guerrilla and finally is sent to deliver a bomb. She is chronically confused by how far she is really supposed to go in her impersonations and how much of herself she must give up.Read More »

  • Alan Rudolph – Mortal Thoughts (1991)

    Alan Rudolph1991-2000ThrillerUSA
    Mortal Thoughts (1991)
    Mortal Thoughts (1991)

    Even when he’s not working with his own material, Alan Rudolph remains one of our sharpest film stylists. In this 1991 featurea somber thriller involving wife abuse and murder in New Jersey, written by William Reilly and Claude Kervenhe does such a good job with the storytelling and the actors that the broadness of the film’s depiction of a working-class milieu doesn’t seem unduly jarring, anchored as it is in an effectively distancing New Age score by Mark Isham. Demi Moore, who also coproduced, stars as the best friend and coworker of a hairdresser (Glenne Headly) married to an abusive layabout (Bruce Willis). If in the past Rudolph has tended to romanticize the sordidness of working-class life (as in Remember My Name and Choose Me), here he seems to be trying to overcompensate with a vengeance, but the fleetness of his camera moves and editing and the strength of his lead actors (who also include Harvey Keitel and Billie Neal as police detectives) keep one riveted to the screen.
    Jonathan RosenbaumRead More »

  • Maxwell Shane – Fear in the Night (1946)

    Maxwell Shane1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsFilm NoirThrillerUSA
    Fear in the Night (1946)
    Fear in the Night (1946)

    A man dreams he committed murder, then begins to suspect it was real.

    Quote:
    This is a classic noir from a classic year in the cycle. Max Shane was a Black Mask writer, the important pulp magazine precursor of the Noir genre. William Irish aka Cornell Woolrich was the master of the period. Cheepo producers Pine and Thomas, known as the Dollar Bills, later took the genre rightward making police the center of the action in the early 50’s (HE WALKED BY NIGHT) and were later Ronald Reagan’s producers. Shane later remade the same story as NIGHTMARE (1956) with Edward G. Robinson again for Pine/Thomas when working for them was a sign of having been absolved of anti-Americanism (which Robinson needed in 1956). Read More »

  • Piers Haggard – Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)

    Piers Haggard1971-1980HorrorThrillerUnited Kingdom
    Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
    Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)

    In the XVIII Century, in the countryside of England, the landsman Ralph Gower finds a skull with one eye and fur on the field. He summons the local judge to see his finding but it has disappeared. Meanwhile the local Peter Edmonton brings his fiancée Rosalind Barton to his aunt’s house to marry her on the next day. However during the night Rosalind becomes insane and in the morning she is sent to an asylum and Peter sees a claw that has replaced her hand. Then Peter wakes up with a claw attacking him and he cuts it out, but he finds that he has hacked down his own hand. The local children have a strange behavior under the command of Angel Blake and they rape and kill others. In common, they have a strange fur on their skin. The judge returns from London and concludes that evil has possessed the children. What will he and his search party do?Read More »

  • Michael Anderson – The Naked Edge (1961)

    Michael Anderson1961-1970ClassicsThrillerUnited Kingdom
    The Naked Edge (1961)
    The Naked Edge (1961)

    Synopsis:
    After a man is murdered and a large sum of money disappears from an office, Donald Heath (Ray McAnally) is convicted of the crime based on the testimony of his colleague, George Radcliffe (Gary Cooper). George’s wife, Martha (Deborah Kerr), starts to become suspicious of her husband when, after the crime, he invests money in a business venture and begins to act strangely. When a blackmailing letter arrives from Jeremy Gray (Eric Portman), Martha risks her life to find out the truth.Read More »

  • Salah Abouseif – Bayn el samaa wa el ard AKA Between Heaven and Earth (1959)

    Salah Abouseif1951-1960ClassicsEgyptThriller
    Bayn el samaa wa el ard (1960)
    Bayn el samaa wa el ard (1960)

    Plot:A variety of different people who don’t know each other get trapped in a hung elevator. When they begin to realize that their chance in being rescued is minimal, they start looking back at their lives differently. Meanwhile, a man is trying to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of the same building.Read More »

  • Sydney Pollack – Three Days of the Condor (1975)

    Sydney Pollack1971-1980PoliticsThrillerUSA
    Three Days of the Condor (1975)
    Three Days of the Condor (1975)

    In this classic conspiracy thriller, screen icon Robert Redford (Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, The Sting, All the President’s Men, Indecent Proposal) stars as CIA Agent Joe Turner. Code name: Condor. When his entire office is massacred, Turner goes on the run from his enemies…and his so-called allies. After reporting the murders to his superiors, the organization wants to bring Condor in—but somebody is trying to take him out. In his frantic hunt for answers, and in a desperate race for his life, Turner abducts photographer Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway, The Thomas Crown Affair, Eyes of Laura Mars), eventually seducing her into helping him. Every twist leads Condor to the end of his nerves…and will take you to the edge of your seat. And as he zeroes in on the staggering truth, he discovers there are some secrets people would kill to keep. Masterfully directed by Sydney Pollack (Jeremiah Johnson, Tootsie, Out of Africa, Havana) and also starring Cliff Robertson (Charly), John Houseman (The Paper Chase) and the icy Max von Sydow (Needful Things), 3 Days of the Condor endures as one of Hollywood’s finest tales of political paranoia.Read More »

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