Movie Recommendations

Hitchcock’s take on the Joseph Conrad novel of a suburban movie theater owner and terrorist.

Weird Al Yankovic, ably supported by soon-to-be TV stars Michael Richards and Fran Drescher, run increasingly strange shows to salvage an inherited UHF station. Best if seen after midnight.

The film that defines noir. Barbara Stanwyck is outstanding as an amoral wife who wants out of her marriage and will use anyone to help her. Fred MacMurray at first refused to play her lover and accomplice, fearing it was too great a departure from his romantic comedy roles and would hurt his career; instead,…

One of the two most powerful antiwar films ever made (the other being Renoir’s Grand Illusion—interesting that both deal with WW I). Kirk Douglas is understated and most effective as the officer assigned to determine whether three soldiers named by a general as cowards for failing to fulfill his idiotic battle orders should be court-martialed and…

Another winning Alec Guinness/Ealing Studios combination. This time Guinness is a bank clerk with a seemingly foolfproof plan to rob a fortune in gold. (Audrey Hepburn’s film debut, as Chiquita.)

Dying millionairess Lily Tomlin tries to transfer her soul into her young secretary’s body, but ends up coinhabiting her lawyer (Steve Martin). Silly but fun.

Curious about America, a Soviet submarine commander accidentally runs aground near a sleepy New England town. Sweet film about hysteria, paranoia, and friendship.

An evocative allegory that follows an errant knight and Swedish family during the Black Death.

Phantasmagorical animation set to classical music. Not everyone’s cup of tea but entrancing if you’re in the right mood.

The real mystery is why Hitch decided to refilm this tale of a vactioning family dragged into an international assassination attempt. Stick with this version over the 1956 Jimmy Stewart/Doris Day remake.