On the Beach (1959)
Jul 27, 2001The Nuclear Holocaust
The first major film confronting nuclear war full on with the world's last survivors gathered in Australia. Slightly ponderous today but nevertheless full of potent imagery
Gregory Peck
Cape Fear (1962)
Feb 2, 2000Ex-Con's Revenge Thriller
Classic psycho-thriller with Robert Mitchum (who was never better) as an ex-con determined to take revenge against lawyer Gregory Peck. Stark and superbly sustained psychological suspense
The Chairman (1969)
Jun 8, 2001Spy Thriller/Journey to Communist China
Big-budgeted spy thriller with Gregory Peck as a scientist who poses as a defector to Communist China. This never enervates much as a thriller but its recreations of Communist China are amazing
Marooned (1969)
Jul 9, 2000NASA Space Mission Disaster
Released three months after the Moon Landing, this was a big-budget film depicting a space mission disaster that leaves three astronauts marooned in orbit
The Omen (1976)
Jan 8, 2001The Biblical End of the World/The Anti-Christ
This is where all the cliches of Devil Children began. A big hit among the 1970s occult boom, this is essentially Sunday tabloid Christianity – a lurid, doom-filled take on Book of Revelation End Times prophecies that moves with a slick polish and a series of schlocky deaths every few minutes
The Boys From Brazil (1978)
Jun 4, 2008Nazi Cloning Experiments
Big-budget thrillers with Nazi villains were popular in the 70s. This pits acting legends Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck on opposite sides in a conceptually ingenious plot about the attempts to clone Hitler
Cape Fear (1991)
Jul 5, 2000Ex-Con's Revenge Thriller
Martin Scorsese remakes the classic thriller with Robert De Niro playing the ex-con seeking revenge against his lawyer. Scorsese makes the morality more ambiguous and bring out tensions within the family