The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
Oct 19, 2002Sportsman Hunts Human Game
The first and best version of the oft-told story in which shipwreck survivors are forced to survive with their bare hands while being hunted by a mad Russian aristocrat
RKO Radio Pictures
King Kong (1933)
Nov 12, 2000Giant Ape
Perhaps the greatest of all monster movies, one that has attained iconic status. A masterpiece of stop-motion animation, it imbues Kong with character and attains a delicate fairytale-like atmosphere
The Son of Kong (1933)
May 8, 2000King Kong Sequel
The 1933 King Kong is a landmark classic Yhis sequel was quickly produced soon after its success,. While the original created a monster movie fairytale, this plays everything for maximum cuteness - it is essentially King Kong mounted as a children’s film
She (1935)
Oct 29, 2000Lost City/Immortal Queen
The first sound version of H. Rider Haggard's lost city adventure about explorers finding an immortal queen (Helen Gahagan). From the producers of the original King Kong
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Jan 1, 2010Deformity/Historical Romance
The finest screen adaptation of Victor Hugo's oft-filmed historical novel. This is visually stunning and featuring an awards-worthy performance from Charles Laughton as the malformed Quasimodo
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Jun 7, 2015Film Noir Psycho-Thriller
Cited as the first film noir, this is a fascinating psycho film about a man tormented by guilt over convicting the wrong man
You’ll Find Out (1940)
Mar 29, 2008Old Dark House Comedy
Old Dark House comedy set around the antics of big band leader Kay Kyser. Starring several horror names of the day - Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre
All That Money Can Buy (1941)
Jan 17, 2010Pact with The Devil
Classic film about a lawyer arguing in court to save a man who has sold his soul to The Devil. On screen, this is turned into a highly entertaining sentimentalised Frank Capra-type film about American greatness
Cat People (1942)
May 3, 2001Human-Feline Transformation/Psychological Ambiguity
Val Lewton’s classic work of psychological ambiguity about a woman who believes she is turning into a panther. Lewton's ingenuity was to leave the actuality of the monster one that was merely suggested
The Ghost Ship (1943)
Nov 15, 2010Psychological Horror/Murderous Sea Captain
The most obscure among the classic horror titles produced by Val Lewton - a beautifully stark and haunted piece about a man trapped at sea aboard a ship with a murderous captain
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Aug 30, 2001Voodoo/Psychological Ambiguity
One of the key films from the legendary Val Lewton, this exploits a topical interest in voodoo. As with Lewton's films, this sits in an ambiguous place that leaves the actuality of the supernatural uncertain
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Nov 20, 2000Satanist Cult/Psychological Horror
One of the classic films from producer Val Lewton concerning a secret society of Satanists. An oppressive atmosphere of gloom and morbidity hangs over the film and, as always with Lewton, it comes with striking directorial effects that play on the imagination
Tarzan Triumphs (1943)
Aug 17, 2006Jungle Hero
The seventh of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films made as a work of Wartime propaganda where Tarzan faces Nazis
Tarzan’s Desert Mystery (1943)
Mar 17, 2002Jungle Hero
The eight of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films. The same formula as before but in a desire for novelty the action is relocated to North Africa
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Mar 2, 2001Invisible Friend
One of the classic horror films from producer Val Lewton. The studio gave Lewton orders to make a sequel to his first hit Cat People but he confounded this by making an entirely different film about invisible playmates that has no cat people
Dick Tracy (1945)
Apr 7, 2001Comic-Book Detective
Feature film version of the popular comic-book detective that led to three sequels. Here the stylised look of the comic-book comes out resembling a regular crime drama but the film is not uninteresting
The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
Mar 20, 1999Romantic Fantasy/Transformation
An old-fashioned weepie melodrama about a cottage that allows a disfigured soldier and a plain woman to find love where the magic there allows them to see the other as perfect
Isle of the Dead (1945)
Sep 2, 2003Plague Outbreak/Possible Vampire Creature
One of the classic psychological horror films from producer Val Lewton. This is a slightly less effective Lewton work featuring Boris Karloff on a plague-ridden island unsure if a vampire creature is responsible
Zombies on Broadway (1945)
Jun 12, 2024Zombie Comedy
A Bela Lugosi comedy in which two inept press agents are ordered to obtain a zombie for the opening of a club
Tarzan and the Amazons (1945)
Jun 26, 2014Jungle Hero
The ninth of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films. All but the first two Weissmuller films slip into the utterly banal and formulaic. The novelty this time is Tarzan encountering a city inhabited all by all women
The Body Snatcher (1945)
Mar 3, 2000Grave Robbers
One of the classic films of producer Val Lewton, a loose adaptation the historical story of the 19th Century body snatchers Burke and Hare. Robert Wise is on fine form as director and Boris Karloff gives one of his best performances.
Bedlam (1946)
Apr 11, 200018th Century Asylum Horrors
The last of the classic Val Lewton produced horror films, a work set around the true-life 18th Century asylum lorded over by Boris Karloff where an innocent Anna Lee is committed
Dick Tracy’s Dilemma (1947)
Jul 29, 2001Comic-Book Detective
The third of the films based on the famous comic-book detective Dick Tracy, this is far more successful at obtaining the larger-than-life feel of the comic-book than earlier entries
Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
May 22, 2013Arabian Nights Adventure
The very first Sinbad film. Douglas Fairbanks Jr is cast to capitalise on the swashbuckling name of his father. It is odd seeing a Sinbad film that eliminates fantasy adventure in favour of talk, although it eventually mounts a likeably energetic show
The Boy With Green Hair (1948)
Sep 20, 1999Green-Haired Boy/Anti-War Parable
A very young Dean Stockwell stars in this strange anti-war fable about a boy who wakes up to find his hair has turned green
Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949)
Feb 1, 2013Jungle Hero/Fountain of Youth
The first Tarzan film after Johnny Weissmuller's departure and replacement by a blank Lex Barker, although in all other ways is still the same tired formula. One of the few Tarzan films of the era to employ fantastic plot devices (a Fountain of Youth) but seems to have little idea what to do with it
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Jun 11, 2000Giant Ape
Many of the people involved in the 1933 King Kong came back together to create another giant ape film. Much overlooked, this is one of the masterpieces of stop-motion animation
Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950)
May 22, 2014Jungle Hero
The second of Lex Barker's Tarzan films, another traipse through the studio backlot jungle sets and well-worn formula - lost cities, mysterious tribes, Jane abducted, Cheeta comic relief antics - with little to distinguish it
Tarzan’s Peril (1951)
May 26, 2016Jungle Hero
The fifteenth of the MGM/RKO Tarzan films and third starring Lex Barker. What makes this stand out is that it was the first Tarzan film to go and shoot in Africa, otherwise it follows exactly the same well-worn formula as before and has one of the worst screens Janes ever
The Thing from Another World (1951)
Jun 19, 2005Alien Invader
The very first alien invader film of the 1950s. Maybe or maybe not directed by Howard Hawks, this has a dramatic urgency and tight tension that makes it stand head and shoulders above most of the films that came after
The Whip Hand (1951)
Dec 10, 2000Communist Inflitration
One of the first Reds Under the Bed hysteria films of the 1950s where a man stumbles on a small town where a Communist fifth column are conducting biowarfare experiments as part of a planned invasion
Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952)
Apr 10, 2019Jungle Hero
Fourth of the Lex Barker Tarzan films. Barker is less stiff in the role but this is otherwise as formulaic as they come. The distinction this has is that it is one of the few films that mention Tarzan's origins and that it features a Communist villain
Peter Pan (1953)
Feb 7, 1999Disney Animation/Children's Adventures in a Magic Land
One of the animated Disney classics, if probably an overrated film. It throws slapstick and derring-do together in a likeable package
Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953)
Apr 27, 2022Jungle Adventure
The last of the Tarzan outings featuring Lex Barker, as well as an interesting cast line-up including Raymond Burr as the villain
Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle (1955)
Jun 20, 2002Jungle Hero
The first of the Gordon Scott Tarzan films although it does little to vary from the well-established formula of the previous eighteen entries
Ritual (2002)
Feb 6, 2020Voodoo
This was intended as the third of the Tales from the Crypt films. A remake of the classic voodoo film I Walked With a Zombie, from Val Lewton, a producer who specialised in psychological ambiguity where we could not be certain if the supernatural was real. All of this is lost in the hands of bad movie director Avi Nesher.