The Night of the Hunter (1955)

 

Shelley Winters

Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_Winters

Stridulum (1979)

 

The soul of a young girl with telekinetic powers becomes the prize in a fight between forces of God and the Devil. 

After an interesting Jodorowsky-like opening sequence this star-studded horror flick descends into a wildly incohesive Omen wannabee; some weird sequences do make it watchable, though.

Halliwell (no star): "Fussy direction, minimal acting and a plot that makes little sense combine to create an incoherent movie."

Maltin**: "...this passable time-killer wastes a good cast in yet another OMEN rip-off; too bad Huston or Peckinpah couldn't have directed as well." 

Elvis (1979)

Biographical movie about the famous rock singer Elvis Presley.

From memory: A simple, straightforward TV biopic is actually pretty good, and Kurt Russell does convince impersonating "The King".

Winchester '73 (1950)

The journey of a prized rifle from one ill-fated owner to another parallels a cowboy's search for a murderous fugitive.

Despite an episodic structure this expertly staged and cast Western tells a quite coherent tale that always holds your attention; Stewart is excellent as ever, and so is the cinematography.

Halliwell**: "Entertaining,popular, hard-riding, hard-shooting Western of the school."

Maltin***1/2: "Exceptional Western story...First-rate in every way, this landmark film was largely responsible for renewed popularity of Westerns in the 1950s."

Bloody Mama (1970)

Machine gun totin' Ma Barker leads her family gang (her sons) on a crime spree in the Depression era.

Cry of the City (1948)

The story of two tenement-bred, Italian-American, childhood-friends who grow up with radically different views on crime, and are pitted against each other while following their chosen paths.

Fanny Hill (1983)

Happily engaged to her handsome fiance Fanny is soon hit with one misfortune after another.

This adaptation of John Cleland's erotic classic is indeed frivolous with lots of nudity and sex scenes, but just as well quite boring.

The Big Knife (1955)

A big-time movie star refuses to sign a binding contract with a Louis B. Mayer-like mogul, but is blackmailed to do so.

Sharp and acrid satire on Hollywood, but also stagebound and talkative; and despite Jack Palance giving all his effort, it's awkward to see him as an oversensitive and tormented artist.

Halliwell*: "Overheated argument between Art and Mammon, with rather disagreeable people shouting at each other, for too long a time. Limited interest is provided by the acring."

Maltin***: "...involving (albeit overheated) drama...Fine performances almost overcome stereotypes; Steiger chews the scenery as a despotic studio head."