Directed by Nicholas Ray • 1952 • United States
Starring Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy
Maverick director Nicholas Ray brings his poetic feeling for the worlds of outsiders to this emotionally charged contemporary twist on the western. After a series of accidents, rodeo star Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) hobbles back home to Oklahoma, where he soon finds himself coaching ambitious young rider Wes Merritt (Arthur Kennedy) while falling for Merritt’s wife, Louise (Susan Hayward), who is wary of the rough-and-tumble world that her husband has entered into. The unstable triangle of passion that forms between the three unleashes a rivalry that pushes McCloud back into the rodeo ring.
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1953 • Japan
Starring Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka
By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ...
Directed by Luchino Visconti • 1954 • Italy
Starring Alida Valli, Farley Granger
This lush, Technicolor tragic romance from Luchino Visconti stars Alida Valli as a nineteenth-century Italian countess who, during the Austrian occupation of her country, puts her marriage and political principle...
Directed by Charles Laughton • 1955 • United States
Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, i...
