"East of Eden" (1955)

John Steinbeck had a great idea for a novel, tell a modern day version of the Book of Genesis. But his plot is meandering and repetitive, there's not one but two sets of Cain and Abel! This big screen adaptation only tells the last third of the tome, probably a wise choice as it's the most plot heavy, and best part. The film is best remembered as a showcase for actor James Dean. This was his movie debut and with it he shot into the zeitgeist like a Roman candle. His emotive, raw nerve acting style was such a departure from the norm that he became the embodiment of Misunderstood Youth, a social phenomenon that would only snowball as the decade progressed into the 1960's. Today his mumbling and body contortioning seems mannered but you do end up feeling for his love-starved character, a young man who is destined to destroy his twin brother (sorry if you haven't kept up with your Bible and that's a spoiler). Raymond Massey is the stern Adam/father and Jo Van Fleet is the Eve/fallen mother who walked away with the Oscar for her coiled sinister performance. Director Elia Kazan tries some baroque camera techniques to convey the family's unbalanced dynamic; it's not always successful. But it's Dean that's the draw here, you can't take your eyes off him. It's a fleeting glimpse of what would become a Hollywood icon in just three films before his life was cut short in a tragic death.

"Dial 1119" (1950)

True fact: the national emergency call number 911 was not fully adopted across the country until the late 1960's. Until then, various numbers were used regionally, hence the title of this tight, suspenseful little noir. And there's an emergency alright: an escaped mental patient (Marshall Thompson) goes on a murder spree and finally holes up in a late night bar taking a few hostages at gunpoint. The story cross cuts between the lunatic's tormenting of these character types, learning their backstories (a washed up reporter, a prim single gal on a date with an older man, the gin-soaked floozy barfly, etc), and the cops out on the street trying to form a game plan to rescue the bunch. The film is notable for a couple of prescient observations. There's a big hulking contraption up in the corner, one of those new-fangled televisions, and the people trapped inside get to see their predicament played out on the local news in real time, a canny prediction of media circuses to come. There's also some dramatic friction with the main homicide detective and a criminal psychologist about how to deal with this loony. Again, this was way before 'profilers' and 'mindhunters' became everyday catchphrases. Look for two fun cameos also. TV's "Cannon", William Conrad, is the easygoing barkeep and Beaver Cleaver's pearl-clad mom, Barbara Billingsly, has a few deft lines as newspaper secretary.

"Marty" (1955)

Hollywood historians often name this the first independent movie, one made outside the traditional studio system of the day. It was a huge success, maybe because it zigged while all the big films zagged. Instead of a Technicolor/Cinerama/Vistavision extravaganza, which conventional thought said "give 'em what they can't get at home on their TV", this small story went into the belly of the beast. It was a adaptation of a teleplay already aired on the small screen. Paddy Chafesky re-tooled his own work and turned out a very affecting and simple story of a lonely Bronx butcher (Ernest Borgnine) looking for love and finding it in a fellow LonelyHeart (Betsy Blair). More than just a character study, it now serves as a window into how stifling society norms used to be concerning age, singlehood, dating, and marriage. Maybe the most shocking is the out-and-out body shaming that goes on here. The two leads are constantly referring to themselves as "dogs", "fat", "plain", etc. Fun times. That said, you'll find lots of feels here. Manipulative? You betcha. But sometimes an ugly cry can be pretty too.

"The Stranger" (1946)

Director Orson Welles would dismiss this thriller-noir as his least favorite of his pictures. Probably because there's little nuance here, in character, theme, or plot; it's a straightforward post-WII suspenser about a kindly college professor (Welles himself) who's actually a vicious Nazi war criminal hiding out in a Norman Rockwell small town. But accessible does not mean bad, and entertaining doesn't mean ignore it. The tight script works to it's advantage as a dogged investigator from the War Crimes Commission (Edward G. Robinson), get's closer and closer to revealing Welles identity secret. He's sort of a precursor to TV's "Coumbo", annoying Welles with incessant questions and snooping. Loretta Young is on hand as the unwitting fiance of the villain, she's not that bright but you need someone sympathetic in grave peril by the finale to kick up the nail-biting. There's a lot of debt owed to Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt"here, another tale of a creep taking cover in Nice Anytown, USA, but that's quite okay. It brings to mind that quote from Picasso, "Good artists copy. Great artists steal."

"Thieves' Highway" (1949)

A surprisingly terrific film noir set in the unlike milieu of --wait for it--produce truckers in rural California. Yes, before you start throwing tomatoes give it a chance. Director Jules Dassin gives the proceedings an almost documentary feel, as he did with "The Naked City" the year before. It's greasy, gritty and ultimately makes you glad you're not the poor soul driving all those nighttime lonely hours fighting fatigue and insomnia. Richard Conte is a vet returning home to find his father, a trucker himself, was swindled by an unscrupulous wholesaler (Lee J. Cobb). He sets out on the road to avenge the wrongdoing with a truckload of apples in tow. Along the way there are near scrapes and seedy characters with big dollops of suspense thrown in for good measure. Valentina Cortesa shows up as the hooker who might be working for Cobb. He plays the baddie with the Smarm-O-Meter turned up to 11. Was there anybody better at playing loudmouthed menacing louts? This a forgotten gem that shows just how much storytelling elasticity there is in this fascinating genre.

"Soylent Green" (1973)

Charlton Heston had a career renaissance in the late 1960's and early '70's starring in a number of dystopian science fiction films, unsettling and cautionary depictions of our planet's future where man's meddling has turned things rather ugly. This one has a quasi-noir feel. He's a police detective assigned to the murder of a very wealthy corporate bigwig (Joseph Cotten), who's on the board of a food manufacturing conglomerate. They make a foodstuff that looks like flat crackers, red, yellow, and their brand new offering, green! It's essentially the only affordable edible around and the dirty huddled masses have to fight and clamor for just a few squares of it. Cotten was going public with Big Dirty Secrets about this stuff. Why was he killed? The answer is one of the great reveals in movie history and it's worth getting to the last reel to find out what's what. Heston is serviceable, he made a career of being the tight-jawed hero, gritting out his lines; the real scene-stealer here is irascible Edward G. Robinson in his last film (his 101st!), as Heston's researcher and buddy roommate. He has an affecting scene where he decides to leave this crappy world but not before one last moment of beauty. There's one harrowing set piece where the cops have to take bulldozers to the rioting hordes who are literally dying for their Soylent, pretty scary. And a chilling opening montage that only takes a few minutes to show how we've royally screwed a planet that took eons to build. But there's no such thing as man-made climate change, right?

"Broken Arrow" (1959)

This is one of those good news/bad news movies. THE GOOD: it was Jimmy Stewart's first western, a genre he would later do great things with all during the 1950's, especially the five terrific pictures he would make with director Anthony Mann (yes, he did make "Destry Rides Again" in 1939 but that was more of a romantic comedy than a real western, just saying). Apache raids are hindering railroad travel thru the Arizona territory and Stewart is the emissary sent in to create an armistice between the Indians and the US Army. Sincere pains are taken here to depict the Apaches as human beings who are rebelling at their lands being stolen, not vicious savages as was Hollywood's usual custom. Stewart even falls in love with one of the beautiful squaws, whoa, interracial romance! But that leads us to THE BAD: the two biggest Apaches roles are filled by white actors (cue the sad trombone). Oscar nominated Jeff Chandler and lovely Debra Paget play Cochise, the noble Apache leader, and the maiden love interest. They both do an adequate job under a lot of dark pancake makeup...but really? It's easy to poke fun at a 70 year old movie's best intentions, so let's just chalk it up to "at least they were trying". All that said, Stewart is more than fine as the peacemaker trying to make both sides come together, even if he is a bit too old for Paget. The older man/younger female co-star issue is still, sadly, haunting us to this day.

"Angel Face" (1953)

One of the constantly recurring tropes of film noir is the heartless femme fatale. In this twisted little film Jean Simmons (nicely playing against her usual good girl casting) is one of the sickest gals ever depicted in the genre. Right up there with Gene Tierney in "Leave Her To Heaven", Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity", and Jane Greer in "Out of the Past". Simmons is so wacko in this one she creates a constant sense of dread, of "what the hell is she gonna try and pull off now??" She plays a spoiled young L.A. heiress who sets her sites on Robert Mitchum, playing one of his working class dumb EveryGuys, an ambulance driver just barely getting by. You really can't figure out exactly what motivates Simmons' character here, she's just an embodiment of cunning feminine wiles, which probably made it scary viewing in the early 1950's. Pretty young ladies just didn't act this way. Director Otto Preminger keeps things moving apace, he knew his way around noir, see "Laura" for instance. And Dimitri Tiomkin's lush and sinister score adds the right amount of unsettlingness to the proceedings. But the real reason to give this one a try is not one, but two what-the-f**k murders that leave you gobsmacked. Like, "did that just happen?" moments that leave you reeling. You were warned. Take a spin into this dark tale, you won't regret it.