Fantastic Classics

From the intense and violent opening scene of a woman being gunned down on a city sidewalk by a gun-wielding blonde, J. Lee Thompson's cinematic masterpiece Yield to the Night grabs a hold of its audience and never lets go. Based on the novel of the same title by Joan Henry, the film offers an intimate look into the life of a woman driven to murder. Told partly in flashbacks, we feel sympathy for Mary Hilton, a woman who has been sentenced to hang and is waiting on death row for her execution. Yet, before we get to the dreaded final act, we're treated to outstanding performances from a mostly female cast, led by our leading lady Diana Dors. Playing against the blonde bombshell roles she was typically cast in, Dors gives a career-best award-worthy complex performance that is both powerful and haunting. Pushing past her stunning aesthetic seems like a lot to ask of the audience. Yet after the first few scenes, you realize that Dors is giving everything she has to tell this woman

This intense and captivating film noir from 1950 feels groundbreaking and significant and deserving of noteworthy acclaim, which unfairly it hasn't received. While watching this remarkable film, I couldn't help but be keenly aware of how ahead of its time Undercover Girl is, not just for its content but cinematically. The story follows a female police officer named Christine Miller (played with mesmerizing brilliance by Alexis Smith in a career-best performance), who is determined to avenge the murder of her father by going undercover to take down the narcotics ring responsible for his death. In so many ways, this feels like a fantastic precursor for Police Woman , Cagney and Lacey , and even Law and Order: Special Victims Unit . Yet, the gender of our main character is not the only celebratory element: this is a damn good movie from start to finish. Giving Alexis Smith terrific on-screen support is Royal Dano in a complex role (his movie debut nonetheless) with which the very

Released a year-and-a-half after Rebel Without a Cause , John Frankenheimer's delinquent youth drama The Young Stranger is filled with echoes from the iconic James Dean film. Here, high school student Hal Ditmar (played with a passionate intensity by James MacArthur) is blamed for something he didn't do: assaulting the manager of a local movie theater. Claiming the act was self defense (which it was), MacArthur spends most of the movie trying to convince the other characters of this truth, namely his father who is a wealthy film producer, played by James Daly. The only one who seems to believe in him (albeit not without a layer of doubt) is his mother, played by acclaimed actress Kim Hunter in a subdued role compared to the more powerhouse performances in her remarkable repertoire of work. This is a simple film in that it features a small cast telling a straight forward story that takes place in only a handful of locations. Certainly a precursor to the ABC Afterschool Specials

Long before there was Orange is the New Black or Wentworth , there was Caged . This women-in-prison film noir from 1950 is an intense, gritty movie that offers an in-depth look into the complicated lives of its characters. Adapted from the story Women Without Men by Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld, the script (written by Kellogg) holds nothing back. While the drama is certainly heightened, the film is remarkable in its seemingly realistic depiction of prison life for women (at least for the time it's set in). Kellogg gives us relatable characters to root for and loathe, portrayed by a talented cast of women including Eleanor Parker in an Academy Award nominated lead role, Betty Garde in a heartbreaking performance as homicidal shoplifter Kitty Stark, and Agnes Moorehead as the sympathetic prison superintendent Ruth Benton. A prison movie wouldn't be true to genre without a villain and Hope Emerson gives us a ruthless one in her sadistic portrayal of the evil prison

This fantastic comedy from 1940 is filled with brilliant, clever dialogue and outstanding performances. Based on the stage play The Front Page (written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur), His Girl Frida y was actually the second cinematic adaption of this story (the first being the 1931 film also titled The Front Page ). Director Howard Hawks made an excellent choice in changing the lead role of Hildy to a female character instead of male, as originally written. This decision not only allowed Rosalind Russell the opportunity to give a career-best performance, but set the foundation for this version to take a romantic turn by allowing our two leads (Russell and Cary Grant) to fall back in love (they were once married). It also gives us one of the earliest film depictions of a woman with a successful career. Russel's character is a force to be reckoned with, as she goes toe-to-toe with every male colleague in her no-holds-barred approach in a competitive newsroom. Filled with not-s

This fun flick from 1959 feels like a thrill ride, navigating viewers through a haunted house seemingly filled with creepy ghosts and moments of sheer terror. The concept of this spooky tale is fairly simple: a wealthy man (played deliciously by Vincent Price who knows a thing or two about horror films) gathers a group of strangers together and challenges them to spend the night in his home, which is reportedly haunted. Whoever survives the night will walk away with cash. The night takes a turn when the guests are informed they're actually trapped inside the house. There's no way out until dawn. What follows is a string of carnival-like pranks and frights, all intended to scare the guests away. The action of the night is paralleled with a subplot focusing on the marital discord between Price's character and Carol Ohmart's character, his wife. Directed by master of schlock William Castle (who was legendary for turning B-movies into surprise cinematic hits), the film is a