My Favorite Movies

Gloria Swanson is brilliant in this. I am one of those wonderful people out there in the dark. Enraptured.

A version of H P Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", with a Poe Poem tacked on the end for marketing prurposes. I love this film, and consider the theme music one of the best film themes ever, on reflection, the best. Vincent Price is wonderful in this. So is the Necronomicon.

This movie is perhaps the best adaptation of a book that I have ever seen. Gilllian Anderson is radiant as Lily Bart, and the rest of the cast is flawless. The sets are beautiful, and the music is non-intrusive. The story is a fascinating one, can Lily redeem her reputation by acting dishonourably, or will she allow herself to be destroyed rather than lose her integrity? Oh, and she should have married Rosedale.

Not quite as good as Inferno, but almost. The colours are deep, the mood is intense and the atmosphere is magical. Great to see Alida Valli and Udo Kier.

The original and by far the best. It is a seriously scary movie, in black and white, with no sex, and no-one dies on screen. Modern horror film makers, take note. It has the most Gothic house imaginable, and it has Julie Harris.

Unlike most horror movies, which depend on the element of surprise to deliver its shocks, this film is much more frightening the seconfd time around because you know what is going to happen.
De Niro peeling eggs is just a pretentious twat the first time around, and the second time round...... *shudder*

The storyline is so very gripping, that I didn't notice the colours until the second viewing, and then only because it had been pointed out to me. I had no idea that I would end up identifying and feeling empathy for Howard Hughes. Harrowing. Scorsese's best.

Melodrama at its best. A cosy little tale of spiritual incest, repressed homosexuality, murder, madness and cannibalism. Intense, nail-biting fun. Kudos to Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor.

I don't know why I love this one so much, I just do. There's Bette being all noble and self-sacrificing, there's Charles Boyer chewing the carpets, and then there's The Wicked Witch of the West. Can't wait to see it again.

This is one scary movie, with a few unexpected twists and turns. There are a number of very spooky scenes which have a dreamlike quality. There are a number of seemingly unconnected events which turn out in the end to be all related, which means that I found the plot difficult to follow the first time around, which meant that the first time I saw it through, I started it over again. This is not a complaint, the movie was worth the extra effort it took me to unravel the plot.

This film is a very moving account of the life of a great painter, but also an insight into self-loathing and loneliness. Jose Ferrer should have gotten an Oscar for this. Anyone who thinks of Zsa-Zsa as an ageing grotesque should see how lovely and charming she was in this. Also, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee!

A real classic. Pure class. The first appearance of Mother is still a shock, the third is still a big shock. Tony Perkins is excellent in this. Thing is, having read the novel by Robert Bloch, I wonder why they cast him, he doesn't fit the description at all.

This is one of the scariest films ever made. Ok so two of the stories aren't frightening and one is an annoying comedy about golfing. But the haunted mirror and the ventriloquists dummy stories more than make up for it. Then there's the creepy framing sequence and the nightmarish ending. Most terrifying of all, Michael Redgrave as the ventriloquist posessed by his own dummy.

It has Colm Feore - the most shaggable man on planet Earth, bar none. He is excellent as Andre Linoge, a thoroughbread villain running rings round the donkeys of Little Tall. Some of the CGI's should be re-done, and that's the only fault I can find with it. Oh wait. Colm Feore keeps his clothes on, two faults.

This movie was loads of fun. Just the two coolest movie monsters ever invented. The most wonderful special effects, plus the gorgeous Lance Henrikssen. Ignore the plot quibbles, and just have fun.

Conrad Veidt as Cesare. 'Nuff said.