10 movies i love that you've ( probably) never heard of
 

" I welcome you to Crackerbox Palace, we've been expecting you" ( George Harrison)


I love movies...classics to goofy. I wanted to list a few movies i love that are not on the obvious list ( Casablanca, Butch Cassidy..., Young Frankenstein etc). You've likely not heard of them...but they are soo good!

1) We're No Angels ( Comedy,1955). Put me on a desert island island and I can
only have 1 movie...this may be it. Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo
Ray as 3 19th century escape convicts from "Devil's Island" take refuge in the
shop of a bumbling storekeeper and his family on Xmas Eve. I can't say
enough about how much I love this one
2) The last of Sheila ( Thriller,1973) . All star cast ( including Raquel Welch( serious crush), Dyan
Cannon ( serious crush!) and Richard Benjamin ) are invited by host James Coburn to his yacht
where a thrilling scavenger hunt takes place to reveal his wife's killer. Creepy
suspense
3) Ensign Pulver ( comedy, 1964). Twice a year I'd feign illness to stay home from
school to catch this on TV. Campy sequel to " Mr. Roberts" starring Robert
Walker Jr. ,Walter Mathau and Burl Ives and Millie Perkins ( serious crush) I'm the only person on Earth who
owned this on Blue Ray. It doesn't hold up to when I was a kid, but still love it.
4) The Great Race ( Comedy,1965) Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, Natalie Wood ( serious crush!). This
movie was introduced to me by my dad. My kids love it as will my grandkids.
This movie is just great fun. Also contains, without question, the greatest pie
fight scene in cinematic history. Google " Great Race pie fight"- hilarious!
5) The Getaway (action,1972) Steve McQueen, Ali Macgraw ( serious crush). Bank robbers on the
run with tons of gunfire, sexual tension. If you don't think Steve McQueen is
the coolest due on the big screen, you're either a Paul Newman fan or
delusional
6) Man's Favorite Sport (comedy,1964) Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss( serious crush!). A sporting
goods and fishing author is forced by his publisher to represent them in a large
fishing contest....but he's never even fished. Campy, 60's movie. I love this
one....and did I mention Paula Prentiss...huge crush
7) Phantasm ( horror,1979) "BOY!!!!!!"
8) Shakiest Gun in the West ( comedy,1968) Don knots and a nervous old West
dentist turned gunfighter. Barbara Rhoades ( serious crush) is great! Childhood fav still funny as hell.
9) The Vanishing ( thriller,1988) Dutch film!!! ( Not the crappy remake). About
disappearance of young Dutch woman at a Hwy rest stop and her lover's
obsessive search fro her. Heart wrenching film...I haven't seen it in 20 years
but it still haunts me. Don't mistake this with the Kieffer Sutherland remake.
10) Return of the Living Dead ( comedy,1985) Black comedy in Living Dead
setting. Hilarious movie.Even funnier than it tries to be.

I know a lot of these are 60s-70s...but they are fantastic movies, at least I think
so. I'd like to see some of your obscure, or off the radar movies that you think are classics but we've likely not seen.

#4, 5, 8 and 9.

Don Knotts movie I remember the best and also loved "The Ghost and Mr Chicken" Lots of laughs as a kid. "attaboy Luther"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzZ0XO4ly1g

I remember "The Vanishing" too and it still creeps me out as well. Also watched the Keiffer version with my wife and told her the original Dutch version was much better.

Well, I came up with Seventeen:
 

I really enjoyed all of these and they are in my permanent DVD collection:

Clay Pigeons
Leon: The Professional
Prince of the City
The Lost Battalion
Zulu Dawn
Reign of Fire
Ravenous
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Dead Man
The Jack Bull
Tom Horn
First Men in the Moon
Nobody's Fool
Zelig
The World's Fastest Indian
Talent for the Game
Bingo Long and the Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings

Panic in the Streets (1950) -- Elia Kazan film about the hunt for a man with the plague in New Orleans. Jack Palance's first film

Odd Man Out (1948) Carol Reed Irish thriller about a mortally wounded IRA rebel (James Mason) trying to evade the police in winter Belfast

Who Done It (1941) One of Abbot and Costello best films, as script writers pretending to be detectives in a murder mystery. They think if they can solve the murder, it will help sell their script. Tightly written and with their best gags.

Hmm. Ten might be a tall task, but here goes. All of these are highly recommended.

Charade (1963). dir. Stanley Donen, starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Mathau, George Kennedy and James Coburn. A lively homage to the Hitchcock suspense-thriller. One of my favorite movies of the early 60s.

Der Untergang (2004). Downfall in English. dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel, starring the great Bruno Ganz, Ulrich Matthes, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Corinna Harfouch. The final days of Adolf Hitler in the Wolf's Den, from the perspective of his secretary Traudl Junge. Ganz deserved an Oscar nomination for his performance.

The Night of the Hunter (1955). dir. Charles Laughton, starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish and Peter Graves. Initially, this film was panned by critics, and the negative press was so injurious to Charles Laughton that he never directed again. Now it's consider a classic. One of Mitchum's greatest, most unnerving performances.

The Asphalt Jungle (1950). dir. John Huston, starring Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe, and the one of the first credited performances by Marilyn Monroe. Classic noir film. I've been petitioning Warner Brothers to release this film on Blu-ray through their Warner Archives Collection. It deserves to be in any classic film enthusiast's library.

The Public Enemy (1931). dir. William A. Wellman, starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow. Initially cast in the lesser role of Matt Doyle, director Wellman saw one of Cagney's stage performances, and knew he was better fit for the Tom Power lead role; it served as a career breakthrough for Cagney. Silent film star Louise Brooks was cast to play the lead female part of Gwen Allen, but she refused. It fell to a then 20 year old Jean Harlow. While she'd not yet perfected her craft as an actress, "Baby's" screen presence was already undeniable. Together with Edward G. Robinson's Little Caesar, The Public Enemy set the blueprint for prohibition era gangster movies.

Paths of Glory (1957). dir. Stanley Kubrick, starring Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker and Adolphe Menjou. Kubrick's fourth feature is an unnerving anti-war film set in the trenches of World War I. Douglas, a French army colonel, is forced to defend his men against charges of cowardice, and refusal to obey orders, when they retreat rather than attempt a suicidal rush of a German fortification.

Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993). dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, starring Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Emmanuelle Riva, Julie Delpy. The first film in Polish auteur Kieślowski's Three Colors trilogy, Blue is a powerful drama about a woman who is forced to go on after surviving a car crash that takes the life of her husband, a world renowned composer, and her young daughter. For anybody who has never experienced Kieślowski's work before, this is a great starting point. His work of light, and color, is incredibly poetic. Watching a Kieślowski film makes you shake your head when contemplating the crap coming out of Hollywood now.

I'll think up three more for later today. Right now, I need some sleep. :p

In no particular order:

Twelve O'clock High (1949) about US Army Air Force bomber crews in England during World War II.

Zulu (1964) set after the aforementioned Zulu Dawn (but made 15 years earlier) covers the Battle of Rourke's Drift.

61* (2001) one of the best baseball movies ever, IMHO, it is about the race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris to break Babe Ruth's single season home run record.

Scott - I really love Twelve O'clock High & 61*, but prefer Zulu Dawn to a very good Zulu.

10 I know you've never heard of, but I love...

#10 2 LDK
#9 Irreversible
#8 Hell Ride
#7 Battle Royale
#6 Thirst
#5 El Topo
#4 Coffee & Cigarettes
#3 Waking Life
#2 Down By Law
#1 The Good, The Bad, and The Weird

The Wraith - Story about a guy killed in a street racing accident caused by the local rejects. Who then comes back as a sort of ghost/spirit of vengeance who's either partly a car that when it's hit or blown up basically vaporizes and recondenses back into a car. The car is the Dodge Viper prototype.

Shogun assassin - The shoguns head executioner gets too powerful and ninjas are sent to kill him but all they manage is to kill his wife. The shogun orders him to submit or kill himself, but he decides to become an assassin, bringing his small child with him. He gets more and more unkempt as the movie goes on, and the best acting is from the kid who never even blinks during the fight scenes which is most of the movie.
It's actually cut down from a series of six Japanese movies.

Deathrace 2000 - the original one from the 70's Probably not in the category of ones you've never heard of, but fairly far outside the mainstream. And an interesting commentary about violence in sports. Complete with a Cosellish character.

Steve B

[QUOTE=irv;1531416]#4, 5, 8 and 9.

Don Knotts movie I remember the best and also loved "The Ghost and Mr Chicken" Lots of laughs as a kid. "attaboy Luther"

" And they even used Bon Ami"

Heres a movie many people never heard of that i liked


Swimming with sharks, is a dark comedy kevin spacey

The Professional and Zelig are two of my favorites. Everybody likes Annie Hall so much, and I do too, but there are about 15 or 20 other Woody Allen movies that I think are even better. Take the Money and Run is maybe the funniest movie I've ever seen.

I've seen every one of these. Charade is a damn masterpiece, as is Paths of Glory and pretty much everything else by Stanley Kubrick. I'm amazed by how few people who have seen the Trois Couleurs films seem to think Blanc is the best. It's not even close for me.

Bill, I adore CHARADE as well. In particular, I love the scene when Audrey Hepburn, her friend and little son rush to visit Monsieur Felix, the honest stamp dealer, who knew there must have been some mistake when he was able to trade a jumbo packet of stamps worth 10 francs to the little boy for "only three" stamps. I can watch that scene a dozen times, as Monsieur Felix lovingly describes those rare priceless stamps in words that mirror how I feel about the elite of my own baseball card and coin collection.:D

I sincerely hope and pray you're able to get away from "the knife", and back on with your life, my friend.

Best wishes and regards, Brian Powell

My own top 10 list of at least moderately obscure films:

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Romania)
2. Raise the Red Lantern (China)
3. The Hudsucker Proxy (USA)
4. Wages of Fear (France)
5. Cinema Paradiso (Italy)
6. The Conversation (USA)
7. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Mexico)
8. Cyrano de Bergerac (1990 version) (France)
9. Take the Money and Run (USA)
10. Happiness (USA)

This stuff will change your life.

Glenn, I guess, for me, Bleu is my favorite because of Juliette Binoche. I absolutely adore her. Fantastic actress, and when she was younger, few women in the world were more beautiful. I'll watch anything she's in. She could fart "La Marseillaise" and I would be riveted. :p

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...6e44f74af7.jpg
I have a real thing for French women. Catherine Deneuve was just jaw droppingly beautiful. Laetitia Casta still has "it". And now, it's Léa Seydoux, Melanie Laurent and Eva Green doing France proud. But Juliette's face was drawn by the finger of God. And he gave her a pair of legs to die for. Juliette and Sophie Marceau are my favorites.

Wages of Fear is high on my to-watch list. I've been on a singular mission to build my collection, and the movies have been coming in so fast, there's no way I could keep up. Henri-Georges Clouzot did Diabolique, too. Both classics, imo.

Brian, I love the scene with the guignol. It immediately took me back to high school French class. I love everything about that film. Stanley Donen did a masterful job. And, I will like anything Cary Grant or Audrey Hepburn are in. They were so good together.

Thank you for the well wishes. I'm hanging in there. Going a tad stir crazy, perhaps, but still breathing! :)

Ah yes...euthanasia day at the geriatrics ward.

What About Bob?

Movies
 

Spy Who Came In from the Cold ( Richard Burton)
Hard Times (Bronson)
10 Little Indians
Battle Of the Bulge
American Crime (talk about a WILD flick)
American Werewolf In London
Requiem for A heavyweight
The Cinncinnatii Kid (McQueen)
Brian`s Song
Roman Holiday
These are just a few of the movies I`ll stop at every time while sifting through the listings. Couple others ,love the black and white, Billy Bud, One Eyed Jacks, Christmas Carol, and THE Drive In King------ Billy Jack !

Yeah, Billy Jack was intense when I was 10. Unfortunately it doesn't hold up now and for me its brutal to watch. Still love Coven's " One Tine Soldier" though

Here's my list of ten lesser-known favorites (in no particular order, since I like 'em all) :):

Gallipoli
Memento
Breaker Morant
Quiz Show
Dominick and Eugene
Thirteen Days
Blow Out
Rounders
Papillon
The Elephant Man

Ok, so my last three:

The Big Sleep (1946). dir. Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. Warner Brothers just released a fabulous blu-ray of this film through their Warner Archive Collection. This is the second of four films that Bogie and Bacall did together; great noir with an equally interesting back story. The film was shot in 1944/part of 1945, and then shelved for the better part of a year. The Great War had just ended, and Jack Warner made the decision that the studio needed to push all their war-centric films to the theater while interest in the subject matter was still high. Based on some input received by Lauren Bacall's agent, several scenes were re-shot, giving Bacall more up close shots, and capturing the same acerbic wit she demonstrated in her first film (and first pairing with Bogart, To Have and Have Not). While her first film had been a major success, and critics had lauded her as a great actress, her followup, Confidential Agent (with Charles Boyer) was a box office bomb; the same critics that gushed about her ability, and screen presence, openly questioned if Bacall could act at all. Fortunately for the studio, and Bacall, the redone scenes improved upon an already good film, and created a cinematic classic.

Au revoir les enfants (1987). dir. Louis Malle, starring Gaspard Manesse, and Raphael Fejtö. This is a story focusing on two young boys living in a Catholic boarding school in Nazi-occupied France towards the end of World War II. Beautifully directed, and deeply personal, it would be one of the final films directed by the French master. Highly recommended!

Niagara (1953). dir. Henry Hathaway, starring Joseph Cotten and Marilyn Monroe. An atypical noir film, shot in glorious three-strip technicolor. Marilyn Monroe shines here as the archetypal femme fatale, flourishing with the opportunity to play something other than the stereotypical dumb blonde. Though critics at the time were not impressed with the acting in the film, focusing instead on the beauty of the falls, and Monroe's ample curves, I think both leads are quite convincing. Cotten, known for his performances in such heavyweight films as The Third Man, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, is electric as the paranoid husband. And Monroe, demonstrating subtle nuances to her acting at times, wields her sexuality with deadly precision. I've always found it sad that she was so limited, early in her career, in the kinds of roles she was given. That was Twentieth Century Fox, and the media, telling her what her "place" was in the grand scheme of things. This is a big reason why she fought to create her own production company. Niagara hinted at what she was capable of. Of course, it would be a few more years until Marilyn hit her stride as an actress, perfecting her comedic timing in Some Like it Hot.

Here's a few more (that have not be mentioned yet):

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Robin and Marian (1976)
Cannery Row (1982)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Quigley Down Under (1990)
Se7en (1995)
The Life of David Gale (2003)
Collateral (2004)
Man on Fire (2004)
Untraceable (2008)


These are all G-R-E-A-T - worth spending your time on IMO - check them out!


.

Well, Would you Believe Eighteen?
 

I tried to get it down to only 10 movies I thought were mostly unknown, but could not get lower than eighteen...all of which I love and highly recommend.

Leon: The Professional
Prince of the City
The Lost Battalion
Zulu Dawn
Reign of Fire
Ravenous
Dead Man
Tom Horn
Zelig
Bingo Long and the Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
61*
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Robin and Marian
Cannery Row
The Life of David Gale
Being There
The Prestige
Cool Hand Luke






There are others, of course, that I also cherish, but they are much more well known.

Being an old Sailor, I thought I would mention a few Navy flicks I like.
In no Particular order.

1. The Last Detail (underrated Jack Nicholson Movie.

2. In Harms way (John Wayne)

3. The Enemy Below (Robert Mitchum)

4. Corvette K-225 (Randolph Scott)

5. They were Expendable (Another John Wayne)

It is a great "movie" but unfortunately nowhere close to historically accurate. That bothers me when something is portrayed as historical and is almost completely fictional. I talked to Paul Blair and Clete Boyer about the movie and both guys thought it was terrible because it was so far off of reality. In fact, Boyer was downright mad by the time he got done telling me all the things he didn't like about it.

One of my favorite movies of all time. I like when justice is served. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4kLizDXLY0

As a big fan of both the movie and of Boyer, I would be interested if you could share specifically what Clete was mad about.

Some great lists so far. Not sure about the "probably never heard of aspect", as I've heard (or seen) many of the movies from many of the lists, but I'm a movie junkie so there's that. Also the 10-ish list below contains some I'm sure many have heard of, but 1 or 2 obscure ones. Hey, they're just off the top of my head. BUT, none of the ones below have been mentioned yet. :) We might need to start breaking these down by decade. :eek:

Snatch - Ya like daags?
The Commitments - I'm black and I'm proud.
Fight Club - Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.
It Happened One Night - Lessons on how to hitchhike.
King of Hearts - Which crazy world would you rather live in?
King of Comedy - Robert DeNiro and Jerry Lewis?
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World / Rat Race (a remake that's not a remake) - Zany slapstick anyone?
Life is Beautiful - Buon giorno, Principessa! ("No spiders and Visigoths allowed.")
Barry Lyndon, Lolita, or almost anything by Kubrick
Tapeheads - "But first, I'm going to need to you do something for me... on spec."
Repo Man - "let's go do some crimes. Yeah. Let's go get sushi and not pay."

Great movie, IMO. Monroe was VERY underrated and Cotten is one of the greats. I think it was only recently that this movie became available (last 4-5 years?).

Cool Hand Luke ??? How is that an unknown? That's a CLASSIC.

Sleeper Movies
 

Just came across another "somewhat" hidden gem last nite, Glen Gary Glen Ross. Excellent cast, always been an Ed Harris fan, with a classic Baldwin pep talk scene. The entire movie is shot in only 3 or 4 different places and just seems to touch a nerve about the working man and being under the gun. Give it a chance if you can !

True - but I'd bet a lot of you youngsters never saw it.

I'm not into the old B&W movies or foreign films. My go-to timeframe is the late 90's/early 2000's. Here's 10 of my favorites from then that I consider somewhat obscure:

1. Grosse Pointe Blank
2. Zero Effect
3. Falling Down
4. Mumford
5. Permanent Midnight
6. Bulworth
7. Go
8. Stigmata
9. The Thirteenth Floor
10. Standing in the Shadows of Motown

Sweatiest movie of all time. :D

"Just shakin' the bush, boss"

Stigmata is a great movie! Forgot I lent that to someone?

Another movie I just watched the other night, which I forgot about, was Stir of Echos. Seen that years ago and forgot how good it was.

Taylor, you beat me to most of my favorites:
Fight Club
Snatch
King of Hearts
Repo Man

Great thread. Brings back some great memories. I saw The Ghost and Mr Chicken in the theater when I was a kid. And I watched Charade with my mom. It was one of her favorites, along with Rear Window.

Speaking of mom, I remember watching a really bad '50s horror movie with her. I think it was called "The Thing That Couldn't Die." It scarred the hell out of me (I was seven or eight). Years later I saw the movie being ridiculed on Mystery Science Theater. Now that was a great show....but that's a topic for another thread.

PS- When you say almost anything by Kubrick, I have to mention Clockwork Orange, though it is hardly obscure.

Prisoners is a movie that will affect your life if you let it.

VERY disturbing!


.

Have watched a lot of movies so have seen many on these lists. Hard to come up with 'never heard of' stuff...

A couple already listed...
1) The World's Fastest Indian
2) Grosse Pointe Blank

A few unlisted...
3) Croupier
4) The Warriors
5) Run Silent, Run Deep
6) Streets of Fire
7) The Professionals - B Lancaster (not to be confused with the also excellent movie Leon: The Professional)

A couple most have probably heard of...
8) Silverado
9) Tombstone

Lastly...
10) just about any movie by the Coen brothers (e.g. Blood Simple, Fargo, Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, etc)

Prince of the City was a great flick that never seemed to get the due that it deserved.

Ex Machina is a film from 2015 that I found compelling and one that should've made a few lists and not one person that I've ever mentioned it to has heard of it, let alone seen it. Oh, and Alicia Vikander has a significant role in it, too...

Another superlative film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975). dir. Chantal Ackerman. Starring Delphine Seyrig.

I found this film enthralling, but I'm betting 99.9% of today's movie goers would walk out on the film before it finished. It requires an extraordinary level of patience.

Try watching Last Year At Marienbad, although it does have a nifty card trick that gets repeated a few times. (Yes, I made it through it all).

http://www.madmind.de/wp-content/upl...ollerball2.jpg

http://www.cinefamily.org/images/ema...ky_600_415.jpg

I will eventually. It's on my to watch list. But I need to get a hold of a Criterion blu-ray of it, and it's OOP. So, it will cost me about a C Note to get it. That will come after the Barnes & Noble sale in July.

Should we consider "To Kill a Mockingbird" unknown?

Probably not, but I think it deserves a mention.

Well we sure did. Our dad had us watch that when we were young(er). I to this day still watch it every once in a while :)

Good luck

Ten from my library
 

How many have you seen?

Breaking the Waves
Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer
Spanking the Monkey
Caught (1996)
Bound(1996)
Mister Foe
The Paperboy
Secretary(2002)
Monsieur Hire
Ghost Dog

Sean, if To Kill a Mockingbird (the novel, or the film) are "unknown", then I weep for society.