Director : Hal Ashby

Writer(s) : Colin Higgins

Genre : Comedy, Romance

Cast : Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner, Ellen Geer, Eric Christmas, G. Wood, Judy Engles, Shari Summers, Tom Skerritt, Susan Madigan, Ray K. Goman, Gordon Devol, Harvey Brumfield

Summary : A young man with a death wish and a 79-year-old high on life find love in Hal Ashby’s cult black comedy. Deadpan rich boy Harold (Bud Cort) keeps staging elaborate suicide tableaux to get the attention of his mother (Vivian Pickles), but she keeps planning his brilliant future for him instead. Obsessed with the trappings of death, Harold freaks out his blind dates, modifies his new sports car to look like a mini-hearse, and attends funerals, where he meets the spirited Maude (Ruth Gordon). An eccentric to the core, Maude lives exactly as she pleases, with avid collecting and nude modeling among her many pursuits. To the disgust of Harold’s relatives and the befuddlement of Harold’s shrink, Harold falls in love with her. As lilting Cat Stevens tunes play on the soundtrack, Maude teaches Harold a valuable lesson about making the most of his time on earth.

Director : Otto Preminger

Writer(s) : John D. Voelker, Wendell Mayes

Genre : Crime, Drama, Mystery

Cast : James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O’Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, George C. Scott, Orson Bean, Russ Brown, Murray Hamilton, Brooks West, Ken Lynch, John Qualen, Howard McNear, Alexander Campbell

Summary : Based on the best-selling novel by Robert Traver (the pseudonym for Michigan Supreme Court justice John D. Voelker), Anatomy of a Murder stars James Stewart as seat-of-the-pants Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler. Through the intervention of his alcoholic mentor, Parnell McCarthy (Arthur O’Connell), Biegler accepts the case of one Lt. Manion (Ben Gazzara), an unlovable lout who has murdered a local bar owner. Manion admits that he committed the crime, citing as his motive the victim’s rape of the alluring Mrs. Manion (Lee Remick). Faced with the formidable opposition of big-city prosecutor Claude Dancer (George C. Scott), Biegler hopes to win freedom for his client by using as his defense the argument of “irresistible impulse.” Also featured in the cast is Eve Arden as Biegler’s sardonic secretary, Katherine Grant as the woman who inherits the dead man’s business, and Joseph N. Welch — who in real life was the defense attorney in the Army-McCarthy hearings — as the ever-patient judge. The progressive-jazz musical score is provided by Duke Ellington, who also appears in a brief scene. Producer/director Otto Preminger once more pushed the envelope in Anatomy of a Murder by utilizing technical terminology referring to sexual penetration, which up until 1959 was a cinematic no-no. Contrary to popular belief, Preminger was not merely being faithful to the novel; most of the banter about “panties” and “semen,” not to mention the 11-hour courtroom revelation, was invented for the film. Anatomy of a Murder was filmed on location in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Director : Alfred Hitchcock

Writer(s) : Ben Hecht

Genre : Drama, Film-Noir, Romance, Thriller

Cast : Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin, Reinhold Schünzel, Moroni Olsen, Ivan Triesault, Alex Minotis, Wally Brown, Charles Mendl, Ricardo Costa, Eberhard Krumschmidt, Fay Baker

Summary : Because her father was a German spy who has committed suicide in prison, Government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman to become an undercover agent. She has fallen in love with Devlin and is trying to repay her father’s moral debt to America, the country she loves and feels her father has betrayed. Her assignment in Rio de Janeiro involves resuming an acquaintance with a wealthy German businessman, Alexander Sebastian, who has been attracted to her. She is to infiltrate his circle of German scientists. Against the wishes of his mother, Sebastian asks Alicia to marry him. She accepts, and they marry, though she is disappointed when Devlin raises no objections. After their marriage, Alicia explores the Sebastian mansion, but finds the wine cellar is locked. Devlin tells Alicia to invite him to a party at Sebastian’s mansion. She is to take the key to the wine cellar from Sebastian’s key ring without his knowing it. At the party, Devlin and Alicia investigate the wine cellar, where the find some bottles of sand. When Sebasian finds them together in the wine cellar, they convince him they are having a tryst. Noticing that the key was missing and then returned, Sebastian suspects Alicia of being a U.S. spy and his mother plots to eliminate her because she has become a woman who knows too much.