Little Known Classics
by ksneath | created - 12 Jul 2011 | updated - 02 Aug 2017 | PublicA collection of quality classic films that, for one reason or another, have not received a lot of attention (all of these have less than 2000 votes at the time of writing, many under 1000). If you enjoy a good classic and have not seen these, they are all very much recommended for viewing!
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1. 36 Hours (1964)
Approved | 115 min | Thriller, War
Germans kidnap an American Major and try to convince him that World War II is over so they can get details about the Allied invasion of Europe out of him.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Taylor, Werner Peters
Votes: 4,760
2. A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
Approved | 95 min | Western
Comedy western in which a traveler bets more money than he can afford in a poker game, and unusual events follow.
Director: Fielder Cook | Stars: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Paul Ford
Votes: 4,652
3. Attack (1956)
Approved | 107 min | Action, Drama, War
In 1944, an American Infantry company sets up an artillery observation post, but tensions between Captain Cooney and Lieutenant Costa run high.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Jack Palance, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert, Robert Strauss
Votes: 5,836
4. Billy Budd (1962)
Approved | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, War
When a kind-hearted sailor is made to join an English vessel at war, he finds himself caught between devotion to his crew mates and obedience to their hated, cruel master-at-arms.
Director: Peter Ustinov | Stars: Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Rogers
Votes: 4,887
5. Caged (1950)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A gentle, naive, pregnant 19-year-old widow is slowly, inexorably ground down by the hardened criminals, sadistic guards, and matron at a woman's prison. Will she be the same person when her sentence is up?
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson
Votes: 4,715
6. Carbine Williams (1952)
Unrated | 92 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in World War II.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Hagen, Wendell Corey, Carl Benton Reid
Votes: 2,098
7. Counsellor at Law (1933)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Drama
A successful attorney has his Jewish heritage and poverty-stricken background brought home to him when he learns that his wife has been unfaithful.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Isabel Jewell
Votes: 1,508
8. Dangerous Crossing (1953)
Approved | 75 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
When a beautiful bride boards an ocean liner with her new husband, he goes into hiding, and she becomes the target of a murder conspiracy.
Director: Joseph M. Newman | Stars: Jeanne Crain, Michael Rennie, Max Showalter, Carl Betz
Votes: 2,436
9. Easy Living (1937)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
When a wealthy banker throws his wife's expensive fur coat off a roof and it lands on the head of a stenographer, everyone assumes she is his mistress and has access to his millions.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Luis Alberni
Votes: 4,169
10. Evelyn Prentice (1934)
Passed | 79 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
The neglected wife of a high profile attorney dallies with a unscrupulous womanizer and finds herself involved in blackmail and murder.
Director: William K. Howard | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Una Merkel, Rosalind Russell
Votes: 1,867
11. Executive Suite (1954)
Passed | 104 min | Drama, Romance
When the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice presidents vie to see who will replace him.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Fredric March
Votes: 4,587
12. Face of a Fugitive (1959)
Approved | 81 min | Drama, Western
A robber who is falsely accused of murdering a deputy sheriff tries to start a new life in a border town near Mexico, but his past catches up with him.
Director: Paul Wendkos | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Lin McCarthy, Dorothy Green, Alan Baxter
Votes: 926
13. The Good Fairy (1935)
Approved | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
A naive girl just out of a cloistered orphanage finds that being a 'good fairy' to strangers makes life awfully complicated.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen
Votes: 1,618
14. Grand Slam (1967)
Not Rated | 121 min | Crime, Drama
To pull off a daring diamond heist in Rio during Carnival, a retired schoolteacher hires four professionals who must contend with a revolutionary alarm system and a taciturn secretary.
Director: Giuliano Montaldo | Stars: Janet Leigh, Robert Hoffmann, Klaus Kinski, Riccardo Cucciolla
Votes: 1,385
15. Gun the Man Down (1956)
Passed | 76 min | Western
Two bank robbers abandon their wounded partner to the posse and run with the loot but their partner, after serving time in prison, seeks revenge.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: James Arness, Angie Dickinson, Robert J. Wilke, Emile Meyer
Votes: 783
16. House of Strangers (1949)
Approved | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After years in prison, Max promises revenge on his brothers for their betrayal. His lover Irene and memories of his past yield him a broader perspective.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Luther Adler
Votes: 4,188
17. Hangover Square (1945)
Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A promising classical musician finds his life poisoned by a music hall dancer -- and by the strange gaps in his memory.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Glenn Langan
Votes: 4,139
18. Damn the Defiant! (1962)
Approved | 101 min | Action, Drama, History
On the H.M.S. Defiant, during the French Revolutionary War, fair Captain Crawford is locked in a battle of wills against his cruel second-in-command Lieutenant Scott-Padget, whose heavy-handed command style pushes the crew to mutiny.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Maurice Denham, Nigel Stock
Votes: 3,034
19. Jubal (1956)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A new foreman rejects the sexual advances of a frustrated rancher's wife, which leads to conflicts that could get him killed.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Valerie French
Votes: 4,395
20. Love Crazy (1941)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
A wife suspecting infidelity starts divorce proceedings, so the husband pretends to be insane in order to delay the divorce and clear up the misunderstanding.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick, Jack Carson
Votes: 3,436
21. Lured (1947)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
British police are after a serial killer who lures his female victims through newspaper personal ads and sends cryptic poem clues to the cops.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn, Boris Karloff
Votes: 4,840
22. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, Romance
An elderly couple are forced to live hundreds of miles apart when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 9,515
23. Objective, Burma! (1945)
Approved | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A platoon of special ops are tasked to parachute into the remote Burmese jungle and destroy a strategic Japanese radar station, but getting out isn't as easy.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Errol Flynn, James Brown, William Prince, George Tobias
Votes: 5,548
24. Pork Chop Hill (1959)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, War
During the Korean War peace talks, U.S. troops fight to retake a hill from the Communist Chinese forces.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard
Votes: 5,276 | Gross: $4.02M
25. Rocky Mountain (1950)
Passed | 83 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In California during the Civil War, a Confederate patrol and a Union troop must set their differences aside in order to survive a Shoshone attack.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Errol Flynn, Patrice Wymore, Scott Forbes, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
Votes: 1,317
26. Scandal Sheet (1952)
Passed | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The editor of an exploitation newspaper commits a murder and assigns his protégé to investigate hoping to divert attention away from himself.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John Derek, Donna Reed, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp
Votes: 3,480
27. Sudden Fear (1952)
Approved | 110 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
After an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.
Director: David Miller | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 7,349
28. The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)
Passed | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After greedy men have Edmond Dantes unjustly imprisoned for 20 years for innocently delivering a letter entrusted to him, he escapes to get his revenge on them.
Director: Rowland V. Lee | Stars: Robert Donat, Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer
Votes: 3,241
29. The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
Passed | 89 min | Drama, Western
In the western frontier town of Cross Creek, storekeeper George Temple is a polite and soft spoken man with a secret past. When 3 bank robbers on the lam stop in town to change horses, George's past comes back to haunt him.
Director: Russell Rouse | Stars: Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 3,579
30. The House on 92nd Street (1945)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Bill Dietrich becomes a double agent for the F.B.I. in a German spy ring.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 3,295
31. The Mating Season (1951)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Ellen McNulty loses her hamburger joint and goes to see her son, who marries a socialite at the same time. Due to her modest background and a case of mistaken identity, Ellen poses as the newlyweds' cook.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 1,970
32. The More the Merrier (1943)
Passed | 104 min | Comedy
During the World War II housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Richard Gaines
Votes: 7,479
33. The Stalking Moon (1968)
G | 109 min | Drama, Western
U.S. Army soldiers round up a group of Apache, mostly women and children. Surprisingly, they find among them a white woman and her half-Apache son.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, Eva Marie Saint, Robert Forster, Noland Clay
Votes: 3,180
34. The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
Approved | 123 min | Comedy, Drama
In post-WWII Japan, an American captain is brought in to help build a school, but the locals want a teahouse instead.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Machiko Kyô, Eddie Albert
Votes: 3,776
35. The Tin Star (1957)
Approved | 93 min | Western
A cynical former sheriff turned bounty hunter helps a young, recently appointed acting sheriff with his advice, his experience and his gun.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer, Michel Ray
Votes: 6,563
36. The Violent Men (1955)
Approved | 96 min | Western
A bitter land dispute causes a Civil War veteran to take extreme action.
Director: Rudolph Maté | Stars: Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Dianne Foster
Votes: 3,344
37. The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Drama
A promising lawyer tries to handle his social and professional problems while climbing the ranks in Philadelphia.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith
Votes: 4,274
38. Thieves' Highway (1949)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
A war veteran turned truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence
Votes: 6,869
39. Time Limit (1957)
Approved | 96 min | Drama, War
During the Korean War former prisoner of war, Major Harry Cargill admits to having collaborated with the enemy but military investigator Colonel William Edwards wants the details.
Director: Karl Malden | Stars: Richard Widmark, Richard Basehart, Dolores Michaels, June Lockhart
Votes: 1,253
40. Tribute to a Bad Man (1956)
Passed | 95 min | Drama, Romance, Western
With no law within 200 miles horse rancher Jeremy Rodak runs his spread with an iron hand and deals with rustlers even more ruthlessly.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: James Cagney, Don Dubbins, Stephen McNally, Irene Papas
Votes: 1,724
41. Tunes of Glory (1960)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama
After World War II, a Highland Regiment's acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Susannah York, Dennis Price
Votes: 4,561
42. Westward the Women (1951)
Passed | 118 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A trail guide escorts a group of women from Chicago to California to marry men that have recently begun settling there.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel, Hope Emerson, John McIntire
Votes: 3,804
43. The Gazebo (1959)
Passed | 100 min | Comedy, Thriller
TV writer Elliott Nash buries something under the new gazebo in his suburban backyard. But the nervous man can't let it rest there.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner, John McGiver
Votes: 2,224
44. Five Star Final (1931)
Not Rated | 89 min | Crime, Drama
The City Editor of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case... with tragic results.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, Anthony Bushell
Votes: 2,531
45. It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
Passed | 116 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Two homeless men move into a mansion while its owners are wintering in the South.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles, Victor Moore
Votes: 6,299
46. Hangmen Also Die! (1943)
Passed | 134 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
After the German administrator of Czechoslovakia is shot, his assassin tries to elude the Gestapo and struggles with his impulse to give himself up as hostages are executed.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 6,391
47. 99 River Street (1953)
Not Rated | 83 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A former boxer turned cab driver has to hide from the police when his badgering wife is murdered by the jewel thief she was having an affair with.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John Payne, Evelyn Keyes, Brad Dexter, Frank Faylen
Votes: 3,439
48. The Catered Affair (1956)
Approved | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When Jane tells her parents that she is getting married to Ralph Halloran, her mother Agnes starts planning an elaborate wedding, even though Jane does not wish it.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald
Votes: 3,827
49. Romance on the High Seas (1948)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Musical, Mystery
Romantic misunderstandings abound when spouses suspect each other of being unfaithful, and a nightclub singer takes a cruise under a false identity.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Doris Day, Don DeFore
Votes: 2,739
50. Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
Passed | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith
Votes: 4,745
51. 13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Approved | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When spy chief Bob Sharkey finds out one of his agents-in-training is actually a Nazi double agent, his strategic decision not to arrest him results in tragedy.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Cagney, Annabella, Richard Conte, Frank Latimore
Votes: 3,067
52. Each Dawn I Die (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A corrupt D.A. (Thurston Hall) with political ambitions is angered by news stories implicating him in criminal activity and decides to frame the reporter (James Cagney) for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan, George Bancroft
Votes: 3,734
53. Island in the Sky (1953)
Approved | 109 min | Adventure, Drama
A C-47 transport plane, named the Corsair, makes a forced landing in the frozen wastes of Quebec, and the plane's pilot, Captain Dooley, must keep his men alive in deadly conditions while waiting for rescue.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: John Wayne, Lloyd Nolan, Walter Abel, James Arness
Votes: 3,784
54. All My Sons (1948)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir
During WW2, industrialist Joe Keller commits a crime and frames his business partner Herbert Deever but years later his sin comes back to haunt him when Joe's son plans to marry Deever's daughter.
Director: Irving Reis | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Mady Christians, Louisa Horton
Votes: 2,410
55. Command Decision (1948)
Passed | 112 min | Action, Drama, War
Army generals struggle with the decision to prioritize bombing the German factories producing new jet fighters over the extremely high casualties the mission will cost.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy
Votes: 2,168
56. The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Mystery
A wealthy mystery writer uses her doctor ex-husband's non-payment of alimony to coerce him into a reconciliation.
Director: Stephen Roberts | Stars: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Blore
Votes: 2,193
57. The Black Room (1935)
Passed | 68 min | Horror
Ignoring an ancient prophecy, evil brother Gregor seeks to maintain his feudal power on his his Tyrolean estate by murdering and impersonating his benevolent younger twin.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Boris Karloff, Marian Marsh, Robert Allen, Thurston Hall
Votes: 2,255
58. The D.I. (1957)
106 min | Drama
A no-nonsense Drill Instructor is convinced that he can make a recruit, that is haunted by his family combat history and who falters under pressure, into a Marine.
Director: Jack Webb | Stars: Jack Webb, Don Dubbins, Jackie Loughery, Lin McCarthy
Votes: 1,036
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