the body snatcher (1945)

"It's like Burke and Hare all over again."
1930's Edinburgh and a poor medical student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) becomes an assistant to Dr MacFarlane (Henry Daniell), and slowly becomes aware where the good Dr gets his bodies from for his disection classes: friendly cabman John Gray (Boris Karloff).
A fine horror, which also features Bela Lugosi as a creepy servant within the Dr's household.

the curse of the cat people (1944)

"I wish for a friend."
A lonely young girl, Amy (Ann Carter), has two friends, an imaginary one in ghost of her father's dead first wife Irena (Simone Simon), and Julia Farren (Julia Dean), a reclusive actress. She builds a fantasy world around them, but her father doesn't like her associating with Irena.
A beautifully realised psychological drama.

the haunting (1963)

"Can't you feel it? It's alive... watching."
A Dr (Richard Johnson) is engaged in research into the existance of ghosts at Hill House, a masion with a history of deadly events. Accompanied by a mixed bag of people including a clairvoyant and a psychic, they get sucked into something that is much bigger than they can deal with.
Wise produces a film that develops a slow but inevitable dread within the viewer, making excellent use of the light and shadow that comes with black and white film.

three secrets (1950)

"You know what he said to me? That I wasn't a woman."
When a newspaper reveals that the only survivor of a plane crash was a five year old adopted boy, three disperate women start to wonder if the child could be theirs. Each in turn flashes back to the circumstances that led to them giving up their son and journey to the crash site to find the truth.
An absorbing melodrama packed with name actors, including, Eleanor Parker Patricia Neal & Ruth Roman.

the day the earth stood still (1951)

"I won't resort to threats, Mr. Harley. I merely tell you the future of your planet is at stake."
A spaceship lands in Washington, DC and the lone alien, Klaatu (Michael Rennie) exits to impart a message to
the united nations, but is shot by a twitchy soldier. Gort, a robot, appears to save him, melting the soldiers weapons and tank in the process. The wounded alien orders a halt to the carnage and having talked to the politicians gets nowhere. So he escapes to travel incogneto to learn about people and how to impart his important message. To do so he rents a room with a family who eventually start to suspect he is not who he says he is. When confronted he tells them that Gort is a super-robot invented to keep peace in the galaxy, and will destroy the earth if provoked. But how is he going to deliver his message to the whole world at the same time.
A classic cold-war sci-fi where an alien arrives to try and protect people from themselves.