Psycho, released in 1960 by Paramount Pictures; directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire Ted Knight, Vaughn Taylor, John Anderson, and Simon Oakland. A Phoenix secretary is fed up with the way life has treated her. She meets her lover for lunch breaks and they cannot get married because he has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday afternoon, she is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Instead she takes the money and leaves town, heading for her lover's store in California. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into the Bates Motel, managed by a quiet young man named Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.
River of No Return, released in 1954 by 20th Century Fox Pictures; directed by Otto Preminger. Starring Marilyn Monroe, Robert Mitchum, Rory Calhoun, and Tommy Rettig.A farmer and his young son help two unexpected visitors who lose control of their raft on a nearby river. A gambler is racing to the nearest town to register a mining claim he has won in a poker game; his attractive wife, a former dance hall girl, is with him. When the farmer refuses to let the man have his only rifle and horse, the gambler simply takes them, leaving his wife behind. Unable to defend themselves against a likely Indian raid, the three begin a treacherous journey down the river on the raft the gambler left behind.
A Day at the Races, released in 1937 by MGM Pictures; directed by Sam Wood. Starring Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Maureen O'Sullivan, Margaret Dumont, Allan Jones, and Sig Ruman. Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save a woman's farm by winning a big race with her horse.
The Maltese Falcon, released in 1941 by Warner Brothers Pictures; directed by John Huston. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Jerome Cowan, Ward Bond, Barton MacLane, Elisha Cook, Jr., Walter Huston, Emory Parnell, Gladys George, and Lee Patrick. Sam Spade and Miles Archer are partners in a San Francisco detective agency. One day a beautiful woman walks into their office and by nightfall everything has changed. Miles is dead. And so is a man named Floyd Thursby. It seems the young woman is surrounded by dangerous men and her only hope of protection comes from Sam, who is suspected by the police of one or the other murder. More murders are yet to come, all because of these dangerous men and their lust for a statuette of a bird: the Maltese falcon.
The Major and the Minor, released in 1942 by Paramount Pictures; directed by Billy Wilder (his directorial debut). Starring Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Robert Benchley, Rita Johnson, Diana Lynn, and Norma Varden. After her client makes a pass at her, Susan Applegate quits her job as a scalp massager and decided to leave New York City and return home to Iowa. Upon arriving at the train station, she discovers she has only enough money to cover a child's fare, so she disguises herself as a 12 year old girl. When a suspicious conductor catches her smoking, she takes refuge in the compartment of Major Philip Kirby, who, believing she is a frightened child, agrees to let her stay with him until they reach his stop.
Come Back, Little Sheba, released in 1952 by Paramount Pictures; directed by Daniel Mann (his directorial debut). Starring Shirley Booth, Burt Lancaster, Terry Moore, Richard Jaeckel, and Philip Ober. An emotionally remote alcoholic and his dowdy, unambitious wife face a personal crisis when they take in an attractive college student.
True Grit, released in 1969 by Paramount Pictures; directed by Henry Hathaway. Starring John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Corey, John Fiedler, Jeremy Slate, James Westerfield, and John Doucette. Following the murder of her father by his hired hand, 14 year old Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To help her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find, Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Rooster, whose drinking, sloth, and general reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him into the Indian Territory in search of the killer.
