More obscure movies:
3. La Vie De Château, starring Catherine Deneuve. I'd love to see this farce again. I don't remember too much about it, other than that it's set in wartime France and that Catherine Deneuve is quite funny. Michel Legrand wrote the music. I thought about this movie after our favorite-movie-animal TOD. It has a great performance by a pigeon.
4. Joy House. Toronto used to have two really sleezy movie theatres - the Rio (code name: the "R-Ten") and the Biltmore. But they often showed great double bills. I saw a Lola Albright twin bill at one of these theatres: Cold Wind in August ("stripper takes up with street kid"); and Joy House ("sleek and sultry thriller"). Lola Albright's Joy House co-stars are Jane Fonda and, as a gigolo on the run, Alain Delon. Lalo Schifrin wrote the music, and Pierre Balmain designed the costumes. There is something very dark and confining about this movie. And more than thirty years later, I remember feeling nearly blinded by the sunshine and relieved by the fresh air as I walked out of the dingy R-Ten (or maybe it was the Biltmore).
5. Fedora. Again, this one isn't obscure, just obscurer than I think it deserves to be. I.A.L. Diamond's screenplay adds wit to Thomas Tryon's intriguing story (the surprise twist really did fool me), and Billy Wilder's direction is at just the right level of over-the-top. It also has a great score (Miklos Rozsa). And what other cast includes such a mix - José Ferrer, William Holden, Marthe Keller, Michael York, Henry Fonda, Hildegarde Neff, Frances Sternhagen (who, by the way, will soon be starring with Matthew Broderick in Larry Shue's new play), and Arlene Francis?