Cinema - American films - Comedy/Thriller

American cinema: Comedy/Thriller (Page 1 of 2)

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Charles Crichton

London gangster George Thomason has masterminded the perfect jewel robbery, which he is about to put into action with his henchman Ken Pile, an animal-lover with a crippling stutter, and a pair of Americans - Wanda Gerschwitz and Otto West. The latter pretend to be brother and sister but are in fact lovers who intend to double-cross George and Ken after the robbery... [More...]

A Night in Casablanca (1946)

Archie Mayo

A gang of Nazis in Casablanca are planning to secure the management of a hotel so that they can get their hands on the priceless art treasures hidden in one of its rooms. To do this, they murder a succession of managers of the hotel, but before their leader, Count Pfferman, can act, another manager is appointed in his place... [More...]

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

John Landis

David Kessler and Jack Goodman are two American college backpackers who decide to make a tour of Europe. Where better to begin than the bleak, soggy Yorkshire moors? As night falls, they enter an inn named The Slaughtered Lamb, hoping for rest and refreshment. Instead, they receive a deathly cold reception from a sinister collection of locals who, not liking foreign folk, drive them away with a warning not to stray on the moors... [More...]

And Then There Were None (1945)

René Clair

Eight men and women, all unknown to each other, accept a mysterious invitation to an island estate. They are welcomed by two domestic servants, Mr and Mrs Rogers, who appear to be as ignorant of the reason for the meeting as the guests are. When they are all assembled together, they hear a strange message from their unknown host on a gramophone record... [More...]

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Frank Capra

Mortimer Brewster returns to Brooklyn to visit his elderly aunts Abby and Martha with the news that he has just got married. The last thing he expects to find in his old home is a dead body in the window seat. His aunts casually admit that this is the latest of their mercy killings. Whenever a solitary old man enters their house, they take it upon themselves to put him out of his misery, with a glass of elderberry wine laced with poison... [More...]

Beat the Devil (1953)

John Huston

Billy Dannreuther and his wife Maria are on their way to make their fortune in Africa, but are held up in an Italian port whilst their steamboat undergoes some repair work. Here, they meet an eccentric English couple, Harry and Gwendolen Chelm, and a strange foursome led by a man named Peterson. It gradually becomes apparent that they all have one thing in common – to secure the rights to land that is reputed to be rich in uranium ore... [More...]

Casino Royale (1967)

Val Guest

Against his will, the original James Bond is brought out of retirement to foil a dastardly plot by SMERSH, an enemy organisation run by the evil Dr Noah. In a desperate bid to thwart their enemies, the British secret service renames its remaining agents 007, including Bond’s daughter, Mata. They also recruit a fumbling baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble to take on the villainous Le Chiffre at the Casino Royale... [More...]

Charade (1963)

Stanley Donen

Reggie Lambert returns from a holiday in the French Alps to learn that her husband has been murdered, thrown from a train in his pyjamas. Shortly before he died, Lambert liquidated all of his assets, but there is no trace of the money he accumulated in doing so. At the funeral, two mysterious men turn up to inspect the corpse and subsequently start to harass Reggie, convinced that she knows the whereabouts of Lambert’s missing fortune... [More...]

Crackers (1984)

Louis Malle

In the Hispanic quarter of San Francisco, Weslake, a former security officer, guards a pawnbroker shop owned by Garvey, with the help of his friend Turtle. One day, Dillard, a musician, visits the shop to buy back the guitar that he pawned earlier. Dillard offers Garvey a stolen car radio in exchange and the old pawnbroker agrees, providing Dillard helps him by installing a new alarm system... [More...]

Family Plot (1976)

Alfred Hitchcock

Anxious to find an heir for her vast fortune, the aged Miss Julia Rainbird hires psychic Blanche Tyler to track down her long-lost nephew. For the past four decades, Miss Rainbird has been gnawed by guilt for forcing her sister to give away her illegitimate baby son to avoid a family scandal, but no one seems to know his whereabouts today... [More...]

High Anxiety (1977)

Mel Brooks

Dr Richard H. Thorndyke, an esteemed Harvard psychiatrist, is proud to take up the post of director at the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. But within minutes of his arrival at the remote coastal establishment he suspects that something is amiss. The staff are a very strange bunch who look as if they could benefit from being locked up in a padded cell, especially the weird Nurse Diesel, who seems to strike terror into the hearts of her colleagues... [More...]

The Invisible Man (1933)

James Whale

One winter’s day, a stranger arrives at a small village inn and demands a room. His appearance causes consternation amongst the locals. His face and hands are fully concealed by his clothes and bandages, as if to hide some horrible disfigurement. He gets the room he asked for, but within a few days he has so antagonised the innkeeper and his wife that they insist he leaves... [More...]

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Roger Corman

Gravis Mushnick is the mean-spirited owner of a cheap florist’s shop in Skid Row, New York. He has two assistants, the simple-minded Audrey and the inept Seymour, but even with their combined efforts he has difficulty attracting customers. To impress Audrey, Seymour creates a new plant by cross-breeding a Venus flytrap with a butterwort... [More...]

My Favorite Brunette (1947)

Elliott Nugent

Ronnie Jackson is a baby photographer who dreams of becoming a private detective, like Mr McCloud, the man in the office next to his. One day, he gets the chance to live his dream when he is mistaken for McCloud by a ravishing brunette, Carlotta Montay. Using her obvious powers of persuasion, she hires him to find her missing husband... [More...]

Phantom of the Opera (1943)

Arthur Lubin

When Erique Claudin loses his job as a violinist at the Paris Opera House he hastily sets about selling the concerto he has been working on for years. All the money he has earned he has spent in providing singing lessons for a young soprano, Christine Dubois, whom he loves and who knows nothing of his benevolence... [More...]

Raffles (1939)

Sam Wood

The best brains at Scotland Yard are perplexed by the latest spate of robberies to be visited on London. No one would suspect that the culprit is A.J. Raffles, a renowned cricketer and debonair man about town with an unblemished reputation. But when Raffles falls in love with socialite Gwen, he decides to renounce his career of crime and earn his keep by more honest means... [More...]

The Sting (1973)

George Roy Hill

Illinois, 1936. Johnny Hooker, a small time con artist, finds himself out of his league when he pilfers a wad of cash belonging to one of Chicago’s biggest racketeers, Doyle Lonnegan. When his partner, Luther Coleman, is shot dead by Lonnegan’s henchmen, Johnny resolves to take his revenge on the gangster boss... [More...]

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Alfred Hitchcock

The French Riviera is hit by a spate of jewel robberies and the local police immediately suspect John Robie, a once notorious cat burglar, now apparently a reformed character. To prove his innocence, Robie forms an alliance with H.H. Hughson, an insurance agent who has most to gain by the capture of the real crook... [More...]

Topkapi (1964)

Jules Dassin

Elizabeth Lipp and her lover Walter Harper plan to steal a priceless emerald-encrusted dagger from the Topkapi museum in Istabul. To that end, Walter assembles a team which includes: Cedric Page, an expert in all things mechanical and electrical; Giulio, an acrobat; and Hans, a man of exceptional strength... [More...]

The Whole Town’s Talking (1935)

John Ford

Arthur Ferguson Jones is a mild-mannered office clerk whose closest companions are his cat and his canary. For months, he has had a secret crush on one of his colleagues, Miss Clark, but he is too shy to speak to her. However, on the day that Miss Clark is fired for arriving late at the office, Arthur finds the courage to invite her out to lunch... [More...]

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