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Thrillers & Suspense

Thriller and Suspense Films promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. A genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal, to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging on the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. Plots of thrillers often involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy. Below is a grand line-up of the best in contemporary Thrillers & Suspense made since 1965. Following a similar theme, with generally a darker look is the "Film Noir" feature, well worth checking out. The exploits of "James Bond 007" may also be accessed stage left. Right: Frances McDormand makes an arrest in the Coen Bros "Fargo".

Confidential Report ( aka Mr Arkadin ) (1955)

7.4/10
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Mischa Auer, Michael Redgrave

Orson Welles directed and starred in this film version of his own novel. Powerful financier Mr Arkadin (Welles) claims to be suffering from amnesia, a... Read more

Rear Window ( Blu-ray ) (1954)

8.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey

An injured magazine photographer, confined to his apartment because of a broken leg, suspects a murder has been committed in a neighbouring flat. Conf... Read more

Rear Window (1954)

8.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey

An injured magazine photographer, confined to his apartment because of a broken leg, suspects a murder has been committed in a neighbouring flat. Conf... Read more

The Runaway Bus (1954)

6.3/10
Director: Val Guest
Starring: Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark, George Coulouris

This offbeat British comedy/thriller features Frankie Howerd, in his first starring role, as Percy Lamb, a bus driver who finds himself in a difficult... Read more

Sherlock Holmes: Collectors' Edition (1954)

7.6/10
Director: Sheldon Reynolds
Starring: Ronald Howard, H. Marion Crawford , Christopher Lee

Ronald Howard reprises his acclaimed BBC radio role as Sherlock Holmes for the only American serial version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detecti... Read more

Dial M for Murder (1954)

8.2/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, John Williams

Alfred Hitchcock's screen version of Frederick Knott's stage hit 'Dial M for Murder' is a tasty blend of elegance and suspense casting Grace Kelly, Ra... Read more

Island In The Sky (1953)

7/10
Director: William A Wellman
Starring: John Wayne, Lloyd Nolan, Walter Abel, James Arness, Andy Devine

The frozen, unforgiving terrain of sub-Acrtic Canada is the setting for this tale of an Army transport plane that is forced to crash land in the icy... Read more

The Thief (aka Ladron) (1952)

6.8/10
Director: Russell Rouse
Starring: Ray Milland

A chance accident causes a nuclear physicist selling top secret material to the Russians to fall under FBI scrutiny and go on the run. This film is n... Read more

Classic Thriller: Green For Danger / Venetian Bird / Nothing But the Night (1952)

Director: Peter Sasdy, Ralph Thomas, Sidney Gilliat
Starring: Alastair Sim, Christopher Lee, Eva Bartok, Peter Cushing, Richard Todd, Trevor H...

'Green for Danger' (1946) Mysterious goings on in a war-time emergency hospital. A postman dies on the operating table. A theatre sister is then vicio... Read more

The Green Glove (1952)

6.4/10
Director: Rudolph Mate
Starring: Cedric Hardwicke, George Macready, Geraldine Brooks, Glenn Ford

This top-notch thriller is set after World War II and features Glenn Ford as an ex-paratrooper hired by a church to find a bejeweled glove lifted by e... Read more