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".
The Third Man (1949)
8.2/10
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard
Joseph Cotten is pulp fiction writer Holly Matins, who arrives in Vienna to work for his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to be told that Lime h... Read more
Dark Passage (1947)
7.6/10
Director: Delmer Daves
Starring: Agnes Moorehead, Bruce Bennett, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall
In Vichy France, fishing boat captain Harry (Humphrey Bogart) avoids getting involved in politics, refusing to smuggle French Resistance fighters into... Read more
The Long Night (1947)
6.7/10
Director: Anatole Litvak
Starring: Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak
A remake of Marcel Carne's French film 'Le Jour Se Leve', this noir thriller keeps you on the edge of your seat with great performances from Henry Fon... Read more
Railroaded (1947)
6.7/10
Director: Anthony Mann
Starring: John Ireland, Sheila Ryan, Jane Randolph
In the crime-ridden jungle of an inner city where mobsters rule, a lone police detective begins a search for a killer on the lam who, in a desperate f... Read more
Desert Fury (1947)
6.7/10
Director: Lewis Allen
Starring: Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Burt Lancaster, Mary Astor, Wendell Corey
In the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert lies the small gambling oasis Purple Sage, run by the tough talking Fritzi Haller who stubbornly controls... Read more
Classic Alec Guinness: Great Expectations / To Paris with Love / The Quiller Memorandum (1946)
Director: David Lean, Michael Anderson, Robert Hamer
Starring: Alec Guinness, George Segal, Jean Simmons, John Mills, Max von Sydow, Vernon Gra...
Close the doors, dim the lights, take a seat and leave your troubles behind. The Classic Matinee Triple Bill is your exclusive gold pass to the matine... Read more
Sherlock Holmes: Terror by Night / Dressed to Kill (1946)
7.6/10
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Mary Forbes, Nigel Bruce
Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are widely celebrated as cinema's perfect Homes and Watson, filming more than a dozen adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan D... Read more
Green for Danger (1946)
7.6/10
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Starring: Alastair Sim, Rosamund John, Trevor Howard
Alastair Sim stars as the eccentric and irreverent Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police alongside Trevor Howard and Rosamund John in this susp... Read more
Pink String and Sealing Wax (1946)
6.7/10
Director: Robert Hamer
Starring: Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Gordon Jackson, Sally Ann Howes
Belying its whimsical title, this Victorian era thriller tells the story of an adulterous wife who hatches a cunning plan to kill her abusive husband... Read more
Shock (1946)
6.3/10
Director: Alfred L Werker
Starring: Vincent Price, Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore, Anabel Shaw
In this thriller, psychiatrist Dr. Cross (Vincent Price) kills his wife and expects to get away with murder, until he discovers that the slaying was o... Read more