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Often under the guise of procedural television that encapsulates suspense, horror, and science fiction, anthologies are a format of cinematic storytelling that often gets tossed under the rug of narrative mediums. However, whenever one does surface, it's often a great labor of love with clever stories, chilling revelations, and spicy plots.

With Prime's Secret Level animated anthology covering stories throughout the gaming universe of both the virtual and tabletop fandoms, it's a great time to revisit or discover some other great televised anthologies that scratch that same itch that present such a variety of style and narrative flare. These anthologies are placed based on their relatability to Secret Level's tone, style, and originality, and how close the listed show relates to that feeling. So what's the next short-story extravaganza to binge to get that fix?

The Outer Limits Zeroed-In On Sci-Fi's Burning Questions

Year

1963-65, 1995-2002

Where Can I Watch?...

The most striking aspect of the commemorative events marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings on 6 June 2019 was the testimony of the veterans who participated in the conflict and who spoke eloquently and movingly about the events of 6 June 1944.

These interviews should be compulsory viewing so people understand the courage and sacrifice of a generation of men and women who displayed the “unconquerable resolve” the Queen spoke about during her speech in Portsmouth.

The film world has, of course, brought us many depictions of the Normandy landings and the subsequent battles. You will find a number of those titles in this list of the 20 greatest Second World War films.

These 20 movies only scratch the surface of the countless number made about the momentous event, but remind us of the horrors and sacrifices made during the devastating global conflict.

Scroll through the gallery below to see the 20 greatest war films:...

The Criterion Channel’s July lineup is an across-the-board display of strengths, ranging as it does from very specific programming cues to actor retrospectives and hardly ignoring the strength of Criterion Editions. Surely much fun’s to be had with “In the Ring,” a decade-spanning, 16-film curation of boxing pictures—Raging Bull and Fat City, of course, with some you forget are boxing movies (Rocco and His Brothers) and others you’ve likely never seen at all (count me excited for King Vidor’s The Champ). “Noir in Color” brilliantly upends common conception of a drama (and gives you excuse to see Nicholas Ray’s Party Girl); Setsuko Hara films are gathered into a handy collection; and Blake Edwards gets six.

On the Criterion Editions front they’ve gone all out: the Before trilogy, Alex Cox’s Walker, Leave Her to Heaven, Shaft, Destry Rides Again, Raging Bull, Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...

With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.

Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.

See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020

5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952

After Migration: Calabria,...

Actress and model Virginia Leith, who starred in Stanley Kubrick’s first film “Fear and Desire,” which he later disavowed, has died. She was 94.

According to family spokesperson Jane Chalmers, Leith died after a brief illness at her home in Palm Springs, Calif. on Nov. 4.

Born on Oct. 15, 1925, Leith met Kubrick in the 1950s when he shot her for the cover of Look magazine.

“Fear and Desire,” which received moderately positive critical reviews upon its release, was not a box office success. After distributor Joseph Burstyn died, the film fell out of circulation and Kubrick is said to have destroyed the original negative and any other prints he could find. Some original prints still exist, however, and Film Forum organized a screening in 1994. Kubrick released a statement through Warner Bros. at the time, calling it “a bumbling amateur film exercise” and urging press not to attend.

Following her appearance in “Fear and Desire,...

Dario Argento’s acclaimed directorial debut emerged from a successful writing career that encompassed everything from movie criticism to contributions to westerns like Five Man Army and Once Upon a Time in the West. He enlisted his father, producer Salvatore Argento, to help fund what would become a landmark in the Italian giallo genre, whose origins many link to Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Evil Eye in its alternate Us version). Although there are also echoes of Bava’s Blood and Black Lace, much of the plot is inspired by Fredric Brown’s novel The Screaming Mimi (filmed by Gerd Oswald in 1958). Coproduced with Germany’s Ccc Films which expected an Edgar Wallace-style thriller and was put off by the level of violence. Ennio Morricone’s score is disturbingly sexy.

The post The Bird With the Crystal Plumage appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Sherlock Holmes fans have another good version of a favorite Holmes tale to savor, a late German silent film in full expressionist mode, set on an impressively moody English moor. One can see the influence of silent action serials and then-recent haunted house horror hits. And it is said that this is the first picture that presents Holmes and Watson as a fraternal ‘buddy’ team. A major reconstruction of a film once thought lost; presented with informative extras and (on the Blu-ray) a second encoding of a much earlier film version.

Der Hund von Baskerville

Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley

1929 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap. / 66 min. (+ extra feature) / Street Date February 12, 2019 / 39.95

Starring: Carlyle Blackwell, Alexander Murski, Livio Pavanelli, Betty Bird, Fritz Rasp, George Seroff, Valy Arnheim, Alma Taylor, Carla Bartheel, Jaro Füruth.

Cinematography: Frederik Fugelsgang

Art Directors: Gustav A. Knauer, Willy Schiller

Original Music (new): Guenter Buchwald, Frank Bockus, Sacha Jacobsen

Written by Hervert Juttke,...

It’s here, the second half of the science fiction TV series from the 1960s, restored and remastered. It’s really only half a season and the creative team has been swapped out, but several gems are every bit as good as episodes from year one. Plus acting disc producer David J. Schow ladles on the extras like thick gravy … including promos and TV spots not seen since 1963 and ’64.

The Outer Limits, Season Two

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1964-65 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 867 min. / Street Date November 20, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 69.95

Executive-produced by Leslie Stevens

As I tried to express in my openly enthusiastic review of the Season One disc set from last March, we kids and young teenagers were absolutely gaga about The Outer Limits back in 1963 and 1964. I’m afraid that we probably weren’t paying close enough attention when it tapered off and disappeared (in 1965?). By that...

Witness the ‘fifties transformation of the femme fatale, from scheming murderess to self-deluding social climber. Barbara Stanwyck redefines herself once again in Gerd Oswald’s best-directed picture, a searing portrayal of needs and anxieties in the nervous decade. With fine support from Raymond Burr, Virginia Grey and Royal Dano.

Crime of Passion

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1957 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date September 5, 2017 /

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, Fay Wray, Virginia Grey, Royal Dano.

Cinematography: Joseph Lashelle

Art Direction: Leslie Thomas

Original Music: Paul Dunlap

Original Story and Screenplay by Jo Eisinger

Produced by Herman Cohen, Robert Goldstein

Directed by Gerd Oswald

A key title in the development of the Film Noir, 1957’s Crime of Passion shows how much the style had departed from the dark romanticism and expressive visuals of the previous decade. The best mid-’50s noirs strike a marvelously cynical and existentially bleak attitude regarding crime and society.

Nunnally Johnson hands us a well-written spy & hostage drama set in Cold War Berlin, with plenty of intrigue and good humor to boot. Gregory Peck is the troubled negotiator and Broderick Crawford a Yankee galoot sticking his nose where it isn’t wanted. This one has been out of reach for quite a while — and it works up some fun suspense.

Night People

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date July 25, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Anita Björk, Rita Gam, Walter Abel, Buddy Ebsen, Max Showalter, Jill Esmond, Peter van Eyck, Marianne Koch, Hugh McDermott, Paul Carpenter, Lionel Murton, Ottow Reichow.

Cinematography: Charles G. Clarke

Film Editor: Dorothy Spencer

Original Music: Cyril Mockridge

Story by Jed Harris, Tom Reed

Associate Producer Gerd Oswald

Written, Directed and Produced by Nunnally Johnson

An intelligent cold war thriller about distrust and passive aggression across the East-West divide in Berlin,...

On paper it’s a western with everything — a major star, decent supporting players, a cult director and sideways references to the blacklisting years. But even with its ya-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it high noon showdown scene, Joseph H. Lewis’s last feature film is still a lower-tier United Artists effort. Sterling Hayden goes up against Sebastian Cabot and Nedrick Young, armed with a, with a . . . aw, you probably know already.

Terror in a Texas Town

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date July 11, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Sebastian Cabot, Carol Kelly, Eugene Martin, Nedrick Young, Victor Millan, Frank Ferguson, Marilee Earle, Byron Foulger, Glenn Strange.

Cinematography: Ray Rennahan

Original Music: Gerald Fried

Written by Dalton Trumbo, fronted by Ben Perry

Produced by Frank N. Seltzer

Directed by Joseph H. Lewis

Auteurists in the early 1970s championed directors like Phil Karlson, Budd Boetticher and Anthony Mann. These stylists...

This time they may have gotten it right! If a knife or a straight razor won’t do, how about killing a victim with 500-pound metal artwork studded with spikes? Dario Argento distilled a new kind of slick, visually fetishistic horror who-dunnit thriller subgenre with this shocker, aided by the dreamy cinematography of Vittorio Storaro.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1971 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date June 20, 2017 / L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo / Available from Arrow Video/ 49.95

/ 49.95

Starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Raf Valenti, Giuseppe Castellano, Mario Adorf, Pino Patti, Gildo Di Marco, Rosita Torosh, Omar Bonaro, Fulvio Mingozzi, Werner Peters, Karen Valenti, Carla Mancini, Reggie Nalder.

Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro

Film Editor: Franco Fraticelli

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Dario Argento from a novel by Fredric Brown

Produced by Salvatore Argento, Artur Brauner

Directed by Dario Argento...

This almost completely forgotten '50s western couldn't compete with the big productions, but it has a good cast -- James Arness, Robert J. Wilke, Emile Meyer, Harry Carey Jr. Plus early work by writer Burt Kennedy, and the debuts of actress Angie Dickinson and director Andrew V. McLaglen. Gun the Man Down Blu-ray Olive Films 1956 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 76 min. / Street Date July 19, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring James Arness, Angie Dickinson, Emile Meyer, Robert J. Wilke, Harry Carey Jr., Don Megowan, Michael Emmet, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez. Cinematography William H. Clothier Film Editor A. Edward Sutherland Original Music Henry Vars Written by Burt Kennedy, Sam Freedle Produced by Robert E. Morrison Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

When the 1950s rolled in John Wayne stopped being merely an actor and graduated to institution status, starting his own production company, Batjac, and promoting his own group of talent.

Robert Wagner as a social climbing psycho killer? I knew it! 'Mr. CinemaScope Smile' grins only once or twice in this movie, and then only to fool an unsuspecting woman. A great cast brings tension to Ira Levin's outrageous tale of murder. Joanne Woodward has a powerful role, but my heartthrob this time out is lovely Virginia Leith. A Kiss Before Dying Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date May 3, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Joanne Woodward, Mary Astor, George Macready, Robert Quarry. Cinematography Lucien Ballard Art Direction Addison Hehr Film Editor George A. Gittens Original Music Lionel Newman Written by Lawrence Roman from a novel by Ira Levin Produced by Robert L. Jacks Directed by Gerd Oswald

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

It's a safe bet that a huge chunk of Americans now identify Robert Wagner as the father of Anthony Dinozzo on TV's NCIS.

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

Above: Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1955).

The great Andrew Sarris—dean of American film critics, thorn in the side of Pauline Kael, and the man who introduced the auteur theory to America—passed away last June at the age of 83. In an inspired piece of programming, Anthology Film Archives and guest programmer C. Mason Wells have chosen to honor Sarris with a baker's dozen of American rarities that, even with Kubrick at the IFC, Cimino at Film Forum and Rivette at Bam this weekend, must be the best show in town.

Sarris’s seminal book The American Cinema, Directors and Directions 1929-1968 was a bible to a generation of cinephiles (J. Hoberman publicly kissed his copy of it at the New York Film Critics Circle tribute to Sarris this year), a book that was both revered and disparaged for its canny cataloguing system. Sarris famously divided the roster of American directors...

Dario Argento Week! concludes at Trailers from Hell with director Darren Bousman introducing Argento's directorial debut, "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage." Dario Argento's acclaimed directorial debut emerged from a successful writing career that encompassed everything from movie criticism to contributions to westerns like Five Man Army and Once Upon a Time in the West. He enlisted his father, producer Salvatore Argento, to help fund what would become a landmark in the Italian giallo genre, whose origins many link to Mario Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Evil Eye in its alternate Us version). Although there are also echoes of Bava's Blood and Black Lace, much of the plot is inspired by Fredric Brown's novel The Screaming Mimi (filmed by Gerd Oswald in 1958). Coproduced with Germany's Ccc Films which expected an Edgar Wallace style thriller and was put off by the level of violence. Ennio Morricone's score is disturbingly sexy.

William Malone should have developed amour-plated skin by now if the barrage of undying criticism of his work is anything to go by. FeardotCom for instance, not totally without a bit of B-movie charm, provoked a critical fury that any filmmaker would find difficult to deal with. Recently Malone sat down with Dread Central to reflect on his career and also talk about what looks to be an interesting year ahead...

"Things are good," Malone told us."I've just finished a new script that I'm very excited about. I'm about to take it out to see if I can get the financing (always scary). It's interesting going through your questions as this has, of late, been a very introspective time for me. I've had a lot of time while writing to review my past efforts. This invariably leads to examining my methods and motives."

When asked if he looks back...

Spartan (David Mamet, 2004) was quite near the beginning of the artistic sequence that Mamet scholars would eventually call his "early crypto-fascist period"—certainly a good dozen years before his bizarre, Kaufmanesque wrestling matches with Tariq Ramadan, complete with veiled ringside girls, on Al-Jazeera.  About the film itself, critics were brutal. One of them called it "unimaginably crude – the Pickup on South Street (1) of the so-called War on Terror." Another said, "watching this film makes me want to commit innocent but suspicious acts deserving of a good waterboarding in Guantanamo." Despite the down-beat & cryptic patriotism of the film, it was not a success. Warner Brothers, sifting through the testing data, eventually fingered its too mild anti-Arabian racism. Mamet was forced to move the idea to television where he re-conceived the material for the series The Unit, primarily, the cynics said, as a way to get singing gigs for his wife, Scottish folkstress Rebecca Pidgeon.

Joanne Woodward on TCM: Rachel, Rachel; Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Count Three And Pray (1955) A Westerner turns preacher to overcome his shady past. Dir: George Sherman. Cast: Van Heflin, Joanne Woodward, Phil Carey. C-102 mins. 7:45 Am Rally Round The Flag, Boys! (1958) The arrival of an Army missile base shatters the peaceful life of a suburban town. Dir: Leo McCarey. Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Joan Collins. C-107 mins, Letterbox Format. 9:45 Am Paris Blues (1961) Two jazz musicians deal with romantic problems in Paris. Dir: Martin Ritt. Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier. C-99 mins, Letterbox Format. 11:30 Am Signpost To Murder (1964) A convicted murderer, who escaped from a mental institution, hides out in the home of a woman whose husband is missing. Dir: George Englund. Cast: Joanne Woodward, Stuart Whitman, Edward Mulhare. Bw-77 mins, Letterbox Format. 1:00 Pm...

Joanne Woodward never became a major box-office draw. No matter. Woodward was one of the best film actresses of the 20th century, as can be attested by her work in The Three Faces of Eve; Rachel, Rachel (right); Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams; The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds; and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Woodward's absence from the big screen after a supporting role in Jonathan Demme's 1993 AIDS drama Philadelphia is indeed cinema's loss. On Tuesday, August 16, Turner Classic Movies will be presenting 13 Joanne Woodward movies as part of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" film series. [Joanne Woodward Movie Schedule.] Four of those are TCM premieres: Leo McCarey's weak comedy Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), with Paul Newman as Woodward's love interest, and Joan Collins sultrily stealing the show; Burt Reynolds' highly successful black comedy The End (1978), about a dying man's attempts at killing himself with the assistance of a...

Long Shadows: The Late Work of Satyajit Ray opens this evening and runs through April 26 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center: "Of special interest is Home and the World [1984; image above], his final, wonderful adaptation of a work by his mentor, Rabindranath Tagore (whose 150th anniversary we celebrate this year), as well as his final, luminous work, The Stranger, an extraordinary summing up of so much of Ray's worldview graced with a sensational lead performance by Utpal Dutt." Plus, "we asked some friends of the Film Society: what film would you recommend seeing, and why?" Meantime, Paul Brunick posts a roundup on Distant Thunder (1973) at Alt Screen. Update, 4/20: Salman Rushdie for the Fslc on The Golden Fortress (1974): "The film is a true delight and the moment when the Golden Fortress is discovered — when it is revealed not to be a child's fantasy but a real place, shimmering on...