Japan’s answer to Dirty Harry, Violent Cop delivers on its title with the hard-hitting saga of a loose cannon detective taking on both the yakuza and the corrupt police force with fists flying and guns blazing.  Kitano’s first outing as a director already establishes his trademark juxtaposition of deadpan comedy and shocking brutality, executed with ultra-cool precision. (MK)

At a small village inn, a traveling engaged couple stop to rest. When the man disappears, his fiancee (Dagover) is confronted by Death (Goetzke) who tells her three stories of women trying to save their men from tragic fate. An inspiration to Hitchcock and many other important filmmakers, Destiny is one of director Lang’s earliest triumphs. The elaborate special effects are still impressive today, particularly in this new restoration that preserves the original tinting and color schemes and adds a wonderful new score by Cornelius Schwehr. “When I saw Destiny, I suddenly knew that I wanted to make movies. Something about this film spoke to something deep in me; it clarified my life and my vision of the world.” (Luis Buñuel)

Lonesome Rhodes (Griffith’s big screen debut) is a talented street busker with hobo-ish charm who transforms himself into a television demagogue almost overnight. This sad, brilliant and timely study by director Kazan and writer Budd Schulberg, re-teamed after On the Waterfront, takes on the inevitable unraveling of celebrity within popular culture.