Trailers from Hell

Raoul Walsh's most muscular gangster pic with an all-time great James Cagney as Cody Jarrett, the psychotic killer that only a mother could love. She's the underappreciated Margaret Wycherly, brilliant as the most monstrous mom since Agrippina. But she doesn't get much attention in the trailer.

George Pal's pioneering H.G. Wells adaptation updates the action to 1953 Los Angeles, with Oscar-winning state-of-the-art visual fx and sound effects so great they're still in use today.

George Pal's greatest work finds the humanity in H.G. Wells' classic, ably served by Oscar-winning fx, Russ Garcia's memorable score and Rod Taylor and Alan Young's warm performances. A touchstone for a generation. Paul Frees seems quite enthusiastic about it!

The US trailer for Mario Bava's ecological killing field tries to talk us out of seeing the movie!

One of the bigger interplanetary spectacles of the 50s, and one of the last films shot in 3-strip Technicolor, Universal's "Supreme Excitement of Our Time" brought out the sense of wonder in a generation of cold war tykes while scaring them half to death with the unlikely but cool "Mutants": "similar to the insect life on your own planet, but larger of course."

Nine years after Hiroshima the atomic chicken has come home to roost in the shape of giant ants, soon to be followed by jumbo mutant radioactive lizards, locusts, scorpions, etc. The near-biblical template for the dozens of nuclear monster movies that followed it, this is one of the most influential movies ever.

This 1953 film was a rugged five-character psychological western and the third collaboration between James Stewart and Anthony Mann.

For their 1957 "Silver Jubilee", Universal offered this occasionally accurate biopic of its biggest silent star, Lon Chaney, as portrayed by the always reliable James Cagney.

Long before Gordon Gekko told us "greed is good", Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) embarked on a mad quest to prove that everyone has their price. Terry Southern transforms his cynical novel into a nihilistic lark full of celebrity cameos and Monty Python-esque gags, some contributed by actual soon-to-be Python members.

Philadelphia-born Director Richard Lester sandwiched this wacky paeon to Swinging '60s London between "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!". Based on Ann Jellicoe's play and notable as the fleeting screen debuts of Jacqueline Bissett, Jane Birkin and Charlotte Rampling.