Giant (1956)

A Texan bigwig (Rock Hudson) travels to Maryland to buy a stallion for his ranch and while there takes a shine to the landowner's daughter (Elizabeth Taylor – well, you would, wouldn't you?). The speedy romance is the beginnings of a family story that spans almost three decades. In that time fortunes change (financial and otherwise) and attitudes are adjusted.
There's almost no onscreen chemistry between the lovers in the first half, but the second half makes up for it a little, with the comfortable feeling that long-time couples can sometimes acquire being much better realised. If not for Liz and James Dean doing their thing, she adding heart and he being a fiercely independent worker who resents his boss, that first half would really drag.

3 resources out of 5

The Exorcist (1973)

I don't think it's the scariest film of all time, but it is a disturbing one and an eerie aural experience. It's slow to begin but creeps under your skin, unnoticed, until it settles into your consciousness with an intensity that's very hard to define. Friedkin's direction is almost vérité which adds to the realism and heightens the unease. Unlike many Hollywood films it remains as objective as possible; it doesn't preach or attempt to influence the viewer's established notions of good and evil. It simply is what it is.
The unintentional humour is the only thing that keeps it from being perfect.

4 the pea of soup compels you out of 5

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

A Tennessee Williams play adapted for film by the director of Cleopatra (1963). It’s an amazingly well-constructed Southern Gothic period piece.
Elizabeth Taylor has a dark secret. Katharine Hepburn is rich and has an agenda. They clash over the truth. Montgomery Clift tries to be the catalyst. It’s almost perfect.

4½ scorching white-hot days out of 5