Falk portrays a cagey police detective whose pedestrian manner and dress conceal his animal shrewdness, and he is very, very good in a well-thought-out and well-written characterization.

As Polanski leads the audience step-by-step through Levin’s queasy plot, he pushes them toward a conclusion straight out of a Louvin Brothers gospel song. Oh yes, brethren: Satan is real.

Unarguably one of the great war movies of all time.

Harper Lee’s child’s-eye view of southern bigotry gains something in its translation to the screen by Robert Mulligan, who knows exactly where to place the camera to catch a child’s subjective experience.

Disturbing, disorienting, quietly terrifying, it’s one of the least known of the world’s great horror movies and, in its own dark way, a startlingly beautiful and artful piece of cinema as well.

Some fine set pieces and thoughtful camera-work serve to illustrate Fuller’s gift for weaving a poetic nihilism out of his journalistic vision of urban crime.