Brilliantly transforming a classic whodunit plot, Gallic Master of Suspense Henri-Georges Clouzot takes us from the wings and dressing rooms of the Parisian music hall and circus worlds to the drab, airless corridors and holding cells of the Quai's Criminal Investigations Department, in a blend of social realism and psychological cruelty that became his trademark. One of the uncontested masterpieces of the postwar French cinema, but rarely seen here since its original 1947 U.S. release (as "Jenny Lamour"). (Film Forum)

The granddaddy of the modern Gallic gangster movie, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (translation: "Don't touch the loot!") immediately created a market for offspring like Dassin's "Rififi" and Melville's "Bob Le Flambeur." Adapted from the seminal 1952 "Série Noire" novel by Albert Simonin, Grisbi took the gangster saga to new heights of realism by portraying the criminal class as a larcenous subbourgeoisie and introducing authentic underworld slang to screen dialogue. (Film Forum)

Billy Wilder's 1951 portrait of a corrupt media circus in which a down-on-his-luck NYC reporter (Douglas) takes a job with a small-town paper that provides him with no challenges until he exploits the story of a man trapped in a mine. (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)