September Affair (1950)

The first part of the 1950 romance September Affair amounts to a beautiful black and white travelogue of Italy as the story of two lovers who are mistakenly reported dead in a plane crash is established. It's an involving film from an adult script by Robert Thoeren (and an uncredited Ben Hecht) brought to life by pros Joan Fontaine, Joseph Cotten and an affecting Jessica Tandy (in a supporting role as a woman affected by the pair's deception). The score is beautiful (winning a Golden Globe for composer Victor Young) and the penultimate scene in which Fontaine (her character is a pianist) gives a concert in New York is movie magic at its finest.

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The Birds (1963)

There are so many incredibly composed and terrifying images in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds that it makes you wonder, if he could pull this off fifty years ago - why do today's filmmakers need computers for films far less memorable? The famed auteur (who can be seen in the film's first scene walking two dogs) has assembled a first-rate cast (Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright) that brings to life this tense story of birds attacking a small Northern California town with old school effects, no music and no ending (sic). This is a scary film (you can feel the birds as they are shown pecking at each victim) - one of Hitchcock's best and with his legacy that's saying a lot.

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