Rod Steiger. That's why you need to see this well-crafted but otherwise undistinguished biopic of America's most iconic gangster. Produced for Allied Artists (the upscale version of Monogram, the studio that made Dillinger in the mid-'40s), the film gets underway with the Brooklyn hoodlum's arrival in Chicago on the eve of Prohibition. His old pal Johnny Torrio (Nehemiah Persoff) takes him on as right-hand man, and before you can say "spaghetti alla marinara," the ambitious Alphonse has persuaded "Johnny Papa" that they should eliminate their opera-loving boss, Big Jim Colosimo (Joe De Santis), and divide up the Chicago territory with "Bugs" Moran (Murvyn Vye), Dion O'Banion (Robert Gist), and "Hymie" Weiss (Lewis Charles). As scripted by Malvin Wald (The Naked City) and Henry F. Greenberg, and directed by Orson Welles protégé Richard Wilson, the film dutifully hits the high points of "Scarface Al"'s career. Stylistically, though, and despite the presence of cinematographer Lucien Ballard (who would also shoot Budd Boetticher's The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond), it's outclassed by any episode of the TV series The Untouchables, destined to make pop-cultural history three years later. But Steiger, in an early starring role, is aces. He gets all the shadings: the courtier's faux-humility as he ingratiates himself with the bosses, the shrewd sizing-up of each rival's strengths and vulnerability, the need to have his way through charm or brute force-two valences of the same charisma. There are even uncanny moments (and this, of course, is pure accident-or mythic rightness) when you'd swear you could glimpse the once and future Tony Soprano. [+]

Generally underrated by critics, this 1978 sequel to the famous Guns of Navarone finds a miscellaneous group of commandos and spies trying to hinder the Nazis by destroying a bridge between them and the partisans. The story (based on a novel by Alistair MacLean) has nothing to do with the first film, but it is a tightly woven and entertaining piece with sharp performances and delightful character alliances. Director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger) brings his trademark eye for handsome vistas to the canvas as well, so this is hardly the shoddy and dull knockoff many reviewers have previously suggested. No classic, perhaps, but a lot of fun. -Tom Keogh.

Who's the baddest motherf****r to blow onto blaxploitation screens? Forget Shaft and just ask X-rated comic and "godfather of rap" Rudy Ray Moore. He'll give you the gospel of Dolemite. Street hustler, pimp, and all-around ghetto superhero Dolemite began life as a character in Moore's nightclub act and was a natural character for his self-financed film debut, a revenge tale set on the corrupt streets of L. A. Dolemite is sprung from prison by an impossibly understanding warden so he can find the drug-dealing, gun-smuggling crooks who framed him. With the help of his all-girl army of kung fu killers and the most flamboyant wardrobe this side of Cher, he lays waste to dozens of bad guys while spouting his funky raps. Thick, slow and sleepy, Moore is neither a natural actor not a convincing martial arts action hero, but his lazy line deliveries are great, lyrical cascades of four-letter words and "ghetto expressions," and he performs two of his most famous stand-up raps, "Shine and the Great Titanic" and "The Signifying Monkey. "Dolemite is not a particularly competent movie-the direction (by costar D'Urville Martin) is clumsy, the performances flat, and microphones peek in from time to time (get that video letterboxed, Xenon!)-but the outrageous mix of nightclub rap, kung-fu action, and Moore's four-letter dialogue turned it into an instant urban hit and has kept it alive as a cult classic. Dolemite returns in The Human Tornado. The DVD also features clips from the documentary The Legend of Dolemite and the complete lyrics to his raps. [+]