1962: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

The film about a deviant youth's time in a reformatory and how he got there is generally done well, and I especially like the use of music in the running scenes. Could have done without the grandstanding in the final scene. (6.5)

1920: Convict 13

Buster Keaton finds himself in a convict's uniform, and soon he's in a prison and about to be hanged. Rioting and lots of standard silent comedy jokes, in particular people falling down. Not the reason Keaton's famous. (5.5)

1962: Vive le Tour

Louis Malle's eighteen-minute documentary explaining the Tour de France is not particularly interesting. (5.5)

1955: Killer's Kiss

Given that he withdrew his 1953 feature film debut Fear and Desire, this is the first Kubrick movie that can be watched using standard channels and the last one that was missing from my list. The film about a boxer, a dancer and a criminal, small in terms of budget, scope and length, has two foots firmly planted in the noir tradition, achieves a generally rough feel mainly through the extensive use of handheld camera and has some brilliant shots of Manhattan's back alleys. Enjoyed it more than the generally similar but more acclaimed 1956 The Killing. (7) By the way, I recently read somewhere that it was one of Martin Scorcese's great achievements in directing Raging Bull that he filmed the boxing scenes from inside the ring. Whoever thought that was some great innovation apparently hasn't seen Killer's Kiss.