Compton Films, 1966

starring: Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran

directed by: Roman Polanski

the plot: Lindisfarne (Holy Island) in Northumberland is only accessible by a causeway that is swamped at high tide. The sole occupants of Lindisfarne Castle are George (Pleasence), a middle-aged English neurotic, and Teresa (Dorléac), his much younger, French sex-kitten wife. They are bored with their lives and each other, but things change when Albie (MacGowran) and Dickie (Stander) show up, two crooks on the run from a failed heist. Albie is badly wounded, and Dickie’s been shot in the arm. They hole up at Lindisfarne, taking the couple hostage, and await rescue from their benefactor, Mr. Katelbach. George and Teresa are terrified by Dickie’s pistol and Pinteresque pragmatism, but the tables turn when unexpected guests arrive and Dickie must pretend to be a British butler, arm sling and all. The guests leave in an insulted huff, the tide rolls in, and all are trapped on the island.

why it’s good: Roman Polanski’s life as a filmmaker has been so overwhelmed by the Holocaust, the Manson murders, and a 1970s sex scandal that it’s easy to neglect his brilliant half-century of work. After an Oscar nomination and Time magazine cover for his first feature, “Knife in the Water” (1962), Polanski left Cold War Poland for Swinging London to direct a low-budget horror film for the exploitation hacks at Compton Studios. The result, “Repulsion” (1965), starring Catherine Deneuve in a career-making role, was a huge critical and commercial hit. Thrilled by the profits and their newfound respectability, Compton green-lighted a quirky, Beckett-inspired original by Polanski and co-writer Gerard Brach (“Quest for Fire,” “The Name of the Rose”), and the result was one of his best films. Donald Pleasence, his head shaved, gives one of the finest performances of his distinguished career, and even the heroin-addicted Dorléac (Deneuve’s sister, who would die two years later in a car accident) shows a charming understanding of the existential comedy. But it’s Lionel Stander who steals the show. Those who know him as the chauffeur on TV’s “Hart to Hart” will be impressed by his nuanced performance as the gangster Dickie. Polanski drove his cast hard—in one segment, the non-swimmer Dorléac had to enter the freezing Atlantic naked and stay immersed for seven-and-a-half minutes while waiting to emerge at the moment that a cued airplane swerved into the frame above Stander and Pleasence—a logistical nightmare that made film history. Holy Island itself becomes a character, trapping its unhappy inhabitants with playful, lethal tides. Polanski would go on to greater commercial and critical success with “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Chinatown” and “The Pianist,” but he still considers “Cul-de-sac” his most “cinematic” film. The 77-year-old director is currently at work on his 20th feature.

why you should own it: Roman Polanski was ranked early on with Kubrick, Bergman, and Bunuel as among the greatest of cinema visionaries. He is the last survivor of that group, and “Cul-de-sac” remains, along with his erotic fairy-tale “The Fearless Vampire Killers” (1967), his finest pre-Hollywood effort. By turns hilarious and creepy, it won the top award at the Berlin Film Festival the year of its release. —Kenneth Butler