Old B+W psychological / Horror / Thriller - name of film

[Guest 54829]

I can only recall one scene from this old black and white film (from the 40's or 50's or early 60's) - all I can remember, is a far away shot of a lady dressed in white on an small island in the middle of a lake - it was at night and the lake was covered in mist. I presume the figure was a ghost.

It was something that really spooked me out when I saw it on the TV about 10 years ago, but I cannot for the life think of the film title.

This is probably a long shot, but would any of you know?
Also, I would like to know of any chilling, psychological / Horror / Thriller, films from the 40's, 50's and 60's, that can be purchased on DVD.

Thank you again,

Phil.

[John Hodson]

Does The Innocents ring any bells with you? Also check out The Haunting, Fear in The Night, Dead of Night (for starters). There are some great horror movies and thrillers on this fabulous set - reviews here and here.

[Step away from the console]

I can't help with identifying the film, but I'll make some recommendations.

Cat People (1942)
The Spiral Staircase (1946) Haven't seen it, but sounds like it fits the bill.
Night of the Demon (1957) aka Curse of the Demon
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Many of Hitchcock's are appropriate, including:

Suspicion (1941)
Notorious (1946)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
North by Northwest (1959)
Psycho (1960)
The Birds (1963)

The Alfred Hitchcock DVD Information Site will tell you what best available versions of each title are. There is a Hitchcock thread running in this forum for many years. If you have a region-free DVD player, you will have more choice in the films available to you, and won't have to settle for inferior versions. The most recent R1 (North American) Warner and Universal boxsets are excellent value and recommended to anyone who likes classic films.

To discover the best version of other films, try DVDCompare, DVDBeaver, searching these forums or possibly the Home Theater Forum (sic). From IMDb's Top Movies page, you can get lists of 50 films in each genre with the highest user ratings.

[Guest 29]

It'd be nice if people are taking the trouble to do non-affiliate links if they would support DVD Times by linking to their reviews where available.

[John Hodson]

Mea culpa - of course, you're right Mike; done

[Guest 45586]

Is The Lady in the Lake too obvious an answer?