Nicholas Ray’s Typical Vibe
Signature vibe

Highest-ranked title
Highest-ranked title
Nicholas Ray has 10 titles in the CriticCrunch catalog across a career spanning the 1940s through the 1970s. 1 ranks in the Top 10%, led by In a Lonely Place.
Recurring themes

A violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy

After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo

On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small, Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge

Upon receiving his draft notice and leaving his family ranch in Oklahoma, Claude heads to New York and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to boot camp.
Dir. Miloš Forman · With John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo

A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau

Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.
Dir. Wim Wenders · With Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer

Who is Jesus, and why does he impact all he meets? He is respected and reviled, emulated and accused, beloved, betrayed, and finally crucified. Yet that terrible fate would not be the end of the story.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhán McKenna, Hurd Hatfield

Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, David Niven

An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva

A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.
Dir. Nicholas Ray · With Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond