This low-budget 1970 film, shot in grungy black-and-white, is based on the true story of a fat nurse and a Latin gigolo — potently acted by Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco — who were executed in 1951 for their crimes against lonely women. Writer-director Leonard Kastle, in a bonus interview, tells how he took over from original director Martin Scorsese, who was fired after a week for shooting arty pickups ("a beer can in a bush," scoffs Kastle, who never directed again). The result is an ugly masterpiece and a DVD event.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.