Like Netflix and HBO Max, Amazon’s Prime Video has a film and TV library that is vast and deeper than most of its subscribers may realize. Hidden beneath its most easily accessible recommendations are underrated, oft-forgotten movies that you likely have never seen before. These films run the complete genre gamut, which means that, regardless of whether you are in the mood for a light-hearted Hollywood adventure or a darker thriller, you can always find exactly the kind of movie you’re looking for on the platform.
With all that in mind, here are seven great hidden gem movies that are streaming on Prime Video right now.
“The Third Man (1949)
Rightly regarded as one of cinema’s greatest films, director Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” is a jovially constructed noir about betrayal, justice and loss. Written by Graham Greene, it follows an American writer (Joseph Cotten) who arrives in postwar, Allied-occupied Vienna to accept a job offer from his mercurial friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to discover that Harry has died.
Stuck in Vienna with no immediate job prospects, Cotten’s Holly Martins quickly finds himself both growing closer to his dead friend’s girlfriend, Anna (Alida Valli), and caught up in the police investigation into Harry’s death. Twisty and uncompromising, “The Third Man” keeps you on your toes from its inconspicuous beginning all the way to its iconic, pitch-perfect final image.
“The Brothers Bloom” (2008)
Rian Johnson has only directed six films to this point, and yet “The Brothers Bloom” has somehow flown consistently under the radar. Johnson’s sophomore feature, his follow-up to “Brick,” is a conman comedy about storytelling and learning to find hope even in a world full of lies. It follows Bloom (Adrien Brody), a jaded, lifelong conman who is pulled into one last, “perfect” con to help his brother Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) rob a wealthy, eccentric heiress (Rachel Weisz).
Brimming with Jacques Tati-esque sight gags and enough adventurous whimsy to make your heart flutter, “The Brothers Bloom” is a deeply underrated film. The good news is that, thanks to Prime Video, you can still easily give it the two hours of your time that it deserves.
“Charade” (1963)
The greatest Hitchcock movie that Alfred Hitchcock never made, “Charade” is pure magic. A star-driven mystery thriller rom-com the likes of which audiences just do not get to see often nowadays, this Old Hollywood gem from “Singin’ in the Rain” director Stanley Donen pairs up two of Hollywood’s greatest ever movie stars, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, and traps them in a convoluted, screwball conspiracy involving the dead husband of Hepburn’s Reggie Lampert and stolen World War II-era gold.
The resulting film is one of the greatest doses of pure entertainment that Hollywood has ever concocted. Shot on location in Paris, “Charade” is pure charm and romance, mixed with an added touch of good old-fashioned, Hitchcockian cleverness. It just does not get much better than this.
“The Deep Blue Sea” (2011)
“The Deep Blue Sea” is one of the great, unsung masterpieces from director Terence Davies. Based Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play of the same name, “The Deep Blue Sea” follows Hester Collyer (a spellbinding Rachel Weisz), the wife of a British judge (Simon Russell Beale) who gets caught up in a whirlwind, self-destructive love affair with a handsome, careless Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston) that leaves her feeling trapped — as the film’s title suggests — between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Immaculately shot by cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister, “The Deep Blue Sea” is a dreamy, achingly sensual film about the feelings of pain and freedom that come with both self-destruction and rebirth. It is a drama of immense, remarkable visual and emotional beauty.
“The Misfits” (1961)
“The Misfits” is best known as the final completed film that both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe starred in. As tragic as that reputation is, they give two of the best performances of their careers in the film, which was directed by John Huston and written by Monroe’s third husband, playwright Arthur Miller. Shot in gorgeous black and white, the film follows a recently divorced woman (Monroe) who falls in love in Reno, Nevada, with an aging cowboy (Gable) and ends up entangled in the lives of him, his mechanic friend (Eli Wallach) and a soft-spoken, out-of-his-depth rodeo rider (Montgomery Clift).
Emotionally and visually unvarnished, “The Misfits” is a drama about the beauty and pain of change and the importance of gentleness in a world that often feels oppressively cruel. Every performance given in it is a marvel, but it is ultimately Monroe who makes the largest and most lasting impression. Her performance in “The Misfits” is so present and full of life that it will leave you heartbroken all over again that she did not get the chance to give more like it.
“Manhunter” (1986)
Before “Silence of the Lambs,” there was “Manhunter,” and before there was Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), there was Will Graham (William Petersen). Based on “Silence of the Lambs” author Thomas Harris’ 1981 novel “Red Dragon,” “Manhunter” follows Petersen’s Will, a troubled FBI profiler, as he is pulled out of his own, self-imposed early retirement to investigate a serial killer known as the the “Tooth Fairy,” who kills entire families seemingly at random.
Over the course of his investigation, Will is forced to seek out the advice of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox), the imprisoned serial killer who nearly killed him. Directed by Michael Mann, “Manhunter” is an intoxicatingly cerebral, stylistically ravishing crime thriller about the necessity, danger and allure of confronting evil — a theme that is hauntingly explored by Mann in one heart-stopping sequence involving a blind woman (played by Joan Allen) and a sedated tiger.
“The Limey” (1999)
Much like how “Manhunter” has been unfairly eclipsed by the acclaim of Michael Mann’s other films, “The Limey” remains a surprisingly underrated entry in director Steven Soderbergh‘s filmography. Edited in dreamlike, elliptical fashion, the thriller follows an English criminal (a perfectly cast Terence Stamp) who travels to Los Angeles to investigate the death of his estranged daughter.
His mission leads him right to the doorstep of Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), the powerful record producer his daughter dated before her death, and straight into Los Angeles’ starry, corrupt underworld. Sun-soaked and anchored by deeply felt, powerful emotions, “The Limey” is a revenge thriller unlike any that you have likely seen before. It proves, once again, Soderbergh’s ability to elevate even the most familiar and straightforward of stories. (In case that was not enough, it also inspired one of the greatest commentary tracks in movie history.)
