Sometimes when classic literature was remarketed for mid-century audiences the pulp style makeovers were stretches. But in this case it works. Le amicizie pericolose is a 1964 Italian translation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 French epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, aka Dangerous Liaisons. The story features one of history's greatest femmes fatales—Marquise de Merteuil, whose pride and sexual vanity is the seed of an unspeakable tragedy. There's also an homme fatale—the serial seducer Vicomte de Valmont, whose dick eventually gets him in a crack so tight he can't escape. 

Based on a novel by revered crime writer Jim Thompson, The Grifters treated filmgoers to a heavy dose of amorality and incestuous sexual tension. We’re talking dark, folks. It was directed by Stephen Frears and starred John Cusack, Annette Bening, and the always-brilliant Anjelica Huston as an extremely dangerous milf. Bening had appeared already in Valmont and Postcards from the Edge, but her role here as the slinky predator Myra Langtry made her a star. Highest marks all around. And who can forget that hotel scene? See below. The Grifters premiered today in 1990.