#10 “Bad Lieutenant” (1992) featuring The Lieutenant (LT)

The toxicity of writer/director Abel Ferrara’s tawdry crime drama “Bad Lieutenant” was certainly captured in the film’s star Harvey Keitel’s wildly intense and perverse performance as the sordid New York City-based police lieutenant who entertained his demented demons while investigating the rape of a young nun. Keitel’s LT was a twisted tool, to say the least, as his indulgences included drug addiction, overwhelming gambling debts, frolicking with sleazy prostitutes and fancying the notion of playing up to teenage girls. LT is walking a fine line of a corruptible cretin hiding behind a badge. However, he realizes that his risky behavior and mounting vices need taming otherwise his compromised existence is destined to end with him as an unnamed stiff on a cold slab. If there ever was a crooked cop needing redemption in the worst way possible, it is Keitel’s masturbating monster working his beleaguered beat on the mean streets of deterioration.

#9 “Hot Fuzz” (2007) featuring Inspector Frank Butterman

Poor Sergeant Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg). After proving his superior policing prowess at the Metropolitan Police Service, he is transferred to the small police force in the English village of Sandford — a community known for regularly winning the Neighborhood Watch Alliance (NWA) sponsored “Village of the Year” honors — to maintain his straight-laced procedural excellence. Plus, Angel is teamed up with a buffoon of a partner in portly Police Constable Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), a fanatic of action-oriented TV cop shows. However, it is Danny’s father, Inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent), that is the ultimate corruptible component behind the scenes. Already heading a lazy and transparent police force in Sandford, Inspector Butterman is instrumental in some comical deadly dealings with the notorious NWA that eradicates residents looking to tarnish the village’s winning streak of the aforementioned “Village of the Year” award. Star and co-writer Pegg’s “Hot Fuzz” is a hilarious hot mess of a satire and Broadbent’s diabolical Inspector Frank Butterman fittingly plays into the merry-minded madness.

#8 “Internal Affairs” (1990) featuring Dennis Peck

Polished sleazeball L.A. cop Dennis Peck (Richard Gere) has a lot of background criminal dealings he is concealing while posing as a civil servant sworn to protect and serve. Armed with deceptive good looks and a genuine taste for manipulation, Peck’s shady activities are ripe for anybody looking to be charmed by his treacherous trickery. Director Mike Figgis’s steamy and slick cop caper “Internal Affairs” pits the aforementioned Peck — a grade A womanizer and opportunistic scoundrel — against the film’s young and idealistic Internal Affairs officer Raymond Avilla (Andy Garcia) and his partner Amy Wallace (Laurie Metcalf). Peck is lethal as his cat-and-mouse game with the determined Avilla comes dangerously close to home when he involves Avilla’s wife Kathleen (Nancy Travis) as a pawn to disillusion his do-gooder nemesis. Dennis Peck is be a smooth operator with the ladies and a great practitioner of violating the rules and his rocky path to debauchery convincingly defines his corruptible compass.

#7 “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963) featuring Capt. T. G. Culpepper

Filmmaker Stanley Kramer’s all-star wacky feasting of greedy hopefuls in the cockeyed comedy “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” was as humorous as its surreal premise involving a dying thief’s announcement that a stolen stash of $350,000 is free for the taking to a bunch of witnesses looking to collaborate to find it. This results in a mad dash for the ill-gotten windfall where a who’s who of offbeat celebrities of that era (from Milton Berle to Ethel Merman) make up the mass of misfits chasing down the treasured funds. However, the money-seekers are being monitored closely by Capt. T. G. Culpepper (legendary Oscar winner Spencer Tracy) as they close in on the location of the missing money. The problem is that Culpepper is not the noble police officer statesman as originally believed, as he turns out to be just as under-handed in wanting to claim the $350,000 for himself. Thus, Culpepper sacrifices his years of respectability on the police force to engage in thievery to snatch that satchel of cash in Kramer’s crazed comedic caper.

#6 “The Killer Inside Me” (1976) featuring Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford

The understandable belief that Montana-based Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford (Stacy Keach) is one of the more affable, down-to-earth lawmen to serve the public is indeed a woefully misguided thought to say the least. Unfortunately, Ford is anything but what his humble reputation is imagined by his peers and people of the county. In Burt Kennedy’s “The Killer Inside Me,” Ford is a fascinating character study in a dangerously wounded soul whose alarming penchant for killing is masked by his good guy persona. Keach’s off-balanced performance as the unlikely psychotic killing machine disguised as a normal dutiful deputy sheriff is hauntingly chilling and made all the more so by supporting roles from the likes of Susan Tyrrell’s suggestive tart Joyce and Don Stroud’s wide-eyed dimwit Elmer. The trigger that fuels “The Killer Inside Me” is indeed the twisted dual identity of walking contradiction Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford.

#5 “Killer Joe” (2011) featuring Joe Cooper

Director William Friedkin’s terrorizing Texas tale of scheming rednecks, insurance fraud, and contract killing cops is all meshed together in the murder-for-hire police thriller “Killer Joe.” Lone Star state police detective Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) moonlights as a contract killer who is hired by a dubious drug dealer Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) to off his mother so that the insurance money is transferred to his sister Dottie (Juno Temple). However, Killer Joe needs reassurance that his money will be forwarded to him as Chris awaits the insurance payoff, so Dottie is “loaned” to the killer cop until the arrangement of the funds are finalized. “Killer Joe” Cooper is a complex creature that crosses the fine line between a Texas good ole badge boy and a seedy assassin willing to sell his salacious services to the highest bidder. In both cases, Joe is committed to his personalized cause of accomplishing his assigned mission whether it is predicated on the decent dollar or not.

#4 “L.A. Confidential” (1997) featuring Jack Vincennes and Bud White

Curtis Hanson’s nostalgic cop noir “L.A. Confidential” delves into the seediness of 1950’s Los Angeles where corruption ran at a premium high. At the center of Hanson’s Eisenhower-era sleepy cop caper are three policemen with clashing personalities but one goal in mind: To a string of grisly murders. The trio of main cops at the forefront included Guy Pearce’s goody two shoes Ed Exley, Russell Crowe’s explosive rule-breaker Bud White and Kevin Spacey’s attention-seeking, profit-chasing slimeball Jack Vincennes. Specifically, it was Crowe’s violent White and Spacey’s superficial Vincennes that carried the torch as the two cops with questionable scruples that find the ability to seek out justice in a dark utopia of despair within the confines of a tainted Tinseltown. Again, crime and corruption never felt so cozy and captivating as showcased in Hanson’s hedonistic Hollywood landscape of mischievousness.

#3 “Lakeview Terrace” (2008) featuring Abel Turner

The badass LAPD officer in “Lakeview Terrace,” Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), took considerable exception to welcoming and tolerating his new neighbors Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) in his serene, gated community. Sure, the Mattsons are young, attractive and personable so that should not be a reason to immensely dislike them, but Officer Turner could not stomach the married couple. You see . . . the Mattsons are an interracial married couple — something seen as troubling, threatening and unacceptable to the racist, intolerant African-American law enforcer. Clearly, Turner views Lisa as a sellout to her blackness and stops at nothing to settle the score with Chris, particularly though psychological and tactical harassment. Menacing and unpredictable, Turner is a corrosive man whose hellish dysfunction mixed with his authority behind his badge is a concerning factor (probably the understatement of the century).

#2 “Serpico” (1973) featuring the corruptible New York City police department

Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) was an honest loner on the corruptible NYPD force from the early 70’s and his self-righteousness and dignity for his badge may have been the deal-breaker in Sidney Lumet’s urban cop thriller “Serpico.” The long-haired and bearded Serpico underwent constant scrutiny for refusing to mingle in the sharing of extorted drug money and other illegal gains that the other cops celebrated in so shamelessly. Officially labeled as a fingered target (read: Killjoy) the disciplined Frank Serpico was not trusted by his policing peers and had become untrustworthy for his refusal to conform with the accepted cop corruption. Because of this, none of Serpico’s colleagues wanted to partner up with him or watch his back on the dangerous streets, and so he had no choice but to report the onslaught of mounting corruption to the higher-ups but to no avail. For his efforts, Pacino earned a best actor Oscar nod for his portrayal of a virtuous cop who alone stood up to the corrosive and corruptible NYPD force.

#1 “Training Day” (2001) featuring Alonzo Harris

Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua directed Denzel Washington to his second Academy Award statuette in the crime thriller “Training Day,” in which Washington plays the corrupt and hip LAPD narcotics officer Alonzo Harris who is tapped to train a rookie cop, Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke in his Oscar-nominated role), as they cruise the seedy South Central L.A. streets. However, it doesn’t take long for Jake to realize just how devious Alonzo is at heart as the training day progresses. Whether coaxing Jake to take a hit of marijuana on the job, raiding a household and absconding with stolen drug money in a gang-infested neighborhood or witnessing Alonzo’s infidelity through his “second” family with a sexpot Spanish mistress and their son, Alonzo was certainly unconventional in his approach to cleaning up the roguish streets. Alonzo Harris — as only the gifted Washington could pull off — was a compelling and conniving merchant on the drug-addled streets that fancied his erratic influence as both the sinister crusader for solution and opportunistic manipulator of the urban-based problem.

#10 “A Piece of the Action” (1978) featuring Manny Durrell and Dave Anderson

Career criminals Manny Durrell and Dave Anderson (Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby) are asked to reform their law-breaking ways when retired detective Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) sentences them to do community service for delinquents at the local youth center in the late 70’s crime caper dramedy, “A Piece of the Action.” The film’s climax showcases both Manny and Dave dancing up a storm with the misguided kids that, despite prior reservations, they’d grown attached to. The jubilant dance sequence (done over the closing credits) has Poitier and Cosby playfully mingling with the youths to the soulful sounds of Mavis Staples and Curtis Mayfield’s hit single “Piece of the Action.” Indeed, Manny, Dave and their charges certainly gave “Soul Train” a run for its money.

#9 “Airplane!” (1980) featuring Ted Striker and Elaine Dickinson

There were no boundaries off limits for the comedy team of the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams in the whacked-out farce “Airplane!.” The nuttiness of “Airplane!” skewered disaster movies and everything else possible, including the cool disco nightclub dance scene from 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever.” There they take mopey pilot, Ted Striker (Robert Hays), drinking his sorrows away at a rundown dive until he spots the pretty and energetic Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) on the dance floor rhythmically moving to the beat of The Bee Gees’ tune “Staying Alive” with a drunken geezer. Naturally, Striker gets into his ridiculing Tony Manero mode (white disco suit and all) as he and Elaine hysterically dance the night away — in perverse Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker style, of course.

#8 “Beetlejuice” (1988) featuring Charles and Delia Deetz and dinner guests

So what does one do to prevent the continuation of a relentlessly pretentious dinner party thrown by an elitist couple Charles and Delia Deetz (Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O’Hara)? Well, one hires the obnoxious Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to high-jack the feasting festivities by unwillingly making the unbearable Deetzes and their snobby guests dance uncontrollably to singer Harry Belafonte’s “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” in curious, comical fashion. You see . . . deceased married couple and now ghostly apparitions, Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) want to frighten the new owners out of their home, but in the process befriend Deetz’s Gothic teen daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder). However, soon the Maitlands will regret their decision to enlist the wildly unpredictable Betelguese from scaring away the unwanted intruders when he presents alarming harm to their young friend Lydia and her insufferable folks in director Tim Burton’s entertaining late 80s comedy freak show.

#7 “Charlie’s Angels” (2000) featuring Natalie Cook

Cameron Diaz’s jiggly Angel, Natalie Cook, certainly took her bouncing and trouncing to a whole new level when she strutted her stuff on the “Soul Train” dance floor in front of a mostly astonished black crowd that finally fell for her infectious booty-shaking antics as they chanted “Go white girl!” Between Natalie “doing her thing” on center stage as her enthusiastic and diminutive boyfriend Peter (Luke Wilson) looks on proudly while chatting it up with the expressionless skyscraper bulky bouncers (“You guys are like in really in good shape you know. Definitely.”) the whole dance sequence comes off hysterically funny, but oddly spirited. The bombastic background beat to Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” as Natalie performs the Robot and other dance moves marks this fun-filled dance distraction as a quirky whirlwind of aimless goofiness.

#6 “Ghostbusters” (1984) featuring The Ghostbusters and Ray Parker Jr.

Okay, let’s get the backlash out of the way before we go any further with the selection of the “Ghostbusters” music video that showcases the film’s stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson dancing and singing in unison with singer Ray Parker Jr. Sure, the free-wheeling dancing was done in the official music video and NOT the movie, but who are you gonna call . . . a lawyer? I ain’t afraid of no criticism much less no ghost. Anyway, the side-stepping of dance steps by the actors in their Ghostbusters gear on location in New York’s Times Square is simply pure giddy, satirical symmetry (watch for Murray hamming it up at the tail end of the video). Add the variety of celebrity cameos popping up quipping, “Ghostbusters” as they answer Parker’s musical inquiry definitely adds to the pulsating 80’s finger-snapping tune. Ah, don’t you miss the enjoyment of silly 80’s sci-fi comedy popcorn pleasers?

#5 “Napoleon Dynamite” (2004) featuring Napoleon Dynamite

“And up next I hope you’ll enjoy a skit from Pedro Sanchez,” mentions the Preston High School principal in the coming-of-age sleeper comedy “Napoleon Dynamite.” Of course the “skit” in question turned out to be the weirdly, but spry and jerky, dance routine from one bespectacled nerd Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) delivering one of the most bizarre yet ambitious and hypnotic dance sequences to grace a cult comedy. With his “Vote for Pedro” T-shirt slogan, lopsided hair perm and black space boots, the fast-thinking Napoleon needed to come up with something to put his buddy Pedro (Efren Ramirez) over the top to ensure an elusive victory over the snobbish popular girl Summer Wheatly (Haylie Duff). Well he did and it was his impromptu movement to Jamiroquai’s tune “Canned Heat” that did the trick. The lanky Napoleon came to the rescue for not only his pal Pedro, but to every underdog looking to groove without apology.

#4 “Nola and the Clones” (2016) featuring Nola

Irish filmmaker Graham Jones’ indie feminist drama “Nola and the Clones” is an affecting story that incorporates psychological plight from the daunting perspective of a young homeless hooker Nola (Caoimhe Cassidy) whose run-ins with male clones (all played by Joseph Lydon) on the streets results in self-discovery, reflection and self-examination. The audience senses a special kind of liberation for the film’s embittered heroine towards the end of the film when Nola — “borrowing” the clothing from someone’s random clothes line — frequents a local dance club and just methodically sways to the music in solitude among the other clubbers who have a home (and certain future) to retreat to when the dance club comes to a close. Nola’s isolated dancing is symbolic of the her shaking off the frustrations of her personal demons with men, no emotional support or comfort and a checkered past only matched by an unknown, unstructured future.

#3 “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985) featuring Pee Wee Herman

A man-child and his red bike. Only the witty and wacky Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) can take this slight premise and turn it into a pop cultural sensation in the mid 80s. Not since the 60s, when television’s Caped Crusader in “Batman” did the campy dance “The Batusi,” had a fictional character made such an impact with dance moves until the Pee Wee Herman dance became all the rage in large part to Reubens’s infantile comedic shenanigans. In this case we find the vulnerable Pee Wee, surrounded by blood-thirty bikers in a smoky bar, humoring the beer-guzzling bunch by dancing erratically to the Champs’ “Tequila Song” in clunky white platform shoes. One did not know which was the most surreal — Pee Wee’s spastic dancing on the bar top or the whole movie project being directed by the twisted creative mind of Tim Burton. Herman was quite the hipster and it never gets tired watching the lanky simpleton stiffly rock to the beat of his own demented drum.

#2 “Pulp Fiction” (1994) featuring Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace

What stands out in filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s compellingly absurdist crime noir “Pulp Fiction”? Let’s see . . . the sadomasochist masked Gimp and his racist hillbilly associates, trivial discussions about foot massages and cheeseburgers and the metric system, gunshot brain matter splattered during daytime driving, divine intervention, a sloppily executed lunchtime diner stick-up and a syringe-to-the-heart drug overdosing, to name a few. But nothing came out so spontaneous than watching John Travolta’s hitman Vincent Vega twist away with Uma Thurman’s gangster moll Mia Wallace to the rollicking tune of rocker Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell (C’Est La Vie)” at a nostalgic 50’s themed restaurant. Vincent and Mia dancing up a storm (and ultimately winning the dance contest) amid the offbeat turbulence is one of the film’s softened off-balanced vignettes that interestingly composed Tarantino’s toxic crime odyssey.

#1 “Tropic Thunder” (2008) featuring Les Grossman

It took rather convincing makeup to disguise pretty boy Tom Cruise as the puffy-looking, bald-headed, middle-aged shady Hollywood studio executive Les Grossman in the Ben Stiller-directed war satire, “Tropic Thunder.” Cruise’s doughboy-shaped Tinseltown hotshot fantastically gets down in his velvet blue lit office to Ludacris’ lyrical rap anthem “Get Back” during the film’s finale. Flashy, frolicking, frenetic and frothy in nature, Cruise’s jamming Les Grossman is an unctuous kind of cool. As they used to say back in the day, “This guy is the bomb!” Certainly Cruise’s foul tempered, but surprisingly deft, Grossman puts to shame Cruise’s “Risky Business” strutting peacock, Joel Goodson.

#10 “Back to the Future” (1985) featuring George McFly

Actor Crispin Glover, the off-kilter performer who became America’s favorite nerdy patriarch in the mid 80’s box office sci-fi hit “Back to the Future,” reportedly has never come to grips with his pushover papa George McFly role that has made him a movie nerd icon for the ages. However, for movie audiences, then and now, the goofy and whiny demeanor of traveling hero Marty McFly’s (multi-Emmy winner Michael J. Fox) doofus daddy was a winning yet sympathetic fatherly figurehead who was not only at the mercy of bombastic bullies such as badass Biff Howard Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) but also a doormat for the game of life in general. Nevertheless, even the George McFlys of the world deserve to catch a break and deliver the comeuppance to their oppressors at some point. And for that we embrace the character George McFly with giddy enthusiasm.

#9 “Election” (1999) featuring Tracy Flick

Some may not see Reese Witherspoon’s biting portrayal of high school overachiever Tracy Enid Flick from filmmaker Alexander Payne’s smartly written 1999 comedy “Election” as a member of the nerd brigade necessarily. After all Tracy was ambitious, conscientious, focused, determined and intelligent. But she was also opportunistic, sneaky, slightly vindictive and annoying — a side to her that government teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) noticed and decided to serve some comical just deserts. In any event, Tracy was the high-achieving nerd that rubbed her fellow classmates the wrong way as her over-reaching expectations and academic arrogance made her nothing more than a spoiled brat with garrulous grand-standing in the classroom. Whether she’s considered an applauded nerd, scheming scholastic superstar or grating-on-the-nerves go-getter, cinema’s Tracy Flick is one of the most celebrated polarizing high schoolers to grace the big screen in modern movies.

#8 “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” (1964) featuring Henry Limpet

Multi-Emmy Award winner Don Knotts, who famously became a TV icon courtesy of his classic characterization of fidgety Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show,” cut his teeth perfecting the overwhelmed wiry nerd in a string of now nostalgic slapstick comedies such as delightful ditties: “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,” “The Reluctant Astronaut,” “The Shakiest Gun in the West” and of course “The Incredible Mr. Limpet.” In fact, Knotts’ Henry Limpet was an endearing nerd that taught us all a lesson in life — that dreams in wanting to be somebody more than you are can happen no matter how the odds are stacked up against you. The whimsical and silly-minded film introduced us to Henry (Knotts), a meek-minded bookkeeper whose strong affinity for the Navy is shattered when he is determined physically unfit to join the service he cherishes so dearly. Nevertheless, a freakish event while falling in the water transforms the nerdy bookkeeper into a fish — something that rejuvenates his sense of purpose and spirit. Now as a fish Mr. Henry Limpet can assist the Navy on its mission to locate and disarm Nazi U-boats. Indeed, “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” is a babyboomer’s childhood fantasy worth a reminiscing dip in the deep end of swimming pool memories.

#7 “Little Shop of Horrors” (1986) featuring Seymour Krelborn

Okay folks, there is no slight intended in omitting the original 1960 release of “Little Shop of Horrors” directed by sexploitation gore-meister Roger Corman. However, movie audiences will probably recall more readily Frank Oz’s 1986 remake featuring the well-known former “SCTV” cast member, the nebbish Rick Moranis in the role of clumsy florist Seymour Krelborn whose friendship with a blood-thirsty, man-eating giant plant (voiced by the late legendary Four Tops’ lead singer Levi Stubbs) and nervous affection for co-worker Audrey Fulquad (Ellen Greene) at their flower shop workplace ended up in comedic chaos. Naturally, there is no bias towards Jonathan Haze’s Seymour in Corman’s version of the movie, but Moranis has made an art out portraying nerdy souls in fare such as “Ghostbusters,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “Parenthood” and “Little Giants” just to name a few. Thus, common sense dictates that Moranis’ Seymour gets the head up in recognition as being the put-upon plant-boy with the winning nerdish touch.

#6 “Napoleon Dynamite” (2004) featuring Napoleon Dynamite

Writer-director Jared Hess and his lead Jon Heder collaborated to bring another heralded nerdy high schooler to the forefront in the Idaho-based coming-of-age comedy “Napoleon Dynamite.” Devoutly droll, off-kilter and surprisingly observational, Heder’s Napoleon represented every underdog in the school system dealing with their unique form of alienation both in the classroom and at home. The usual obstacles applied in Napoleon’s warped world of wackiness — eccentric family members, a stubborn pet llama, school bullies and the popular clique circles. However, Napoleon’s route to coolness entails the mission to get his new best friend in transfer student Pedro (Efren Ramirez) elected student body president over challenger Summer Wheatley (Haylie Duff), the mean-spirited “it” girl that runs the roost. Ironically, “Napoleon Dynamite” made it hip to be a nonsensical nerd in shaking up the high school hierarchy in the mid 2000’s. And remember above all else . . . Vote for Pedro!

#5 “The Nutty Professor” (1963) featuring Professor Julius Kelp

Many consider writer-director-star Jerry Lewis’ “The Nutty Professor” his ultimate masterpiece among the conveyor belt of silly 60’s comedies he cranked out in the aftermath of his publicized professional split with former comedy partner Dean Martin. Lewis played nerdy Professor Julius Kelp who longs for a romantic relationship with one of his curvaceous college students, the pretty and perky Stella Purdy (Stella Stevens). Thus, Professor Kelp’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-type experimentation in the lab results in his transformation to swinger Buddy Love, a handsome, but relentlessly boorish brute whose obnoxiousness and self-serving sense of importance left much to be desired. Julius Kelp was a beeker-pushing nerd, but he was also inherently sweet and considerate . . . an alternative to the polished but poison-tongued Buddy Love. The lesson was reinforced in “The Nutty Professor” that being your true self is the only way one can discover one’s true identity and heart. In the end, Kelp embraced his nerdy truth and got the trophy girl in the process. We all should be so lucky, right?

#4 “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985) featuring Pee-Wee Herman

Long before comedian Paul Reubens became damaged goods following a 1991 arrest for indecent exposure in a Florida adult movie theater, his worldwide fame as kiddie pioneer goofball Pee-Wee Herman was the rage on both daytime children’s television and later in the movies. The bow-tied, squeaky-voiced simpleton had made his mark in pop culture with his TV/stage events that included the eighties’ explosion of exposure with off-balanced fare such as “The Pee-Wee Herman Show” and later CBS children’s programming of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” Soon, Reubens’ immense popularity highlighted by Pee-Wee Herman-oriented toy merchandising and the works would later welcome his infectious and insane presence on the big screen in “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” — an unlikely comedy of goofiness that magically appealed to both adults and youngsters alike. Regardless of the personal controversies that dogged Reubens the man, it appears that Reubens the artist left an indelible imprint on the generations of children and grown-ups that grew up in the Pee-Wee Herman universe of child-like ribaldry.

#3 “Revenge of the Nerds” (1984) featuring Lewis Skolnick and Gilbert Lowe

The duo behind the “Revenge of the Nerds” movie movement are Lewis Skolnick and Gilbert Lowe (Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards), a couple of buddies that led the pack of outcasts and misfits at fictional Adams College in Jeff Kanew’s collegiate campus comedy. It was tough on the terrorized twosome as they dealt with the pressures put upon them by the likes of handsome hotshot jock Stan Gable (Ted McGinley) and gigantic goon Orge (Donald Gibb) not to mention the college faculty that were not too thrilled with them as well. Still, Lewis and Gilbert led their fellow nerds: Poindexter (Timothy Busfield), Booger (Curtis Armstrong), Lamar (Larry B. Scott), Wormser (Andrew Cassese) and Takashi (Brian Tochi) to not only survive the slings and arrows of their pitbull peers, but to turn the tables and overcome in more ways than one. All nerds unite!

#2 “Sixteen Candles” (1984) featuring Ted

The trials and tribulations of soon-to-be sweet sixteen Samantha (Molly Ringwald) as she navigates through the growing pains at home and in school are showcased in the late John Hughes teen-angst dramedy “Sixteen Candles.” So what is Samantha’s dilemma? Well, she harbors a tremendous crush for the most coveted boy in high school Jake (Michael Schoeffling), but the problem is that Samantha cannot seem to avoid her unwanted admirer in the person of the Geek, aka “Farmer” Ted (Anthony Michael Hall). Totally spastic and bothersome, the Geek is devoted to his elusive love muffin Samantha, but she is not receptive at all to the intrusive nerd-in-heat. In many ways the Geek was very sympathetic and vulnerable as he felt about Samantha the way Samantha viewed her heartthrob Jake. Deep down we all knew that the Geek was the “one” for the disillusioned Samantha although we can certainly understand her reluctance to ignore her klutzy champion for the dreamed of girltoy beefcake she wanted so badly.

#1 “Superman” (1978) featuring Clark Kent

Clearly, Clark Kent is the ultimate king of the nerds . . . or at least this is how the late Christopher Reeve perceived him as when hiding behind this seemingly inept newspaperman to shield his Man of Steel identity to the world he saved on a daily basis. The nerdy Kent (and Superman) held a special affection for fellow reporter — the feisty feminine firecracker Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) — but she had her designs only on the Caped Courageous One. Whether it was an exaggerated act by Clark Kent to act so gawky and goofy is a distinct possibility, he nevertheless, always had the last laugh in the long run as his red-and-blue tights with the big “S” on his chest gave him all the street cred he needed.

#10 “Candy Stripe Nurses” (1974) featuring Sandy

By shining the spotlight on a trio of naughty nurses, writer-director Alan Holleb certainly shows he knows how to exploit the perverse fantasies of every sickly man’s dreams. In the titillating mid 70s volunteering nurse comedy “Candy Stripe Nurses,” he introduces viewers to three curvaceous cuties, all with a sordid agenda in mind as they make their reckless rounds at the hospital. Specifically, candy striper Sandy (Candice Rialsonn) who accepts her health facility role in order to be close with her hotshot physician boyfriend. However, this does not stop the sex-starved Sandy from making the temperatures rise in the male patients she services courtesy of her sex addiction. Hmmm . . . sexpot Sandy provides a whole new meaning to setting up a “layaway plan.” Perhaps her sexual services will ease her pampered patients into willingly accepting their astronomical medical bills in the mail.

#9 “High Anxiety” (1977) featuring Charlotte Diesel

One can see the active wacky mind of Mel Brooks at work in the wicked psychiatric nurse Charlotte Diesel in “High Anxiety,” Brooks’ homage to filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Nurse Diesel is indeed a treacherous tool to say the least. When she is not engaging in BDSM sexual practices behind closed doors, she — along with sinister cohort (and bizarre bedmate) Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman) — is plotting the demise of high strung Richard H. Thorndyke (Brooks). Leachman’s Nurse Diesel is a comically tragic figure and definitely contributed to the medical mayhem of Brooks’s twisted salute to Hitchcock’s psychological suspense thriller hedonism.

#8 “Kill Bill Vol. 1” (2003) featuring Elle Driver (posing as a nurse)

Okay, so technically “Kill Bill Vol. 1” headstrong heroine Beatrix Kiddo a.k.a. The Bride’s (Uma Thurman) rival Deadly Viper Assassination Squad member Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) was not a registered nurse, but she assumed this deceiving identity in order to get close to and eradicate her feisty nemesis while Beatrix was trying to recover in the hospital. Elle was indeed quite a fetching specimen of sexiness, but she was also instinctively ruthless, blood-thirsty and would carry out any sinister orders handed to her from current lover and superior Bill (David Carradine) who, naturally, was Beatrix’s former lover and the father of her missing daughter. The immense jealousy of Beatrix’s past intimacy with Bill has driven the dangerous Driver to destroy the gifted martial arts maiden, but, unfortunately for her, slyly donning a nursing uniform was not enough to take out Beatrix, who went on to exact her furious revenge in Quentin Tarantino’s fight-to-the-death frenzied fable of redemption.

#7 “M*A*S*H” (1970) featuring Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan

Actress Sally Kellerman scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress playing the uptight, by-the-book US Army head nurse Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s irreverent military comedy “M*A*S*H.” Hot Lips was a procedural pest that played by the army’s rules and she found herself at odds with her disillusioned comrades-in-arms, particularly with the medical 4077 unit’s top two talented surgeons, Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce and Trapper John MacIntyre (Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould). While Major Houlihan played the disciplinarian diva as she teamed up with equally gung ho, yet medically inept and married Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), they were hypocritical in their private actions as they carried on an affair at the camp that everybody knew about. “Hot Lips” was a complicated creature, both vile and vulnerable, and served as the poster girl for self-righteousness in a war zone where the relief from the pressured surroundings of death and destruction was to partake in offbeat craziness. Although not one to admit this revelation, Kellerman’s “Hot Lips” Houlihan was just as broken inside psychologically as her weary colleagues and the countless wounded whose spilled blood they all traipsed through in marathon hours at the operating table.

#6 “Misery” (1990) featuring Annie Wilkes

It should not be to anybody’s surprise that Kathy Bates walked away with the Best Actress Oscar for her role as the delusional, overbearing and psychotic former nurse Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s creative written work-turned-movie adaptation “Misery.” Annie, who is a disturbingly ardent admirer of injured novelist Paul Sheldon’s writing and especially of his fictional literary leading lady Misery Chastain, stops at nothing to manipulate her recovering guest’s thoughts about her cherished printed page heroine. The problem is that Sheldon is at the mercy of this hefty-sized caretaker whose mood swings change with the wind. Annie is child-like and playful one moment (“Paul, you have been a dirty birdy”) then menacing and argumentative the next. Consequently, Bates’s brilliant performance as the nutjob nurse living in rural isolation who proclaims her undying love as a “Number 1” fan for her weakened author and his “Misery” protagonist is nothing short of unsettling and masterful. Clearly, Annie Wilkes is the most silently sadistic nurse since Nurse Ratched (who also makes an appearance on this list) in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

#5 “Nurse 3D” (2013) featuring Abby Russell

Perhaps writer-director Douglas Aarniokoski’s “Nurse 3D” is the first tawdry feminist nurse thriller with a deadly twist? You know . . . featuring a hospital hussy falsely catering to unsuspecting cheating guys with siren-inspired sexiness then whammo . . . disposing of these sleazy cretins as repayment for their philandering? This was the case for Nurse Abby Russell (Paz de la Huerta), a health care professional during her working hours where she is devoted to her patients and their treatment. But when she is away from the workplace it is a different story for the calculating Abby as she lives a dramatically alternative nightlife. Abby has the terrorizing tendencies to use her alluring body to ambush the unfaithful guys blinded by her provocative charms — her way of teaching them a critical (and deadly) lesson in sexual deception. However, it will take a young nurse (Katrina Bowden) to get in Abby’s path of destruction and change its course, undoubtedly saving many others from Abbys twisted, sexual justice.

#4 “The Nurse” (1997) featuring Laura Harriman

For Nurse Laura Harriman (Lisa Zane) payback will be so sweet although for her victimized targets it would be a sour undertaking. In director Robert Malenfant’s “The Nurse” we find a very desperate nurse out for revenge as she believes a catatonic businessman is the sole reason that her father killed himself. So Laura goes to work as she deviously schemes to infiltrate the stroke-stricken man’s family as a private nurse while plotting to off his family members one by one in retaliation for her late father’s legal humiliation leading up to him taking his own life. Laura is uncontrollable in her taste for getting even as her random killings justify her descent into utter madness. There is nothing original about the premise for “The Nurse” in terms of witnessing yet another pretty vixen go unhinged and take toxic matters into her own horrific hands, but one cannot deny the fact that Laura Harriman is a perfect fit in the category of nefarious nurses with off-kilter intentions.

#3 “Nurse Betty” (2000) featuring Betty Sizemore

Waitress Betty Sizemore (Oscar winner Renée Zellweger) is one traumatized cookie. It is bad enough that she saw the murder of her car salesman husband, but now Betty is convinced that her calling to leave Kansas City and become a nurse is a sound decision — all in the name of getting the chance to meet her heartthrob, TV soap opera physician Dr. David Ravell (Greg Kinnear). Betty’s mental shock has her convinced that she was and still can be Dr. Ravell’s one and only main love. It does not help matters any that Betty Sizemore does not realize that both her treasured Dr. Ravell and the daytime drama he appears on is all fantasy entertainment, but it does not stop her from donning a nursing uniform and traveling to L.A. to rub shoulders with the fictional cardiologist. Betty’s troubles in believing her post-traumatic obsession with a handsome television doctor is just the beginning as her late husband’s murderers (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) are on her trail to recover the illegal belongings her spouse stored in her vehicle.

#2 “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) featuring Nurse Ratched

Louise Fletcher’s iconic role as the icy and manipulative Nurse Ratched in Milos Forman’s absorbing mental institution drama rightfully earned her a Best Actress Oscar and perhaps made her the most notorious nurse in cinematic history. Nurse Ratched was a no-nonsense and unfeeling shrew that commanded obedience from her delusional patients too afraid and unaware to challenge her authority. The only constant thorn in the side for the humorless nurse was the free-wheeling rebel Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson in one of his Oscar-winning performances) whose unconventional and off-the-cuff craziness helped empower and encourage his fellow mental patients to loosen up as a way of challenging the restrictive Ratched. Sadly, Nurse Ratched would have the final say by silencing both her rival McMurphy (via a forced lobotomy), and McMurphy protégé Billy Bibbit (Oscar-nominated Brad Dourif) whose suicide is the result of Ratched’s dirty-minded psychological tactics. Indeed, Fletcher — long before fellow Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates won her gold statuette for playing a negligent nurse in “Misery” — was the original nursing nightmare mired in quiet, tactical torture of the mind and soul.

#1 “Silent Hill” (2006) featuring Corpse Nurses

There is nothing more terrifying than the faceless, zombie-looking nurses that make up the bizarre universe in Christophe Gans’ horror/mystery vehicle “Silent Hill.” Ominous and staggering, these scary-looking nurses parade around in grimy uniforms as they roam aimlessly in the foggy terrain of eerie Silent Hill where a panicked Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell) frantically searches for her adopted daughter. Here is hoping that Rose’s missing child is not receiving any medical care from the caustic corpse nurses from the Silent Hill medical facility. Imagine receiving an IV injection from these ghoulish gals with severely scarred noggins? YIKES!

#10 “The Bad Seed” (1956) featuring Rhoda Penmark

Poisonous pig-tailed terror Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack in her Oscar-nominated role) was an eight-year old delicious devil in disguise as she brought convincing twisted tension to director Mervyn LeRoy’s psychological/horror showcase “The Bad Seed.” On the surface the ribald Rhoda appeared to be her father Col. Kenneth Penmark’s (William Hopper) prized twinkle in his eye — she could do no wrong. But for her concerned mother Christine (Nancy Kelly) the reality that her seemingly delightful darling daughter with the idyllic life was in fact a murderous mini monster with a shady and shocking profile of manipulation. Rhoda fooled a majority of those taken by her golden locks and deceptive innocence, but those that were unfortunate enough to perish at the hideous hands of this privileged demon (including a fellow classmate and Henry Jones’ alcoholic handyman Leroy Jessup) knew what the real Rhoda was in reality . . . a deadly diva with more coldness in her than the bottom of a polar bear’s snowy foot. Indeed, Rhoda Penmark is one of early cinema’s calculating kiddies to make an insidious impact.

#9 “Carrie” (1976) Featuring Carrie White

To be fair the very thought of labeling the 17-year old meek and mild freckled face Carrie White (Sissy Spacek in her Oscar-nominated role) from director Brian De Palma’s supernatural/horror melodrama “Carrie” as a “devilish darling” is slightly deceiving. After all, poor Carrie was a withdrawn high schooler with a problematic domestic and academic existence. On one hand there was Carrie’s controlling and overbearing mother Margaret (Piper Laurie) with the freakish religious fanaticism. On the other hand there was the cruelty and ostracized treatment from spiteful classmates and faculty that made Carrie feel even more transparent and troubled. The real deviousness of Carrie’s motivation derived from the immense alienation and frustration that pushed the disillusioned telekinetic teen to the brink of insanity. An embarrassing and degrading prom prank (the old pig blood in the bucket gag) that highlighted Carrie’s public humiliation finally was the corrosive catalyst for unleashing the wickedness that resulted in eye-popping mayhem. Carrie White was the unshakable if not sympathetic “temptress of turmoil,” but one can hardly blame her scathing wrath given the hostile environment that created such devastation in the spirit of celebrated novelist Stephen King’s ghoulish imagination.

#8 “The Craft” (1996) featuring Nancy Downs

For the goth-looking and animated high schooler Nancy Downs (Fairuza Balk) being an obvious outsider within school grounds did not deter the leather-and-chains femme fatale and her cohorts Bonnie and Rochelle (Neve Campbell and Rachel True) from practicing witchcraft and parading around with an indestructible sense of majestic empowerment. The very thought of having the mystic abilities to concoct spell-binding curses to those that dare to alienate them was truly something to take notice. Newcomer Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney) saw first hand how ominous Nancy and her two sidekicks could be with the bewitching impulsiveness. Joining leader Nancy in exploring the occult was at first quite liberating for the new girl on the block to feel a connection for belonging and sisterhood. Unfortunately, she soon found that Nancy was deeply cynical, unpredictable, manipulative and moody. Balk’s scorned Wiccan Nancy Downs was a dark thrill-seeker whose mesmerizing mischief and mundane naughtiness captured the off-kilter spirit of the film’s adventurous, darkened realm.

#7 “The Exorcist” (1973) featuring Regan MacNeil

Filmmaker William Friedkin’s haunting and hypnotic “The Exorcist” (the movie adaptation based on William Peter Blatty’s chilling novel of the same name) introduced one of the most creepy kiddies in cinema courtesy of Linda Blair’s Oscar-nominated performance as the demon-possessed pre-teen Regan MacNeil in the classic early 70’s horror flick that defined the macabre genre on a whole new level of blistering showmanship. Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is panicked and concerned because her daughter Regan’s body and soul is being taken over by an unknown devilish force. Chris decides to cleanse the bed-ridden Regan’s body hosting the sinister entity by enlisting the aid of a couple of priests in the aging Father Lancaster Merrin (Max von Sydow) and the young and guilt-ridden Father Karras (Jason Miller). Enthralling, boldly eerie and transfixing, Blair’s Regan inspired a whole new appreciation for the compromised and complex little darling demonstrating the evil-minded deed that both reinforces and hinders religious ideologies and philosophies. Certainly Regan MacNeil made the common cuisine of pea soup a not-so appetizing treat to behold after a tense viewing of “The Exorcist.”

#6 “Kill Bill Vol. 1” (2003) featuring Gogo Yubari

There are not too many deadly 17-year old Asian schoolgirls that are capable of splitting your skull in half thanks to extensive martial arts combat. Well, not unless you are the skilled siren of slaughter in Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) from “Kill Bill Vol. 1.” Specifically, Gogo was the treacherous teenage bodyguard for O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) whose devotion to her boss (and the immense fondness for killing) proved to be solid and secured. Just ask Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman), Bill’s ex-lover and former assassin, about how lethal and resourceful the blood-thirsty waif Gogo was. Extremely pretty yet pernicious, Gogo was an oddity in that she was not the typically perceived submissive Asian flower ready for a polite bow and steam bath massage. Gogo was ruthless, cutthroat and crafty all wrapped up in that chaotic existence of her mere seventeen years of living. In the long run our heroine would get the best of young Gogo ensuring that she would never reach her eighteenth birthday and continue to perfect her spontaneous death sentences on unlucky recipients. Still, one would probably prefer a gang-style beating from the Crazy 88 crew than face the titillating tart Gogo Yubari in a one-on-one bloody showdown.

#5 “Lolita” (1962) featuring Dolores “Lolita” Haze

Cinematic nymphet Dolores “Lolita” Haze (Sue Lyon) undoubtedly had the appropriate surname because she certainly placed middle-aged British college professor Humbert Humbert (James Mason) in a provocative haze in the Stanley Kubrick-directed taboo melodrama “Lolita.” Lolita Haze was the under-aged curvaceous cutie that was the lusty foundation of Humbert’s forbidden fascination for the 14-year old teen aroused the educator’s uncontrollable desires. The minor Lolita should not be demonized totally for her ability to sexually attract maturing predators such as Humbert as she could not help being the titillating target for one grown man’s unfathomable fantasy. However, Lolita is responsible for her flirtatious nature to a certain extent as her charms not only set off carnal signals in Humbert, but in another older man in Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers), a shady mentor who whisked Lolita away for so-called ventures into his produced plays and movies. Lolita, much to Humbert’s dismay, would end up in a strained marriage while pregnant and struggling with financial crisis. Being a young sexpot to older suitors-in-waiting is not exactly ideal preparation for lady-like behavior entering womanhood. Nevertheless, the tarnished image of a teen nympho never comes out smelling good in the circle of redemption for all involved.

#4 “Mean Girls” (2004) featuring Regina George

Let’s face it . . . there is a Regina George prototype in every high school throughout the country. These superficial hotshot honeys are cruel, catty and self-centered. The Regina Georges of the world could make an insecure cheerleader eat pints of ice cream non-stop based on guilt and intimidation without breaking a sweat. In “Mean Girls” Regina (Rachel McAdams) is the leader of the high school girlie clique known as “The Plastics” who parade around like entitled little princesses of the hallways. Regina and her prissy cohorts welcome newcomer Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) into their exclusive fold as she showed potential to be among their “elite ranks.” But Cady ended up doing the unthinkable by being cozy with Regina’s ex-boyfriend. Soon, this perceived betrayal would strike the rabid Regina the wrong way as Cady would now be considered the sworn thorn of “The Plastics.” McAdams’ portrayal of devilish darling Regina is rooted in off-balanced hilarity in part to co-star/screenwriter Tina Fey’s truthful and relentlessly ticklish script. Basically, the film’s tile “Mean Girls” pretty much says it all, right?

#3 “Poison Ivy” (1992) featuring Ivy

Indeed, Katt Shea’s teen temptress tale “Poison Ivy” could have very well been an updated 90’s generic version of Stanley Kubrick’s classic “Lolita” released thirty years previously. The theme is somewhat familiar with the exception of some instrumental players woven into the tawdry mix. Sexy teen siren Ivy (Drew Barrymore) ends up befriending an awkward and introverted Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) to the point where both girls form a durable bond despite opposite personalities and a contrasting outlook. However, the motive for the young seductive Ivy making a connection with the brooding Sylvie may rest in the fact that Ivy envied and wanted Sylvie’s privileged and pampered existence. It did not hurt that Ivy established a sexual relationship with Sylvie’s disillusioned father Darryl (Tom Skerritt) whose bed-ridden and sickly wife Georgie (Cheryl Ladd) served as an inactive wife and lover. Ivy proved to be a toxic presence within the Cooper clan as her bad influence consumed Darryl’s mid-life crisis lust, Sylvie’s social cynicism and silenced her romantic rival in the ailing Georgie. In short, Barrymore’s tempting teen tease Ivy made Sue Lyons’ Lolita look like a girl scout selling cookies in the afternoon.

#2 “Problem Child 2” (1991) featuring Trixie Young

“Problem Child” punk Junior Healy (Michael Oliver) was a mop top terror that caused all sorts of havoc for his adoptive father Ben (John Ritter) not to mention the poor schmucks that were unlucky to get in the way of Junior’s destructive path. However, it would take “Problem Child 2” for us to realize that there was another little dangerous dynamo waiting to burst out in menacing fashion. Trixie Young (Ivyann Schwan) was Junior’s chaotic classmate and the daughter of the school’s nurse Annie (Amy Yasbeck) — the true love for Ben to pursue. In fact, Trixie was more devilish and devious to the point where Junior thought that this pint-sized pariah made him look like an unruly rookie in comparison. Trixie, much like Junior, does not want to see her single parent date for fear that she will be left on the back burner for her mother’s affections. Thus, Trixie and Junior team up in diabolical goofy-minded madness to serve as the Romper Room avengers against rich witch Lawanda Dumore (Laraine Newman) looking to sink her marital claws into Ben Healy. Trixie Young is the little hedonistic hoot to say the least.

#1 “Thirteen” (2003) featuring Tracy Freeland

Catherine Hardwicke’s hardcore teen drama “Thirteen” shed a hostile spotlight on the peer pressure of teens and the makeup of mother-daughter relationships that define such complicated and angst-ridden tension. Tracy Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood in an Oscar-nominated performance) is a 13-year old put on the edge when she meets and mirrors the erratic behavior of her new best friend Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed). Evie appears free-spirited and raw — something that Tracy finds quite liberating and exciting. Both young girls delve into the wayward world of drugs, petty criminal mischief and random sex. Clearly, Tracy is hungry for debauchery much to the dismay of her working class mother Melanie Freeland (Oscar winner Holly Hunter). Evan Wood is totally riveting as the honor student gone to the dark side based on the emotional detachment regarding her hectic home life and the need to express the ominous vices that obviously numb the personalized pain in a young girl searching to quiet her damaging despair.

#10 “Arsenic and Old Lace” (1944) featuring Abby and Martha Brewster

Filmmaker Frank Capra is known for his whimsical style of film-making, but in 1944’s vintage black comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace” Capra playfully combined the whimsy with breezy weirdness pertaining to a couple of mischievous elderly sisters with a treacherous taste for homicidal tendencies. The insane tandem of the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha (played by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair), is finally realized by their newly married drama critic nephew Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) who fears that the murderous misconduct of his seemingly sweet older maiden aunts may be something for concern. Mortimer, an ardent pessimist when spouting views on the virtues of marriage, discovers the hedonistic hobby of his twisted aunts that engage in knocking off old coots and burying them in their basement. Just imagine rejecting a piece of apple pie from these two maturing deadly dames if you are a wealthy geezer with a decent pension at stake. The “Arsenic and Old Lace” Brewster sisters are truly delightful and disturbing in simultaneous, familial ribaldry.

#9 “A Christmas Carol” (1938) featuring Ebenezer Scrooge

Christmas-hating coot Ebenezer Scrooge (Reginald Owen) is the seasonal epitome of an ostracized wet blanket in Charles Dickens’ literary classic “A Christmas Carol.” Owen’s “humbug hoot” is famously known as the money miser that has no consideration for the Yuletide sentimentality. Just go and ask Scrooge “victims” such as devoted and loyal employee Bob Cratchit (Gene Lockhart), an upbeat family man (and father of sympathetic poster boy Tiny Tim) that holds to heart the positive vibes of the Christmas spirit. Despite Scrooge’s insufferable presence and professional mistreatment of his employee, Cratchit still finds some humanity in his uncaring, bombastic boss whose rejection of Christmas unity, love and joy is about as inspiring as staring at an unwanted anemic-looking Christmas tree without decorations. Ebenezer Scrooge was devilishly cantankerous, cynical, cold-hearted and caustic. Thank goodness it took the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future to snap Scrooge out of his anti-Christmas stance. Let’s face it . . . Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the most polarizing oldsters to wreak havoc both in print and cinema.

#8 “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) featuring Daisy Werthan

Daisy Werthan’s (Jessica Tandy in her Oscar-winning role) ominous nature strictly comes from her feisty and obstinate persona. Miss Daisy is simply set in her ways. As a Jewish elderly widow living in the South (Atlanta) pre-Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s, Miss Daisy wants to cling to her guarded independence especially when it comes to driving. Despite being difficult and demanding, Miss Daisy submits to her son Boolie’s (Academy Award nominee Dan Aykroyd) arrangement to hire black chauffeur Hoke Colburn (Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman, “Million Dollar Baby”) to escort his aging mother about town. Daisy Werthan is not exactly an easy person to relate to under her cemented exterior. Nevertheless, the affable Hoke manages to gradually break Miss Daisy’s icy disposition as they end up forming a special bond in their soon-to-be two decade-old friendship solidified under the tension-filled times in the racial strife-ridden South. Crusty and critical, Miss Daisy at one time could scare the spots off a sleeping leopard, but reformed with the assistance of a humble black man whose vulnerability and indignities would convincingly overshadow any internalized complexity imaginable in this pampered senior Southern belle.

#7 “The Godfather” (1972) featuring Vito Corleone

The epic crime family drama in Francis Ford Coppola’s compelling cinematic masterpiece “The Godfather” introduced movie audiences to one of the most feared and ferocious aging patriarchs in film history . . . the iconic mafia figurehead Don Vito Corleone a.k.a. “The Godfather” (Marlon Brando in his Oscar-winning role). Strangely, Vito Corleone was honorable in what he wanted to strive toward in ensuring that the attainment of the family business was maintained in the unconventional boundaries of achieving the so-called American dream. Although principled in the arena of immorality, decadence, inhumanity and brutality Vito Corleone was the meticulous CEO of mob-related mayhem and wanted to transfer his “empire” grounded in both triumph and tragedy to his loyal sons in order to continue on the traditions of familial power, privilege and prominence. As “The Godfather,” Brando’s intoxicating and immense performance is steeped in penetrating brilliance. Soon, natural causes would silence the frightening mob mastermind behind the Corleone legacy, but while in his prime, Don Vito Corleone was one sinister senior citizen whose offer would not be refused.

#6 “The Karate Kid” (1984) featuring Mr. Miyagi

Character actor Noriyuki “Pat” Morita was a familiar fixture on 1970’s TV sitcoms such as “Sanford and Son,” “M*A*S*H” and even had his own short-lived television series called “Mr. T and Tina.” Of course the majority of TV couch potatoes may know him as restaurant owner Arnold from the classic 50’s-based sitcom “Happy Days.” However, Morita created another pop cultural character in that of Mr. Miyagi from the coming-of-age family action drama “The Karate Kid.” Morita scored an Oscar nomination portraying the mild-mannered martial arts handyman that mentors a bullied kid named Daniel (Ralph Macchio from “My Cousin Vinny”) in the fighting art of karate. Mr. Miyagi was philosophical and soft-spoken, but when pushed this skilled oldster could kick some serious butt on a dime’s notice. Mr. Miyagi was silent and deadly and there were some that wanted to test this mature martial artist’s combative fortitude but certainly to no avail. Although patient and passive, Mr. Miyagi was not one to mess with indeed.

#5 “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) featuring Minnie Castevet

Writer-director Roman Polanski’s psychological/horror drama “Rosemary’s Baby” produced one of the most bizarre cinematic oldsters in late sixty-something Minnie Castevet (Ruth Gordon), the married neighbor to the film’s central character — the impregnated Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow). Both Minnie and her husband Roman (Sidney Blackmer) are childless and find themselves joined at the hip with the expecting Rosemary and her spouse Guy (John Cassavetes). The landlord had issued a warning about the Manhattan apartment complex that the Woodhouses moved into since the building has had a shady reputation. Indeed, the questionable Minnie and her fellow aging neighbors seem to have some sort of hypnotic hold on the hallucinating Rosemary who has been experiencing stressful dreams, hearing weird and threatening noises and being surrounded by sudden deaths, etc. Minnie, a known agnostic and leader of her cultish cohorts, seem to have an attentive interest in Rosemary’s unborn child. Soon, the Castevets (Minnie in particular) have become hardcore observers of Rosemary and her “bundle of joy” to the point of disturbing consequences. Is Minnie Castevet an aging occultist whose concentration on Rosemary’s baby complete her twisted agenda for indoctrination? The truth was in the proverbial pudding.

#4 “Star Wars” (1977) featuring Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi

There has been countless movie mentors throughout the history of cinema. When filmmaker George Lucas’ box office bonanza “Star Wars” arrived on the scene to global sensationalism in 1977 there was one fictional noble wise old man that would become part of science fiction folklore when he uttered the iconic phrase, “May the Force Be With You.” Hence, Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi (Oscar-nominated Sir Alec Guinness) would become the vital source of inspiration and disciplined trainer for Tatooine-based Jedi-in-the-making Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Obi-Wan was a threatening presence to the Empire and specifically to the evil-minded Death Star tyrant Darth Vader (a.k.a. Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s “old man”). Obi-Wan needed Luke’s youthful energy and drive to help the Rebellion defeat the galactic evil-doers. Just teaching the young Skywalker to embrace The Force and develop the will and ability to conquer all odds made the old timer Obi-Wan Kenobi a special kind of ominous force to deal with.

#3 “True Grit” (1969) featuring Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn

Indeed, Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn was the badass badge that could get the job done. In John Wayne’s Oscar-winning turn as the boozehound lawmen for hire in “True Grit,” The Duke’s Rooster Cogburn proved to be a tough old bird for the young tomboyish client Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) that chose him to go after the murderer of her father in order to seek revenge. Mattie knew of Cogburn’s touted reputation as a gung-ho U.S. Marshal known for tracking his law-breaking culprits. Unfortunately, the aging Cogburn lost a step or two and his drinking binges often got the best of him. It does not help that Cogburn and his teenage traveling companion have to trek through hostile Indian territory to go after the killer. Thankfully, Cogburn would be accompanied by a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf (singer/actor Glen Campbell) to assist in going after the elusive villain Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey). Still, Cogburn’s advanced age and drunken demeanor would not stop the pursuit of his gun-toting target as he tries to redeem the honor of the teen Mattie relying on his “true grit” to get the job done while restoring his faith in the badge.

#2 “Unforgiven” (1992) featuring William Munny

One-time gunslinger William Munny (Clint Eastwood) was notorious for his legendary gun. Now retired and certainly up in age Munny is determined to toil on his farm and raise his offspring despite the absence of his young wife who previously convinced him to give up the gun-play. Munny is bored and financially strapped for cash. However, he is convinced to come out of retirement when a band of Big Whiskey town prostitutes put out a robust bounty for the cowboys that cut up one of their bed-hopping colleagues. Meanwhile, Big Whiskey’s Sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman in his Oscar-winning role) is an iron-fisted law enforcer whose indifference and ruthlessness is not lost on the townspeople. The determined Munny would end up recruiting his old partner Ned Logan (Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman) and the self-proclaimed “Schofield Kid” (Jaimz Woolvett). Soon, the clashing between Munny and sadistic Little Bill would turn into the showdown for the ages.

#1 “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962) featuring Baby Jane Hudson

The mature spinster Hudson sisters in Robert Aldrich’s early sixties psychological drama “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” is a defining contrast in personalities. Blanche Hudson (Oscar-winner Joan Crawford) is the paraplegic sibling who seems quite sympathetic, down-to-earth and sensible despite her wheelchair-bound status. As for Baby Jane Hudson (two-time Oscar-winner Bette Davis), she is the fringe lunatic with the child-like inner madness for tormenting the disabled Blanche. Once a child star in Vaudeville and the movies, Jane’s delusional and twisted motives for testing Blanche’s sanity may be rooted in the showbiz sibling rivalry that both women shared as working actresses. By far Blanche was the most respected and successful actress while the calculating and loopy-minded Jane was nothing more than a novelty act at best. This may explain Baby Jane’s constant cruelty and jealousy towards the crippled Blanche as they share their Hollywood mansion. From locking Blanche in her bedroom, intercepting her fan mail and cutting her off from the outside world to serving her a nasty dead rat on a silver platter as random amusement, Baby Jane Hudson remains one of cinema’s most disturbed and dysfunctional oldsters ever to grace the big screen with playful, poisonous deception.