Agatha Christie's Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia (2001)

Hercule Poirot is one of the world's most famous fictional detectives. Primarily based in England during the 1920s and ‘30s, he always sports a neatly trimmed mustache and perfectly pressed attire. (“I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound,” his creator comments.) Poirot's method differs from the approach of the somewhat similar Sherlock Holmes. The retired Belgian police officer uses his powers of logical deduction (“the gray cells”) to understand the psychology of a criminal instead of analyzing the perpetrator's modus operandi.

Agatha Christie's Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia is a British-produced A&E cable movie adapted from Christie's 1936 novel of the same name. Poirot (David Suchet) visits his very proper English side-kick, Capt. Hastings (Hugh Fraser), at an archeological dig in Iraq. The archeologist's wife (Barbara Barnes) receives some threatening letters before being suddenly murdered. There are numerous suspects with plausible motives. As always with Christie, the red herrings are clever and the plot twists surprising.

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

The best children's films combine positive moral values kids can understand with an intelligent presentation that engages adults as well. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, adapted from Roald Dahl's classic novel, is a surreal musical fantasy that delivers its message about honesty, gluttony and greed with energy and imagination. The eccentric candy manufacturer Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) hides five golden tickets inside his candy bars. The children who find them will get a tour of Wonka's factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate, providing they obey his strict rules.

One of the winners is the impoverished Charlie Buckett (Peter Ostrum), who brings along his grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson). Wonka's arch-enemy (Michael Boliner) tempts Charlie and the other kids to break the rules in order to gain advantage over his rival. But those who disobey Wonka suffer cruelly (not for small kids).

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

Families from every ethnic background share the American dream of moving up economically and creating more opportunities for their children. But the obstacles faced by African-Americans present some unique problems. Raisin In the Sun, based on Lorraine Hansberry's celebrated play, dramatizes the conflicting aspirations of the different members of the Younger family during the Civil Rights era in Chicago's south side.

When the husband of the family matriarch, Lena (Claudia McNeil), dies, leaving her $10,000 in life insurance, she decides to get out of the over-crowded inner city and make a down payment on a house in the suburbs. What's left over will be used to put her daughter, Beneatha (Diana Sands), through medical school. But her angry, ambitious son, Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier), wants to quit his job as a chauffeur to a white man and buy a liquor store. Director Daniel Petrie (The Bay Boy) captures the power of the Younger family women and shows how the racism of the time heightens their struggles.