Kim Darby & Jim Hutton in Don't be Afraid of the Dark (1973)

Sally and Alex (Darby & Hutton) inherit a beautiful, old, Victorian mansion and set about restoring it to its former glory. In the process, she finds a bricked over fireplace in the basement. Mr. Harris, the handyman (William Demarest) tells her to leave it alone, but she jimmies open the coal scuttle, which leads, unexpectedly, to a subterranean room. She closes it back up and goes about her business, unaware that she has freed a group of murderous goblins who are obsessed with taking her back with them into the room. She goes through a series of near misses, as the creatures try to claim her soul, though her pleas for help fall on unconvinced ears - nobody will believe her. Will she defeat the underworld creatures and survive?

This film has become something of a cult classic, inspiring a remake that was released under the same title just this past August. There are interesting sociological undertones to the plot line, with Sally's failure to convince others of her peril representing women's frustration at being unheard in society at the time. You can find this film in the Warner Archive Collection on DVD. A fan-made trailer is above, uploaded to YouTube by brutallodotcom.

Obscurity factor: 3 (available on DVD, considered a cult classic by some)

Cary Grant in Walk Don't Run (1966)

In this mod remake of the 1943 classic The More the Merrier with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn we meet Sir William Rutland (Grant), a business man in Tokyo at the time of the summer olympics. He's arrived two days early and is confronted with the housing shortage and no place to stay. On the board at the British embassy he sees a notice for an apartment to share which brings him to the small home of Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar) who, preferring a female roommate, reluctantly agrees to let him the room. He, in turn, lets half of his half to Steve Davis (Jim Hutton) who is there to compete in the olympics. This, of course, is less than acceptable to Christine, however she has spent Rutland's rent money, so is in no position to put them out.

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This film is notable as Grant's last. He was going through something of a career crisis, feeling uncomfortable playing romantic leads to much younger women. This film gave him the chance to step out of that role. It wasn't a remarkably successful film and Grant never made another one, choosing to rely on his real estate investments instead.

This film is available on DVD and can be watched online at Netflix It has very little presence in online video other than that, however. All I could find, aside from a scene dubbed in Spanish with ear-searingly high volume, was this delightful piece from the Quincy Jones soundtrack, uploaded by mod13jazz.

Obscurity factor: 7 (on DVD & Netflix, known as Grant's last film, not well known otherwise)