Alfred Hitchcock described it as "sweet, but not fattening," while an old proverb refers to it as "a dish best served cold." However you slice it, revenge can make a tasty and satisfying meal -especially as served up by the talented moviemakers in this month's TCM Spotlight, which is unusual in that it's based on a theme rather than a film genre, person or period.

Each evening of "revenge" films is divided into two variations on the theme, allowing for tremendous depth and breadth of programming and resulting in a festival that is quirky and diverse despite its very precise subject matter. "Revenge Westerns" include Once Upon a Time in the West (1969), in which lone avenger Charles Bronson's intention to settle the score with gunslinger Henry Fonda has "something to do with death," and High Plains Drifter (1973), with Clint Eastwood taking revenge on an entire town.

One of the most famous examples of "A Prisoner's Revenge" is the often-filmed The Count of Monte Cristo, played with particular relish by Robert Donat in the 1934 version of Alexandre Dumas' 1846 adventure novel about a wrongly imprisoned man who vows vengeance upon those who framed him.

"Biblical Revenge" is the subject of Cecil B. De Mille's Samson and Delilah (1949), in which beefy strongman Victor Mature is betrayed by vengeful beauty Hedy Lamarr. "A Spurned Lover's Revenge" was never acted to more dramatic effect than by Olivia de Havilland as The Heiress (1949), a jilted spinster who turns the tables on her fortune-hunting beau, Montgomery Clift. And "A Con Artist's Revenge" is deliciously delivered by Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941), in which poor Henry Fonda makes the mistake of jilting the lady merely because she's a double-dealing card sharp!

by Roger Fristoe