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A

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter
Director: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
Arguably Flynn's greatest role, this is the classic, swashbuckling, adventure, costume epic/spectacle about the infamous rebel outlaw and his band of merry men from Sherwood Forest who "robbed from the rich and gave to the poor." The charming Robin Hood (Flynn) fights for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Rathbone), the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham (Cooper), and the scheming Prince John (Rains), while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian (de Havilland) - and to save the English throne for King Richard (Hunter). This good-natured, extravagant adventure epic still packs romance, comedy, great sword play action, music, colorful characters and storybook fantasy. One of the earliest films to be shot in three-color Technicolor and, at the time, the most expensive film Warner Bros. had produced ($2 million). William Keighley started directing the film, but Curtiz finished the filming. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Interior Decoration, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing.

The African Queen (1951)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley
Director: John Huston
Based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, the wonderful combination of Hepburn and Bogie makes this a thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and adventure. Forester's story, Bogey's Oscar®-winning performance, 'odd-couple' chemistry, and an exotic locale combine for classic adventure/romance. The boozing, smoking, cussing captain of a tramp steamer, Charlie Allnut (Bogart), saves prim, sober, and proper missionary Rose Sayer (Hepburn), "a crazy psalm-singing skinny old maid," after her brother (Morley) is assaulted by a German soldier at the beginning of World War I in German East Africa, and dies from insanity. After many quarrels, they survive a treacherous African river journey on a rattle-trap steamer, shoot the rapids, struggle with mosquitos and blood-sucking leeches, and set sail on the Ulonga-Bora in order to sabotage The Louisa, a German warship. Later came the book (and Clint Eastwood film) White Hunter, Black Heart, that chronicled Peter Viertel's experiences observing Huston throughout the making of the picture. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Actress--Katharine Hepburn, Best Director, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, Best Actor--Humphrey Bogart.

All About Eve (1950)
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter, Gary Merrill
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Much-loved, lengthy, acerbic drama of theatre life about a young actress who insinuates her way into Broadway stage star's life. Wit and sarcasm reign supreme (e.g., "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night") and George Sanders is perfect as Addison De Witt - a cynical, egotistical columnist/critic. The literate film features Davis as aging, bitchy accomplished star Margo Channing who takes the seemingly-naive and innocent fan Eve (Baxter) under her wing. As the film opens, the rising, unscrupulous star accepts an award for best newcomer on the Broadway scene. Then, in a flashback, we see the shameless starlet insinuating herself into the life of her idol, and scheming to steal her theatrical roles and her lover Bill (Merrill). By ruthlessly exploiting the older woman's kindness and hospitality, she manages to achieve her present success while almost destroying the veteran star in the process. The ending of the film returns to the awards banquet to find the starlet clinging to her trophy, with another fan in the wings. Also with Marilyn Monroe in a bit part. Academy Award Nominations (record-setting): 14, including Best Actress--Anne Baxter, Best Actress--Bette Davis, Best Supporting Actress--Celeste Holm, Best Supporting Actress--Thelma Ritter. Academy Awards: 6, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--George Sanders, Best B/W Costume Design, Best Sound.

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim
Director: Lewis Milestone
Based on Erich Maria Remarque's timeless, pacifistic anti-war novel, this poetically brilliant epic about the horrors of war was hugely popular in its day. The moving drama, the first great sound anti-war film, follows a group of seven German schoolboys, with central character Paul (Ayres) inspired by their professor to fight for their country. They voluntarily enlist in World War I, believing in the glory of the Fatherland and learn about the realities of war from veteran soldier Katczinsky (Wolheim). The film documents their descent into war (and disillusionment) in graphic detail, from the everyday reality of trench warfare to starvation and butchery. The film tracks the boys in training, battle, and eventually their senseless, untimely deaths. Paul dies from an enemy bullet in the final scene as he reaches out to touch a butterfly. Shot on an epic scale with an impressive budget of $1.25 million, the film's realism and visual art created a sensation. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Writing, Best Cinematography. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Production (Picture), Best Director.

An American In Paris (1951)
Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Nina Foch, Georges Guetary, Oscar Levant
Director: Vincente Minnelli
One of the great 50s screen musicals, colorfully enhanced by the grace and athleticism of Gene Kelly and direction by Vincente Minnelli. Jerry Mulligan (Kelly), a young American G.I., lingers in Paris after World War II to study art and painting. He wants to live the life of the great painters -- in a Montmartre garret, starving for his art. When a rich, romance-minded American gallery owner (Foch) offers to support him, he agrees -- even if the bargain means joining the benefactress' entourage of lovers. Then he meets Lise (Caron), a young, exquisite French mademoiselle, and instantly falls in love. Unfortunately, she's already engaged to marry her benefactor, music hall star Henri Baurel (Guetary), an older man who saved her from the Nazis. But when Henri discovers that she cares for someone else, he gracefully exits, leaving the young couple to find love together. The film debut for French actress/dancer Leslie Caron, who was discovered by Gene Kelly. With sumptuous sets, charming dance sequences, George and Ira Gershwin's memorable melodies, and a seventeen-minute, avant-garde ballet choreographed by Kelly - with backdrops representing various impressionistic artists. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Director, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 6, including Best Picture, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Color Cinematography, Best Musical Score.

Annie Hall (1977)
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane
Director: Woody Allen
Bittersweet, cerebral, stream-of-consciousness, 70s, urban romantic comedy about a New York couple's neurotic love affair. Many consider this Allen's best work, and a transition from his earlier absurdist comedies to a richer, more thoughtful consideration of relationships. Innovatively filmed, with cartoon segments, flashbacks, monologues toward the camera, and other unique elements. Allen co-wrote, directed and stars as a kvetchy, neurotic, Brooklyn stand-up comedian Alvy Singer, wistfully recalling his bygone relationship with flighty, adorable, and irrepressibly Midwestern Annie Hall, an aspiring singer. (Film marks the fourth pairing of Keaton and Allen, who were also an off-screen couple at the time.) At first the cultural gap seems insurmountable, but despite their differences, they fall in love. As they get to know one another, they invariably attempt to change each other, causing friction and their eventual split. The film watches them try new relationships, as they reluctantly pull away from each other. The film, in actuality, chronicles the end of their relationship. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Actor--Woody Allen. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress--Diane Keaton, Best Original Screenplay.

Apocalypse Now (1979) and Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
A masterful, thought-provoking, pretentious film, with beautifully-chaotic visuals, about the nightmarish, moral madness of the Vietnam War, inspired by the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Considered by many to be the best war movie of all time, with incredible performances, especially that of hawkish Lt. Colonel Kilgore (Duvall) who "loves the smell of napalm in the morning." Sweeping, surreal, still-controversial Vietnam war epic. An Army captain (Sheen) is sent into the Cambodian jungle aboard a patrol boat carrying a young, spaced-out crew. Their mission: to assassinate ("terminate") a Buddha-like Colonel Kurtz (Brando) who has become an insane demi-god and now runs his own fiefdom. The grueling production in the Philippines led to vast budget overruns and physical and emotional breakdowns. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--Robert Duvall, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Cinematography, Best Sound.

B

Ben-Hur (1959)
Starring: Charlton Heston, Hugh Griffith, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell
Director: William Wyler
Renowned Biblical epic of enormous scale about adult enmity between boyhood friends, filmed in Italy. The 1880 novel by Lew Wallace had previously been made in 1927 as a silent film with Ramon Novarro. A character-driven, action-filled, star-studded extravaganza and one of the cinema's greatest epics -- a compelling human story of revenge, bitterness, redemption and forgiveness. Heston is the Prince of Judea, Judah Ben Hur, who confronts the conquering Romans and tyrannical boyhood friend Messala (Boyd). His actions send him and his family (Scott and O'Donnell) into banishment and slavery - and an inspirational encounter with Jesus. As a galley slave, he saves the life of Roman nobleman/admiral Quintus Arrius (Hawkins), is adopted and becomes a respected citizen and a famed chariot racer under the tutelage of an Arabian horse racer (Griffith). Heston finally meets his rival Messala in a justly famous chariot race - often regarded as one of the most exciting action sequences ever filmed. Upon his return to Judea, Ben-Hur also rescues his suffering, leprous family and witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus - on his way to Golgotha, and is inspired to convert to Christianity. Academy Award Nominations: 12, including Best (Adapted) Screenplay. Academy Awards: 11, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Charlton Heston, Best Supporting Actor--Hugh Griffith.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Starring: Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell
Director: William Wyler
A landmark, classic drama about three WWII veterans attempting readjustment to peacetime life and discovering that they have fallen behind. Perhaps the most memorable film about the aftermath of World War II, it unfolds with the homecoming of three servicemen to their small town: an Army Sergeant (March) who turns to drinking, an Air Force major (Andrews) who is rejected by his wife (Mayo), and a seaman who has lost both arms (Russell) and agonizes over his relationship with his girlfriend (O'Donnell). The movie portrays the reality of altered lives, readjustments at work, dislocated marriages and the inability to communicate the experience of war on the front lines or the home front. This was the first picture for Harold Russell, a non-actor and war veteran who was an actual amputee. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Sound Recording. Academy Awards: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Fredric March, Best Supporting Actor--Harold Russell, Best Director, Best Screenplay. A Special Academy Award for Russell for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in the film.

The Big Sleep (1946)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers, John Ridgely
Director: Howard Hawks
Classic atmospheric film noir mystery with crackling dialogue, from Raymond Chandler's first novel, with an incomprehensible plot (and tortuous story line) about a private investigator hired by General Sternwood, a dying, invalid millionaire to look into drugs, blackmail, nymphomania, pornography, decadence and murder - and to follow after and protect his sharp-tongued, indiscreet, thumb-sucking nymphette daughter (Vickers). The film introduced down-at-the-heels private detective Philip Marlowe (Bogart), and set the standard for private detective movies. The private eye becomes sexually attracted to the older, sultry daughter Vivian (Bacall). Without any Academy Award nominations.

The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh
Director: D.W. Griffith
First feature-length silent film is a sweeping Civil War drama/epic, aka The Clansman. Placed in historical context, it's a landmark cinematic, technological achievement (with now-familiar techniques of cross-cutting, the flash-back, the close-up, and deep focus), though offensive due to its racism, dated views and stereotypes, and glorification of the KKK. D. W. Griffith's film tells the interwoven story of two families, one Northern and one Southern, confronting the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. The Camerons, headed by "Little Colonel" Ben Cameron, and the Stonemans, headed by politician Austin Stoneman, find themselves on opposite sides of the battle lines when War comes. The Civil War exacts a personal toll on both families, only to be followed by the equally destructive Reconstruction period. Griffith links the consequences of the war on their lives with the formation of the Ku Klux Klan.

Blade Runner (1982)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Joe Turkel, Joanna Cassidy, Edward James Olmos
Director: Ridley Scott
Moody futuristic, sci-fi noirish thriller, with stunning, visually-dazzling effects and a brooding atmosphere, about a hard-boiled detective hunting near-human "replicants." Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. In a totalitarian, decaying 21st century Los Angeles (2019), a jaded, semi-retired, Philip Marlowe-style ex-cop (Ford), known as a "blade runner," is forced out of retirement to hunt down and eliminate four "replicants" (Hannah, Hauer, Cassidy) - genetically engineered super-humanoid robots. On earth illegally from an Off-world colony where they were used as slave laborers, and with a built-in, shortened life span of only four years, the androids have mutinied and escaped in order to confront the individual who designed them (Turkel). Seeing their heroic struggle against an inhuman system, the blade-runner ultimately falls in love with an android femme fatale (Young). Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Visual Effects.

Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J. Pollard
Director: Arthur Penn
Groundbreaking, controversial, stylish crime drama/romance, and road film - about a 1930s bank-robbing couple and gang with easy-going, folksy flavor and bloody, graphically-violent shoot-outs. The saga was based on the true-life exploits of the notorious Depression-era bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Gun-toting, amoral, impotent drifter Clyde (Beatty) rescues dreamer Bonnie (Dunaway) from her drab existence by regaling her with colorful tales of the outlaw life. Joined by Clyde's brother (Hackman), his wife Blanche (Parsons), and a gas-station attendant (Pollard), the gang goes on a bumbling crime spree through Texas and Oklahoma. Controversial when released because of its bullet-riddled ending, it marked the coming increase in visceral cinematic violence. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Warren Beatty, Best Actress--Faye Dunaway, Best Supporting Actor--Gene Hackman, Best Supporting Actor--Michael J. Pollard, Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Supporting Actress--Estelle Parsons, Best Cinematography.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Elsa Lanchester
Director: James Whale
Darkly witty, black comedy, semi-humorous sequel to the classic Frankenstein film (and precursor to The House Of Frankenstein in 1944) about a mad scientist building a mate in his laboratory for his monster. Having escaped the fiery castle that engulfed him at the end of the 1931 horror classic Frankenstein, the Frankenstein monster (Karloff) is back - now more civilized and human - and talking with a small vocabulary after being taught by a blind hermit. Baron Henry Frankenstein (Clive), the monster's tormented creator, is drawn back to his experiments by effeminate, sardonic Dr. Pretorious (Ernest Thesiger). The demented Henry is convinced that the Monster really needs a female mate (Lanchester) - the over-the-top Bride hisses at the Monster during their first meeting. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Sound Recording.

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins
Director: David Lean
Acclaimed, all-time great WWII epic drama about British P.O.W.'s forced to construct a railway bridge in the Asian jungle of Burma, based on an outstanding, psychologically complex adaptation of Pierre Boulle's 1952 novel. In the Burmese jungle, British prisoner/solders, led by an obstinate commander Col. Nicholson (Guinness), construct a rail bridge - and unwittingly aid the war effort of their Japanese captors and the camp commander Col. Saito (Hayakawa). A tremendously antagonistic battle of wills ensues between the two Colonels. Nicholson supervises the bridge's construction with a twisted sense of pride in his creation to show up the Japanese as inferior. In the climactic finale, British and American intelligence officers (Holden, Hawkins) conspire to blow up the structure. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Supporting Actor--Sessue Hayakawa. Academy Awards: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Alec Guinness, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Score, Best Film Editing.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, May Robson
Director: Howard Hawks
Quintessential, definitive screwball comedy of the 30s, with absurd physical gags, high-speed humor, and witty dialogue, from versatile directorial master Howard Hawks. A non-stop profusion of mayhem, comic disasters, coincidences and misunderstandings ensue when an absent-minded, nervous, unfortunate, strait-laced, Harold Lloyd-like palaeontologist (Grant) encounters a flighty, irresistible, uninhibited, mad-cap, accident-prone heiress (Hepburn). The befuddled scientist pursues a donation to his zoological museum from a wealthy widow but he seems unable to avoid the woman's niece. Soon the two are searching through her estate to find a valuable lost dinosaur bone (an intercostal clavicle) hidden by her aunt's (Robson) dog (Asta from The Thin Man series), and following the chaotic trail left by a missing, music-loving pet leopard named Baby. Inevitably, the two fall in love, after she has destroyed his sanity, sexual respectability, career, and pending marriage.

C

Casablanca (1942)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid
Director: Michael Curtiz
Perennially at the top of every all-time greats list, and indisputably one of the landmarks of the American cinema, although an accidental Hollywood masterpiece. Critically-acclaimed, bittersweet, popular, much-loved, WWII-flavored, nostalgic story of intrigue and love that teamed Bogart and Bergman as ill-fated lovers. A laconic, cynical idealist, American expatriate and war profiteer Rick Blaine (Bogart) in Nazi-occupied WW II Morocco is content to be cafe owner for his Cafe Americain until a past love, in the luminous form of Ilsa Lund (Bergman) who mysteriously left him in Paris, returns to his life and inspires him to stand up for the French Resistance with her husband Victor Laszlo (Henreid). In the final scene in the fog at the airport, he dutifully and nobly sacrifices his love for her - "We'll always have Paris." Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Actor--Humphrey Bogart, Best Supporting Actor--Claude Rains, Best B/W Cinematography. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.

Chinatown (1974)
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
Director: Roman Polanski
Atmospheric, subtly-paced, superbly-made neo-noir mystery about a hard-nosed detective uncovering urban corruption in late 1930's Los Angeles. World-weary gumshoe Jake Gittes (Nicholson), who specializes in adultery cases, takes on Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) as a client. He is hired by the recently-widowed woman to investigate the infidelities of her alleged husband, the water commissioner for the drought-stricken city. As the film-noir plot unfolds, the detective, with his nose slashed by a punk (director Polanski in a cameo role), gets in way over his head in a case involving murder, the illegal diversion of water to artificially deflate land prices, fraudulent and corrupt politicians including sinister millionaire Noah Cross (Huston) grabbing up land, and a prominent family's scandalous, long-hidden dark secret. After original, complex plot twists, the film ends in an unsettling finale in the 'Chinatown' section of the city - a state of mind where the law is ineffectual. Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Jack Nicholson, Best Actress--Faye Dunaway, Best Director, Best Cinematography. Academy Awards: 1, Best Original Screenplay (Robert Towne).

Citizen Kane (1941)
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Dorothy Comingore
Director: Orson Welles
This is Welles' greatest achievement, and a landmark of cinema history - often voted the greatest film ever made. An expressionistic, fictional biography of the rise to power (and tragic fall) of a larger-than-life newspaper tycoon/publisher - Charles Foster Kane. A reporter is sent to investigate the significance of "Rosebud," the last word uttered by Kane (Welles), through interviews with various associates and his wife (Cotten, Sloane, Comingore). The newspaper magnate's wealth and power ultimately leave him abandoned and alone in his castle-like refuge. With its bravura direction, broken narrative and flashbacks, and vivid performances, this is considered a modern masterpiece. Every aspect of the production marked an advance in film language: the deep-focus, deeply shadowed cinematography; the discontinuous narrative (in a screenplay co-authored by Herman Mankiewicz); the innovative use of sound and score; the low-level camera shots; the ensemble acting from Welles' Mercury Theater. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture--Orson Welles, Best Actor--Orson Welles, Best Director--Orson Welles, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Score, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 1, Best Original Screenplay.

City Lights (1931)
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill
Director: Charlie Chaplin
One of Charlie Chaplin's best - and his last silent film. This film is a classic silent masterpiece (with sound effects). In the opening sequence, the urban misfit (his quintessential "Little Tramp" character) parodies 'talking' films. In the city, the tramp (Chaplin) falls in love with a blind flower-selling girl (Cherrill), and although poverty-stricken, he is mistaken for a millionaire. Her sight is restored after his endless efforts (mostly by befriending a rich drunk) to acquire money to pay for an eye operation. Critically acclaimed for its blend of sentimental drama, pathos, melancholy romance, slapstick, and comic pantomime. The film's final shot is unforgettably poignant.

The Crowd (1928)
Starring: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray
Director: King Vidor
A superb, enduring, silent classic masterpiece. A moving, downbeat melodrama about a young ordinary man's illusory dreams of success in the Big City - filmed on location in New York. The young man (Murray) meets a girl (Boardman), falls in love, marries, and the couple experience a short Niagara Falls honeymoon before moving into a mediocre apartment. The working class family experiences many hard knocks, including the accidental death of one of the children, loss of employment, and tensions that threaten to erode their marriage. Exquisitely filmed and acted, capturing the realistic trials and tribulations of the human odyssey of life.

D

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick's classic, cynical Cold War, satirical black comedy, with scathing humor and timeless performances, based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George and a script by Terry Southern. A crazed, psychotic US general Jack D. Ripper (Hayden), paranoid about his own potency and commies, sparks a nuclear crisis with a pre-emptive strike against "the Commies." The American President Muffley (Sellers in one of three roles) must deal with gung ho military brass Gen. Buck Turgidson (Scott), bureaucratic bumbling, a drunken Soviet Premier and a twisted, black-gloved German rocket scientist, Dr. Strangelove himself (Sellers again). Ends with the memorable bucking broncho image of Major Kong (Pickens) riding the fatal bomb. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Peter Sellers, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay.

Double Indemnity (1944)
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
Director: Billy Wilder
One of the greatest movies of all time with an electric, snappy, hard-boiled script written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, based on the novel by James M. Cain. A classic, brooding film noir, told in flashback, about an adulterous, duplicitous couple, a calculating insurance salesman (MacMurray) and a scheming, irresistible, long-legged blonde femme fatale (Stanwyck), who commit the murder of her wealthy husband in a larcenous, fraudulent attempt to collect on an insurance policy that pays double for accidental death. Unfortunately, the double-crossing, cold-hearted protagonists are doggedly and persistently pursued by a suspicious, formidable insurance investigator (Robinson). Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actress--Barbara Stanwyck, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best B/W Cinematography.

D (continued)

Duck Soup (1933)
Starring: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern
Director: Leo McCarey
Classic, short, zany, gag-studded, much-loved Marx Brothers political satire/musical about the fictitious state of Freedonia, with total irreverence toward patriotism, religion, legal justice, and diplomacy. Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, the incompetent king of Freedonia (with Chico and Harpo as his incompetent spies) who woos the dowager millionairess Mrs. Teasdale (Dumont). Easily offended, he wages war on the neighboring country of Sylvania because of a slight insult. One of the Marx Brothers' funniest, most surreal, anarchic films with the famous battle scene at its finale, and the classic pantomime mirror scene.

E

E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Starring: Dee Wallace Stone, Peter Coyote, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore
Director: Steven Spielberg
A massively popular, widely appealing, feel-good sci-fi fantasy - a cultural phenomenon in the early 80s - about a kind-hearted, cute alien living with a suburban family - one of the most popular and highest-grossing movies of all time. A harmless alien botanist from outer space is left behind and stranded on Earth. The lovable extra-terrestrial is lured by Halloween candy (Reese's Pieces), befriended by a young boy (Thomas), and protected from authoritarian adults and menacing scientists who want to dissect and study the creature. The curious alien eventually finds his way home, with aid from children, to his returning spaceship. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects.

Easy Rider (1969)
Starring: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Director: Dennis Hopper
Widely considered a generation-defining, youth-oriented classic, this film still engrosses those nostalgic for 60's era wanderlust - seeking inspiration for the next road trip. Two motorcyclist biker outlaws (drug-dealers) embark on a coast-to-coast odyssey across America in this landmark counter-culture road drama/travelogue, searching for the 'real' America. In the Southwest, they encounter wide open spaces, hippies in a commune, small-town rednecks and paranoia, drugs, a drunken, jailed lawyer (Nicholson), sex in a New Orleans bordello, a psychedelic trip in a graveyard, and a violent end. This often-imitated but never-duplicated movie defined a generation and has the greatest 60's soundtrack (featuring The Byrds, The Band, Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, The Electric Prunes, and more). The low-budget film, made for $375,000, was directed by young star Dennis Hopper and went on to make multiple millions and change the pop culture landscape forever. Academy Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actor--Jack Nicholson, Best (Original) Story and Screenplay (Fonda, Hopper, Terry Southern).

F

Fantasia (1940)
Starring: Leopold Stokowski, Sarah Thomas
Director: Ben Sharpsteen
Legendary Disney cartoon fantasy animating much-loved selections of classical music, conducted by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, remains a timeless audio/visual delight. The film was criticized by musical purists, and it failed miserably at the box-office, although it's wonderfully entertaining. The experimental film was revived in the 60s (and was re-released in a new IMAX version in the year 2000) and became a cult classic, especially the Mickey Mouse sequence in Dukas' "Sorcerer's Apprentice." Also includes Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor," Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite," Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," Beethoven's "The Pastoral Symphony," Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours, Mussorgsky's "The Night on Bald Mountain," and Schubert's "Ave Maria." The recipient of two Special Academy Awards.

42nd Street (1933)
Starring: Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Bebe Daniels
Director: Lloyd Bacon
A classic, cliched, behind-the-scenes backstage musical about an ailing, Broadway musical producer (Baxter) and a chorus line dancer's one last-ditch chance at success and stardom. On opening night, the leading lady (Daniels) is suddenly unavailable when she sprains her ankle and an inexperienced, untested chorus line girl (Keeler) is thrust into the limelight. Last minute, frantic preparations for opening night with the new star precede the big premiere. Acclaimed Busby Berkeley production numbers and memorable tunes include: "Forty-Second Street," "Young and Healthy," "You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me" and "Shuffle Off To Buffalo." Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Picture, Best Sound Recording.

G

The General (1927)
Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
Director: Buster Keaton
Not only is it considered Buster Keaton's greatest film, it is also widely recognized as one of the true masterpieces of American cinema. The visually-stunning silent film is undoubtedly one of the greatest comedies ever made, with non-stop physical comedy and sight gags, shot almost entirely aboard moving trains. Keaton created this great comedy out of an authentic episode of American history during the Civil War - a story about a famous locomotive, though in real-life the locomotive was stolen by the Confederates. The two things devoted Confederate engineer Johnny Gray (Keaton) loves most in the world are his Southern belle sweetheart (Mack) and his beloved locomotive named The General. When Northern spies steal the latter (with his kidnapped girlfriend on board), the intrepid Confederate heroically risks his life. He hijacks another locomotive, pursues them, and single-handedly takes on the entire Union army in order to rescue both of his loves. Filmed against a backdrop of magnificently photographed Civil War battle scenes, it also contains one of the great chases in movie history.

The Godfather (1972) (tie)
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
The operatic, violent drama was based on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name. Here is a bravura, genre-defining, epic-length Mafia/gangster classic that evokes the mid and late 1940's period with powerful character development, lighting, costumes, and settings. The film follows the fortunes of the fictitious Corleones, a powerful Mafia family with its own family rituals and separate code of honor, revenge, justice, law and loyalty that transcends all other codes. When Godfather Don Corleone (Brando) is shot by rivals, his sons Sonny (Caan), Fredo (Cazale) and favorite young son Michael (Pacino) assume control, with Michael ascending to a prominent position of power. Flawless performances from an all-star cast, a dramatic plot, Nino Rota's unforgettable music, violent set-pieces, and the grotesque, severed horse-head scene. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Director; 3 nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Caan, Duvall, Pacino), Best Sound, Best Original Score. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Marlon Brando, Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Godfather, Part II (1974) (tie)
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Michael V. Gazzo, Lee Strasberg, Robert De Niro
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
The continuing saga of a Mafia family and dynasty, one of the few sequels in film history that is considered superior to the original. This outstanding film continues the first film and retraces the Corleone Family's founding by the young Vito Corleone (De Niro), who immigrates to America from his native Sicily at the turn of the century and maneuvers his family to power in the ghetto of Little Italy. It also shows the maintenance of the family by young Michael (Pacino), Vito's son, as he ages and confronts a second generation of criminal and family affairs in Vegas, Cuba, and in a Senate hearing on organized crime. After eliminating all rivals and enemies, he is a brooding character, alienated from his wife (Keaton), and the murderer of own brother Fredo (Cazale). Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Actor--Al Pacino, Best Supporting Actor--Michael V. Gazzo, Best Supporting Actor--Lee Strasberg, Best Supporting Actress--Talia Shire. Academy Awards: 6, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--Robert De Niro, Best Original Dramatic Score.

The Gold Rush (1925)
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Georgia Hale
Director: Charlie Chaplin
A melodramatic, Chaplin silent classic with visual pathos and skillful slapstick - his most-critically acclaimed film. The Little Tramp character is a Lone Prospector in the Yukon during the gold rush days of the late 1800's. The poverty-stricken character is menaced by a bear, blizzard conditions, a starving cabinmate who imagines him as a giant chicken, and a teeter-tottering cabin on the edge of an abyss. He becomes infatuated with a dancehall girl (Hale) for the story's bittersweet humor and romantic tenderness. Contains the famous Thanksgiving meal of a boot and laces, and the celebrated "dancing dinner rolls" gag. Academy Award Nominations (in 1942): 2, including Best Sound Recording, Best Comedy Score.

Gone With The Wind (1939)
Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel
Director: Victor Fleming
One of the best-loved, appealing films of all time and one of filmdom's greatest cinematic achievements and blockbusters, based on Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel. The star-studded Civil War epic drama traces the South's tragic history during the war and the Reconstruction period. Set against this sweeping historical backdrop, the film follows a melodramatic romance between an indomitable, fiery Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh) and a slyly-dashing war profiteer Rhett Butler (Gable), tangled by her emotional love affair with a married Southern gentleman (Wilkes). She struggles to protect her family and her beloved plantation, Tara, from the ravages of the Civil War. Academy Award Nominations: 13, including Best Actor--Clark Gable, Best Supporting Actress--Olivia de Havilland, Best Original Score (Max Steiner), Best Special Effects, Best Sound Recording. Academy Awards: 8, including Best Picture, Best Actress--Vivien Leigh, Best Supporting Actress--Hattie McDaniel, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Interior Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Color Cinematography. Plus two Honorary Plaques, including a Special Award for "use of color."

The Graduate (1967)
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
Director: Mike Nichols
Acclaimed, satirical coming-of-age romantic drama/comedy about a shy, naive college graduate confronting the real world. In the late '60s, a confused, vulnerable college graduate Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) is uncertain about his future, reacting with passive rebellion. Without ambition or responsibility, he receives career advice from his suburban family's associates - "plastics" - a catchword for an entire generation, just days after receiving his diploma. While seduced by the wife of his father's business partner - a rapacious "Mrs. Robinson" (Bancroft), he falls in love with her engaged daughter (Ross). The influential and popular film, with a hit Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack, became an emotional touchstone for an entire generation. This film established Mike Nichols as a major director and was Hoffman's first major role. Buck Henry, appearing in the film as a hotel clerk, co-wrote the influential screenplay, based on the novel by Charles Webb. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Dustin Hoffman, Best Actress--Anne Bancroft, Best Supporting Actress-Katharine Ross, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, Best Director.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
Director: John Ford
One of the all-time great, enduring American movies by John Ford, a classic adaptation of John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel about Depression-era sharecropping farmers in California. The vibrant, evocative story, shot by cinematographer Gregg Toland like a unsentimental, stark series of Dorothea Lange Depression photographs, follows an Oklahoma family's escape from the barren Dustbowl to join the migration to California's fruit harvest - the believed 'Promised Land.' The compassionate, socially-conscious film contains Henry Fonda's greatest film role as wrongly-convicted ex-con Tom Joad, a poor yet dignified Okie farmer who refuses to be beaten down by misfortune, social injustice, oppression and capitalist greed. Darwell is moving as the loving backbone of the desperate Joad family. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Henry Fonda, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 2, Best Supporting Actress--Jane Darwell, Best Director.

Greed (1924)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Gibson Gowland, Jean Hersholt
Director: Erich von Stroheim
One of the greatest, and infamous, epic films of the silent era - an adaptation of Frank Norris' novel McTeague, about a man driven insane by his debased wife's passionate obsession with money. Director Eric von Stroheim 's 8-hour film was edited to a two-hour running time by Irving Thalberg's MGM Studios. Greed examines the destructive psychological effects of wealth on a couple, a slow-witted San Francisco dentist (Gowland) and his miserly wife (Pitts) when she wins a lottery; as she gradually becomes more and more consumed with the piles of gold she now owns, the relationship falls violently apart... and comes to a stunningly shocking and ironic climax as the two former friends (Gowland and Hersholt) wrestle and die together in Death Valley.

H

High Noon (1952)
Starring: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado
Director: Fred Zinnemann
A legendary classic Western about a lawman awaiting a suspenseful, fateful showdown with ruthless bandits returning to a small town to seek revenge. The stark, black and white 50s film is frequently interpreted as a parable about artists left to "stand alone" and face persecution during the HUAC Hollywood blacklisting. Hadleyville town marshal Will Kane (Cooper), a hero figure, is newly-married to a beautiful, pacifist Quaker bride (Kelly). With integrity and a principled sense of justice, duty, and loyalty, he puts everything on the line to confront a deadly outlaw killer set free by liberal abolitionists. The murderer arrives with his gang on the noon train - and he is left abandoned by an ungrateful town to face them alone. The film is enhanced by Dimitri Tiomkin's ballad (sung by Tex Ritter), and the fact that it is virtually filmed in 'real-time' as the tense showdown approaches. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Actor--Gary Cooper, Best Song ("Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'"), Best Score, Best Film Editing.

His Girl Friday (1940)
Starring: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
Director: Howard Hawks
The hilarious, fast-paced, battle of the sexes screwball comedy classic is Howard Hawks' updated remake of the original 1931 screen version The Front Page, directed by Lewis Milestone. This witty, unrelenting romp, adapted from the stage play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, is full of bawdy double entendres, staccato dialogue in simultaneous conversations, and gender-bending innuendos. Star newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson (Russell) has informed Walter Burns (Grant), her suave, hard-boiled managing editor and now ex-husband, that she's leaving the paper and planning to remarry. Somehow, he must try and prevent her from resigning and remarrying a wimpy insurance salesman (Bellamy). Without showing his feelings for her, he assigns her one last front-page headliner story about political corruption, while helping a condemned man who has just escaped from the law. No Academy Award nominations.

I

Intolerance (1916)
Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Constance Talmadge
Director: D.W. Griffith
D.W. Griffith's large-scale epic silent film is a series of vignettes exploring man's inhumanity to man. This classic, with its exquisite sets, photography and editing, spans several centuries and cultures. The film is made up of four distinct stories told in parallel fashion (and masterfully interwoven and converging together) - linked solely by a single common thread: intolerance and repression, and the image of a rocking Lillian Gish. Three of the stories are based on historical fact: Medieval Paris France during the Reformation and the reign of Charles IX, including the slaughter of the Huguenots; the crucifixion of Christ in Judea; and the fall of Babylonia. The fourth tale is a turn-of-the-century "modern" story of a man unjustly accused of murder.

It Happened One Night (1934)
Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly,
Director: Frank Capra
Frank Capra's sparkling, legendary, madcap, screwball romantic comedy based on the story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins, with movie legends Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. When Ellie Andrews (Colbert), a millionaire's (Connolly) high-society daughter, marries a man her father dislikes, the heiress runs away. She travels incognito, northward from Florida by bus - a fugitive from high society - where she meets enroute a sexy, brusque, dumb-but-loveable, out-of-work news correspondent (Gable). Unbeknownst to Ellie, the ruthless reporter hopes to recover his employment by selling her story to his former boss. As they teach each other about life, the antagonistic couple have a series of hapless adventures and comic misunderstandings, leading them to the realization that they were made for each other. Contains the legendary "Walls of Jericho" scene and a hitch-hiking technique scene. Academy Award Nominations: 5. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Clark Gable, Best Actress--Claudette Colbert, Best Adapted Screenplay.

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers
Director: Frank Capra
Sweet-natured, sentimental, inspirational classic drama about a near-suicidal man learning the value of his existence. A charitable, hard-working philanthropist George Bailey (Stewart), forced to remain in a small town by unpredictable circumstances, becomes depressed after an accidental financial disaster at his loan company benefits the miserly Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). He is on the verge of committing suicide and wishing that he had never been born - when his crusty-but-lovable guardian angel Clarence (Travers), who is desperately trying to earn his wings, shows up to give him a tour of his town without his presence (Bedford Falls becomes the decadent and hellish Pottersville), showing him how important he's been to the lives of his loved ones. Moral courage, small-town American life, civic cooperation, and family love are glorified while corporate greed and selfishness are condemned, climaxed by the man's rescue during an idyllic Christmas card finale. Clarence earns his wings and George learns that wealth is measured in love and friendship. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--James Stewart, Best Film Editing, Best Sound.

J

Jaws (1975)
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
Director: Steven Spielberg
From the best-selling novel by Peter Benchley and with a thrilling, memorable and rousing score by John Williams. A Great White Shark terrorizes a popular Massachusetts resort, Amity Island, during the summer tourist season in this action/adventure/horror classic, an early blockbuster film from Steven Spielberg. Surprise attacks on the New England coast, in which the monstrous man-eater preys on the inhabitants and vacationers alike, are truly frightening and scary. Three unlikely partners team up on a suspenseful 'fishing trip' to hunt down the rogue and destroy it: the new chief of police from New York (Scheider), a young university-educated oceanographer (Dreyfuss), and a crusty, grizzled old-time fisherman (Shaw) resembling the obsessed Ahab in the Moby Dick tale. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing.

K

King Kong (1933)
Starring: Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot, Robert Armstrong
Director: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Classic horror-fantasy thriller, with ground-breaking technical effects (stop-motion animation), a beauty-and-the-beast drama about a misunderstood, gigantic ape running wild in NYC - one of the masterpieces of cinema. Fortune-hunters, including filmmaker Denham (Armstrong) and his crew and a lovely, nubile starlet (Wray) travel to remote, fog-shrouded Skull Island to shoot a jungle movie. In search of the fabled giant ape, the magnificent, exotic, and dangerous "King Kong," they stumble upon a prehistoric world populated by dinosaurs and giant snakes. Enticing the fifty-foot gorilla with the lovely blonde - that the natives have kidnapped and offered as a gift to the beast, they eventually subdue and capture the monstrous creature with gas bombs. Denham brings him back to New York City as a sideshow attraction. The beast breaks his 'civilized' chains, escapes and goes on a rampage, ransacking the city in search of the young actress. The film climaxes with the hairy beast clinging to the top of the Empire State Building as pilots shoot him down. "It was Beauty killed the Beast." No Academy Award nominations.

L

The Lady Eve (1941)
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn
Director: Preston Sturges
Considered Preston Sturges' best film, a breathlessly paced, still-fresh romantic sex comedy classic - an Adam-and-Eve battle of the sexes. On a transatlantic ocean liner, two shipboard card-sharp con artists (Stanwyck and Coburn) plot to separate a naive, millionaire snake-scientist Charles Pike (Fonda) from his beer fortune. Plans go awry and Jean meets her match when she falls in love with the handsome young tycoon who has fallen madly in love with her. When he discovers that she is a swindler and gold-digger, however, Charles rejects her, leading Jean to plot revenge -- she reconquers her man's heart while masquerading as a high-society English lady, and during their hilarious honeymoon train journey. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Original Story.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Claude Rains, Jose Ferrer, Jack Hawkins
Director: David Lean
One of the greatest films of all time, with rich cinematography of the immense desert. A sweeping, breath-taking, cinematic biographical epic that follows the true-life exploits of a famed British officer, T. E. Lawrence (O'Toole in his first major film), and his transformation from an enigmatic eccentric to a hero in WWI Arabia. Assigned there, he courageously unites the warring Arab fractions into a guerrilla front to battle the Turks, Germany's allies. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Actor--Peter O'Toole, Best Supporting Actor--Omar Sharif, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Color Cinematography.

Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan
Director: Max Ophuls
An emotionally-complex, bittersweet, old-fashioned, tearjerker romance, told with flashbacks, about Lisa Berndl (Fontaine), a beautiful young woman with a childhood crush and doomed love for a charmingly suave, philandering concert pianist Stefan Brand (Jourdan) in 19th century Vienna. The night before the cavalier, callow pianist is due to fight a duel for offending a lady's honor with Lisa's husband, he receives a letter from a strange, unknown woman (who has since died). Through the letter, he learns for the first time about the young girl, his next-door neighbor, and her undying love that she felt for him through the years, including a pregnancy and son. No Academy Award nominations.

M

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Starring: Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Dolores Costello
Director: Orson Welles
A classic period piece and costume drama based on the 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington about a prominent, wealthy, 19th century Midwestern family grappling with changing times, progress and the coming of the modern industrial age at the turn of the century. Eugene Morgan (Cotten) courts Isabel Amberson (Costello) over many years, but her spoiled son George (Holt) ruins their chances, and the proud family disintegrates into squabbling. Agnes Moorehead plays the romantically-frustrated Aunt Fanny. Like the previous year's Citizen Kane, this second film masterpiece by Orson Welles was mutilated by RKO studio executives before its release (with a sentimental, tacked-on ending), though it still remains a director's film, with refinement of cinematic techniques including sound manipulation, long takes, a complete rotation in a single shot, quick-cuts, and artistic cinematography. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress--Agnes Moorehead, Best Art Direction-Set Direction, and Best B/W Cinematography.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, Jr.
Director: John Huston
A highly influential, prototypical film noir mystery about a hard-boiled private detective tracking an elusive, sought-after black bird statue, based on the crime novel by Dashiell Hammett. This was John Huston's directorial debut film. Hard-drinking, snarling untrusting private eye Sam Spade (Bogart), hired by femme fatale Brigid O'Shaugnessy (Astor), searches in a claustrophobic San Francisco for the priceless statuette while evading greedy and duplicitous characters, conveyed with first-rate performances: the gardenia-perfumed Mr. Cairo (Lorre), the scheming, jovially-sinister Fat Man (Greenstreet), and an effete gunsel Wilmer (Cook). Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Sydney Greenstreet, and Best Screenplay (John Huston).

M (continued)

Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Leon Ames, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli's classic slice of Americana - a fresh and upbeat, captivating romantic musical about a turn-of-the-century St. Louis family - divided into four distinct acts. The happy Smith family is threatened with moving when the father (Ames) is offered a better job in New York City - just as the 1903 World's Fair is coming to town and making St. Louis the place to be. The two eldest girls, 17 year old Esther and Rose (Garland and Bremer) are in love and dismayed that they may have to leave home and their boyfriends. The mischievous younger daughter 'Tootie' (O'Brien) is devastated and becomes hysterical. Some of Garland's greatest songs are integrated into the film, including "The Trolley Song," "The Boy Next Door," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and others. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Screenplay, Best Musical Score, Best Song ("The Trolley Song"), Best Color Cinematography.

Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight
Director: John Schlesinger
An exceptional, provocative, gritty portrait of a naive, small-town Texan Joe Buck (Voight) who becomes an unsuccessful male prostitute in Manhattan and his befriended relationship with a slimy, tubercular, limping, homeless, petty thief and con artist Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman) who dreams of making it rich in sunny Florida. The two establish interdependent bonds of love and trust in the big city, both hoping for a better life elsewhere. Once-controversial because it was originally rated X, this Oscar-winning Best Picture film was made on location in New York to portray seediness, corruption, and big-city anonymity, and based on James Leo Herlihy's novel. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Actor--both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, Best Supporting Actress--Sylvia Miles, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 3, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (Waldo Salt).

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains
Director: Frank Capra
Based on Lewis R. Foster's novel The Gentleman From Montana, a quintessential Frank Capra dramatic, political parable about a naive idealist junior senator who confronts and exposes graft and pork-barrel corruption in the US Senate. Patriotic, innocent, principled, and starry-eyed boy scout leader Jefferson Smith (Stewart) is recruited, appointed, and exploited, by crooked fat-cat political strategists, as he fills the seat of an expired Senator as their rubber-stamping 'yes' man. On Capitol Hill, Smith joins with savvy secretary Saunders (Arthur) to take a stand against the corrupt, eloquent senator Joseph Paine (Rains), refusing during a filibuster to submit to underhanded tactics while espousing patriotic American values. Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--James Stewart, Best Supporting Actor--Harry Carey, Best Supporting Actor--Claude Rains, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, Best Original Story (Lewis R. Foster).

Modern Times (1936)
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
Director: Charlie Chaplin
A 'mostly silent,' funny and poignant comedy/satire in which Charlie Chaplin bids farewell to silent comedy. The opening title: "Modern Times - A story of industry, of individual enterprise - humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness." In the machine age, Chaplin is a victimized factory worker with a 'Big-Brother' tyrannical boss who spies on employees with a giant TV monitor and demands greater speed and efficiency. He slaves on a dehumanizing automated assembly line where he quickly has a nervous breakdown, goes insane and is sent to a mental institution. The feeding-machine sequence is priceless. In the Depression era of poverty and unrest, he meets and falls in love with an orphaned street waif and fellow vagabond The Gamine (Goddard), and the two dream of a contented, suburban existence. In one of the 'sound' sequences, the Tramp impersonates a singing waiter. With a touching ending - a final farewell to the Little Tramp character.

My Darling Clementine (1946)
Starring: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan, Cathy Downs
Director: John Ford
One of John Ford's greatest westerns, semi-historically based on the famous O.K. Corral gunfight. Henry Fonda stars as Wyatt Earp, a one-time outlaw gunslinger who becomes the dedicated, law-abiding sheriff of Tombstone during the 1880s, determined to clean up the rowdy frontier town where the killers of his brothers, led by Old Man Clanton (Brennan) have fled. A visit to the barber symbolizes Earp's transition from the western frontier to civilization. He develops a relationship with the legendary consumptive Doc Holliday (Mature), defends a drunken Shakespearean actor, and cultivates a romance with square dance partner Clementine (Downs), the town's school teacher. No Academy Award nominations.

N

Nashville (1975)
Starring: Henry Gibson, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall
Director: Robert Altman
Altman's great country-music, Bicentennial epic length drama, set in the capital city of Nashville - a microcosm of America, summed up in one of the film's lyrics: "We must be doing something right to last 200 years." An intricate, free-form, intertwining tale, tangentially linking together twenty-four protagonists who have arrived on the scene to be part of the Nashville showbiz crowd, and appear at a pop concert and a political rally for the "Replacement Party." Colorful characters, both performers and audience members in the mosaic-style film, converge in a massive traffic jam and are present during a violent assassination scene by the film's conclusion: Presidential hopeful Hal Philip Walker, frail, crooning country western sweetheart Barbara Jean (Blakley), singing rival Connie White (Black), folk-singing lecherous lover Tom Frank (Carradine), BBC tele-journalist Opal (Chaplin), a groupie from LA (Duvall), and master of ceremonies Haven Hamilton (Gibson). A satirical film that comments upon religion, politics, sex, violence, and the materialistic culture. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress--Ronee Blakley, Best Supporting Actress--Lily Tomlin. Academy Awards, 1, Original Song "I'm Easy" by Keith Carradine.

A Night At The Opera (1935)
Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Margaret Dumont
Director: Sam Wood
The first MGM-produced, big-budget Marx Bros. film, the 6th of their thirteen films and considered by most critics to be their best film - and the first without Zeppo. One of their typical madcap, humorous films, in which the three wise-cracking brothers (Groucho is Otis B. Driftwood) stow away on a New York bound ship accompanying an opera crowd. Driftwood has been hired to introduce Mrs. Claypool (Dumont) to society. Famous routines include the Groucho/Chico contract negotiation scene ("There ain't no Sanity Claus!"), the ocean-liner stateroom scene, the bed-switching sequence, and the insane concert hall scene at the film's conclusion.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
Director: Charles Laughton
The only film directed by actor and stage director Charles Laughton. A stark, film noirish, black-and-white thriller, with a haunting, chilling lead performance by Robert Mitchum as crazed psychopathic Preacher Harry Powell prowling the Ohio River Valley. He personifies one polar end of the struggle between good and evil The killer of rich widows, with tattoos of LOVE and HATE on the fingers of both hands, weds a dead condemned killer's lonely widow (Winters), and then relentlessly hunts his own innocent step-children across the Depression Era Bible Belt to get at their father's stolen fortune of $10,000. The final segment pits the Preacher against Lillian Gish as a symbol of protecting Goodness, rocking at night on a porch with a shotgun across her lap, while he sings his perverse hymn in counterpoint: "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." Unbelievably not nominated for any Academy Awards.

Ninotchka (1939)
Starring: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
The sparkling picture that was advertised as the film in which "Garbo Laughs!", recalling the "Garbo Talks!" campaign of Anna Christie (1930). A delightful, witty Lubitsch romantic comedy, with the director's characteristic touches, about a stern and grim female Russian agent Nina Yakushova (Garbo), a straight-laced Communist Party member, sent to Paris for two purposes: to conclude the sale of the Grand Duchess Swana's stolen jewels and check up on her three comrades who have easily been seduced and converted to capitalism. While in Paris as she coldly resists Western materialism, she succumbs to the suave, French charms of Swana's lawyer and playboy lover (Douglas) and falls in love. Her icy heart melts and she laughs joyously, but Ninotchka is blackmailed into leaving Paris by a jealous Swana. By the film's end, the two lovers rendezvous in Turkey to be together. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Actress--Greta Garbo, Best Original Story, Best Screenplay.

North By Northwest (1959)
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock's great suspense thriller, another mistaken-identity case involving a Madison Avenue ad executive Roger Thornhill (Grant). He is targeted as a US government agent (who doesn't actually exist) by international spies, abducted, framed for murder, and chased cross-country. On the run throughout the entire film, he is pursued by the foreign operatives, the head of the spy ring Philip Vandamm (Mason), the CIA, the police, and a mysterious blonde Eve Kendall (Saint). A literal plot-twisting cliff-hanger, with superb sequences including the famous cropduster scene in an open field, and the chase across the face of Mount Rushmore. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Story and Screenplay, Best Film Editing.

Notorious (1946)
Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Leopoldine Konstantin
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock's ninth Hollywood film, the highly acclaimed, post WWII noirish spy thriller/romance set in Brazilian South America. An alluring, alcoholic playgirl (Bergman), the daughter of a convicted Nazi agent, is reluctantly exploited and drafted by the CIA to become a US government agent and secretly infiltrate into a shady group of Axis Germans. Watchful American agent (Grant) turns chilly toward her, uncertain of her love and loose-living past during a cruel love affair. To spite him when he doesn't protest, she marries her Nazi espionage target (Rains), a former friend of her father's, to acquire access to information, including the MacGuffin (uranium in wine bottles) in the wine cellar. Trapped in her enemy's home, where her husband is oppressed by his cold, domineering mother (Konstantin), Bergman is slowly poisoned with arsenic and in mortal danger until rescued by guilt-ridden Grant. The film features the most famous marathon screen kiss in film history, the zoom shot toward the wine cellar key, the wine cellar sequence, and the staircase-descending finale. Academy Award Nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--Claude Rains.

O

On The Waterfront (1954)
Starring: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger
Director: Elia Kazan
A compelling, evocative, gritty drama about union corruption and violence on the New York waterfront and the struggle of an ex-prize fighter against it. Inarticulate ex-boxer champ Terry Malloy (Brando) witnesses the murder of a fellow dock worker, a victim of gangster union boss Cobb's oppressive hold over the longshoremen - punished for 'singing' to an investigation commission. When Terry begins to fall in love with shy and frail Edie (Saint), the dead man's sister, his allegiances are challenged. Contains the famous Brando "I coulda been a contender" speech in the back seat of a taxi with his crooked, scheming lawyer brother Charlie (Steiger). After his brother's murder, he defiantly stands up against the hoodlums on the waterfront. Academy Award Nominations: 12, including Best Supporting Actor (Cobb, Steiger, and Malden). Academy Awards: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Marlon Brando, Supporting Actress--Eva Marie Saint, Best Story and Screenplay.

O (continued)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif, Will Sampson
Director: Milos Forman
A compelling, socially-conscious portrait of mental institution patients pitted against a tyrannical, sinister head nurse, cinematically adapted from Ken Kesey's celebrated 1962 novel. A free-spirited, ebullient, rebellious convict Randle P. McMurphy (Nicholson) feigns insanity to avoid a jail sentence, and is incarcerated in an insane asylum. His heroic, crazed struggles against oppression, conformity and the manipulative, authoritarian Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) symbolize the rebellious 60's era, as he serves as a catalyst and invigorating inspiration for the subdued, troubled patients. He is taken down and pays the ultimate price for his messianic, outrageous non-conformity with a zombie-producing lobotomy. The strong and silent Indian Chief Bromden (Sampson) that he has befriended relieves his pitiful misery. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Supporting Actor--Brad Dourif. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Jack Nicholson, Best Actress--Louise Fletcher, Best Adapted Screenplay.

Out Of The Past (1947)
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Virginia Huston
Director: Jacques Tourneur
A beguiling, complex film noir from the post WWII period. This classic is laced with doom-laden flashbacks from the shady past, about a laconic private detective who is caught in a deathly web - the picture was AKA Build My Gallows High, and based on Geoffrey Homes' novel. Jeff (Mitchum), who has moved to the country to find solitude, is hired for one last assignment and brought out of retirement by gangster Whit Sterling (Douglas). On the way to the job, he describes his past to his fiancee Ann (Huston), and his journey to Acapulco where he first came under the lethal, erotic spell of femme fatale Kathie (Greer) in an ill-fated affair. When the present action resumes, Jeff is doomed and seduced once again by the same charming, but wicked woman he had once loved and lost - a return to the past and involvement in a complex web of intrigue, passion, betrayal, double and triple-crosses and death. No Academy Award nominations.

P

Paths of Glory (1957)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, George Macready, Adolphe Menjou, Timothy Carey
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick's classic, powerfully bleak, anti-war drama on the hypocrisy of battle, based on Humphrey Cobb's factual novel. The film is an effective denouncement of self-seeking, pitiless WWI French military leaders whose strategy and mishandling of a failed mission are incomprehensible. During horrendous trench warfare on the French front (filmed with realistic tracking shots), a vain and pompous French General Mireau (Macready) orders his hapless group of soldiers to suicidally attack an obviously-impenetrable German stronghold. When they predictably fail in the ill-conceived attack, he angrily commands his own artillery to fire on the 'cowardly' troops. Further, he arbitrarily picks three blameless men as scapegoats - at random - to stand trial and be court-martialed for cowardice - and face execution by firing squad. Infantry commander and dissenting Army lawyer Colonel Dax (Douglas), aware of the disgraceful cover-up and episode, unsuccessfully defends the condemned men. No Academy Award nominations.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, John Howard
Director: George Cukor
George Cukor's classic, witty romantic comedy - an outstanding film version of Philip Barry's hit play, a sophisticated romantic farce about a socialite wedding. Recently divorced, wealthy, society girl heiress (Hepburn) is torn between her new stuffy fiancee (Howard), her irresponsible ex-husband (Grant), and an intriguing Spy Magazine suitor Macauley Connor (Stewart) who is present to cover the wedding with a photographer Liz Imbrie (Hussey). The film was remade as the musical High Society (1956). Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress--Katharine Hepburn, Best Supporting Actress--Ruth Hussey. Academy Awards: 2, Best Actor--James Stewart, Best Screenplay (Donald Ogden Stewart).

Psycho (1960)
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
The greatest, most influential Hitchcock horror/thriller ever made and the progenitor of the modern Hollywood horror film, based on Robert Bloch's novel. A classic, low budget, manipulative, black and white tale that includes the most celebrated shower sequence ever made. Worried about marital prospects after a lunch tryst with her divorced lover (Gavin), blonde real estate office secretary Marion Crane (Leigh) embezzles $40,000 and flees, stopping at the secluded off-road Bates Motel, managed by a nervous, amateur taxidermist son named Norman (Perkins). The psychotic, disturbed "mother's boy" is dominated by his jealous 'mother', rumored to be in the Gothic house on the hillside behind the dilapidated, remote motel. The story includes the untimely, violent murder of the main protagonist early in the film, a cross-dressing transvestite murderer, insanity, a stuffed corpse, and Oedipal Freudian motivations. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Supporting Actress--Janet Leigh, Best Director, Best B/W Cinematography.

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Starring: John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Samuel Jackson, Ving Rhames, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Harvey Keitel
Director: Quentin Tarantino
A stylish, immensely-popular, violent, off-beat, modern B-movie cult classic from writer/director Tarantino - his second feature, about corruption and temptation. An interwoven series of three vignettes about low-life criminals, thugs, drug-dealers, hitmen, a washed-up crooked boxer, and restaurant-robbing lovers in the sleazy underworld of Los Angeles. Small-time hold-up artists - "Pumpkin" (Roth) and "Honey Bunny" (Plummer) - plot a robbery in a restaurant. Meanwhile, philosophically-talkative hit men Jules Winfield (Jackson) and Vincent Vega (Travolta) carry out a hit for their vengeful, underworld boss Marsellus Wallace (Rhames) against double-crossing college-aged kids. Vincent entertains Marsellus' irresponsible wife Mia (Thurman) one evening - and then she overdoses on heroin. By not taking a dive, boxer Butch (Willis) scams Marcellus during his last bout and plans to skip town. The two hitmen call on gangland cleanup specialist The Wolf (Keitel) when their jobs get messy. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--John Travolta, Best Supporting Actor--Samuel L. Jackson, Best Supporting Actress--Uma Thurman, Best Director, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 1, Best Original Screenplay.

Q

The Quiet Man (1952)
Starring: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen, Barry Fitzgerald
Director: John Ford
John Ford's Irish romantic comedy/drama about an American ex-prizefighter (Wayne) who retires to his native, childhood Ireland (the greenish town of Inisfree) to begin a new life and find an Irish lass for a wife. Lushly filmed on location - a Taming of the Shrew tale in which Sean Thornton courts and subdues the fiery, red-haired, strong-willed Mary Kate (O'Hara), and fights an epic marathon brawl with her disapproving brother Will 'Red' Danaher (McLaglen) to secure her dowry and precious heirlooms. Along the way, he is aided by the impish leprechaun-like matchmaker Michaeleen Flynn (Fitzgerald). Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Victor McLaglen, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 2, Best Director, Best Color Cinematography.

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Raging Bull (1980)
Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci
Director: Martin Scorsese
A magnificently visceral, vivid and real, black and white bio/docu-drama of the rise and fall of a violent, suicidally-macho prize-fighter. Hard-headed, animalistic, unlovable slum kid Jake LaMotta (De Niro) becomes the 1949 middle-weight champ. The boxer experiences bouts of ring and domestic violence with brother Joey (Pesci) and second, beautiful teenage wife Vikki (Moriarty), and slowly but predictably descends into fat slobbishness. Robert De Niro's transformation from a sleek professional boxer to an out-of-shape, stand-up nightclub entertainer is simply remarkable. This film is regularly voted the Best Film of the decade of the 80s. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Joe Pesci, Best Supporting Actress--Cathy Moriarty, Best Director. Academy Awards: 2, Best Actor--Robert De Niro, Best Film Editing.

Rear Window (1954)
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock's voyeuristic masterpiece - a suspenseful, nail-biting thriller about a wheelchair-bound, immobilized photographer who believes he has witnessed a murder during his convalescence. During a hot New York summer, photo-journalist L. B. 'Jeff' Jeffries (Stewart) recuperates in his apartment from a broken leg. He wiles away the time by observing - and spying on neighbors through his rear window (with binoculars and his telephoto camera), while being cared for by his fashionable girlfriend Lisa (Kelly) and nurse-therapist Stella (Ritter). He experiences all of life's extremes - a honeymooning couple, dancer Miss Torso, spinsterish Miss Lonelyhearts, and the bickering, intriguing Thorwalds. Dissuaded by his police detective friend, Lisa, and Stella, he persists with attentive observations and suspicions about Thorwald (Burr) killing his wife. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Color Cinematography, Best Sound Recording.

Rebecca (1940)
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock's debut American film and the only film for which he received a Best Picture Academy Award. A Gothic mystery/romance that was adapted from Daphne Du Maurier's 1938 novel. The film opens with the haunting line: "Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again." An innocent, nameless shy young bride (Fontaine) struggles to settle into the country estate - Manderley - of her new wealthy husband (Olivier), a brooding English nobleman/widower who appears moody and haunted by the memory of his first wife. She is tortured, anguished and fearful that she must compete with the ghostly memories of the first Mrs. De Winter - a glamorous Rebecca, especially when tormented by the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Anderson). Mysterious family secrets about the first Mrs. De Winter, who was drowned at sea, are eventually revealed and change her perspective on her husband and their love. Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Director, Best Actor--Laurence Olivier, Best Actress--Joan Fontaine, Best Supporting Actress--Judith Anderson, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best B/W Cinematography.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus
Director: Nicholas Ray
The classic, melodramatic film that made James Dean an anti-hero icon for generations to come - this was the second of his three films and the best 50s film of its kind regarding the generation gap. A story of rebellion and angst in the life of an unsettled, teenaged, new-kid-in-town Jim Stark (Dean) who crosses paths with two other alienated, misfit youth - Judy (Wood) and Plato (Mineo) - at a police station in the first sequence. The outcast trio of juveniles forms a strong bond against both their insensitive parents (completely unjust, dysfunctional, ineffectual, or callous) and their peers, and search for their identities. After a deadly drag race and a confrontation with his milquetoast father (Backus), Jim spends the night with Judy and Plato in a deserted mansion. The adolescents find refuge and solace in their own company. In the tragic finale, Plato is killed by police when he foolishly brandishes an unloaded gun. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Supporting Actor--Sal Mineo, Best Supporting Actress--Natalie Wood, Best Motion Picture Story.

Red River (1948)
Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, John Ireland
Director: Howard Hawks
A classic 40s Western, one of the best American westerns, from action director Howard Hawks, featuring Montgomery Clift in his first film. The story of a father/son battle of wills and the first monumental, historic cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail to Abilene. Texas rancher Tom Dunson (Wayne), a self-made, dictatorial, vicious, authoritarian father is stubbornly pitted against his adopted son Matthew Garth (Clift). Their vicious confrontations, capped by Dunson's tyrannical, unbearably harsh treatment of deserters, leads to a mutinous revolt - a western Mutiny on the Bounty - when the cowpokes support the natural leader - Matt. Dunson vows to pursue and kill his son that climaxes in an inevitable, brutal fist-fight and show-down. Academy Award Nominations: 2, Best Motion Picture Story, Best Film Editing.

Roman Holiday (1953)
Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert
Director: William Wyler
An Oscar-winning story from Hollywood Ten blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was fronted by Ian McLellan Hunter. The delightful, old-fashioned, dramatic, fairy-tale courtship film, a variation of Capra's It Happened One Night, was shot on location and contains the first major starring role of the much-beloved Audrey Hepburn. A modern-day Princess (Hepburn) is quickly bored with ceremonial protocol during an official visit to Rome. After slipping away from her attendants and entourage, she goes 'incognito' and encounters an American newspaperman Joe Bradley (Peck) who sees an opportunity for an exclusive scoop. However, romance blossoms between them during their 'common people' adventures throughout the city, as they are pursued by the journalist's photographer friend Irving (Albert) who takes candids. The newspaperman's intentions change when he realizes he's falling in love. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor--Eddie Albert, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 2, Best Actress--Audrey Hepburn, Best Motion Picture Story.

S

Schindler's List (1993)
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Spielberg's greatest dramatic, black and white masterpiece, based on a true story of an opportunistic German businessman and charming womanizer Oskar Schindler (Neeson), who profits from WWII by employing cheap labor from Polish Jews in his Cracow cookware factory during the Third Reich's Holocaust, and provides them refuge from the horrors of the Nazis. The film also documents the hideous, disturbing evil personified by Nazi Amon Goeth (Fiennes) - the Plaszow camp commandant, Schindler's relationship with his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Kingsley) and their list-making to courageously save over 1,000 Jews from the senseless, brutal extermination in Auschwitz. Academy Award Nominations: 12, including Best Actor--Liam Neeson, Best Supporting Actor--Ralph Fiennes. Academy Awards: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.

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The Searchers (1956)
Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood, Ward Bond, Henry Brandon, Vera Miles
Director: John Ford
A complex, epic, 'psychological' Western story about a man's obsessive five year quest for revenge, set in post-Civil War America. Based on the novel by Alan Le May. This film is unquestionably Ford's finest, beautifully filmed in his most popular locale, Monument Valley. Raiding Comanche Indians, in retaliation, massacre a frontier family and Chief Scar (Brandon) kidnaps the teenaged daughter Debbie (Wood). The embittered, racist, anti-hero brother Ethan Edwards (Wayne), a mysterious Civil War Confederate veteran, engages on a journey to pursue his niece - to kill the Chief who abducted her AND to kill his corrupted, tainted, disgraced niece to 'save' her from her savage captors. During their extensive, perilous, grim search, conveyed by a series of flashbacks, he is accompanied by half-breed adopted nephew Martin Pawley (Hunter), who is equally determined to save the girl. This exceptional film was not nominated for Academy Awards.

Shane (1953)
Starring: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Jack Palance, Van Heflin, Emile Meyer, Ben Johnson, Brandon de Wilde
Director: George Stevens
A classic adult Western based on the novel by Jack Schaefer, about a lone, handsome gunfighter Shane (Ladd), who drifts into a beautiful 19th century Wyoming valley. As a hired hand for the pioneer homesteading Starrett family, Marion (Arthur) and Joe (Heflin), Shane is goaded into valiantly defending them and other farmers from vicious threats made by ruthless cattle ranch baron Ryker (Meyer), and hired, black-outfitted gunslinger Wilson (Palance). The family's young son Joey (de Wilde) worships the heroics and bravery of Shane, and is heartbroken when the nomadic loner rides off at the film's conclusion. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor--Brandon de Wilde, Best Supporting Actor--Jack Palance, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, Best Color Cinematography.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton
Director: Frank Darabont
An uplifting, engrossing, life-affirming drama/prison tale about the relationship between two jailed prisoners, adapted from a Stephen King novella titled "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption." Wrongly imprisoned for life in the Shawshank State Prison in the mid 1940s for murdering his adulterous wife and her lover, innocent banker Andy Dufresne (Robbins) meets another dignified lifer Red (Freeman) known for procuring contraband. The evil, Bible-pounding Warden Norton (Gunton) uses Andy's financial background to cover his nefarious activities, and Red obtains a geological rock hammer and pinup of Rita Hayworth at Andy's request. The passage of time over two decades is conveyed by the pin-ups on Andy's cell wall, which change from Hayworth to Marilyn Monroe, and then to Raquel Welch. Serving as an inspiration to the other convicts, Andy yearns for freedom and patiently plans for it. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Morgan Freeman, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing.

Singin' In The Rain (1952)
Starring: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Cyd Charisse
Directors: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
One of the all-time best Hollywood musicals that spoofs and satirizes the transitional chaos surrounding the end of the silent film era and the dawn of the 'talkies.' Vaudeville, silent film actor/dancer Don Lockwood (Kelly) and co-star actress Lina Lamont (Hagen) are at the height of box-office popularity, but with the advent of sound, shrill-voiced Lina's first talkie The Duelling Cavalier with swashbuckling Lockwood is laughable before studio preview audiences. His aspiring ingenue girlfriend Kathy Selden (Reynolds) is recruited to rescue their first film - remade as a musical re-titled The Dancing Cavalier, with Kathy secretly dubbing over Lina's voice. The voice-dubbing deception is ultimately exposed, and love blossoms. With marvelous musical numbers including the title song "Singin' in the Rain," and "You Were Meant for Me," "Make 'Em Laugh," "Broadway Melody," and "All I Do Is Dream of You." Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Supporting Actress--Jean Hagen, Best Musical Score.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Starring: Voices of Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne, Adriana Caselotti
Director: David Hand, Perce Pearce
Disney's first full-length, commercially-successful animated masterpiece, a classic, adapted Brothers Grimm fairy tale with a vain, evil Wicked Queen (La Verne), the Queen's beautiful step-daughter Snow White (Caselotti), seven gold-mining dwarfs (Bashful, Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy, Grumpy, Dopey and Doc) who whistle to and from work at the diamond mines - and a Prince Charming (Stockwell). After the Queen is told by her magic mirror that Snow White is "the fairest of them all," she orders the innocent maiden murdered, but she is released by the Huntsman, and finds refuge in the home of seven dwarfs. The jealous Queen takes a potion to disguise herself as an old hag and offers the sweet girl a poisoned red apple. Snow White is awakened from a deep sleep by the kiss of a young prince. With memorable songs, including "Heigh Ho," "Whistle While You Work," and "Someday My Prince Will Come." Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Score. Recipient of Special Award.

Some Like It Hot (1959)
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Joe E. Brown, George Raft
Director: Billy Wilder
Wilder's wonderfully-satirical, funny comedy. Two unemployed, 20's era Chicago jazz musicians, Joe (Curtis) and Jerry (Lemmon) accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and must flee from gangsters. They masquerade as women - Jo-sephine and Daphne - and join Sweet Sue's all-girl band with luscious, voluptuous singer Sugar Kowalczyk (Monroe) heading for Florida to elude the pursuit of retaliatory bootleggers. Joe also disguises himself as a wealthy, impotent, Cary Grant-like yacht owner to attract the loving attention of fellow band member Sugar, while Daphne (impressed with his own new sexy image) distracts the real millionaire - a smitten, oft-wed Osgood Fielding III (Brown). The Chicago hitmen, with dime-flipping, spats-wearing ringleader Spats Columbo (Raft) arrive at the Florida hotel for a convention, disrupting their gender-bending escapades. With the greatest fade-out line in film history: "Nobody's perfect." Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Actor--Jack Lemmon, Best Director, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, Best B/W Costume Design.

Stagecoach (1939)
Starring: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, George Bancroft, John Carradine, Andy Devine, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, Louise Platt
Director: John Ford
One of John Ford's earliest, genre-defining films, the first with John Wayne, who became a major star as a result. A classic Hollywood Western about a perilous Overland stagecoach journey from Tonto through hostile Indian territory to Lordsburg with a varied, tense group of six passengers: a good-hearted but banished prostitute (Trevor), a timid whiskey salesman (Meek), a Southern gentleman gambler (Carradine), an alcoholic doctor (Mitchell), a pompous, embezzling banker (Churchill), and a pregnant 'lady' (Platt) - the wife of a soldier, plus a sheriff (Bancroft) and a stage coach driver (Devine). Along the way, Ringo Kid (Wayne) holds up the stage and joins the trip - he's an escaped convict seeking revenge for the murder of his brother and father. An exciting Indian attack by Geronimo's marauders and chase across Monument Valley, with amazing stunt action, provide part of the film's stirring climax. The shunned prostitute finds romantic happiness with the respectful outlaw. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best B/W Cinematography. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Supporting Actor--Thomas Mitchell, Best Score.

A Star Is Born (1954)
Starring: Judy Garland, James Mason
Director: George Cukor
A classic tearjerker, the first re-make of William Wellman's non-musical, classic 1937 film starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. Young aspiring star Esther Blodgett's (Garland) singing career is launched in Hollywood -as Vicki Lester, by a fading, alcoholic film star Norman Maine (Mason) whose popularity is on the decline. Their marriage is tested by the tragic consequences of his personal disintegration and loss of fame, especially in the Oscars ceremony scene. His stunning suicidal demise is inevitable, but duly honored by his wife onstage when she introduces herself as Mrs. Norman Maine. Includes Garland's memorable songs: "The Man That Got Away" and "Born In a Trunk." Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Actor--James Mason, Best Actress--Judy Garland, Best Song, Best Musical Score.

Star Wars (1977) (tie)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, Alec Guinness, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing
Director: George Lucas
The first of a trilogy of fantasy films by writer/director George Lucas, and one of the most financially-successful films of all time, with amazing technological effects. A sci-fi adventure saga "in a galaxy far, far away", quasi-Western film, about a galactic battle between good (the rebel forces) and evil (the Imperial Galactic Empire). The characters are proto-typical: a young farmboy hero Luke Skywalker (Hamill) on a desert planet, a villainous, black-garbed sinister Lord Darth Vader (voice of Jones) - an aide to the leader of the Empire Grand Moff Tarkin (Cushing), a wise Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Guinness), a daring starship pilot (Ford), a captured rebel Princess Leia Organa (Fisher), a furry Wookie and two robotic droids. With two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Alec Guinness, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 6, including Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Visual Effects. A Special Achievement Award for "creation of the alien, creature, and robot voices."

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Starring: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Director: Elia Kazan
The powerful, frank dramatic adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, based upon Oscar Saul's adaptation. The story of two sisters: a neurotic, sensitive southern belle Blanche DuBois (Leigh) who visits and remains with her sister (Hunter) and her animalistic, earthy and vulgar brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski (Brando) in a down-and-out New Orleans project in the French Quarter. Mitch (Malden), one of Stanley's buddies takes an interest in Blanche until Stanley strips and ultimately reveals the secrets of her embarrassing, lurid past. After being 'raped' by Stanley in a heavily-censored and edited sequence, the vestiges of her shattered self are led away to a mental institution. Academy Award Nominations: 12, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Marlon Brando, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best B/W Cinematography. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Actress--Vivien Leigh, Best Supporting Actor--Karl Malden, and Best Supporting Actress--Kim Hunter.

Sunrise (1927)
Starring: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston
Director: F. W. Murnau
An artistic, poignant, brilliantly-filmed, expressionistic, landmark silent regarding a love triangle. A farmer (O'Brien) falls for the allure of a vampish seductress (Livingston) from the City, tempted by her under the moonlight in a swamp. He devises a murderous plan to kill his pure, innocent wife (Gaynor) - by drowning her during a trip to the City. At the moment of attempted murder in the rowboat, he realizes his love for his wife and can't complete the act. In the City (of the Jazz Age), the couple makes up and he wins her back - but on the way home, a storm looms up and takes her from him -a seemingly-just punishment from Fate itself. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Interior Decoration. Academy Awards: Unique and Artistic Picture (a second 'Best Picture' Award), Best Actress--Janet Gaynor, and Best Cinematography.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Jack Webb
Director: Billy Wilder
Wilder's witty black comedy regarding a famed silent film star who refuses to accept the end of her stardom. Opens with a shocking flashback narrated in voice-over by a dead corpse - a victim floating face-down in a Sunset Boulevard mansion's swimming pool. Aspiring, debt-ridden screenwriter Joe Gillis (Holden) hides from creditors while hired to write a script for faded film queen Norma Desmond's (Swanson) impending comeback. He takes advantage, encouraging her false hopes and moving in as her gigolo. The once-great star lives in a secluded estate with butler/chauffeur Max (von Stroheim). The ambivalent, 'kept man' scriptwriter balances his exploitative dependence upon the film star with romantic attention toward young script-reader Betty Schaefer (Olson), creating a lethal situation. The perverse, cynical film references Swanson's actual career, with excerpts from one of her unfinished films (Queen Kelly, directed by von Stroheim) and cameos by other forgotten silent film stars (e.g., Buster Keaton). Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Picture, Best Actor--William Holden, Best Actress--Gloria Swanson, Best Supporting Actor--Erich von Stroheim, Best Supporting Actress--Nancy Olson, Best Director. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Story and Screenplay.

T

Taxi Driver (1976)
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks, Peter Boyle
Director: Martin Scorsese
One of Martin Scorsese's greatest films, about a violent, alienated, unfocused, psychotic NYC taxi driver fatalistically disturbed by the squalid, hellish urban underbelly of pimps, whores, winos, and junkies. Ex-Marine Travis Bickle (De Niro) works the night shift through Times Square in his cab, encountering nightmarish Gothic horrors, moral decay and lowlifes. Off hours during the day, he kills time by frequenting sleazy porno houses and eating junk food. His one feeble attempt at social and emotional contact - a date with a blonde political campaign worker Betsy (Shepherd) fails miserably when he takes her to a porn film. His fantasized one-man campaign/mission to clean up the streets focuses on saving a prepubescent child prostitute Iris (Foster). It ends with a failed political assassination attempt, and a rage-filled, pent-up blood-bath massacre, including the killing of Iris' pimp "Sport" (Harvey Keitel). In the aftermath, the repellent character emerges as a vindicated, folk savior-hero. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Robert De Niro, Best Supporting Actress--Jodie Foster, Best Original Score (Bernard Herrmann).

The Third Man (1949)
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Director: Carol Reed
A British film noir thriller adapted from Graham Greene's novella written to prepare the film's screenplay, then later published. It was set in corrupt and desperate post-WWII Vienna during the Cold War. With a haunting zither musical score and theme from Anton Karas. A pulp Western novelist Holly Martins (Cotten) assumes the role of an amateur sleuth as he looks for old friend Harry Lime (Welles) who has reportedly been killed in Vienna. He seeks to unravel the mystery of the presumed-dead friend with a probing search, and an infatuation with Lime's girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Valli). The first appearance of Lime is in a doorway, as a light suddenly illuminates his sardonic smile. Includes the dramatic scene atop a ferris wheel, a suspenseful manhunt - into the underground city sewers for the shadowy, marked man - a notorious black-market drug dealer who preys on the sick, and the famed ending of Anna's stoic shunning of Martins. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Director. Academy Awards: 1, B/W Cinematography.

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To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Starring: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, John Megna
Director: Robert Mulligan
A poignant adaptation of Harper Lee's best-selling novel by screenwriter Horton Foote, set in small-town 1930s Alabama. Narrated by the adult voice of Kim Stanley, a coming-of-age, autobiographical story, seen from the perspective of a young southern girl Scout (Badham), the daughter of a widowed Southern lawyer Atticus Finch (Peck), whose innocence about racial bigotry and intolerance was changed forever. The Lincolnesque, compassionate attorney decides to assume the unpopular stance of defending a black man - Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), falsely accused of raping a 'white-trash' woman Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox). The film compellingly weaves the children's nightmares, personified by the mute, mentally-retarded Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in his screen debut) with the prejudiced hatred of the bigoted townspeople, led by Mayella's poor redneck father Robert E. Lee (Bob) Ewell (James Anderson). Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress--Mary Badham, Best Director, Best B/W Cinematography. Academy Awards: Best Actor--Gregory Peck, Best Adapted Screenplay.

Top Hat (1935)
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore
Director: Mark Sandrich
One of the best classic dance/musicals with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, their third film together from a total of nine. Includes dancing and singing of a superb Irving Berlin score, with "No Strings," "Isn't This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain)?", "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails," and "Cheek to Cheek." A typical amalgum of romantic comedy, complicated mistaken identity, and stylish Art Deco surroundings in London and Venice. Dancer Jerry Travers (Astaire) experiences love at first sight and is amorously attentive toward the lovely high-society Dale Tremont (Rogers), but she mistakes him for her best friend Madge Hardwick's (Broderick) husband Horace (Horton). Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Song ("Cheek to Cheek"), Best Dance Direction.

Touch Of Evil (1958)
Starring: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff
Director: Orson Welles
An off-beat, twisted, dark and sweaty, film noirish thriller, with murder, police corruption, kidnapping, betrayal, perversion and more in a squalid Mexican-American border town. Opens with a daring, captivating single-take sequence, ending with the explosive, car-bomb murder of an American businessman on the American side of the border. A self-righteous narcotics agent 'Mike' Vargas (Heston) becomes snarled in the local investigation with a grotesque, police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles), ignoring his honeymooning bride Susan (Leigh) who is meanwhile being terrorized in an out-of-the-way motel by a menacing gang. The experienced, old-time cop Quinlan habitually fabricates evidence to convict the guilty (even though his instincts are usually correct) and frames a young Mexican for the murder, putting him into conflict with the narcotics detective. The corrupt, overweight police captain is finally brought down by Vargas' persistent, perilous efforts with the cooperation of Quinlan's long-time partner Sgt. Pete Menzies (Calleia). No Academy Award Nominations.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Alfonso Bedoya
Director: John Huston
Director and screenwriter John Huston's classic adventure film about three American gold prospectors in the Mexican wilderness - a tale of lustful greed, treachery, paranoia and suspicion. The three ill-matched men include an innocent, honest young Curtin (Holt), a wise and experienced, fast-talking, grizzly, toothless old-timer Howard (Huston, the director's father), and Fred C. Dobbs (Bogart), a greedy, deranged, selfish bastard who distrusts everyone. Their gold booty strike and fortune breeds violence, threatening Mexican bandits led by Gold Hat (Bedoya), an end to their friendships, and the homicidal undoing of the avaricious Dobbs when he is killed for his boots and mule. Ends with an ironic climactic scene when the wind blows the gold dust away. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Supporting Actor--Walter Huston, Best Director, Best Screenplay.

Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Starring: Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Another exquisite, sophisticated, sparkling romantic comedy from Lubitsch. Two masquerading con artists Gaston Monescu/La Valle (Marshall) and Lily Vautier (Hopkins) specialize in jewel theft. The pair of crooks pose as nobility to practice their deceptive occupation among the gullible, upper-class elite of European society from Venice to Paris. They scheme to rob a rich, sleek widow Mariette Colet (Francis) in Paris, posing as her secretary and maid, but romantic complications ensue. By the time the subtle, wry film ends, they realize their romantic and amoral affinity for each other. No Academy Award nominations.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, HAL 9000
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick's metaphoric, thought-provoking, grandiose, science-fiction landmark film, with space travel to Jupiter, the mysterious appearance of enigmatic monoliths, and the presence of the film's major protagonist - an omniscient super-computer. A three-act, visionary, visually dazzling, wide-screen masterpiece, with mind-blowing special effects. The first monolith appears to prehistoric ape-men, awakening them to the use of tools as killing weapons. Further monoliths on the Moon and floating in space somewhere near Jupiter, seem to coax humankind to make evolutionary leaps and transcend bodily and technological limits. A team of robotic-like astronauts Bowman (Dullea) and Poole (Lockwood), during a voyage to Jupiter to investigate a radio transmission, are terrorized by the arrogant, humanistic, on-board computer HAL 9000 (voice of Douglas Rain). With the mission aborted and following a psychedelic light-show, Bowman is reborn within an embryonic divine life form that floats in space. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Director, Best Story and Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, Best Special Visual Effects.

U

V

Vertigo (1958)
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Arguably Hitchcock's most complex, most analyzed, compelling masterpiece, involving a man's compulsive obsession to exploitatively manipulate and transform a woman to match his fantasy. Vertigo-suffering, acrophobic detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson (Stewart) trails an old college friend Gavin Elster's (Helmore) wife as she wanders around San Francisco - a cool, blonde named Madeleine (Novak). Meanwhile, Scottie's friend 'Midge' Wood (Bel Geddes) expresses unrequited love for him. Madeleine's obsession with a tragic ancestor Carlotta Valdez intrigues Scottie, and after saving her from a suicidal jump into the Bay, he falls in love with her. When she falls to her death from a tower in an assumed suicide, he spirals down into a deep depression. Haunted and obsessed with the dead woman, he meets her lower-class double Judy (Novak again) and manipulates her into changing into the dead Madeleine's image - with mad consequences in the uncompromising conclusion. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound.

W

West Side Story (1961)
Starring: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris
Director: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins
An energetically-choreographed musical that is loosely based on Shakespeare's tale of ill-fated lovers, Romeo and Juliet. A landmark, highly-honored, ground-breaking Broadway musical transposed to the big screen and set on location in 1950s New York on the Upper West Side. With a memorable musical score from Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Includes such popular songs as "The Jet Song," "America," "Cool," "I Feel Pretty," "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "One Hand, One Heart," and "Maria." Two rival teenaged gangs, the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo (Chakiris) and the white Jets, led by Riff (Tamblyn) rumble with each other for turf on the sidewalks and streets of the city. Two young people on opposing sides, Polish Jet member Tony (Beymer) and Bernardo's sister Maria (Wood) become 'star-crossed' lovers. His attempts at peace-making during a rumble accidentally lead to the deaths of both gang leaders and further tragic circumstances in a tear-stained scene set on an outdoor basketball court. Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: 10, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--George Chakiris, Best Supporting Actress--Rita Moreno, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Musical Score.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis
Director: Mike Nichols
Nichol's debut film as director - of an adaptation of Edward Albee's scathing, dark, and vitriolic play - with a bold use of expletives. Real-life married couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor portray a dysfunctional couple's abusive, sado-masochistic, deteriorating marriage - as a weary, tortured, disillusioned academic professor George and his frumpy, alcoholic, foul-mouthed, seductive and abrasive wife Martha. The two invite a young teacher Nick (Segal) and his mousy wife Honey (Dennis) to their home for a bitter and relentless evening of brutal, acerbic, verbal games that increase the hateful intensity of their mismatched, love-hate relationship. Academy Award Nominations: 13, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Richard Burton, Best Supporting Actor--George Segal, Best Director. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Actress--Elizabeth Taylor, Best Supporting Actress--Sandy Dennis.

The Wild Bunch (1969)
Starring: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Robert Ryan, Emilio Fernandez
Director: Sam Peckinpah
A controversial, brutally-violent, late 60s Western about the demise of a desperate, small gang of aging outlaws in the early 1900s that still clings to codes of honor, loyalty, and courage. Pike Bishop (Holden), leader of the 'wild bunch,' is hired for their final job. In the stunning opening sequence, the gang - disguised as US Cavalry soldiers, ride into a Texas town and rob the railway office's bank. The boss of the railroad hires a mercenary, bounty-hunting posse, led by Pike's former buddy Deke Thornton (Ryan) to pursue them, as the gang flees into Mexico, during the revolution of 1914. They are double-crossed by an anti-revolutionary dictator/Generalissimo Mapache (Fernandez) after the hijacking of weapons from a US ammunitions train. Attempting to redeem themselves by opposing an entire corrupt Mexican platoon, they are massacred in the famous, ultra-violent, slow-motion, colorful bloodbath finale. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Story and Screenplay, Best Original Score.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Starring: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke
Director: Victor Fleming
The ultimate fantasy, the perennial musical adventure film based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 book. With most characters playing dual roles, both in Kansas and in Oz. Kansas farm girl Dorothy (Garland) and her dog Toto are transported from her home by a whirling tornado to the magical, Technicolor Land of Oz, where she encounters little people Munchkins, Glinda (Burke) - the Good Witch of the North, a Yellow Brick Road, a brainless, talking Scarecrow (Bolger), a heartless Tin Woodsman (Haley), a Cowardly Lion (Lahr), the Wicked Witch of the West (Hamilton) and a marvelously deceitful Wizard (Morgan) of Emerald City. Her wishes to return home ("There's no place like home") are granted after she outwits and vanquishes the Witch. Includes marvelous songs: "Over the Rainbow," "Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead," and "If I Only Had a Brain." Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Color Cinematography, Best Special Effects. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Song ("Over the Rainbow"), Best Original Score.

Wuthering Heights (1939)
Starring: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Director: William Wyler
The greatest melodramatic, brooding screen adaptation of Emily Bronte's 1847 romantic Victorian novel of doomed lovers with inseparable spirits, set on the windy Yorkshire moors of pre-Victorian England. Orphaned gypsy Heathcliff (Olivier) is adopted by Mr. Earnshaw on the streets of London and brought home to be the stable boy, where he falls in love with the young daughter Cathy (Oberon). Their love is thwarted and abandoned when Cathy marries a wealthy, refined neighbor Edgar Linton (Niven). After leaving for America, the financially-successful but dark and troubled Heathcliff returns years later and seeks revenge by marrying and mistreating Edgar's sister Isabella (Fitzgerald). The long-hindered, passionate love of Cathy and Heathcliff emerges in death. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Laurence Olivier, Best Supporting Actress--Geraldine Fitzgerald, Best Director, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, B/W Cinematography--Gregg Toland.

Y

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Starring: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Rosemary DeCamp
Director: Michael Curtiz
The rousing, morale-boosting, flag-waving musical biography of legendary American composer/song-writer and entertainer George M. Cohan. Includes his memorable tunes "Over There," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "Give My Regards to Broadway," and the film's rousing title number. The film, presented in flashback, follows the vaudevillian Cohan family, led by father Cohan (Huston) and mother (DeCamp) from its early days, with the energetic Irishman Cohan (Cagney) as the triumphant song-and-dance man, and his marriage to Mary (Leslie). A White House visit with FDR salutes his career, when he wins the Congressional Medal of Honor and subsequently dances down the White House staircase. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Walter Huston, Best Director. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Actor--James Cagney, Best Sound, Best Musical Score.

Labels: top 100 english films of all time-1

# posted by vikram @ 10:18 AM

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