Cultural Literacy: Films

originally developed in 1997
corrected and revised 2001
corrected and revised May, 2002

Introduction to the List

Entries include the name of the film, the year it was released, its director, and the names of the leading actors. There is also a brief summary, and perhaps a comment. A well-known quotation form the film may be included, as well as indication of any major Academy Awards won.

In 1988, the United States Library of Congress established the National Film Preservation Board to preserve film deemed "culturally, historically, or esthetically important." Each year, the Board selects 25 films to add to the National Film Registry. For every film on the list below that has been added to the registry, the year in which it was added is indicated under the heading Registry. 


Sources

The kernel of this list was adapted from two lists, both found via the Internet. They are

"The top 250 movies as voted by our users." Internet Movie Database

"U.S. National Film Registry -- Titles." U.S. National Film Registry

Other References

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Maltin, Leonard, ed. Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide, 1997 Edition

New York: Signet Books, 1997.


Which Decade Produced the Most Classic Films?

the 1910s

1

the 1920s

1

the 1930s

25

the 1940s

24

the 1950s

27

the 1960s

17

the 1970s

27

the 1980s

11

the 1990s

3

 

 

The List

 

A 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Adventures of Robin Hood, The 1938 1995 Adventure
History
Michael Curtiz Errol Flynn
Olivia de Havilland
Claude Rains
Basil Rathbone
 
In this, the definitive swashbuckler, Robin Hood steals from the rich to feed the poor, upholds the true king’s claim to the throne, and woos his lady love, Maid Marian.
Affair to Remember, An 1957   Romance
"Tearjerker"
Leo McCarey Cary Grant
Deborah Kerr
 
This is the classic weeper in which a man and a woman meet on a transatlantic ocean liner and fall in love and are separated; their planned reunion atop the Empire State Building never takes place due to a tragic accident, and they are ultimately reunited by a series of unlikely coincidences.
African Queen, The 1951 1994  Drama John Huston Humphrey Bogart
Katherine Hepburn
Robert Morley
Best Actor (Bogart)
As World War I begins, Rose Sayer, a missionary stationed in Africa, and Charlie Allnut, a coarse, hard-drinking steamboat captain, take his boat downriver, battling the elements, the German navy, and each other.

"Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."

Alien 1979   Science Fiction
Action
Horror
Ridley Scott Sigourney Weaver
Tom Skerritt
John Hurt
Ian Holm
Harry Dean Stanton
 
The Nostromo, a commercial space vehicle, responds to an SOS signal and falls victim to a hive colony of unknown creatures. When one of its eggs is disturbed, the crew slowly begins to realize the danger they’re in.

"In space, no one can hear you scream."

All About Eve 1950   Drama  Joseph L. Mankiewicz Bette Davis
George Sanders
Anne Baxter
Celeste Holm
Gary Merrill
6 including
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor (Sanders)
Aspiring actress Eve Harrington maneuvers her way into the lives of Broadway star Margo Channing and her friends. Marilyn Monroe has a bit part in this sophisticated yet cynical story of ambition, betrayal, and life in the theater.

"Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night."

All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 1990 War
Drama
Lewis Milestone Lew Ayres
Louis Wolheim
Best Picture
Best Director
This vivid and moving adaptation of the classic novel follows a squad of German soldiers in World War I from the day they enthusiastically volunteer for service until the death of the squad’s last member on an otherwise quiet, lovely day.
All the President's Men    1976   Drama
History
Alan J. Pakula Dustin Hoffman
Robert Redford
Jason Robards
4 including
Best Supporting Actor (Robards)
Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the dirty tricks and cover-up of the Nixon White House’s involvement in the Watergate scandal. Based on the book written by Woodward and Bernstein, the movie suspensefully details their real-life investigation.

"Follow the money."

American Graffiti 1973 1995 Coming of Age George Lucas Richard Dreyfuss
Ron Howard
Paul Le Mat
Charles Martin Smith
Cindy Williams
Mackenzie Phillips
Harrison Ford
 
An entertaining and insightful mosaic in which two boys who are scheduled to leave their small California city for college in the East the next morning spend the night probing their doubts as they "cruise the strip" and have a variety of adventures.
American in Paris, An 1951 1993 Musical
Romance
Dance 
Vincente Minnelli Gene Kelly
Leslie Caron
Oscar Levant
8 including Best Picture
A struggling American painter living in Paris must choose between an heiress interested in more than his art and a young French girl. Gene Kelly's trademark choreography highlights this original musical built around a Gershwin score.
Annie Hall 1977   Comedy
Romance
Woody Allen Woody Allen
Diane Keaton
Tony Roberts
Carol Kane
4 including 
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actress (Keaton)
The autobiographical romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall, tracing the course of their relationship from their first meeting. This serves as an interesting historical document about love in the 1970s.
Apocalypse Now 1979   War
History
Francis Ford Coppola Marlon Brando
Martin Sheen
Robert Duvall
 
Based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, this controversial film follows Captain Willard on his mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory."

Re-edited and re-released by Francis Ford Coppola in 2001.

Awful Truth, The 1937 1996 Comedy
Romance
Leo McCarey Irene Dunne
Cary Grant
Best Director
A newly divorced husband and wife do their best to ruin each other’s plans for remarriage in this classic "screwball comedy" of the 1930s.

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B 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Back to the Future 1985   Science Fiction
Comedy
Robert Zemeckis Michael J. Fox
Christopher Lloyd
 
A teenager of the 1980s travels back in time to the 1950s, where he must arrange for his mismatched parents to meet in order to continue his own existence.
Bambi 1942   Animation
Children
Produced by Walt Disney Productions   Song (Love Is a Song)
A moving and exquisitely detailed animated feature about a deer and how the phases of his life parallel the cycle of seasons in the forest.
Bank Dick, The 1940   Comedy Eddie Cline W.C. Fields  
A classic of insane humor, loosely plotted about a no-account who becomes a bank guard.
Batman 1989

 

Action 
Comedy 
Crime 
Drama 
Fantasy
Tim Burton  Michael Keaton
Jack Nicholson
Kim Basinger
 
A dark, intense adaptation of the adventures of the comic-book hero and his battles with his arch-nemesis, the Joker.
Ben-Hur 1959   Drama 
Action 
Epic 
Historical
William Wyler Charlton Heston, 
Hugh Griffith,
Jack Hawkins,
Stephen Boyd
11 (the record) including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Heston), Best Supporting Actor (Griffith)
Boyhood friends Ben-Hur and Messala are turned into bitter enemies, separated in part by Messala’s blind allegiance to Rome, in this classic set in the first century. Don’t miss the chariot race, a spectacular achievement in special effects in its day.
Best Years of Our Lives   1946 1989  Drama William Wyler Myrna Loy, Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Harold Russell  7 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (March), Best Supporting Actor (Russell)
Three World War II veterans return to small town America to discover that they and their families have been changed forever, and that they must adjust to the world as it has become.
Birth of a Nation, The
Also known as The Clansman
1915    War 
History 
Epic 
D.W. Griffith Lillian Gish  
The consequences of the Civil War in the lives of two families, one Northern and one Southern, are shown as they are affected by major historical events of the time. The birth of the Ku Klux Klan is featured, and the film has been sharply criticized in more recent times for its racial stereotypes and justification of the Klan.
Bonnie and Clyde 1967   Drama 
History Gangster
Arthur Penn Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons 2 including Best Supporting Actress (Parsons) 
A trend-setting film, vivid and stylish, in which a pair of small-time bank robbers are turned into folk heroes in Depression-era America. This take on the legendary (yet real-life) crime spree of these lovers on the run is known for its attention to gory detail.
Boys Town 1938   Drama Norman Taurog Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney 2 includiing Best Actor (Tracy)
Father Flanagan opens a school for delinquent boys, and young Whitey Marsh is his toughest enrollee in this heartwarming classic.
Breakfast Club, The 1985   Coming of Age Comedy Drama  John Hughes Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy  
Five stereotyped teenagers (a jock, a geek, a ‘wastoid’, a Prom Queen, a psycho) are thrown together when they are all assigned to Saturday detention in the school library.
Bridge on the River Kwai, The 1957   War 
Drama
Sir David Lean Sir Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa  7 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Guinness)
British soldiers in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II build a bridge as an exercise in morale, even as an Allied demolition team plans to destroy it.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969   Western Comedy George Roy Hill  Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Katharine Ross  
Outlaws Butch and Sundance are pursued throughout the West (and ultimately to South America) by a relentless posse in this "buddy" picture/character study based on historical characters.

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C 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Caine Mutiny, The 1954    Drama 
War 
Courtroom
Edward Dmytryk Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Jose Ferrer  
Two naval officers aboard the U.S.S. Caine mutiny against Queeg, their paranoid and unpopular new captain, and are court-martialed. Bogart’s Queeg is not to be missed.
Casablanca 1943 1989 Drama 
Romance
Michael Curtiz  Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Dooley Wilson 3 including Best Picture, Best Director 
The World War II classic of war-torn Casablanca, in which an elusive nightclub owner, (Rick), finds his old flame (Ilsa), her husband (the Czech freedom fighter Victor Laszlo), and his own long-lost ideals.

Casablanca is frequently described as the best movie ever made by Hollywood; it is almost certainly the most quoted movie of all time. But neither Bogey or Bergman ever said "Play it again, Sam."

Rick, after first seeing Ilsa: Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

Rick, to Ilsa, as she and Laszlo prepare to leave Casablanca: If you don't get in that plane you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life. We both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick
: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you. 
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm
going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.

Chariots of Fire 1981   Drama 
Sports
Hugh Hudson Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Ian Holm, John Gielgud 4 including Best Picture

Two very different men compete for England in the 1924 Paris Olympics, each motivated by his own background and for his own reasons.

Chinatown 1974   Film Noir Thriller Mystery Roman Polanski Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston  
In this bizarre yet fascinating mystery set in the 1930s, Los Angeles private detective Jake Gittes is led into a complex, volatile case by a femme fatale.
Citizen Kane 1941 1989 Drama Orson Welles Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, Everett Sloane  
Director Welles’ first movie "broke all the rules and invented some new ones" in this fascinating story of a newspaper tycoon’s rise to power, based on the real life of publisher William Randolph Hearst. Often cited as the best American movie ever made.  

"Rosebud!"

City Lights 1931  1991  Silent 
Comedy
Charles Chaplin Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill   
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.
Clockwork Orange, A 1971   Fantasy Stanley Kubrick Malcolm MacDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri   
In a futuristic Britain, a gang of teenagers go on a rampage every night, beating and raping helpless victims. Caught, one of the gang agrees to try "aversion therapy".
Close Encounters of the Third Kind  1977   Science Fiction Steven Spielberg  Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon  
A mystery leads to an ordinary man’s contact with alien beings in this powerful and intelligent film.
Cool Hand Luke 1967    Drama Stuart Rosenberg Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D. Cannon Best Supporting Actor (Kennedy)
In a southern prison camp, Luke gets a reputation as a hard man, and resists all efforts of the "boss" to break him.

"What we have here … is a failure to communicate."

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D 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Day for Night
Original title: La Nuit Americaine 
1973    Foreign Francois Truffaut Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Aumont  
This light look at the problems of a film director in trying to film a silly love story offers a loving look into the intricacies of film making.
Day the Earth Stood Still, The 1951   Science Fiction  Robert Wise Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe  
This is the landmark scifi drama in which a dignified alien comes to earth and issues a warning about the dangers of nuclear weapons.
Deer Hunter, The 1978   War
Drama
Michael Cimino Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Cazale, John Savage 5 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Walken)
A stunning film about a group of young Pennsylvania steelworkers, and their lives before, during, and after Viet Nam.
Destry Rides Again 1939 1996 Western Comedy George Marshall James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich  
In this action-packed Western satire, Stewart as the new deputy tames a wild town without resorting to violence, and tangles with a boisterous dance-hall girl.
Dirty Harry 1971   Action
Detective
Don Siegel Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon  
A riveting action film in which an iconoclastic cop tries to bring in a serial killer.

"I know what you're thinking... Did I fire six shots or only five? To tell you the truth, I forgot it myself in all this excitement. This here's a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and it can blow your head clean off. Now, you must ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'  Well, do you, punk?"

The character Harry Callahan appeared in several movies, and is also known for saying "Go ahead ... make my day" in the film Sudden Impact (1983).

Doctor Zhivago 1965   Romance 
Epic
Drama
Sir David Lean Omar Sharif, Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger   
Poet/doctor Yuri Zhivago marries an aristocrat just before the Russian Revolution, and then has an affair with the beautiful nurse Lara. In this epic of a world turned upside down, his life and freedom are torn from him by the demands of a new society.
Double Indemnity 1944   Film Noir
Drama
Billy Wilder Barbara Stanwyck, Fred Mac Murray, Edward G. Robinson  
An insurance salesman is coerced into a plot by an alluring woman who has cooked up a scheme to murder her husband for his insurance money.
Dr. Strangelove, or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1963  1989 Cold War Satire  Stanley Kubrick George C. Scott, Peter Sellers  
A fanatical general launches a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union, leaving the President to contend with his own political and military leaders as well as "the enemy" in this black comedy.
Duck Soup 1933 1990 Comedy 
Satire
Leo McCarey  The Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont  
Prime Minister Rufus T. Firefly of the miniature country of Fredonia declares war on neighboring Sylvania just because he feels like it. The spies Chicolini and Pinky are sent to obtain top secret information, creating even more chaos. This is considered a parody of the dictatorships of Europe, including the rising Nazi regime in Germany, and contains Harpo Marx’ classic mirror sequence.

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E 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial  1982 1994 Science Fiction Steven Spielberg Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Dee Wallace-Stone  
A ten-year old boy befriends an alien who’s been accidentally stranded on Earth in this insightful story of childhood innocence, frustration, courage, and love.

"E.T. phone home!"

Re-edited by Steven Spielberg and re-released in 2002.

Easy Rider 1969    Drama  Dennis Hopper Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson  
Two long-haired bikers from Los Angeles take off on a cross-country trip, meeting several unusual characters along the way, especially a small-town lawyer played by Jack Nicholson, who gained national attention for the role.

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F  

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Fantasia 1940 1990 Animated
Musical
Produced by the Walt Disney Productions     

Various classical music works are illustrated, some abstractly, some humorously, and some dramatically, using a wide range of artistic styles is used.

A second film, Fantasia 2000, was released, in accordance with the original plan to make a series of animated films based on classical music.

Field of Dreams  1989    Drama
Baseball
Phil Alden Robinson Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta  

An Iowa farmer hears a voice in his cornfield which inspires him to build a baseball diamond in the field in the hopes that Shoeless Joe Jackson, thrown out of baseball after the "Black Sox" scandal of 1919, will appear there, in this fantasy of hope and redemption.

"If you build it, he will come."

Forrest Gump 1994   Drama 
History
Robert Zemeckis Tom Hanks, Sally Fields, Robin Wright 6 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hanks) 
A slow-witted boy grows to adulthood, floating through life, only vaguely understanding the tumultuous times in which he lives, even though he manages to be present for virtually every important event in the second half of the twentieth century.

"Life is like a box of chocolates ... you never know what you’re gonna get."

Frankenstein 1931   Horror James Whale Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, John Boles  
The definitive monster movie, with the ultimate mad scientist creating a man-made being, but accidentally giving him a criminal brain. This film made Boris Karloff, as The Creature, a star.
French Connection, The 1971   Action
Drama
Police
William Friedkin Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey  5 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hackman)

This gritty police action details an attempt to smuggle heroin into the U.S. and the maverick police detective determined to stop it. This film includes one of the most gripping and memorable car chase sequences ever filmed.

"Do you pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?"

From Here to Eternity 1953   War 
History Romance 
Fred Zinneman Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Sinatra), Best Supporting Best Actress (Reed) 

This powerful adaptation of James Jones’ novel of Army life in Hawaii just before the Pearl Harbor attack is brilliantly acted by the entire cast, and combines unforgettable action scenes with real combat footage. The love scene on the beach featuring Lancaster and Kerr is featured in many film-clip anthologies.

"When you love something, it don’t got to love you back."

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G 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Gandhi 1982   Drama 
History
Foreign (British-Indian) 
Sir Richard Attenborough Ben Kingsley, Candace Bergen, John Gielgud 8 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Kingsley)
Sweeping account of the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who rose from the position of a simple lawyer to become a nation’s leader and a worldwide symbol of peace and understanding.
Gentleman’s Agreement 1947   Drama Elia Kazan Gregory Peck, Celeste Holm, Dorothy Maguire, John Garfield 3 including Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Holm)
A writer, pretending to be Jewish, experiences anti-Semitism firsthand in what was at the time a daring look at a subject that was not discussed in polite society.
Gigi 1958 1991 Musical Vincente Minnelli  Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold, Maurice Chevalier 9 including Best Picture, Best Director, Song (Gigi)
This charming musical about a turn-of-the-century French girl groomed to become an elegant courtesan who would prefer to become a wife is known for its exquisite filming, perfect cast, and memorable Lerner and Loewe score.
Godfather, The 1972 1990 Drama
Gangster
Francis Ford Coppola Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, John Cazale  3 including Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) 

Based on Mario Puzo’s bestseller of the violent life and times of Don Corleone, a Mafia patriarch, and his family.

"I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse."

Godfather, Part II, The 1974 1993 Drama 
Gangster
Francis Ford Coppola Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Talia Shire, John Cazale 6 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (De Niro)
The rare sequel that is as compelling and as well done as its predecessor, this compares the life of Don Corleone’s son Michael, now running "the family", to his father’s early days.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters 1956   Science Fiction Foreign (Japanese) Terry Morse Raymond Burr, Inoshiro Honda  
A fire-breathing giant lizard threatens civilization in this masterwork of special effects.
Going My Way 1944   Drama Leo McCarey Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald  6 including Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actor (Crosby), Best Supporting Actor (Fitzgerald), Best Song (Swinging on a Star).
Director McCarey also wrote the screenplay, which also received an Academy Award. This is a sentimental story in which a young priest wins over his elderly superior, a gang of tough kids, and the entire neighborhood.

"Do you know ... ‘Toora Loora Loora’?"

Gone With the Wind 1939 1989 Drama
History
Epic
Victor Fleming Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel, Thomas Mitchell 9 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (McDaniel) 
GWTW stands as one of the great romantic movies, based on a runaway best-selling book, and set against the historical backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction Period. Often criticized today for its sentimental view of slavery, it was nonetheless the first film for which an Oscar was won by an African-American performer (Hattie McDaniel.)
Graduate, The 1967 1996 Coming of Age Mike Nichols Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katherine Ross Best Director 

This landmark film of the late 1960s focuses on a naive recent college graduate who’s seduced by an older woman, and then falls in love with her daughter. This was the debut role for Dustin Hoffman.

"Plastics!"

Grand Hotel  1932   Drama Edmund Goulding  Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore Best Picture 
Simply, the story of the Grand Hotel, where "nothing ever happens."
Grapes of Wrath, The 1940 1989 Drama 
History
John Ford  Henry Fonda, John Carradine, Jane Darwell Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Darwell)
Classic Americana of the Okies moving west to California during the Great Depression, this film features a young Henry Fonda in the role of a lifetime. Based on John Steinbeck’s novel.
Great Dictator, The 1940   Silent 
Comedy
Satire
Charles Chaplin Charlie Chaplin  
This was Chaplin’s first "talkie", a slapstick/satire/social commentary featuring a dictator named "Adenoid Hynkel" of the country "Tomania."

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H  

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
High Noon  1952 1989  Western
Drama
Fred Zinneman Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly  4 including Best Actor (Cooper), Best Song (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’) 
This legendary Western drama about a crisis of conscience focuses on a lawman who must decide, on the day he is both to marry and to retire, whether or not to face a gunman who is coming to town to seek revenge.
Holiday Inn 1942   Musical
Comedy
Mark Sandrich Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale Song (White Christmas
An entertaining musical with a thin plot about a Connecticut country inn open only on holidays, this is really an excuse for Astaire to dance (don’t miss the Fourth of July) and Crosby to sing a string of tunes by Irving Berlin, most notably, "White Christmas", which was introduced here.

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I 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang  1932 1991 Drama  Mervyn LeRoy Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell   
In this still-powerful story, an innocent man is brutally victimized by the criminal justice system.
Invasion of the Body-Snatchers 1956 1994 Science Fiction Don Siegel Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones   
An influential and still scary piece of science fiction in which small-town residents are slowly being replaced by duplicates hatched from alien "pods."
It Happened One Night 1934 1993 Comedy Frank Capra Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Gable), Best Actress (Colbert), Best Screenplay
This was the first film to win all five of the major awards. In this legendary romantic comedy, reporter Gable and runaway heiress Colbert fall in love as they make their way across the country by bus and by thumb (don’t miss Colbert showing Gable the right way to hitchhike). The most memorable scene may be when "the Walls of Jericho" come tumbling down. 
It’s a Wonderful Life 1946 1990 Drama Frank Capra James Stewart, Donna Reed, Thomas Mitchell, Lionel Barrymore  

In this sentimental and beloved film, a small town man who works hard all his life to make good thinks he’s failed and tries to end his life, only to be shown by his guardian angel just how great a difference he’s made in the lives of others.

"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."

Note that George’s two friends, the cabdriver and the cop, are named Bert and Ernie.

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J 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Jaws 1975   Action
Drama
Steven Spielberg Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw  
In this modern monster movie, a New England shore community is terrorized by shark attacks, and hires a salty shark expert to take care of the menace. The music alone is enough to trigger a panic attack. Generally recognized as the first "summer blockbuster" movie.
Jazz Singer, The 1927 1996 Special Effects
Drama 
Alan Crossland Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland  
This legendary "first talkie" is actually silent, except for a few sequences, notably Al Jolson’s rendition of "My Mammy," which he sings in blackface. The plot, such as it is, centers on Jolson going into show business against the wishes of his father, a cantor.

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K 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
King Kong 1933 1991 Science Fiction
Special Effects
Merian C. Cooper Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot  

This special effects extravaganza contains the must-see giant ape climbing the Empire State Building and then giving it all up for love.

"It was beauty killed the beast."

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L 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
Lion King, The 1994   Animated
Children
Produced by the Walt Disney Studios The voices of James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Robert Guillaume, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Madge Sinclair, Moira Kelly  
A lion cub raised to take his father’s place as King of the Jungle is sabotaged by his evil uncle, and lives in exile until he can resume his rightful place in the Circle of Life. With overtones of Hamlet everywhere, this animated feature is filled with memorable characters and award-winning music.
Little Big Man 1970   Drama 
History
Satire
Arthur Penn  Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Chief Dan George  

Jack Crabb, 121 years old, reminisces about his life as a young pioneer, among other things, and ultimately, as the only white survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn. Tragedy and comedy blend beautifully in this view that is different from most previous Westerns.

"It is a good day to die."

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M 

Title Year Registry Categories Director Stars Academy Awards
M 1931   Mystery
Suspense
(German)
Fritz Lang Peter Lorre  
This cinematically dazzling early talkie tells the tale of a psychotic child murderer finally brought to justice by the Berlin underworld. This is the film that brought Peter Lorre to the attention of Hollywood.
Maltese Falcon, The 1941 1989 Detective
Drama
John Huston Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor  
Anti-hero Sam Spade is a detective out to discover the murderer of his partner; he stumbles onto a complex plot to smuggle a valuable figurine into the country and becomes involved with a variety of unique characters involved in it.
Manchurian Candidate, The 1962 1994 Cold War
Suspense
Drama
John Frankenheimer Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh  
A tingling thriller filled with political paranoia about the aftermath of a Korean war hero’s decoration and his mother’s machinations to promote the career of her husband, a Joseph McCarthy-like senator.
Marty 1955 1994 Drama Delbert Mann Ernest Borgnine 4 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Borgnine)

In this low-key, moving film, a plain Bronx butcher doesn’t plan to find love, but does.

"What do you want to do tonight, Ange?"

Mary Poppins 1964   Children
Special Effects
Robert Stevenson Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke  5 including Best Actress (Andrews), Song (Chim-Chim-Cheree)

Charm, wit, music, and movie magic fill this adaptation of the classic book about a nanny who is "practically perfect in every way" and who brings profound change into the lives of the Banks family of London, circa 1910. This was Andrews’ film debut, and includes a cameo by Oscar-winner Jane Darwell in her last performance.

"Supercalilfragilisticexpealidocious!"

Midnight Cowboy 1969   Drama John Schlesinger Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight 3 including Best Picture, Best Director
An emotionally shattering dramatization of a young man from a small town who comes to New York City, becomes a male prostitute, and develops an unusual and deep friendship with seedy Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman in his second film). Rated X when originally released, it shows the seamier side of New York and of life, but is memorable for its characterizations of two losers who find hope in each other.
Mildred Pierce  1945   Drama
"Tearjerker"
Michael Curtiz Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden Best Actress (Crawford) 
A housewife turned waitress finds success in business but loses control of her ungrateful daughter, especially when they compete for the same man. Joan Crawford at her tough-as-nails best.
Miracle on 34th Street 1947   Children Comedy Fantasy
Christmas
George Seaton Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood, Edmund Gwenn Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Gwenn)
In this classic fable, Kris Kringle gets the job as Macy’s department store Santa, where he encounters a disbelieving child, and ultimately goes on trial to prove that he is the real Santa Claus.
Modern Times 1936 1989 Silent 
Comedy
Charles Chaplin Charlie Chaplin  
Chaplin’s attack on the machine age is his last silent film, and contains unforgettable scenes, one of which later appears as an homage in Woody Allen’s Sleeper.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington  1939 1989 Drama Frank Capra James Stewart, Claude Rains, Jean Arthur  
A young idealist finds nothing but corruption in the U.S. Senate. Stewart’s performance, especially his filibuster before the Senate, is memorable, and is supported by Jean Arthur as the hard-boiled dame who loves him. This is Frank Capra’s Americana at its finest.
Mrs. Miniver 1942   Drama
War
William Wyler Greer Garson, Teresa Wright 6 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Garson), Best Supporting Actress (Wright)
This is a moving drama about a middle-class English family learning to cope with the presence of World War II in their lives. This film did much to rally American support for the British war effort in the early days of the war.
Mutiny on the Bounty 1935   Adventure Drama  Frank Lloyd Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone  
First and best of three film adaptations of the classic book in which 18th century British sailors mutiny against a tyrannical captain on a voyage to the South Seas. Laughton as Captain Bligh is unforgettable.

"Mistah Christian!!!"

This was famously remade in the 1960s with Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard, and again in 1984 as The Bounty, with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins.

My Darling Clementine 1946   Western
Drama
John Ford Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan, Tim Holt  
This low-key western about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday leads to the inevitable gunfight at the O.K. Corral. This American classic is filled with wonderful details and was exquisitely photographed, and is considered one of director Ford’s finest works.

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