300 Greatest Films (chronologically and alphabetically ordered) ( - indicates Top 100 film, Italics indicates 201-300 film)

Pre-20's: The Birth Of A Nation (1915) Intolerance (1916) Broken Blossoms (1919) The 1920's: The Kid (1921) Greed (1924) Sherlock, Jr. (1924) The Thief of Bagdad (1924) The Big Parade (1925) The Freshman (1925) The Gold Rush (1925) The General (1927) The Jazz Singer (1927) Metropolis (1927) Sunrise (1927) The Crowd (1928) The Wind (1928) The 1930's: All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) Little Caesar (1930) City Lights (1931) Dracula (1931) Frankenstein (1931) The Public Enemy (1931) Freaks (1932) I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932) Trouble in Paradise (1932) Dinner at Eight (1933) Duck Soup (1933) Footlight Parade (1933) 42nd Street (1933) King Kong (1933) Queen Christina (1933) She Done Him Wrong (1933) Sons of the Desert (1933) It Happened One Night (1934) It's a Gift (1934) (tie) The Scarlet Empress (1934) The Thin Man (1934) Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The 1950's: (continued) Baby Doll (1956) Bus Stop (1956) The Killing (1956) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) The Searchers (1956) Written on the Wind (1956) The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) Jailhouse Rock (1957) Paths of Glory (1957) Sweet Smell of Success (1957) 12 Angry Men (1957) Witness For the Prosecution (1957) Touch Of Evil (1958) Vertigo (1958) Ben-Hur (1959) North By Northwest (1959) Some Like It Hot (1959) The 1960's: The Apartment (1960) Inherit the Wind (1960) Psycho (1960) Spartacus (1960) The Hustler (1961) Splendor in the Grass (1961) West Side Story (1961) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) The Manchurian Candidate (1962) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) The Birds (1963) Dr. Strangelove or: (1964) A Hard Day's Night (1964) My Fair Lady (1964) Repulsion (1965) The Sound of Music (1965) A Man For All Seasons (1966) Blow-Up (1966) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Bonnie And Clyde (1967) Cool Hand Luke (1967) The Graduate (1967)

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) A Night At The Opera (1935) The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) Top Hat (1935) Camille (1936) Dodsworth (1936) Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Modern Times (1936) My Man Godfrey (1936) Swing Time (1936) The Awful Truth (1937) Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937) Way Out West (1937) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) Bringing Up Baby (1938) Jezebel (1938) Pygmalion (1938) Dark Victory (1939) Gone With The Wind (1939) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Ninotchka (1939) Only Angels Have Wings (1939) Stagecoach (1939) The Wizard of Oz (1939) Wuthering Heights (1939) The 1940's: The Bank Dick (1940) (tie) Fantasia (1940) The Grapes of Wrath (1940) The Great Dictator (1940) His Girl Friday (1940) The Letter (1940) The Philadelphia Story (1940) Pinocchio (1940) Rebecca (1940) Citizen Kane (1941) How Green Was My Valley (1941) The Lady Eve (1941) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Sullivan's Travels (1941) Bambi (1942) Casablanca (1942) Cat People (1942) Kings Row (1942) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Now, Voyager (1942) The Palm Beach Story (1942) To Be or Not to Be (1942) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Cabin in the Sky (1943) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

In the Heat of the Night (1967) The Lion in Winter (1968) Night of the Living Dead (1968) Planet of the Apes (1968) The Producers (1968) Romeo and Juliet (1968) Rosemary's Baby (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Easy Rider (1969) Midnight Cowboy (1969) The Wild Bunch (1969) The 1970's: Five Easy Pieces (1970) M*A*S*H (1970) Patton (1970) A Clockwork Orange (1971) The French Connection (1971) The Last Picture Show (1971) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) Cabaret (1972) Deliverance (1972) The Godfather (1972) (tie) Last Tango in Paris (1972) American Graffiti (1973) Badlands (1973) Don't Look Now (1973) Enter the Dragon (1973) The Exorcist (1973) Mean Streets (1973) Sleeper (1973) Chinatown (1974) The Conversation (1974) The Godfather Part II (1974) (tie) Young Frankenstein (1974) Jaws (1975) The Man Who Would Be King (1975) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Nashville (1975) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Network (1976) Rocky (1976) Taxi Driver (1976) Annie Hall (1977) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Saturday Night Fever (1977) Star Wars (1977) (tie) Days of Heaven (1978) The Deer Hunter (1978) Halloween (1978) Alien (1979) Apocalypse Now (1979)

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) Double Indemnity (1944) Gaslight (1944) Henry V (1944) (tie) Laura (1944) Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) Murder, My Sweet (1944) To Have and Have Not (1944) The Lost Weekend (1945) Mildred Pierce (1945) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) The Big Sleep (1946) Brief Encounter (1946) It's A Wonderful Life (1946) The Killers (1946) My Darling Clementine (1946) Notorious (1946) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Stairway To Heaven (1946), aka A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Out Of The Past (1947) Key Largo (1948) The Lady From Shanghai (1948) Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) Red River (1948) The Red Shoes (1948) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Adam's Rib (1949) All the King's Men (1949) The Heiress (1949) The Third Man (1949) White Heat (1949) The 1950's: All About Eve (1950) The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Gun Crazy (1950) In a Lonely Place (1950) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Winchester '73 (1950) The African Queen (1951) An American In Paris (1951) A Place in the Sun (1951) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Strangers on a Train (1951) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) The Thing (From Another World) (1951) The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) High Noon (1952) The Quiet Man (1952) Singin' In The Rain (1952) The Big Heat (1953) From Here to Eternity (1953)

Being There (1979) Manhattan (1979) The 1980's: Airplane! (1980) The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (tie) Raging Bull (1980) The Shining (1980) Atlantic City (1981) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Blade Runner (1982) E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Poltergeist (1982) The Road Warrior (1982) Tootsie (1982) The King of Comedy (1983) Koyaanisqatsi (1983) Amadeus (1984) The Terminator (1984) This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Brazil (1985) Blue Velvet (1986) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Platoon (1986) A Room With a View (1986) Full Metal Jacket (1987) The Last Emperor (1987) Bull Durham (1988) A Fish Called Wanda (1988) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Do the Right Thing (1989) Field of Dreams (1989) Glory (1989) Henry V (1989) (tie) When Harry Met Sally... (1989) The 1990's: GoodFellas (1990) Beauty and the Beast (1991) JFK (1991) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Thelma & Louise (1991) The Crying Game (1992) Unforgiven (1992) Groundhog Day (1993) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) The Piano (1993) Schindler's List (1993) Pulp Fiction (1994) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Babe (1995)

Roman Holiday (1953) Shane (1953) On The Waterfront (1954) Rear Window (1954) A Star Is Born (1954) Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) East of Eden (1955) Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Marty (1955) The Night of the Hunter (1955) Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Toy Story (1995) (tie) The Usual Suspects (1995) Fargo (1996) L.A. Confidential (1997) Titanic (1997) Saving Private Ryan (1998) American Beauty (1999) The Matrix (1999) Toy Story 2 (1999) (tie)

http://www.filmsite.org/

100 Greatest Films (alphabetical) Part 1 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) The African Queen (1951) All About Eve (1950) All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) An American In Paris (1951) Chinatown (1974) Annie Hall (1977) Citizen Kane (1941) Apocalypse Now (1979) City Lights (1931) Ben-Hur (1959) The Crowd (1928) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) The Big Sleep (1946) The Birth Of A Nation (1915) Blade Runner (1982) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Double Indemnity (1944) The Gold Rush (1925) Gone With The Wind (1939) The Graduate (1967) The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Greed (1924) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) The Godfather (1972) (tie) The Godfather, Part II (1974) (tie) King Kong (1933) The Lady Eve (1941) The General (1927) Jaws (1975) The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) Bringing Up Baby (1938) Casablanca (1942)

Part 2 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
Bonnie And Clyde (1967) Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Part 3 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
Duck Soup (1933) E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Easy Rider (1969) Fantasia (1940) 42nd Street (1933)

Part 4 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
High Noon (1952) His Girl Friday (1940) Intolerance (1916) It Happened One Night (1934) It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Part 5 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Part 6 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Out Of The Past (1947)

Part 7 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
The Searchers (1956) Shane (1953) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Singin' In The Rain (1952) Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937) Some Like It Hot (1959)

Part 8 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column including a brief film summary and link to longer review)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) Top Hat (1935) Touch Of Evil (1958) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Trouble in Paradise (1932) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Modern Times (1936) My Darling Clementine (1946) Nashville (1975)

Paths of Glory (1957) The Philadelphia Story (1940) Psycho (1960) Pulp Fiction (1994) (coming soon)

A Night At The Opera (1935) The Quiet Man (1952) The Night of the Hunter (1955) Ninotchka (1939) North By Northwest (1959) Notorious (1946) On The Waterfront (1954) Red River (1948)

Stagecoach (1939) A Star Is Born (1954) Raging Bull (1980) Star Wars (1977) (tie) Rear Window (1954) Rebecca (1940) Rebel Without a Cause (1955) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Sunrise (1927) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Taxi Driver (1976) Roman Holiday (1953) The Third Man (1949) Schindler's List (1993)

Vertigo (1958) West Side Story (1961) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) The Wild Bunch (1969) The Wizard of Oz (1939) Wuthering Heights (1939) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

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 Sco re, 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 seventeenminute, 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 thei r 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 crosscutting, 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. B (continued) 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 bankrobbing 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 bulletriddled 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 intellig ence 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, muchloved, 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 recentlywidowed 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 cit y - a state of mind where the law is ineffectual. Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Picture, B est 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 (wit h 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 hon eymoon 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 highestgrossing 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 (drugdealers) 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 hijac ks 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: 14, including Best Actor--Clark Gable, Best Supporting Actress--Olivia de Havilland, Best Original Score (Max Steiner), Best Special Effects, Best Sound Recording. Academy Awards: 9, 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. 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 si lent 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 i n '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 beautyand-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 offendin g 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 includ ing 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 myste ry 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 ma king 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 joi ns 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), folksinging 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 stepchildren 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 ni ght 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 cliffhanger, 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 convicte d 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 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 (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. He 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 obviouslyimpenetrable 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 Societ y (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 lowlife 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. R

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 outof-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 selfmade, 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. S (continued) 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 Wick ed 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. Wit h 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 -inlaw 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, alienat ed, 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. T (continued)

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 corru ption, 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 D irector, 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 (Garlan d) 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/songwriter 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.

Another 100 Greatest Films (alphabetical) Part 1 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) Adam's Rib (1949) Alien (1979) American Graffiti (1973) The Apartment (1960) Cabaret (1972) The Asphalt Jungle (1950) The Awful Truth (1937) The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) Badlands (1973) The Conversation (1974) The Bank Dick (1940) (tie) Cool Hand Luke (1967) The Big Heat (1953) Days of Heaven (1978) The Big Parade (1925) Blue Velvet (1986) Brazil (1985) The Deer Hunter (1978) Dodsworth (1936) Don't Look Now (1973) Part 5 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Manhattan (1979) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) Mean Streets (1973) Metropolis (1927) Mildred Pierce (1945) Part 6 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) Now, Voyager (1942) Only Angels Have Wings (1939) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) Pinocchio (1940) A Place in the Sun (1951) Platoon (1986) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932) Shadow of a Doubt (1943) To Be or Not to Be (1942) She Done Him Wrong (1933) To Have and Have Not (1944) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Tootsie (1982) The Thin Man (1934) The 39 Steps (1935) Part 7 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) Romeo and Juliet (1968) A Room with a View (1986) Rosemary's Baby (1968) Part 8 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Swing Time (1936) The Terminator (1984) How Green Was My Valley (1941) The Hustler (1961) The Heiress (1949) Little Caesar (1930) The Lost Weekend (1945) Gun Crazy (1950) Laura (1944) Camille (1936) Cat People (1942) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Five Easy Pieces (1970) The Jazz Singer (1927) Frankenstein (1931) Jezebel (1938) The French Connection (1971) The Killers (1946) From Here to Eternity (1953) Kiss Me Deadly (1955) GoodFellas (1990) The Last Picture Show (1971) Fargo (1996) It's a Gift (1934) (tie) Part 2 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) Brief Encounter (1946) Broken Blossoms (1919) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Part 3 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) Dracula (1931) Part 4 (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, including a brief film summary and link to longer review) I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (tie) In a Lonely Place (1950) The Exorcist (1973) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Murder, My Sweet (1944) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) My Fair Lady (1964) My Man Godfrey (1936) Network (1976)

The Public Enemy (1931) Queen Christina (1933) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) The Red Shoes (1948)

Sons of the Desert (1933) The Sound of Music (1965) Splendor in the Grass (1961) Strangers on a Train (1951) Sullivan's Travels (1941)

12 Angry Men (1957) Unforgiven (1992) White Heat (1949) Winchester '73 (1950) Written on the Wind (1956)

A Adam's Rib (1949) Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne, Jean Hagen Director: George Cukor A great, sophisticated, battle-of-the-sexes comedy, one of Hollywood's greatest comedy classics, about husband-and-wife lawyers who take opposite sides of a court case, from a forward-looking screenplay with snappy dialogue by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin - the husband and wife's second collaboration with director George Cukor. Often rated as the best pairing of the nine films of the legendary screen t eam of Tracy and Hepburn - it was their sixth film together. The film was originally titled Man and Wife. Chauvinistic District Attorney Adam Bonner (Tracy) prosecutes a 'dumb blonde' Doris Attinger (Holliday in her debut role) for attempted murder. The bombshell vengefully shot and wounded her philandering, two-timing husband Warren (Ewell) with mistress Beryl (Hagen). His savvy wife Amanda Bonner (Hepburn) victoriously defends the woman with feminist, women's rights arguments, upsetting sexist double standards. At film's end, Adam conclusively admits the profound differences between males and females: Vive la difference. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Story and Screenplay. Alien (1979) Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright Director: Ridley Scott A grisly, futuristic, suspenseful, atmospheric, memorable and popular science fiction/horror film about the intergalactic journey of a claustrophobic, commercial space cargo freighter, the Nostromo. With terrific sets designed by surreal artist H. R. Giger. The crew includes warrant officer heroine Ripley (Weaver in her starring debut role), Kane (Hurt), Dallas (Skerritt), Ash (Holm) , and others, who are awakened from hypersleep to investigate a distress signal on a mysteriously bleak, dead planet with a crashed alien spacecraft. In its interior, a lifeform with tentacles clings to Kane's helmet/face, incubates inside his host body, and ultimately bursts from his gut. The hideous, indestructible, carnivorous creature grows in size and hides within the hyper-tech spacecraft, menacing and picking off one crew member after another until self-reliant, resourceful Ripley outsmarts the primal, lethal monster in the explosive conclusion. Followed by three sequels, including James Cameron's Aliens (1986), Alien3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. Academy Awards: 1, Best Visual Effects. American Graffiti (1973) Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Harrison Ford, Candy Clark, Paul Le Mat, Suzanne Somers Director: George Lucas In pre-Kennedy assassination America and in the pre-Vietnam War era, a time of innocence, this nostalgic, coming-of-age story features the songs of its era, in a classic sound-track provided by Wolfman Jack's Rock 'n' Roll radio show. Director George Lucas memorialized his own teenage years in Modesto, California in this episodic, idealized, low-budget tale of a bygone era with numerous subplots. On their final summer night after their Class of 1962 graduation, two clean-cut, college-bound California high schoolers Curt

(Dreyfuss) and Steve (Howard) - with girlfriend Laurie (Williams), cruise the streets of their N. California town in their hot rods, and eat at Mel's Diner. Other characters include hot-rodders John (Le Mat) and Falfa (Ford), nerdy Terry the Toad (Smith), pre-teen Carol (Phillips), a mysterious girl in a white T -Bird (Somers), and an experienced Debbie (Clark). Inspired the popular TV situation comedy Happy Days and helped position Lucas for his greatest film of all time - Star Wars. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress--Candy Clark, Best Original Story and Screenplay, Best Film Editing. The Apartment (1960) Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Jack Kruschen Director: Billy Wilder A classic, caustically-witty, satirically cynical, melodramatic comedy about corporate politics - and a bittersweet romance. In a bid to get ahead, an ambitious, lowly, misgui ded and young insurance clerk C. C. Baxter (Lemmon) generously lends out the keys to his NYC apartment to his company's higher-up, philandering executives for romantic, adulterous, extra-marital trysts, including to his callous married boss J. D. Sheldrake (MacMurray). Baxter's own budding crush toward his building's elevator operator melancholy, and vulnerable Fran Kubelik (MacLaine) turns ugly when he discovers he has been outsmarted - she is the latest conquest of his boss - and has attempted suicide in his apartment. Baxter's next-door, philosophizing doctor/neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Kruschen) convinces Baxter to confront the craven ethics of his superiors - and he wins the affections of Fran. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Actor--Jack Lemmon, Best Actress--Shirley MacLaine, Best Supporting Actor--Jack Kruschen, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Sound. Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Story and Screenplay, Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Film Editing. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Starring: Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, Marilyn Monroe Director: John Huston A classic noirish thriller, an adaptation based on a novel by W. R. Burnett, about a mastermind, aging, exconvict criminal Doc (Jaffe), who comes out of retirement (prison) for one last jewel robbery with an assemblage of underworld characters - Kentucky horse-farm loving Dix Handley (Hayden) with toughgirlfriend Doll (Hagen), and sleazy lawyer partner Alonzo Emmerich (Calhern) who plans to fence the jewels to support his expensive habits (e.g., an affair with seductive mistress Monroe - in a cameo role). The heist unravels quickly and everything falls apart when an alarm accidentally sounds and the safecracker is mortally wounded by a stray bullet. While Emmerich commits suicide, and others are either jailed or wounded, Doc's creepy voyeurism for a young girl dooms him during his escape. Dix reaches his childhood Kentucky farm but expires in a field surrounded by horses. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Supporting Actor--Sam Jaffe, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best B/W Cinematography. The Awful Truth (1937) Starring: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Joyce Compton, Alexander D'Arcy, Esther Dale Director: Leo McCarey A fast-paced, classic screwball romantic comedy of the 30's, starring Cary Grant and Iren e Dunne in their first on-screen pairing. Jerry and Lucy Warriner (Grant and Dunne), a married, high-society couple who are convinced of infidelities (based on misunderstandings and other ridiculous reasons), file for divorce and separate for six months after a custody battle for their dog (Asta of The Thin Man films). During the interim, they verbally spar, sabotage and ruin each others' new relationships and romances - with handsome voice teacher Armand Duvalle (D'Arcy) and mother-dominated, millionaire Oklahoma rancherhick Daniel Leeson (Bellamy), and singer Dixie Belle Lee (Compton). Before their divorce is finalized, they ultimately cannot resist each other and discover their mutual love. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Actre ss-Irene Dunne, Best Supporting Actor--Ralph Bellamy, Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 1, Best Director.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) Starring: Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Dick Powell, Gloria Grahame, Walter Pidgeon, Barry Sullivan Director: Vincente Minnelli A scathing melodrama and dark expose of sordid backstage Hollywood, with memorable performances by both Turner and Douglas. An ambitious, cruel, driven, amoral, egotistical producer Jonathan Shields (Douglas), begins as a maker of low-budget westerns and horror films. His manipulative and ruthless victimization of others is seen, in flashback, from the viewpoints of three former associates that he betrayed, double-crossed, and caused emotional pain - a star actress and ex-lover Georgia Lorrison (Turner), award-winning screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Powell) and his faithless, southern belle wife Rosemary (Grahame), and director Fred Amiel (Sullivan). Now that they have furthered their careers, they tell their stories to film studio executive Harry Pebbel (Pidgeon), who has been asked to convince the individuals to join the despised Shields on his next project - they all disown him and hope that he will fail. In the final scene, the three listen - with a phone to their ear - when the exiled Shields calls from Europe. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Actor--Kirk Douglas. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Supporting Actress--Gloria Grahame, Best Screenplay--Charles Schnee, Best B/W Cinematography, Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best B/W Costume Design. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) Starring: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan Director: John Sturges A suspenseful, powerful, 50's, Western-like drama, a mystery-thriller set in an isolated, southwestern desert town in 1945, and based on Howard Breslin's novel. A mysterious, one-armed veteran John J. MacReedy (Tracy) arrives in the tiny town of Black Rock by train, to fulfill a promise made to a Japanese -American soldier who died fighting in WW II. He searches for the whereabouts of the local Japanese-American father, Komoko, of his soldier/friend who saved his life, to bestow the deceased man's posthumously-presented medal of honor to the family - but encounters only a conspiracy of silence. His awkward questions cause the uneasy, hostile local inhabitants to confront their guilty consciences and threaten his life , led by menacing, sinister town boss Reno Smith (Ryan) and his henchmen - a racially-prejudiced Coley Trimble (Borgnine) and Hector David (Marvin). They retaliate with violence, putting his life at risk. Some town members, including a drunken sheriff (Jagger), a doctor (Brennan), and gal in town (Francis), become the stranger's allies. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Director, Best Actor--Spencer Tracy, Best Screenplay. Badlands (1973) Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates Director: Terrence Malick Inspired and based on the murder spree of a killing, loving couple, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, in the late 1950's in Nebraska and bordering states - a daring, directorial film debut for Terrence Malick. Social outcast and misfit, James Dean look-alike ex-garbage collector Kit Carruthers (Sheen) romances a naive, lackadaisical, starry-eyed, celebrity magazine-addicted 15 year old teenager Holly Sargis (Spacek) (who narrates the film in a deadpan tone), kills her disapproving father (Oates), and then embarks on a state-wide flight - and shocking, emotionally-apathetic and casual, homicidal binge - into the badlands of South Dakota and Montana. The disturbing, complex character study observes the twisted, strange actions of the couple as they are hunted down and apprehended. No Academy Award nominations. The Bank Dick (1940) (tie) Starring: W. C. Fields, Cora Witherspoon, Franklin Pangborn, Una Merkel, Grady Sutton, Shemp Howard Director: Eddie Cline One of the best comedies ever made - and the best of W. C. Fields' latter films - a witty, zany, madcap, rambling comedy classic written by Fields himself (under the pseudonym 'Mahatma Kane Jeeves'). In Lompoc, California, Fields stars as eccentric, henpecked, loafing, unemployed Egbert Sous (pronounced with a French accent as Soo-zay), a lush who 'directs' a low -budget film production, accidentally trips a bank robber, foils the bank robbery, and as the town's local hero is awarded the job of bank guard. On the job (when he isn't frequenting the Black Pussy Cat Cafe and downing stiff drinks from the bartender (Howard)), he manages to embezzle bank funds, under the watchful eye of bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington (Pangborn), to foolishly finance a boondoggle - a worthless mine operation, and he marries his daughter Myrtle (Merkel) to

a dimwitted Og Oggilby (Sutton). Concludes with one of the greatest chase sequences in film history - a funny, Mack Sennett-like cops/robbers chase. No Academy Award nominations. The Big Heat (1953) Starring: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin, Alexander Scourby, Jocelyn Brando Director: Fritz Lang A dark, very brutal and violent, classic, expressionistic film noir/melodrama and gangster film that explores the seamy underworld of American organized crime. Following the suicide of a guilt-stricken, supposedly-honest fellow cop, homicide Sgt. Dave Bannion (Ford) is determined to discover the truth. A car bomb meant for him accidentally kills his wife Katie (Brando). Suspended from duty on the force, he tenaciously avenges the mob's murder of his wife, confronting the city crime ring to uncover the truth. A hard-hitting showdown is destined with ruthless, meglomaniacal kingpin Mike Lagana (Scourby), aided by a sadistic, psychotic thug Vince Stone (Marvin). One of the film's most celebra ted scenes is the coffeescalding scene - an enraged Stone hurls his boiling coffee into the face of his moll girlfriend Debby Marsh (Grahame) - in retribution, she courageously aids Bannion's search for the culprits and returns the coffee-scalding favor to Vince. No Academy Award nominations. The Big Parade (1925) Starring: John Gilbert, Renee Adoree Director: King Vidor A still-powerful classic Great War, anti-war epic with compelling, realistic, brilliant ly-staged battle scenes -showing the virtually-unprotected front lines marching toward the enemy and getting picked off. This was the highest grossing silent film in its day. The film mixes grueling infantry action with bittersweet romance and a little comic relief. The war takes its toll as many of the men die or get seriously wounded. The emotion-filled story focuses on an American troop stationed in France with soldiers from different backgrounds. One American soldier (Gilbert) falls in love with a Fre nch woman (Adoree), and they are traumatically torn apart as the war carries them further apart. Blue Velvet (1986) Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Laura Dern Director: David Lynch A controversial, disturbing, off-beat cult film drama that explores the corrupt, malevolent under-side of small town, suburban Americana. Following the collapse of his father in a colorful opening sequence, a college boy Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan) returns to middle-class hometown Lumberton, where he finds a severed human ear in an overgrown vacant field. With the help of an innocent, sweet high school teenager Sandy Williams (Dern), he investigates the bizarre mystery of the ear, fi nding himself involved (and participating) in a frightening, nightmarish world of voyeurism, violent sex, perversion, drug addiction, and depraved degradation. He encounters nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini) (who repeatedly sings Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet") enslaved by her sadistic, demoniacal, obscenity-shouting, sexual tormentor and drug-dealer Frank Booth (Hopper), who psycho-sexually blackmails her while holding her husband and child hostage. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Director. Brazil (1985) Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Kim Greist Director: Terry Gilliam An offbeat, satirical ultra-dark comedy of an oppressive, alternative future, with visually-imaginative references to Kafka's The Trial, Orwell's 1984 and A Clockwork Orange. Mild-mannered and meek bureaucratic statistician Sam Lowry (Pryce), a civil servant Everyman works in the regulatory Ministry of Information (MOI), jammed w ith paperwork and filled with endless pneumatic tubes. When a literal beetle is squashed in an office teletype printer and causes a typographical error that alters an arrest record, it unjustly identifies an innocent citizen Mr. Buttle as suspected terrori st Harry Tuttle (De Niro). When Lowry investigates the case of mistaken identity and attempts to unravel it, he escapes to become a silver-winged hero in the clouds who rescues a dreamlike fantasy girl Jill Layton (Greist). A similar -looking female truck driver inspires him to win her love, but meanwhile, he has become the subject of study by the totalitarian regime. Academy Award Nominations: 2, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration.

B (continued) Brief Encounter (1946) Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard Director: David Lean Based on a Noel Coward play - a poignant, restrained British melodramatic romance, about two married strangers, Dr. Alec Harvey (Howard) and housewife Laura Jesson (Johnson), who have a chance meeting one Thursday on the platform of a train station. Their casual friendship soon turns into a romantic relationship and they fall in love. The romanticism of the film is enhanced by Rac hmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 musical score. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Director, Best Actress-Celia Johnson, Best Screenplay. Broken Blossoms (1919) Starring: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp Director: D.W. Griffith An early silent film, a classic melodrama, poignantly effective in its almost barren simplicity, with evocative cinematography by Billy Bitzer. A poor Chinese immigrant (Barthelmess) and abused teenager (Gish) in London's squalid, foggy Limehouse district form a fragile bond in this touching, moving silent classic. The gentle, pacifistic Chinaman struggles to free the woman he loves - an abused waifish girl living in the poor East End district of London, from her violent, drunken, prize-fighting father (Crisp). Even when the Chinese man shelters and hides her by dressing her up in Oriental costumes, his desire to help her proves useless in the face of her father's continued brutality. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Starring: Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Katharine Ross Director: George Roy Hill One of the most-popular, appealing, beguilingly star-driven, tragi-comedy Westerns ever made. About two charming, turn-of-the-century, train-robbing outlaws - with comedy, drama, action, a witty script, and two handsome leads. The romanticized buddy film is loosely based on real-life, legendary outlaws Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy) and Harry Longbaugh (The Sundance Kid) and the Hole in the Wall gang. The film's early 1900's anti-heroes are free-wheeling, non-chalant Butch (Newman) and sharpshooting Sundance (Redford), both with human fallible traits - their specialty is robbing trains, until they bungle their second attempt on the Union Pacific Express and are relentlessly pursued by authorities in a posse. With Sundance's beautiful, school-teacher lover Etta Place (Ross), they flee to Bolivia to seek further wealth. In the end, they are outnumbered and die in a blazing, hail of bullets, freeze-frame shootout, reminiscent of Bonnie and Clyde. Features the song "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" while Etta and Butch share a bicycle ride. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Cinematography, Best Song ("Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"), Best Original Score.

C Cabaret (1972) Starring: Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Michael York, Helmut Gr iem, Marisa Berenson, Fritz Wepper Director: Bob Fosse Set in a cabaret in sexually-charged, decadent, 1930s pre-war Berlin, one of the greatest musicals ever produced, adapted from the Kander-Ebb Broadway stage musical from John Van Druten's play (and movie) I Am a Camera, which, in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Young, bisexual Englishman Brian Roberts (York) becomes involved with free-spirited, promiscuous Kit Kat Klub singer and American expatriate Sally Bowles (Minnelli in her first singing role on-screen). Unbeknownst to her, he also shares her with wealthy German baron playboy/homosexual Maximilian von Heune (Griem). The seedy and sleazy Kit Kat Klub is presided over by a sinister, leering, androgynous emcee/master of ceremonies (Grey). After Sally's abortion and the end of her affair, she sings: "Life is a cabaret, old chum, only a cabaret..." The show 'must go on' night

after night as the monstrous Nazis come to power, anti-Jewish persecution and propaganda increases (the subplot of the love affair between Roberts' Jewish friends Fritz and Natalia) and the horror of war appears on the horizon. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: 8, including Best Director, Best Actress--Liza Minnelli, Best Supporting Actor--Joel Grey, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Adapted Song Score, Best Film Editing. Camille (1936) Starring: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Daniell Director: George Cukor An adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' play - a tragi-romantic film with the radiantly-luminous Greta Garbo in her most famous role as a doomed, star-crossed, dying French courtesan who falls in love with a young nobleman. Marguerite Gautier (Garbo) is a Parisian courtesan, supported by Baron de Varville (Daniell), but she falls in love with a naive, shallow gentleman Armand Duval (Taylor). When his concerned father (Barrymore) thwarts them and objects to their love affair, she selflessly renounces and sacrifices her own happiness and breaks off her relationship. In the film's finale, Armand returns to her deathbed where she is dying of tuberculosis - the camera lingers on her face as she dies in her lover's arms. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Actress--Greta Garbo. Cat People (1942) Starring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph Director: Jacques Tourneur One of the greatest, low-budget horror films, the first produced by the legendary Val Lewton, known for his haunting, understated, suggestive, psychologically-eerie films. A young, beautiful, Serbian-born immigrant bride Irena Dubrovna (Simon), a fashion sketch artist/dress designer living in NYC, marries American architect Oliver Reed (Smith). Unable to consummate the marriage, she is tormented by the fear of sexual frigidity and by the folklore belief that she suffers from an ancient, supernatural Balkan curse - whenever emotionally, passionately, or sexually aroused, she will be transformed into a lethally vicious black cat -panther. When he confides in his female co-worker Alice Moore (Randolph), Irena's jealousy is aroused and unseen - she stalks Alice through a foreboding Central Park and later at a darkened indoor swimming pool. A disbelieving clinical psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Conway) is unable to cure her and suffers a painful death. No Academy Award nominations. A Clockwork Orange (1971) Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee Director: Stanley Kubrick Provocatively adapted from the famous novel by Anthony Burgess. A glossy, stylish, graphically-violent, controversial, futuristic, science-fiction satire about the effects of crime and punishment (aversion therapy and brainwashing against violence) on a British teenaged punk. After a night of hooliganism with his vicious gang of droogs, including gang rapes and beatings, a sadistic Alex (McDowell) is captured. In a grim, unorthodox governmental experiment, he is re-programmed, through his love for Beethoven's music, to reject violence, but he is dehumanized in the process of being cured. Vengeance is revisited upon him by his former victims after he is released into the society. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Cary Guffey, Teri Garr Director: Steven Spielberg A science-fiction epic and adventure story about the mysteries of UFO and extra-terrestrial appearances. A Middle-American from Indiana Roy Neary (Dreyfuss), a utilities lineman, is confronted by a UFO on a deserted road at night as he investigates a power outage - a near-religious, life-transforming experience. Afterwards, he becomes obsessed with unexplained, mountainous shapes, and five musical notes. By piecing together clues, he is ultimately led to a rendezvous on Devils Tower in Wyoming with Jillian (Dillon), a mother whose young boy Barry (Guffey) was kidnapped by the aliens. There in the exhilarating climax, they witness an arriving spacecraft, the dazzling mother-ship, greeted by a top-secret scientific establishment led by Claude Lacombe (Truffaut). Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Supporting Actress-Melinda Dillon, Best Director, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Original Scor e, Best Film Editing, Best

Visual Effects. Academy Awards: 1: Best Cinematography. Also a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing. The Conversation (1974) Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford Director: Francis Ford Coppola A brilliant thriller and murder mystery that was made during the Watergate Era, and coming at the height of Coppola's fame for his two Godfather films. One of the best films of th e 70s. A professional, reclusive, alienated, and paranoid surveillance expert Harry Caul (Hackman), assisted by Stan (Cazale) is hired by the 'director' (Robert Duvall in a cameo) of an anonymous business, in a seemingly-routine job, to secretly wiretap the conversations of two employees - an unfaithful wife and her lover (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest). After repeatedly playing back the tape, he realizes that he has captured a terrifying conversation with clues about an impending tragedy - a death sentence. He feels compelled to intercede and circumvent fate with disastrous consequences. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound. Cool Hand Luke (1967) Starring: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Jo Van Fleet Director: Stuart Rosenberg Based on Donn Pearce's novel and one of the great prison-chain-gang films. A spirited, irreverent, social misfit Luke (Newman) is arrested for destroying parking meters and imprisoned in a tough Southern prison farm, commanded by a sadistic, prison officer Captain (Martin). After boxing with the chain -gang boss Dragline (Kennedy), he eventually becomes a hero to his fellow inmates, earning the title "Cool Hand Luke" because his will cannot be broken. A visit by Luke's dying mother (Van Fleet) reveals facts about his past. The stubborn, unruly and independent rebel refuses to submit and continually and cooly defies the authorities with repeated escape attempts. As the inmates start worshipping him as a folk hero, he risks everything in order to live up to their expectations, and is sacrificed in the tragic climax. With the memorab le line of dialogue: "What we have here is failure to communicate," and the classic egg-eating scene. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Actor--Paul Newman, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Music Score. Academy Awards: 1, Best Supporting Actor--George Kennedy.

D Days of Heaven (1978) Starring: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz Director: Terrence Malick Director Terrence Malick's second feature film, an original, lyrical and gorgeously -photographed work of art. A tragic, turn-of-the-century tale of a hot-headed Chicago steel worker (Gere) who flees to the wheat fields of the Texas Panhandle following the accidental murder of the mill foreman, with his lover girlfriend (Adams) and his younger 13 year-old sister (Manz) (who provides the film's raw commentary). He takes up itinerant work for the fall harvest with a wealthy and prosperous but terminally -ailing and lonely farmer (Shepard). When an unusual love triangle develops, the farm-hand pretends that his girlfriend is his sister and encourages her marriage to the farmer, hoping that they can escape from poverty. The plot includes a plague of locusts, fire, and the tragic consequences of greed and jealousy. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Score, Best Costume Design, Best Sound. Academy Awards: 1, Best Cinematography. The Deer Hunter (1978) Starring: Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep Director: Michael Cimino Michael Cimino's disturbing, emotionally powerful film about three friends who are forever changed by imprisonment during the Vietnam War. Michael (De Niro), Nick (Walken), and Steven (Savage) are three close buddies from the steel mill town of Pittsburgh who hang out in bars and hunt deer. Steven is getting married while Michael and Nick compete over the affections of Linda (Streep). Their lives are turned

upside down when they are drafted into the airbourne infantry to fight in Vietnam, and are soon captured by the enemy. There, among other things, they are forced to endure a game of Russian Roulette in the P.O.W. camp. Michael and Steven manage to escape and return home, but each of their lives are forever changed by the experience. Cimino's second film, he'd previously made a name for himself with Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974), a cult crime caper starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges as the titular characters. However, his career was destroyed by the disastrous epic Heaven's Gate (1980), and would make only five more films to date. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Actor--Robert De Niro, Best Supporting Actress--Meryl Streep, Best Cinematography--Vilmos Zsigmond, Best Original Screenplay. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Christopher Walken, Best Director--Michael Cimino, Best Film Editing, Best Sound. Dodsworth (1936) Starring: Walter Huston, David Niven, Mary Astor, Maria Ouspenskaya, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Gregory Gaye Director: William Wyler A bittersweet, intelligent drama - a film adaptation from Sinclair Lewis's 1929 novel of the same name, about the disintegration of a troubled marriage during a European trip. Following his retirement, a retired, reserved, self-made, wealthy auto tycoon and manufacturer Samuel Dodsworth (Huston) travels to Europe with wife Fran (Chatterton). His vain, pampered, selfish and shallow wife, unwilling to confront her middle-age, is seduced by the aristocratic, charming lifestyle she finds there, and flirts with and en ters into affairs with British officer Lockert (Niven) and an international adventurer/banker Arnold Iselin (Paul Lukas). As their marriage fails, she asks for a divorce so that she can marry an impoverished, mother-dominated Austrian nobleman Kurt von Obersdorf (Gaye), but the man's mother (Ouspenskaya) blocks their marriage. Fran returns to her husband, unremorseful and none the wiser. Sam turns disconsolate until discovering love - he finally abandons his shrewish wife for a kind, young widow Edith Cortright (Astor) whom he met on the Queen Mary. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Walter Huston, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress--Maria Ouspenskaya, Best Sound Recording. Academy Awards: Best Interior Decoration. Don't Look Now (1973) Starring: Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie Director: Nicolas Roeg Based on a short story by Daphne De Maurier - a supernatural, mysterious, eerie, psychological thriller about a British couple in Venice. Following the tragic, accidental drowning of their daughter, John and Laura Baxter (Sutherland and Christie) travel to Venice where he works on restoring a church, still shattered and haunted by their child's death. In the off-season resort, they meet two elderly sisters, Wendy and Heather, one of whom is blind but claims to be psychic. She insists that, in visions, she sees the spirit of the Baxters' red-coated daughter, and possesses a message of warning from the dead child. While John is skeptical and resistant, he catches a flashing glimpse of a red-raincoated child darting around a dark street corner alley - and he sees Laura and the sisters on a funeral gondola drifting down a Venetian canal. No Academy Award nominations. D (continued) Dracula (1931) Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan Director: Tod Browning The classic horror film, the first screen version of Bram Stoker's famous tale, that launched Bela Lugo si's career in his most famous role as the Transylvanian, blood-sucking vampire. Begins with a masterful twenty minutes, in the Carpathian Mountains at Count Dracula's castle, and Dracula's lugubrious introduction: "I...am...Dracula." British real -estate salesman Renfield (Frye) arrives at the dark castle to arrange for the sale of an English manor house to Count Dracula (Lugosi). Renfield becomes Dracula's demented slave as they return to London, where Dracula is smitten by Mina Seward (Chandler), but is fought off by vampire-hunter Van Helsing (Van Sloan). Followed by the sequel Dracula's Daughter. No Academy Award nominations.

E The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (tie) Starring: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams Director: Irvin Kershner The second in the famous Star Wars trilogy of fantastic science-fiction films, often rated as the best in the trilogy, with stunning special-effects, great characters and a rich, comic-bookish storyline. Again, evil Darth Vader continues to aid the Emperor to determinedly crush the Rebel forces. The Rebel Alliance, on the frozen and icy planet Hoth, are threatened by troops attacking from the Galactic Empire, and space jockey Han Solo (Ford) and Princess Leia Organa (Fisher) - with the Wookie Chewbacca and the two robotic droids (R2-D2 and C-3PO) - flee to Cloud City ruled by supposed-ally Lando Calrissian (Williams). Meanwhile, young Luke Skywalker (Hamill) is mentored about the wise ways of the Force and Jedi Knights by the last great Jedi Master, a gnome-like, swamp-dwelling Yoda on the planet Dagobah. The film culminates with a climactic show -down between Luke and Darth Vader. Followed by Return of the Jedi (1983). Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Original Score. Academy Awards: 1, including Best Sound. Also a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects. The Exorcist (1973) Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow Director: William Friedkin A disturbing, shocking, exploitative, and frightening film adaptation of William Peter Blatty's best -selling, blockbuster book about satanic demon possession. A sweet pre-teenaged girl Regan (Blair) becomes possessed by an evil spirit - and is soon transformed and disfigured into a head-rotating, levitating, green vomit-spewing, obscenity-shouting creature. Her divorced mother Mrs. MacNeil (Burstyn) is at wit's end, until she calls on a dedicated, faith-questioning Jesuit priest Father Karras (Miller) to exorcise the malevolent devil from her daughter's body. An elderly priest Father Merrin (von Sydow), whose archaeology project released the Satanic being, also risks his life to administer rites of exorcism with incantations and holy water. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Actress--Ellen Burstyn, Best Supporting Actor--Jason Miller, Best Supporting Actress--Linda Blair, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound.

F Fargo (1996) Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy Director: Joel Coen An offbeat, clever, kidnap whodunit-caper and black comedy, a tale of greed and crime, involving a financially-stricken Midwestern car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) who ineptly schemes to kidnap his own wife Jean (Kristin Rudrid). When his hired henchmen Carl and Gaear (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) botch the kidnapping, their murderous plan is persistently investigated by Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), the pregnant police chief of Brainerd, Minnesota. Academy Award nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography (Roger Deakins), Best Director, Best Supporting Actor -William H. Macy. Academy Awards: 2, Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Original Screenplay (Ethan and Joel Coen).

Five Easy Pieces (1970) Starring: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Sally Struthers Director: Bob Rafelson An existential, off-beat road movie and character study of classical concert pianist-turned-oil rigger who must reluctantly return home. A talented musician-pianist Robert Dupea (Nicholson) abandons his privileged, wellto-do family background, becoming the black sheep of his family as a crass, drifting, redneck, rough, beerdrinking oil worker in Southern California. After a period of twenty years, he confronts his past when he returns home to Washington State (Puget Sound) to his artistic, upper-class family and his dying father's deathbed, accompanied by his adoring but clinging, dim-witted, pregnant girlfriend Rayette (Black). With the most-famous scene in the road-side restaurant when he orders a chicken-salad sandwich from a stubborn, strict waitress. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Jack Nicholson, Best Supporting Actress--Karen Black, Best Adapted Screenplay. Frankenstein (1931) Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Dwight Frye Director: James Whale The classic horror film, adapted from Mary Shelley's famous 1818 novel, from the great director James Whale. With his hunchbacked, twitchy assistant Fritz (Frye), fanatical mad scientist Dr. Frankenstein (Clive) steals bodies from graves to assemble a creature - a mute, lumbering, flat-headed and browed Monster (Karloff) with visible facial scars, bolts in his neck and sunken eyes. Frankenstein shouts: "It's alive! Alive!" during the fantastic creation scene in his castle, when the hulking body comes alive with electricity harnassed from lightning. The revived, childlike brute with a criminal brain is misunderstood, and while playfully tossing flowers into a lake heaves in an innocent eight-year-old girl - who he imagines as another flower - to her drowning death. No Academy Award nominations. The French Connection (1971) Starring: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzufi Director: William Friedkin An action-packed, intense, gritty crime thriller filmed on location and based on a true story, starring two hard-nosed, vulgar New York City police cops who expose an international, heroin-smuggling operation based in Marseilles - headed by suave, elusive, mastermind crime boss Alain Charnier (Rey). Passionate, tough, pushy, and unorthodox narcotics detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) recklessly and obsessively fights crime with partner Buddy Russo (Scheider). With the breath-taking, famous elevatedrailway scene of Doyle fearlessly chasing a runaway train - with Charnier's henchman Pierre Nicoli (Bozzufi) in a borrowed car while narrowly dodging traffic and bystanders. A sequel four years later chased Charnier to Marseilles. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Supporting Actor--Roy Scheider, Best Cinematography, Best Sound. Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor--Gene Hackman, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing. From Here to Eternity (1953) Starring: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine Director: Fred Zinnemann Based on James Jones' best-selling, hard-hitting novel of on-duty/off-duty military life among recruits in the pre-Pearl Harbor era of 1941 - on the eve of WWII. A combination romance, combat and melodramatic film set at the Schofield Barracks Army base on Oahu. Sensitive bugler Pvt. Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt (Clift) is dealt harsh treatment when he stubbornly refuses to fight for the company's boxing team. The bored company commander's wife Karen Holmes (Kerr) engages in a torrid affair with the good-guy Sgt. Milton Warden (Lancaster) - their embrace in the pounding surf is indelibly imprinted in cinematic history. Pruitt falls in love with a nightclub "hostess" (prostitute) Alma (Lorene) (Reed). M eanwhile, Prew's Italian friend Angelo Maggio (Sinatra) is tormented by sadistic stockade Sgt. "Fatso" Judson (Borgnine). Academy Award Nominations: 13, including Best Actor--Montgomery Clift, Best Actor--Burt Lancaster, Best Actress--Deborah Kerr, Best Dramatic Score, Best B/W Costume Design. Academy Awards: 8, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Frank Sinatra, Best Supporting Actress--Donna Reed, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Sound Recording, Best Film Editing.

G GoodFellas (1990) Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco Director: Martin Scorsese Based on Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction book Wiseguys - a definitive and stylish, violent gangster fil m, with a soundtrack that chronicles the passage of time through three decades of crime (the 50s to the 70s) in the life of a mid-level, aspiring mobster Henry Hill (Liotta). Raised on the streets of a Brooklyn neighborhood, he marries Karen (Bracco) and slowly advances up and climbs the Mafioso ladder. With superb performances by Joe Pesci as meanly psychotic wiseguy Tommy DeVito, and Robert DeNiro as paranoid James Conway. In the end as his life unravels, after dealing narcotics and becoming hooked, Hill protects himself and his wife by testifying and becoming part of the federal witness protection program - and being left in anonymous, suburbanized exile. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress--Lorraine Bracco, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 1, Best Supporting Actor--Joe Pesci. Gun Crazy (1950) Starring: Peggy Cummins, John Dall Director: Joseph H. Lewis A cult, noirish love-on-the-run tale based on MacKinlay Kantor's story, pre Bonnie and Clyde, about a reckless couple fatally attracted to their firearms - and each other. One of the best B films ever made. After serving in the Army, gun-loving Bert Tare (Dall) meets trick sharp-shooter femme fatale Annie Laurie Starr (Cummins), portraying Annie Oakley in a Wild West carnival side -show - they are perfect companions. The two wild, amoral lovers marry - when financially strapped, they turn to a series of exciting cross-country robberies. One unnerving sequence is shot non-stop from a camera planted in the back seat of their getaway car. Their amour fou ultimately leads to their tragic end in a foggy swamp, brought down by their violent, jarring, reckless natures. No Academy Award nominations.

H The Heiress (1949) Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins Director: William Wyler A great romantic drama based on Henry James' 1881 novella Washington Square, with an icy musical score from Aaron Copland. In 19th century New York City, a plain, repressed, shy and virginal 'heiress' daughter Catherine Sloper (de Havilland) of a wealthy, arrogant, imperiously abusive, and domineering, widowed, patriarchal physician Dr. Sloper (Richardson) becomes a spinster, after her young, first love toward a handsome, but penniless, mysterious suitor and mercenary, scheming fortune hunter Morris Townsend (Clift) is thwarted by her stern, tyrannically-selfish father, who denies the bride-to-be her inheritance. Pitifully, she is jilted on the night of their elopement. Over many years, her anger is suppressed and simmers, and surfaces when insincere scoundrel Townsend returns and again asks for her hand in marriage. With rational, cold, controlled rage, she turns the tables on him in the final, chilling scene. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor--Ralph Richardson, Best B/W Cinematography. Academy Awards: Best Actress--Olivia de Havilland, Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Dramatic Score, Best B/W Costume Design.

How Green Was My Valley (1941) Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood, Roddy McDowall Director: John Ford A compelling, classic, heart-wrenching drama of a Welsh coal-mining family over a fifty-year period, adapted from a story by Richard Llewellyn. Told in voice-over narration and flashback as intelligent and sensitive 10 year-old Huw Morgan (McDowall) nostalgically looks back on a bygone way of life. Huw is the youngest of seven children (six sons and one beautiful daughter Angharad (O'Hara)) in the Morgan family, led by elderly Mr. and Mrs. Morgan (Crisp and Allgood). Tensions in the family grow at the beginning of the 20th century, during periods of labor unrest and workers' strike. When stern Mr. Morgan resentfully refuses to join a miners' union, calling it "socialist nonsense," the family is split and the older brothers depart for a boarding house. Among other crises and losses that devastate the community, Angharad's romantic love for the local preacher Mr. Gruffydd (Pidgeon) is ultimately thwarted. The film concludes with Huw's understanding of the vanished old way of life. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Supporting Actress--Sara Allgood, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Recording, Best Dramatic Score, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Donald Crisp, Best Director, Best B/W Cinematography, Best B/W Interior Decoration. The Hustler (1961) Starring: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott Director: Robert Rossen A dramatic, realistic character study based on Walter Tevis' novel. A young, arrogantly-cocky, anti-hero, pool-hall hustler, "Fast Eddie" Felson (Newman), challenges acclaimed, cool, professional Minnesota Fats (Gleason) in Ames Billiards Room in New York City. T he naive, talented, and ultimately self-destructive challenger loses. Defeated and self-pitying, he meets and falls in love with another loner - alcoholic, desperate, waifish cripple Sarah Packard (Laurie) - whom he ultimately forsakes. He attracts the attention of slimy, calculating, venal, and repulsive promoter Bert Gordon (Scott). With financial backing from the pimpish entrepreneur, Felson struggles to get back on top - at a great cost to his own selfesteem and soul. Reprised twenty-five years later, with Paul Newman as an older, wiser Eddie Felson in director Martin Scorsese's Color of Money. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Paul Newman, Best Actress--Piper Laurie, Best Supporting Actor--Jackie Gleason, Best Supporting Actor--George C. Scott, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: 2, including Best B/W Cinematography, Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration. I I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) Starring: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Edward Ellis, Hale Hamilton Director: Mervyn LeRoy A graphic portrayal of post-WWI chain gang conditions - in the first of Warner Bros.' social conscience films. A discontented veteran-drifter (Muni) finds unemployment after the war. He is wrongly convicted after a diner robbery, and imprisoned in a Southern (state not specified) prison farm at hard labor for ten years under inhumane conditions. He escapes in a thrilling sequence, assumes an alias in Chicago, and becomes a well-respected bridge construction engineer, until his blackmailing, gold-digging landlady (Farrell) forces him into marriage. Based upon the real-life story of Robert E. Burns and his best-selling autobiographical book. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Actor--Paul Muni, Best Sound, Best Picture. In a Lonely Place (1950) Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame Director: Nicholas Ray A mature, bleak and dramatic 1950 film noir from maverick director Nicholas Ray - from a complex script by Andrew Solt. World-weary, acerbic, self-destructive, hot-tempered, depression-plagued Hollywood screenwriter and laconic anti-hero Dixon Steele (Bogart), while planning to adapt a trashy best-selling romance novel, becomes the prime suspect in a murder case of a night-club hat-check girl Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart). After he invites her to his apartment to discuss the book that he hasn't read, she is found brutally murdered the next morning. His romantic relationship with a lovely neighbor/wouldbe starlet Laurel Gray (Grahame) in the housing complex grows stronger when she confirms his alibi, but ultimately is put to the test as she becomes increasingly suspicious of his disintegrating self. No Academy Award Nominations.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Starring: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter Director: Don Siegel An allegorical, intensely paranoid, chilling science-fiction parable of alien possession, based on Collier's Magazine's serialized story The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney - one of the greatest low-budget 50's films that can be interpreted as philosophical commentary upon the spread of McCarthyism or Communism. Set in the idyllic small town of Santa Mira, California and told in f lashback. Physician Dr. Miles Bennell (McCarthy) begins to become paranoid and suspicious when his patients report that their loved ones, friends, and relatives are not themselves but emotionless shells, replicas, or imposters. Actually, the town is being surreptitiously invaded by strange, alien plant forms called 'pods,' that take over or replicate the likenesses, personalities and identities of human beings while they sleep. Miles and old girlfriend (now recently divorced) Becky Driscoll (Wynter) fight to stay awake and battle the changes that may overtake them. When they flee to escape a similar fate and are chased into an abandoned mine shaft, Becky momentarily falls asleep - and her unresponsive kiss is revelatory. As the last 'human' being, he hysterically screams warnings while running down the middle of a highway, reaching the refuge of a hospital in San Francisco. No Academy Award nominations. It's a Gift (1934) (tie) Starring: W. C. Fields, Jean Rouveral, Kathleen Howard, Charles Sellon, Tommy Bupp Director: Norman Z. McLeod One of W. C. Fields' earlier comic masterpieces - starring Fields as a victim of small-town family life in a series of vignettes. Harold Bissonette - pronounced 'Bee-soh-nay' - (Fields) endures hardships at home in Wappingers Falls, New York with his shrewish, status-conscious wife (Howard), and selfish children daughter Mildred (Rouveral) and young son Norman (Bupp). To escape his travails, he dreams of a California orange ranch he has purchased with an inheritance. At work, as the fumbling proprietor of a grocery store, where blind and hard-of-hearing Mr. Muckle (Sellon) crashes through his front door, he anxiously helps customers. Attempting to sleep on his outer porch, he is tormented by a noisy milkman, a grape-throwing baby (Baby Dunk) on a higher level, an annoying insurance salesman looking for Carl LaFong, a rolling cocoanut, and a broken chain on his porch swing. Finally, the family packs up and travels westward, picnicking on (and littering) the lawn of a private estate along the way, and finding that the California orange grove is a ramshackle house on an unproductive lot. The film ends with Harold's dream of the 'good life' intact. No Academy Award nominations.

J The Jazz Singer (1927) Starring: Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer Director: Alan Crosland Legendary, revolutionary film, known as the first sound motion picture - literally, the first feature film to utilize Synchronous Sound. In actuality, it was a part-talkie with only a few musical sequences and one adlibbed, conversational sequence. With Al Jolson in his film debut. Precipitating a split with his cantor father (Oland) and mother (Besserer), young Jewish son Jakie Rabinowitz (Jolson) leaves his home, takes a new name - Jack Robin - and enters show business as a Broadway singer of popular/secular music. When his father falls ill on Yom Kippur, Jakie takes his father's place in the sy nagogue and performs the Kol Nidre. Contains the classic line: "You ain't heard nothin' yet!" Tunes include "My Mammy," "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face," "Toot, Toot, Tootsie Goodbye" and "Blue Skies." Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Adapted Writing, Best Engineering Effects. Special Award to "Warner Bros., for producing...the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry."

Jezebel (1938) Starring: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Fay Bainter, Margaret Lindsay Director: William Wyler Set in the mid-1800s New Orleans, a stylish, classic romantic melodrama about a headstrong, flamboyant Southern belle. To arouse the jealousy of her beau Preston Dillard (Fonda), willful, spiteful, tem pestuous Julie Marsden (Davis) thoughtlessly and selfishly insists on wearing a scarlet red gown (rather than a virginal white one customarily worn by unmarried women) to the Olympus Ball - a major social function, defying social customs. She disgraces herself and is jilted by her embarrassed fiancee, who returns to Julie's plantation a year later. Without knowing that her estranged man has brought his new Yankee wife Amy (Lindsay), she surrenders to him. In further scheming, she rebounds and marries Southern gentleman Buck Cantrell (Brent), who dies in a duel unintentionally caused by her. Later, when Pres contracts deadly 'yellow jack' (yellow fever), she heroically redeems and atones for her transgressions by pleading with Amy to nurse his illness during the epidemic. In the final scene, she rides off with him in a wagon to certain death. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Score. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Actress--Bette Davis, Best Supporting Actress--Fay Bainter.

K The Killers (1946) Starring: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Sam Levene, Albert Dekker, Charles McGraw, William Conrad Director: Robert Siodmak A classic, definitive film noir, from a short story by Ernest Hemingway, told in eleven taut flashbacks after a bravura opening murder sequence. Two hit men Al (McGraw) and Max (Conrad) enter a greasy-spoon diner in Brentwood New Jersey, asking the manager about Ole 'Swede' Andersen (Lancaster, in his film debut) - a gas station attendant. The doomed 'Swede' (an ex-boxer), who has been hiding in town under an alias for six years, is warned in a nearby boardinghouse. Indifferent, he expects their arrival and calmly, passively awaits their deadly approach. Insurance investigator Jim Reardon (O'Brien) pieces together and unravels the plot and reconstructs the life of the victim through interviews and detective work. He discovers a complex tale of crime and treacherous betrayal - all revolving around a beautifully-glamorous, mysterious, double-crossing femme fatale Kitty Collins (Gardner) - who sings "The More I Know of Love." Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Dramatic Score, Best Film Editing. Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Starring: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Maxine Cooper, Gaby Rodgers, Cloris Leachman Director: Robert Aldrich A paranoid, suspenseful, noirish, melodramatic crime film brimming with apocalyptic, Cold War paranoia. Based on Mickey Spillane's pulp fiction novel. The nihilistic film opens on a dark night when flashy, sleazy, hard-hitting private eye Mike Hammer (Meeker) picks up an almost-naked, barefoot, trenchcoat-wearing hitchhiker Christina (Leachman), who is panting heavily and running down the highway. Villainous thugs force them off the road and gruesomely torture the mysterious girl to death (semi off-screen) as the detective lies semi-conscious. During his own brutal, pursuit of the criminals, recalling her haunting words "Remember me," Hammer - with the help of his limber secretary Velda (Cooper) who frames men for infidelity - pursues the trail to a strange young lady named Lily (Rodgers), the key to an atomic, 'glowing' box containing the Great Whatsit, and a sinister conspirator Dr. Soberin (Dekker). In the controversial, fiery melt -down climax at Soberin's beach hideout, Lily greedily opens the Pandora's Box, releasing the deadly secret and incinerating herself, as a wounded Hammer frees the kidnapped Velda and stumbles with her into the cooling ocean waters. No Academy Award nominations.

The Last Picture Show (1971) Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Ellen Burstyn, Clu Gulager Director: Peter Bogdanovich Based on the novel by Larry McMurtry. A bleak, black and white cinematic modern-day classic, set in the small, northwestern (fictional) Texas town of Anarene in the period between the end of World War II and the Korean War in the early 50s. A poignant, coming-of-age tale of the loss of innocence for teenagers in the slowly-dying town, symbolized by the closing of the local picture palace, owned by Sam the Lion (Johnson). The story is about a pair of HS football players, seniors Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) - who has an affair with the lonely football-basketball coach's wife Ruth Popper (Leachman), and Duane Jackson (Bridges) - who dates the sexy, self-centered, spoiled student beauty Jacy Farrow (Shepherd in her film debut) and enlists after being dumped. Other desperate townsfolk are also having affairs - Jacy's loose mother Lois (Burstyn) with oilfield worker Abilene (Gulager). Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--Jeff Bridges, Best Supporting Actress--Ellen Burstyn, Best Cinematography. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Supporting Actor--Ben Johnson, Best Supporting Actress--Cloris Leachman. Laura (1944) Starring: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson Director: Otto Preminger Based on the novel by Vera Caspary. A great murder-mystery film noir, about the supposed murder of the beautiful title heroine, ad executive femme fatale Laura Hunt (Tierney), with a shotgun blast to the face. The film opens with voice-over narration by acidic, cynical newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (Webb), Laura's patron/mentor: "I shall never forget the weekend Laura died..." In the course of his investigation, police detective/necrophiliac Mark McPherson (Andrews) obsessively falls in love with the dead woman - through her painted portrait. Suspects in the murder include ne'er-do-well Kentuckian playboy Shelby Carpenter (Price), Lydecker, Laura's middle-aged aunt Anne Treadwell (Anderson) - and Laura herself! Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Supporting Actor--Clifton Webb, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best B/W Interior Decoration. Academy Awards: 1, Best B/W Cinematography. Little Caesar (1930) Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Glenda Farrell, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ralph Ince, Thomas Jackson Director: Mervyn LeRoy A landmark, classic gangster/crime film - an adaptation of W. R. Burnett's novel about the rise and fall of an ambitious mobster in the underworld. Small-time hood Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello (Robinson), ugly, viciously cruel, and ruthless - is modeled after 1920s gangster Al Capone. After a night-time robbery of a gas station, Rico moves to the city to advance from "just another mug" to being a big-shot - with his nightclub dancer friend Joe Massara (Fairbanks, Jr.). Joe's girlfriend Olga Strassoff (Farrell) pressures him to turn on his gangster pal. Rico thwarts other rival gang leaders, challenges crime boss Pete Montana (Ince), and opposes efforts of Sgt. Flaherty (Jackson), but meets his fate behind a billboard sign, crying out: "Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?" Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Adapted Writing. The Lost Weekend (1945) Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva Director: Billy Wilder Based on Charles Jackson's 1944 novel by co-screenwriters Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder and filmed in NYC. A classic, melodramatic, realistically -grim and uncompromising "social-problem" film of the 1940s, about the controversial subject of alcoholism, told partially in flashback. Rather than join his brother Wick (Terry) on a weekend outing to the country, talented New York aspiring novel writer Don Birnam (Milland) - a chronic alcoholic with writer's block - spends a 'lost weekend' on a wild, self-destructive drinking binge. Eluding his persistently supportive girlfriend Helen St. James (Wyman), he desperately trudges down Third Avenue on Yom Kippur attempting to find an open pawnshop to hock his own typewriter for another drink. In Bellevue Hospital's alcohol detoxification ward, he awakens to shrieking inmates suffering the DT's, and in his apartment experiences hallucinations of a mouse attacked by a bat. He narrowly avoids committing suicide in the 'optimistic' ending. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Film Editing, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Dramatic Score. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Ray Milland, Best Adapted Screenplay.

M The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver Director: John Frankenheimer Based on Richard Condon's novel, and adapted by George Axelrod. A complex, realistic depiction of brainwashing in a frightening, satirical psychological thriller. An American platoon fighting in the Korean War is captured and brainwashed by Communist North Koreans in Manchuria. Upon their return to the US, one of the veterans Major Bennett Marco (Sinatra) is haunted by recurring nightmares about their frightening incarceration. He slowly realizes that fellow hero and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Harvey), controlled and manipulated by his spy-agent "Queen of Diamonds" ambitious mother (Lansbury) (the wife of right-wing, McCarthyite demagogue Senator John Iselin (Gregory)), is behind the sinister plot to assassinate political enemies. The mind-controlled operative Shaw murders his own wife Jocie (Parrish) and his father-inlaw, liberal Senator Thomas Jordon (McGiver). In the tense climax, Marco uncovers the programmed killer's fiendish plans to assassinate the presidential nominee. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actress--Angela Lansbury. Manhattan (1979) Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy, Karen Ludwig, Anne Byrne Director: Woody Allen A mature, B/W, tragi-romantic comedy enhanced by a George Gershwin score about infidelity, romances and relationships set in Allen's beloved urban NYC and within a group of intellectual Manhattanites. Neurotic TV comedy writer Isaac Davis (Allen) turns from comedy to serious novels, and lives wi th an sweet, innocent, high-school-aged drama student Tracy (Hemingway), 25 years younger than he is. His lesbian, divorced ex-wife Jill (Streep), who is writing an expose about their marriage/divorce (entitled Marriage, Divorce, and Selfhood), lives with Connie (Ludwig). Davis meets Mary Wilke (Keaton), the pseudo-intellectual mistress of his guilt-torn best friend Yale (Murphy) - who is married to Emily (Byrne). Initially, he disapproves of the extra-marital affair and Mary's personality but then becomes attracted and fascinated by her and begins his own affair with her. In a soda fountain, he must confess his affair to a tearful Tracy. Academy Award Nominations: 2, Best Supporting Actress--Mariel Hemingway, Best Original Screenplay. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Starring: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin Director: John Ford Another B/W Ford film about the passing of the Old West, one of the master's last westerns. In 1910, respected but timid Senator Ransom Stoddard (Stewart) from the East journeys westward by train with his wife Hallie (Miles) and returns to the city of Shinbone to attend the funeral of his old friend Tom Doniphon (Wayne). Told in flashback to a local newspaper editor, he remembers his life and career in the wild town and how he was reputedly known as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." As an eastern law school graduate, he set up a law practice and had to contend with outlaw Liberty Valance (Marvin). Idealistic Ransom (called "Pilgrim") is contrasted to the rugged cowboy frontiersman Doniphon, and accorded fame and credit for taming the West and civilizing the town, but it was Doniphon who killed tyrannical outlaw Liberty Valance (Marvin). Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best B/W Costume Design. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) Starring: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie Director: Robert Altman A classic, dark-toned, moody anti-Western from iconoclastic and offbeat director Altman, based on the novel McCabe by Edmund Naughton. At the turn of the century, a mysterious, roguish, small-time, frontier drifter/gambler John McCabe (Beatty) opens up a brothel/casino in the great northern, wintry wilderness settlement of Presbyterian Church - a grimy, lamp-lit and shoddy mining town. Amiable braggart McCabe has entrepreneurish ambitions and partners with opium-smoking, British whorehouse madame Constance Miller (Christie) who helps to stabilize the operation and make it a successful enterprise. McCabe refuses to sell out to a

corporation, leaving him vulnerable to hired bounty hunters who track him down in the tragic finale. With great cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Actress--Julie Christie. Mean Streets (1973) Starring: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, Amy Robinson, David Proval, Richard Romanus, Cesare Danova Director: Martin Scorsese Scorsese's third full-length film with energizing early 60s rock 'n' roll - a low-budget, semiautobiographical, realistic tale about four struggling, small-time hoods in New York's Little Italy trying to establish themselves. Tony (Proval) owns the neighborhood bar, and Michael (Romanus) makes deals and rips off naive teenagers from Brooklyn. Ambitious punk Charlie Calla (Keitel) befriends violent Johnny Boy (De Niro), who irrespo nsibly and recklessly incurs gambling debts and becomes dangerously obligated to a loan shark. Charlie's uncle Giovanni (Danova) is the local Mafia boss and grooming his nephew for 'respectable' gang life by having him collect for a protection racket. Uncl ear and confused about his life's direction and loyalties, Charlie wrestles with his devout Catholic guilt, the temptations of the Mafia, and his feelings for Teresa (Robinson), Johnny Boy's epileptic sister. No Academy Award nominations. Metropolis (1927) Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge Director: Fritz Lang A stylized, visually-compelling, melodramatic silent film set in the 21st century city of Metropolis - Lang's German Expressionistic masterpiece helped develop the science-fiction genre. The luxurious, futuristic city of skyscrapers and bridges is stratified and divided into an upper, elite, privileged class and a subterranean, nameless, oppressed, ant-like worker/slave class. Freder (Frohlich), the young son of a ruling, aristocratic capitalist Master Joh Fredersen (Abel), discovers the miserable life of the proletariat when he notices a beautiful young woman Maria (Helm) with a group of worker children and pursues her into the squalid, labyrinthine underground slums. The wistful, Christ-like young woman urges her comrades to peacefully await their salvation. After discovering their meeting, Freder's father instructs mad scientist Rotwang (Klein-Rogge) to create an evil robotic Maria look-alike that will manipulate the workers, preach rebellion, and cause their elimination. The false Maria goes beserk and incites the workers to revolt, causing a cataclysmic flood. Freder and the real rescued Maria lead the worker children out of danger, and Joh Fredersen is convinced to reconcile with the workers - Capital and Labor united in Love. Mildred Pierce (1945) Starring: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott, Bruce Bennett Director: Michael Curtiz One of the best melodramatic, 'women's pictures' and film noir classics of the 1940s - and Joan Crawford's comeback film. Adapted from James M. Cain's novel. Begins with the murder of Monte Beragon (Scott) in a beach house. Suspect Mildred Pierce (Crawford) is interrogated by police for the killing of her second husband. In flashback, housewife Mildred is divorced from her husband Bert (Bennett). The hardworking, dowdy woman obsessively dotes on her two daughters, especially rotten, spoiled elder daughter Veda (Blyth), so she is forced to become a waitress. Through determination and will-power, she opens up a small restaurant, develops it into a successful chain, receives assistance from realtor/rebuffed beau Wally Fay (Carson), and marries socially-prominent playboy Monte Beragon. The petulant, selfishlyungrateful Veda romances her own step-father behind the restaurateur's long-suffering back. The murder mystery concludes with a resolution to the question - who murdered Monte? Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress--Eve Arden, Best Supporting Actress--Ann Blyth, Best B/W Cinematography. Academy Awards: 1, Best Actress--Joan Crawford.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Starring: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander Director: Frank Capra Capra's populist romantic screwball comedy based on Opera Hat, a Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Budington Kelland. Mandrake Falls, Vermont greeting-card poetry-writing, tuba-playing rube Longfellow Deeds (Cooper) inherits $20 million from his wealthy NYC uncle, but eccentrically decides to be philanthropic and give it to Depression-Era needy. A hot-shot news reporter Babe Bennett (Arthur) poses as an out-of-work stenographer to get close to him for a story - calling him "The Cinderella Man." She falls in love, defending him when he is declared insane and goes to trial, and is accused of being 'pixilated.' Eventually, he defends himself and is acquitted by the judge: "...you are not only sane but you're the sanest man that ever walked into this courtroom." Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Gary Cooper, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Recording. Academy Awards: 1, Best Director. Murder, My Sweet (1944) Starring: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Mike Mazurki, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Douglas Walton Director: Edward Dmytryk Original release titled Farewell, My Lovely - the second screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's second novel of the same name, a 1940 hard-boiled tale that was a superb, complex, shadowy film noir of murder, corruption, blackmail, double-cross and double identity, with witty dialogue and cynical voiceover narration. The film opens in wartime Los Angeles, where tough yet vulnerable, blindfolded/bandaged gumshoe detective Philip Marlowe (played by 30s musical crooner Powell in a dramatic role switch) is grilled under a bright light by police interrogators. In flashback, he te lls a convoluted, bewildering tale. He was hired by recently-released, brutish, urgent ex-con Moose Malloy (Mazurki) to search for his missing ex-girlfriend/lover Velma Valento (Trevor) who sold him out eight years earlier. And then he was also commissioned as a bodyguard to accompany an effeminate gigolo Lindsay Marriott (Walton) (associated with underworld Jules Amthor (Kruger)) during a ransom payoff for stolen jewels. When Marriott is killed and Marlowe is blackjacked unconscious ("a black pool opened up"), he becomes the prime suspect for the murder. Millionaire's daughter Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley) reveals her interest in the case, which brings Marlowe for a visit to the Grayle mansion in Brentwood where he meets Mr. Grayle (Miles Mander) and his much younger wife Helen (Trevor again). During his investigation, Marlowe is drugged and experiences drug-induced hallucinations and nightmares ("a crazy, coked-up dream") when pursued through a series of identical doors by a man with a giant hypodermic needle (filled with truth serum), after being roughed up by master-crook Jules Amthor (Otto Kruger). Amthor is a blackmailer, involved in setting up rich women as targets for Marriott. The owner of the jewels - mysterious, flirtatious and slinky Helen Grayle, also hires the detective to locate the stolen jade necklace (which she later reveals is not actually stolen). Marlowe navigates through a perilous world, becoming further entangled with and threatened by despicable high- and low-class criminals. The final showdown occurs at the Grayles' beach house, where Helen is killed by her husband. [The final shoot-out revealed that mysterious, flirtatious, gold-digging double-identity Mrs. Helen Grayle - also known as Velma Valento, had set up numerous individuals over the theft of jade jewelry, and was indeed a murderous femme fatale.] Both Moose and Mr. Grayle also shoot and kill each other. (It is also revealed that Moose had murdered Amthor). A witness to all the killings, Ann Grayle is able to clear temporarily-blinded Marlowe of all charges - and accompanies him home in the back seat of a taxi - where they share a kiss. No Academy Award nominations. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) Starring: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Dudley Digges Director: Frank Lloyd The oft-filmed (1962 and 1984), classic adventure tale of the famous, historical 1788 British naval vessel the HMS Bounty and its mutiny on the high seas. Based on Nordhoff and Hall's novel. Partially film ed on location in Tahiti. One of MGM's glossiest and biggest box-office successes. On a journey from Portsmouth, England to Tahiti to procure breadfruit trees, the crew suffers under the merciless chastisements of the tyrannically cruel and mean Captain William Bligh (Laughton). After an idyllic interlude on the exotic island, where the crew romances native women, the crew on the return voyage rebels under the courageous, noble leadership of First Mate Fletcher Christian (Gable) following the Captain's brutal insistence that the ship's elderly doctor Bacchus (Digges) come topside to witness the flogging of five crew members. The despicable Captain is set adrift in an open lifeboat with no sail, compass or food, for an amazing 4,000 mile voyage to safety. In the final scene, Roger Byam (Tone) is brought to trial. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including three Best Actors (Gable, Laughton, and Tone), Best Director, Best Screenplay,

Best Film Editing, and Best Score. Academy Awards: 1, Best Picture. My Fair Lady (1964) Starring: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Theodore Bikel Director: George Cukor One of the best and most popular musicals of all-time, from Lerner and Loewe - based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion. Arrogant, fastidious, linguistics Professor Henry Higgins (Harrison repeating his Tony Award-winning performance on Broadway) wagers fellow linguist Colonel Hugh Pickering (HydeWhite) that he can transform a Cockney flower-selling, street urchin Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn) - a 'guttersnipe' - into a proper lady with prescribed diction/elocution lessons. The irrepressible 'guttersnipe' is scrubbed, dressed, and tutored, in time to attend the Ascot races and a society ball. In the end, he reluctantly falls in love with Eliza. Includes songs "On the Street Where You Live," "Get Me to the Church on Time," and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Academy Award Nominations: 12, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--Stanley Holloway, Best Supporting Actress--Gladys Cooper, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor -Rex Harrison, Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Score, Best Color Costume Design. My Man Godfrey (1936) Starring: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Mischa Auer, Gail Patrick Director: Gregory La Cava A great, classic, madcap screwball comedy from the 30s, based on the story 1101 Park Avenue by Eric Hatch. Two spoiled daughters of the wealthy but dysfunctional, zany Bullock family, sultry, scheming Cornelia (Patrick) and younger, endearing nit-wit Irene (Lombard) search for a "forgotten man" during a high-society scavenger hunt. They discover dishevelled tramp Godfrey Parke (Powell) in the city dump, and ultimately the down-and-out man is hired to be the Manhattan family's butler. His high -minded, decent, suave sophistication is contrasted to the antics of concerned father Alexander (Pallette), his dizzy wife Angelica (Brady) and her proteg Carlo (Auer). A mysterious man, Godfrey's real identity (and wealth) is finally revealed after he transforms and teaches the confused family about life, money, and happiness and wins Irene's love. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Director, Best Actor--William Powell, Best Actress--Carole Lombard, Best Supporting Actress--Alice Brady, Best Supporting Actor--Mischa Auer, Best Screenplay.

N Network (1976) Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Beatrice Straight, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty Director: Sidney Lumet A prophetic, explosive, provocative satire from screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky about the medium of network television and its abusive, self-prostituting quest for ratings. Chief UBS TV (a fourth-rated fictional broadcasting system) veteran news anchorman Howard Beale (Finch) is driven insane when told that he will be fired after twenty-five years because of low ratings. On the air, the beserk newsman tells his audience that he will committ suicide during his final live broadcast. A ratings -mad, cold-blooded, ambitious programming VP Diana Christensen (Dunaway) exploits the furor when ratings zoom. Messianic hero and cult celebrity Beale continues to report the news and evangelistically urges his viewers to go to their windows and yell: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" The craggy, dissenting head of the news division Max Schumacher (Holden) is fired, as the network is overtaken by a multinational conglomerate and alliances are made with urban guerrilla terrorists for programming ideas. Married Schumacher, in a mid -life crisis, has a May-December affair with Diana and leaves his wife (Straight). Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--William Holden, Best Supporting Actor--Ned Beatty, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Actor--Peter Finch (awarded post-humously), Best Actress--Faye Dunaway, Best Supporting Actress--Beatrice Straight, Best Original Screenplay.

N (continued) Now, Voyager (1942) Starring: Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville, Janis Wilson Director: Irving Rapper From the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty and enhanced by Max Steiner's score. A classic soap-operaish, melodramatic tearjerker from Hollywood's Golden Era. Repressed, middle-aged, frumpy, 'ugly duckling' spinster Charlotte Vale (Davis), from a wealthy Boston family, is controlled by her domineering, unloving mother (Cooper). During counseling at a sanitarium with a kindly, esteemed psychotherapist Dr. Jaquith (Rains), the frightened, frustrated, introverted woman is restored and transformed into a chic, more attractive, self-confident person. During a suggested South American cruise, she meets a handsome, suave unhappily-married architect Jerry Durrance (Henreid) and finds love through a bittersweet shipboard affair and a befriending of his shy and troubled, withdrawn daughter Tina (Wilson). Concludes with the famous line: "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars" as the two share a cigarette smo ke. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Actress--Bette Davis, Best Supporting Actress--Gladys Cooper. Academy Awards: 1, Best Dramatic Score.

O Only Angels Have Wings (1939) Starring: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell Director: Howard Hawks A classic Hawksian, entertaining adventure/action film - with romance - set in Barranca, South America. About a group of mail pilots who fly treacherous routes from Ecuador to Peru over mountain passes in the fogged-in Andes Mountains. Stoic, cool, all-business Geoff Carter (Grant) leads a group of dare-devil aviators that hazardously transport air freight, with their headquarters in a saloon. Stranded, smarttalking, blonde showgirl Bonnie Lee (Arthur) falls for Carter, but he initially ignores her advances. Disgraced pilot Bat 'MacPherson' Kilgallen (Barthelmess) is married to Carter's glamorous ex -lover Judy MacPherson (Hayworth). He remains guilt-ridden and under a cloud of cowardice after causing the death, years earlier, of the brother of another tough, elderly pilot Kid Dabb (Mitchell). Needing a replacement pilot, Carter is forced to hire the discredited Bat who wants to redeem himself. Carter's close friend Kid Dabb volunteers to fly a dangerous mission and is killed. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including B/W Cinematography, Best Special Effects. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) Starring: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Harry Morgan, Anthony Quinn, Francis Ford, Frank Conroy Director: William A. Wellman From the novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark - a grim study of mob rule based on a true story. In 1885 Nevada, two drifter-cowboys Gil Carter (Fonda) and Art Croft (Morgan) ride into the town of Bridger's Wells. A report that a local rancher has been shot by rustlers gathers a frenzied, angry lynch mob to dispense vigilante frontier justice. The posse is led by sadistic ex-Confederate officer Major Tetley (Conroy). Three tired homesteaders Donald Martin, Juan Martines, and a senile old man (Andrews, Quinn, and Ford) are confronted as the rustlers with circumstantial evidence and lynched by the hysterical mob without a trial - despite the objections of Carter and Croft. In a final poignant scene, after the suspected victims have been declared blameless, Carter reads Martin's farewell letter to his family. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Picture.

Pinocchio (1940) Starring: Christian Rub (voice of Geppetto), Cliff Edwards (voice of Jiminy Cricket), Walter Catlett (voice of J. Worthington Foulfellow), Dickie Jones (voice of Pinocchio), Evelyn Venable (voice of the Blue Fairy) Director: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske The second full-length animated feature classic from Walt Disney Studios - about a wooden puppet who yearns to be a real boy. Based on a story written by Carlo Collodi in the 1800's. Beautifully drawn with technically-superior animation and memorable characterizations - Geppetto the kindly woodcarver, Figaro the cat, Cleo the goldfish, Stromboli the puppeteer, Monstro the whale, the Blue Fairy, Lampwick - and obviously Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio. The carver's creation - a puppet boy, is turned into a fleshand-blood boy, with the stipulation that he must be brave, unselfish, and learn right from wrong in order to earn real life. The boy is accompanied by his conscience, Jiminy Cricket for his adventures. Pinocchio is tempted by a conniving fox J. Worthington Foulfellow, exploited by a puppet master Stromboli, and sent to Pleasure Island (where naughty boys are turned into donkeys) for truly terrifying experiences and a daring rescue from the belly of a monstrous whale. Includes Jiminy Cricket singing the future Disney theme song "When You Wish Upon a Star." Academy Award Nominations: 2. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Original Score, Best Song ("When You Wish Upon a Star"). A Place in the Sun (1951) Starring: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters Director: George Stevens An adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy - a star-crossed melodramatic romance. Low-born, ambitious George Eastman (Clift) hitches a ride to his distant uncle's place, where he is given an assembly-line bathing-suit factory job. The poor boy is entranced and infatuated by the snobbish, beautiful, well-bred rich girl Angela Vickers (Taylor) and they fall in starry-eyed love, but he also dates and impregnates poor, lower-class co-worker Alice Tripp (Winters). On Labor Day weekend at the Vickers' lakeside home, during a rowboat ride with Alice on a lake, George contemplates and wills (if not actually commits) the murder of his fiancee when she accidentally falls in and drowns - he falls from his 'place in the sun' when convicted and executed. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture, Best Actor-Montgomery Clift, Best Actress--Shelley Winters. Academy Awards: 6, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Dramatic Score, Best Film Editing, Best B/W Costume Design. Platoon (1986) Starring: Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger Director: Oliver Stone A harrowing, visceral, realistic, visually -shattering Vietnam-war film, based on the writer/director's own first-hand knowledge as a Vietnam combat soldier. Young, naive, 19 year-old enlisted infantry soldier Chris (Sheen) serves in Vietnam in a fragmented, schizoid, rifle platoon/troop under two radically different, veteran officers: pot-smoking, compassionate Sgt. Elias (Dafoe) and boozing, fierce Sgt. Barnes (Berenger). In the violence of combat, the two 'good' and 'bad' sergeants clash, forcing Chris to examine his own loyalty and perspective toward violence. The first film in Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy, followed by Born of the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven and Earth (1993). Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Supporting Actor--Tom Berenger, Best Supporting Actor--Willem Dafoe, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Film Editing. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Starring: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway Director: Tay Garnett An adaptation of James M. Cain's torrid crime melodrama - one of the best film noirs. Handsome drifter Frank Chambers (Garfield) is hired at the California roadside Twin Oaks diner/restaurant as a handyman by kindly, middle-aged proprietor Nick Smith (Kellaway) after one look at his sizzling, lustfully hot (and unhappy), platinum-blonde waitress wife Cora (Turner). The slow-burning fuse of sexual passion between Frank and Cora leads to their plot to 'accidentally' kill her husband. After the murderous couple's plot is executed following a failed first attempt, they betray each other and are undone by their own uncontrollable, calculating natures, even as Cora admits before her death in an automobile crash: "When we get home, Frank, then there'll be kisses, kisses with dreams in them. Kisses that come from life, not death." No Academy Award nominations.

The Public Enemy (1931) Starring: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Mae Clarke, Edward Woods, Leslie Fenton, Donald Cook Director: William A. Wellman A definitive, brutal gangster film from the early 1930s with James Cagney's effective portrayal of the rise and fall of a prohibition-era criminal. Two young punks who grew up on the South Side of Chicago - Tom Powers (Cagney) and Matt Doyle (Woods) - move from petty crimes to armed robbery and bootlegging. They lead violent and lethal lives, slap their blonde girlfriends around, and retaliate against rival hoodlums. (The film is most notable for its scene in which Tom pushes his breakfast g rapefruit into the face of his moll girlfriend Kitty (Clarke).) They become associates of mobster Nails Nathan (Fenton), self destructively engage in gang warfares, and Tom takes a new girlfriend Gwen Allen (Harlow). The final image of the delivery of Tom's 'mummified' bullet-ridden body at his estranged family's door is bone-chilling. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Original Story.

Q Queen Christina (1933) Starring: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert Director: Rouben Mamoulian A screen biography of the legendary 17th century Queen of Sweden Christina (Garbo), from the directorial master Mamoulian. After rejecting an arranged marriage for political advantage, the Queen fatefully meets newly-appointed Spanish ambassador Don Antonio De la Prada (Gilbert) during a horseback ride. To be incognito, she disguises herself as a man and visits with him in a snowbound country inn. During a night in his shared room in a gorgeously photographed sequence, she reveals her disguise and the two become passionate, clandestine lovers. Later, she officially receives him in her court, and in a shocking move, she relinquishes and abdicates herself from the throne for her love. Concludes with the famous closeup of Garbo's face at the bow of the boat as she faces her destiny. No Academy Award nominations.

R Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen Director: Steven Spielberg Spielberg's thrilling, entertaining homage to 1930's cliff-hanging adventure serials/films at Saturday matinees. One of the greatest action films ever made - led to a trilogy. Mid-1930s, pre-WWII comicbookish, globe-trotting, bull-whip toting adventurer/archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones (Ford) searches for rare antiquities. The film's opening sequence is a white-knuckled experience in a South American rainforest and cave with poisonous darts and a threatening boulder. In a race with the Nazis, dashing Dr. Jones is enlisted to locate the Biblical Ark of the Covenant before the evil agents of Hitler use its powers to win the war. From Nepal to Cairo, the self -effacing hero is aided by tough, hard-drinking, spunky and feisty ex-girlfriend Marion Ravenwood (Allen), as he escapes one life-threatening situation, fight, scrape, and chase after another - especially venomous snakes and the mysterious wrath of God in its finale. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects. Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing.

The Red Shoes (1948) Starring: Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, Leonide Massine, Albert Basserman, Robert Helpmann Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger An exquisite musical tragedy, taken from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the same name. An ambitious young English ballerina (Shearer) is made a star by mentor impresario (Walbrook) of the Lermontov Ballet Company. But she is soon torn between the struggling composer (Goring) who can offer nothing but his love and the obsessed impresario who can further her dancing career. Includes a wonderful 15-minute balletic performance. From the masterful directing/producing team of Powell and Pressburger, and filmed in breathtaking, gorgeous Technicolor. Academy Award nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Story (Pressburger). Academy Awards: 2, Best Art Direction, Best Score. R (continued) Romeo and Juliet (1968) Starring: Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, Milo O'Shea, Michael York, Paul Hardwicke, John McEnery, Pat Heywood, Laurence Olivier (narrator) Director: Franco Zefferelli The classic and immortal Shakespearean tale of forbidden, tragic, and star-crossed love. Adapted in this modern and realistic version by Zefferelli for the first time with two teenaged leads as the youthful, innocent, strong-willed lovers Romeo (Leonard Whiting) and Juliet (Olivia Hussey). Their warring families, the bitterly -hateful Montagues and Capulets, doom their tender romance, with a first-time-ever scene of the nude couple on their wedding night. In gorgeous Technicolor, shot on location in Italy and enhanced by a memorable soundtrack from Nino Rota. Academy Award nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director. Academy Awards: 2, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design. A Room With A View (1986) Starring: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands, Daniel Day -Lewis, Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Rosemary Leach, Rupert Graves, Patrick Godfrey Director: James Ivory Producer: Ismail Ivory A delightful comedy of errors tale of repressed Victorian romance and British conceit, adapted from E.M. Forster's novel. A proper Edwardian young girl (Carter) with her elderly, guilt -ridden spinster chaperone/cousin (Smith) take a tourist holiday in Italy. There, she meets a free-spirited suitor (Sands), but is whisked back to Surrey, England when romance develops. Back home, she is engaged to a prissy, dispassionate, self-possessed, intellectual gentleman (Day-Lewis). When she is reunited with the charming young man from Florence, she must make a defiant decision regarding her marital plans. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Denholm Elliott, Best Supporting Actress--Maggie Smith. Academy Awards: 3, Best Adapted Screenplay (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala), Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design. Rosemary's Baby (1968) Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer Director: Roman Polanski Polanski's first American film, from I ra Levin's best-seller - a convincing, creepy, psychological, Satanist horror/thriller about a young pregnant wife who suspects and has strange premonitions about diabolical forces (a witches' coven) threatening her unborn baby. Young newlywed couple Rosemary (Farrow) and aspiring, out-of-work actor/husband Guy Woodhouse (Cassavetes) move into a gothic NYC apartment complex, with intrusive, elderly next-door neighbors Roman (Blackmer) and nosy Minnie Castevet (Gordon). With a fertile imagination, Rosemary gradually believes that she hasn't been impregnated by her husband but by the Devil. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: 1, Best Supporting Actress--Ruth Gordon.

S Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932) Starring: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft Director: Howard Hawks A landmark, classic crime-gangster film (one of the earliest) personally produced by Howard Hughes about a brutal, homicidal hood during Prohibition. Although the film was made before The Public Enemy and Little Caesar, it was released after them due to censorship concerns and squabbling between the director and producer - with an attached subtitle: The Shame of the Nation. Its violence delayed its release and helped contribute to the creation of the Production Code shortly thereafter in 1934. Notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone's nickname is the title of the film that traces the rise and fall of Antonio (Tony) Camonte (Muni), a maniac, reptilian killer who murders without hesitation on his way to the top, with the aid of right-hand, coin-flipping thug Guino Rinaldo (Raft). Tony also has an ambiguous, almost incestuous relationship with his beautiful, slinky sister Cesca (Dvorak). Originally made with two endings, Hawks' original finale, and the Hays Office ending. No Academy Award nominations. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Starring: Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Patricia Collinge, Henry Travers Director: Alfred Hitchcock Reportedly Hitchcock's own personal favorite, a chilling mystery thriller from Thornton Wilder's co-written script, based on the real-life 1920s serial killer - the Merry Widow - who cold-bloodedly murders wealthy widows for their jewels. Charming Uncle Charlie (Cotten), a psychotic murderer, returns to his sma ll hometown in Santa Rosa, California for an extended visit with his sister Emma Newton (Collinge) and her family, including her mystery-buff husband Joseph (Travers) and namesake daughter Charlie (Wright). Young Charlie has wished for change and excitement in her boring life, and is psychically linked to her favorite uncle - and then she slowly begins to intuitively suspect that her beloved relative is a wanted mass murderer, through clues including a newspaper article and an engraved ring stolen from a woman he murdered. And when Uncle Charlie comes to recognize her suspicions... Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Original Story. She Done Him Wrong (1933) Starring: Mae West, Cary Grant, Noah Beery, Sr. Director: Lowell Sherman Liberated Mae West's first starring film based on her infamous 1928 Broadway stage play Diamond Lil. She stars as buxom, bawdy, double-entrendre-spouting Lady Lou, a diamond-jeweled saloon chanteuse, the 'sweetheart' of owner Gus Jordan (Beery) in the Naughty Gay '90s Bowery region. Handsome Captain Cummings/"Hawk" (Grant), a detective poses as a Salvation Army missionary crusader while investigating a corrupt, white slavery and counterfeiting ring in the saloon. Includes West's singing of "Frankie and Johnny," "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone," and "I Like a Man What Takes His Time," and her most famous line of dialogue: "Why don't you come up sometime 'n see me? I'm home every evening." Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Picture. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Brooke Smith Director: Jonathan Demme Ted Tally's screenplay was based on Thomas Harris' 1988 best-selling novel of the same name (an earlier thriller, Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986), was based on another Harris novel - titled Red Dragon). A genuinely-frightening, violent, psychological thriller about the intimate exchanges between a deranged, hypnotic serial killer and a raw, vulnerable FBI trainee. Novice agent Clarice Starling (Foster) is sent by senior agent Jack Crawford (Glenn) to conduct an interview with an insane, psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Hopkins), housed in a claustrophobic, underground prison cell. In exchange for her haunting, deepest secrets and memories about her childhood and the slaughter of lambs, she is supplied with clues about the identity and methods of another serial killer Jame Gumb, dubbed Buffalo Bill (Levine), who skins his victims and is currently holding victim Catherine Martin (Smith) - the daughter of a US Senator. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Sound, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress--Jodie Foster, Best Actor--Anthony Hopkins, Best Adapted Screenplay.

Sons of the Desert (1933) Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch, Dorothy Christy Director: William A. Seiter A classic, hilarious comedy - the funniest full-length feature from Laurel and Hardy. The two boys Stan Laurel (Himself) and Oliver Hardy (Himself) deviously plan to fool their wives by claiming to have gone on a prescribed ocean voyage to Hawaii (to cure Ollie's ill ness), while instead attending the national convention of their fellow Sons of the Desert lodge members in Chicago, with mad-cap conventioneer Charley Chase (Himself). Their plan fails miserably when the ship is reported sunk, and Mrs. Hardy (Busch) and Mrs. Laurel (Christy) discover the truth, viewing their husbands in the fraternal parade in a movie newsreel. In revenge, the two wives plot to test their exposed mates. No Academy Award nominations. The Sound of Music (1965) Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Peggy Wood Director: Robert Wise Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical and the true story of the von Trapp family - a lovely film with a mixture of comedy, romance, and suspense - and a wonderful collection of musical tunes. Restless novice postulant Maria at the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, Austria, first pictured daydreaming on the hillside surrounded by the beautiful Alps, is persuaded by the Reverend Mother (Wood) to take a governess position for the motherless, singing family of stern widower Captain von Trapp (Plummer), who is engaged to Baroness Schrder (Parker). The seven children include: 16 year-old Liesl (Charmain Carr), 14 year-old Friedrich (Nicholas Hammond), 13 year-old Louisa (Heather Menzies), 11 year-old Kurt (Duane Chase), 10 year-old Brigitta (Angela Cartwright), almost 7 year-old Marta (Debbie Turner), and 5 year-old Gretl (Kym Karath). The children have a well-deserved reputation for scaring off caretakers, but Maria wins them over, and falls in love with her employer, amidst the ominous Nazi occupation. Includes the songs: "Maria," "The Sound of Music," "My Favorite Things," "You Are Sixteen, Going On Seventeen," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," "Do-Re-Mi," and "Edelweiss." Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Actress--Julie Andrews, Best Supporting Actress--Peggy Wood, Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Color Costume Design. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Adapted Score, Best Film Editing. Splendor in the Grass (1961) Starring: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Audrey Christie, Pat Hingle, Zohra Lampert, Jan Norris Director: Elia Kazan A tragic, coming-of-age melodrama set in the mid-1920s in a small, rural Kansas town, from playwright William Inge's original, award-winning script. Star-crossed, teenaged sweethearts, poor HS senior Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis (Wood) and rich Bud Stamper (Beatty in his film debut) fall deeply and passionately in love, but are repressed by the sexual mores of the time, their class differences, and disapproval from their parents - especially her prudish, puritanical mother (Christie) and his rigi d, domineering father (Hingle). Deanie's pent-up sexual longings cause her to almost go insane in a memorable bathtub scene. Repercussions cause Bud to chase after slutty girl Juanita Howard (Norris), and eventually marry Italian Angelina (Lampert), while Deanie is institutionalized following a suicidal nervous breakdown. Years later, the two meet again and she resolves her feelings about him. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Actress--Natalie Wood. Academy Awards: 1, Best Original Story and Screenplay. Strangers on a Train (1951) Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Laura Elliot, Jonathan Hale Director: Alfred Hitchcock Another of Hitchcock's great suspense thrillers - co-scripted by Raymond Chandler and based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. During a 'chance' meeting on a train enroute from Washington DC (a cleverly choreographed sequence in which the two sets of the strangers' shoes are highlighted), rich psychopathic playboy Bruno Anthony (Walker) explains his macabre, morbid theory of the perfect murder - an exchange or swap of murders and victims - to professional champion tennis player Guy Haines (Granger). Bruno diabolically proposes murdering Guy's clinging, stifling wife Miriam (Elliot) - since Guy wants to marry US Senator's daughter Anne Morton (Roman) - in exchange for Guy murdering Bruno's spiteful father (Hale) and his acquisition of an inheritance, without any trace of clues. Haines dismisses the preposterous idea until Anthony kills his wife Miriam by

strangulation at an amusement park and he is expected to fulfill his part of the bargain - with threat of blackmail. With a few great set pieces, including the tennis match, the cross-cutting sewer grating scene, the cocktail party scene of how to commit a murder, and the out-of-control merry-go-round in the finale in which Guy was finally cleared of the murder. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best B/W Cinematography. Sullivan's Travels (1941) Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake Director: Preston Sturges A landmark, sardonic film satire from writer/director Sturges about a successful escapist comedy Hollywood director John L. Sullivan (McCrea) who has tired of making light-hearted films. Sullivan is determined to make a serious-minded, socially-responsible drama about poverty and hardship in America titled O Brother, Where Art Thou? To research his new film project, he disguises himself - for his 'Gulliver's Travels' journey through pre WWII America - as a down-and-out tramp/bum to experience cruel adversity first-hand. After shaking off the hot pursuit of a caravan of studio publicists, and being joined by a beautiful, out-of-work, failed blonde actress The Girl (Lake), he serves time on a prison chain gang, where during the showing of a Disney cartoon he gains a newfound appreciation that the down-trodden do indeed need laughter and humor. No Academy Award nominations. S (continued) Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Emile Meyer Director: Alexander MacKendrick A caustic, dark film noir based on the short story by Ernest Lehman titled Tell Me About It Tomorrow, and filmed on location in NYC. MacKendrick's debut American film. Opportunistic, vicious, hustling, slimy press agent Sidney Falco (Curtis) provides publicity for showbiz clients, hoping for exposure in the syndicated columns. Ruthless, sadistic, monstrously-manipulative newspaper columnist J. J. Hunsecker (Lancaster) unscrupulously plots with Falco to disrupt and destroy the romantic relationship of his younger sister Susan Hunsecker (Harrison) with a jazz musician Steve Dallas (Milner). Unethical and immoral but desperate to please Hunsecker, Falco smears Dallas as a drug addict and Communist by planting evidence, but causes Susan to become suicidal. Ultimately vengeful, she walks out on her 'incestuous' and obsessed, overprotective brother, while a raging Hunsecker has Falco beaten up. No Academy Award nominations. Swing Time (1936) Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Betty Furness, Landers Stevens Director: George Stevens Another of the greatest Astaire-Rogers dance musicals, their sixth film together, with lyrics and music by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. Hoofer/gambler "Lucky" Garnett (Astaire) is late to his marriage to hometown socialite Margaret Watson (Furness). Her father Judge Watson (Stevens) challenges his prospective son-in-law to return only after earning a fortune of $25,000 in the big city. In a local dance studio, Lucky falls in love with instructor Penny Carrol (Rogers). After many romantic misunderstandings, complications and difficulties in the contrived plot, he finds his r eal life's partner. Songs and dances include: "Pick Yourself Up," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Waltz in Swing Time," "A Fine Romance," "Bojangles of Harlem" (Astaire's only blackface number in a tribute to Bill Robinson), and the lengthy, romantic dance du et "Never Gonna Dance" in the finale. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Dance Direction. Academy Awards: 1, Best Song ("The Way You Look Tonight").

The Terminator (1984) Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton Director: James Cameron A stylish, action-packed, low budget, beautifully-paced science-fiction film. Kyle Reece (Biehn), a hunted, fugitive, freedom-fighting soldier-hero from the post-apocalyptic, wasteland future of 2029 Los Angeles, where a race of machine-like cyborgs rule the Earth and exterminate human beings, volunteers to return to present-day 1984 Los Angeles. In pursuit through time travel is an invulnerable, ruthless, assassinterminator cyborg (Schwarzenegger), sent to kill the innocent young woman Sarah Connor (Hamilton) destined to bear a son - John Connor - who will eventually become a liberator and lead the revolt against the evil machines to prevent the world from being annihilated. Rebel soldier Kyle's mission is to protect her, explain her destiny and the reason for the Terminator's stalking - as he falls in love with her. No Academy Award nominations. The Thin Man (1934) Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan Director: W.S. Van Dyke The first in a series of six charming and sophisticated who -dun-it "Thin Man" films (between 1934 and 1947), teaming William Powell and Myrna Loy as a witty, mystery -solving, sleuthing couple - with delightfully-affectionate, rapid-fire banter and chemistry between the pair, and a wire-haired terrier named Asta. Based on Dashiell Hammett's 1932 novel. Retired and soused detective Nick Charles (Powell), now married to wealthy heiress Nora (Loy), is commi ssioned by Dorothy Wynant (Maureen O'Sullivan) to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her inventor father (Edward Ellis) - the "thin man" of the film's title. Followed by the sequel, After the Thin Man (1936). Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--William Powell and Best Adapted Screenplay. The 39 Steps (1935) Starring: Madeleine Carroll, Robert Donat, Wylie Watson, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie Director: Alfred Hitchcock One of Hitchcock's most entertaining, suspenseful British romantic/spy-mystery thrillers. In 1930s London during a Palladium performance featuring Mr. Memory (Watson), innocent vacationing Canadian tourist Richard Hannay (Donat) is thrown into the arms of a mysterious secret agent Annabella Smith (Mannheim) who later informs him that she is being pursued by a spy ring (led by a criminal mastermind later revealed as Prof. Jordan (Tearle) with a half little finger ) and agents code-named "the 39 steps" - Hitchcock's MacGuffin. In his rented flat, the woman is murdered and Hannay becomes the prime suspect. He flees to Scotland with the police (and agents) on his trail to locate the spies and clear his name, and meets lovely cool blonde Pamela (Carroll) on a train. His journey includes an overnight stay in a crofter's cottage where the couple suffer an unhappy marriage (Laurie and Ashcroft), a spontaneous improvised lecture in a political meeting, and handcuffing to a resentful, antagonistic Pamela. The mystery is finally solved with a return to the London Palladium where it is discovered that memory expert Mr. Memory is part of the spy organization that plans to smuggle valuable military secrets out of the country for sale to an unknown enemy. No Academy Award nominations. To Be or Not to Be (1942) Starring: Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, Robert Stack, Stanley Ridges, Sig Rumann Director: Ernst Lubitsch A satirical, black comedy masterpiece set in occupied wartime Poland, controversial in its time for providing serious social commentary on the Nazi regime. Trapped in Warsaw, vain Joseph Tura (Benny), the lead Polish actor in a theatre troupe and his flighty actress wife Maria (Lombard in her last role before her tragic death in an airplane crash) star in a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet after their anti-Nazi play has been censored and shut down. To outwit the occupying Nazis in the war effort, the actors become engaged in a complex plot to help the Resistance Underground by having Tura first impersonate Nazi Colonel "Concentration Camp" Ehrhardt (Rumann) and then traitorous Nazi spy Prof. Alexander Siletsky (Ridges). One of the young fugitive pilots who requires protection, Lt. Stanislav Sobinski (Stack), is in the mids t of a platonic, idolizing affair with Maria. In a continuing joke, Joseph cues the surreptitious lovers each night when he begins Hamlet's famous soliloquy "to be or not to be" and Joseph noisily departs the theater's second row for a tryst in her dressing room. Academy

Award Nominations: 1, Best Comedy Score. To Have and Have Not (1944) Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall, Walter Molnar, Dolores Moran Director: Howard Hawks Adapted from the 1937 novel by Ernest Hemingway, with a script by William Faulkner and Jules Furthman - often considered a sequel to Casablanca. Noted for being the film in which Bogart fell in love with much-younger Bacall. In Vichy-controlled Martinique in 1940 after the fall of France, American charter boat captain Harry 'Steve' Morgan (Bogart), with whiskey-soaked Eddie (Brennan) who continually asks "Was you ever bit by a dead bee?", hires his vessel for professional fishing excursions. Although jaded, Harry reluctantly agrees to become involved and aid the Free French Resistance movement by smuggling an underground leader Paul De Bursac (Molnar) and his wife Helene (Moran) off the island. Living in an upstairs apartment above a cafe where Cricket (Carmichael) plays the piano, Harry meets and falls in love with a sultry and seductive young woman Marie 'Slim' Browning (Bacall in her screen debut) - she teaches him how to whistle. No Academy Award nominations. Tootsie (1982) Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Sydney Pollack, Bill Murray, Charles Durning, George Gaynes Director: Sydney Pollack A modern-day, appealing classic Hollywood comedy with witty dialogue about a NYC actor who crossdresses to find employment. Desperate out-of-work stage actor Michael Dorsey (Hoffman), often considered temperamental, can only find part-time jobs. When his girlfriend Sandy (Garr) is rejected for a role in a daytime TV soap opera produced/directed by sexist Ron (Coleman), Michael disguises himself as 'Dorothy Michaels' - a middle-aged feminist with padding, and wins the part. Soon, he becomes wildly popular in the hit show, but his life becomes even more soap operish. Complications arise with his insecure girlfriend, his nervous roommate Jeff (Murray), his exasperated agent George Fields (Pollack), lecherous fellow actor John Van Horn (Gaynes), his new love interest - co-star Julie (Lange), and her interested widowed father Les (Durning). Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Dustin Hoffman, Best Supporting Actress--Teri Garr, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Song ("It Might Be You"), Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 1, Best Supporting Actress--Jessica Lange. 12 Angry Men (1957) Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, John Savoca Director: Sidney Lumet Sidney Lumet's debut directorial film, a taut courtroom drama based on Reginald Rose's television play. In a hot summer courtroom in NYC, a teenaged Latino (Savoca) is on trial for murdering his father with a switchblade knife, and faces the electric chair if convicted. The twelve jurors assemble together to decide the fate of the minority defendant after being given instructions from the judge about 'innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.' In a seemingly open-and-shut case, the jurors rapidly vote for conviction, but one lone liberal dissenter, Juror # 8 (Fonda) holds out for innocence. In the sweaty, claustrophobic room, the tempers, prejudices and personalities of the cranky, smoking men are displayed as they examine the evidence and deliberate their verdict. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay.

Unforgiven (1992) Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Jaimz Woolvett Director: Clint Eastwood Actor/director Clint Eastwood's magnificent Western masterpiece. Circumstances force a retired, poor, notorious ex-bounty hunter William Munny (Eastwood), now a hog farmer, to resume his former occupation. In the 1880s frontier town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming, a prostitute's face has been brutally slashed by vicious cowboys, and her fellow co-workers have raised a $500 bounty. Joined by former sidekick partner Ned Logan (Freeman) and aspiring, cocky gunfighter 'The Schofield Kid' (Woolvett), they journey to the town to confront the corrupt, sadistic and autocratic Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett (Hackman), who has denied justice to the brothel's women. In a deadly and bloody showdown, Munny's nihilistic past is graphically brought back. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Actor--Clint Eastwood, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Sound. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor--Gene Hackman, Best Film Editing.

W White Heat (1949) Starring: James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly, Virginia Mayo, Steve Cochran Director: Raoul Walsh One of the most volatile, super-charged gangster-crime films ever made, about a psychopathic, homicidal, mother-devoted gangster. Tough-guy, eccentric Cody Jarrett (Cagney) leads a gang of train robbers, supported by the ministrations of his beloved Ma (Wycherly) and the love of wife Verna (Mayo) who is unfaithful with gang member Big Ed Somers (Cochran). When imprisoned and he learns of his mother's death, the mother-fixated Cody goes beserk. After an escape from prison during a riot, he is betrayed by an undercover agent/informant Vic Pardo/Hank Fallon (O'Brien) during the payroll robbery of an oil refinery. In the legendary finale, Jarrett is consumed in the flames of a holding tank explosion as he proclaims: "Made it Ma! Top of the world!" Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Motion Picture Story. Winchester '73 (1950) Starring: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, Millard Mitchell, Charles Drake, John McIntire, Will Geer, Jay C. Flippert, Rock Hudson Director: Anthony Mann Unique and classic, noirish black and white "psychological" western film based on a story by Stuart Lake - and the first of eight films pairing James Stewart with director Mann. An obsessed, hard -bitten man (Stewart) participates in a Fourth of July shooting contest in Dodge City to win back a prized 1873 Winchester repeating rifle. Although he wins, the rifle is stolen by his surly, runner -up opponent (McNally) (and the murderer of his father). The film follows the dogged, revenge-seeking search for the cursed weapon, as the gun passes through the hands of many new "owners'' and their stories are depicted. No Academy Award nominations. Written on the Wind (1956) Starring: Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Robert Keith Director: Douglas Sirk A lush, psychosexual, trashy melodrama about wealth, greed and lust, acclaimed director Douglas Sirk's best film, about the decline and self-destructiveness of a rich Texas oil family. Adapted from Robert Wilder's novel. Told in flashback after an opening murder scene, weak Texas millionaire/oil man Kyle Hadley (Stack), the ne'er-do-well son of Texas dynasty magnate Jasper Hadley (Keith), marries beautiful executive secretary Lucy Moore (Bacall) after an insistent romance. But he becomes suspicious of his

bes e c y e s s e s ccess e s ss ec s- but only platonic - for Lucy Kyle s trampy nymphomaniacal sister Marylee (Malone who wants the unattainable Mitch, fuels Kyle s anxious jealousy, suspicions of his own sterility, and anhabitual bout with a bottle by suggesting that Lucy is pregnant with Mitch's child. An unfortunate confrontation ensues, causing Lucy to have a miscarriage. Roaring drunk, gunwielding Kyle threatens Mitch and ends up dead. An inquest is held to determineMitch's guilt or innocence, with Marylee's testimony holding his life in the balance. Academy Award Nominations 3, including Best Supporting Actor --Robert Stack, and Best Song ("Written on the Wind"). Academy Awards 1, Best Supporting Actress orothy Malone. -!   D D D D D D  #       " " 3 3 F  F !

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 (Click on Part link above for all (Click on Part link above for all (Click on Part link above for all (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, film titles in this column, film titles in this column, film titles in this column, including a brief film summary including a brief film summary including a brief film summary including a brief film summary and link to longer review) and link to longer review) and link to longer review) and link to longer review) Air lane! 1980
2

Bull Durham (1988 Bus Stop (1956

9

Field of Dreams (1989

A Hard Day's Night (1964

E D

All t e King's Men (1949 Amade s (1984

5 3 4

Cabin in the Sky (1943

6

Footlight Parade (1933 Freaks (1932

D

Ameri an Beaut (1999

5

Arseni and Old Lace (1944 Atlantic Cit (1981 Babe (1995
6 3 3

The Freshman (1925 The Crying Game (1992 Dark Victory (1939
B A

In the Heat of the Night (1967 Inherit the Wind (1960 Jailhouse Rock (1957 JFK (1991
E E E

Full Metal Jacket (1987 Gaslight (1944 Glory (1989

D D

Dinner at Eight (1933

Do the Right Thing (1989 East of Eden (1955

C

The Birds (1963 Blow(1966

3 7 8

The King of Comedy (1983 Kings Row (1942 Hannah and Her Sisters (1986
D E

Halloween (1978
C

Enter the Dragon (1973

Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 (Click on Part link above for all (Click on Part link above for all (Click on Part link above for all (Click on Part link above for all film titles in this column, film titles in this column, film titles in this column, film titles in this column, including a brief film summary including a brief film summary including a brief film summary including a brief film summary and link to longer review) and link to longer review) and link to longer review) and link to longer review) Koyaanisqatsi (1983
G G

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975 Night of the Living Dead (1968
F F

Rocky (1976

The Thing (From Another World) (1951)

L A Confidential (1997

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975 This is Spinal Tap (1984) Saturday Night Fever (1977
H F

The Lady From Shanghai (1948

F

Titanic (1997)

Being There (1979

3

The Killing (1956 Groundhog Day (1993

Beauty and t e Beast (1991

3 2

The Kid (1921 The Great Dictator (1940

Deliverance (1972
3

Bambi (1942

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966

Key Largo (1948

Baby Doll (1956

3

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989

@

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939

E

A Fish Called Wanda (1988

@

Henry V (1944 and Henry V (1989 (tie)

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t st il s (alphabetical)

     

The Last Emperor (1987) Last Tango in Paris (1972) The Letter (1940) The Lion in Winter (1968) A Man for All Seasons (1966) The Man Who Would Be King (1975) Marty (1955)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) The Palm Beach Story (1942) Patton (1970) The Piano (1993) Planet of the Apes (1968) Poltergeist (1982) The Producers (1968) Pygmalion (1938)

Saving Private Ryan (1998) The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999) (tie) The Usual Suspects (1995)

Sherlock, Jr. (1924) Way Out West (1937) The Shining (1980) Sleeper (1973) Spartacus (1960) Stairway to Heaven (1946) (aka A Matter of Life and Death (1946)) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Thelma & Louise (1991) Young Frankenstein (1974) The Thief of Bagdad (1924) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) When Harry Met Sally... (1989) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) The Wind (1928)

M*A*S*H (1970) Repulsion (1965) The Matrix (1999) Miracle on 34th Street (1947) The Road Warrior (1982) (aka Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981))

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

A Airplane! (1980) Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Stephen Stucker Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker A trend-setting, zany, hilarious comedy - using the airplane disaster film, such as Airport (1970), as a spoof stepping stone, from the comedy writing/directing team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (known colloquially as ZAZ and their brand of "ZAZ humor"). This film was preceded by their screenwriting for John Landis' The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) (the ZAZ trio of comedy writers were known as The Kentucky Fried Theater when they performed as a Wisconsin comedy troupe), and later followed by Top Secret! (1984), and Ruthless People (1986). Airplane's plot is an excuse for a frantic, slapstick parody filled with visual -sight gags, puns, verbal literalism ("Surely you can't be serious." "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"), rapid -fire satirical wisecracks, irreverent references to From Here to Eternity (1953) and Saturday Night Fever (1977) disco dancing, and visual non-sequiturs. Shell-shocked ex-military flyer Ted Striker (Hays) pursues gir lfriend Elaine (Hagerty) - a stewardess on an illfated flight with stricken pilots. This movie also revitalized the acting careers of Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, and Robert Stack, and launched the comedy career of Leslie Nielsen as the straight-faced, dead-panning doctor, who up to that time was known mostly for B-movie dramatic roles, in films like Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). He went on with the ZAZ comedy team to originate the character of police Lt. Frank Drebin in their Police Squad! TV series and recreated the role in the many The Naked Gun films. Followed by a less funny ZAZ-less Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) by director Ken Finkleman. No Academy Award Nominations. All the King's Men (1949) Starring: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek, Mercedes McCambridge Director: Robert Rossen Robert Rossen's fictionalized account of the rise and fall of backwoods rebel lawyer and politician - a story inspired by the rule (and despotic abuse of power) of Louisiana's colorful state governor (1928-32) and Democratic U.S. Senator (1932-35), the notorious Huey Long - better known as "The Kingfish." It is a melodramatic story of the corruption of power by an ambitious demagogue, adapted and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling 1946 novel of the same name by Robert Penn Warren, and filmed from a script by producer-screenwriter-director Robert Rossen (known for directing other films such as Body and Soul (1947) and The Hustler (1961)). The main difference between the novel and the film was the reversal of the major roles: the narrating newspaper reporter took precedence over the power-hungry governor in the novel. In the film,

the secondary character was the reporter Jack Burden (Ireland), while the central character was small-town lawyer-turnedpolitician Willie Stark (Crawford). One of the film's posters proclaimed: "He thought he had the world by the tail. ..till it exploded in his face...with a bullet attached..." This great political drama was a breakthrough film for Broderick Crawford from his B-picture status - his performance is very compelling, electrifying and impressive as he is transformed from a backwoods, honest and naive lawyer into a dirty, unscrupulous and sleazy politician. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Director--Robert Rossen, Best Screenplay--Robert Rossen, Best Supporting Actor--John Ireland, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Broderick Crawford, Best Supporting Actress--Mercedes McCambridge (in her screen debut). Amadeus (1984) Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones Director: Milos Forman Milos Forman's stunning, opulent biography (not always 100% accurate, however) of musical prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the Broadway play by Peter Shaffer (whose screenplay adaptation won him an Oscar), is perhaps his grandest production - equaling his earlier Best Picture winner One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and only challenged by The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). The film focuses on the character of the official royal composer Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) (Abraham in an Oscar-winning performance) for Austrian Emperor Joseph II (Jones), and the story of his envious loathing, yet reverential relationship to the great prodigy Mozart (Hulce), who is simultaneously spoiled, vulgar and talented. Told in flashback, the mediocre Salieri is slowly driven insane as he recognizes Mozart's incredible musical genius, but is tormented and consumed with insecurity and jealousy. The film was well-received by both critics and audiences alike with its lavish set and period costume design (filmed on location in Prague), its accessibility and nonpretentiousness, and its sly intelligence and musings over the capricious nature of "God-given" talent. Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Actor--Tom Hulce, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director--Milos Forman, Best Actor--F. Murray Abraham, Best Adapted Screenplay--Peter Shaffer, Best Art/Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Sound. American Beauty (1999) Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari Director: Sam Mendes The tragic, absurdist, dark domestic tale of Lester Burnham (Spacey), who calmly narrates his own story posthumously a la Joe Gillis from Sunset Boulevard (1950) - he's a "chronic loser" and American suburbanite family man who is unable to speak his mind or actually feel much of anything. But in a mid-life awakening, he becomes infatuated with his self-loathing daughter Jane's (Birch) under-aged cheerleader friend Angela Hayes (Suvari). After enduring too many years of a demeaning job, and a dysfunctional marriage to his obsessive-compulsive, adulterous realtor wife Carolyn (Bening), while feeling disrepect from Jane -- who has fallen for the drug-peddling, video-voyeur neighbor next door Ricky Fitts (Bentley), Lester decides to make radical, ultimately fatal changes to his suburban life. American Beauty was the first film by longtime English stage director Sam Mendes and playwright Alan Ball, who both won Academy Awards for their work, as did long-time cinematographer Conrad L. Hall. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Actress--Annette Bening, Best Original Score--Thomas Newman, Best Editing. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director--Sam Mendes, Best Actor-Kevin Spacey, Best Original Screenplay--Alan Ball, Best Cinematography--Conrad L. Hall. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) Starring: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, John Alexander, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Jack Carson Director: Frank Capra A frenzied, hilarious, madcap black comedy from celebrated director Frank Capra. The film's screenplay was written by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. The macabre farce was based on Joseph Kesselring's successful Broadway play of the same name -- and was filmed in 1941, but not released until 1944 (when the New York play ended its run). The slapstick film has two eccentric Brewster aunts (Hull and Adair reprising their Broadway roles) compassionately serving up homemade elderberry wine to elderly Brooklyn gentlemen - with delusional 'Teddy Roosevelt' nephew (Alexander) assisting by burying the unfortunate victims in the cellar. Cary Grant, as their dutiful, just -married nephew Mortimer, does a marvelous job of exaggerated, over-the-top

acting with constant mugging and other facial plasticity, amazing double-takes and general befuddlement. The action is enhanced by the surprise appearance of Mortimer's long-lost criminal brother Jonathan (Massey, in place of Boris Karloff) and his plastic surgeon assistant, Dr. Einstein (Lorre). It is unlike most of the other reform-minded Capra-corn films with a social conscience that became his trademark, e.g., Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Meet John Doe (1941), or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). It is more similar in tone to his screwball romantic comedy It Happened One Night (1934) and to Capra's other adaptation from a Broadway play, You Can't Take It With You (1938). No Academy Award Nominations. Atlantic City (1981) Starring: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Robert Joy, Kate Reid, Hollis McLaren Director: Louis Malle French director Louis Malle's tense, unsentimental, evocative and bleak character study was about an aging, has-been, small-time hood and numbers-runner named Lou Pascal (Lancaster at age 68) who lived in the gray, depressing Atlantic City boardwalk area. Threatened to be put out of business by the casinos, he's forced to be the kept man of a miserly and abusive aging beauty queen - a feisty, broken-down gangster's widow named Grace Pinza (Reid). His only source of escape and pleasure is secretively watching his neighbor - a younger, cynical clam-bar waitress named Sally Matthews (Sarandon), who performs a sexy lemon-wash of herself at her window within his apartment's view. She aspires to become a blackjack dealer/croupier in one of the more glamorous resort casinos in Monte Carlo. Their lives are turned upside-down when Sally's deceitful, estranged husband Dave (Joy) and her eight-months pregnant sister Chrissie (McLaren) show up on Sally's doorstep to sell a stolen shipment of high-quality cocaine. Lou befriends all three and promises he can sell the drugs due to his connections with the underworld. When Dave gets killed by the former owners of the drugs in the Philadelphia mob, Lou is able to keep the stash to himself as a financial windfall. He finally gets to play the role of his vain dre ams as a big-time, respected, confident gangster, however illusory and dangerous, and is able to woo and show lavish generosity toward Sally as her self-appointed protector. After killing two gangland hoods to protect her, he admits his life was exaggerate d up until then: "I never killed anybody in my life...But I did tonight", and he gleefully watches the report of the murders on the TV news: "Hey, that's me!...This story is going to be big all over the country: 'Gangland slaying rips apart Atlantic City!'" In the final sequence, Lou makes a final promenade down the Boardwalk with Grace - with a panning shot up to a view of a wrecker's ball smashing into an apartment before the closing credits. Malle was nominated previously for his screenplay for Dearest Heart (1971), and would be nominated six years later for Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), but Atlantic City remained the sole directorial nomination in his career. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director--Louis Malle, Best Actor-Burt Lancaster, Best Actress--Susan Sarandon, Best Original Screenplay--John Guare.

B Babe (1995) Starring: James Cromwell, Christine Cavanaugh, Miriam Margolyes, Danny Mann, Hugo Weaving Director: Chris Noonan A charming, delightful and intelligent fairy tale based on a book by Dick King-Smith from first-time director Chris Noonan. This was a rare family film to earn an Academy Award Best Picture nomination, utilizing realistic, Oscar-winning computer effects to portray talking animals. The tale told about a young pig who learns to be a sheepherder to avoid being killed for human food. Despite being aimed at mostly young audiences, this sleeper film consistently remained intelligent and even quite dark at times f or a children's film. James Cromwell plays Farmer Arthur Hoggett with similar intelligence and wit, and has the best known line of the film: "That'll do, pig. That'll do" after the title character pig succeeds as a sheepherder. The Australian made film was a critical and financial success, and earned an amazing seven Oscar nominations, including the aforementioned Best Picture nomination. Followed by a darker, but respectable sequel, Babe: Pig in the City (1998). Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director--Chris Noonan, Best Supporting Actor--James Cromwell, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Art/Set Decoration. Academy Awards, 1: Best Visual Effects.

Baby Doll (1956) Starring: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock Director: Elia Kazan This Kazan film has been called notorious, salacious, revolting, dirty, steamy, lewd, suggestive, morally repellent and provocative. Time Magazine was noted as stating: "Just possibly the dirtiest Americanmade motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited..." The stark, controversial, black and white film was so viciously denounced by the Legion of Decency upon its release that many theaters were forced to cancel their showings, but it still did moderately well at the box office despite the uproar. Baby Doll's impact was heightened by its themes: moral decay, lust, sexual repression, seduction, infantile eroticism and the corruption of the human soul. Its advertisements and posters featured a sultry young "Baby Doll" curled up in a crib in a suggestive pose, sucking her thumb. The young actress portraying 'Baby Doll' Meighan, Carroll Baker (25 years old and in her second film) received a well-deserved Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role. Karl Malden played the role of Baby Doll's sexually-frustrated husband Archie Lee, and Eli Wallach starred as unscrupulous businessman Silva Vaccaro whose main aim was to deflower the child bride. To make the film appear more genuine and authentic, most of it was filmed on location in Benoit, Mississippi. The landmark, tragi -comedy film, one of the most erotic cinematic works ever produced, was based on Tennessee Williams' first original film screenplay, interweaving and adapting two of his earlier one-act plays: "Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton" and "The Long Stay Cut Short" (aka "The Unsatisfactory Supper"). The highly-acclaimed Williams had many of his plays adapted for the screen in the 1950s: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly Last Summer (1959)). As before, Williams' work on this film was directed by Elia Kazan, a favorite director of several of his plays on Broadway as well. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Actress--Carroll Baker, Best Supporting Actress--Mildred Dunnock, Best Adapted Screenplay-Tennessee Williams, Best B/W Cinematography. Bambi (1942) Starring: Bobby Stewart, Stan Alexander, Peter Behn, Cammie King, Sterling Holloway Director: David Hand and others The last of the classic, early Disney animated features - a 'coming of age' tale of a young male deer growing up in the world to be a magnificent stag. Taken from a Felix Salten tale, Bambi first learns to walk and adventurously explore his world under the watchful eye of his parents, dealing with trivial problems, such as walking on ice with his new friends, Thumper (a rabbit) and Flower (a skunk). In one of the more heartbreaking scenes in film history, Bambi's mother is killed by a human hunter, and suddenly the young fawn is forced into adulthood, led away by his stag father - ("Your mother can't be with you anymore. Come. My son"). Bambi must deal with a devastating forest fire, and he learns to court a doe named Faline, as well as fight other bucks for her attention. Bambi is not only a charming tale, but also uncompromising, recalling an earlier Disney film with surprisingly dark themes and scenes, Dumbo (1941). The doe-eyed characters would become the chief inspiration for anime characters in Japan. The Academy honored Bambi with three nominations, including the sweet yet wistful song "Love is a Song." Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Song--"Love Is a Song," Best Music Score--Churchill and Plumb, and Best Sound. Beauty and the Beast (1991) Starring: Robby Benson, Paige O'Hara, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise Arguably the most successful Disney animated film of all time, this film was the first animated feature film to ever receive a Best Picture Academy Award nomination. It was based on the classic 1756 fairy tale (written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont) and the importance of inner beauty. There were almost a dozen previous film incarnations, the most notable being the silent 1922 version and Jean Cocteau's French film La Belle et La Bte (1946). Beauty and the Beast returned the Disney animation studios to their former glory. The story told about a French peasant girl (O'Hara) who was treated kindly by a monstrous Princeturned-Beast captor (Benson) and fell in love with him. The beautiful artwork and colors were supplemented by a wellwritten song score, from the Oscar-winning title song to the jaunty "Belle" and "Be Our Guest," all written by Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. It was also the second Disney film to combine it s famous hand-drawn animation with computer graphics (The Rescuers Down Under (1990) was the first), as well as the first Disney animated movie to use a fully-developed script prior to animation. After this, Disney would release more huge traditionally animated hits in the summer, both commercial and critical, such as Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Mulan (1998) and The Emperor's New Groove (2000), before deciding to close their hand-drawn animation wing in 2003.

Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Song--"Belle," Best Song--"Be Our Guest," Best Sound. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Music Score, Best Song--"Beauty and the Beast." Being There (1979) Starring: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden Director: Hal Ashby Subtitled "A story of chance," this provocative black comedy is a wonderful tale that satirizes politics, celebrity, media-obsession and television, and extols the wisdom of innocence. The subtle film's slogan proclaimed: "Getting there is half the fun. Being there is all of it." It is a placid fable about Chance (Sellers), a reclusive, illiterate, passive, and simple -minded gardener who is well-groomed, fed on schedule, and dressed in custom-tailored suits. He has lived his whole sheltered life within the walled, Washington, DC estate of an eccentric millionaire named Jennings. His only knowledge of the "real" outside world, an encroaching inner-city ghetto area, is through watching television. When his employer dies, he wanders out into the street with his TV's remote-control to aid him. When his leg is injured, and his name is thought to be "Chauncey Gardiner," he is befriended by Eve Rand (MacLaine), the wife of dying billionaire industrialist Benjamin Rand (Douglas). His simple statements about gardening, such as "Spring is a time for planting," are mis-interpreted as profound and wise politicaleconomic advice to none other than President 'Bobby' (Warden). His new-found popularity leads to talk-show appearances, insider parties, book publisher advances, and the potential to become a presidential candidate. The film was directed by director Hal Ashby (already known for Harold and Maude (1971), The Last Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), and the acclaimed Vietnam war film Coming Home (1978)). The politically-satirical, overly-long film about mistaken identity and the television age was adapted from a 1971 novel by Jerzy Kosinski, with Sellers in a chameleon-like role in his second-to-last film. His role was the forerunner to the mentally -challenged Tom Hanks character in Forrest Gump (1994). Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Actor--Peter Sellers (his second and last unsuccessful bid). Academy Awards, 1: Best Supporting Actor--Melvyn Douglas (his third and last career nomination and second Best Supporting Actor Oscar). The Birds (1963) Starring: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright Director: Alfred Hitchcock Another modern Hitchcock thriller/masterpiece - his first film with Universal Studios. Loosely based upon a short story by Daphne Du Maurier, it is the apocalyptic story of a northern California coastal town (Bodega Bay) filled with an onslaught of seemingly unexplained, arbitrary and chaotic attacks of ordinary birds - not birds of prey. Ungrammatical advertising campaigns emphasized: "The Birds Is Coming." The dark film hinted that the bird attacks were punishment for the failings of the relationships between the main characters. This Technicolor feature came after Psycho (1960) - another film filled with 'bird' references. The film's technical wizardry was extraordinary, especially in the film's closing scene (a complex, trick composite shot) - the special visual effects of Ub Iwerks were nominated for an Academy Award (the film's sole nomination), but the Oscar was lost to Cleopatra (1963). Hundreds of birds (gulls, ravens, and crows) were trained for use in some of the scenes, while mechanical birds and animations were employed for others. The film's non-existent musical score was replaced by an electronic soundtrack (including simulated bird cries and wing-flaps), with Hitchcock's favorite composer Bernard Herrmann serving as a sound consultant. Hitchcock introduced a 'fascinating new personality' for the film - his unknown successor to Grace Kelly - a cool, blonde professional model named 'Tippi' Hedren (the mother of Melanie Griffith), in her film debut in a leading role. Hedren also appeared in Hitchcock's next picture Marnie (1964), and reprised her Birds character in a supporting role in a dreadful made-for-TV sequel, The Birds II: Land's End (1994). Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Visual Effects. Blow-Up (1966) Starring: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Peter Bowles, Jane Birkin, Gillian Hills, Veruschka Director: Michelangelo Antonioni A thought-provoking, art-house masterpiece from Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni - a view of the world of mod fashion, and an engaging, provocative murder mystery that examines the existential nature of reality through photography. It was Antonioni's first film in English, and quickly became one of the most important films of its decade, and a milestone in liberalized attitudes toward film nudity and expressions of sexuality. [The film in some respects resembles Hitc hcock's Rear Window (1954), and proved influential for

other young filmmakers: i.e., Coppola's The Conversation (1974), and De Palma's Blow Out (1981).] A desensitized-to-life, nihilistic, high-fashion London free-lance photographer Thomas (Hemmings), who lives a mid-60s life of excess (riches, fame, and women), becomes bored with his lucrative career of glamour photography. So he resorts to photographing, in documentary style, the seamy and sordid side of life in London, in flophouses and slums. Innocently, he takes candid photos in a deserted park of a lover's tryst-rendezvous between a kerchief-wearing, enigmatic woman (Redgrave) and a middle-aged, gray-haired man in a light-gray suit. She pursues him to ask for the illicit photos, as he imagines that he has witnessed a scene of sexual intrigue - never thinking that he may have accidentally obtained visual, criminal evidence of a murder. The climax is a suspenseful, obsessive sequence of the photographer processing and blowing up several pictures from his park visit, and magnifying them larger and larger to poster size. As tension heightens, he pins the pictures on the wall of his living room - in sequence - giving them life as if they were individual frames in a motion picture. Ultimately, they reveal a riveting possibility. In the film's finale is another indelible, symbolic image emphasizing the slim line between objective reality and illusion - a group of pantomiming students in white-face playing an invisible game of tennis with nonexistent rackets and balls - and audience. Academy Award Nominations: 2, Best Director--Michelangelo Antonioni, Best Original Screenplay--Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Edward Bond. B (continued) Bull Durham (1988) Starring: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Trey Wilson, Robert Wuhl Director: Ron Shelton First-time director Ron Shelton, a former second-baser in the minor leagues, has made a predominant career of sports movies that realistically examine the participants' heart, both in terms of sportsmanship and in terms of romance. His writing (and directi ng) credits have also included: The Best of Times (1986) (football), White Men Can't Jump (1992) (basketball, also directed), Blue Chips (1994) (basketball), Cobb (1994) (baseball, also directed), The Great White Hype (1996) (boxing), Tin Cup (1996) (golf, also directed), and Play It To the Bone (2000) (boxing, also directed). This humorous romantic drama about the Carolina minor leagues is the quintessential modern sports film of America's greatest game. Kevin Costner stars as "Crash" Davis, a veteran, romantic-minded, minor league catcher who has to tutor wild young, rookie pitcher Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh (Robbins) for the mediocre Durham Bulls, while simultaneously competing with him - in a love triangle - for the affections of English teacher and sexually-seductive baseball groupie Annie Savoy (Sarandon, Robbins' real-life 'wife'). Bull Durham would only receive a single Oscar nomination for Shelton's writing, while Costner's next film would be another baseball film, the mystical Field of Dreams (1989), based on the W.P. Kinsella book. (Costner and Shelton would reunite for Tin Cup (1996).) Academy Award Nominations, 1: Best Original Screenplay--Ron Shelton. Bus Stop (1956) Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray, Hope Lange Director: Joshua Logan Aka The Wrong Kind of Girl, this comedy/drama, adapted by George Axelrod (who also co-wrote The Seven Year Itch (1955) also starring Monroe) and based on the hit Broadway play by William Inge, was Marilyn Monroe's first "serious" lead role. She plays Cherie, a fifth-rate, hillbilly saloon-bar singer in Phoenix, originally from the Ozarks, whose dream is to go to Hollywood. Her path crosses that of a naive, callow and rude cowboy from Montana in town for a rodeo, Beauregard 'Bo' Decker (Murray in his film debut), who immediately is smitten by his sweet 'angel.' The most memorable moment of Bus Stop is Monroe's f amous torch-song performance of "That Old Black Magic" for an unappreciative audience, mixing sensuousness with a wistfully sad, soulful quality. The country bumpkin persistently tries to woo Cherie (whom he crudely calls Cherry) - and forcefully kidnaps her to take her home with him. They become stranded during a blizzard at a roadside bus stop - the Blue Dragon Inn in Idaho, where she eventually falls for her abductor. Widely considered the best role of Monroe's career, it mixed comedy with dark pathos. The film proved Monroe was a more-than-capable actress reflecting her skillful acting talent and some of her own personal insecurities. It earned her better roles opposite such stars as Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Clark Gable, and Laurence Olivier. The film l ater inspired a 1961-62 TV series of the same name. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Supporting Actor--Don Murray.

C Cabin In the Sky (1943) Starring: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram, Kenneth Spencer Directors: Vincente Minnelli (with Busby Berkeley) Vincente Minnelli's debut film was based on Vernon Duke-Lynn Root's hit 1940 Broadway musical (directed by George Balanchine). An all-black cast musical (the first in Hollywood since Green Pastures (1936 )), it was produced by Arthur Freed - an early crusader for civil rights. Released in sepia-tone, it is about a drinkloving gambler named Joseph 'Little Joe' Jackson (Anderson), who is having a lustful, extramarital affair. When he is nearly killed in a bar-room brawl, he fantasizes, in a dream sequence, about a battle for his soul between Heaven, led by God's General (Spencer), and Hell, led by Lucifer Jr. (Ingram). A real -life struggle also exists for his heart between his gospel-quoting, devoted wife Petunia (Waters) and his sultry southern mistress Georgia Brown (Horne). While the film is pretty dated and contains some racial stereotypes, it is marked by great musical performances, the most noteworthy of which come from Waters, who performs the hit standards "Taking a Chance on Love" and the Oscarnominated "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe." Waters was a trailblazer for African-American performers, becoming the first African-American star of a national radio show before becoming the titular star of television's The Beulah Show. Screen legend Lena Horne also has her best role as the seductive Georgia - in the same year, she starred as Selina Rogers in Stormy Weather (1943). Eddie Anderson was best known for his role on the radio show The Jack Benny Program (later moved to television) as Rochester -- his role became so popular that it became an official part of his billing in all of his subsequent roles. Also features Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Song--"Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe". Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Starring: Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach, Claire Bloom, Joanna Gleason Director: Woody Allen Perhaps Woody Allen's darkest, most somber movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) takes a long, provocative, and ultimately downbeat look at morality with its ensemble cast. Dual stories about Manhattanites, each composing about one-half of the film, are interwoven together, and interconnected by the character of a mutual friend - a lone holy man and rabbi named Ben (Waterston) who is going blind. The first story deals with Judah Rosenthal (Landau), a wealthy, law -abiding, married (to Bloom, as Miriam), well-respected ophthalmologist who is successful in nearly every way. However, an enraged and obsessed flight attendant and ex-lover Dolores Paley (Huston), with whom he has been cheating on his wife, threatens to divulge the scandal and ruin his life. With this dilemma facing him, Judah is forced to take extreme measures - the contemplation of murder of his mistress by contacting his seldom-seen brother Jack (Orbach) with Mafia connections. His guilt forces him to revisit his past and ask basic questions about his own values, the unfairness of life, virtue, 'the eyes of God,' a god-less universe, justice for evil-doing, and unequal punishment of the wicked. Meanwhile, in the lighter-spirited other half of the movie, Cliff Stern (Allen), a dedicated but struggling, serious documentary filmmaker (who is married but in the process of separating from wife Wendy (Gleason)), is reluctantly forced to direct a film of his despised rival - his superficial, vain but extremely successful brother-in-law and TV sit-com producer Lester (Alda). Complicating matters, Stern must compete with Lester over the object of his impossibly-romantic affections - the documentary's attractive production assistant named Halley Reed (Farrow). Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Director--Woody Allen, Best Supporting Actor--Martin Landau, Best Original Screenplay--Woody Allen. The Crying Game (1992) Starring: Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Miranda Richardson, Forest Whitaker, Jim Broadbent Director: Neil Jordan Writer/director Neil Jordan's powerful, layered suspense thriller/modern-day noir, which examines friendship, sexuality, love, political intrigue, race relations and human nature, was partly inspired by the classic Irish short story A Guest of the Nation b y Frank O'Connor. The highly profitable independent film opens with the kidnapping of a British soldier named Jody (Whitaker) by a group of IRA resistance/terrorists, led by a cold, calculating femme fatale Jude (Richardson), who had entrapped the soldier by seducing him while he was intoxicated. One of the captors, Fergus (Rea), strikes an unlikely friendship with the prisoner, both knowing that Jody would most likely be executed. The execution goes

awry when Jody, trying to escape, is accidentally killed by a convoy of British army soldiers, who immediately disperse the IRA cell. Fergus goes into hiding and partial retirement from the IRA in London, but feels compelled to honor his promise to Jody that if he was killed, he would tell Jody's beautiful lover Dil (Davidson, whose magnificent gender-bending Oscarnominated performance was in a role that was considered uncastable) of his fate. As a love triangle develops, Fergus soon finds himself attracted to Dil and valiantly protective of the lonely and aloof hairdresser, but both harbor a secret that would prevent them from romantically loving one another. The revelation of Dil's sexual secret is a Hitchcockian plot twist that audiences were urged not to reveal, which they honored. Complications arise when Jude shows up, and embroils Fergus in a dangerous assassination plot, using "wee black chick" Dil as collateral. The film was a smash hit both critically and commercially, and earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and two nominations for Jordan for his direction and original screenplay (which he won.) Shockingly, Richardson would be nominated for her role in Damage (1992) rather than for this film. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Director --Neil Jordan, Best Actor--Stephen Rea, Best Supporting Actor--Jaye Davidson, Best Film Editing--Kant Pan. Academy Award: 1, Best Original Screenplay--Neil Jordan.

D Dark Victory (1939) Starring: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan Director: Edmund Goulding Warner Bros. studios' sentimental, tragic and moving melodrama (a "weepie" or "woman's picture") - made in Hollywood's most famous and competitive year. The adult drama contains an electrifying, compelling, tour de force, tear-jerking performance from its major star -- Bette Davis. It was a bit of a risk for the movie studio to make and publicize an intense film about a terminally-ill patient with "prognosis negative." The protagonist is a young socialite-heiress named Judith Traherne (Davis), who suffers from a brain tumor and ultimately falls in love with her supportive and dedicated doctor Frederick Steele (Brent). In the midst of her deadly illness, she comforts her best friend Ann King (Fitzgerald), and courageously meets her fate when her eyesight dims. She climbs her stairs for the last time - accompanied by Max Steiner's swelling score in the film's finale. A title from a film trailer proclaimed: "The love story no woman will ever f orget!" The film's screenplay by Casey Robinson was based on the brief and unsuccessful (due to its morbid subject matter) mid-30s Broadway play (starring Tallulah Bankhead) of the same name by George Emerson Brewer, Jr., and Bertram Bloch. Dark Victory was the second of Davis' four films with director Edmund Goulding - the others were That Certain Woman (1937), The Old Maid (1939), and The Great Lie (1941). Humphrey Bogart was completely miscast in a minor role as Michael O'Leary - an Irish stable groom/trainer, although Ronald Reagan as Alec Hamin, a bar-hopping, slightly decadent playboy, was effectively believable. The film was remade as Stolen Hours (1963) and as a made-for-TV movie in 1976 with Elizabeth Montgomery. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Actress--Bette Davis (a two-time Oscar winner already, with her third Oscar nomination in five years, and her second of five consecutive nominations), Best Original Score--Max Steiner. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Lock Martin Director: Robert E. Wise One of the seminal science fiction films of motion picture history, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is based on Edmund H. North's adaptation of the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. Much like the "drive in movies" of the 1950's, such as The War of the Worlds (1952), Forbidden Planet (1956), and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), this influential, fantasy sci-fi film featured state-of-the-art visual effects and salient social commentary on the Cold War and warfare. The film not only examined wider issues of politics and society, but also at human emotions and frailties. This cautionary science fiction parable begins with the landing of a spacecraft on the White House Mall. A benevolent, interplanetary alien in humanoid form, Klaatu (Rennie), causes a panic when he demands to speak to all of the representatives of Earth's governments. Although he warns the people of Earth to be non-violent and stop nuclear testing, he is shot by a nervous soldier. His massive robotic companion Gort (Martin) vaporizes the offensive weapons, as Klaatu is hospitalized. He goes into hiding posing as an Earthling named Carpenter while residing with a human family (single mother/widow Helen (Neal) and her son Bobby (Gray)), in order to observe their lives, and meanwhile to attempt to establish contact with Earth's leading scientist Dr. Bernhardt (Jaffe). Klaatu's demonstration of power over the industrial complex -- by stopping power everywhere for

half an hour -- ends up tragically. One of the most famous phrases in science fiction history is recited by Helen to stop Gort's rampage when Klaatu is killed: "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto." The film ends with the alien visitor's resurrection and a warning-proclamation. With a memorable score by Bernard Herrmann. No Academy Award Nominations. It was remade in 2008 by director Scott Derrickson, starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu and Jennifer Connelly as Helen. Deliverance (1972) Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox Director: John Boorman British director John Boorman's gripping, absorbing, action-adventure film - about four suburban Atlanta businessmen-friends who encounter a disastrous rite-of-passage during a summer weekend's rivercanoeing trip. Its famous tagline was: "This is the weekend they didn't play golf." The buddy group, composed of Ed Gentry (Voight), ultra-macho Lewis Medlock (Reynolds), fearful weakling Bobby Trippe (Beatty), and Drew Ballinger (Cox) face a nightmarish situation when they come upon the rapids and local hillbillies who degrade and terrorize them. The stark, uncompromising film was one of the first to deal with the theme of city-dwellers against the powerful, territorial forces of nature and the wilderness. The exciting box -office hit, most remembered for its banjo dueling and brutal, visceral action (and sexually-violent sodomy scene), was based on James Dickey's adaptation of his own 1970 best-selling novel (his first) of the same name - he contributed the screenplay and acted in a minor part as the town sheriff. The beautifully photographed film (by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond), shot entirely on location (in northern Georgia's Rabun County, bisected by the Chattooga River), was the least-nominated film among the other Best Picture nominees. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Director--John Boorman, Best Film Editing. Dinner at Eight (1933) Starring: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe Director: George Cukor A masterfully-directed, poignant melodramatic comedy by director George Cukor and producer David O. Selznick. This MGM film was based on the popular, dialogue-rich Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. It was studded with a tremendous ensemble cast of stars (inspired by MGM's previous year's Best Picture winner, Grand Hotel (1932)) - who are all invited to a Manhattan formal dinner party during the height of the Depression, by social climbing, fli ghty hostess Millicent (Burke) and floundering businessman husband Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore). [Three of the stars, John and Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Beery appeared in both films.] Other guests include crass, crooked rich tycoon Dan Packard (Beery) and his candy-chewing, trampish trophy wife Kitty (Harlow), the family doctor Dr. Talbot (Lowe), washed -up, alcoholic silent-era actor Larry Renault (John Barrymore), and elderly ex-Broadway star Carlotta Vance (Dressler). The witty romantic comedy is filled with choice lines of dialogue, and revolves around various relationships between the characters. Suicide, financial ruin, love, infidelity and adultery, economic pressures, class conflict, the dawn of the talkies, divorce, aging and fading careers, and alcoholism affect their interactions. The screenplay for the film was written by Herman Mankiewicz, Frances Marion, and Donald Ogden Stewart. It was poorly remade as a TV movie in 1989 starring Marsha Mason, Lauren Bacall, and Harry Hamlin. No Academy Award Nominations. Do the Right Thing (1989) Starring: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Spike Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro Director: Spike Lee An even-handed, complex and disturbing work about racism, intolerance and violence, this controversial film is about a riot that eventually erupts on a sweltering summer day in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. During the opening credits, Public Enemy performs the film's hard-edged anthem and title song, "Fight the Power." The multi-ethnic cast of the film provides three-dimensional characters, and features the early career work of Samuel L. Jackson (as DJ Mister Senor Love Daddy) and Rosie Perez. The tension begins to escalate in this slice-of-life film because of a complaint by a militant patron named Buggin' Out (Esposito) that there are no pictures of 'brothers' on the "Wall of Fame" in a white -operated, Italian pizza restaurant owned by Sal (Aiello). This was the third (and breakout) feature film for African -American writer/director Spike Lee (who also stars as the pizzeria's delivery boy Mookie), whose resume already included: She's Gotta Have It (1986), and School Daze (1988). Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Supporting Actor--Danny Aiello, Best Original

Screenplay--Spike Lee.

E East of Eden (1955) Starring: James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, Jo Van Fleet Director: Elia Kazan Director Elia Kazan's updated re-telling of the Biblical story of rival brothers, Cain and Abel and a paradise lost. A brooding James Dean - as the unappreciated son (Cain), vies against his dull, but favored stuffy brother (Abel) for the affections of their father. The maligned, misunderstood Cain character, representing the unlikeable and outcast director himself (for naming names before the HUAC Committee in 1952), becomes the sensitive hero of this film. As the poster stated, "Sometimes you can't tell w ho's good and who's bad!..." Writer Paul Osborn's screenplay adapted John Steinbeck's 1952 novel with the same title for this dramatic Warner Bros. film. [The film tells only a small portion of Steinbeck's work, leaving out the childhood of the parents and the Chinese character of Lee.] The CinemaScopic film, set in 1917 at a time just before the US entry into World War I, portrays the relationship between insecure, tortured, neurotic loner Caleb "Cal" Trask (Dean, in his first major role and film) and his dutiful, favored brother Aron (Davalos) - twin sons. Their father is a stern, hardened, devoutly religious, self-righteous man named Adam (Massey), a lettuce farmer living with his family in Salinas, California. The plot becomes emotionally charged when Cal expresses a liking for his brother's girlfriend Abra (Harris), and then learns that his mother (Van Fleet) is actually alive and operating a nearby brothel. One of the film's posters exclaimed: "East of Eden is a story o f explosive passions and Elia Kazan has made it into a picture of staggering power." (This was the only one of James Dean's three major films released before his death, in the same year as Rebel Without a Cause (1955).) Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Actor--James Dean, Best Director--Elia Kazan, Best Screenplay--Paul Osborn. Academy Awards: 1, Best Supporting Actress--Jo Van Fleet. Enter the Dragon (1973) Starring: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Shih Kien, Jim Kelly, Robert Wall, Angela Mao Director: Robert Clouse A big-budget, American/Hong Kong co-production (and the first American-produced martial arts film), shot on location in Asia. This legendary film is considered the best "chopsocky" or "kickfest" (kung fu and martial arts) film ever made by an American studio (Warner Bros). It starred influential action cult hero Bruce Lee in his final, signature film role before his untimely death at the age of 32. Partly inspired by the Lee -helmed film Way of the Dragon (1972) (aka Return of the Dragon), the film pits a renegade, villainous Shaolin Temple monk named Han (Kien) against a Jeet Kune Do master named Lee (Lee), who is recruited by the British to infiltrate Han's drug and prostitution operation under the guise of taking part in his annual, invitational competition on a mysterious island fortress near Hong Kong. The martial-arts tournament between champions is sponsored by the crime boss - a one-handed, blood-thirsty mastermind who at one point supplements his missing hand with a fearsome metal claw. The film is only semi -serious, featuring not only a subplot about an indebted, American playboyadventurer named Roper (Saxon), but an added blaxploitation character named Williams (Kelly, a real-life ex-football star, and African-American karate champion who would later star in a black martial arts film titled Black Samurai (1977)), and a satirical jab at the James Bond thriller films with Lee playing a Bond -type character who doesn't need gadgetry. The most memorable scene is the climactic showdown between Lee and Han in a hall of mirrors (with homage to Welles' The Lady From Shanghai (1948)), as well as the first fight in the competition between Lee and Oharra (Wall), Han's top man responsible for the death of Lee's sister (Mao- the "female Bruce Lee"). There is also an uncredited cameo by Chuck Norris as a Messenger, who had a memorable fight scene with Lee in Way of the Dragon (1972), as well as the first, brief screen appearance by Lee's martial arts "successor" and cinema legend, Jackie Chan. With an aggressive score by Mission Impossible's (TV) composer Lalo Schifrin. No Academy Award Nominations. F

Field of Dreams (1989) Starring: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, Gaby Hoffmann, Timothy Busfield, Burt Lancaster Director: Phil Alden Robinson Just one year after playing catcher "Crash" Davis in Bull Durham (1988), Kevin Costner appeared in this another baseball-themed film coupled with the religious themes of faith and redemption. This sentimental, modern fantasy classic became a smash hit in its unique depiction of Americana. Idealistic Ray Kinsella (Costner), a transplanted city boy-turned-Iowa corn farmer, hears a ghostly Voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his corn field, to "ease his pain". His wife Annie (Madigan) is semi supportive but worried about their finances. No one but those who believe can see the ghostly ballplayers who begin to appear. This Capra-esque film recalls Harvey (1950), a film in which its main character believes he is befriended by a giant rabbit that no one can see. (Ray's daughter Karen (Hoffmann) is watching Harvey on T.V. at one point in the film, to emphasize the connection.) Adapted from W. P. Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe, the film is almost dreamlike (aided by the mystical score by James Horner), as Ray meets with various sad and wistful icons, including the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson (Liotta) who was banned from baseball for life after the 1919 Black Sox scandal, a disillusioned, reclusive J.D. Salinger-like writer in Boston named Terence Mann (Jones), and a small-town doctor named Doc "Moonlight" Graham (Lancaster) - a rookie player who years earlier yearned to make it into the major leagues. The film reaches its climax with Jones' famous monologue on the place of baseball in American history: "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once wa s good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come." Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay--Phil Alden Robinson, Best Score--James Horner. A Fish Called Wanda (1988) Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin Director: Charles Crichton One of the cleverest, quirkiest and wittiest madcap caper comedies ever made, that included members of the original anarchic Monty Python troupe with American stars - in a subversive and raucous tale that combined both British and American humor. The film recalls the British Ealing Studio comedies (such as Crichton's own The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955)) and Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve (1941). As the tagline stated, the unexpected hit was "a tale of murder, lust, greed, revenge, and seafood," in which three eccentric thieves (Curtis, Kline, and Palin) battle the authorities and each other to recover a valuable cache of stolen diamonds. All actors are perfect in their roles, especially the self-absorbed, not-too-bright ("Don't you ever call me stupid") Buddha-misquoting Anglophobe Otto West (Kline) and the stuttering, animal-loving hitman Ken (Palin). Features such bits as Ken's attempts at murdering an old woman that results in the deaths of her dogs (to his horror), Otto's constant tormenting of Ken ("Look! It's K-k-ken coming to k-k-kill me!") and conservative, uptight barrister Archie Leach (Cleese), Wanda Gerschwitz's (Curtis) use of sex to dominate the men in her life and her total arousal to foreign languages like Italian and Russian. The leads would team up again in the comedy Fierce Creatures (1997), in lieu of a sequel. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Director--Charles Crichton, Best Original Screenplay--John Cleese, Charles Crichton. Academy Awards, 1: Best Supporting Actor--Kevin Kline. Footlight Parade (1933) Starring: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee Directors: Lloyd Bacon One of the three most spectacular musicals in 1933 from Warner Bros. and legendary choreographer Busby Berkeley, alongside 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) - with this entry often considered the best of all three. The film is also notable for its suggestive pre -Hays Code dialogue and scenes. It stars James Cagney in his first, big singing-and-dancing musical role as unemployed yet enterprising Broadway theatrical producer Chester Kent, with Joan Blondell as his loyal secretary Nan Prescott. Its familiar plot, a backstage tale about putting on a lavish show, revolves around the production of live music numbers (called "prologues") for movie theatres to present before features, to give stage performers work who had been rendered unemployed by the advent of the "talkies." The thin plot is basically an excuse to show off the elaborate and extravagant Berkeley production numbers, especially the three showstoppers at the end of the film: "Honeymoon Hotel," "By a Waterfall" with gorgeous bathing beauties, and "Shanghai Lil" (providing commentary on Paramount's Shanghai Lily character (Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932) from the year before)). Cagney's varied career featured him in both

tough guy roles, such as Tom Powers in Public Enemy (1931) and Cody Jarrett in White Heat (1949), as well as in song-anddance roles such as this one - and perhaps his most famous musical role as real-life Broadway impresario George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). No Academy Award Nominations. Freaks (1932) Starring: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Harry and Daisy Earles, Roscoe Ates, Henry Victor Directors: Tod Browning Tod Browning's disturbing and bizarre follow-up to his horror smash hit Dracula (1931). This cult film redefines the concepts of beauty, love, and abnormality, but was so disturbingly ahead of its time that audiences stayed away in huge numbers, and it was even banned for 30 years in England. MGM was embarrassed by the film, withdrew the film after its initial release, and added a prologue titled Nature's Mistakes before a re-release. Taglines and posters shamelessly promoted the film: "Can a full grown woman truly love a midget?" "Do Siamese twins make love?" "What sex is the half -man, half-woman?" The film avoids being exploitative by establishing itself as sympathetic towards the "freaks," explaining in the apologetic prologue that as otherwise normal people, they have through the ages been unfairly considered "an omen of ill luck or representative of evil," forcing them to adopt a code. Any crime committed against any one of them will be considered a crime against all of them. The morality play is about a circus sideshow and its odd clique of "freaks," comprised of real -life malformed people, such as dwarves, hermaphrodites, Siamese twins (Daisy and Violet Hilton), a "living torso" (Prince Randlan, a man without limbs who slithers on the ground), a half-man (Johnny Eck with only the upper half of his body), a bearded woman, pinheads, and others. The film follows with a tale about a cold -hearted, full-sized, high-wire trapeze artist Cleopatra (Baclanova) who seduces and marries a circus sideshow midget named Hans (Harry Earles), hoping to inherit his wealth by poisoning him, and then running off with her boyfriend and circus strongman Hercules (Victor). After the film's infamous and macabre "Wedding Feast" scene (with the unforgettable chant: "Gooble Gobble! We accept her, we accept her, one of us, one of us!"), she incurs the wrath of the tight ly knit, loyal group of "nature's aberrations," including Hans' fiancee Frieda (Daisy Earles), who set out to avenge their compatriot in a truly horrifying climax that plays itself out in a muddy rainstorm. Browning had run away to join the circus when he was 16 years old, influencing his work, and had directed two other circus-related films: The Show (1927) and The Unknown (1927). After this film, Browning's career would never be the same - he directed only a few more films through 1939 before retiring. No Academy Award Nominations. The Freshman (1925) Starring: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Brooks Benedict, James Anderson, Pat Harmon, Hazel Keener, Joseph Harrington Directors: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor In this silent film satire of college life (aka C ollege Days), bespectacled Harold Lloyd plays the naive, awkward, nerdy Harold 'Speedy' Lamb who goes off to college, dressing and copying the behavior of characters in the movie The College Hero. With youthful optimism, he dreams of becoming the most popular guy on campus and a major football star, but he lacks any apparent talent. After he embarrasses himself during football tryouts, the tough but pitying coach (Harmon) makes him the team's water boy - and the tackle dummy. Harold is under the mistaken impression that he is on the team, and ignorant that he is the butt of jokes. His love interest and dream-girl is a co-ed named Peggy (Ralston) and there's the stereotypical college cad (Benedict). The most memorable scene in the film is the hilarious, clima ctic championship football game where Harold finally gets to play after every other substitute player has been injured and removed from the game. The football game climax was used again as the opening sequence of Lloyd's and Preston Sturges' film Mad Wednesday (1947), aka The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. The Harold Lloyd Trust claimed that Disney's film The Waterboy (1998) with Adam Sandler was a direct copy of this Lloyd film, and there are resemblances to Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School (1986). Lloyd had previously done hundreds of comedic silent shorts, mostly as his famous characters Lonesome Luke and Willie Work, but his career was overshadowed by silent greats Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton (Keaton's College (1927) has some of the same plot points as this film). His stunt work in Safety Last (1923) remains memorable, however -- especially the scene in which he climbs the side of a skyscraper and hangs from a clock face by its hands.

Full Metal Jacket (1987) Starring: Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey Director: Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick's thought-provoking Vietnam War film was partly based on Gustav Hasford's 1979 book The Short Timers, and followed in the footsteps of Kubrick's other anti-war films: Paths of Glory (1957) and Dr. Strangelove, Or: (1964). This was Kubrick's first film after The Shining (1980), and it made an underappreciated appearance the year after Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) won Best Picture. Kubrick's film was unsuccessful at the box office -- lost in the spate of mostly Vietnam-related war films that came out in Platoon's wake, including Heartbreak Ridge (1986) (about the invasion of Grenada), Hamburger Hill (1987), The Hanoi Hilton (1987), Casualties of War (1989), 84 Charlie Mopic (1989), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). A two-part drama, the first part of the film takes place at Parris Island training -boot camp in S. Carolina (although the entire film was shot in England), where drill instructor Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (Ermey, a former, real life Marine sergeant) transforms young Marine cadets into killing machines with twisted sentiments, and verbal, psychological, and physical abuse and torment. The first half climaxes with a chilling, dehumanizing bathroom scene between Hartman, Private Leonard Lawrence (dubbed "Gomer Pyle") (D'Onofrio) - an overweight, misfit cadet driven insane by Hartman's bullying, and Private J.T. Davis (dubbed "Joker") (Modine), who is caught between them. "Joker," a cynical Stars & Stripes military correspondent/journalist, is the bridge to the second half of the film on the nightmarish, violent front lines within Hue City - a cool, unemotional look at urban warfare on the eve of the 1968 Tet Offensive at the turning point of the war. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Adapted Screenplay--Stanley Kubrick.

G Gaslight (1944) Starring: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Dame May Whitty, Angela Lansbury Director: George Cukor Aka The Murder in Thornton Square, this is a superb, definitive psychological suspense thriller from 'woman's director' George Cukor. [Previous Cukor films that were similar as period dramas included Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), and Camille (1936).] This lavish and glossy MGM film, with authentic Victorian-era production design, was a remake of a taut and subtle film made five years earlier in Great Britain. This earlier version, starring a very sinister Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard, was directed by Thorold Dickinson and released in the US as both Gaslight and Angel Street (1940). Both versions were adapted from Patrick Hamilton's long-running, London staged play-melodrama, originally titled Angel Street. The film's plot, faithfully adapted by its screenwriters, is about a diabolical, Victorian criminal husband Gregory Anton (Boyer playing against type) who systematically and methodically attempts to torment and drive mad his bedeviled, shy young wife Paula Alquist (Bergman), while in pursuit of hidden jewels. Bergman was very effective in the role of the vulnerable woman, who becomes helpless as she experiences a debilitating nervous breakdown and near insanity, until saved by her romantic admirer - a suspicious Scotland Yard detective Brian Cameron (Cotten). The film's impressive photography is expressionistic, shadowy, and menacing - as befits the film's ominous plot. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Charles Boyer, Best Supporting Actress--Angela Lansbury (in her film debut), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography. Academy Awards: 2, Best Actress--Ingrid Bergman (with her first of three Oscars), Best B/W Art Direction/Interior Decoration. Glory (1989) Starring: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Jihmi Kennedy, Andre Braugher Director: Edward Zwick One of the very best, fact-based Civil war films, and based upon the historical novels Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard. It depicts the overlooked but brave and distinguished participation of all-volunteer, African-American soldiers on the side of the Union in the first all-black 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (composed of runaway slaves and northern "freemen"). The film was based on the letters of the 600-man regiment's idealistic, 25-year old white commander, Robert Gould Shaw (Broderick) from a privileged, abolitionistic family in Boston. The film focuses on the hard training and the troops' battle to earn credibility with prejudiced military authorities to actually demonstrate their

courage and determination during combat. The movie climaxes with their final, suicidal assault in 1863 on the impregnable Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina - it fails but ultimately turned the tide of the war. The film also features strong performances by Denzel Washington (in a star-making role) as bitter, ex-slave recruit Pvt. Trip, Morgan Freeman (as Sgt. Major John Rawlins), and Cary Elwes (as Major Cabot Forbes), as well as a Grammy -winning, powerful score by James Horner accompanied by The Harlem Boys Choir. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Art/Set Decoration, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 3, Best Supporting Actor--Denzel Washington, Best Cinematography (Freddie Francis), Best Sound Editing. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach Director: Sergio Leone The third and final installment (but actual a prequel) in under-rated Italian director Sergio Leone's The Man with No Name epic trilogy, this is perhaps the best -known "spaghetti western" of all-time. 'The Man with No Name' was Eastwood's star-making role, after appearances in the previous A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965). Elements of his character can be found in his later anti -hero cop "Dirty" Harry Callahan character in Dirty Harry (1971). As with Leone's other westerns, this film is viciously violent and machismo in tone, but buoyed by the classic, instantly-recognizable, twanging Ennio Morricone score. In this sweeping, stylistic, and operatic film, The Man with No Name (but dubbed Blondie) (Eastwood) is the unsmiling anti hero "Good" guy, Angel Eyes Sentenza (Van Cleef) serves as the vile and ruthless "Bad" guy, and Tuco Ramirez (Wallach) provides the greedy, talkative, clownish and self-centered "Ugly". With very little dialogue, lots of closeups, and vast widescreen landscapes, the film's plot, set during the Civil War, concerns the acquisition of a treasure chest of $20 0,000 in stolen Confederate gold buried in a grave at a faraway location. All three of the main characters, basically amoral, anti social bounty hunters, outlaws, and murderers, are forced to form an uneasy partnership or alliance, leading to the film's climactic graveyard shootout in which the opportunistic desperados find themselves facing off one last time for the fortune. [In 2003, a special restored and extended English language version, almost three hours in length with about 15 minutes of previously-cut scenes, was released that used the original Italian release cut, with Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach dubbing in their voices to scenes that were cut from the USA release.] No Academy Award Nominations. The Great Dictator (1940) Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Jack Oakie, Paulette Goddard, Reginald Gardiner Director: Charlie Chaplin In his first full "talkie" (in a film similar to the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933)) and his most financiallysuccessful film, Chaplin plays a dual role as: (1) Adenoid Hynkel, the great dictator of the film's title - the power-mad, despotic ruler and Fooey (Fuhrer) of the fictional European nation of Tomania, and (2) an unnamed, humble, amnesiac Jewish barber (with some resemblance to Chaplin's Little Tramp character who was retired at the end of Modern Times (1936)) who returns years after being a soldier in World War I to discover that his long-abandoned shop is now part of the Jewish ghetto, occupied by thuggish Aryan stormtroopers of the Double Cross (rather than a swastika). The Jewish barber is mistaken for the country's tyrannical dictator Hynkel, who is obviously a mocking satire of Adolf Hitler, complete with his squared -off mustache and Nazi-ish uniform. An additional burlesque portrait of Italy's tyrannical Benito Mussolini is in the character of Benzino Napaloni (Oakie), Dictator of the rival country of Bacteria. The film's message was made even more powerful by the satire, making fun of their demagoguery, fascism and anti-Semitism. Chaplin's bold and controversial parody, with its social and political commentary, was banned in occupied Europe, South America and Ireland. Some believed that Chaplin was trivializing the Nazi's violent rise to power; however, the film had entered production in 1938, when most Americans viewed Adolf Hitler as an ally (not an enemy), and were opposed to entering WWII. It was released before the United States' entry into World War II (in 1941) and before knowledge of the Holocaust. One of the film's most famous scenes is Hynkel playing with an inflated balloon-globe of Planet Earth in a graceful, ballet-like sequence; also the pudding scene, and the one of the barber shaving a customer in time to a radio broadcast of Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5. The most powerful moment is when the barber (disguised as Hynkel) delivers a six-minute impassioned monologue (often interpreted as Chaplin's own plea) at the end of the film for peace, hope, human rights, understanding and world tolerance. The film earned Chaplin three Oscar nominations. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Charlie Chaplin, Best Supporting Actor-Jack Oakie, Best Screenplay--Charlie Chaplin, Best Score.

Groundhog Day (1993) Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky Director: Harold Ramis Self-centered, pompous and cynical Pittsburgh weatherman Phil Connors (Murray) is forced to repeat his most unfavorite day, Groundhog Day (February 2nd), over and over again in this hysterically-funny, allegorical romantic fantasy-comedy. His assignment, for the sixth year, is to cover the famous Punxsutawney (PA) Phil -- the "official" groundhog -- a furry animal that predicts if Spring will hav e to wait another six weeks if it sees its own shadow. The thought-provoking story line by co-scriptwriter Danny Rubin, a meaningful existential thesis, was more or less a version of the Oscar -nominated, live-action short film 12:01 PM (1990) by Jonathan Heap, which was later expanded into a feature-length, science-fiction TV film titled 12:01 (1993), directed by Jack Sholder. The exact reason for the countless time-warp loop is never explained as the same day endlessly repeats itself, not even interrupted by Connors' numerous deaths and suicide attempts. As an Everyman stuck in repeating time, Phil's reaction to his situation moves from disbelief and denial, to annoyance and then anger, to chicanery and lustfulness, to despair and depression, and then to bargaining and finally to acceptance and philanthropy, as exemplified by his repeated dealings with the supremely annoying insurance salesman named "Needlenose" Ned Ryerson (Tobolowsky). Perhaps Murray's own Phil must remove the shadow from his own life, change his behavior, and become a better person before he can continue it. His relentless deja-vu experiences gradually change him from a grouch to a decent human being. Perhaps his life's wake-up call and endless reincarnations assist him in perfectly winning the heart of beautiful TV producer Rita (MacDowell). The comedy was part of a series of Bill Murray -starring comedies in the early 1990's, including Quick Change (1990) (which he also co-directed), Frank Oz' What About Bob? (1991), and Mad Dog and Glory (1993). Groundhog Day had fair box-office business and earned good reviews, but was completely overlooked by the Academy. No Academy Award Nominations.

H Halloween (1978) Starring: Donald Pleasance, Jamie Lee Curtis Director: John Carpenter A genuinely scary, stylistic and tasteful, extremely well -crafted slasher/horror classic from young film director/writer John Carpenter, with the tagline: "The Night HE Came Home!" The efficiently -suspenseful, surprise hit film, with a jarring musical theme, grossed over $60 million - and became one of the most successful independent films ever made. This PG-rated, low-budget film (filmed in only twenty days) invented many of the "slasher" film cliches (along with i ts predecessors: George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), the big-budget The Exorcist (1973), and Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)), but also paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) in the initial murder of the film. The film told about a psychotic, criminally-insane murderer, Michael Myers, who was on a homicidal rampage after escape from an institution, and on Halloween night terrorized his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois. It also launched the career of Jamie Lee Curtis (dubbed the "Scream Queen") in her film debut, as resourceful, teenaged baby-sitter Laurie who is terrorized in a house, and starred Donald Pleasance as the obsessed psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (the name of the boyfriend character in Psycho (1960)) in pursuit. Unfortunately, the serial killer slasher film spawned many run -of-the-mill inferior sequels of its own, a nd other imitation films (When a Stranger Calls (1979), Don't Go In The House (1980), Friday the 13th (1980) and its numerous sequels, He Knows You're Alone (1980), Prom Night (1980), Graduation Day (1981) and Happy Birthday to Me (1981), and more with the character names of Jason and Freddy). No Academy Award Nominations. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Starring: Barbara Hershey, Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Max Von Sydow, Woody Allen, Carrie Fisher, Julie Kavner Director: Woody Allen Woody Allen's masterful, insightful comedy/drama about contemporary New Yorkers. This episodic film is full of vignettes woven together, and features some of the sharpest direction and writing of Allen's career. The threaded-together, multiple storylines, very typical of an ensemble film, focus on the lives of three sisters during a traditional Thanksgiving dinner gathering: the eldest sister - homemaker and 'matriarch' Hannah (Farrow), the neurotic middle sister - actress Holly (Wiest in an Oscar-winning performance), and

the emotional, free-spirited Lee (Hershey), and their relationships in mid-life crisis. There are other fully-developed characters all playing out their neuroses and lives: Hannah's ex-husband Mickey (Allen) who has a despairing obsession with death, illness, and unhappiness; older and cynical Soho artist Frederick (Von Sydow) who lives with Lee; Hannah's adulterous, financial accountant husband Elliot (Caine, also in an Oscar-winning role), who has a torrid but shallow love affair with Lee behind Hannah's and Frederick's backs; and Holly's desperate struggle to prove herself to the world. Even the peripheral characters are believable: the sisters' embittered show business parents (O'Sullivan and Nolan), Holly's best friend and rival April (Fisher), as well as Mickey's assistant and voice of reason Gail (Kavner). Although considered by some to be Allen's best work, it lost to Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) for Best Picture. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director--Woody Allen, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Supporting Actor--Michael Caine, Best Supporting Actress--Dianne Wiest, Best Original Screenplay--Woody Allen. H (continued) A Hard Day's Night (1964) Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Wilfrid Brambell Director: Richard Lester The Beatles' first charming, wacky, original and impish movie was released not long after the Fab Four's landmark debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. At first thought to be a cross-promotional exploitation of their phenomenal 'Beatlemania', even critics agreed that it was an inventive, funny and ingenious musical comedy that later helped to inspire the music video craze. Innovative American director Richard Lester used the same type of goofy humor and imaginative visuals from his earlier experimental, grainy, hand-held short film, The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1959) starring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, along with black-and-white film stock and a semi-documentary style. Screenwriter Alun Owen based his Oscar-nominated script on the group's frenzied popularity, supplemented by musical interludes of concert footage. The frantic film documents thirty-six hours of the group's life as they are on their way to London for a TV performance, marked by the memorable opening intercut to the title song - as the Liverpool group is chased by screaming, hysterical teenage girls while they board a train. The rock-and-roll stars express their charming, laid-back, and saucy personalities in this slice-of-life film that fictionalized their lives -- best exemplified during their interview scenes with their dry, playful one -liner responses (Reporter: "Are you a mod, or a rocker?" Ringo: "Um, no. I'm a mocker"). Wilfrid Brambell also plays Ringo's "very clean," eccentric grandfather who serves as the film's trouble-maker. The Academy's membership unjustly overlooked the nowclassic songs in the film's un-nominated soundtrack in favor of those from Mary Poppins ("Chim Chim Cher-ee"), Dear Heart, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Robin and the 7 Hoods ("My Kind of Town"), and Where Love Has Gone. However, George Martin, the Beatles' producer often recognized as the "Fifth Beatle," was nominated for Best Adapted Score. The Beatles as a group would later star in Help! (1965), Yellow Submarine (1968) and the documentary that showed their breakup, Let It Be (1970). Other 'British invasion' bands copied this work with their own fi lm projects, such as the Dave Clark Five's Having a Wild Weekend (aka Catch Us If You Can) (1965). The Monkees' mid-60's TV-show was also an offshoot of this film. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Original Screenplay --Alun Owen, Best Music Score--George Martin. Henry V (1944) and Henry V (1989) (tie) Starring (1944): Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks, Esmond Knight, Renee Asherson, George Robey, Leo Genn Director (1944): Laurence Olivier Starring (1989): Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Alec McCowen, Robbie Coltrane, Judi Dench, Paul Scofield, Emma Thompson Director (1989): Kenneth Branagh Two adaptations of William Shakespeare's timeless, epic play Henry V - about young, 15th century British King Henry's invasion of France, and his victory at the crucial Battle of Agincourt against a larger French force. The story has been told by these two actors/directors in highly-regarded versions separated by almost four decades: the great Laurence Olivier (with his directorial debut) and the powerful Kenneth Branagh (with his debut as both screenwriter and director). While the two films cover the same play and feature the same level of directorial ability and a similar level of acting skill by the ensemble casts surrou nding them, there is a marked difference between the films. Olivier's Technicolor epic Henry V (1944), (aka The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at

Agincourt in France), the first radical reinterpretation of the play, is mor e intimate and theatrical (the film opens on a bare Elizabethan stage, the Globe Theater, in the style of a play in the 1600s, and then expands outward from there), while Branagh's revisionistic Henry V (1989) is more dramatic, grandiose, passionate and darkly serious. Branagh's wife Emma Thompson stars as French princess Catherine of Valois, whom Henry takes as his bride. A play chiefly about royal responsibility, war and its effects, the nature of both films was deeply affected by the historical context i n which they were created -- Olivier had intended Henry V to be a rallying morale booster for Britain at the height of WWII, while Branagh's film debuted during a post-Vietnam era when there was greater cynicism about war. Both films' highlights, however, remain the same -- Henry V's pre-battle speech to his troops at the siege of Harfleur, from Act III, Scene 1, beginning with the stirring line: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our English dead," and his St. Crispin's Day address to his battle-weary men, from Act IV, Scene 3, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." Olivier was given an Honorary Oscar as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the silver screen. Academy Award Nominations (1946): 4, including Best Picture, Best Actor-Laurence Olivier, Best Color Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Best Music Score--William Walton. Academy Award Nominations (1989): 3, including Best Actor--Kenneth Branagh, Best Director--Kenneth Branagh. Academy Awards: 1, Best Costume Design (Phyllis Dalton). The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) Starring: Charles Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Maureen O'Hara, Edmond O'Brien Director: William Dieterle One of the many film adaptations of the classic Victor Hugo 'beauty and the beast' novel about a deaf, hunch-backed, outcast bellringer in the Notre Dame Cathedral tower in medieval 15th century Paris, who falls for a beautiful gypsy girl named Esmeralda (O'Hara in her first major role), amidst spiteful jealousy by villainous and sinister Chief Justice Jean Frollo (Hardwicke). This 1939 black and white film version from German expressionistic director Dieterle, the first made during the soun d era, is rivaled only by the 1923 silent version starring Lon Chaney. Charles Laughton, in arguably his best acting performance of his career, was almost unrecognizable as the disfigured and mis-shapen, but sympathetic title character named Quasimodo. One of the biggest budget films of its era, the sets are imposing, the cast is first rate, and the script is excellent, noted for it s thrilling scene of the hunchback's rescue of Esmeralda from being hanged on a scaffold, by swinging to her on a rope and whisking her back to Notre Dame, while crying "Sanctuary, Sanctuary." Also remembered for Esmeralda's offering of water to Quasimodo after a brutal public flogging in the public square, and the bellringer's heartbreaking closing line to a gargoyle atop the church: "Why was I not made of stone like thee?" Also remade as Notre Dame de Paris (1957) with Anthony Quinn in the title role, and as a 1996 Disney musical with an Oscar -nominated score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Music Score--Alfred Newman, Best Sound Recording.

I In the Heat of the Night (1967) Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Scott Wilson Director: Norman Jewison An intense whodunit detective story thriller set in the little town of Sparta, Mississippi during a hot summer, with an innovative score by Quincy Jones and title song sung by Ray Charles. Norman Jewison masterfully directed this murder melodrama from a screenplay by Stirling Silliphant that was based on John Ball's novel. The film's posters proclaimed: "They got a murder on their hands. They don't know what to do with it." The liberal-minded film, realistically-filmed by cinematographer Haskell Wexler (who had just filmed Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and would later go on to Coming Home (1978)), was a milestone for the racially-divided mid-60s because it forced the odd-couple collaboration of a bigoted but shrewd, redneck Southern sheriff named Bill Gillespie (Steiger) and a lone, intelligently -clever black homicide expert from Philadelphia named Virgil Tibbs (Poitier). The film, with a non -white actor in a lead acting role, was so controversial that it couldn't be filmed in the Deep South, so the sets were recreated in various small towns in two states: Sparta, Freeburg, and Belleville, Illinois, and Dyersburg, Tennessee. Following the success of this film, Sidney Poitier reprised his Virgil Tibbs cha racter in two other films: he investigated the murder of a prostitute in the sequel They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), and battled against a drug smuggling ring in The Organization (1971). Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Director--Norman Jewison and Best Sound Effects Editing. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Rod Steiger, Best Adapted

Screenplay--Stirling Silliphant, Best Film Editing, Best Sound. Inherit the Wind (1960) Starring: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Dick York, Donna Anderson, Harry Morgan Director: Stanley Kramer This, absorbing liberal "message" film portrays the famous and dramatic courtroom "Monkey Trial" battle (in the sultry summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee) between two famous lawyers (Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan), who heatedly argue both sides of the case. Film-maker Stanley Kramer both produced and directed this film that modified and slightly disguised the historical event by changing the names of the prototypical characters and making them fictional figures, and placing the action in fictional Hillsboro, Tennessee. Its story centers around the issue of evolution vs. creationism and the prosecution of 24 year-old Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes (in the film, Bert Cates played by Dick York) for violating state law by teaching Darwin's theories of evolution. [In fact, Scopes deliberately agreed to challenge the Tennessee legislature's statutes and become the test case for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) by teaching theories that denied the Biblical story of the divine creation of man.] The film's title was taken from the Biblical book of Proverbs 11:29: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind." Kramer's film was also designed as a protest against the repressive thinking of the 50s McCarthy era. Much of the film's story (and dialogue), written into a screenplay by Nathan E. Douglas (Nedrick Young was the blacklisted screenwriter's real name) and Harold Jaco b Smith, was based on the successful Broadway play (by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee) that first starred Paul Muni and Ed Begley. The film stars two major Oscar -winning giants and veterans of the cinema with remarkable career-high performances - Spencer Tracy (as Darrow- Henry Drummond) and Fredric March (as Bryan - Matthew Harrison Brady) - who had never before acted together in a film. And Gene Kelly, cast against type, plays cynical newspaper columnist E. K. Hornbeck, a character based on the acid-penned writer/reporter H. L. Mencken. The film was remade three times on television, in 1965, 1988 and 1999. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Actor--Spencer Tracy, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Film Editing.

J Jailhouse Rock (1957) Starring: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Vaughn Taylor, Jennifer Holden, Dean Jones, Anne Neyland Director: Richard Thorpe A great black and white B-film, and considered the best, most popular, and most famous of Elvis Presley's musicals (his third film out of over 30 films from the late 50s through the 60s) - and slightly parallels the rocker's own life. Presley plays cocky, quick-tempered Vince Everett, who is serving a one-year jail sentence for accidental manslaughter. While in jail, his cellmate Hunk Houghton (Shaughnessy), a former veteran country singer, mentors him to learn guitar and sing, and persuades him to enter the prison talent show. After his release from incarceration, the budding rock star is introduced to the record business. Struggling to break into the music industry, he decides to form his own record label, and becomes an overnight sensation. After being seduced by the decadent lifestyle of a pop star, he becomes rebellious and unwilling to work with his former cellmate and Peggy Van Alden (Tyler), his loyal and pretty girlfriend/talent scout/record promoter. [Judy Tyler (formerly Princess Summerfall Winterspring on the Howdy Doody TV show) tragically died in a car crash before the film was released.] This pre-Army film is filled with Presley classics, especially the wonderfully-choreographed set piece for "Jailhouse Rock," as well as the other memorable numbers including "I Want to Be Free," "Treat Me Nice," "Baby, I Don't Care," "You're So Square," and the two tender ballads: "Young and Beautiful" and "Don't Leave Me Now." Presley's most memorable films also include Love Me Tender (1956), King Creole (1958), G.I. Blues (1960), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). No Academy Award Nominations.

JFK (1991) Starring: Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Gary Oldman Director: Oliver Stone A controversial, speculatively revisionistic, historical epic surrounding onetime New Orleans DA Jim Garrison's (Costner) investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. Director/co-writer Oliver Stone based his intriguing interpretation in this docu-film thriller on the well publicized and alleged conspiracy theories of the obsessed attorney about the mystery of the death, based upon the testimony of a number of unreliable witnesses. This complex, provocative courtroom film features a cavalcade of stars, with cameos and supporting roles by such actors as Tommy Lee Jones (in an Oscar-nominated role as Clay Shaw, the CIA agent whom Garrison charges with the murder of Kennedy), Joe Pesci, Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Donald Sutherland (as the mysterious "X"), Laurie Metcalf, Walter Matthau, John Candy, Vincent D'Onofio, Sally Kirkland, Ed Asner, Kevin Bacon, Wayne Knight, Michael Rooker, Gary Oldman (as accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald), and Garrison himself as Justice Earl Warren. Stone employs innovative, masterful and impressive film editing (with quick cuts and use of various film stocks) through the work of Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia (who won Oscars), and he creates, through gripping cinematography, a tense, kinetic atmosphere that mirrors the whirlwind of memories, incidents and scenarios that play out in Garrison's mind. The trial scene in the last half of the fi lm features three very memorable segments: an analysis of the famous Zapruder film, the scornful rejection of the Magic Bullet theory, and Garrison's impassioned closing argument, finishing with him staring directly into the camera, and saying: "It's up to you." The movie also features stirring music by John Williams that accentuates the emotional themes. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor--Tommy Lee Jones, Best Director--Oliver Stone, Best Adapted Screenplay--Oliver Stone & Zachary Sklar, Best Original Score--John Williams, Best Sound Editing. Academy Awards: 2, Best Editing, Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson).

K Key Largo (1948) Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor Director: John Huston An intelligent, exciting, theatrical, but moody, downbeat crime drama/thriller (and melodramatic film noir) about a bullying, fugitive gangster Johnny Rocco (Robinson), who is on-the-run with fellow mobsters and his alcoholic lush moll and ex-nightclub singer, Gaye Dawn (Trevor). In a Florida Keys hotel in the off -season during a violent, tropical hurricane, the snarling Rocco waits for counterfeit money, prepares to flee to Cuba, and holds the various residents hostage: Frank McCloud (Bogart), a disillusioned, returning warscarred veteran who is visiting the newly-widowed Nora Temple (Bacall) and her wheelchair-bound fatherin-law and hotel manager James Temple (Barrymore) - the father of his friend that died under his WWII command in Italy. Adapted from Maxwell Anderson's stage play by director Huston and Richard Brooks, the plot resembles Bogart's earlier film The Petrified Forest (1936). Bogart and Bacall would never star together again on the big screen, after having previously worked together in the classic films To Have and Have Not (1942) (which Key Largo resembled in its dark tone), The Big Sleep (1946), Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946), and Dark Passage (1947). Huston also directed Bogart in, among other films, The Maltese Falcon (1942), The African Queen (1951) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Academy Awards: 1, Best Supporting Actress--Claire Trevor. The Kid (1921) Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance Director: Charlie Chaplin Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film (six reels) as a director. A sentimental, charming semi autobiographical tale with both humor and pathos about Chaplin's famous Little Tramp character adopting an abandoned infant from a woman "whose sin was motherhood." An inter-title stated that it's "a picture with a smile and perhaps, a tear." After the Little Tramp unsuccessfully tries to find a home for the child, he assumes responsibility, raises him for five years, and teaches the kid (Coogan) to survive on the streets as a con artist. [Coogan, discovered in vaudeville in Los Angeles and one of the biggest child stars of the era, would later become Uncle Fester on the television show The Addams Family.] Later, the desperate unwed mother (Purviance) seeks to regain custody through social welfare workers in a heartwrenching, melodramatic moment. Along with

hysterical slapstick humor in various bits, the most engaging part is the fantasy dream sequence in which the Tramp sits on a doorway stoop and dreams of a blissful, happier life in Heaven, with the poor transformed into white winged angels. [One of the flirtatious "temptress angels" is 12 year-old Lita Grey, Chaplin's second wife four years later due to pregnancy.] Chaplin would continue making silent films well beyond the advent of "talkies" until his first full -length sound picture The Great Dictator (1940). Fifty years after the film's original release, Chaplin composed an original orchestral musical score f or the film, and re-edited the film by deleting about 6 minutes of scenes (involving the character of the kid's mother). The Killing (1956) Starring: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook, Jr., Timothy Carey Director: Stanley Kubrick A stylish film noir crime drama, and the definitive heist-caper movie - Kubrick's third film and first successful one, although highly under-rated when released. The tale is about a desperate gang of anti-hero misfits and lowlifes (in an ensemble cast) led by a grim, determined, and rece ntly-released-from-jail con Johnny Clay (Hayden). The group devises and executes a complex, carefully-timed racetrack heist of $2 million - that goes terribly wrong, similar to Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950) (also with Hayden). The plan is to cause simultaneous, diversionary confusion by shooting one of the racehorses in mid-race and instigating a bar fight, thereby allowing Johnny to rob the main track offices and seize the day's takings. The gang includes racetrack teller George Peatty (Cook), a pathetic wimp and loser who is easily tricked by his devious, scheming femme fatale wife Sherry (Windsor) into revealing the details of the heist to pass to her adulterous lover Val Cannon (Edwards, the future doctor Ben Casey on a TV series), who plans to take the loot at the rendezvous point once the robbery has been accomplished. The entire movie is presented non-chronologically in a winding fashion (with flashforwards and flashbacks), and played out in a series of tense, black-comedy scenes with swift transitions. The doom-laden, voice-over dialogue was derived from Lionel White's novel Clean Break. The film has influenced many heist films, including the original Ocean's Eleven (1960) (also remade in 2001). With excellent cinematography by Lucien Ballard, but ignored completely by the Academy, although this work would influence filmmakers for decades after - most notably Guy Ritchie and crime drama auteur Quentin Tarantino and his film Reservoir Dogs. No Academy Award Nominations. The King of Comedy (1983) Starring: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard, Shelley Hack Director: Martin Scorsese Scorsese's original, under-appreciated dark comedy - a stark contrast to his own Taxi Driver (1976), about the bizarre relationship between stardom, the cult of celebrity, and violence-prone wannabe obsessed fans, similar to Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957). With Robert De Niro (in h is fourth film with Scorsese) as a wimpy, aspiring stand-up comedian named Rupert Pupkin, a man in his mid-30's who still lives with his mother (only heard off-screen). The untalented and self-deluded Rupert worships fame and is determined to become a celebrity. He is totally obsessed with late -night talk show host Jerry Langford (Lewis, playing the role absolutely straight in his best dramatic role ever), a Johnny Carson -esque character (the part was originally written for Johnny Carson), and stalks his 'l ove' object at his show. He brazenly appears unannounced at Langford's country estate with an embarrassed date-friend Rita (Abbott, De Niro's wife at the time). Later, with the help of an equally deranged, amorous fan and talk-show groupie Masha (Bernhard, who won Best Supporting Actress with the National Society of Film Critics), Rupert kidnaps Langford and demands as ransom that he get to do the opening monologue one night on Langford's show, and be named the new "King of Comedy." Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Zimmerman manage to pull off a story that is not only chilling and spooky, but geniunely funny, yet the film was so far ahead of its ti me that it flopped at the box-office upon release. The film garnered numerous acclaims and awards in foreign countries, such as five BAFTA nominations for De Niro, Lewis, Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker (for Best Editing) and Zimmerman, who won Best Original Screenplay. No Academy Award Nominations.

Kings Row (1942) Starring: Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Betty Field, Claude Rains, Nancy Coleman, Charles Coburn Director: Sam Wood A thought-provoking, emotional, melodramatic, 'Peyton Place'-like film with a turn-of-the-century, smalltown setting that reveals evil, sadism, cruelty, and depravity. Directed by Sam Wood and with James Wong Howe's cinematography and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's magnificently rich score, the tragic Warner Bros. film presents a compelling, penetrating and difficult story with elo quence and power. Wood had previously directed two Marx Brothers films, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), Our Town (1940), Kitty Foyle (1940), Raffles (1940), and The Devil and Miss Jones (1941). Its screenplay by Casey Robinson was based upon Henry Bellamann's widelyread, scandalous 1940 novel of small-town life at the turn of the century. The film's tagline commented on the nature of the town: "The town they talk of in whispers." The film's main characters were or iginally five childhood friends, including an idealistic young doctor Parris Mitchell (Cummings), a pretty tomboyish working class girl Randy Monaghan (Sheridan), the neurotic sheltered daughter Cassie (Field) of the town's Dr. Alexander Tower (Rains), the daughter Louise Gordon (Coleman) of a sadistic, morally-righteous doctor (Coburn), and playboy Drake McHugh (Reagan in his best film role), with the unforgettable scene of his realization that his legs have been amputated and his exclamation: "Where's the rest of me?" -- this would become the title of 40th President Reagan's 1965 autobiography. The Hays Code of 1934 required that much of the questionable, unfilmable content of the novel be modified - eliminating or seriously muting subjects such as illicit premarital sex, homosexuality, a sadistic and vengeful surgeon, and father-daughter incest leading to a murdersuicide. The wartime film's nominations all lost to William Wyler's Mrs. Miniver (1942). Academy Award Nominations: 3, including: Best Picture, Best Director--Sam Wood, Best B/W Cinematography. K (continued) Koyaanisqatsi (1983) Director: Godfrey Reggio A powerful, unconventional, experimental and provocative script-less, actor-less, and dialogue-less film (except for the chanting of Hopi prophecy at the end), from director Godfrey Reggio - his first attempt at a feature-length narrative film. Considered both revolutionary and pretentious, this unique work with incredible, expert time-lapse photography is insightful about humankind and our relationship to nature, and explores the world in ways we usually never see due to our limited perceptions. The title was taken from a Hopi Indian word, meaning, among other things, "Life (a world) out of balance." This hypnotic, multimedia film supported by both Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas illustrates the collision of the natural world with urban, technological life and civilization. Koyaanisqatsi features images and scenes that are truly haunting and linger long after the film is over, like the empty shells of the Pruitt-Igoe housing in St. Louis, the alternating shots between satellite photos of human cities and the landscapes of micro-chip circuitry, and the final shot of a V2 rocket exploding, as the camera follows the free-fall of a charred chunk to the ground. Clouds over the Grand Canyon appear as roiling waves of a white ocean, or reflected in a towering skyscraper, and city streets with streaks of brake lights from commuter's vehicles look like blood vessels in the circulatory system. Phil ip Glass' stunningly creative, minimalist score plays as large a part as the cinematography (by Ron Fricke), and beautifully complements this artistic film. Followed by two sequels in a Qatsi trilogy, of sorts: the equally powerful Powaqqatsi (1988) (life in transformation) focusing on Third World countries, and the lesser Naqoyqatsi (2003) (life as war). No Academy Award Nominations.

L. A. Confidential (1997) Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny De Vito, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin Directors: Curtis Hanson A gritty, violent, thrilling film noirish tale of sex, conspiracy, scandal, double -cross and betrayal, racism and corruption in early 1950's LA, committed by the police, politicians, and the press. The film pays homage to Robert Towne's earlier noir-based film Chinatown (1974) set in the same City of Angels, and the classics The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The Big Sleep (1946). Based on a thriller novel by James Ellroy, the film is about the intertwining lives of three very diverse LAPD officers (in an ensemble cast) who use incompatible methods while tackling a multiple murder scene at the all-night diner the Night Owl. Brutal, hot-tempered tough cop Bud Smith (Crowe) uses muscle and violence, while moralistic, clean -cut, college-educated rookie Ed Exley (Pearce) is lawabiding, idealistic, and does everything "by the book." A third narcotics cop, smooth Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Spacey) moonlights as a technical advisor for a sleazy Dragnet-style TV cop show and provides scandal-fodder for celebrity tabloid magazine Hush-Hush (headed by amoral editor-in-chief Sid Hudgens (De Vito) whose trademark closing line for all articles is: "You heard it here first, off the record, on the 'QT', and very hush -hush"). All three are overseen by sinister Captain Dudley Smith (Cromwell), who seems resigned to the corruption in the city and in his own police force. Kim Basinger, in a supporting Oscar-winning role, plays high-class femme fatale Lynn Bracken (a Veronica Lake look-alike through surgical enhancements) who works for a pornographer (Strathairn) who hires out celebrity look-alike prostitutes. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture, Best Director--Curtis Hanson, Best Cinematography--Dante Spinotti, Best Original Dramatic Score--Jerry Goldsmith, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction -Set Decoration, Best Sound Editing. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Supporting Actress--Kim Basinger, Best Adapted Screenplay--Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland. The Lady From Shanghai (1948) Starring: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, Ted de Corsia Director: Orson Welles Welles' imaginative, complicated, unsettling film noir who -dun-it thriller - a B/W tale of betrayal, lust, greed and murder. With fascinating visuals and tilting compositions, luminous and brilliant camerawork (by Charles Lawton, Jr.), and numerous sub-plots and confounding plot twists. Orson Welles served as director, producer, screenplay writer, and actor, and based his screenplay upon Sherwood King's 1938 novel If I Die Before I Wake. The moody film, originally titled Take This Woman and then Black Irish, was made when major stars Orson Welles and sexy Rita Hayworth (with dyed and bobbed bleached-blonde hair) in her last film under contract to Columbia Pictures) were still married although estranged and drifting apart. Poor Irish seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles), after rescuing Mrs. Elsa 'Rosalie' Bannister (Hayworth) and becoming mesmerized by her - the enigmatic wife of a crippled San Francisco trial lawyer named Arthur Bannister (Sloane), he joins her yachting cruise as a crew member from New York to San Francisco (via the Panama Canal), and finds himself embroiled in a love affair and a mysterious plot (to kill Bannister's creepy business partner George Grisby (Anders)) that turns deadly and implicates him in murder. [The numerous close-ups of Rita Hayworth in the film were later added by Welles in Hollywood upon orders of the studio, to lend strength to her 'star' power.] The film, told through O'Hara's narration, was shot on locations inc luding Acapulco, San Francisco, and at Columbia Studios sets, and features numerous classic set-pieces including: the aquarium scene, and the funhouse and Hall of Mirrors shoot-out climax. Ultimately, the film's length was severely cut down by one hour, creating an almost incomprehensible, discontinuous, cryptic patchwork from numerous retakes and substantial edits. Although it was filmed in late 1946 and finished in early 1947, it wasn't released until late in 1948. The film was mostly ignored - it failed both at the box-office and as a critical success. This was Welles' last Hollywood film until the making of Touch of Evil (1958) ten years later. No Academy Award Nominations. The Last Emperor (1987) Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, Vivian Wu Director: Bernardo Bertolucci One of the most successful films ever, Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci's lavish epic biography of Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty of China (the "Lord of ten thousand years and Son of Heaven") before the Communist revolution deposed him. Based in part on Pu Yi's autobiography, From Emperor to Citizen, Bertolucci garnered unprecedented support and permission from the Chinese government, something no other Western film company had received since 1949. This was the first film ever to be shot in the Forbidden City in the People's Republic of China, aside from the Lucy Jarvis documentary Forbidden City (1973). The grand, sweeping, character-driven story, told through flashbacks, follows the bittersweet life of the boy

emperor born in 1906, who first sat in the Dragon Throne at the age of three -- memorably depicted by the imagery of the scene in which the restless young boy leaps up and pushes away a billowing yellow drapery - and sees thousands of his loyal costumed eunuch-servants bowing before him. He was literally a puppet - imprisoned within the gilded walls of the Forbidden City, and never allowed to leave its gates. In 1912, at the age of 7, he formally abdicated the throne, and remained a powerless figurehead Emperor, receiving tutoring from Scottish Reginald Johnston (O'Toole) in the ways of the West. In 1924 during a period of civil war, he was ousted from the Forbidden City (along with his opium-addicted empress Wan Jung (Chen) and official consort Wen Hsiu (Mei)) and moved to his native, Japanese-controlled Manchuria, where he served as a puppet emperor backed by the Japanese. After World War II, he was held prisoner as a pro-Japanese war criminal - first by the Russians, and then by the Communist Chinese for ten years, until being freed at the dawn of the Cultural Revolution. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, as a dispassionate young adult (Lone), Pu Yi wears Western clothes and wistfully croons "Am I Blue" - a silent cry for salvation from his boredom and entrapment. By film's end, his new life as a lowly gardener in Peking in the late 1960s is finally happy and free, and in a poignant scene as an elderly man, he revisits the Forbidden City, now open to tourists. One of the few films that won all of its Academy Award nominations. Academy Awards: 9, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay--Bernardo Bertolucci, Best Music Score, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro), Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing. Last Tango in Paris (1972) Starring: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Laud Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial, landmark X-rated film initiated a trend for arthouse films to include explicit erotic content. It told about a primal sexual affair between middle -aged, bitter and grieving hotel owner Paul (Brando in his seventh and last Best Actor-nominated role) whose wife had committed suicide and a 20-year old French student Jeanne (Schneider) who was engaged to be married to Tom (Laud), a film director who was making a cinema verite film about her. Upon meeting in an apartment both are looking to rent, Paul forces himself violently on Jeanne sexually, bordering on rape, and begins a torrid, sexually perverse but anonymous 'no questions asked' affair with her (they don't know each other's names) that becomes increasingly vile, unromantic and scatological. His set of rules was notable for the time: "We are going to forget everything we knew - everything". The pure sexual nature of their relationship included the bathtub washing scene and the infamous, disturbing, and explicit sodomy (butter-lubricated anal sex) scene on the floor ("Get the butter"). Later, Paul reciprocated by letting Jeanne penetrate him anally with her fingers - part of his objective to "look death right in the face...go right up into the ass of death... till you find the wom b of fear." Predictably, the film ended with his violent death on the balcony when she shot him with her father's gun. The film remains the sole still mature rated (X, NC-17) film to earn Oscar nominations, alongside Ellen Burstyn's Oscar nomination for Requiem for a Dream (2000). (Midnight Cowboy (1969) and The Exorcist (1973) were subsequently re-rated as R.) Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Actor--Marlon Brando, Best Director--Bernardo Bertolucci. The Letter (1940) Starring: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Gale Sondergaard, David Newell, Victor Sen Yung Director: William Wyler A classic melodramatic film noir of murder and deceit, effectively directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Howard Koch was based on W. Somerset Maugham's mid-1920s London stage play (with Gladys Cooper in the lead role). Then, it was a Broadway play that opened in 1927 (with Katharine Cornell), followed by Paramount Studios' talkie of the same name in 1929 with Academy-Award nominated Jeanne Eagels (in her sound film debut) as the female protagonist. [It was the first full -length feature made at Paramount's Long Island studio.] The film's startling opening scene occurs on a moonlight night on the grounds of a Malaysian rubber plantation. The wife of the plantation owner, Leslie Crosbie (Davis) trails after Geoffrey Hammond (Newell) as he staggers from the bungalow's porch, and pumps bullets into his body. She claims to her faithful, longsuffering husband Robert (Marshall) that Hammond, an old family friend, took advantage of her and that she acted in selfdefense, but when lawyer Howard Joyce (Stephenson) is hired to defend her, a letter surfaces and reveals her real motives. One of the trailers for the film provocatively asked: "What are the forbidden secrets in the letter? What is the strange spel l that made this woman defy the unwritten law of the Orient?" Hammond's Eurasian widow (Sondergaard) uses the letter as part of a $10,000 blackmail scheme, demands a personal apology, and seeks the ultimate revenge. This great Bette Davis/Warner Bros. picture was positioned between the star's All This and Heaven Too (1940) and The Great Lie (1941).

Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actress--Bette Davis, Best Supporting Actor--James Stephenson, Best Director--William Wyler, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Original Score--Max Steiner, Best Film Editing. The Lion in Winter (1968) Starring: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton, Jane Merrow Director: Anthony Harvey An historical, dramatic tale of dysfunctional family intrigue set in the court of British King Henry II (O'Toole) in 1183, from James Goldman's sharply written screenplay (adapted from his own play). Ten years earlier, Henry II had imprisoned his wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (Hepburn, who won her third of four acting Oscars), as punishment for helping precipitate a civil war against him. His three treacherous sons who are also vying for the British throne consist of the eldest, the legendary and fiery Prince Richard the Lionhearted (Hopkins in his film debut), the quiet but dangerous middle son Prince Geoffrey (Castle), and the youngest, the manipulative and thieving scoundrel Prince John (Terry). The three sons and estranged wife Eleanor are summoned by Henry to the castle for a Christmas family reunion in Chinon, France. He has decided to name one of his three sons as his heir to the throne. Adding to the intrigue and plotting of who will be favored (Henry favors John, while Eleanor favors Richard), the teenaged but cunning monarch King Philip II of France (Dalton in his film debut) is also invited, with his older sister Princess Alais (Merrow) - Henry's mistress. The film shines with the performances and dialogue between the two leads: 36-year old O'Toole as the 50 year-old monarch, and 61 year-old Hepburn as his younger wife. A cable television remake, The Lion in Winter (2003) starred Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Peter O'Toole, Best Director--Anthony Harvey, Best Costume Design. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Actress--Katharine Hepburn, Best Original Score--John Barry, Best Adapted Screenplay--James Goldman. (Note: Hepburn shared the Best Actress Oscar with Barbra Streisand, who tied Hepburn with her performance in Funny Girl (1968).)

M A Man For All Seasons (1966) Starring: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, Susannah York, Nigel Davenport, John Hurt, Vanessa Redgrave Director: Fred Zinnemann The verbose, stagy, yet superb screen adaptation and historical period piece by Robert Bolt and Constance Willis from Bolt's own stage play about the honorable Sir Thomas More (Scofield reprising his stage role in an Oscar-winning performance), Lord Chancellor of England, in a clash of ideals with King Henry VIII (Shaw, also Oscar-nominated). In the morality play of the conflict between church and state, More's unflinching faithfulness to the Catholic Church forces him to refuse to acknowledge the petulant king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon to marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn (an unbilled Redgrave), and subsequent creation of the Anglican Church of England. When the stubborn king breaks with papal Rome, the steadfastly-principled, strictly-ethical, and pious More resigns his chancellorship, which eventually leads to his imprisonment and execution in the Tower of London for his disapproving silence and continual refusal to accept the new Church. In one scene, More defends himself in a Westminster court to a jury handpicked by Henry VIII, and is betrayed by the traitorous Master Richard Rich (Hurt), while Cardinal Wolsey (Welles) chides More for his foolish rectitude. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Supporting Actor-Robert Shaw, Best Supporting Actress--Wendy Hiller. Academy Awards: 6, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Paul Scofield, Best Director--Fred Zinnemann, Best Adapted Screenplay--Robert Bolt, Best Color Cinematography--Ted Moore, Best Color Costume Design.

The Man Who Would Be King (1975) Starring: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Shakira Caine Director: John Huston An old-fashioned, rousing costume adventure film and morality tale told in flashback from writer/director John Huston and based on Anglo-Indian novelist Rudyard Kipling's (Plummer) short story tale. [Huston had originally wanted to make the film in the 1940s, with Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable in the lead roles as soldiers of fortune.] Shot on location in Morocco, it is about two roguish British soldiers -adventurers, Peachy Carnehan (Caine) and Daniel Dravot (Connery) at the turn of the century who set out from Raj-ruled India. While serving as military officers in the remote city of Kafiristan in E. Afghanistan (a province now called Nuristan), the pair are mistaken for gods or kings by the people in the priest cult, when an arrow from a renegade attack strikes Daniel's chest, but he survives without injury. Rather than actually being immortal, the arrow struck his bandolier and failed to penetrate into his flesh and wound him. The natives believe him to be the incarnation of Alexander the Great, and Daniel himself begins to arrogantly believe in his own divinity, and his right to take their rich royal treasu res from the holy city of Sikandergul. Peachy, on the other hand, suspects that eventually their fraud will be found out, and attempts to get Daniel to give up the delusion and leave before calamity strikes. But Daniel insists on taking a native wife named Roxanne (Shakira Caine, Michael's real-life wife in her screen debut). The marriage turns out to be a disaster, because Roxanne, in fear of marrying a god, bites Daniel's face and draws blood - thereby exposing the two as mortals. As the two flee the city and its outraged natives, Daniel is killed when he falls to his death from a rope bridge into a deep gorge, while Peachy is caught, tortured and crucified, and left for dead. He eventually survives and returns to England where he tells his story to Rudyard Kipling. DreamWorks SKG's film version, its second feature -length animated film The Road to El Dorado (2000), with Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline, was set in Central America instead of Afghanistan. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Adapted Screenplay--John Huston & Gladys Hill, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design--Edith Head, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. Marty (1955) Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell, Karen Steele, Jerry Paris Director: Delbert Mann The poignant, simple character study of lonely, 34 year-old Marty Piletti (Borgnine in an Oscar-winning performance), an ordinary, burly, heavy-set Bronx butcher who still lives with his love-smothering, widowed Italian mother Theresa (Minciotti). It was a very different role from Borgnine's menacing, sadistic villains or murderous 'heavies' in From Here to Eternity (1953) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955). By the touching film's end, Marty and a homely, 29 year-old female wallflower and high-school teacher Clara Snyder (Blair) are liberated - both are triumphant over their respective limitations. Its most famous line of dialogue, between Marty and friend Angie (Mantell), emphasized Marty's endlessly boring despair: Angie: "What do you wanna do tonight?" Marty: "I dunno, Angie. What do you wanna do?" The film's screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky transformed his own original teleplay into a successful major motion picture - and the modest film remains one of the best examples of the cinematization of a television play. (The TV comedy-drama was originally presented on NBC-TV's "Philco-Goodyear Playhouse" series in May of 1953, with leads Rod Steiger and Nancy Marchand, during a period now recognized as the "Golden Age of Television.") As a feature film, it was one of the biggest 'sleepers' in Hollywood history, from the independent production company of Harold Hecht and actor Burt Lancaster. A modest, black and white film in an era of widescreen color epics, its critical acclaim and box-office success were phenomenal. It was the second Best Picture Oscarwinning film to also win the top prize (known as the Golden Palm (Palme d'Or)) at Cannes. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Supporting Actor--Joe Mantell, Best Supporting Actress--Betsy Blair, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director--Delbert Mann, Best Actor--Ernest Borgnine, Best Screenplay--Paddy Chayefsky. M*A*S*H (1970) Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, Gary Burghoff, John Schuck Director: Robert Altman Robert Altman's controversial, zany and satirical signature film (earning him the fir st of his five directorial Academy Award nominations), and best known as the source of the long-running television series. The countercultural, black comedy anti-war film takes place at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit during the Korean War, a thinly disguised allegory for the unpopular Vietnam War that was raging at the time. The film's characters in the ensemble cast became truly memorable: Captain Benjamin

"Hawkeye" Pierce (Sutherland), Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre (Gould), Major Margaret "Hot Lips" O'Houlihan (Kellerman in an Oscar-nominated role), moralistic Major Frank Burns (Duvall), Major Duke Forrest (Skerritt), Colonel Henry Blake (Bowen) and Corporal Walter "Radar" O'Reilly (Burghoff, the only major cast member to star in the TV series.) With little over-riding plot, the episodic film with some improvisation basically examines how the wisecracking surgeons and other unit members irreverently deal with the pressures, boredom and stupidity of wartime, by engaging in pranks and anti-authoritarian behavior. They terrorize Major Burns and sexy head nurse "Hot Lips" O'Houlihan, save the camp dentist Painless Pole (Schuck) from suicide while singing the famous theme song "Suicide Is Painless," and play in the climactic football game. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Picture, Best Director--Robert Altman, Best Supporting Actress--Sally Kellerman, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 1, Best Adapted Screenplay--blacklisted Ring Lardner, Jr. (his second after winning one for Woman of the Year (1942), often interpreted as an "apology"). The Matrix (1999) Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantaliano Co-Directors: Andy and Larry Wachowski The Wachowski Brothers' popular, imaginative, visually-stunning science-fiction action film - the first in a trilogy with inferior sequels: the somewhat successful but critically derided The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and the artificially-expanded The Matrix Revolutions (2003). A computer software company techie programmer and illegal hacker named Thomas Anderson (Reeves) (with screen name alias Neo) is contacted by the mysterious, vinyl-clad heroine Trinity (Moss) and the super-cool, messianic space-ship captain Morpheus (Fishburne) who is the leader of the rebel forces. He is told (with an Alice in Wonderland reference) via his computer: "The Matrix has you. Follow the white rabbit." Neo is informed that he is the champion or chosen one to save Mankind from a malevolent, sentient machine race, that has entrapped all of humanity, in the year 2199!, inside a computer simulation (The Matrix) dreamworld, and tricked them into believing that the simulation is reality. The Artificial Intelligence system also uses the brains and bodies of the trapped human beings as expendable "living batteries." Freed by this knowledge, Neo soon learns to take advantage of the Matrix, bending the malleable laws of physics to his will, such as impossible feats of physicality (such as running up walls or leaping impossibly high) and altering his perception so dramatically that he sees bullets in flight in order t o dodge them. The true standout of the film is the menacing Machine Army agent "Agent Smith," played with a tongue-in-cheek, edgy pseudo-serious flair by Hugo Weaving, whose mannerisms recall 1950's Cold War governmental "Men In Black" agents. The Matrix became best known for its revolutionary visual effects - airborne kung fu, 3-D freeze frame effects with a rotating or pivoting camera, and bullet -dodging. The film became a smash hit, featuring elaborate fighting and stunt sequences, as well as a convoluted screenplay that blurred the edge between reality and fantasy without losing the audience's grasp of the story. The film was followed by an anthology or series of nine related shorts collectively called The Animatrix (2003), highlighted by Andy Jones' sho rt Final Flight of the Osiris. The film was nominated for four technical Oscars and won all of them. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects. Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Starring: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, John Payne, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, William Frawley Directors: George Seaton A popular, perennial favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday film adapted from Valentine Davies' original story. A sentimental and appealing Frank Capra-esque morality fantasy tale (similar to Meet John Doe (1941)) about the struggle between faith and doubting cynicism, as well as between the holiday spirit of generosity and materialistic commercialism. When a Macy's New York City Thanksgiving Day parade Santa Claus is discovered to be intoxicated by a white-whiskered, kindly old man calling himself Kris Kringle (Gwenn), Kringle is hired by special-events parade organizer and single mother Doris Walker (O'Hara) to be their new Saint Nick. The emergency in-house replacement - the new, grandfatherly jolly fellow from the North Pole, proves to be a smash hit, but some doubts are raised when he sends customers to other rival department stores, such as Gimbels, when Macy's doesn't have the correct merchandise. Kringle, who insists he is the real Santa Claus, is examined by the store psychologist and determined to be insane, and further investigation reveals the old man to be a delusional, but harmless resident of a nursing home in Great Neck, LI. Psychiatrists from Bellevue Hospital threaten to have him put away in a mental institution, but Kringle's twinkly-eyed earnestness and wholesomeness remove the doubts of even the skeptical Doris and her equally cynical, wide-eyed, precocious second-grade daughter Susan (Wood). The film climaxes with the famous court hearing on Kringle's insanity between Macy's (legally represented by Doris' handsome bachelor lawyer Fred Gaily (Payne)) and Gimbels. The legal case ends with the presentation of sacks of forwarded letters sent to the Post Office addressed to Santa

Claus, proving that the U.S. Government believes that Kris is Santa. Perhaps the most touching moment, however, is Kringle reassuringly singing a song to a frightened, refugee Dutch girl in her native language. The film was remade twice on television in 1955 and 1973 (with Thomas Mitchell and Sebastian Cabot respectively as Kringle) and memorably in a John Hughes-produced 1994 remake, with Richard Attenborough as Kringle, co-starring Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott and Mara Wilson. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Supporting Actor-Edmund Gwenn, Best Screenplay--George Seaton, Best Original Story--Valentine Davies. M (continued) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Starring: Monty Python troupe (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin) Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones The silly, chaotic, sick joke-filled and zany Monty Python troupe, a close modern equivalent to the Marx Brothers, first appeared in their late 60s BBC-TV show, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Afterwards, the group compiled a retelling of the show's sketches for the big screen in And Now For Something Completely Different (1971). This was their second film and first feature -length film - a raucous, anarchic retelling of the Middle Ages legend of King Arthur (Chapman) and his quest, that skewered medieval action epics, mythology, war, religion, the Arthurian legend, Camelot and more. The opening credits in this popular, outrageous, and original cult film slowly give way to mock Swedish titles, and drift into ravings about the moose and its virtues, before grinding to a halt with: "We apologize for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked." The opening credits resume, but still with odd credits added for everything from "Moose Costumes" to "Moose trained to mix concrete and sign complicated insurance forms," which is followed by another apology: "The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked. The credits have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute." Their style of humor was best exemplified by the comically-gruesome encounter with the unbelievably persistent Black Knight (Cleese), who still insists on fighting ("It's just a flesh wound") after his limbs have been hac ked off by King Arthur. Many fans can instantly recite many of the memorable scenes, vignettes and set-pieces, such as the "Bring Out Your Dead" scene, or the rude, taunting Frenchman, a bloodthirsty killer rabbit, and the tree-shaped Knights who say "Ni." Over the years, the troupe's popularity would grow with additional Monty Python films, such as Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), and increased popularity of their PBS-TV show in America. A stage adaptation of the film, Monty Python's Spamalot, debuted in Chicago in late 2004 and shortly after debuted on Broadway in early 2005. No Academy Award Nominations.

N Night of the Living Dead (1968) Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Russell Streiner Director: George A. Romero One of the most important and influential horror films of all time - George Romero's ultra-low budget debut film shot in grainy black-and-white with an unknown cast reinvented the genre. The film was actually improved by its crude "drawbacks," since they lent a documentary feel and reality that made the film all t he more horrific. The screenplay was taken from an unpublished short story Romero had written called Anubis, so-named after the Egyptian god of the dead. In the simple yet brutally relentless plot of claustrophobic horror, the 'living dead' (re-animated corpses) mysteriously rise from the grave for no known reason (though there are vague references to radiation from a fallen satellite), forcing a group of seven strangers to take refuge from the shuffling, hungry, flesh-eating zombies in an isolated Pennsylvania farmhouse. A capable black man (Jones) assumes leadership as the army of corpses repeatedly try to enter the house during a terrifying siege, amidst both unspoken racial and generational tensions between him and a less capable, older white family man (Hardman). The images of the film are haunting, from the opening scene in the cemetery, where flighty female lead Barbra (O'Dea) is teased by her brother Johnny (Streiner in an uncredited role): "They're coming to get you, Barbara!" before being attacked by one of them, to the shot of the zombified little girl consuming her mother (often taken to be a social metaphor for the late 1960s youth of the nation rebelling against their elders). Meanwhile, news and radio reports from the mass media emphasize the

panic and threat. The tragic ending comes from the actions of real mindless zombies -- living lynch mobs. While initially considered drive-in schlock, the film gained in popularity and critical respect, and raised Romero to great heights as a horror filmmaker. He would go on to make a zombie trilogy with the successful Dawn of the Dead (1978) and the lesser Day of the Dead (1985), before remaking his own Night of the Living Dead (1990) in color and with subtle changes to the plot, including a reworked beginning and ending. Director/writer Dan O'Bannon's unofficial satirical 'sequel' The Return of the Living Dead (1985) was likewise sequeled in Ken Wiederhorn's The Return of the Living Dead, Part II (1988) and Brian Yuzna's Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993). No Academy Award Nominations. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Starring: Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, Edward Ivory, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens Director: Henry Selick AKA: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. A charming, ground-breaking, macabre fantasymusical film in its use of computers to aid the complex, painstaking stop -motion animation process. This is the first full-length stop-motion animated film, based on the parodic poem of the same name by visionary producer Burton, written when he was a Disney animator. This original, fanciful yet twisted tale is about a bored, depressed and skeletal Jack Skellington (Sarandon with Elfman supplying his singing voice) with shy rag-doll Sally (O'Hara) as his understanding and loyal girlfriend from afar. Jack grows weary of his repetitive role as the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town with its pagan holiday. When he discovers the enchanting, radically-different Christmas Town and its leader Santa Claus (Ivory), he becomes obsessed with trying to capture the town's joy. His well meaning but disastrous mission to steal the holiday puts Santa Claus into jeopardy when he is kidnapped and tortured. An extraordinary achievement, from its wonderfully realized set designs -- like the dark, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari-ish and The Night of the Hunter-ish Halloween Town and the round, bright Christmas Town (based on Seuss' artwork, reminiscient of Whoville) -- to the jazzily unorthodox lyrics by Oingo Boingo's Elfman ("And since I am dead / I can take off my head / And recite Shakespearean quotations"). The film was largely ignored in its initial release, but gained a dedicated following on video release that grew quickly, enabling Tim Burton to produce another stop-motion animated film James and the Giant Peach (1996), based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name and also directed by Henry Selick. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Visual Effects.

P The Palm Beach Story (1942) Starring: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Robert Dudley, William Demarest Director: Preston Sturges A hilarious, zany, marital screwball comedy by writer/director Preston Sturges - it was his last romantic comedy and one of the last, classic screwball comedies. The witty, nonsensical film of mistaken identities and deception was a satire on sex as an asset. The farcical plot effectively skewered the idle rich (millionaires) and the pursuit of money, with its story of a penniless, separated couple living on Park Avenue. [Whether coincidence or not, the couple share the same names as MGM's squabbling cartoon characters Tom (cat) and Jerry (mouse).] The film begins with a deliberately puzzling, freeze -frame precredits opening sequence that finally makes sense by the film's closing. Its premise is that a pretty, but pennile ss, fortunehunting, scatter-brained wife Gerry (Colbert), who is at odds with her unsuccessful designer-inventor husband Tom Jeffers (McCrea), may travel to Florida (on a raucous train ride with the tipsy Ale and Quail Club) to obtain a divorce, and with her beauty, ingenuity, luck and appealing charms live the 'good life' there and obtain monetary support ($99,000) from stuffy, multi-millionaire, yacht-owning suitor John D. Hackensacker (Vallee) and his eccentric, carefree, man-crazy sister Countess Centimillia (Astor) to bankroll her struggling husband's career. Sturges' original title for the film was Is Marriage Necessary? - to emphasize his challenge to the sacredness of marriage. It was the fifth of eight films that Sturges wrote and directed for Paramount Studios between his most prolific years from 1940 to 1946: The Great McGinty (1940), Christmas in July (1940),

The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan's Travels (1942), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), Hail the Conquering Hero (1944), and The Great Moment (1946). The film is literally full of choice, timeless, quotable lines of dialogue, but lacked Academy Award nominations (as with many of Preston Sturges' other classic comedies). No Academy Award Nominations. Patton (1970) Starring: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Karl Michael Vogler, Michael Bates Director: Franklin J. Schaffner The epic film biography, shot in 70 mm. widescreen color, of the controversial, bombastic, multidimensional World War II general and hero George S. Patton. The larger-than-life, flamboyant, maverick, pugnacious military figure, nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts," was well-known for his fierce love of America, his temperamental battlefield commanding, his arrogant power-lust ("I love it. God help me, I do love it so. I love it more than my life"), his poetry writing, his belief in reincarnation, his verbal abuse and slapping of a battle-fatigued soldier, his anti-diplomatic criticism of the Soviet Union, and his firing of pistols at strafing fighter planes. The bigger-than-life screen biography is most noted for its brilliant opening monologue by Patton (Scott), delivered before a gigantic American flag to the off-screen troops of the Allied Third Army ("No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country"). The story was based on two books: Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and A Soldier's Story by General Omar Bradley (portrayed by Malden). As a result of Francis Ford Coppola's breakthrough win for Best Adapted Screenplay as co-screen writer, he went on to write and direct The Godfather (1972). Although Scott portrayed the famous general perfectly and it became his archetypal film, the role was also considered by Burt Lancaster, Rod Steiger, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum and John Wayne. The subject matter was remade as a TV-movie entitled The Last Days of Patton (1986), also with Scott in the lead role. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Original Score--Jerry Goldsmith, Best Cinematography (Fred Koenekamp), Best Visual Effects. Academy Awards: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director--Franklin J. Schaffner, Best Actor--George C. Scott (who refused to accept the award), Best Adapted Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund H. North), Best Art/Set Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing. The Piano (1993) Starring: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Sam Neill Director: Jane Campion New Zealand director/screenwriter Jane Campion's third feature -- a compelling, disturbing, erotic and psychosexual costume drama about a mute mail-order bride, a refined European woman named Ada McGrath (Hunter), who travels with her spiteful 9 -year-old daughter Flora (Paquin) from 1850s Scotland to the New Zealand wilderness for an arranged marriage with patriarchal British emigrant landowner Alisdair Stewart (Neill). Upon arrival, her prized possession, a piano, is insensitively left on the desolate coastal beach and later rescued-sold to a coarse, illiterate and tattooed Maori settler (Stewart's overseer) named George Baines (Keitel). The headstrong Ada is left despondent, and artistically and emotionally frustrated without the outlet of her piano-playing. Although she is repulsed by George, she is offered a blackmailing sexual deal with him to slowly buy back the piano and give him a series of piano lessons. Soon, their relationship is transformed into a torrid love affair and sensual/emotional liberation for the two, while she never consummates her marriage with the shy Alisdair. Campion's Academy Award nomination as Best Director made her only the second woman in Oscar history to be nominated in the category. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director--Jane Campion, Best Cinematography-Stuart Dryburgh, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 3, Best Actress--Holly Hunter, Best Supporting Actress--Anna Paquin, Best Original Screenplay--Jane Campion. Planet of the Apes (1968) Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison Director: Franklin J. Schaffner A thought-provoking and engrossing science-fiction film classic - a loose adaptation (by formerly blacklisted Michael Wilson and Rod Serling) of the Pierre Boulle novel La Plante Des Singes (Monkey Planet), about four NASA astronauts, including Colonel 'George' Taylor (Heston), who have traveled for centuries in cyrogenic suspension. After a crash landing on an Earth-like planet, they find themselves stranded in a strange and remote place dominated by English-speaking simians who live in a multi-layered civilization. The apes dominate society, and humans (who possess few rights) have been reduced to subservient mute slaves and are even hunted as animals. In danger of being castrated or lobotomized, Taylor cries out the memorable: "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" The apes in this exciting and engaging action thriller include archaeologist

Dr. Cornelius (McDowall), his scientist fiancee Zira (Hunter) - an 'animal psychologist,' and malevolent, arrogant, government orangutan leader Dr. Zaius (Evans). This Vietnam War, Cold War and Civil Rights era film makes many subtle points about race, animal rights, the establishment, class, xenophobia and discrimination. The film is most noted for its twist ending when George rides down a beach on horseback in the Forbidden Zone with beautiful mute cavewoman Nova (Harrison), and suddenly he stops when he sees something, and dismounts to stare upwards; as the camera pans forward toward Taylor, through a spiked object, he exclaims: "Oh, my God! I'm back, I'm home. All the time, it was..." He drops to his knees: "We finally really did it." He pounds his fist into the sand and rails against Earth's generations almost 2,000 years earlier that had destroyed his home planet's civilization with a devastating nuclear war: "You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!" The full object comes into view as the camera pans backward - the spiked crown of a battered Statue of Liberty buried waist-deep in beach sand. This film was also a pioneer in modern movie marketing, spawning not only four sequels and a 2001 remake (and two television series spinoffs), but also action figures and other similar merchandising, foreshadowing later merchandising for Star Wars (1977) and the Indiana Jones series. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Costume Design, Best Original Score--Jerry Goldsmith. Honorary Special Oscar for Makeup Effects--John Chambers (only the second makeup artist to receive an honorary Academy Award before an official category was created). Poltergeist (1982) Starring: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, Beatrice Straight, Zelda Rubinstein, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins Director: Tobe Hooper A memorable supernatural horror film from co-producer/co-writer Steven Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper (better known for his cult horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)). This was Spielberg's first smash hit as a co-producer, paired with Frank Marshall (who later produced Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)). Its classic 'haunted house ghost story' is fascinating to watch, with extraordinary special effects created by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic team, from a screenplay by Spielberg, Michael Grais, and Mark Victor. It was released at the same time as another suburban tale with otherworldly visitors: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and can also be interpreted as a threatening, scarier version of director Spielberg's pre-E.T. film: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Compared to both films, Poltergeist is the dark flip side for Diane and Steve Freeling (Williams and Nelson) in the Cuesta Verde housing development, with ordinary objects that turn threatening (for example, a suburban tract dream home, a backyard tree, a favorite doll, a closet, and a TV screen). The famous poster reflected one of the more memorable, spookier moments of the film, with young 5 year-old Carole Anne (Heather O'Rourke) pressed against a television showing nothing but white noise, saying, "They're here."There were two, less successful sequels in subsequent years: Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and Poltergeist III (1988). Many filmgoers have been intrigued by the seemingly-tragic legacy of the film, with the unexpected deaths of star Dominique Dunne (in her last film role before her tragic murder by her live-in boyfriend) and O'Rourke (who died six years later just before the second sequel's release). Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Original Score--Jerry Goldsmith, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing. The Producers (1968) Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Christopher Hewett, Dick Shawn Director: Mel Brooks Director Mel Brooks' debut film is a zany, often brilliant spoof comedy about Broadway productions and the Nazis that some consider in bad taste. A desperate, bankrupt, wild-eyed, hustling Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Mostel) greedily pairs up with his timid and high-strung auditor/accountant Leo Bloom (Wilder in his first starring role). Together, they concoct an illegal 'sure -fire' scheme to make a million dollars from investors by producing the worst, most tasteless play ever made - a perverted Busby Berkeley romp offensively named Springtime For Hitler. Their plan backfires when the flop is actually a surprise hit. Although certain elements are now tame and have lost some comedic shock value since the late 60s, such as a cashstrapped Max being a gigolo for old ladies, the film is still daring, audacious and subversive. The lighthearted satire of Hitler, reminiscent of Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), with such lyrics as "Don't be stupid, be a smarty -- come and join the Nazi Party!" couldn't easily be produced today. (The studio would never have released Brooks' without the intervention of Peter Sellers, who convinced executive producer Joseph E. Levine to release it, the only compromise being a change from the original title Springtime For Hitle r to The Producers.) The film's immense popularity would not only launch Brooks' and Wilder's careers, but also lead to the wildly popular 2001 Broadway musical adaption of the same name starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (as Bialystock and Bloom respectively), with 13 Tony nominations and 12 wins including Best

Musical. Lane and Broderick would appear in the poorly-received 2005 film version as well. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Supporting Actor--Gene Wilder. Academy Awards: 1, Best Original Screenplay--Mel Brooks. Pygmalion (1938) Starring: Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Marie Lohr, Scott Sunderland, David Tree Directors: Anthony Asquith (with Leslie Howard) The non-musical film version of George Bernard Shaw's 1912 stage play, a socio-economic drama based on the Cinderella story, but actually taken from the Greek myth of Pygmalion - about a sculptor who fell in love with a marble statue of his own making. A bullying and smug bachelor, Professor Henry Higgins (Howard) of phonetics and linguistics makes a bet with Colonel George Pickering (Sunderland) that he can turn an impetuous Cockney 'guttersnipe' flower girl from Convent Garden, Eliza Doolittle (Hiller in her first screen role) into a lady within six months. To do so, he must transform her thick -accented voice, by coaching her to speak proper English with elocution lessons, teaching her manners, and drilling her so that she will be educated. "We were above that in Convent Garden...I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me; I'm not fit to sell anything else." "I'm a good girl, I am." At a tea party, in her first public testing, she blurts out, "Not bloody likely." However, sh e makes a spectacular debut at the Ambassador's reception, proving him right. In the process of teaching her, Higgins falls in love with her, although she is attracted by an upper class gentleman named Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Tree), and finds she cannot return home to Higgins. The Broadway musical remake that was inspired from this film, Lerner and Loewe's 1956 production, also led to the famous film musical My Fair Lady (1962), that would walk away with eight Oscars (out of twelve), including Best Picture. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Leslie Howard, Best Actress--Wendy Hiller. Academy Awards: 1, Best Screenplay.

R Repulsion (1965) Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux Director: Roman Polanski A distubing, tense, frightening psychological horror thriller and one of Roman Polanski's best films - his second feature film (after Knife in the Water (1962)) and his first in English. A macabre tale about a beautiful, timid, young blonde manicurist named Carol Ledoux (21 year-old Deneuve) from Belgium. The film basically takes place in a single location -- Carol's tiny London (Kensington) apartment -- which she shares with her older, sexually-liberated sister Hlne (Furneaux), who is involved with a married boyfriend, a salesman named Michael (Hendry). While they are away on holiday in Italy, Carol suffers a several mental breakdown with hallucinations and nightmares, one after the other. She imagines such harrowing images as a phantom rapist, and giant cracks appearing from the walls with hands emerging from them to grope her (borrowed from Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946)). A film's tagline declared: "The nightmare world of a virgin's dreams becomes the scre en's shocking reality." The film revolves around the deterioration of the sexually-repressed, claustrophobic, and paranoid Carol (brilliantly acted by Deneuve), and leads to two brutal murders. The film borrows many elements from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960), such as sexual voyeurism and subtle auditory hints, and derives much of the suspense and dread from the use of everyday sounds (such as dripping water, the ticking of a clock, a ringing telephone, etc.). Often called one of the first English "New Wave" films, the film was controversial in both its graphic depictions of rape, but also featured the first orgasm 'heard' on the British screen. No Academy Award Nominations. The Road Warrior (1982) aka Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) Starring: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps, Virginia Hey, Vernon Wells, Kjell Nilsson, Emil Minty Director: George Miller Writer/director George Miller's imaginative, post-apocalyptic action sci-fi (western) film about a burnedout, ex-cop named "Mad" Max (Gibson in a star-making role) (his last name from the first film in the trilogy, Rockatansky, is never uttered). In this comic book-styled B-film, the road warrior wanders the barren, lawless highways of an Australian outback wasteland in his black interceptor along with his dog. Living only to survive while dealing with anarchic crazies and violent road gangs, his main mission in life is to acquire enough precio us

petrol to keep nomadic. He agrees to help save a besieged, oil-producing colony (established as a small fuel depot at a refinery) from a crazed, marauding wasteland warlord, the evil Humungus (Nilsson), by promising to help the refugee community of survivors with a rush for the coast in a tanker-truck in exchange for gas. The entire film has the same formula as The Magnificent Seven (1960) or a Sergio Leone 'spaghetti western', with Gibson providing the Clint Eastwood "Man With No Name" legendary hero - or anti-hero role. This film is best known for its non-stop car action and amazing stuntwork in its dazzling climax, as well as its stark, naturalistic depiction of a post -apocalyptic future that nearly every film has imitated ever since. This sequel film, superior to the original film, was preceded by an even darker revenge film, Mad Max (1979), and followed by a nuclear post-apocalyptic sequel, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), memorably featuring a co-starring role by rock star Tina Turner. No Academy Award Nominations. R (continued) Rocky (1976) Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith Director: John G. Avildsen The phenomenally successful, uplifting, "sleeper" film that was filmed in a record twenty -eight days with a paltry budget of about $1 million, and ultimately grossed well over $100 million. (This low -budget film was positioned between two early "blockbusters" - Spielberg's Jaws (1975) and Lucas' Star Wars (1977).) Its screenwriter and major star, Sylvester Stallone, was an unbankable unknown at the time - an underdog actor/writer in the film industry (with 32 previously -rejected scripts) similar to the boxing 'bum' in the film. Stallone supposedly wrote the script for the sports comeback film over a three-day period. The actionpacked, 'feel-good' crowd-pleasing story, shot mostly on location, tells of the rise of a small -time, has-been, underdog Philadelphia boxer against insurmountable odds in a big-time bout with Apollo Creed (Weathers), with the emotional support of a shy, hesitant, loving girlfriend named Adrian (Shire) and wily fight manager Mickey (Meredith). The low -key film was a combination of On the Waterfront (1954), Marty (1955), and a fairy-tale, Cinderella rags-to-riches story. The original Rocky film, from Oscar-winning director John G. Avildsen, packed movie houses, and beat out formidable competition for Best Picture: All the President's Men, Bound For Glory, Network, and Taxi Driver. It was followed by four inferior sequels: Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985), Rocky V (1990) and another entry titled Rocky Balboa (2006). Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Actor--Sylvester Stallone, Best Actress--Talia Shire, Best Supporting Actor--Burt Young, Best Supporting Actor--Burgess Meredith, Best Original Screenplay--Sylvester Stallone, Best Song-"Gonna Fly Now," Best Sound Editing. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Picture, Best Director--John G. Avildsen, Best Film Editing. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Starring: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Meat Loaf Director: Jim Sharman Perhaps the most popular cult film of all time, this low -budget, campy horror rock musical from writer/director Jim Sharman initially bombed at the box-office. One of the longest-running films of all time, the bizarre film honors (and gently spoofs) the horror and science fiction genres of the past (RKO Pictures' King Kong (1933), Forbidden Planet (1956), The Wizard of Oz (1939), the Hercules films, The Day of the Triffids (1962), the classic "atomic age" sci-fi horror of the '50s, such as It Came From Outer Space (1951), and, of course, Frankenstein (1931)). The film was based on the 1973 British musical stage play The Rocky Horror Show by playwright/composer Richard O'Brien (who also plays the butler named Riff Raff), about a haunted house inhabited by transexual aliens. The strange tale follows a straightlaced, wholesome, newly-engaged couple, Brad Majors (Bostwick in his feature film debut) and Janet Weiss (Sarandon) who are forced to take refuge in a spooky mansion/castle on a rainy night when their car has a flat tire. The two are brought into a world of subversiveness by the bis exual host - the carnivorous "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania" Dr. Frank N. Furter (Curry), a mad scientist whose dream is to create the perfect man named Rocky "with blond hair and a tan." The film features catchy, overtly-sexual songs like "The Time Warp," "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me," and "Sweet Transvestite." When the film began to play at midnight showings in Greenwich Village in April 1976, the film was revived as a multi -media, audience participatory experience and exploded as a worldwide phenomenon for many years. The film was followed by a forgettable sequel, Shock Treatment (1981), and a successful musical revival on Broadway in 2000 featuring Joan Jett that ran for two years. No Academy Award Nominations.

S Saturday Night Fever (1977) Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Donna Pescow, Martin Shakar Director: John Badham Badham's melodramatic, out-dated film was the biggest musical sensation and blockbuster of the late 1970's (from co-producer Robert Stigwood) - adapted by screenwriter Norman Wexler from Nik Cohn's New York Magazine story "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night." It features one of the most famous song soundtracks in film history, and was responsible for the Disco Craze phenomenon, launching hot disco clubs (like Studio 54) and the film super-stardom of 19-year old John Travolta, previously best known as one of the Sweathogs of the television sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. The film's soundtrack is the most recognizable, with a slew of high-pitched Bee Gees songs from the Gibbs: "Night Fever," "How Deep is Your Love," "More Than a Woman," "You Should Be Dancin'," and "Stayin' Alive" (which accompanies a memorable opening scene when the working-class protagonist struts down the sidewalk to the lyrics: "Oh, y ou can tell by the way I walk / I'm a woman's man, no time to talk"). In the classic coming-of-age tale, a conflicted, teenaged Italian-American anti-hero from Brooklyn, Tony Manero (Travolta with the film's sole Oscar nomination) works in a dead -end job as a clerk in a local hardware store and lives at home with his oppressive, verbally-abusive blue-collar family. But after dark, he becomes the dynamic, white polyester-clad stud (with platform shoes, flared pants, and a wide-collared shirt) and undisputed dancing legend of a local nightclub (the 2001 Odyssey), with dancing partner Stephanie (Gorney) for a dance contest. The uneducated macho Manero seeks escape from his desperate plight of a staid home life and unambitious friends by finding recognition on the dance floor. However, his swaggering, troubled character also expresses arrogance, racism, immaturity, obnoxiousness, and misogyny (he sexually abuses and disregards girlfriend Annette (Pescow)). (A PG-rated version was released without the coarse language and explicit sex scenes.) Additional popular songs on the soundtrack included Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" and the Trammps' "Disco Inferno." Unbelievably, the soundtrack was completely ignored by the Academy, causing a critical outcry and leading to the extremely unlikely Oscar win by the next year's inferior disco film Thank God It's Friday (1978)'s for "Last Dance" (sung by Donna Summer). An inferior sequel, director Sylvester Stallone's Staying Alive (1983) also starred Travolta reprising his Tony Manero role. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Actor--John Travolta. Saving Private Ryan (1998) Starring: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon, Adam Goldberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Barry Pepper, Harve Presnell, Vin Diesel, Jeremy Davies Director: Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg's R-rated war epic opens, in its first half-hour, with the brutal, uncompromising, and graphic depiction of the landing at bloody Omaha Beach on D-Day (June 6, 1944). The film's aftermath revolves around the rescue of a downed paratrooper in the French countryside, Pvt. James Ryan (Damon), whose three brothers have recently been killed in action, by a group commanded by veteran Captain John Miller (Hanks in an Oscar-nominated role). Miller's platoon squad of seven stereotypical characters, brought together as a morale-lifting, propagandistic, PR effort for the military brass (Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Presnell)) and the homeland, includes: hard-nosed Sgt. Horvath (Sizemore), a frightened, militarily-inexperienced translator Cpl. Upham (Davies), and five privates (Burns, Ribisi, Diesel, Pepper and Goldberg) -- including a cynical hothead from Brooklyn, an introspective medic, a decent soldier, a religious Southern sharpshooter, and a tough Jew. The film was a critical and box office smash, and brought Spielberg his second Best Director Oscar (his first was for his other World War II era film, Schindler's List (1993)). Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Tom Hanks, Best Original Screenplay--Robert Rodat, Best Original Score--John Williams, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Makeup. Academy Awards: 5, including Best Director--Steven Spielberg, Best Cinematography--Janusz Kaminski, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing.

The Scarlet Empress (1934) Starring: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser Directors: Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg's startling, dark, visually opulent, hauntingly expressionistic, and mostly fictional biopic of German-born Princess Sophia Frederica (Dietrich). The young, naive, tremulous bride-to-be is brought on a seven-week journey to Russia for an arranged marriage to Grand Duke Peter (Jaffe), son of Empress Elizabeth (Dresser). Sophia's domineering, mother-in-law, who renames her Catherine, hopes to improve the royal blood line, but she is revulsed by her bumbling, idiotic, and childlike husband-to-be, and instead becomes romantically involved with opportunistic womanizer Count Alexei (Lodge). Eventually, she engineers a coup d'etat with the aid of the military, kills Peter III, and becomes Catherine the Great, Tsarina of Russia. Th is semi-erotic tale of 18th century Russia was one of the most daring films of the Hays Production Code era, featuring, among other things, immorality, nudity and open sexual decadence. The film also features extravagant sets and von Sternberg's trademark stylization, as well as great performances. For a six -year period, Dietrich was svengali von Sternberg's favorite leading lady - this was their sixth film together (and last great collaboration). She also starred in Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Blonde Venus (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), The Devil Is a Woman (1935), and The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935). Despite the sumptuous set design, sharp dialogue and great acting, the dark subject matter led to a boxoffice failure and lack of critical acclaim. Another fil m on the life of Catherine was made in the same year - director Paul Czinner's historical drama Catherine the Great (1934) with Elisabeth Bergner, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Flora Robson. No Academy Award Nominations. Sherlock, Jr. (1924) Starring: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly, Ward Crane Director: Buster Keaton A marvelously inventive, silent film comic fantasy directed by stone-faced Buster Keaton - at only 44 minutes, filled with the comedian's trademark physical stunts and humor and amazing special effects. This spoof of detective films was the first of Keaton's feature films solely directed by himself. A bored, poor and timid individual - the Boy (Keaton) working as a janitor/projectionist at a local cinema, takes a break from sweeping to read a book about his dream vocation - "How to Be a Detective." After work, he buys a $1 box of candy for the Girl (McGuire) and presents it (marked as $4) to her, along with a ring. Another rival suitor, the deceitful Sheik (Crane), steals the girl's father's gold watch from her house, pawns it, and tries to impress her with a larger, more expensive box of candy. After being falsely accused of stealing the watch and unable to prove that he was framed, the Boy dejectedly returns to the theater and falls asleep in the projection room. A ghostly dream version of himself leaves his body -- and in a "film within a film" segment -- 'walks' into the film screen. In his dream state, he becomes invincible, confident detective Sherlock, Jr., who is involved in an elaborate pearl necklace robbery investigation. Through wish fulfillment, he solves the crime, nabs the villain (the same Sheik) and saves the Girl (the same Girl) - and then wakes up. The film's meditation on identifying with one's dreams and finding instructional value in cinema ends with the Boy reconciled with the Girl in the real-world - but he still needs film tips on how to kiss the Girl! Three highlights are the astounding, rapid scenery cuts sequence when he first steps into the film, an amazing railroad stunt (that broke Keaton's neck, discovered later), and a driver-less motorcycle ride. Keaton's work inspired two similar fantasies: Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) with Jeff Daniels and Mia Farrow, and the under-rated action/adventure parody Last Action Hero (1993) with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Shining (1980) Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers Director: Stanley Kubrick Creative director Stanley Kubrick's intense, epic, gothic, haunted house horror film masterpiece. It follows the disintegrating Torrance family -- aspiring writer Jack, his wife Wendy, and son Danny (Nicholson, Duvall, Lloyd) who become affected by a "psychic photograph" of a bloody series of historic murders committed in an imposing Rocky Mountain hotel, the Overlook. The film has beautiful, stylish work that distances itself from the blood-letting and gore of most modern films in the horror genre. The film's source material from science-fiction/horror author Stephen King's 1977 best-selling novel (his third novel under his own name) by the same name bears little resemblance to Kubrick's creation. The film's title refers to the extra -sensory, paranormal psychic abilities possessed by the Overlook's head cook Halloran (Crothers) and Danny. With American co-screenwriter Diane Johnson, Kubrick moved from the conventions of traditional horror film thrillers, displacing them with his own, much more subtle, rich, symbolic motifs. As in many of his films, director Kubrick explores the dimensions of the genre to create

the ultimate horror film of a man going mad, Jack Torrance (Nicholson in an over-the-top performance) while serving as an off-season caretaker of an isolated, snowbound resort with his family. Kubrick deliberately reduced the pace of the narrative and expanded the rather simple plot of a domestic tragedy to over two hours in length, created lush images within the ornate interior of the main set, added a disturbing synthesized soundtrack (selecting musical works from Bela Bartok, Gyorgy Ligeti, and Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki), used a Steadicam in groundbreaking fashion, filmed most of the gothic horror in broad daylight or brightly-lit scenes, and built an unforgettable, mounting sensation of frustration, rage, terror, ghosts, and the paranormal. When it was redone as a four and a half-hour TV miniseries due to King's dissatisfaction, Stephen King's The Shining (1997), a famous topiary-animal attack was included. No Academy Award Nominations. Sleeper (1973) Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton Director: Woody Allen One of Woody Allen's funniest films, a science fiction comedy classic and screwball comedy about the future - with Dixieland and swing music (from the Preservation Hall Band). This film was from Allen's earlier period, when he was known for appearing in or directing lightweight comedies, such as Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Play It Again, Sam (1972), and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask (1972). Filled with one-liners, Allen's film both satirizes the 1970's and parodies sci-fi books and past classics, such as Buck Rogers "Serial" (1939), Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971), George Lucas' THX 1138 (1971), George Orwell's futuristic novel 1984, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It also evokes such slapstick comedy classics, such as Harol d Lloyd and Buster Keaton films, the Keystone Kops, Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) and the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933). Director/writer Woody Allen plays jazz clarinet musician and co -owner of a Greenwich Village health food store, nerdy Miles Monroe, who finds himself 200 years in the future in the dystopian year 2173. He learns that he was cyrogenically 'frozen' in aluminum foil when complications arose - after he had entered a New York hospital in 1973 for what he thought was a minor peptic ulcer operation. (An observer remarks, "It's hard to believe that you haven't had sex for two hundred years." "Two hundred and four," he replies, "if you count my marriage.") He soon finds out that he is considered both a subversive alien fugitive by a Big Brother-type totalitarian government and a savior to the rebels wishing to overthrow the police state. A classic fish-out-of-water comedy, he is inept as a disguised domestic robot (and in one funny scene passes around a silver-metallic round, orgasm-inducing "Orb" at a party), accidentally traps himself in an Orgasmatron, slips on a gigantic banana peel, wins a mock beauty pageant believing he's Miss America, and gets fitted for a suit by two robotic yet very Jewish tailors. The climax occurs when he and his love interest, a rich, clueless, pseudo intellectual poetess named Luna Schlosser (Keaton in her second appearance with Allen in a film, but in her first Allen directed film) attempt to assassinate The Leader (a wheel-chair bound dictator with a white dog), who is ultimately reduced to a benign, disembodied nose after a bombing - and then steam-rolled. One sly cameo is that of Douglas Rain as an evil computer near the end of the film, gently spoofing his role as HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Mike Myers' Austin Powers series owes a debt to this film. No Academy Award Nominations. Spartacus (1960) Starring: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, Tony Curtis, Woody Strode Director: Stanley Kubrick, Kirk Douglas (exec. producer) A somewhat dated, uneven historical costume (and sword and sandal) epic adapted by openly-credited, blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (thereby breaking the abhorrent system) from left-leaning Howard Fast's 1952 fictionalized novel about a slave revolt in Rome between 73-71 BC. This is the story of Thracian Spartacus (Douglas), first introduced as a slave in the Libyan mines who is sold to slave trader Lentulus Batiatus (Ustinov), and becomes under his training a skilled gladiator. He is forced, for pure entertainment's sake, to fight to the death and kill fellow gladiator/friend Draba (Strode). Growing resentment forces Spartacus to kill his captor-owner and instigate a revolt among his fellow slaves. He moves from town to town in the countryside and recruits freedom-fighting slaves along the way, threatening Rome itself and fueling a power struggle and in-fighting between two influential figures in the ruling class: the philosophical Roman senator Gracchus (Laughton) and the power-hungry Roman general Marcus Crassus (Olivier). Eventually, Spartacus' forces are overwhelmed, and he is captured and marched to Rome, with Crassus desirous of the sexual favors of his wife Varinia (Simmons). During the film's production, there was a change of directors (from Anthony Mann (famous for El Cid (1961)) to Stanley Kubrick, who wasn't permitted his usual directorial freedom, resulting in a decidedly un-Kubrick-like film) and rampant ego clashes amongst the actors. Additionally, the Hayes

Code removed, among other things, homosexual innuendo and various depictions of gore (such as severed limbs). The 1991 re-release of Spartacus restored much of what was cut from the film, including the notorious bathhouse scene featuring the sexual advances of Crassus toward slave servant-poet Antoninus (Curtis), with dialogue dubbed by Anthony Hopkins for the deceased Olivier: "Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral and the eating of snails to be immoral?... My taste includes both snails and oysters." Although anachronistic in costuming and accents, and overly long with some 'wooden' acting, Spartacus remains one of the more beloved and intelligent gladiator films (and a model for Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000)), with such memorably powerful scenes as the large scale battles with thousands of extras, and the famous climax with the moving "I am Spartacus!" scene when Spartacus is crucified under orders of Crassus along with hundreds of other slaves, and a disguised Varinia risks capture to show him his infant son. The film was remade in 2004 as a TV movie with Goran Visnjic as the film's hero. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Non -Song Score--Alex North, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Supporting Actor--Peter Ustinov, Best Color Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Costume Design. Stairway To Heaven (1946, US title) aka A Matter of Life and Death (1946, UK title) Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Raymond Massey, Robert Livesey, Abraham Sofaer, Marius Goring Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger One of the most innovative, visually-dazzling (from cinematographer Jack Cardiff), literate, and audacious films ever made by the extraordinary writer/producer/director team of the Archers: Powell and Pressburger. Stairway to Heaven (1946, US) (originally A Matter of Life and Death, UK) is an extravagant and extraordinary fantasy in which WWII RAF pilot and squadron leader Peter David Carter (Niven) must abandon his fiery bomber (returning from a raid over Germany) without a functional parachute. Knowing his fate is doomed, he nonetheless falls deeply in love with British-based, WAC radio operator and ground controller June (Hunter) as they share a few last words. In a film that continually begs the question, what is real and what is imagined, he awa kens unharmed on a beach after falling to his 'death', due to errors made by heavenly emissary Conductor 71 (Goring) in the fog. During brain surgery to rid him of alleged hallucinations, his spirit is put on trial -- and he must justify his continuing existence on Earth to a panel of heavenly judges in a celestial court (with God (Sofaer) as his judge, recently -deceased friend Dr. Frank Reeves (Livesey) as his defense lawyer, and Abraham Farlan (Massey) as the prosecutor). He must convince them that he should survive and wed his romantic sweetheart June. In an bold stroke, the Heavenly sequences were filmed in black-and-white, while the Earthbound scenes were in vibrant, ravishing Technicolor. The film used various thenrevolutionary film techniques such as time-lapse photography, mixing monochrome and color in the same shot, and background time-freezes when a spirit leaves the body, reminscient of The Matrix (1999). One shot typifies just how different the film is -- a point-of-view (POV) shot from within an eyeball during brain surgery. The most spectacular dream sequence is the slow ascent to heaven on a giant stairway, and the film's most memorable image is of a single, glittering love tear on a red rose petal. No Academy Award Nominations.

T Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Joe Morton Director: James Cameron Cameron's well-executed, action-packed sequel to the earlier film of the same name, with a huge $100 million budget. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator (cyborg) character of the first film, The Terminator (1984) told everyone: "I'll be back" - and proved it with this film. The film takes place 11 years after the events of the first movie, in the year 1995. Sarah Connor (Hamilton) is now in a mental institution after attempting to blow up Cyberdyne Systems, and for acting delusional and insane over thoughts of an apocalypse. Her son John (Furlong) has become a rebellious foster child. This time, two cyborg terminators are sent from future Earth -- a T-800 model (Schwarzenegger) similar to the one from the first film, and the other, a prototype T-1000 (Patrick), who has the ability to 'morph' his body into any solid shape, impersonate other persons and even camouflage himself with the background. One is sent to protect the future leader John, the other to kill the boy who will lead humans to victory over the cyborgs. The film explores issues of fate, responsibility, loyalty, and the essences of humanity. The sequel was made possible by Cameron's hugely successful blockbuster Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989).

Unlike The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day would gross half its budget in its opening weekend, despite a running time of over two and a half hours, and end up making back twice its budget in the United States alone. The chief selling point, aside from the computer-generated special effects and dazzling, non-stop action sequences, were the two major stars, Schwarzenegger and Hamilton, who starred in the original. It would be followed by a mildly successful sequel, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), in which only Schwarzenegger returned and faced off against a female "Terminatrix." This science-fiction blockbuster won four technical Academy Awards. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing. Thelma & Louise (1991) Starring: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Chistopher McDonald, Brad Pitt, Timothy Carhart Director: Ridley Scott Ridley Scott's film from first -timer Callie Khouri's screenplay is a pseudo-feminist, female-buddy and road movie that examines the themes of liberation, free will, revenge, female empowerment from oppression, self-discovery, and the nature of criminality. Thelma Dickinson (Davis), a naive Arkansas housewife starved for adventure, is unhappily married to a cheating, verbally-abusive and arrogant salesman named Darryl (McDonald). She sets out to have a weekend trip with her worldly-wise best friend, a coffee-shop waitress named Louise Sawyer (Sarandon). At a truck-stop en route, Thelma loosens up after a few drinks and becomes flirtatious. One of the customers, would-be rapist Harlan Puckett (Carhart), threatens Thelma in the parking lot - and she is questionably saved by Louise who kills the man before the rape occurs. In their flight from the law, the federal authorities, and the police, they begin driving to Mexico in a red 1966 Thunderbird convertible, and commit further serious crimes. Brad Pitt has a bit but memorable, pure beefcake role as sweet-talking J.D., a cocky, hitch-hiking cowboy (and thieving conartist) who steals from Thelma in a motel after seduction. The pair's flight as fugitives becomes one of liberation, as they not only cast off their daily shackles, but discover their inner desires and personas and become defiant outlaws, while being pursued by a sympathetically-protective detective named Hal Slocumb (Keitel). The box-office hit, similar to other coupleon-the-run films such as You Only Live Once (1937), They Live By Night (1949), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Badlands (1973), Thieves Like Us (1974), and The Sugarland Express (1974), is stirring to watch, especially in its final scenes, which include an encounter with an offensively-lewd truck driver, the awe-inspiring aerial shot of their T-bird being chased by a legion of blaring police cars in the American Southwest, and the famous freeze frame ending depicting their ultimate freedom as they ascend into the Grand Canyon. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Director--Ridley Scott, Best Actress-Geena Davis, Best Actress--Susan Sarandon, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing. Academy Awards: 1, Best Original Screenplay--Callie Khouri. Interestingly, Scott's directorial nomination replaced that of a snubbed female director (Barbra Streisand's Best Picture-nominated The Prince of Tides (1991)). The Thief of Bagdad (1924) Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher, Julanne Johnston, Brandon Hurst Director: Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh's timeless and expensive silent costume fantasy is a lavish and bold Arabian Nights adventure - and a spectacular accomplishment in production design and state-of-the-art special effects from production/art director William Cameron Menzies. It was inspired by writer/director Fritz Lang's Der Mde Tod (1921) (aka Destiny or The Tired Death) - the source for the flying horse and carpet sequences. The title character, the mischievous Ahmed, the Thief of Bagdad (Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., credited as Elton Thomas), possesses a magic rope used to scale walls and rob people, including the royal family. In the palace of the Caliph (Hurst), he disguises himself as a regal Prince to win the heart of an exotic, ra vishingly-beautiful Princess (Johnston), who must choose a princely husband on her birthday. Flogged for his deceptive fraud, Ahmed repents, reforms and confesses the truth to a Holy Man (Belcher). A test or challenge is devised by the Princess (who has already been smitten by Ahmed) -- the suitor who retrieves the rarest treasures hidden in a magical chest within the mysterious Orient in seven moons will win her hand. The storybook film features amazingly difficult stunt work performed by Fairbanks, such as a ride high above the city on a magic carpet, a battle with a fire -breathing dragon in caverns of flame, and a ride on the back of a flying horse (or Pegasus). He must also battle the evil and treacherous Mongol Prince (So-Jin) upon his return to woo back the Princess and prove his love. The legendary action star, already at the age of 40, was known for his swashbuckling roles as Zorro/Don Diego, D'Artagan and Robin Hood in 38 previous films, and would later star in his final role as Don Juan in Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). His son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., would follow in his father's footsteps as both a comedic romantic lead and as an action star, sometimes performing his own stunts much

as his father had, in such films as The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and RKO's Sinbad the Sailor (1947). This film was followed by an inferior remake with sound and color, The Thief of Bagdad (1940) with Conrad Veidt as the evil magician, and Sabu as the young thief. Gene Kelly's "Sinbad the Sailor" segment in Invitation to the Dance (1956), and Disney's animated Aladdin (1992) paid homage to the film. No Academy Award Nominations. T (continued) The Thing (From Another World) (1951) Starring: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James Arness Directors: Christian Nyby (with Howard Hawks) An influential and taut horror and science-fiction B-film hybrid based on John W. Campbell's 1938 story Who Goes There? This alien invasion film was director Hawks' sole science -fiction effort. A group of isolated scientists led by military pilot Captain Patrick Hendry (Tobey) and lead researcher Dr. Carrington (Cornthwaite) are stationed in a remote Arctic base. They discover a flying saucer UFO buried deep in the tundra, along with an eight-foot alien body (Arness) in a block of ice. After removing the frozen spaceman from the craft and bringing it back to their research station headquarters, the Thing creature (a chlorophyllbased humanoid) accidentally thaws and escapes, and proceeds to kill the sled dogs and hunt down the scientists themselves for their blood. The film effectively focuses on character interaction, with natural and rapid -fire dialogue, appropriate scientific jargon, and a strong-willed female character named Nikki Nicholson (Sheridan). The three most memorable moments are the discovery of the shape of the spacecraft, the scene of the alien set ablaze with kerosene, and the final warning/bulletin radioed by reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott (Spencer) from the North Pole: "...Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking, keep watching the skies!" (the warning foreshadowed Dr. Miles Bennell's (Kevin McCarthy) similar: "They're here already! You're next! You're next, you're next..." in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)). Remade by John Carpenter as the moody The Thing (1982) with Kurt Russell, and paid homage to with Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). No Academy Award Nominations. This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Starring: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, David Kaff, Tony Hendra, June Chadwick Director: Rob Reiner One of the funniest, improvisational parodies and satirical mockumentaries ever made, a typical co ncert film about the ill-fated, 1982 Tap Across America tour by Spinal Tap - one of Europe's loudest bands, in their first US tour in six years. Fictional director Marty DiBergi (Reiner, the film's actual director with his debut film) follows the members of the second-rate, fictitious heavy metal band as they promote their new LP album Smell the Glove: blonde lead singer David St. Hubbins (McKean), the cucumber-wearing bass player Derek Smalls (Shearer), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Guest) - who seems to long for St. Hubbins, Viv Savage (Kaff) - a strange troll-like keyboardist, and their shifty-eyed, cricket stick-wielding manager Ian Faith (Hendra). There's also an endless string of mortal drummers (one is remembered as having choked to death on someone else's vomit, while another spontaneously combusted). The group has numerous tour misadventures: they can't find the amphitheatre stage for a performance in Cleveland, are stopped at security for wearing "artificial limbs," experience show cancellations, non-existent hotel accommodations, mechanical failures, second billing to a puppet show, an 18" Stonehenge props debacle, failed promotional appearances, and David's Yoko Ono-like girlfriend Jeanine Pettibone (Chadwick) attempts to break up the band. The film's most famous scene is of Tufnel trying to explain how the band's Marshall amplifier is special: "These go to 11." The film features non-stop hilarity, mixing both obvious gags and lampooning in-jokes, as well as many brief star cameos, like Billy Crystal as angry head waiter Morty the Mime, Fran Drescher as tough record company publicist Bobbi Flekman ("Money talks, and bulls--t walks!"), Bruno Kirby as a limo driver, and Patrick MacNee as the vacuous Sir Denis Eton-Hogg, head of Polymer Records and Hoggwood, a camp for pale young boys. The film had a very quiet theatrical release, but quickly became a cult favorite on videotape, leading Guest to direct a string of other mockumentaries (Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), and A Mighty Wind (2003), which reunited all three Spinal Tap actors as folk singers). No Academy Award Nominations.

Titanic (1997) Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Gloria Stuart, Frances Fisher Director: James Cameron Writer/director James Cameron's three-plus hour, epic mega-blockbuster with the most expensive budget of any film up to its time, and extravagant visual and digital effects. Its story centered around an infamous part of history (the fateful night of April 15, 1912 for White Star Line's R.M.S. Titanic) with a doomed, fictional romance at its core. It begins with treasure-seekers in a salvage expedition at the submerged ship led by Brock Lovett (Paxton), who discover a safebox with a drawing of a woman wearing a 56-carat blue diamond necklace. They connect it to 102 year-old survivor Rose Dawson Calvert (Stuart) who revisits the site of the sinking, and reminisces, in flashback, about an ill-fated, forbidden romance she had when she was a seventeen year-old society girl. with lower-class, starving artist Jack Dawson (DiCaprio). Earlier a debutante named Rose DeWitt Bukater (Winslet), she had been forced by her mother Ruth (Fisher) to become engaged to rich, arrogant socialite Cal Hockley (Zane) and was on her way to Philadelphia to marry. Feeling hopelessly trapped, she tried to commit suicide from the aft deck rather than accept the arranged marriage, but was rescued by Jack. Although Jack was slighted by her upper-class family, she forsook her future with Cal and asked Jack to sketch her in the nude wearing the invaluable blue diamond, and they fell in love. When the ship hit the iceberg in the frigid North Atlantic and split in two, Jack sacrificed himself and a gain saved her from sure death. The characters of Rose and Jack and their romance wisely dominate the film, although there are some secondary subplots. Fans (mostly female) returned many dozens of times to enjoy the tale over and over and helped the film become the highest grossing motion picture of all time. Al though praised by critics and the viewing public, there was some backlash about its acting (especially DiCaprio's) and its screenplay - Titanic became the first Best Picture winner to not have a Best Screenplay nomination since The Sound of Music (1965). Academy Award Nominations: 14, including Best Actress--Kate Winslet, Best Supporting Actress--Gloria Stuart, Best Makeup. Academy Awards: 11, including Best Picture, Best Director--James Cameron, Best Cinematography--Russell Carpenter, Best Costume Design, Best Art DirectionSet Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score --James Horner, Best Original Song--"My Heart Will Go On," Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing. Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999) (tie) Starring: Voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer Director: John Lasseter Toy Story (1995) was the first feature length film to be completely animated by computers, by pioneering CGI animation studio Pixar Studios, which had already experimented with quite a few short subject films, most noticebly the Oscar -nominated short Luxo Jr. (1986) (whose characters became the basis for their logo) and Oscarwinning short Tin Toy (1988). The film's amazing computer effects were surpassed only by the intelligent, thoughtful script that had adult themes that both parents and their kids could relate to. Toy Story is a fantasy in which toys are animated, living beings when humans aren't around. Cowboy Woody (voice by Tom Hanks) is the highest ranked bedroom toy (there's also Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, Wallace Shawn as Rex, a meek dinosaur, Jim Varney as Slinky Dog, John Ratzenburger as Hamm the Pig, and Annie Potts as Woody's sweetheart, Bo Peep), because he's the favorite of master Andy. When Andy unwraps a birthday present and a new hi-tech space and action-toy Buzz Lightyear (voice by Tim Allen) appears, Woody fears his top place has been usurped by the new rival. The deluded Buzz believes he's on a mission to save the planet, until the two become trapped in the house of Sid, a sadistic bully in the neighborhood, and they are forced to overcome their differences. The sequel, Toy Story 2 (1999), far surpassed the original in terms of the quality of animation, voice acting and script, as the themes from the first film -- obsolescence and loyalty -- are explored even more deeply. Woody faces the reality that not only do toys get damaged, but that children inevitably grow up and forsake their childhood playthings. While Andy is at cowboy camp, Woody (regarded as a valuable collectible) is kidnapped by greedy toy collector Al (of Al's Toy Barn). He soon discovers that he was once a legend in the 60's, on a TV show called Woody's Roundup, complete with the usual wide array of merchandising tie-ins. He also realizes that he's the final missing piece in the collector's Woody's Roundup set, with fellow toys Cowgirl Jessie (voice by Joan Cusack), prospector Stinky Pete (voice by Kelsey Grammer), and Woody's faithful horse Bullseye. Woody faces the choice of living forever with them in a museum display in Tokyo, or leaving and returning to Andy, thereby dooming his newfound friends to be sent back into abandonment and storage, and facing his own dilemma that he won't last another year as Andy's favored toy. Academy Award Nominations (1995): 3, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Musical or Comedy Score--Randy Newman, Best Song--"You've Got a Friend." Academy Award Nominations (1999): 1, Best Song--"When She Loved Me" by Randy

Newman. Toy Story 2 and Chicken Run (2000) would influence the Academy to finally take animated films more seriously with the new Best Animated Feature Film category that debuted with Oscar-winning Shrek (2001), another CGI-animated feature.

U The Usual Suspects (1995) Starring: Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, Suzy Amis Director: Bryan Singer A convoluted, darkly comedic film noir, Bryan Singer's intriguing film (his second feature film) is set in a police interrogation room with slow-witted, chatty con-man Roger "Verbal" Kint (Spacey in a breakthrough role) who has been offered immunity, if he talks and provides testimony. He attempts to convince his captor, tough U.S. Customs Special Agent federal investigator Dave Kujan (Palminteri) about the enigmatic existence of Keyser Soze, a semi-mythical "devil", and almost supernatural Hungarian crime lord and mastermind. (Legend has it, according to Kint, that Soze was so willfully cold -blooded that when his family was threatened with rape and held hostage by Hungarian rivals, he killed his own family and then their captors and the rest of the mob and "nobody's ever seen him since.") According to Kint (told in flashback), a group of tough and savvy criminals (the ones on all the film's posters, in an NYPD line -up hauled in after a Queens, NY truck hijacking), including crooked ex-cop Dean Keaton (Byrne), explosives specialist Todd Hockney (Pollak), entry man and sniper Michael McManus (Baldwin), Latino Fred Fenster (Del Toro), and Kint himself, pulled off a $3 million robbery of emeralds. Soze had also coerced the five thieves to go on a suicide mission to San Pedro harbor to commit a huge $91 million cocaine heist --an act of sabotage against one of Keyser's own competitors in the drug trade. Verbal insists that he and his gang dealt with Soze only through his legal representative, Kobayashi (Postlethwaite), who pressured them by threatening to kill Keaton's lawyer girlfriend Edie Finneran (Amis) and castrate McManus' young nephew. The weaselly, limping, club-footed Kint, a survivor of the explosion at the harbor, confesses truths, half-truths, double-crosses, and lies. His recounting, aided by the contents of a bulletin board in the interrogation office, forces the viewer to deduce what is real and what is fictional in the stories he tells, an d who Soze really is. The non-linear, puzzling film is sometimes a bit too self -consciously twisted, clever, and predictable, but still a great crime thriller. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Supporting Actor --Kevin Spacey, Best Original Screenplay-Christopher McQuarrie.

W Way Out West (1937) Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynne, James Finlayson, Rosina Lawrence Director: James W. Horne One of the best Laurel and Hardy comedy films, and their only western spoof, with numerous slapstick antics and typical gags. Again, they reprise their most familiar roles - Stanley, the thin, meek simpleton, and Ollie, the fat, pompous one. The two arrive in the wild western town of Brushwood Gulch, searching for Mary Roberts (Lawrence), the orphaned daughter of their recently-deceased prospector partner. In Mickey Finn's Palace saloon run by a larcenous and unscrupulous innkeeper (Finlayson) and his brassy showgirl partner Lola (Lynne), they mistakenly let it slip that they have a deed to a gold mine for Mary. Finn substitutes Lola for M ary, his demure kitchen maid, to acquire the valuable deed for himself. When the pair meet the real Mary and realize she is being victimized and exploited by the other two crooked con-artists, they attempt to get the deed back. The film contains many memorable scenes and bits by the comedic twosome, such as the scene of Stan and Ollie's discussion about the deed to the gold mine - delivered to the wrong woman ("That's the first mistake we've made since that guy sold us the Brooklyn

Bridge"), their soft-shoe dance routine while singing "The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia," the scene of Stan being wrestled and tortured -- by tickling -- to give up the gold mine deed, Stan biting - chewing - and gulping pieces of his hat after losing a bet ("now you're taking me illiterally"), Stan lighting his finger like a cigarette lighter, and the rope -pulley sequences with Ollie and then a mule. Aside from their classic Sons of the Desert (1933), Laurel and Hardy appeared in many films, notably The Flying Deuces (1939), A Chump At Oxford (1940), and the comedy short The Music Box (1932). Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Score. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) Starring: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono Director: Robert Aldrich A great psychological thriller, black comedy, and over-the-top camp classic is this great trashy melodrama with the bizarre (and sole) pairing of two legendary -- and rival -- screen legends in a gothic, macabre, Grand Guignol horror film. The screenplay, by Lukas Heller, was based on Henry Farrell's novel Baby Jane (who also authored the novel Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte). A grotesque Baby Jane Hudson (Davis at 54 years of age), a former vaudeville child star, and paralyzed invalid sister Blanche (Crawford) from a mysterious, career-ending car accident (for which Jane was blamed but never charged), also a former movie star, live together in a gloomy, crumbling mansion in Los Angeles. Pasty white-faced Jane, whose career faded long ago, is now a deranged alcoholic, and vengefully bitter and jealous toward her wheelchair-bound sister secluded in an upstairs bedroom. Enmity worsens when a local TV network airs a marathon tribute to Blanche Hudson movies, and Jane learns that Blanche is planning to sell the mansion and put her in a sanitarium. There are many stunning scenes and excessive performances, particularly Jane's relentless tormenting of Blanche by serving an ex-pet and roasted rat for "din-din," Jane garishly dressed up as a little girl as she is being coached by impoverished pianist and musical director Edwin Flagg (Buono in his film debut) for an improbable comeback as she croaks, "I've Written a Letter to Daddy." And the concluding beach scene finale, when a past secret is revealed to Jane and she replies, "You mean, all this time we could've been friends?" The film's ending echoes the beginning when Jane purchases two strawberry ice cream cones and then insanely spins, pirouettes and dances, drawing a curious circle of people around her to fulfill her craving desires. Academy Award Nominations: 5, including Best Actress--Bette Davis, Best Supporting Actor--Victor Buono, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Sound. Academy Awards: 1, Best B/W Costume Design. When Harry Met Sally... (1989) Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby Director: Rob Reiner This witty and likeable, lightweight, old-fashioned romantic comedy was intended to answer the sexual politics question, "Can two friends sleep together and still love each other in the morning?" Director Rob Reiner directed this smart, modern-day 'screwball comedy' (his fifth film) of the semi -autobiographical tale - it was compiled from the shared recollections of actual romances, and sometimes resembles a sitcom. The engaging, episodic film keenly observes romance, relationships between males and females, friendship and sex. Two long-time acquaintances, often pessimistic, fast-talking and controlling Harry Burns (Crystal) and bubbly Sally Albright (Ryan) grapple with this question over a 12-year period (beginning in the spring of 1977 as students when they share a drive to New York from Chicago), as their relationship grows and matures. Their love is not "at first sight" but takes years to develop as the reluctant two often bump into each other and reconnect. The leads' best friends, Marie (Fisher) and Jess (Kirby), help Harry's and Sally's friendship to evolve, and actually fal l in love and get married themselves. The summer of 1989's 'sleeper' film has a number of startling resemblances to Woody Allen's witty, urban romance Annie Hall (1977): the black and white titles and the film's title song "It Had to Be You" (sung by Diane Keaton in Allen's film), direct camera interviews -testimonials, split-screen techniques, the Manhattan backdrop, evocative George Gershwin tunes, obsessive talk about sex and death, and Harry and Sally's first meeting in 1977 - is the year the similar film was released. The film's ending parallels Allen's Manhattan (1979). However, the two films also differed: When Harry Met Sally... illustrated how friends can ultimately realize that they're better as lov ers, while Annie Hall showed how lovers may end up better as friends. Academy Award Nominations: 1, Best Original Screenplay--Nora Ephron.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Starring: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Stubby Kaye Director: Robert Zemeckis A technically-marvelous film blending animated, ink-and-paint cartoon characters and flesh-and-blood live actors, in a convincing comedy/mystery noir thriller, set in Los Angeles in 1947. Very loosely based on Gary Wolf's 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? (with comic-book and newspaper strip characters who speak with word balloons instead of voices) -- in a very sanitized version. The film is a delightful spo of of the hard-boiled Sam Spade films and reminiscent of Chinatown (1974), complete with a sultry, femme fatale humanoid Toon named Jessica Rabbit (Turner, uncredited, with singing voice by Amy Irving, Amblin Entertainment executive producer Steven Spielberg's wife at the time), and a case involving alleged marital infidelity ("pattycake"), murder, a missing will, blackmail, and a conspiracy hatched by evil, Toon -hating Judge Doom (Lloyd) (of Cloverleaf Industries). Doom's plan is to bring freeways to LA, thereby ruining the existing Pacific & Electric Red Car public transport electric trolley system. The film revolves around the murder of Marvin Acme (Kaye), a gag-gift promoter and props supplier (Acme Novelty Co.) for all Toon productions and the owner of the ghetto-ized Toon-town where the Toons, regarded as a segregated minority group, live just outside Hollywood. Framed for the murder, zany Maroon Cartoon Studios actor Roger Rabbit (Fleischer), a stuttering, disaster-prone 'Toon,' solicits help from reluctant, hard-boiled, boozing private eye Eddie Valiant (Hoskins) to clear his name. Valiant is still grief -stricken over the death of brother Ted by a falling cartoon piano, but is financially - and emotionally - supported by girlfriend Dolores (Cassidy), as he solves the case. Earlier efforts to combine humans and ink-and-paint cartoon characters side-by-side in a film (Disney's Song of the South (1946) and Mary Poppins (1964), for example) are considered primitive next to this film, which used computers to precisely repeat camera movements and calculate shading, to allow them to cast shadows and have complex lighting. Unprecedented cooperation from Warner Brothers and Disney allowed for classic cartoon characters to be seen together for the first time, such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny parachuting together, having both Tinkerbell and Porky Pig end the movie, and, of course, the famous piano duel between Daffy and Donald Duck in a Cotton Club-style nightclub, the Ink & Paint Club. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing (and a Special Achieve ment Award to Richard Williams for animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters). The Wind (1928) Starring: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming, Edward Earle, William Orlamond Director: Victor Sjstrm Swedish director Victor Sjstrm's visually poetic, melodramatic silent western film, from Frances Marion's adapted screenplay based on the novel by Dorothy Scarborough. This is the dust bowl tale of a vulnerable young woman's plight in an alien and fearful environment (of ever-present sexual advances and the wind). One of the film's titles announces, "Man, puny but irresistible, encroaching forever on Nature's Fortresses." A "proper," fragile, and young Southern belle, Letty Mason (Gish in her fourth and last MGM film, and final silent film) travels from Virginia to live with her coarse male cousin Beverly (Earle) in the frontier West, where the howlin g, inhospitable Texas prairie wind relentlessly blows severe sandstorms. Beverly's suspicious, hardened pioneer wife Cora (Cumming) becomes intensely jealous of the young, pretty, and demure Eastern lady. The delicate Letty is immediately courted for marriage by two ranch cowboys: the clumsy, comic buffoon Lige (Hanson), and his dim-witted sidekick Sourdough (Orlamond). Also, an amoral, smooth-talking, flirtatious, already-married salesman from Fort Worth named Roddy Wirt (Love) who first met her on the train journey, arrives in town and wants her to be his mistress. Desperate because she has received an ultimatum to leave Cora's household when regarded as a sexual threat, Letty accepts a marriage proposal from Lige, but rebuffs consummation of her marriage with him on their wedding night. When Roddy finds the still-virginal Letty alone and half-crazy in her isolated cabin due to the constantly howling, remorseless wind, he attempts a brutal attack and rape. He insists on taking her away with him, but she resiliently resists and shoots him dead, i n self-defense, and guiltily attempts to bury his body in the uncooperative, shifting sand. She wanders, blindly, into the middle of the sandstorm and disappears - to presumably die, in the film's original ending. MGM reshot the film's downbeat ending to change the film's mood. In the edited version, Letty reconciles with Lige - she confesses the killing to him and how the sand has justly covered up the corpse. She also reaffirms her love and they lovingly embrace in the doorway of their cabin. The film was a box-office failure, due to the advent of the "talkies" a year before, but its inde lible images yet remain. John Arnold's impressive cinematography was taken under difficult circumstances - the temperature during the shoot in the Mojave Desert was often 120 F in the shade. Sjstrm (billed as Victor Seastrom in his American films) was a longtime Swedish film director whom MGM signed to do films, such as The Scarlet Letter (1924), He Who Gets Slapped (1924), with Lon Chaney, and The Divine Woman (1928), with Greta Garbo. This was his final American film. He later

returned to Sweden to act, most notably in Bergman's classic Wild Strawberries (1957) as lead character Professor Isak Borg, an elderly professor facing his mortality and revisiting his past. No Academy Award Nominations. Witness For the Prosecution (1957) Starring: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Henry Daniell, Norma Varden Director: Billy Wilder Co-writer and director Billy Wilder's brilliant film, a convoluted, twisting courtroom mystery based on Agatha Christie's 1933 four-character short story and celebrated 1947 stage play about an aging, distinguished, near-retirement age London barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Laughton), with his overbearing housekeeper/nurse Miss Plimsoll (Lanchester, Laughton's real-life wife) tending to his near-failing health. The intelligently clever and incorrigible attorney is asked by solicitor Mayhew (Daniell) to take on a perplexing case, the defense of the prime suspect - an unemployed, American expatriate inventor named Leonard Stephen Vole (Tyrone Power in his final film role) in the murder of wealthy widow Emily Jane French (Varden). The testimony -- and true identity -- of the mysterious, beautiful German-born 'wife' of the accused, Christine "Helm" Vole (Dietrich), holds the key to solving the case involving marital infidelities and deceit. She is his only alibi - but cannot as the defendant's wife be considered a credible witness, but she IS called as a 'witness for the prosecution' to testify against hi m and cold-heartedly betray her husband. When a mysterious Cockney woman calls Sir Wilfrid saying she has information to help his client, the film sets up the surprise ending. After Leonard has been acquitted (although he actually committed the crime), Christine shockingly stabs him to death for his double-crossing philandering! The film has crisp dialogue, a complicated and intriguing plot, unique characters and excellent acting performances. A remade, 1982 TV movie based on the original Wilder screenplay starred the venerable Ralph Richardson in the Laughton role, with Deborah Kerr as his nurse, Beau Bridges as the accused Leonard Vole, and Diana Rigg as his wife Christine. Academy Award Nominations: 6, including Best Picture, Best Director--Billy Wilder, Best Actor--Charles Laughton, Best Supporting Actress--Elsa Lanchester, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing.

Y Young Frankenstein (1974) Starring: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars Director: Mel Brooks One of writer/producer/director Mel Brooks' best films - a nostalgic, hilarious spoof-tribute to classic horror films (with its authentic black and white cinematography and production design/set decoration), and in particular, of Mary Shelley's classic novel. This was his follow -up film to his westerns-spoof (Blazing Saddles (1974)). The main character, young brain surgeon and med-school professor, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder) is in denial about his heritage, and must continually and defiantly correct people about the pronunciation of his name: "That's Frahnk-en-steen". The reluctant scientist returns to Transylvania when he inherits his infamous grandfather Victor's castle, and is inspired to finish his ancestor's mad work to create life after he finds the journal book/diary "How I Did It" in his private library. In the castle and town, he finds a bug -eyed Igor ("That's Eye-gor") (Feldman) with a shifting hunchback, an old housekeeper Frau Bleucher (Leachman) who inspires horses to whinny, and a pretty, dim-witted, voluptuous assistant from the village named Inga (Garr). His sexually -repressed, spoiled fiancee Elizabeth (Kahn) later joins him as he repeats his grandfather's famous experiments and recreates the Monster (Boyle). The film ranges from slapstick and farce to dirty, bawdy humor to irreverent satire (e.g., a parody of the little girl drowning scene that was taken from Frankenstein (1931), and the blind hermit scene from Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Gene Hackman in a cameo role.) Some of the more memorable images are Elizabeth's encounter with the Monster and his "enormous schwanstucker" (singing "O Sweet Mystery of Life"), and the soft-shoe dancing duet of "Puttin' on the Ritz" by the Monster and creator Frederick, complete with tuxedos, canes, and top hats. Later, co-writer and actor Wilder attempted his own Old Dark House horror genre spoof, Haunted Honeymoon (1986). Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Adapted Screenplay (Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder), Best Sound.