Robert Ward's List

Robert writes: A personal view! Some of these are here because I think they're great films... some just because I like them.
(Robert is a Londoner born and bred, now living in Leeds, addicted to the Net and old movies.)

• "2001:A Space Odyssey" (Kubrick 1968) - the classic space opera
• "42nd Street" (Lloyd Bacon 1933) - wonderful backstage musical from Warners : "Sawyer - you're going out a youngster - but you've got to come back a star"
• "An Actor's Revenge" (Kon Ichikawa 1963) splendid Japanese drama of love and revenge by a Kabuki star
• "The African Queen" (John Huston 1951) adventure in WW1 Africa
• "Airplane!" (Jim Abrahams 1980) the ultimate spoof disaster movie
• "All About Eve" (Joseph Mankiewicz 1950) Bette Davis firing on all cylinders : "Fasten your seatbelts - it's going to be a bumpy night"
• "All Quiet On The Western Front" (Lewis Milestone 1930) classic anti-war movie
• "The Apartment" (Billy Wilder 1960) a sardonic look at business (im)morality
• "Arsenic And Old Lace" (Frank Capra 1944) superb black comedy. Cary Grant was never better
• "L'Atalante" (Jean Vigo 1934) love on a French barge
• "Autumn Sonata" (Ingmar Bergman) Bergman and Bergman
• "Bad Day at Black Rock" (John Sturges 1955) Racism in backwoods USA
• "Bambi" (Walt Disney 1942) classic animation
• "Battleship Potemkin" (Sergei Eisenstein 1925) definitive agitprop from the master
• "La Belle et la bete" (Jean Cocteau 1946) fantasy film of the famous fairy tale
• "The Best Years of Our Lives" (William Wyler 1946) they won the war; now they have to tackle the peace
• "The Big Sleep" (Howard Hawks 1946) in a class by itself
• "Billy Liar" (John Schlesinger 1963) ... a man who prefers his daydreams to reality
• "Birth of a Nation" (D W Griffith 1915) epics started here
• "Blithe Spirit" (David Lean 1945) ghostly comedy with the inimitable Kay Hammond
• "The Blue Angel" (Joseph Sternberg 1930) "fallink in love again..."
• "Brief Encounter" (David Lean 1945) stiff upper lips start to quiver just a little
• "Bringing Up Baby" (Howard Hawks 1938) classic screwball comedy
• "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (William Goldman 1969) laid back western
• "Cabaret "(Bob Fosse 1972) just how decadent can you get?
• "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari "(Robert Wiene 1919) someone has to be crazy round here - but who?
• "Camille "(George Cukor 1937) Garbo. 'nuff said
• "Casablanca "(Michael Curtiz 1942) undoubtedly one of the best movies ever made
• "The Cat and the Canary "(Walter de Leon 1939) "Aren't you afraid of big empty houses? Not me, I played vaudeville!"
• "Celine et Julie Vont en Bateau "(Jacques Rivette 1973) a rivetting ghost story
• "Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie "(Rene Clair 1927) classic farce from a classic filmmaker
• "The Chess Player "(Le Joueur d'echecs 1926) (Raymond Bernard) eerie melodrama in 18th century Poland about a chess playing automaton
• "A Chinese Ghost Story "(Siu-Tung Ching 1987) a not so brave tax collector takes on some ghosts - Chinese style
• "Citizen Kane "(Orson Welles 1941) no-one could equal his - not even Welles
• "Un Coeur en Hiver "(Claude Sautet 1992) absorbing study of a man in love with his work
• "Crocodile Dundee "(Peter Faiman 1986) Paul Hogan not taking anything seriously
• "Dames "(Ray Enright 1934) no plot but who cares?
• "Daniel and the Devil "(William Dieterle 1941) Walter Huston at his finest
• "The Day the Earth Stood Still "(Robert Wise)  Klaatu barada nikto!
• "Dead of Night "(Alberto Cavalcanti,  Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer & Charles Crichton 1945) a quartet of ghost stories. Don't watch the ventriloquist episode late at night!
• "The Devil's Eye "(Ingmar Bergman 1960) sardonic comedy from a master
• "Double Indemnity "(Billy Wilder 1944) Stanwyck at her deadliest
• "Dracula "(Tod Browning 1931) classic gothic horror
• "Dumbo "(Walt Disney 1941) wonderful animated comedy
• "Easter Parade "(Charles Walters 1948) Astaire and Garland - what a combination!
• "Les Enfants du Paradis "(Marcel Carne 1945) romance in 19th century Paris
• "Fanny "(Marc Allegret 1932) second part of the famous trilogy
• "Farewell, My Lovely "(Edward Dmytryk 1944) the best film portrayal of Chandler's Philip Marlowe
• "The File on Thelma Jordan "(Robert Siodmak 1949) Stanwyck again up to not much good
• "First a Girl "(Victor Saville 1935) charming musical with some fascinating music hall sequences (remake of Viktor/Victoria)
• "Follow the Fleet "(Mark Sandrich 1936) Astaire and Rogers
• "Footlight Parade "(Lloyd Bacon 1933) James Cagney shows his versatility
• "Forbidden Planet "(Frederick Wilcox 1956) classic scifi with Robby the Robot (and Anne Francis)
• "Frankenstein "(James Whale 1931) classic horror
• "The General "(Buster Keaton 1927) Easily Keaton's best
• "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes "(Howard Hawks 1953) but it's hard to choose between Monroe and Russell
• "Gold Diggers of 1933 "(Mervyn LeRoy 1933) classic backstage musical - and an early appearance from Ginger Rogers
• "Gold Diggers of 1935 "(Busby Berkeley 1935) tremendous "Lullaby of Broadway" number (and Adolphe Menjou)
• "The Gold Rush "(Charles Chaplin 1925) classic Chaplin
• "Gone With The Wind "(Victor Fleming 1939) "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn"
• "La Grande Illusion "(Jean Renoir 1937) class struggle from the great French filmmaker
• "The Grapes of Wrath "(John Ford 1940) tremendous portrait of "new deal" America
• "The Great Dictator "(Charles Chaplin 1940) for the scene with Chaplin playing with the world ...
• "Great Expectations "(David Lean 1946) one of the best Dickens adaptations
• "Hamlet "(Laurence Olivier 1948) the greatest Shakespearean actor in the greatest Shakespearean role
• "Hannah and her Sisters "(Woody Allen 1986) Woody in great form in an absorbing study of New York life
• "Harvey "(Henry Koster 1950) James Stewart's classic role
• "The Heiress "(William Wyler 1949) Olivia de Havilland at her best
• "Hellzapoppin "(Henry Potter 1941) unmatched zaniness
• "Henry V "(Laurence Olivier 1945) cleverly packaged morale boosting
• "The Hidden Fortress "(Akira Kurosawa 1958) splendid samurai adventure with Mifune (but watch it in widescreen)
• "High Noon "(Fred Zinneman 1952) classic western with Gary Cooper
• "High Sierra "(Raoul Walsh 1941) unmatched gangster movie with Bogart and Lupino
• "His Girl Friday "(Howard Hawk 1940) superb comedy in the newspaper world
• "The Hunchback of Notre Dame "(WiIliam Dieterle 1939) this is the Charles Laughton version of the famous novel
• "The Hustler "(Robert Rossen 1961) Paul Newman trying to make a more-or-less honest living in the pool hall. "Pot Black" was never like this.
• "I Know Where I'm Going "(Michael Powell & Emerich Pressburger 1945) Wendy Hiller in an off-beat drama in the Scottish highlands
• "I Married a Witch "(Rene Clair 1942) Fantasy comedy with Veronica Lake and Fredric March in great form
• "I See A Dark Stranger "(Frank Launder & Sidney Gilliat 1946) spy comedy drama in wartime England
• "I Walked With A Zombie "(Jacques Tourneur 1943) An ingenious retelling of "Jane Eyre" in the West Indies
• "I Was a Male War Bride "(Howard Hawks 1949) Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan striking sparks
• "The Incredible Shrinking Man "(Jack Arnold 1957) classic scifi
• "Intolerance "(D W Griffith) for the ancient Babylonian orgy
• "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers "(Don Siegel 1956) 1950s paranoia
• "The Invisible Man "(James Whale 1933) Claude Rains brings out the horror behind H G Wells's classic story
• "It Happened One Night "(Frank Capra 1934) Colbert and Gable
• "It's a Wonderful Life "(Frank Capra 1946) small town Americana - Better Than Life!
• "Jezebel "(William Wyler 1938) Bette Davis as a headstrong southern belle in pre-Civil War US
• "Jules et Jim "(Francois Truffaut 1961) classic French romance
• "Kameradschaft "(Georg Pabst 1931) mining drama
• "La Kermesse Heroique "(Jacques Feyder 1935) delicious costume comedy drama in 16th century Flanders
• "Key Largo "(John Huston 1948) classic gangster movie with Edward G Robinson
• "Kind Hearts and Coronets "(Robert Hamer 1949) all star cast; if Guiness didn't get eight salaries for it, he earned them
• "King Kong "(Merian Cooper & Ernest Schoedsack 1933) It was beauty killed the beast!
• "A Kiss For Cinderella "(Herbert Brenon 1926) wonderful fantasy version of the Barrie play
• "Kwaidan "(Masaki Kobayashi 1964) quartet of Japanese ghost stories lusciously shot in widescreen and colour
• "The Lady Eve "(Preston Sturges 1941) wonderful comedy with Stanwyck and Fonda at their greatest; superbly put together by Sturges
• "The Lady Vanishes "(Alfred Hitchcock 1938) classic Hitchock
• "The Ladykillers "(Alexander Mackendrick 1955) some incompetent crooks take on a little old lady - and lose!
• "The Lavender Hill Mob "(Charles Crichton 1951) a personal favourite; watch out for a very young Audrey Hepburn
• "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp "(Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 1943) splendid pageant of wartime England
• "Little Caesar "(Mervyn LeRoy 1930) Classic gangster : "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"
• "Love Me Tonight "(Robert Mamoulian 1932) for "Isn't It Romantic?" (and Myrna Loy)
• "M "(Fritz Lang 1931) classic murder drama
• "M*A*S*H "(Robert Altman 1970) "suicide is easy"
• "The Magnificent Ambersons "(Orson Welles 1942) nearly as good as "Kane"
• "Major Barbara "(Blaise Pascal 1941) best film version of Shaw
• "The Maltese Falcon "(John Huston 1941) for its brilliant casting
• "The Man Who Would Be King "(John Huston 1975) splendid ripping yarn done with tremendous panache
• "The Man in the White Suit "(Alexander Mackendrick 1951) splendid comedy satire, and Joan Greenwood
• "Marius "(Alexander Korda 1931) part of the "Fanny" trilogy
• "A Matter of Life and Death "(Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 1946) wartime fantasy
• "Meet Me In St Louis "(Vincente Minnelli 1944) American nostalgia
• "Metropolis "(Fritz Lang 1926) classic scifi
• "Midnight "(Mitchell Leisen 1939) wonderful comedy with Colbert and Barrymore (especially for his imitation of a little girl!)
• "Le Million "(Rene Clair 1931) delightful comedy in 1930s Paris in search of a missing lottery ticket
• "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek "(Preston Sturges 1944) for Diana Lynn
• "Modern Times "(Charles Chaplin 1936) social satire in an ingenious silent with sound
• "Mr Hulot's Holiday "(Jacques Tati 1953) for the card playing scene
• "My Darling Clementine "(John Ford 1946) one of the great westerns
• "My Favourite Brunette "(Elliott Nugent 1947) Bob Hope sends up the spy movie
• "Napoleon "(Abel Gance 1927) see it on a triple screen with live orchestra
• "Nashville "(Robert Altman 1975) a sardonic look at American values
• "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break "(Edward Cline 1941) complete insanity W C Fields style
• "Night Train to Munich "(Carol Reed 1940) splendid spy drama with a great cast
• "A Night at the Opera "(Sam Woods 1935) You'll never take "Il Trovatore" seriously again
• "The Night of the Hunter "(Charles Laughton 1955) a mad "clergyman" in depression America
• "North by Northwest "(Alfred Hitchcock 1959) for Mason's supersuave villain
• "Nosferatu "(F W Murnau 1922) classic horror
• "October "(Sergei Eisenstein 1928) superb agitprop
• "Oliver Twist "(David Lean 1948) Guiness in another great role
• "On The Town "(Gene Kelly 1949) Kelly and Sinatra
• "One, Two, Three "(Billy Wilder 1961) hilarious cold war comedy
• "Only Angels Have Wings "(Howard Hawks 1939) splendid aviation drama in Latin America (and Jean Arthur)
• "The Orphans of the Storm "(D W Griffith 1922) French revolution costume drama, magnificent in its original tinted version
• "Orphee "(Jean Cocteau 1949) surreal fantasy
• "Ossessione "(Luchio Visconti 1942) good Italian version of "Postman Always Rings Twice"
• "Our Hospitality "(Buster Keaton 1923) costume comedy in the old South
• "The Paleface "(Norman Z Mcleod 1948) splendid spoof western
• "The Palm Beach Story "(Preston Sturges 1942) zany comedy with a film within a film
• "Pandora's Box "(Georg Pabst 1929) fascinating study of decadence and corruption
• "The Philadelphia Story "(George Cukor 1940) crackling dialogue
• "The Pirate "(Vincente Minnelli 1948) Garland and Kelly (and Cole Porter)
• "Play It Again, Sam "(Woody Allen 1972) Woody's affectionate parody of the classic movie
• "The Postman Always Rings Twice "(Tay Garnett 1946) relentless tragedy
• "The Producers "(Mel Brooks 1967) bad taste transfigured
• "The Public Enemy "(William Wellman 1931) classic gangster movie
• "Pygmalion "(Anthony Asquith 1938) Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard in a brilliant version of Shaw's play
• "The Railway Children "(Lionel Jefferies 1970) charming and stylish version of Nesbit's story
• "Rebecca "(Alfred Hitchcock 1940) "last night I dreamed I went to manderley again"
• "Rebellion "(Masaki Kobayashi 1967) one of the best samurai movies
• "The Red Shoes "(Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 1948) for combiing ballet and film
• "Rembrandt "(Alexander Korda 1936) a very effective biopic
• "Richard III "(Laurence Olivier 1955) only Olivier could take such liberties with Shakespeare and get away with it. "Conscience avaunt! Richard's himself again!"
• "The Road to Morocco "(David Butler 1942) best of the "Road" movies that never takes itself seriously for an instant
• "The Road to Utopia "(Hal Walker 1945) second only to "Morocco"
• "Safety Last "(Sam Taylor 1923) Harold Lloyd's famous comedy
• "Sansho Dayu "(Kenzo Mizoguch 1954) but it's not exactly cheerful ...
• "The Seven Samurai "(Akira Kurosawa 1954) Mifune as only he can do it
• "The Seventh Seal "(Ingmar Bergman 1957) Bergman on religion
• "Shadow of a Doubt "(Alfred Hitchcock 1943) or why you shold not always take things at face value
• "Shakespeare Wallah "(James Ivory 1965) off-beat romance in post-Independence India
• "Sherlock Junior "(Buster Keaton 1924) fantasy comedy with some of Keaton's greatest gags
• "The Shop Around the Corner "(Ernst Lubitsch 1940) delightful comedy romance
• "Singin' In The Rain "(Stanley Donen 1952) "Well of course we talk - don't everyone?"
• "The Sleeper "(Woody Allen 1973) fine assortment of classic Woody lines : "My brain - it's my second favourite organ"
• "Smiles of a Summer Night "(Ingmar Bergman 1955) charming romantic comedy : Bergman in lighthearted mood for once
• "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "(Walt Disney 1937) the greatest animated movie. never equalled
• "Some Like It Hot "(Billy Wilder 1959) "Well, nobody's perfect!" (but Monroe comes pretty near)
• "A Star Is Born "(George Cukor 1954) Garland and mason
• "A Star Is Born "(WiIlliam Wellman 1937) better than the 1954 version because the songs don't interefere with the plot
• "The Sting "(George Roy Hill 1973) superb attention to detail
• "A Streetcar Named Desire "(Elia Kazan 1951) Leigh and Brando at superheat
• "Sullivan's Travels "(Preston Sturges 1941) I'd love to have seen "Ants in Your Pants of 1939" or "Hey Hey in tthe Hayloft"
• "Sunset Boulevard "(Billy Wilder 1950) with some of Wilder's blackest humour
• "Suspicion "(Alfred Hitchcock 1941) shame about the happy ending though
• "The Sweet Smell of Success "(Alexander Mackendrick 1957) Tony Curtis showing he could act when he tried
• "The Thief of Baghdad "(Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan 1940) wonderful fantasy
• "The Thin Man "(W S van Dyke 1934) brilliant comedy thriller (and Myrna Loy)
• "Things To Come "(William Cameron Menzies 1936) scifi classic
• "The Third Man "(Carol Reed 1949) moody mystery in post-war Vienna
• "The Thirty-nine Steps "(Alfred Hitchcock 1935) as only Hitchcock could do it
• "Throne of Blood "(Akira Kurosawa 1957) full blooded samurai tragedy
• "To Have And Have Not "(Howard Hawks 1945) "You know how to whistle, don't you Steve?"
• "To Be or Not To Be "(Ernst Lubitsch 1942) "SO they call me concentration camp Erhardt do they?"
• "Tom Thumb "(George Pal 1958) delightful romantic fantasy
• "Top Hat "(Mark Sandrich 1935) Rogers and Astaire and an Irving Berlin score; what more do you want?
• "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre "(John Huston 1948) "We don't need no stinking badges!"
• "Twelve Angry Men "(Sidney Lumet 1957) claustrophobic melodrama
• "Twentieth Century "(Howard Hawks 1934) "Sand - sand from the Holy land - and camels ..."
• "The Way to the Stars "(Anthony Asquith 1945) thoughtful WW2 drama (and a youthful Jean Simmons showing she can sing)
• "Whisky Galore "(Alexander Mackendrick 1948) off beat comedy
• "White Heat "(Raoul Walsh 1949) "Top of the world Ma!"
• "Who Framed Roger Rabbit? "(Robert Zemeckis 1988) first rate combination of live action and animation
• "The Wind "(Victor Sjostrom 1927) best with a live orchestra
• "The Wizard of Oz "(Victor Fleming 1939) "Toto - we're not in Kansas any more"
• "Young Frankenstein "(Mel Brooks 1974) "Igor - would you give me a hand with the bags, please?
  Soitanly - you take the blonde and I'll take the one in the turban."
• "Z "(Costa-Gavros 1968) good political thriller

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