#19 On the Waterfront

1954
Director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint

Brando's Terry Malloy is a could-have-been fighter who works on the docks for a corrupt union boss.  Terry witnesses a murder by two of the thugs under the boss' orders, and eventually falls for the murdered boys sister.  Terry starts to want more than working for the wrong people, and tried to take on boss Johnny Friendly.  Acting is great, a little slow at times.  Brando's charisma makes it impossible not to watch him.  Not one of my favorites on the list, but I enjoyed watching.


Up Next: The General

#20 It's A Wonderful Life

1946
Director: Frank Capra

Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

Poor George Bailey, he can't catch a break.  He just wanted to get out of his small town of Bedford Falls and ends up being needed there the most.  At his lowest moment, George gets a visit from his guardian angel Clarence and sees what life would be like had he never been born.  Movies don't get much better than this.  Terrific.

Trivia: For the scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock into the window of the Granville House, Frank Capra hired a marksman to shoot it out for her on cue. To everyone's amazement, Donna Reed broke the window with true aim and heft without the assistance of the hired marksman. Reed had played baseball in high school and had a strong throwing arm.

Up Next: On The Waterfront

#21 Chinatown

1974
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

Private eye JJ Gittes takes on Evelyn Mulwray as a client when she think her husband (who works for the water department) is having an affair.  From there, Gittes gets in way over his head as the Mulwray story gets stranger and stranger.  Everything is involved- murder, politics and incest.

I can't say I liked this movie, but it was entertaining.

Trivia: At one point, Roman Polanski and Jack Nicholson got into such a heated argument that Polanski smashed Nicholson's portable TV with a mop. Nicholson used the TV to watch L.A. Lakers basketball games and kept stalling shooting.

Up Next: It's A Wonderful Life

#22 Some Like it Hot

1959
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, Marilyn Monroe

I remember watching this movie when I was a little girl, it's one of the first movies I remember watching with my dad and my sister.  I haven't watched it since, so it was like watching it for the first time again.  I thought it was great! I laughed a lot, especially at Lemons character.
The movie follows two musicians who witness the Valentines Day massacre and try to escape by dressing in drag and joining an all-girls band, which Monroe's character Sugar Kane is a member of.  Silliness and romance ensues...
Trivia: When Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon first put on the female make-up and costumes, they walked around the Goldwyn Studios lot to see if they could "pass" as women. Then they tried using mirrors in public ladies rooms to fix their makeup, and when none of the women using it complained, they knew they could be convincing as women. There is a scene on the train recreating this moment. 

Up Next: Chinatown

#23 The Grapes of Wrath

1940
Director:  John Ford
Starring: Henry Fonda, John Carradine, Jane Darwell

Based on the Steinbeck novel, the movie follows the Joad family through hard times.  It's hard for me to imagine what times were like then, but this movie certainly paints a descriptive picture.   I never read the book and had never seen the movie.  I can say that the acting was excellent and the story compelling, but I can't say that it's a movie I would watch again.  I didn't love it so much, but can't really figure out why!

Trivia- John Steinbeck loved the movie and said that Henry Fonda as Tom Joad made him "believe my own words". 

Up Next - Some Like it Hot

#24 E. T. the Extra-terrestrial

1982
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton, Peter Coyote

I can admit now that growing up, this was never a movie that hit home for me.  Weird, because I like alien movies.  But for some reason, I don't remember liking it as much as I just did when I re-watched it for the first time in maybe 25 years.  This movie is sums up movie making in total.  I just loved it.  Every minute.

Trivia: Spielberg shot most of the film from the eye-level of a child to further connect with Elliot and E.T. 

Up Next- The Grapes of Wrath

#25 To Kill A Mockingbird

1962 
Director: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford

Classic novel and movie that follows Atticus Finch, a lawyer who defends a black man who is wrongly accused of raping a white woman in racially divided 1930's Alabama.  Despite pressure from some of the town, he takes the case.  Atticus represents someone who does the right thing for the right reasons... simply because its the right thing to do.  It's simply in his nature to do good.  The movie also follows the lives of his children, and the mysterious Boo Radley (A very young Robert Duvall.)  
I remember reading this in school and watching the movie back then too.  The movie seemed to mean more now.  We are definitely getting into the best of the best now. 

Trivia: Mary Badham (Scout) and Gregory Peck (Atticus) became close during filming and kept in contact for the rest of his life. He always called her Scout. 

Up Next: E. T. 

#26 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

1939
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains

Made in one of the best year for movies, the movie follows a young senator and his introduction into politics.  Stweart is perfection and I HEART Claude Rains ( I've loved just about everything I've seen him in.) Stewart takes on the DC elite and corrupt.  His passion for democracy is certainly believable and missed these days!

Trivia: The movie Bitterly denounced by Washington insiders angry at its allegations of corruption, yet banned by fascist states in Europe who were afraid it showed that democracy works. 

Up Next: To Kill A Mockingbird

#27 High Noon

1952
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges

Ok, so I guess I really just don't like westerns.  Not one, aside from Unforgiven, on the list that I've liked.  It wasn't TERRIBLE... I just wasn't impressed.  I did like the concept of the movie and how is occurs in real time.  The movie follows Will Kane (played by Gary Cooper), a sheriff who has kept his little town safe for years and is finally ready to get married (to Grace Kelly) and retire.  On the day of the wedding, the town hears of a gang with a big meanie, Frank Miller, who is headed their way.  Kane feels responsible, since he sent him to jail in the first place, and seems to be the only one who will stand up to Miller when he and his crew get in on the noon train.  The whole movie builds up to the end scene.  You want to stick with it so you see the end, but for me, the whole western movie is just something I don't get!  Onto the next...

Up Next: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

#28 All About Eve

1950
Director:  Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe

One of my personal all time favorites, I can watch this movie over and over.  The story is great, and the acting (especially by Davis and Baxter) is perfection.  The movie follows acting hopeful Eve Harrington as she obsesses over and eventually starts working for theater-diva Margo Channing.  Theater actors in this movie are revered as the ultimate celebrity.  Eve's motives are not what they seem, and she eventually tries to take over Margo's life.  The movie had 14 Oscar Nominations and won 6.  

Trivia: One scene in the movie shows a very young Marilyn Monroe in one of her first on-screen roles and the famous line "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

Up Next: High Noon

#29 Double Indemnity

1944
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson

LOVE this movie... I saw it once many moons ago, but didn't remember the details, or liking it this much.  What a classic representation of film noir.  I love the lighting, the mood... Barbara Stanwyck is amazing, and dark.  Perfect.

 I love how the last thing Neff looks at before he leaves her lying on the couch is her anklet.  Details like this make the movie.


Up Next: All About Eve

# 30 Apocalypse Now

1979
Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall

Maybe I just don't like Vietnam War movies, I haven't liked one yet.  And this one was really no different... I didn't HATE it, I just didn't like it.
The movie follows Sheen's Capt. Willard and he goes into the jungle on a mission to kill rogue Colonel Kurtz, who views himself as a god and lives among a local tribe.

Up Next: Double Indemnity

#31 The Maltese Falcon

1941
Director: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre

Classic film noire movie starring one of the best, Humphrey Bogart.  The movie begins as Mary Astor's character, Brigid O'Shaughnessy,  shows up at the Detective agency of Spade and Archer.  Before long, Archer is dead and Sam Spade is tangled up in the search for the mysterious statue known as the Maltese Falcon.  Peter Lorre's character is classic villain for the film type.  I could watch this movie over and over...

Trivia: John Huston had Mary Astor run around the set several times before each of her scenes in order to give her a breathless, nervous appearance on screen.

Up Next: Apocalypse Now

#32 The Godfather Part II

1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

I had only seen this movie once before and it seems like a million years ago.  I love the telling of the two stories.  I especially loved seeing the young life of Vito Corleone. It's funny how you find yourself rooting for the bad guy- he's becoming the head of the mafia but you want him to go back to Italy to seek revenge for his family.  Pacino and De Niro at their finest! Is it better than the first? I can't say- that's #2 on the list so I'll decide when I watch it again!




Trivia: Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are the only two actors to win separate Oscars for playing the same character.

Up Next: The Maltese Falcon

#33 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

1975
Director: Milos Forman
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher

I really liked this movie a lot... Another one I haven't seen but knew references about, knew a little about the story... and that was it.  Nicholson plays RP McMurphy, a convict who tries to fake insanity to get out of prison work detail.  He arrives on the floor of the Nurse Ratched's ward and witnesses (and unfortunately is subject to) the physical and emotional abuse of the patients.  McMurphy riles up the other patients to take a stand against Ratched and the outcomes are unexpected.  Excellent acting all around, and loved seeing the faces of Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito & Vincent Schiavelli. And I loved Brad Dourif as Billy (who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.)
This movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Trivia: With the exception of the fishing segment (which was filmed last), the film was shot in sequence. 

# 34 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

1937

Voice of: Adriana Caselotti, voice of Snow White

Disney's first full-length feature film, Snow White is a classic.  It's so simple.  I think it's the only animated movie on the list!

Trivia: Was the first of many Disney films to have its premiere engagement at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. At the end of the film's initial engagement there, all the velvet seat upholstery had to be replaced. It seems that young children were so frightened by the sequence of Snow White lost in the forest that they wet their pants, and consequently the seats, at each and every showing of the film. Also, there's a hidden Mickey Mouse that's Formed by three stones on the wall behind the Queen as she strides down to the basement to perform her spell.

Up Next: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

#35 Annie Hall

1977
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton

I never had any desire to see this movie before.  And now I know why, I was bored out of my mind.  I get why people like it, it's just not my kind of movie.
The story follows the neurotic relationship of Annie and Alvy, and shows to good and the bad.

Trivia: Diane Keaton's real name is Diane Hall and her nickname is Annie. 

Up Next: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

#36 The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957
Director: David Lean
Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa

Loved this movie!! It follows the story of British POW's in a Japanese work camp.  The Japanese colonel uses them to complete his task of building a bridge over the Kwai river.  Alec Guinness plays opposite Sessue Hayakawa and the two are perfect.  Guinness's character, Nicholson, insists that if they are being used to build the bridge then it will be done perfectly.  When an escapee from the camp to destroy the bridge, I was rooting for the bridge...

Trivia: The actual Major Saito, unlike the character portrayed in the film by Sessue Hayakawa, was said by some to be one of the most reasonable and humane of all of the Japanese officers, usually willing to negotiate with the POWs in return for their labor. Such was the respect between Saito and the real-life Lieutenant-Colonel Toosey that Toosey spoke up on Saito's behalf at the war-crimes tribunal after the war, saving him from the gallows. Ten years after Toosey's 1975 death, Saito made a pilgrimage to England to visit his grave.

Up Next: Annie Hall

#37 The Best Years of Our Lives

1946
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Myrna Loy, Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Harold Russell

Three soldiers of various positions in society return from World War 2 to resume their lives.  Each has their own troubles.  I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but I ended up really liking it.  I thought all of the characters were believable and the acting was amazing.  (Both March and Russell won Oscars for their roles.)

Trivia: For his performance as Homer Parrish, Harold Russell became the only actor to win two Academy Awards for the same role. The Academy Board of Governors thought he was a long shot to win, so they gave him an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance." Later that ceremony he won for Best Supporting Actor. 

Up Next: The Bridge on the River Kwai

#38 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1948
Director: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt

Two Americans are poor and homeless in Mexico when they decide to take a chance with an old gold prospector.  After working tirelessly, they strike it big... but doubts and fear about losing their shares drives them crazy, especially Bogarts character.  He imagines that the other two are going to steal his gold... in the end, bandits, the weather and just bad luck gets the best of them.

Trivia: The movie's line "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" was voted as the #36 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).

Did I like it? Yes, but I didn't love it.  Next up is The Best Years of Our Lives (1948)