The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter

Director: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley

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

The African Queen (1951)

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley

Director: John Huston

Based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, the wonderful combination of Hepburn and Bogie makes this a thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and adventure. Forester's story, Bogey's Oscar®-winning performance, 'odd-couple' chemistry, and an exotic locale combine for classic adventure/romance. The boozing, smoking, cussing captain of a tramp steamer, Charlie Allnut (Bogart), saves prim, sober, and proper missionary Rose Sayer (Hepburn), "a crazy psalm-singing skinny old maid," after her brother (Morley) is killed by German soldiers at the beginning of World War I in German East Africa. 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, witchy accomplished star Margo Channing who takes the seemingly-naive and innocent fan Eve (Baxter) under her wing. As the film opens, the rising, unscrupulous star accepts an award for best newcomer on the Broadway scene. Then, in a flashback, we see the shameless starlet insinuating herself into the life of her idol, and scheming to steal her theatrical roles and her lover Bill (Merrill). By ruthlessly exploiting the older woman's kindness and hospitality, she manages to achieve her present success while almost destroying the veteran star in the process. The ending of the film returns to the awards banquet to find the starlet clinging to her trophy, with another fan in the wings. Also with Marilyn Monroe in a bit part. Academy Award Nominations (record-setting): 14, including Best Actress--Anne Baxter, Best Actress--Bette Davis, Best Supporting Actress--Celeste Holm, Best Supporting Actress--Thelma Ritter. Academy Awards: 6, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--George Sanders, Best B/W Costume Design, Best Sound.

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)

Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim

Director: Lewis Milestone

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

An American In Paris (1951)

Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Nina Foch, Georges Guetary, Oscar Levant

Director: Vincente Minnelli

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

Annie Hall (1977)

Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane

Director: Woody Allen

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

Apocalypse Now (1979)

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.

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 Parade (1925)

Starring: John Gilbert, Renee Adoree

Director: King Vidor

A still-powerful classic Great War, anti-war epic with compelling, realistic, brilliantly-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 French woman (Adoree), and they are traumatically torn apart as the war carries them further apart.

The Big Sleep (1946)

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers, John Ridgely

Director: Howard Hawks

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

The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh

Director: D.W. Griffith

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

Blade Runner (1982)

Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Joe Turkel, Joanna Cassidy, Edward James Olmos

Director: Ridley Scott

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

Bonnie And Clyde (1967)

Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J. Pollard

Director: Arthur Penn

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

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Elsa Lanchester

Director: James Whale

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

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins

Director: David Lean

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

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, May Robson

Director: Howard Hawks

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

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.

Casablanca (1942)

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid

Director: Michael Curtiz

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

Chinatown (1974)

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

Director: Roman Polanski

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

Citizen Kane (1941)

Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Dorothy Comingore

Director: Orson Welles

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

City Lights (1931)

Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill

Director: Charlie Chaplin

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

The Crowd (1928)

Starring: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray

Director: King Vidor

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

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.

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.