Film Title and Description of Visual-Special Effects ( part 2)

Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1895)

The first known (and only surviving) film with live-recorded sound made to test Edison's Kinetophone (with a cylinder-playing phonograph and connected earphone tubes) was this 17-second short film. It was noted as the first film combining both sound and motion. The projector was connected to the phonograph with a pulley system, but it didn't work very well and was difficult to synchronize. It was formally introduced in 1895, but soon proved to be unsuccessful since competitive, better synchronized devices were also beginning to appear at the time.

The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1895), aka The Execution of Mary Stuart

This was the first special effect (in-camera), reportedly, of the controversial execution (decapitation) of Mary, Queen of Scots (Robert Thomae) on the execution block, using a dummy and a trick camera shot (substitution shot or "stop trick"). In the short sequence, Mary knelt down, and put her head on the block as the executioner raised a large axe. When the axe was brought down, her head rolled off the chopping block to the left - where the executioner picked it up in the final frame and held it up.

A Railway Collision (1900)

Director R. W. Booth and producer Robert W. Paul (Paul's Animatograph Works) made this short 22-second film - one of the earliest attempts to realistically re-create a large-scale railroad disaster by using miniature scale models; the film depicted two trains speeding toward each other on the same track, and colliding on the embankment.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)

In Edwin S. Porter's landmark film, a primitive one-reeler action picture about 10 minutes long with 14-scenes, he incorporated parallel editing, innovative camera movements, location shooting, jump-cuts or cross-cuts - and this early special effect - a composite made of two separate images. The in-camera matte effect was of two separately filmed segments: the interior of a train station and the window (where a shot of a passing train was matted). It was filmed in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which would remain virtually unchanged for half a century.

Film Title and Description of Visual-Special Effects ( part1 )

Monkeyshines No. 1 (1889 or 1890)

Thomas Edison's assistant William K.L. Dickson filmed his first experimental Kinetoscope trial film, Monkeyshines No. 1, the only surviving film from the cylinder kinetoscope, and apparently the first motion picture ever produced on photographic film in the United States. It featured the fuzzy movements of laboratory assistant Sacco Albanese, filmed with a system using tiny images that rotated around the cylinder.

Dickson Greeting (1891)

The first public demonstration of motion pictures in the US using the Kinetoscope occurred at the Edison Laboratories to the Federation of Women’s Clubs on May 20, 1891. The very short film’s subject in the test footage was William K.L. Dickson himself, bowing, smiling and ceremoniously taking off his hat.

Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894) aka Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze

One of Thomas Edison's first film strips on celluloid, filmed to be viewed on his invention called the kinetoscope, a device for viewing moving pictures without sound, and patented in 1887. It remains as one of the earliest surviving copyrighted motion pictures (or "flicker"), lasting a duration of five seconds and filmed at sixteen frames per second (80 frames), composed of an optical record of Fred Ott, an Edison employee, sneezing comically for the camera. In a few short years, Edison was producing between 200 and 300 films at the Black Maria, the first movie studio established in 1893.

Annabelle (Whitford) Moore's Dance Routines (mid 1890s)

Many of the earliest nickelodeon films featured the dancing of vaudeville performer Annabelle Whitford (known as Peerless Annabelle) Moore, whose routines were filmed at Edison's studio in NJ - Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894), Annabelle Sun Dance (1894), Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895) - the first publically-released color film (pictured) - hand-tinted, Serpentine Dance by Annabelle (1896), Annabelle in Flag Dance (1896), Skirt Dance by Annabelle (1896), Tambourine Dance by Annabelle (1896), Sun Dance - Annabelle (1897), etc.; male audiences were enthralled watching these early depictions of a clothed female dancer (sometimes color-tinted) on a Kinetoscope - an early peep-show device for projecting short films.

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AMERICA's 100 GREATEST MOVIES ( part 4 )

76. City Lights (1931) - Chaplin/United Artists
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Stars: Charlie Chaplin; Virginia Cherrill; Harry Myers; Florence Lee

A moving tragi-comedy/drama in which the Little Tramp falls hopelessly in love with a blind flower girl (Cherrill), and experiences difficulty linked to a rich and eccentric lush (Myers). Perhaps best remembered for the dramatic ending when she first sees the face that helped her regain her sight, the film is grounded in classic Chaplin comedy. Among the most memorable laughs has Chaplin trying to raise money for the girl's operation by entering the boxing ring in a bout that he thinks has been fixed. Notable as an exquisite Chaplinesque blend of drama, passion, self-sacrifice and true love.

77. American Graffiti (1973) - Universal
Director: George Lucas
Stars: Richard Dreyfuss; Ron Howard; Candy Clark; Harrison Ford; Paul LeMat; Cindy Williams; Mackenzie Phillips; Charles Martin Smith

"Where were you in '62?" was the advertising slogan for this nostalgic, comical, coming-of-age story of California teenagers/high-school graduates during an eventful late-summer night out on the town in 1962, who mark passage from high school into adulthood. This funny, melancholy film brought the director to prominence, featured a grown-up Howard, and made stars of newcomers Ford and Dreyfuss; use of early rock hits influenced soundtracks for years.

78. Rocky (1976) - United Artists
Director: John G. Avildsen
Stars: Sylvester Stallone; Talia Shire; Burgess Meredith; Carl Weathers

Crowd-pleasing Cinderella drama of small-time boxer Rocky Balboa (Stallone), an underclassed boxer from Philadelphia, whose dream is to fight for the championship belt. He gets his last chance to prove himself in a championship match against Apollo Creed (Weathers). With the help of his new love Adrian (Shire), and his wily and irascible boxing coach (Meredith), he steps into the ring against Creed and exits an American film icon. An Academy Award winner, the film made Stallone a star and sparked four sequels.

79. The Deer Hunter (1978) - Warner Bros.
Director: Michael Cimino
Stars: Robert De Niro; Christopher Walken; Meryl Streep; John Savage; John Cazale

Cimino's epic film, an intense drama about friendship and the effects of Vietnam War service on a group of three steelworker friends and their western Pennsylvania community, whose lives are irrevocably changed by a tour of duty in Vietnam. The film is renowned for the Russian roulette scenes. Winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture and Supporting Actor (Walken), among others.

80. The Wild Bunch (1969) - Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Stars: William Holden; Ernest Borgnine; Robert Ryan; Ben Johnson

Anti-heroic western about a group of aging desperados who plan one last and final heist before retiring. Holden is the leader of the band of outlaws in 1913 Texas. Peckinpah's use of slow motion and Lou Lombardo's editing are considered milestones in the Western genre. Notable for its grittiness and lyrical representation of violence.

81. Modern Times (1936) - United Artists
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Stars: Charlie Chaplin; Paulette Goddard; Henry Bergman

Poignant comedy-drama about the dehumanization of the machine age. Chaplin ended the silent era with this film, his last silent film, about a little man working on an assembly line, who is literally caught in the hub and cogs of an industrialized society, and after several trips to the hospital and jail, ultimately finds happiness with a kindred soul.

82. Giant (1956) - Warner Bros.
Director: George Stevens
Stars: Elizabeth Taylor; James Dean; Rock Hudson; Mercedes McCambridge

Generational epic based on Edna Ferber's saga of wealth and prejudice during twenty-five years in the life of a Texas ranching family. It boasts the sprawling Texas countryside, co-stars Taylor, Hudson and Dean, and features a fistfight in a diner fought to the strains of "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Notable for its star turns and as Dean's final film.

83. Platoon (1986) - Orion
Director: Oliver Stone
Stars: Tom Berenger; Willem Dafoe; Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker

Intense drama about the Vietnam War depicts harshness and cruelties through the eyes of a soldier played by Sheen, a young man from a privileged background who volunteers to serve in Vietnam and experiences the horror of war first-hand. He tries to make sense of the madness through the leadership provided by Dafoe's sensitive Sergeant Elias and Berenger's scarred and unfeeling Sergeant Barnes. Acclaimed for its realism, the film won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, among others.

84. Fargo (1996) - Gramercy Pictures/Polygram Filmed Entertainment/Working Title Films
Director: Joel Coen
Stars: Frances McDormand; William H. Macy; Steve Buscemi

Dark, jaunty, but grisly crime drama about a Minnesota gruesome multiple murder case (intertwined with a botched kidnapping job hatched by Macy) in a frigid and snowy landscape under the able investigation of pregnant police chief Marge (McDormand). She reconstructs the crime with a style all her own. Wood-chipper scene and blinding white exterior shots are notable. Academy Award winner for Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay. "You betcha."

85. Duck Soup (1933) - Paramount
Director: Leo McCarey
Stars: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo Marx; Margaret Dumont; Louis Calhern

Quintessential, anarchic Marx Brothers comedy about the Prime Minister of Freedonia Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho), and his war on another fictional country, Sylvania, with the help of Chico's peanut salesman and his sidekick, Harpo. Released at the height of the Depression, this Marx Brothers comedy is a satirical attack on politics and the absurdity of war. At the height of battle, Groucho says to his brothers of Dumont, "Remember, we're fighting for this woman's honor, which is probably more than she ever did." In one memorable scene, Groucho, dictator of the mythical country of Freedonia, mistakes Harpo for his mirror image. Other timeless gags involve a street vendor and a sidecar. Zeppo's last film.

86. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - MGM
Director: Frank Lloyd
Stars: Charles Laughton; Clark Gable; Franchot Tone

Bracing adaptation of the adventure novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall about 18th-century sea justice based on an historical incident, with meaty performances by Laughton as Captain William Bligh, an excellent seaman whose lack of humanity and rigid adherence to regulations forces Gable's noble Fletcher Christian to lead a mutiny against him. Won an Academy Award for Best Picture.

87. Frankenstein (1931) - Universal
Director: James Whale
Stars: Colin Clive; Boris Karloff; Mae Clarke; John Boles; Dwight Frye; Edward Van Sloan

The original sound version of Mary Shelley's classic horror novel is notable for its Gothic atmosphere and haunting makeup and the poignant performance by Karloff as the Monster brought to life by the scientist Frankenstein (Clive). Whale ushered in a new era of horror films, and Karloff was never quite able to shake his image as the frightening, yet often sympathetic "monster" of Dr. Frankenstein.

88. Easy Rider (1969) - Columbia
Director: Dennis Hopper
Stars: Peter Fonda; Dennis Hopper; Jack Nicholson; Karen Black

Definitive countercultural road movie follows motorcycle-riding duo (Hopper and Fonda) across America to find America. Nicholson gained notice for his supporting role as a lawyer, leading to stardom in the 1970s. The film became an anthem for the 1960s' cultural dialogue on freedom, individualism and patriotism.

89. Patton (1970) - 20th Century-Fox
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Stars: George C. Scott; Karl Malden; Stephen Young

Intelligent epic biography of "Blood and Guts" World War II general, notable for its riveting opening sequence of Scott as Patton speaking in front of an American flag that fills the screen, and Scott's commanding title performance. Film won an Academy Award for Best Picture; Scott won (and refused) an award for Best Actor.

90. The Jazz Singer (1927) - Warner Bros.
Director: Alan Crosland
Stars: Al Jolson; May McAvoy; Warner Oland; Eugenie Besserer; William Demarest

Pioneering silent film with sound portions about a cantor's son (Jolson) who enters show business. It wasn't really the first "talkie," but its release marked the death knell for silent pictures and helped launch the sound era. Jolson, as the rabbi's son who wants to be a Broadway star, tells the audience "You ain't heard nothin' yet." Songs include "Blue Skies," "Mammy," and "Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye."

91. My Fair Lady (1964) - Warner Bros.
Director: George Cukor
Stars: Rex Harrison; Audrey Hepburn; Stanley Holloway; Gladys Cooper; Wilfrid Hyde-White

Lush adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe musical, an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, that features Harrison reprising his stage role as Henry Higgins, who takes a bet that he can transform the young spirited cockney Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn) into a proper lady. Earned Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Director, but the music is the film's enduring element. Lerner and Loewe's songs include "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," "The Rain In Spain," "On the Street Where You Live," and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face."

92. A Place in the Sun (1951) - Paramount
Director: George Stevens
Stars: Montgomery Clift; Elizabeth Taylor; Shelley Winters

Atmospheric adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Features a smoldering performance from Clift as he pursues the gorgeous, elusive, and rich Taylor. When the brooding Clift meets beautiful socialite Taylor, he has to do something about his pregnant girlfriend Winters. Whether or not Winters' drowning death is accidental, Clift must pay the ultimate price.

93. The Apartment (1960) - United Artists
Director: Billy Wilder
Stars: Jack Lemmon; Shirley MacLaine; Fred MacMurray

In this sparkling office comedy, a career-climbing insurance clerk (Lemmon) advances his career when he offers his boss (MacMurray) the use of his apartment as an evening love nest for an extra-marital fling. He soon gets tangled up with the boss's flighty and fragile girlfriend (MacLaine), the insurance building's elevator operator, and his career gets dangerously close to plummeting back down to the lobby. Winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay.

94. GoodFellas (1990) - Warner Bros.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro; Joe Pesci; Ray Liotta; Lorraine Bracco

Based on a true story in Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy, this is a violent, unromanticized drama about modern-day New York City Mafia underworld life, as seen through the eyes of former member Henry Hill (Liotta). Hill dreamed as a kid of becoming a member of the glamorous mob who ran his New York neighborhood. De Niro and Pesci are members of the family he ascends to, until he breaks the code and eventually falls from grace.

95. Pulp Fiction (1994) - A Band Apart/Jersey Films/Miramax Films
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: John Travolta; Samuel L. Jackson; Uma Thurman; Bruce Willis; Harvey Keitel; Tim Roth; Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames

Tarantino weaves together multiple stories that juggle plot lines, time frames and characters that inhabit the seamy side of Los Angeles, including Travolta and Jackson as hit-men with strong moral codes, Willis as a low-life boxer and, of course, The Gimp. The stories form a frenetic meditation on underworld honor. The Travolta-Thurman dance scene and metaphysical discussions between Travolta and Jackson are memorable.

96. The Searchers (1956) - Warner Bros.
Director: John Ford
Stars: John Wayne; Jeffrey Hunter; Natalie Wood; Ward Bond; Vera Miles

Haunting western, Ford's masterpiece, about Ethan Edwards (Wayne), an Indian-hating ex-soldier, who spends years in an obsessive and relentless search for his niece Debbie (Wood), who was abducted and captured in childhood during a Comanche Indian raid. Indelible closing shot shows the eternal divide between Edwards and his family, and between the frontier and civilization.

97. Bringing Up Baby (1938) - RKO
Director: Howard Hawks
Stars: Katharine Hepburn; Cary Grant; Charlie Ruggles

Archetypal, fast-paced screwball comedy about madcap heiress (Hepburn), with the help of her pet leopard Baby and a wire-haired terrier named George, who wreaks havoc and derails the staid life of a paleontologist (Grant). Funny and fast, it features song standard, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," sung to the leopard perched on a roof.

98. Unforgiven (1992) - Malpaso Productions/Warner Bros.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood; Morgan Freeman; Gene Hackman, Frances Fisher

Meditative western about a reformed killer (Eastwood) called to one last gunfight. Eastwood directs and stars as a formerly notorious gunslinger who is forced to return to his murderous ways after his wife dies and his family needs money. The film was noted for challenging the morality of Western stereotypes created by American film. Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor (Hackman).

99. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967) - Columbia
Director: Stanley Kramer
Stars: Katharine Hepburn; Spencer Tracy; Sidney Poitier; Katharine Houghton

Timely drama about parents (Tracy and Hepburn sharing the screen for the last time) who learn of inter-racial romance between their daughter (Houghton) and an erudite, well-spoken African-American (Poitier). She brings him home for dinner and tests the family's socially liberal resolve. Tracy's last film, especially poignant for a scene in which he and Hepburn reflect on the power of love. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress.

100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Warner Bros.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Stars: James Cagney; Joan Leslie; Walter Huston; Irene Manning

Patriotic musical biography of song-and-dance man George M. Cohan, energetically portrayed by Cagney. The film covers the earliest days of vaudeville to the development of the American musical stage play. Cagney sings and dances memorably in the title role, for which he won an Academy Award. The World War II musical features such rousingly patriotic Cohan songs as "Over There," "It's a Grand Old Flag," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Mary's a Grand Old Name," and "Yankee Doodle Boy."

AMERICA's 100 GREATEST MOVIES ( part 2 )

26. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - Columbia
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Peter Sellers; George C. Scott; Sterling Hayden; Slim Pickens

Kubrick's black comedy of US nuclear bomb launch on Russia, focuses on an American president, played by Sellers in one of his three roles, who must contend with a Soviet nuclear attack on the United States and his own maniacal staff, including Scott's memorable General Turgidson. Features a memorable triad of performances by Sellers (as US president, British officer, and deranged scientist) and Pickens's wild ride on a missile. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

27. Bonnie And Clyde (1967) - Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Director: Arthur Penn
Stars: Warren Beatty; Faye Dunaway; Michael J. Pollard; Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons

Influential reimagining of gangster film genre recounts lives and loves of infamous, real-life 1930s bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (Dunaway and Beatty), which mixed romance, adventure, glamour, comedy and violence in a way never seen before. Also notable for influence on fashion and its stylized presentation of film violence. "We rob banks."

28. Apocalypse Now (1979) - Zoetrope Studios
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Marlon Brando; Robert Duvall; Martin Sheen

Phantasmagoric representation of Vietnam War based loosely on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. Coppola's Vietnam epic follows Sheen up the Mekong River into Cambodia to find Brando, an officer who has gone mad in the jungle and is running his own empire. Features an enigmatic performance by Brando (as Kurtz) and dazzling Academy Award-winning cinematography by Vittorio Storaro.

29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - Columbia
Director: Frank Capra
Stars: James Stewart; Claude Rains; Jean Arthur; Thomas Mitchell

Capra's exhilarating comedy-drama and biting satire of Washington politics chronicles triumph of idealistic young Senator Jefferson Smith (Stewart) over longtime corruption, embodied in mentor Senator Paine (Rains) and a powerful political machine. Stewart is aided by hard-boiled secretary Arthur, some Boy Rangers and a 24-hour, one-man filibuster in a stirring scene.

30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - Warner Bros.
Director: John Huston
Stars: Humphrey Bogart; Walter Huston; Tim Holt

Morality tale about gold prospectors overcome by greed won Academy Awards for Best Director, Screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Walter Huston, father of the director and screenwriter). A scraggly Bogart leads a trio of gold prospectors destroyed by greed in this taut psychological drama. John Huston directed his father in a stellar performance.

31. Annie Hall (1977) - United Artists
Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen; Diane Keaton; Tony Roberts

Sophisticated autobiographical comedy of the untenable love affair of two New Yorkers (Allen and Keaton), notable for its witty dialogue and sumptuous rendering of New York City. Allen's Alvy Singer, a Jewish comedian, is trying to find love in the Big Apple, despite his neurosis, and falls in love with Keaton's aspiring singer, WASPy Annie Hall. He narrates the story of his love affair as she "lah-dee-dah"s her way through life, while he obsesses on sex, New York, religion, intellectualism, fads and fate. This comedy also launched a women's fashion trend based on Annie Hall's "look." Won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Actress (Keaton, in title role), among others.

32. The Godfather, Part II (1974) - Paramount
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Al Pacino; Robert De Niro; Robert Duvall; Diane Keaton, Lee Strasberg

The sizzling sequel to The Godfather contrasts the rise to power of young Vito Corleone (De Niro) with the maturation and moral decline of his son Don Michael Corleone (Pacino). In the film's extended flashback sequences, De Niro is the young Vito as he gains power in the New York City Mafia. Shows us the world of Don Vito Corleone before and after the story in the original film. Pacino is his son Michael, who struggles to bring the family into the modern age. Outstanding period detail. Winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor (De Niro), among others.

33. High Noon (1952) - United Artists
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Stars: Gary Cooper; Lloyd Bridges; Thomas Mitchell; Grace Kelly

Classically drawn western about newlywed marshal (Cooper) deserted by his community in the face of evil. On his wedding day, Cooper is forced to face an old enemy alone as the people of his town turn their backs on him. His Quaker bride, Kelly, ultimately comes to his aid as the clock ticks toward noon and the inevitable shootout. Academy Award winner for Best Picture, memorable for its tight structure and iconic Academy Award-winning performance by Cooper.

34. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) - Universal
Director: Robert Mulligan
Stars: Gregory Peck; Mary Badham; Philip Alford; Robert Duvall

Foote's screenplay is an affecting adaptation of Harper Lee's novel about a small-town widowed Southern lawyer's (Peck) defense of a black man accused of raping a white woman in the 1930s. At home, he raises his daughter, Scout, and his son, Jem, and teaches them about compassion and the evils of prejudice. Remembered for Peck's Academy Award-winning performance as lawyer Atticus Finch and the debut of Robert Duvall as recluse Boo Radley.

35. It Happened One Night (1934) - Columbia
Director: Frank Capra
Stars: Clark Gable; Claudette Colbert; Walter Connolly

Definitive screwball comedy - a landmark battle of the sexes love story between a runaway heiress bride (Colbert) who shows her legs to hitch a ride on their trip from Florida to New York, and learns about life and live, and an unemployed, unscrupulous newspaperman/reporter (Gable) who separates their beds at night with a blanket known as the "walls of Jericho." Love blossoms along the way, despite the "Wall of Jericho" that divides them. The film was an unqualified success and still provides inspiration for many comedies. It was the first film to sweep the four top Academy Awards - winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director - and established Capra as the preeminent director of the 1930s. Gable's bare-chested presence onscreen caused a decline in US undershirt sales.

36. Midnight Cowboy (1969) - United Artists
Director: John Schlesinger
Stars: Jon Voight; Dustin Hoffman; Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro

Dark, powerful character drama about misfits living on the fringe in New York City. Voight is Joe Buck, a country boy who arrives in New York City to make his fortune as a hustler. As he struggles to maintain a living, he meets Hoffman's Ratzo Rizzo, and the two friends work together to find a better life. Based on the novel by James Lee Herlihy, it was the first and only X-rated film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture (later edited to gain R rating). "I'm walkin' here!"

37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - Goldwyn, RKO
Director: William Wyler
Stars: Myrna Loy; Fredric March; Dana Andrews; Teresa Wright, Harold Russell

Poignant drama of three returning World War II veterans from different strata of society, who faced difficult readjustments to everyday civilian life in this thoughtful film for its generation, which simply and realistically showed a real-life soldier coping with devastating injuries. Won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Supporting Actor (Harold Russell, as a veteran who lost both hands in the war). Memorable March homecoming scene.

38. Double Indemnity (1944) - Paramount
Director: Billy Wilder
Stars: Fred MacMurray; Edward G. Robinson; Barbara Stanwyck

This crackling adaptation of James Cain's shady tale of an insurance salesman lured into murder was brilliantly cast with the usually "nice guy" MacMurray as the slick agent in love with calculating and scheming Stanwyck. Features a sharp Wilder/Raymond Chandler screenplay and steamy chemistry between the leads. Robinson provides the moral center as the salesman's dogged colleague.

39. Doctor Zhivago (1965) - MGM
Director: David Lean
Stars: Omar Sharif; Julie Christie; Geraldine Chaplin

Lean's sweeping adaptation of Boris Pasternak's epic novel, set amid the turmoil of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, stars Sharif in the title role as the married Russian doctor-poet with feelings for two women. One of the two is Lara, played by Christie, who inspires him to write beautiful love poems that contrast with the stark realities of life in Russia after the 1917 Communist Revolution. Maurice Jarre won an Academy Award for his romantic score.

40. North By Northwest (1959) - MGM
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Cary Grant; Eva Marie Saint; James Mason; Jessie Royce Landis

Witty, baroque mystery that begins with the mistaken identity of Roger Thornhill (Grant) and moves to a cross-country chase. Grant is the Hitchcockian man caught up in something he doesn't understand as he travels from New York to the carved faces of Mount Rushmore in this mire of spies, counterspies and romance. Notable scenes include the thrilling crop-dusting airplane sequence.

41. West Side Story (1961) - United Artists
Director: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins
Stars: Natalie Wood; George Chakiris; Rita Moreno; Richard Beymer; Russ Tamblyn

Masterful film adaptation of the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim landmark Broadway musical about gang life and star-crossed love that captures its vigor, color, and tragedy. It's the Romeo and Juliet story in 1950s New York City with the Sharks and the Jets squaring off, and it features dramatic songs including "Tonight," "Somewhere," and "America." Earned Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor and Actress, among others.

42. Rear Window (1954) - Paramount
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: James Stewart; Grace Kelly; Wendell Corey; Thelma Ritter; Raymond Burr

When a broken leg forces photographer Stewart to become convalescent and wheelchair-bound in his New York City apartment, he amuses himself by amiably spying on his neighbors and soon becomes obsessed when he thinks he has uncovered a bona fide murder case. Kelly, as his fashion-model girlfriend, helps with amateur detective work, and voyeurism. Based on a Cornell Woolrich story. Notable for its rendering of 1950s New York City and for Kelly's stylish costumes.

43. King Kong (1933) - RKO
Director: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Stars: Fay Wray; Robert Armstrong; Bruce Cabot

Tragic fantasy-adventure of a giant misunderstood ape, his adoring love for a woman (Wray), and the closing sequence of his death atop the Empire State Building. But it wasn't the airplanes that killed the mighty Kong - "It was beauty killed the beast." Legendary special effects and animation (with live action) by Willis O'Brien. Pounding score by Max Steiner.

44. The Birth Of A Nation (1915) - Epoch Producing Co.
Director: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Lillian Gish; Mae Marsh; Henry B. Walthall; Miriam Cooper; Wallace Reid; Elmo Lincoln

Groundbreaking, all-star silent epic of Civil War and Reconstruction strife seen through the eyes of two families, one Union, one Confederate. Notable for intricate narrative that is sustained for over two and a half hours. This now-controversial film (with its racism and heroic depiction of the Ku Klux Klan) was the first of the great American epic films and a landmark in the development of the motion picture.

45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - Warner Bros.
Director: Elia Kazan
Stars: Marlon Brando; Vivien Leigh; Kim Hunter; Karl Malden

Potent adaptation of the Tennessee Williams tragedy-play is brought to the big screen with Brando as Stanley Kowalski, the blue-collared brute married to the sister (Hunter) of an emotionally fragile, aging Southern belle (Leigh) named Blanche DuBois. The film established coarse Brando as a star and gained Academy Awards for Leigh, Malden, and Hunter. "Stella!"

46. A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Warner Bros.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Malcolm McDowell; Patrick Magee; Adrienne Corri; Michael Bates

Stunning, stylized adaptation of Anthony Burgess's dark, socially-satiric novel, seen through the eyes of Alex (McDowell) and his "droogs" as they terrorize their way through London with 'ultraviolence', until he is reprogrammed. The controversial, farsighted work was edited from its original X rating to an R rating.

47. Taxi Driver (1976) - Columbia
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro; Jodie Foster; Cybill Shepherd; Harvey Keitel

Unsettling urban drama of New York City cab driver Travis Bickle (De Niro), whose rage builds in a lonely, dark world, until his attempt to befriend and free Foster's 12-year-old prostitute from her pimp culminates in a violent shoot-out. He combats the crime and filth of the city through what he believes to be righteous violence. The sight of Bickle barking "You talkin' to me?" to himself in the mirror is still shocking. The moody score by Bernard Herrmann (his last work) captures New York's menacing darkness.

48. Jaws (1975) - Universal
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Roy Scheider; Robert Shaw; Richard Dreyfuss

Thrilling adventure about a killer shark and the motley crew hunting for it. Spielberg pits three men against a Great White Shark that has been attacking swimmers at an island resort in New England. The film redefined the word "blockbuster," and John Williams' score (that won an Academy Award) still haunts swimmers around the world. Notable for lifelike mechanical shark.

49. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937) - RKO/Walt Disney
Director: David Hand, Ben Sharpsteen, William Cottrell, Walt Disney, and others
Stars: Adriana Caselotti; Harry Stockwell; Lucille LaVerne (voices)

Disney's first feature-length animated film charmed audiences with its fluid and rich artwork and detail, distinctive fairytale characters, and charming songs such as the enduring "Whistle While You Work" and "Someday My Prince Will Come."

50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - 20th Century Fox
Director: George Roy Hill
Stars: Paul Newman; Robert Redford; Katharine Ross

Genial character western chronicling the relationship of two bandits (Newman and Redford), two offbeat outlaws who run (and jump) from the law, then flee to Bolivia where they meet a bloody end in their final attempt to escape the law. Marked by William Goldman's keen Academy Award-winning Original Screenplay and star turns by the two leads. The action-filled, lightly comic Western features the Burt Bacharach song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head."