frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

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Assistant District Attorney, Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) loves his wife Amanda (Katharine Hepburn), but doesn't care much for his opposing counsel in a sensational attempted-murder trial - an opponent who happens to be Amanda.

Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn were never more evenly matched than when they brought their sharpened wits and prickly affection to this George Cukor-directed comedy written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Judy Holliday co-stars as the woman whose shooting of her philandering spouse becomes a feminist cause for Amanda. Hepburn generously saw Holliday's' work as a screen test for casting the film of Holliday's stage vehicle Born Yesterday. Hepburn's ploy worked. So does this fine, funny movie.

When a ship carrying 50,000 cases of whiskey runs aground, the inhabitants of a Scottish island cannot resist the temptation to replenish their depleted supplies. Only an English Home Guard captain stands in their way.

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As a psychotic thug devoted to his hard-boiled ma, James Cagney - older, scarier and just as electrifying - gives a performance to match his work in 'The Public Enemy' as 'White Heat's's' cold-blooded Cody Jarrett.

Bracingly directed by Raoul Walsh, this fast-paced thriller tracing Jarrett's violent life in and out of jail is also a harrowing character study. Jarrett is a psychological time bomb ruled by impulse. He murders a wounded accomplice and revels in the act. He neglects his sultry wife (Virginia Mayo) and adores his doting mother. It is among the most vivid screen performances of Cagney's career, and the excitement it generates will put you on top of the world!

Following the accidental death of her daughter's lowlife boyfriend, respectable mother Lucia Harper instinctively hides the body to protect her family. Before long a stranger calls, sent by his partner to blackmail her. The comfort and security of Lucia's world appears to be in danger of collapsing.

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Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) a naive writer of pulp westerns, arrives in Vienna to meet his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) but finds that Lime has apparently been killed in a suspicious accident.

Martins, too, curious for his own good, hears contradictory stories about the circumstances of Limes' death and as witnesses disappear he finds himself chased by unknown assailants. Complicating matters are the sardonic Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), head of the British forces, and Limes' stage actress mistress, Anna (Alida Valli). Will Martin's curiosity lead him to discover things about his old friend that he'd rather not know?

Based on the Broadway hit and set to an Academy-Award-winning adaptation score, 'On the Town' changed the landscape of movie musicals, opening filmmakers' eyes to what could be done on location.

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The magical retelling of the Orpheus myth turns the lyre-playing singer of Greek legend into a famous left bank poet in post-war Paris.

Fallen our of favour and lost for poetic inspiration, Orphee (Jean Marais) becomes obsessed with a mysterious black-clad princess who first claims the life of a rival poet, and then Eurydice (Marie Déa), his wife. With its unforgettable imagery-the dissolving mirror throughout which characters pass into the next world, the leather-clad, death-dealing motorcyclists, and Cocteau's magical special effects, 'Orphee' is a work of haunting beauty that follows the poetic logic of a dream.

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You have a lot of time to think when you're locked away seven years. So criminal mastermind Doc (Sam Jaffe) conceives what he believes is the perfect heist.

As in 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre', director John Huston explores the feverish grab for the big score and how it unravels in 'The Asphalt Jungle', a renowned tale of dishonour among thieves whose cast includes Sam Jaffe as Doc and Sterling Hayden as Doc's unflappable gundel. Louis Calhern portrays Emmerich, the shady lawyer for whom "crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavour". And rising star Marilyn Monroe grabs everyone's attention as the doxie who briefly provides Emmerich with the most gorgeous alibi ever to reach the screen.

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A woodcutter experiences a horrific series of events - an ambush, rape and murder.

In the telling of the tale however, each of the four participants give different views of what actually happened - is any of them telling the truth? Kurosawa's masterful film plays on the subjective nature of truth while unfurling a riveting tale of violence and greed.

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It's the legendary James Stewart at his leading-man finest in this timeless western that set the standard for all that followed.

Frontiersman Lin McAdam (Stewart) is attempting to track down both his father's murderer and his one-of-a-kind rifle, the Winchester '73, as it passes among a diverse group of desperate characters, including a crazed highwayman (Dan Duryea), an immoral gunrunner (John Mclntire), a savage young Indian chief (Rock Hudson) and McAdam's own murderous brother (Stephen McNally). Featuring Shelley Winters as the rifle's only rival for McAdam's interest and Tony Curtis in one of his first screen performances, the gripping tale of the men (and gun) who won the West is one of Stewart's most memorable films and one of the genre's most enduring classics.

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John Wayne is Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, attached to the Texas frontier in 1879 to protect settlers from attacks by Apaches.

When Yorke's son a West Point flunkee turned Army private - is assigned to his father's regiment, tensions flare upon the arrival of Yorke's estranged wife Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara), who wants their teenaged son out of Yorke's unit. After Apaches attack, the stakes of Yorke's mission escalate, and he must journey to Mexico where the Apaches are hiding out. With his son and two old recruits (Ford / Wayne regulars Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr.) as accompaniment, Yorke faces his toughest battle.

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From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) moves relentlessly towards her goal: taking the reins of power from the great actress Margo Channing (Bette Davis).

The cunning Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend (Gary Merrill), her playwright (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife (Celeste Holm). Only the cynical drama critic (George Sanders) sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit. Thelma Ritter and Marilyn Monroe co-star in this acclaimed classic, which won six Academy Awards and received the most nominations (14) in film history.

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Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, an ageing silent film queen, and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in Sunset Boulevard.

Winner of three Academy Awards, director Billy Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, the film is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances.

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Luis Bunuel's visceral depiction of life in Mexico's slums stunned audiences at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951, winning Best Director and relaunching the filmmaker's career after a twenty-year hiatus.

The film tells the story of an unloved teenage boy, Pedro, who fights to turn his life around against the circumstances of extreme poverty and the sinister influence of an older boy, El Jaibo.

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Humphrey Bogart stars as Dixon Steele, a screenwriter who is faced with the odious task of scripting a trashy best-seller. He enlists hat-check girl Mildred Atkinson to tell him the story in her own words.

Later that night, Mildred is murdered and Steele is a prime suspect; his record of belligerence when angry and his macabre sense of humour implicate him. Fortunately, lovely neighbour Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) gives him an alibi. Laurel proves to be just what Steele needed. and their friendship ripens into love. m Will suspicion, doubt, and Steele's inner demons come between them?