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

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Soon after the huge success of 'Magnificent Obsession', Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson again teamed up with director Douglas Sirk for this heartwarming story of an attractive, wealthy New England widow who defies social constraints when she falls in love for a much younger man.

When Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) falls in love with her sexy gardener, Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), she becomes the target of small town gossip, while at the time incurring the wrath of her own children Kay (Gloria Talbott) and Ned (William Reynolds). The children and the town want Cary to lead a more conventional lifestyle than that offered by Ron. They would prefer that she spend the rest of her life in front of her new TV set, wed to Harvey (Conrad Nagel), a highly respected, wealthy - and boring - bachelor. Will she choose love or "respectability"?

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When multiple residents of a small Californian town begin to suffer from identical frenzied delusions, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) suspects the community is in the grip of a new kind of epidemic.

But his investigations soon reveal the terrifying truth - uncovering not a medical emergency, but a hidden extraterrestrial invasion that threatens mankind's very existence.

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"The Wrong Man" is like and unlike any other Alfred Hitchcock movie. The story packs tension, the images are spellbinding and the dilemma genuinely frightening. But this time the master of suspense dramatizes the harrowing true experiences of a man tried for crimes committed by a lookalike robber.

Henry Fonda plays musician Manny Balestrero, a man full of visible but unspoken rage at his wrongful arrest. Vera Miles is his distraught wife Rose, driven to madness by the ordeal. And the right man to bring the unsettling facts of the case to vivid screen life with documentary precision is Hitchcock. He made New York City a star of the film and cast real-life Balestrero case witnesses in small roles. He shot in many actual locations, among them the Stork Club, Manny's jail cell and Rose's sanitarium.

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One of the greatest American films of the 1950s and a high point in the careers of both the lead actor James Mason and director Nicholas Ray.

Mason gives a towering performance as Ed Avery, a happily married schoolteacher who agrees to take a new 'miracle drug' when diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. It is not long before the drug begins producing malevolent and murderous side-effects that bring to the fore all of Ed's long-repressed frustrations with his life. Mason's support is, exceptional: Barbara Rush as Ed's devoted wife, Christopher Olsen a s his cruelly punished son and Walter Matthau as his faithful colleague. One of cinema's most persuasive portraits of psychological turmoil, the film also succeeds magnificently as searing melodrama and subversive social critique, with Ray, his scriptwriters and cinematographer achieving a perfect balance between emotional realism and exprer;sionist allegory.

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The rich are generally different. But in matters of the heart, they’re just as scatterbrained as the rest of us.

Heiress Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly) is engaged to one man (John Lund) attracted to another (Frank Sinatra) and, just maybe, in love again with her ex-husband (Bing Crosby) in this effervescent musical reinvention of Philip Barry’s play The Philadelphia Story featuring an endlessly delightful Cole Porter score. Among High Society’s high points: Sinatra and Celeste Holm ask Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Crosby and Kelly share True Love, Der Bingle and Ol’ Blue Eyes swing-swing-swingle Well, Did You Evah? And Crosby and Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong jive with Now You Has Jazz.

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For sheer pageantry and spectacle, few motion pictures can claim to equal the splendor of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 remake of this epic "The Ten Commandments".

Filmed in Egypt and the Sinai with one of the biggest sets ever constructed for a motion picture, this version tells the story of the life of Moses (Charlton Heston) once favoured in the Pharaoh's (Yul Brynner) household, who turned his back on privileged life to lead his people to freedom. With a rare on-screen introduction by Cecil B. DeMille himself.

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Eleven jurors are convinced that the defendant is guilty of murder. The twelfth has no doubt of his innocence.

How can this one man steer the others toward the same conclusion? It's a case of seemingly overwhelming evidence against a teenager accused of killing his father in "one of the best pictures ever made".

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As the Black Death continues to wipe out the population of Europe, knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) returns from the Crusades, disillusioned and worn. When suddenly Death (Bengt Ekerot) appears before him, he asks for the chance to live, proposing a game of chess to decide his fate.

The knight takes his squire, a troupe of traveling players and a deaf and dumb girl under his protection as the game is played out. One by one Death exacts his toll, and it is up to Block to stall his opponent for as long as possible if he is to help save the lives of those he is trying to protect. All the while, the villages and towns about them fall further into ruin and religion takes a stranglehold on those desperate for a means of survival.

Although each is engaged to someone else, Nickie (Cary Grant) and Terry (Deborah Kerr) meet aboard an ocean liner and fall deeply in love. They agree to rendezvous six months later atop the Empire State Building, but tragedy strikes...and the lovers' future takes an emotional and uncertain turn.

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Professor Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom) travels with his daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) to receive an honorary doctorate for his lifelong contribution to medicine.

Soon his journey becomes one of introspection, as the people he meets - from a hitch-hiking girl to a quarrelling married couple - remind him of past relationships and cause him to contemplate his own failings. Victor Sjostrom, a celebrated film director in his own right, best know for his silent work including the Hollywood masterpiece The Wind, gives a remarkably moving performance as the aged academic. Bergman's smiles and tears on a summer's day make for his most overtly symbolic work, shifting skillfully between the past and the present, dream and reality. Filled with richly observed characters and a real feeling for the joys of nature and youth, 'Wild Strawberries' is one of Bergman's warmest and finest films.

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Welcome to a bittersweet world of episodic adventures and strange encounters. Welcome to a sordid, nocturnal world of ruthless, callous boyfriends and stray movie stars looking for seedy kicks.

Welcome to the harsh, unforgiving streets of a crumbling Rome where hope can still prevail and dreams cradle the lost. Welcome to the world of Cabiria, a feisty, loud, outspoken and somewhat naïve prostitute waiting for a miracle, and one of the most unforgettable and endearing characters of European cinema. Eventually remade in Hollywood as 'Sweet Charity', 'Nights of Cabiria' is a often humorous, poignant, unflinching and vivid portrait of one woman's picaresque existence and her perseverance through adversity. Starring Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, as the irrepressible protagonist, 'Nights of Cabiria' marked Fellini's last foray into gritty neo-realism before venturing into the surreal satire and dream logic of 'La Dolce Vita' and 'Eight and a Half'.

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Kurosawa's transposition of Shakespeare's Macbeth to sixteenth century Japan is immensely successful in capturing the spirit of the original. A truly remarkable film combining beauty and terror to produce a mood of haunting power.

'Throne of Blood' also shows Kurosawa's familiar mastery of atmosphere, action and the savagery of war.

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Scott Carey (Grant Williams) encounters a mysterious radioactive mist on a boating trip and soon finds his life taking a bizarre and frightening twist. His physical size begins to diminish as he shrinks to a mere two inches.

Suddenly ordinary household situations loom over him with lethal intensity: a playful cat becomes a demon and a spider a gargantuan monster. Carey finds he must rely on his wits to survive...

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'Aparajito' sees Apu (Smaran Ghosal / Pinaki Sengupta) move with his family to the busy city of Benares, where they hope to build a new life after suffering a devastating family tragedy.

But when Apu's father then dies, the young man decides to head out on his own and attend college in Calcutta, leading to a growing estrangement between himself and his widowed mother.

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A gang of ruthless outlaws...a pair of larger-than-life heroes...a timeless tale of good versus evil. Blended together, the result is a sprawling, epic adventure bigger than the wild frontier - Gunfight at the O.K.

Corral! Acclaimed actors Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas team up to rid Tombstone, Arizona of the murderous Clanton gang in this all-star, action-packed classic. When lawman Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) and gunfighter John "Doc" Holliday (Kirk Douglas) ride into town, they find themselves pitted against one of the biggest foes ever encountered, in the form of Ike Clanton (Lyle Bettger) and his ruthless gang.