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

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It's full steam ahead with Marlene Dietrich as the mesmerising Shanghai Lilly in this exotic high drama directed by Josef Von Sternberg. After being jilted by Captain Donal Harvey (Clive Brook), Lily gains a reputation as notorious adventuress.

Things heat up when the former lovers are reunited on a train en route to Shanghai. They share accommodation with a motley group of international passengers, including a dubious merchant who unsuccessfully propositions Lily. When the train is overtaken by Chinese rebels, Captain Harvey is held hostage and the merchant turns out to be the rebels' leader. So Lily strikes a tantalising bargain in order to save the man she never stopped loving.

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Browning, a former circus contortionist, cast reai-life sideshow professionals.

A living torso who, nimbly fights his own cigarette despite having no arms or legs, microcephalics (whom the film calls "pinheads")-they and others play the big-top troupers who inflict a terrible revenge on a trapeze artist who treats them as subhumans.

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In this wisecracking comedy, Danny Dolan (Spencer Tracy) is a cop whose beat is the New York waterfront.

Dan has a soft spot for Helen Riley (Joan Bennett), a sharp-tongued waitress at a cheap diner, while her scatter-brained sister Kate (Marion Burns) is in love with Duke Castage (George Walsh), a sleazy low-level mobster. While Duke makes a play for Kate, both Helen and Dan know that he's bad news, and Dan wants to put Duke behind bars before he can break Kate's heart. Me and My Gal was directed by Raoul Walsh, one of the great craftsmen of the studio system - and also the brother of George Walsh, who plays the villain.

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Dita Parlo stars as a young bride who begins married life aboard her husband's barge on the Seine. But within the boat's cramped confines, shared with a small crew (including the eccentric Pere Jules, memorably played by Michel Simon) and an abundance of cats, the relationship begins to founder.

Vigo imbues this simple tale, beautifully shot by Boris Kaufman, with social realism, lyrical romance and sensual eroticism to create a unique and enduring classic.

L'Atalante (1934)
This intoxicatingly inventive masterpiece is one of the world's great films. A simple and engaging plot is transformed into a kaleidoscope of dazzling digressions and offbeat characterizations complete with tour-de-force scenes that still seem fresh and startling.
À Propos de Nice (1930)
What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
Taris (1931)
An Inventive short portrait of a swimming champion.
Zero de Conduite (1933)
A radical, delightful tale of boarding-school rebellion that has influenced countless film-makers.

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Meet a dewy-eyed ingenue, a gee-whiz tenor, stuck-up stars, hard-up producers, brassy blondes and "shady ladies from the 80s". They're all denizens of 42nd Street, belting out ageless Harry Warren/Al Dubin songs and tapping out Busby Berkeley's sensational Depression - lifting production numbers.

The put-on-a-show plot spins merrily, full of snappy banter and new faces Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers. The show-stopping numbers (Shuffle off to Buffalo, You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me and the title tune) still dazzle. Looking and sounding its best in years via this new digital transfer from the restored original camera negative and optical audio tracks, 42nd Street shows good times never go out of style.

James Cagney channels Busby Berkeley (who choreographs the stunning, kaleidoscopic dance routines) as a Broadway director who comes up with a scheme to break into movies through, well, stunning, kaleidoscopic dance routines. (Cagney even does some hoofing of his own.)

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A Broadway producer has the talent, the tunes, the theater and everything else he needs to put on a show - except the dough. Not to worry, say Ginger Rogers and the other leggy chorines decked out in giant coins. Everyone will soon be singing "We're in the Money".

Soon after 42nd Street, the brothers Warner again kicked the Depression blues out the stage door and into a back alley. Mervyn Le Roy directs the snappy nonmusical portions involving three wonderfully silly love matches (including Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler). And Busby Berkeley brings his peerless magic to the production numbers, his camera swooping and gliding to showstoppers that are naughty ("Pettin' in the Park"), neon-lit ("Shadow Waltz") and soul-searing ("Remember My Forgotten Man"). Solid cinema gold!

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Set in the 1890s, West plays a brash barroom entertainer with a soft spot for men in trouble, especially the mission director, young Cary Grant. She unknowingly gets caught up in a murder, as well as a white slavery ring, and sets about clearing things up as only Mae can.

In between rescues she manages to perform some of her heated, hip-swinging classics including a steamy belting of "Frankie and Johnnie". Dripping in gems and low cut splendour, Mac is a delight for all of the senses. No one comes close to this lady's style of pure brazen wit and suggestive invitations to "Come up some time and see me?"

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Apointed political satire, 'Duck Soup' is the Marx Brothers' funniest and most insane film. Groucho is Rufus T. Firefly, the hilarious dictator of mythical Freedonia. Harpo and Chico are commissioned as spies by Groucho's political rival, the calculating Trentino (Louis Calhern).

The film contains many of the Brothers' famous sequences: the lemonade stand, a masterpiece of slow burn: the Paul Revere parody; the "We're Going to War" number, a beautiful spoof of '30s' musicals; the hilarious mirror scene; and a final battle episode that has been copied by everyone from Woody Allen to Mad Magazine.

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To escape the burdens of rule, Sweden's Queen Christina rides into the countryside disguised as a boy. There she meets and secretly falls for a dashing Spanish envoy on his way to the royal court.

Imagine the envoy's delighted surprise when he and the young "nobleman" must share a bed at an overcrowded inn.

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A film about Las Hurdes, an area in western Spain about which Luis Bunuel in 1932 made the feature Las Hurdes, tierra sin pan. In this film Bunuel portrayed the area as a black hell on earth: a land of starvation, disease, dwarves, insane and prematurely-aged women. A land forsaken by God.

More than sixty years later, a curse still rests on the film by Bunuel: the local inhabitants still combat the black legend that circulates about their area. A small film crew returns to Las Hurdes in 1999 with a screen and a copy of Bunuel's film. In the local square, the film is shown. We hear wonderful stories of the villagers and see their occasionally fierce reactions to the film.

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Experience the excitement and the terror felt by movie-going audiences when R.K.O. released the original monster classic.

Behold the discovery of the giant ape King Kong on Skull Island, his terrifying battle against the prehistoric creatures that live there, and his brutal murder of the ship's sailors that follow him. See King Kong's voyage to New York and his fatal attraction to the beautiful Fay Wray, leading to death and destruction as Kong pursues her through New York City. Witness the awe-inspiring finale as Kong ascends the Empire State Building, only to be shot down by fighter pilots in a breathtaking display of 1930's aerial photography.

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At the height of the Chinese civil Megan Davis Megan Davis, an American missionary, travelled to Shanghai to marry her childhood sweetheart.

Separated during a raid, Megan is taken prisoner by the local warlord, General Yen (Nils Asther), who, intrigued by her innocence and strength, spirits her away to his summer palace. Initially repulsed by her captor's barbaric behaviour, Megan soon realises that beneath Yen's ruthless demeanor lies the soul of a poet and philosopher. And as war rages around them, these two strangers find themselves hopelessly entangled in a dangerous web of desire, betrayal and unattainable love.

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Sons of the Desert (1933) (B/W)
Stan and Ollie swear to attend a convention of the 'Sons of the Desert', clashing with the Hardys' mountain trip. Ollie feigns an illness requiring an ocean voyage; while he and Stan enjoy the convention, the ship meets with disaster.

Sons of the Desert (1933) (Colour)

We Faw Down (1928)
Stan and Ollie disappear for a poker game but tell their wives they are going to a theatre. En route, they become involved with two girls, unaware that the theatre has burnt down! A restored silent, in superb video quality.

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Fields plays small-town grocer Harold Bissonette – Pronounced ‘Bee-son-ay’ by his wife – who puts up with difficult customers and annoying neighbours.

Bissonette has ambitions to own a California orange grove and, aided by an inheritance – and from selling his business – acquires what, on their arrival, turns out to be a worthless shack set in scrubland. Her suspicions confirmed, Mrs.. Bissonette begins to leave with their children but the land turns old to be more valuable than it looks…