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

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"Triumph of the Will" may be the most enduringly controversial film ever made, justly both despised and admired. Is it disgusting propaganda? Absolutely. Is it a documentary record of a critical historical moment? Yes...but also no.

Perhaps the only thing on which everyone could agree is that it is one of the most terrifying horror movies of all time. A shamelessly biased, unabashedly subjective rendering of the infamous 1934 Nuremberg rallies of the Nazi part, 'Triumph of the Will' was commissioned by Hitler from his favourite actress turned director Leni Riefenstahl. The power and purity of Reifenstahl's artistry is such that this incredibly perverse and corrupt film has its own kind of demented integrity. An essential document of Hitler the Orator and mesmerizer of the masses, this programme revels in the monumental architecture of Albert Speer, the formal precision of the marching cadres, and above all, the almost religious exaltation of Hitler as the mystical personofication of the dreams and ideals of his people, captured kinetically with a mastery of technique that is both breathtaking and revolting. It is a film no one who sees can ever forget.

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The first and possibly the greatest pairing of Lugosi and Karloff is one of the darkest, most macabre horrors ever made. Dr.

Werdegast (Bela Lugosi), a POW for fifteen years has been freed and now seeks news of his wife and daughter and vengeance on Hjalmar Poelzig, the man whose betrayal lead to his imprisonment and the deaths of thousands of his countrymen during the war. He tracks him down to the castle he has built on the site of their old fortress and soon discovers the diabolical secrets held within its walls. Poelzig is now the leader of a satanic cult, engaging in macabre practises and rituals. One man's pure evil against the others tormented need for revenge leads to an absorbing battle and a shocking climax.

Classic John Ford directed Americana, based on the stories of Irvin Cobb. A small town judge in the old south stirs up the place with stinging humour and common sense observations as he tackles prejudices and civil injustices in this warm, affectionate and funny look at a slice of American life.

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When her father threatens to annul her marriage to a fortune-hunting playboy, spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) hops on a cross-country bus to New York, where she plans to live happily ever after with her handsome new hubby.

Romantic complications however, when she's befriended by fellow passenger Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a brash and breezy reporter who offers his help in exchange for her exclusive story.

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Nick and Nora Charles cordially invite you to bring your own alibi to The Thin Man, the jaunty whodunit that made William Powell and Myrna Loy the champagne elite of sleuthing, Bantering in the boudoir, enjoying walks with beloved dog Asta or matching each other highball for highball and clue for

clue, they combined screwball romance with mystery. The resulting triumph nabbed four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and spawned five sequels. Credit W.S. " Woody" Van Dyke for recognizing that Powell and Loy were ideal together and for getting the studio's okay by promising to shoot this splendid adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel in three weeks. He took 12 days. They didn't call him "One-Take Woody" for nothing.

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Errol Flynn shot to stardom as Peter Blood, a 17th-century physician turned pirate after escaping unjust political imprisonment. It was a role the handsome, sea-loving Tasmanian was born to play, and he shaped it into Hollywood's archetypal image of the adventurous hero.

That he also became a romantic idol and a vision of gallantry in love is due in large part to his ideally cast co-star: radiant Olivia de Havilland in the first of their eight films together.

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HMS Bounty sails for Tahiti by way of Cape Horn...and into movie lore as an American Film Institute Top-100 American Films selection. Grandly filmed, 'Mutiny on the Bounty' captured the 1935 Best Picture Academy Award and eight nominations total.

Charles Laughton portrays Captain Bligh, a seafaring monster ruling with the law of fear. Solidifying his status as Hollywood's No. 1 male star, Clark Gable is first officer Fletcher Christian, whose will to obey erodes under Bligh's tyranny. And Franchot Tone plays idealistic midshipman Byam, torn by his allegiance to both. That all three portrayals are vividly memorable is accented by the fact that for the only time in Oscar history, three stars from the same actor were Best Actor nominees.

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Arts patron Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) intends to pay pompous opera star Lassparri (Walter Woolf King) $1,000 per performance.

Hey, maybe that's why they call it grand opera! Grand comedy, too, as Groucho, Chico and Harpo cram a ship's stateroom and more than wall-to-wall gags, one-liners, musical riffs and two hard-boiled eggs - all while skewering Lassparri's schemes and helping two young hopefuls Rosa and Riccardo (Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones) get a break. To save the opera, our heroes must first destroy it. And they must also gain ocean passage as stowaways, pull the wool (if not the beards) over the eyes of City Hall, shred legal mumbo-jumbo into a Sanity Clause, pester dowager Claypool and unleash so much glee that many say this is the best Marx Brothers movie. Seeing is believing.

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An innocent man on the run. A beautiful icy blonde. A fast-moving cross-country pursuit. A chaotic world where no one is ever what they seem. 'The 39 Steps' set the template for Hitchcock's classic suspense thrillers.

John Buchan's very loosely adapted story begins when Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) picks up the exotic 'Annabella Smith' at a music hall. The next morning he discovers she's been killed and finds himself in the frame for her murder. Way ahead of its time in terms of its pace, black comedy and the sexual chemistry between the charismatic leads (particularly when Carroll removes her stockings while handcuffed to Donat), 'The 39 Steps' is among Hitch's finest and has been voted into the BFI's Top Five Favorite British Films.

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The acclaimed sequel to the original 'Frankenstein', one of the most popular horror classics in film history, has now been restored in stunning high definition. The legendary Boris Karloff reprises his role as the screen's most misunderstood monster, now longing for a mate of his own.

The last horror film directed by James Whale features a haunting musical score that helps make 'The Bride of Frankenstein' one of the finest and most touching thrillers of its era.

Nominated for four Oscars, 'Top Hat' is the amazing musical starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The hilarious plot of mistaken identity and breathtaking designs, transport you into a Hollywood fantasy in this true musical classic.

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Finally released in 1946, ten years after it was shot, Jean Renoir's Partie de campagne was hailed as an 'unfinished masterpiece'. Since then, his masterly adaptation on a Maupassant story has grown in reputation to the point where it has become Renoir's best-loved film.

On an idyllic country picnic, a young girl leaves her family and fiancé for a while, and succumbs to an all-too-brief romance. Shot on location on the banks of two small tributaries of the Seine, Renoir's sensuous tribute to the countryside - and to the river - has seldom been surpassed. In its bitter-sweet lyricism, its tenderness and poetic feel for nature, its tolerant satire of bourgeois conventions and its poignant sense of the transience of innocence and love, 'Partie De Campagne' seems to distil the essence of all that is most personal of Renoir's art.

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The Little Tramp punches in and wigs out inside a factory where gizmos like an employee feeding machine may someday make the lunch hour last just 15 minutes.

Bounced into the ranks of the unemployed, he teams with a street waif (Paulette Goddard) to pursue bliss and a paycheck, finding misadventures as a roller-skating night watchman, a singing waiter whose hilarious song is gibberish, a jailbird and more. In the end, as tramp and waif walk arm in arm into an insecure future we know they've found neither bliss nor a paycheck but, more importantly, each other. The times and satire remain timeless in 'Modern Times'.

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In this irresistible musical, the legendary dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are at the pinnacle of their art as a feckless gambler and the shrewd dancing instructor in whom he more than meets his match.

Director George Stevens laces their romance with humor and clears the floor for the movies showstopping dance scenes, in which Astaire and Rogers take seemingly effortless flight in a virtuosic fusion of ballroom and tap styles. Buoyed by beloved songs by Dorothy Fields and Derome Kern - including the Oscar-winning classic "The Way You Look Tonight" - 'Swing Time' is an exuberant celebration of its stars' chemistry, grace, and sheer joy in the act of performance.

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Carole Lombard and William Powell dazzle in this definitive screwball comedy by Gregory La Cava - a potent cocktail of romantic repartee and social critique.

Irene (Lombard), an eccentric, wealthy Manhattanite, wins a society-ball scavenger hunt after finding a "forgotten man" (Powell) - an apparent down-and-out drifter - at a dump. She gives him work as the family butler and soon falls head over heels for him. Her attempts to both woo Godfrey and indoctrinate him in the household's dysfunction make for a string of madcap high jinks that has never been bested.