frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
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Gunga Din- Director:
- George Stevens
- Cast:
- Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Victor McLaglen
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Garbo Talks!, proclaimed ads when silent star Greta Garbo debuted in talkies. Nine years and 12 classic screen dramas later, the gifted movie legend was ready for another change. Garbo Laughs!, cheered the publicity for her first comedy, a frothy tale of a dour Russian envoy sublimating her womanhood for Soviet brotherhood until she falls for a suave Parisian man-about-town (Melvyn Douglas). Working from a cleverly barbed script written in party by Billy Wilder, director Ernst Lubitsch knew better than anyone how to marry refinement with sublime wit. "At least twice a day the most dignified human being is ridiculous", he explained about his acclaimed Lubitsch Touch. That’s how we see Garbo’s lovestruct Ninotchka: serenely dignified yet endearingly ridiculous. Garbo laughs. So will you. - Director:
- Ernst Lubitsch
- Cast:
- Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire
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The Rules of the Game (1939)La règle du jeu
Denigrated by the public, vilified by the critics, re-cut at the insistence of its producers, and finally banned by the French government as 'demoralising' and unpatriotic, La Regle du jeu was a commercial disaster at the time of its original release. On the surface, a series of interlinked romantic intrigues taking place at a weekend shooting party in a country chateau, the film is in fact a study of the corruption and decay within French society on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. - Director:
- Jean Renoir
- Cast:
- Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost
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Lost in a blizzard on the rocky English moors, a stranger stumbles upon Wuthering Heights, the dark, gloomy estate of the mysterious Heathcliff, a man so tortured by unrequited love he has lost the will to live. As the storm rages on, the weary wanderer is mesmerized by the sorrowful tale of Heathcliff, a former stable boy, shared an innocent love with Cathy, a wild spirit whose fiery passion for him could never be realised. For when Heathcliff goes to seek his fortune, he returns to find Cathy married into high society - a discovery that shatters his soul but cannot touch the burning desire that will rage in him forever. - Director:
- William Wyler
- Cast:
- Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven
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His Girl Friday (1940)Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday
Chicago Morning Post editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is about to lose his ace reporter and former wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) to Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Then a late breaking story involving the impending execution of an anarchist who escapes and is hidden from the police by the former husband and wife throws the pair together once again. - Director:
- Howard Hawks
- Cast:
- Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
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Whilst on holiday, young timid ladies companion (Joan Fontaine) meets handsome and wealthy widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) whose wife Rebecca has recently died in a boating accident. The two fall in love and marry. However, her joy is short lived when she returns to the de Winter estate and soon discovers that Rebecca still has a strange, unearthly hold over everyone there. - Director:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Cast:
- Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
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Never before have music and movie magic been blended to create such an exhilarating sight and sound experience. The special wonder of Mickey Mouse as the mischievous Sorcerer s Apprentice, the breathtaking beauty of mythical lady centaurs, winged fairies and cascading snowflakes, the pure fun of hippos in tutus performing the most hilarious ballet ever! These images, familiar and beloved by generations of moviegoers all over the world, can now be enjoyed again and again in this timeless original. See the music come to life, hear the pictures burst into song and experience the excitement that is Walt Disney's innovative Fantasia! - Director:
- Wilfred Jackson
- Cast:
- Leopold Stokowski, Corey Burton, Walt Disney
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Classic romantic comedy starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Wealthy Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) is set to marry the politician and businessman George Kittredge (John Howard), but her wedding plans are complicated by the arrival of her irresponsible ex-husband C. K. Dexter Haven (Grant), with magazine reporter Macauley Connor (Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) in tow. Tracy resolves to give them a story they will never forget but finds herself re-evaluating her life choices in the process. - Director:
- George Cukor
- Cast:
- Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
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Following a prison term he served for manslaughter, Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns to find his family homestead overwhelmed by the weather and the greed of the banking industry. With little work potential on the horizon of Oklahoma dust bowls, the entire family packs up heads for the promised land - California. But the arduous trip and harsh living conditions they encounter offer little hope, and family unity proves as daunting a challenge as any other they face. - Director:
- John Ford
- Cast:
- Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
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Dorothy Arzner, the sole woman to work as a director in the Hollywood studio system of the 1930's and early '40's, brings a subversive feminist sensibility to this juicily entertaining backstage melodrama. A behind-the-footlights look at friendship, jealousy, and ambition in the ruthless world of show business, 'Dance, Girl, Dance' follows the intertwining fates of two chorus girls: a starry-eyed dancer (Maureen O'Hara) who dreams of making it as a ballerina, and the brassy gold digger (a scene-stealing Lucille Ball) who becomes her rival both on the stage and in love. The rare Hollywood picture of the era to deal seriously with issues of female artistic struggle and self-actualization, Arzner's film is a rich, fascinating statement from an auteur decades ahead of her time. - Director:
- Dorothy Arzner
- Cast:
- Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball
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Walt Disney's beloved classic Pinocchio reminds us all that dreams really do come true... and never more brilliantly than in this restored and remastered Special Edition of the timeless tale that makes every Disney collection complete! It is the little wooden puppet's greatest wish to become a real boy. But first he must prove himself worthy, so with the help of his Cricket conscience, Jiminy, Pinocchio promises to be brave, loyal and honest. Unfortunately, when he breaks his promises and his nose begins to grow and grow and grow - it leads to a challenging test of his true character. - Director:
- Norman Ferguson
- Cast:
- Don Brodie, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub
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A cautionary tale involving two young lovers living in Germany during Hitler's rise to power who try to escape the growing Nazi threat.
- Director:
- Frank Borzage
- Cast:
- Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young
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The Bank Dick
- Director:
- Edward Sutherland
- Cast:
- W.C. Fields, Shemp Howard, Una Merkel
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Orson Welles makes his feature-length directorial debut with this classic drama which often tops critics' polls of the best films of all time. In 1940, newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Welles) dies after uttering the word 'Rosebud'. An anonymous reporter (William Alland) is assigned the task of uncovering the meaning of Kane's dying word, and in the course of his enquiries he receives varying accounts of his life from former colleagues Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and Bernstein (Everett Sloan), and ex-wife Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore). The film, which Welles also produced and co-wrote, was not-so-loosely based on the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. - Director:
- Orson Welles
- Cast:
- Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore
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Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cruise liner sailing up the coast of South America, Stanwyck's conniving card sharp sets her sights on Fonda's nerdy snake researcher, who happens to be the heir to a brewery fortune. But when the con artist falls for her mark, her grift becomes a game of hearts - and she is determined to win it all. One in a string of matchless comedic marvels that Sturges wrote and directed as part of a dazzling 1940s run, this gender-flipped battle-of-wits farce is perhaps his most emotionally satisfying work, tempering its sparkling humor with a streak of tender poignancy supplied by the sensational Stanwyck at her peak. - Director:
- Preston Sturges
- Cast:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn
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