11. CITY LIGHTS (1997 Rank: 76)
United Artists, 1931
PRINCIPAL CAST
Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill
DIRECTOR Charles Chaplin
PRODUCER Charles Chaplin
SCREENWRITER Charles Chaplin This silent masterpiece was released three years after the start of talkies. In this Chaplin classic, the Little Tramp falls hopelessly in love with a blind flower seller, risking everything to gain money for her much-needed operation.
12. THE SEARCHERS (1997 Rank: 96)
Warner Bros., 1956
PRINCIPAL CAST
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood
DIRECTOR John Ford
PRODUCERS Merian C. Cooper, Patrick Ford
SCREENWRITER Frank S. Nugent Ford’s landmark saga is a quest to find a child abducted by Comanches right after the Civil War. Wayne, an Indian-hating ex-soldier, wages an internal battle while devoting years to searching for his niece, abducted during an Indian raid.
13. STAR WARS (1997 Rank: 15)
Twentieth Century-Fox, 1977
PRINCIPAL CAST
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness
DIRECTOR George Lucas
PRODUCER Gary Kurtz
SCREENWRITER George Lucas A landmark science fiction fantasy about a young man, Luke Skywalker, who finds his calling as a Jedi warrior and with the help of “droids” and an outlaw named Han Solo embarks on a mission to rescue a princess and save the galaxy from the Dark Side. “May the force be with you.”
14. PSYCHO (1997 Rank: 18)
Paramount, 1960
PRINCIPAL CAST
Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
DIRECTOR Alfred Hitchcock
PRODUCER Alfred Hitchcock
SCREENWRITER Joseph Stefano Leigh is on the lam with stolen money and makes the mistake of checking into the Bates Motel, run by Perkins…and his mother. Hitchcock’s horror film is best remembered for the shower scene and Bernard Herrmann’s chilling score.
15. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1997 Rank: 22)
MGM, 1968
PRINCIPAL CAST
Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood
DIRECTOR Stanley Kubrick
PRODUCER Stanley Kubrick
SCREENWRITERS Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke Kubrick’s science fiction epic puts mankind in context between ape and space voyager. The film created a stir for its special effects, the computer HAL, and the debate about the meaning of the film’s final sequence.
16. SUNSET BLVD. (1997 Rank: 12)
Paramount, 1950
PRINCIPAL CAST
Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim
DIRECTOR Billy Wilder
PRODUCER Charles Brackett
SCREENWRITERS Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D. M. Marshman, Jr. Struggling writer Holden hides out from car repossessors in the ancient mansion of aging silent star Swanson (“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”). He sees a lucrative break for himself when she wants to make a return to the screen, but he is unaware of the price he will have to pay.
17. THE GRADUATE (1997 Rank: 7)
Embassy, 1967
PRINCIPAL CAST Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
DIRECTOR Mike Nichols
PRODUCER Lawrence Turman
SCREENWRITERS Buck Henry, Calder Willingham
Benjamin Braddock is confused and alienated, stuck in a fishbowl like so many of his peers. It only gets worse when he sinks into an affair with Mrs. Robinson and falls in love with her daughter, Elaine. If only he had followed the advice of his father’s friend, and gone into “Plastics.” Simon and Garfunkel’s songs spoke to a whole new generation of filmgoers.
18. THE GENERAL (1997 Rank: NEW)
United Artists, 1927
PRINCIPAL CAST
Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
DIRECTORS Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
SCREENWRITERS Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman Keaton’s must retrieve his train from Union soldiers during the Civil War. What he doesn’t know is that his girlfriend Annabelle is aboard. It’s a race against time, but Keaton saves the day, ending in one of the silent era’s most iconic images, Keaton seated on the moving wheels of
The General.
19. ON THE WATERFRONT (1997 Rank: 8)
Columbia, 1954
PRINCIPAL CAST Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint
DIRECTOR Elia Kazan
PRODUCER Sam Spiegel
SCREENWRITER Budd Schulberg
Brando, a longshoreman who “coulda been a contender,” rebels against his brother and corruption on the New York City docks in this powerful story that mirrors the political climate of the early 1950s.
20. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1997 Rank: 11)
RKO, 1946
PRINCIPAL CAST
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers
DIRECTOR Frank Capra
PRODUCER Frank Capra
SCREENWRITERS Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra This holiday classic features a complex performance by Stewart as a suicidal man redeemed by friendship and the recognition that each man’s life touches many others. Remember—every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.
