greatest-ever-made's - Favourites List

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Alan Ladd plays the titular gunslinger, the archetypal "man alone" who wanders into town and shortly afterward becomes embroiled in a conflict between a group of Wyoming homesteaders and the nefarious cattle baron who has designs to wrest away their land.

As the conflict escalates, and a romance develops between Shane and homesteader Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur, in her last screen role), a who's-who of studio system character talent revolves through the production - Van Heflin, Jack Palance, Elisha Cook, Jr. - before one of cinema's most famous, unforgettable endings.

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Former tennis pro Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) hatches a cunning plot to get rid of his socialite wife, Margot (Grace Kelly), when he discovers that she has been having an affair with author Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings).

Wendice blackmails a corrupt former schoolmate into murdering her, but the man bungles the job, and Margot, having killed her would-be assailant in self-defence, then finds herself under suspicion of premeditated murder...

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Bounty hunter Ben Brigade (tall-in-the saddle Western hero Randolph Scott) is a man of action and honour. He ventures to California with prisoner Billy John (James Best), but has a mind to use him to lure an even bigger fish - Billy John's evil brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef).

But at a frontier post the two find themselves in the middle of a Native American assault and are joined by the alluring Widow Lane (Karen Steele) who decides to accompany them on their perilous journey to Santa Cruz...

Strolling along 5th Avenue or going on the bum as 'A Couple of Swells', Judy Garland and Fred Astaire lead a parade of music and gotta-dance fun in this never-ending delight...

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They double-crossed Walker, took his $93,000 cut of the heist and left him for dead, but they didn't finish the job. Big mistake. He - someday, somehow - is going to finish them.

Lee Marvin is in full antihero mode as remorseless Walker, talking the talk and walking the walk in John Boorman's (Deliverance) edgy neo-noir classic filled with imaginative New Wave style, blunt dialogue and Walker's relentless quest that, one by one, smashes into the corporate pecking order of a crime group called the Organisation. Angie Dickinson plays the accomplice who uses her seductive wiles to ensnare one of Walker's prey.

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Zulu is one of the great movies, an epic adventure of courage in the face of incredible odds. Based on a true story it tells the amazing tale of 100 British soldiers who stood fast against an overwhelming force of 4000 of the Zulu nation's mightiest warriors in the defence of Rorkes Drift in 1879.

Set amongst the stunning South African scenery, 'Zulu' is a landmark action film and a fitting tribute to some of the most magnificent acts of heroism in the history of warfare. Michael Caine's role as the arrogant but courageous Lt. Bromhead brought him international fame, and there are powerful performances from other great British actors including Stanley Baker and Jack Hawkins.

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Jimmy Stewart plays the bungling but charming big-city lawyer determined to rid the fair village of Shinbone of its number one nuisance and bad man: Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). And as if all that weren't enough, the biggest star that ever aimed a six-shooter plays the man of the title: John Wayne.

Super-sincere Stewart and rugged rancher Wayne also share the same love interest (Vera Miles). One gets the gunman but the other gets the gal.

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A constant fixture in critics' polls, Yasujiro Ozu's most enduring masterpiece, 'Tokyo Story', is a beautifully nuanced exploration of filial duty, expectation and regret.

From the simple tale of an elderly husband and wife's visit to Tokyo to see their grown-up children, Ozu draws a compelling contrast between the measured dignity of age and the hurried insensitivity of a younger generation.

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Regarded by many as the world's finest director, and renowned for his exact, formalist style, Yasujiro Ozu made his first film in 1927 and went on to direct 55 films before his death in 1963.

It was only during his final years, however, that his genius as a film-maker was recognised in the West alongside such contemporaries as Bunuel, Bergman and fellow countryman Kurosawa. Early Summer (1951) further explores Noriko's relationship with her family, and examines her role as a modern woman in a traditional society.

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The film that brought Jacques Tati international acclaim also launched his on-screen alter ego: the courteous, well-meaning, eternally accident-prone Monsieur Hulot with whom Tati would from now on be inseparably associated.

As with Jour de fete, Vacances is set in a sleepy French coastal resort which is seasonally disrupted by holidaymakers in energetic pursuit of fun. At the centre of the chaos is the eccentric Hulot, struggling at all times to maintain appearances, but somehow entirely divorced from his immediate surroundings. There is little plot in Tati's beautifully orchestrated 'ballet' of comic action: it's a series of incidents, a seamless succession of gently studies of human absurdity.

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Though she is engaged to a politician (Vincent Price), Ellen (Gene Tierney) lures the handsome Richard (Cornel Wilde) into marriage after knowing him just a few days.

But Richard soon learns from her sister (Jeanne Crain) and mother (Mary Philips) that Ellen's selfish, possessive love has ruined other people's lives. When his own brother drowns while in Ellen's care and she has an accident that kills her unborn child, Richard grows increasingly suspicious of he insatiable devotion.

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They say crime doesn't pay. Private detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) knows better.

The fat wad of folding money warming his breast pocket is the kind of thing that keeps him going through thick and thicker as he wades chin deep into a mystery involving a missing necklace and a missing hoodlum's moll named Velma.

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Folks in Black Rock have their own way of welcoming mysterious, one-armed stranger John J. Macreedy. He's welcome to leave. Or they'll make sure he leaves in a pine box.

Two-time Academy Award winner Spencer Tracy plays World War II veteran Macreedy, who keeps his own counsel about why he's come to Black Rock and who keeps his wits about him when confronted with threats and violence. Director John Sturges ramps up the tension while revealing Macreedy's mission and the town's grim secret. Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are among the town's thugs and lap dogs.

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Casablanca: easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if your name is on the Nazis' most-wanted list. A top that list is Czech Resistance leader VIctor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one...

especially Victor's wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart. So when Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's safe transport out of the country, the bitter Rick must decide what's more important - his own happiness or the countless lives that hang in the balance.

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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.