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

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After a round of partying he can't remember, World War II veteran Dave Hirsh is placed on a bus headed for the last place he'd choose: Parkman, Indiana, the hometown Hirsh hasn't seen in well over a decade.

Frank Sinatra plays Hirsh, whose arrival in Parkman brings small-town hypocrisy to the unforgiving light of day in this character-driven tale directed by Vincente Minnelli and based on a novel by James Jones. In his first screen pairing with Sinatra, Dean Martin, plays a sharp-witted cardsharp.

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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...

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On one side is an army of gunmen dead-set on springing a murderous sidekick from jail. On the other is Sherriff John T. Chance and his two deputies: one a drunk, the other a cripple.

Place your bets! John Wayne is Chance in 'Rio Bravo', a lean Western classic packing solid heroics around a strong emotional core. He's joined by Dean Martin as the deputy coming off a two-year drunk, Walter Brennan as the old coot whose fiery spirit outmatches his hobbled stride, Ricky Nelson as a youngster out to prove himself by joining the lawmen and Angie Dickinson as a woman with a past who hopes to rope Chance.

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When Chicago musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) accidentally witness a gangland shooting they quickly board a southbound train to Florida, disguised as Josephine and Daphne, the two newest and homeliest members of an all-girl jazz band. Their cover is perfet...

until a lovelorn singer (Marilyn Monroe) falls for "Josephine", an ancient play-boy (Joe Brown) falls for "Daphne", and a mob boss (George Raft) refuses to fall for their hoax!

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'Apur Sansar', the adult Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) hopes to become a writer, but his lack of finances force him to abandon his university studies. He meets an old friend Pulu (Swapan Mukherjee) and together they travel to the wedding of Pulu's cousin, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore).

When the bridegroom turns out to be insane and the wedding is cancelled, Apu agrees to marry Aparna to save her from ridicule. They return to his Calcutta apartment to start a new life and Apu comes to love his wife, but his happiness is soon shattered by a tragic turn of events.

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13-year-old Antoine (Jean-Pierre Leaud) can't seem to do anything right. His dysfunctional parents yell at him, his spiteful schoolteacher picks on him and luck just never goes his way.

Despite his efforts at patience, one day it all becomes too much and Antoine throws in the towel, choosing to take his chances on the Paris streets. At times joyous and at others bitterly hard, his new life brings a newfound freedom - one that Antoine will follow up to its painful, poignant and beautiful conclusion...

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A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) engage in a brief, passionate affair in post war Hiroshima.

Their deeply intense connection brings out scarred but fading memories of love and suffering, which Resnais communicates with the use of flashback techniques innovative to the time.

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Interwoven with the spectacle, madness and vibrancy of the Rio carnival, comes the multi-award winning retelling of the classic legend of Orpheus (Breno Mello) and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) is awash with intoxicating samba music, frenzied dancing and vibrant costumes, as

French auteur Marcel Camus unfolds the melancholy tale of love and tragedy of two people who fall rapturously in love during the annual carnival. Inspired by the ancient Greek myth of a youth who travels to the land of the dead to bring back the woman he loves, but set amongst the slums of modern-day Rio, this bittersweet romantic tragedy has charmed audiences worldwide with its sheer colour, joie de vivre and especially its music. From the opening shot of an ancient frieze of the lovers, Orpheus and Eurydice, and a guitar softly strumming the chords of the film's main musical theme to the fast-moving shots of dancers preparing for Carnival to the convulsive, infectious beat of the Latin American bossa nova beat, 'Black Orpheus' is simply a feast of sound and vision that all movie lovers will admire.

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A virtuoso James Stewart plays a small-town Michigan lawyer who takes on a difficult case: the defense of a young army lieutenant (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a local tavern owner who he believes raped his wife (Lee Remick).

This gripping envelope-pusher, the most popular film by Hollywood provocateur Otto Preminger, was groundbreaking for the frankness of its discussion of sex - but more than anything else, it is a striking depiction of the power of words. Featuring an outstanding supporting cast - with a young George C. Scott as a fiery prosecutor and the legendary attorney Joseph N. Welch as the judge - and an influential score by Duke Ellington...

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Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is not a spy. And he's certainly no murderer. Nevertheless, Thornhill's a wanted man: enemy agents want him dead, the police want him arrested, and a cool, mysterious blonde (Eva Marie Saint) just plain wants him.

A victim of mistaken identity, Thornhill can't afford to make any mistakes of his own - so he embarks on a death-defying run for his life. Relentlessly pursued by plane, train and automobile, Thornhill's cross-country chase finally ends atop Mt. Rushmore where, if he doesn't watch his step, he could be in for a terrible fall.

When a travelling kabuki troupe brings their show to a seaside port, Komajuro (Ganjiro Nakamura), an ageing actor, is reunited with his former lover, sake bar owner Oyoshi (Haruki Sugimura), and his illegitimate son Kiyoshi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), to the distress of his current mistress Sumiko (Machiko Kyo).

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The numbers speak volumes: 100,000 costumes, 8,000 extras, 300 sets and a staggering budget in its day the largest in movie history. Ben-Hur's creators made it the best, the greatest Biblical-era epic ever.

Charlton Heston brings a muscular physical and moral presence to the role of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish nobleman in Palestine whose heroic odyssey includes enslavement by the Romans, a bold escape from an embattled slave gallery, vengeance against his tormentors with Jesus Christ. Heston's charismatic performance brought him the Best Actor Oscar; the winner as 1959's Best Picture with the legendary William Wyler earning his third Best Director trophy, the film won a total 11 Academy Awards - a tally unequaled until 1977's Titanic set sail.

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After his inevitable arrest (and almost immediate release), Michel (Martin LaSalle) reflects on the morality of crime, developing a vague theory that exceptional individuals are above the law.

Lost in another world, he rejects his friends in favour of a life of crime and is seemingly set on finding his place in the world by engineering a head-on collision with society.

Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) is a brilliant and obsessive plastic surgeon driven by the need to restore his daughter's (Edith Scob) disfigured face. He is aided in this quest by his loyal assistant (Alida Valli) who lures unwitting young women to the secret surgery in his secluded chateau.

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Perhaps his most famous film, La Dolce Vita slices into the decadent amoral core of Roman society with Fellini's trademark attention to detail and spectacular photography.

Marcello Mastroianni plays a gossip columnist (the term 'paparazzi' derives from the in a film) who aspires to be a more serious writer but knows he never will be, because like society, he is fascinated by the decadent hedonist pursuits which are seemingly everywhere. The Vatican was appalled by the film, but the public adored it, relishing the images Fellini fed them, most notably the now infamous scene of Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg frolicking in the Trevi Fountain.