My Top 30 Films From 1925-1949 (Last of a Series)

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday

Regular readers of this blog (I'm looking at you Geronimo O'Hara of  Narragansett, Rhode Island) will recall that three months ago I published a list of my top thirty films from the first quarter of this century. I followed that two months ago with my top thirty from the preceding twenty-five year period (1975-1999) and last month with my favorites from 1950-1974  This month I offer my top picks from 1925 through 1949. You're welcome. You will note several directors combine to dominate this list. There are four movies from Alfred Hitchcock, three from Preston Sturges and two each from John Ford, Howard Hawks, Charlie Chaplin and Frank Capra. So those six provide half the films here. Cary Grant, Joseph Cotton and Humphrey Bogart are each in three films, as is the despicable John Wayne. Ward Bond appears in a supporting role in three films and if I'd expanded the list to fifty he would have been in four or five more. But John Qualen tops that being in four pictures on this list. Among women Barbara Stanwyck and Ingrid Bergman are both in two films.

1.His Girl Friday (1940) Hawks

2. Duck Soup (1933) McCarey

3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Capra

4. Casablanca (1942) Curtiz

5. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Ford

6. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Huston

7. Foreign Correspondent (1940) Hitchcock

8. Sullivan’s Travels (1941) P. Sturges

9. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Hitchcock

10. Rome: Open City (1945) Rossellini

11. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) Capra

12. The Third Man (1949) Reed

13. Holiday (1938) Cukor

14. City Lights (1931) Chaplin

15. The Big Sleep (1946) Hawks

16. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Milestone

17. My Man Godfrey (1936) LaCava

18. Red River (1948) Hawks

19. Stagecoach (1939) Ford

20. The 39 Steps (1935) Hitchcock

21. The Gold Rush (1925) Chaplin

22. Citizen Kane (1941) Welles

23. Double Indemnity (1944) Wilder

24. The Lady Eve (1941) P. Sturges

25. Notorious (1946) Hitchcock

26. Bicycle Thieves (1949) De Sica

27. Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) P. Sturges

28. The Long Voyage Home (1940) Ford

29. The Big Parade (1927) Vidor

30. A Canterbury Tale (1944) Powell and Pressburger

My Top 30 Films From 1950-1974 (third of four in a series)

The Last Picture Show

Regular readers of this blog (I'm looking at you Gwendolyn Crustacean of Comptche, California) will recall that two months ago I published a list of my top thirty films from the first quarter of this century. I followed that last month with my top thirty from the preceding twenty-five year period (1975-1999). Next month I'll list my top thirty from 1925-1949. This month I offer my top thirty from 1950-1974. You're welcome. Not surprisingly it was much more difficult to narrow down the many films I love for this list than the previous two, in large part because the time period includes the first five years of the Seventies, my favorite decade of films. Also the fifties and sixties were a golden age  for foreign films. You will note there are five films on the list directed by Ingmar Bergman and four from Federico Fellini. You will also note that I include an honorable mention category at the end. This was because even after listing thirty pictures there were still five greats that deserved a mention. Finally, seventeen of the thirty films listed are in foreign languages as are three of the honorable mentions.

1. The Last Picture Show (1971) Bogdanovich

2. The Godfather (1972) F. Coppola/The Godfather 2 (1974)

3. Winter Light (1963) Bergman

4. Chinatown (1974) Polanski

5. The Searchers (1956) Ford

6. The Seventh Seal (1957) Bergman

7. La Dolce Vita (1960) Fellini

8. A Clockwork Orange (1971) Kubrick

9. Sunset Blvd. (1950) Wilder

10. Cabaret (1972) Fosse

11. Nights of Cabiria (1957) Fellini

12. 8 1/2 (1963) Fellini

13. The Emigrants (1971)/The New Land (1972) Troell

14. Amarcord (1973) Fellini

15. Umberto D. (1952) DeSica

16. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) Herzog

17. Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Bergman

18. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Kubrick

19. If….(1968) L. Anderson

20. L’Eclisse (1962) Antonioni

21. A Woman Under the Influence (1974) Cassavetes

22. The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) Rossellini

23. Psycho (1960) Hitchcock

24. Shame (1968) Bergman

25. The Burmese Harp (1956) Ichikawa

26. On the Waterfront (1954) Kazan

27. Persona (1966) Bergman

28. Vivre sa Vie (1962) Godard

29. The Great Escape (1963) J. Sturges

30. The Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali (1955)/Aparjito (1956)/The World of Apu (1959) Ray

Honorable Mention:

The Last Detail (1971) Ashby

Red Desert (1964) Antonioni

Night of the Hunter (1955) Laughton

Rashomon(1950) Kurosawa 

Closely Watched Trains (1966) Menzel

My Top 30 Films From 1975-1999

Manhattan (1979) Allen

Astute readers of this blog (I'm looking at you Forsyth Tanglefoot of Helena, Montana) doubtless recall that at the beginning of last month I published a list of my top thirty films from the first quarter of this century. I have since struck upon the idea of listing my top thirty films from preceding twenty-five year periods. So for  this month I offer my top thirty from the last 25 years of the preceding century. In April I'll publish my top thirty from 1950-1974 and will conclude the series in May with thirty from 1925-1959. You're welcome. Not surprisingly it was much more difficult to narrow down the many films I love for this list than the previous one, principally because the time period includes the last five years of the Seventies, my favorite decade of films. You will note that nine of thirty films come from the that half decade. There are three films from Woody Allen on the list, four from Martin Scorsese, two from Aki Kaurismäki and -- amazingly -- the other twenty-one are all from different directors. There were some terrific films that didn't make the list, indeed too many to mention. Here are the ones that did.

1. Manhattan (1979) Allen

2. Goodfellas (1990) Scorsese

3. Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) Malle

4. Stalker (1979) Tarkovsky

5. Taxi Driver (1976) Scorsese

6. Europa (1991) von Trier

7. Fanny and Alexander (1982) Bergman

8. Heaven’s Gate (1980) Cimino

9. Tess (1979) Polanski

10. The Ice Storm (1997) A. Lee

11. Apocalypse Now (1979) F. Coppola

12. Annie Hall (1977) Allen

13. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Lumet

14. Dead Man (1995) Jarmusch

15. Radio Days (1987) Allen

16. Raging Bull (1980) Scorsese

17. The Big Lebowski (1998) Coens

18. Rushmore (1998) W. Anderson

19. Ariel (1998) Kaurismaki

20. My Own Private Idaho (1991) van Sant

21. Barry Lyndon (1975) Kubrick

22. La Haine (1995) Kassovitz

23. Local Hero (1983) Forsyth

24. Pulp Fiction (1994) Tarantino

25. Come and See (1985) Klimov

26. The Age of Innocence (1993) Scorsese

27. Beau Travail (1999) Denis

28. The Match Factory Girl (1990) Kaurismaki

29. Das Boot (1981) Peterson

30. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Weir

My Top 30 Films of the First Quarter of the 21st Century

Match Point

The title sums up this up. I don't know if I'll be around for a list of my favorites for the first half of the century and barring remarkable medical breakthroughs I won't see the end of this century. So on that morbid note here are my favorite films released between 2000 and 2024. Exactly half are in English language films and half in foreign tongues. There are two Woody Allen and two Quentin Tarantino films in the top six and two Coen brothers movies in the top seven. But the director with the most films here is Finland's Aki Kaurismäki with three. The only other director with two pictures on this list is Pawel Pawlikowski. There were four films from last year on the list, not surprising given that I've ranked 2023 among the better years in cinematic history. The next closest was  2011 with three pictures. All told twenty of twenty-five years had a film in my top thirty. I was surprised that there was nothing from Wes Anderson though if I'd expanded the list to forty both The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom would have featured.  Two more Coens' films, A Serious Man and O Brother Where Art Thou?, also just missed.

1. Match Point (2005) Allen

2. Once Upon a Time .... in Hollywood (2019) Tarantino

3. In the Mood For Love (2000) Kar-Wai

4. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Coens

5. Inglorious Basterds (2009) Tarantino

6. Midnight in Paris (2011) Allen

7. No Country For Old Men (2007) Coens

8. Requiem For A Dream (2000) Aronofsky 

9. Mean Girls (2004) Waters

10. Drive My Car (2021) Hamaguchi

11. Y Tu Mama También (2001) Cuarón

12. Le Havre (2011) Kaurismäki

13. Fallen Leaves (2023) Kaurismäki

14. Zodiac (2007) Fincher

15. Oppenheimer (2023) Nolan

16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Gondry

17. Zone of Interest (2023) Glazer

18. Habla Con Ella (2002) Almodóvar

19. Personal Shopper (2016) Assayas

20. First Reformed (2017) Schraeder

21. A Separation (2011) Farhadi

22.  Cold War (2018) Pawlikowski

23. Des hommes et des dieux (2010) Beauvois

24. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018) Gan

25. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) Iñárritu

26. Ida (2013) Pawlikowski

27. Godland (2023) Pálmason

28. Anora (2024) Baker

29. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2012) Ceylan

30. Lights in the Dusk (2006) Kaurismäki