Dave Tompkins :: DVD Library :: Other Lists :: Filmsite.org :: First 100


(text-only version)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army.

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The African Queen (1951)

In Africa during WW1, a gin-swilling riverboat owner/captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship.

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All About Eve (1950)

An ingenue insinuates herself in to the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.

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All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

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An American in Paris (1951)

Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is ''discovered'' by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art...

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Annie Hall (1977)

Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.

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Apocalypse Now (1979)

During the on-going Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.

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Ben-Hur (1959)

When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.

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The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Three WWII veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.

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The Big Parade (1925)
The Big Sleep (1946)

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

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The Birth of a Nation (1915)

The Civil War divides friends and destroys families, but that's nothing compared to the anarchy in the black-ruled South after the war.

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Blade Runner (1982)

Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker.

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Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

A somewhat romantized account of the career of the notoriously violent bank robbing couple and their gang.

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Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Dr. Frankenstein (goaded by an even madder scientist) builds his monster a mate.

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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.

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Bringing Up Baby (1938)

David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances...

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Broken Blossoms (1919)

A frail waif, abused by her brutish boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.

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Casablanca (1942)

Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

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Chinatown (1974)

A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.

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Citizen Kane (1941)

Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.

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City Lights (1931)

The Tramp struggles to help a blind flower girl he has fallen in love with.

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The Crowd (1928)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.

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Double Indemnity (1944)

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

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Duck Soup (1933)

Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.

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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

A group of Earth children help a stranded alien botanist return home.

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Easy Rider (1969)

Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America.

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Fantasia (1940)

A collection of animated interpretations of great works of Western classical music.

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42nd Street (1933)
The General (1926)

When Union spies steal an engineer's beloved locomotive, he pursues it single handedly and straight through enemy lines.

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The Godfather (1972)

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

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The Godfather: Part II (1974)

The early life & career of Vito Corleone in 1920's New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-Revolution 1958 Cuba.

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The Gold Rush (1925)

The Tramp goes the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more.

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Gone with the Wind (1939)

American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

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The Graduate (1967)

Recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock is trapped into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, who happens to be the wife of his father's business partner and then finds himself falling in love with her teenage daughter, Elaine.

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The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.

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Greed (1924)
High Noon (1952)

A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him.

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His Girl Friday (1940)

A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.

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Intolerance (1916)

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

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It Happened One Night (1934)

A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who's actually a reporter looking for a story. But then he falls for her...

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It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would had been like if he never existed.

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Jaws (1975)

When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.

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King Kong (1933)

A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star.

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The Lady Eve (1941)

Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike meets con-artist Jean Harrington on a ship...

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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Epic rumination on a flamboyant and controversial British military figure and his conflicted loyalties during wartime service.

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Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

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Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

In the year before the 1904 St Louis World's Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.

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Midnight Cowboy (1969)

A naive male prostitute and his sickly friend struggle to survive on the streets of New York City.

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.

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Modern Times (1936)

The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.

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My Darling Clementine (1946)

A Western retelling the tale of the Shoot-out at the OK Corral.

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Nashville (1975)

Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated individuals prepare for a political convention as secrets and lies are surfaced and revealed.

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A Night at the Opera (1935)

A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

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The Night of the Hunter (1955)

A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.

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Ninotchka (1939)

A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.

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North by Northwest (1959)

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

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Notorious (1946)

A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?

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On the Waterfront (1954)

An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse.

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Out of the Past (1947)

Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he's ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling...

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Paths of Glory (1957)

When soldiers in WW1 refuse to continue with an impossible attack, their superiors decide to make an example of them.

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The Philadelphia Story (1940)

When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.

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Psycho (1960)

A young woman steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and subsequently encounters a young motel proprietor too long under the domination of his mother.

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The Quiet Man (1952)

A disgraced American boxer retires to Ireland, where he finds love.

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Raging Bull (1980)

An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.

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Rear Window (1954)

A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

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Rebecca (1940)

When a naive young woman marries a rich widower and settles in his gigantic mansion, she finds the memory of the first wife maintaining a grip on her husband and the servants.

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Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

A rebellious young man with a troubled past comes to a new town, finding friends and enemies.

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Red River (1948)

Dunson is driving his cattle to Red River when his adopted son, Matthew, turns against him.

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Roman Holiday (1953)

A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.

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Schindler's List (1993)

Oskar Schindler uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them.

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The Searchers (1956)

As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.

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Shane (1953)

A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smoldering settler/rancher conflict forces him to act.

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Singin' in the Rain (1952)

A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Snow White, pursued by a jealous queen, hides with the Dwarfs; the queen feeds her a poison apple, but Prince Charming awakens her with a kiss.

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Some Like It Hot (1959)

When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.

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Stagecoach (1939)

A simple stagecoach trip is complicated by the fact that Geronimo is on the warpath in the area. The...

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A Star is Born (1954)

A movie star helps a young singer/actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.

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Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Luke Skywalker leaves his home planet, teams up with other rebels, and tries to save Princess Leia from the evil clutches of Darth Vader.

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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.

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Sunrise (1927)

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

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Sunset Boulevard (1950)

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

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Taxi Driver (1976)

A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as nighttime taxi driver in a city whose perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out, attempting to save a teenage prostitute in the process.

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The Third Man (1949)

Arriving in Vienna, Holly Martins learns that his friend Harry Lime, who has invited him, recently died in a car accident.

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To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice.

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Top Hat (1935)

Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace's hotel...

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Touch of Evil (1958)

Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.

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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled...

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Trouble in Paradise (1932)

A gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.

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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Mankind finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, artifact buried on the moon and, with the intelligent computer HAL, sets off on a quest.

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Vertigo (1958)

A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

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West Side Story (1961)

Musical about two youngsters from rival NYC gangs who fall in love.

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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

A bitter aging couple with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other.

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The Wild Bunch (1969)

An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the ''traditional'' American West is disappearing around them.

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The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home.

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Wuthering Heights (1939)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

A film of the life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer George M. Cohan.

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Count: 94 / 101