THE THIRD MAN
YEAR = 1949
GENRE= Film Noir, Crime
LENGTH= 100m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =Carol Reed
STAR = Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli
ACADEMY AWARDS= Cinematography (Black and White)
Nominations= Director, Editing
AFI RANK = 57
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= YES
GRADE = 10

Too cool for words...A Noir for the ages, featuring an icy-cold yet pulverizing woman, tons of atmospheric shadow, a desperate subterranean climax, some wonderfully cynical leads, and to top everything off, the most enjoyably unique score in the whole film history. In eight years, the newly formed genre reached its peak with this mystery concerning an American visitor to Vienna, in search of a criminally linked friend. "The Third Man" was one of the last English speaking pictures that were of any major significance abroad for some 20 years. European Cinema, revitalized after the war, would always be intellectually superior, breaking new artistic ground until America's awful Production Code was finally lifted in 1967. In this pivotal, adventurously photographed movie, traces of the future New Wave movement in France are clearly visible, and thus, the original source of our man Quentin, the great pulp filmmaker of the 90's and an admitted follower of Goddard and Melville, can be found here as well.

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THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
YEAR = 1948
GENRE= Adventure, Western
LENGTH= 126m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =John Huston
STAR = Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, Walter Huston
ACADEMY AWARDS= Director, Supporting Actor (Huston), Screenplay
Nominations= Picture
AFI RANK =40
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= YES
GRADE = 9

Frequently copied venture into the lowest human demeanors, mainly greed. Dirt poor yank fortuneseekers stuck in a Mexican rut, discover a gold mine, and are shortly transformed into animals of a different kind. Bogart's descent from man to amoral beast happens all too fast, and is therefore not entirely persuasive, but his paranoid conversations with himself remain highly amusing. Equally fun is Walter Huston as the perennial old fogey with a healthier spirit than the rest.

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IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
YEAR = 1946
GENRE= Drama, Family, Fantasy
LENGTH= 129m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =Frank Capra
STAR = Jimmy Steart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Academy Award Nominations= Picture, Director, Actor (Stewart), Editing, Sound
AFI RANK = 11
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= PERHAPS
GRADE = 8

The hokey quasi-religious underlying theme may discourage quite a few prospective viewers, especially if the very thought of hundreds of terrible spin offs (even today, at least thee features a year and four or five television serials at any given time), makes them cringe. Of all the countless movies about angels' intervention into the lives of individual humans, Capra's fantasy is the first and the undisputed best. Wisely, the angel, in this case on a mission to save the disenhearted Stewart, does not appear until the very end. Before any miracles begin, we witness episodes from the man's life up until his suicide attempt, all in a pleasant, tasteful manner that is neither irritating, nor overly exhilarating. "It's a Wonderful Life", a stylized, warm piece of Americana, is executed with a keen sense of pace and sharp directorial prowess, not altogether as corny and hypocritical as many has labeled it to be: in some places it actually shines through with truthfulness.

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THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
YEAR = 1946
GENRE= Drama
LENGTH= 174m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =William Wyler
STAR = Frederich March, Myrna Loy, Harold Russell
ACADEMY AWARDS= Picture, Director, Actor (March), Supporting Actor (Russell), Screenplay, Editing, Music
Nominations= Sound
AFI RANK = 37
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT=YES
GRADE = 9

One of the very few "classic" dramas that is still fully watchable today, "The Best Years of Our Lives", is often a brave, sincere indictment of the state's treatment of homecoming veterans and a deserved surprise hit of the decade. The movie features three servicemen's painful readjustment to postwar life. One of them, a real-life disabled soldier, has lost both hands and has a particularly difficult problem with adaptation. The final message is a redemptive, uplifting one, but what else could you possibly expect ? All family scenes are handled with appropriate complexity, even some unusually adult issues are referred to without the prevalent clumsiness and corn of most other contemporary films.

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DOUBLE INDEMNITY
YEAR = 1944
GENRE= Film Noir, Crime, Suspense
LENGTH= 107m
MPAA= NR
DIR.=Billy Wilder
STAR. =Barbara Stanwyck, Fred McMurray, Edward G. Robinson
Academy Award Nominations= Picture, Director, Actress (Stanwyck), Screenplay,Cinematography, Original Score, Sound
AFI RANK = 38
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= YES
GRADE = 9

Wilder's entry into Film Noir, one of the early major features by the writer-director, known for his exceptionally clever, acerbic scripts.  "Double Indemnity" is a seminal example of the genre, with its continuos flashback, nightly action, and clouds of nicotine: the (suggested) post-coitus smoking scene may be the first of its kind. A now stereotypical storyline details the fall of a "decent" insurance salesman via a disgruntled housewife (Stanwyck), an archetypal femme fatale for the sound era. When her daughter (named Lola, no less), gets in the mix, the movie's web of deceit spins out of proportion, culminating in a savage showdown. Edward G. Robinson in a supporting role, effectively chews the scenery as Mc Murray's charismatic superior.

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YANKEE DOODLE DANDY
YEAR = 1942
GENRE= Musical, Biography
LENGTH= 126m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =Michael Curtiz
STAR = James Cagney, Walter Huston
ACADEMY AWARDS= Actor (Cagney), Music, Sound
Nominations= Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Huston), Original Screenplay, Editing
AFI RANK = 100
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= NO
GRADE = 7

An excercise in Patriotic showmanship that still has some charm, but little relevance. James Cagney, playing an aging entertainer, finally receives full honors from FDR for his war songs and recounts his entire life story (the movie's bulk). The President (an actor, of course) is given a near-godlike status, with the kind of slow and grandiose vocal delivery usually reserved for "Ten Commandments"-style deities. A tame family-values plot interspersed with Broadway-style song-and-dance acts with an abundance of theatre special effects, is essentially what "Yankee Doodle Dandy" consists of. Cagney is incredibly energetic as usual, in an atypical role, but watching him near the start, as an 18 year old, is somehow disconcerting, as well as his final act (for which he gets a personal White House invitation), a friendly, prancing tribute to the President who was confined to a wheelchair by that time.

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CASABLANCA
YEAR = 1942
GENRE= Drama, Romance, Film Noir
LENGTH= 102m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =Michael Curtiz
STAR =Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre
ACADEMY AWARDS= Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay
Nominations= Actor (Bogart), Supporting Actor (Rains), Cinematography (Black and White), Editing, Original Score
AFI RANK = 2
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= YES
GRADE = 9.5

The only pre-MPAA rating system movie that holds its popularity and cult status from the very time it was released (even "Gone With the Wind" had a minor period of neglect), "Casablanca" is most people's primary association when they hear the word "classic". And rightly so: all aspects of the production have no glitches whatsoever. Plotwise, the film recounts the aftermath of a romance undermined by a disaster (in this case, a devastating war): a theme forever exploited for its box-office potential. Here, the three-hankie quotient is relatively low due to an intelligent script which concentrates on Europe's reaction to a near-apocalyptic threat to its way of life and its freedom of spirit. We also have some unforgettable musical moments (and an answer for why the Beatles used "La Marselliase" in "All You Need Is Love"), the inspiration behind the Mos Eisley cantina in "Star Wars", the only representation of a black character up to that time that wasn't somehow demeaning, references which are widely speculated to be bisexual, and so much more! Some characters, one has to admit, are better developed than others (Bergman, who pimps herself back to Bogart in order to help the Resistance, is considerably more interesting elsewhere), but the writing is flawless and works of cinema and literature are still being named after the movie's lines of dialogue ,one as recently as '95. Ironically, Ronald Reagan was supposed to play Rick Blaine before Humphrey signed on: what the picture might have been with him in the lead is anyone's guess.

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If the use of adjectives "cool" or "hip" to describe a work of cinema can be traced to a single film, this one should take full honors. John Huston, in making "The Maltese Falcon", single-handedly has launched an immortal genre ( Film Noir), has given a rise to the most iconic male actor of all time, and a to new type of character to whom the above words would directly apply. A kind of urban superhero that can get out of any peril and come out on top no matter what odds he faces, detective Sam Spade as played by Bogart is a character to idolize in any time period (Woody Allen based an entire film on the ongoing Bogey mystique). This guy, however, is no sentimentalist under that cynical shell, and no romantic temptation can hold him down. Nevermind if the plot twists won't be totally clear on the first viewing, just sit back and grin with utmost delight at the verbal exchanges between the infallible private eye and everyone against him.

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CITIZEN KANE
YEAR = 1941
GENRE= Drama, Biography
LENGTH= 119m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =Orson Welles
STAR = Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten
ACADEMY AWARDS= Original Screenplay
Nominations= Picture, Director, Actor (Welles), Cineatography (Black and White), Editing,   Art Direction, Original Score, Sound
AFI RANK =1
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= YES
GRADE = 9

"Citizen Kane" has become a veritable textbook for film students across the world. To attend an introductory film course and not to see its footage used to illustrate a multitude of shots and angles is unimaginable. But is it the greatest motion picture ever made purely on the basis of bravura camerawork and Welles' megalomania ? Doubtlessly, this post-mortem biography of a fictional media magnate and onetime political candidate Charles Foster Kane (allegedly based on William Randolph Hearst), preluded by a mystery surrounding his death, is expert cinema. Never lacking in pace, always a beauty to behold, the movie seems technically perfect. Yet it remains strangely unaffecting and dry, almost documentary-like at times. "Style over substance" would be an unfair statement in this case, it's just that "Kane"'s story, no matter how skillfully told, cannot move or entertain the audience sufficiently. There's simply not enough human drama, comedy, romance, suspense,( the emotional appeal, in other words) to create an inextinguishable impression . Pure acknowledgement of the film's superb visual quality isn't the same as actually living through its frames, luxuriating in its flow, breathing in the same rhythm as its characters.

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THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
YEAR = 1940
GENRE= Romantic Comedy
LENGTH= 112m
MPAA= NR
DIR.=George Cuckor
STAR. =Catherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart
ACADEMY AWARDS= Actor (Stewart), Screenplay
Nomimations= Picture, Director, Actress (Hepburn), Supporting Actress (Ruth Hussey)
AFI RANK = 51
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= NO
GRADE = 7

An inevitably corny romantic comedy that once held some elements of scandal. Very few Code Regulated sex farces (mostly those of Preston Sturges, whose approach is much more symbolic and pun-oriented) have survived into modern times with their original purpose intact. Most, such as this one, have a certain nostalgic, charming appeal, but not much more. Tremendous star presence and fine acting from the leads (especially when under the influence) make "Philadelphia Story" watchable, but the movie's attempts to shock make one wince. "A couple of kisses and a rather late swim" cannot hold a candle to the kind of raucous, borderline sexcapades where no taboo is left untouched, that we're used to ("Clerks" or "Something About Mary").

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THE GRAPES OF WRATH
YEAR = 1940
GENRE= Drama
LENGTH= 128m
MPAA= NR
DIR. =John Ford
STAR =Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
ACADEMY AWARDS= Director, Supporting Actress (Darwell)
Nominations= Picture, Actor (Fonda), Screenplay, Editing, Sound
AFI RANK = 21
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= YES
GRADE = 10

A work of rare power that has lost none of its significance (one of today's heaviest protest rock groups, Rage Against the Machine, set Tom Joad's "Look for me, Ma" speech to verse). Offering no syrupy resolutions, the adaptation of Steinbeck's Depression-themed novels was one of the first major motion pictures to address poverty and social injustice on a serious level, from the perspective of the poor themselves, and must have been a prime influence on Italian Neorialism, a dominating force in world cinema of late 40's and early 50's, mainly because of its populist subject, location shooting, and authentic-looking extras. A financially ruined family's journey to California in search of employment,  resulting in virtual enslavement, is passionately directed by Ford (eclipsing his Westerns in its sheer relevance). While all of the performances are well above average, Jane Darwell as Ma Joad stands out from the rest with her determined, yet heartbreaking presence.

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FANTASIA
YEAR = 1940
GENRE= Family, Animated, Fantasy
LENGTH= 120m
MPAA= G
DIR. =Ben Sharpsteen
STAR =N/A
ACADEMY AWARDS= Honorary Award
AFI RANK =58
WORTHY OF PLACEMENT= YES
GRADE = 8.5

Disney at its most surreal and inspired. Predating LSD, some of the feature length cartoons' segments run like visual ouput produced by a hallucinogenic drug. Essentially, some eight 10 to 20-minute shorts corresponding to famous classical arrangements, "Fantasia" has a schizophrenic, moodswinding quality, going from the ridiculous ("Dance of the Hours"' female hippopotami) to the sublime ("Ave Maria"'s highly spiritual vision), from the silly (cute mythological beasties carousing to Beethoven's 6th) to the scary (demons congregating on Musorgsky's Bald Mountain), from narrative (Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice) to abstraction (Bach's D Minor fugue represented in color variations), from the orderly (Evolution of the dinosaurs set to "Rite of Spring"), to chaotic ("Nutcracker Suite"'s dancing of random objects). Only a didactic concert setting with Leopold Stokowski as conductor, ties the pieces together.

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