Frankenstein (1931)

In James Whale's horror classic:

• the opening memorable grave-robbing sequence with hunchback servant Fritz (Dwight Frye) helping to dig up bodies
• the remarkable creation sequence in which the monster's body (Boris Karloff) is raised to the top of the tower where lightning electrifies it, Dr. Frankenstein's (Colin Clive) hysterical reaction: "It's alive..." when the monster comes to life ("Now I know what it feels like to be God")
• the first chilling appearance of the monster when he backs in a doorway
• the moving sequence in which the monster reaches for the sunlight
• the scene in which the monster plays with a little eight year-old girl Maria by a lakeside, throwing flower petals in the water - but innocently murders her by tossing her in the water when the petals run out
• Frankenstein's approach toward bride Elizabeth (Mae Clarke) through the window
• the townspeople's pursuit of the monster in the dark with torches
• the film's finale - the life and death struggle in the windmill between the monster and its creator

Freaks (1932)

In Tod Browning's severely-censored horror classic:

• the many oddities and grotesque deformities of the freak circus side show members (the Siamese twins, a human skeleton, a bird woman, the larva man or living torso, the androgyne, the trunk man, the women without arms, the bearded woman, and the pinheads)
• the wedding feast scene that welcomes trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) with the passing of a loving-cup and the singing of the song to welcome her: "We accept her, one of us, we accept her, one of us, Gobble-Gobble, Gobble-Gobble," followed by Cleopatra's rejection of them: "You dirty slimy FREAKS...You filth, make me one of you, will you?"
• the final stormy night sequence of the freaks making good on their threats as they crawl through the mud (some with knives in their mouths) to murder or emasculate (the film's dialogue and action are unclear on this point due to studio editing) muscleman Hercules (Henry Victor) and then pursue gold-digging Cleopatra to exact a horrible revenge on account of her treatment of midget circus owner Hans (Harry Earles)
• the sight of Cleopatra as a mutant, squawking feathered hen (the barker introduced her: "She was once a beautiful woman...She was known as the peacock of the air...How she got that way will never be known. Some say a jealous lover, others that it was the code of the freaks, others, the storm. Believe it or not, there she is")

French Cancan (1955, Fr./It.) (aka Only the French Can)

In director Jean Renoir's comedy/drama:

• the visually-stunning, colorful, high-kicking scene of choristers in the Parisian Moulin Rouge dance-hall/nightclub in the final dance scene

The French Connection (1971)

In William Friedkin's Best Picture-winning crime/action film:

• the exciting opening scene in Brooklyn with two NYPD cops pursuing their mark: racist 'Popeye' Doyle (Gene Hackman) dressed as a Santa Claus and Russo (Roy Scheider) as a hot dog vendor
• the scene of Doyle's hassling and shake-down of the lined-up clients in a sleazy black bar
• French drug kingpin Charnier's (Fernando Rey) elusive escape and waving from a subway car at his pursuer
• the shocking for-its-time statement made by Doyle to his injured partner: (Doyle: "You dumb guinea" Russo: "How the hell did I know he had a knife?" Doyle: "Never trust a nigger")
• the film's centerpiece -- the dazzlingly-edited scene of the frantic car pursuit of French smuggler Nicoli (Marcel Bozzufi) in a hijacked, elevated subway train as he barely misses pedestrians and other vehicles
• Doyle's killing of the hijacker at the top of the train depot's stairs
• the final unsuccessful pursuit of Charnier in an underground warehouse on Wards Island when Doyle mistakenly shoots a federal narcotics agent

Frenzy (1972)

In Alfred Hitchcock's first R-rated film:

• the long and intense necktie strangulation scene of Brenda Blaney (Barbara Leigh-Hunt)
• the brilliantly-executed, incredible staircase shot (a lengthy backwards tracking shot) in which the camera slowly retreats from a closed doorway behind which a 'necktie' rape/strangulation murder is taking place - and then proceeds down the stairs and out into the brightly-lit street where pedestrians are unaware of the horrors inside
• the tense scene of the killer Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) frantically searching through a stack of burlap potato sacks in the back of a moving, jostling and swerving truck to find his missing, incriminating initialed/monogrammed stickpin (clenched in a death grip by the nude corpse in a state of rigor mortis) torn from his lapel while his victim struggled - and his breaking of the corpse's clutching fingers to retrieve it
• the scene of the Chief Inspector's wife Mrs. Oxford (Vivien Merchant) snapping breadsticks as her husband (Alec McCowen) explains the breaking of the corpse's fingers while they eat an inedible 'gourmet' meal
• the final clever apprehension of the necktie murderer and the investigator's clincher line of dialogue: "Mr. Rusk, you're not wearing your tie"

From Here to Eternity (1953)

In Fred Zinnemann's Best Picture-winning adaptation of James Jones' novel:

• the famous, erotic lovemaking scene - a wet kiss and embrace in the Hawaiian beach surf as it breaks over them during a secretive, torrid affair between Sgt. Warden (Lancaster) and the Captain's promiscuous wife Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) - and Karen's breathless reaction ("I never knew it could be like this")
• the scene of lone Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) playing "taps" for his dead friend Maggio (Oscar-winning Frank Sinatra) who was killed by the sadistic Sgt. 'Fatso' (Ernest Borgnine)
• the scene in which Prewitt says: "Nobody ever lies about being lonely,"
• the macho moment when Warden grabs a giant machine gun and shoots at Japanese planes flying over the barracks during the Pearl Harbor attack
• the final scene of Karen and Prewitt's hostess/hooker-girlfriend Alma (Lorene) (Oscar-winning Donna Reed) sailing away from Honolulu and the throwing of two leis onto the water

From Russia With Love (1963)

In Terence Young's second Bond film:

• the requisite Bond (Sean Connery) elements, including the opening credits sequence
• pretty Bond girl Daniela Bianchi (Miss Universe 1960) as Soviet defector/double agent Tatiana Romanova, awaiting Bond in bed
• Lotte Lenya as ex-KGB agent/assassin Rosa Klebb with a poisonous switchbladed shoe
• the amazingly-edited and choreographed fight scene in the film's climax in a tiny sleeper compartment aboard the Orient Express train between Agent 007 James Bond (Sean Connery) and ruthlessly-evil SPECTRE assassin Donald "Red" Grant (Robert Shaw)
• the death-defying chase between Bond and a helicopter

The Front (1976)

In director Martin Ritt's comedy:

• the silent opening credits with stark white-on-black titles
• the opening newsreel montage depicting the 1950's to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "Young at Heart", intercut with HUAC and McCarthy-era footage
• the despairing character of unemployed and blacklisted TV comedy actor Hecky Brown (played by Zero Mostel) who eventually commits suicide by jumping from a hotel room window
• the ending in which Howard Prince (Woody Allen) tells the HUAC committee: "Fellas... I don't recognize the right of this committee to ask that kind of question. And furthermore, you can all go f--k yourselves"
• the closing credits (also shown to the sounds of "Young at Heart") in which the most of the actors are accompanied by their real-life dates of blacklisting

The Fugitive (1993)

In director Andrew Davis' suspenseful action-thriller - a production of the popular TV series about Kimble's quest for a mysterious one-armed man who killed his wife:

• the spectacular collision between the prison bus and a train in the opening train wreck scene, federal Deputy Samuel Gerard's (Tommy Lee Jones) reaction: "My, my, my, my, my. What a mess"
• Gerard's pursuit instructions to his men to catch a fugitive: ("...What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at 15 miles. Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble - Go get him!")
• the chase sequences in drainage tunnels and the unforgettable dive of wrongly-accused murder suspect/fugitive Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) from a dam and down into a cascading waterfall as he shouts back to the uncaring deputy - "I didn't kill my wife!"
• the exciting finale in which Kimble battles the real villain Charles Nichols (Jeroen Krabbe) while eluding his police pursuit

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

In Stanley Kubrick's searing war film:

• the striking opening credits sequence of Marine recruits having their heads shaved on Parris Island
• the training scene of their first meeting with their foul-mouthed drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (real-life DI R. Lee Ermey) spewing one-liners
• Hartman's demands to "Private Joker" (Matthew Modine) to show his "war face" and that the recruits go to bed with their rifles, and his recitation to them of a US Marine Corps love poem
• Hartman's speech about the great Marine marksmen of the past (including mass murderer Charles Whitman and JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald) - "Those individuals showed what one motivated Marine and his rifle can do"
• the scenes on the obstacle course
• the gory scene of insanely-disturbed Private 'Gomer Pyle' (Vincent D'Onofrio) going crazy in the barracks' latrine after being abused by Hartman and his fellow Marine roommates and ending his own painful life by blowing his brains out on a toilet seat
• the film's next second-half transition to a Saigon hooker looking for GI clients to the contrasting feminist tune of "These Boots Were Made For Walkin'"
• the 'Joker's' voice-over narration throughout the film and his helmet labeled "Born to Kill"
• the final scene of the surviving troop members singing "The Mickey Mouse Club Song" as they pass by burning buildings

The Full Monty (1997, UK)

In director Peter Cattaneo's international buddy comedy:

• the car suicide scene
• the famous short dole queue scene - a Chippendales-style, feel-good moment in which unemployed working-class men hear Donna Summer's Hot Stuff on the radio and rhythmically start moving - ultimately devising a get-rich-quick scheme
• the actual amusing stripping scene of the stripper group - dubbed "Hard Steel" - to the delight of female fans

Funny Face (1957)

In Stanley Donen's romantic musical comedy:

• the discovery of Greenwich Village bookshop assistant Joe Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) as the new "Quality Woman" by fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire), reportedly based on Richard Avedon, and "Think Pink" Quality Magazine fashion editor Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson)
• the split-screen scene of the trio touring Paris and singing "Bonjour Paris"
• the taking of pictures of Jo all over the "City of Lights," including the unforgettable image of her descending a long staircase in the Louvre in a bright red Givenchy gown
• Astaire's performance of "Let's Kiss and Make Up" when he dances with his umbrella
• the soft-focus fairy-tale romantic scene of Dick and Jo (in a white wedding dress) singing and dancing to Gershwin's "He Loves and She Loves" in the country chapel garden

Funny Girl (1968)

In William Wyler's musical biography of the famed Ziegfeld performer:

• the film's opening including comedian Fanny Brice's (Barbra Streisand in her debut screen performance) "Hello gorgeous" in front of a mirror
• the remarkable staging of the singing of "Don't Rain on My Parade" as she stands at the bow of a tugboat in New York City's harbor near the Statue of Liberty
• the singing of Brice's signature song "My Man" before a black backdrop in the film's finale

The Furies (1950)

In Anthony Mann's dark and noirish psychological western:

• the scene in which feisty and rebellious daughter Vance Jeffords (Barbara Stanwyck) reacts to the news that her patriarchal, widowed cattle baron TC Jeffords (Walter Huston) (of "The Furies" ranch) will marry gold-digging San Francisco socialite Flo Burnett (Judith Anderson)
• her later revenge with a hurled pair of scissors causing disfigurement
• the dramatic hanging scene in which Jeffords asks Vance to plead for the life of her Mexican ranch-hand friend Juan Herrera (Gilbert Roland) for stealing horses - and Juan's refusal to have her humiliate herself as she kisses him goodbye: (Juan: "The kiss of a good friend" Vance: "Till our eyes next meet" Juan: "Till then")
• her harsh words to her father: "It's me you should have hung, because now I hate you in a way I didn't know a human could hate. Take a good long look at me, TC. You won't see me again until the day I take your world away from you"

Fury (1936)

In director Fritz Lang's crime drama (his first American film) with a message:

• the scene in which Katherine Grant (Sylvia Sidney) sees her wrongly-accused fiancee Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) behind flaming jailbars in a prison that has been set on fire by a mob
• Joe's sudden, shadowy reappearance at his brother's apartment and his memory ("I could smell myself burn")
• the moment after the reading of a special delivery letter in the trial when Katherine sees the mis-spelled word "mementum" - convincing her that Joe is still alive