Seventh Heaven (1927)

In Frank Borzage's pure and sentimental melodrama:

• the love scenes in the 7th floor bohemian loft ("Seventh Heaven") between street angel-waif Diane (Best Actress winning Janet Gaynor) and Parisian sewer worker Chico (Charles Farrell) after her attempted suicide by stabbing
• the spiritual nature of their relationship while he was called to fight in the war (and was blinded) and she was a munitions worker - when they telepathically communicated with each other through their hearts and minds at 11
• their jubilant reconciliation in an ethereal shaft of light

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

In director Nathan Juran's classic fantasy:

• the tremendous special effects and stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen (the first in color!)
• a giant Cyclops, a fire-breathing dragon, a sorcerer-shrunken Princess Parisa and bride-to-be (Kathryn Grant)
• the thrilling sword fight between Captain Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) and a living skeleton

sex, lies, and videotape (1989)

In director Steven Soderbergh's low-budget independent film winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes - without nudity although with considerable discussion of sexual topics:

• the many videotaped explicit discussions and revelatory intimate confessions filmed by Graham Walton (James Spader) as a substitute for his own emotion-less, impotent and dispassionate life ("I'm impotent...I can't get an erection in the presence of another person")
• the scenes of his visit to his college buddy-turned-lawyer John (Peter Gallagher)
• his neglected and frustrated wife Ann (Andie MacDowell) that reveals infidelity between the womanizing and philandering John and Ann's sexually-adventurous bartender sister Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo)
• also typical of the film -- the candid reflections of Ann, including her admission: "Anyway, being happy isn't all that great. I mean, the last time I was really happy... I got so fat. I must have put on 25 pounds"

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

In Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller:

• Evil personified in the chilling character of Uncle Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) - the "Merry Widow Murderer"
• the cat-and-mouse game between Charlie and his young niece Charlie (Teresa Wright)
• the overhead shot in the library after she has learned the truth about him
• the scene in the smoke-filled bar booth
• the darkened back porch scene when she threatens to kill him
• the garage carbon monoxide poisoning scene
• the scene of their struggle between train-cars and Charlie's demise as he falls off a moving train into the path of an oncoming train in the exciting conclusion

Shadowlands (1994)

In director Richard Attenborough's lavish romantic biopic and tearjerker:

• the unlikely romance between C. S. "Jack" Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) and Jewish-American poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) - including Joy's gauche first appearance in a British tea room ("Which one of you is Lewis?")
• the scene of Jack realizing that he was truly in love with Joy during their first marriage of convenience after learning of her terminal bone cancer: ("It's impossible. It's unthinkable. How could Joy be my wife? I'd have to love her, wouldn't I? I'd have to care more for her...than anyone else in this world. I'd have to be suffering the torments of the damned. The prospect of losing her...")
• the scene in which Jack remarried Joy, this time for love
• Joy's instructing Lewis on preparations for sex
• the scene of Lewis ordering room service
• their "honeymoon" time together during her cancer's remission
• the scene of Joy's quiet death in bed with Jack offering assurance: ("Don't talk, my love. Just rest...just rest" - and after a kiss just before she died: "I love you, Joy. I love you so much. You made me so happy. I didn't know I could be so happy. You're the truest person I have ever known...")
• the scene of her young Narnia-loving son Douglas (Joseph Mazzello) suddenly waking up in bed, gasping with eyes wide as if knowing the very moment of her death
• Jack's scene of sharing tortured grief and uncontrollable weeping with Douglas in an attic following her death (Douglas: "I sure would like to see her again" Jack: "Me too")

Shaft (1971)

In Gordon Parks' definitive blaxploitation film:

• the stirring Isaac Hayes Oscar-winning introductory theme song
• the opening appearance of sexy and cool black detective John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) emerging from a subway onto NYC's tawdry 42nd Street
• the final daring rescue scene

Shakespeare in Love (1998)

In John Madden's Best Picture-winning comedy-drama about the Bard while writing his future play Romeo & Juliet :

• the scene of writing-cramped Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) unraveling the tight bound clothes of male-disguised Viola De Lesseps as Master Tom Kent (Gwyneth Paltrow)
• the quip-spewing character of Queen Elizabeth (Oscar-winning Judi Dench)

Shampoo (1975)

In Hal Ashby's sex comedy farce set during a 24-hour time period on November 4th, 1968 when Richard Nixon won the presidency:

• the numerous sex scenes between studly playboyish LA hair-dresser George Roundy (Warren Beatty) and three women - all in one day
• George's explanation to conservative businessman Lester (Jack Warden) ("We're always trying to f--k them. They know it and they like it and they don't like it... that's just how it is. Look, it's got nothing to do with you, man. It just happened")
• Lester's mistress Jackie Shawn (Julie Christie) - George's old girlfriend, and Lester's wife Felicia (Oscar-winning Lee Grant)
• Lester's seductive teenaged daughter Lorna (Carrie Fisher) - who wants to avenge her cheating mother through sex with her hairdresser, with her forward request: "You're my mother's hairdresser...Do you wanna f--k?"
• the sensual way that George 'does' his clients' hair in the salon
• the scenes of having sex with Jackie in a steamy bathroom when interrupted by Lester (and they pretend to be doing her hair and tell him to close the door and not let the steam out), and at a party in front of a refrigerator door that slowly opens, illuminates and catches Jackie and George in the act
• the 1968 Nixon election-night victory dinner where Jackie gropes between George's legs under the table - and her famous bold response to executive Sid Roth (William Castle): "Most of all, I'd like to suck his c--k!", causing George to do a spit-take on a piece of chicken
• George's inarticulate repeated expression: "You're great!" to all of his female conquests
• his quintessential question: "Want me to do your hair?"
• the final long shot of morally-shallow, miserable and hedonistic George looking down while atop a Hollywood/Beverly Hills bluff after losing Jackie to Lester

Shane (1953)

In George Stevens' mythic western:

• the lavish background settings of Wyoming
• the legendary buck-skinned gunfighter Shane (Alan Ladd)
• the scene of Shane and Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) chopping up a huge tree stump
• young Joey's (Brandon de Wilde) idolization of his hero
• two large-scale fistfights
• the saloon brawl
• Wilson's (Jack Palance) entrance and role as a black-clothed evil gunman
• Torrey's (Elisha Cook, Jr.) brutal death in a showdown as he is hurtled backwards onto a muddy street
• Torrey's funeral scene in which his dog mourns at his master's coffin
• Marion's (Jean Arthur) long farewell handshake
• the final shootout between the evil and dark Wilson and Shane
• Joey's poignant cry after his hero ("...Come back...") as Shane rides away toward the mountains

Shanghai Express (1932)

In director Josef von Sternberg's melodramatic romantic adventure film:

• the entrance of Shanghai Lily (Marlene Dietrich) at the Peking train station before boarding the Shanghai Express
• further close-ups (with keylighting on her face or backlighting) showing her stunning persona and mystique, filmed with expressionistic shadows
• her most memorable line - "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily" delivered to former lover and surgeon Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey (Clive Brook) as they stood side-by-side together on the train, framed by two windows, in the film's opening

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

In Frank Darabont's (his directorial debut film) popular melodramatic adaptation of a Stephen King novella:

• the incredible Shawshank Prison arrival scene of wrongly-convicted, mild-mannered banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) - an overhead helicopter shot that leaves the arriving drab-gray prison bus, ascends the main tower of the prison, and peers down into the prison courtyard where ant-like prisoners scurry toward the fenced-in arrival area to gawk and jeer while the new arrivals disembark
• the religiously-fanatical Warden Norton's (Bob Gunton) speech to the inmates about what he believed in: Discipline and the Bible
• Andy's first request of lifer friend Red (Morgan Freeman) - a rock hammer!
• Red's narration about how sadistic cons cornered Andy: "I wish I could tell you Andy fought the good fight and the Sisters let him be...but prison is no fairytale world"
• the liberating, uplifting scene of the inmates drinking cold beers on the sunny rooftop and feeling like 'free men' while the heroic Andy smiles off to the side in the shade
• the similar scene when Andy broadcasts Mozart's opera 'The Marriage of Figaro' over the prison P.A. system
• Andy's and Red's discussion - while slumped against the yard wall - about their yearnings from freedom with Andy's decision: "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'"
• Red's wise statement about what "institutionalized" means during his third parole hearing -- followed by the emphatic rubber-stamped "APPROVED" on his file
• the sad scene of Brooks Hatlen's (James Whitmore) suicide by hanging after carving "BROOKS WAS HERE" on the wooden arch above him
• the discovery by the Warden of the escape hole in Andy's cell - covered over by a poster of Raquel Welch
• the re-play of Andy's escape through the wall tunnel and sewage conduit and his exultant pose with his arms raised up from his half-naked body to the sky during a cleansing rainstorm - twirling, victorious and liberated after the prison break
• the sequence of Red's discovery of Andy's letter in a field and his walk back through the field with grasshoppers springing into the air all around
• the final reunion scene on a beach in Mexico next to the Pacific Ocean

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

In director Lowell Sherman's classic comedy:

• Gay Nineties saloon singer Lady Lou's (Mae West) seductive encounter and invitation to Salvation Army Capt. Cummings (Cary Grant)
• other liberated, brazen double-entendres and unabashed one-liners

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

In the second of director John Ford's "cavalry trilogy":

• the sunset scene of soon-to-be retired Capt. Nathan Brittles (John Wayne) sitting at the gravestone of his wife Mary Cutting Brittles and speaking to her while he waters the flowers
• the cinematographically-beautiful dark line of clouds and lightning in a thunderstorm as the cavalry patrol passes through director Ford's favorite scenic locale - Monument Valley
• the scene of his last day when Brittles' C troops give him a silver pocketwatch with the inscription "Lest we forget" that he tearfully reads with his glasses

Sherlock, Jr. (1924)

In actor/director Buster Keaton's silent-era comedy classic:

• the scene of lovelorn projectionist Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton) trying unsuccessfully to court his sweetheart (Kathryn McGuire) with a box of candy
• his pacing after and shadowing his suspect/rival suitor the Sheik (Ward Krane) when they take drags upon the same cigarette
• the series of quick, jump-cutting film edits and abruptly-changing montage of scenes behind Sherlock Jr. after he falls asleep in the projection booth and his dream figure walks around the theatre (unnoticed) and then steps into the 'silver screen' and magically becomes part of the projected shifting scenes
• the 'movie in a movie' - Sherlock Jr. walks down stairs and falls over a garden bench or pedestal, finds himself on a busy street, a mountainous precipice, a lion's den, a desert in the middle of tracks with an approaching train, and a rock surrounded by the ocean where he dives headfirst into a snowbank, and then a return to the opening garden
• the tense scene when Sherlock is set up to be murdered during a pool game with one ball that is supposedly a bomb
• Sherlock's dive out of a window into a hoop dress
• the amazing stunt of his near-fatal collision with a train (he covers his ears and ducks his head) as he rides on the handlebars of a driverless motorcycle
• the final boy-gets-girl sequence in the projection booth when the flustered 'detective' follows the cues of the leading-man actor on screen and kisses his girlfriend

The Shining (1980)

In Stanley Kubrick's horror classic:

• the opening scene with aerial camera work following a car to a mountainous Colorado resort - the sprawling and soon-to-be snowbound Overlook Hotel
• Danny's (Danny Lloyd) Steadicam-filmed ride on a Big Wheel bike tracked through the corridors of the hotel (with accompanying sounds as the wheels hit the floor and the rug)
• his frightening ghostly visions (the murdered twin girls, the bloody elevator, etc.)
• Jack Torrance's (Jack Nicholson) bar-side exchanges with ghostly bartender Lloyd (Joseph Turkel) where he is told: "Your credit's fine, Mr. Torrance"
• the grisly bathtub hallucination experienced by Jack in off-limits Room 237 when he discovers that the illusory, beautiful bather he is kissing is a corpse
• wife Wendy's (Shelley Duvall) discovery that her struggling husband's manuscript/writing on the typewriter is truly insane (there are endless reams of pages all with the phrase: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy")
• Danny's repetition of the words "Redrum " - later reflected in a mirror to reveal the word "Murder"
• the scene in which Wendy clobbers Jack with a baseball bat on the stairs
• the image of a decadent sexual act of fellatio being performed in a bedroom
• the memorable scene of diabolical Jack's climactic stalking and homicidal chase after his wife and son with an axe with his demented bellowings ("Wendy, I'm home" and "Then I'll huff and I'll puff...") and 'Johnny Carson's Tonight Show' greeting: "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!" through a splintered door
• Jack's demise in the frozen Maze
• the final revealing zoom-in shot toward a photograph