50 GREATEST MOVIES (on TV and VIDEO) |
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Also see another list of TV Guide's picks from their March 24-30, 2001 issue - they offered their list of cinematic greatness - the 50 Greatest Movie Moments of All Time. Note: The films that are marked with a yellow
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50. 
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 75 minutes, Not
Rated (NR), BW
A spark of real wit surges through this classic, easily the best of the Universal monster movies. Director James Whale, one of Hollywood's founding eccentrics, used his sophisticated humor to expand the boundaries of the chiller genre, and a fright-wigged Elsa Lanchester turned a few minutes of screen time into one of the most enduring images in horror. But it's the exquisitely weird actor Ernest Thesiger's performance as the effete Dr. Pretorius that secures a place for "Bride" among that rare group of Hollywood films: sequels better than the originals. 49. Dirty Harry (1971) 102 minutes, Rated R, Letterbox Originally rebuked by critics as a fascist fantasy, "Dirty Harry" nonetheless gave Clint Eastwood his best role as Harry Callahan, a renegade cop whose .44 Magnum could blow a hole in the ozone. This superbly made thriller stands as one of the most influential films in the crime genre, inspiring four sequels and countless rip-offs. Directed with cold-blooded expertise by Eastwood's mentor, Don Siegel, "Dirty Harry" eschews traditional cops-and-robbers histrionics for a morally complex and disturbing study of evil and contains several brilliant action scenes and a complicated title character who could play good cop/bad cop all by himself. 48. Perhaps the most enjoyable of the numerous collaborations between director John Ford and star John Wayne, "The Quiet Man" is full of characters as colorful as its Irish vistas. Wayne plays an Irish-American boxer seeking refuge in Erin after accidentally killing an opponent in the ring. But instead of peace, he finds culture shock, love with a fiery colleen (Maureen O'Hara) and fisticuffs with her "big, bellowing bully" of a brother (Victor McLaglen). All in all, a grand bit of the blarney. 47. Cabaret (1972) 128 minutes, Rated PG In the year of "The Godfather," "Cabaret" managed to win eight Oscars, including Best Director, Actress and Supporting Actor. Under Bob Fosse's ultrastylized direction, "Cabaret" also dragged the Hollywood musical into the modern era. Liza Minnelli, in her first filmed singing role, is a thrill as the starry-eyed Sally Bowles, an American in 1931 Berlin performing at the tawdry Kit Kat Klub, where the divinely decadent entertainment parallels the rise of Nazism outside. Integrating social satire with smashing production numbers (including "The Money Song" and the showstopping title number), Fosse created a landmark film from a genre most thought dead. 46. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 112 minutes, Rated PG One of the screen's great buddy teams was born when Paul Newman and Robert Redford saddled up for this rollicking comic western about two legendary outlaws. With a gleam in his baby blues, Newman dazzles as Butch, while Redford became a superstar with his self-deprecating portrayal of the dashing, trigger-happy Sundance. Burt Bacharach's bouncy score includes "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." 45. Ginger Rogers. Fred Astaire. Irving Berlin. You want more? OK, a supporting cast topped by Edward Everett Horton and some of the fanciest footwork ever committed to film. The fourth of the 10 Astaire-Rogers matchups, this is the one with Fred's tour de force choreography for the title song and the two stars dancing "Cheek to Cheek" -- as blatant and beautiful an example of dance-as-sex as ever graced a musical. And look for Lucille Ball in the bit role of a flower-shop girl. Released by RKO a few years later, she got the last laugh by buying the entire studio in 1958. 44. Babe (1995) 92 minutes, Rated G This charming fable about a plucky pig with "an unprejudiced heart" is a delightful children's movie that's just as beguiling for adults. The Oscar-winning visual effects (combining real animals, animatronic wizardry and computer graphics) and dazzling fairy-tale sets bring to life the touching and tender tale of an orphaned Yorkshire piglet who goes to live on a farm and trains to be an expert sheepdog. 43. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 115 minutes, Rated PG, Letterbox This thrill ride kicks off with a booby-trap sequence that any other movie would have considered a climax: For "Raiders," the beginning is just the beginning. When two of the screen's modern masters, producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg, teamed up with star Harrison Ford, the result was the ultimate action movie with the ultimate action hero -- Indiana Jones, the asp-kicking adventurer with quip and whip at the ready. Far better than either of its two sequels, "Raiders" is the definitive homage to Saturday-matinee serials, and includes the best snake scene since Genesis. 42. A mostly silent film, Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times'' is a comic nightmare of mass production, runaway capitalism, the police state -- all of which helped get the film (and its star) labeled Red. At times sentimental, the movie nonetheless includes some utterly stunning sequences: Chaplin under assault by the automatic feeding machine, and his trip through the cogs of a factory. "Modern Times" perfectly captures Chaplin: naive, but ever so heartfelt. 41. Saturday Night Fever (1977) 119 minutes, Rated R (108-minute version Rated PG) When John Travolta staged his comeback in 1994's "Pulp Fiction," this is what he was coming back to. As Tony Manero, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn's answer to Fred Astaire, Travolta strutted and swiveled through a defining picture of the 1970s. His big-man-in-a-little-disco bravado remains as poignant and pathetic as ever. His costars might be klutzy, but Travolta never misses a step. 40. The theatrical trailer promised "a story that's as warm and moving as 'Going My Way' (but with brass knuckles!)" -- as good a description as any for this Oscar-winning morality tale. The characters struggling with pier pressure include an ex-boxer with a soft spot for pigeons, a luscious nun-in-training and a priest with a mean punch. And Marlon Brando's "contenduh" speech is still a knockout. 39. Laura (1944) 85 minutes, NR, BW Otto Preminger's deliciously sleek Manhattan murder mystery is a grabber from its first line -- "I shall never forget the weekend Laura died" -- and keeps its hold through a shocking mid-picture twist and shattering climax. With a cigarette dangling from his lip, Dana Andrews plays a tough cop investigating the murder of a beautiful woman (played by the dreamy Gene Tierney in flashbacks) who finds himself obsessed with her portrait. Among the suspects: a shifty fiancé (Vincent Price) and Laura's arrogant mentor (unforgettably played by Clifton Webb). Add a theme song that virtually defines haunting and the elements conspire to make "Laura" one of film noir's great cases. 38. The movie that emptied beaches and created the modern blockbuster, "Jaws" holds up today not so much for its jolts -- there aren't as many as you think you remember -- but because of something missing from the movies it inspired: real characters. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw are more than fish bait, and the conversation about the USS Indianapolis is worth all the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park." 37. American Graffiti (1973) 110 minutes, Rated PG, Letterbox George Lucas was a 28-year-old unknown when he made this autobiographical teen picture for less than $800,000. The result was a genuine pop classic that became an audience favorite and brought accolades to Lucas and his cast (including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford). With its drag races, sock hops, doo-wop and Mel's Drive-In, "Graffiti" makes pop-culture myth out of nostalgic reverie. 36. "The rules don't make any sense to me," says a baby-faced Dustin Hoffman as recent college grad Benjamin Braddock. "They're being made up by all the wrong people." So goes a rallying cry for the 1960s in Mike Nichols's comic masterpiece. The gap of ages is hilariously and poignantly evoked in the soulless affair between Ben and Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson, the embodiment of middle-aged resignation. 35. Humphrey Bogart bagged his only Oscar anchoring John Huston's rumbling adventure set in WWI German East Africa. Bogie's gin-guzzling skipper of the floating junk heap called the African Queen meets his match in Katharine Hepburn's "psalm-singing, skinny old maid." The duo embarks on a suicide mission to torpedo one of the Kaiser's gunships, en route making film history. Bogie and Kate were made for each other. 34. Apollo 13 (1995) 139 minutes, Rated PG, Letterbox "Houston, we have a problem." With that, Tom Hanks gave liftoff to a nifty summer entertainment -- riveting drama and thrilling special effects. The true story of astronaut Jim Lovell (Hanks) and his crew's long-awaited moon mission is nostalgically captured by director Ron Howard. Who cares that Lovell's actual words were "Houston, we've had a problem"? 33. An emotional obstacle course of a film, Steven Spielberg's Holocaust movie tells the story of Oskar Schindler, the enigmatic industrialist who saved more than 1,000 Polish Jews from the Nazi gas chambers. As painful as it is powerful, "Schindler's List" is enobled by Spielberg's vision, Janusz Kaminski's cinematography, and two Olympian performances: Liam Neeson as the self-made hero Schindler and Ralph Fiennes as the astonishingly demonic Nazi officer. 32. Blasted and praised when it was released, Stanley Kubrick's black comedy about nuclear annihilation remains unchallenged as cinema's most devastating attack on the military mind. The brilliant cast is headed by an inspired Peter Sellers playing three roles -- the eggheaded U.S. president, a stiff-upper-lip RAF captain and the wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove. 31. The archetypal juvenile delinquency movie has everything it takes to be, well, the archetypal juvenile delinquency movie: Teen angst, switchblades, blue jeans, hot rods and James Dean. "Rebel" stands as director Nicholas Ray's enduring ode to disaffected youth. Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo. Who would have pegged Dennis Hopper as a survivor? 30. The Palm Beach Story (1942) 90 minutes, NR, BW His fame hasn't kept up with that of Frank Capra or Billy Wilder, but writer/director Preston Sturges is responsible for a series of comedic fables about the American dream that are some of Hollywood's funniest films. His "The Lady Eve" has the sophistication, "Sullivan's Travels" the satirical bite, but for pure laughs it's hard to beat "The Palm Beach Story." The fun begins when Claudette Colbert dumps husband Joel McCrea and heads to Palm Beach to land a rich beau. Take a deep breath before viewing -- the antic pace doesn't let up in this classy, sexy satire. 29. The Lion King (1994) 88 minutes, Rated G, Animated Disney's 32nd animated musical was its highest-grossing and, at least among the studio's post-1970 features, its best. The story -- a sort of "Bambi" meets "Hamlet" -- can by now be recited word for word by any parent with a VCR, but the songs, lush colors and sly inside jokes make "Lion" worth another rewind. 28. The epic by which every other is measured. David O. Selznick's grand Technicolor version of Margaret Mitchell's novel is, quite simply, a glorious soap opera. Even on television, "GWTW" is hard to resist: The burning of Atlanta might be less spectacular on the small screen, but nothing can snuff the sparks between Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, not to mention the fire in Scarlett's eyes. 27. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 124 minutes, Rated PG, Letterbox "Star Wars" was the first, but real fans of George Lucas's science fiction trilogy know "Empire" is the best installment. While Lucas focused on the technical wizardry, Irvin Kershner handled the direction. The result is a smashing display of action, special effects and drama, all tied together by the darkest and best-written script of the series. The plot soars to unpredictable places and includes some of the most breathless flights in Lucas's galaxy: Yoda's instruction of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the burgeoning love of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) for Han Solo (Harrison Ford). Best of all is Darth Vader's pivotal revelation to Luke, one of the neatest twists in one of the top sequels ever made. 26. The Exorcist (1973) 121 minutes, Rated R Take it on faith: "The Exorcist" is the scariest motion picture ever. The ultimate showdown of good and evil pits a soul-searching priest (Jason Miller) against a demon inhabiting the body of a 12-year-old girl (Linda Blair). Director William Friedkin's shocks are as heart-stopping as ever, and the excellent cast is assisted by the most frightening noises ever recorded. Rent this one -- the edited broadcast version is a desecration. |
TV Guide
Magazine (August 8-14, 1998 issue) offers their picks for the perfect
flicks to catch on television or pop into your VCR. From hundreds of
the magazine's four-star titles, they chose the movies that play particularly
well on the small screen and hold up to repeated viewings. Their one
golden standard: how much fun they are to watch. These are the films
-- from Chaplin to Hanks, Kane to Vader -- that represent the Hollywood
dream machine at its most inspired. They have plenty of monsters and
heroes, saints, sinners and, of course, more than a gangster or two.
A movie is noted when black and white (BW) and when a video is available
in letterbox format.