Top 100 Classic Movies List

#40 Classic Movie

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) PG

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.

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

Tennessee Williams, Oscar Saul

Stars:

Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter

#39 Classic Movie

High Noon (1952) PG

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

Director:

Fred Zinnemann

Writers:

Carl Foreman, John W. Cunningham

Stars:

Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell

#38 Classic Movie

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?

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Ben Hecht

Stars:

Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains

#37 Classic Movie

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.

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

John Huston, Dashiell Hammett

Stars:

Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George

#36 Classic Movie

On the Waterfront (1954)

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

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

Budd Schulberg

Stars:

Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb

#35 Classic Movie

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.

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond

Stars:

Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

#34 Classic Movie

The African Queen (1951) PG

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

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

C.S. Forester, James Agee

Stars:

Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley

#33 Classic Movie

Double Indemnity (1944)

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

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler

Stars:

Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson

#32 Classic Movie

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. Then he's captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition.

Director:

Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack

Writers:

James Ashmore Creelman, Ruth Rose

Stars:

Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot

#31 Classic Movie

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) PG

A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home-world.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Melissa Mathison

Stars:

Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote

#30 Classic Movie

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

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

Director:

Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly

Writers:

Adolph Green, Betty Comden

Stars:

Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds

#29 Classic Movie

Rebecca (1940)

A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Daphne Du Maurier, Robert E. Sherwood

Stars:

Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders

#28 Classic Movie

Apocalypse Now (1979) R

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

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola

Stars:

Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

movie

#27 Classic Movie

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) PG

An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writers:

Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern

Stars:

Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden

#26 Classic Movie

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

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

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder

Stars:

William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim

#25 Classic Movie

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) G

Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writers:

Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke

Stars:

Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester

#24 Classic Movie

The Graduate (1967)

A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Calder Willingham, Buck Henry

Stars:

Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross

#23 Classic Movie

Jaws (1975) PG

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

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb

Stars:

Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

#22 Classic Movie

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) PG

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.

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman

Stars:

William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins

#21 Classic Movie

Ben-Hur (1959) G

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

Director:

William Wyler

Writers:

Lew Wallace, Karl Tunberg

Stars:

Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd

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