64 articles
A Hen in the Wind (風の中の牝雞)
A Hen in the Wind (風の中の牝雞, Kaze no naka no mendori) is Yasujiro Ozu's 1948 Shochiku melodrama about a Tokyo mother, played by Kinuyo Tanaka, who turns to one night of sex work to pay her son's medical bills, and her repatriated soldier husband's struggle to forgive her.
A Hometown in My Heart
A Hometown in My Heart (마음의 고향, Maeumui gohyang), also A Hometown in Heart, is Yun Yong-gyu's 1949 South Korean debut film adapting Ham Se-deok's play A Little Monk; a lost-then-restored Buddhist drama about a child monk, considered a landmark of the liberation period.
Ace in the Hole (1951 film)
Ace in the Hole, aka The Big Carnival, is Billy Wilder's 1951 Paramount drama starring Kirk Douglas as reporter Chuck Tatum, who exploits a New Mexico cave entrapment inspired by the 1925 Floyd Collins case into a media circus; a flop on release, later a National Film Registry classic.
All the King's Men (1949 film)
All the King's Men (1949) is Robert Rossen's Columbia Pictures drama adapted from Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer novel about Willie Stark, a Huey Long-inspired politician; it won Best Picture, Best Actor (Broderick Crawford), and Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge).
Bambi
Bambi is Walt Disney's 1942 animated feature, based on Felix Salten's 1923 novel, about a fawn who becomes Great Prince of the Forest. Premiered in London August 1942, U.S. release August 13; oil-paint backgrounds, multiplane camera, over $2,000,000 cost, National Film Registry 2011. Not the 2013 Lifshitz documentary or the Python Bambi package.
Bicycle Thieves
Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette, The Bicycle Thief) is Vittorio De Sica's 1948 Italian neorealist film, written with Cesare Zavattini from Luigi Bartolini's novel, about unemployed Antonio Ricci searching Rome with his son Bruno for a stolen bicycle, and the first Sight & Sound poll's greatest film.
Buffalo Bill (1944 film)
Buffalo Bill (1944) is a Twentieth Century-Fox Technicolor Western biography directed by William A. Wellman, starring Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill Cody with Maureen O'Hara and Linda Darnell; a 1944 box-office hit remembered for its War Bonnet Gorge battle scene.
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca (1942) is a Warner Bros. romantic drama directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Vichy Morocco; it won three 1944 Oscars, including Best Picture.
Children of Paradise
Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du paradis) is Marcel Carné's 1945 French romantic drama, written by Jacques Prévert, starring Arletty and Jean-Louis Barrault, made under Nazi occupation and often ranked the greatest French film.
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane (1941) is Orson Welles's RKO debut drama about press baron Charles Foster Kane and the word "Rosebud", known for Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography, the Hearst controversy, and its Sight & Sound poll reign.
Day of Wrath
Day of Wrath (Vredens dag) is Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 Danish drama, also known as Vredens Dag, about Anne, a pastor's young wife accused of witchcraft in 1623 after loving her stepson. Shot under Nazi occupation, adapted from Wiers-Jenssens' play Anne Pedersdotter, it premiered 13 November 1943 and was read as an occupation allegory.
Flame of My Love (わが恋は燃えぬ)
Flame of My Love (わが恋は燃えぬ, Waga Koi wa Moenu) is Kenji Mizoguchi's 1949 Shochiku drama, third of his women's liberation trilogy, starring Kinuyo Tanaka as emancipation pioneer Hideko Fukuda; released 15 February 1949, 84 minutes, black and white.
Fury (1936 film)
Fury (1936) is Fritz Lang's first American film, an MGM drama starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney about an innocent man nearly lynched by a mob who then seeks revenge; based on the 1933 San Jose lynching, it earned a National Film Registry place and 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Gentleman's Agreement
Gentleman's Agreement: 1947 Twentieth Century-Fox drama directed by Elia Kazan, adapted from Laura Z. Hobson's novel, in which Gregory Peck's journalist poses as Jewish to expose antisemitism; won the 1948 Best Picture Oscar. Distinct from the 1935 library-copying Gentlemen's Agreement.
Humoresque
Humoresque is a 1946 American melodrama directed by Jean Negulesco for Warner Bros., starring Joan Crawford and John Garfield, and featuring music by Isaac Stern and Franz Waxman.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is a 1932 Warner Bros. pre-Code prison drama directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Paul Muni as James Allen, adapted from Robert E. Burns's Georgia chain-gang autobiography and credited with spurring penal reform.
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life: 1946 Frank Capra drama starring James Stewart as George Bailey, shown by angel Clarence a world without him. Box-office flop that became a Christmas classic after its 1974 copyright lapse; rights reasserted 1993 via story and music.
Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Иван Грозный. Первая серия)
Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Иван Грозный. Первая серия) is Sergei Eisenstein's 1944 Soviet black-and-white historical drama, first part of a planned trilogy on Tsar Ivan IV, starring Nikolai Cherkasov with a Prokofiev score, Stalin Prize winner, shot at TsOKS Alma-Ata.
Jezebel (1938 film)
Jezebel (1938) is a William Wyler Warner Bros. drama starring Bette Davis as Julie Marsden, a New Orleans belle in a red dress, with Henry Fonda; based on Owen Davis's 1933 play, it won Davis her second Best Actress Oscar and entered the National Film Registry in 2009.
Johnny Belinda
Johnny Belinda is a 1948 Warner Bros. drama directed by Jean Negulesco, starring Jane Wyman as a deaf-mute woman on Cape Breton Island taught sign language by Lew Ayres's doctor; it earned 12 Oscar nominations and won Wyman Best Actress.
Julia (1977 film)
Julia (1977), Fred Zinnemann's drama from Lillian Hellman's Pentimento, stars Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave; it won three Oscars from 11 nominations, and its title character's identity was disputed by Muriel Gardiner.
Kitty Foyle
Kitty Foyle is a 1940 RKO drama directed by Sam Wood, starring Ginger Rogers as a Philadelphia working woman, adapted from Christopher Morley's novel; Rogers won the Best Actress Oscar.
L'Âge d'Or
L'Âge d'Or (1930) is Luis Buñuel's surrealist feature, co-written with Salvador Dalí and produced by the Noailles. Banned in France after the Studio 28 scandal of December 1930, it was unseen there until 1981; distinct from the 1942 Jean de Limur comedy of the same title.
L'Atalante
L'Atalante, also released mutilated as Le Chaland qui passe, is Jean Vigo's 1934 French black-and-white feature about newlyweds on a Seine barge with Michel Simon as Père Jules; his only feature, a poetic realism landmark.
Late Spring (晩春)
Late Spring (晩春, Banshun) is Yasujiro Ozu's 1949 Shochiku drama starring Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu, first of the Noriko trilogy, about a widowed professor persuading his daughter to marry; Kinema Junpo 1949 first place.
Le Quai des brumes
Le Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows) is Marcel Carné's 1938 French poetic-realist drama, scripted by Jacques Prévert from Pierre Mac Orlan's novel, starring Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon, and Pierre Brasseur, censored yet hugely successful, restored in 4K in 2025.
Light of Ten Thousand Homes
Light of Ten Thousand Homes (Wanjia denghuo, Myriad of Lights) is a 1948 Chinese realist drama directed by Shen Fu for Kunlun Film Company, about a Shanghai clerk whose family collapses when rural relatives arrive; a ranked classic of Chinese cinema.
María Candelaria
María Candelaria (Xochimilco), Portrait of Maria, is a 1943 Mexican Golden Age drama directed by Emilio Fernández, starring Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz, photographed by Gabriel Figueroa, and the first Latin American film to win Cannes' Palme d'Or (1946).
Morocco (1930 film)
Morocco (1930) is a Paramount romantic drama directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich as Amy Jolly in her American film debut; four Oscar nominations, National Film Registry 1992.
Myriad of Lights (万家灯火)
Myriad of Lights (万家灯火) is a 1948 Chinese black-and-white drama directed by Shen Fu about a small Shanghai family strained by inflation and an influx of relatives.