Bringing Up Baby (1938): The classic screwball comedy, with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn and a leopard or two. And George the dog.
Double Indemnity (1944): Practically the quintessential film noir. By the way, if you're as impressed as I am that Billy Wilder could produce such diverse masterpieces as this one, Some Like It Hot, Sunset Blvd., and others, check out Conversations with Wilder, Cameron Crowe's book about his talks with the director.
Notorious (1946): Probably Hitchcock's most romantic movie. Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman are just perfect.
The Palm Beach Story (1942): Goofy, fast-paced Preston Sturges screwball comedy, another classic of the genre.
The Philadelphia Story (1940): They used to show this movie every year at Bryn Mawr, but even that couldn't turn me off it. Snappy, witty dialogue; perfect performances by Katharine Hepburn (a Bryn Mawr alumna), Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart -- I can watch this over and over.
A Place in the Sun (1951): Swoony melodrama -- maybe my favorite black-and-white movie. Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor have to be the best looking couple in film history. They bastardized the novel (Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy) to make Clift's character more sympathetic... but I don't care.
Red River (1948): A great western that doesn't get talked about much anymore. The slender, slightly effeminate Montgomery Clift has to be the oddest choice for a cowboy, but he's great. And I don't like John Wayne, so I'm always glad to see him playing someone loathsome as he does here.
Shadow of a Doubt (1943): My favorite Hitchcock movie. A young girl gradually grows to suspect her favorite uncle, played by Joseph Cotten in a role where his pleasant blandness works perfectly, is a murderer. You don't realize the tension that's building up until the final scenes.
Some Like It Hot (1959): One of my all-time favorite movies, hilarious, smart, and sexy. "You have to watch out for those Bryn Mawr girls..."
Stairway to Heaven (1946--England; also known as A Matter of Life and Death): Sumptuous romance for which the phrase "They don't make 'em like that anymore" might well have been invented. Visually stunning (like all of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's films) and cleverly written, this might be hard to find, but make the effort.
Sullivan's Travels (1941): Terrific blend of comedy and drama, with Joel McCrea as a Hollywood director who wants to see what real life is like, and Veronica Lake as the gamine he meets who shows him real life ain't all it's cracked up to be.
Sunset Boulevard (1950): Stunning, grandiose comi-tragedy, by the great Billy Wilder. "I'm ready for my close up, Mr. De Mille..."
The Wages of Fear
(1952--France):
Tense thriller about driving dynamite over rough roads (trust me, it's
more exciting than it sounds). You don't have to speak French to get
caught
up in it. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who also did Diabolique
(the original, not the one with Sharon Stone), which is also worth
seeing.
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