The Pefect 10s

by pepe58season | created - 19 May 2014 | updated - 24 Dec 2015 | Public

Of the 3,000+ movies I've seen so far, these are the ones I gave a rating of 10, meaning I think they're pretty much perfect. Listed in chronological/alphabetical order.

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1. Intolerance (1916)

Passed | 163 min | Drama, History

99 Metascore

The story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, F.A. Turner

Votes: 16,713 | Gross: $2.18M

2. The Last Laugh (1924)

Not Rated | 90 min | Drama

An aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.

Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie Kurz

Votes: 15,193 | Gross: $0.09M

3. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Not Rated | 66 min | Drama, History, Thriller

97 Metascore

In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.

Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov

Votes: 61,402 | Gross: $0.05M

4. The Big Parade (1925)

Not Rated | 151 min | Drama, Romance, War

A young American soldier witnesses the horrors of the Great War.

Directors: King Vidor, George W. Hill | Stars: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell

Votes: 7,266 | Gross: $11.00M

5. The Merry Widow (1925)

Passed | 137 min | Drama, Romance

A prince must woo the now-wealthy dancer he once abandoned, to keep her money in the country in order to keep it from crashing economically.

Director: Erich von Stroheim | Stars: Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Roy D'Arcy, Josephine Crowell

Votes: 2,565 | Gross: $1.92M

6. The General (1926)

Passed | 78 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.

Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley

Votes: 98,058 | Gross: $1.03M

7. Bed and Sofa (1927)

86 min | Comedy, Drama

A married couple have a small apartment in Moscow. When an old friend of the husband's arrives in the city, he is unable to find lodgings. Kolia, the husband, invites his friend to move in with them.

Director: Abram Room | Stars: Vladimir Fogel, Nikolay Batalov, Lyudmila Semyonova, Leonid Yurenev

Votes: 1,331

8. Sunrise (1927)

Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance

95 Metascore

A sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.

Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing

Votes: 53,812 | Gross: $0.54M

9. The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)

Passed | 106 min | Drama, Romance

A cloistered, overprotected Austrian prince falls in love with a down-to-earth barmaid in this "Viennese fairy tale."

Directors: Ernst Lubitsch, John M. Stahl | Stars: Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer, Jean Hersholt, Gustav von Seyffertitz

Votes: 1,663

10. October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927)

95 min | Drama, History

A large-scale view on the events of 1917 in Russia, when the monarchy was overthrown.

Directors: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Boris Livanov, Nikolay Popov, Vasili Nikandrov, Layaschenko

Votes: 8,438

11. Show People (1928)

Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Romance

A young lady from Georgia goes to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming an actress.

Director: King Vidor | Stars: Marion Davies, William Haines, Dell Henderson, Paul Ralli

Votes: 4,004 | Gross: $1.10M

12. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

Not Rated | 70 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

The effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain comes to join his father's crew.

Directors: Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Tom McGuire, Ernest Torrence, Tom Lewis

Votes: 16,170

13. The Crowd (1928)

Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Romance

The life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles, and downfalls.

Director: King Vidor | Stars: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray, Bert Roach, Estelle Clark

Votes: 9,156

14. The Docks of New York (1928)

Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.

Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: George Bancroft, Betty Compson, Olga Baclanova, Clyde Cook

Votes: 5,025

15. The Last Command (1928)

Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, History, Romance

A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.

Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell, Jack Raymond

Votes: 4,508

16. The Wind (1928)

Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

A frail young woman from the East moves in with her cousin in the West, where she causes tension within the family and is slowly driven mad.

Director: Victor Sjöström | Stars: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming

Votes: 7,151

17. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Not Rated | 68 min | Documentary

96 Metascore

A man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.

Director: Dziga Vertov | Stars: Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova

Votes: 27,940

18. The Love Parade (1929)

Passed | 107 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.

Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lupino Lane, Lillian Roth

Votes: 2,614

19. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Passed | 152 min | Drama, War

91 Metascore

A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.

Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy

Votes: 67,624 | Gross: $3.27M

20. City Girl (1930)

Passed | 90 min | Drama, Romance

A Chicago waitress falls in love with a Minnesota farmer, and decides to face a life in the country.

Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Charles Farrell, Mary Duncan, David Torrence, Edith Yorke

Votes: 3,726

21. City Lights (1931)

G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

99 Metascore

With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.

Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers

Votes: 195,891 | Gross: $0.02M

22. M (1931)

Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.

Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke

Votes: 168,302 | Gross: $0.03M

23. Freaks (1932)

Not Rated | 64 min | Drama, Horror

80 Metascore

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates

Votes: 50,558 | Gross: $0.63M

24. Grand Hotel (I) (1932)

Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance

79 Metascore

A group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas.

Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery

Votes: 20,859 | Gross: $2.69M

25. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

Passed | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.

Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis

Votes: 14,426 | Gross: $1.42M

26. Love Me Tonight (1932)

Passed | 104 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

A Parisian tailor finds himself posing as a baron in order to collect a sizeable bill from an aristocrat, only to fall in love with an aloof young princess.

Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth

Votes: 4,624

27. Rain (1932)

Passed | 94 min | Drama

A prostitute newly arrived in the South Pacific finds herself at odds with a stern missionary determined to save her soul.

Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, Fred Howard, Ben Hendricks Jr.

Votes: 3,030 | Gross: $1.17M

28. Shanghai Express (1932)

Approved | 82 min | Adventure, Drama, Film-Noir

83 Metascore

A notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.

Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland

Votes: 10,315

29. Wooden Crosses (1932)

Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, War

World War 1 begins and a young man enlists to fight for his country.

Director: Raymond Bernard | Stars: Pierre Blanchar, Gabriel Gabrio, Charles Vanel, Raymond Aimos

Votes: 1,686

30. 42nd Street (1933)

Passed | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical

83 Metascore

When the leading lady of a Broadway musical breaks her ankle, she is replaced by a young unknown actress, who becomes the star of the show.

Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler

Votes: 13,030 | Gross: $2.30M

31. Baby Face (1933)

Approved | 71 min | Drama, Romance

A young woman, sexually exploited all her life, decides to turn the tables and exploit the hapless men at a big city bank by gleefully seducing her way to the top.

Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Alphonse Ethier

Votes: 8,151

32. Dinner at Eight (1933)

Passed | 111 min | Drama

Affluent Millicent and Oliver Jordan throw a dinner for a handful of wealthy and/or well-born acquaintances, each of whom has much to reveal.

Director: George Cukor | Stars: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow

Votes: 9,005 | Gross: $4.58M

33. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Passed | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical

A wealthy composer rescues unemployed Broadway performers with a new play, but insists on remaining anonymous.

Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler

Votes: 9,138 | Gross: $4.80M

34. King Kong (1933)

Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Horror

92 Metascore

A film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.

Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher

Votes: 90,885 | Gross: $10.00M

35. Queen Christina (1933)

Approved | 99 min | Biography, Drama, Romance

Queen Christina of Sweden is a popular monarch who is loyal to her country. However, when she falls in love with a Spanish envoy, she must choose between the throne and the man she loves.

Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone

Votes: 8,603 | Gross: $0.77M

36. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932)

Approved | 88 min | Drama, Romance, War

A Chinese warlord and an engaged Christian missionary fall in love.

Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Toshia Mori, Walter Connolly

Votes: 4,300

37. Wild Boys of the Road (1933)

Passed | 68 min | Adventure, Drama

In the depths of the Depression, two teenage boys strike out on their own in order to help their struggling parents and find life on the road tougher than expected.

Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Frankie Darro, Rochelle Hudson, Edwin Phillips, Dorothy Coonan Wellman

Votes: 2,332

38. It Happened One Night (1934)

Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance

87 Metascore

A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.

Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns

Votes: 112,155 | Gross: $4.36M

39. L'Atalante (1934)

Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.

Director: Jean Vigo | Stars: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre

Votes: 17,457

40. The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Passed | 104 min | Drama, History, Romance

A German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power.

Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser

Votes: 7,233

41. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

Not Rated | 97 min | Adventure, Drama

A noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.

Director: Harold Young | Stars: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce

Votes: 4,760

42. The Thin Man (1934)

TV-PG | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery

86 Metascore

Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.

Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton

Votes: 32,507

43. A Night at the Opera (1935)

Passed | 96 min | Comedy, Music, Musical

A sly business manager and the wacky friends of two opera singers in Italy help them achieve success in America while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

Directors: Sam Wood, Edmund Goulding | Stars: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle

Votes: 34,737 | Gross: $2.54M

44. A Tale of Two Cities (1935)

Not Rated | 128 min | Drama, History, Romance

87 Metascore

A pair of lookalikes, one a former French aristocrat and the other an alcoholic English lawyer, fall in love with the same woman amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution.

Directors: Jack Conway, Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allan, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen

Votes: 6,293

45. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Passed | 132 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

87 Metascore

First mate Fletcher Christian leads a revolt against his sadistic commander, Captain Bligh, in this classic seafaring adventure, based on the real-life 1789 mutiny.

Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin

Votes: 24,827

46. The 39 Steps (1935)

Approved | 86 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

93 Metascore

A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle

Votes: 61,481

47. Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Mystery, Romance

An English valet brought to the American west assimilates into the American way of life.

Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles, Zasu Pitts

Votes: 4,511

48. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Not Rated | 75 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

95 Metascore

Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.

Director: James Whale | Stars: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson

Votes: 53,205 | Gross: $4.36M

49. Dodsworth (1936)

Passed | 101 min | Drama, Romance

A retired auto manufacturer and his wife take a long-planned European vacation only to find that they want very different things from life.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor

Votes: 10,193

50. Libeled Lady (1936)

Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Romance

When a socialite sues a big paper for libel, the editor responsible calls in the help of his ignored fiancée and a former employee to frame her and make the false story seem true.

Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy

Votes: 8,902

51. Modern Times (1936)

G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

96 Metascore

The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.

Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford

Votes: 259,207 | Gross: $0.16M

52. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A unassuming greeting card poet from a small town in Vermont heads to New York City upon inheriting a massive fortune and is immediately hounded by those who wish to take advantage of him.

Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander

Votes: 23,199

53. My Man Godfrey (1936)

Approved | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

82 Metascore

A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye.

Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick

Votes: 26,429

54. History Is Made at Night (1937)

Passed | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A wealthy divorcée falls for a charming Parisian, but her insanely jealous ex-husband will do anything to get her back.

Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Colin Clive

Votes: 2,484

55. The Grand Illusion (1937)

Not Rated | 113 min | Drama, War

During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.

Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim

Votes: 38,844 | Gross: $0.17M

56. The Pearls of the Crown (1937)

105 min | Comedy, History

Three narrators (French writer Jean Martin, an English royal equerry, and a papal chamberlain) tell the story of seven matched pearls, four of them now in the British Crown. Episodes whirl ... See full summary »

Directors: Christian-Jaque, Sacha Guitry | Stars: Jacqueline Delubac, Sacha Guitry, Lyn Harding, Renée Saint-Cyr

Votes: 634

57. Stage Door (1937)

Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A chronicle of the ambitions, dreams, and disappointments of aspiring actresses who all live in the same boarding house.

Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick

Votes: 9,001

58. Stella Dallas (1937)

Approved | 106 min | Drama, Romance

A working-class woman is willing to do whatever it takes to give her daughter a socially promising future.

Director: King Vidor | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, Barbara O'Neil

Votes: 6,273 | Gross: $2.00M

59. The Awful Truth (1937)

Passed | 90 min | Comedy, Romance

87 Metascore

A married couple file an amicable divorce, but find it harder to let go of each other than they initially thought.

Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy

Votes: 21,341

60. Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Not Rated | 112 min | Action, Biography, Drama

The story of how a great Russian prince led a ragtag army to battle an invading force of Teutonic Knights.

Directors: Sergei Eisenstein, Dmitriy Vasilev | Stars: Nikolay Cherkasov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Andrei Abrikosov, Dmitriy Orlov

Votes: 12,253

61. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Passed | 102 min | Comedy

91 Metascore

While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.

Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett

Votes: 66,031

62. Holiday (1938)

Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Romance

A young man in love with a girl from a rich family finds his unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long-suffering brother.

Director: George Cukor | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres

Votes: 18,226

63. Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (1938)

Not Rated | 111 min | Documentary, Sport

The document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.

Director: Leni Riefenstahl | Stars: David Albritton, Arvo Askola, Jack Beresford, Erwin Blask

Votes: 5,238

64. Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (1938)

Not Rated | 90 min | Documentary, Sport

The document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin, orchestrated as Nazi propaganda.

Director: Leni Riefenstahl | Stars: Sheigo Arai, Jack Beresford, Ralf Berzsenyi, Ferenc Csík

Votes: 4,322

65. Jezebel (1938)

Approved | 104 min | Drama, Romance

In 1850s Louisiana, a free-spirited Southern belle loses her fiancé due to her stubborn vanity and pride, and vows to win him back.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay

Votes: 15,035

66. Port of Shadows (1938)

Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Romance

A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.

Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur

Votes: 9,951 | Gross: $0.03M

67. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

PG | 102 min | Action, Adventure, Romance

97 Metascore

When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.

Directors: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains

Votes: 54,452 | Gross: $3.98M

68. The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Not Rated | 96 min | Mystery, Thriller

98 Metascore

While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty

Votes: 57,105

69. You and Me (1938)

Approved | 94 min | Crime, Film-Noir

An altruistic department-store owner hires ex-convicts in order to give them a second chance at life. Unfortunately, one of the convicts he hires recruits two of his fellow ex-convicts in a plan to rob the store.

Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Barton MacLane, Harry Carey

Votes: 1,627

70. Destry Rides Again (1939)

Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Western

81 Metascore

Deputy sheriff Destry tames the town of Bottle Neck, including saloon singer Frenchy.

Director: George Marshall | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger

Votes: 12,534 | Gross: $0.35M

71. Gone with the Wind (1939)

Passed | 238 min | Drama, Romance, War

97 Metascore

A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil

Votes: 334,007 | Gross: $198.68M

72. Midnight (1939)

Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance

A chorus girl stranded in Paris is set up by a millionaire to break up his wife's affair with another man, while being romantically pursued by a cab driver.

Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer

Votes: 5,601

73. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama

73 Metascore

A naive youth leader is appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. His idealistic plans promptly collide with corruption at home and subterfuge from his hero in Washington, but he tries to forge ahead despite attacks on his character.

Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold

Votes: 121,314 | Gross: $9.60M

74. Ninotchka (1939)

Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Romance

A stern Soviet woman sent to Paris to supervise the sale of jewels seized from Russian nobles finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.

Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi

Votes: 22,874 | Gross: $1.19M

75. Stagecoach (1939)

Passed | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western

93 Metascore

A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.

Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine

Votes: 53,696

76. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

Passed | 116 min | Drama, Romance

In 15th-century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.

Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell

Votes: 12,269 | Gross: $3.27M

77. The Rules of the Game (1939)

Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama

99 Metascore

A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.

Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély

Votes: 31,293

78. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

PG | 102 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

92 Metascore

Young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.

Directors: Victor Fleming, King Vidor | Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr

Votes: 428,251 | Gross: $2.08M

79. The Women (1939)

Not Rated | 133 min | Comedy, Drama

A study of the lives and romantic entanglements of various interconnected women.

Director: George Cukor | Stars: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland

Votes: 14,890 | Gross: $2.27M

80. Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller

89 Metascore

On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders

Votes: 23,683 | Gross: $3.48M

81. Gaslight (1940)

Not Rated | 84 min | Mystery, Thriller

Twenty years after the murder of Alice Barlow, her house is finally occupied again. However, the husband from the couple who have moved in has a secret which he will do anything to keep hidden.

Director: Thorold Dickinson | Stars: Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell, Cathleen Cordell

Votes: 5,266

82. His Girl Friday (1940)

Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.

Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart

Votes: 63,106 | Gross: $0.30M

83. Pinocchio (1940)

G | 88 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

99 Metascore

A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.

Directors: Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Mel Blanc, Don Brodie

Votes: 159,709 | Gross: $84.25M

84. Rebecca (1940)

Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance

86 Metascore

A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson

Votes: 146,604 | Gross: $4.36M

85. Strange Cargo (1940)

Passed | 113 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter).

Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre

Votes: 2,971

86. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Passed | 129 min | Drama

96 Metascore

An Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.

Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin

Votes: 99,873 | Gross: $0.06M

87. The Letter (1940)

Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

84 Metascore

The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort

Votes: 14,578

88. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

Approved | 105 min | Drama, War

A merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.

Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Ward Bond

Votes: 4,920

89. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

96 Metascore

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut

Votes: 38,420 | Gross: $0.20M

90. Waterloo Bridge (1940)

Passed | 108 min | Drama, Romance, War

73 Metascore

Myra and Roy meet and fall in love on Waterloo Bridge during an air raid. Their love will be one of the war's unspoken casualties.

Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson, Virginia Field

Votes: 10,923

91. 49th Parallel (1941)

Not Rated | 123 min | Drama, Thriller, War

A World War II U-boat crew are stranded in northern Canada. To avoid internment, they must make their way to the border and get into the still-neutral U.S.

Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, Richard George, Eric Portman

Votes: 7,640

92. Citizen Kane (1941)

PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery

100 Metascore

Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'

Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead

Votes: 465,612 | Gross: $1.59M

93. Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Passed | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

Hollywood director John L. Sullivan sets out to experience life as a homeless person in order to gain relevant life experience for his next movie.

Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest

Votes: 28,489

94. The Lady Eve (1941)

Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance

96 Metascore

A trio of classy card sharks targets a socially awkward brewery heir, until one of them falls in love with him.

Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette

Votes: 23,354

95. The Little Foxes (1941)

Approved | 116 min | Drama, Romance

The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the Deep South at the turn of the twentieth century.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson

Votes: 13,099

96. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery

97 Metascore

San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.

Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre

Votes: 166,488 | Gross: $2.11M

97. Casablanca (1942)

PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War

100 Metascore

A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.

Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains

Votes: 605,488 | Gross: $1.02M

98. In Which We Serve (1942)

Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, War

This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.

Directors: Noël Coward, David Lean | Stars: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson

Votes: 6,441 | Gross: $0.45M

99. Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, War

A British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, May Whitty

Votes: 19,450 | Gross: $13.50M

100. Now, Voyager (1942)

Passed | 117 min | Drama, Romance

70 Metascore

A frumpy spinster blossoms under therapy and becomes an elegant, independent woman.

Director: Irving Rapper | Stars: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper

Votes: 18,998



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