Evocative and endearing - a worthy string to the Lean bow.

Magnificent absurdist crime drama from the master of suspense.

Great performances lifts this movie above its stilted script and production.

The stinging bon mots occasionally sound handcrafted rather than raspingly spontaneous, but aspiring actress Anne Baxter’s rise to the top over the corpse of her supposed idol, Bette Davis, remains rousing and endlessly amusing.

Subtle, savage and insightful but with such a big heart it is as moving as it is informative about the value of making art that moves.

With such a strong cast, the film almost turns into an ensemble film instead of a star vehicle for Stewart in his first of many collaborations with Mann. An Archetypal Western with the required cowboys, gunfights and damsels in distress, it has become an all time favourite.

Peck's tired resignation, and the authentic atmosphere and building tension make for a compelling retribution drama of the West.

A tight plot that's enriched by wonderfully crafted characters that each have their own key weaknesses.

The director left France during the German Occupation and, many critics would argue, his work never reached the same heights again. But, even with its immediate contemporary relevance softened, this film alone is enough to seal his reputation, as its playful love games, satirical bite and technical marvels refuse to diminish.

Yes, it's beautiful, and yes, it's classic. But it's also got rather a bland pair of lead characters. That said, it's still enjoyable family entertainment, and shall remain forever so.

This was the film which fixed Wayne's image forever as a tough-as-leather patriot with a well-hidden heart.

Darker and more subtly complex than you'd expect from a 1950s crime caper.

Delightful, athletic stuff with some unusual - but wonderful - location shooting. New York never looked better.

A beautifully presented tale of love, honor and duty from a master film-maker.

This has many more plus points than critics at the time were willing to admit.

The Third Man finally endures because it offers a simple thing that so many modern films neglect: the power of story...Revolutionary film noir with a clutch of stunning central turns.

Magnificent examination of the criminal mind and Cagney's finest moment.

A 1949 for-kids version of the King Kong story still boasting a lot of charm.

A shining example of everything Hollywood falling into place, and a masterpiece of cinema.

Curious allegorical epic which was supposed to speak to Allied spirits during the second world war but was a trifle obscure in its symbolism even then.

Olivier's classic and personalised version of the troubled Prince of Denmark is still highly atmospheric and intriguing.

A strange foreboding of what was to come from the Hitch.

Beautifully directed with a lovely visual lyricism, this film packs a western punch with perfect performances and a fine script.

Perfectly tense atmosphere and performances, with the sparks flying between Bogart and Bacall.

A little bit of going through the motions with this horror spoof but fans will enjoy.

Like "The Searchers", this is so brilliant that the only real effect of the other versions is to make you want to watch the original again.

Sexual tension hangs in the air as the wind blows and native drums beat, but it's on a visual level that the film excels.

This is still the definitive version of Charles Dickens' atmospheric and occasionally creepy classic.

Suspense gives way to metaphor in a stark thriller that hints at the work to come from master Carol Reed.

Although peppered with colourful, sharply drawn characters, this is Stewart's movie, instantly loveable as a small town dreamer who sacrifices everything for others. His journey to despair and back warms the cockles like little else. Enjoy it in a cinema so you can sob among others.

This is intelligent, admirably unsentimental and utterly involving for its full three-hour running time.

One of the greatest (and sadly most forgotten) romantic comedies ever, which has not a cracking script, but some trademark-terrific visuals.

Difficult love, Nazis, and a lovely soupy plot...brilliant.

Bogart as Marlowe is compelling in this classic thriller that is complex but triumph of atmospheric cool.

Beautifully monochrome rendering of a love that cannot be.

Judy Garland is magnificent in this charming musical with a number of star turns from the impressive cast.

A war movie with enough honour and heroism to make a grown man weep.

Wow! It may not be art or good taste, but throbbing melodrama doesn't come with more conviction. Even to those usually turned off by the tough Crawford, Mildred is compelling.

A very thin story stretched out for over two hours, this is a melange of the wonderful and the pompous.

A wonderful salute to British decency and a touching portrait of a friendship that bridges national boundaries.

Superb dialogue, beautifully played and hummingly atmospheric, this is sexy, poignant and tense with some surpising humour...only the plot shows cracks...

Judy Garland's most famous role and her best performance make for entertaining viewing.

The film is a little too long, but makes up for it with a strong cast and enthralling action.

Superlative crime yarn adapted with precision and skill from the classic James M. Cain novel.

Sturges' no-holds-barred comic cristicism of American Forces abroad is still challenging and funny.

Along with the psychological intrigue there is romance and wit. And fans will enjoy Hitch's most amusing trademark cameo: photographed as before and after silhouettes in a newspaper ad for diet product Reduco.

This was understandably inspiring to wartime audiences and actually still holds up as a heartwarming story with a very decent cast.

Once the political correctness is side-stepped, this contains classic chemistry from its two leads.

Silly but enormous fun, complete with gypsy musical numbers and an insane battle royal finish.

Much more fun than its stuffy "Greatest Film Ever Made" tag suggests, with a literate script, stylish direction, a great song and cinema's most romantic couple in Bogie and Bergman.

Certainly one of Hitchcock’s most satisfying thrillers, mostly thanks to Wright and Cotten’s believable relationship.

No mere creature feature, this 1940s classic offers more subtle chills.

Dated and a little clunky but with a few moving performances from the leads.

A light and lively showcase for a very under-rated double act, Road To Morocco was also unusual for its time in constantly drawing attention to itself as a movie.

A classic of the weepy genre so have some toilet roll handy.

C'mon, it's Fred and Bing! Depending on your disposition, you can take that as a recommendation or a warning.

The fun and fear, the silliness and heartbreak, are taken to vivid extremes by Walt's entwining of high art and what snobs will always deride as Disney-kitsch.

It's a tragedy that someone else' happy ending is tacked onto his tale, but the film retains enough brilliance to make us glad it's been re-released.

Winning WW II story of british pluck that manages to side-step the propaganda trap.

Not one of Hitchcock's best, but with a few creative sequences and some sharp writing from Dorothy Parker.

Enjoyable Hitchcock spoof with much chemistry between the leads and some cracking one-liners.

Comedy doesn't come much more classic. If you haven't seen it, it's about time you did.

An unusual epic, the first half is a knockabout comedy, but thoroughly entertaining.

Still the definitive werewolf movie.

With its genuinely cute hero and appealing storyline, Dumbo's exactly right for younger children but not too milk-soppy for anyone over eight. Indispensible.

Winning Best Film at that year's Oscars, this John Huston film typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn's famous novel. Strong performances from Crisp and O'Hara although McDowall as the young lead, gives a particularly memorable performance while the setting shows Wales at its most beautiful.

The Maltese Falcon is an unassailable triumph of script, casting, direction and editing.

The sheer audacity and delight Welles takes in flouting conventions and inventing new ones is what keeps it fresh.

With Pendleton inhabiting three different bodies in the course of 93 minutes, this was quite an intricate storyline for a Hollywood comedy. But Alexander Hall (an unsung journeyman whose credits included Shirley Temple's Little Miss Marker) kept the action briskly accessible, even where Death was involved.

A bit theatrical in places, which is not surprising when you consider its provenence but it suffers for it.

Vividly staged but sentimental extravaganza.

A wonderful picture set in a world of silly heirs and sharp-eyed dolls as remote from reality and yet wholly credible as that of P. G. Wodehouse.

Excellent casting, a great storyline and a shrp script mean that this remains a classic of the genre and one of Katherine Hepburn's best roles.

This is a very patchy affair - while some of the animated pieces work, others come across as downright insane.

Heavy-handed but still poignant patriotism in this Hitchcock thriller.

Perhaps without the shock and suspense of subsequent work, this is nevertheless another undoubted masterpiece from the atmospheric film maker, and just as essential.

This pleasant 1940 comedy-drama hit on the successful double-act teaming of crooner Bing Crosby and patter comic Bob Hope, throwing in sarong-clad Dorothy Lamour for glamour and working through a trivial plot about fleeing responsibility for a South Seas idyll.

Gregg Toland captures the open spaces and big skies of rural America, while the normally conservative Ford puts forward a sympathetic but radical plea for workers' rights and freedom for the people.

Not up there with the very top echelon of Disney classics, but Pinocchio will still work its magic on younger viewers.

Howard Hawke's finest moment.

Well, even if it is essentially four hours about a selfish, silly cow, it's impeccably well made, and should be seen by anyone with even a passing interest in romance or movies.

Nostalgic and charming romance with special moments in the extra-narrative action.

Typical James Stewart defeating bullies with integrity stuff.

Bogart and Cagney are gloriously dark in this gangster tour-de-force.

Demonstrating that the greatest political evil is indifference, this appeal to a world on the verge of war has lost none of its relevance.

Oz’s influence is boundless. Spellbinding stuff.

A rose-tinted look at American history, certainly, but still a very entertaining one.

What drew the crowds back in 1939 and what has kept them coming is not the film's simmering subtexts but the absolutely fantastic ambush sequence as the stage thunders across the salt flats of Monument Valley. With this, Ford transformed the western.

The formula of an innocent thrust into a nightmare would fascinate Hitch for decades to come, but here he packs the tale with strong characters and important details.

Bette Davis is captivating in this epic study of Southern chivalry.

Damn, damn funny.

This animated treatment does it absolute justice too. The spooky bits are suitably scarey - the production dates back to a time before anybody worried about mentally scarring the little mites, thus the "Have a bite, dearie" scene means a lot of excited peeping through fingers - the slapstick humour content is high and it contains none of the period references that crept into later Disney cartoons, thus doesn't appear to have dated. But largely it succeeds because it really is a great deal of fun.

Despite the luminous Lombard and the venomous March, this is perhaps better for its idea than its execution.

Drags in places and deosn't even try for a true-to-life portrait of the great theatre entrepeneur but it's shiny and big spectacle with impressive choreography.

Lavish pirate adventure that launched Errol Flynn onto 1930's screens and ensured that buckles would be swashed for a good few years to follow.

If you want only one Astaire-Rogers musical, Top Hat is obligatory for Astaire at his most debonair with Irving Berlin's title number and Cheek to Cheek in this screwball confused identities plot.

The script hasn't aged well and their's an overdose of the ominous, but when Ford forgets about religion and concentrates on squealer-on-the-run thrills, the film still has a real charge.

Whale's erudite genius brings it all together. He sculpts every nuance of self-parody, social satire, horror, humour, wit and whimsy into a dazzling whole, keeping every one of his fantastical plates spinning until the tragic, inevitable finale.