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High Noon
Great 66 Points 1952

Gary Cooper walking alone down a dusty Western street to confront a gang of killers is as iconic as Hollywood gets, making High Noon an archetype even more than a legend. That’s quite a weight.

Fortunately the movie itself is engaging, suspenseful and tight. A mere 85 minutes, it runs in ne…

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WikChip Video High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My D...
The Man Who Sho...
Perfect 66 Points 1962

Greatest Western? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is certainly in the running, given how it plays with Wild West myth-making, features three iconic stars along with a passel of great costars and wields a humdinger of an ending. “Nothing’s too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance,” the l…

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WikChip Image Who's the man? You're the man.
Stagecoach
Perfect 66 Points 1939

What a trip – iconic images before they were cliches, John Wayne’s star-making performance, a crisply compelling story. Legendary director John Ford’s first talkie Western warrants its status as one of the most influential movies of all time. Clocking in at a mere 96 minutes, it’s also tautly e…

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WikChip Image A star is born.
Hud
Very Good 66 Points 1963

Paul Newman wanted to be bad and got his wish with Hud. He plays a charismatic asshole, a user and abuser whose evil becomes increasingly evident as the movie rolls along. Three Oscars came in its wake, though King Cool himself had to be satisfied with just a nomination. Think Hud would’ve s…

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WikChip Image His unwanted attention brought her an...
Winchester '73
Very Good 66 Points 1950

Classic Westerns come no more accomplished than Winchester ’73. It ably weaves a tale around “The Gun that Won the West,” the Winchester 1873. This Precious changes hands almost as often as My Precious in Lord of the Rings

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WikChip Image Rock Hudson before Indians played Ind...
His Girl Friday
Great 66 Points 1940

Fast talking, smartalecky comedy hit a peak with His Girl Friday. Still LOL funny today, it’s also plenty clever enough to travel through the ages as intelligent entertainment for movie lovers of any generation.

How could it not be? It stars the most versatile movie star ever in Cary Grant…

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WikChip Image Grant & Russell - made for each other
Bringing Up Baby
Really Great 66 Points 1938

Screwball romantic-comedies don’t get much better than Bringing Up Baby, “Baby” being a leopard and its adoptive parents a never better Cary Grant & Katherine Hepburn. Three quarters of a century after its premiere, Howard Hawks’ classic remains a delightfully ticklish cinematic confection.

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WikChip Image Kate & Cary as Susan & David
The Lady Eve
Great 66 Points 1941

Preston Sturges made RomComs that are funny, sexy, glamorous, clever and sophisticated. The Lady Eve proves the point. It still works three quarters of a century later, especially with the proto-modern Barbara Stanwyck as the minx in the middle of a screwball con-game extraordinaire.

Modern…

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WikChip Image The Lady Eve dress by Edith Head
Double Indemnity
Perfect 66 Points 1944

Want to hear what perfect dialog sounds like? Listen to Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. Credit Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and director Billy Wilder, three legendary writers who didn’t get along but nonetheless birthed “the paradigmatic film noir.”1

A perfect…

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WikChip Video MacMurray & Stanwyck speak perfect di...
Hail the Conque...
Very Good 66 Points 1944

Hail The Conquering Hero is a welcome stop on the Tour de Sturges, even if not one of the best.

The Greatest Generation dealt with challenge differently than we 2nd Millenniums do, to put it mildly. Preston Sturges made Hail The Conquering Hero during World War II, right after the Marines…

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WikChip Image Demarest turns Bracken into a hero