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The Blue Angel
Really Great 66 Points 1930

Seminal movie, thy name is The Blue Angel, Der Blaue Engel in its native German. Josef von Sternberg was 36 when he paired unknown Marlene Dietrich with eminent Emil Jannings. Dietrich and von Sternberg rocketed straight to Hollywood. Jannings was left behind, kind of like in the story its…

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WikChip Video Falling In Love Again with Marlene
The Treasure of...
Perfect 66 Points 1948

Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, OTOH, does need to be viewed by every serious movie fan. By turns funny, challenging and intriguing, it deserves its status as one of the greatest movies of all time. Humphrey Bogart’s scurrilous Fred C. Dobbs …

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WikChip Image "What gold does to men's souls"
Singin' in the ...
Perfect 71 Points 1952

Hollywood perfection, thy name is Singin’ in the Rain.

Forget the singing, forget the dancing, see it for the sparkling comedy. It’s simply studded with LOLs.

Though many of us have seen outtakes, especially Gene Kelly’s Singing’ in the Rain number, every movie fan should see the entir…

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WikChip Video Dancing with the Stars? Stars dancing.
There's No Busi...
Really Great 66 Points 1954

There’s No Business Like Show Business and there was no show business phonier than vaudeville, till movies. So an overtly phony movie about vaudeville makes for a phony convergence. It was perhaps the last of the musical extravaganzas, a calorically rich compendium of Irving Berlin’s showstoppi…

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WikChip Video Marilyn Monroe & Donald O'Connor: Sta...
Giant
Great 66 Points 1956

A deserved classic, this aptly titled movie features giant stars, a ginormous mansion incongruously stuck in the heart of the giant state of Texas, a running time that exceeds three hours and giant story elements. It all works amazingly well, never seeming drawn-out or boring, notwithstanding a …

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WikChip Image Legendary stars in a provocative pose.
Some Like It Hot
Perfect 66 Points 1959

Some Like It Hot kicked off the Sixties with a bang. Released in ‘59, it was nominated for six Oscars at the 1960 Academy Awards, winning only for Orry-Kelly’s dresses for Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and most especially Marilyn Monroe. Speaking of Monroe, she won the 1960 Golden Globe for Best A…

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WikChip Video Curtis does Grant, Monroe does Monroe
Doctor Zhivago
Great 66 Points 1965

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. The sugar: a terrific love story. The medicine: the wanton cruelty and dehumanization endemic to the nascent Soviet Union. Director David Lean – King of the Epics – reunited with Omar Sharif and several essential crew members from "Lawrence of Ar…

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WikChip Video They don't make 'em like they used to.
The Secret of N...
Great 66 Points 1980

Tesla stands alone: the most mystical, the most gifted, the most freaky of the great industrial magnates, e.g., Edison, Westinghouse & J.P. Morgan, who also appear in this biopic of the Serbian-American inventor. From Zagreb, it presents as a bizarre movie where people’s mouths don’t match what’…

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WikChip Video Tesla meets J.P. Morgan. Edison fumes.
Johnny Dangerously
OK 66 Points 1984

Michael Keaton and a WTF cast couldn’t rescue Amy Heckerling’s mob parody Johnny Dangerously. About that cast, guys like Dick Butkus, Alan Hale Jr. and Ray Walston pop up in like three scenes each. What The Fuck?

Unfortunately the bad screenplay falls flat, with nary a joke that works.
*…

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WikChip Image They were cast for height.
Miller's Crossing
Really Great 79 Points 1990

This highly stylized production by the Brothers Coen has great fun with the cinematic staples of old time gangster movies. Certainly one of the best movies the Brothers C have made, Miller’s Crossing features scene stealing performances by Jon Polito and others.

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