11. SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Joseph Cotton. Hitchcock's best-- and that's saying something. Perfectly cast and a great slice of life in a small town in the early 1940s. Teresa Wright is so excited that her big time big city Uncle Charlie is coming to visit she can't see straight, and possibly can't see that ol' Charlie just might be a murderer.
12. DUCK SOUP (1933) Directed by Leo McCarey. Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx & Zeppo Marx.
This movie deserves it's amazing reputation-- a laugh out loud comedy which looks at the ludicrousy of governments and war mongering. "If you think things are bad right now, just wait 'til I get through with it."
Groucho's fast ad libs are worth the watch alone, add in a perfect cast and the elimination of those musical numbers that only slowed down the Brothers Marx other pictures and you have THE Marx Brother film.
13. THE THIRD MAN (1949) Directed by Carol Reed (but with some help from Orson Welles).
This is one of those classics that took me a few viewings to get into-- and mostly because of the zithophone soundtrack which continues to grate on my nerves, but it's an amazing film with an outstanding cast-- Orson Welles may have been the greatest actor in history.
14. CASABLANCA (1942) Directed by Michael Curtiz. Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet. Another one with a giant reputation-- my first two or three times with this I gave up too soon-- when I finally sat through the whole thing I realized what an amazing piece of film it is. Possibly the greatest American movie of all time-- it only makes it to 14 here because I've seen it so many times.
15. THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951) Directed by Christian Nyby (with assist by Howard Hawks) Margaret Sheridan, Ken Tobey
The 50s were a time of radioactive monsters and monsters from space. There was also the Cold War between Russia and the US that made all of us suspicious of our neighbors and who just might be a dirty commie-- This is a perfect example from the era with a fantastic cast and fast paced dialogue that moves the story along at a brisk pace. The monster isn't all that scary-- but that's okay we don't see much of him. Listed as the favorite sci fi film of directors John Carpenter and Tim Burton and I agree.
