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The Film-Lover's Check List Maryshelley
  • Titles in black are seen.
  • Titles in amber are seen but should be seen again.
  • Titles in red are not seen.
Total: 309  
Seen: 61 (19.7%)
See Again: 16 (5.2%)
Unseen: 232 (75.1%)

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[ Seen ] [ See Again ] [ Unseen ]

Samuel Stoddard's 300 Essential Films, 1915-2008

1. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
2. Intolerance (1916)
3. Broken Blossoms (1919)
4. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
5. The Sheik (1921)
6. Nanook of the North (1922)
7. Nosferatu (1922)
8. Safety Last (1923)
9. Greed (1924)
10. The Last Laugh (1924)
11. Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
12. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
13. The Big Parade (1925)
14. The Freshman (1925)
15. The Gold Rush (1925)
16. Seven Chances (1925)
17. Strike (1925)
18. Faust (1926)
19. The General (1927)
20. The Jazz Singer (1927)
21. Metropolis (1927)
22. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
23. The Man Who Laughs (1928)
24. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
25. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
26. The Wind (1928)
27. All Quiet On the Western Front (1930)
28. Der Blaue Engel (1930)
29. La Chienne (1931)
30. City Lights (1931)
31. Dracula (1931)
32. Frankenstein (1931)
33. Le Million (1931)
34. M (1931)
35. A Nous La Liberte (1931)
36. The Public Enemy (1931)
37. Love Me Tonight (1932)
38. Scarface (1932)
39. Trouble In Paradise (1932)
40. King Kong (1933)
41. Duck Soup (1933)
42. Sons of the Desert (1933)
43. It Happened One Night (1934)
44. It's a Gift (1934)
45. L'Atalante (1934)
46. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
47. Mutiny On the Bounty (1935)
48. A Night At the Opera (1935)
49. The 39 Steps (1935)
50. Top Hat (1935)
51. Modern Times (1936)
52. My Man Godfrey (1936)
53. Swing Time (1936)
54. Grand Illusion (1937)
55. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
56. Way Out West (1937)
57. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
58. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
59. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
60. Dark Victory (1939)
61. Gone With the Wind (1939)
62. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
63. Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
64. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)
65. Ninotchka (1939)
66. The Rules of the Game (1939)
67. Stagecoach (1939)
68. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
69. Fantasia (1940)
70. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
71. The Great Dictator (1940)
72. His Girl Friday (1940)
73. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
74. Pinocchio (1940)
75. Rebecca (1940)
76. Citizen Kane (1941)
77. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
78. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
79. The Lady Eve (1941)
80. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
81. Bambi (1942)
82. Casablanca (1942)
83. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
84. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
85. To Be Or Not To Be (1942)
86. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
87. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
88. Double Indemnity (1944)
89. Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1944)
Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1958)
90. Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
91. To Have and Have Not (1944)
92. Brief Encounter (1945)
93. Children of Paradise (1945)
94. Rome, Open City (1945)
95. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
96. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
97. The Big Sleep (1946)
98. Great Expectations (1946)
99. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
100. My Darling Clementine (1946)
101. Notorious (1946)
102. Out of the Past (1947)
103. The Bicycle Thief (1948)
104. Red River (1948)
105. La Terra Trema (1948)
106. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
107. Adam's Rib (1949)
108. The Third Man (1949)
109. White Heat (1949)
110. All About Eve (1950)
111. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
112. Rashomon (1950)
113. The African Queen (1951)
114. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
115. Strangers On a Train (1951)
116. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
117. High Noon (1952)
118. Ikiru (1952)
119. The Quiet Man (1952)
120. Singin' In the Rain (1952)
121. Umberto D (1952)
122. The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
123. From Here To Eternity (1953)
124. Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
125. Roman Holiday (1953)
126. Shane (1953)
127. Stalag 17 (1953)
128. Tokyo Story (1953)
129. Ugetsu (1953)
130. The Wages of Fear (1953)
131. On the Waterfront (1954)
132. Rear Window (1954)
133. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
134. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954)
135. The Seven Samurai (1954)
136. La Strada (1954)
137. Diabolique (1955)
138. Lady and the Tramp (1955)
139. Marty (1955)
140. Mister Roberts (1955)
141. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
142. Pather Panchali (1955)
143. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
144. Rififi (1955)
145. The Killing (1956)
146. The Searchers (1956)
147. The Bridge On the River Kwai (1957)
148. Nights of Cabiria (1957)
149. Paths of Glory (1957)
150. The Seventh Seal (1957)
151. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
152. Throne of Blood (1957)
153. 12 Angry Men (1957)
154. Wild Strawberries (1957)
155. Witness For the Prosecution (1957)
156. Touch of Evil (1958)
157. Vertigo (1958)
158. Ben-Hur (1959)
159. Floating Weeds (1959)
160. The 400 Blows (1959)
161. North By Northwest (1959)
162. Some Like It Hot (1959)
163. The Apartment (1960)
164. Breathless (1960)
165. L'Avventura (1960)
166. La Dolce Vita (1960)
167. Psycho (1960)
168. Spartacus (1960)
169. The Hustler (1961)
170. Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)
171. Last Year At Marienbad (1961)
172. West Side Story (1961)
173. Yojimbo (1961)
174. Jules and Jim (1962)
175. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
176. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
177. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
178. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
179. Charade (1963)
180. 8 1/2 (1963)
181. The Great Escape (1963)
182. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
183. Mary Poppins (1964)
184. My Fair Lady (1964)
185. Dr. Zhivago (1965)
186. Andrei Rublev (1966)
187. Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
188. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
189. Blowup (1966)
190. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
191. A Man For All Seasons (1966)
192. Persona (1966)
193. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
194. Belle de Jour (1967)
195. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
196. The Graduate (1967)
197. Oliver! (1968)
198. The Producers (1968)
199. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
200. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
201. The Wild Bunch (1969)
202. Patton (1970)
203. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
204. The French Connection (1971)
205. The Last Picture Show (1971)
206. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
207. The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
208. 1776 (1972)
209. Solaris (1972)
210. Amarcord (1973)
211. Day For Night (1973)
212. Mean Streets (1973)
213. The Sting (1973)
214. Chinatown (1974)
215. The Conversation (1974)
216. Young Frankenstein (1974)
217. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
218. Jaws (1975)
219. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
220. Nashville (1975)
221. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
222. All the President's Men (1976)
223. Network (1976)
224. Taxi Driver (1976)
225. Annie Hall (1977)
226. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
227. Star Wars (1977)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
228. Days of Heaven (1978)
229. Alien (1979)
230. Apocalypse Now (1979)
231. The China Syndrome (1979)
232. Raging Bull (1980)
233. The Shining (1980)
234. Das Boot (1981)
235. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
236. E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
237. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
238. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
239. A Christmas Story (1983)
240. The Right Stuff (1983)
241. Amadeus (1984)
242. Back To the Future (1985)
243. Ran (1985)
244. Aliens (1986)
245. Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)
246. The Princess Bride (1987)
247. The Untouchables (1987)
248. Wings of Desire (1987)
249. Die Hard (1988)
250. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
251. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
252. The Decalogue (1989)
253. Do the Right Thing (1989)
254. Glory (1989)
255. The Little Mermaid (1989)
256. Goodfellas (1990)
257. Barton Fink (1991)
258. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
259. Dead Again (1991)
260. Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
261. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
262. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
263. Unforgiven (1992)
264. The Remains of the Day (1993)
265. Schindler's List (1993)
266. Short Cuts (1993)
267. Blue (1993)
White (1994)
Red (1994)
268. Pulp Fiction (1994)
269. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
270. Babe (1995)
271. Braveheart (1995)
272. Heat (1995)
273. Toy Story (1995)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
274. Fargo (1996)
275. Secrets & Lies (1996)
276. L.A. Confidential (1997)
277. Princess Mononoke (1997)
278. Titanic (1997)
279. Pleasantville (1998)
280. The Red Violin (1998)
281. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
282. American Beauty (1999)
283. The Sixth Sense (1999)
284. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
285. Memento (2000)
286. Traffic (2000)
287. Amelie (2001)
288. Black Hawk Down (2001)
289. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
290. Spirited Away (2001)
291. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
292. Hero (2002)
293. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
294. Little Children (2006)
295. The Lives of Others (2006)
296. Tell No One (2006)
297. United 93 (2006)
298. Gone Baby Gone (2007)
299. Ratatouille (2007)
300. WALL*E (2008)

This list of films is an attempt to provide a rounded cross section of noteworthy films. It is a composite list consisting of important cinematic milestones, great works of art, great entertainments, and a few of my personal favorites.