Classic cinema gems
Items in this hypelist
Movies
Brief Encounter
David Lean · 1945
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Roman Holiday
William Wyler · 1953
Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley, who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann's regal identity and bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.
Laura
John Brahm · 1955
A detective is assigned to a case of murder. During the investigation he finds himself taking a more than professional interest in the victim, the mysterious Laura.
The Shop Around the Corner
Ernst Lubitsch · 1940
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Wuthering Heights
William Wyler · 1939
The Earnshaws are Yorkshire farmers during the early 19th Century. One day, Mr. Earnshaw returns from a trip to the city, bringing with him a ragged little boy called Heathcliff. Earnshaw's son, Hindley, resents the child, but Heathcliff becomes companion and soulmate to Hindley's sister, Catherine. After her parents die, Cathy and Heathcliff grow up wild and free on the moors and despite the continued enmity between Hindley and Heathcliff they're happy -- until Cathy meets Edgar Linton, the son of a wealthy neighbor.
Jane Eyre
Robert Stevenson · 1943
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meet the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Great Expectations
David Lean · 1946
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Casablanca
Michael Curtiz · 1943
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
The Grapes of Wrath
John Ford · 1940
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.
Ikiru
Akira Kurosawa · 1952
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
The Innocents
Jack Clayton · 1961
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.
Eyes Without a Face
Georges Franju · 1960
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock · 1960
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.
Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder · 1944
A seductive housewife draws an insurance salesman into a plot of adultery and crime to collect on her husband's life insurance.
The Third Man
Carol Reed · 1949
In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.
The Night of the Hunter
Charles Laughton · 1955
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder · 1950
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
12 Angry Men
Sidney Lumet · 1957
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.
The Seventh Seal
Ingmar Bergman · 1957
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Chantal Akerman · 1976
A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores and takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. Slowly, her ritualized daily routines begin to fall apart.
Roma
Alfonso Cuarón · 2018
In 1970s Mexico City, two domestic workers help a mother of four while her husband is away for an extended period of time.
The Mating of Millie
Henry Levin · 1948
Self-sufficient in life and successful in business, prim and proper Millie McGonigle wants just one more thing, a child. When she asks to adopt orphan Tommy Bassett, but learns that she will first have to have a husband, Millie turns to a recently fired bus driver, Doug Andrews. Though he has no interest in marriage, Doug offers to help Millie find a husband by transforming her into a beautiful and exciting woman, one who catches the eye of two eligible bachelors, including the orphanage's president.
The Perfect Snob
Ray McCarey · 1941
When a small town veterinarian discovers that his just-graduated daughter is a gold-digging elitist, he devises a plan to help her rediscover old-fashioned family values.
Easy Living
Mitchell Leisen · 1937
J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.
Easy Living
Jacques Tourneur · 1949
A football halfback has a heart condition, a nagging wife and a team secretary who loves him.
Day-time Wife
Gregory Ratoff · 1939
When a young wife discovers her husband of two years is involved with his beautiful secretary, she applies for a job as secretary to a business rival.
Craig's Wife
Dorothy Arzner · 1936
Harriet, Walter Craig's wife, is an upper-class woman obsessed with control, material possessions and social status whose behavior makes difficult her relationship with domestic service and family members.
Adam Had Four Sons
Gregory Ratoff · 1941
Emilie has been hired to care for the four sons of wealthy Adam Stoddard and his wife, Molly. After Molly dies, Adam and the boys grow to depend on Emilie even more. At the same time, Emilie falls in love with Adam. The boys grow up, but Adam insists that Emilie stay on as part of the family. Her relationships with both the boys and Adam become strained after one son marries a gold-digging viper named Hester. Written by Daniel Bubbeo
Rage in Heaven
W.S. Van Dyke · 1941
A jealous man frames his wife's suspected lover for murder.
Leave Her to Heaven
John M. Stahl · 1945
A socialite marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her.
Heaven Can Wait
Ernst Lubitsch · 1943
Spoiled playboy Henry van Cleve dies and arrives at the entrance to Hell, a final destination he is sure he deserves after living a life of profligacy. The devil, however, isn't so sure Henry meets Hell's standards. Convinced he is where he belongs, Henry recounts his life's deeds, both good and bad, including an act of indiscretion during his 25-year marriage to his wife, Martha, with the hope that "His Excellency" will arrive at the proper judgment.
Heaven Only Knows
Albert S. Rogell · 1947
Also released as Montana Mike, Heaven Only Knows is an offbeat western with fantasy overtones. Hard-bitten gambling boss Brian Donlevy rules his frontier community with brawn and bullets. To his dismay, Donlevy discovers that he has a guardian angel (Robert Cummings), who shows up in the guise of an Eastern tenderfoot. The angel has been sent from Above to save Donlevy's soul, and to that end encourages the one-time villain to squire a minister's daughter (Jorja Curtwright) rather than his usual dance-hall girls. Donlevy is also given tips on winning against his enemies without resorting to gunplay. The gambler finally redeems himself with Heaven by rescuing the angel from a lynch mob (how can you lynch an angel?) Heaven Only Knows deserves an "E" for Effort for bringing a fresh twist to the venerable western genre.
For Heaven's Sake
George Seaton · 1950
An angel takes on human form in order to persuade a theatrical couple to finally consummate their child that has been waiting to be born.
Hideaway Girl
George Archainbaud · 1936
An unfortunate marriage and a bogus Count are the ingredients for this musical.
Hold That Blonde!
George Marshall · 1945
Ogden Spencer Trulow III is a wealthy kleptomaniac who turned to stealing when he was spurned by a girl. His psychoanalyst advises him to find another girl for a cure. He fastens his interest upon Sally Martin, who happens to be engaged upon helping some crooks steal a valuable necklace. Complications include two scantily attired individuals, one of them drunk, clinging to the cornice of a skyscraper and a large band of crooks in quest of the precious jewels.
Slattery's Hurricane
André de Toth · 1949
A pilot wants a life of ease, flying for drug smugglers and looking the other way until his conscience is tweaked by a woman he has misused. The story unfolds in flashbacks as the pilot battles the storm and recalls his failures, including a love affair with the wife of his best friend.
Miss Susie Slagle's
John Berry · 1946
A student nurse falls in love with a young intern in 1910 Baltimore, but tragedy ensues when he contracts a fatal disease.
The Sainted Sisters
William D. Russell · 1948
Two female con artists from New York City, fleeing the law with money from their latest scam, hide out in a small town in Maine, near the Canadian border. However, this small town's residents aren't quite as unsophisticated as the girls think they are.
Bring on the Girls
Sidney Lanfield · 1945
A millionaire joins the Navy hoping to find a girl who'll marry him for himself, not for his money. A beautiful gold-digger who works at a resort hotel sets out to get him.
Fifth Avenue Girl
Gregory La Cava · 1939
A wealthy man hires a poor girl to play his mistress in order to get more attention from his neglectful family.
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
Roy Del Ruth · 1947
A New Yorker hobo moves into a mansion and along the way he gathers friends to live in the house with him. Before he knows it, he is living with the actual home owners.
Christmas in Connecticut
Peter Godfrey · 1945
While recovering in a hospital, war hero Jefferson Jones grows familiar with the "Diary of a Housewife" column written by Elizabeth Lane. Jeff's nurse arranges with Elizabeth's publisher, Alexander Yardley, for Jeff to spend the holiday at Elizabeth's bucolic Connecticut farm with her husband and child. But the column is a sham, so Elizabeth and her editor, Dudley Beecham, in fear of losing their jobs, hasten to set up the single, childless and entirely nondomestic Elizabeth on a country farm.
Remember the Night
Mitchell Leisen · 1940
Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.
Holiday
George Cukor · 1938
Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!
The Philadelphia Story
George Cukor · 1940
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
It Happened One Night
Frank Capra · 1934
A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.
Dinner at Eight
George Cukor · 1933
An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their high-society friends and associates, including the gruff Dan Packard and his sultry spouse, Kitty, contend with their own entanglements, leading to revelations at the much-anticipated dinner.
Grand Hotel
Edmund Goulding · 1932
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Lewis Milestone · 1930
When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.
Wings
William A. Wellman · 1927
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.
Three Colors: Red
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 1994
Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.
Rear Window
Alfred Hitchcock · 1954
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott · 1982
In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.
The Lady Vanishes
Anthony Page · 1979
On the eve of World War II, zany heiress Amanda Kelly travels by train to Switzerland. While passing through Germany, she meets a sweet elderly lady, who suddenly vanishes. Distraught, she questions her fellow passengers who claim that the woman was never there. Unsure if it's all in her mind or if there's a more sinister plot afoot, Amanda teams up with photographer Robert Condon to discover the truth.
The Dark Mirror
Robert Siodmak · 1946
A sister and her disturbed twin are implicated in a murder and a police detective must figure out which one's the killer.
Clue
Jonathan Lynn · 1985
Em uma noite tempestuosa de 1954, seis indivíduos com históricos comprometedores em Washington se reúnem para um jantar na mansão do ostentoso Sr. Boddy. Eles são recebidos pelo mordomo, Wadsworth, que atribui a cada convidado um pseudônimo a fim de proteger suas identidades: Sr. Green, Coronel Mustard, Sra. Peacock, Professor Plum, Srta. Scarlet, e Sra. White. Após o jantar, eles descobrem que foram chamados para conhecer o seu chantageador: o Sr. Boddy, e cada um deles recebe uma arma. Quando o anfitrião aparece morto, o grupo se apavora e procura por pistas para revelar o assassino.
Portrait of Jennie
William Dieterle · 1948
A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
Blue Velvet
David Lynch · 1986
Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), um rapaz simplório que acaba de voltar à cidade, envolve-se em uma perigosa investigação sobre os negócios de um traficante de drogas (Dennis Hopper) que mantém uma sádica relação com a bela cantora de cabaré Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini).
The Big Sleep
Howard Hawks · 1946
Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.
Manhattan
Woody Allen · 1979
Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
The Last Picture Show
Peter Bogdanovich · 1971
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
Schindler's List
Steven Spielberg · 1993
Oskar Schindler, un hombre de enorme astucia y talento para las relaciones públicas, organiza un ambicioso plan para ganarse la simpatía de los nazis. Después de la invasión de Polonia por los alemanes, consigue, gracias a sus relaciones con los nazis, la propiedad de una fábrica de Cracovia. Allí emplea a cientos de operarios judíos, cuya explotación le hace prosperar rápidamente. Su gerente, también judío, es el verdadero director en la sombra, pues Schindler no tiene el menor conocimiento industrial.
Grand Illusion
Jean Renoir · 1937
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
Once Upon a Time in America
Sergio Leone · 1984
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
Scent of a Woman
Dino Risi · 1974
An army cadet accompanies an irascible, blind captain on a week-long trip from Turin to Naples.
Sound of Falling
Mascha Schilinski · 2025
Over the course of a century, as four girls from different time periods experience their youth on a German farm, their lives become intertwined until time seems to dissolve.
