From Rey Nowlin:

Ted,

I just found your website and I must say you have quite a few intersting things to say about film buffs and their favorite movies. I really like the lists and your comments.

Well, I have been working on this list of top films for a little over a decade now and have finally decided to email the list to someone who seems to know what he is talking about. This list is not in numeric order, rather it is a list in chronological order. From earliest to latest. The list is 101 in number and I am currently working on list two, the second 101. Now my list is also different in that it only contains English-speaking films. I do not have anything against foreign language films, its just that I prefer English speaking films. Plus, the vast majority of films are English speaking (as far as I know, I maybe wrong about that!). Also, my list contains some silent features. Any comment you have I would greatly appreciate.

Thank you for your intelligent website!

Rey Nowlin

So without any further wait here is my list:

The Greatest 101 English Language Movies of all Time

Greed 1924 (Erich von Stroheim)
The Gold Rush 1925 (Charlie Chaplin)
Sunrise 1927 (F.W. Murnau)
The Wind 1928 (Victor Seastrom)
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 (Lewis Milestone)
City Lights 1931 (Charlie Chaplin)
Grand Hotel 1932 (Edmund Goulding)
King Kong 1933 (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack)
Queen Christina 1933 (Rouben Mamoulian)
It Happened One Night 1934 (Frank Capra)
The Bride of Frankenstein 1935 (James Whale)
A Tale of Two Cities 1935 (Jack Conway)
Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 (Frank Lloyd)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936 (Frank Capra)
Modern Times 1936 (Charlie Caplin)
Lost Horizon 1937 (Frank Capra)
Captains Courageous 1937 (Victor Fleming)
The Awful Truth 1937 (Leo McCarey)
The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley)
Gone With the Wind 1939 (Victor Fleming)
The Wizard of Oz 1939 (Victor Fleming)
Stagecoach 1939 (John Ford)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 (Frank Capra)
Gunga Din 1939 (George Stevens)
The Grapes of Wrath 1940 (John Ford)
Fantasia 1940 (Ben Sharpsteen)
Foreign Correspondent 1940 (Alfred Hitchcock)
His Girl Friday 1940 (Howard Hawks)
The Great Dictator 1940 (Charlie Chaplin)
Pinocchio 1940 (Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske)
Citizen Kane 1941 (Orson Welles)
Sullivan¹s Travels 1941 (Preston Sturges)
How Green Was My Valley 1941 (John Ford)
Casablanca 1942 (Michael Curtiz)
Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 (Michael Curtiz)
The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 (william Wellman)
Double Indemnity 1944 (Billy Wilder)
Henry V 1944 (Laurence Olivier)
The Miracle of Morgan¹s Creek 1944 (Preston Sturgess)
They Were Expendable 1945 (John Ford)
The Lost Weekend 1945 (Billy Wilder)
The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 (William Wyler)
It¹s a Wonderful Life 1946 (Frank Capra)
Stairway to Heaven 1946 (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
My Darling Clementine 1946 (John Ford)
Notorious 1946 (Alfred Hitchcock)
Odd Man Out 1947 (Carol Reed)
Out of the Past 1947 (Jacques Tourneur)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 (John Huston)
Red River 1948 (Howard Hawks)
Twelve O¹Clock High 1949 (Henry King)
Adam¹s Rib 1949 (George Cukor)
All the King¹s Men 1949 (Robert Rossen)
All About Eve 1950 (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
The Third Man 1950 (Carol Reed)
The African Queen 1951 (John Huston)
An American in Paris 1951 (Vincente Minnelli)
The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 (Robert Wise)
Singin¹ in the Rain 1952 (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen)
The Quiet Man 1952 (John Ford)
From Here To Eternity 1953 (Fred Zinnemann)
On the Waterfront 1954 (Elia Kazan)
The Night of the Hunter 1955 (Charles Laughton)
The Searchers 1956 (John Ford)
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 (David Lean)
Touch of Evil 1958 (Orson Welles)
Ben-Hur 1959 (William Wyler)
North by Northwest 1959 (Alfred Hitchcock)
Spartacus 1960 (Stanley Kubrick)
The Hustler 1961 (Robert Rossen)
Judgement at Nuremberg 1961 (Stanley Kramer)
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 (David Lean)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 (John Ford)
The Longest Day 1962 (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki)
Ride the High Country 1962 (Sam Peckinpah)
To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 (Robert Mulligan)
The Great Escape 1963 (John Sturges)
Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964 (Stanley Kubrick)
The Sound of Music 1965 (Robert Wise)
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 (Stanley Kubrick)
The Wild Bunch 1969 (Sam Peckinpah)
Patton 1970 (Franklin J. Schaffner)
The Godfather, Part II 1974 (Francis Ford Coppola)
Chinatown 1974 (Roman Polanski)
The Conversation 1974 (Francis Ford Coppola)
Jaws 1975 (Steven Spielberg)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo¹s Nest 1975 (Milos Foreman)
Bite the Bullet 1975 (Richard Brooks)
Network 1976 (Sidney Lumet)
All the President¹s Men 1976 (Alan J. Pakula)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 (Steven Spielberg)
Raging Bull 1980 (Martin Scorsese)
The Stunt Man 1980 (Richard Rush)
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 (Steven Spielberg)
The Right Stuff 1983 (Philip Kaufman)
Glory 1989 (Edward Zwick)
The Hunt for Red October 1990 (John McTierman)
The Silence of the Lambs 1991 (Jonathan Demme)
Howards End 1992 (James Ivory)
Schindler¹s List 1993 (Steven Spielberg)
Apollo 13 1995 (Ron Howard)

Comments from me, Ted Strong:

Rey,

First, thank you for your kind words about my site. Second, in re "Plus, the vast majority of films are English speaking (as far as I know, I maybe wrong about that!)" I don't know the numbers, but I am sure that the US makes more films a year than any other country, but I definitely wouldn't say that the VAST majority of films are English speaking. Perhaps some visitor reading this has those numbers? And can email me? Or perhaps I will just go to Google and try to find that info myself? As your list is so long, some of my comments will be very brief:

Greed 1924 (Erich von Stroheim) -- Haven't seen.
The Gold Rush 1925 (Charlie Chaplin) -- I don't think Charlie Chaplin's funny and I think he's overrated.
Sunrise 1927 (F.W. Murnau) -- Haven't seen, but have come close to seeing it.
The Wind 1928 (Victor Seastrom) -- Definitely have not seen, I did sit through Wild Strawberries which starred the director of The Wind, made many years later.
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 (Lewis Milestone). Have not seen much of this, what I have seen feels like a very heavy-handed anti-war drama, that also seems somewhat dated? But I like Lew Ayres. He's really great in Holiday (1938).
City Lights 1931 (Charlie Chaplin). Chaplin comments stand.
Grand Hotel 1932 (Edmund Goulding) -- Have not seen.
King Kong 1933 (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack) -- I saw this film when I was a child. Now it's just King Kong. It seems more a pop culture icon than a film, to me, today.
Queen Christina 1933 (Rouben Mamoulian) -- Have not seen.
It Happened One Night 1934 (Frank Capra) -- I don't really like this film. I don't think it's funny. I watch it and I just don't laugh. Maybe one day I will. I'm not a big fan Capra (other than It's a Wonderful Life).
The Bride of Frankenstein 1935 (James Whale) -- I saw this film again recently in the theatre and it was really good. When I originally saw it I didn't notice all the comedy in it. It's very fun and Whale puts his stamp on it.
A Tale of Two Cities 1935 (Jack Conway). Have not seen. Have not read. But I love Ronald Colman.
Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 (Frank Lloyd). I saw this many years ago and liked it.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936 (Frank Capra) -- Mmmm, more Capra.
Modern Times 1936 (Charlie Caplin) -- Mmmm, more Chaplin.
Lost Horizon 1937 (Frank Capra) -- Mmmm, more Capra.
Captains Courageous 1937 (Victor Fleming) -- Haven't seen but it feels very Hollywood-corny.
The Awful Truth 1937 (Leo McCarey). Great movie.
The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley). Great movie, on many levels. Rad cast. Fun, early Technicolor, excitement, adventure, escapism, sturdily built.
Gone With the Wind 1939 (Victor Fleming). It took me 3 viewings, including the last one in the theatre to finally appreciate this film. I do not recommend seeing this movie for the first time at least anywhere other than a theater.
The Wizard of Oz 1939 (Victor Fleming). I used to think this was an interesting, somewhat disturbing, but entertaining kid's film. Then I saw it in a theatre when I was in college, and I didn't like it very much.
Stagecoach 1939 (John Ford). I like this film, and I know it's importance in film history in re revitalizing the western, but it's not near as good as other Ford/Wayne collaborations like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 (Frank Capra) -- Mmmm, more Capra.
Gunga Din 1939 (George Stevens). This is a fun, funny, exciting, old fashioned adventure film, highly recommended, with great performances by Grant, McLaglen, and Fairbanks (Jr).
The Grapes of Wrath 1940 (John Ford). Haven't seen, haven't read. But now I don't want to see it until I read it, but reading it isn't going to happen any time soon.
Fantasia 1940 (Ben Sharpsteen). I finally saw this a year or so ago. It did nothing for me.
Foreign Correspondent 1940 (Alfred Hitchcock) -- I love this movie! The cast is shocking in it's greatness: Joel McCrea as Johnny Jones, George Sanders as Scott ffolliott, hilarious explaining how his name is spelled with a lowercase f, Laraine Day, the great Herbert Marshall (I am addicted to watching him very carefully in his films, because sometimes movement was hard and he needed a stand in -- he lost a leg in WWI), Albert Bassermann, Edmund Gwenn, Eduardo Ciannelli, Harry Davenport, Ian Wolfe, Emory Parnell, E.E. Clive and wonderfully, the great humorist-writer-actor-drinker-wit Robert Benchley! Script by Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison; with the great Benchley writing his own dialogue. Produced by Walter Wanger; Cinematography by Rudolph Maté; Film Editing by Dorothy Spencer; Costume Design by I. Magnin; but most important is William Cameron Menzies' work on design, sets, effects etc. The look of this film is amazing, those windmills, the hotel, it's just so great. There's something fascinating, that I can't quite put my finger on about the scenes between Benchley and McCrea. Such an unlikely team, but an interesting dynamic.
His Girl Friday 1940 (Howard Hawks) -- great movie.
The Great Dictator 1940 (Charlie Chaplin) -- Chaplin.
Pinocchio 1940 (Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske) -- I haven't seen this since I was a child.
Citizen Kane 1941 (Orson Welles) -- deserving of it's status.
Sullivan's Travels 1941 (Preston Sturges) -- good, but I never laugh as hard at Sturges films as I'd like to.
How Green Was My Valley 1941 (John Ford) -- this is really good.
Casablanca 1942 (Michael Curtiz) -- also good, but not as good as 1941's Bogart film, The Maltese Falcon, which is not on your list.
Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 (Michael Curtiz) -- I've seen bits of this, I don't think I could take the corn.
The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 (William Wellman) -- good cast; a little too maudlin and self-serving.
Double Indemnity 1944 (Billy Wilder) -- good, but is it really better than Postman Always Rings Twice?
Henry V 1944 (Laurence Olivier) -- Neat idea, but I couldn't sit through it.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek 1944 (Preston Sturgess) -- Haven't seen.
They Were Expendable 1945 (John Ford) -- Wasn't this co-directed by star Robert Montgomery? I don't remember if I saw this one.
The Lost Weekend 1945 (Billy Wilder) -- one of the best Wilder films, Ray Milland is awesome.
The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 (William Wyler) -- haven't seen.
It¹s a Wonderful Life 1946 (Frank Capra) -- great.
Stairway to Heaven 1946 (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger) -- great.
My Darling Clementine 1946 (John Ford) -- possibly the greatest western pre-1948.
Notorious 1946 (Alfred Hitchcock) -- great.
Odd Man Out 1947 (Carol Reed) -- really good, but I prefer Reed's two later films The Fallen Idol (amazing) and The Third Man.
Out of the Past 1947 (Jacques Tourneur) -- great noir, I'm a Tourneur fan. This is a really good list, of course, but it's a little bit predictable and old-fashioned. Almost all of these are just your routine classics. There's not much in here so far where I'm like, "ohhhh, yeah, good one!"
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 (John Huston) -- great.
Red River 1948 (Howard Hawks) -- one of the all-time great westerns.
Twelve O¹Clock High 1949 (Henry King) -- this is a good movie. I recommend watching it on a Saturday around noon, when you've got nothing else to do; ideally it should be raining. Peck is not my favorite actor, but this and a film he made right around the same time are both very good (The Gunfighter).
Adam¹s Rib 1949 (George Cukor) -- funny, one of the better Tracy-Hepburn films. I think my favorite is Woman of the Year.
All the King's Men 1949 (Robert Rossen) -- good, but a takes itself a little too seriously.
All About Eve 1950 (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) -- Great movie.
The Third Man 1950 (Carol Reed) -- One of the all-time great movies.
The African Queen 1951 (John Huston) -- I've yet to find this film anything but dull, and in need of restoration.
An American in Paris 1951 (Vincente Minnelli) -- Don't remember that well.
The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 (Robert Wise) -- good, but not as good as Hawks' The Thing or Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Singin¹ in the Rain 1952 (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen) -- yeah, this is another classic MGM Hollywood musical.
The Quiet Man 1952 (John Ford) -- great movie.
From Here To Eternity 1953 (Fred Zinnemann) -- I don't seem to like this film as much as a lot of people do. Borgnine is good as Fatso Judson.
On the Waterfront 1954 (Elia Kazan) -- I saw this once, about 10 years ago and was surprised how good I thought it was.
The Night of the Hunter 1955 (Charles Laughton) -- great.
The Searchers 1956 (John Ford) -- masterpiece.
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 (David Lean) -- Great. I used to always talk about how great Alec Guinness is in this movie, but now I watch it for Holden. I love the last scene where Holden's yelling across the river, "Kill him! KILL him!"
Touch of Evil 1958 (Orson Welles) -- This, Kane and Ambersons are Welles' three masterpieces. This film is so great and so much fun, with a great cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Joanna Moore, Ray Collins, Dennis Weaver, Valentin de Vargas (so great in this and Hawks' Hatari! but rarely seen otherwise), Mort Mills (the cop in Psycho), Joi Lansing, Harry Shannon (Charlie Kane's real father in Citizen Kane), Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Joseph Cotten, John Dierkes, Mercedes McCambridge. Great soundtrack by Henry Mancini; and cinematography by Russell Metty.
Ben-Hur 1959 (William Wyler) -- I saw this film for the first time at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto a few years ago. I had heard about the chariot race, but I was like, what's the big deal? Then I saw it. The only time I can remember where I was actually, technically, on the edge of my seat was watching that scene. That said, the rest of the movie, is poorly acted, and very dull. But if you get a chance to see this in a theatre, do it. Find out when the chariot race happens, and go to the movie late, then after that you can leave.
North by Northwest 1959 (Alfred Hitchcock) -- Masterpiece, but I can't believe you don't have Vertigo and Rear Window on this list. I mean, Ben-Hur and all that Capra and Chaplin and now Spartacus?
Spartacus 1960 (Stanley Kubrick) -- Long. Slightly less boring than Ben-Hur. My two favorite Kubrick films aren't on your list: The Killing and Lolita.
The Hustler 1961 (Robert Rossen) -- good movie.
Judgement at Nuremberg 1961 (Stanley Kramer) -- long, a bit preachy and pretentious. Some good performances (mainly Montgomery Clift).
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 (David Lean) -- Great adventure epic. People: Please see this one in a theatre!
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 (John Ford) -- all time great westerns. Another film with a really outstanding cast: John Wayne, James Stewart, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine, Ken Murray, John Carradine, Jeanette Nolan, John Qualen, Willis Bouchey, Woody Strode, Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef, Robert Donner.
The Longest Day 1962 (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki) -- great, highly entertaining film. Fantastic cast: Eddie Albert, Paul Anka, Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Richard Beymer, Hans Christian Blech, Bourvil, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, Sean Connery, Fabian, Mel Ferrer, Henry Fonda, Steve Forrest, Gert Fröbe, Leo Genn, Jeffrey Hunter, Curd Jürgens, Alexander Knox, Peter Lawford, Christian Marquand, Dewey Martin, Roddy McDowall, Sal Mineo, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Wolfgang Preiss, Robert Ryan, Tommy Sands, George Segal, Rod Steiger, Richard Todd, Tom Tryon, Peter van Eyck, Robert Wagner, Stuart Whitman, John Wayne, Richard Dawson, Michel Duchaussoy, Frank Finlay, Bernard Fox, Siân Phillips, Bob Steele.
Ride the High Country 1962 (Sam Peckinpah) -- great movie. Peckinpah made three westerns that are masterpieces: this, Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Pat Garrett is the best. It is more personal than Ride the High Country and more mature than The Wild Bunch.
To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 (Robert Mulligan) -- good movie.
The Great Escape 1963 (John Sturges) -- good movie that I have seen many times. Too many, I fear.
Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964 (Stanley Kubrick) -- Good movie, really good, great even, not quite as great as people think. It's not like it's this important statement about the Cold War and war and the Red Scare. Sterling Hayden rules.
The Sound of Music 1965 (Robert Wise) -- haven't seen this. It looks rather bloated.
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 (Stanley Kubrick) -- good.
The Wild Bunch 1969 (Sam Peckinpah) -- great.
Patton 1970 (Franklin J. Schaffner) -- pretty good.
The Godfather, Part II 1974 (Francis Ford Coppola) -- this is a great movie, and some people think it's better than the first, and I get that you want to make that point here, but come on, there is no way that The Godfather (1972) should not be on this list. I mean practically one-tenth of this list is made up of Capra and Chaplin films -- and The Godfather isn't on here? Are you really saying that Captains Courageous, Pinocchio, Henry V, They Were Expendable, Bite the Bullet , The Hunt for Red October, and Apollo 13 are better than The Godfather? Please rethink this. A lot of people put The Godfather and The Godfather Pt II together as one entry on their list.
Chinatown 1974 (Roman Polanski) -- the 70s, like the 50s and the 90s were one of the best decades for films, and this is one of the main reasons why. This movie rules.
The Conversation 1974 (Francis Ford Coppola) -- Good.
Jaws 1975 (Steven Spielberg) -- wonderful; and still probably my favorite Spielberg.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1975 (Milos Foreman) -- This movie is fine.
Bite the Bullet 1975 (Richard Brooks) -- I haven't seen this; some Richard Brooks movies I really like are The Blackboard Jungle and The Professionals.
Network 1976 (Sidney Lumet) -- Awesome! People always talk about the flashier (but still great) role and performance by Peter Finch, but it's really Holden that makes this movie work. He's so great in this.
All the President¹s Men 1976 (Alan J. Pakula) -- Great movie; totally absorbing.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 (Steven Spielberg) -- I didn't care for this very much.
Raging Bull 1980 (Martin Scorsese) -- good.
The Stunt Man 1980 (Richard Rush) -- yes this is a popular cult favorite; it's one of the more original choices on the list, I saw it once about 10 years ago. I don't remember it very well.
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 (Steven Spielberg) -- Great movie, the second one sucks, the the Last Crusade with Ford and Connery and Denholm Elliott is, I think, as good as the original.
The Right Stuff 1983 (Philip Kaufman) -- great movie, I want to see this again.
Glory 1989 (Edward Zwick) -- haven't seen.
The Hunt for Red October 1990 (John McTierman) -- great movie; but not as great as another 1990 Sean Connery film, The Russia House.
The Silence of the Lambs 1991 (Jonathan Demme) -- this is really good, but frankly I don't understand how it won all these Oscars and is so highly thought of. It's an effective (and gory and disgusting) suspense film, but... ?
Howards End 1992 (James Ivory) -- I never saw this, and then I saw like 40 minutes of it on TV one day because my sister was watching it and I was hanging out with her, and then I decided to stop watching it because I wanted to see it from the beginning, because I was really into it. But I still haven't seen it.
Schindler¹s List 1993 (Steven Spielberg) -- really good. I have a few problems with it (Spielberg issues), but it's great, even the most boring actor in the world, Liam Neeson, doesn't hurt it. Ralph Fiennes is amazing.
Apollo 13 1995 (Ron Howard) -- Routine, mild crowd pleasing Howard. This movie has no point. I know, they became heroes not by completing the mission, but by figuring how to get back alive, etc, etc. But all they did was what anyone would do in that situation. It was just by the numbers: well we've got this much food so we have to ration it; we've got to make a motor out of tape and cardboard and wires, so let's do it... Big deal.

Overall, this is a really good list. A little too AFI for me, and it's very, sort of, white-bread. There's nothing here by Nicholas Ray, Otto Preminger, Sergio Leone, Anthony Mann, John Boorman, Budd Boetticher, Robert Aldrich, Robert Altman, Don Siegel, Hal Ashby. Although you've said you don't really like foreign films and so didn't put any on the list, I'm not sure that's good enough. Some Came Running, The Big Sleep, Mulholland Drive, Three Colors Trilogy, Le Samourai, The Manchurian Candidate, Shampoo, Being There, Once Upon a Time in the West, M*A*S*H, The Long Goodbye, Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Stalag 17, Sabrina, Sunset Blvd, Kiss Me Deadly, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Rio Bravo, Bonnie & Clyde, Le Boucher, Point Blank-- but of course, what am I doing? It's all subjective right? I'm sure with my list you're like "where's Patton and Close Encounters and Glory and The Gold Rush...?"

So, it's a quality list, a good primer. But there are three big complaints: too much Chaplin, too much Capra and where in the fuck is The Godfather?

Thanks for writing!

Ted

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