He’s back! The splendid Cillian Donnelly returns, he who some time ago presented his first list of 100 Movies To Be Seen Before You Die. Enjoy his latest thrilling installment!
101. Orpheé (1950)
Post-war retelling of the Orpheus legend, featuring a dominatrix Angel of Death, Nazified celestial dispatch riders and poetic fragments broadcast over short-wave radio.
102. Once Upon a Time In The West (1968)
Epic, operatic masterpiece from Sergio Leone. Something to do with death, indeed.
103. Into The Night (1985)
Largely plotless genre-hopping oddity from John Landis (a kind of mix of An American Werewolf in London and The Blues Brothers), in which the director wildly overdoes his habit of indulging in movie-folk cameos.
104. Nashville (1975)
Politics and country music collide in over one weekend in Robert Altman’s cast-heavy epic.
105. Barbarians at the Gate (1993)
The battle for Big Tobacco, based on the real-life takeover of Nabisco at the tale-end of the eighties, featuring a brilliant central performance from James Garner.
106. The Naked City (1948)
Influential city-set policer, which spawned a famous TV show and one of the most iconic taglines of all time.
107. Local Hero (1983)
US oil exec travels to the Scottish Highlands to buy the place up, but then finds himself falling in love with it. Sentimental, funny, and even a little bit foreboding.
108. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
James Whale has a ball laying on the humour, but never forgets the chills, in this sequel to his own, classic original.
109. The Bank Dick (1940)
Stop sniggering at the back. This is, in fact, a frequently hilarious WC Fields comedy about a security guard at a bank (what else?).
110. My Favourite Year (1982)
Errol Flynn-like movie star is chaperoned around New York by Neil Simon-like writer as he prepares to appear on a TV variety show. Meanwhile, the Sid Caesar-like host is having off-screen problems from a Jimmy Hoffa-like union leader.
111. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Eerie, low-budget zombie flick with political overtones; probably the most influential post-war American movie.
112 McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971)
Brown and orange anti-Western from Altman, featuring the most pointless death in cinema history.
113. God Told Me To (1976)
Jesus, aliens, weird conspiracies, lashings of Catholic guilt and a weird alternative to incestuous anal sex. Welcome to the world of Larry Cohen.
114. The Offence (1972)
Angry copper in a British new town beats suspect to death during an interrogation. Sean Connery stars.
115. The Small Back Room (1949)
This low-key, little seen film about a wounded, self-pitting bomb disposal expert saw director Michael Powell returning to earth after a series of glorious technicolour spectacles. Referenced by Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver, no less.
116. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Top-notch Hitchcock comedy thriller set aboard a transeuropean train journey. Featuring sinister spies, sweet old ladies, a damsel in distress a couple of true bumbling arses.
117. When We Were Kings (1996)
Documentary surrounding the infamous Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa, featuring appearances from Norman Mailer, Spike Lee and, of course, mad Mobutu.
118. The Verdict (1946)
The last screen pairing of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre is this atmospheric Victorian penny dreadful set in a permanently fog-bound London.
119. The Verdict (1982)
Alckie lawyer Paul Newman gets chance of redemption in medical malpractice case, but has to go against blacker-than-black opposing counsel James Mason.
120. Comfort and Joy (1984)
MOR Disc Jockey gets involved in a Glaswegian mafia turf war involving ice cream in Bill Forsythe’s somewhat intangible drama.
121. All That Jazz (1979)
Semi-autobiographical musical in which Bob Fosse comes clean about his pill-popping, womanising ways. Worryingly, his most coherent relationship is with the Angel of Death.
122. Matewan (1987)
Coalmining epic set around a prolonged strike in 1920s Virginia, featuring noble leftie agitators, bad corporate strikebreakers and religious fundamentalists.
123. Z (1969)
A political murder in an (ahem!) unnamed Mediterranean country ushers in a military dictatorship in Costa-Gavras’ impassioned political thriller.
124. The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) (1953)
Nitro and Glycerine. They don’t mix, but someone’s still got take the Yankee dollar and transport them across the Andes. Peerless actioner.
125. Seven Days in May (1964)
Wholly credible tale of military plot to overthrow the US President from John Frankenheimer, featuring a top-notch cast.
126. Ninotchka (1939)
Joyless Soviet emissary, Greta Garbo, travels to Paris to check up on some wayward diplomats, and finds herself falling for the smooth charms of Melvin Douglas. Sparking adult comedy from Ernst Lubisch, whose tagline was “Garbo Laughs”. Billy Wilder had a hand in the script.
127. Paths of Glory (1957)
War as terminally unjust, the army as enforced class conflict, in Stanley Kubrick’s grim World War One drama.
128. The Dead (1987)
Subtle, simple version of the James Joyce story. Easily, the greatest directorial swansong in cinema history.
129. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
Elegiac masterpiece from Sam Peckinpah, randomly featuring Bob Dylan.
130. The Invisible Man (1933)
James Whale again balances laughs and frights in this atmospheric version of the famous tale. Includes a pair of trousers running on their own.
131. Medium Cool (1969)
The cameraman’s dilemma: to engage or stand back; the central question of Haskell Wexler’s somewhat dated, groovy late 60s movie happening. The climax was filmed at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Expect head-cracking.
132. The Day of the Locust (1975)
Religious fervour comes to 1930s Hollywood in John Schlesinger’s apocalyptic drama.
133. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The eye of the storm as a popular rhythm-beat combo head to London in a whirlwind of activity.
134. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Terrific, first animated feature from Disney, full of comic charm, really scary witches and a great soundtrack.
135. The Wicker Man (1973)
Artfully elevated hokum as virginal, devout Christian police officer travels to Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a local girl. Needless to say, nothing is what it seems. Edward Woodward’s second best screen performance…
136. Callan (1974)
…after this. Downbeat, grey espionage thriller with Woodward as a marked agent, who is as likely to get shot by his superiors, as he is his quarry.
137. O Lucky Man! (1973)
Wildly surreal semi-musical follow-up to If… (1968) Former teen rebel Mick Travis meets the military-industrial complex.
138. I’m Alright, Jack (1959)
Broad, quintessential Boulting Brothers satire on the languid upper class and bolshie trade unions, featuring a magnificent performance by Peter Sellers as shop steward Fred Kite.
139. Slap Shot (1977)
Ice hockey coach Paul Newman revives his team, and his town’s, fortunes when he decides to add a touch of violence to the proceedings.
140. Defence of the Realm (1985)
British conspiracy thriller that examines government cover-ups and media mismanagement.
141. Blue Collar (1978)
Conservative filmmaker makes Marxist union flick. We didn’t see that coming.
142. The Wild Geese (1978)
Thick ear, Boy’s Own actioner in which a group of sozzled veterans liberate political prisoner from fictional African country. Dearly loved by boys of all ages.
143. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
What would happen if we were never born? James Stewart finds out in this surprisingly dark Frank Capra perennial.
144. The Wild Bunch (1969)
‘Them days is over’ as William Holden and Co go out in a blaze of Mexican gunfire.
145. The Swimmer (1968)
Burt Lancaster swims to his New England home via his neighbours’ swimming pools. Allegorical tale that examines the hollow, materialist side of the American Dream.
146. Wise Blood (1979)
Odd addition to the John Huston cannon. Brad Dourif starts the Church Without Christ, but cannot escape the domineering shadow of his fire and brimstone preacher grandfather.
147. Winter Kills (1979)
Thinly veiled look at the Kennedy assassination. Jeff Bridges investigates the death of his former-President brother in this adaptation of the Richard Condon novel, featuring a wordless cameo from Elizabeth Taylor. Warning: may feature John Huston in a pair of red swimming trunks.
148. The Gunfighter (1950)
Gregory Peck wants to mend his ways and settle down, but his past, as the gunfighter of the title, just keeps on catching-up.
149. Attack (1956)
Politicised war drama from Robert Aldrich in which blue collar GI Jack Palance finds he’s had enough of the cowardly, manoeuvring officer class.
150. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Deeply cynical examination of Hollywood fringe-players, narrated by a dead guy in a swimming pool.
Welcome back Mr Donnelly, not least because this here list contains something which, for me, is a desperately under-rated fillum – My Favorite Year. Name any movie, no matter how obscure, and usually someone has seen it, or at least heard of it. Not so in this case. I have extolled the virtues of this very funny and quite moving little gem ever since I first saw it. Every time the response is like conversational tumbleweed – my audience simply presumes that I am drunk and making up films. They won’t watch it even now, of course, but I can at least feel justified in banging on about it.
Carry on banging, my friend. Oo-er.
And a hearty welcome back from me too, Cillian – and Colin, I haven’t heard of that film either.
Tut, tut James. It was one of Peter O’Toole’s hundred million Oscar nominations.