Classic Movies First Watched in 2022
by PhaistosDisk | created - 01 Jan 2022 | updated - 28 Dec 2022 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. That Night in Rio (1941)
Approved | 91 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
An entertainer in Rio impersonates a wealthy aristocrat. When the aristocrat's wife asks him to carry the impersonation further, complications ensue.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Carmen Miranda, S.Z. Sakall
Votes: 932
2. Callaway Went Thataway (1951)
Approved | 81 min | Comedy, Western
Two marketing professionals hire a lookalike of classic Western actor Smoky Callaway to impersonate the actor and make new films, but things go awry when the real Callaway, thought long missing, returns.
Directors: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, Howard Keel, Jesse White
Votes: 759
3. On the Avenue (1937)
Passed | 89 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A Broadway producer satirizes an important New York family. The family sues but their daughter falls in love with the producer.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye, The Ritz Brothers
Votes: 658
4. Hell's Heroes (1929)
Passed | 68 min | Western
Three bank robbers on the run happen across a woman about to give birth in an abandoned covered wagon. Before she dies, she names the three bandits as her newborn son's godfathers.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler, Fritzi Ridgeway
Votes: 967
5. Lillian Russell (1940)
Passed | 127 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life story of the musical star from her discovery in 1890 by bandleader Tony Pastor until her retirement in 1912, when she married newspaperman Alexander Moore.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda, Edward Arnold
Votes: 580
6. Mandalay (1934)
Passed | 65 min | Drama
Abandoned by her lover, a woman becomes the main "hostess" in a decadent nightclub, but tries to put her past behind her on a steamer to Mandalay.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland, Lyle Talbot
Votes: 1,125
7. Suspicion (1941)
Approved | 99 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 42,455 | Gross: $4.50M
8. The Gang's All Here (1943)
Passed | 103 min | Musical, Romance
A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman
Votes: 2,058
9. Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, Romance, War
Newlyweds Gil and Lana Martin try to establish a farm in the Mohawk Valley but are menaced by Indians and Tories as the Revolutionary War begins.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins
Votes: 6,791 | Gross: $1.00M
10. Grand Hotel (I) (1932)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance
A group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery
Votes: 20,884 | Gross: $2.69M
11. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,915 | Gross: $4.66M
12. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Not Rated | 106 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
After being tricked and cast out of Bagdad by the evil Jaffar, King Ahmad joins forces with a thief named Abu to reclaim his throne, the city, and the Princess he loves.
Directors: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, Alexander Korda, Zoltan Korda, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin
Votes: 14,504 | Gross: $0.27M
13. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, War
A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Votes: 67,704 | Gross: $3.27M
14. The Perfect Furlough (1958)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy, Romance
An Army psychologist oversees her creation: an arctic serviceman sent to Paris with a movie star.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Linda Cristal
Votes: 1,137
15. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
G | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.
Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | Stars: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen
Votes: 260,763 | Gross: $8.82M
16. Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
Not Rated | 82 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
An eccentric inventor and his companions travel in his TARDIS to the Planet Skaro and battle the evil menace of the Daleks.
Director: Gordon Flemyng | Stars: Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jennie Linden, Roberta Tovey
Votes: 5,355
17. Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)
Not Rated | 84 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Dr. Who and his companions arrive on Earth in the year 2150 AD, only to discover that the planet has been invaded and its population enslaved by the dreaded Daleks.
Director: Gordon Flemyng | Stars: Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, Ray Brooks, Andrew Keir
Votes: 4,543
18. Tom Thumb (1958)
Approved | 98 min | Family, Fantasy, Musical
A boy (Russ Tamblyn), no bigger than a thumb, manages to outwit two thieves (Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers) determined to make a fortune from him.
Director: George Pal | Stars: Russ Tamblyn, June Thorburn, Peter Sellers, Alan Young
Votes: 2,861
19. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
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.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 73,875
20. Kismet (1955)
Approved | 113 min | Adventure, Musical, Fantasy
A roguish poet is given the run of the scheming Wazir's harem while pretending to help him usurp the young caliph.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Stanley Donen | Stars: Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Dolores Gray, Vic Damone
Votes: 1,683
21. Dames (1934)
Passed | 91 min | Comedy, Music, Musical
A multimillionaire decides to boycott "filthy" forms of entertainment such as Broadway shows.
Directors: Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Zasu Pitts
Votes: 2,430
22. It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Fantasy
A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy
Votes: 2,859
23. Show Boat (1936)
Approved | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson
Votes: 3,695
24. Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Passed | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.
Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Jack Conway, George Cukor | Stars: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Leo Carrillo
Votes: 4,807
25. Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Passed | 79 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
The Grim Reaper takes the form of a Prince in an attempt to relate to humans and, along the way, also learns what it is to love.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing, Katharine Alexander
Votes: 2,413
26. The Public Enemy (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell
Votes: 23,026 | Gross: $1.01M
27. Baby Face (1933)
Approved | 71 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman, sexually exploited all her life, decides to turn the tables and exploit the hapless men at a big city bank by gleefully seducing her way to the top.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Alphonse Ethier
Votes: 8,169
28. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,460 | Gross: $4.36M
29. A Hard Day's Night (1964)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Musical
Over two "typical" days in the life of The Beatles, the boys struggle to keep themselves and Sir Paul McCartney's mischievous grandfather in check while preparing for a live TV performance.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Votes: 48,109 | Gross: $13.78M
30. The Mysterious Island (1929)
Passed | 95 min | Adventure, Romance, Sci-Fi
On a volcanic island near the kingdom of Hetvia rules Count Dakkar, a benevolent leader and scientist who has eliminated class distinction among the island's inhabitants. Dakkar, his ... See full summary »
Directors: Lucien Hubbard, Benjamin Christensen, Maurice Tourneur | Stars: Lionel Barrymore, Jacqueline Gadsdon, Lloyd Hughes, Montagu Love
Votes: 847 | Gross: $0.06M
31. Bathing Beauty (1944)
Passed | 101 min | Comedy, Musical
A contrived misunderstanding leads to the breakup of a songwriter and his fiancée. She returns to work as a gym teacher at an all-girls school, but a legal loophole allows the man to enroll as one of her students.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Bill Goodwin
Votes: 1,881
32. Desire (1936)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
An automotive engineer bound for a holiday in Spain meets a sultry jewel thief.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, John Halliday, William Frawley
Votes: 2,809
33. Annie Oakley (1935)
Passed | 90 min | Biography, Drama, Western
A romanticized biography of the famous sharpshooter.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, Melvyn Douglas, Moroni Olsen
Votes: 1,896
34. Angel (1937)
Approved | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A woman and her husband take separate vacations, and she falls in love with another man.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Melvyn Douglas, Edward Everett Horton
Votes: 3,211
35. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
G | 175 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.
Directors: Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Stars: David Niven, Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley
Votes: 29,709 | Gross: $42.00M
36. Moby Dick (1930)
Passed | 80 min | Adventure, Drama
In this extremely loose adaptation of Melville's classic novel, Ahab is revealed initially not as a bitter and vengeful madman, but as a bit of a lovable scamp. Ashore in New Bedford, he ... See full summary »
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: John Barrymore, Joan Bennett, Lloyd Hughes, Noble Johnson
Votes: 641
37. Anna Karenina (1935)
Passed | 95 min | Drama, Romance
The married Anna Karenina falls in love with Count Vronsky despite her husband's refusal to grant a divorce, and both must contend with the social repercussions.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Freddie Bartholomew, Maureen O'Sullivan
Votes: 5,796 | Gross: $0.87M
38. Seven Sinners (1940)
Approved | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Banished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangsters, riff-raff, judges and a ship's doctor in order to achieve her aims.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford
Votes: 1,658
39. Shall We Dance (1937)
Approved | 109 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.
Director: Mark Sandrich | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore
Votes: 7,856
40. Blonde Venus (1932)
Passed | 93 min | Drama
A cabaret singer takes up with a millionaire to pay for her gravely-ill husband's operation.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Herbert Marshall, Dickie Moore
Votes: 5,625
41. Men in White (1934)
Passed | 74 min | Drama, Romance
An idealistic doctor must make some hard choices between his dedication to the profession and his personal life.
Director: Richard Boleslawski | Stars: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Jean Hersholt, Elizabeth Allan
Votes: 788
42. The Haunted Palace (1963)
Not Rated | 87 min | Horror
Charles Dexter Ward arrives at a small village to visit the house he inherited from his ancestor who died there 100 years ago.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney Jr., Frank Maxwell
Votes: 8,470 | Gross: $2.62M
43. Idiot's Delight (1939)
Approved | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A group of disparate travelers are caught and thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the beginning of World War II.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn
Votes: 1,713
44. The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
Passed | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Romance
In a turn-of-the-century Renaissance Italian mansion, its tyrannical owner, a wheelchair-bound one-handed pianist with a strong belief in the occult is murdered.
Director: Robert Florey | Stars: Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen
Votes: 3,011
45. Cat People (1942)
Not Rated | 73 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
Votes: 26,002 | Gross: $4.00M
46. Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Passed | 132 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
In the 1920s, three women become performers in the renowned Broadway show the Ziegfeld Follies, where they find fame, love, and tragedy.
Directors: Busby Berkeley, Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner
Votes: 3,454
47. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett
Votes: 13,667
48. National Velvet (1944)
Passed | 123 min | Drama, Family, Sport
A jaded former jockey helps a young girl prepare a wild but gifted horse for England's Grand National Sweepstakes.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere
Votes: 8,005
49. The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
Passed | 126 min | Drama, Romance, War
Susan travels with her father to England for a vacation. Invited to a ball, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood and marries him after a whirlwind romance. However, American Susan never quite adjusts to life as a new member of the British gentry.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall, Frank Morgan
Votes: 1,805
50. The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
A financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter and prevent her from marrying a vapid band leader.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Stuart Erwin, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 3,733
51. Anne of Green Gables (1934)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A romantic teenage girl is adopted by a pair of elderly siblings in turn-of-the-century Canada.
Director: George Nicholls Jr. | Stars: Anne Shirley, Tom Brown, O.P. Heggie, Helen Westley
Votes: 1,443
52. Lassie Come Home (1943)
Passed | 89 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
After her destitute family is forced to sell her, a collie named Lassie escapes from her new owner and begins the long trek from Scotland to her Yorkshire home.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 5,934
53. Mother Wore Tights (1947)
Approved | 107 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
In this chronicle of a vaudeville family, Myrtle McKinley (class of 1900) goes to San Francisco to attend business school, but ends up in a chorus line. Soon, star Frank Burt notices her ... See full summary »
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Mona Freeman, Connie Marshall
Votes: 796
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