Paul's Favourites
The 7th Arts's highest level of achievement can be judged alongside great literature, great music, and great painting, with many filmmakers creating enduring masterpieces.
The list of film titles below may not all be enduring masterpieces, but I have however, fond lingering memories of all of them. They all fit the criteria of what I feel films can or should do, to not only be well crafted, but also to entertain, inform, enlighten and more often than not, take the viewer down roads less travelled...
Can only hope you also will discover or rediscover some viewing pleasures among my all-time favourites' listed below.
Billy Budd (1962)
7.9/10
Director: Peter Ustinov
Starring: Peter Ustinov, Terence Stamp, Robert Ryan, Melvyn Douglas, David McCallum
Herman Melville's classic sea story receives a superb treatment with Peter Ustinov behind the lens. In his first film, Terence Stamp is Billy Budd, an... Read more
The Vikings (1958)
7.1/10
Director: Richard Fleischer
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Janet Leigh, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis
Sweeping adventure saga of the Vikings' invasion of England centers on a Viking warrior prince (Kirk Douglas) and a former slave (Tony Curtis), bitter... Read more
The Court Jester (1956)
7.9/10
Director: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama
Starring: Glynis Johns, Danny Kaye, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury
Danny Kaye has one of his best roles in this beloved comedy classic which rates as one of the funniest comedies of all time. To help restore the thron... Read more
The Night of the Hunter ( Blu-ray ) (1955)
8/10
Director: Charles Laughton
Starring: Lillian Gish, Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters
Robert Mitchum gives one of his best performances as Harry Powell, a psychotic self-styled preacher who is after the stolen money of a hanged man. Set... Read more
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
8/10
Director: Charles Laughton
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
Robert Mitchum gives one of his best performances as Harry Powell, a psychotic self-styled preacher who is after the stolen money of a hanged man. Set... Read more
La Strada ( The Road ) (1954)
8.1/10
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart
AKA 'The Road'. Fellini's Oscar-winning study of a brutish carnival strongman (Anthony Quinn) who uses a simple minded girl (Giulietta Masina) to serv... Read more
The Crimson Pirate (1952)
7.3/10
Director: Robert Siodmak
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Nick Cravat, Eva Bartok
This rip-roaring, swashbuckling adventure (among the best) stars Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat as buccaneers in the Mediterranean. It has it all - p... Read more
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
7.8/10
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe
A spacecraft lands in Washington D.C. and an alien emerges, with a menacing robot whose destructive powers defy imagination. So begins the science-fic... Read more
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
8.5/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Buster Keaton, Erich Von Stroheim, Fred Clark, Gloria Swanson, Jack Webb, Nancy...
Billy Wilder's classic drama stars Gloria Swanson as reclusive silent movie queen Norma Desmond. Sharing a mansion with her live-in butler/former husb... Read more
The Fountainhead (1949)
7.1/10
Director: King Vidor
Starring: Gary Cooper, Raymond Massey, Patricia Neal, Kent Smith, Robert Douglas, Henry Hu...
Ayn Rand's classic novel is vibrantly bought to life with a screenplay by the author. Brilliant, uncompromising architect Gary Cooper must fight to ma... Read more