Jonathan Rosenbaum's alternate 100
From "Movie Wars - How Hollywood and the media conspire to limit what films we can see", p. 103-106
"I've deliberately sought to make my list conservative rather than provocative, and grounded in pleasure rather than any dutiful sense of historical importance.
...
Rightly or wrongly, I've also refrained from including some of my favorite films by high-profile directors who are well represented on the AFI Top 100 list, even if their best films aren't. For the record, I prefer The King of Comedy and Kundun to Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, The Conversation to either of the Godfathers, and Dumbo to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia; but even though I had some regrets about excluding these favorites, I have no doubt that readers can find them without my prodding."
-- Jonathan Rosenbaum
"I've deliberately sought to make my list conservative rather than provocative, and grounded in pleasure rather than any dutiful sense of historical importance.
...
Rightly or wrongly, I've also refrained from including some of my favorite films by high-profile directors who are well represented on the AFI Top 100 list, even if their best films aren't. For the record, I prefer The King of Comedy and Kundun to Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, The Conversation to either of the Godfathers, and Dumbo to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia; but even though I had some regrets about excluding these favorites, I have no doubt that readers can find them without my prodding."
-- Jonathan Rosenbaum
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100 titles
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsKirk DouglasJan SterlingRobert ArthurFrustrated former journalist Chuck Tatum now working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about trading post owner Leo Minosa trapped in a cave to rekindle Chuck's career, but the story soon escalates into a media circus.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsCary GrantDeborah KerrRichard DenningA couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsJames StewartLee RemickBen GazzaraAn upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsJack LemmonJuliet MillsClive RevillA successful businessman goes to Italy to arrange for the return of his tycoon father's body--and discovers that Dad died with his long-time mistress.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsHumphrey BogartAva GardnerEdmond O'BrienThis is the life of a Hollywood movie star named Maria, as told by writer/director Harry Dawes, from being discovered in Madrid, Spain, until her funeral in Italy.
- DirectorNicholas RayStarsJames MasonBarbara RushWalter MatthauA seriously-ill schoolteacher becomes dependent on a "miracle" drug that begins to affect his sanity.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsKirk DouglasDewey MartinElizabeth ThreattThe success of the journey focuses on keeping the Indian girl alive as well as themselves to complete trade with the Blackfeet.
- DirectorNisar Ahmad AnsariStarsBalraj SahniMinoo MumtazNisar Ahmad AnsariFew people in real life would relish making the decision that Inspector Rajan is forced to take when he corners the identity of Black Cat a notorious character who lives the life of a professor by day and a crook by night. Inspector Rajan is deputed to bring in Black Cat dead or alive by his chief, the Commissioner of Police. Despite his long record of success in the police force, Rajan is driven to desperation at the sheer genius of Black Cat who avoids all the nets laid for him. Also engaged in the chase of Black Cat is a jovial private detective and his untiring secretary Bul Bul. The pair start on their own collect clues and despite the seeing bufoonery of Popat, played by Johny Walker and his ubiquitous companion, Shammi, they manage to bring to light quite a bit of information after many hair-raising adventures into the den of Black Cat. Meanwhile Inspector Rajan gets his long-needed break and suddenly the entire police force is electrified into activity, as the true identity of the notorious gangster is revealed.But all hearsay is of no avail.Rajan must have proof of Black Cat's guilt. This sets the stage for the most thrilling screen adventures of the day. Black Cat and his hoodlums work so methodically and are so well organized that to unravel the mystery of their gang the Inspector must venture right into the midst of their headquarters, and carry his life in his own hands, to put it literally.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffElsa LanchesterColin CliveMary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRichard BarthelmessDonald CrispA frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsSimone SimonTom ConwayKent SmithAn 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.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsDick PowellEllen DrewRaymond WalburnAfter the co-workers of an ambitious clerk trick him into thinking he has won $25,000 in a slogan contest, he begins to use the money to fulfill his dreams. What will happen when the ruse is discovered?
- DirectorAlbert ZugsmithStarsVincent PriceLinda HoRichard LooIn 19th-century San Francisco's Chinatown, American adventurer Gilbert De Quincey saves slave girls owned by the Chinese Tong factions.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsEleanor BoardmanJames MurrayBert RoachThe life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles, and downfalls.
- DirectorJim JarmuschStarsJohnny DeppGary FarmerCrispin GloverOn the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange Native American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsGeorge BancroftBetty CompsonOlga BaclanovaA blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDanny AielloOssie DavisRuby DeeOn the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
- DirectorThom AndersenFay AndersenMorgan FisherStarsDean StockwellEadweard MuybridgeA documentary film about the English photographer Eadweard Muybridge.
- DirectorJames BenningStarsSerafina BathrickTed BradyBarbara FrankelOne of most widely praised American avant-garde films in recent years, James Benning's 1977 feature is a laconic mosaic of single-shot sequences.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsJack NanceCharlotte StewartAllen JosephHenry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsRudolph ChristiansMiss DuPontMaude GeorgeA con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
- DirectorAbraham PolonskyStarsJohn GarfieldThomas GomezBeatrice PearsonAn unethical lawyer who wants to help his older brother becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsWallace FordLeila HyamsOlga BaclanovaA circus' beautiful trapeze artist Cleopatra agrees to marry Hans the leader of side-show performers, but Hans' deformed friends discover that she is only marrying him for his inheritance. So they seek revenge.
- DirectorClyde BruckmanBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonMarion MackGlen CavenderAfter being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJane RussellMarilyn MonroeCharles CoburnShowgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.