Classic Movies First Watched in 2020
by PhaistosDisk | created - 04 Jan 2020 | updated - 28 Dec 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. China Seas (1935)
Passed | 87 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When earthy Dolly Portland is rejected by Captain Gaskell in favor of a socialite, she aids Jamesy McCardle, in league with Malay pirates, in his plot to seize Gaskell's ship.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone
Votes: 2,939
2. Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)
Passed | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, History
Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound.
Directors: Irving Cummings, Buster Keaton, Malcolm St. Clair | Stars: Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg, Alan Curtis
Votes: 454
3. Hello Frisco, Hello (1943)
Approved | 99 min | Musical
In turn-of-the-century San Francisco, an ambitious vaudevillian takes his quartet from a honky tonk to the big time, while spurning the love of his troupe's star singer for a selfish heiress.
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone | Stars: Alice Faye, John Payne, Jack Oakie, Lynn Bari
Votes: 557 | Gross: $3.40M
4. The Painted Desert (1931)
Passed | 79 min | Drama, Western
Two men find an abandoned baby and fight over the ownership of the child, resulting in lifelong rivalry.
Directors: Howard Higgin, Tom Buckingham | Stars: William Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees, William Farnum, J. Farrell MacDonald
Votes: 821
5. Coney Island (1943)
Passed | 96 min | Comedy
Set at the turn of the century, smooth talking con man Eddie Johnson weasels his way into a job at friend and rival Joe Rocco's Coney Island night spot. Eddie meets the club's star ... See full summary »
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Betty Grable, George Montgomery, Cesar Romero, Charles Winninger
Votes: 526 | Gross: $3.50M
6. Another Face (1935)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
On the run from the New York police on a murder charge, gangster Broken Nose Dawson undergoes plastic surgery to change his appearance, then goes to Hollywood. Posing as millionaire playboy... See full summary »
Director: Christy Cabanne | Stars: Wallace Ford, Brian Donlevy, Phyllis Brooks, Erik Rhodes
Votes: 269
7. House of Wax (1953)
GP | 88 min | Horror
An associate burns down a wax museum with the owner inside, but he survives only to become vengeful and murderous.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones
Votes: 20,230 | Gross: $23.75M
8. Rose of Washington Square (1939)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A singer becomes a star in the Ziegfeld Follies, but her marriage to a con man has a bad effect on her career.
Director: Gregory Ratoff | Stars: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Al Jolson, William Frawley
Votes: 666
9. Down to Earth (1917)
Passed | 71 min | Comedy, Romance
A healthy outdoors-type follows the girl he loves to a resort for wealthy hypochondriacs. In order to prove to her and the other patients that their "illnesses" are all in their minds, he ... See full summary »
Director: John Emerson | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Eileen Percy, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charles McHugh
Votes: 86
10. Four Jills in a Jeep (1944)
Passed | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Reenactments of actual USO experiences of its female stars entertaining troops overseas.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, Mitzi Mayfair
Votes: 552
11. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,681 | Gross: $3.48M
12. Orphans of the Storm (1921)
Not Rated | 150 min | Drama, History, Romance
Two orphaned sisters are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Losee
Votes: 5,474 | Gross: $0.79M
13. Gulliver's Travels (1939)
Passed | 76 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A doctor washes ashore on an island inhabited by little people.
Directors: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky, Orestes Calpini, Roland Crandall, William Henning, Winfield Hoskins, Thomas Johnson, Frank Kelling, Seymour Kneitel, Robert G. Leffingwell, Grim Natwick, Tom Palmer | Stars: Jessica Dragonette, Lanny Ross, Pinto Colvig, Cal Howard
Votes: 4,842 | Gross: $7.13M
14. Curly Top (1935)
Approved | 75 min | Family, Musical, Romance
Wealthy Edward Morgan becomes charmed with a curly-haired orphan and her pretty older sister Mary and arranges to adopt both under the alias of "Mr. Jones." As he spends more time with them, he soon finds himself falling in love with Mary.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Shirley Temple, John Boles, Rochelle Hudson, Jane Darwell
Votes: 2,104
15. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Passed | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Two down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 132,334 | Gross: $5.01M
16. I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Passed | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Why is Inspector Ed Cornell trying to railroad Frankie Christopher for the murder of model Vicky Lynn?
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone | Stars: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar
Votes: 5,372
17. Easter Parade (1948)
G | 103 min | Musical, Romance
A nightclub performer hires a naive chorus girl to become his new dance partner to make his former partner jealous and to prove he can make any partner a star.
Director: Charles Walters | Stars: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller
Votes: 11,068 | Gross: $9.03M
18. The Sea Hawk (1924)
Passed | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A wrongly-convicted English gentleman goes from galley slave to pirate captain.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Milton Sills, Enid Bennett, Lloyd Hughes, Wallace Beery
Votes: 639 | Gross: $0.78M
19. Heaven Only Knows (1947)
Approved | 100 min | Family, Western
An angel is sent to earth to help save the soul of a saloon and gambling house owner.
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Robert Cummings, Brian Donlevy, Marjorie Reynolds, Jorja Curtright
Votes: 490
20. That Uncertain Feeling (1941)
Passed | 84 min | Comedy
A psychoanalyst causes a woman to doubt her happy marriage.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Alan Mowbray
Votes: 2,981
21. The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942)
Passed | 65 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A man believed to be dead and buried escapes from his grave and returns to the scene of the crime seeking revenge.
Director: Herbert I. Leeds | Stars: Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Helene Reynolds, Henry Wilcoxon
Votes: 680
22. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A couple who have been married for three years are shocked to learn that their marriage is not legally valid.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson
Votes: 11,304
23. Passport to Pimlico (1949)
Approved | 84 min | Comedy
Residents of a part of London declare independence after they discover an old treaty, which leads to the need for a "Passport to Pimlico".
Director: Henry Cornelius | Stars: Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis
Votes: 5,283
24. Beat the Devil (1953)
Approved | 89 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
On their way to Africa are a group of rogues who hope to get rich there, and a seemingly innocent British couple. They meet and things happen...
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley
Votes: 10,395
25. Harvey (1950)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Due to his insistence that he has an invisible six foot-tall rabbit for a best friend, a whimsical middle-aged man is thought by his family to be insane - but he may be wiser than anyone knows.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn, Victoria Horne
Votes: 58,210
26. San Francisco (1936)
Passed | 115 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A Barbary Coast saloonkeeper and a Nob Hill impresario are rivals for the affections of a beautiful singer, both personally and professionally, in 1906 San Francisco.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt
Votes: 6,099
27. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,311 | Gross: $5.72M
28. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
In 1900, a young widow finds her seaside cottage is haunted and forms a unique relationship with the ghost.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Edna Best
Votes: 20,844
29. Scaramouche (1923)
Passed | 124 min | Drama, Romance
When a nobleman murders his best friend, a lawyer becomes a revolutionary with his heart set on vengeance.
Director: Rex Ingram | Stars: Lloyd Ingraham, Alice Terry, Ramon Novarro, Lewis Stone
Votes: 703 | Gross: $0.94M
30. Thirty Day Princess (1934)
Approved | 74 min | Comedy, Romance
A European princess arrives in New York City to secure a much-needed loan for her country. She contracts the mumps, and an actress who looks exactly like her is hired to impersonate her.
Director: Marion Gering | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant, Edward Arnold, Henry Stephenson
Votes: 1,127
31. Kiss and Make-Up (1934)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A handsome plastic surgeon has a beauty clinic, where many a beautiful client falls in love with him. His unnoticed secretary is in love with him, too.
Director: Harlan Thompson | Stars: Cary Grant, Genevieve Tobin, Helen Mack, Edward Everett Horton
Votes: 847
32. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Passed | 126 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer, and singer George M. Cohan.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf
Votes: 16,847 | Gross: $11.80M
33. Wings in the Dark (1935)
Passed | 75 min | Adventure, Romance
In his dedicated pursuit of technology that will aid pilots to safely "fly blind" during adverse conditions, aerial innovator Ken Gordon is literally blinded in an accident, but this setback doesn't deter him from his goal.
Director: James Flood | Stars: Myrna Loy, Cary Grant, Roscoe Karns, Hobart Cavanaugh
Votes: 715
34. Prince of Foxes (1949)
Approved | 107 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
An unscrupulous agent for the Borgias suffers a change of heart when asked to betray a noble count and his much younger, very beautiful wife.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Wanda Hendrix, Marina Berti
Votes: 1,975 | Gross: $2.55M
35. Stowaway (1936)
Approved | 87 min | Adventure, Family, Musical
A young girl lost in Shanghai is taken in by an American playboy and his girlfriend.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Shirley Temple, Robert Young, Alice Faye, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 1,480
36. Blood and Sand (1941)
Approved | 125 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
Illiterate peasant Juan Gallardo rises meteorically to fame and fortune in the bullfight arena only to sow the seeds of his own fall.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, Alla Nazimova
Votes: 3,136 | Gross: $5.92M
37. I Love You Again (1940)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh, Edmund Lowe
Votes: 3,799
38. The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926)
Passed | 89 min | Drama, Romance, Western
While building an irrigation system for a Southwestern desert community, an engineer vies with a local cowboy for the affections of a rancher's daughter.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky, Gary Cooper, Charles Lane
Votes: 938
39. Raffles (1939)
Approved | 72 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
Man about town and First Class cricketer A.J. Raffles keeps himself solvent with daring robberies. Meeting Gwen from his schooldays and falling in love all over again, he spends the weekend... See full summary »
Directors: Sam Wood, William Wyler | Stars: David Niven, Olivia de Havilland, May Whitty, Dudley Digges
Votes: 1,216 | Gross: $0.09M
40. Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
Passed | 86 min | Comedy
After Phil Corey's band arrives at the Idaho ski resort, its pianist Ted Scott is smitten with a Norwegian refugee he has sponsored, Karen Benson. Later, soloist Vivian Dawn quits and Karen stages an ice show as a substitute.
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone | Stars: Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle
Votes: 1,946
41. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)
Approved | 106 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A singing mechanic from 1912 finds himself in Arthurian Britain.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Bing Crosby, Rhonda Fleming, Cedric Hardwicke, William Bendix
Votes: 2,743
42. The Talk of the Town (1942)
Approved | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An escaped prisoner has to prove his innocence to a stuffy law professor with the help of a spirited school teacher.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman, Edgar Buchanan
Votes: 9,108
43. Everything Happens at Night (1939)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Drama
Two competing reporters fall in love with the daughter of a Nobel Prize winner living in hiding.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Sonja Henie, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, Maurice Moscovitch
Votes: 254
44. One Heavenly Night (1930)
82 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A poor but basically honest flower woman agrees to impersonate a wicked opera star.
Director: George Fitzmaurice | Stars: John Boles, Evelyn Laye, Leon Errol, Lilyan Tashman
Votes: 181
45. The Thing from Another World (1951)
Approved | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Scientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.
Directors: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks | Stars: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness, Robert Cornthwaite
Votes: 33,313
46. Big Brown Eyes (1936)
Passed | 77 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Sassy manicurist Eve Fallon is recruited as an even more brassy reporter and she helps police detective boyfriend Danny Barr break a jewel theft ring and solve the murder of a baby.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, Walter Pidgeon, Lloyd Nolan
Votes: 1,172
47. The Petrified Forest (1936)
Passed | 82 min | Drama, Thriller
A waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin
Votes: 14,917
48. Honeymoon in Bali (1939)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
A Manhattan career woman tries to resist a man who wants her to be his wife.
Director: Edward H. Griffith | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Madeleine Carroll, Allan Jones, Akim Tamiroff
Votes: 451
49. Stormy Weather (1943)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.
Director: Andrew L. Stone | Stars: Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra, Katherine Dunham and Her Troupe
Votes: 2,886
50. David Copperfield (1935)
Passed | 130 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A gentle orphan discovers life and love in an indifferent adult world.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, Edna May Oliver, Elizabeth Allan
Votes: 4,762
51. Sons of the Desert (1933)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy, Family
When Stan and Ollie trick their wives into thinking that they are taking a medicinal cruise while they're actually going to a convention, the wives find out the truth the hard way.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch
Votes: 9,579
52. Remember the Night (1939)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Love blooms between a sympathetic attorney and the comely shoplifter he has taken home for the Christmas holiday.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson
Votes: 7,187 | Gross: $0.17M
53. The Bishop's Wife (1947)
G | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A debonair angel comes to Earth to help an Episcopalian bishop and his wife in their quest to raise money for the new church.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, Monty Woolley
Votes: 20,890
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