Vertigo (1958)

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128 min – PG – view video trailer

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak

Genres: Mystery, Romance, Thriller

IMDB 8.5 / Amazon 4.6 / MRQE 89

Oscars: Nominated for 2, won 0

Ranked #6 Greatest Movies Through 1960, in 31 of 41 best movies lists, a Zagat Top Movie

A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend’s wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her. IMDB rating 8.5 from over 126,284 users

Although it wasn’t a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. Amazon 4.6 stars from over 386 users

MRQE 89% rating from over 108 reviews

Notes: Hitchcock’s cameo appearance is about 10 minutes into the movie when he walks past the shipyard in a gray suit.

Madison Public Library

Rear window (1954)

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112 min – PG – view video trailer

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly

Genres: Mystery, Romance, Thriller

IMDB 8.7 / Amazon 4.7 / MRQE 97 /

Oscars: nominated for 4, won 0 (Best Director, Writing, Sound, Cinematography)

Ranked #7 Greatest Movies Through 1960, in 24 of 41 best movies lists, a Zagat Top Movie

A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.  IMDB 8.7 rating from over 168,196 users

None of Hitchcock’s films has ever given a clearer view of his genius for suspense than Rear Window. Events in the movie ultimately lead to one of the most memorable and gripping endings in all of film history. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 372 users

MRQE 97% from over 108 reviews

Madison Public Library

It’s A Wonderful Life (1947)

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130 min – view video trailer

Director: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

Genres: Drama, Family, Fantasy

IMDB 8.7 / Amazon 4.7 / MRQE 89 / Decent Films A+

Oscars: 5 nominations, 0 wins (Best Picture, Actor, Director, Sound, Editing)

Ranked #4 Greatest Movies Through 1960, in 30 of 41 best movies lists, a Zagat Top Movie

An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed. IMDB 8.7 rating from over 143,048 users

Heartwarming and reaffirming, It’s A Wonderful Life is on many lists of the greatest films ever made. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 757 users

“No one is born to be a failure. No one is poor who has friends.” These platitudes, plastered across the packaging of home-video editions of Frank Capra’s evergreen Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, embody the film’s popular but misleading image as sentimental, schmaltzy “Capra-corn.” Yet the film itself is leavened by darker themes and more rigorous morals about self-sacrifice, disappointment, and the fragility of happiness and the American dream. Read full Decent Films review (rated A+, Superior artistic-entertainment for Kids & Up)

MRQE 89% rating with links to over 105 reviews

Madison Public Library

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

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112 min – view video trailer

Director: George Cukor
Starrig: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart

IMDB  8.1 / Amazon 4.7 / MRQE 86% / Decent Films A

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Oscars: nominated for 6, won 2 (Best Actor, Writing)

Ranked #40 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

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. IMDB 8.1 rating from over 34,558 users

Applying her impossibly high ideals to everyone but herself, Tracy Lord (Katarine Hepburn) is about to marry a stuffy executive when her congenial ex-husband (Cary Grant), arrives to protect his former father-in-law from a potentially scandalous tabloid exposé. In an Oscar-winning role, James Stewart is the scandal reporter who falls for Tracy as her wedding day arrives, throwing her into a dizzying state of premarital jitters. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 178 users

Its witty dialogue, romantic complications, and class-skewering satire are hallmarks of screwball comedy, but George Cukor’s classic The Philadelphia Story doesn’t turn on absurd situations, outlandish behavior, or unpredictable plot twists. Instead, it’s a more mature and humanistic social satire, a comedy of manners skewering every kind of snobbery: not only the class-based snobbery of the rich against the poor — and the poor against the rich — but also the intellectual snobbery of the literate against the popular, and above all the moral snobbery of the self-righteous against the imperfect. Read full Decent Films review (rated A, Superior artistic-entertainment for Teens & Up)

MRQE 86% from over 47 reviews

Madison Public Library