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nelsonhumanities: Recently, I was booted out of the chat room for disturbing the peace for advocating film studies as they key to film appreciation. I acknowledge that I have committed the sin of intellectualism. So why an I constantly being bombarded by emails saying that the film buffs miss me?

nelsonhumanities: Nelsonbobcats: My Top 100 Anglo-American Films:1915-1965

Not long ago one film buff asked in the Wireclub Movie Chat Room, "What is your favorite movie"? Another asked, "What are the best movies of all time"? Those are fundamental questions of film criticism, provided that they are proposed in proper context.

I graduated from Bates College in 1960, many years before the liberal arts academic academicians elevated Cinema from mere entertainment into a high art. So when I began to take a serious interest in Film Studies, I had to educate myself. I find that two books provided me with an excellent introduction to the subject of Film Criticism: Louis Gianetti's Understanding Movies and Gerald Mast's A Short History of the Movies. I also find that Film Education is important, because the more you know about films, the more you appreciate the best of them.

Broadcasting one's favorite film is an honorable tradition in movie chat rooms. Unfortunately, however, uneducated film buffs tend to make the mistake of equating their favorite movies with the best movies. I myself have a difficult time distinguishing between the two concepts. For example, I prize "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), which implicitly criticized Americans during the McCarthy Era for falling asleep and letting right-wing extremists take control of The American Mind. It is not now generally accepted, however, as a Top 100 American Film Classic. Given the collected wisdom of the pros, I conclude that there may (or may not) be something wrong with my preference.

The following filmography includes only those films that appear in one or more of current professional Top 100 Film lists, namely those of the American Film Institute, American Movie Channel, British Broadcasting Corporation, British Film Institute, and Turner Classic Movies. All of the films in my collection really are some of my favorite films. Backed up by the collective wisdom of the 21st Century pros, I am confident that they are not the nostalgic musings of a hopelessly passé, old man.

Incidentally, I am irritated by the TCM policy of broadcasting mostly "thumbs down" movies, those that are rated 2 1/2 Stars or less in Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide and his 2015 Movie Guide: The Modern Era. (Aside: Maltin is an excellent film critic, but he is not infallible. He made a big mistake, for example, by giving thumbs down to Francis Ford Coppola's "Taxi Driver," because of it's extreme violence. He failed to appreciate that the film is a masterful treatment on the important topic of violence in America.) TCM knows what the "Essential" Films (i.e., the real "Classics" are, but they tend to broadcast them, if at all, during the wee hours of the morning.

My filmography is composed of some of my favorite films, which include D, W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation," the first American film Masterpiece. Regrettably, the screenplay glorifies the Ku Klux Klan. Educated film buffs discount the story and concentrate on the film's aesthetics, which include exquisite scenes of Civil War battles. The film does have the virtue of reminding decent Americans of America's most fundamental flaw: Racism continues to be as American as apple pie.

Nelson Filmography of the Top 100 Anglo-American Film Classics from the beginning of the Golden Age of American Silent Film to the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood Film.

Silent Era (1915-1929). "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), "Intolerance" (1916), "Greed" (1924), "Sherlock Junior" (1924), "The Gold Rush" (1925), "The General" (1927), "Sunrise" (1927), "City Lights" (1931), "Modern Times" (1936),

Early Hollywood Era (1930-1945). ""Trouble in Paradise" (1932), "Duck Soup" (1933), "It Happened One Night" (1934), "Mutiny on the Bounty"(1935), "The 39 Steps" (1935), "Top Hat" (1935), "Swing Time" (1936), "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), "A Star Is Born" (1937), "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), Bringing Up Baby" (1938), "The Lady Vanishes" (1938), "Gone With the Wind" (1939), "Mr, Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "0nly Angels Have Wings" "(1939)' "Stagecoach" (1939), "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "Wuthering Heights" (1939).


Continued. "His Girl Friday" (1940), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940), "Citizen Kane" (1941), "I Know Where I'm Going" (1947), The Lady Eve" (1941), "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "Sullivan's Travels" (1941), "Casablanca" (1942), "The Magnificent Amberson's" (1942), "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Henry V" (1944), "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944), "Brief Encounter" (1945).

Late Hollywood Era (1946-1965). "The Big Sleep" (1946), "Great Expectations" (1946), "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "My Darling Clementine" (1946), "Notorious" (1946), "Black Narcissus" (1947), "Out of the Past" (1947), "Hamlet" (1948), "Red River" (1948), "The Red Shoes" 1948), "The Teasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948), "The Third Man" (1949), Tight Little Island" (1949).

Continued, "All About Eve" (1950), "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), "Ace in the Hole" (1951), "The African Queen" (1951), "An American in Paris" (1951), "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951), "The Man in the White Suit" (1951), "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), ""High Noon" (1952), "The Quiet Man" (1952), "Singin' in the Rain" (1952), "Roman Holiday" (1953), "Shane" (1953), "On the Waterfront" (1954), "Rear Window" (1954), "The Lady Killers" (1955), "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955), "The Searchers" (1956), "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957), "12 Angry Men" (1957), "Touch of Evil" (1958), "Vertigo" (1958), "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1959), "Imitation of Life" (1959), "North by Northwest" (1959), "Rio Bravo" (1959), "Room at the Top" (1959), "Some Like it Hot" (1959).

Continued. "The Apartment" (1960), "Psycho" (1960), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1960), "West Side Story" (1961), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner " (1962), "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), "Tom Jones" (1963), "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), "Marnie" (1964), "My Fair Lady" (1964), "Chimes at Midnight" (1965), "The Sound of Music" (1965).

I welcome criticism of my filmography, negative criticism as well as positive.