A landmark in the history of the cinema; it was ranked Number 1 in the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films of all time in two polls (1998 and 2007) of more than 1,500 film industry movers and shakers and again by UK directors in a BFI poll. "Citizen Kane" narrates the rise and fall of a newspaper tycoon driven by a childhood obssession and is loosely based round the life of William Randolph Hurst, who tried to have it banned, but incorporates elements from the lives of other fat cats il find out more...

David Lean's epic romance set against the turbulant backdrop of the Russian revolution. One man's struggle for moral political and personal survival amidst the complex web of intrigue and tangled loyalties that accompanied the fall of the Tsar.

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Vincent Minelli directs this biopic that, unusually for Hollywood, doesn't subsume the subject's achievements in a fictionalised life-story, explaining one not in terms of the other, but fully celebrating both. Douglas is superb as the artist living on the edge. Not just for art aficionados.

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Philip Carey (Leslie Howard), a club-footed medical student, falls for a pretty waitress Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis). To Philip's dismay Mildred does not return his affection, instead she suffers his attentions, while treating him with contempt. As desire leads to infatuation, Philip, ever the gentleman, finds himself on the receiving end of her lies and mockery, but finds it impossible to kick her out of his life. As Mildred's cruel and uncompassionate personality drags her inevitably into find out more...

One of Stanley Kubrick's earliest films, Paths of Glory is a seminal anti-war movie. Set during the First World War, the French general staff give the order for Colonel Dax (Douglas) and his men to attack a particularly well fortified German position. The order is little more than authorised suicide and when the remanants of Dax's men return, the high command, looking for something to distact from their murderous incompetence, decide to court-martial three of the surviving soldiers. The outra find out more...

The John Huston classic about the prim missionary lady forced to team up with a drunken ne'er-do-well for a dangerous journey when the war comes to their remote bit of Africa. Their trying odyssey downriver, of course, gradually sees the two incompatibles falling in love, with the as always detached Bogart finally discovering commitment and attacking a German gunboat. find out more...

Plucky widow Lucy goes to live in a cottage on the English coast even though it appears to be haunted. Sure enough, that very night she meets the ghost of crusty former owner Captain Gregg...and refuses to be scared off. Indeed, after Lucy gets used to the idea of a man's ghost haunting her bedroom, they become friends and allies and, to make it possible for her to afford to stay in the house, he decides she will write a best-seller, his memoirs. When she visits a London publisher she also impre find out more...