Multi-Oscar winning romantic comedy that has Gable as the poor but honest hack who meets the snobbish, spoilt Colbert as she buses across the USA. He attempts to get through to her, and the byplay between the two stars is a model of skilful direction. Touching and funny in equal measure. Won five Academy Awards at the 1934 Oscars. find out more...

Winner of 8 Oscars, this is the story of a misfit who challenges the power of the tough New York Longshoremen's Union. Steiger plays his brother, caught between divided loyalties, and Eve Marie Saint plays the woman he falls in love with. Highly recommended viewing despite its political premises. NB the special pleading on behalf of informers, deriving presumably from the fact that Kazan and Schulberg named names during the McCarthy witch-hunts. find out more...

The world as a lunatic asylum. Jack Nicholson plays the anarchist determined to challenge the smug system of authority and obedience that rule the roost. The first film by Czech dissident Forman after migrating from Czechoslovakia to the United States, and a superb comment on society! Won Best Picture plus others at 1975 Academy Awards. find out more...

A biopic of one of the greatest military geniuses of the 20th Century, Patton, a man who believed he was a warrior in many past lives, but the only Allied general truly feared by the Nazis. The film lays bare the roots of Patton's lust for power in his willingess to sacrifice everything to his vaunting ego, a trait which is mirrored in George C Scott's superb performance. find out more...

It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

Guinness restores the morale of British PoWs by building a bridge which is of military value to the Japanese, and then attempts to thwart the RAF's destruction of it! A classic film which swept 7 Oscars including "Best Picture". find out more...

The famous drugs thriller as Gene Hackman plays the cop determined to fix the Marseille based heroin runners once and for all. An action-packed movie full of murders, car chases and everything else a good thriller should have - making it one of the classics and a yardstick for others since. Won Best Picture at 1971 Academy Awards. find out more...

A gangster movie that spawned a million with Coppola on top directorial form and Brando and Pacino at their very best. Brilliantly believable and detailed stories unfold complete in every scene as the movie waltzes to its violent moral climax of living and dying by the sword. find out more...

As the second son of George V, the future George VI was not expected to ascend to the throne, but when his brother Edward abdicated he found himself a reluctant king. Plagued by a nervous stammer he was expected to make a rousing radio speech to herald Britain’s entry into the war against the Third Reich. ‘The Kings Speech’ charts the touching, often humourous, personal relationship that developed between England's reluctant King and his irreverent Australian speech therapis find out more...

Don Birnam, long-time alcoholic, has been "on the wagon" for ten days and seems to be over the worst; but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother Wick and girlfriend Helen, he begins a four-day bender. In flashbacks, we see past events, all gone wrong because of the bottle, but this bout looks like it's going to be his last...one way or the other. A dark, gritty depiction of the ravages of alcohol and winner of 4 Oscars including Best Actor, B find out more...