I'm only listing and ranking movies that I've seen since starting this blog. It's as arbitrary a rule as anything else. There are many worthy movies that I've seen many years ago that certainly belong here. They'll make it here eventually once I've re-watched them and written at least a sentence about them.
Besides that, this is still a work in progress. Update infrequently.
I do hope to add lists through 1979 soon.
Enjoy.
1929
1) Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock)
2) Hallelujah! (King Vidor)
3) The Iron Mask (Allan Dwan)
4) Woman in the Moon (Fritz Lang)
5) The Cocoanuts (Robert Florey, Joseph Santley)
6) Spite Marriage (Edward Sedgwick)
7) They Had to See Paris (Frank Borzage)
8) The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont)
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1930
1. L'Age d'Or (Luis Bunuel)
2. The Blue Angel (Josef Von Sternberg)
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1931
1. Frankenstein (James Whale)
2. City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
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1932
1. One Hour With You (Ernst Lubitsch)
2. Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod)
3. I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy)
4. Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
5. The Mummy (Karl Freund)
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1933
1. King Kong (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack)
2. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
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1934
1. It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)
2. Dangerous Corner (Phil Rosen)
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1935
1. Steamboat 'Round the Bend (John Ford)
2. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. The Good Fairy (William Wyler)
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10.Werewolf of London (Stuart Walker)
1936
1. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin)
2. The Texas Rangers (King Vidor)
3. My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava)
4. Fury (Fritz Lang)
5. Rhythm on the Range (Norman Taurog)
5. The Lower Depths (Jean Renoir)
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1937
1. Way Out West (James W. Horne)
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1938
1. The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz)
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6. Boy Meets Girl (Lloyd Bacon)
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1939
1. Destry Rides Again (George Marshall)
2. Frontier Marshall (Allan Dwan)
3. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)
4. Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford)
5. The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh)
6. Jesse James (Henry King)
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10. Q Planes (Tim Whelan)
1940
1. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
2. Christmas in July (Preston Sturges)
3. I Love You Again (W. S. Van Dyke)
4. Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. City for Conquest (Anatole Litvak)
6. The Man From Tumbleweeds (Joseph H. Lewis)
7. The Westerner (William Wyler)
8. The Ghost Breakers (George Marshall)
9. The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges)
10. The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline)
HM: A Chump at Oxford (Alfred J. Goulding), His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks), The Mark of Zorro (Rouben Mamoullian), Rhythm on the River (Victor Schertzinger), The Thief of Baghdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell and Tim Whelan), The Sea Hawk (Michael Curtiz), The Torrid Zone (William Keighley)
1941
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2. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges)
3. The Wolf Man (George Waggner)
4. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. Suspicion (Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
6. Manpower (Raoul Walsh)
7. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges)
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9. Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen)
10. Road to Zanzibar (Victor Schertzinger)
1942
1. You Were Never Lovelier (William A. Seiter)
2. Billy the Kid Trapped (Sam Newfield)
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1943
1. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (Roy William Neill)
2. I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
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1944
1. Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges)
2. Tall in the Saddle (Edwin L. Marin)
3. The Princess and the Pirate (David Butler)
4. Buffalo Bill (William Wellman)
5. One Mysterious Night (Boetticher)
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1945
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3. Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson)
4. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise)
5. Escape in the Fog (Budd Boetticher)
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1946
1. My Darling Clementine (John Ford)
2. Dressed to Kill (Roy William Neill)
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10. She-Wolf of London (Jean Yarbrough)
1947
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1948
1. Four Faces West (Alfred E. Green)
2. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton)
3. The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod)
4. Fallen Idol (Carol Reed)
5. Mexican Hayride (Charles T. Barton)
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1949
1. Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh)
2. Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius)
3. The Inspector General (Henry Koster)
4. I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller)
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1950
1. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
2. When Willie Comes Marching Home (John Ford)
3. The Gunfighter (Henry King)
4. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
5. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann)
6. Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves)
7. The Baron of Arizona (Samuel Fuller)
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1951
1. Rawhide (Henry Hathaway)
2. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin)
3. The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby)
4. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
5. Cattle Drive (Kurt Neumann)
6. The River (Jean Renoir)
7. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (Charles Lamont)
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1952
1. The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer)
2. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann)
3. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
4. What Price Glory (John Ford)
5. Son of Paleface (Frank Tashlin)
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1953
1. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
2. Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)
3. I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. Four Sided Triangle (Terence Fisher)
5. The Long, Long Trailer (Vincente Minnelli)
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1954
1. Touchez pas au Grisbi (Jaques Becker)
2. The River of No Return (Otto Preminger)
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1955
1. Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges)
2. Wichita (Jacques Tourneur)
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1956
1. The Searchers (John Ford)
2. Tribute to a Bad Man (Robert Wise)
3. The Court Jester (Melvin Frank; Norman Panama)
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1957
1. The Seventh Seal (Igmar Bergman)
2. Decision at Sundown (Budd Boetticher)
3. The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)
4. Night Passage (James Neilson)
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10. The Incredible Petrified World (Jerry Warren)
1958
1. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
2. The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)
3. Thunder Road (Arthur Ripley)
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1959
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