Halliwell's Four-Star History of the Movies

Leslie Halliwell.com

Jump to a section: The Silents 1930/1 1932/3 1934/5 1936/7 1938/9 1940 1941/2 1943/4 1945/6 1947/8/9 The Fifties The Sixties

This is an attempt to tell the history of the cinema using those films to which Leslie Halliwell granted his highest rating of four stars, thus marking them as either outstanding in terms of entertainment value and artistic quality, or historically significant in some way.

Follow the timeline below or jump to a particular section using the links above. Click on a film for more information about it. Each entry consists of five tabs:

Guide: Halliwell's assessment from his Film Guide, including any performances or production contributions he felt were of a particularly high standard.
Halliwell: Other written notes by Leslie Halliwell regarding the film, e.g. where he first saw it, and what his initial impressions were.
Quotes: Quotes from the movie in question.
Other Info: Information on the making of the film.
Significance: The film's place in cinema history; this may also include contributions by LH, especially in the form of dedications taken from his Filmgoer's Companion.

In all cases, quotes by Halliwell himself are in blue, whereas other text - including my opinions - is in black.

(Please note: this is a work in progress, so some films may not link... yet!)

1915 The Birth of a Nation

1916 Intolerance

1917 Easy Street 1917 The Cure

1919 The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

1925 The Battleship Potemkin

1926 The General

                                                                     1927 The Jazz Singer
                                                                     1927 Napoléon
                                                                     1927 October

1928 Two Tars

1929 Big Business

The Blue Angel
All Quiet on the Western Front
Hell’s Angels
Little Caesar

À Nous la Liberté
Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Frankenstein
The Front Page
The Last Flight
Le Million

Horse Feathers
I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Love Me Tonight
The Music Box
The Old Dark House
Scarface
Trouble in Paradise

Duck Soup
Forty-Second Street
The Invisible Man
King Kong
Mystery of the Wax Museum
Queen Christina

David Copperfield
The Gay Divorcee
It Happened One Night
Sons of the Desert
The Thin Man

The Bride of Frankenstein
The Informer
Les Misérables
A Night at the Opera
The 39 Steps
Top Hat

The Green Pastures
Rembrandt
San Francisco
Things to Come
Triumph of the Will

A Day at the Races
Lost Horizon
Nothing Sacred
Oh Mr Porter
The Prisoner of Zenda
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Way Out West

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Alexander Nevsky
Angels With Dirty Faces
The Lady Vanishes
Pygmalion

Destry Rides Again
The Four Feathers
Gaslight
Gone with the Wind
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Stagecoach
Wuthering Heights

Fantasia Foreign Correspondent His Girl Friday

The Grapes of Wrath The Letter London Can Take It

The Philadelphia Story Pinocchio Rebecca The Thief of Baghdad

All That Money Can Buy
Citizen Kane
Dumbo
King's Row
The Maltese Falcon
Sullivan's Travels
Target For Tonight

Bambi
I Married a Witch
In Which We Serve
The Magnificent Ambersons
To Be or Not to Be
Why We Fight
Yankee Doodle Dandy

Casablanca
Desert Victory
Listen to Britain
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Double Indemnity
Henry V
Laura

And Then There Were None
Brief Encounter
Dead of Night
Les Enfants du Paradis
The House on 92nd Street
The Lost Weekend
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The True Glory
The Way to the Stars
A Diary for Timothy

The Best Years of Our Lives
Gilda
Great Expectations
Green for Danger
It's a Wonderful Life
The Jolson Story
A Matter of Life and Death

Crossfire

On the Town
Passport to Pimlico
The Third Man

Bicycle Thieves
Letter From an Unknown Woman
Oliver Twist
The Naked City
The Red Shoes
Whisky Galore

        1950 All About Eve
                                              1951 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
                                                                                                       1952 High Noon
                                                                                                       1952 Singin' in the Rain
        1953 Begone Dull Care
        1953 Genevieve
        1953 The Band Wagon
                                              1954 Bad Day at Black Rock
                                                                                                      1955 Marty
                                                                                                      1955 The Red Balloon
        1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers

                                              1957 Paths of Glory
                                              1957 The Golden Age of Comedy
                                              1957 Twelve Angry Men
                                                                                                      1959 North by Northwest

    1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

                                              1962 Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy

                                                                                                       1964 A Hard Day's Night

        1966 A Man for All Seasons

                                              1967 Bonnie and Clyde

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