"Since You Went Away" (1944)

Famed producer David O. Selznick wanted to make the definitive war picture about America's struggles on the Homefront, an answer to the highly successful "Mrs. Miniver" that illustrated the same theme for Britain (and bolstered national patriotism to boot). And even though we get a wide-ranging snapshot of what the country was dealing with, it's all told through the microcosm of one family. Claudette Colbert is the noble and selfless wife of an Army officer who's been shipped overseas. She's got two teenaged daughters (Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple who Selznick wooed out of 'retirement') and has to contend with all manner of family dramas, the highs and lows. Adapted by the producer himself from an epistolary novel by Margaret Buell Wilder, the rambling plot bounces easily from laughs to tears to romance with each scene. Because times are tough, Colbert has to take in a boarder so Monty Woolley shows up for comic relief doing his patented grumpy fussbudget bit. Then there's Woolley's estranged grandson Robert Walker, a new recruit who falls for Jones. When Walker gets his assignment in the Pacific they have one of the most heartwrenching train station goodbye scenes ever filmed. You can feel Selznick trying to cram in every homefront touchstone into the script. There's Victory gardens, USO dances, scrap metal recycling, and Colbert even gets a job as a Rosie the Riveter in a munitions factory, but it all works because of the earnest efforts of the cast. What's most fascinating is director John Cromewell and ace cinematographer Lee Garmes choosing not to sentimentalize everything in a cozy glow, instead they opt for a moody almost noirish chiaroscuro lighting that hints at the darker realities of wartime living. There are some stunning visuals here amongst the quotidian doings.

"Captains Courageous" (1937)

This is one of those glorious big production MGM adaptations of a literary classic that they did so effortlessly back in the Golden Age of cinema. Rudyard Kipling's seafaring tale of a super rich spoiled brat who gets his comeuppance and learns big life lessons aboard a Portuguese fishing vessel is heartwarming without being cloying. Big credit goes to the actors. Spencer Tracy won the Academy Award for his earthy, kind hearted sailor, Manuel. His Iberian accent leaves a little to be desired but he's so genuine you forgive it. Freddie Bartholomew was second only to Shirley Temple as one of the great child actors. Here he's so hateful as the thoughtless Richie Rich kid that you wanna slug him, but watch his journey of self-discovery as he learns the value of hard work, friendship, honor, and respect for others. You believe the transformation. Melvyn Douglas and Lionel Barrymore are also on hand to round out the fine cast as Freddie's well-meaning but clueless father, and the ship's salty captain (was there ever a sea captain in the movies who wasn't salty?) Fine family fair that's a timeless classic.

"Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955)

This film has so many of the stylistic motifs of westerns that it feels like one. And maybe that's the point. That many of the elemental questions that adult westerns posit, like What's the role of the individual versus the needs of society? What does it mean to be 'civilized'?, And How does a man define his own sense of honor?...are all universal and still relevant today. A taut noir thriller filmed in color (a genre rarity), and set in a small Western town smack dab in the middle of a vast desert--think Nevada or interior California--opens with a one-armed stranger (Spencer Tracy) who's come to town to look for the father of an old Army buddy and finds out the man died mysteriously. The whole town wants to keep it a secret so they make the stranger's visit increasingly difficult. No, make that downright impossible. A nasty Rogue's Gallery of character actors make up the bad bunch that Tracy has to contend with, and eventually defeat. Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, John Ericson, all led by the town's malevolent boss, Robert Ryan (one of the most underrated actors of his generation). Walter Brennan and Dean Jagger are also on hand as other townies to lend a sympathetic hand. But it's Tracy's evenhanded and measured performance you remember best. He makes it look all too easy. Look for the tight compositional direction John Sturges brings to heighten the tension. He gives the picture an almost graphic quality in his superb use of the widescreen Cinemascope vastness. The players are like chess pieces moving around a stylized desert chessboard.

"The Naked City" (1948)

What would an episode of TV's "Law & Order" look like if it were filmed in 1948? Probably something like this fine proto-policier. It's a pretty straightforward plot: a murder is committed right after the credits finish and a couple of New York City's finest detectives use standard legwork and deduction to track down and capture the culprit by the final reel. Two things distinguish it though. First, is the senior detective is not your standard matinee idol. Here he's short, dumpy, Irish-brogue character actor Barry Fitzgerald. It's odd (and refreshing) to see his star turn here. He's at times smug, irascible, and funny. He's aided by his younger tenderfoot partner (Don Taylor) who's basically around to be the pair of legs to chase the bad guy. The second outstanding feature is the direction and real life location shooting. Director Jules Dassin and Oscar winning cinematographer Billy Daniels broke with convention and shot large chunks of the action on the actual streets of the Big Apple, something practically unheard of at the time. Inspired by the Italian neo-realism pictures of the time, the gritty, grimy, photogenic city looks like a series of Weegee photographs in motion. Many of the later modern day film noirs owe a debt of gratitude to this picture. Classics like "The French Connection", "Serpico", and "Dog Day Afternoon", all captured the dirty kinetic energy of New York, but "The Naked City" did it first and wrote the book on how to do it.

"Caged" (1950)

The Grandmamma of all women's prison pictures. And if the mention of that phrase conjures up all the tropes of the genre, just ripe for parody and played for laughs, there's always a source for those cliches and "Caged" is it. But there's no humor here. This hard-edged and soul-stripping noir is very serious stuff. Eleanor Parker gives a sensational performance (she was justifiably Oscar nominated) as a meek little wife who's sent up for armed robbery as an accessory to her husband's two bit larceny. As the main credits close, so do the bars on her entry into the tough brutal world of a woman's penitentiary. And even tho she's got a champion in the prison's sympathetic warden (a surprisingly warm Agnes Moorehead), she's got to survive this ugly world and grapple with the biggest, baddest cell block guard of them all, Faith Emerson. Nasty, conniving, vindictive...this is the Queen Bitch you don't want to cross, but Parker does, and through the course of her struggle, she transforms before your eyes into a merciless hardened creature. Parker is so stunning it's a pity Hollywood never really knew how to harness her talents later in her career (no, Baroness Schrader in "The  Sound of Music" doesn't count). Warner Brothers and underrated director John Cromwell mount a first rate production and even infuse it with some cautionary messaging about our penal system that still applies today.

"Sunset Boulevard" (1950)

One of the best movies ever made. Period. If you've never seen it, or don't know what's it's about, it begs the question, "What cultural rock have you been hiding under?" There's probably not much of value I can add here that hasn't already been said umpteen times (and probably better), about this unique film noir that breaks all the rules of the genre and, despite its being set firmly in the last mid-century still resonates for a current audience. The best films take on new and different shadings based on what life stage you view them. It's a simple story of a good looking young Hollywood screenwriter who becomes the kept man of an older, former silent movie screen star. There's much more, but that's the basic plot. As a young viewer, you see the woman (Gloria Swanson in an iconic performance for the ages), as a creepy monster clutching at the hunk (and boy, is William Holden a hunk). Years later, you realize he's the no-talent monster, preying on the generosity and fragile psyche of the lonely Swanson. And in 2016, the film plays as sad commentary on our obsessive  Culture of Youth, our fear of aging, and the societal stigma we (still) put on older woman/younger man relationships. Yes, it's takes a lot of shots at Hollywood, but that's an easy target. It's the larger themes that haunt all our minds and our "faces out there in the dark". This is cinema GOLD. Do yourself a favor, see it.

"The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968)

An unparalleled triumph of style over substance. Some movies you watch for the deft plotting or the character development, some maybe for the crackling dialog. This movie has none of those things. What it does have is visual panache in spades. The unquestionable King of Cool in the 1960's was Steve McQueen. He attained that rare nexus that few actors achieve: men wanted to be him, women wanted to do him. Here, his aloof masculinity is put to perfect use as a millionaire financier whose hobby is masterminding perfect bank heists just for the thrill of it. He's pursued by an insurance investigator played by Faye Dunaway who was just cresting her own chic a la mode notoriety on the heels of her iconic role in "Bonnie and Clyde". Nothing really happens, the plot is just an excuse for these two beautiful specimens to traipse through a world of money, clothes, sports, cars, and architecture, it's a "Playboy" photo spread come to life. There's no better time capsule pictorial of what the American Male of the mid-century deemed desirable. And to add even more style to the proceedings, director Norman Jewison utilizes a multi-frame editorial device in key sequences to heighten the visual stimulus. Think of a Modrian painting populated with elegant eye candy pictures, all to the haunting strains of the movie's earworm love theme, "The Windmills of Your Mind". Oh, and don't forget one of the sexiest seduction scenes ever filmed where the leads do nothing but play...chess! Unforgettable sophistication.