100 Favorite Classic Hollywood Films from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s

And the Stars Who Appeared in Them

By: Gary Koca

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In two past books that I have written, I focused on Forgotten Stars of the 1930s through the 1950s; that is stars who were pretty big movie stars in their time but that most people today would not be familiar with unless they were fans of classic Hollywood films of that era. I have also written books on great Western stars and on good and bad science fiction movies of the 1950s. In this book, however, I am concentrating on my favorite 100 movies of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. I have focused on American films only, with a few British films included also. (I am not an expert on foreign language films, so there are none in here.) Please note that this means that they are MY favorite films, not the BEST films of those three decades. For example, Citizen Kane (along with Casablanca) are generally regarded as the best two American films of the classic era. However, while I like Citizen Kane, it is just not one of my favorite films, and I’m not really sure why. Perhaps I never thought it really justified its ranking, so I dropped it from my list altogether. The same thing would apply to Vertigo, although I have two other Hitchcock films in the list. I will also admit that I am partial to certain genres of films, in particular the following: • Westerns • Film noir • Monster movies • Horror movies • Mysteries, particular those of Alfred Hitchcock • Swashbucklers • musicals