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Top 10 Favourite Best Picture Winners (1929-1969)

Throughout this month, I have decided to post a series of Oscar-related articles in anticipation to the 89th Academy Awards ceremony on February 26. To start things off, I thought I would share with you my top 10 favorite Best Picture winners from 1929 to 1969. Please bear in mind that this is my own personal opinion, which of course is limited to the films I have seen so far. 



10. The Sound of Music (1965)
Directed by Robert Wise | Starring Julie Andrews (Maria), Christopher Plummer (Captain von Trapp), Eleanor Parker (Baroness Elsa von Schraeder), Richard Haydn (Max Detweiler) and Charmian Carr (Liesl von Trapp) | 20th Century Fox | 174 minutes

Captain Von Trapp: You brought music back into the house. I had forgotten.
 
 
9. The Lost Weekend (1945)
Directed by Billy Wilder | Starring Ray Milland (Don Birnam), Jane Wyman (Helen St. James), Phillip Terry (Wick Birnam), Howard Da Silva (Nat), Doris Dowling (Gloria) and Frank Faylen («Bim» Nolan) | Paramount Pictures | 99 minutes

Don Birnam: I'm not a drinker; I'm a drunk.
 
 
8. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Directed by William Wyler | Starring Greer Garson (Kay Miniver), Walter Pidgeon (Clem Miniver), Teresa Wright (Carol Beldon), Richard Ney (Vin Miniver), Henry Travers (Mr. Ballard) and Dame May Whitty (Lady Beldon) | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 133 minutes

Kay Miniver: But in war, time is so precious to the young people.
 
 
7. Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Directed by Elia Kazan | Starring Gregory Peck (Phil Green), Dorothy McGuire (Kathy Lacey), John Garfield (Dave Goldman), Celeste Holm (Anne Dettrey), Anne Revere (Mrs. Green) and June Havoc (Elaine Wales) | 20th Century Fox | 118 minutes

Tommy Green: Why don't some people like [Jews]?
Phil Green: Well, I can't really explain it, Tommy.
 
 
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Directed by Victor Fleming | Starring Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara), Clark Gable (Rhett Butler), Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes), Olivia de Havilland (Melanie Hamilton) and Hattie McDaniel (Mammy) | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 221 minutes

Scarlett O'Hara: As God as my witness, I shall never go hungry again.
 
 
5. Marty (1955)
Directed by Delbert Mann | Starring Ernest Borgnine (Marty Piletti), Betsy Blair (Clara Snyder), Joe Mantell (Angie), Esther Minciotti (Theresa Piletti) and August Ciolli (Aunt Catherine) | Hecht-Lancaster and United Artists | 90 minutes

Marty Piletti: You don't like her? That's too bad!

 
Directed by Vincente Minnelli | Starring Gene Kelly (Jerry Mulligan), Leslie Caron (Lise Bouvier), Oscar Levant (Adam Cook), Nina Foch (Milo Roberts) and Georges Guétary (Henri Baurel) | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 113 minutes

Lise Bouvier: Maybe Paris has a way of making people forget.
Jerry Mulligan: Not this city. It's too real and too beautiful to let you forget anything.
 
 
3. Casablanca (1942)
Directed by Michael Curtiz | Starring Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine), Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund), Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo), Claude Rains (Captain Louis Renault), Sydney Greenstret (Signor Ferrari) and Peter Lorre (Signor Ugarte) | Warner Bros. | 102 minutes

Rick Blaine: Here's looking at you, kid.
 
 
Directed by William Wyler | Starring Fredric March (Al Stephenson), Myrna Loy (Milly Stephenson), Teresa Wright (Peggy Stephenson), Dana Andrews (Fred Derry) and Harold Russell (Homer Parish) | RKO Radio Pictures | 172 minutes

Al Stephenson: I should have stayed home and found out what was really going on.

 
1. It Happened One Night (1934)
Directed by Frank Capra | Starring Clark Gable (Peter Warne), Claudette Colbert (Ellen «Ellie» Andrews), Walter Connolly (Alexander Andrews), Roscoe Karns (Oscar Shapeley) and Jameson Thomas (King Westley) | Columbia Pictures | 105 minutes

Ellen «Ellie» Andrews: I'll stop a car and I won't use my thumb.
 
 
And there you have it. My top 10 favorite Best Picture winners from 1929 to 1969.
Did I name some of your favorites? Were you surprised by my choices?

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Comments

  1. Franchot Tone Fan13 February 2017 at 16:23

    Great top ten list! An American in Paris is, to me, the most romantic film of all time and it's hard to beat It Happened One Night. I enjoy your blog and we've participated in many of the same classic film blogathons in the past. I just wanted to let you know that I'll be hosting a Franchot Tone Blogathon in April on my Franchot blog. If you want to join in, please go to:

    http://franchottone.blogspot.com/2017/02/announcing-franchot-tone-blogathon.html

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Phyl16 February 2017 at 05:06

    Only ones I haven't seen are The Lost Weekend and Marty, though my brother has both on dvd :)

    ReplyDelete

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