30. 'The Bicycle Thief' (1948)
The simple, poignant plot of a poor father and his son searching for his stolen bicycle, which is essential to how he earns a living in the dodgy economy of Post-WWII Rome, becomes the grist of a compelling, neorealist masterwork in the hands of director Vittorio De Sica. Winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1950 (the film was released theatrically in the U.S. in 1949), 'Thief' has inspired generations of directors proving that sometimes less is more.

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29. 'Mildred Pierce' (1945)
There's star power to spare courtesy of Best Actress Oscar winner Joan Crawford in this melodramatic noir about a mother who sacrifices everything for her ungrateful whelp of a daughter (Ann Blyth, who you just love to hate). Labeled "box office poison" in the late '30s, Crawford's comeback vehicle, after a two-year hiatus from the screen, was 'Pierce' -- and it proved to be a mother of a comeback. Michael Curtiz directed from the novel by James M. Cain.

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28. 'The Wolf Man' (1945)
Universal Studios ushered in the Golden Age of horror during the '30s and '40s with a spate of classic monster films, and 'The Wolf Man' was the last great entry in that cycle. Lon Chaney Jr. is the scion of a large English country estate but hardly has time to unpack before he contracts a terminal case of Lycanthropy when he's bitten by a werewolf (Bela Lugosi). Chaney would reprise his wolfie role four more times but never quite as chillingly or evocatively as in the original, with its memorable set of dense ground fog and gnarled trees -- perfect habitat for prowling beasts with very large incisors.

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27. 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' (1942)
American mercenary Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper) fights on the side of the loyalists during the Spanish Civil War and soon falls in love with peasant girl Maria (Ingrid Bergman). Ernest Hemingway handpicked Cooper and Bergman for the lead roles in this adaptation of his novel, and the love scenes between them get pretty heated (read: mucho chemistry). Katina Paxinou won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress Award as an earthy, tough-as-nails partisan. (At the time of filming, she herself was a refugee from her Nazi-occupied native Greece.)

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26. 'Adam's Rib' (1949)
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn have never been better than in this witty Battle of the Sexes scripted by Garson Kanin and his wife Ruth Gordon and directed by George Cukor. Spence and Kate play married lawyers who are on opposite sides of an attempted murder case (Judy Holliday, in a breakout role, is an absolute scream as the ditzy defendant). Tracy and Hepburn starred in nine films together -- one of the most successful couplings in screen history -- and this is one of their very best.

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25. 'Meet Me in St. Louis' (1944)
One of the best musicals produced by the vaunted Freed Unit at MGM, 'Louis' continues to stand the test of time as a prime piece of nostalgic Americana that sees the Midwestern Smiths at the crossroads of a family dilemma -- whether to relocate from bucolic St. Louis circa 1904 to New York City. Directed with tons of TLC by Vincente Minnelli (he reportedly fell in love with his future wife Judy Garland on the set), the movie features Garland's bittersweet Yuletide ballad 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,' 'The Boy Next Door' and the Oscar-nominated 'The Trolley Song.'

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24. 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' (1946)
Lana Turner and John Garfield heat up the screen (burn it down actually) as a married woman and a drifter torridly attracted to each other who hatch a plot to kill her husband without fully working out potential consequences like a trip to the gas chamber. Adapted from the crime novel by James M. Cain, the movie was remade less successfully in 1981 starring Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson. The title refers to the fact that, karmically, everyone eventually gets their comeuppance.

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23. 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' (1948)
Humphrey Bogart is grizzled panhandler (and budding paranoiac) Fred C. Dobbs, a man down on his luck in Tampico, Mexico. Mesmerized by tales of the gold to be had in the Sierras, it isn't long before Dobbs and his compatriots (Tim Holt and Walter Huston) head for the hills to prospect for the precious metal. A cautionary tale on how greed can corrupt even the most well-meaning men, 'Madre' showcased a protean performance from Bogart, but it was a father-son affair on Oscar night with John Huston taking Best Director and Screenplay Academy Awards and dad Walter walking off with the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his all-knowing "old man of the mountain" portrayal.

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22. 'They Were Expendable' (1945)
John Ford left the saddle long enough to direct this rousing, patriotic actioner about overmatched American PT boats fighting a hopeless defensive battle against Japanese invaders in the Philippines during the bleak early days of World War II. Robert Montgomery and John Wayne co-star as skippers doing all they can to beat back the enemy against hopeless odds. with a fetching Donna Reed in support as a nurse. (Blake Edwards, decades before his 'Pink Panther' directorial stint, appears unbilled as a crewman.)

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21. 'All the King's Men' (1949)
Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge give career-making performances in this fine adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a corrupt Southern governor with more than a passing resemblance to Louisiana politician Huey Long. In addition to Best Picture laurels, the film earned Crawford and McCambridge Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, respectively. Avoid at all costs the 2006 remake starring Sean Penn, which is a misfire on all counts.

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