Every October the old monsters come out to play, and every October there is an argument to be made that the best Frankenstein picture of them all is the one that was played for laughs. Mel Brooks‘ Young Frankenstein opened in December 1974, and more than half a century later it remains that rarest of things, a parody made with so much love for its source that it ends up standing right beside it.
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Monty Python’s Life of Brian came out in 1979, directed by Terry Jones, written by all six Pythons together, and produced by John Goldstone, with George Harrison quietly saving the whole production by financing it himself after the original studio got cold feet and walked. Graham Chapman plays Brian Cohen, born in the stable next door to a rather more famous baby on the same night, and cursed for the rest of his short life with extraordinarily bad timing. I have loved this film for longer than I can honestly account for, and every time I sit back down with it, I’m struck again by how a movie this silly manages to also be this wise.
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Stanley Kubrick read more than forty books about nuclear war before he made this film, and what he concluded was that nobody really knew anything and the whole situation was absurd. That conclusion is the movie. It is the funniest film ever made about the end of the world, and the most frightening, and sixty years after its release it has not stopped being either one.
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Rear Window (1954) — Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr. 112 minutes. Rated PG.
Alfred Hitchcock made films that asked you to be uncomfortable with yourself, and Rear Window is the most honest of them all about why. There is no monster in this film, no thunderstorm, no castle on a hill. There is only a window, a courtyard, a man in a wheelchair, and the oldest of human impulses: the need to watch other people without being watched back. By the time the film is over, Hitchcock has made you complicit in that impulse and then made you answer for it. That is the genius.
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Born on August 13, 1899, in Leytonstone, East London, Alfred Hitchcock entered the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer and worked his way through every department — art direction, editing, screenwriting — before landing behind the director’s chair. That ground-level apprenticeship showed in everything he made. By the time producer David O. Selznick lured him to Hollywood in 1939, he had already directed 23 films in Britain and was the most sophisticated thriller filmmaker working anywhere.
Hollywood gave him resources, technology and the biggest stars of the era — Cary Grant, James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman — and he used all of it with a control that made lesser directors look like they were guessing.
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Few movie musicals blend big-stage glamour with real emotional depth as beautifully as Funny Girl. Directed by William Wyler, the 1968 classic follows the life of entertainer Fanny Brice, tracing her journey from an underestimated Brooklyn girl to a headlining star of the Ziegfeld Follies—all while exploring the complicated love story between Fanny and gambler Nicky Arnstein. IMDB Link.
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There’s a kind of magic in Roman Holiday that doesn’t fade with time. Directed by William Wyler and released in 1953, the film stars Audrey Hepburn in her breakout role as Princess Ann and Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley, a charming but down-on-his-luck American reporter in Rome. It’s a romantic comedy wrapped in adventure, but what makes it unforgettable isn’t just its black-and-white beauty or the postcard-perfect scenes of Rome—it’s the quiet humanity that runs through it.
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The Maltese Falcon isn’t just a movie—it’s tension filled with a dose of wit, and human greed wrapped in a noir shadow. Directed by John Huston in his very first feature, the film is sharp, stylish, and endlessly rewatchable. It has everything you want: mystery, danger, and characters who lie, cheat, and scheme with a smile.
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