THE GREAT FILMS

Substituting ""Great"" rather than ""Best,"" and emphasizing that the fifty films included here are not necessarily his personal favorites, the New York Times movie critic has assembled this half century's worth of memorable moments based (loosely) on the criterion of ""content"" i.e. those that emphasize observation and criticism of society. And he provides a judicious amount of content in his synopses along with a dearth of criticism. You won't find the snappy wit and insight of a Kael or Crist in the copy but the accompanying pictures will presumably compensate for the too obvious observations and stilted prose. Included are: The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nanook of the North, Greed, The Gold Rush, Potemkin, The Blue Angel, All's Quiet on the Western Front, The Public Enemy, King Kong, Camille, Ninotchka, Gone with the Wind, The Grapes of Wrath, Fantasia, Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Henry V. Monsieur Verdou, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Bicycle Thief, Sunset Boulevard, Rasho-Mn, Forbidden Games, Shane, On the Waterfront, La Strada, The Seventh Seal, The Paul Trilogy, La Dolce Vita, Tom Jones, Blow-Up and Ulysses.