Ebert's Four Star Films
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- DirectorGiovanni PastroneStarsItalia Almirante-ManziniLidia QuarantaBartolomeo PaganoCabiria is a Roman child when her home is destroyed by a volcano. Sold in Carthage to be sacrificed in a temple, she is saved by Fulvio, a Roman spy. But danger lurks, and hatred between Rome and Carthage can only lead to war.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRichard BarthelmessDonald CrispA frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorRupert HughesStarsEleanor BoardmanMae BuschBarbara La MarrA young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.
- DirectorFred C. NewmeyerSam TaylorStarsHarold LloydMildred DavisBill StrotherA boy leaves his small country town and heads to the big city to get a job. As soon as he makes it big his sweetheart will join him and marry him. His enthusiasm to get ahead leads to some interesting adventures.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftMax HillerAn aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsGibson GowlandZasu PittsJean HersholtThe sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
- DirectorRupert JulianLon ChaneyErnst LaemmleStarsLon ChaneyMary PhilbinNorman KerryA mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGösta EkmanEmil JanningsCamilla HornThe demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul.
- DirectorClyde BruckmanBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonMarion MackGlen CavenderAfter being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsAlbert DieudonnéVladimir RoudenkoEdmond Van DaëleA film about the French general's youth and early military career.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinMerna KennedyAl Ernest GarciaThe Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsJean DebucourtMarguerite GanceCharles LamyAllan visits the sinister Usher family mansion, where his friend Roderick is painting a portrait of his sickly wife Madeline. The portrait seems to be draining the life out of Madeline, slowly leading to her death.
- DirectorPaul LeniStarsMary PhilbinConrad VeidtJulius MolnarWhen a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksFritz KortnerFrancis LedererThe rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGeorge O'BrienJanet GaynorMargaret LivingstonA sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsAnna KarinaMichel SuborHenri-Jacques HuetDuring the Algerian War, a man and woman from opposing sides fall in love with one another.
- DirectorPeter BrookStarsPatrick MageeClifford RoseGlenda JacksonIn an insane asylum, Marquis de Sade directs Jean Paul Marat's last days through a theater play. The actors are the patients.
- DirectorRobert MulliganStarsPatrick BedfordSandy DennisEileen HeckartThe experiences of a young female English teacher in an inner-city New York high school.
- DirectorStanley DonenStarsAudrey HepburnAlbert FinneyEleanor BronA couple in the south of France non-sequentially spin down the highways of infidelity in their troubled ten-year marriage.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsMichael AspelPeter GrahamDave BaldwinA docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsElizabeth TaylorMarlon BrandoBrian KeithBizarre tale of sex, betrayal, and perversion at a military post.
- DirectorJoshua LoganStarsRichard HarrisVanessa RedgraveFranco NeroThe story of the marriage of England's King Arthur to Guinevere. The plot of illegitimate Mordred to gain the throne and Guinevere's growing attachment to Sir Lancelot, threaten to topple Arthur and destroy his "round table" of knights.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsVirna LisiGastone MoschinAlberto LionelloThree stories, all set in Treviso. Various couple experience adultery at a party, a bank clerk abandons his wife for his mistress and all the men in the end are prosecuted for having intercourse with an underage girl.
- DirectorBo WiderbergStarsPia DegermarkThommy BerggrenLennart MalmerThe Danish tightrope dancer Elvira Madigan meets Lieutenant Sixten Sparre, a Swedish officer who is married and has two children. They both decide to run away.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracySidney PoitierKatharine HepburnA couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter introduces them to her African-American fiancé.
- DirectorStanley DonenStarsPeter CookDudley MooreEleanor BronA hapless loser sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for seven wishes, but has trouble winning over the girl of his dreams.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJeanne MoreauMargaret RutherfordWhen King Henry IV ascends to the throne, his heir, the Prince of Wales, is befriended by Sir John Falstaff, an old, overweight, fun-loving habitual liar. Through Falstaff's eyes we see the reign of King Henry IV and the rise of Henry V.
- DirectorTheodore J. FlickerStarsJames CoburnGodfrey CambridgeSevern DardenWhen the overworked and stressed-out White House presidential shrink runs away, the CEA and the FBR scramble to retrieve him before he could be abducted by various competing foreign intelligence services.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsAnil ChatterjeeMadhavi MukherjeeJaya BachchanLife at home changes when a house-wife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a saleswoman.
- DirectorMark RydellStarsKeir DulleaSandy DennisAnne HeywoodBased on D.H. Lawrence's novella about two young women - sickly, chattering Jill Banford and quiet, strong Ellen March - who are trying, hopelessly, to run a chicken farm in Canada. A gentle but powerful man named Paul Grenfell who used to live on their farm returns and puts things in order. But his proposal of marriage to Ellen awakens the homosexuality dormant in the girls: Jill uses her weakness to make Ellen feel protective, and the women become active lovers.