25 Films Added to National Film Registry
Films teaching Cold War children to "duck and cover" and describing how Oskar Schindler saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust are being added to the National Film Registry. Also being preserved: Elvis Presley and Rin Tin Tin.

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Also on this year's list: movies starring Popeye the Sailor Man, Our Gang, Ginger Rodgers and Fred Astaire.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington made the selections after evaluating nearly 1,000 titles nominated by the public and consulting staff and advisers, the library said.

"The films we choose are not necessarily the 'best' American films ever made or the most famous," Billington said in a statement. Rather, they are chosen because they have "cultural, historical or aesthetic significance."

Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers ???

Also included in the list are Schindler's List, Ben-Hur, Unforgiven, Eraserhead, Jailhouse Rock, The Nutty Professor (1963), D.O.A., Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Enter the Dragon.

I've just requested "garlic" from the library. I can't find anything about Kannapolis, NC on IMDB. Anyone know anything about this?

This article has more information on the winners, including Garlic:

Since The Nutty Professor got a clarifying date ...

Which Ben-Hur? (There are three, dating from 1907, 1925 and 1959.) And I assume the D.O.A. in question is not the 1988 Dennis Quaid / Meg Ryan remake.

Ben-Hur 1959, DOA 1950

The list

It's not copyrighted (nothing from the government is), so we can reproduce it here:

1. Ben-Hur (1959)
2. The Blue Bird (1918)
3. A Bronx Morning (1931)
4. Clash of the Wolves (1925)
5. The Court Jester (1956)
6. D.O.A. (1950)
7. Daughters of the Dust (1991)
8. Duck and Cover (1951)
9. Empire (1964)
10. Enter the Dragon (1973)
11. Eraserhead (1978)
12. Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980)
13. Going My Way (1944)
14. Jailhouse Rock (1957)
15. Kannapolis, NC (1941)
16. Lady Helen's Escapade (1909)
17. The Nutty Professor (1963)
18. OffOn (1968)
19. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936)
20. Pups is Pups (Our Gang) (1930)
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
23. Swing Time (1936)
24. There It Is (1928)
25. Unforgiven (1992)

: 5. The Court Jester (1956)

YES!! One of my all-time top ten.

: 22. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Another of my childhood favorites!

Actually, this one surprsed me. Not that it made the registry, but that it wasn't already there.

It's not quite time for the new list of additions at the Library of Congress, but as I was looking around I discoverd:
Candidates for the National Film Registry: The Public Reviews

* Find out information on this ongoing film series at the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater. Check out the film introductions-- Camille, Choose Me, Daughter of Shanghai, The Desert Song, Face Behind the Mask, Fang and Claw & Tiger Fangs, The Florentine Dagger, From Here to Eternity, King of the Khyber Rifles, My Sister Eileen (1942), My Sister Eileen (1953), Outcast and Legion of Terror, 1776, Those Three French Girls and A Damsel in Distress, Two-Lane Blacktop, The Wild One and Gimme Shelter, and With Williamson Beneath the Sea.

(there are links to introductions of each film here.)

Two-Lane Blacktop is worthy of this list?

The class of 2005:
Baby Face (1933)
The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975)
The Cameraman (1928)
Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940 (1940)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
The French Connection (1971)
Giant (1956)
H2O (1929)
Hands Up (1926)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
House of Usher (1960)
Imitation of Life (1934)
Jeffries-Johnson World's Championship Boxing Contest (1910)
Making of an American (1920)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Mom and Dad (1944)
The Music Man (1962)
Power of the Press (1928)
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906 (1906)
The Sting (1973)
A Time for Burning (1966)
Toy Story (1995)

The Library of Congress announcement with notes on each film

I'm really gonna have to see if "Commandment Keeping Church" is available.

Shouting out for Cool Hand Luke and for the absense of Two Lane Blacktop

Overall, I think this is an excellent class for the Registry.

I wish somebody would make a deal with LOC (and various copyright holders if needed) to make DVDs of some of the more obscure things they list. Commandment Keeping Church and Buffalo Creek Flood aren't even on IMDB (they'll probably have to add it now.) There are shorts and other rare films that if LOC is looking to preserve these, they really ought to be put out into the world to be seen.

The good news, A Time for Burning is in my library system, so I've got it on order, along with a KEaton collection that includes The Cameraman.

Watched A Time for Burning today. What a great choice for the Registry. Might be worth consideration of Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films. consider this a recommendation to add it to your queues.

Darrel,

Visited that movie's page at the IMDB and saw that it doesn't have a review. Would you consider adding one?

I'll have to see what I can come up with. I'm starting work on a study guide for use in churches to be sent to our regional Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Committee.

review posted. I'll submit it to IMDB -- it'll be cool being the only review available.


Any discussion probably warrants a thread for the film.

Antoher 25 titles added to the National Registry:

1) Applause (1929)

2) The Big Trail (1930)

3) Blazing Saddles (1974)

4) The Curse of Quon Gwon (1916-17)

5) Daughter of Shanghai (1937)

6) Drums of Winter (1988)

7) Early Abstractions #1-5,7,10 (1939-56)

8) Fargo (1996)

9) Flesh and the Devil (1927)

10) Groundhog Day (1993)

11) Halloween (1978)

12) In the Street (1948/52)

13) The Last Command (1928)

14) Notorious (1946)

15) Red Dust (1932)

16) Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971-72)

17) Rocky (1976)

18) Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)

19) Siege (1940)

20) St. Louis Blues (1929)

21) The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

22) Tess of the Storm Country (1914)

23) Think of Me First as a Person (1960-75)

24) A Time Out of War (1954)

25) Traffic in Souls (1913)

Some commentary from Dave Kehr can be found here. Summary: A good year for the avant-garde, but a question mark as to the historical importance of Blazing Saddles.

Fargo kind of surprises me for the list. 1996 would mean it gets in on 1st year of eligibility. It's not that I don't think it's worthy, but so soon?

Why is it worthy? I never "got" that movie.

Are you worthy if you didn't get it? Actually, I take your point. It is certainly open to debate to what extent it fits the Registry criteria. Rocky I think certainly fits the criteria. I would even go with Blazing Saddles. (The announcement at the Library of Congress site, btw, has notes about each film). Certainly Fargo is no Willie Mays (in Cooperstown in his first year eligible).

This doesn't strike me as being as strong as recent lists. I wonder if there's been some turnover in the selection group.

The National Film Registry hasn't heeded your shoutout, Darrel, but Criterion has. Maybe now I'll finally be able to see this film.

Actually, my shout out was cheering the failure to add Two Lane Black Top to the list. Don't blame watching it on me.

Oh.

This year's additions:

• Back to the Future (1985)
• Bullitt (1968)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
• Dances With Wolves (1990)
• Days of Heaven (1978)
• Glimpse of the Garden (1957)
• Grand Hotel (1932)
• The House I Live In (1945)
• In a Lonely Place (1950)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
• Mighty Like a Moose (1926)
• The Naked City (1948)
• Now, Voyager (1942)
• Oklahoma! (1955)
• Our Day (1938)
• Peege (1972)
• The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928)
• The Strong Man (1926)
• Three Little Pigs (1933)
• Tol’able David (1921)
• Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son (1969-71)
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• The Women (1939)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)

Ah, some of my favorites are making it in, including (on most days) my favorite film ever (...Valance). Lots of hard-boiled/noir stuff is making it in each year. Methinks that's a good thing.

Peter, I just glanced over your Top 10 and noticed that while The Court Jester is referenced (under The Adventures of Robin Hood), it isn't actually on the list. Did it get bumped? When and to what?

Oh, I see you're counting it along with Robin Hood, so it's really a Top 11. Nevermind...

Now I can rest easy knowing that 12 Angry Men is safely stored.

Looking forward to the next installment in their excellent Treasures from the American Film Archives series.

I always look forward to this announcement. It amazes me each year that some of the films weren't already named to the registry. (Like Oklahoma! and 12 Angry Men). Happy to see The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance added. Questionable choice of the year: Back to the Future. Looking forward to seeing Sex Life of a Polyp.

SDG wrote:
: Oh, I see you're counting it along with Robin Hood, so it's really a Top 11. Nevermind...

Yeah, I grew up watching both films kind of interchangeably, so I can't really separate them into separate entries. It helps that each film is so good that it deserves to be on an all-time-best list anyway.