Your New Year's Resolution: A Movie A Week (Part 2 of 7)

To read Part 1, click here.

To help with your New Year's Resolution to watch a movie a week, here are the first ten thumbnail descriptions of the films I've suggested. In case you've seen all these, I'm also offering up related titles. And if you've seen all of them, you shouldn't be reading this blog, you should be writing it.

The General (1926). Silent Action Comedy. A lovelorn engineer battles spies who hijack his train during the American Civil War. Dir. Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman. Starring Buster Keaton, Marion Mack. More Keaton: One Week, The Boat, Cops, Our Hospitality, Sherlock, Jr., The Navigator, Steamboat Bill, Jr., The Cameraman (actor).

Trouble in Paradise (1932). Sophisticated Comedy. Thieves fall in love and bilk a beautiful, rich widow out of her fortune. Dir. Ernst Lubitsch. Starring Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis. More Lubitsch: Design for Living, Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, To Be Or Not To Be, Heaven Can Wait (1943).

King Kong (1933). Horror. During a long weekend in New York, a giant ape takes an old girlfriend to the top of the Empire State Building. Dir. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. Starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot. More Monsters: The Thing From Another World, The War of the Worlds, Godzilla, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, Predator.

It Happened One Night (1934). Romantic Comedy. A scheming reporter falls for a rich, runaway bride. Dir. Frank Capra. Starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly. More Capra: The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Lady for a Day, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace, It's a Wonderful Life.

The Thin Man (1934). Mystery Comedy. A retired detective, his socialite wife and their wire haired terrier solve a string of murders. Dir. W.S. Van Dyke. Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Asta, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendelton. More Powell: The Last Command, Jewel Robbery, One Way Passage, After the Thin Man, Libeled Lady, My Man Godfrey, I Love You Again, Life with Father. More Loy: The Best Years of Our Lives, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Horror. As the song says, "man must have his mate" — even one stitched together from spare body parts! Dir. James Whale. Starring Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Ernest Thesiger. More Early Horror: The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Unknown (1927), The Man Who Laughs (1928), Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Freaks (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), Cat People (1942), I Walked With a Zombie, The Body Snatcher (1945).

A Night at the Opera (1935). Comedy. A shady promoter and two stowaways disrupt an opera in the name of love. Dir. Sam Wood. Starring the Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Sig Ruman, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones. More Marx Bros.: Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Day at the Races.

Top Hat (1935). Musical Comedy. Astaire and Rogers sing and dance their way through a Hollywood sound stage named "Venice, Italy." Dir. Mark Sandrich. Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes, Helen Broderick. More Astaire and Rogers: The Gay Divorcee, Swing Time, Shall We Dance.

Modern Times (1936). Silent Comedy. The Little Tramp gets ground up in the gears of the modern world. Dir. Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard. More Chaplin: The Immigrant, A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights.

The Wizard of Oz (1939). Musical Fantasy. A farm girl in red shoes makes friends and confronts an evil witch in the Technicolor land of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. Starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, Frank Morgan. More Children's Classics: A Plumbing We Will Go, National Velvet, The Muppet Movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, Babe, A Little Princess (1995), The Parent Trap (1998), Freaky Friday (2003), The Harry Potter Franchise, Paddington, Paddington 2.

Tomorrow: Part 3 (The 1940s)