The Internet Archive is an amazing resource with thousands of freely available videos. I wanted to help moderate some of these treasures, so I compiled the Top 100 IA Feature Films list. Every few days, I count down another title that isn’t just pretty good for a free movie, it’s just plain good.
For this list, I confined myself to items in the IA Feature Films collection that were scripted, full-length, spoken English-language films. I’m already compiling lists of great silent films and documentaries, and I’ll run those after the Top 100 is complete.
The rankings are strongly informed by IMDB user ratings but also include consideration from Leonard Maltin’s ratings and a few nudges from me. When you disagree, please leave a comment with some reasons why.
Except for just one thing, this list, this site and I have no official connection to the Internet Archive. That one thing is donations. I support the Archive and maybe you should too.
The settings seem more claustrophobic than high-budget, but Suddenly delivers a surprisingly taut thriller. Frank Sinatra, fresh off a best supporting actor Oscar the year before, stars as the leader of a group of assassins who terrorize one family’s house as they wait for the President to pass by.
Leonard Maltin gave this slice of film noir 3½ (of 4) stars, helping it move up the chart on the Internet Archive Top 100.
In Which We Serve is the first movie in the Internet Archive Top 100 list with a perfect 4-star rating from Leonard Maltin. (Or the last, if you’re reading them 1 to 100.) It was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay (Noel Coward). Coward, who also scored, co-directed and starred, won an honorary Academy Award for his “outstanding production achievement”. The New York Film Critics Circle and National Board of Review both named it the best film of 1942.
Maltin wrote, “Unlike many WW2 films, this masterpiece doesn’t date one bit”. It’s the story of the crew of a British destroyer, told in flashback. If you’ve never seen it before, this is your chance.
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne show off some serious chemistry in Penny Serenade, a retrospective of a couple’s courtship and child-rearing, set to a record album titled “The Story of a Happy Marriage”. They meet in the music store where Dunne’s character works, and their lives are a whirl of world travel, newspapers, and a song for every scene.
Grant was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, the first of only two Academy Award nominations he received. This movie is an effective tear-jerker and a counterbalance to the more serious war movies and film noir that are a big part of the Internet Archive Top 100.
Three Came Home is based on the true story of Agnes Newton Keith, an author who spent three years in Japanese internment camps after they invaded her community in Borneo. She was separated from her husband and had to raise their son under demanding conditions. Claudette Colbert starred as Keith.
Although this was the only copy of this movie that would embed, its sound loses synchronization midway through. To watch it more easily, try this MP4 version available for download. It’s worth it to see such a highly ranked film in the Internet Archive Top 100.
The Way Ahead is an inspiring war film starring David Niven showing how disparate civilians came together to work as a British Army fighting unit. It was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov and directed by Carol Reed, who together had created a similar 44-minute training film in 1943. The Way Ahead was an expanded remake of that earlier film.
Niven’s autobiography said that the film was shown for many years for training at the British Army’s officer training school where he had graduated in 1930. It’s that good, in fact all of the top 25 in the Internet Archive Top 100 are Leonard Maltin-rated 3½ (of 4) stars or better.