Classic Movies in Every Genre

By Laurie Boeder, About.com Guide to Classic Movies

In the mood for a classic romantic comedy? A deathless drama? An edge-of-your-seat thriller? How about some early sci-fi or a classic kid's movie? You've come to the right place.

1. Comedies and Romance
2. Drama and Biography
3. Mysteries and Suspense

4. Science Fiction and Horror
5. Epics and War Movies
6. Westerns

Comedies and Romance

From slapstick to black humor, movies to make you laugh.

• American Graffiti
• The Apartment
• Blazing Saddles
• The Bishop's Wife
• Breakfast at Tiffany's
• Cat Ballou
• Dr. Strangelove
• Duck Soup
• The Great Dictator

• It Happened One Night
• The Man Who Came to Dinner
• Monty Python's Life of Brian
• The Philadelphia Story
• Sabrina
• The Shop Around the Corner
• Some Like It Hot
• To Catch a Thief
• Young Frankenstein

Drama and Biography

Serious stories and the lives of the famous told on film.

• The African Queen
• All About Eve
• The Apartment
• Casablanca
• Gone With The Wind
• It's a Wonderful Life

• Sergeant York
• She Done Him Wrong
• Stalag 17
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Mysteries and Suspense

Whodunits, detective dramas, film noir and thrillers

• The 39 Steps
• The Big Sleep
• Charade
• The Maltese Falcon
• North by Northwest
• Rear Window
• Strangers on a Train

• Sunset Boulevard
• The Taking of Pelham 123
• To Catch a Thief
• To Have and Have Not
• Witness for the Prosecution
• Vertigo

Science Fiction and Horror

Rockets and robots, ghouls and ghosts, fantasy films.

• Alien
• Carrie
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Forbidden Planet

• The Incredible Shrinking Man
• The Invisible Man
• King Kong - 1933
• The War of the Worlds

Epics and War Movies

Sweeping historical sagas, films of great literature and Hollywood at war.

• African Queen
• Ben Hur
• Casablanca
• Gone With the Wind

• To Have and Have Not
• Sergeant York
• Stalag 17
• Swiss Family Robinson

Westerns

Shoot-em-ups, cowboys and Indians, tales of the old West.

• 3:10 to Yuma
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Cat Ballou
• The Searchers