TV Guide Magazine (August 8-14, 1998 issue) offered their picks for the perfect flicks to catch on television or to watch on one's VCR (or DVD player). From hundreds of the magazine's four-star titles, they chose the movies that played particularly well on the small screen and held up to repeated viewings. Their one golden standard was how much fun they were to watch. These were the films -- from Chaplin to Hanks, Kane to Vader -- that represented the Hollywood dream machine at its most inspired. They included monster films, heroes, villains, gangsters, and more.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the "100 Greatest Films".

Facts About The List:

• The TV Guide list ranged from their # 50 pick, the best of the Universal monster movies by James Whale titled Bride of Frankenstein (1935), to their # 1 choice - Francis Ford Coppola's mobster sequel The Godfather Part II (1974)
  
  
• The films were broken down by decade, as follows: the 1930's: 8 films, the 1940's: 8 films, the 1950's: 11 films, the 1960's: 6 films, the 1970's: 10 films, the 1980's: 3 films, and the 1990's: 4 films. The decade with the most films was the 1950's. The earliest film was: Duck Soup (1933) (# 19), and the most recent film was Babe (1995) (# 44) and Apollo 13 (1995) (# 34)
  
  
• Musicals or dance films were represented by: Cabaret (1972) (# 47), Top Hat (1935) (# 45), Saturday Night Fever (1977) (# 41), the soundtrack of American Graffiti (1973) (# 37), The Lion King (1994) (# 29), Singin' In the Rain (1952) (# 6), and The Wizard of Oz (1939) (# 4)
  
  
• Westerns were represented by only two films: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) (# 46), and John Ford's The Searchers (1956) (# 18)
  
  
• Classic dramas were represented by: On the Waterfront (1954) (# 40), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) (# 31), Gone With the Wind (1939) (# 28), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (# 25), All About Eve (1950) (# 23), Raging Bull (1980) (# 20), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (# 5), and Casablanca (1942) (# 2)
  
  
• Horror films (and mystery/suspense films) included: Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (# 50), Otto Preminger's murder mystery Laura (1944) (# 39), the scary The Exorcist (1973) (# 26), Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) (# 11), Chinatown (1974) (# 9), and Psycho (1960) (# 8)
  
  
• Gangster/cop films included: Dirty Harry (1971) (# 49), The Godfather (1972) (# 7), and The Godfather Part II (1974) (# 1)
  
  
• Entertaining action-adventure films included: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (# 43), The African Queen (1951) (# 35), and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (# 27)
  
  
• Only a few film noirs were represented: Double Indemnity (1944) (# 24) and Sunset Blvd. (1950) (# 16)
  
  
• Epics or Biopics included: Apollo 13 (1995) (# 34), Schindler's List (1993) (# 33), Gone With the Wind (1939) (# 28), Raging Bull (1980) (# 20), The Godfather (1972) (# 7), Citizen Kane (1941) (# 3), and The Godfather Part II (1974) (# 1)
  
  
• Family films or children's films included: Babe (1995) (# 44), The Lion King (1994) (# 29), Pinocchio (1940) (# 13), Frank Capra's Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) (# 12), and The Wizard of Oz (1939) (# 4)
  
  
• Comedies were well-represented by: Modern Times (1936) (# 42), The Graduate (1967) (# 36), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) (# 32), writer/director Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story (1942) (# 30), Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939) (# 22), with Greta Garbo, Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) (# 21), the Marx Brothers' lunatic anti-war comedy Duck Soup (1933) (# 19), Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) (# 17) with Marilyn Monroe, The Philadelphia Story (1940) (# 15) with Katharine Hepburn, and Howard Hawks' classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938) (# 14)
  
  
• Films with Romance included: The Quiet Man (1952) (# 48), The Graduate (1967) (# 36), The Palm Beach Story (1942) (# 30), Gone With the Wind (1939) (# 28), Ninotchka (1939) (# 22), Annie Hall (1977) (# 21), Some Like It Hot (1959) (# 17), The Philadelphia Story (1940) (# 15), Bringing Up Baby (1938) (# 14), and Casablanca (1942) (# 2)
  
  
• There were only a few animations in the TV Guide list: The Lion King (1994) (# 29), and Pinocchio (1940) (# 13), and there were some animatronics in Babe (1995) (# 44)
  
  
• The top 10 films in the TV Guide selections were all films that Filmsite.org had selected for its top 100 list, including Arthur Penn's landmark film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (# 10), director Roman Polanski's modern-day noir Chinatown (1974) (# 9), Alfred Hitchcock's classic slasher Psycho (1960) (# 8), Coppola's first gangster film The Godfather (1972) (# 7), the classic Gene Kelly musical Singin' In the Rain (1952) (# 6), the courtroom-related drama To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (# 5), the family favorite The Wizard of Oz (1939) (# 4), Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941) (# 3), the perennial romance Casablanca (1942) (# 2), and The Godfather Part II (1974) (# 1)
  
  
• Films that Filmsite.org has also selected for its top 100 list included these films in their bottom 25: Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (# 50), John Ford's Irish classic with John Wayne The Quiet Man (1952) (# 48), the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic Top Hat (1935) (# 45), Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) (# 42), Marlon Brando's powerhouse performance in On the Waterfront (1954) (# 40), the first modern blockbuster Jaws (1975) (# 38), director Mike Nichols' generational comedy The Graduate (1967) (# 36), Humphrey Bogart's Oscar-winning performance in John Huston's The African Queen (1951) (# 35), Steven Spielberg's Holocaust epic Schindler's List (1993) (# 33), Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) (# 32), rebel James Dean in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955) (# 31), and the grand Civil War epic Gone With the Wind (1939) (# 30) with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable
  

Also see another list of TV Guide's picks from their March 24-30, 2001 issue - they offered their list of cinematic greatness - the 50 Greatest Movie Moments of All Time.