Shot during the height of Beatlemania in 1964, it chronicles John, Paul, George and Ringo over a hectic 36-hour period as they gear up for a TV appearance.
An immediate hit with both audiences and critics, it was lauded for "trying every cinematic gag in the book" and its zany fantasy inspired a wave of imitator movies featuring other bands and spy film sequences.
Some Like It Hot
This riotous comedy, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, revolves around two musicians who don women's disguises to evade Mafia gangsters.
Monroe's final line is "Nobody's perfect! "... but this three-time Golden Globe winner, released in 1959, certainly is.
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier's thriller was adapted again in 2020 but I have a soft spot for Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 rendition, with Laurence Olivier portraying the tormented widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the heroine unwise enough to become his second wife following Rebecca's death in a "boating accident".
Judith Anderson almost steals the show as the intimidating housekeeper Mrs Danvers.
The One That Got Away
A Second World War film where the Germans come out on top. The story follows Luftwaffe pilot Franz von Werra (Hardy Kruger), who was shot down over Britain in 1940 and nearly escaped by nicking an RAF plane.
However, he did manage to find freedom via the then-neutral USA, after breaking free from a prison train in Canada. As noted in the epilogue of the 1957 drama, von Werra passed away within months of his return.
The L-Shaped Room
This 1962 adaptation of Lynne Reid Banks' novel by Bryan Forbes is often labelled as a kitchen-sink drama, but it's more than that.
It follows an unmarried, pregnant French woman (Leslie Caron) who starts a miserable affair with Toby (Tom Bell) and goes against societal norms by choosing to be a single mother.
Is Paris Burning?
This star-studded epic about the liberation of Paris in 1944 was released 22 years later. Hitler has ordered the destruction of the French capital as Nazi forces retreat, but a citizen uprising forces the Germans to surrender.
The film includes actual footage of the battle, though in my opinion, the most memorable part is Maurice Jarre's score.
The 39 Steps
Hitchcock's 1935 adaptation, featuring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll, is the first and, in my opinion, the best version of John Buchan's adventure novel, with scenes on the Forth railway bridge.
It narrates the tale of Richard Hannay's struggle to expose a German spy ring, culminating in a dramatic climax at the London Palladium.
I'm Alright, Jack
A brilliant satire on British industrial unrest in 1959, when unions were powerful and workers would strike at the slightest provocation. Peter Sellers bagged a BAFTA for his depiction of shop steward Fred Kite, who instigates a walk-out at a missile factory.
His wife spearheads a nationwide housewives' protest against the strike.
Whisky Galore!
Inspired by a true event the wartime wreck of a ship carrying 50,000 cases of whisky off a Scottish island that has run dry of Scotch.
The ensuing scramble between islanders to loot the stranded vessel and the excise enforcers trying to prevent them descends into farce in this 1949 Ealing comedy, featuring Basil Radford and Joan Greenwood.
The Big Sleep
Humphrey Bogart takes centre stage as the smooth-talking detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the deadly seductress Vivian Rutledge.
Howard Hawks' 1946 adaptation would be just another crime film with an impossibly twisted plot and numerous memorable lines ("dead men are heavier than broken hearts") if it weren't for the captivating Bogie and Bacall dynamic.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Bold young engineering worker Arthur (masterfully portrayed by Albert Finney) leads a carefree life of alcohol and women. "All I want is a good time, all the rest is propaganda" is his mantra.
But in Karel Reisz's 1960 drama, he is ensnared by steady girlfriend Doreen (Shirley Anne Field), reluctantly settling for domestic tranquillity.
Closely Observed Trains
My top pick for a foreign film is a 1966 Czech comedy that masterfully blends satire against authoritarianism with a tragic war drama.
The plot revolves around the maturation of an innocent young train dispatcher at a rural railway station, whose clumsy attempts to lose his virginity nearly result in suicide. It boasts some of the most hilarious scenes in cinema.
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