635  Free Movies Online:  Great Classics, Indiies, Noir, Westerns etc.

Where to watch free movies online? Let’s get you started. We have listed here 300+ quality films that you can watch online. The collection is divided into the following categories: Comedy & Drama; Film Noir, Horror & Hitchcock; Westerns & John Wayne; Silent Films; Documentaries, and Animation.

Comedy and Drama

  • A Farewell to Arms – Free – Buy DVD – Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes star in film based on famous novel by Ernest Hemingway. (1932)
  • Alexander Nevsky – Free – Buy DVD – A historical drama film directed by the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. Alternate version on YouTube here. (1938)
  • Alice in Wonderland – Free – Theatrical version of Lewis Carroll’s classic features a combination of live characters and puppets, created by master puppeteer Louis Bunin. (1949)
  • All Quiet on the Western Front – Free – Buy DVD – This is a classic based on a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. (1930)
  • Andrei Rublev – Free – Buy DVD – Andrei Tarkovsky’s film charting life of the great icon painter. (1966)
  • Angel on My Shoulder – Free – Buy DVD – A gangster comedy starring Claude Rains and Paul Muni. (1946)
  • Baby Doll – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Elia Kazan. Written by Tennessee Williams. With Karl Malden and Carroll Baker. A controversial film that ended up being an award winner. (1956)
  • Becky Sharp – Free – The first feature film to use three-strip Technicolor film, or, put differently, the first real color film. (1935).
  • Breathless/Au bout de souffle – Free – Buy DVD – Godard’s classic with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. (1960)
  • Bringing Up Baby – Free – Classic comedy/romance film directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Charles Ruggles. (1938
  • Captain Kidd – Free – Charles Laughton and John Carradine star in film with drama on the high seas (1945).
  • Caravaggio – Free – Buy DVD – Derek Jarman’s short film on the life and work of the great painter. (1986)
  • Charade – Free – Buy DVD – Starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Part romance, comedy and thriller, it has been called “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made.” (1963) (US viewers only)
  • Cul-de-Sac – Free – Buy DVD – A psychological thriller by Roman Polanski, the film stars Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, and Jacqueline Bisset. (1966)
  • Cyrano De Bergerac – Free – Michael Gordon’s tale based on the classic French tale. (1950)
  • Death Sentence – Free – Directed by EW Swackhamer. With Cloris Leachman, Laurence Luckinbill, Nick Nolte, Alan Oppenheimer. (1974)
  • Downtown 81 – Free – Feature film starring the legendary American artist Jean Michel Basquiat. (1980)
  • Dr. Strangelove – Free – Buy DVD – Stanley Kubrick’s classic. (1964) (US audience only)
  • Dry Summer – Free – Turkish film restored by Martin Scorsese’s WCF. (1974)
  • East of Borneo – Free – One of America’s most famous surrealist short films with Rose Hobart. (1931)
  • Escape from Sobibor – Free – Alan Arkin stars in film revisiting Jewish breakout from Nazi death camp. (1987)
  • Evidence – Free – From the maker of Koyaanisqatsi, a short film about kids watching cartoons (1995).
  • Eyes Without a Face – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Georges Franju. French film subtitled in English. (1960)
  • Fear and Desire – Free – An uncut print of Stanley Kubrick’s “lost” early film. Kubrick didn’t like how his first film came out, so removed it from circulation. (1953)
  • Fists of Fury – Free – Bruce Lee’s first major film in Hong Kong (1971).
  • Five Minutes to Live – Free – Amazing bank heist movie stars Johnny Cash, Vic Tayback, Ron Howard, and country music great, Merle Travis. (1961)
  • Flamenco at 5:15 – Free – Oscar-winning short film about flamenco dance class given to senior students. (1983)
  • Freaks – Free – Tod Browning’s famous pre-code horror film about sideshow performers. Cast mostly composed of actual carnival performers. (1932)
  • Great Expectations – Free – Buy DVD – Based on the great Charles Dickens novel. (1946)
  • Happy Go Lovely – Free – Buy DVD – A classic comedy with David Niven and Cesare Romero. (1951)
  • Hell W10 – Free – Silent, black and white short film directed by the late Joe Strummer, the Clash’s frontman. (1983)
  • Hell’s House – Free – Buy DVD – With Bette Davis and Pat O’Brien. The film is set during the final days of prohibition. (1932)
  • Hercules – Free – A 1958 Italian epic fantasy feature film based upon the Hercules myths. (1958)
  • Hiroshima mon amour – Free – Buy DVD – Major French film directed Alain Resnais. Written by Marguerite Duras. (1959)
  • His Girl Friday – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Howard Hawks. A classic comedy with Cary Grant. YouTube version here. (1940)
  • In Cold Blood – Free – Buy DVD – Basedon the great work by Truman Capote, the film stars Robert Blake. (US viewers only) (1967)
  • Indiscreet – Free – Features superstar Gloria Swanson and directed by Leo McCarey. A comedy that’s almost Chaplinesque. (1931)
  • It Happened One Night – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Frank Capra, with Clark Gable. A classic! (1934)
  • It’s a Wonderful Life – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by the great Frank Capra. Starring Jimmy Stewart. Another great classic! (1946)
  • Ivan’s Childhood – Free – Buy DVD – Andrei Tarkovsky’s first feature film. (1962)
  • J’attendrai le suivant – Free – A French film nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Short Film in 2002.
  • Killer’s Kiss – Free – Stanley Kubrick’s second movie. This noir film stars Jamie Smith, Irene Kane and Frank Silvera. (1955)
  • King Lear – Free – Jean-Luc Godard does Shakespeare. Requires downloading the Veoh player. (1987)
  • Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance – Free – Directed by Godfrey Reggio, soundtrack by Philip Glass. (1982)
  • L’Âge d’Or – Free – Surrealist film directed by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (his first film). Co-written by Salvador Dalí. (1930)
  • La Femme Nikita – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Luc Besson. (US viewers only) (1990)
  • Lady Blue Shanghai – Free – David Lynch’s short movie that doubles as a commercial for Dior. Stars Marion Cotillard. (2010)
  • Le Voyage Dans La Lune – Free – Buy DVD – French science fiction black and white film. Loosely based on two popular novels by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. (1902)
  • Lost Horizon – Free – Buy DVD – A romantic fantasy and science-fiction adventure film directed by Frank Capra. (1937)
  • Love Story – Free – Love story based on Erich Segal’s novel. (1970)
  • Lumiere – Free – Buy DVD – A very short film by David Lynch. 55 seconds. (1966)
  • M – Free – Buy DVD – Classic film directed by Fritz Lang, with Peter Lorre. In German and high def. (1931)
  • Meet John Doe – Free – Buy DVD – Frank Capra’s comedy, with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. (1941)
  • Meetin’ WA – Free – In a short film Jean-Luc Godard meets Woody Allen. (1986)
  • Moby Dick – Free – Melville’s classic brought to the silver screen. Starring Gregory Peck and Orson Welles. (1956)
  • Monty Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different – Free – Buy DVD (1971)
  • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington – Free – Buy DVD – One of the great films directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart. (1939)
  • My Best Friend’s Birthday – Free – First film directed by Quentin Tarantino. Version on YouTube here. (1987)
  • My Brother is Coming – Free – A Hungarian film by Michael Curtiz, who went on to direct Casablanca. (1919)
  • Night and Fog – Free – Buy DVD – Alain Resnais’s film on the Holocaust. Truffaut called it the greatest film ever made. (1955)
  • Night Tide – Free – A thriller starring Dennis Hopper early in his career. YouTube version here. (1961)
  • Nostalghia – Free – Buy DVD – Soviet film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. (1983)
  • Patterns – Free – Film based on Rod Serling story. Stars Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, and Ed Begley. (1956)
  • Penny Serenade – Free – Buy DVD – With Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. (1941)
  • Plan 9 from Outer Space – Free – An Ed Wood “classic.” Considered one of the worst films ever made. (1959)
  • Pygmalion – Free – Film based on George Bernard Shaw’s play. Won Oscar for best screenplay. (1938)
  • Rashomon – Free – Buy DVD – By the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. (1950)
  • Reefer Madness – Free – Buy DVD – A drug film for the ages. (1936)
  • Rembrandt’s J’accuse – Free – Buy DVD – An indie directed by Peter Greenaway. (2008)
  • Road to Bali – Free – Buy DVD – With Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour. (1952)
  • Romance Sentimentale – Free – Directed by Sergei Eisenstein. (1930)
  • Royal Wedding – Free – Buy DVD – With Fred Astaire. (1951)
  • Scrooge – Free – The first sound version of Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol. Directed by Henry Edwards (1935)
  • She Done Him Wrong – Free – Buy DVD – With Mae West and Cary Grant. (1933)
  • Sex Madness – Free – Buy DVD – This is to sex what Reefer Madness is to drugs. YouTube version here. (1938)
  • Shame – Free – Produced by Roger Corman and starring William Shatner. Mystery film about a man sent into a southern town to stir up race riots. (1962)
  • Sid and Nancy – Free – Buy DVD -The Sex Pistols revisited. With Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb. (1986)
  • Sisters – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Brian DePalma with Margo Kidder. (1973)
  • Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) Free – Buy DVD -David Lynch`s very first short film. (1966)
  • Slacker – Free – Buy DVD – Richard Linklater’s Gen-X, generation defining indie film. (1991)
  • Solaris – Free – Buy DVD – Andrei Tarkovsky’s meditative psychodrama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the planet Solaris. (1972)
  • Spartacus – Free – Buy DVD – Starring Laurence Olivier and Kirk Douglas. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. (US viewers only) (1959)
  • Spider Baby – Free – A black comedy horror film, written and directed by Jack Hill. Stars Lon Chaney Jr. (1968)
  • Stalker – Free – Buy DVD – Science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. (1979)
  • Strike – Free – Sergei Eisenstein’s first feature film and an indicator of the brilliant films to follow. (1925)
  • Taxi Driver – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Martin Scorsese, with Robert DeNiro. (US viewers only) (1976)
  • The 400 Blows – Free – François Truffaut became of the defining films of the French New Wave cinema (1959).
  • The Alphabet – Free – Buy DVD – David Lynch’s early short film. (1968)
  • The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss – Free – Buy DVD – With Cary Grant. (1936)
  • The Amputee – Free – Buy DVD – A short film made by David Lynch for the American Film Institute while Eraserhead was in financial limbo. (1974)
  • The Bigamist – Free – Directed by Ida Lupino, a pioneer among women filmmakers. (1953)
  • The Brother from Another Planet – Free – A cult classic written, directed and edited by John Sayles. (1984)
  • The Contender – Free – Stars Buster Crabbe (best known for his role as Tarzan) in well known boxing film. (1944)
  • The Divorce of Lady X – Free – British romantic comedy film starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon (1938).
  • The Fast And The Furious – Free – A 1950s B-action film written by Roger Corman. (1955)
  • The Great Dictator – Free – Charlie Chaplin loathed fascism and personally resented Adolf Hitler’s expropriation of The Tramp’s famous toothbrush moustache. He took his revenge with this hilarious and formally inventive film, released one year before America’s entry into World War II. (1940)
  • The Great Saint Louis Bank Robbery – Free – Steve McQueen stars in a gritty, downbeat, and sometimes savage heist movie. YouTube version here. (1959)
  • The Invisible Frame – Free – Directed by Cynthia Beatt. In German with English subtitles. (1983)
  • The House Maid – Free – South Korean film restored by Martin Scorcese’s WCF. (1960)
  • The Jackie Robinson Story – Free – Starring Jackie Robinson himself. (1950)
  • The Jungle Book – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Zoltan Korda, it starred Sabu, Jospeh Calleia, John Qualen, Frank Puglia, etc. (1942)
  • The Last Farm – Free – Buy DVD – Short Icelandic film nominated for Oscar in 2006.
  • The Last Man on Earth – Free – Post apocalyptic horror film starring Vincent Price and based on Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend. (1964)
  • The Last Time I Saw Paris – Free – Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson star in romantic drama based on F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘s story “Babylon Revisited.” YouTube version here. (1953)
  • The Little Shop of Horrors – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Roger Corman with Jack Nicholson. (1960)
  • The Lunch Date – Free – Adam Davidson’s commentary on race in America. The short film won an Oscar and a prize at Cannes. (1989)
  • The Man with the The Golden Arm – Free – Directed by Otto Preminger. Starring Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. Nominated for three Academy Awards. (1955)
  • The Mirror – Free – Buy DVD – Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Loosely autobiographical, the film features Tarkovsky’s wife Larisa Tarkovskaya. (1975)
  • The Night of Counting the Years – Free – Directed by Shadi Abdel Salam, this film is considered one of the finest Egyptian films ever made. (1969)
  • The Pride of the Yankees – Free – Buy DVD – Starring Gary Cooper. (US viewers only) (1942)
  • The Sacrifice – Free – Buy DVD – Tarkovsky’s last film and winner of the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury prize at the Cannes Film festival. (1985)
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel – Free – Buy DVD – Adaptation of the classic adventure novel by Baroness Orczy. Stars Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. (1934)
  • The Snows of Kilimanjaro – Free – Buy DVD – Based on Hemingway’s classic novel set in Africa. Stars Gregory Peck. (1952)
  • The Stranger – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Orson Welles and starring Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young. This was Orson Welles’ only major box office success. (1946)
  • The Street Fighter – Free – Buy DVD – One of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite karate films. (1974)
  • The ThreePenny Opera – Free – G.W. Pabst’s early screen adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s and Kurt Weill’s subversive social satire set in Victorian London. The film is in German, with no English subtitles, but is well worth watching for its visual mastery and the striking vintage performances from Weill’s score, including a memorable turn by Lotte Lenya as Jenny. (1931)
  • The Wilde Ride – Free – A cult classic that features Jack Nicholson playing a rebellious punk in one of his first roles. (1960)
  • They Live – Free – John Carpenter’s 1988 cult classic offers an allegorical treatise on the evils of capitalism. (1988)
  • Throne of Blood – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Adapts the plot of William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth to feudal Japan. 1957
  • Time Piece – Free – A short Oscar nominated film by Jim Henson (1965)
  • Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) – Free – Francois Truffaut’s film based on pulp fiction thriller by David Goodis. (1960)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird – Free – Classic film based on Harper Lee’s novel. Stars Gregory Peck (1962)
  • Touki Bouki – Free – Senegalese film restored by Martin Scorcese’s WCF. (1973)
  • Transes – Free – Film from Morocco restored by Martin Scorcese’s WCF. (1981)
  • Trans Euro Prop Express – Free – Directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet. Originally banned by British government. (1966)
  • Un Chant d’Amour – Free – French writer Jean Genet’s only film. Because of its explicit (though artistically presented) homosexual content, the 26-minute movie was banned and disowned by Genet later in his life. 1950
  • Utopia – Free – Buy DVD – Laurel & Hardy’s last film. (1951)
  • Virus – Free – Post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie directed by Kinji Fukasaku and based on a novel written by Sakyo Komatsu. (1980)
  • Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women – Free – An early film by “New Hollywood” director Peter Bogdanovich (1968).
  • West Bank Story – Free – Ari Sandel’s parody of West Side Story, and winner of the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. (2005)
  • Zéro de Conduite (Zero for Conduct) – Free – Originally banned in France, the film was later honored by Truffaut in The 400 Blows. (1933)

Noir, Thriller, Horror and Hitchcock

  • A Bucket of Blood – Free – Roger Corman’s classic comedy/horror film set in Bohemian San Francisco. Shot in 5 days for $50,000. Internet Archive version here. (1959)
  • And Then There Were None – Free – Film adaption of Agatha Christie’s best-selling mystery novel directed by René Clair. (1945)
  • Angel on My Shoulder – Free – Buy DVD – A gangster comedy starring Claude Rains and Paul Muni. (1946)
  • Beat the Devil – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by John Huston, with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. (1953)
  • Behind Green Lights – Free – Stars Carole Landis, John Ireland. Police lieutenant Sam Carson investigates a political murder after the victim is dumped at the door of police headquarters. (1946)
  • Big Bluff – Free – Directed by W. Lee Wilder. When a scheming fortune hunter finds his rich wife is not going to die as expected, he and his lover make other plans to get her millions. (1950)
  • Blackmail – Free – Buy DVD – British thriller/drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock’s first talkie film and first British sound film. (1929)
  • Bluebeard – Free – Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring John Carradine, this film became a cult classic for horror fans. (1944)
  • Borderline – Free – Two undercover agents infiltrate a drug-smuggling ring in Mexico, but neither is aware of the other’s identity. Stars Fred MacMurray, Claire Trevor and Raymond Burr. (1950)
  • Bride of the Monsters – Free – Bela Lugosi stars in an Ed Wood horror/sci fi film. (1955)
  • Carnival of Souls – Free – Buy DVD – A low budget B film that became a cult classic. (1962)
  • Dementia 13– Free – Buy DVD – A horror film that was one of Francis Ford Coppola’s early mainstream efforts. YouTube version here. (1963)
  • Detour – Free – Buy DVD – Edgar Ulmer’s cult classic noir film shot in 6 days. (1945)
  • Downhill – Free – In this silent film, a public schoolboy “takes the blame for a friend’s theft and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures.” Also released under the title, When Boys Leave Home. (1927)
  • Dick Tracy – Free – Buy DVD – Netflix Free Trial – A 15 episode film series that brought Dick Tracy to the silver screen. (1937)
  • Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome – Free – Dick Tracy film from 1947 stars Boris Karloff as Gruesome. (1947)
  • D.O.A. – Free – Buy DVD – Rudolph Maté’s classic noir film. You can also watch the movie here. (1950)
  • Dressed to Kill – Free – Buy DVD – Brings Sherlock Holmes to screen. (1941)
  • Great Guy – Free – James Cagney plays the plucky Irish crusader, Johnny Cave, who fights against corruption. (1936)
  • Guest in the House – Free – Directed by John Brahm, the noir film stars Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Aline MacMahon. (1946)
  • He Walked by Night – Free – Film-noir drama, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal. This move became the basis for Dragnet, and stars Jack Webb. YouTube version.
  • Horror Express – Free – Spanish horror film starring Telly Savalas of Kojak fame.
  • Impact – Free – Buy DVD – Arthur Lubin’s well reviewed noir flic. Considered a little known classic you need to watch. (1940)
  • Kansas City Confidential – Free – A film noir gem that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. (1953)
  • Key Lime Pie – Free – A zany animated film in the noir tradition. (2007)
  • Killer’s Kiss – Free – Stanley Kubrick’s second movie. This noir film stars Jamie Smith, Irene Kane and Frank Silvera. (1955)
  • Murder! – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the film is based on the novel Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. (1930)
  • Night of the Living Dead – Free – Buy DVD – A cult horror classic. Catch a high def version here. (1968)
  • Panic in the Streets – Free – Buy DVD – A great noir movie directed by Elia Kazan, with Jack Palance. (1950)
  • Please Murder Me – Free – Lawyer Raymond Burr brilliantly defends Angela Lansbury in 1950s noir film. (1956)
  • Port of New York – Free – Two narcotics agents go after a gang of murderous drug dealers who use ships docking at the New York harbor to smuggle in their contraband. First film in which Yul Brynner appeared. (1949)
  • Quicksand – Free – Buy DVD – Noir film with Mickey Rooney and Peter Lorre. (1950)
  • Rich and Strange – Free – Buy DVD – This Alfred Hitchcock film was released during a dry period between The Lodger (1927) and his breakthrough hits The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps, both listed here. (1931)
  • Sabotage – Free – Alfred Hitchcock directs British thriller based on Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent. (1936)
  • Scarlet Street – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Fritz Lang with Edward G. Robinson. A film noir great. (1945)
  • Secret Agent – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this film was loosely based on stories by W. Somerset Maugham. Stars John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young. (1936)
  • Shadow of a Doubt – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. (1943)
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon – Free – Buy DVD – Sherlock Holmes rescues an inventor of an new bomb site before the Nazis can get him. (1943)
  • Shock – Free – Film noir classic starring Vincent Price. (1946)
  • Suddenly – Free – Buy DVD – Noir film with Frank Sinatra and James Gleason. (1954)
  • Terror by Night – Free – Sherlock Holmes mystery film loosely based on The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. Stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. (1946)
  • The 39 Steps – Free – Buy DVD – One of Alfred Hitchcock’s first hits. British thriller is based on novel with same name by John Buchan. (1935)
  • The Big Combo – Free – Directed by Joseph Lewis, this film is today considered a noir classic. Critics like to focus on cinematography of John Alton, a noir icon. (1955)
  • The Driller Killer – Free – Buy DVD – (1979) Abel Ferrara’s cult classic slasher film.
  • The Hitch-Hiker – Free – Buy DVD – The first noir film made by a woman noir director, Ida Lupino. (1953)
  • The Lady Vanishes – Free – British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Stars Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. (1938)
  • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog – Free – Buy DVD – One of Hitchcock’s silent classics. A landlady suspects her lodger is a murderer killing women around London. (1927)
  • The Man Who Cheated Himself – Free – Some call it “an under-appreciated and little known gem.”  Stars Lee J. Cobb, John Dall, Jane Wyatt, and Lisa Howard.  YouTube version here. (1951)
  • The Man Who Knew Too Much – Free – Buy DVD – Starring Peter Lorre, this film was the most acclaimed film of Hitchcock’s British period. Hitchcock remade the film for an American audience with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day in 1956. (1934)
  • The Man with the The Golden Arm – Free – Directed by Otto Preminger. Starring Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. Nominated for three Academy Awards. (1955)
  • The Manxman – Free – Buy DVD – This was Hitchcock’s last silent film.
  • The Ring – Free – Buy DVD – This silent film focuses on a love triangle between two men and a woman. One of Hitchcock’s minor works. (1927)
  • The Second Woman – Free – Directed by James Kern and starring Betsy Drake, this lesser known noir film gets some good reviews. (1951)
  • The Skin Game – Free – Buy DVD — Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. (1931)
  • The Strange Love of Martha Ivers – Free – Noir film starting Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin and Kirk Douglas. Entered into 1947 Cannes Film Festival. (1946)
  • The Terror – Free – Buy DVD – With Jack Nicholson & Boris Karloff, and partly shot by Francis Ford Coppola. (1963)
  • The Third Man – Free – Noir film written Graham Greene, directed by Carol Reed, and starring Orson Welles. (1949)
  • Too Late for Tears – Free – Directed by Byron Haskin and based on a novel by Roy Huggins, Too Late for Tears is pure noir. (1949)
  • Trapped – Free – Starring Lloyd Bridges and Barbara Payton, the plot of this B noir film turns around a counterfeiting ring. (1949)
  • Vampyr – Free – This horror film was Carl Theodor Dreyer’s follow-up to The Passion of Joan of Arc, and his first “talkie.” (1932)
  • Waltzes From Vienna – Free – Buy DVD – Alfred Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that this film (about the writing and performance of The Blue Danube) was the low point of his film career. (1934)
  • Whistle Stop – Free – Buy DVD – A noir flic with Ava Gardner. (1946)
  • White Heat – Free – Buy DVD – With James Cagney. One of Martin Scorsese’s favorite gangster films. (1949)
  • Woman on the Run – Free – After Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) is the sole witness to a gangland murder, he goes into hiding and is trailed by Police Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith), his wife, Eleanor (Ann Sheridan), and newspaperman, Danny Leggett (Dennis O’Keefe). YouTube version here. (1950)
  • Young and Innocent – Free – Buy DVD – Originally released in the US as The Girl Was Young, this Alfred Hitchcock film was based on Josephine Tey’s novel A Shilling for Candles. (1937)

Find a complete collection of Film Noir movies here and Alfred Hitchcock movies here.

Westerns & John Wayne

  • A Fistful of Dollars – Free – Classic spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. (1964)
  • Angel and the Badman – Free – A black and white Western starring John Wayne and Gail Russell. Considered a radical departure from the western genre at the time. Internet Archive version here. (1947)
  • Any Gun Can Play – Free – Spaghetti western starring Gilbert Roland, Edd Byrnes and George Hilton. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari. (1967)
  • Blue Steel – Free – Western film with John Wayne playing a U.S. Marshal trying to capture the Polka Dot Bandit. Some consider it the best of the Wayne Lone Star films. Alternative version on YouTube here. (1934)
  • Death Rides a Horse – Free – Buy DVD – Giulio Petroni’s top spaghetti western. (1967)
  • Fistful of Lead – Free – Giuliano Carnimeo’s spaghetti western. Clearly playing on Sergio Leone’s 1964 classic, A Fistful of Dollars. (1970)
  • Frontier Horizon – Free – The Three Mesqueteers attempt to prevent wholesale slaughter in this fine Republic Western starring John Wayne, Ray “Crash” Corrigan, and Raymond Hatton. (1939)
  • God’s Gun – Free – Spaghetti western starring Jack Palance and John Van Cleef. (1976)
  • Gone with the West – Free – James Caan, Stefanie Powers and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1975 western. Internet Archive version here.
  • Helltown – Free – Originally called Born to the West, this John Wayne western was based on a novel by Zane Grey. (1937)
  • McLintock! – Free – Buy DVD – Comedy Western starring John Wayne & Maureen O’Hara. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. (1963)
  • ‘Neath the Arizona Skies – Free – John Wayne plays a cowboy protecting an American Indian oil-land heiress. (1934)
  • Northwest Passage – Free – Technicolor western starring Spencer Tracy. Set during the French and Indian War.
  • One Eyed Jacks – Free – The only film directed by Marlon Brando. He also plays its lead character, Rio. The western can also be watched here. (1961)
  • Paradise Canyon – Free – Buy DVD – Western starring John Wayne. Features Wayne as government agent John Wyatt searching for a counterfeit ring operating on the Mexican/Arizona border. (1935)
  • Rainbow Valley – Free – John Martin (John Wayne) is a government agent working under cover. Leading citizen Morgan calls in gunman Butch Galt (Buffalo Bill Jr.) who blows Martin’s cover. Find YouTube version here. (1935)
  • Randy Rides Alone – Free – Jailed for murders he didn’t commit, Randy Bowers (John Wayne) escapes only to stumble into the den of the real murderers. Entertaining early Wayne film. (1934)
  • Ride in the Whirlwind – Free – Western starring Jack Nicholson. Nicholson also wrote and produced the film. (1965)
  • Riders of Destiny – Free – John Wayne portrays Singin’ Sandy Saunders and has a reputation as the most notorious gunman since Billy the Kid. Features Wayne in singing role. (1933)
  • Sagebrush Trail – Free – John Wayne plays John Brant who escapes from jail after being wrongly accused of murder. Features great stagecoach chase. (1933)
  • Santa Fe Trail – Free – Western film directed by Michael Curtiz (also directed Casablanca) and starring Errol Flynn & Olivia de Havilland (1940). Alternate version here.
  • She Wore a Yellow Ribbon – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by John Ford with John Wayne. Part of Ford’s trilogy of films focusing on the US Cavalry. Alternate version here. (1949)
  • Stagecoach – Free – John Ford’s landmark western with John Wayne. Highly influential film that Orson Welles watched more than 40 times while making Citizen Kane. Black & white version here. (1939)
  • Tall in the Saddle – Free – Movie stars John Wayne as a cowboy and Ella Raines as his fierce bullwhip-brandishing love interest. (1944)
  • Texas Terror – Free – A young John Wayne in a romantic western. (1935)
  • The American West of John Ford – Free – A documentary encapsulating the career and Western films of director John Ford, featuring interviews with John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. (1971)
  • The Conqueror – Free – Buy DVD – The infamous and “lost” classic film, produced by Howard Hughes, directed by Dick Powell, and starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan. (1956)
  • The Dawn Rider – Free – John Wayne plays John Mason, a man avenging his father’s murder. A western directed by Robert Bradbury. (1935)
  • The Desert Trail – Free – Buy DVD – Early Western with John Wayne. According toWesternClippings, not Wayne’s finest hour. (1935)
  • The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe – Free – Klaus Kinski stars in spaghetti western about a Chinese immigrant, who comes to America and fights to free Mexican slaves. (1972)
  • The Great Train Robbery – Free – Early western film by Edwin S. Porter. A landmark in narrative filmmaking (1903)
  • The Lawless Frontier – Free – B Western starring John Wayne and directed by Robert Bradbury. (1934)
  • The Lucky Texan – Free – Jerry Mason (played by John Wayne) and Jake Benson become partners and strike it rich with a gold mine. (1934) They then find their lives complicated by bad guys and a woman. (1934)
  • The Man From Utah – Free – The Marshal sends John Weston (John Wayne) to a rodeo to see if he can find out who is killing the rodeo riders who are about to win prize money. (1934)
  • The Outlaw – Free – Buy DVD – This western made Jane Russell a huge star. Howard Hughes officially directed the film but Howard Hawks worked behind the scenes. (1943)
  • The Shooting – Free – Western starring Jack Nicholson, Warren Oates, Millie Perkins, and Will Hutchins. (1966)
  • The Star Packer – Free – A gang working for “The Shadow” is terrorizing the town. John Travers (John Wayne) decides to take on the job of sheriff and do something about it. (1934)
  • The Trail Beyond – Free – Western starring John Wayne, Noah Beery, Sr., and Noah Beery, Jr. (1934)
  • The Train Robbers – Free – Western film starring John Wayne, Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, and Ben Johnson. (1973)
  • War of the Wildcats – Free – John Wayne stars in western otherwise called In Old Oklahoma. One of Wayne’s better post-Stagecoach performances. (1943)
  • West of the Divide – Free – A young John Wayne in B western. (1934)
  • Winds of the Wasteland – Free – Western film stars John Wayne and Phyllis Fraser. (1936)

Find a complete collection of John Wayne films here.

Silent Films

  • A Dog’s Life – Free – One of Charlie Chaplin’s most endearing short films. (1918)
  • A Woman – Free – With Charlie Chaplin. (1915)
  • Alice in Wonderland – Free – The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll’s tale. Based on Sir John Tenniel’s original illustrations. (1903)
  • Battleship Potemkin – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by the great Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein. One of the most influential propaganda films of all time. (1925)
  • Behind the Screen – Free – Buy DVD – With Charlie Chaplin. (1916)
  • Broken Blossoms – Free – Silent film directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. (1919)
  • City Lights – Free – The funny and moving tale of a tramp who falls in love with a blind girl, City Lights is one of Charlie Chaplin’s greatest works. A silent film released two years after the arrival of “talkies,” it was nevertheless a huge popular and critical success.  Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky all placed City Lights on their list of the ten greatest films ever made. (1931)
  • Das Wandernde Bild – Free – A silent, black and white film directed by Fritz Lang released in 1920.
  • Downhill – Free – Buy DVD – In this silent Hitchcock film, a public schoolboy takes the blame for a friend’s theft and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures. Also released under the title, When Boys Leave Home. (1927)
  • Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde – Free – John Barrymore stars in the renowned silent adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. (1920)
  • Faust – Free – German expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau directs film version of Goethe’s classic tale. This was Murnau’s last German movie. (1926)
  • Frankenstein – Free – The first time Mary Shelley’s literary was brought to the big screen. (1910)
  • Ghosts Before Breakfast (Vormittagsspuk) – Free – Silent avant-garde film by Hans Richter. The nazis destroyed the sound version of the film, deeming it “degenerate art.” (1928)
  • Greed – Free – Erich von Stroheim directs silent drama. Considered one of the great lost films of movie history. (1924)
  • Harakiri – Free – Buy DVD – Early silent film by Fritz Lang. (1919)
  • Hell W10 – Free – Silent, black and white short film directed by the late Joe Strummer, the Clash’s frontman. (1983)
  • Hungry Hearts – Free – Film based on stories by Anzia Yezierska about Jewish immigrants to the Lower East Side of New York City. (1922)
  • Intolerance – Free – Buy DVD – D.W. Griffith’s most ambitious silent film is one of the landmarks in cinematic history. (1916)
  • Joyless Street – Free – Greta Garbo stars in her second major role. One of the first films of the “New Objectivity” movement. (1925)
  • Kid Auto Races at Venice – Free – Buy DVD – With Charlie Chaplin. (1914)
  • La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc – Free – Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti, this film is considered a masterpiece from the silent era. (1928)
  • Menilmontant – Free – When Pauline Kael, longtime New Yorker film critic, was asked to name her favorite film, this was it. French silent film. (1925)
  • Metropolis – Free – Buy DVD – Fritz Lang’s silent German expressionist science fiction film. (1927)
  • Nosferatu – Free – Buy DVD – German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau. An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1922)
  • Pandora’s Box – Free – G.W. Pabst’s tragic melodrama about the fate of a carefree seductress, memorably played by Louise Brooks. (1929)
  • Romance Sentimentale – Free – Directed by Sergei Eisenstein. (1930)
  • Safety Last – Free – A romantic comedy often remembered for the iconic image of its star, Harold Lloyd, hanging precariously from the clock of a New York skyscraper. (1923)
  • Sherlock Jr. – Free – A comic masterpiece from the silent era. Stars Buster Keaton (1924)
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon – Free – Buy DVD – Sherlock Holmes rescues an inventor of an new bomb site before the Nazis can get him. (1943)
  • Shock – Free – Film noir classic starring Vincent Price. (1946)
  • Ten Days That Shook the World – Free – Originally called Oktyabr, Sergei Eisenstein’s film documents the Russian Revolution of 1917. A masterpiece by a pioneering filmmaker. (1928)
  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Free – This silent film directed by Robert Wiene is considered one of the most influential German Expressionist films and perhaps one of the greatest horror movies of all time. (1920)
  • The Bell Boy – Free – Buy DVD – Featuring Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. (1918)
  • The Great Train Robbery – Free – Early western film by Edwin S. Porter. A landmark in narrative filmmaking. (1903)
  • The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Free – Hugely popular silent film that made Rudolph Valentino a star. (1921)
  • The Freshman – Free – A fun comedy of college life starring Harold Lloyd. One of his best. (1925)
  • The General – Free – Buy DVD – With Buster Keaton. YouTube version here. (1926)
  • The Gold Rush – Free – Buy DVD – The film Charlie Chaplin most wanted to be remembered for. (1924)
  • The Birth of a Nation – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by DW Griffith. A landmark work in film history (1915) with racist undertones. (1915) Also see his later movie, Abraham Lincoln, plus many other DW Griffith films here.
  • The Golem: How He Came Into the World – Free – A follow-up to Paul Wegener’s earlier film, “The Golem,” about a monstrous creature brought to life by a learned rabbi to protect the Jews from persecution in medieval Prague. Based on the classic folk tale, and co-directed by Carl Boese. (1920)
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Free – Buy DVD – With Lon Chaney. (1923)
  • The Kid – Free – Charlie Chaplin’s big hit of 1921. This version is in HD. (1921)
  • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog – Free – Buy DVD – One of Hitchcock’s silent classics. A landlady suspects her lodger is a murderer killing women around London. (1927)
  • The Last Laugh – Free – F.W. Murnau’s classic chamber drama about a hotel doorman who falls on hard times. A masterpiece of the silent era, the story is told almost entirely in pictures. (1924)
  • The Manxman – Free – Buy DVD – This was Hitchcock’s last silent film.
  • The Pawnshop – Free – Buy DVD – With Charlie Chaplin. (1916)
  • The Phantom of the Opera – Free – Buy DVD – A classic silent film featuring Lon Chaney as the Phantom. (1925)
  • The Ring – Free – Buy DVD – This silent film focuses on a love triangle between two men and a woman. One of Hitchcock’s minor works. (1927)
  • The Rink – Free – With Charlie Chaplin. (1916)
  • The Sheik – Free – Buy DVD – Silent film with Rudolph Valentino. (1921)
  • The Wizard of Oz – Free – The earliest surviving film version of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel. (1910)
  • Tillie’s Punctured Romance – Free – Buy DVD – With Charlie Chaplin. (1914)
  • Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la lune – Free – French black & white silent sci-fi film loosely based on two novels: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells. (1902)
  • Un Chien Andalou – Free – Buy DVD — Salvador Dali and Louis Bunuel’s short, silent surrealist film. (1929)

Documentaries

  • A Story of Healing – Free – Academy Award for best documentary short subject. (1997)
  • Bon Voyage – Free – A French language WWII propaganda film by Alfred Hitchcock. Also see Aventure Malgache. (1944)
  • Buena Vista Social Club – Free – Ry Cooder’s outstanding look at the traditional Cuban music scene in 1999. (Limited to US audiences.)
  • Churchill’s Island – Free – WWII propaganda film chronicling the defense of Great Britain. Won the very first Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. (1941)
  • Code Rush – Free – Documentary following the lives of Netscape engineers in Silicon Valley. 1998
  • Buena Vista Social Club – Free – Cuban music legends play with Ry Cooder in 1999 hit documentary. (Limited to US audience.)
  • Burroughs the Movie – Free – Buy DVD – A Howard Bruckner documentary on the beat writer, William Burroughs. (1985)
  • Death Mills – Free – Billy Wilder’s documentary in German showing what Allies found when they liberated Nazi extermination camps. (1945)
  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Man Of Peace In A Time Of War – Free – Documentary examining the life of MLK Jr. includes rarely seen footage.
  • For Neda – Free – Buy DVD – An HBO documentary on the life of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman gunned down during the crushing of Iran’s Green Revolution. (2010)
  • From Mao to Mozart – Free – 1981 Oscar winning film (Best Documentary) records Isaac Stern’s goodwill tour of Red China.
  • Henry Miller Asleep & Awake – Free – Buy DVD – Tom Schiller’s 34 minute voyage into the world of Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn). (1975)
  • Home – Free – Buy DVD – Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film that will make you look at our planet in a new way. (2009)
  • If You Love This Planet – Free – Oscar-winning short film on the need for nuclear disarmament. (1982)
  • I’ll Find a Way – Free – Oscar-winning documentary presents Nadia, a 9-year-old girl with spina bifida. (1977)
  • Inside Job – Free – Charles Ferguson’s Oscar-winning documentary exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. (2010)
  • Jorge Luis Borges: The Mirror Man – Free – Documentary on Argentina’s most famous and beloved literary figure. (2000)
  • Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown – Free – 90 minute documentary on H.P. Lovecraft, the American horror, fantasy and sci-fi writer. (2008)
  • No Substitute for Victory – Free – John Wayne hosts documentary giving ideological take on the history of Communism. (1970)
  • Olympia – Free – Buy DVD – Leni Riefenstahl’s film of the Berlin Olympic Games (1936). Considered one of the greatest sports documentaries. (1938)
  • Muhammad Ali: The Greatest – Free – Stars Muhammad Ali, Sonny Liston and Angelo Dundee. (1969)
  • Nanking – Free – Buy DVD – Directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman. Premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. (2007)
  • Nuremberg Trials – Free – Riveting Russian documentary takes you inside the trials of the notorious German war criminals. (1947)
  • Paris is Burning – Free – Documentary chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African American, Latino gay and transgender community involved in it. (1990)
  • Philip K. Dick: A Day in the Afterlife – Free – BBC documentary revisits the (sometimes troubled) life of sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick. (1994)
  • Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man – Free -Documentary revisits Shakespeare and Company, the most famous bookstore in Paris. (2005)
  • ¿Sería Buenos Aires? – Free – An award-winning documentary looking at Argentina’s response to modern crises. (2006)
  • SuperSize Me – Free – Buy DVD – Morgan Spurlock’s documentary on fast food in America. Also watch here. (2004)
  • Ten Days That Shook the World – Free – Originally called Oktyabr, Sergei Eisenstein’s film documents the Russian Revolution of 1917. A masterpiece by a pioneering filmmaker. (1928)
  • The American West of John Ford – Free – A documentary encapsulating the career and Western films of director John Ford, featuring interviews with John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. (1971)
  • The Battle of Midway – Free – Buy DVD — Directed by John Ford. Narrated by Henry Fonda. (1942)
  • The Battle of San Pietro – Free – Buy DVD – John Huston’s war time documentary. (1945)
  • The End of America – Free – Buy DVD – By Naomi Wolf. (2008)
  • The Fighting Lady – Free – Directed by William Wyler, this film provides a portrait of life on a World War II aircraft carrier (1944)
  • The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara – Free – Buy DVD – Errol Morris’ documentary on Robert McNamara. Won Academy Award for Best Documentary. Score by Philip Glass. (2003)
  • The House I Live In – Free – A ten-minute short film starring Frank Sinatra made to oppose anti-Semitism and racial prejudice at the end of World War II. (1945)
  • The James Dean Story – Free – Documentary on the life and times of James Dean made by the great filmmaker Robert Altman (MASH, The Player, Gosford Park, etc). 1957
  • The Joy of Stats – Free – BBC documentary featuring Hans Rosling takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics. (2010)
  • The Responsive Eye – Free – Brian DePalma’s short film documenting the opening night of an OP ART exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966.
  • The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler – Free – 1950′s television documentary that includes interviews with Hitler’s sister Paula Wolf and footage from Eva Braun’s rare home movies.
  • The Times of Harvey Milk – Free – Rob Epstein’s Oscar winning documentary. (1984)
  • Triumph of the Will – Free – Buy DVD – (1935) The major Nazi propaganda work by Leni Riefenstahl. With subtitles. YouTube version here.
  • The True Glory – Free – War time propaganda documentary directed by Carol Reed, with General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General George S. Patton. (1945)
  • They Were There – Free – 30-minute film by Errol Morris, commissioned by IBM to celebrate the company’s centennial. Music by Philip Glass.
  • Voyage in Time – Free – Buy DVD – 63-minute feature documentary that documents the travels of Andrei Tarkovsky in Italy. (1983)
  • Warhol’s Cinema – A Mirror for the Sixties – Free – 64 min documentary on Andy Warhol’s cinema of the sixties, made for Channel 4 in association with THE FACTORY, MOMA and the Whitney Museum of Art. (1989)
  • What’s Happening – Free – Antonello Branca’s documentary revisits the poets and painters changing New York City’s art scene. Features Allen Ginsberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg. (1967)
  • Why We Fight – Free – A seven part series of WWII propaganda films directed by Frank Capra. (1943)
  • WikiRebels – Free – Documentary by Swedish public television chronicles history of Wikileaks. (2010)
  • 11th Hour – Free – Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature film documentary on the environment. (2007)

Animation

  • Animal Farm – Free – Buy DVD – The animated film based on George Orwell’s classic novella. (1954)
  • Every Child – Free – Eugene Fedorenko’s animated short about an unwanted baby cared for by homeless men. 1979 Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short Film.
  • Fantasmagorie – Free – The first fully animated film ever made. 700 drawings in 2 minutes by Emile Cohl. (1908)
  • Father and Daughter – Free – Michaël Dudok De Wit’s heartbreaking short won the 2000 Academy Award for Animated Short Film.
  • Franz Kafka – Free – Piotr Dumala’s wonderful 16 minute animated film based on Kafka’s diaries. (1992)
  • Freedom River – Free – A short animated film narrated by Orson Welles. A parable about mankind getting along. Alternate version here. (1971)
  • Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty – Free – 6 minute animated black comedy. Shortlisted for the 2010 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. (2008)
  • Gulliver’s Travels – Free – American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer. (1939)
  • Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life – Free – Animated short film based on book by Maurice Sendak. Features voices of Meryl Streep, Forest Whitaker and Spike Jonze. (2010)
  • Logorama – Free – François Alaux and Herve de Crecy’s 17 minute film, Logorama, won the Oscar for the best Short Film (Animated) in 2009.
  • Madame Tutli-Putli – Free – Academy Award nominated stop motion-animated short film by Montreal filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. (2010)
  • Neighbors – Free – Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. Oscar winner. (1952)
  • Sita Sings the Blues – Free – Buy DVD – New prize-winning animated film by Nina Paley. (2008)
  • Ryan – Free – Oscar-winning animated short from Chris Landreth based on the life of Ryan Larkin, the influential Canadian animator. (2004)
  • Special Delivery – Free – Hilarious story won 1978 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
  • Street Musique – Free – Influential animated film by Ryan Larkin. (1972)
  • Superman – Free – Max Fleischer’s short animated movie. Nominated for the 1942 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. (1941)
  • The Cave – Free – A short claymation film animating the famous cave allegory in Plato’s Republic. (2008)
  • The Giving Tree – Free – An animated adaptation of Shel Silverstein’s wonderful children’s book. (1973)
  • The Junky’s Christmas – Free – Short claymation film starring (and written by) William S. Burroughs. Danny the Carwiper spends Christmas Day trying to score a fix, but finds the Christmas spirit instead. Produced by Coppola. (1993)
  • The Old Man and the Sea – Free – Aleksandr Petrov won the Academy Award for Short Film for this film that follows the plot of Ernest Hemingway’s classic 1952 novella. (1999)
  • The Sand Castle – Free – Short animated film about the sandman and the creatures he sculpts out of sand. 1977 Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short Film.
  • The Spirit of ’43 – Free – Disney propaganda film made for the American government. Features Donald Duck. (1943)
  • The Story of Stuff – Free – Animated fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. (2007)
  • The Tell-Tale Heart – Free – Animated version of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic from 1953. Narrated by James Mason.
  • Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom – Free – Disney’s music education film. First cartoon released in widescreen CinemaScope. Wins 1954 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). (1953)
  • Vincent – Free – Tim Burton’s early animated film honoring Vincent Price, actor in American horror films. (1982)
  • Walking – Free – Oscar-nominated animated short film by Ryan Larkin. (1969)
  • Yellow Submarine – Free – The animated feature film based on the music of The Beatles. (1968)

Free Movie Sites:


Internet Archive – Feature Films
When you’re looking for free movies online, the Internet Archive should be your first stop. It features large collections of classic comedies, film noir and sci-fi/horror flix. Many films listed above come from the Internet Archive.

Google Video: For some time now, major classics have appeared on Google’s site. You will find many such films above.

Australian Screen Archive: The Australian National Film and Sound Archive provides free and worldwide access to over 1,000 film and television titles – a treasure chest of down-under video 100 years in the making.

B Minus Movies: AMC is your new go-to site for B-movies by the likes of John Carpenter (Dark Star) and Roger Corman (Saga of the Viking Women). Want to see international icons before they made it big? Check out Raquel Welch in A Swingin’ Summer or kung-fu king Sonny Chiba in Terror Beneath the Sea. Looking for the unexpected? How about The Ruthless Four, a spaghetti Western starring Klaus Kinski.

Babelgum Films: Babelgum’s goal is to act as an international ‘glue’, bringing a huge range of professional and semi-professional films to a global audience – like a modern-day Tower of Babel. They’re also making an effort to get their content to smartphones. They have an iPhone app now and apps for other phones on the horizon. Get more detail on the mobile apps here.

BestOnlineDocumentaries: As one reader previously told us, “This site is a bit out of date and some of the links are broken, but it’s still a great compilation of online documentaries.” For more documentaries, you should also see Snagfilms mentioned below.

Big Five Glories: Presents classic films in the public domain within an attractive user interface. Makes the films a pleasure to watch.

Classic Cinema Online: This site nicely pulls together hundreds of classic films, ranging from Action to Westerns and even old cinema shorts and news reels.

ClearBits: This new site provides hosting and distribution for open licensed (Creative Commons) media and datasets. They have a section devoted just to movies, and all their content can be downloaded without cost.

Clicker: The Internet Television guide tells you where you can watch free and paid-for movies online.

Crackle.com: If you’re looking for more mainstream movies, here you go. This is Sony’s online movie play. Note: there’s probably some geo-blocking that comes with this. Also, one of our readers has also suggested the UK-based Blinkbox, which seems to offer another platform for more mainstream films.

Creative Commons: The folks who gave us the Creative Commons license host a wiki where you can find a good number of freely available films. Handy and worth keeping an eye on. I’d also suggest keeping tabs on CC’s Video blog.

Documentary Film Network: This site has been archiving documentaries for the past 4 years and serving them free of charge. Among the 181 films, you can find some of the Nixon-Frost interviews and a Che Guevara Biography.

Europa Film Treasures: Thanks to Europa Film Treasures, you can spend hours looking back through an archive of European film. Theses films range from “comedy to science fiction, from westerns to animation, from erotic to ethnological movies.” Highly recommended by our readers.

Fancast: This Comcast-owned site features a long list of free movies.

Film Annex: This site has one of the largest selections of online films for you to watch or download. You can find free classic movies and television shows right here. And you’ll also find at the Film Annex many films from independent filmmakers and directors. The site gives you the ability to download or stream films to your PC, laptop or iPhone. The films are ad-supported.

FMO: FreeMoviesOnline features a large selection of public domain films.

Free Documentaries Online: The name says it all. Free Documentaries.Org: Specializes in showing provocative documentaries for free.

Free Movies Cinema: A mixture of yet more free films, which includes Quentin Tarantino’s early film, My Best Friend’s Birthday.

Hulu: Unfortunately Hulu limits its programming to a US audience (a policy that really needs to change), but it’s the 800 pound gorilla in the US, and there are some decent films here. You will find some Hulu titles sprinkled in above.

IMDB: This is perhaps a little redundant, but the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) also hosts some free online films (as well as TV shows) on its site. From what I can tell, it’s done in partnership with Hulu. But this collection has the advantage of pointing you to some decent films. Click here and scroll down. You can also find another re-packager of Hulu flix over at Veoh.com.

Indie Movies Online: Just as it sounds. A good place to watch full-fledged indie films on the web. Right now, you can find Peter Greenaway’s film, Rembrandt’s J’accuse and The Future We Will Create – Inside the World of TED. The site seems to be available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, but perhaps also beyond.

Jaman: Jaman is mainly a pay-per-download site that focuses on indie-style films, but they do host some free movies. Even though they have a page devoted to their free films, it’s actually not that easy to find the freebies. You have to fish around a little.

NFB.ca: NFB.ca is a web site where you can watch films produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It offers access to 100s of documentaries, animated films and trailers. You can also access this collection via a free iPhone app. (p.s. You should also check out our own free iPhone app, which will let you download free audio books, free courses, free language lessons, and other types of intelligent media.)

Open Flix: This YouTube channel features hundreds of full length films. And they’re all apparently free and legal. A very nice resource.

OVGuide: If you’re looking for more free films, you should pay this site a visit. OVGuide is an up-to-date guide to online video, including TV shows, movies, and video games. It offers another way to find free movies online.

PBS Video: PBS hosts online a new film based on Michael Pollan’s bestseller, Botany of Desire. Other PBS productions are also housed here.

QuickSilverScreen: This site essentially puts torrents online and lets you watch films posted by other users, including many new films. It’s hard to believe that this site is entirely kosher, but it’s very popular (one of the top 3,000 sites on the web) and hardly a closely held secret.

Sling.com: This collection contains some dreck, but also some decent documentaries and classic films. So it gets on the list.

SnagFilms: SnagFilms “finds the world’s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and makes them available to a wide audience.” You can watch full-length documentary films for free. Currently includes over 550 films.

Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive: This online catalog “provides access to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive. The Archive serves as a comprehensive informational and archival resource worldwide for moving image materials pertaining to the Holocaust and related aspects of World War II.”

The Auteurs.com: Though this site typically offers arts films on a pay-per-view basis, it does feature a series of free films. Each month, a free film is featured (see example here). The site also hosts free international films restored by Martin Scorsese’s Word Cinema Foundation, mentioned below. And you can find another set of free films here.

UbuWeb: Presents dozens of avant-garde films & videos for your viewing pleasure.

Veoh.com: Tends to redistribute films from Hulu but some other gems one can be found here.

Video on Demand at Buy DVD.com: Ok, it’s not the most enriching collection of films. But if you’re looking for something light…

Westerns Online – A YouTube collection featuring a good number of free Western films.

Wikipedia List of Public Domain Films: A great resource for finding films in the public domain

World Cinema Foundation: The WCF, created by Martin Scorsese in 2007, has restored a series of classic international films. You can watch them for free online.

YouTube Movies: YouTube hosts a series of full-length movies (that are likely geo-restricted).

YouTube Screening Room: The Screening Room presents high quality, short independent films to YouTube users and promises to roll out four new films every two weeks. The collection includes some Academy-Award winners and other quality films. More info here.

Sources Used to Create This List:

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