The Essentials (volume 2)

Jeremy Arnold’s book The Essentials, a guide to fifty-two classic films, was published in 2016. The second volume (52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter) will be released later this year. Volume two features another fifty-two classics; as in volume one, the films are listed chronologically, and there are no entries from the last thirty years.

The book rectifies some of the first volume’s significant omissions, with entries for Psycho and 2001. On the other hand, the list is too heavily skewed towards 1930s Hollywood and, from that period, relatively minor screwball comedies (Twentieth Century and Ball of Fire) are included whereas screwball classics (Bringing up Baby and His Girl Friday) are missing.

The 52 More Must-See Movies are as follows:

• Sunrise
  
• Steamboat Bill Jr
  
• Freaks
  
• Gold Diggers of 1933
  
• Twentieth Century
  
• Top Hat
  
• Mutiny on the Bounty
  
• Dodsworth
  
• The Awful Truth
  
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
  
• Stagecoach
  
• The Women
  
• The Great Dictator
  
• The Philadelphia Story
  
• The Maltese Falcon
  
• Ball of Fire
  
• Sullivan’s Travels
  
• Yankee Doodle Dandy
  
• Cat People
  
• Laura
  
• Mildred Pierce
  
• Brief Encounter
  
• Notorious
  
• The Ghost and Mrs Muir
  
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
  
• The Asphalt Jungle
  
• Rashomon
  
• A Place in the Sun
  
• An American in Paris
  
• The Quiet Man
  
• High Noon
  
• Kiss Me Deadly
  
• The Night of the Hunter
  
• Pather Panchali
  
• Rebel Without a Cause
  
• A Face in the Crowd
  
• Sweet Smell of Success
  
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
  
• Vertigo
  
• Pillow Talk
  
• The Apartment
  
• Psycho
  
• Ride the High Country
  
• The Battle of Algiers
  
• The Producers
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• The Sting
  
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  
• Harlan County, USA
  
• Network
  
• Hannah and Her Sisters
  
• Field of Dreams