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Although Peary’s book covers the vast majority of “must see” feature-length films released during or prior to 1986, there are some noticeable gaps: titles he accidentally left out; movies he may never have seen (I Am Cuba, for instance, wasn’t released in the United States until 1995); and movies that have since become certified cult classics (i.e., Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or National Lampoon’s Vacation).

The following list contains additional pre-1986 (or 1986) movies I think all film fanatics should see, with hyperlinks to my own reviews when available. If you know of any other “missing” must-see films which I should add to this list, please write to me with your suggestions at filmfanatic.org@gmail.com.

Additional “Must See” Titles

• Actor’s Revenge, An (1963; d: Kon Ichikawa)
• Adventures of Prince Achmed, The (1926; d: Lotte Reiniger)
• Annie (1982; d: John Huston)
• At Close Range (1986; d: James Foley)
• Auntie Mame (1958; d: Morton DaCosta)
• Autumn Leaves (1956; d: Robert Aldrich)
• Black God, White Devil (1964; d: Glauber Rocha)
• Boucher, Le / Butcher, The (1970; d: Claude Chabrol)
• Cairo Station / Bab el Hadid (1958; d: Youssef Chahine)
• Calamity Jane (1953; d: David Butler)
• Ceddo (1977; d: Ousmane Sembene)
• Cloud-Capped Star, The / Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960; d: Ritwik Ghatak)
• Color of Pomegranates, The (1969; d: Sergei Parajanov)
• Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The (1963; d: Vincente Minnelli)
• Deception (1946; d: Irving Rapper)
• Decline of the American Empire, The (1986; d: Denys Arcand)
• Female on the Beach (1955; d: Joseph Pevney)
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986; d: John Hughes)
• Fires Were Started (1943; d: Humphrey Jennings)
• Flash Gordon (1980; d: Mike Hodges)
• Gaav (1969; d: Dariush Mehrjui)
• Golem, The (1920; d: Carl Boese, Paul Wegener)
• Great McGinty, The (1940; d: Preston Sturges)
• Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The (1968; d: Robert Ellis Miller)
• Heaven and Earth Magic (1957/1962; d: Harry Smith)
• Hill, The (1965; d: Sidney Lumet)
• Hombre (1967; d: Martin Ritt)
• Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964; d: Robert Aldrich)
• I Am Cuba (1964; d: Mikhail Kalatozov)
• I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977; d: Anthony Page)
• Killer of Sheep (1977; d: Charles Burnett)
• Kiss of Death (1947; d: Henry Hathaway)
• Legend (1985; d: Ridley Scott)
• Little Fugitive (1953; d: Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, and Ruth Orkin)
• London After Midnight (1927; d: Tod Browning)
• Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short, The (1965; d: Andre Delvaux)
• Man You Loved to Hate, The (1979; d: Patrick Montgomery)
• Manila in the Claws of Brightness (1975; d: Lino Brocka)
• Manon of the Spring (1986; d: Claude Berri)
• Mother India / Bharat Mata (1957; d: Mehboob Khan)
• Murder By Death (1976; d: Robert Moore)
• Nanny, The (1965; d: Seth Holt)
• Night and Fog (1955; d: Alain Resnais)
• Poor Little Rich Girl, The (1917; d: Maurice Tourneur)
• Sadie Thompson (1928; d: Raoul Walsh)
• Samourai, Le (1967; d: Jean-Pierre Melville)
• Send Me No Flowers (1964; d: Norman Jewison)
• Show People (1928; d: King Vidor)
• Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947; d: Stuart Heisler)
• Soylent Green (1973; d: Richard Fleischer)
• Stolen Life, A (1946; d: Curtis Bernhardt)
• Sudden Fear (1952; d: David Miller)
• Thief of Bagdad, The (1924; d: Raoul Walsh)
• Time to Live and the Time to Die, The (1985; d: Hsiao-hsien Hou)
• Tokyo Olympiad (1965; d: Kon Ichikawa)
• Towering Inferno, The (1974; d: John Guillermin)
• Travelling Players, The (1975; d: Theodoros Angelopoulos)
• Trog (1970; d: Freddie Francis)
• Trou, Le / The Hole (1959; d: Jacques Becker)
• Vacation (1983; d: Harold Ramis)
• Vij (1967; d: Georgi Kropachyov)
• Visages d’Enfants (1925; d: Jacques Feyder)
• Wall, The / Deewaar (1975; d: Yash Chopra)
• Waterloo Bridge (1931; d: James Whale)
• Who Are the DeBolts? [And Where Did They Get 19 Kids?] (1977; d: John Korty)
• When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960; d: Mikio Naruse)
• Working Girls (1986; d: Lizzie Borden)

Below are additional recommended titles not mentioned in Peary’s book; while not must-see, they’re certainly worth a look:

• Agnes of God (1985; d: Norman Jewison)
• Annie Get Your Gun (1950; d: George Sidney) *
• Beau Mariage, Le (1982; d: Eric Rohmer)
• Cruel Story of Youth (1960; d: Nagisa Oshima)
• Deathtrap (1982; d: Sidney Lumet)
• Europa ’51 (1952; Roberto Rossellini)
• Highlander (1986; d: Russell Mulcahy)
• I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955; d: Daniel Mann) *
• Inferno (1953; d: Roy Ward Baker)
• Johnny Dangerously (1984; d: Amy Heckerling)
• Kid Brother, The (1927; d: Ted Wilde et al.)
• Ladybug Ladybug (1963; d: Frank Perry)
• Land of Silence and Darkness (1971; d: Werner Herzog)
• Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977; d: Jon Jost)
• Morning After, The (1986; d: Sidney Lumet)
• Passenger (1963; d: Andrzej Munk)
• Plaza Suite (1971; d: Arthur Hiller)
• Plenty (1985; d: Fred Schepisi)
• Pressure Point (1962; d: Hubert Cornfield)
• Quiet Earth, The (1985; d: Geoff Murphy)
• Rooster Cogburn (1975; d: Stuart Millar)
• Sorry, Wrong Number (1948; d: Anatole Litvak)
• Strange Love of Martha Ivers, The (1946; d: Lewis Milestone)
• Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967; d: George Roy Hill)
• UTU (1983; d: Geoff Murphy)
• What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969; d: Lee H. Katzin)
• Young One, The / La Joven (1960; d: Luis Bunuel)

* These starred titles are non-GFTFF movies listed by Peary in his Alternate Oscars book; while I don’t happen to agree they are “must see”, I’ll be reviewing them on my site as well, simply to be complete in my coverage of all Peary-recommended titles.