Loaded with priceless sight gags and gently tinged by the wistful sadness you feel at the end of nearly every vacation, this is one of my three favorite films. Nearly wordless French farce from revered comic master Jacques Tati, who also plays the titular bumbler, struggling through a hapless vacation at the beach. Starring Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall as the couple, plus Mary Astor and Raymond Massey. It starts as an examination of colonialism and romance, with two young lovers broken up when the man is jailed after striking an abusive racist but the movie’s triumph is its astounding climactic typhoon - using mostly practical effects, a 600-foot-long island set, 150,000 gallons of water and 150-mile-an-hour winds generated by airplane propellers. When was the last time you praised the special effects in an 83-year-old movie? Well, this tropic-isle epic from director John Ford is truly impressive in that category. Co-starring Kurt Russell, George Kennedy and Anne Baxter. Unavailable for years (because it was never released on DVD or VHS), this gem stars James Stewart in a late-career triumph as Depression-era ex-con Mattie Appleyard, who finds himself with a huge bankroll that is attracting far too much attention.

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