National Film Registry 2003
Library of Congress Press Release
12/16/2003
FILMS SELECTED TO
THE NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY,
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS - 2003
EMBARGOED UNTIL
10 A.M. EST, 12/16/2003
FILMS SELECTED TO
THE NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY,
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS - 2003
1) Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1974)
2) Atlantic City (1980)
3) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
4) The Chechahcos (1924)
5) Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894-5)
6) Film Portrait (1970)
7) Fox Movietone News: Jenkins Orphanage Band (1928)
8) Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
9) The Hunters [Kalahari Desert tribe anthropological film] (1957)
10) Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913)
11) Medium Cool (1969)
12) National Velvet (1944)
13) Naughty Marietta (1935)
14) Nostalgia (1971)
15) One Froggy Evening (1956)
16) Patton (1970)
17) Princess Nicotine; or The Smoke Fairy (1909)
18) Show People (1928)
19) The Son of the Sheik (1926)
20) Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
21) Tin Toy (1988)
22) The Wedding March (1928)
23) White Heat (1949)
24) Young Frankenstein (1974)
25) Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
===============================================================
12/16/03
Credits for Films Selected to
the 2003 National Film Registry
of the Library of Congress
[Note: Credits are provided for informational purposes only and in no way meant to be
definitive or comprehensive]
1) Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (Rocky Mountain Productions, 1974)
58 minutes, color
Producer: Judy Collins
Directors: Judy Collins and Jill Godmilow
Cinematographer: Coulter Watt
Editor: Jill Godmilow
2) Atlantic City (Selta Films/Cine-Neighbor, Inc./International Cinema
Corporation/Paramount, 1980) 104 minutes, color
Producers: Denis Heroux and John Kemeny
Director: Louis Malle
Screenplay: John Guare
Cinematographer: Richard Ciupka
Editor: Suzanne Baron
Music: Michel Legrand
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Kate Reid, Michel Piccoli, Hollis McLaren,
Robert Joy, Al Waxman, Robert Goulet
3) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1969)
112 minutes, color
Producer: John Foreman
Director: George Roy Hill
Screenplay: William Goldman
Cinematographer: Conrad Hall, A.S.C.
Editors: John Howard and Richard Meyer
Art Direction: Jack Martin Smith and Phillip Jefferies
Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott and Chester L. Bayhi
Music: Burt Bacharach
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones,
Jeff Corey, George Furth, Cloris Leachman, Ted Cassidy, Kenneth Mars
4) The Chechahcos (Alaska Moving Image Picture Corp., 1924) 86 minutes,
silent, b&w
Producer: Capt. Austin E. Lathrop
Director/Writer: Lewis S. Moomaw
Cinematographers: Herbert H. Brownell and Raymond Johnson
Title Text: Harvey Gates
Title Art: Sydney Laurence
Cast: William Dills, Albert Van Antwerp, Eva Gordon, Alexis B. Luce, Gladys
Johnson, Baby Margie and Guerney Hays
5) Dickson Experimental Sound Film (Edison Manufacturing Co., 1894-5)
Director: W.K.L. Dickson
Cinematographer: William Heise
Cast: W.K.L Dickson (violin), two Edison Company employees and unknown person
Date of Production: ca. September 1894-March 1895.
An experimental film, never publicly exhibited or advertised. A recent reconstruction
by the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center, Walter Murch,
Skywalker Sound (LucasFilm), Rick Schmidlin and ILM, among others, marks the first
time the original film image and wax cylinder sound track have been rejoined,
synchronized and exhibited since Edison, Dickson et.al. witnessed them 107 years ago.
6) Film Portrait (Jerome Hill, 1970) 80 minutes, color/b&w
Director/Writer/Cinematographer/Music: Jerome Hill
Editor: Henry Sundquist
7) Fox Movietone News: Jenkins Orphanage Band (Fox, 1928)
ca. 10 minutes, sound
Filmed November 22, 1928 at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Rev. Daniel Joseph Jenkins began the renowned Jenkins Orphanage Band in 1891
and it continued until the 1950s, touring the country and turning out notable musicians
such as William "Cat" Anderson of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
8) Gold Diggers of 1933 (Warner Bros., 1933) 96 minutes, b&w
Producer: Robert Lord
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Screenplay: Erwin Gelsey, James Seymour; dialogue by David Boehm and Ben
Markson, based on the play "Gold Diggers of Broadway,"by Avery Hopwood
Cinematographer: Sol Polito, A.S.C.
Choreography: Busby Berkeley
Music/Lyrics: Harry Warren and Al Dubin
Music Direction: Leo Forbstein
Editor: George Amy
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Costumes: Orry-Kelly
Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell,
Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks, Ginger Rogers, Billy Barty, Clarence Nordstrom,
Robert Agnew
9) The Hunters (Film Study Center, Peabody Museum, Harvard University,
1957) 72 minutes, color
Director: John Marshall, in collaboration with Robert Gardner
Narrator/Photographer: John Marshall
[Kalahari Desert tribe anthropological film]
10) Matrimony's Speed Limit (Solax, Co., 1913) 14 minutes, b&w, silent
Producer/Director: Alice Guy-Blach‚
Cast: Fraunie Fraunholz, Marian Swayne
11) Medium Cool (Paramount, 1969) 110 minutes, Technicolor
Producers: Jerrold Wexler and Haskell Wexler
Director/Cinematographer/Writer: Haskell Wexler, A.S.C. based on the novel The
Concrete Wilderness by Jack Couffer
Music: Mike Bloomfield
Editor: Verna Fields
Art Direction: Leon Erickson
Consultant (Chicago): Studs Terkel
Cast: Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill, Harold Blankenship,
Charles Geary, Sid McCoy, Christine Bergstrom
12) National Velvet (MGM, 1944) 125 minutes, Technicolor
Producer: Pandro Berman
Director: Clarence Brown
Screenplay: Theodore Reeves and Helen Deutsch, based on the novel by Enid Bagnold
Cinematographer: Leonard Smith, A.S.C.
Music: Herbert Stothart
Editor: Robert J. Kern
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary
Set Direction: Edwin B.Willis and Mildred Griffiths
Costumes: Irene
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, Angela
Lansbury, Jackie "Butch" Jenkins, Juanita Quigley, Reginald Owen
13) Naughty Marietta (MGM, 1935) 106 minutes, b&w
Producer: Hunt Stromberg
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Screenplay: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and John Lee Mahin, based on the
operetta of the same name (music: Victor Herbert, book and lyrics: Rida
Johnson Young)
Cinematographer: William Daniels, A.S.C.
Editor: Blanche Sewell
Music: Victor Herbert, lyrics: Rida Johnson Young, additional lyrics by Gus Kahn
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Elsa Lanchester, Douglas
Dumbrille, Joseph Cawthorn, and Akim Tamiroff
14) Nostalgia (Hollis Frampton, 1971) 36 minutes, b&w, sound
Director/Cinematographer/Writer: Hollis Frampton
Narrator: Michael Snow
15) One Froggy Evening (Warner Bros., 1956) 8 minutes, Technicolor
Director: Charles M.(Chuck) Jones
Story: Michael Maltese
Animation: Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Richard Thompson, and Ben Washam
Layouts: Robert Gribbroek
Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard
Music: Milt Franklyn
16) Patton (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1970) 170 minutes, color
Producer: Frank McCarthy
Director: Franklin Schaffner
Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North, based on the biography
Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and A Soldier's Story by Omar
Bradley
Cinematographer: Fred Koenekamp, A.S.C.
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Editor: Hugh Fowler
Art Direction: Urie McCleary and Gil Parrando
Set Decoration: Antonio Mateos and Pierre-Louis Thevenet
Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates, John Doucette, Stephen Young,
Michael Strong, Cary Loftin, Morgan Paull, Karl Michael Vogler, Bill
Hickman, Edward Binns, Tim Considine
17) Princess Nicotine; or The Smoke Fairy (Vitagraph, 1909) 5 minutes,
b&w, silent
Producer/Supervising Director: J. Stuart Blackton
Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio, A.S.C.
Cast: Paul Panzer and Gladys Hulette
18) Show People (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1928) 82 minutes, silent, b&w
Director: King Vidor
Screenplay: Wanda Tuchock, based on an original story by Agnes Christine Johnson
and Laurence Stallings
Titles: Ralph Spence
Cinematographer: John Arnold, A.S.C.
Editor: Hugh Wynn
Cast: Marion Davies, William Haines, Dell Henderson, Paul Ralli, Tenen Holtz, Harry
Gribbon, Sidney Bracy, Polly Moran, Albert Conti. Appearances by John
Gilbert, Mae Murray, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Elinor Glynn,
William S. Hart, Louella Parsons, Norma Talmadge and others
19) The Son of the Sheik (United Artists, 1926) 72 minutes, silent, b&w
Producer: John Considine, Jr.
Director: George Fitzmaurice
Screenplay: Frances Marion and Fred De Gresac, based on the novel
The Sons of the Sheik by Edith M. Hull
Cinematographer: George Barnes, A.S.C.
Art Direction: William Cameron Menzies
Cast: Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky, George Fawcett, Montague Love, Karl Dane,
Bull Montana and Agnes Ayres
20) Tarzan and His Mate (MGM, 1934) 93/105 minutes, b&w
Producer: Bernard Hyman
Directors: Cedric Gibbons and Jack Conway
Screenplay: James Kevin McGuinness, adaptation by Howard Emmett Rogers and Leon
Gordon, based on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Cinematographers: Charles Clarke, A.S.C. and Clyde DeVinna, A.S.C.
Editor: Tom Held
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton, Paul Cavanagh,
Forrester Harvey, Nathan Curry, Doris Lloyd, William Stack and Desmond
Roberts
21) Tin Toy (Pixar, 1988) 5 minutes, color
Producer: William Reeves
Director/Writer: John Lasseter
Animators/Modelers: Craig Good, John Lasseter, Eben Ostby, and William Reeves.
Visual Effects, Sound and Other Crew: Gary Rydstrom, Anthony Apodoca, Don
Conway, Ralph Guggenheim, Pat Hanrahan, Jeff Hilgert, Jim Lawson, Sam
Leffler, Jeffrey Mock, Darwyn Peachey, Susan Anderson, Loren Carpenter, Ed
Catmull, David Haddick, Ken Huey, Mark Leather, Forrest Patten, Flip Phillips,
David Salesin, Steven Sequeira, Carson Silkey, Alvy Ray Smith, Scott Taylor,
Deidre Warin
22) The Wedding March (Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount, 1928) 113 minutes,
Music Score with Movietone sound effects, b&w with
some 2-strip Technicolor sequences
Producer: P.A. Powers
Director: Erich Von Stroheim
Screenplay: Erich Von Stroheim and Harry Carr
Cinematography: Ben Reynolds, A.S.C. and Hal Mohr, A.S.C.
Art Direction: Richard Day
Cast: Erich Von Stroheim, George Fawcett, Maude George, Fay Wray, Cesare
Gravina, Dale Fuller, Hughie Mack, Matthew Betz, George Nichols, ZaSu
Pitts, and Anton Wawerka
23) White Heat (Warner Bros., 1949) 114 minutes, b&w
Producer: Louis Edelman
Director: Raoul Walsh
Screenplay: Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, based on the story of the same name by
Virginia Kellogg
Cinematographer: Sid Hickox, A.S.C.
Music: Max Steiner
Editor: Owen Marks
Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly, Steve
Cochran, John Archer, Wally Cassell, Fred Coby
24) Young Frankenstein (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1974) 105 minutes, b&w
Producer: Michael Gruskoff
Director: Mel Brooks
Screenplay: Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, based on characters created by Mary W.
Shelley
Cinematographer: Gerald Hirschfeld, A.S.C.
Editor: John Howard
Music: John Morris
Production Design: Dale Hennesy
Set Decoration: Bob De Vestel
Cast: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman,
Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, Liam Dunn, Gene Hackman
25) Young Mr. Lincoln (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1939) 100 minutes, b&w
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
Director: John Ford
Screenplay: Lamar Trotti
Cinematographers: Bert Glennon, A.S.C. and Arthur Miller, A.S.C.
Editor: Walter Thompson
Music: Alfred Newman
Cast: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver, Arleen Whelan, Pauline Moore,
Richard Cromwell, Ward Bond, Donald Meek, Milburn Stone
======================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Public Affairs Office
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington DC 20540-1610
phone (202) 707-2905
fax (202) 707-9199
e-mail pao@loc.gov
December 16, 2003
Press contact: Sheryl Cannady (202) 707-6456, scannady@loc
LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS ADDS 25 FILMS
TO NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced his annual selection of 25
motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry (see attached list). This group of titles
brings the total number of films placed on the Registry to 375.
Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of
Congress names 25 "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant motion pictures to the
Registry. The list is designed to reflect the full breadth and diversity of America's film heritage,
thus increasing public awareness of the richness of American cinema and the need for its
preservation. In making the announcement, the Librarian said, "Our film heritage is America's
living past. It celebrates the creativity and inventiveness of diverse communities and our nation
as a whole. By preserving American films, we safeguard a significant element of our cultural
history."
This year's selections span the years 1894 to 1988, and encompass films ranging from
Hollywood classics to lesser-known, but still vital, works. Among the films named this year:
"Antonia: Portrait of the Woman" Jill Godmillow and Judy Collins' documentary on
the life of extraordinary musician-conductor Antonia Brica and her struggles to become a
symphony director despite her gender.
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" one of the most popular American films of
all time with critically acclaimed performances by Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
"The Chechahcos"(Inuit word meaning "tenderfoot" or "newcomer") this independent,
regional film was the first feature film produced in Alaska, and is renowned for its
spectacular location footage of the lonely and unfathomable Alaskan wilderness, frenzied
dogsled pursuits and life-and-death struggles on the glaciers.
"Dickson Experimental Sound Film" the subject of a recent high-profile restoration
project, this film was a very early attempt by W.K.L. Dickson of the Thomas Edison
Company to combine film image and sound.
"Fox Movietone News: Jenkins Orphanage Band" culturally important newsreel
footage of the renowned African American touring musical group of Charleston, S.C.
"Nostalgia" and "Film Portrait" two avant-garde classics considered eloquent and
evocative explorations of memory and family by Hollis Frampton and Jerome Hill, a
descendant of a railroad tycoon of the late 1800s.
"Gold Diggers of 1933" arguably the definitive Depression-era musical, rife with
visually stunning Busby Berkeley productions, ranging from the escapist, kaleidoscopic,
neon-violin-playing chorines of "The Shadow Waltz" to the powerful social statement of
"My Forgotten Man," a stirring paean to World War I veterans unemployed by the
Depression.
"The Hunters" seminal anthropological film chronicling a giraffe hunt by Kalahari
Desert tribesmen.
"Matrimony's Speed Limit" pioneering woman filmmaker Alice Guy Blache's deft,
ironic short film of a man financially compelled to "marry by noon," thanks to some
sneaky encouragement from the woman in his life.
"National Velvet" enduring family film classic with Elizabeth Taylor as a young girl
whose wild ambition is to have her horse run in the Grand National Steeplechase.
"Naughty Marietta" a "singing romance" and cinema's first pairing of the electrifying
singing duo Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, who captivated audiences with songs
such as "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life."
"One Froggy Evening" a cartoon on every short list of the greatest animation, this
classic Chuck Jones creation features crooning frog Michigan J. Frog, who drives his
owner insane by singing only in private, but never in public.
"Princess Nicotine; or The Smoke Fairy" a dazzling special effects landmark from
1909, where fairies bedevil one man's attempt to light his pipe for a relaxing smoke.
"Show People" the classic silent comedy that showcases actress Marion Davies' deft
touch for light comedy.
"The Son of the Sheik" Rudolph Valentino, who died shortly after the film's release at
the age of 31, inflamed female hearts for a final time in this slightly tongue-in-cheek
adventure-romance.
"Tarzan and His Mate" a rather steamy pre-Production Code Tarzan film (generally
considered the finest in the series) with Tarzan and Jane battling poachers and living a
rather carefree, swinging life in the jungle.
"Tin Toy" early innovative short animation from Pixar Studios, which revolutionized
American animation with its hits such as "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo."
"White Heat" pulsating gangster film with James Cagney as a mother-obsessed,
psychopathic gangster exiting the world with the legendary "Made It Ma. Top of the
World!" ending.
The Librarian chose this year's selections after evaluating nearly 1,000 titles nominated by
the public and conducting intensive discussions with the Library's Motion Picture division staff
and the distinguished members and alternates of his advisory group, the National Film
Preservation Board, which also advises the Librarian on national film preservation policy.
In making his announcement, Billington lauded two of the Library's landmark
developments in the film preservation field:
The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, which opens in Culpeper, Va., in 2005
as the world's preeminent audiovisual preservation and research facility, is being built
with the generous support of the Packard Humanities Institute.
The Moving Image Collections (MIC) program, which is the largest and potentially most
significant archival-moving image project in history. Archives worldwide have started
working on the first stage, a comprehensive directory of moving image repositories. MIC
was launched in partnership with the Association of Moving Image Archivists and with a
grant from the National Science Foundation. For information on the project's progress,
visit http://gondolin.rutgers.edu/MIC/.
Regarding the National Film Registry, Billington observed that the "films we choose are
not necessarily either the 'best' American films ever made or the most famous, but they are films
that continue to have cultural, historical or aesthetic significance -- and in many cases represent
countless other films also deserving of recognition. The selection of a film, I stress, is not an
endorsement of its ideology or content, but rather a recognition of the film's importance to
American film and cultural history and to history in general."
"Taken together, the 375 films in the National Film Registry represent a stunning range of
American filmmaking including Hollywood features, documentaries, avant-garde and amateur
productions, films of regional interest, ethnic, animated and short film subjects -- all deserving
recognition, preservation and access by future generations. As we begin this new millennium,
the registry stands among the finest summations of American cinema's wondrous first century,"
he added.
This key component of American cultural history, however, remains a legacy with much
already lost or in peril. Billington explained: "In spite of the heroic efforts of archives, the
motion picture industry and others, America's film heritage, by any measure, is an endangered
species. Fifty percent of the films produced before 1950 and 80 to 90 percent made before 1920
have disappeared forever. Sadly, our enthusiasm for watching films has proved far greater than
our commitment to preserving them. And, ominously, more films are lost each year -- through
the ravages of nitrate deterioration, color-fading and the recently discovered 'vinegar syndrome,'
which threatens the acetate-based [safety] film stock on which the vast majority of motion
pictures, past and present, have been reproduced."
For each title named to the registry, the Library of Congress works to ensure that the film
is preserved for all time, either through the Library's massive motion picture preservation
program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion picture studios and
independent filmmakers. The Library of Congress contains the largest collections of film and
television in the world, from the earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture to the latest feature
releases. For more information, consult the National Film Preservation Board Web site at
www.loc.gov/film.
Films Selected to
2003 National Film Registry
1. Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1974)
2. Atlantic City (1980)
3. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
4. The Chechahcos (1924)
5. Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894-5)
6. Film Portrait (1970)
7. Fox Movietone News: Jenkins Orphanage Band (1928)
8. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
9. The Hunters (1957)
10. Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913)
11. Medium Cool (1969)
12. National Velvet (1944)
13. Naughty Marietta (1935)
14. Nostalgia (1971)
15. One Froggy Evening (1956)
16. Patton (1970)
17. Princess Nicotine; or The Smoke Fairy (1909)
18. Show People (1928)
19. The Son of the Sheik (1926)
20. Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
21. Tin Toy (1988)
22. The Wedding March (1928)
23. White Heat (1949)
24. Young Frankenstein (1974)
25. Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
# # #
PR 03-211
12/15/03
ISSN 0731-3527
| 
Library of Congress
