Sesenta años de películas (1893-1952) según Walter H. Stainton
El profesor Walter Hutchinson Stainton (1897-1987), graduado ingeniero en 1920 en la Universidad de Cornell (Ithaca, Nueva York), doctor en física en 1927, se dedica después al estudio del teatro y del cine, en la misma Universidad de Cornell, donde funda la Cornell Film Collection, y en 1936 la Cornell Theatre's Film Division, que dirige durante muchos años (en 1965 fue nombrado profesor emérito de esa universidad, que conserva sus papeles). Participó en las dos guerras mundiales, como instructor de aviación militar en Cornell durante la Gran Guerra, como capitán de guerra química durante la segunda (en 1953 se retira del ejército con el rango de mayor). En 1952 hace pública la selección de las películas que, según su criterio, señalan o inician una tendencia en los sesenta años transcurridos de historia del cine:
A 60-Year Calendar of Motion Pictures
1893: Fred Ott's Sneeze, Edison.
1894: The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots, Edison.
1895: Young Grifo and Battling Barnett; Lunch Hour at the Lumiere Factory and nine other 50-foot films by the Lumire brothers.`
1896: Sea Waves, Umbrella Dance, &c. Edison Vitascope; The Soldier's Courtship, Robert W. Paul; The Kiss, Edison.
1897: Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, Enoch Rector; Derriere L'Omnibus, George Méliès.
1898: The Passion Play; Tearing Down the Spanish Flag; Views of the Pope, Biograph.
1900: Cinderella, George Méliès.
1901: Queen Victoria's Funeral.
1902: A Trip to the Moon, Star Film.
1903: The Life of an American Fireman, Edison; The Great Train Robbery, Edison.
1905: Personal, Biograph.
1906: The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, Edison.
1907: Ben Hur, Kalem.
1908: The Assassination of the Duc de Guise, Film d'Arte; Romeo and Juliet, Vitagraph; The Adventures of Dolly, Biograph; After Many Years, Biograph.
1909: The Violin Maker of Cremona, Biograph; The Lonely Villa, Biograph; Gertie the Dinosaur.
1910: The Way of a Man, Biograph.
1911: The New Stenographer, Biograph.
1912: Man's Genesis, Biograph; Queen Elizabeth, Agence Générale Cinématographique; The Durbar, Kinemacolor; The New York Hat, Biograph.
1913: Traffic in Souls, Universal; Quo Vadis? Societa Italiana Cines.
1914: The Massacre, Biograph; The Perils of Pauline, Eclectic-Pathé; Tillie's Punctured Romance, Keystone.
1915: The Tramp, Essanay; The Birth of a Nation, D. W. Griffith Corp.
1916: Civilization, Triangle; Intolerance, Wark Producing Co.
1917: The Immigrant, Mutual.
1918: Woman, Maurice Tourneur; Shoulder Arms, First National.
1919: J'Accuse, Pathe; The Miracle Man, Artcraft.
1920: The Mark of Zorro, United Artists; Passion (Madame du Barry), Union-UFA.
1921: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Decla.
1922: Nanook of the North, Revillon Frères; The Witch, Swedish Biograph.
1923: The Covered Wagon, Famous Players-Lasky; A Woman of Paris, United Artists; Crainquebille, Les Films Artistiques Français.
1924: Greed, MGM; Le Ballet Mécanique, Fernand Leger; The Marriage Circle, Warner; The Navigator, MGM.
1925: The Last Laugh, Universal; The Big Parade, MGM; Siegfried; Battleship Potemkin, Goskino.
1926: Mother, Mezhrabpom-Russ; Moana of the South Seas, Famous Players-Lasky; Don Juan, Warner.
1927: Ten Days That Shook the World, Sovkino; The Jazz Singer, Warner; Sunrise, Fox; Underworld, Paramount.
1928: Steamboat Willie, Columbia.
1929: The Passion of Joan of Arc, Société Générale des Films; Broadway Melody, MGM.
1930: All Quiet on the Western Front, Universal; Little Caesar, First National; Anna Christie, MGM.
1932: Grand Hotel, MGM.
1933: 42nd Street, Warner; Cavalcade, Fox; The Private Life of Henry VIII, London Films.
1934: It Happened One Night, Columbia
1934-7: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, RKO.
1935: Becky Sharp, RKO; Mutiny on the Bounty, MGM; The Informer, RKO.
1936: Modern Times, United Artists; The Plow That Broke the Plains, U. S. Resettlement Administration; Carnival in Flanders, Discina International.
1937: The Awful Truth, Columbia.
1938: The Lady Vanishes, Gaumont-British.
1939: Pygmalion, MGM; Stagecoach, United Artists; Ninotchka, MGM.
1940: The Grapes of Wrath, Twentieth Century-Fox; The Long Voyage Home, United Artists; Citizen Kane, RKO; Fantasia, RKO.
1941: Gone With the Wind, MGM; How Green Was My Valley, Twentieth Century-Fox; Target For Tonight, Warner.
1943: The Ox-Bow Incident, Twentieth Century-Fox.
1944: The Memphis Belle, U. S. Air Force.
1945: The True Glory, Columbia; The House on 92nd Street, Twentieth Century-Fox.
1946: The Best Years of Our Lives, RKO; Open City, Mayer-Burstyn; Henry V, United Artists; Brief Encounter, Eagle Lion.
1947: Monsieur Verdoux.
1948: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Warner; Dreams That Money Can Buy, Films International; Fiddle De Dee, National Film Board of Canada; Hamlet, Universal-International.
1949: The Loon's Necklace, Crawley Films; Quartet, Eagle Lion; The Snake Pit, Twentieth Century-Fox.
1950: Kind Hearts and Coronets, Eagle Lion; The Titan, Michelangelo Co.; Beaver Valley, RKO.
1951: Gerald McBoing Boing, Columbia; Rashomon, RKO; The Red Badge of Courage, MGM.
1952: The Quiet Man, John Ford.
[Tomado de Franklin Fearing, “Research, Journals, &c.”, The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, vol. 7, nº 3 (primavera 1953), págs. 319-321.]