School's out? Ha.

Last week, the Paramount Theatre turned its beloved Summer Classic Film series into movie school, gearing its programming to showcase the most vivacious decades in film's short history — the 1930s through the 1970s. This part of the summer series, now through July 28, has been called "Five Decades in Five Weeks," during which some of the "best and most representative" movies of each decade will screen, providing "a crash course in film history," says the Paramount.

Fair enough. Except that this crash course concentrates exclusively on American film, overlooking landmarks of world cinema. (The one semi-exception is "A Hard Day's Night" — a British movie by an American director.) But even given its all-Hollywood focus, there's much the course can't cover.

So we're assigning homework. After attending class at the Paramount with its decade-specific selections, take a look at some more must-sees that we've handpicked, 10 for each decade. Many are slightly offbeat films, popular but not always obvious titles that are not only totally of their time, but pretty great, too. (All of the movies are available on video or DVD, except 1951's "Detective Story," which occasionally airs on cable's Turner Classic Movies.)

Class, please be seated.

'30s

This is when sound spun itself around the formerly silent medium, inviting a rush of musicals by the likes of Busby Berkeley and Fred Astaire. The sonic dawn inspired Disney to launch a cartoon revolution and helped underscore the realism in a blasting parade of gangster pictures. It was the era of Garbo, iconic monster movies and pre-Depression screwball comedies — all of which were forced by the new Production Code to banish the risque and morally dubious.

Color seeped into top-dollar films, including "The Wizard of Oz," which screened last month at the Paramount, and "Gone With the Wind," which will close the summer series Sept. 4. Both of these movies came from what's commonly called Hollywood's greatest year, 1939, a banner stretch boasting the release of "Grand Hotel," "The Grapes of Wrath," "Stagecoach," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Gunga Din," "Wuthering Heights," "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and "Ninotchka" to name a few.

The Paramount kicked off its '30s segment Friday with the delirious Marx brothers comedies "Duck Soup" and "Horse Feathers."

In the Paramount classroom:

• "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) — Errol Flynn dashes, swashes and buckles in this joyous actioner directed by Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca"). (Today, Tuesday)
• "Captain Blood" (1935) — Curtiz also directed this high-seas adventure, which first paired Flynn with "Robin Hood" co-stars Olivia de Havilland and hiss-worthy Basil Rathbone. Filled with supple swordplay, the movie vaulted Flynn to heroic altitudes. (Today, Tuesday)
• "Hell's Angels" (1930) — Bonkers billionaire Howard Hughes produced and directed this airborne epic, the making of which is dramatized in "The Aviator." Abuzz with breathtaking aerial footage, the movie deployed its own bombshell in Jean Harlow. (Wednesday, Thursday)
• "Scarface" (1932) — A required gangster picture (with "Little Caesar" and "The Public Enemy") produced by Hughes, directed by titanically versatile Howard Hawks and starring a hammy Paul Muni, who blasts away with a maniacal smile. (Wednesday, Thursday)

Homework:

• "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) — Lyrical and heartbreaking look at the hellish tolls of war, set during World War I, directed by Lewis Milestone. Best Picture winner.
• "City Lights" (1931) — Charlie Chaplin wrings laughs, then tears in this pitch-perfect mingling of the silly and sentimental.
• "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932) — Social criticism disguised as melodrama, with Paul Muni as an innocent man ravaged by the penal system.
• "Freaks" (1932) — Once-banned horror movie starring actual sideshow human oddities, who take unthinkable revenge on a cruel "normal" person. Directed by master of the ghoulish Tod Browning.
• "Shanghai Express" (1932) — One of many collaborations with director-poet Josef von Sternberg and siren Marlene Dietrich — a partnership imported from Germany — with visual luminosity from cinematographer Lee Garmes.
• "King Kong" (1933) — Groundbreaking special effects animate the big ape in a monster movie that bends nerves before cracking hearts.
• "Twentieth Century" (1934) — Director Howard Hawks and stars John Barrymore and Carole Lombard (the proto-Cameron Diaz, but funnier) whip up a screwball frenzy with Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's hilarious, whipsawing screenplay.
• "My Man Godfrey" (1936) — Lombard in another blazing screwball, this time with William Powell, who plays a hobo masquerading as a rich clan's butler. Sophisticated riot with a uniformly great cast, including the frog-voiced Eugene Pallette.
• "The Awful Truth" (1937) — And yet another screwball masterpiece. Cary Grant, Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy tangle and wrangle in the ashes of divorce. Leo McCarey directs them and a spirited doggie.
• "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1939) — Charles Laughton as the misshapen ogre made me cry as a kid — not out of fear, but sympathy. Gorgeously atmospheric, star-studded horror from Universal.

'40s

Film noir is born, with a style assist from Orson Welles' expressionistic "Citizen Kane" (1941), which the Paramount played last month. The studio system is in full swing, with burgeoning stars (Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, et al) hitting their stride and directors from Europe — from Fritz Lang to Billy Wilder — continuing to forge auteurist visions. Frank Capra's films embody New Deal optimism, while crime-thick noirs pick at America's post-war malaise. Literate comedies, musicals, socially conscious melodramas and heroic war movies also thrive. By decade's end, the Communist witch hunts spawn the House Committee on Un-American Activities, resulting in Hollywood careers ruined by the blacklist.

In the Paramount classroom:

• "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) — Slick, sassy comedy bristling with badinage, romance and impeccable ensemble acting with the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. (Friday, Saturday)
• "Woman of the Year" (1942) — The first pairing of Hepburn and Spencer Tracy demonstrates why they'd make a bunch of whipsmart comedies together. (Friday, Saturday)
• "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) — James Cagney snagged an Oscar for his portrayal of songsmith George M. Cohan. He still dances like a marionette. (Saturday; July 3)
• "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944) — Pure apple pie, with a scoop of MGM's musical magic. Judy Garland stars and her future husband Vincente Minnelli, suave with a camera, directs. (Saturday; July 3)
• "The Lady Eve" (1941) — Preston Sturges' sharpest romantic comedy, starring a dim Henry Fonda and flinty Barbara Stanwyck, who joust most dashingly. (July 3 and 5)
• "The Palm Beach Story" (1942) — More romantic lunacy from Sturges, who lets loose some of his most inspired bits (two words: hunters, train). With Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea and more. (July 3 and 5)
• "Double Indemnity" (1944) — Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray are bad, very bad, in this ultimate film noir from the fanged Billy Wilder. (July 6-7)
• "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) — Noir is rooted in Murphy's law, as Lana Turner and John Garfield learn when they knock off her hubby out of greed. (July 6-7)

Homework:

• "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940) — Remade — horribly — as "You've Got Mail," Ernst Lubitsch's legendary touch — sheer grace, charm and heartstrings — is all over this romantic-comedy about unwitting lovers Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart.
• "Adam's Rib" (1942) — Better than "Woman of the Year," this Hepburn-Tracy comedy pits husband and wife lawyers on opposing sides of an attempted-murder case for a battle royal of the sexes.
• "I Walked with a Zombie" (1943) — A voodoo thriller soaked in macabre atmosphere by Jacques Tourneur, who's better known for "Cat People."
• "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944) — In this racy-for-its-time comedy by Preston Sturges, Betty Hutton is pregnant but forgets who the father is. Signs point to Eddie Bracken.
• "Detour" (1945) — Ann Savage is the nastiest femme fatale ever in Edgar G. Ulmer's dirty and dirt-cheap film noir classic.
• "Mildred Pierce" (1945) — Michael Curtiz directs an Oscar-winning Joan Crawford as a mother competing for the same man with her upstart daughter. Domestic noir.
• "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948) — Preston Sturges — again. Wildly sophisticated and somewhat underrated comedy about a conductor (Rex Harrison) who fantasizes about killing his wife in sync with musical themes.
• "Red River" (1948) — Montgomery Clift leads a mutiny against a bullying John Wayne during an epic cattle drive, with exciting results. Howard Hawks directs one of the great westerns.
• "Force of Evil" (1948) — A wrenching noir immaculately constructed by Abraham Polonsky, who was later blacklisted. John Garfield provides the emotional center.
• "The Set-Up" (1949) — Robert Ryan is at his best as an incorruptible boxer in this taut noir by Robert Wise, who shot the film's 72 minutes in real time.

'50s

The Western returns with revisionist brio, thanks to "adult-Western" directors such as Anthony Mann, while noir continues its subversive streak. A breed of young New York Method actors, including Marlon Brando and James Dean, upend old styles with emotional realism and carnal heat. Color reigns — notably in Hitchcock's brightest thrillers and MGM musicals — and television asserts a financial threat to the big screen, which Hollywood responds to with super widescreen formats. Science-fiction locates rich subtext in the Red Scare. Auteurs with socially and psychologically brave views — Robert Aldrich, Nicholas Ray, Elia Kazan, Sam Fuller — make striking dramas that influence generations of filmmakers. Independent productions chip away at the moribund studio system.

In the Paramount classroom:

• "Rear Window" (1954) and "Vertigo" (1958) — James Stewart gets caught up in twisted mysteries only Hitchcock could subject him to. (July 8-9)
• "20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957) and "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers" (1956) — The great Ray Harryhausen provides alien beasties in both of these zeitgeist-ripe invader flicks. (July 9-10)
• "An American in Paris" (1951) and "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) — Gene Kelly. Dancing. Singing. MGM works its toe-tapping sorcery again. (July 10 and 12)
• "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) and "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953) — Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell glitter in the Howard Hawks musical-comedy, then Monroe joins Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable in the fun if aged comedy of female mettle. (July 13-14)

Homework:

• "Winchester '73" (1950) — Anthony Mann's tense western rejuvenated the genre, with an unexpectedly tough James Stewart hunting down the man who stole his rifle.
• "The Steel Helmet" (1951) — A riveting, hard-bitten look at the Korean War from crusty genius Sam Fuller.
• "Detective Story" (1951) — Kirk Douglas, by turns raging and supplicating, stars in this pressure-cooker cop drama directed by William Wyler mostly on a single set.
• "Johnny Guitar" (1954) — The strangest western ever made, part inadvertent comedy, part Freudian camp-fest, all Nicholas Ray. A screechy Mercedes McCambridge wants to snuff out saloon owner Joan Crawford. Sterling Hayden is the titular tough; Scott Brady is the Dancin' Kid. (Wha?)
• "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955) — A brazen take on the Mickey Spillane book, full of violenceand perversity, by Robert Aldrich. Recognize that glowing suitcase?
• "The Killing" (1956) — A gas of a heist-noir by Stanley Kubrick, with Sterling Hayden as the unrepentant gang leader who wants to make a killing at the track. Inspired "Reservoir Dogs."
• "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) — Burt Lancaster is the meanest gossip columnist in the city, and he'll take you out in one spitting sentence — especially if you're dating his sister. Tony Curtis has never been better than in this scabrous noir.
• "A Face in the Crowd" (1957) — You've never seen Andy Griffith like this — a country singer turned megalomaniac when his television fame mushrooms. Elia Kazan directs Budd Schulberg's biting script.
• "The Tall T" (1957) — A gritty little western based on an Elmore Leonard story and directed by the underrated Budd Boetticher. Randolph Scott tries to rescue Maureen O'Sullivan from a band of outlaws.
• "Written on the Wind" (1957) — Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone and Rock Hudson lather up lots of kitschy soap bubbles in Douglas Sirk's overheated, Texas-based melodrama.

'60s

Younger, hipper audiences become a new ticket-buying demographic, while European and world cinema revolutionize the form and prove there's an audience for "art" films. This spells the death-knell for bloated epics and saccharine musicals. The Production Code dies, liberating American movies, which start to address sex, violence and social-political issues in darker, tougher films. (The MPAA ratings system replaces the Code in 1968.) The upshot is avidly visionary movies like "Bonnie and Clyde," "The Wild Bunch" (showing Aug. 13-14) and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (showing Aug. 25-26). "Easy Rider" is emblematic of the late-'60s spirit and ushers in the New Hollywood of the 1970s.

In the Paramount classroom:

• "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) and "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) — Ahead-of-their-time Cold War critiques, daring and dark. Stanley Kubrick's black comedy brings chuckles; John Frankenheimer's nervous drama brings chills. (July 15-16)
• "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) — This one isn't American (though director Richard Lester is), because it's all about the Beatles, who not only make us dance, but make us laugh. (July 16-17)
• "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) — An epic snooze that looks lovely from David Lean. Omar Sharif, agitating Bolsheviks and lots of ice. (July 17 and 19)
• "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) and "Charade" (1963) — Audrey Hepburn charms her way through these romantic comedies. (July 20-21)

Homework:

• "The Hustler" (1961) — Paul Newman deserved an Oscar for his pool sharp Fast Eddie, who's as tough as he is emotional. A great drama and fractured romance, co-starring Piper Laurie, Jackie Gleason and the exceptional George C. Scott.
• "The Nutty Professor" (1963) — Yes, Jerry Lewis. The comedian is superb in dual roles — a geeky science professor and the jerky cad Buddy Love — as well as in the director's seat.
• "The Naked Kiss" (1964) — Sam Fuller's bizarre pastiche of moods makes this chancy melodrama about child molestation and a former prostitute unforgettable.
• "The Americanization of Emily" (1964) — Paddy Chayefsky's beautiful dialogue galvanizes this cynical view of love and war, with James Garner (doing his best work) and Julie Andrews.
• "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966) — Mike Nichols nails Edward Albee's conflagration of marital recriminations, aided by a scorching cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis.
• "Seconds" (1966) — A man's old life and new life conflict when he changes his looks and identity (to become Rock Hudson) in John Frankenheimer's offbeat dazzler. James Wong Howe's cinematography awes.
• "Point Blank" (1967) — Double-crossed by his partner and his wife, Lee Marvin is out for bloody revenge and exactly $93,000. John Boorman shoots with New Wave flair that gives it a '60s stamp.
• "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) — George A. Romero's seminal zombie grossout — extra spooky in gooey black and white — still rattles.
• "The Swimmer" (1968) — Bleak, offbeat character study in which a man (half-naked Burt Lancaster) swims through a series of pools, each triggering flashbacks to his sorry life.
• "Salesman" (1969) — The Maysles brothers' landmark of documentary verité presents a stark portrait of the American way, following a quartet of door-to-door Bible salesmen on their rounds to fascinating effect.

'70s

A mighty corps of serious filmmakers composed of film-school brats (Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg) and television vets (Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah, Sidney Lumet) fashion the New Hollywood. The directors sparkplug a torpid movie industry with virtuoso commercial products as well as deeply personal visions, pleasing both audiences and critics. Cranked out is a canon of great art and great entertainments: "The Godfather," "Badlands," "M*A*S*H," "Five Easy Pieces," "The French Connection," "The Exorcist," "Taxi Driver," "Jaws," "Nashville," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," to name the obvious. It's the age of the blockbuster, from "The Poseidon Adventure" to "Star Wars," redefining the way studios invest in movies. Suddenly, box office is all.

In the Paramount classroom:

• "Grease" (1978) and "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) — John Travolta sings and dances, sometimes at the same time. (July 22 and 24)
• "Chinatown" (1974) — Roman Polanski's classic noir homage hasn't dimmed a single watt. (July 24 and 26)
• "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) — Anthony Burgess' futuristic novel gets a controversial spin by bad boy Stanley Kubrick. (July 27-28)

Homework:

• "Two-Lane Blacktop" (1971) — Classically ruminative '70s drama set among an eclectic cast — James Taylor, Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates — whose collective thirst for speed has them racing far and wide and fast.
• "The Hospital" (1971) — George C. Scott is the beleaguered doc whose hospital is reaching unhealthy anarchy in this smart bureaucratic satire written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Arthur Hiller.
• "Harold and Maude" (1972) — Suicidal boy (Bud Cort) meets life-drunk granny (Ruth Gordon). Love springs as lessons are sweetly, humorously learned. All to the hippie ditties of Cat Stevens and Hal Ashby's tone-perfect direction.
• "The Last House on the Left" (1972) — Wes Craven's supposed remake of Bergman's "Virgin Spring" is a bargain-basement revenge story shot in terrifying verité with questionable taste. Landmark horror.
• "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973) — A gritty revisionist history of Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) and the sheriff (James Coburn) shadowing him as only Sam Peckinpah could tell it — with blood and lots of slo-mo.
• "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" (1974) — A car-bound character study, with Peter Fonda's wannabe NASCAR racer ripping through California alongside his crime accomplices in a '69 Dodge Charger. The cops are in hot pursuit, leading to a shocker finale.
• "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974) — Gena Rowlands got the Oscar for her squirm-inducing role as a housewife cracking apart in John Cassavetes' remorseless look at suburban ennui and domestic turmoil.
• "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975) — Al Pacino lets loose as a desperate robber cornered inside a bank by police, with an array of hostages. Director Sidney Lumet enlarges a true incident into thrilling character drama.
• "Harlan County USA" (1976) — Barbara Kopple's Oscar-winning documentary is a rowdy chronicle of striking Kentucky mine workers, a gripping window into real human struggle.
• "3 Women" (1977) — Funny, heartbreaking and weird, Robert Altman's meditation on female relationships, starring Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall, has the prickle of reality and the haze of dreams.