oldkid,
I just started writing thoughts which may be more than you want to know right now. My three recommendations for you would be
The Music Room
Footlight Parade
The Tin Star
The Music Room is interesting for me because most see it as 2nd or 3rd tier Satyajit Ray, but it's my #1 slightly above the more popular The Lonely Wife, The Big City and the Apu trilogy. It's the Ray that has that little something extra to me, and after watching it you can read my
big review.
Angel: Seen this 3 times and each time I go in with a vague memory and come out with no doubt it belongs in my Essentials. Ernst Lubitsch balancing comedy, drama and a story with no definite line from A to Z and Marlene Dietrich like I've never seen her.
Threads: I've seen this one come up a lot and I can imagine people building resentment as it begins. It looks like a indie film or home movie but ultimately brings a documentary distance to nuclear holocaust, which is a very effective approach.
Tin Star is a great Western pick for March. There's a subplot I don't think anyone likes, but most of the film is Henry Fonda dishing out Western wisdom to Anthony Perkins. Anthony Mann brings the tension.
Footlight Parade: James Cagney at his peak. Also, the definitive Warner Bros./Busby Berkeley musical (with almost all the numbers jammed into the 3rd Act.) Watch this and you'l understand every time I mention Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly and Hugh Herbert.