Synopsis: A talent agent tries to make a buxom young woman into a star despite her possessing zero talent.

Why top 100?: The best of cult favorite Jayne Mansfield's outings, The Girl Can't Help It is funny and dirty with a slapdash pace and a terrific early Rock n Roll score. Mansfield's huge breasts are lovingly framed throughout the film and she is quite delightful in her role (avoiding the grating, overbearing "please love me" shtick she adopted later on). Appearances by Little Richard, The Platters and Fats Domino make The Girl Can't Help It one of the rocking-est flicks of the 50's. A silly film with delightfully bad taste (just look at the publicity still on the right).

Moment you won't soon forget: The ridiculous scene where Mansfield sashes down the street in a super tight outfit causing chaos. A milk bottle explodes in a mans hand (real subtle!) while another shocked fella has his glasses shatter.

79) Violent Cop (1994, Dir. "Beat" Takeshi Kitano)

Synopsis: A burnt out, somewhat suicidal cop battles the Yakuza while searching for his kidnapped sister.

Why top 100?: The film that introduced the East to the brilliance of actor/director "Beat" Kitano. Violent Cop has a look and pace completely original, reinventing the tired rogue cop drama. You can't take your eyes off the short, stocky "Beat" as he bluntly brutalizes anybody in his way. Long, quiet passages sweep the viewer along until scenes of shocking violence grab you by the throat and give you a shake. Takeshi can sit silently in a chair smoking for five minutes straight and somehow it's interesting.

Moment you won't soon forget: The innocent girl that gets suddenly blasted standing near a bus stop. "Beat" Kitano's disturbing reunion with his drugged out, kidnapped sister.

78) Force of Evil (1948, Dir. Abraham Polonsky)

Synopsis: A lawyer who escaped the poverty and corruption of the city returns and becomes involved in a numbers racket.

Why top 100?: Polonsky and actor John Garfield created this incredibly sleazy film noir attack on Capitalism a few years before being called before HUAC and accused of being Communists. Force of Evil is film noir to the extreme with claustrophobic mise en scene, a moody score, corrupt police, gangsters and a city that eats up and spits out the good and bad without notice. Everything on screen seems tilted, distorted and just plain messed up. John Garfield gives perhaps his greatest performance and Polonsky lays on the dread THICK.

Moment you won't soon forget: Garfield's brother Leo being set up for a hit. The head scratching ending where Garfield decides to go to the police even though it seems obvious everyone is crazy corrupt!

77) The Evil Dead (1983, Dir. Sam Raimi)

Synopsis: A group of college students vacation at an isolated cabin where they accidentally release an unseen evil.

Why top 100?: Once Sam Raimi's low budget shocker gets started it never lets up - The Evil Dead is a mind boggling mixture of horror, gore and slapstick comedy. Created by a bunch of Michigan college students this horror quickie gave hope to a generation of horror film director hopefuls. The always fun Bruce Campbell introduces his silent film comedian on acid routine. One of the last American horror films to gleefully accept no rating and no limitations. Arms fly, legs fly, heads get lopped off and a gal sitting cross legged without pupils sings a rather disturbing lullaby. Good stuff.

Moment you won't soon forget: The forest rape scene, the pencil in the ankle, the hideous taunting demon in the basement, the brilliantly ludicrous melting demon finale, Raimi's roving camera ending.

76) The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957, Dir. Jack Arnold)

Synopsis: A strange mist envelops a man causing him to slowly shrink. As he becomes smaller and smaller he must deal with a variety of problems including the greatest man vs. spider battle in cinema history.

Why top 100?: Jack Arnold's sci fi/horror flick has few rivals in the imagination department. Filming from a Richard Matheson script the film seems standard B movie fare except it's so damn exciting and subversively brilliant. Scott living in a doll house before battling a cat, escaping into the basement where he unwittingly awakens a spider that dwarfs him - it's pure imagination. You get sucked into his survival all the while thinking what you would do if you were in his situation! Watching this film as a child was one of my cinematic high points.

Moment you won't soon forget: The battle with the spider which still remains the greatest man versus spider scene EVER! The completely insane Buddhist ending where the hero accepts his fate and disappears becoming part of the universe - fucking brilliance!

75) The Conqueror Worm (Witchfinder General) (1968, Dir. Michael Reeves)

Synopsis: In 1600's England "Witch Hunter" Mathew Hopkins and his assistant murder, torture and rape paranoid townspeople. A soldier returns to the devastated town and vows revenge.

Why top 100?: Michael Reeves last film (he committed suicide) is a shocking and seemingly realistic look at this horrible period in history where a sadistic madman had free reign to maim and torture at will. Vincent Price is a revelation in this one - gone is the hammy acting he's famous for and in its place is one of the most frightening villain's ever portrayed in cinema. Price is dead serious as the power hungry, pervert Hopkins and he's a sight to behold sitting sternly atop his steed as he oversees the carnage he has wrought. The Conqueror Worm (aka Witchfinder General) becomes an invigorating revenge flick until the final payoff - it's so fucking horrible there is no satisfaction!

Moment you won't soon forget: The truly horrifying ending - Marshall watches Hopkins sidekick sticking needles into his gals back before breaking free and delivering about a hundred ax blows to Hopkins quivering body. When another soldier mercifully kills Hopkins, Marshall screams "you've taken him from me!" UGH!

74) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, Dir. James Whale)

Synopsis: A mad scientist creates a female companion for the monster Frankenstein.

Why top 100?: James Whale survives World War One to create one of the most harrowing, entertaining horror films ever made. Boris Karloff is both funny as hell (when he smokes and drinks with his only friend) and painfully touching (when he asks his Bride "friend?") as the monster with a powerful build but the brain of a child. Around a hundred essays and books have been written about the underlying themes of both Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein (as well as the original source - Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein - Prometheus Unbound) but one needn't be a student of Freud to sit back and enjoy the delirious camera work and black humor enriched screenplay of this classic.

Moment you won't soon forget: The first appearance of the bride of course - Elsa Lanchester with that wild hair and ear piercing screech. The monsters relationship with his hermit friend and the bold, crazed camera angles will also stick with ya.

73) Los Olvidados (1950, Dir. Luis Bunuel)

Synopsis: Mexican juvenile delinquents living in complete squalor terrorize the community and each other.

Why top 100?: Luis Bunuel unleashes the most brutal and depressing of all juvenile crime flicks. The kids in this bad boy make the thugs in Rebel Without a Cause look like Technicolor buffoons. These youngsters steal, fight, and get off on repeatedly torturing the blind and crippled. During their down time they knock each other off. Also known as The Young and the Damned, Los Olvidados gives you no respite - when a young lad gets involved with a program designed to help the poor Mexican youths, we feel a happy ending might be around the corner - there is not.

Moment you won't soon forget: Bunuel's gritty, ultra realistic treatment gets a couple of surreal touches that stick with you - the legendary "mother meat" dream sequence and the insane egg smashed on the screen shot that momentarily breaks up the depression.

72) Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, Dir. John Huston)

Synopsis: Three men find gold in Mexico but must battle bandits and their own paranoia before they can return it to civilization.

Why top 100?: John Huston directed this enthralling adventure picture and put Bogart in the role of Fred C. Dobbs, a likable if slightly shady fellow who soon goes off the deep end. Word quickly spread that Bogart was a big time bastard in the flick so people stayed away causing it to flop at the box office. A cult soon formed around this gem and for good reason - it is one of the most exciting, colorful action films ever made. Walter Huston is terrific as a man who knows the land and Alfonso Bedoya's villain Gold Hat remains one of the cinemas greatest and most often copied villains.

Moment you won't soon forget: The out-maned Bogart and company defending their turf against Gold Hat and his Mexican Bandits. Gold Hat delivers one of the great lines in cinema, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

71) Sullivan's Travels (1941, Dir. Preston Sturges)

Synopsis: A comedic film director decides he wants to make a serious "message" movie. He goes undercover as a hobo experiencing first hand the harshness that comes with poverty.

Why top 100?: Sullivan's Travels is the kind of movie Frank Capra would have made if he had half of the talent of Preston Sturges. It's filled with slapstick, thrills, pathos, horror and a nice solid message without ever being sappy or underhanded. Joel McCrea makes a great leading man and cult favorite Veronica Lake is a spunky delight as his traveling companion. I love the old "social protest" movies (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang being the all time champ), and Sturges has created one here under all the laughs and excitement. A film you can watch again and again - it never grows old.

Moment you won't soon forget: The chain gang enjoying a moment of respite - they laugh hysterically at a Mickey Mouse cartoon as it dawns on Sullivan the importance of simple laughter. The ending might even choke you up tough guy!

Don't stop now, check out the next ten greatest cult movies ever made!