ENTERTAINMENT : Film Registry Picks First 25 Movies

WASHINGTON — The Library of Congress today announced selection of the first 25 motion pictures to the new National Film Registry as “culturally, historically or esthetically significant” and worthy of preservation.

The films, listed alphabetically, are:

“The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946; “Casablanca,” 1942; “Citizen Kane,” 1941; “The Crowd,” 1928; “Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” 1964; “The General,” 1927; “Gone With the Wind,” 1939; “The Grapes of Wrath,” 1940; “High Noon,” 1952; “Intolerance,” 1916; “The Learning Tree,” 1969; “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941;

“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939; “Modern Times,” 1936; “Nanook of the North,” 1922; “On the Waterfront,” 1954; “The Searchers,” 1956; “Singin’ in the Rain,” 1952; “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937; “Some Like it Hot,” 1959; “Star Wars,” 1977; “Sunrise,” 1927; “Sunset Boulevard,” 1950; “Vertigo,” 1958, and “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.

The registry was created by Congress last year as part of the National Film Preservation Act, which called for naming 25 important movies annually for three years to the registry.