25 Films To Be Preserved

A very eclectic group of 25 films -- ranging from the first movie featuring a big-screen kiss to a Marlon Brando classic -- have been added to the National Film Registry.

"The Kiss," a 15-second flick made in 1896, and "A Streetcar Named Desire," the 1951 vehicle that helped launch Brando's career, are among the films the Library of Congress chose for the list.

By law, the Librarian of Congress names 25 films of cultural, historic or esthetic importance to go on the registry each year.

Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around The Corner, for example, was praised by The New Yorker as "One of the most beautifully acted and paced romantic comedies ever made in this country."

Steve Leggett, coordinator for the National Film Preservation Board, said the registry encourages the preservation of movies that might otherwise disappear.
Other films on the preservation list:

Civilization, 1916; Do The Right Thing, 1989; The Docks of New York, 1928; Duck Amuck, 1953; The Emperor Jones, 1933; Gunga Din, 1939; In The Land Of The Head-Hunters, also known as In The Land Of The War Canoes, 1914; Jazz On A Summer's Day, 1959; King: A Filmed Record ... Montgomery To Memphis, 1970; Kiss Me Deadly, 1955; Lambchops, 1929; Laura, 1944; Master Hands, 1936; My Man Godfrey, 1936; Night Of The Living Dead, 1968; The Plow That Broke The Plains, 1936; Raiders Of The Lost Ark, 1981; Roman Holiday, 1953; The Shop Around The Corner, 1940; The Ten Commandments, 1956; Trance And Dance In Bali, 1938-9; The Wild Bunch, 1969; and Woman Of The Year, 1942.