The Maltese Falcon (1941) When George Raft turned down the leading role because John Huston had no experience as a director, Humphrey Bogart stepped into the role of cynical private eye Sam Spade and left an indelible mark.
The splendid cast includes Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elisha Cook Jr and Walter Huston
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Huston and Bogart reunite for a thoroughly engaging parable on greed and its consequences as three disparate prospectors seek gold in Mexico. John Huston collected the Oscars for best director and best screenplay, dad Walter was voted best supporting actor, and it took the Oscar for best picture
Key Largo (1948) Huston and Bogart are together again for a highly entertaining Florida-set thriller featuring Lauren Bacall (who had married Bogart a few years earlier), Claire Trevor (who won an Oscar for her performance) and Edward G Robinson. Huston decided that this would be his last movie for Warner Bros, because they refused to allow him direct Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) "Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavour," declares the crooked lawyer played by Louis Calhern in one of Huston's finest films, a riveting thriller set around a jewellery robbery. The fine cast features Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe and as Huston noted, "it was, of course, where Marilyn Monroe got her start" and "she was excellent in it"
The Red Badge of Courage (1951) Decorated war hero Audie Murphy plays the conflicted young Union soldier in Huston's picture of cowardice and bravery during the American Civil War. MGM cut the film without consulting Huston
The African Queen (1951, inset right) Humphrey Bogart won his only Oscar, playing a boozy steamboat operator helping a prim missionary (the redoubtable Katharine Hepburn) escape the German troops in West Africa during the first World War. The chemistry between the two actors is scintillating
Beat the Devil (1954) The last of Huston's six films with Bogart, this thoroughly amusing spoof on film noir is played admirably deadpan by a cast that includes Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morely and Peter Lorre. Huston marvelled at Truman Capote's "remarkable" dedication when called in at the 11th hour to radically rework the screenplay
Moby Dick (1956) Filmed under dangerous conditions, Huston's adventurous movie of the Herman Melville novel, adapted by Ray Bradbury, features Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, with Richard Basehart, Orson Welles, Leo Genn and Irish actor Noel Purcell. The harbour scenes were shot in Youghal, Co Cork
The Misfits (1961) Having directed Marilyn Monroe's screen debut in The Asphalt Jungle, Huston directed this, her last completed film, which also was the last starring Clark Gable. Written by Monroe's then husband, Arthur Miller, this moody, modern western co-starred the troubled Montgomery Clift, who would play Freud for Huston a year later.
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) Huston piles on the steamy melodrama in his underrated film of the Carson McCullers novel set on a US army base. Marlon Brando plays an officer horsewhipped by his adulterous wife (Elizabeth Taylor) and lusting after another soldier (Robert Forster) who rides naked in the woods
Fat City (1972) Former boxer Huston empathises with the protagonists of his downbeat, deeply moving picture of lost opportunities - Stacy Keach, never better, as a washed-up fighter who could have been a contender, and the wonderfully natural Jeff Bridges as a rising newcomer
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) Huston originally tried to film Rudyard Kipling's short story in the 1940s with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart, and his patience finally paid off in this rousing adventure played with infectious relish by Sean Connery and Michael Caine, as British army officers scheming to set up their own kingdom in eastern Afghanistan, with sterling support from Christopher Plummer as Kipling.
Wise Blood (1979) "Everybody worked for a minimum wage" on this Flannery O'Connor adaptation, Huston said when I interviewed him. "And the entire crew consisted of only 25 persons - the lowest number I've ever had before was, I believe, 50." The result was a striking Gothic drama with Brad Dourif riveting as a fanatical young evangelist rebelling against the commercialisation of religion
Under the Volcano (1984) Cracking Malcolm Lowry's supposedly unfilmable novel, Huston elicited one of the most memorable performances given by Albert Finney, as a hard-drinking former British consul in late 1930s Mexico.
Prizzi's Honor (1985) The dialogue crackles in Huston's penultimate picture, a jet-black comedy set among the Mafia and based on Richard Condon's novel. It collected eight Oscar nominations, including best picture, director and actor (Jack Nicholson), and won in the best supporting actress category for Anjelica Huston.
The Dead (1987) Having made such an auspicious directing debut 46 years earlier with The Maltese Falcon, John Huston ended his career on a glorious note with this cherishable swansong