The Empire Strikes Back, the follow-up to the 1977 blockbuster, came in at No 3 - with Steven Spielberg's shocker Jaws splitting the two George Lucas space epics.

The three movie hits from the 1970s and 1980s were the top choice according to the readers' poll by Empire Magazine and the HMV retail chain.

British success: Full Monty failed to make top 100

Star Wars also took the number one spot with more than a third of all votes in a Millennium Movies survey run by the Sky Premier channel last month.

In the latest poll, two of Britain's all-time biggest box office hits - Four Weddings And A Funeral and The Full Monty - failed even to make the top 100.

They may have suffered from the low poll for comedies. The highest placed funny film was Some Like It Hot at 39, and only six others featured in the top 100.

Mafia movies figured strongly, with Goodfellas at number five, The Godfather at seven and the Godfather Part 2 at 13.

Titanic, the biggest box office blockbuster of all time, managed only number 10, making it the highest-ranking romantic film.

Other classics in the top 10 were Quentin Tarantino's cult movie Pulp Fiction and Spielberg's moving war tales, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List.

Titanic: Biggest earner at the box office

Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption, which had a lukewarm reception at the box office, scored highly in fourth place.

Only four of the top 20 - Citizen Kane, Casablanca, It's A Wonderful Life and Gone With The Wind - were from the "golden age" of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s.

John Wayne westerns and Charlie Chaplin films failed to merit a mention in the top 100.

Ian Nathan, editor of Empire, said: "I am really encouraged by these results. They show that the cinema-going public have a lot of taste. The top 10, 20 and 100 are all respectable and important lists.

"They may not be the same as those of the high-falutin' critics but they do show that the public and film fans like high quality films, not just blockbusters.

"Hollywood sometimes gets it wrong when it appeals to the lowest common denominator. The British public want their brains fed, not just their entertainment glands."

Empire's Top 20

1. Star Wars
2. Jaws
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Goodfellas
6. Pulp Fiction
7. The Godfather
8. Saving Private Ryan
9. Schindler's List
10. Titanic