http://www.archive.org
The Internet Archive (IA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining an on-line library and archive of Web and multimedia resources. Located at the Presidio in San Francisco, California, this archive includes "snapshots of the World Wide Web" (archived copies of pages, taken at various points in time), software, movies, books, and audio recordings. The IA makes the collections available at no cost to researchers, historians, and scholars. It is a member of the American Library Association and is officially recognized by the State of California as a library.
I would like to thank DaleCooper who helped me to extend this list. If you find some movies in the archive which aren't listed here please post them as a comment.
Charlie Chaplin for free @ archive.org
Buster Keaton for free @ archive.org
Stan Laurel for free @ archive.org
Three Stooges for free @ archive.org
Alfred Hitchcock for free @ archive.org
Thrillers, Mysteries, Suspense @ archive.org
Horror for free @ archive.org
Westerns for free @ archive.org
Sherlock Holmes for free @ archive.org
Akira Kurosawa for free @ archive.org
The argument against one big list is the lacking overview you get when you enter it from somewhere. Tiny lists with a special focus could handle this job better.
If you decide to realize some of your akira and genre suggestions give me a short note and i will remove the movies and add a link to the lists.