ChiO
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FrankGrimes -- The one film I still haven't warmed up to yet is The Palm Beach Story. I don't dislike the film, I just don't like it like most others seem to.
Why, Frank, you ignorant...(oops, that's not respectful). Don't like it because it's not noir or directed by Robert...(oops, too pedantic & argumentative).
Interesting choice because I, on the other hand, first watched Sullivan's Travel's, Miracle of Morgan Creek and The Lady Eve and could not understand what the fuss about Preston Sturges was. He seemed silly and contrived to me. It was then seeing *The Palm Beach Story* that turned me around. Is it because it is tough and realistic rather than silly and contrived? Maybe it was just the time of the season, but suddenly the language clicked, I rewatched the other three, bought the Sturges boxset and now revel in the wacky names.
And that is why, as a general proposition, I don't care to engage in the negative reviews...I always have the feeling that I may not have enjoyed a film because I was tired, not in the mood, my mind was somewhere else, I'm stupid or a hundred other reasons. And that's where the Boards have been helpful: why, youv'e made me want to rewatch (will this be the 5th time?) Vertigo, and MissG has inspired me to keep cranking with John Ford. I always think that maybe this time I'll get it.
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My Criterion collection is pretty small because I'm cheap (I only purchased 3 that were new and that was only because I had gift cards). But each one is a gem because of the transfers and extras.
*Beauty and the Beast* (Cocteau)
*Through a Glass Darkly* (Bergman)
*The Naked City* (Dassin)
*Umberto D.* (De Sica)
*The Passion of Joan of Arc* (Dreyer)
*Ordet* (Dreyer)
*Gertrud* (Dreyer)
*Pickup on South Street* (Fuller)
*M* (Lang)
*Le Samourai* (Melville)
*Ugetsu* (Mizoguchi)
*A Story of Floating Weeds* (Ozu)
*Floating Weeds* (Ozu)
*The Golden Coach* (Renoir)
*Le Notte Bianche* (Visconti)
*F for Fake* (Welles)
kimpunkrock -- As a Fuller fan-fanatic-freak, seek out *Pickup on South Street*, used or otherwise. I think that of the Criterions I have, it is the best value -- great film and wonderful extras, and it normally sells at the lower end of the Criterion price range. I'm running hot-and-cold on getting The First Films of Samuel Fuller. I love *The Steel Helmet*, but *I Shot Jesse James* and *Baron of Arizona* are not among my favorites. I did buy *Merrill's Marauders* recently -- I hadn't seen it since it's original release. It says something about Fuller that he could make a war movie this great and, for my money, he made three that are even better. Hoping to have a friend burn Underworld U.S.A. for me next month (I bought the pressbook at auction this month for $3.00) -- love watching Robert Emhardt. *Park Row* is the one I wish would be released -- never have seen it. And, as FrankGrimes suggested, *Forty Guns* is not to be missed (and it usually is pretty inexpensive at the standard online stores).
Message was edited by: ChiO
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I think that the movie spoke to this issue:
"I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."
and
"Klaatu barada nikto!"
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The Essentials -- A Baker's Dozen
Not all are necessarily among my favorites, but these are among the most acclaimed and provide a strong foundation for delving deeper into the darkened alley, the heart of darkness and "B" movies. Each movie on both of the following lists is available on Region 1 DVD.
*The Maltese Falcon* (Huston) -- Maybe not the first film noir, but arguably the first great one.
*Double Indemnity* (Wilder) -- Iconic Stanwyck, Everyman MacMurray, and the great Robinson. The Stanwyck-MacMurray relationship gets the ink, but the MacMurray-Robinson relationship is the heart of the movie.
*Laura* (Preminger)
*Murder, My Sweet* (Dmytryk)
*Detour* (Ulmer) -- Fate sticking its foot out + zero budget = classic.
*Out of the Past* (Tourneur)
*Gun Crazy* (Lewis) -- For my money, the great American Movie (i.e. made in the U.S., about the U.S.) after Citizen Kane. Guns, sex, violence. Romance, overt and covert. And, guns, sex, violence.
*Sunset Boulevard* (Wilder)
*The Big Heat* (Lang) -- Never have Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin over for coffee.
*Kiss Me Deadly* (Aldrich)
*The Night of the Hunter* (Laughton) -- American Gothic meets film noir. The most beautiful film on this list. Iconic performances by Gish and Mitchum. Has any director who made only one film ever made a film as great as this?
*The Killing* (Kubrick)
*Touch of Evil* (Welles) -- A Genius walked among us and his name was Orson Welles. Even if he hadn't made Citizen Kane, this film is enough to put him in the pantheon. Too many incredible shots to list. His portrayal of Hank Quinlan ranks with Mitchum's Rev. Powell & Max Cady and Huston's Noah Cross, but adds a horribly frightening element: one is almost made to identify with him or, at least, have some understanding.
Some Personal Favorites
*T-Men* (Mann)
*Raw Deal* (Mann)
*He Walked by Night* (Mann, uncredited)
*The Black Book* aka *Reign of Terror* (Mann) -- These four have arguably the greatest collaboration in noir and one of the best in all film -- Anthony Mann & John Alton. Wonderful examples of Alton's dictum: It's not what you light; it's what you don't light.
*Angel Face* (Preminger)
*Fallen Angel* (Preminger)
*Where the Sidewalk Ends* (Preminger)
*Pickup on South Street* (Fuller)
*The Naked Kiss* (Fuller)
*Phantom Lady* (Siodmak)
*The Killers* (Siodmak)
*Scarlet Street* (Lang)
*The Woman in the Window* (Lang)
*Clash by Night* (Lang)
*Beyond a Reasonable Doubt* (Lang)
*While the City Sleeps* (Lang)
*Mildred Pierce* (Curtiz)
*The Set-Up* (Wise)
*Odds Against Tomorrow* (Wise)
*They Live by Night* (Ray)
*On Dangerous Ground* (Ray)
*The Big Sleep* (Hawks)
*The Lady From Shanghai* (Welles)
*Ace in the Hole* (Wilder)
*Black Angel* (Neill)
*Call Northside 777* (Hathaway)
*Kiss of Death* (Hathaway)
*The Big Combo* (Lewis)
*Crime Wave* (De Toth)
*Slightly Scarlet* (Dwan)
*The Reckless Moment* (Ophuls)
*Killer's Kiss* (Kubrick)
*Sweet Smell of Success* (MacKendrick)
*The Asphalt Jungle* (Huston)
*Key Largo* (Huston)
*Cape Fear* (Thompson)
*D.O.A.* (Mate)
*Kansas City Confidential* (Karlson)
*The Naked City* (Dassin)
*Night and the City* (Dassin)
*The Narrow Margin* (Fleischer)
*Nightmare Alley* (Goulding)
*Panic in the Street* (Kazan)
*The Third Man* (Reed) -- My token foreign film.
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*There's also that impossibly long title from the semi-autobiographical film with Anthony Newly and Joan Collins*
You are recalling the immortal Can Hieronymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happines?, for which Anthony Newley was the director, writer, producer, composer and leading man and Joan Collins portrayed Polyester ****. Only in 1969.
Then there's Lina Wertmuller's Swept Away...by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August.
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*While we might never see eye to eye on NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, I welcome any discussion on the subject--favoring or opposing views. It's a polarizing film that usually places people on different sides--not just on it's styling and acting, but the issues portrayed as well. Discussion is also lot more interesting than reading posts that just say: "I like/hate that too."*
Bravo. My hope in joining the Boards was (a) to be helped in discovering what I might be missing in some classics that do not resonate with me and (
to discover even more in those films that do touch me. Your approach consistently does that.*Night of the Hunter* is one of my favorite films. Visually, it is absolutely stunning. I have always wondered how much of that is Laughton and how much is Cortez. The shot of Shelley Winters in the lake combines beauty and horror better than any other shot I can think of. For a portrayal of evil, for me, Mitchum's Rev. Powell, his Max Cady and Huston's Noah Cross rank at the top (or bottom). Each time I watch Night of the Hunter, Hannah Arendt's "the banality of evil" keeps pounding in my head. That is horror.
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Roger Ebert has The Stanton - Walsh Rule: No movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad. I have the same rule, but call it The Whit Bissell Rule.
I grew up watching him on TV in the late-50's/early-60's, but, of course, only knew him by his face and voice, not his name. Then in the mid-60's I saw his late-50's classic monster movies, learned his name, and have been a fan ever since.
The corollary to The Whit Bissell Rule is The ABBD Rule: If a movie has Dana Andrews, Joan Bennett, Whit Bissell or Dan Duryea in it, it probably is a film noir; if none of them are in it, then it probably is not a film noir.
My favorite Whit Bissell movie performances (in chronological order):
*Raw Deal*
*He Walked by Night*
*Riot in Cell Block 11*
*Creature from the Black Lagoon*
*Shack Out on 101*
*Invasion of the Body Snatchers*
*I Was a Teenage Werewolf*
*I Was a Teenage Frankenstein*
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On a TV quiz show, he looked at Gypsy Rose Lee, did a doubletake and said, "Sorry, Gypsy, I didn't recognize you with your earrings on."
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The range of emotions that footage of the Cubs in the playoffs generates goes beyond tears and into nostalgia, exhilaration and uncontrollable giddiness.
Wait until next year! Let's play three.
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I'm far from qualified to designate "the best", but here are my favorites:
1895: L'arrivee d'un train en Gare de la Ciotat
1902: Le voyage dans la lune
1903: The Great Train Robbery
1912: Musketeers of Pig Alley
1915: The Birth of a Nation
1916: Intolerance
1919: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920: The Parson's Widow
1921: The Kid
1922: Foolish Wives
1923: The Three Ages
1924: Greed
1925: Battleship Potemkin
1926: Mother
1927: Sunrise
1928: La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (what a year, with "Un chien andalou" and "Queen Kelly")
1929: The Man with a Movie Camera
1930: L'age d'or
1931: M
1932: Love Me Tonight
1933: Duck Soup
1934: L'atalante
1935: Bride of Frankenstein
1936: Fury
1937: La grande illusion
1938: Bringing Up Baby
1939: The Wizard of Oz (apology to "Ninotchka")
1940: The Great Dictator
1941: Citizen Kane
1942: Cat People
1943: Day of Wrath
1944: Double Indemnity
1945: Open City
1946: La belle et la bete
1947: Woman on the Beach
1948: Letter from an Unknown Woman
1949: Gun Crazy
1950: Stars in My Crown
1951: The Steel Helmet
1952: Clash by Night
1953: Tokyo Story (also "Pickup on South Street" and "The Naked Spur")
1954: Rear Window
1955: The Night of the Hunter (also "Ordet" & "Rebel Without a Cause")
1956: A Man Escaped (arrgh! plus "The Searchers" & "The Killing")
1957: Forty Guns
1958: Touch of Evil
1959: Shadows
1960: Peeping Tom
1961: The Hustler
1962: The Manchurian Candidate
1963: Shock Corridor
1964: Dr. Strangelove, or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1965: (tie) Dr. Zhivago / Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
1966: Au hasard Balthasur
1967: (tie) Bonnie and Clyde / Mouchette
1968: Once Upon a Time in the West
1969: The Conformist (apology to "Midnight Cowboy")
1970: Husbands
1971: Wanda
1972: The Godfather
1973: F for Fake
1974: The Conversation
1975: Dog Day Afternoon
1976: Taxi Driver
1977: Killer of Sheep
1978: The Deer Hunter
1979: All That Jazz
1980: Raging Bull
1981: Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1982: Diner
1983: The King of Comedy
1984: Love Streams
1985: Ran
1986: Down by Law
1987: Damnation
1988: Bird
1989: Do the Right Thing
1990: Edward Scissorhands
1991: My Own Private Idaho
1992: Reservoir Dogs
1993: Groundhog Day
1994: Hoop Dreams
1995: Dead Man
1996: Fargo
1997: The Ice Storm
1998: Buffalo 66
1999: Eyes Wide Shut
2000: The Hole
2001: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
2002: Gangs of New York
2003: Mystic River
2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005: Batman Begins
2006: Pan's Labyrinth
2007: The Darjeeling Limited
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Orson Welles and Groucho Marx.
Topics of discussion:
cigars
screen persona vs. reality
Welles -- why his three favorite directors are John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford
Marx -- why his favorite producer is Irving Thalberg
importance of unique vocal sound and the choice of words to go with it
how much of one's wit is inborn
whether they wore goofy ties (Welles) and ascots (Marx) before Bogdanovich
movies, screenwriters, cinematographers & producers
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The handsome tortured young man needed James Stewart (or, at least, E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed).
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Do not miss the Charles Burnett tribute. *Killer of Sheep* is one of the most moving films I have ever seen. The boxset was listed first on my Christmas Wish List. If you are a blues fan and are not familiar with Burnett's name, you may have seen his film, Warming by the Devil's Fire, which was part of the Martin Scorsese Presents...The Blues.
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[bronxGirl] -- *I'm not remembering Ricky's Restaurant.*
Ricky's was at Belmont and Broadway, SE corner, I believe. I did not frequent the establishment, but did frequent Ricky's II, on Lincoln between North & Armitage, as I recall. Anyway -- my spousal unit, aka The Greek Goddess, informs me that her former roommate (the best person at our wedding), prior to their rooming together, lived in an apartment above Ricky's and dated the owner. Synchronicity.
Ricky's -- a Jewish deli owned by a Greek. But, in Chicago (and NYC, as best as I can tell), every restaurant is owned by a Greek.
Opah!
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Un Yanki? No. Los Cubs!
So my "south of the border" noir nominees are *Kansas City Confidential* and The Phenix City Story.
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[FranktheWiseMann] -- *I'm also sure it's much, much, much better than Gone with the Wind, too.*
What a cheap shot. By the way, so is Bride of the Monster.
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[FredC] -- *But anyway, let's keep this on our "South of the Border" noir list, since it is a good movie and looks a lot like Mexico.*
How ethnocentric. Why, where I live, we consider anything south of I-80 as "south of the border".
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Alex (Kevin Costner)
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[FranktheWiseGuy] -- *By the way, all you need to do is track down ChiO and have him say to me, "I thought you were a completist, Robert Wise fan."*
I was ignoring you, but the GreerGirl shout-out couldn't be ignored. As one who (a) thinks Wise has his great moments and (
runs hot-and-cold with Musicals, *West Side Story* is one of my favorites -- love the music, love the choreography, love the cinematography, love the narrative (maybe my favorite Shakespeare adaptation after *Throne of Blood* ) and (except for Wood and Beymer, who I find just tolerable) love the acting. Can't go wrong with Ned Glass. And -- yes -- even though I've seen it in the double digits, I cry at the end every time. There's a...place...for us/Somewhere...a... I'm choking up now. Watch the movie now, you heartless....And so you know I haven't gone completely soft, I find *The Sound of Muzak* (who directed that?)to be unbearable. As one waggish friend says, it's the only movie that makes you consider, if only for a moment, rooting for the Nazis.
Speaking of dancing in the streets, a digression: Saw John Turturro's *Romance & Cigarettes* in a theatre on Saturday, and John Turturro was there to discuss it. In response to a question along the lines of The narrative seems reflective of life in that it alternates from comedy to drama to melodrama to comedy, but then the musical numbers are so stylized with, for example, garbagemen breaking into a song-and-dance number. Why did you do that?
Turturro: The musical sequences are not stylized. They are natural and realistic. It is common for movies to have shoot-outs in the streets, but how many times have you actually seen that happen? But everyone walks down the street singing, if only in their heads. So the musical sequences are realistic expressions of the imagination. Is it any wonder that he said Bunuel is his greatest influence as a director? Wonder if Spike Lee and Joel Coen know that? But I will undoubtedly view every street dance sequence in movies differently now.
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[MissG] -- *It seems to me it is a style and not a genre so I guess it can fit lots of scenes/situations, if not an entire film itself.*
Bingo! Welcome to the wonderful world of noir. I agree that it's not a genre, and the elements most commonly associated with noir -- night, rain, urban setting, shadows, expressionistic camera angles, femme fatale, hard-boiled anti-heroes -- are not all in each film that most people would consider a noir. It's a style, an attitude, and -- probably the common thread -- a fatalism, an acceptance of fate, a "sinners in the hands of an angry God" theme.
We're doomed. And that's why I find them cathartic.
Message was edited by: ChiO
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[MissG] -- *I didn't know a period film can be a film noir...is that really so?*
It was that very question that kept me from watching *Reign of Terror* for so long. Costume dramas don't grab me generally, and the idea of a film noir set during the French Revolution struck me as odd. But my love for John Alton's work won out...and I'm glad it did. The theme (paranoia; Fate sticking out its foot and tripping people) and cinematography are noir staples...it just so happens that the people are wearing 19th century clothing and there is a guillotine.
I figured that I was the only person who liked this little public domain gem because I never saw discussions of it. Then I saw that Rosenbaum likes it, so I knew there were two of us and it became one of those movies that I proselytize on behalf of.
And... film noir can be in color: *Slightly Scarlet* (Allan Dwan, with cinematography by John Alton). As that insert by my desk, with drawings of John Payne and the very hot hot hot Rhonda Fleming & Arlene Dahl looking at me, puts it:
NOT EXACTLY CROOKED!
NOT EXACTLY STRAIGHT!
...just caught in the ever-tightening web of graft in a corrupt city!
That could almost work for *Reign of Terror* as well.
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[FrankG] -- *I'm most interested in seeing Strange Impersonation (your low ranking quells my enthusiasm a bit)*
Please, don't let me quell any enthusiasm. I'd like to hear your opinion of it and a comparison with a favorite non-Mann film of yours from the prior year. It could have been that my hopes were too high, so any minor disappointment became unduly magnified. It's worth seeing for a completist such as yourself. Remember -- in any list, something has to be last.
But get thee to the *Reign of Terror* viewing immediately. I type that as Robert & Arlene look down at me from my *The Black Book* insert by my desk.
By the way, you just connected me to Dewey and Rosenbaum. You are a loon. But I owe you a drink if I'm ever near Candyland.
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[snorky] -- *Find anything good?*
You (and the rest of the world) may disagree, but I thought so:
New DVDs
*Early Summer* (Ozu)
*La Truite* (Losey)
*The Indian Fighter* (de Toth)
*Q - The Winged Serpent* (Cohen)
*Wild Guitar* (Steckler) & *The Choppers* (Jason)
New VHS -- Why VHS? The new ones were $1 or less & the used were $0.50-0.75.
*Les Biches* (Chabrol)
*The Decalogue* (Kieslowski)
*Joan the Maid* (Rivette)
*They Saved Hitler's Brain* (Bradley)
Used VHS
*The Wind Will Carry Us* (Kiarostami)
*Aparajito* (Ray)
*Shark* (Fuller)
*Monterey Pop* (Pennebaker)
*Bonjour Tristesse* (Preminger)
*Day of Wrath* (Dreyer)
*The Boy with the Green Hair* (Losey)
*The Sign of the Cross* (DeMille)
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[MissG] -- *Letter from an Unknown Woman was on my list, ChiO! And I just ordered the Region 2 dvd.*
I dream of an Ophuls boxset from Criterion.
[bronxie] -- So how much snow did you have to shovel this morning? We had 4-5 inches of "lake effect". *A Boy and His Snow Shovel* -- now that would be a love story.
to discover even more in those films that do touch me. Your approach consistently does that.
Movies on DVD from The Criterion Collection
in General Discussions
Posted
Kim -- My mistake about Underworld U.S.A.. I thought that TCM was showing it in January, but it's on March 12 and I'm hoping my friend will make a copy. Ask your Dad to. I rented a VHS copy about a year ago at a Chicago rental shop called Odd Obsession, which has many titles that not even Facets Multimedia carries, and it is great.
I have:
*Forty Guns*
*The Big Red One* (I had both versions, but gave the shorter one to my son-in-law for Christmas)
*Pickup on South Street*
*The Naked Kiss* (cheap version)
*Merrill's Marauders* (just got it a couple of months ago at Deep Discount, I think)
*White Dog* (got it from "5 Minutes to Live", which appears to be a copy from a European TV broadcast; I think someone - Criterion? - is releasing it in '08)
*Shark!* (VHS)
Still need to see:
*Verboten!*
*Run of the Arrow*
*China Gate*
*Park Row*
Have you read A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking? A wonderful read. I should receive Sam Fuller: Film Is a Battleground: A Critical Study with Interviews by Lee Server this week.
I think that if you don't like the films of Sam Fuller, then you just don't like cinema. -- Martin Scorsese