kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1962:
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
CLEO FROM 5 TO 7
DOG STAR MAN (short film)
THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL
HEAVEN AND EARTH MAGIC** (underground film)
JULES AND JIM
KEEPER OF PROMISES**
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
L'ECLISSE
LOLITA
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
MONDO CANE
MY LIFE TO LIVE/VIVRE SA VIE
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
WINTER LIGHT
**denotes films I haven't seen
This is pretty good. Darn, I'd forgotten CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, a wonderfully lyrical film, one of the best of the New Wave. Don't know the two films you have starred. Question: are they following Mark Cousins' THE STORY OF FILM, or is he following a newer critical consensus? MONDO CANE seems like a fairly worthless choice. I wouldn't pick VIVRE SA VIE, WINTER LIGHT, or BABY JANE, but others definitely would. I do miss MAFIOSO, a gem of a film which TCM has shown.
There are many good English-language films on the list, with no horrible omissions, but because 1962 was such a rich year, the list needed to expand. CAPE FEAR, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, and THE MUSIC MAN all have solid claims to be there, and perhaps THE MIRACLE WORKER as well. 1963 was a far weaker year, and it will be interesting to see the choices.
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LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is the project for which Guy Green abandoned WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND. It worked out for everyone. Bryan Forbes broke through as a director with WHISTLE, and Guy Green did a capable job directing Olivia De Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, and George Hamilton at five times the salary. Olivia plays the mother of a girl (Yvette Mimieux) whose brain was damaged as a result of a riding accident and whose mental capacity will not grow beyond that of a child. Mother and daughter travel in Italy, where they meet Rossano Brazzi (repeating his role in SUMMERTIME) and his son (George Hamilton, who is actually pretty good). Boy and girl fall in love, mother wonders what to do, mother and boy's father are strongly attracted. This novella by Elizabeth Spencer was also turned into a most enjoyable opera, shown on PBS a number of years ago.
EVA shows Joseph Losey's style at its most baroque. Set in Venice, and a definite influence on DON'T LOOK NOW. Virna Lisi is a nice woman, but the tormented writer Stanley Baker prefers the tormenting Jeanne Moreau, who commands the screen here just as she does in JULES AND JIM. May be over the top for some. This is one of the many films that had different versions. Apparently the one closest to the director's original intentions now only exists in a dubbed Swedish version.
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1962: the last great year of the Hollywood studio era. There’s a website where one critic lists his 62 favorite films of ’62. That seems excessive, yet several directors made career-best films. The honorable mention list would look like a top ten list for 1961 or 1963. Foreign directors did well, too—JULES AND JIM, L’ECLISSE, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, MAFIOSO, for instance—yet the two best films, according to me, are LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. LAWRENCE pushes the epic to the nth degree, and directors have known just what to do with this film: they imitate it.
The director of the year, however, has to be John Frankenheimer, with ALL FALL DOWN and the much-delayed BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ, which he took over from Charles Crichton, also coming out in 1962. BIRDMAN got the Oscar nominations, but THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, with Frankenheimer’s dazzling direction, is the one which looks sensational today.
Most of the films on the top ten list are so well known that there’s not much to say about them. I love filmlover's comment that this year marks the end of the formalized western.
Top 10 for 1962:
1. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
2. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
3. DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES – My theory is that a Blake Edwards counterpart from another timeline changed places to direct DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES and EXPERIMENT IN TERROR. Those two films sure don’t look like the work of the so-so comic director of the same name. Or maybe Lee Remick was his true muse.
4. THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE – I love Scott Eyman’s remark about the depth of the story making up for the absence of location shooting.
5. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
6. LOLITA – Granted, I’m not crazy about Peter Sellers the way Kubrick is and would fast-forward through some of his scenes. James Mason, however, is a different story, and Kubrick did figure out how to turn Nabokov’s novel into a movie. In 1962.
7. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT – One of the best filmed plays.
8. RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY
9. CAPE FEAR
10. LISA – This little-known film bumped DAVID AND LISA to the second ten. Once again (cf. THE KEY), the novelist Jan de Hartog provides a strong story about a damaged man who falls in love with an even more damaged woman. Dolores Hart and Stephen Boyd are outstanding, as are numerous British character actors. Philip Dunne’s direction is unobtrusively right.
Honorable mention: DAVID AND LISA, ALL FALL DOWN, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, THE WAR LOVER, LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, EVA, THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, THE MUSIC MAN, THE MIRACLE WORKER
Best Actor: Peter O’Toole, Lawrence of Arabia. This is a fantastic year for male stars, with Laurence Harvey (The Manchurian Candidate), Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird), Jack Lemmon (Days of Wine and Roses), James Mason (Lolita), Ralph Richardson (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Stanley Baker (Eva), Keir Dullea (David and Lisa), and Robert Preston (The Music Man).
Best Actress: Lee Remick (Days of Wine and Roses), Anne Bancroft (The Miracle Worker), or Katharine Hepburn (Long Day’s Journey Into Night)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Mitchum, Cape Fear
Best Supporting Actress: Angela Lansbury, The Manchurian Candidate-
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1961:
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Chronicle of a Summer** (documentary)
The Exiles
The Hustler
La Jetee (short film)
La Notte
The Ladies Man
Last Year at Marienbad**
Lola
One-Eyed Jacks
Splendor in the Grass
Through a Glass Darkly
Viridiana
West Side Story
**denotes films I have not seen
1001 did not do a good job for 1961. Boo hiss. Where is YOJIMBO? Where is IL POSTO? Apart from being directed by Marlon Brando, is there any reason for ONE-EYED JACKS to be here? Jerry Lewis and THE LADIES MAN? LOLA is fairly good, but not in the class of THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, which will surely be in the 1964 listings. I can't agree with omitting THE VIRGIN SPRING in 1960 but including THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY. I don't care for LA NOTTE, but others do. THE EXILES is probably there for other than cinematic reasons as a film about Native Americans. I actually agree with the inclusion of LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, a movie which turned up on none of our lists. This is what seemed new and fresh and arty in 1961.
WEST SIDE STORY, THE HUSTLER, and BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S are all defensible, but THE GUNS OF NAVARONE has just as strong a claim, and for all its faults, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG has historical importance.
I wouldn't expect WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND to be there, but it is definitely one of the 1001 movies you need to see. 1001 has the habit of choosing about the same number of films from each year, which suggests that the glorious year ahead, 1962, will be seriously underrepresented.
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Bogie- I'm glad you mentioned THE MARK. Good film that's largely forgotten now. I actually liked BARABBAS, too (it's usually dismissed as junk in the books I've read). I haven't seen THREE DAUGHTERS.
TopBilled, the only one you mention this time that I don't know is THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL.
I've only seen TWO DAUGHTERS. Bogie is one daughter ahead of me! Yes, Satyajit Ray's film was shortened for release in the U.S.
Another word about VICTIM: Dirk Bogarde deserves credit as a gay man, albeit closeted, as he had to be for his career, willing to play a gay man on film. You can't imagine Cary Grant doing that.
Stuart Whitman believed that THE MARK hurt his career, even though he got an Oscar nomination for it.
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Although VIRIDIANA and YOJIMBO showed two veteran filmmakers doing outstanding work in 1961, for me the two most memorable films are by relative newcomers: Bryan Forbes’ first, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, and Ermanno Olmi’s second feature-length fiction film, IL POSTO. 1961 is not a strong year for English-language films, and I struggled a bit to make the list of ten. Even the performances did not stand out in the way they do some years.
Top 10 for 1961:
1. WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND – Everything had to go right for this film to work, and it did. Moving the setting to rural Lancashire and filming on location helped ground the more fantastic element, as the children believe an escaped convict to be Jesus. The adult actors are good, with Alan Bates as the most beautiful Jesus ever (as Hayley Mills said at one of the TCM film festivals), but the children carry the story, and fortunately, all of them are good, too. Alan Barnes, the local lad who plays our Charlie, couldn’t be more natural, and Hayley Mills has star power without the “on all the time” quality of some professional child actors. A wise film about how people actually conceive of their religious faith. For the first time, but not the last, Bryan Forbes will examine which values come to the fore in extreme situations. Forbes only directed the film when Guy Green was offered five times as much money to direct LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.
2. WEST SIDE STORY – One of the movies which impressed me the most when I saw it as a child. The music! The dancing! Young love. Fire escapes have always seemed romantic to me because of this movie. I really liked Russ Tamblyn, too. As an adult I have come to see certain weaknesses in the film, but most of what I liked then I still like now.
3. THE GUNS OF NAVARONE – One of my three favorite action movies, along with THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. All three are very well plotted and have memorable characters. Those count for more than special effects.
4. TWO LOVES – Shirley MacLaine as a dedicated teacher of the “free spirit” variety (naturally) who is also a Joanne Woodward virgin (Shirley?). Laurence Harvey is the disturbed soul (naturally) who falls for her. Because this is set in New Zealand, we also have Juano Hernandez playing a Maori leader. Jack Hawkins plays a sympathetic administrator. Very well directed by Charles Walters, and a far cry from the musicals he is best known for.
5. THE INNOCENTS – Jack Clayton directed this handsome re-telling of Henry James’ novella THE TURN OF THE SCREW. Deborah Kerr considered this her best performance.
6. THE GREENGAGE SUMMER (aka LOSS OF INNOCENCE) – I like the original British title much better than the generic one chosen for American audiences. Susannah York makes a strong impression as the girl on the brink of womanhood who has a crush on a charming con man (Kenneth More). Like a number of good films (BLACK NARCISSUS, THE RIVER, INNOCENT SINNERS), this is based on a novel by Rumer Godden.
7. SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS – Kazan said this wasn’t his best film, but that it had the best final two reels of any of his films. The bittersweet ending is just about perfect. I like Warren Beatty much better in his early films, where he works harder and seem less like a narcissistic movie star. Having a strong director helps. Perhaps Natalie Wood’s best film, too, and Zohra Lampert provides exactly the right touch of cultural difference.
8. ONE, TWO, THREE – No wonder our friend Kyle picked this when he was guest programmer. One of Billy Wilder’s best comedies.
9. A TASTE OF HONEY – Rita Tushingham isn’t conventionally pretty, but she has that “something” that makes her interesting on screen. Not many of the British New Wave films had female protagonists. If they did, the young woman was usually pregnant and unmarried, as in this case.
10. THE HUSTLER – Excellent performances by Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, and George C. Scott, and first-rate cinematography. The interminable pool match does not excite me, and for me the film loses something after Laurie's exit.
Honorable mention: NIGHT TIDE is weird, but very well directed by Curtis Harrington. JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG is a mixed bag; I like the Spencer Tracy and Marlene Dietrich parts best, and, alas, the Montgomery Clift scene least. BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S has some memorable images, and I love Audrey Hepburn in just about anything. VICTIM is not only well-intentioned, with its expose of the British laws which encouraged the blackmailing of homosexuals, but a well-made thriller.Best Actor: Paul Newman, The Hustler
Best Supporting Actor: George C. Scott, The Hustler. The performance of the year.
Best Supporting Actress: Beatrice Kay, Underworld USA or Zohra Lampert, Splendor in the Grass
Best Actress: For once, I have no strong favorite or favorites. Any one of Deborah Kerr (The Innocents), Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany's), Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass), Piper Laurie (The Hustler), or Rita Tushingham (A Taste of Honey) would work.
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Swithin, you're going to see some of your favorites mentioned on the list I'm going to post in a few minutes.
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1960:
The Apartment
Black Sunday
Breathless
The Cloud-Capped Star**
The Housemaid**
L'avventura
La Dolce Vita
Le Trou
Peeping Tom
Psycho
Rocco and His Brothers
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Shoot the Piano Player
Spartacus
The Young One
**denotes films I have not seen
For one of the great years in world cinema, 1001 has not done an adequate job. Where to begin? No PURPLE NOON, THE VIRGIN SPRING, or LES BONNES FEMMES? Unthinkable. I would add WILD RIVER, THE SUNDOWNERS, and probably TWO WOMEN. I am unfamiliar with THE HOUSEMAID and THE CLOUD-CAPPED STAR; presumably the idea is add more Asian films. The title BLACK SUNDAY suggested the Super Bowl picture, but your notes suggest that this is a Barbara Steele horror film. I suppose one can defend PEEPING TOM and SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING on the grounds of historical importance.
ROCCO is good soapy fun, but I wouldn't claim that it is a must-see like some of the ones passed over. THE APARTMENT is not a personal favorite (the situation comedy and the drama never mesh for me), but it did win the Oscar, so it represents official taste, and the two stars have signature roles. THE YOUNG ONE is one of Bunuel's more obscure titles, and it has never been critically championed like, say, LOS OLVIDADOS (which is not a personal favorite, but many critics have praised it). Not a good job, 1001. Better luck next year.
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Great list and fascinating comments, kingrat. I'm a big D.H. Lawrence fan -- had I continued post-graduate work, I may have written my thesis on him. My favorite novel of his (in fact, my favorite novel) is his first -- The White Peacock. His third novel -- Sons and Lovers -- is my second favorite of his novels. But I could never get into the film. I think the director emphasized the father's role a wee bit too much. But it has been a while -- I should give the film another chance.
Swithin, in another lifetime I was considering a career teaching the Victorian novel. That's how, for example, I happened to read Thackeray's The Luck of Barry Lyndon some years before the Kubrick film, which is nowhere near so good as Thackeray's novel. With Trevor Howard and Wendy Hiller as the parents, I'm not sorry that Sons and Lovers emphasized their roles.
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Dang it, I wrote Renato Salvatore's name wrong in the ROCCO post, but now it's fixed.
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1960 was an incredible year worldwide, with L’AVVENTURA, LA DOLCE VITA, PURPLE NOON, THE VIRGIN SPRING, and LES BONNES FEMMES. SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, BREATHLESS, TWO WOMEN, and THE BAD SLEEP WELL weren’t too shabby, either. (I'm using imdb's dates, which may be incorrect for some of these movies.) Add the top three American films (one of which was shot in Australia) and a sizzling British noir, and the year begins to look even better.
Top 10 for 1960:
1. PSYCHO – A perfectly structured film, musical in its repetitions, yet twisting our expectations most cruelly. Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates is one of the most memorable characters ever.
2. WILD RIVER – One of my two favorite Kazan films (with A FACE IN THE CROWD). One of the few films which bears even a passing resemblance to the South I grew up in. Great performances by Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet. Van Fleet’s Ella Garth is another of the most memorable characters ever.
3. THE SUNDOWNERS – One of Fred Zinnemann’s best films. Robert Mitchum is a happy-go-lucky itinerant and Deborah Kerr is the wife who wishes he’d settle down. Filming on location in Australia is another plus. Hollywood rarely showed more attractive, healthy, and natural portrayals of a woman’s sexuality than Deborah Kerr in THE SUNDOWNERS and Lee Remick in WILD RIVER.
4. THE CRIMINAL – My favorite Joseph Losey film. Strong and stylish. Subtitles would help Americans understand some of the prison scenes. Stanley Baker is, as usual, outstanding as the title hero.
5. SPARTACUS – Anthony Mann started the movie and got fired. Kubrick finished it, and, although Kubrick didn’t think so, I consider this one of his very best films. Kubrick’s films will eventually become all about the director, frigid artifacts of his sensibility. Here, actors and characters are allowed some room, and, especially when Jean Simmons is on screen, some warmth.
6. TUNES OF GLORY – Along with THE HORSE’S MOUTH, the best David Lean film not directed by David Lean. Ronald Neame began by working with Lean, and it shows. Our sympathies keep shifting between Alec Guinness and John Mills in this study of contrasting approaches to military leadership. Guinness and Mills are as good as in their work for Lean, and so is Kay Walsh, one of the six Mrs. Leans. Once again she plays Guinness’ mistress, who is very different from the barmaid she played in THE HORSE’S MOUTH. Especially recommended to those who like TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH, FORT APACHE, PATHS OF GLORY, or THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI.
7. THE NIGHT FIGHTERS – Robert Mitchum as an unimaginative, conventional Irishman? Didn’t he do that in RYAN’S DAUGHTER? Well, he did it first, and better, here, for old-time Hollywood pro Tay Garnett. The IRA decides to make common cause with the Nazis against their enemy England, and the Irish villagers are on both sides of the issue. Richard Harris, an actor I usually dislike, is just right as a hothead; Dan O’Herlihy is about a hundred times more interesting than he was in HOME BEFORE DARK; Anne Heywood is an attractive heroine; and Cyril Cusack as an honorable man is simply great.
8. OUR MAN IN HAVANA – Another fine film from Carol Reed, with Alec Guinness’ hapless and ineffectual spy about 180 degrees from the character he plays in TUNES OF GLORY. Graham Greene’s irony is in good hands. Maureen O’Hara is a warm and lovely leading lady, and Noel Coward has some hilarious bits of dry comedy.
9. THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN – Although Basil Dearden directed, and quite well, this film has the sensibility of Bryan Forbes, its screenwriter. As in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, we see the assembling of a gang of ne’er-do-wells—in this case, ex-soldiers who have “blotted their copybooks,” as they say in England—to rob a bank. I’ll gladly forgive Kieron Moore his uninspiring Vronsky in ANNA KARENINA for the hilarious scene where he tries to make a subtle approach to a rather dim bulb of a lad who obviously isn’t interested. English character actors with good roles and a good script = enjoyable movie.
10. SONS AND LOVERS – A good adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s novel. As usual, the autobiographical character (played by Dean Stockwell) isn’t all that interesting, but his miner father (Trevor Howard) and strong and bitter mother (Wendy Hiller) more than make up for it.
Honorable mention: Comanche Station, Elmer Gantry, The Angry Silence, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Best Actor: Anthony Perkins, Psycho
Best Actress: Lee Remick, Wild River
Best Supporting Actor: Cyril Cusack, The Night Fighters
Best Supporting Actress: Jo Van Fleet, Wild River-
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As we continue our mad dash into the 1960s:
PORTRAIT IN BLACK also has the young and hunky John Saxon for those of us shallow enough to care about such things.
Since ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS has been mentioned: one of my regrets is that the cast of this film didn't do an Italian remake of WRITTEN ON THE WIND, directed by Visconti. Just imagine Alain Delon in the Rock Hudson role, Claudia Cardinale as Lauren Bacall, Renato Salvatore as Robert Stack, and Annie Girardot as the Italian Dorothy Malone. As the patriarch played by Robert Keith, we would of course have Katina Paxinou. I don't know whether Katina Paxinou or Blanche Yurka scares the willies out of me more. They are both terrifying. I know that some critics have professed to find social significance in ROCCO, but with a crazy mother like Katina Paxinou, everyone around her would have suffered no matter what the social structure. I roll my eyes when Visconti lays on the crucifixion symbolism, but ROCCO is a juicy soap, just like WRITTEN ON THE WIND.
Thanks to those who have mentioned THE ANGRY SILENCE and SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING, which need to be added to my honorable mention list. I must admit not much caring for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. If I'd seen it years ago, I'd probably have fond memories of it. Sturges' direction looks awfully stiff.
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I'm also a big fan of Paulette Goddard. Seeing her first entrance in MODERN TIMES, the first Goddard film I saw, made me a fan for life.
I'd add THE CRYSTAL BALL to her list of best films. This was shown a few years ago on TCM when Ray Milland was SOTM. Those two pair well together, and there's a strong supporting cast. It's everything a romantic comedy should be.
According to someone who knew her, Paulette was shrewd enough to request art from the rich men she dated. She knew that was likely to appreciate in value.
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Favorite films of the 1950s:
Ashes and Diamonds
The Wages of Fear
La Strada
Pather Panchali
The Seventh Seal
Sawdust and Tinsel (aka The Naked Night)
Forbidden Games
Seven Samurai
Rififi
Nights of Cabiria
The Earrings of Madame de . . .
Umberto D.
Oh wait, those are all foreign films and there might be more than 10 of them. Here are the English-language favorites for the 1950s:
Singin' in the Rain
The Nun's Story
Bonjour Tristesse
Vertigo
The Key
The Killing
The Searchers
Sunset Boulevard
All About Eve
The Asphalt Jungle
Favorite directors, not including foreign films. For foreign films, the directors of the movies listed above. Here, however, are the directors who had at least three English-language films on my top ten lists for the 1950s:
Alfred Hitchcock
Elia Kazan
Fred Zinnemann
Douglas Sirk
Nicholas Ray
Billy Wilder
John Huston
Anthony Mann
Otto Preminger
Vincente Minnelli
Favorite actresses for the 1950s:
Audrey Hepburn
Jean Simmons
Lee Remick
Deborah Kerr
Edith Evans
Patricia Neal
Barbara Stanwyck
Joan Crawford
Jean Seberg
Leslie Caron
Jennifer Jones
Favorite actors for the 1950s:
Humphrey Bogart
Cary Grant
James Stewart
Robert Ryan
Gene Kelly
William Holden
Alec Guinness
Sal Mineo
James Mason
George Sanders
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A funny story about SHADOWS: I knew this was about an interracial couple, but tuned in TCM about fifteen minutes in and wrongly guessed that the guy was the one who was supposed to be black. Nope, I discovered in the next scene it was the girl who was supposed to be black. (They both looked white to me.) SHADOWS has historical importance, but is pretty dim compared with other movies. Is John Cassavetes the most overrated director of, like, all time? Cassavetes seems to think that the absence of rhythm or flow in his movies is a guarantee of "truth." Not so, bub.
I have yet to see FLOATING WEEDS and have passed on EYES WITHOUT A FACE. The absence of horror movies from my top ten lists is not an accident. Though I like PICKPOCKET and RIO BRAVO, neither is what I would consider an essential. I used to love RIO BRAVO, but for some reason it no longer does much for me. Other westerns from the same year are much more interesting.
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First off, let me tell you that I'm using a friend's desktop computer at the moment, and I'm amazed at the additional options desktop users have compared with my Android tablet, Silk browser version. Plus, it's much easier typing using a keyboard compared to using the edge of my fingers on a tablet touch screen!
Next, let me say slow down! At the very least, wait till I post the "1001" titles from the given year before we start the next. So here they are for 1958:
Ashes and Diamonds
Cairo Station
The Defiant Ones
Gigi
Horror of Dracula
Jalsaghar
Man of the West
Mon Oncle
Some Came Running
Touch of Evil
Vertigo
I'll admit I've never heard of CAIRO STATION. Oh yes, that's the one that Mark Cousins mentioned in The Story of Film. I should have included JALSAGHAR (THE MUSIC ROOM), another fine film of Satyajit Ray, on my list. Don't want to knock anyone's fave, but I don't consider THE DEFIANT ONES a must-see, though it was historically important and I do like the film, especially Poitier. The whole scene with Cara Williams rather desperately needs the touch of a Kazan, not Stanley Kramer, though this is probably his best film.
A few years ago I took part in an extended discussion of SOME CAME RUNNING: straight guys for, women and gay guys against. I think it's the most misogynistic American film of the 1950s, but that's a discussion for another time.
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Oh, you impetuous crazy kids who can't wait till tomorrow to post your 1959 lists.
Okay, here's mine.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a 1950s American film where women prove themselves capable in administration, medicine, science, community service, and the Resistance against the Nazis? As a matter of fact, there is. The only catch is that all of these women are nuns, for I’m talking about THE NUN’S STORY.
If, despite the thrilling chariot race in BEN-HUR, Fred Zinnemann’s film dominates a splendid year in American films, the director of the year worldwide arguably is Kon Ichikawa, for both the chilling FIRES ON THE PLAIN and the wonderfully quirky ODD OBSESSION were released in 1959. In historical terms, the most important film is the debut of Truffaut, THE 400 BLOWS; PICKPOCKET, perhaps not one of the best by Bresson, is still interesting; and the scenes of the young married couple in THE WORLD OF APU are breathtakingly good.
I very much wanted to include 14 films in the top 10, and six of them are westerns. The western will go in different, and to me less interesting, directions in the mid-sixties, but the final flowering of the 50s western includes RIDE LONESOME, DAY OF THE OUTLAW, WARLOCK, THE HANGING TREE, THESE THOUSAND HILLS, and THEY CAME TO CORDURA, which would be six fine films in any genre for any year.
Top 10 for 1959:
1. THE NUN’S STORY – One of my favorite films. Over two and a half hours long, and not a wasted second. Look how and where Zinnemann and his editors cut the final farewell scene between Audrey Hepburn and Peter Finch, and you’ll understand the aesthetic of the film, where the deepest feelings are the ones left unvoiced. Each piece of the mosaic is related to every other piece. An amazing cast, with two continents of superb character actresses. Incidentally, beginning with this one, Zinnemann never made another film in the United States.
2. THE JOURNEY – The international theme continues. Anatole Litvak moved to Paris in the early 1950s. Europe to Hollywood to Europe: I wish someone would study as a group the directors who had this life path. THE JOURNEY seems to be Litvak’s most personal film, with an international cast and a story of people trying to flee Hungary during the 1956 Soviet invasion. Deborah Kerr has the central role, Yul Brynner is the Soviet officer who seems to be falling for her while he holds everyone’s fate in his hands, and (to my surprise, because I usually don’t like him) Jason Robards, Jr. is acceptable as her lover.
3. SOME LIKE IT HOT – Only Billy Wilder could have pulled this one off. One of the few first-rate comedies of the 50s. Jack Lemmon is genius here, and Wilder helps Marilyn Monroe give her best starring performance.
4. NORTH BY NORTHWEST – There are scenes in here I’m happy to watch yet another time whenever this one appears on TV. Cary Grant at his most debonair, and Eva Marie Saint is a wonderful Hitchcock blonde. Jessie Royce Landis is always a plus.
5. ANATOMY OF A MURDER – One of Preminger’s best. Preminger shows us how James Stewart uses his just-folks persona to manipulate a jury. Lee Remick has her best role so far. Victim or villain, she knows how to turn on the sex appeal.
6. DAY OF THE OUTLAW – There are few more dramatic entrances in a film than the one made by Burl Ives in DAY OF THE OUTLAW. Andre De Toth shows what he can do as a director, which is a lot. The remote snowy setting is unlike most other westerns. Casting Robert Ryan as the flawed hero is almost always a good idea, and Ives is even better here than in THE BIG COUNTRY and CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF; I simply believed that he was the desperate, but complex and intelligent, villain he plays.
7. RIDE LONESOME – Either this taut and elegant western or SEVEN MEN FROM NOW is my favorite Budd Boetticher film. Perhaps Randolph Scott’s best role. The suppressed romance in this film runs deeper than the more conventional romance with Gail Russell in the earlier film.
8. SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL – A film noir set in Ireland? Why not? Erwin Hillier’s cinematography kicks this Michael Anderson film up a notch. James Cagney makes a fine villain. Notice that unlike THE INFORMER, the IRA is now seen as the bad guy, like the mob or the gang in more conventional noirs. Dame Sybil Thorndike didn’t make many films, but she makes a big impression here as the lady of the manor who secretly has IRA sympathies.
9. ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW – A more conventional film noir, in the failed heist subgenre, but very well executed by Robert Wise, in one of his few films which foregrounds the director’s choices. I can’t help thinking that the fact that THE SET-UP, BORN TO KILL, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, and THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL, all film noirs, look and feel very different from each other is central to understanding Wise as a director.
10. WARLOCK – If you want to see how to use a faded, brown-forward palette while still giving full value to other colors—and making almost every shot a wonderfully balanced color composition—just look at Joseph MacDonald’s cinematography. Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Richard Widmark, Dorothy Malone, and a twisted variation of the “marshal taking on the evil rancher” story. Edward Dmytryk’s best 1950s film.
Honorable mention: THE HANGING TREE, THESE THOUSAND HILLS, THEY CAME TO CORDURA, ROOM AT THE TOP
Best Actor: Jack Lemmon, Some Like It Hot. Dude, you weren’t expecting Charlton Heston?
Best Actress: Audrey Hepburn, The Nun’s Story
Best Supporting Actor: Burl Ives, Day of the Outlaw with honorable mention to Ed Begley (Odds Against Tomorrow) and Joe E. Brown (Some Like It Hot)
Best Supporting Actress: Edith Evans, The Nun’s Story or Joan Copeland, Middle of the Night-
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Kingrat- I haven't watched that version of THE QUIET AMERICAN yet, though I have a copy waiting. I did see the remake with Michael Caine, who incidentally had an early uncredited background role in THE KEY. I don't know anything about ORDERS TO KILL, INNOCENT SINNERS, or HOME BEFORE DARK.
Film lover, I still haven't seen A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, PARTY GIRL, or DAMN YANKEES.
CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE is another fine WWII drama (directed by Lewis Gilbert) which would pair excellently with ORDERS TO KILL. In CARVE, Virginia McKenna plays a native Frenchwoman who married an English husband; she is asked to go to France to help the Resistance. Paul Scofield is her sympathetic co-star. ORDERS TO KILL stars the little-known actor Paul Massie, who did not stay in the business long. He is sent to Paris by the English spy service because he once lived in a particular neighborhood of Paris. His orders are to kill a man suspected of being a traitor to the Resistance. But is the man really a traitor, and what should one do in this situation? Irene Worth is terrific as one of the French Resistance members. This is one of Anthony Asquith's best films.
INNOCENT SINNERS, directed by the underrated Philip Leacock, is set in London following the war. (Yes, I love WWII, Resistance, and post-war stories.) Against all odds, an English girl who is loved by no one tries to plant a garden in a plot of bombed-out land. Flora Robson plays one of her neighbors, but most of the cast is little-known to me. The little girl, played by June Archer (who is not pretty like Shirley Temple), is heartbreakingly good. This is based on a story by Rumer Godden called AN EPISODE OF SPARROWS.
HOME BEFORE DARK stars Jean Simmons in one of her finest roles. She's returning from a mental institution where's she's been cured of the notion that her stepsister (Rhonda Fleming) is having an affair with her husband (Dan O'Herlihy). But is this really a delusion? Why either woman would want Dan O'Herlihy is an even greater mystery. Simmons finds a sympathetic friend in a Jewish professor (yes, he's actually identified as Jewish) played by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. This is from Mervyn LeRoy's sluggish period--his films tended to get longer and less energetic--but the scene where Simmons has a makeover to look like Fleming is unforgettable.
LE BEAU SERGE, Chabrol's first film, shows a road not taken. This is a realistic drama, filmed on location, where a student returns to the provinces where his friend Serge is, as the student sees it, trapped in marriage, yet fooling around with Bernadette Lafont. The two male actors essentially swap roles in Chabrol's next film, LES COUSINS. Why didn't Gerard Blain become a bigger star? There's nothing in LE BEAU SERGE to suggest the Hitchcockian direction Chabrol will eventually take.
GOD'S LITTLE ACRE, directed by Anthony Mann and based on the Erskine Caldwell novel, is lots of fun. Suthun white trash is on view, and Robert Ryan enjoys himself playing the patriarch, Ty-Ty.
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Kingrat- I haven't seen ABANDON SHIP, SOMETHING OF VALUE, THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO, or BOY ON A DOLPHIN. I just "enjoyed" SEA WIFE for the first time recently. I was never a big admirer of Collins' look, but she was a knockout in that one.
SOMETHING OF VALUE shows up from time to time on TCM when they are saluting Sidney Poitier; you may like this better than some of his more famous roles. ABANDON SHIP was shown when Tyrone Power was SOTM; it might be available on the Fox Movie Channel, if you get that.
THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO may strike you as a parody of THE MIRACLE WORKER, which hadn't been filmed yet, and you would be right, for this has reference to events in Helen Keller's life. The novel is by Nicholas Montserrat, who wrote THE CRUEL SEA. Interesting as one of the few movies of this era to refer to rape. Not a great film, but surprisingly dark and interesting.
BOY ON A DOLPHIN - you may think that Sophia Loren's entrance, emerging from the water in a wet, clinging dress, is reason enough to see this movie. This is the movie where they dug a trench in the sand where Sophia had to walk so that she wouldn't appear taller than Alan Ladd. The first half of the movie probably shows Negulesco's visual style, so evident in his B&W Warner Bros. days, better than any of his other color movies.
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1958 brings three of my absolute favorite films. One comes from Poland, ASHES AND DIAMONDS. Two come from Hollywood, by way of San Francisco and the Riviera: VERTIGO and BONJOUR TRISTESSE. Oscar’s runaway choice, GIGI, is quite entertaining, but I find a number of movies even more interesting in a splendid year for Hollywood.
Top 10 for 1958:
1. VERTIGO – I have nothing new to say about this film, except that it lives up to its very high reputation. Repeated viewings make the excellence of the color scheme for each scene even more apparent.
1 (tie). BONJOUR TRISTESSE – One of the greatest screenplays ever, perfectly directed by Otto Preminger, whose masterpiece this is. Oddly, Arthur Laurents, who wrote the screenplay, does not have one word to say about it in his memoirs. Maybe it didn’t seem all that important to him. The decision to shoot the present in black and white and the past in color was brilliant, and so is Georges Perinal’s cinematography. No one could have played the central role better than Jean Seberg.
3. THE KEY – An almost unknown masterpiece by Carol Reed. In the early days of WWII, tugboats must lead the American supply ships into English harbors, but they are sitting ducks for the German submarines. A fatalistic captain chooses a friend who will get his apartment key if he dies. Along with the apartment goes the passive and traumatized Sophia Loren. This does not seem like a 1950s film, and no wonder it wasn’t a hit then. William Holden, who does self-loathing like no other actor, is perfectly cast, as is Trevor Howard as his best friend. With our understanding of post-traumatic stress syndrome, perhaps THE KEY can now find its audience.
4. MAN OF THE WEST – One of my favorite Anthony Mann westerns. Gary Cooper is older than the actor who plays his crazy father, Lee J. Cobb, but that doesn’t matter. Surprisingly grim and very satisfying.
5. TOUCH OF EVIL – More a matter of great sequences than a great film, but that's all right. The opening shot is spectacular, as is the shot in the motel room. Janet Leigh and Dennis Weaver drag the film down a bit, but they’re only doing what Welles wanted.
6. THE QUIET AMERICAN – Graham Greene hated what Hollywood and Joseph L. Mankiewicz did to his novel about Vietnam, but I don’t mind at all. Instead of the innocent American being the fool, the know-it-all Englishman who prides himself on his superiority and his Communist sympathies is brought cruelly lower than he could have imagined. Putting Michael Redgrave at the center of the movie is clearly a good thing.
7. THE HORSE’S MOUTH – Ronald Neame began by working with David Lean, and this movie and TUNES OF GLORY look and feel very much like the early pre-epic Lean. Alec Guinness has one of his greatest parts as the alcoholic painter who cares about nothing except his work. Kay Walsh as his barmaid mistress is pretty great, too.
8. THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS – Missionaries and “This old man, he played one.” I was not optimistic, but the movie turns out to be dry-eyed and unsentimental. Ingrid Bergman is excellent as the woman determined to go to China as a missionary, and Athene Seyler is great as the missionary she finds there. Some fine color photography, too.
9. THE BIG COUNTRY – Another fine William Wyler film, a big-scale western. Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston effectively represent the culture clash of back east and out west; Jean Simmons is ideal as the schoolmarm who tries to mediate between all parties; and Burl Ives and Charles Bickford steal some scenes as the dueling patriarchs.
10. THE TARNISHED ANGELS – This downbeat Douglas Sirk drama of Dorothy Malone and the men (Robert Stack, Jack Carson, and Rock Hudson) who (at least sort of) love her is noirishly photographed. Stack is ready to prostitute his wife to earn the entrance fee to race his airplane. Not a common occurrence in 1950s films.
Leaving out the little-known ORDERS TO KILL and INNOCENT SINNERS is agonizing, and I’d love to know what A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE looks like when it hasn’t been panned and scanned. Those are the three additional films which belong in the top ten, but honorable mention also goes to GIGI, THE LEFT-HANDED GUN, KINGS GO FORTH, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, and BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE, one of the better 1950s comedies.
Best Actor: James Stewart, Vertigo or Michael Redgrave, The Quiet American
Best Supporting Actor: Trevor Howard, The Key
Best Actress: Jean Simmons, Home Before Dark
Best Supporting Actress: A great English actress, but which one? Athene Seyler (The Inn of the Sixth Happiness), Kay Walsh (The Horse’s Mouth), Irene Worth (Orders To Kill), and Edith Evans (Look Back in Anger) are all deserving.-
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Swithin, I love it! FROM HELL IT CAME is priceless. I haven't seen SHE DEVIL, but I'm greatly intrigued. I also haven't seen ALL MINE TO GIVE. I can see from various comments from everyone about Kubrick that we may disagree on his future films. I like them partially because of their detachment. To me, everything he made from STRANGELOVE on was a horror film, most not in the conventional sense, but spiritually dead, and intentionally so, as a reflection of his thoughts on the world and the human condition in general (something that I share in my darker moments).
Lawrence, you state your view of Kubrick's later work eloquently. The opposite view is that perhaps the spiritual deadness is in Kubrick himself. Some of this dialogue may emerge later on.
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You eager beavers! I have lunch, and suddenly it's 1958!
1957 was a great year worldwide, with NIGHTS OF CABIRIA and IL GRIDO from Italy; THRONE OF BLOOD from Japan; THE SEVENTH SEAL and WILD STRAWBERRIES from Sweden; KANAL from Poland; and THE CRANES ARE FLYING from the Soviet Union. I'm glad I don't have to try to rank these, but they'd be 1-7 on the list. English-language films by and large did not reach that high standard. However, I’ll bet none of those countries had anything like SEA WIFE, with Joan Collins as a nun.
Top 10 for 1957:
1. A FACE IN THE CROWD – Along with WILD RIVER, my favorite Kazan film, which seems more like prophecy than fiction. Kazan and Budd Schulberg understood how the lines between entertainment, advertising, and politics were being erased, and how television had changed politics for good, if not for Good.
2. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS – Again, the power of the media for wrongdoing is the theme. Tony Curtis shows that he has some acting chops.
3. AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER – Next to the glorious DUCK SOUP, my favorite Leo McCarey film. Technicolor and a bigger budget raise this remake of LOVE AFFAIR to a different level. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr are great partners in comedy and romance.
4. 12 ANGRY MEN – I know this is supposed to be a liberal feel-good film about overcoming prejudice, but is it? To me, Henry Fonda is less a good guy than a shrewd and ruthless manipulator. He would be terrific on Survivor. The way he humiliates Lee J. Cobb at the end is not a pretty sight. At the end of the movie I tend to doubt that justice has been served. Arguably, this makes the film richer. Perhaps because he had first directed this Reginald Rose script for television, Sidney Lumet has worked out exactly how to use his camera in the confined space of the jury room.
5. WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION – Nothing serious here, just fun, as Billy Wilder expands and perhaps improves on an Agatha Christie short story. Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester munch the scenery most enjoyably.
6. 3:10 TO YUMA – A taut Western thriller, one of Delmer Daves’ best. A fine character study of the bonds that develop between the sheriff and his prisoner.
7. PATHS OF GLORY – Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war film is perhaps a little on the strident side, but its indictment of the needless waste of men in World War I is mostly right on target.8. NIGHTFALL – If there are implausibilities here and there, I’ll swallow them and just enjoy the visual poetry of Jacques Tourneur’s direction. One of my favorites among his films.
9. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI – Judicious trimming, especially in the dragging scenes of William Holden’s return to the prison camp, would have made this a better film. David Lean proves that he has a talent for epic as well as for domestic drama. Alec Guinness has one of his greatest roles as Col. Nicholson.
10. ABANDON SHIP – This little-known drama, directed by Philip Leacock (INNOCENT SINNERS, THE WAR LOVER), deserves more attention. Tyrone Power plays a ship’s captain who decides that not all the survivors of a shipwreck can remain in the lifeboat. Is it right to let some die if that means that others can be saved?
10 (tie). SOMETHING OF VALUE – Granted, Rock Hudson is far from ideal casting as an Englishman who has grown up in Kenya. However, this story of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya is worth getting to know, especially for Sidney Poitier as Hudson’s childhood friend, now grown up and torn between his old friends and masters and the sometimes violent ways of the Mau Mau.
Honorable mention: The Story of Esther Costello; Funny Face; Silk Stockings; The Admirable Crichton; Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; Bitter Victory; Boy on a Dolphin; Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; Saint Joan; The Tall TGuilty pleasure: Sea Wife
Best Actor: Cary Grant, An Affair To Remember
Best Supporting Actor: David Wayne, The Three Faces of Eve
Best Actress: Patricia Neal, A Face in the Crowd
Best Supporting Actress: Ruth Attaway, The Young Don’t Cry-
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I'm surprised that THE KILLING isn't on the 1001 Movies list. But it's on several of our lists, and that's much more important! Perhaps the 1001 editors are more impressed by the later Kubrick.
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kingrat - Great choices again. Timothy Carey is almost hypnotic in his weirdness in THE KILLING. Kubrick is my favorite director of all time, and while I don't completely agree about his earliest being the best, this one and his next are his most human films. I'm glad you liked SEVEN MEN FROM NOW as well; that's one I just watched on a whim and really enjoyed.
I haven't seen GERVAISE, LA TRAVERSEE DE PARIS, DEATH OF A SCOUNDREL, THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW, or DIANE.
GERVAISE: a fine adaptation of an Emile Zola novel about working class people, directed by Rene Clement. Maria Schell stars. First-rate direction by Clement.
LA TRAVERSEE DE PARIS: This is the one film of Claude Autant-Lara that even Truffaut admitted was a fine film. Paris is under occupation by the Nazis, and food is scarce. Jean Gabin and Bourvil are carrying four suitcases filled with black market pork to the other side of town. A nice mixture of comedy and suspense.
DEATH OF A SCOUNDREL: TCM has shown this from time to time. George Sanders fans especially will enjoy it.
DIANE: I believe MGM was scaling back, and so Walter Plunkett went all out on the costumes. Lana has a different gorgeous creation in each scene.
THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW: This will shown later in the month as part of Fred M's SOTM.
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Top Ten Films of...
in Your Favorites
Posted
In his Alternate Oscars, Danny Peary decided that 1963 was such a weak year there would be no award for best film. I don’t want to go that far, but this is not one of Hollywood’s best years, with some agreeable movies but not many outstanding ones. Things are better abroad. Mario Monicelli’s THE ORGANIZER, a most enjoyable film for anyone willing to read subtitles, and Louis Malle’s melancholy masterpiece THE FIRE WITHIN (LE FEU FOLLET), not to be watched if you’re feeling depressed, would be the top two worldwide. 8 ½ has some stunning scenes (but, alas, a boring protagonist); THE SILENCE is the cinematic equivalent of a symbolist poem; the first third of CONTEMPT is brilliant, and I don’t usually find Godard sympathetic; and HIGH AND LOW finds the Japanese equivalents for the American thriller. I must also get around to seeing I FIDANZATI, AN ACTOR’S REVENGE, and MAHANAGAR.
Top 10 for 1963:
1. AMERICA AMERICA – Although Kazan and his cinematographer, Haskell Wexler, had many disagreements, I like the results. The Anatolian landscape looks strange and unfamiliar. In 1963 few people cared about the story of a Greek immigrant from Turkey, but this has much more resonance today with the wave of immigration in the last 20-30 years. Gregory Rozakis breaks my heart as the kindly young Armenian who makes the ultimate sacrifice for his tougher friend (Stathis Giallelis, who didn’t become a star, but is perfectly acceptable as the hero).
2. THE BIRDS – Hitchcock’s work as a great director comes to an end with this film, just as Kazan’s does with AMERICA AMERICA.
3. THE SERVANT – Dirk Bogarde is the servant who destroys his master, James Fox. Both are first-rate. Joseph Losey goes for baroque on the style, and it mostly works. I don’t think this film has anything profound to say about the English class system, but it sustains a slow pace effectively, ratcheting up the tension.
4. THE L-SHAPED ROOM – Bryan Forbes elicits a strong performance from Leslie Caron as an unmarried woman who waits out her pregnancy in a seedy English boardinghouse. What she learns is simply knowledge of the people who live there, and that is enough. Avis Bunnage and Cicely Courtneidge make strong impressions in small parts; Brock Peters plays one of the first black gay characters on film; and Tom Bell does well as the young man who has a chance to love a woman who’s too good for him but messes up his opportunity.
5. THE HAUNTING – This is as much of a horror film as I can almost stand. Strong characterization and strong performances by Julie Harris and Claire Bloom are big pluses.
6. BILLY LIAR – Julie Christie shows up on film, and she’s magic! Tom Courtenay is the dreaming lad who doesn’t handle real life very well.
7. CHARADE – Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in a charming thriller. That works for me.
8. TOM JONES – What this film doesn’t seem, and what it absolutely seemed in 1963, is new and fresh. The zippity zoom camerawork has been done and done again. Still, this is in many ways a faithful re-telling of Fielding’s novel, with a very good cast and some funny moments.
9. HUD – So maybe Paul Newman’s cool isn’t always a good thing? The movie plays on his image quite successfully, and Patricia Neal is excellent in support as the woman he doesn’t really love.
10. IN THE FRENCH STYLE – Two Irwin Shaw stories, both set in Paris, are put together, connected by Jean Seberg. The first, about a good-looking young man courting Seberg, leads to an ironic conclusion. In the second, Seberg argues with her married lover (Stanley Baker). It’s Paris. It’s Jean Seberg.
10A. JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS - Thanks, Bogey, for reminding me of this altogether delightful film. It's not just Ray Harryhausen's special effects. The script is first-rate.
Honorable mention: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen ALL THE WAY HOME and LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER, and THE GREAT ESCAPE is a good action movie with some strongly drawn characters.
Best Actor: Tom Courtenay, Billy Liar
Best Actress: Leslie Caron (The L-Shaped Room), Julie Harris (The Haunting), or Jean Simmons (All the Way Home)
Best Supporting Actor: James Fox, The Servant. If this is a leading role, Donald Pleasence (The Great Escape).
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Neal (Hud) or Rachel Roberts (This Sporting Life). Yes, Oscar nominated them for Best Actress, but are these really leading roles?