kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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Andy, some ways to find movies for each year:
1. filmsite.org lists the Oscar winners and nominees for each other, and the discussion includes "snubs and omissions"
2. myvideostore.com has lists of movies by year
3. Search engines will also take you to lists of movies by year.
I may sign off in 1967 after Jo Van Fleet wins her third award for Best Supporting Actress.
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Congratulations, Lonesome Polecat, on a much deserved victory. Another shout out to all the new contestants, who did a great job. The TCM programmers do read this thread, so I hope they do some poaching from your great ideas.
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I'm glad to see some love for the funny screwball comedy FOUR'S A CROWD and the fine SIDEWALKS OF LONDON, which has great performances by Vivien Leigh and Charles Laughton.
If we're including foreign films, PORT OF SHADOWS is the film of the year, as far as I'm concerned.
Edited by: kingrat on Jan 12, 2014 3:43 PM
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To that list I would add *Reap the Wild Wind* (John Wayne as a Rhett Butler character).
He's an ex-soldier turned screenwriter in *The Wings of Eagles*.
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MissW, that's Beulah Bondi shaking her booty in *Vivacious Lady*.
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Barry Fitzgerald is the actor who makes me want to run screaming out of the room. I always check my wallet when he's on screen and would not leave loved ones alone with him.
As for the more usual run of bad guys: Timothy Carey. It's easy to believe the guy could be as unhinged as some of the characters he plays so well.
And I have to agree with the choice of Lawrence Tierney. He really seems like the character he plays in *Born To Kill*.
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For 1940-1960 I would select 1943 as the weakest year. I don't know the early 30s well enough, although I haven't been impressed by a lot of films from the earliest two or three years of sound.
If you extend through the end of the studio era (1967 is as good a date as any to start the next phase), 1962 is one of the great years and 1963 not so much.
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I had the impression that 1951 represented a falling off from 1950, but 1951 has an impressive list of films, too.
Top 10 of 1951:
1. Cry, the Beloved Country
2. Strangers on a Train
3. Westward the Women
4. Decision Before Dawn
5. The African Queen
6. On Dangerous Ground
7. An American in Paris
8. The Browning Version
9. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
10. Ace in the Hole
Honorable mention: A Streetcar Named Desire, A Place in the Sun, A Christmas Carol, The Model and the Marriage Broker, He Ran All the Way, The House on Telegraph Hill, The Steel Helmet, The Tall Target, Teresa, Try and Get Me
Need to see: The First Legion, M, The Thirteenth Letter, Thunder on the Hill
Underrated: Decision Before Dawn, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Teresa, Try and Get Me
The variety of Oscar-worthy choices for Best Actor and Best Actress is staggering, despite the greatness of Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh in Streetcar.
Best Actor: Marlon Brando (A Streetcar Named Desire) over Robert Ryan (On Dangerous Ground), Michael Redgrave (The Browning Version), Montgomery Clift (A Place in the Sun), Alastair Sim (A Christmas Carol), Robert Walker (Strangers on a Train), John Garfield (He Ran All the Way), Kirk Douglas (Ace in the Hole), Canada Lee (Cry, the Beloved Country), and Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen). Wow! Is there a stronger year for leading actors?
Best Actress: Ida Lupino (On Dangerous Ground) over Vivien Leigh (A Streetcar Named Desire), Thelma Ritter (The Model and the Marriage Broker), Katharine Hepburn (The African Queen), and Pier Angeli (Teresa). Again, wow.
Best Supporting Actor: Oskar Werner, Decision Before Dawn. You could argue that Werner, third-billed behind Gary Merrill and Richard Basehart, has more screen time and thus belongs in the Best Actor category, which would make that even stronger. You might also argue that Robert Walker belongs here because Farley Granger has more screen time, but to me, Bruno feels like a starring role of equal importance. Lloyd Bridges makes a memorable villain in Try and Get Me. Karl Malden in Streetcar isn?t too shabby, either.
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Collinge, Teresa or Hildegard Knef, Decision Before Dawn. Now an obvious solution is to move Thelma Ritter to the Supporting Actress category and give that woman the Oscar she deserved for some picture or other, and she?s second-billed to Jeanne Crain, but the marriage broker feels like a lead role. Kim Hunter is a fine Stella in Streetcar.
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It's hard to argue with your choices of Michel Simon and Fredi Washington. It's interesting that the 1934 *Imitation of Life* gives the daughter a much more positive outcome than the remake. Fredi is going to what we would now call a historically black college, and we can assume that a young woman that pretty will have plenty of admirers. Poor Susan Kohner just has to repent.
*Duck Soup* and *The Bitter Tea of General Yen* are both big favorites of mine, and if the latter had been a big hit, Frank Capra's career might have gone in a different direction.
I'm enjoying the inclusion of films unfamiliar to me. My taste is more for the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
I recently re-watched M, which looked as amazing as ever. Definitely one of the best films of the 30s, not just 1931.
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Skimpole's List--which is almost, but not quite, the title of a Steven Spielberg movie--is a lot of fun.
If we extend our analysis to the Oscar nominees, we can come up with a lot of interesting categories. For instance,
Best Picture nominees which are now extremely obscure but are actually perfectly reasonable: Decision Before Dawn, America America
Best Picture nominees which the studio made me vote for: Dr. Dolittle, Fanny
In the irritating Oscarbait category I would have to include: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
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For those of you who think that 1950 was one of the greatest years in the studio era, I am right there with you. Excellent films in a variety of genres and styles.
Top 10 for 1950:
1. All About Eve
2. Sunset Boulevard
3. The Asphalt Jungle
4. In a Lonely Place
5. The Furies
6. Three Came Home
7. Wagon Master
8. The Breaking Point
9. Stars in My Crown
10. Panic in the Streets
Honorable mention: Madeleine, Two Flags West, Rio Grande, So Long at the Fair, No Way Out, Adam?s Rib, Night and the City, Harvey, King Solomon?s Mines, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Three Little Words, The Damned Don?t Cry, No Man of Her Own
Need to see: The Men, Mister 880, The House by the River
Underrated: Three Came Home, The Breaking Point, Madeleine, Two Flags West
Overrated: Father of the Bride, Cyrano de Bergerac
Best Actor: William Holden, Sunset Boulevard. Honorable mention to Humphrey Bogart (In a Lonely Place) and John Garfield (The Breaking Point).
Best Actress: Bette Davis, All About Eve over Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard) and Gloria Grahame (In a Lonely Place).
Best Supporting Actor: Sam Jaffe, The Asphalt Jungle over George Sanders (All About Eve).
Best Supporting Actress: Judith Anderson, The Furies.
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finance, the 1970s are the overrated decade of American films. According to me, that is. Some critics I respect think that the post-studio director's cinema of the 1970s is the best in American film history. Certainly, there were new freedoms. For a brief time some directors could make the films they wanted and try new techniques.
I find some of the new cinematography very unattractive and even dysfunctional, as I mentioned in a thread on *Klute*. Unlike the admirers of the 70s, I don't take the new directors at their own valuation. Yes, they tried new things--but how good are the results?
That being said, there are still forgotten films of the 70s that need to be mentioned, and "The Underrated Seventies" is a totally valid concept.
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TopBilled, glad you are also a fan of *Cluny Brown*. Robert Osborne said this is a favorite of his when he introduced it at this year's festival, so perhaps it will turn up in 2014.
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Top 10 for 1957
1. A Face in the Crowd
2. Sweet Smell of Success
3. An Affair To Remember
4. 12 Angry Men
5. Witness for the Prosecution
6. 3:10 to Yuma
7. Paths of Glory
8. The Bridge on the River Kwai
9. Abandon Ship
10. Something of Value
Honorable mention: The Story of Esther Costello; Funny Face; Silk Stockings; Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; Bitter Victory; Boy on a Dolphin; Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; Saint Joan; The Strange One; The Tall T; Until They Sail; The Young Don?t Cry
Underrated: Abandon Ship, Something of Value
Worth discovering: The Young Don?t Cry, The Black Tent
Guilty pleasure: Sea Wife (Joan Collins as a nun)
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 thoroughly enjoyed the Private Screenings with Robert Osborne. Alec Baldwin did a fine job interviewing him, and I enjoyed their continuing dispute about whether *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1962) is an essential.
Congratulations to everyone who worked on this project for a job well done.
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1946 was a great year, and it is even greater if you include Brief Encounter, which was released in England in 1945 but Oscar eligible as a 1946 film. Brief Encounter would be #1 on the 1945 list.
1946: the Dandy Dozen
1. The Best Years of Our Lives
2. Brief Encounter
3. Notorious
4. Henry V
5. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
6. The Yearling
7. Three Strangers
8. The Locket
9. Gilda
10. Till the End of Time
11. Cluny Brown
12. The Big Sleep
Honorable mention: My Darling Clementine, Deception, I See a Dark Stranger, Deadline at Dawn, The Razor?s Edge, The Spiral Staircase, Nobody Lives Forever, Diary of a Chambermaid, Green for Danger, My Reputation, The Postman Always Rings Twice
Guilty pleasure: Duel in the Sun (Italian opera without the music)
Underrated: Three Strangers, The Locket, Till the End of Time, Cluny Brown, Nobody Lives Forever
Best Actor: Dana Andrews for The Best Years of Our Lives or Laurence Olivier for Henry V or Henry Fonda for My Darling Clementine or John Garfield for The Postman Always Rings Twice or Charles Boyer for Cluny Brown
Best Actress: Celia Johnson for Brief Encounter, with Ingrid Bergman (Notorious) and Jennifer Jones (Cluny Brown) also Oscar-worthy.
Best Supporting Actor: Claude Rains (Notorious) or Charles Bickford, who breaks my heart in Duel in the Sun, although Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives is unforgettable.
Best Supporting Actress: I have trouble finding a candidate here. Not Lillian Gish in Duel in the Sun. Academy nominee Ethel Barrymore (The Spiral Staircase) and winner Anne Baxter (The Razor?s Edge) are as plausible as any, unless you want to pick Myrna Loy or Virginia Mayo from The Best Years of Our Lives.
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1945 has a lot of movies I like, so the honorable mention list is longer than usual.
1945 Top 10
1. Leave Her to Heaven
2. Mildred Pierce
3. Love Letters
4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
5. Scarlet Street
6. I Know Where I?m Going
7. The Clock
8. Dead of Night
9. Hangover Square
10. The House on 92nd Street
Honorable mention: The Enchanted Cottage, Kitty, Murder He Says, The Corn Is Green, The Valley of Decision, Fallen Angel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, They Were Expendable, Saratoga Trunk, The Seventh Veil, A Walk in the Sun, The Way to the Stars, Johnny Angel, Christmas in Connecticut, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Lost Weekend
Underrated: Love Letters, Kitty
Overrated: Detour
Best Actor: Wide open. No real reason not to go with Ray Milland for The Lost Weekend.
Best Actress: As much as I like Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce, I like Wendy Hiller (I Know Where I?m Going) and Jennifer Jones (Love Letters) even more. Hey, the Golden Globes once had a three-way tie.
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Redgrave, Dead of Night
Best Supporting Actress: Wanda Hendrix, Confidential Agent
Edited by: kingrat on Jan 8, 2014 7:52 PM
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Thanks, Andy. Some of us need a little extra guidance! Audrey and Marilyn can now be found in the correct decade.
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My top pick for 1959, previously unmentioned, has been lavishly praised by Martin Scorsese, and I agreed with every word of the article he did for TCM. A mosaic where every piece is perfectly related to every other piece.
The Dandy Dozen for 1959:
1. The Nun?s Story
2. The Journey
3. Some Like It Hot
4. North by Northwest
5. Anatomy of a Murder
6. Ride Lonesome
7. Shake Hands with the Devil
8. Odds Against Tomorrow
9. Room at the Top
10. These Thousand Hills
11. They Came to Cordura
12. The Hanging Tree
Honorable mention: A Summer Place, Rio Bravo, Libel, The Wreck of the Mary Deare
Need to see: Tiger Bay, Warlock
Underrated: The Journey, Shake Hands with the Devil, These Thousand Hills, They Came to Cordura
Overrated: Imitation of Life
Best Actor: Jack Lemmon, Some Like It Hot. Dude, you weren?t expecting Charlton Heston?
Best Actress: Audrey Hepburn, The Nun?s Story over Lee Remick, Anatomy of a Murder, who did not play a nun.
Best Supporting Actor: Ed Begley, Odds Against Tomorrow, although just thinking of Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot puts a big smile on my face.
Best Supporting Actress: No overwhelming favorite here. Could be Edith Evans, The Nun?s Story, but let?s say Joan Copeland for Middle of the Night.
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My picks for 1959 have now been moved to the correct decade. As Marilyn says in The Asphalt Jungle, "Yikes!"
Edited by: kingrat on Jan 8, 2014 5:49 PM
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My list for 1944 could be entitled ?Going Another Way.? The first four or five films are more or less in a dead heat for the top spot. A solid year with many fine movies.
1944 Baker?s Dozen
1. Meet Me in St. Louis
2. Double Indemnity
3. Laura
4. The Mask of Dimitrios
5. Murder, My Sweet
6. Between Two Worlds
7. Since You Went Away
8. Mrs. Parkington
9. A Canterbury Tale
10. The Miracle of Morgan?s Creek
11. Frenchman?s Creek
12. None But the Lonely Heart
13. Lifeboat
Honorable mention: Phantom Lady, The Woman in the Window, Mr. Skeffington, The Seventh Cross, The Very Thought of You, To Have and Have Not, The Conspirators, Gaslight
Underrated: Between Two Worlds
Overrated: Going My Way
Best Actor: No firm choice, but Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity would do.
Best Actress: Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity
Best Supporting Actress: Agnes Moorehead, Mrs. Parkington
Best Supporting Actor: Clifton Webb, Laura. If the Academy had chosen to give Edward G. Robinson a career award for Double Indemnity, that would have been fine, too.
FredfromNJ makes an excellent case for other 1941 films. I'm less fond than he is of some of them.
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*Went the Day Well?* is an important rediscovery, and I'm eager to hear what others think of it. I'm also interested in the Jacques Demy double feature of *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg* and *Lola*, especially the latter.
Especially for those of us who do not have access to Fox Movie Channel, the opening of the Fox vaults is a welcome development.
Showing the John Wayne films consecutively rather than several per week is an interesting approach. Is this a first for TCM?
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1958 is one of the great years, as far as I?m concerned. I don?t want to drop any of these films, so it?s a top 12 instead of a top 10.
1958?s Dandy Dozen:
1. (tie) Bonjour Tristesse
2. (tie for top) Vertigo
3. The Key
4. Man of the West
5. Touch of Evil
6. The Quiet American
7. The Horse?s Mouth
8. The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
9. The Big Country
10. Orders To Kill
11. The Tarnished Angels
12. Hell Drivers
Honorable mention: The Left-Handed Gun; Bell, Book, and Candle; Kings Go Forth; A Night To Remember; Witness for the Prosecution
Need to see: Ice Cold in Alex; A Time To Live and a Time To Die; Anna Lucasta
Underrated: The Quiet American, Orders To Kill, Hell Drivers
Overrated: Some Came Running
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. Athene Seyler, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness; Irene Worth, Orders To Kill; Kay Walsh, The Horse?s Mouth; Edith Evans, Look Back in Anger. All four are deserving.
Andy, I tend to agree that Touch of Evil is overrated, especially when Dennis Weaver or Janet Leigh is on screen, but there are a few amazing sequences that put it on my list regardless.
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Andy, I think the name of the movie is *Hell Drivers*, and it is indeed a good one, directed by the blacklisted director Cy Endfield.
TopBilled has also mentioned a couple of films which ought to be better known, *Carve Her Name With Pride* and *The Inn of the Sixth Happiness*.
But guys, no love for *Bonjour Tristesse* or *The Key*? Those would be two of my top three, along with a certain Hitchcock film. If I were including foreign films, *Ashes and Diamonds* would be #1.
This is really fun to do. I agree with Arturo (way down in this thread) that 1950 is one of the great Hollywood years.
The Underrated Sixties & Seventies
in General Discussions
Posted
For me, there's a drop after the top 3 films. Oddly enough, films 3 through 10 were all filmed partly or wholly out of the U.S.
Top !0 for 1960:
1. Psycho
2. Wild River
3. The Sundowners
4. Spartacus
5. Tunes of Glory
6. Our Man in Havana
7. Sons and Lovers
8. The Night Fighters
9. The League of Gentlemen
10. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Need to see: The Angry Silence, The Savage Innocents
Honorable mention: The Unforgiven, Elmer Gantry
Overrated: The Apartment
Underrated: The Night Fighters
Best Actor: Anthony Perkins, Psycho
Best Actress: Lee Remick, Wild River
Best Supporting Actress: Jo Van Fleet, Wild River
Best Supporting Actor: Cyril Cusack, The Night Fighters
Honorable mention for performances:
Actor: Jack Lemmon (The Apartment) and Robert Mitchum (The Sundowners)
Actress: Deborah Kerr (The Sundowners) and Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment)
Supporting Actor: If Trevor Howard (Sons and Lovers) is put in this category, he would probably be my choice.