kingrat

1959 was a great year for westerns: Day of the Outlaw, Ride Lonesome, The Hanging Tree, Warlock, These Thousand Hills. I also consider They Came to Cordura a western. Gary Cooper gives two of best performances in The Hanging Tree and They Came to Cordura. Burl Ives is stupendous in Day of the Outlaw, an intelligent, partially sympathetic villain who gets one of the greatest entrances in any movie. Andre de Toth's direction of this winter-bound western is brilliant, and Robert Ryan, as usual, is first-rate. Ride Lonesome is one of my two favorite Budd Boetticher films. Don Murray was never better than as the initially innocent cowboy in These Thousand Hills, and Lee Remick, no surprise, is outstanding as a warm-hearted floozy. As for the darkly interesting Warlock, this is probably Edward Dmytryk's best 1950s film, and where else do you get to see Anthony Quinn with a crush on Henry Fonda? Add Richard Widmark and Dorothy Malone, and you have an excellent cast. Warlock is the name of a town, by the way. The color cinematography by Joe MacDonald is almost beyond praise. We're used to the brown-toned overkill of the 1970s which I call "Sepia Sludge"--see Heaven's Gate, McCabe and Mrs. Miller among many others--or today's overkill with colored filters, but MacDonald uses a brown-forward palette but with touches of other colors. Almost every shot is an exquisite composition with the use of these color accents, yet the cinematography never calls attention to itself. On a continent far away: my award for Best Cast for 1959 would go to The Nun's Story, but a close contender comes from France, Marie-Octobre. Although this isn't one of Julien Duvivier's best 1950s films, it's still a good story with a fabulous cast headed by Danielle Darrieux, Serge Reggiani, Bernard Blier, and Lino Ventura. Someone betrayed a resistance group to the Nazis, and the surviving members are assembled, Agatha Christie style, at the elegant home of the woman known during the Resistance as Marie-Octobre (Darrieux). An obvious suspect is Blier, known to have been a fascist before the war, but suspicion goes back and forth as more of the story is revealed. As one imdb reviewer noted, the film would have been even better with extensive flashbacks to the war era. The producers probably spent all their money on the cast, however. This film is available online, and I definitely recommend it.

For 1959 I have clear favorites in all four acting categories. The best supporting actress played two wildly different characters this year. Best Actor for 1959: Jack Lemmon, SOME LIKE IT HOT**** James Stewart, ANATOMY OF A MURDER Yul Brynner, THE JOURNEY Cary Grant, NORTH BY NORTHWEST Peter Finch, THE NUN'S STORY Honorable mention: Dirk Bogarde, LIBEL; Richard Burton, LOOK BACK IN ANGER; Gary Cooper, THE HANGING TREE; Gary Cooper, THEY CAME TO CORDURA; Anthony Franciosa, CAREER; Alec Guinness, OUR MAN IN HAVANA; Eiji Okada, HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR; Serge Reggiani, MARIE-OCTOBRE; Robert Ryan, DAY OF THE OUTLAW; James Shigeta, THE CRIMSON KIMONO Best Actress for 1959: Audrey Hepburn, THE NUN'S STORY**** Lee Remick, ANATOMY OF A MURDER Eva Marie Saint, NORTH BY NORTHWEST Deborah Kerr, THE JOURNEY Marilyn Monroe, SOME LIKE IT HOT Honorable mention: Danielle Darrieux, MARIE-OCTOBRE; Emmanuelle Riva, HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR; Maureen O'Hara, OUR MAN IN HAVANA; Lee Remick, THESE THOUSAND HILLS; Maria Schell, THE HANGING TREE Best Supporting Actor for 1959: Burl Ives, DAY OF THE OUTLAW**** Ed Begley, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW Joe E. Brown, SOME LIKE IT HOT Ben Gazzara, ANATOMY OF A MURDER George C. Scott, ANATOMY OF A MURDER Honorable mention: Bernard Blier, MARIE-OCTOBRE; James Cagney, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL; Leo G. Carroll, NORTH BY NORTHWEST; Noel Coward, OUR MAN IN HAVANA; Karl Malden, THE HANGING TREE; Dean Martin, CAREER; James Mason, NORTH BY NORTHWEST; Robert Vaughn, THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS; Lino Ventura, MARIE-OCTOBRE Best Supporting Actress for 1959: Edith Evans, THE NUN'S STORY**** Edith Evans, LOOK BACK IN ANGER Carolyn Jones, CAREER Joan Copeland, MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT Jessie Royce Landis, NORTH BY NORTHWEST Sybil Thorndike, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL Honorable mention: Peggy Ashcroft, THE NUN'S STORY; Colleen Dewhurst, THE NUN'S STORY; Susan Kohner, IMITATION OF LIFE; Shirley MacLaine, CAREER

TOP TEN FILMS OF 1959: The Nun's Story The Journey Some Like It Hot North by Northwest Anatomy of a Murder Odd Obsession (Kagi) The World of Apu Day of the Outlaw Ride Lonesome Fires on the Plain Alternates: Black Orpheus, Shake Hands with the Devil, Odds Against Tomorrow, Warlock

Lawrence, your description of Thunder Road is perfect. Cinematic art it isn't, but among a certain audience it was one of the best-loved films ever. I'm adding Cairo Station to my must-see list, and Murder by Contract sounds good. I have seen Enjo/Conflagration, but only on a poor VHS tape, so it's hard to say what this would look like when properly seen. Carve Her Name With Pride stars Virginia McKenna as a woman sent by the British into occupied France to link up with the Resistance. Paul Scofield is her handler, who clearly has a soft spot in his heart for her. A well-made film. The Doctor's Dilemma is a good version of the Shaw play, with Dirk Bogarde as an obnoxious painter of genius, Leslie Caron as his beautiful wife, and Robert Morley as an incompetent doctor whose catchphrase is "Stimulate the phagocytes!" Kings Go Forth benefits from Delmer Daves' sensitive direction. Tony Curtis and Frank Sinatra are GI buddies both interested in beautiful French girl Natalie Wood. Leora Dana as Natalie's mother plays a woman who has married a black man (he's conveniently dead by the time our story starts). The Goddess is a Paddy Chayefsky script loosely based on Marilyn Monroe. Some people admire Kim Stanley's performance; others find it a bundle of Method-y twitterings. She's doing lots of stuff every second she's on screen. Lloyd Bridges has a nice turn as one of the men in her life, and Elizabeth Wilson has a nice small role as the personal assistant who has a crush on her.

I thought you would all enjoy hearing Wendy Hiller's reaction to winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Separate Tables, interviewed by the London News Chronicle as recounted in Inside Oscar: "All you could see of me in the picture was the back of my head. Unless they give some award for acting with one's back to the camera, I don't see how I could have won. They cut my best two scenes and they gave one to Rita Hayworth." When asked what she thought of the tribute, she said, "Never mind the honor, though I'm sure it's very nice of them. I hope this award means cash--hard cash. I want lots of lovely offers to go filming in Hollywood, preferably in the winter so I can avoid all the horrid cold over here." You gotta love Wendy Hiller, offscreen as well as onscreen.

I like quite a few of the Van Johnson films scheduled for tomorrow: High Barbaree - one of the best WWII romances. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - a good WWII film The Last Time I Saw Paris - Expansion of a great F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, "Babylon Revisited." Elizabeth Taylor is the beautiful heroine who seems to be falling apart. Battleground - a classic WWII film, with Ricardo Montalban as the guy who's never seen snow. It's the Battle of the Bulge in winter. He's going to see a lot of it. Miracle in the Rain - Jane Wyman is outstanding as the mother-dominated young woman who meets GI Van Johnson. If you like women's pictures--make that "domestic melodramas"--this one is recommended. Despite the supernatural overtones at the end, there's nothing romantic about the day-to-day life of this hard-working secretary. Invitation - I don't like this one quite so much as the others, but Bronislau Kaper's music is great. It's the same great theme from A Life of Her Own. A rich man pays Van Johnson to court his shy, less than beautiful daughter (Dorothy McGuire).

Thanks to everyone for all the posts about length of screen time. One of my honorable mentions, Marie Versini in A Tale of Two Cities, is probably in the Hermione Baddeley range. She has only one scene, playing a young woman who is going to the guillotine with Sidney Carton, but this is one of the most memorable scenes in the film. I believe most viewers somewhat prefer Jack Conway's bigger budget 1930s version of A Tale of Two Cities, but the 1958 version with Dirk Bogarde is also good. Rosalie Crutchley, always a favorite, is a great choice to play Madame Defarge, even though she is smaller and less terrifying than Blanche Yurka in the earlier film.

Best Juvenile Performance: June Archer, INNOCENT SINNERS Innocent Sinners is a little-known but very good film directed by Philip Leacock. June Archer plays the main character, Lovejoy Mason, all but abandoned by her mother. All the little girl wants to do is plant and tend to a garden in the bombed-out ruins left by the Blitz. Neither adults nor the neighborhood boys see the value in this. Flora Robson has a fairly small role as one of the neighbors. Forbidden Games may have provided part of the inspiration for this adaptation of a Rumer Godden novel called An Episode of Sparrows. Although this subject could certainly have been treated sentimentally, it is not. June Archer is no Shirley Temple; she is rather plain and not very charming, just the kind of little girl many people would ignore. TCM showed Innocent Sinners about three years ago, and I hope they will show it again. Another film I wrongly expected to be sentimental is The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Ingrid Bergman as a missionary, lots of children, and "This old man, he played one": I feared the worst. Instead, I discovered a well-made, intelligent film about a strong-willed woman who insists on becoming a missionary to China, and who against all odds achieves her goal. This is one of Bergman's best performances, and Athene Seyler is wonderful as an old woman who has spent her life as a missionary. Robert Donat plays an old Chinese man. One of Mark Robson's best films.

Tom, thanks for writing about The Roots of Heaven, a film I've never seen. It certainly sounds interesting, if not fully satisfying.

I'm really looking forward to this one. Gerard Philipe and Michele Morgan were also icons of French cinema, gorgeous movie stars who could act.

There are so many fine films from 1958 to talk about. Bonjour Tristesse has one of the best screenplays ever, but Arthur Laurents doesn't even mention it in his memoirs. The decision to leave the present in black and white but the flashbacks in color was--I don't know if this was Preminger's idea--is one of those decisions that makes everything else fall into place. A fashion expert has said that Jean Seberg's short haircut and little black dress would be just as chic today as they were in 1958. Now that we understand more about PTSD, The Key becomes easier to grasp. It dramatizes a little-known aspect of WWII, when barges were used to tow in supply ships from America in the early stages of the war. German U-boats always lurk for the ships and the poorly armed barges. The mortality rate for barge captains, like Trevor Howard and William Holden, is high. Sophia Loren, having lost her fiance in this way, is so traumatized that she lets herself be passed from one man to his designated successor. This can't be said quite openly in 1958, but is obvious. WWII film, PTSD film, romance between two damaged people. I think The Key is one of Carol Reed's best films. BAFTA named Trevor Howard best British actor, with Irene Worth winning for best British actress in Orders to Kill, one of Anthony Asquith's best films. The little-known American actor Paul Massie, who had only a short movie career but is fine here, is sent in to occupied France to kill a man suspected of being a traitor to the Resistance. Irene Worth is superb as a dedicated member of the Resistance. Is the suspect a traitor or not? Should he be killed anyway, because those are the orders? When people make films about the South who don't know much about the South: The Defiant Ones is probably Stanley Kramer's best film, if still a few rungs below the films mentioned above. But really, Tony Curtis as a Southerner? The southernmost part of Brooklyn, maybe. Theodore Bikel does not look Southern, either, but Curtis is the bigger problem. Curtis works very hard and does his best. The script is totally wrong in another regard: Curtis talks about being called a "bohunk." Not if he grew up in the South. That kind of ethnic slur, as oposed to racial slurs, was unknown in the South until All in the Family came along. Not one Southerner in a thousand would ever have heard "bohunk" or could have defined it. Life in the South was literally a matter of black and white. White Southerners, with the exception of some Catholics, had no identification whatever with the countries their ancestors came from. All that mattered was that you were white and American and Southern. The Hispanic migration of the last two decades has changed all that, of course. The Defiant Ones does have its heart in the right place, and it's a great showcase for Sidney Poitier.

This is the only movie I've seen that I found MORE confusing the second time I watched it. As you say, that didn't ruin my overall enjoyment of the movie. SPOILERS: Some viewers believe that Walker is dead and that the images he sees are what he sees just before he dies. There are lines in the script which seem to support this reading (people say, "I thought you were dead," etc.). I like to regard Point Blank as "acid noir."

One of the most interesting online discussions I've taken part in concerned Some Came Running. This was about five years ago on another site. The general split was that straight guys liked the film a lot, women and gay guys did not. Everyone liked the performances of Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin and Minnelli's direction of the carnival scene. Several of us coveted the study that belonged to Larry Gates (Martha Hyer's professor father). Only one person liked Martha Hyer's performance. Everyone agreed that Frank Sinatra and Martha Hyer had zero chemistry, a problem because he's supposed to flip over her. Some were bothered more than others that Sinatra obviously did not grow up in a small town in Indiana and that he and Arthur Kennedy are an unlikely pair of brothers. For me, this is the most misognyistic American film of the 1950s. Women are either frigid virgins (Hyer) or cold wives (Leora Dana) unless they are prostitutes. The hooker with the heart of gold is perhaps the single most cliched character in all fiction and cinema, yet one actress after another makes a big impression in the role, and Shirley MacLaine is no exception. The scene where Sinatra preaches sexual morality to his teenage niece is particularly stomach-turning. For a more enlightened view of female sexuality, we'll have to wait for two marvelous American films from 1960. Poor Arthur Kennedy has the horrible two-dimensional part of the uncool "square," but the only activities the allegedly cool dudes Sinatra, Martin, and their cronies seem to engage in are drinking, gambling, and bimbo-boinking. The women around them are "pigs," as Martin's character puts it. To me, this makes the squareness of Arthur Kennedy appealing by contrast. Of course, Sinatra is supposed to writing the Great American Novel, but this is never dramatized. I think Some Came Running is interesting more for what's wrong with it that for what's right with it, which again is primarily the good work of Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. Although Minnelli directs the exterior scenes well, he seems to be struggling with the Cinemascope ratio for the interior scenes.

For years Home Before Dark was unavailable, but TCM has now been able to show it, and I believe it is also available on DVD. Its strongest feature is a remarkable performance by Jean Simmons as a woman who returns home from a mental hospital. She's been cured of her belief that her husband and her stepsister are having an affair. Or was she actually right to believe that? The real mystery in the film is why Jean Simmons and Rhonda Fleming would give two hoots about the dull-as-ditchwater Dan O'Herlihy. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. adds some spark as a visiting professor. Surprisingly for the time, Zimbalist is identified as Jewish, and there is mention of anti-semitism among the other professors. Some of the story was filmed on location in Massachusetts during winter, and the big scene where Jean has herself made over to look like Rhonda Fleming is unforgettable.

Swithin, I heartily second your praise for Irene Worth in the excellent Orders to Kill. Would love to hear any memories of her. This year had a very strong field for lead actor, and the top three for supporting actress are all incredible. Best Actor for 1958: Zbigniew Cybulski, ASHES AND DIAMONDS**** James Stewart, VERTIGO Michael Redgrave, THE QUIET AMERICAN Alec Guinness, THE HORSE'S MOUTH Laurence Harvey, ROOM AT THE TOP Sidney Poitier, THE DEFIANT ONES William Holden, THE KEY Honorable mention: Chhabi Biswas, THE MUSIC ROOM; Dirk Bogarde, THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA; Dirk Bogarde, A TALE OF TWO CITIES; Gary Cooper, MAN OF THE WEST; Clark Gable, RUN SILENT RUN DEEP; Burl Ives, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF; Paul Newman, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF; Paul Scofield, CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Best Actress for 1958: Jean Simmons, HOME BEFORE DARK**** Jean Simmons, THE BIG COUNTRY Simone Signoret, ROOM AT THE TOP Ingrid Bergman, THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS Jean Seberg, BONJOUR TRISTESSE Shirley MacLaine, SOME CAME RUNNING Honorable mention: Susan Hayward, I WANT TO LIVE; Lilo Pulver, A TIME TO LIVE AND A TIME TO DIE; Rosalind Russell, AUNTIE MAME Best Supporting Actor for 1958: Trevor Howard, THE KEY**** Burl Ives, THE BIG COUNTRY Lee J. Cobb, MAN OF THE WEST Dean Martin, SOME CAME RUNNING Robert Keith, THE LINEUP Honorable mention: Charles Bickford, THE BIG COUNTRY; Thayer David, A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE; Robert Morley, THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA Best Supporting Actress for 1958: Athene Seyler, THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS**** Irene Worth, ORDERS TO KILL Kay Walsh, THE HORSE'S MOUTH Hermione Gingold, GIGI Judith Anderson, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF Honorable mention: Rosalie Crutchley, A TALE OF TWO CITIES; Leora Dana, KINGS GO FORTH; Juanita Hall, SOUTH PACIFIC; Marie Versini, A TALE OF TWO CITIES; Elizabeth Wilson, THE GODDESS

A Night to Remember is good, I'd forgotten about that one. The Horse's Mouth is a must for Alec Guinness fans; this was a labor of love for him. He did the screenplay, I think. Ronald Neame's direction is very much like pre-epic Lean. I've only seen A Time to Love and a Time to Die in panned and scanned VHS. Would love to see it on the big screen. This story of a German soldier home on leave from the Russian front in the waning days of WWII had personal meaning for Sirk, whose only son fought for the Nazis. John Gavin actually looks like a good actor; he corrects this by going wooden for Imitation of Life. Lilo Pulver is excellent as the woman he meets during his leave. Prediction: as a noir fan, you're going to like Don Siegel's direction for The Lineup. The San Francisco locations are great, too, some of which no longer exist. I haven't seen the later Quiet American, which is probably closer to the Graham Greene original. Mankiewicz flips the script; instead of the American being brought low, the know-it-all Englishman who prides himself on his "advanced" views and sympathy for the Communists (the character Greene would find sympathetic) is casually and cruelly used by the real Communists. This makes perfect dramatic and psychological sense. Michael Redgrave couldn't be better. By the way, Jean-Luc Godard named this his favorite film of 1958. Godard did not start out as a man of the far left, though he quickly moved that way.

1958 is one of my favorite years, but my favorites don't track the Oscars. Only one of my top fifteen or so won any nominations for picture, director, or acting in 1958. The top three films are among my all-time favorites. Top 10 for 1958: Ashes and Diamonds Bonjour Tristesse Vertigo The Key Touch of Evil Man of the West The Horse's Mouth The Inn of the Sixth Happiness The Big Country The Quiet American Alternates: The Music Room, Room at the Top, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Orders To Kill, The Lineup, Run Silent Run Deep

Zabriskie Point could get a split vote of 10 out of 10 for cinematography, 1 out of 10 for script and the utterly untalented non-professional leads.

I recommend The Tarnished Angels. Where else in 1950s cinema can you see a husband considering prostituting his wife to earn the entry fee for an airplane race? Excellent noirish photography. One of the best Douglas Sirk films, I think. Although Rock Hudson would not be my top choice to play an Englishman who's grown up in Kenya, Something of Value has a strong story. Hudson and Sidney Poitier are boyhood friends, but Poitier as an adult becomes involved with the Mau Mau movement to drive the whites out of Kenya. Not what audiences of 1957 wanted to see, but I think it's one of Richard Brooks' most interesting films. The Story of Esther Costello seems like a dark parody of The Miracle Worker, which essentially it is. Nicholas Monserrat's novel is apparently suggested by certain incidents in the later life of Helen Keller. Joan Crawford is the Annie Sullivan figure, here a rich woman who takes a blind girl (Heather Sears) from an Irish village. Rossano Brazzi turns out not to be the ideal husband for Joan. One of the few 1950s films which deals openly with rape. The Strange One, based on Calder Willingham's novel and Broadway play End as a Man, softens the ending, but it's still a dark film about a handsome, charismatic young sadist and sociopath in a military school. What an ideal part for Ben Gazzara, except for the Southern accent. Gazzara obviously does not look or sound Southern. George Peppard is the good guy who tries to oppose him, and this is back when Peppard worked hard at his acting. He looks like a future star. Larry Storch is the cadet who least belongs in military school, a natural victim for Gazzara. As open about homosexual sadists as any 1950s American film could be. The Admirable Crichton is a fine re-telling of J.M. Barrie's famous play about a shipwrecked party of Brits. On the island, Crichton, the butler, becomes the natural leader of the community. Would this change if the group is rescued? Martita Hunt isn't part of the shipwrecked bunch, but she steals every scene she's in, which is often the case.

Kilgore, this list is tilted way too much toward recent directors for my taste. Could you chop out the classic era directors and let us look at those as a group? I'd have to add a bunch of directors to the list--Forbes, Negulesco, Cy Endfield, etc. I think it's a great idea. You had me at Ashes and Diamonds, though I haven't seen nearly enough Wajda films. Bryan Forbes - KING RAT Jean Negulesco - DEEP VALLEY Cy Endfield - ZULU Joseph Losey - THE CRIMINAL Julien Duvivier - VOICI LE TEMPS DES ASSASSINS Otto Preminger - BONJOUR TRISTESSE Rene Clement - FORBIDDEN GAMES Henri-Georges Clouzot - THE WAGES OF FEAR Kon Ichikawa - THE BURMESE HARP Claude Chabrol - LES BONNES FEMMES Zoltan Korda - CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY Elia Kazan - WILD RIVER Nicholas Ray - IN A LONELY PLACE

I had considered Shirley MacLaine a lead in SCR, but you do have a point. You discovered that Room at the Top must have been released in Britain in 1958, didn't you, because of the BAFTA nominations.

One of the most difficult to find films of 1957 is This Angry Age (Barrage contre le Pacifique), which I have seen online (YouTube), but panned and scanned and mostly in black and white, although it is a color film. I forgot to add the six leading performances to my lists; all six are outstanding. Jo Van Fleet plays a Frenchwoman who has spent her life savings for a rice paddy in Vietnam (the movie was shot in Thailand). It's a scam because the land is so low-lying and easily flooded. She tries to build a sea wall to protect her property; this is symbolic as well as actual. Van Fleet doesn't want to let go of either of her children, Anthony Perkins and Silvana Mangano, who have a twinlike or quasi-incestuous relationship. Perkins manages to have an affair with a married woman (Alida Valli). Mangano is torn between a man she's attracted to (Richard Conte) and one who has the money to save her mother's property (Nehemiah Persoff, who can always be counted on to be convincingly creepy). Rene Clement's direction looks great, though one would really like to see this in color and widescreen. Silvana Mangano really looks gorgeous. Skimpole, I also love your advocacy for Around the World in 80 Days and David Niven's performance. Niven's style of acting and his screen persona do present something very attractive about the British national character. (Just as the modesty and diffidence of the contestants on The Great British Baking Show seems so appealing compared with the arrogance and bragging of many contestants on American reality shows.)

Some random thoughts: I want to second Tom's recommendation for Abandon Ship. Solid script, a fine cast, excellent performance by Tyrone Power. Philip Leacock is an all but unknown director, but Abandon Ship, Innocent Sinners, and The War Lover are all quite good. In retrospect, weirdest trailer for 1957: A Face in the Crowd, where Andy Griffith is touted as Kazan's latest discovery, following in the footsteps of Marlon Brando and James Dean. Most homoerotic image of 1957: The opening of Something of Value, with a barechested Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier playing soccer. Film that should have been added to my top ten for 1957: Pot-Bouille, adapted from an Emile Zola novel, but looking more like a French version of a Billy Wilder comedy, with more adultery and some female nudity. Julien Duvivier is a master of tone, and Gerard Philipe is a handsome leading man who can act. The best comedy of a year with fabulous dramas. Cy Endfield update: the blacklisted director who made the excellent Try and Get Me does it again with the Brit noir Hell Drivers. Endfield will go on to make Zulu and Sands of the Kalahari. I must rearrange my choices for supporting actors in 1956 now that I've seen The Bad Seed again. Henry Jones and Eileen Heckart are off-the-charts great. If I were giving SAG-style awards to the best cast, it's The Bad Seed edging out The Killing for 1956. 1957 would probably be 12 Angry Men nosing out The Seventh Seal.

Emerging briefly from computer crash hell, here are some thoughts about 1957. Little depth in the best actress race, and a really weak supporting actress field. Best Actor for 1957: Alec Guinness, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI**** Max von Sydow, THE SEVENTH SEAL Cary Grant, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER Victor Sjostrom, WILD STRAWBERRIES Sidney Poitier, SOMETHING OF VALUE Gerard Philipe, POT-BOUILLE Honorable mention: Stanley Baker, HELL DRIVERS; Henry Fonda, 12 ANGRY MEN; Anthony Franciosa, A HATFUL OF RAIN; Ben Gazzara, THE STRANGE ONE; Toshiro Mifune, THRONE OF BLOOD; Robert Mitchum, HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON; Tyrone Power, ABANDON SHIP Best Actress for 1957: Patricia Neal, A FACE IN THE CROWD**** Giulietta Masina, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA Deborah Kerr, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER Deborah Kerr, HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON Joanne Woodward, THE THREE FACES OF EVE Tatiana Samoilova, THE CRANES ARE FLYING Best Supporting Actor for 1957: David Wayne, THE THREE FACES OF EVE**** Sessue Hayakawa, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI Timothy Carey, PATHS OF GLORY Sidney Poitier, BAND OF ANGELS Lee J. Cobb, 12 ANGRY MEN Honorable mention: Gunnar Bjornstrand, THE SEVENTH SEAL; Red Buttons, SAYONARA; E.G. Marshall, 12 ANGRY MEN Best Supporting Actress for 1957: Ruth Attaway, THE YOUNG DON'T CRY**** Gunnel Lindblom, THE SEVENTH SEAL Kay Thompson, FUNNY FACE Cathleen Nesbitt, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER Carolyn Jones, THE BACHELOR PARTY Honorable mention: Martita Hunt, THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON; Miyoshi Umeki, SAYONARA

IL GRIDO (THE OUTCRY) stars Steve Cochran in an Antonioni film. Betsy Blair is in it, too. Cochran takes his little girl from the small industrial town where they live and drifts from place to place in the Po Valley, looking for work. He meets various women along the way. It rains a lot. Not cheerful, even by Antonioni's standards, but well-made. I like it a lot, though some don't.