kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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I remember Hugh Marlowe from the daytime soap, ANOTHER WORLD. Bland is right but he had a distinctive voice.
Agreed, Prince. Marlowe's voice was always a pleasure.
Another example of a good-looking but sexless man is Frederick Stafford from Topaz, the one who looked like John Forsythe (also in the movie) but wasn't.
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If you can get past the casual racial slurs (and some might not be able to), The Dam Busters is a very entertaining film.
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George Sanders is billed above Gary Merrill for All About Eve, and the more I think about it, the more reasonable it seems to put him in the best actor category. No question about the quality of his performance.
Robert Mitchum would have been a worthy nominee for The Sundowners; it's one of his best performances.
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Kay, I just looked Rififi up again on imdb and Wikipedia and everything seems to say 1955. Not sure where I got 1954. Thanks.
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Notes on a few less familiar films from this year:
If you like Merchant/Ivory films, you'll probably like The Red and the Black, a good adaptation of Stendhal's great novel, capably directed by Claude Autant-Lara and starring Gerard Philipe, Danielle Darrieux, and Antonella Lualdi. Gerard Philipe was one of the heartthrobs of the 1950s, an incredibly good-looking man who could also act. He died much too young. Philipe plays Julien Sorel, an ambitious young man from the lower classes who can only rise in the world by wearing either the red of an army uniform or the black of a priest. The sets and costumes are first-rate.
The suspenseful A Bullet Is Waiting is a chamber western like The Naked Spur, with only four human characters and a dog. It's directed by John Farrow, and like his films Five Came Back and Back from Eternity it concerns the aftermath of a plane crash. The only survivors are a sheriff (Stephen McNally) and his prisoner (Rory Calhoun), and they find themselves on a sheep ranch on a remote section of the California coast. The rancher (Brian Aherne) is away getting supplies, leaving his daughter (Jean Simmons, unusually sexy in a short haircut and blue jeans) with only the faithful dog for protection. Simmons and Calhoun have good romantic chemistry.
Jean Simmons fans also might want to check out the romantic comedy She Couldn't Say No, with Robert Mitchum playing a doctor in a small Arkansas town. Simmons and Mitchum also have good romantic chemistry, and (not exactly a spoiler) it ends more happily than their previous film together, Angel Face.
Crime Wave is a superbly directed film noir; with Day of the Outlaw, the best Andre De Toth film I've seen. You can never been sure if Timothy Carey is acting crazy or just being himself, but he's certainly memorable as one of the thugs. John Alton as cinematographer works some of his noir magic.
Vera Cruz is my favorite Robert Aldrich film. Location shooting in Mexico is a big plus.
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Tom and Cora, thanks for the great stills from Rear Window.
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Speedracer, concerning your disappointment about The Barefoot Contessa: in the biography of Mankiewicz Pictures Will Talk, the author suggests that M's best films were the ones where he wore only two of the three hats he sometimes wore (writer/director/producer). With Mankiewicz serving in all three capacities on The Barefoot Contessa, there was no one to urge or force him to make the cuts to the dialogue that would have tightened the movie.
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Grace Kelly, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window
Not seen: The Country Girl, Three Coins in the Fountain, The High and the Mighty, and Broken Lance
Skimpole, even if you haven't seen Grace Kelly's Oscar-winning role, I believe you have seen her two best performances that year. Though she doesn't wear a fake nose in The Country Girl like Nicole Kidman in The Hours, she's "deglamorized" so that she may not look like the Country Club Girl she obviously is. Some of my movie buddies probably like The Country Girl much better than I do.
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293, I though Marilyn's voice artificially low in RONR, as if quite deliberately trying to shed the higher girlish note that was a part of that persona she felt she needed to shed; the ditzy, sexy, blonde with a breathy voice. That would not have been appropriate for the movie but I still found her voice distracting.
Laffite, I believe that Marilyn was under the influence of her (nutso) vocal coach at the time of River of No Return and is slightly exaggerating her diction, as the coach wanted. I find this distracting, too.
She has a more normal voice in Bus Stop, which makes it clearer that the breathy, little girl voice was just an act. I'll admit that I only like little girl voices from actual little girls.
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1954 was boosted by some outstanding foreign films. The Best Actress category lacks depth this year, though the top performances are all fine. Accents rule the Best Actor competition this year: French, Japanese, British, Method mumble. Choosing between the top ten or twelve candidates for supporting actor was especially difficult. I couldn't even pick my favorite performance in THE CAINE MUTINY.
Best Actor for 1954:
Marlon Brando, ON THE WATERFRONT****
Takashi Shimura, SEVEN SAMURAIJean Gabin, TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI
James Mason, A STAR IS BORN
Gerard Philipe, THE RED AND THE BLACK
Honorable mention: Toshiro Mifune, SEVEN SAMURAI; Ray Milland, DIAL M FOR MURDER; Gerard Philipe, KNAVE OF HEARTS (MONSIEUR RIPOIS); Anthony Quinn, LA STRADA; Jean Servais, RIFIFI; James Stewart, REAR WINDOW
Best Actress for 1954:
Judy Garland, A STAR IS BORN****
Giulietta Masina, LA STRADA
Grace Kelly, REAR WINDOW
Audrey Hepburn, SABRINA
Shirley Booth, ABOUT MRS. LESLIE
Jean Simmons, A BULLET IS WAITING
Best Supporting Actor for 1954:
Rod Steiger, ON THE WATERFRONT****
John Mills, HOBSON'S CHOICE
Timothy Carey, CRIME WAVE
John Williams, DIAL M FOR MURDER
Frank Sinatra, SUDDENLY
Honorable mention: Richard Basehart, LA STRADA; Humphrey Bogart, THE CAINE MUTINY; Raymond Burr, REAR WINDOW; Lee J. Cobb, ON THE WATERFRONT; Jose Ferrer, THE CAINE MUTINY; Van Johnson, THE CAINE MUTINY; Fred MacMurray, THE CAINE MUTINY; Karl Malden, ON THE WATERFRONT; Edmond O'Brien, THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA; Abraham Sofaer, ELEPHANT WALK; Tom Tully, THE CAINE MUTINY
Best Supporting Actress for 1954:
Brenda de Banzie, HOBSON'S CHOICE****
Eva Marie Saint, ON THE WATERFRONT
Thelma Ritter, REAR WINDOW
Ruth Roman, THE FAR COUNTRY
Mercedes McCambridge, JOHNNY GUITAR
Honorable mention: Nina Foch, EXECUTIVE SUITE; Joan Greenwood, KNAVE OF HEARTS (MONSIEUR RIPOIS); Antonella Lualdi, THE RED AND THE BLACK; Merle Oberon, DESIREE
So Darn Cute Award: Russ Tamblyn, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS
Anne Shirley/Gig Young Name Change Award: Donna Lee Hickey, who changed her stage name to May Wynn after the character she played in THE CAINE MUTINY
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TCM has shown Touchez pas au grisbi two or three times, so it may well appear again on the schedule. The first time I saw it, I found it a little slow-going, but the second time through I realized that it isn't really a heist film like Rififi, it's about the life of an aging gangster (and who could play him better than Jean Gabin?).
Knave of Hearts (Monsieur Ripois) is available on DVD, I think, but probably has not been shown on TCM. Gerard Philipe is perfectly cast as M. Ripois, a Frenchman in London who can't ever be satisfied with one woman, much to the dismay of Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, and every other woman who falls for him. Rene Clement could scarcely do anything wrong from his early films through Purple Noon. Several of Truffaut's films (Bed and Board, The Man Who Loved Women, for instance) deal with characters like M. Ripois, but I believe Truffaut identified too strongly with them (for obvious reasons) to get the right perspective. Clement has no such problems.
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TOP TEN FILMS OF 1954:
LA STRADA
SEVEN SAMURAI
RIFIFI (DU RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES)
TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI
REAR WINDOW
ON THE WATERFRONT
CRIME WAVE
VERA CRUZ
THE CAINE MUTINY
KNAVE OF HEARTS (MONSIEUR RIPOIS)
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Some might like Summer with Monika just to see the young Harriet Andersson without her clothes. Young innocent guy has a summer affair with a more experienced girl.
All I Desire is one of my two or three favorite Douglas Sirk films. Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who's abandoned her husband and children for a stage career. Her letters tell of her success as a classical actress in Europe; instead, she's singing bawdy songs in D-List vaudeville. Her oldest daughter dreams of a stage career, too. Barbara stops by her old hometown for a brief visit. Her ex-husband (Richard Carlson) is becoming involved with the high school drama teacher (Maureen O'Sullivan). Her ex-lover (Lyle Bettger) is still in town, too. Beautifully directed. Stanwyck is much softer than she is in most of her 1950s films.
Kiss Me Kate has one of Cole Porter's best scores.
The Hitch-Hiker shows that Ida Lupino can direct noir just like the boys. Two men on a fishing trip are kidnapped by a criminal, scarily played by William Talman in his pre-Hamilton Burger phase. Some location photography in Mexico.
So Big has the same problem as all the adaptations of two-generation sagas by Edna Ferber: the two halves of the film don't really match. Jane Wyman is most effective as the poor young woman who marries a farmer (Sterling Hayden) and by hard work becomes rich as a specialty farmer for the Chicago market.
The Captain's Paradise: Alec Guinness, a ferry boat captain, has a domestic helpmate wife (Celia Johnson) in Gibraltar and a sexy wife (Yvonne DeCarlo) in Tangier. What could possibly go wrong? Alec Guinness in 1950s Ealing comedy just about always equals an entertaining film.
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I forgot to include a couple of excellent performances for 1952 from the first-rate French noir LA VERITE SUR BEBE DONGE (THE TRUTH ABOUT BEBE DONGE). Jean Gabin plays a provincial industrialist who's always been a playboy, but he asks a professional matchmaker (Gabrielle Dorziat) to find him a wife. Will Danielle Darrieux suffice? What could possibly go wrong?
Bebe (Darrieux) is a romantic idealist like Joan Fontaine in LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN; her new husband isn't. Their story is told in flashback. Very well directed by Henri Decoin, Darrieux's ex-husband, the film seems to ask the question whether romantic idealism or the accepted life of the provincial upper bourgeoisie is the more insane.
Gabin and Darrieux have great roles and are both wonderful. Gabrielle Dorziat makes her scenes as the matchmaker memorable.
I've seen one of the films Decoin and Darrieux made they were married, BATTEMENT DE COEUR (1940), a delightful comedy that reminds me a lot of MIDNIGHT. If you told me the script was by Billy Wilder, I could believe it. Apparently this was remade as a Ginger Rogers film called HEARTBEAT, not a film I'm familiar with.
Bogie was so right when he said that this process is like painting a bridge, that when you're finished you have to go back and start painting the bridge again.
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Leora Dana is yet another actress who should have had a bigger career. She has the small and thankless role of Arthur Kennedy's wife in Some Came Running and a better role as Natalie Wood's mother in Kings Go Forth. She was in the original Broadway cast of The Best Man, but unfortunately was not in the movie version.
I first became aware of her when she played the long-lost mother of Iris (Beverlee McKinsey) on Another World for a couple of years. She always made the most of whatever scene she had.
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That doesn't strike me as fair. They were competing against Maurice Chevalier, William Powell, Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Charles Chaplin, Spencer Tracy, Charles Boyer and Laurence Olivier in the thirties alone.
Sorry not to have made the point more clearly. Leading men like Cooper and Gable never competed against any of those actors, only others like John Boles, David Manners, Robert Williams, and so on who would also have been considered during the early to middle 30s for roles as romantic leading men. Chaplin, Cagney, Astaire, and Chevalier have their own specialized roles. (Personally I find Chevalier in The Smiling Lieutenant effete and repulsive, though he seems much more attractive as he ages).
Boyer in mid-decade and Olivier at the very end are definitely romantic leads, although their accents rule them out of parts where the hero has to be an American. William Powell, definitely a romantic lead, is more sophisticated, though Cary Grant quickly learns how to do sophistication. Spencer Tracy never gets the girl in his films with Clark Gable.
Quick example: Ernest Borgnine may get the girl in Marty, but that doesn't make him a romantic leading man. He would never have been considered for a Paul Newman role.
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Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd? What, Lawrence, couldn't they get John Gielgud and Farrah Fawcett?
I just watched Julien Duvivier's LA FETE A HENRIETTE (HOLIDAY FOR HENRIETTA) (1952). Duvivier is becoming one of my favorite directors. Apparently PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES is a remake, but I haven't seen that one. Duvivier is something like the French Billy Wilder. Or maybe even better? Like Wilder, he can do comedy, he can do noir. Duvivier has a lightness of touch that works even in superb noir films like PANIQUE and VOICI LE TEMPS DES ASSASSINS.
LA FETE A HENRIETTE begins with two screenwriters whose film has been rejected by the censors. They try to create a new film and argue how it should be developed. Bastille Day is also St. Henriette's Day, so they create a heroine named Henriette, played by the charming Dany Robin. They give her a fiance who's a photographer (Michel Roux, also charming), but she attracts the attention of a more worldly and dangerous man (Michel Auclair, terrific in several incarnations of the character). Hildegard Knef (worldly, with much sex appeal) plays an equestrienne who fascinates Henriette's fiance.
If this often reminded me of Billy Wilder, it also reminded me of Woody Allen. Remember the great scene in MIDNIGHT IN PARIS which referenced THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL? This film has a great BICYCLE THIEVES joke and also refers to several French films, including Duvivier's own SOUS LE CIEL DE PARIS.
If you're looking for connections to the New Wave, you'll find plenty. Godard obviously did not invent writing in the "conditional tense," as one of his films has it, and the meta-cinematic aspects suggest the New Wave, as does a montage scene with more wipes than I have ever seen in a movie before.
Duvivier's co-scenarist, Henri Jeanson, is one of the great screenwriters of French cinema.
Obviously my top ten list for 1952 has to be redone.
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Until a few years ago, hadn't seen THE WAGES OF FEAR since college, and in these cases you always wonder if you'll still love a film as much as on first viewing. The version I had seen was cut for American audiences, dropping, I believe, some of the unfavorable portrayal of the American oil company and some of the homosexual implications. I remembered loving the almost unbearable nail-biting suspense of the scenes when the trucks make their perilous journey with their cargo of nitroglycerine. Every bend in the road means potential disaster, and you know Clouzot is ruthless enough to kill off any of the four drivers. I remembered, too, the cosmic pessimism and existential angst, which, in this situation, seemed totally justified.
None of that had changed. What was new to me was an admiration for the opening part of the film, which at the same time 1) seemed even better than neorealism, with an amazing documentary sense of a real world in which the story takes place and 2) had an editing rhythm which took my breath away, as if this had been storyboarded just like Hitchcock. I don't recall another film which manages that paradoxical feat. I also admire the completely polyglot world of the film, with, at a minimum, English, French, Spanish, and Italian dialogue in various scenes. Mario (Yves Montand) speaks a little Italian; Luigi (Folco Lulli) speaks a little French; Jo (Charles Vanel) speaks a little English; Bill O' Brien, the oil company boss (William Tubbs), tries a little French, and so on. This adds layers of texture as well as realism.
I recalled that Jo was implicitly gay, but Clouzot's version goes considerably beyond what the American censors could stomach. At the beginning of the film Mario shares a room with Luigi, who cooks and cleans for him in a quasi-spousal way, like Thomas Mitchell looking after Cary Grant in ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. (Maybe it's unfair to make this analogy, since Hawks' film looks like backlot hokum next to Clouzot.) Mario leaves Luigi for Jo because he thinks Jo may be the key to a way out. Jo and Luigi square off in the bar, western-style, over Mario--I'm not sure I've seen another film with a barfight where two men fight over another man--and Jo uses his power to ruin Mario's date with the pretty Linda (Vera Clouzot). Mario and Luigi clearly prefer women, but they're almost in a prison setting; Jo seems to hate women; and there's this remarkable exchange between Luigi and the Dutchman, Bimba (Peter van Eyck):Luigi: "You like women?"
Bimba: "No."
You can't imagine that exchange in an American film of 1953.
If I've concentrated on the first half of the film, that's because the visceral appeal of the second half needs less commentary. The acting, cinematography, and editing are at such a high level. Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, and Folco Lulli couldn't be more believable in the three key roles.
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The most radical movie from a studio is sometimes said to be Uptight (dir. Jules Dassin), which adapted Odd Man Out as a black power movie which is supposed to have argued for black revolution.
I don't recall Medium Cool as being particularly radical, but it's been a long time since I've seen it. It's certainly against Mayor Daley and the actions of the police at the DNC in Chicago, but many non-radicals shared that view.
Antonioni's Zabriskie Point considered itself radical, but the two non-actor leads are so inept and sound so dumb that they probably converted people to LBJ and Mayor Daley. ZP is gorgeous to look at, though.
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Finding Steve McQueen's character of Junior Bonner to be an ultimate wimp--at forty he's still trying to win the affection of the daddy who cares nothing whatever for him--I once said that "He could take masculinity lessons from Wendell Burton in The Sterile Cuckoo."
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Thanks for reminding me that The Juggler, a little-known Kirk Douglas film, is definitely worth seeing.
Somehow I forgot to include Deborah Kerr and Vittorio De Sica, and that has now been remedied.
Swithin, thank you for remembering The Cruel Sea, another fine film with some of the usual suspects who have done the British WWII film proud over and over again.
A plug for one of my two or three favorite Ingmar Bergman films: the depressingly bland British title Sawdust and Tinsel has won out over the exploitative American title The Naked Night. A more accurate translation would apparently be something like Sunset of a Clown or The Jester's Evening, much better titles. In any event, Sawdust and Tinsel ("Bleah!" as Snoopy would have said) is a terrific film, not least because of the sexy young Harriet Andersson. Just try taking your eyes off her.
A traveling show which would scarcely make the D-List is about to fold. Harriet looks for another job, but has to escape the wiles of a predatory, if effete, actor (Hasse Ekman). Ake Gronberg, the main man of the show, wants to give it all up and return to the wife (Annika Tretow) he abandoned years ago. In a devastating scene, so well written, directed, and acted, she calmly tells him why the loneliness and pain of living without him is better than living with him. Anders Ek, as the clown, enlivens every moment he's on screen.
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I would say that Bogart is a lead, but am curious to get Bogie's view.
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With so many great foreign films this year, more foreign actors than usual are in the lists.
Best Actor for 1953:
Montgomery Clift, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY****
Yves Montand, THE WAGES OF FEAR
Fred Astaire, THE BAND WAGON
Chishu Ryu, TOKYO STORY
Ake Gronberg, SAWDUST AND TINSEL
Honorable mention: Joseph Cotten, NIAGARA; Glenn Ford, THE BIG HEAT; Alec Guinness, THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE; William Holden, STALAG 17; Burt Lancaster, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY; James Mason, JULIUS CAESAR; John Payne, 99 RIVER STREET; Richard Widmark, PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET
Best Actress for 1953:
Jennifer Jones, BEAT THE DEVIL****
Harriet Andersson, SAWDUST AND TINSEL
Danielle Darrieux, THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . .
Barbara Stanwyck, ALL I DESIRE
Audrey Hepburn, ROMAN HOLIDAY
Honorable mention: Harriet Andersson, SUMMER WITH MONIKA; Leslie Caron, LILI; Doris Day, CALAMITY JANE; Celia Johnson, THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE; Deborah Kerr, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY; Jean Peters, PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET; Jean Simmons, THE ACTRESS; Jean Simmons, YOUNG BESS; Jane Wyman, SO BIG
Best Supporting Actor for 1953:
Charles Vanel, THE WAGES OF FEAR****
Frank Sinatra, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
Lee Marvin, THE BIG HEAT
Anders Ek, SAWDUST AND TINSEL
Vittorio De Sica, THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . .
William Talman, THE HITCH-HIKER
Oscar Levant, THE BAND WAGON
Honorable mention: Ernest Borgnine, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY; Marlon Brando, JULIUS CAESAR; Jack Buchanan, THE BAND WAGON; Fred Clark, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE; Hasse Ekman, SAWDUST AND TINSEL; John Gielgud, JULIUS CAESAR; Folco Lulli, THE WAGES OF FEAR; Robert Morley, BEAT THE DEVIL; Jack Palance, SHANE; Robert Ryan, THE NAKED SPUR
Best Supporting Actress of 1953:
Thelma Ritter, PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET****
Setsuko Hara, TOKYO STORY
Gloria Grahame, THE BIG HEAT
Nanette Fabray, THE BAND WAGON
Donna Reed, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
Honorable mention: Allyn McLerie, CALAMITY JANE; Maureen O'Sullivan, ALL I DESIRE; Ann Sothern, THE BLUE GARDENIA; Annika Tretow, SAWDUST AND TINSEL
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I am a big fan of the 1950s western, not so much for other decades, although there are westerns from other decades that I like. I'd certainly add Hombre and the grim Ulzana's Raid as films that would make top tens for their year.
All genres rise and fall. Part of the greatness of the 50s western was that there was a great sense of confidence from having defeated Hitler, a pride in being American and in the course of American history. For almost all Americans, there was little doubt that we had right on our side in the continuing struggle with communism. The West was often seen as an arena in which the division of the Civil War could be repaired. As a result of that confidence, the shortcomings of the past, especially the mistreatment of Native Americans could be addressed, in films like Devil's Doorway, Apache, and The Searchers, without the sense of cynicism, self-righteousness, and unearned superiority which became endemic in the revisionist western.
If much western "product," like TV shoot-em-ups, could be reduced to good guys vs. bad guys, to some filmmakers the western gave an opportunity to explore moral dilemmas. Mann, Boetticher, Daves, Ford, Hawks, De Toth, Zinnemann, Walsh, Tourneur, Stevens, and other directors, as well as the writers who worked with them, made the 1950s western at its best a rich and complex genre.
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Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...
in Your Favorites
Posted
Sometime I'd like to see the English-language version of Journey to Italy, rather than the Italian version with subtitles which has been commonly shown. I believe a restored version with George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman speaking English was shown at the TCM festival a couple of years ago. Sanders is such a master of verbal nuance that this could only help the film.
As it is, both husband and wife seem undercharacterized. The ending of the film doesn't work for me; I would feel sorry for any baby that has these two for parents, although its material needs would certainly be taken care of. The scene with the childless Italian couple who takes care of the villa, two people who would have been warm and loving parents, points up the difference between the couples sharply, too sharply for the film's own good. As is not uncommon with the Rossellini films I've seen, I know how the director wants me to feel, but I actually feel another way.