kingrat

I always wished that Andrew Robinson had had a bigger career. Quite a good actor in a variety of roles.

A lot of 1930s leading men would fall into this category, John Boles for instance. It's easy to see why Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, and Cary Grant became such big stars. They didn't have a lot of competition. Some of the leading men of the era--George Brent, Pat O'Brien--are not even very good-looking compared to average guys. John Boles is quite good-looking, but not especially sexy. James Craig is another actor who's good-looking but not too sexy.

Lawrence, I'll just add that The Sniper has great location photography of San Francisco. For some of us, it would be worth seeing for that alone. Kansas City Confidential is my favorite Phil Karlson film noir, although there's also something to be said for 99 River Street and, after the 16-minute introduction, The Phenix City Story. Phone Call from a Stranger: Several people are killed in the crash of a small plane. Gary Merrill is the person who notifies the families. This is another of those films about how different lives are brought together in unexpected ways. Bette Davis was offered the part played by Shelley Winters, but wanted to play a smaller role, that of a woman who is paralyzed. Keenan Wynn plays her husband, who seems on the surface to be coarse and unfeeling. A useful rule of thumb is that any black-and-white Jean Negulesco film is worth seeing.

TOP TEN FILMS OF 1953: The Wages of Fear The Earrings of Madame de . . . Sawdust and Tinsel (aka The Naked Night) I Vitelloni Tokyo Story The Band Wagon The Naked Spur All I Desire From Here to Eternity Roman Holiday

Wouldn't he have been great in the Marlene Dietrich role in Rancho Notorious?

Tom, 1955 does have one film which I would describe as an absolute classic. It will be fun to see if we are thinking of the same film.

Moulin Rouge was a pleasant surprise. I'd always had the impression it was supposed to be one of John Huston's misfires, despite the best picture nomination. Oswald Morris' color cinematography is great, controlling the color palette without the absurd overuse of filters which is standard procedure these days. I'd love to see this on the big screen for full enjoyment of Morris' work. He is one of my favorite cinematographers. Moulin Rouge actually has more in common with some of the later films in Huston's career, beginning with The Kremlin Letter. These color films seem to foreground the cinematography much more than is the case with Huston's classic black and white films, in which story and character are brought more to the front. Several of us mentioned various performances by French actresses in Moulin Rouge. Colette Marchand, as the woman who broke Toulouse-Lautrec's heart, has the showiest role and got the Oscar nomination. Suzanne Flon has the quiet role of the woman who truly loves him. Her reactions are always on point and are deeply moving. Claude Nollier does well as Toulouse-Lautrec's mother. Katherine Kath as La Goulue has one big dramatic scene toward the end of the film where she recalls how things were before Toulouse-Lautrec's posters made the Moulin Rouge so popular. I wonder if the singer Jane Avril was really the birdbrain Zsa Zsa Gabor makes her out to be (it's probably insulting to our avian friends to make the comparison).

I love 1958, which has three of my absolute favorites! Granted, not one of my top 14 got a Best Picture nod, and only one of the 14 got an acting nomination in any category. To be continued.

There used to be a soft drink in Europe called Pschitt (I think), which was intended to represent the whoosh of air when the bottle cap was popped off.

I couldn't agree more with filmlover about the badness of the Ken Russell Valentino. If a director keeps making the same mistakes over and over, does that make him an auteur? The most interesting or enjoyable thing about Valentino is that it includes a lesbian affair played by two of Warren Beatty's ex-girlfriends.

I'm thinking, I'm thinking. What about the white shirt open to the navel to show the chest hair and gold jewelry look? Very popular in gay bars and even in straight bars at the time. It was the era of lots of songs with the word "boogie" in them. It was the era when a hugely popular song was about the porn industry ("More, More, More!" by the Andrea True Experience). Um, maybe this is proving your point. Men having chest hair was considered a good thing and an aphrodisiac. This was definitely a good thing for men with chest hair.

Agreed on all counts, Bogie. Timothy Bottoms is the lead in The Last Picture Show. It's like Robert Francis in The Caine Mutiny, and you forget about him for some of the same reasons. You might also make an argument for Cybill Shepard as a lead. The supporting actors are likelier to turn up on the best performance lists.

Dang it, if Charles Vanel has a lead role in The Wages of Fear, I don't have a best supporting actor. It's a year where I have a dozen or more candidates who ought to be considered, but not an obvious best of the best, except for Vanel. Although if I have to move Vittorio De Sica from lead to supporting in The Earrings of Madame de . . . , does that give me a winner? 1953 was an incredible year for foreign films.

For some reason I re-watched Splendor in the Grass on TCM this afternoon. I was surprised to see how little screen time Zohra Lampert actually has. She makes a big impression in the small amount of time she has. On the other hand, I'd forgotten that Barbara Loden has a real subplot as Warren Beatty's rebellious sister. It's great to see Beatty as a hungry young actor before he became a narcissistic movie star. Two interesting points that Kazan makes in his memoirs: He noted that William Inge's plays or scripts don't necessarily seem like that much when read, but they are much better when acted. That's very much the case here. Kazan also said that although Splendor wasn't his favorite film, he thought it had the best final two reels of any of his films. The bittersweet ending does seem to be perfect. Oh, a third point: some French critics really liked Splendor in the Grass. Bourgeois repression and prudery could be found in the French provinces just as in Kansas.

I think Saint is definitely a lead in North by Northwest. The closer question is On the Waterfront. Is Brando the only lead, or is Saint also a lead? I'm inclined to consider her a lead there, too, but will go along with the group.

Fedya, my reaction to Under the Volcano was similar to yours. Watching a character decline from step 99 to step 100 isn't much of a story, so the cinematography and acting can't help. As you said, the fact that Finney's character is thoroughly unpleasant doesn't help matters, either.

Hitchcock - Shadow of a Doubt Negulesco - Johnny Belinda

I'm a fan of Juarez. Completely agree about the performances. Some people do not care for Muni's performance, but it seems to me he shows Juarez as a cool, calculating, unbending man who presents himself as an icon and who will not hesitate to send Maximilian to his death. Of course Maltin doesn't write all the reviews in his guides, but I would expect him to have written the one about Juarez, a picture with big stars.

I re-watched The Caine Mutiny recently because my spouse expressed an interest in seeing it (love it when that happens). He expressed surprised that Humphrey Bogart's entrance in the film was so delayed. He also was surprised that we didn't learn what happened to Captain Queeg after the trial. I think his reactions point up how clearly Bogart is playing a supporting role here. By the way, I looked up Wikipedia's article on the novel: Captain Queeg is sent to a naval supply depot in Iowa, obviously the end of his career. Because I was looking for such things, it seemed very clear that Robert Francis plays the one and only leading role. The film opens with his graduation from Annapolis; he gets the only romantic interlude; and we follow his career and maturation from stage to stage. He's the only person we follow after the trial, as he reunites with his girlfriend. Francis' inexperience and relative lack of charisma make it harder to recognize how large his role is. He's not bad, and is perfectly cast for the part, but he can't hold his own against the top-notch pros. Although I hadn't remembered Tom Tully much at all, this time I thought he gave a very fine performance as Francis' first captain. Always believable, never reaching for effects. His Oscar nomination isn't as much of a head-scratcher as I had thought.

Joan Greenwood has one of the most wonderful line readings in The Importance of Being Ernest, making this sound like the greatest tragedy of all time: "I asked for bread and butter, but you have given me cake." You probably have to have the Greenwood voice to make this a memorable line.

Anachronistic use of language is endemic to movies and television these days. "Support" as a verb meaning to give emotional support and the really loathsome (to me) psychobabble term "supportive" were little known before the 1970s and uncommon before the 1980s in general conversation. "Self-esteem" was little used before the 1960s. "Judgmental" was rarely used before the 1970s/1980s. Even a writer like Julian Fellowes of Downtown Abbey uses "support" forty or fifty years too early.

Bogie, what year is Beat the Devil? 1953 presents a few questions, too: From Here to Eternity - Do you consider Deborah Kerr leading or supporting? The Big Heat - Is Gloria Grahame leading or supporting? Niagara - Is Marilyn Monroe leading or supporting? I tend to see Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters as the leads. Julius Caesar - I believe we've established that James Mason is the only lead. How To Marry a Millionaire - I see Bacall and Grable as the stars, unsure about Monroe.

Speedracer, I couldn't agree more about Clash by Night. Great cast, first-rate director, less than compelling film. I attribute this to the stylized, unreal dialogue of the Clifford Odets play that the movie is based on. I have to remind myself sometimes to include good performances in not-so-great movies. For 1952 that includes Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, and Paul Douglas in Clash by Night and Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino in Beware, My Lovely, another adaptation of a play that at least provides good roles for the two stars, if not much more.

I'm usually bored by references by film school generation directors to their favorite movies. One exception, however, is the hilarious Bunuel scene in Midnight in Paris. For other movie references: don't forget Martha's struggle in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to remember the title of that Bette Davis movie. "What a dump."

I had no trouble finding more than ten top films for this year, especially given foreign films by Clement, De Sica, Kurosawa, and Mizoguchi, but the lead categories for actors are considerably weaker than the previous year. Supporting actress had a really strong field, however. Best Actor for 1952: Takashi Shimura, IKIRU**** Gene Kelly, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN Carlo Battisti, UMBERTO D. John Mills, THE LONG MEMORY Marlon Brando, VIVA ZAPATA Richard Burton, MY COUSIN RACHEL Honorable mention: Kirk Douglas, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL; Paul Douglas, CLASH BY NIGHT; Jose Ferrer, MOULIN ROUGE; James Mason, FIVE FINGERS; Robert Mitchum, ANGEL FACE; Robert Mitchum, THE LUSTY MEN; John Payne, KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL; Robert Ryan, BEWARE, MY LOVELY; Robert Ryan, CLASH BY NIGHT Best Actress for 1952: Shirley Booth, COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA**** Judy Holliday, THE MARRYING KIND Lana Turner, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL Julie Harris, THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING Maureen O'Hara, THE QUIET MAN Honorable mention: Olivia De Havilland, MY COUSIN RACHEL; Susan Hayward, THE LUSTY MEN; Ida Lupino, BEWARE, MY LOVELY; Jean Simmons, ANGEL FACE; Barbara Stanwyck, CLASH BY NIGHT; Kinuyo Tanaka, THE LIFE OF OHARU Best Supporting Actor for 1952: Joseph Wiseman, VIVA ZAPATA**** Donald O'Connor, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN David Wayne, O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE Alberto Sordi, THE WHITE SHEIK Gregory Ratoff, O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE Honorable mention: Arthur Hunnicutt, THE BIG SKY; Arthur Kennedy, BEND OF THE RIVER; Charles Laughton, O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE; Anthony Quinn, VIVA ZAPATA; Keenan Wynn, PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER Best Supporting Actress for 1952: Jean Peters, O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE**** Edith Evans, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST Suzanne Flon, MOULIN ROUGE Marie Windsor, THE NARROW MARGIN Jean Hagen, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN Honorable mention: Bette Davis, PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER; Gloria Grahame, SUDDEN FEAR; Katharine Kath, MOULIN ROUGE; Colette Marchand, MOULIN ROUGE; Giulietta Masina, THE WHITE SHEIK; Claude Nollier, MOULIN ROUGE; Barbara O'Neil, ANGEL FACE; Ethel Waters, THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING Cutest Couple: Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin, THE BIG SKY