50 States 50 Great Movies?

[lzcutter]

*Doctor Detroit*

 

*Somewhere in Time*

[molo14]

I'll suggest *Anatomy of a Murder-1959*

[mickeeteeze]

The Upside Of Anger.

[scsu1975]

Paper Lion

Robocop

[mickeeteeze]

Somewhere In Time

[skimpole]

Ok, what about Minnesota? I think "Fargo" is people's first choice.

[scsu1975]

Little Big League

[molo14]

Fargo was definitely the first one to come to mind. This is a tough one for me. I thought maybe The Farmer's Daughter 1947 with Loretta Young. I looked it up but I couldn't find if the state was ever mentioned. I remember from watching it that it seemed to be set there.

[scsu1975]

The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid

The Long Riders

Jesse James

[hlywdkjk]

*"I thought maybe "The Farmer's Daughter" (1947) with Loretta Young."*

 

Hi molo14,

This is the description in the TCMDatabase -

"When she goes to work for a congressman, a Minnesota farm girl takes Washington by storm."

 

I don't think the state of Minnesota is mentioned in the film but the "story" is similar to that of an actual Congresswoman from Minnesota, Coya Knutson.

http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/119coya_knutson.html

 

Also, the film is the debut of Minnesota-born actor James Arness.

[molo14]

Hi Kyle,

 

Thanks for the info. I thought I remembered it as her being from Minnesota. I had no idea the story was based on an actual person though.

 

Thanks

[mickeeteeze]

"Ok, what about Minnesota? I think "Fargo" is people's first choice."

 

YAAHH!

[skimpole]

Ok, Mississippi: Well there's "Mississippi Burning" and "Ghosts of Mississippi." Surely there must have been movies set in Mississippi before "The Defiant Ones" and the modern civil rights movement.

[molo14]

I can think of three good ones:

 

*Intruder in the Dust* 1949

 

*Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* 1958

 

*In the Heat of the Night* 1967

[casablancalover]

The most Minnesotan movie is *Grumpy Old Men* We just don't have enough kidnappings to make *Fargo* seem Minnesotan. :-)

[skimpole]

Are there any Mississippi movies that don't deal with race or Southern gothic?

[hlywdkjk]

*"Are there any Mississippi movies that don't deal with race or Southern gothic?"* - skimpole

 

How about these -

*Earthworm Tractors* - Joe E. Brown, Guy Kibbee, June Travis

"When Mississippi salesman Alexander Botts learns that his fianc?e, Sally Blair, will not marry him unless he sells a big, important product, he dashes off a letter to the Earthworm Tractor Company."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=579

 

*The Long Hot Summer* - Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles

"Ben Quick arrives in Frenchman's Bend, MS after being kicked out of another town for allegedly burning a barn for revenge."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=420350

 

*Summer And Smoke* - Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page

"Alma Winemiller is the fragile, lonely, and oversensitive daughter of a minister in a small Mississippi town shortly before the first World War."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4250

 

*The Horse Soldiers* - John Wayne, William Holden

"In the spring of 1863, on board a boat on the Mississippi River, Union Army Col. John Marlowe of Illinois meets Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, head of the Union forces. Frustrated by the North's long inability to break through to the critical Southern stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Grant orders Marlowe to form a cavalry brigade and wreak havoc on Confederate supply lines within Mississippi."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=3658

 

*The Fugive Kind* - Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani

"A drifter ignites passions among the women of a Mississippi town."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=75804

 

*The Sound And The Fury* - Yul Brynner, Joanne Woodward, Stuart Whitman

"In the small Southern town of Jefferson, Mississippi, seventeen-year-old Quentin Compson has lived under the tyrannical rule of her step-brother Jason ever since her mother Caddy abandoned her at birth."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=90927

 

*Goodbye, My Lady* - Walter Brennan, Phil Harris, Bradon de Wilde

"In Mississippi swamp country, kindly Jesse Jackson is rearing his orphaned nephew Claude, whom he has nicknamed Skeeter."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/title.jsp?stid=76741

 

*This Property Is Condemned* - Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Charles Bronson

"Alva Starr is a beautiful woman living in a small town in Mississippi in the 1930's. Her mother, Hazel, the proprietor of a boardinghouse for railroad workers, insists upon steering her into the arms of a prosperous middle-aged man, Johnson, but Alva falls in love with Owen Legate, a handsome stranger from New Orleans..."

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4272

 

Some might think a few of these titles are a bit "gothic' - Williams and Faulkner do that - but none are so wild as *Baby Doll* which is also a Mississippi story.

 

Kyle In Hollywood

[ILoveRayMilland]

Wake me up when you get to Washington! -ILRM

[hlywdkjk]

*"What about THE REIVERS? (or maybe it does have some 'race' business) Or MY DOG SKIP?"*

 

I passed on *The Reivers* because it seems most of the story takes place in Memphis. (Will know for sure when it begins in a few minutes.)

 

And I don't know *My Dog Skip* though there's something familiar about the title. Is that a relatively recent film?

 

As to "Southern Gothic", they are usually full of sexual pecadilloes of one kind or another - the more perverse the more "gothic" - like *Baby Doll*, *Reflections In A Golden Eye* or *Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte*. I tend not to label "primal lust" as all that "gothic" though.

 

Kyle In Hollywood

[skimpole]

Ok, now for Missouri. My choice: Meet me in St. Louis.

[tobitz]

okay, now I REALLY want to see *Earthworm Tractors*. Always been a Joe E. Brown fan. Good to see it's out there for ten bucks.

Meet Me In St. Louis seems like a good choice for Missouri, though Kansas City (1996), which I've never seen, crossed my mind. I'm wondering what others will suggest.

[cascabel]

Missouri: *The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer* (1938). *Jesse James* (1939) and *The Return Of Frank James* (1940). Very different versions of *The Glass Menagerie* (1950, 1987).

[skimpole]

What about Montana?

[lzcutter]

*A River Runs Through It*

 

Never has Montana looked so beautiful.

[scsu1975]

Montana Belle