It's Not All Black and White: ILX's Top 75 Films of the 1940s

months of nominating and voting, some frenzied days of tallying, and it all comes down to this: the ballots are in and counted, crosschecked and audited by our crack team of calculators. there were 24 ballots, listing from 10 to 50 movies each. a total of 208 films showed up on at least one ballot. i'll be counting down the top 75, all of which received at least 90 points in the scoring. (and all but the 75th appeared on at least 3 ballots.) to heighten the drama, and also because it's probably as fast as i can do it, my aim is to unveil 15 a day over the course of this week, rolled out at relatively regular intervals during daylight hours (eastern standard time).

with each one i've included its total number of points and votes, along with whether it earned any #1 nods. i'm adding some commentary from ilxors as it's available via the search function, augmented by quips or quotes from whatever other sources strike my fancy. but of course the thread is open to discussion, derision, elucidation, digression and general mayhem.

as usual with these things, btw, the lower rungs are perhaps more interesting than the canon-heavy upper reaches. also, at the end, i'll provide the full list of everything that received any votes, with vote totals attached.

and so, to business:

75. Le Tempestaire (1947, dir. Jean Epstein)
93 points (2 votes)

http://uctv.tv/images//programs/11633.jpg

Epstein left Brittany for Paris in 1928 and began the third and last period of his career making films involving fishing village life and the sea. The films he made are perhaps closer to an ideal of ethnographic cinema than have ever been made, but that was not his concern. The last of these films made upon his return after the war is 'Le Tempestaire' (1947-48). It was his first to use slow-motion sound, and consistent with his early attention to magnification, it also employed slow and reverse motion. Recapitulating his enthusiasm for the camera close-up where one can see the minute gestures that language leaves silent, Epstein wrote of his new use of sound: “In drawing out the detail, in separating the sounds, in creating a sort of close-up of the sound, slow-motion can allow all beings, all objects to speak.”
-- Rachel O. Moore, Savage Theory: Cinema as Modern Magic

Le dernier film de Jean Epstein, réalisé en 1947, Le Tempestaire (1), est une des œuvres majeures de son « cycle breton » ; en atteignant le cœur même de la réalité des êtres et des choses, ce court-métrage marque un aboutissement certain et constitue une synthèse de ses recherches.
-- Elodie Dulac, Cadrage.net

(personally i'm unfamiliar with epstein, but he's one of many things added to my check-it-out list on account of this poll.)

Argh, both top 10 votes for that one too (mine and Kev's)!

yup. you should have sent out review copies!

74. Portrait of Jennie (1949, dir. William Dieterle)
94 points (3 votes)

http://i.fanpix.net/images/orig/o/f/ofg0uc164xpbx4bc.jpg

it's like a curse of the cat people for adults! joseph cotten sees dead people!
― bird-person-person (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, November 6, 2005 4:12 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

i love portrait of jennie, jennifer jones is swoonsome and the big wave-crashing finale with the weird green tinting is pretty heart-pounding.
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, November 6, 2005 5:16 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

Portrait of Jennie is a haunting evocation of one man's pained artistic process, and the genius of the film is how Dieterle delicately equates the creative impulse to an ever-evolving spiritual crisis. (Is it any coincidence then that the film was a favorite of atheist auteur Luis Buñuel?)
-- Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine, June 27 2001

Allowing for some lovely glimpses of New York and winter in Central Park and a fairly respectable performance of a picture dealer by Ethel Barrymore, the remaining aspects and actors, including Lillian Gish and David Wayne, are substantially the same as the whole thing, which is deficient and disappointing in the extreme.
-- Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, March 30 1949

despite me quoting myself there, this actually wasn't on my ballot. it started in the 40s on my rough draft and kept getting pushed down til it fell off. probably ended up around #60. i like it a lot tho.

My ballot's batting a thousand so far.

73. The Bank Dick (1940, dir. Edward Cline)
98 points (3 votes)

http://blog.bearstrong.net/max256/uploaded_images/The-Bank-Dick---W-C-Fields---1940-772629.jpg

Awhile back I spent a half-hour looking for my original band-in-flames copy of Skynyrd's Street Survivors before remembering that I gave it to a friend. Which kinda reminds me of the W.c. Fields classic, "The Bank Dick":
Egbert Souse: Was I in here last night, and did I spend a $20 bill?
Bartender: Yeah, you were.
Egbert Souse: Oh, what a load off my mind - I thought I'd lost it!
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, September 18, 2004 9:46 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Edward Cline directed, and the studio tried to rewrite the script, even to honor the Breen Office's worry over the Black Pussy Saloon. But Fields wrote it all, and in a way it is Fields's masochistic glee that is energizing all the appalling women, children, and sober men who make his life so painful.
-- David Thomson, Have You Seen...

Story is credited to Mahatma Kane Jeeves, Fields' own humorous nom de plume. It's a deliberate rack on which to hang the varied Fieldsian comedic routines, many of them repeats from previous pictures but with enough new material inserted to overcome the antique gags. A wild auto ride down the mountainside for the climax is an old formula dating back to the Mack Sennett days, but director Edward Cline [and 'collaborating director' Ralph Ceder] has refurbished the episode with new twists that make it a thrill-laugh dash of top proportions.
-- Variety, Jan. 1, 1940

this was on my ballot. probably not high enough, really.

71.(Tie) 71. (tie) Whisky Galore! (1949, dir. Alexander Mackendrick)
99 points (3 votes)

http://www.bearotic.com/img/2008/07/james-robertson-justice-003.jpg

can't think of too many films about "booze culture" either tbh, unless you're counting 'whisky galore'. all in all it seems drug cultures are poorly represented in film.
― or something, Thursday, February 7, 2008 11:03 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

I guess it should be mentioned on this thread that the term "go-go" as in "go-go dancing" comes from a Parisian club called the Whisky à Go-Go (like the later, similarly named LA club) which is the French translation of Whisky Galore.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, September 16, 2007 1:23 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

The first ever Whisky Galore Festival takes place on the beautiful island of Barra in September, 2009. This Hebridean jewel is the very same island where Whisky Galore – the hilarious 1949 Ealing comedy, based on the book of the same name by Compton MacKenzie – was filmed.
In typical island fashion, Barra and Vatersay embrace the opportunity of yet another party. The Whisky Galore Festival is a unique chance to savour that renowned island hospitality and be part of history in the making.
-- www.whiskygalorefestival.com

between the bank dick, this one and a feature yet to come, the lower quintile of the poll is fairly heavy on the booze.

My ballot's batting a thousand so far.

― cough syrup in coke cans (Eric H.)

Fun while it lasted, eh?

all the appalling women, children, and sober men who make his life so painful.

Sissies in particular! Grady Sutton AND Franklin Pangborn.

71. (Tie) Fantasia (1940, prod. Walt Disney)
99 points (5 votes)

http://www.wetcircuit.com/wp-content/myfotos/fantasiahours/Fantasia119.jpg

For the conservative family values that Disney films have since seen to come to embody, Fantasia is surprisingly the most overtly sexual of all Disney animated films. The fishes and fairies in The Nutcracker Suite cavort in mating dances and seem to take on male/female identities; while the The Pastoral Symphony features frolicking centaurs and bathing nudes (although this segment then proceeds to turn them into shrinking violets and stockily chiseled males as though not sure what to do with them next). For a time though Fantasia was the one Disney film that stretched up beyond fairy-tales, children’s fables and talking animals to show just what animators could do with the medium when they were given the chance.
-- Moria, the Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Movie Review Site, April 2009

I must say.. I love Disney.. Its the kid in me... But what the fuck is this film about???
People call it a masterpiece? Sure it has a damn good classical score, but can that carry a film??? In my opinion (And thats all that counts here.. NO) 

I think this film is pretty enough, enjoyable in two minute sections spread out over a decade, and without and fucking dancing hippos in it.
-- K-Dog, efilmcritic.com

of the limited number of classic disney films that i actually saw in a theater as a kid, fantasia was by far my favorite. the sorcerer's apprentice segment, obvioiusly, but i also loved the dinosaurs and hippos, and "night on bald mountain" scared the bejeezus out of me. the maestro interludes are the only real misstep i think, because they make it all seem so broccoli -- "this is good for you."

I don't remember seeing any of the '40s Disney features til I was an adult.

I think I saw most of the canonical '40s Disney films as a kid, but none of them made my ballot. Maybe I'm just grumpy, because I'm sure that they are (most, if not) all very well made, but I honestly don't feel the need to watch any of them again, and can't seem to dredge up any affection for them really. I seem to recall that Fantasia was one of my least favourites, too.

for a while there, pre-vcr, they would rerelease one a year, and my parents would always take us. i remember seeing pinocchio, sleeping beauty and fantasia. maybe snow white too.

oh and i saw bambi, at a drive-in.

70. Fireworks (1947, dir. Kenneth Anger)
103 points (3 votes)

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews45/magick%20lantern%20cycle%20blu-ray/800%20fireworks1.jpg

It's really Fireworks and then everything else for me.
― Eric H., Thursday, December 18, 2008 5:35 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

Me as well. I just showed my friend "Scorpio Rising" tonight and realized once again how nothing even comes close to "Fireworks"
― Are you there, God? It's Madonna, call me in Miami. (Stevie D), Thursday, December 18, 2008 5:40 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

when they're at the pool in KIDS and the one kid does the happy slappy elephant trunk trick. barely beats the firecracker cock in Kenneth Anger's Fireworks.
― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, January 18, 2003 10:36 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

"This flick is all I have to say about being 17, the United States Navy, Christmas and the Fourth of July."
- Kenneth Anger. 

one of the few films on the list that can be embedded here in its entirety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XZeY0ENQm8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNb9MY3kTl4

Oh, blah, I completely forgot to make time to watch this one. Love all the other Anger I've seen, so I'm glad to see it place.

possibly the best movie ever made by a teenager?

too gay.

Oooh very exciting. Thanks for all your hard work, tipsy. And I promise some comments soon after a dizzying week.

Hell of a pull image on the second part there.

Here's basically all I can say at the moment about Le tempestaire:

It's the closest I'm ever going to come to taking illegal drugs.

Not me, but definitely preferable.

69. The Palm Beach Story (1942, dir. Preston Sturges)
104 points (4 votes)

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2009/7/2/1246532430259/The-Palm-Beach-Story-001.jpg

preston sturges roolz:
the palm beach story may have
no errors in it
― Haikunym, Thursday, July 31, 2003 1:47 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

If it's funny enough, the strained setup doesn't matter much.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, October 20, 2009 4:36 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

plus Mary Astor didn't get to be funny in many other films.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, October 20, 2009 4:38 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

whoops, left the bold formatting off the title.

The Palm Beach Story

THE WEENIE KING

Is this the other alcoholism title?

ha. no, tho i guess there's plenty of booze in it.

68. Spellbound (1945, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
105 points (5 votes)

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6421/spellbound11avi00510055ys7.jpg

I think the overrated Hitch is Spellbound - there's too much pseudo-Freudian gobbledegook in the dialogue, the leads are dull, and that famous dream sequence is severely underwhelming.
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, January 8, 2004 8:14 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

it has some great scenes: the Dali dream sequences, the milk in the bottle, the slide down the handrail, the first-person view of the gun... I think it's a perfect example of Hitchcock getting some great things (though not a great movie) out of a not-so-good script.
― Tuomas, Sunday, February 15, 2009 11:04 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

Spellbound interestingly anticipates aspects of several later Hitchcock works. Here are the roots of Marnie's paralyzing moments evoked by suffusions of patterns and colors, as well as that film's sexual repression. Here, too, is Psycho's stuttering misdirection and easy-answer-for-everything concluding analysis. And the film also anticipates Vertigo's tale of the dramatic make-over and playing a part.
-- D.K. Holm, The DVD Journal, 2002

i'm personally in the conventional-wisdom this-hasn't-aged-well camp.

otoh, i didn't have any hitchcock on my ballot, so what do i know/

67. They Live By Night (1948, dir. Nicholas Ray)
107 points (4 votes)

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews20/a%20Nicholas%20Ray%20They%20Live%20by%20Night%20DVD%20Review/a%20Nicholas%20Ray%20They%20Live%20by%20Night%20DVD%20Review%20PDVD_010.jpg

i must say, rebel w/o a cause is still my favorite nick ray movie, after only they live by night, which is powerful and unassailable i think.
― amateurist, Friday, July 24, 2009 5:09 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark

I saw They Live By Night on the big screen c/o of a Ray retrospective. Great.
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, August 31, 2005 4:11 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

Though Ray never shirks from action and violence (indeed, Howard da Silva's crushing of Christmas baubles as he warns Granger against going straight is extremely menacing), he turns the film to focus upon his misfit innocents, continually contrasting their basically honourable ideals with the corrupt compromises of 'respectable society'.
-- Time Out Film Guide

66. The Letter (1940, dir. William Wyler)
111 points (4 votes)

http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/theletter.jpg

Not a big fan of this guy. Even coupled with a genius like Sturges, he tripped up something like The Good Fairy (whereas, by contrast, the underrated Mitchell Leisen soared with the Sturges-scripted Easy Living). I'm going with The Letter for arguably the greatest opening in classical Hollywood cinema. Great final line too.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, May 16, 2008 8:18 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

I don't know whose fault it was but they really messed up Maugham's story in 'The Letter' with the ending, in this version at least. It's not to say I didn't like the film, but my loyalties were already with the short story.
― Michael White, Friday, May 16, 2008 8:35 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Didn't make my 50, though.

yeah i actually just watched this, too late to vote for it. don't know if i would have anyway, tho i liked it. the setting is interesting (despite/because of all the racial/colonial problematics), and bette is fun to watch. story is sort of so-so. (haven't read the original, so i don't know exactly what m.white is referring to above in terms of changing the ending.)

speaking of william wyler...

65. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, dir. William Wyler)
114 points (3 votes, 1 #1)

http://nighthawknews.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/bestyears.jpg

The Best Years Of Our Lives is absolutely magical :)
― Ludo, Saturday, May 17, 2008 9:28 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Club Havana calls TBYOOL the most overrated movie of 1946.
― Eric H., Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:03 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Again, they're wrong.
― Eric H., Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:05 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

In fact, it would be possible, I don't doubt, to call the whole picture just one long pious piece of deceit and self-deceit, embarrassed by hot flashes of talent, conscience, truthfulness and dignity. And it is anyhow more than possible, it is unhappily obligatory, to observe that a good deal which might have been very fine, even great, and which is handled mainly by people who could have done, and done perfectly, all the best that could have been developed out of the idea, is here either murdered in its cradle or reduced to manageable good citizenship in the early stages of grade school. Yet I feel a hundred times more liking and admiration for the film than distaste or disappointment.
-- James Agee, The Nation, 1946

#1 watch: TYOOL is the 2nd-lowest finisher to garner a #1 vote. the lowest is A Canterbury Tale, which finished just off this countdown at no. 76, with 89 points and 2 votes, including a #1.

sorry, left the B out of TBYOOL...

Poor P&P.

don't worry, they're well represented.

From comments I just sent:

TBYOOL:

One of the first films I can think of about the pain and loss and toll of war that isn't necessarily "anti-war," and also one of the first about a character who has a physical disability but is moving on with his life regardless.

cool, thanks for the comments pete. i'll incorporate them as i go.

64. Brighton Rock (1947, dir. John Boulting)
116 points (4 votes)

http://wondersinthedark.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/brock2.jpg

Brighton Rock was good. Great foot chase through Brighton and some nice performances. It Always Rains On Sunday OTOH is a real gem. Great acting/characters/mood/setting.
― Alex in SF, Tuesday, September 15, 2009 10:01 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

(Incidentally I am going to have to start working on a children's book where young-Morrissey goes to the shore and winds up in a dingy seaside hotel having an emotionally scarring pseudo-sexual encounter with a tart straight out of Brighton Rock. Then the young Sundays come along and walk on the beach for a few minutes and go "It's a bit humid out here, let's go back in and have tapas.")
― nabiscothingy, Friday, August 20, 2004 6:52 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

If nothing else, 1947's Brighton Rock marked the first time Graham Greene was pleased by an on-screen rendition of his work—but it's much more than a Third Man dry run.
-- Vadim Rizov, Village Voice, June 2009

#1 watch: TYOOL is the 2nd-lowest finisher to garner a #1 vote. the lowest is A Canterbury Tale, which finished just off this countdown at no. 76, with 89 points and 2 votes, including a #1.

That was my number 1! I'm disappointed.

probably just not enough people have seen it (including me). but it's on my list.

63. The Naked City (1948, dir. Jules Dassin)
118 points (5 votes)

http://lunar-circuitry.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/naked-city2.jpg

Naked City was better than I'd expected.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, January 25, 2008 2:07 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Thanks to the actuality filming of much of its action in New York, a definite parochial fascination is liberally assured all the way and the seams in a none-too-good whodunnit are rather cleverly concealed. And thanks to a final, cops-and-robbers "chase" through East Side Manhattan and on the Williamsburg Bridge, a generally talkative mystery story is whipped up to a roaring "Hitchcock" end.
-- Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, March 1948

bosley is otm there, what i like best about the movie is just seeing the city.

62. Odd Man Out (1947, dir. Carol Reed)
120 points (4 votes)

http://www.filmforum.org/films/oddman/Odd_Man_Out_1947_9.jpg

Finally saw Odd Man Out properly and saw what all the fuss is about.
― Garnet Memes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, September 18, 2009 5:35 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

Hell, I still haven't gotten around to The Third Man yet. Didn't like Odd Man Out.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, November 8, 2006 10:08 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Suspense gives way to metaphor in a stark thriller that hints at the work to come from master Carol Reed.
-- David Parkinson, Empire magazine, August 2006

and i'll go ahead and finish out the day's posting, because i have housework to attend to. the aforementioned booze drama:

61. The Lost Weekend (1945, dir. Billy Wilder)
123 points (4 votes)

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjA5ODE2ODMyN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMTc5MjM2._V1._SX450_SY303_.jpg

The filming by Paramount of "The Lost Weekend" marks a particularly outstanding achievement in the Hollywood setting. The psychiatric study of an alcoholic, it is an unusual picture. It is intense, morbid -- and thrilling. Here is an intelligent dissection of one of society's most rampant evils. Ray Milland and Jane Wyman are the stars. It is smash boxoffice.
-- Variety, August 1945

The fact that this pioneering study of alcoholism remains, over half a century later, the best known movie on the subject is probably more to do with Lloyd Cole borrowing the title for a mid-80s hit single rather than any enduring intrinsic merits of its own. Because, despite its multiple Oscar haul (picture, director, script, actor), The Lost Weekend is no classic. Even by the standards of its time, this is a very broad-strokes kind of drama – one that sacrifices subtlety and complexity in favour of a public-service “message picture” exploration of an Issue.
-- Neil Young(!), www.jigsawlounge.co.uk

coming in tomorrow's batch: lang! lean! lewton! and a 3-way disney cage match.

stay tuned.

aww... regretting not voting now as my ballot would have bumped fantasia up a few notches.

jeezus you people, Lost Weekend and especially Spellbound FLAT OUT FUCKING SUCK!

also they're remaking Brighton Rock.

and Best Years Of Our Lives is the Brokeback Mountain of 1946.

Yeah, I think I ended up placing only one 40s Hitchcock and it's Notorious. (Unless I slipped Foreign Correspondent in there as well.)

Great choices so far, and the ones I've yet to see I will now eagerly seek out.

Best Years Of Our Lives is the Brokeback Mountain of 1946.

that's sort of been my impression, which is i guess why i still haven't seen either of them (despite always sort of thinking i should).

Given the time it came out in and what it was saying, it's definitely a tougher film than Brokeback.

Lost Weekend ... FLAT OUT FUCKING SUCKS!

I loved it! Sorry!

The Lost Weekend may be a bit heavy-handed, but it has the scene where alcoholic writer Ray Milland can't hock his typewriter as it's a Jewish holiday and all the pawn shops are closed. Was it the first Hollywood film on the theme of alcoholism (not counting The Thin Man, ha)?

Hell, I still haven't gotten around to The Third Man yet. Didn't like Odd Man Out.

Ha, I always enjoy when the random slam finds its way into the comments.

60. Scarlet Street (1945, dir. Fritz Lang)
128 points (5 votes)

http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/noir_image/scarlet.jpg

Definitely Scarlet Street for how the outrageous story turns subtly disguise the typical Langian fate suck. And ooh boy, Dan Duryea played the scummiest of scumbags here!
― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, November 21, 2008 4:17 AM (11 months ago) Bookmark

Scarlet Street is a remake of Renoir's 1931 La Chienne, which obv has the same plot, but in style is a sort of absurdist tragicomedy.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, February 16, 2006 3:43 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Scarlet Street (Diana Productions-Universal) is an ambitious melodrama bristling with fine directorial touches and expert acting. Its trouble is its painfully obvious story.
-- Time magazine, January 1946

The Best Years is much better than BBM.

Scarlet Street = one of the all-time great endings.

i'm going to post the next 3 en masse, for reasons that will quickly become apparent...

59. Dumbo (1941, dir. Ben Sharpsteen)
130 points (5 votes)

http://chud.com/nextraimages/0706d01.jpg

I cannot watch the scene when Dumbo visits his mother.
― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, July 22, 2003 9:18 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

"But I Be Done Seen Bout Everything When I See An Elephant Fly" from Dumbo. Racist as shit, but great!!
Also like the Mr. Stork song, also from Dumbo.
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, June 24, 2005 6:31 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

Dumbo and Timothy accidentally get drunk because the clowns dropped a bottle of liquor into a watering bucket; we share the pair's hallucinations through the song “Pink Elephants on Parade,” which may be the first “psychedelic” music video ever made. When my daughter was younger, I skipped that scene entirely; now I let her watch the fancy animation, but mute the sound. The scene even makes me uncomfortable.
-- Brett Willis, Christian Spotlight on the Movies

58. Pinocchio (1940, dir. Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen)
132 points (5 votes)

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/dvd/disney/pinocchio/Pinocchio1.jpg

Pinocchio is a scary-ass movie. Anything with kids turning into animals used to really freak me out. I used have nightmares about it. The whale is pretty scary too.
― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, October 29, 2003 2:36 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

pinocchio is dark. luring boys in cages with candy then turning them into donkeys. how was it received in 1941 then i wonder?
― Eriik, Monday, August 4, 2003 8:52 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

What really matters, and all that matters, this morning is that "Pinocchio" is here at last, is every bit as fine as we had prayed it would be—if not finer—and that it is as gay and clever and delightful a fantasy as any well-behaved youngster or jaded oldster could hope to see.
-- Frank S. Nugent, The New York Times, February 1940

56. (Tie) Bambi (1942, dir. David Hand)
134 points (5 votes)

http://inel.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/bambiforestfire.jpg

bambi is fucking depressing
― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:01 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

it's not right to make something so cute like that and then make it all sad and shit
― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:01 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

the parts that aren't depressing are fucking lame
― ghost rider, Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:01 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Bambi's got shootings, fires, antler fights and implied hott animal sex. None of these things are lame. They're practically a Michael Bay movie!
― Phil D., Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:04 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Ugh, Bambi is the worst of those three by a long shot.

Dumbo, otoh, is truly Disney's one uncontestable work of art.

dumbo is the one of those 3 that was on my ballot, but i have soft spots for the other two, at least in parts. the pleasure island sequence in pinocchio is great, and for all the unbearable cuteness of bambi, his mother's death really is a pretty riveting scene -- all the more so for not actually being shown.

I'm a fan of Pinocchio as well. I even like Fantasia. It's Bambi where I draw the line.

Never liked Disney movies.

56. (Tie) Dead of Night (1945, dir. Alberto Cavalcanti & co.)
134 points (4 votes)

http://content9.flixster.com/photo/11/31/75/11317503_gal.jpg

the best horror movie ever is "Dead Of Night" !
unless you're a gore-freak
gore is good - just not scary
"Dead Of Night" is funny too and old = 40's
― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, October 25, 2002 11:31 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark

To me, Dead Of Night is simply the most terrifying film ever made. I can't explain it, it just is. Every single story (yes, even the golf one) gives me feelings ranging from slight unease to cold terror. If you've seen the film, see if these sounds bring it all back to you (especially Hugo's voice). If you haven't seen the film, why not? And if you don't agree, fair enough. I am a bit of a nancy boy.
-- www.britishhorrorfilms.co.uk

55. Passport to Pimlico (1949, dir. Henry Cornelius)
135 points (5 votes)

http://www.janusmuseum.org/panabasis/pimlico3.jpg

My favorite film is Henry Cornelius' "Passport to Pimlico." The film was written by T.E.B. Clark, and was part of a sub-genre of British comedies about the aftermath WW2 in London. It is a brilliant film, and recieved an Oscar nomination. However, the only copy I've been able to get a hold of is a crappy PAL transfer. I would LOVE to find a DVD of "Passport to Pimlico!"
― Sean D. (Sean the guy), Thursday, March 25, 2004 11:32 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Passport to Pimlico would be a good ska bandname.
― Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Thursday, January 18, 2007 8:55 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

btw passport to pimlico is now available on dvd as part of the ealing reissues. i still haven't seen it tho.

54. Diary of a Chambermaid (1946, dir. Jean Renoir)
140 points (4 votes, 1 #1)

http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/diary-chambermaid-godard.png

Burgess M ruuuules in Diary Of A Chambermaid (altho it's not as great as Bunuel version)
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 2:27 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

I wish Diary of a Chambermaid was readily available, as its unavailability has probably inflated its stature in my mind (I saw it about 11 years ago).
― Roman Polanski now sleeps in prison. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, October 17, 2009 12:42 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

What's so bizarre about Renoir's adaptation (scripted and produced by Meredith, then husband of Goddard) is the sheer artificiality of both setting and performances, emphasising the power struggles that develop as a theatre of deceit and delusion. Less bitterly savage than Buñuel, but equally sharp in its satire, it stands on an otherwise uncharted point between La Règle du Jeu and, say, The Golden Coach.
-- Time Out Film Guide

That Soto quote still bugs me. It should read "its unavailability to me."

And tipsy, I LOVE that you're quoting Christian Spotlight on the Movies. More oddball quips please!

53. Hellzapoppin' (1941, dir. H.C. Potter)
142 points (4 votes)

http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/407331.1020.A.jpg

is hellzapoppin really well-known? i'd never heard about it until recently, then everyone suddenly started talking about it (not on ilx mind)
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, March 10, 2005 1:00 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

i think it wz quite a big hit in its day, as a stageshow then a movie
my dad saw it as a kid and wz always ravin abt it
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, March 10, 2005 1:02 AM (4 years ago)

One of the picture's saving graces is the originality of presentation of screwball comedy. The business of O&J talking from the screen to the comic projectionist (Shemp Howard) is one such detail; ditto the slide bit telling a kid in the audience, 'Stinky go home', with Jane Frazee and Robert Paige interrupting a duet until Stinky finally leaves.
-- Variety, 1942

(nb: that poster's for the stage show that preceded the movie. but it's so great.)

Bambi is almost as groundbreaking as Fantasia just based on the way animals are depicted, and that there's no human-like protagonist. Mickey Mouse is not a mouse in the same way that Bambi IS a deer.

That Soto quote still bugs me. It should read "its unavailability to me."

Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum.

time for a new username i think.

ok, onward.

52. Rope (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
143 points (6 votes)

http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/Rope%20pic%203.jpg

rope and vertigo are my favorites
― and what, Thursday, September 6, 2007 3:02 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

On the other hand, Rope is shit.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, September 7, 2007 1:41 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

At this moment local censor authorities up and down the land are having a time of it sniping at "Rope," the Alfred Hitchcock melodrama currently being distributed by Warner Brothers. ...It is interesting to note, considering the to-do the picture has occasioned, that the National Legion of Decency considered "Rope" suitable for its "Class A, Section Two" or "morally unobjectionable for adults" category.
...However, in Massachusetts, the municipal authorities in Worcester and New Bedford refused to permit the picture to be exhibited. Prohibition of "Rope" also was decreed by censor boards in Spokane and Seattle, Wash.; Atlanta, Ga., and Memphis, Tenn. In Sioux City, Iowa, the censors, in this case the Civic Advisory Committee, recommended that the strangulation scene on which the picture opened be eliminated.
-- Thomas M. Pryor, The New York Times, November 1948

And now he's wrong about Rope. :)

My quote should have been "Farley Granger is cute."

i wasn't aware of the censorship of rope. was it the gay subtext? hard to see what else would have ruffled feathers.

Not sure but it sounds as if it's exactly what it says above - the violence and amorality of Rupert and Brandon. Their homosexuality was subtext for some, text for others.

51. Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948, dir. Max Ophuls)
146 points (4 votes, 1 #1)

http://media.decider.com/assets/images/events/event/41536/letterbig625x300_jpg_595x325_crop_upscale_q85.jpg

morbius have you ever been surprised by art?
― s1ocki, Tuesday, December 11, 2007 3:45 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Of course. The last time was last week: Letter from an Unknown Woman.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, December 11, 2007 3:50 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

letter from an unknown woman is one of my favourite movies ever! good one.
― s1ocki, Tuesday, December 11, 2007 3:57 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

no comments on DR. MORBIUS' NO. 1 MOVIE?

ok. (i haven't seen it, because of previously discussed availability issues.)

Is that the lowest ranking film someone had as #1?

Oh, I see Best Years of Our Lives ranked lower.

also a canterbury tale and diary of a chambermaid.

and into the top 50 we go:

50. Great Expectations (1946, dir. David Lean)
152 points (5 votes)

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/29/90729-004-E8A07FE1.jpg

his three best films might be Brief Encounter, Great Expectations and Summertime.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, March 25, 2008 2:10 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

It is depressing to realize how many people feel that Great Expectations is about as good a job as the screen can do; how can people who believe that think they really know or care much of anything about movies? But that is the prevailing taste, and I will admit that in its relatively mild terms this is a very good and enjoyable piece of work.
-- James Agee, The Nation, July 1947

i love how agee's positive reviews can be in some ways more damning than his actual pans.

49. The Curse of the Cat People (1944, dir. Gunter von Fritsch, Robert Wise)
153 points (5 votes)

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/sevenarts/cinema/curseofthecatpeople1.jpg

Curse of the Cat People is better than plain old Cat People.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, August 30, 2007 7:03 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

The Curse Of The Cat People (stupendous sequel, mostly beautiful and charming, but momentarily scary too)

― Jeff W, Monday, March 11, 2002 1:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark

The whole conception and construction of this picture indicates an imaginative approach. Its chief fault is that it is cursed with a flavor and some of the claptrap from that "Cat People" film.
-- Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, March 1944

COTCP is good but i still prefer cat people (mainly cos there's more simone simon in it).

That and Seventh Victim are Lewton's masterpieces, for me.

"That" meaning Curse, not plain old Cat.

very surprised at how low 'dead of night' polled.

and that 'rope' got anywhere. it's a william shatner 80s tv movie of a hitchcock....

48. The Grapes of Wrath (1940, dir. John Ford)
154 points (6 votes)

http://www.altfg.com/Stars/g/grapes-of-wrath-henry-fonda.jpg

Best line: "Truckers." The solidarity that dare not speak its name meets a photographic realism that's picturesque, the '40s willingness to express social feelings with no worries about sentimentality or speechifying, and the hard but complicated attitude of Tom Joad. I think Pauline Kael was all wrong about this one: It's a much better film than its reputation, and seems to get better the more alien its outlook becomes.
-- Pete Scholtes

what does ILX think about THE GRAPES OF WRATH?!?!
― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, June 24, 2004 5:14 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

3 years pass...

The last scene is too chin-up, pep-talk resilient. But then, Tom Joad is gone already.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, December 21, 2007 6:24 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

47. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944, dir. Preston Sturges)
155 points (5 votes)

http://www.thepinksmoke.com/images/themiracleofmorganscreek.jpg

Morgan's Creek is NOT screwball, you comedy clod!
― Dr Morbius, Monday, September 17, 2007 2:10 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

This is such a splendid, raunchy comedy with a great satirical bent. American society is lampooned repeatedly.
― The Narwhal, Thursday, May 6, 2004 3:51 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Sometimes, I think "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" is the truest (if cartooniest) vision of American small-town life.
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, March 7, 2006 3:03 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

this was one i watched specifically for this poll, and ended up putting on my ballot somewhere in the mid-20s. some actual laugh-out-louds. and the cast is so all-around lovable.

very surprised at how low 'dead of night' polled.

I think it's pretty good and all, but I don't think I'm a philistine to prefer Creepshow.

I don't think I'm a philistine to prefer Creepshow.

Do you mean my votes for the screwball comedies of Judd Apatow did not count?

speaking of counting or not ...

wrapping up the posting for the day with one that probably needs an asterisk. imdb does have this as 1950, tho other sources say '49. anyway, it was on the nominations list and made 5 ballots, so for our limited purposes it counts. plus, it didn't place on the '50s poll.

46. Gun Crazy (1949/50, dir. Joseph H. Lewis)

159 points (5 votes)

http://www.seraphicpress.com/images/Gun%20Crazy%201.jpg

Joseph H Lewis, who directed THE BIG COMBO, also made GUN CRAZY,
which might not be strictly noir but is one of the greatest
psychosexual girl/guy/gun flicks of all time
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:41 PM (2 months ago)
Bookmark

Gun Crazy is plain great: always puzzled me why John Dall didn't
really have a movie career.
― Marco Damiani, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 3:40 PM (2 months ago)
Bookmark

Many of the key action sequences are deftly executed on location
and feature memorable points of view, and several of the shots are
considered classics of the genre, especially a four-minute bank
robbery that was shot in one take from the backseat of a car, and the
frenetic getaway from a payroll robbery.
-- Kenneth Sweeney, American Cinematographer, September 2004

Can't put it better than Lewis's direction for the two leads.

I told John, "Your cock's never been so hard," and I told Peggy, "You're a female dog in heat, and you want him. But don't let him have it in a hurry. Keep him waiting." That's exactly how I talked to them and I turned them loose. I didn't have to give them more directions

the best Morgan's Creek blurb is still Agee's "like taking a nun on a rollercoaster."

Why do you people like (relatively) sucky Hitchcock films?

When did you stop beating your wife?

for me '40s hitchcock is good on atmosphere but lacking in most other respects. as far as hitch goes, my preferences run '50s > '30s > '60s > '40s.

(basically i just think his '40s stories aren't as good as the rest.)

I love Rebecca so much.

Rope is thoroughly bizarre, and I guess I can't hate that it's here, but its a perfectionist exercise that's also a nice corollary for the pointless insanity it portrays.

i'm more likely to like a '40s hitchcock than a random one picked from any other decade, though the '50s isn't far behind.

Suspicion probably won't place, but it's pretty good.

i actually like suspicion more than notorious. (tho to be fair i haven't seen notorious in years. i didn't like it much, so i haven't gone back to it.)

suspicion has one of cary's best ever performances -- love the way, as dave kehr noted, you never see him walking into the room, he's just there all of a sudden.

i actually like suspicion more than notorious. (tho to be fair i haven't seen notorious in years. i didn't like it much, so i haven't gone back to it.)

Wow -- this is a contrarian argument if I ever heard one. I'd love for you to elaborate. It's an excellent movie -- even with Fontaine's affecting the Rebecca mannerisms to lesser effect -- until the conclusion, but I find much more going on in Notorious.

SPOILER for suspicion alert:

despite what hitch said, he never intended to end the movie by having cary grant turn out to be a murderer -- his original ending, in fact, had him decide to repent of his ne'er-do-well ways by joining the air force and going off to fight hitler!

personally i like the ending as filmed and never had any trouble buying the explanation, though the actors' delivery seems a bit rushed.

it's hard for the ending not to seem like a bit of a gyp, because the movie is so insistent about incriminating him at every point. but i don't mind too much.

i'd need to watch notorious again to say anything much about it. all i remember is that i thought its plot was kind of dull, and cary and ingrid had very little chemistry.

Distance between Grant and Bergman is built into the picture, though. Grant's aloofness has never been plumbed so well.

i think my problem is more with her. too much of a victim? a harder-edged female lead i think might have helped. but i'll probably watch it again some day to see if i like it any better.

Watch it again. Their relationship makes sense because both are equally fatalistic.

Alfred otm. There is also famous censor-skirting kiss scene, if you doubt chemistry. There is also the contrast with Claude Raines- he thinks he likes her more than Cary does (cf. Joseph Cotten/Holly Martins in The Third Man, but with good guy/bad guy and charisma reversed).

The film gains even further in stature by the clever use of the opening, "party-crasher" sequence in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

mm. i think i'm just not very interested in that story or those characters. but i'll get back to it eventually.

I'm not even going to mention Louis Calhern or famous zoom-in.

love the way, as dave kehr noted, you never see him walking into the room, he's just there all of a sudden.

Which is actually incorrect. I checked a few months ago. He walks into the room where Lina is reading in their 2nd scene together, 5 minutes into the film. He's seen walking with others shortly thereafter. He walks int the ball. Etc.

He walks INTO the ball. Etc.

Also, he walks into the room when he's carrying the fateful-or-is-it glass of milk at the end. Twice, actually - once downstairs and once in Lina's room.

whoops, left the bold formatting off the title.

The Palm Beach Story

― STRATE IN2 DAKRNESS (tipsy mothra), Monday, November 9, 2009 1:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

THE WEENIE KING

― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Monday, November 9, 2009 1:38 PM (Yesterday)

Anyway, carry on.

in re: morgan's creek, meant to ask/check what diana lynn had done subsequent to that. she's so great in that role. looks like she did lots of stuff up through the '60s, but not much of note. (my friend irma any good?)

Oh, she's the little sister? The one to whom William Demarest says: "Some day they're just gonna find your hair ribbon and an axe someplace. Nothing else"? Good question.

here is also the contrast with Claude Raines- he thinks he likes her more than Cary does

But he does! He's a mama's boy and a Nazi, but he loves her without qualification. That's part of Hitch's game: when she betrays him, it pains him all the more -- and us. We're all implicated.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/chakisaki/motleyile4.jpg
Alex, will you come in please? We wish to talk to you

Sorry. I actually agree with you, more or less. It's also tied up with the idea that we'd like to think that we are like Bugs Bunny Cary Grant but are afraid that we are more like Daffy Duck Claude Raines.

and then there are those of us who'd like to think we are humphrey bogart and realize we are watching the wrong film.

Ha. Some friends of mine who all grew up together in LA used to quote this one friend of theirs who once pronounced "Elvis Costello is the Humphrey Bogart of rock and roll."

Claude Rains needs his own poll (Notorious is his best though).

I am completely baffled by James Redd's (meta?) posts. Hope I'm not alone.

If only you were, Kevin. Have you seen Notorious?

Some day they're just gonna find your hair ribbon and an axe someplace. Nothing else"
I'd like to think that this inspired the following line spoken by Dan Hedaya in Clueless:
"If anything happens to my daughter, you understand, I have a .45 and a shovel. And I'm sure nobody's gonna miss you."

Why did I add an extra 'e' to Claude Rains's last name? In any case, I just learned that today was his birthday. He would have been 120.

If only you were

man, I don't know how to find any sort of fault w/ Notorious. or Shadow of a Doubt, either.

Yeah, afaic each decade has its requisite Hitch masterpiece.

Even in the 1920s and 1970s. In fact, he had two in the 1970s.

I say he even had two in the '60s.

Torn Curtain and Topaz?

Oh wait.

I love both, esp. the latter. Highly underrated.

The Tipp-tych is what I was referring to, obv.

Hm. Never seen Family Plot.

Bruce Dern was better in Wild River.

well look, hitchcock movies for the most part rely on enormous plot contrivances to get at what he's really most interested in, the psychological (and/or psychosexual) relationships between the principals -- and between the filmmaker and the audience, obviously, and the filmmaker and the actors, etc. so the degree to which you're willing to accept or at least tolerate the contrivances depends to a large degree on how successfully the film draws you into those interior arenas. when the story, the storytelling or the performances fall short on that count, the contrivances become more glaring and problematic because they're basically the admission price and if what's inside doesn't deliver then they can feel like a bit of a rip-off. for me notorious (which, again, i haven't seen in a long time) has off-key performances and a leaden plot -- it acts like much more is at stake on all counts than it ever really manifests. shadow of a doubt is zippier and a lot more fun and is the hitchcock film that came closest to making my ballot. but (like suspicion and rebecca, which are also very well made) it just doesn't really add up to much. they all seem like games to me, and they're entertaining, but i guess i don't really feel or believe all that much in any of them. as opposed to a lot of his '50s movies, even including something as basically preposterous as north by northwest, which is emotionally gripping in a way that i don't get from any of these '40s films.

but like they say, ymmv. i've read enough appreciations of hitchcock to know a lot of people love notorious and rebecca. and (SPOILER ALERT) this poll will bear that out. that's fine by me. there's plenty of hitchcock to go around.

(and i saw family plot years ago and remember it being kind of a good lark, but not much of it sticks with me.)

tipz, I have an OOP Criterion of Notorious, I shd let you borrow it.

deal.

ok, starting the day with a double feature:

45. Mildred Pierce (1945, dir. Michael Curtiz)
160 points (5 votes)

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews14/a%20the%20joan%20crawford%20collection%20dvd%20review/a%20mildred%20pierce%20the%20joan%20crawford%20collection%20dvd%20review%20PDVD_006.jpg

This might be a meta-monument to Joan Crawford and her pain, but without knowing much about her life or career (beyond Mommy Dearest), I think it's a very beautiful movie about class, sexism, and motherhood.
-- Pete Scholtes

mildred pierce is fantastic b/c it is the only time like ever that jc let herself act w people
― pinkmoose (jacklove), Friday, January 12, 2007 4:39 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Though all of its craft is accomplished, Mildred Pierce never gets deep under one's skin the way it ought to. Its tale of class warfare within the shattered nuclear family only seems close to home, but it's a Hollywood photocopy of life's struggle where the solid directing, camerawork and acting call attention to themselves. This one should have been more rough-hewn and sloppy, the way life is and the way movies so seldom are. If it comes close, it's because Crawford's desperation transcends the studio gimmicks.
-- Jeremiah Kipp, Slant, June 2005

44. Daisy Kenyon (1947, dir. Otto Preminger)
161 points (5 votes)

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/images/asecondtake/070712-daisy-kenyon.jpg

God, I love Daisy Kenyon.
― lihaperäpukamat (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 30, 2009 7:16 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

Daisy Kenyon is almost worth all the recent blogger ecstasy, especially for the first 2/3.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, January 4, 2008 8:31 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Otto Preminger, the slightly miscast director, sets the choice up like a murder trial, carefully balancing the arguments on both sides. His sober approach and his fluid camera style do much to redeem the material, for which he has no apparent sympathy.
-- Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

I'm glad you didn't use my amnesiac comments on DK.

43. Cat People (1942, dir. Jacques Tourneur)
162 points (5 votes)

http://www.aintitcool.com/images2008/CatPeople1.jpg

there's also a scene in the original Cat People where the protagonist just shoves a kitten into a shoebox and shuts the lid. no one gets hurt, but it still looks pretty bad.
― poortheatre (poortheatre), Friday, February 9, 2007 7:01 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Cat people are terrifying, they should be banned.
(That's people with cats heads, not people who like cats)
― jel -- (jel), Friday, November 17, 2006 5:54 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

There's a lot going on in the film, but it seems to be about America's schizophrenic attitude toward women's sexuality. A lot is made of Irena and Alice's connection to cats, and Irena's basic fear, that she will turn into a panther and murder her mate if sexually aroused, is the typical male fear of women's destructive sexuality, especially coming as this movie did during World War II, when women were leaving the home in droves to work.
-- goatdog, www.goatdog.com

On what does Kehr base his claim that Preminger has no "sympathy" for this material? He was a contract director who made lotsa pulp and noir.

Mildred Pierce also inspired the name of Mildred's, the best sandwich shop in Madison, WI.

the kehr quote is from a short blurb, so he doesn't go into detail. but the followup sentence is, "It's a Preminger film purely by accident, but it is a fine example of studio craft."

(i haven't seen it, so i'm not endorsing that or anything. it was just an interesting quip.)

I'm just about to watch Daisy Kenyon again, before going to a job interview.

Did I mention I saw color home movies of a nude, sunbathing Joan Crawford this week? (no frontal)

42. Laura (1944, dir. Otto Preminger)
167 points (7 votes)

http://andrewsidea.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/laura.jpg

If only they had gone ahead with the original plan to have Cesar Romero play Gene Tierney's Latin Lover, Laura would have had yet another Batman villian associated with it.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, January 4, 2008 1:41 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Gene Tierney is on my all-time list of gorgeous movie ladies, a very classy lady. I, of course, identified with Dana Andrews, who plays a detective who probably came from a working class family much like mine. While the high society types are sipping their wine and chewing on canapes, Andrews is playing with a handheld pinball game while he investigates "Laura's" murder. What knocked me out was that he winds up getting the classy lady once he finds out she has not been murdered after all. Impossible dreams can come true and in Laura there are two in combination. Throughout this era, there were hundreds of movies where the shopgirl winds up with the wordly man of means. This one was for me, the son of a coalminer.
-- Jude Wanniski, "Ten Movies That Shook Wanniski #5," polyconomics.org

What'd you use it for -- to scare roaches?

Jude Wanniski -- the conservative activist?

yep, the same. on that website you can find little write-ups of the 10 movies that most affected him -- interspersed with rants about the fraudulence of paul krugman and defenses of richard nixon.

41. I Know Where I'm Going! (1945, dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
170 points (6 votes)

http://mmimageslarge.moviemail-online.co.uk/know-going-2_cmyk.jpg

I think my highest ranking Archers film will be I Know Where I'm Going!
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:54 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

yeah, mine too. a possible top 10, definite top 20. (partly because i have a huge crush on pamela brown in that.)
― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Friday, October 16, 2009 12:14 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

Questions for Kids:
· The title of this movie is taken from a famous old folk song. Why did the filmmakers choose it? Why did they insist on an exclamation point at the end?
· Does Joan know where she is going? When does she know? Where is she going?
· What makes Joan change her mind? What do you think her life will be like?
· What is the meaning of the "terrible curse"?
Connections: The little girl who seems so much more mature than her parents is played by then-child actress Petula Clark, who became a pop star in the 1960s ("Downtown") and appeared in the musical version of "Goodbye Mr. Chips."
Activities: The bagpipe plays an important role in this movie. Children might enjoy hearing more bagpipe music, especially if they can see it performed live. Look up the Hebrides, where this movie takes place, in an atlas or encyclopedia. Find out if your area has any legends like the ones described in the movie.
-- Nell Minow, the Movie Mom, beliefnet.com

i love this movie so much. i suppose you could blame it for a whole host of outsider-charmed-by-quirky-villagers movies (tho if you do that you also have to give it credit for local hero), but it's so much better and funnier and more affecting than that genre usually allows. and the location filming really feels wild and alive.

(and, like i said above, pamela brown is completely great. i guess powell thought so too...)

Need to see I Know Where I'm Going again.

Here is a nice version of the famous Laura theme of David Raksin (and Johnny Mercer) recorded by The Duke Ellington Orchestra, with tenor solo by Paul Gonsalves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNVga-NM_0&feature=related

Note to Kevin: I made up that bit about Cesar Romero and Laura. Although apparently he is in Skidoo.

40. The Seventh Victim (1943, dir. Mark Robson)
174 points (5 votes)

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/sevenarts/cinema/seventhvictim1.jpg

Some people share wine or weed; I share The Seventh Victim...countless times, esp. with students ("here! look at all the shit you can pack into 70 mins.!!"). I'm genuinely stunned it's not as notorious as Psycho. After all, it includes a shower sequence almost as scary and invasive. I cannot think of a single second in this masterpiece that doesn't thrill me or needs to be cut. The dipsomania discussion. The fucked-up kiddie song. The floating trademark. Most of all, the deep, deep sadness conveyed in the scene where Mary gets her hair done. It just keep pinning your back to the wall.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, December 1, 2008 11:34 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark

A particularly poor script is the basis for the ills besetting this mystery melodrama. Even the occasional good performance can't offset this minor dualer.
-- Variety, 1943

"conservative activist"

it looks and sounds like a beautiful oxymoron.

By the way, I saw the Seventh Victim when I was a kid (with a horrible dubbing) and the shower scene scared me to death.

Hell, I still haven't gotten around to The Third Man yet. Didn't like Odd Man Out.

Ha, I always enjoy when the random slam finds its way into the comments.

― cough syrup in coke cans (Eric H.), Tuesday, November 10, 2009 8:17 AM (Yesterday)

Did anybody else have anything to say about Odd Man Out, like the people or person who voted for it? The realization I came to last time I watched it was that is was not so much about the James Mason character, he is already a goner, but it is about the places he goes and the people he meets during his nighttime odyssey, how those people react to him and rationalize their behavior toward him.

Odd Man Out had a pretty venal view of humanity as I recall, everyone who helps the James Mason character only wants to use him for their own differing reasons. Not too many films about terrorists before that surely, esp. in the UK (I could be wrong about this).

I saw it again last month -- I think it's a little too obvious once Robert Newton comes in w/ his Johnny-as-Christ painting. But the bit roles and the atmosphere are first-rate.

I felt like that painter character came right out of The Horse's Mouth.

39. Nightmare Alley (1947, dir. Edmund Goulding)
184 points (6 votes)

http://mmimageslarge.moviemail-online.co.uk/Nightmare-Alley-12.jpg

I just want to say that I love Nightmare Alley - absolutely awesome film.
― emil.y, Saturday, May 17, 2008 12:11 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Considering the material - degradation, adultery, alcoholism, murder, larceny, spiritualism, high-stakes cons, and child abuse, set against the Depression scrim of anarchy, racism, desperation, and top-down corruption - we may marvel that the film was made at all. We may also assume that the film was made 25 years too soon, in an era when the motion-picture code and a nervous studio chief (Daryl Zanuck) mandated a softer focus, a softened protagonist, and, if you don't look too closely, what passes for a happy ending.
-- Gary Giddins, The New York Sun, June 2005

Like that one a lot, although many file it under the It's a Something Something But Not A Great Film category.

Did I mention I saw color home movies of a nude, sunbathing Joan Crawford this week? (no frontal)

Um, where? When? How? EXTREME details needed NOW!

Why is Gary Giddins writing about Nightmare Alley?

he did film criticism for the short-lived nu-n.y. sun.

38. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944, dir. Frank Capra)
195 points (7 votes)

http://www.amazingribs.com/images/blog/cary_grant.jpg

Another great Grant moment: His double-, triple-, quadruple-take on finding the body in the windowseat in Arsenic and Old Lace.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, April 25, 2004 3:21 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Capra pushed his actors to the broadest comedy takes, a fact that did not sit well with Grant. As a result, his (and Carson's) performances were singled out by reviewers for going dangerously over the top, while Massey and the stage performers managed to look rather restrained by comparison. Grant hated working this way, although in his more generous moments he credited Capra with helping him to get the comic effect he was unable to do on his own (it may have been his subtle way of blaming the director). ... Julius Epstein also thought Grant mugged too much.
-- Rob Nixon, tcm.com

i understand and to a large extent agree with all the knocks against A&OL -- the staginess, hamminess, cuteness, timidity (in sanding down the darker potentials of the material).

but i still think it's funny.

Why is Gary Giddins writing about Nightmare Alley?

― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:43 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

he did film criticism for the short-lived nu-n.y. sun.

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:47 PM (6 minutes ago)

OK, Arsenic doesn't belong anywhere near a top 200 for this decade.

KJB:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/7846

This list is going to end up being one of those I wish was completely flipped from the bottom up.

A&OL that high points to an It's a Wonderful Life victory

Enjoy the outer reaches of the poll while you can.

Yeah, sorry, A&OL is as funny as a crutch.

Enjoy the outer reaches of the poll while you can.

it's always the way. as you get closer to the top, the canon roars louder.

(btw arsenic affection probably stems from its ubiquity -- one of those things that was always on tv even in pre-cable days -- and its ready appeal to children. who then grow up to vote in ilx polls.)

i always liked it.

37. White Heat (1949, dir. Raoul Walsh)
211 points (8 votes)

http://www.scene-stealers.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/whiteheat2.jpg

Mr. Cagney has made his return to a gangster role in one of the most explosive pictures that he or anyone has ever played.
If that is inviting information to the cohorts of thriller fans, whose eagerness this reviewer can readily understand, let us soberly warn that "White Heat" is also a cruelly vicious film and that its impact upon the emotions of the unstable or impressionable is incalculable.
-- Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, September 1949

White Heat (Warner) is in the hurtling tabloid tradition of the gangster movies of the '30s, but its matter-of-fact violence is a new, postwar style. Brilliantly directed by Raoul (Roaring Twenties) Walsh, an old master of cinema hoodlumism, it returns a more subtle James Cagney to the kind of thug role that made him famous.
-- Time magazine, September 1949

i <3 white heat. i'm not sure how good it actually is, but it's tons of fun. need to see it again.

Top Of The World, Morbius!

(also i couldn't find any ilx commentary on this, maybe partly because the search function kept giving me velvet underground hits...)

Just tried, all I found was a picture of Raoul Walsh on Film directors who are/were good looking

36. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, dir. Vincente Minnelli)
222 points (6 votes, 1 #1)

http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/955/w500h420/CRI_73955.jpg

Greatest-ever Halloween and Christmas movie in one, but also one of the best-ever musicals, best uses of Judy Garland outside Oz (as a credible sister and granddaughter), and best costume dramas.
-- Pete Scholtes

Judy Garland effortlessly rules over the earth, air, and sea. Is there any other musical in which she comes close to that performance?
― o. nate (onate), Saturday, July 16, 2005 6:10 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

See Meet Me in St. Louis!! It is totally insanely infectiously cheerful and insane, with Judy Garland's acting and the most blazing costumes and color filming I have seen anywhere. It has the "Clang clang clang went the trolley" song. Also, check this rumor from allmovie:
This is the film for which the director (Minnelli) resorted to telling a child actress (Margaret O'Brien) that her dog had been run over and killed, in order to get her to cry properly in the next scene to be shot.
― Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZT!! BZZZZZT!! (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Wednesday, June 2, 2004 5:05 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

(i thought/hoped this woulda finished higher)

According to Margaret O'Brien, that story is bullshit. She says her mother would never have allowed such sadistic treatment and I believe her. But then you see her crying in that shot.... Definitely deserved her special Oscar for that performance!

35. Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II (1944-58, dir. Sergei Eisenstein)
229 points (6 votes, 1 #1)

http://media.timeoutchicago.com/resizeImage/htdocs/export_images/214/214.x600.film.ivantheterrible.op.jpg?

Ivan the Terrible alone makes Eisenstein worth bedding.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, November 15, 2003 7:59 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but I have the Criterion DVD of it and remember watching one supplement that discusses the film's symbols, motifs, actions and how these are recur--sometimes in parallels or 'negatives'-- throughout the film. There is a strong psychoanalytic bent to it, if I recall--Eisenstein was interested in Freud's writings at the time. I also remember something about as the story progresses, Ivan's movements correspond to various animals, and his movements become more constrained so that by the end of the film, he is supposed to be a hawk (or something like that) and the only feature of his body that moves are his eyes.
Anyway, it's just amazing how much thought Eisenstein put into it.
― Joe, Tuesday, March 25, 2008 8:49 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Despite usual good Russian photography, a powerful score, a couple of nice performances and flashes of original direction, Ivan the Terrible has so much that is tiresome, has so little action, and becomes so involved that the average history student hardly will recognize this glorified Ivan. Additionally, it has the ususal quota of Soviet propaganda.
-- Variety, 1944

I watched Ivan the Terrible last month and liked it very much.

ok well i'm at work now, so posting is interrupted 'til later this evening. still got about 4 to finish out the day...

Two greats in a row; good job.

Just watched Brighton Rock for the first time. Great ending.

Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II is probably the only film in this list to have been chosen for the Michael Medved book "The 50 Worst Movies Of All Time", although I guess Twilight on the Rio Grande could still turn up.

ok, picking back up...

34. The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
230 points (7 votes)

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/jmiles/2006/12/21/theredshoes.png?maxWidth=600

In some moods at least I think this is the *Best Film Ever Made*.
― frankiemachine, Saturday, June 19, 2004 10:12 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

The first word that comes to mind about Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes is "radiant," particularly in the way she was lit in the film and the angles used in her close-ups. The combination of actor/dancer seemed so natural for her. The nature of her physical build said so much about the character, even just a glance from her or a close-up.
-- Martin Scorsese

The film is voluptuous in its beauty and passionate in its storytelling. You don't watch it, you bathe in it. Yes, the ending is a shocker, but you see it coming and there's no way around it; the movie tells us a fairy tale and then repeats it as real life. It's the Hans Christian Andersen fable about a young girl who puts on a pair of red slippers that will not allow her to stop dancing; she must dance and dance, in a grotesque mockery of happiness, until she is dead. This is a dire subject for a ballet, you will agree; the movie surrounds it with the hard-boiled business of running a ballet company.
-- Roger Ebert, January 2005

Must see...new restoration... this week.

It was a surprise hit when it came out wasn't it? A huge surprise international hit. They finally booked it in some little theater in NYC and it took off like a rocket.

This one bored me too, but I don't like ballet.

xpost:

yeah i heard thelma schoonmaker on the radio talking about that. and about the restoration of course. which i'd love to see but probably won't, as with so many things.

i'm not much on ballet either, but i like the movie's total immersion in it. the archers were so good with their settings, conjuring up these whole contained, lived-in worlds.

and speaking of whole worlds...

33. Les Enfants du Paradis (1945, dir. Marcel Carné)
235 points (7 votes)

http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/ima/rm3/images/les_enfants_lg.jpg

Children of Paradise fucking pwns.
― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Monday, March 14, 2005 7:19 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

Children of Paradise is the most beautiful, heartbreaking movie I've ever seen.
― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, July 23, 2003 7:39 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

Children of Paradise, which Jacques Prévert wrote and Marcel Carné produced and directed in France during the war, is close to perfection of its kind and I very much like its kind -- the highest kind of slum-glamor romanticism about theater people and criminals, done with strong poetic feeling, with rich theatricality, with a great delight and proficiency in style, and with a kind of sophistication which merely cleans and curbs, rather than killing or smirking behind the back of its more powerful and vulgar elements.
-- James Agee, The Nation, April 1947

#2 on my ballot, and agee more or less otm. i was really surprised by this when i saw it, which wasn't til 3 or 4 years ago. couldn't stop thinking about it and talking about it for days.

No argument with that one.

i'm not much on ballet either, but i like the movie's total immersion in it. the archers were so good with their settings, conjuring up these whole contained, lived-in worlds.

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, November 11, 2009 10:48 PM (57 seconds ago)

OK, here's what wikipedia says about TRS's box office boffo:

The Red Shoes received good reviews,[7] but did not make much money at first in the UK, because the Rank Organisation could not afford to spend much on promotion due to severe financial problems exacerbated by the expense of Caesar and Cleopatra (1945).[8] Also, the financial backers did not understand the artistic merits of the film.[8]

At first, the film received only a limited release in the U.S., in a 110-week run. However, the success of this run showed Universal Studios that The Red Shoes was a worthwhile film. Universal took over the U.S. distribution in 1951 and it became one of the highest earning British films of all time.[9]

32. My Darling Clementine (1946, dir. John Ford)
236 points (9 votes)

http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_01_img0337.jpg

This spurred by viewing My Darling Clementine, which stunned me. That dance scene, in the church to-be, with that beautiful backdrop was wonderful.
― Jibé (Jibé), Monday, April 10, 2006 11:36 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Much as one admires the sequence, and Fonda's awkwardness at the dance, the historian sighs for the real Wyatt Earp who was adding to upset in Tombstone by going with a Jewish actress supposedly the mistress of Sheriff Behan. ... Years later, with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Ford raised the question of truth or legend. But from films like My Darling Clementine there can be no doubt about which he preferred.
-- David Thomson, Have You Seen...?

clementine was another one i watched in the run-up to this poll, and i liked it a lot. not so much for the earp-clanton stuff, which really is sort of pro forma (tho walter brennan's pretty entertaining) as for the earp-holliday/fonda-mature relationship. (which i realized, watching it, completely prefigures the seth bullock/al swearengen relationship in deadwood.)

Am I the only one who first became aware of Clementine when the entire 4077th bonded while watching it during movie night on a M*A*S*H episode?

i don't remember that one. my most immediate reference point for "my darling clementine" is

http://brokenspines.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/huckleberry-hound.jpg

I like all the stuff with Victor Mature and- who is the female lead- Linda Darnell? Katy Jurado? I guess it's Linda Darnell.

yes, Darnell. I remember the MASH episode, probably predated my first viewing.

My impatience with The Red Shoes stems not so much from indifference to ballet as generally finding Artists Who Go On About the Sacrifices of Artists to be tiresome.

linda darnell, aka chihuahua. she plays that part a lot better than it's written.

http://www.classicmoviefavorites.com/darnell/clementine3.jpg

hmm i don't think of the red shoes as being about suffering artists exactly, but yeah it's a fair reading. i get more of a universal-humanist life-is-suffering thing from it. (and art as an enactment of that.) not that life-is-suffering is necessarily my favorite trope, in philosophy or powell/pressburger movies. there's a reason i voted i know where i'm going! a lot higher.

and to finish off the day's contingent:

31. Detour (1945, dir. Edgar G. Ulmer)
237 points (7 votes)

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f277/si86/detour01.jpg

Simply put, Detour is one of the absolute best low budget movies ever. Shot in 2 or 3 days, its impossibly grim, dark and cold and its a fine testament of Edgar Ulmer's huge talent.
― Marco Damiani, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 10:13 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark

It’s just not a very good movie, people! ...Awful acting, no real sets to speak of other than a nondescript hotel room (an early scene that makes full-as-hell use of the fog machine, as if Ulmer had to return it a 9 the next morning so he felt like he had to use it ’til the cows come home to compensate, is just laughable), terribly hammy and even contradictory screenplay (seriously, Tom Neal’s narration just needs to stop. Its cheesiness knows no bounds)…I suppose the big defense is that the flaws give this movie its soul and its edge and surreal nature, but c’mon.
-- Simon M., rantsandmusings.wordpress.com

Actor Tom Neal’s career, like Ulmer’s, was restricted mostly to B films, but unlike Ulmer, Neal wound up in similar straits to Roberts. In an eerie life-imitates-art episode, he went to prison in 1965 for six years for killing his third wife. (Like Roberts, he claimed the killing was accidental.)
-- Gary Morris, Bright Lights Film Journal

tomorrow: we head heavy into the heart of the canon, or at least its guts.

Linda Darnell seems to be primarily remembered as a pretty face who couldn't really act and for her gruesome death, but she's been good in everything I've every seen her in: Fallen Angel, Unfaithfully Yours, The Mark Of Zorro, even Forever Amber.

Detour, I dunno, I lived in Austin for too long, so I always stayed clear of it.

In any case, time to take the shrinkwap off the Ford At Fox Essential John Ford box.

Meet Me in St. Louis placing so low makes me think The Clock won't place at all, but hey, one more spot for a movie I haven't seen--this list is already my video guide for the next year.

OK James Redd, I swear I'm not picking on you or anything but

Detour, I dunno, I lived in Austin for too long, so I always stayed clear of it.

I'm missing the connection.

Also, you actually OWN the Ford At Fox Essential John Ford box and haven't taken the shrinkwrap off it yet?? If I owned one, poor shrinkwrap wouldn't have survived a nanosecond.

Great to see Detour at #31. The strangling scene always striked me as almost obscene in it's random coldness.

"i get more of a universal-humanist life-is-suffering thing from it. (and art as an enactment of that.)"

Yeah, I always thought Red Shoes was more about a kind of Faustian pact - with all the possible pain & suffering consequences.

Sorry, Kevin, Rick Linklater named his film production company Detour. Casts a long shadow.
There was some chaos in my house for a while so that when I bought that five DVD Essential John Ford box (not the full Ford At Fox) right away it went missing for a while and I just located it a few days ago. Also logistics of putting little kids to bed and dealing with their waking up in the night cuts back on viewing time. I'll bet tipsy does a lot of his viewing while his boy in kindergarten.

children of paradise is also available on youtube in decent quality. watching it for the first time now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_dXOdVccAM

how many parts is that?

it's readily available on DVD, I would save YouTube viewings for rarer stuff. Like Shoeshine.

it is not readily available to me but thanks.

> how many parts is that?

nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nineteen (according to youtube page title)

I'll bet tipsy does a lot of his viewing while his boy in kindergarten.

otm. during the late morning, when boy #2 takes his nap, is prime movie time.

29. (tie) A Matter of Life and Death (1946, dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
246 points (6 votes)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/06/arts/06dvd600.jpg

A Matter Of Life and Death will always be the central picture for me.
― the bellefox, Monday, August 15, 2005 11:27 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

A Matter of Life and Death was originally conceived as a way of improving relations between Great Britain and the United States of America after the Second World War, but once producers, directors and scriptwriters Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had finished with it, it was something far more profound than a simple public information message. The film merges fantasy and reality with a love story based in the final days of the conflict, a conflict that had claimed millions of lives across the globe and that is evidently what was on the filmmakers' minds - the enormity of that loss of life. It must have touched just about everyone in Britain and America, never mind the other countries, and here was a reassurance that the war dead had gone to a better place, that they really were safe.
-- Graeme Clark, thespinningimage.co.uk

29. (tie) La Belle et La Bete (1946, dir. Jean Cocteau)
246 points (9 votes)

http://snoreandguzzle.com/images/belle-et-la-bete-1.jpg

Cocteau's 'Beauty and the Beast' is very influenced by the '31 Frankenstein, and in turn the Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast' owes lots of it's style to Cocteau's.
― dowd, Friday, March 14, 2008 2:33 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

The secret to it all is that Cocteau set out to make a film that would stir adults; along the way he discovered the child's imagination, too.
-- David Thomson, Have You Seen...?

Being a big Archers fan, I'm happy to see their movies making the list.

Just one question: here in Italy Powell & Pressburger have been sort of critically neglected. Their movies are generally underrated, Powell for a long time was considered a stylist without much substance and only recently things are changing. One of the reasons is probably that their movies were contemporary of Neo-Realism and were perceived as inherently lacking of socio-political truth: also, bad taste played a major role.

Just wondering what's the general consensus in the English speaking countries and if there has been some kind of critical reappraisal..

x-post: Didn't comment on Beauty and the Beast because I barely remember it, but I do remember being very moved as a kid seeing it in a repertory house, and I remember that soft fairytale look.

yeah i love the look of belle et bete, but tbh that's most of what i remember about it too.

in re: the archers, my sense is that their stock keeps going up, at least in the u.s. not that they were ever forgotten, but scorsese and some other acolytes have made a longterm and fairly successful effort to boost their critical and popular profile.

28. Sullivan’s Travels (1941, dir. Preston Sturges)
248 points (8 votes)

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM3NzIyNjIxNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNTU2NjI2._V1._SX325_SY400_.jpg

voted sullivan's travels cuz lake is so smashable
― s1ocki kong country (cankles), Tuesday, March 3, 2009 3:11 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

jeez, put it in yr pants (I'd be smashing Joel McCrea and not Eddie Bracken. well, not now.)
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, March 3, 2009 3:17 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

Lake is indeed quite fetching in 'Sullivan's Travels'
― It is not enough to love mankind – you must be able to stand (Michael White), Tuesday, March 3, 2009 3:30 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

i actually don't like sullivan's travels at all (despite v. lake)

― velko, Tuesday, March 3, 2009 7:40 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

sort of with velko on this one. i wouldn't say i don't like it at all -- there's some very funny stuff -- but joel mccrea is off-putting (even more than i think he's supposed to be), and there's a self-satisfied "Do You See?"-ishness about the whole thing.

otoh, veronica lake sure is purty.

man, did that photo get zinged already? ok, try this one:

http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2009-03/sullivans-travel.jpg

(oops now the photo's back. i guess it just wasn't loading for me.)

Grown to appreciate Sullivan's Travels, but was never my favorite Sturges, for reasons velko described.

n re: the archers, my sense is that their stock keeps going up, at least in the u.s. not that they were ever forgotten, but scorsese and some other acolytes have made a longterm and fairly successful effort to boost their critical and popular profile.

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

Now that I think about it, many years ago I took a course from Donald Crafton on British Cinema and The Archers, Carol Reed and Korda were sort of the stars of the course. I wonder what the Italians think of Carol Reed or if they know who Korda is. Maybe they have a vague idea that these are some people who worked with Alida Valli once upon a time.

When I was a kid I took this book from my dad's library: it was a collection of film reviews made by Umberto Barbaro, one of the top Italian critics in the 50's and the 60's.
He destroyed all the movies I liked (esp. Hitchcock) and obviously thought Orson Welles was the biggest hoax ever - endless lists of motives of why Citizen Kane wasn't worthy of a single still taken from any Pudovkin film.

27. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, dir. Maya Deren)
265 points (7 votes, 1 #1)

http://www.tate.org.uk/images/cms/13345w_marina_warner_10.jpg

It's a melange of super-obvious Freudian imagery and feminist eroticism and horror: you'll find it completely absurd and thoroughly compelling.
― Michael Daddino, Wednesday, September 19, 2001 12:00 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark

don't understand what makes Maya Deren a great filmmaker and not simply a pretentious but relatively mediocre director/screenwriter.
― turner, Thursday, September 20, 2001 12:00 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark

googling maya deren turns up the myspaces of the most annoying people in the whole world.
― adam, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 3:04 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

i've always wished meshes of the afternoon was in colour
― rrrobyn, breeze blown meadow of cheeriness (rrrobyn), Monday, January 29, 2007 3:20 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

xpost Maybe it's somehow interesting to note that in the 30's Barbaro was a convinced fascist and after 1945 he became the resident film critic for L'Unità, the Communist party newspaper.

reviews in the socialist worker can be pretty entertaining, imo.

otm. during the late morning, when boy #2 takes his nap, is prime movie time.
Ah, kids taking naps. The good old days.

did somebody say... orson welles?

26. The Lady From Shanghai (1947, dir. Orson Welles)
283 points (10 votes)

http://www.annyas.com/screenshots/images/1948/lady-from-shanghai-end-title-still.jpg

I just watched Lady from Shanghai, and it was weird watching him try to play a tough guy.
― Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Wednesday, October 21, 2009 11:01 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

It's a distanced tough guy (equally distantly Irish).
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, October 21, 2009 11:25 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

distantly Irish because he spoke like the Lucky Charms leprechaun?
― oater to oxidation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:53 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

so many things about lady from shanghai are weird and off-key, but in a way that's what i like about it.
― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Thursday, October 22, 2009 1:16 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

yes, it's a wacky noir nightmare!
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Thursday, October 22, 2009 1:20 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

Not my favourite Orson, unfortunately: its because of Rita Hayworth, I guess.

!!

I know, but there's nothing I can do about it! :)

Matter of Life and Death seems far too low for me. It doesn't matter that its political purpose is very obvious during the "courtoom" scene, the rest of it is (to me) perfect in every way. Roger Livsey! Marius Goring! Maybe I should have voted.

25. Rebecca (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
287 points (12 votes)

http://dcairns.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/reb1.jpg

Rebecca is my fave too. Very good taste you have. :-)
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, June 1, 2002 12:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark

I still personally like Rebecca best, even though (has this been said yet?), it could be argued that it was more of a David O Selznick "production" picture than a Hitchcockian one. He himself suggests as much in the Truffaut book.
― Vic (Vic), Saturday, February 15, 2003 6:44 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

hitch's rebecca was somewhat spoiled for me by the 1979 bbc version (jeremy brett and joanna david), which i saw first and -- filmmaking and atmospherics aside -- i think is better, more mysterious, more ominous and just generally more memorable.

I watched La belle et la bête and whilst it's certainly pretty enough (sounds well too - does Marais do the voice of the Beast? cos it's kinda lush) it felt kinda frothy in the end. A great children's picture, maybe.

Always gonna love A Matter of Life and Death but it's not my favourite Archers movie and I'll be a little disappointed if it's the highest placed one here.

(Watched La belle et la bête last week, I meant to say.)

xpost
Colonel Blimpand Black Narcissus will probably chart I would guess.

Both of which I like better than AMoLaD. Altho seeing as I never vote in polls I guess hoping A Canterbury Tale places now is optimistic.

see above re: canterbury tale -- it placed at 76, just outside this countdown. 2 votes, but 1 #1.

Rebecca also very much an Olivier film: He's what I remember besides the comedy and that big empty house. I voted for Pride and Prejudice as well, on the strength of his Darcy.

Kael says that Rebecca featured one of Olivier's "rare poor" performances – too "pinched." The problem isn't the performance; it's the character.

Also: he was quite hawt then.

24. Red River (1948, dir. Howard Hawks)
292 points (8 votes)

http://tedstrong.com/graphics/clift4.jpg

How many sequences from Red River were in the Oscar's tribute to repressed cowboys?
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, March 6, 2006 10:55 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Monty and John Ireland comparin' guns in Red River is all the queer Hawks bone I need.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, September 28, 2006 7:54 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Yeah, the Monty profile in that photo = swoon.

he's such an odd actor. he always disrupts the surface of whatever he's in, he seems more like an intruder than a performer. which isn't a knock, i like him a lot. just that his movies never somehow contain him.

my mum had a huge crush on him.

That's what she said.

23. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943, dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
297 points (9 votes, 1 #1)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44184000/jpg/_44184811_blimp_getty.jpg

I found Colonel Blimp to be wonderful. Such a bizarre film for the time and place it was made. Walbrook is fantastic.
― clotpoll (Clotpoll), Friday, July 28, 2006 8:23 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

at first there were moments where this seemed almost too sentimental, then I realized it was shot & released before the war had even ended, raising the stakes
― Milton Parker, Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:56 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Walbrook was descended from ten generations of circus performers, no? Even more than Archibald Leach. He is always good, although his roles are not often sympathetic. See for example the original Gaslight by Thorold Dickinson or especially Queen Of Spades by the same director.

22. To Be or Not To Be (1942, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
299 points (8 votes)

http://www.cicibi.ch/rassegne09_10/lubitsch/immagini_lubitsch/to_be_or_not_to_be.jpg

to be or not to be is one of my favourite movies ever.
― s1ocki, Tuesday, December 30, 2008 11:10 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark

It bombed in '42 largely due to lines like "What he did to Shakespeare, we are now doing to Poland," spoken by a German officer. Great film.
― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, February 6, 2007 3:51 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

It's shocking to think that people at one time actually misconstrued the film's humor as anti-Polish considering its obvious ridicule of the spectacle of Hitler's aestheticized political agenda. To Be or Not to Be is largely about the interplay between art and reality and it uses modes of performance to challenge the stiffness and authority of a preposterous political regime.
-- Ed Gonzalez, Slant, February 2005

I thought one of the reasons it bombed was that Carol Lombard died in a plane crash right before it was released. Of course nowadays such an occurrence would have the opposite effect.

I hope there's a Powell non-Archers movie to come...

Rynox?

I'm totally fascinated with the question of how To Be Or Not to Be "played" at the time--it feels so completely contemporary and fresh now, and all the while borderline offensive. I did have a blurb for this: Really ground zero for so many laugh-in-the-face-of-horror ironic sensibilities, and not just Mel Brooks's.

21. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, dir. Robert Hamer)
301 points (8 votes, 1 #1)

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00880/money-graphics-2007_880639a.jpg

Kind Hearts and Coronets (awesome film, saw it for the first time last week) has a very good abrupt ending that somehow manages to be ambiguous AND satisfying. Remarkable, that.
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, May 30, 2003 1:08 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

'Kind Hearts and Coronets' is probably the best voiceovered movie i've seen.
― pete s, Tuesday, March 23, 2004 12:19 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

i just finished kind hearts and coronets, and i couldn't believe just how fantastic it was, mainly because it was sort of a dark, nasty little number. perhaps in no moment more shocking than when our "hero", having led the duke into an animal trap, kneels before him with the shotgun and muses, "from here, i think, the wound will be consistent with the story i shall tell", and instantly blasts him.
quite a wonderful ending, too.
― gear (gear), Thursday, April 6, 2006 6:11 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Maybe it's my overall lack of enthusiasm for British films that's to blame for my overall lack of enthusiasm for the '40s.

perhaps not, because there are too many British films here.

Don't know why I couldn't muster a response to Red River, maybe because it's so beautiful, exciting, but elemental in that way that leaves things conflicted and raw: John Wayne isn't right or wrong, he's just what he is, and is probably the type that helped build the country, for good and ill. Monty Clift is such a modern presence, he takes a few punches with pride and pity, like some precursor to Civil Rights nonviolence.

Ha. Monty Clift does the same exact shtick in Wild River but even closer to what you are describing.

brit-bashers will be pleased to note this is the final british film of the day (tho not of the poll):

20. Brief Encounter (1945, dir. David Lean)
316 points (10 votes)

http://auteurs_production.s3.amazonaws.com/stills/10721/BriefEncounter_w.jpg

Brief Encounter is really, really wonderful. i really want to see it again.
― ryan (ryan), Saturday, September 13, 2003 5:46 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

i had mixed feelings about it. it was this strange masochistic ladies' home journal type fantasy, rendered immaculately if none too imaginatively. but the basic storyline--and it is pretty basic--has a brute power.
the ending is so strange. it seems to come out of nowhere, and sort of changes your persepctive on the whole film.
― amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, September 13, 2003 5:47 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

My fave film is not Brief Encounter!
― Momus (Momus), Monday, January 19, 2004 3:25 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

I hope there's a Powell non-Archers movie to come...

sadly morbz it's possible you and i were the only votes for that one. (maybe one or two more, i'll have to go back and look.) tho i admit i didn't place it high.

I'm with Momus on this one.

Brief Encounter = The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name, written by noted bachelor Noel Coward.

i like brief encounter a lot, mainly for celia johnson. the scene where they almost get caught in his friend's apartment is really well done and sort of heartbreaking. it captures that excitement, middle-aged responsible people sneaking around like teenagers, but then also how stupid and juvenile they feel about it all.

19. Late Spring (1949, dir. Yasujiro Ozu)
334 points (9 votes)

http://horsesthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/late_spring.jpg

Late Spring is my favorite of the Ozu films I've seen. Especially if you subscribe to the theory of Yasujiro Ozu living his experience through Setsuko Hara's resistance to heteronormative practice (i.e. marriage).
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, May 15, 2006 6:18 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

I've never seen any actress extract so many variations on the polite smile.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, May 15, 2006 6:21 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

i don't know if i prefer late spring to tokyo story. they're both great. late spring is sweeter and i think has more sympathetic leads, which maybe makes it a warmer experience. but tokyo story has so much great stuff in it.

― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Saturday, September 5, 2009 9:17 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark

18. The Lady Eve (1941, dir. Preston Sturges)
338 points (9 votes)

http://pullquote.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/eve.jpg

Preston Sturges is fantastic, especially The Lady Eve. (It's the kind of film that makes people say "They don't make em like that anymore, which is somewhat missing the point because they didn't often make them like that back then either)
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, October 6, 2002 5:41 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark

"I could take that mug with a deck of visiting cards."
The Lady Eve never lets me down.
― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, June 4, 2005 11:56 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

Amazingly sexy, surprisingly LOL funny screwball romance that asks the eternal question: Does chemistry precede compatibility?
-- Pete Scholtes

that oughta keep you sturges stans happy for a while...

Henry Fonda looks like Nick Nolte in that clip.

the still from 'the seventh victim' is highly beguiling

Just checked my ballot and it looks as if I missed off Kind Hearts & Coronets by mistake. Damn and another damn. Brighton Rock only making it to 64 (4 votes?!) is still the biggest disappointment though.

sadly morbz it's possible you and i were the only votes for that one.

http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Images/40_ToB/Foot.jpg

don't stomp the messenger!

17. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, dir. John Huston)
341 points (10 votes)

http://generationfilm.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/treasure.jpg

Sierra Madre is overrated, but it's still worthwhile. Walter Huston's perf is the best reason to see it, def.
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, September 1, 2005 7:25 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

And Humphrey Bogart is truly frightening – probably a better manic performance than a similar one he gave in "In A Lonely Place," because the context is so much stronger. I think it was Pauline Kael who once wrote that the first 15 minutes of "Sierra Madre" – when we follow Bogart as he begs for money, gets a shave, a barfight, etc – are the best thing Huston ever did. She's right.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, September 1, 2005 7:43 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

The Treasure is one of very few movies made since 1927 which I am sure will stand up in the memory and esteem of qualified people alongside the best of the silent movies.
-- James Agee, The Nation, January 1948

and wrapping up the day ...

16. The Shop Around the Corner (1940, Ernst Lubitsch)
367 (10 votes, 1 #1)

http://hookedonhouses.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/shop-around-the-corner-bw.jpg

'shop around the corner' is one of the most perfect movies ever.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, March 12, 2009 6:13 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

I only watched this after voting, but it would now rank very high for me: It's a very moving little dream of a movie, so conscious of, without necessarily being critical of, vogue-ish metacognitive thinking ("I'm psychologically confused"), class and hierarchy, financial ambition, and other things that might keep it from being recognized as the template for so many romantic comedies to come.
-- Pete Scholtes

If I had voted this or The Lady Eve would have been my number one.

I guess it was mentioned here: Character Actor Roll Call. The Lady Eve further upthread.

somehow i managed to not vote for treasure of the sierra madre. damn. but i hope i made up for it by voting for lots of overrated brit films to upset the britbashers.

(if ever there was a decade when it was a foregone conclusion that the top film(s) in an ilx poll would be u.s. ones it was the 40s, no?)

hey, I'm not a Brit basher -- the UK was one of the few nations able to keep up some semblance of production in the midst of WW2 -- but not all the Archers films were stone classics...

Hey, ITALIAN NEOREALISM, anyone? Is it just gonna get the two tokens I expect?

but most of it sucks!

so does most of everything! and not as much as Arsenic & Old Lace sucks.

"alec rowed orrff at a great rate"

OK, I'll give you that. (xpost)

Voted for Sierra Madre but just barely: Its racism seems like part of a general dishonesty about human beings--I never quite bought Bogie's going crazy with greed.

I thought greed was just part of why he went crazy.

Hey, ITALIAN NEOREALISM, anyone? Is it just gonna get the two tokens I expect?

Yeah, I guess Ossessione didn't make it. Peccato!

15. The Philadelphia Story (1940, dir. George Cukor)
399 points (12 votes, 1 #1)

http://coosacreek.org/mambo/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/grant-hepburn.jpg

Philadelphia Story contains the genius ridiculous-hat-as-metaphor-but-NOT-character-device and the line "my she was yar" (twice!)
― the actual mr. jones (actual), Sunday, October 6, 2002 3:36 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark

James Stewart did not write Philadelphia Story, yknow, or cast himself in the least interesting role.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, April 11, 2007 8:43 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

oops i mean The Philadelphia Story

14. Black Narcissus (1947, dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
409 points (12 votes)

http://www.melbournecinematheque.org/films/images/black_narcissus.jpg

god black narcissus is insane.
she was lovely.
― horseshoe, Thursday, October 18, 2007 6:15 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Black Narcissus (started boring, got fun, totally ridiculous)
― Zwan (miccio), Friday, February 2, 2007 4:30 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Black Narcissus rocks! Sister Ruth in her drenched, Calcutta dress (sigh)--I think I'm in love. :) Seriously, though, doesn't she look somewhat like Emma Thompson?
― Joe, Wednesday, July 18, 2001 12:00 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark

Crazy movie. Kathleen Byron's final close-ups are the most frightening thing ever.

the horror-movie ending was the thing that surprised me most about the movie. i think it all goes tonally off the rails around then, but i can't say it gets boring.

also, surely the belltower scenes in vertigo are a direct reference, right? did hitchcock ever say anything about that?

ok morbz, you're wrong about there being two italo-realist tokens. just the one:

13. The Bicycle Thief/Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio de Sica)
449 points (13 votes)

http://onkeita.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/copy_of_biket2.jpg

sorry, neorealism is a type of italian cinema: described as working class, with an anti-hollywood aesthetic, ie. Rossellini, or the movie The Bicycle Thief. "Neorealists conveyed ideas of the Left, focused on social inequalities, and criticized power and the jargon of Fascism."
― mandinina (mandinina), Friday, November 21, 2003 4:57 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

is de sica any good, really? i liked the bicycle thief (or 'bicycle thieves' as everyone seems to call it now) okay but shoeshine left me completely unmoved. tho i feel kind of bad about feeling that way now after reading pauline kael's gushy review of it, where she talks about BURSTING INTO TEARS after overhearing some teenage girl say "i don't see what was so great about that movie."
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, September 6, 2004 3:58 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

really, people? No Rome, Open City? You've heard of Isabella's father, right?

the one who shtupped ingrid? rings a vague bell.

if His Girl Friday doesn't show up after these second-drawer Cary Grants, I am not responsible for my posts.

Neorealists conveyed ideas of the Left, focused on social inequalities, and criticized power and the jargon of Fascism

...except that most of the neo-realists (Rossellini, De Robertis and De Sica among them) had already a long and fortunate career during the fascist cinema era. :)

12. Shadow of a Doubt (1943, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
464 (12 votes, 1 #1)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/146/433263411_0b48a95f36.jpg

hammy acting, really annoying "weird" characters, unfunny. It put me off Hitchcock for a while (and made me willing to go along with the critical train of thought that he was really lame). I might like it now though, because I've seen a lot of good movies of his recently and may have acquired more of a taste for that kind of film.
― naked as sin (naked as sin), Thursday, February 13, 2003 7:11 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

Yeah, you might. Joseph Cotten is great, I think, in the movie; and Teresa Wright is worth watching just for her very determined walk. It's a very creepy movie. "Uncle Charlie" 's speech about what really lives in the hearts of men and women (at the dinner table) is a classic. It's also one of the great shot-on-location Hitch movies, shot in Santa Rosa, Calif. So give it another shot maybe.
― chicxulub (chicxulub), Thursday, February 13, 2003 8:11 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

finally a hitchcock on the list that i like.

You like this list?

Oh yeah - Black Narcissus, that was another one I somehow failed to put on my ballot. I must have done it in a rush or something.

xpost Ouch.

It put me off Hitchcock for a while (and made me willing to go along with the critical train of thought that he was really lame).

Wha????

I don't care for it either. SOAD plays like what you imagine a Hitchcock film to be before you've seen one.

The "Wha???" was for the existence of a critical train of thought that Hitchcock was really lame. Never knew one existed. Where is this train coming from? How can we head it off at the bend?

This is unwatchable in the Italian version. It came out here around '46/'47 and the dubbing was made by Italo-Americans actors, so all the characters have this really weird, totally laughable accent.

i like it because it's a well-made trifle that knows it's a trifle and people don't go around calling it a masterpiece (at least not in the way they do notorious and rebecca).

and maybe to give morbs a little solace, a movie that did not make the top 10:

11. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, dir. Frank Capra)
478 (14 votes, 2 #1)

So whatever they're trying to say in It's a Wonderful Life, which seems to be that George Bailey is the most important person who ever lived, I have only one question:
How come if George Bailey was never born, his wife would have to wear glasses? Is he a Lasik surgeon?
― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, December 9, 2002 2:54 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

i hate this film.
― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, December 9, 2002 3:14 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

It's A Wonderful Life does a nice job of avoiding the "emotional pornography" Mamet branded Schindler's List with (I love that term, if he coined it) by making George a complex character who is, at times, quite an asshole. Sure, he was pushed to the brink by bad fortune, but he gets mean there about 3/4 of the way into the film. Makes him seem more whole.
― Mark, Wednesday, December 19, 2001 1:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark

lol at Ally's comment.

and posting separately, because they're long and good, pete's comments:

George Bailey will always be more moving than Charles Foster Kane for the simple reason that most people grow up loved, and don't create empires. Bailey's prison is the obligation he feels to those who love him, who see their dreams in the George that they know, where he has always looked elsewhere. He is every husband who reads Playboy, every bank employee with the urge to run naked through the grass, every would-be architect with buildings inside him. Is he a coward?

Learning to embrace family, love, kindness, and the community you've helped create and nourish around you (without necessarily even knowing you have) is such a lifelong process that this movie's psychic rite of Christmas never stops being cathartic--even if we can laugh now that the nightmare of non-George existence includes (gasp) juke-joint piano at Martini's or Mary working at a library. Pottersville remains chilling because it embodies a world that has seemed to grow more garish and unfeeling since the '40s, its creditors and police less forgiving as the gap between winners and losers widens.

Capra's way of making us care about more than George might be obvious physical comedy and blunt emotional shorthand, but it works. That bank rush still stands out as an American ideal of how a bank should work, or might work if our political-economy were less Potter-like. That smashed "Buffalo Girls" record is every disappointment life holds next to pop. And I love that George isn't so far-gone suicidal that he can't pause to tell Zuzu she can dream her flower into a garden when she falls asleep. This isn't somebody who needs to learn to be a good parent, or a good person, but someone who needs to learn that those things are enough. And that without them you have only the cold.
-- Pete Scholtes

Wow.

oh, i left a photo out of the wonderful life blurb. oops.

http://nighthawknews.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/its_a_wonderful_life_02.jpg

anyone wanna hazard a guess at the order of the top 10?

Will it be done today?

(massive dog crossing)
SOAD hits so hard because in this case the classic Hitchcock double is not some creepy foisted-upon Other, it is her beloved big city uncle, after whom she is named and with whom she has some kind of telepathic awareness. The casting and conception of the two leads is perfect. Teresa Wright's Charlie plays the smartest, least selfish, most sympathetic Hitchcock protagonist ever. And Joseph Cotten's psychopathic villain is all the more terrifying when contrasted with his famous second-banana, less ambitious voice-of-conscience roles next to Orson Welles in Citizen Kane and The Third Man.

can't remember if i voted in this poll but if i did 'black narcissus' would be my #1

Will it be done today?

yup. we're going straight through!

De Sica with no Rossellini is beyond unfortunate.

Bad, bad job people.

This isn't somebody who needs to learn to be a good parent, or a good person, but someone who needs to learn that those things are enough. And that without them you have only the cold.
-- Pete Scholtes

my no.1 vote. a nice summation, thanks for quoting that tipsy.

and i know it's to do with today but can't help but feel that in a way IAWL is saccharine-coated morbidity. found out this morning at a staff conference that a senior manager in our company died yesterday, only a year older than me. sitting stunned at the news the thoughts go to what he did, the impact and effect he had on the business, to the what-he-leaves-behind. and he didn't get the second chance.

Odds I like IAWL better than everything in the top 10 = pretty good.

can't remember if i voted in this poll but if i did 'black narcissus' would be my #1
First time I saw Black Narcissus I sometimes had trouble telling Sisters Ruth and Clodagh apart. I briefly convinced myself that this was intentional, to show how the identity is subsumed upon taking orders.

10. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, dir. Orson Welles)
513 points (15 votes)

http://vjmorton.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/ambersonsgeorge.jpg

here's a question as troubling as the continued obscurity of chimes at midnight: why the hell is the magnificent ambersons not out on dvd?
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, May 20, 2005 7:32 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

In a world brimful of momentous drama beggaring serious screen treatment, it does seem that Mr. Welles is imposing when he asks moviegoers to become emotionally disturbed over the decline of such minor league American aristocracy as the Ambersons represented in the late Eighteen Seventies.
-- The New York Times, August 1942

In The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles devotes 9,000 feet of film to a spoiled brat who grows up as a spoiled, spiteful young man. This film hasn't a single moment of contrast; it piles on and on a tale of woe, but without once striking at least a true chord of sentimentality.
-- Variety, 1942

That Variety reviewer must have turned over in his grave when The Royal Tenenbaums came out.

"In a world brimful of momentous drama beggaring serious screen treatment, it does seem that Mr. Welles is imposing when he asks moviegoers to become emotionally disturbed over the decline of such minor league American aristocracy as the Ambersons represented in the late Eighteen Seventies"

How monumentally stupid.

from the tone of those reviews you can tell the orson backlash was well under way.

I just was reading in a bio of Louis B Mayer last night about how before Citizen Kane was released, Hearst asked Mayer who asked one of his guys to go to RKO to buy the film, with a reasonable profit for RKO, with the purpose of destroying it.

I thought the backlash started before Citizen Kane even.

Won't have a go at the whole 10, but I'd guess top 5 will be

Third Man
Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Casablanca
Kane

"minor league aristocracy"

i know, i love that. like, "if these were really rich people that'd be one thing..."

That reminds me, let's cut all this junior league patter and ask the question: where is Out Of The Past?

well... not at #9. but the good news is, now morbs doesn't have to kill all of us:

9. His Girl Friday (1940, dir. Howard Hawks)
528 (14 votes, 1 #1)

http://www.minnpost.com/client_files/alternate_images/2717/mp_main_wide_HisGirlFriday.jpg

A great film - even one of the greatest - but also a good deal more uneven than its reputation might have one believe.
― the pinefox, Saturday, February 15, 2003 9:37 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

Best of all movies about newspapers (R.I.P.), with rat-at-tat-tat dialogue that's like jazz.
-- Pete Scholtes

I love the way that after you see His Girl Friday, you want to talk really really fast.
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, August 3, 2003 4:41 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

OK, well that's at least one movie in the top 10 I like better than IAWL. (The Welles, not the purported comedy.)

xxpost

Damn, didn't vote for Out Of The Past as it's known as Build My Gallows High in the UK, so passed over it.

"minor league aristocracy"

― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, November 13, 2009 12:44 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i know, i love that. like, "if these were really rich people that'd be one thing..."

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Friday, November 13, 2009 12:46 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i love 'his girl friday' but the last time i watched it i got a bit bored with anything that remained from 'the front page.' but all the stuff with cary grant tormenting ralph bellamy is pretty much the funniest thing ever. "oh, lovely -- a home with mother!"

Yeah, there's a 20-minute lull between the first act and the lunacy of the third.

Every screwball comedy, it seems, needed a drippy supporting actress who denotes her femininity by weeping a lot and probably killing herself.

8. Out of the Past (1947, dir. Jacques Tourneur)
536 points (14 votes, 1 #1)

http://www.reelclassics.com/Actors/Mitchum/images9/mitchum_janegreer_outofthepast_still.jpg

OOTP, which I had trouble getting into initially, has been growing and growing on me over the years- at first I thought it was underplayed but, much like a Douglas Sirk movie, the stylization that was off-putting in the beginning ultimately was a trap that only dragged me in deeper.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:16 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Conventional private-eye melodrama. More good work by Musaraca, largely wasted. Kirk Douglas, wasted as usual. Bob Mitchum is so very sleepily self-confident with the women that when he slopes into clinches you expect him to snore in their faces.
-- James Agee, The Nation, April 1948

james agee the opposite of otm

he had his off days.

Are you just defending a fellow Tenessean?

knoxville 4eva. (and "slopes into clinches" is a nice phrase.)

my favorite thing in out of the past is the sparring banter between mitchum and douglas. like a duet for cleft chins.

i like agee's line on this one (tho i agree more with pete)...

7. Casablanca (1942, dir. Michael Curtiz)
569 points (14 votes)

http://copiousnotes.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834525a3469e200e553991f478833-500wi

A witty, dreamy, and deeply admirable and musical argument against American neutralism, with tiny world in its cafe cast, though the premise of the "great ending"--that the fate of the earth lies in Ingrid Bergman whoring to some bland resistance leader--is absurd. The better idea here is that, contrary to Rick's hill-of-beans speech, our problems really do add up to world-changing history. So this is an internationalist dream, and not always far-fetched. I've often thought of the Blue Nile in Minneapolis, a North- and East African oasis in Minneapolis, as a reverse of Rick's American Cafe--who knows, maybe the future of Somalia is being decided there.
-- Pete Scholtes

I watched it again recently (for the first time in probably 7-10 years) and was amazed at how much fun it was; each scene was a perfect little entertaining gem. Maybe I was just in the mood--but Umberto Eco has a jokey essay where he maintains the movie is such a Classic because it's the meeting of so many cliches, and maybe that's what I was digging about it--every scene was was both what I expected to see and what I wanted to see, if that makes any sense.
― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, May 2, 2003 8:52 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

Apparently Casablanca, which I must say I liked, is working up a rather serious reputation as a fine melodrama. Why? It is obviously an improvement on one of the world's worst plays; but it is not such an improvement that that is not obvious.
-- James Agee, The Nation, February 1943

Waiting for Marco to weigh in with the Umberto Eco point of view.

Just me who placed Build My Gallows High it at #1 then.

I know the top two places are going to be between Kane and Indemnity, but christ I thought Casablanca would be right at their heels.

i would've thought casablanca was top 5 too (i put it #3), but really 7 seems about right.

not a film that you'd expect to get any number 1 votes. i do love it though.

also think kane, indemnity, and third man have all have a shot at number one

Yay for relative Casablanca snub.

6. Notorious (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
590 points (16 votes)

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q130/ladyinlake/hitchcock/notorious-1.jpg

Does anyone else find Notorious fairly overrated?
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, January 8, 2004 6:41 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Cary Grant's bitterness is a bit more puzzling and contrived here than in North by Northwest, and the poison trap a bit less cinematic than a chase would be, but this is still in the top tier of Hitchcock for its actors, villains, suspense, camera-as-eyes, and romance--and for being the first Hollywood film (to my knowledge) to track Nazis and fascism to Latin America.
-- Pete Scholtes

the interesting thing about Notorious is that you're not quite sure who you ought to be rooting for. Cary Grant's character is a bit of a bastard, and Claude Rains's Nazi agent is strangely sympathetic, especially at the end of the film.
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, January 8, 2004 8:10 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

d'oh. stupid photo.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/3e4c/notorious.jpg

anyway, as previously mentioned, my least favorite film of the top 10. or the top 20, for that matter.

those are two prettiest ever, cary grant and ingrid bergman. i love that movie.

You like British movies better than Notorious, tipsy?

I think I can safely say that His Girl Friday, sight unseen and with five slots to go, my least favorite in the top 10 or 20 for that matter.

xpost:

not all british movies -- not 4 weddings and a funeral, or most of the harry potter movies...

my #1 ...

5. The Maltese Falcon (1941, dir. John Huston)
596 points (17 votes, 1 #1)

http://nighthawknews.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/maltese-falcon-bogart-lorre-astor-greenstreet.jpg

I loved this and The Big Sleep equally when I was a kid, maybe giving this the edge because of its look (all those ceilings) and action, and because Pauline Kael loved Huston better, and because the plot makes more sense. But have you noticed how much colder and (let's be honest) more psychotic Bogart's Sam Spade is than his Philip Marlowe? There's something small in the way he bests and humiliates his variously heavier, less intelligent, and more perfumed rivals, and in how he greets the news of his partner's death (with a shrug), or brushes off the widow (with whom he had an affair), or otherwise gets his blood up over nothing except the falcon itself, gripping the femme fatale's wrist too hard when he does. His romance for Mary Astor is the warm admiration that cold people feel when they meet someone even colder. That self-awareness is all that really separates Spade from Dobbs in Treasure of Sierra Madre, and the only thing redeeming his cool is a witty sociability: He could banter with these demons forever.
-- Pete Scholtes

SO classic. My boyfriend's coming over in a bit to watch it...for the first time!

"You always have a pretty smooth answer for everything, don't you?"

"Whaddya want me to do -- learn to stutter?"

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, December 20, 2008 3:27 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

Let's not forget Peter Lorre: "Schtop! You arre horrrting me"

― Soukesian, Saturday, December 20, 2008 11:19 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

and pete's otm about sam spade, which i think is what really gives the movie its kick. he is not a good guy, he's mostly just smarter than the rest of them.

Just saw Shadow of a Doubt for the first time and chicxulub otm. I love OOTP too, just don't remember it well enough to comment.

4. The Big Sleep (1946, dir. Howard Hawks)

634 (17 votes, 1 #1)
http://robertarood.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/bigsleep.jpg

The Big Sleep has a very life-instructive sensibility: Surrounded by flirtation, the coolest man on earth opts for love. It's the greatest movie of all time about marriage, or whatever you call the partnership that comments on the rest of the world as it spins by.
-- Pete Scholtes

Both the book and the movie would have been better if the murders were better explained. Events are more interesting when they're caused, and when the causes matter. But nonetheless, the book and the movie are great rides.

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, May 26, 2002 12:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark

not-so-famous actress bettah than lauren bacall shockah
― mark s, Monday, May 27, 2002 12:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark

This wrap-up is definitely reinforcing my lack of interest in this decade.

3. Double Indemnity (1944, dir. Billy Wilder)
637 points (16 votes, 1 #1)

http://www.rowthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/stanwyckdouble-indemnity02.jpg

Fred MacMurray makes smart self-loathing sexy, while Barbara Stanwyck makes smart loathing for everyone else even sexier.
-- Pete Scholtes

Double Indemnity and Touch of Evil are my shit. All-time.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, January 25, 2008 1:41 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

I love Double Indemnity, but it's too glossy and clean to be as purely noir as, eg, Out of the Past.

― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3:41 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark

Wow, Pete really did an excellent job with his comments.

he did!

2. The Third Man (1949, dir. Carol Reed)

770 points (18 votes, 3 #1)

http://www.celestialmonochord.org/log/images/thrid_man_ferris_wheel.jpg

it's really just the greatest.
― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, February 18, 2004 6:47 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Ive only seen it once but I thoght it was pretty bloody marvellous I must say. Some of the shots and framing especially... this one scene sticks in my mind where hes in a doorway and half his face is lit and this ... *expression* on his face. Wonderful.
― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, February 18, 2004 6:48 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

the Criterion set reports in a couple places (Soderbergh-Gilroy commentary) that Reed was able to shoot round-the-clock cuz of Benzedrine.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, October 20, 2009 7:50 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

Seems kinda petty if not downright weird, but I lost some of my love for this movie after learning that Welles refused to go into the sewers (except for a little).

― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:57 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

omg what could #1 possibly be?

(third man got the most #1 votes, fwiw)

ok, no point in dragging it out...

1. Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles)

810 points (19 votes, 2 #1)

http://www.senorcafe.com/archives/jdh1.jpg

Not that this is a surprise, but o' course I lurv it, though I had the ending ruined when I was small thanks to all the references to it in _Peanuts_, Charles Schulz being another fanatic. And like Schulz's work, CK impresses me over time because it works on different levels, different lines jump out at you over the moons. The acting is brilliant, the script isn't afraid of humor, the cinematography, the lighting...astonishing.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, September 28, 2001 12:00 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark

For me, the best thing about Citizen Kane is its up front, unrepentant, hella wonderful theatricality. Welles took his larger-than-life-size main character and scaled everything else in the movie up to that size. This makes it all great fun to watch.

If it's about anything at all, it is just about fame and power, American-stylee. Everything it has to offer is so tightly bound to the surface of things, with the grandiosity, sordidness, arrogance, desperation and greed it puts on display, that the only way to 'get' the film is to watch it and let it speak for itself. And the superficiality of it makes for a puzzling mixture of intellectual shallowness and emotional depth.

― Aimless, Saturday, June 9, 2007 5:28 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

I love how great Welles looks as an old man, and how he nails how old people move and think -- their habit of sharing curdled witticisms and phony insights -- without condescension. The newsreel section, for example, where a young reporter interviews Kane after he returns from speaking to "the great powers of Europe."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 2:23 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

My top 40 (reasons why later):

1. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli 1944)
2. Lumiere d'été (Jean Grémillon 1943)
3. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges 1942)
4. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson 1943)
5. Le Tempestaire (Jean Epstein 1947)
6. Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise 1944)
7. Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger 1945)
8. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu 1949)
9. Les parents terribles (Jean Cocteau 1948)
10. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock 1940)
11. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles 1942)
12. The 47 Ronin (Kenji Mizoguchi 1942)
13. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger 1947)
14. The Pirate (Vincente Minnelli 1948)
15. How Green Was My Valley (John Ford 1941)
16. Christmas in July (Preston Sturges 1940)
17. Portrait of an Assassin (Bernard-Rolan 1949)
18. Ivan the Terrible, Parts 1 and 2 (1944-1946)
19. Moonrise (Frank Borzage 1948)
20. Spring in a Small City (Fei Mu 1948)
21. Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné 1945)
22. Hellzapoppin’ (H.C. Potter 1941)
23. La terra trema (Luchino Visconti 1948)
24. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock 1948)
25. Shoeshine (Vittorio De Sica 1946)
26. Fireworks (Kenneth Anger 1947)
27. The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls 1949)
28. The Clock (Vincente Minnelli 1945)
29. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz 1945)
30. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges 1942)
31. Introspection Tower (Hiroshi Shimizu 1941)
32. Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle 1948)
33. Radio Dynamics (Oskar Fischinger 1942)
34. Siren of Atlantis (Gregg C. Tallas 1949)
35. Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer 1943)
36. A Hen in the Wind (Yasujiro Ozu 1948)
37. Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt 1947)
38. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls 1948)
39. Beyond the Forest (King Vidor 1949)
40. Les visiteurs du soir (Marcel Carné 1942)
41. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles 1947)
42. The Long Voyage Home (John Ford 1940)
43. At Land (Maya Deren 1944)
44. Good Sam (Leo McCarey 1948)
45. Leave Her To Heaven (John M. Stahl 1945)
46. Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini 1947)
47. I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks 1949)
48. “Sredni Vashtar” By Saki (David Bradley 1940-1943)
49. Susan and God (George Cukor 1940)
50. Yolanda and the Thief (Vincente Minnelli 1945)

Er, 50

Thanks for rocking the poll, tipsy. You're a mensch!

Movie I totally forgot to vote for: the criminally underrated (underwatched?) Under Capricorn

yeah, it was fun. thx for the votes and all. now i have about 100 things to watch...

later tonight i'll post the full list of everything that got votes.

As a non-voter I enjoyed this loads. Otoh Third Man better than The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon = GTF you stupid tits

I submitted the full 50 in an attempt to get It's A Wonderful Life lower on the list ... it didn't make a difference. Ones that didn't make the top 75 are in bold.

Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Big Sleep
Double Indemnity
The Bicycle Thief (Bicycle Thieves)
Out of the Past
Citizen Kane
The Third Man
Shadow of a Doubt
Gun Crazy
Sullivan's Travels

The Lady Eve
The Lady From Shanghai
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Ivan the Terrible, Parts 1 and 2
Casablanca
Leave Her to Heaven
To Have and Have Not
The Maltese Falcon
Daisy Kenyon

Thieves Highway
They Live by Night
Force of Evil
Laura
Detour
Day of Wrath
Foreign Correspondent
His Girl Friday
The Shop Around the Corner
Begone Dull Care

Notorious
Brute Force
The Philadelphia Story
Heaven Can Wait
Spellbound
The Woman in the Window
Der Fuehrer's Face
Bambi
La Belle et la Bete
Les Enfants du Paradis

Rebecca
I Walked With a Zombie
The Naked City
Le Corbeau
Key Largo
My Darling Clementine
Nightmare Alley
Pinocchio
The Palm Beach Story
The Magnificent Ambersons

I Walked with a Zombie = a sight better than Cat People y/n ?

Out of the Past
Brighton Rock
Casablanca
Great Expectations
The Philadelphia Story
Citizen Kane
Double Indemnity
A Matter of Life and Death
It’s a Wonderful Life
It Always Rains on Sunday
Murder, My Sweet
A Run for Your Money
Passport to Pimlico
The Third Man
Henry V
The Red Shoes
Oliver Twist
The Shop Around the Corner
Bambi
Black Narcissus
The Dead of Night
Les Enfants du Paradis
Rebecca
Cat People
Rope
Dumbo
Whiskey Galore!
Detour
White Heat
The Maltese Falcon
His Girl Friday
Nightmare Alley
Notorious
The Lost Weekend
Now, Voyager
Les Enfants Terribles
Sullivan's Travels
The Big Sleep
Duel in the Sun
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Scott of the Antarctic
Went the Day Well?
Fires Were Started
Hamlet
The Uninvited
Brief Encounter
The Lodger
The Little Foxes
Arsenic and Old Lace
Gaslight (U.K.)

Also Ealing comedies = Carry On movies with less tit jokes.

Not really, no

I Walked with a Zombie = a sight better than Cat People y/n ?

Eh about even in my book.

I neglected Joseph H. Lewis but I highly recommend My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) if you're looking for something to freak you the fuck out in just 65 mins.

xpost

Srsly, they're the most over-vaunted (in the UK) movies ever made with the honourable exception of The Ladykillers.

1 A Canterbury Tale
2 Out of the Past
3 The Third Man
4 Double Indemnity
5 La Belle et la Bete
6 The Maltese Falcon
7 The Bicycle Thief
8 Nightmare Alley
9 Meshes of the Afternoon
10 Detour
11 A Matter of Life and Death
12 Brief Encounter
13 Laura
14 Gun Crazy
15 Kind Hearts and Coronets
16 The Big Sleep

17 The Philadelphia Story
18 I Walked With a Zombie
19 Casablanca
20 They Live by Night
21 Curse of the Cat People
22 The Seventh Victim
23 Stray Dog
24 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
25 Dead of Night
26 Key Largo
27 The Lost Weekend
28 Cat People
29 Crossfire
30 The Fallen Idol
31 Odd Man Out
32 Passport to Pimlico
33 Black Narcissus
34 Brighton Rock
35 My Darling Clementine
36 Unfaithfully Yours
37 White Heat
38 Adam's Rib
39 Late Spring
40 Stranger on the Third Floor
41 Force of Evil
42 Scarlet Street
43 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
44 On the Town
45 Spellbound
46 Fantasia
47 It's a Wonderful Life
48 The Thief Of Baghdad
49 Rebecca
50 Arsenic And Old Lace

Whisky Galore!

Wish I had room for this, one of my fave Ealings. Would make a great double feature with The Maggie as floating westerns.

The Uninvited

I wanted to love this. But I missed the sense of identity play that saves other female gothics like Rebecca and The Hauting. Maybe the house was too small.

I saw Citizen Kane ages ago but remember little of it. I get the feeling I wouldn't be able to watch it now without "engaging" with 60+ years of critical bullshit about it, but maybe I should try. Anyway, thanks to tipsy for organising it all, 1930's poll next?

i will definitely vote in a '30s poll, and will pass the pollster baton to whoever wants it.

my complete 50, btw. (which i've already edited many times in my head...)

The Maltese Falcon
Les Enfants du Paradis
Casablanca
Late Spring
Meshes of the Afternoon
The Big Sleep
The Third Man
The Magnificent Ambersons
Kind Hearts and Coronets
To Be or Not to Be

Double Indemnity
Fireworks
I Know Where I'm Going!
His Girl Friday
Citizen Kane
Meet Me in St. Louis
Out of the Past
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Mildred Pierce
Red River

Red Hot Riding Hood
The Lady From Shanghai
Brief Encounter
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Curse of the Cat People
The Bank Dick
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
A Matter of Life and Death
The Lady Eve
The Great Dictator

My Darling Clementine
The Bicycle Thief
The Shop Around the Corner
The Red Shoes
The Philadelphia Story
Laura
Fantasia
Now, Voyager
It's a Wonderful Life
Arsenic and Old Lace

Adam's Rib
Hail the Conquering Hero
To Have and Have Not
Black Narcissus
The Thief of Baghdad
Unfaithfully Yours
Dumbo
White Heat
La Belle et Le Bete
Key Largo

Mine:

#1 The Third Man
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Bicycle Thief
The Maltese Falcon
Morbs's favorite movie, The Lost Weekend
Late Spring
The Philadelphia Story
Ivan the Terrible, Parts 1 and 2
It's a Wonderful Life
Bambi
Les Enfants du Paradis
Citizen Kane
One Wonderful Sunday (Akira Kurosawa)
The Fallen Idol
White Heat
The Big Sleep

The Lady From Shanghai
Fast and Furry-ous (Chuck Jones)
To Be or Not to Be

Listen to Britain
Rebecca
Porky Pig's Feat (Frank Tashlin)
The Magnificent Ambersons
Meshes of the Afternoon
#25 Notorious

I would put Le Corbeau in there now.

Thanks Tipsy, everybody, really looking forward to watching the full list of what I haven't seen, including non-placers. Re: Citizen Kane--it's so watchable, I don't think you need to engage anything but the movie. My No. 1 was The Big Sleep.

which is actually my favorite movie of all time.

they're the most over-vaunted (in the UK) movies ever made

I don't agree, though I still can't really see how they are like the Carry-Ons (which are also largely great fun).

I may now add Meshes of the Afternoon to my Lovefilm queue.

Fantastic job, tipsy! The blurbs and excerpts reminded me why I use ILE's search engine first when I want to read sharp film writing.

xpost

specifically the bit in Khyber where Butterworth looks up from the dinner party and says "They're all mad, y'know" i.e. self-regarding tourist board pre-twee in a way that Powell and Pressburger never, ever, fucked with.

so if only Altman had excerpted some more Italian stuff besides Bicycle Thieves in The Player, huh?

anyway, to redress these omissions in Technicolor fantasy and great comedy, get busy:

http://www.avclub.com/assets/images/articles/article/16758/thief-of-bagdad.jpg

http://www.kitten-kaboodle.com/images/road-to-utopia-bob-hope-bing-crosby-dorothy-lamour.jpg

Yay for relative Casablanca snub.

limp

Never felt Bob and Bing but Thief of Bagdad is very otm from the dude who complained there were too many Britishes(ish) films on the list.

Hope was British-born, you know.

Haha good point.

thief of bagdad is great and i can't wait to show it to my kids.

I was gonna say I don't feel like comedy travels well thru time but then was gonna except Laurel and Hardy, then remembered the Marx bros, then W.C. Fields, and am now kinda forced to just say I don't feel like Hope's comedy has travelled well thru time.

in the '40s and early '50s I find it has; not the stuff after that!

[]Yay for relative Casablanca snub.[]

^depressing.

also top placing ho hum, would have thought ilx would think more out of the box

sorry html quotes missing

Also Ealing comedies = Carry On movies with less tit jokes.

― Death to False Meta (Noodle Vague)

this is crap of the highest order.

Kane is worth it's rep, I think. Besides all the theoretical hoo-ha it's just massively entertaining, as Pete Scholtes just said upthread.

Casablanca is a wonderful movie, but it relies on some hoary melodramatic conventions and makes no pioneering use of the medium. (I know many of you don't give a shit about such things.)

Yeah but doing the banal brilliantly is as valid as pushing back frontiers. God knows wd take Casablanca over a ton of self-consciously auteured cobblers.

I'm not sure that Kane is entertaining outside of its theoretical hoo-ha/baggage anymore.

Well it's certainly no Whisky Galore!

I really don't like Casablanca. I think the only Ealing I voted for was Passport to Pimlico, and I can't really explain why I like it so much, it's just very charming, and nothing at all like any Carry On movie I have ever seen. I can't really see where the comparison lies, unless your only experience with Ealing is sniggering at the title of the Titfield Thunderbolt.

Um, I should have made that two paragraphs - I wasn't implying that Casablanca was Ealing. Though it would have been better if it was.

Pimlico is the other Ealing comedy I have time for but like I said upthread my connection between them and Carry On is the mythologizing of an obvious dull version of Britishness and the fact that most of the jokes probably weren't v. funny to begin with.

G. Formby aside none of the great Ealing Studios films of the 40s are comedies.

If doing the banal brilliantly was the summit, we'd be stuck with ... the current film culture.

It's not the summit but it's a valid route. Chasing ground-breakingness is doomed to failure, really. Always something that can be dug up that pre-empts, or you end up repping for nothing but the avant-garde.

If doing the banal brilliantly was the summit, we'd be stuck with ... the current film culture.

If only this was the case

an obvious dull version of Britishness and the fact that most of the jokes probably weren't v. funny to begin with.

could you generalise a bit more please?

Chasing ground-breakingness is doomed to failure, really.

I don't get this at all.

I'm not saying the current film culture does banal brilliantly on a regular basis -- I'm saying when a minor film manages it, it's declared a masterpiece for the ages (eg, Crouching Tiger, perhaps Zodiac).

all the ground has been broken already. post-modernism dude.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zodiac is no more minor than, say, Munich.

What I'm getting at with valuing films purely on their innovation is that it becomes a card game where there's always a hidden trump under the table that devalues the last hand. I'm all for The New but as far as any art is concerned most of the great works are achieved within established formats that've been worked to a fine polish. I'm not a Casablanca stan by any means but it's a film that could only have come from a mature industry - like Huston's Maltese Falcon it's brilliance is mainly in the slickness of its execution of pre-invented movie tropes, but it's a slickness that nudges perfection.

(prefer Maltese Falcon by several light years, btw)

Casablanca is a wonderful movie, but it relies on some hoary melodramatic conventions and makes no pioneering use of the medium.

surely the same could be said for most of the other films on this thread? '

enjoyed the countdown a bunch -- a matter of life and death is on tcm monday at 4 am or something, btw (have my dvr set)

and White Heat is on tomorrow, early.

(so is Saboteur, which I prefer to Rope)

ok, here's the total tally. at least, i hope so. films in order by number of points they received, with number of votes in parentheses. (if there are no vote numbers listed, that means the movie was only on one ballot.) only the top 75 are numbered, sorry.

there were 208 last time i counted. how many have you seen?

1. Citizen Kane 810 (19 votes, 2 #1)

2. The Third Man 770 (18 votes, 3 #1)

3. Double Indemnity 637 (16 votes, 1 #1)

4. The Big Sleep 634 (17 votes, 1 #1)

5. The Maltese Falcon 596 (17 votes, 1 #1)

6. Notorious 590 (16 votes)

7. Casablanca 569 (14 votes)

8. Out of the Past 536 (14 votes, 1 #1)

9. His Girl Friday 528 (14 votes, 1 #1)

10. The Magnificent Ambersons 513 (15 votes)

11. It’s a Wonderful Life 478 (14 votes, 2 #1)

12. Shadow of a Doubt 464 (12 votes, 1 #1)

13. The Bicycle Thief 449 (13 votes)

14. Black Narcissus 409 (12 votes)

15. The Philadelphia Story 399 (12 votes, 1 #1)

16. The Shop Around the Corner 367 (10 votes, 1 #1)

17. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 341 (10 votes)

18. The Lady Eve 338 (9 votes)

19. Late Spring 334 (9 votes)

20. Brief Encounter 316 (10 votes)

21. Kind Hearts and Coronets 301 (8 votes, 1 #1)

22. To Be or Not To Be 299 (8 votes)

23. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 297 (9 votes, 1 #1)

24. Red River 292 (8 votes)

25. Rebecca 287 (12 votes)

26. The Lady From Shanghai 283 (10 votes)

27. Meshes of the Afternoon 265 (7 votes, 1 #1)

28. Sullivan’s Travels 248 (8 votes)

29. (tie) La Belle et La Bete 246 (9 votes)

29. (tie) A Matter of Life and Death 246 (6 votes)

31. Detour 237 (7 votes)

32. My Darling Clementine 236 (9 votes)

33. Les Enfants du Paradis 235 (7 votes)

34. The Red Shoes 230 (7 votes)

35. Ivan the Terrible 229 (6 votes, 1 #1)

36. Meet Me in St. Louis 222 (6 votes, 1 #1)

37. White Heat 211 (8 votes)

38. Arsenic and Old Lace 195 (7 votes)

39. Nightmare Alley 184 (6 votes)

40. The Seventh Victim 174 (5 votes)

41. I Know Where I'm Going! 170 (6 votes)

42. Laura 167 (7 votes)

43. Cat People 162 (5 votes)

44. Daisy Kenyon 161 (5 votes)

45. Mildred Pierce 160 (5 votes)

46. Gun Crazy 159 (5 votes)

47. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek 155 (5 votes)

48. The Grapes of Wrath 154 (6 votes)

49. Curse of the Cat People 153 (5 votes)

50. Great Expectations 152 (5 votes)

51. Letter From an Unknown Woman 146 (4 votes, 1 #1)

52. Rope 143 (6 votes)

53. Hellzapoppin' 142 (4 votes)

54. Diary of a Chambermaid 140 (4 votes, 1 #1)

55. Passport to Pimlico 135 (5 votes)

56. (tie) Dead of Night 134 (4 votes)

56. (tie) Bambi 134 (5 votes)

58. Pinocchio 132 (5 votes)

59. Dumbo 130 (5 votes)

60. Scarlet Street 128 (5 votes)

61. The Lost Weekend 123 (4 votes)

62. Odd Man Out 120 (4 votes)

63. The Naked City 118 (5 votes)

64. Brighton Rock 116 (4 votes)

65. The Best Years of Our Lives 114 (3 votes, 1 #1)

66. The Letter 111 (4 votes)

67. They Live By Night 107 (4 votes)

68. Spellbound 105 (5 votes)

69. The Palm Beach Story 104 (4 votes)

70. Fireworks 103 (3 votes)

71. (tie) Fantasia 99 (5 votes)

71. (tie) Whiskey Galore! 99 (3 votes)

73. The Bank Dick 98 (3 votes)

74. Portrait of Jennie 94 (3 votes)

75. Le Tempestaire 93 (2 votes)

A Canterbury Tale 89 (2 votes, 1 #1)

Oliver Twist 85 (3 votes)

Hamlet 81 (3 votes)

Henry V 80 (3 votes)

To Have and Have Not 79 (3 votes)

I Walked With a Zombie 79 (3 votes)

Monsieur Verdoux 77 (2 votes)

Force of Evil 76 (4 votes)

Day of Wrath 76 (4 votes)

Le Corbeau 74 (4 votes)

Open City 74 ( 2 votes)

Key Largo 73 (5 votes)

Brute Force 70 (3 votes)

On the Town 70 (3 votes)

Shoeshine 70 (2 votes)

Murder, My Sweet 69 (2 votes)

Unfaithfully Yours 68 (3 votes)

The Clock 67 (2 votes)

Der Fuehrer’s Face 60 (2 votes)

The Fallen Idol 58 (2 votes)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon 57 (3 votes)

At Land 56 (2 votes)

Ossessione 55 (2 votes)

Went the Day Well? 52 (2 votes)

Puce Moment 52 (2 votes)

The Uninvited 51 (2 votes)

Gilda 51 (2 votes)

The Great Dictator 49 (2 votes)

Lumiere d'Ete 49

Cluny Brown 48

The Heiress 47 (2 votes)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 46

The Woman in the Window 45 (2 votes)

Stray Dog 45 (2 votes)

Thieves Highway 44 (2 votes)

The Thief of Baghdad 44 (3 votes)

Fallen Angel 44

Fort Apache 44

Mr. and Mrs. Smith 43

Long-Haired Hare 43

Germany Year Zero 43 (2 votes)

Roadhouse 43

Les Enfants Terribles 43 (2 votes)

Les Parents Terribles 42

The Small Back Room 42

Scott of the Antarctic 42 ( 2 votes)

La Silence de la Mer 42

It Always Rains on Sunday 41

The Shanghai Gesture 41

Now, Voyager 41 (3 votes)

Leave Her to Heaven 40 (2 votes)

Hail the Conquering Hero 40 (2 votes)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 40

Sredni Vashtar 39 (2 votes)

The 47 Ronin 39

One Wonderful Sunday 38

A Run for Your Money 38

Stranger on the Third Floor 37 (2 votes)

The Stranger 37

The Pirate 37

How Green Was My Valley 36

The Mortal Storm 36

The Leopard Man 35

Christmas in July 35

Portrait of an Assassin 34

Adam's Rib 34 (3 votes)

Madame Bovary 34

The Fountainhead 34

Fast and Furry-ous 33

Moonrise 32

Listen to Britain 31

Miracle on 34th St. 31

Spring in a Small City 31

Phantom Lady 31

Red Hot Riding Hood 30

The Three Caballeros 30

Porky Pig's Feat 29

Green for Danger 29

La Terra Trema 28

State of the Union 27

Gaslight U.K. 26 (2 votes)

Yankee Doodle Daffy 26

Quai des Orfevres 25

The Postman Always Rings Twice 25

All the King's Men 24

The Reckless Moment 24

Foreign Correspondent 24

Jour de Fete 24

Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne 24

Duel in the Sun 23 (2 votes)

The Fantastic Night 23

In Which We Serve 22

Gaslight (U.S.A.) 22

Crossfire 22

Paisa 22

Begone Dull Care 21

Dark Passage 20

Introspection Tower 20

Pride and Prejudice 19

The Big Clock 18

Radio Dynamics 18

Heaven Can Wait 17

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 17

Siren of Atlantis 17

Saboteur 16

Suspicion 15

A Hen in the Wind 15

Possessed 14

Beyond the Forest 12

The Killers 12

Meet John Doe 11

Les Visiteurs du Soir 11

Woman of the Year 11

High Sierra 10

The Woman on the Beach 10

The Seventh Veil 10

The Long Voyage Home 9

Louisiana Story 9

Uncle Silas 9

My Name Is Julia Ross 7

Fires Were Started 7

Road to Utopia 7

Good Sam 7

Wonder Man 6

Mighty Joe Young 6

Berlin Express 5

Ziegfeld Follies 5

I Was a Male War Bride 4

The Lodger 3

A Foreign Affair 2

The Little Foxes 2

Susan and God 2

Yolanda and the Thief 1

this might be the best decade for american movies -- actually, it probably is. of the stuff in the top 75 i've seen (43, counting ties), i can't say i actively dislike a single one.

for all that ppl go on about how daring and new the easy riders/raging bull era was, i can't think of many '70s american films with the depth and inventiveness of most of the top 20 here.

also, for ILXors who consigned John Garfield to oblivion (aside from his cameo sitting at the bar in Daisy Kenyon):

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/images/1246evil.jpg

Feels very much like a Scorsese film.

More like if Richard Price had written a script in iambic pentameter.

Think I've seen about 55 of the top 75, but I can't really remember about 20 of those. I really need to see I Know Where I'm Going, plus about 50 others on the list.

Only vote for The Fountainhead from me, a socialist, makes me laugh. Thanks for the full list, I'll watch all those too eventually...

btw, if we do a '30s poll I could make 40 of my 50 picks Hollywood comedy features or shorts. To compensate for YOU KNOW WHO.

I hadn't (haven't) seen enough to properly vote here, but I'd like to register some props for Brute Force.

Kevin, hopefully you will be happy to know that because of this thread I cracked open the essential Ford to watch My Darling Clementine and Drums Along The Mohawk (1939) and intend to watch The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley this week.

I'm amazed that a film as UNAVAILABLE as Ambersons finished so high. (Not to mention one so compromised and mutilated.)

> UNAVAILABLE

£2.48 on amazon.co.uk...

It's hard to know a movie is compromised if you've never seen the non-compromised version.

all those P&P joints and nobody repped for the 49th parallel? huh.

Kevin, hopefully you will be happy to know that because of this thread I cracked open the essential Ford to watch My Darling Clementine and Drums Along The Mohawk (1939) and intend to watch The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley this week.

Very happy! Drums Along The Mohawk is my favorite eastern. And bring hankies to the latter two.

I'm amazed that a film as UNAVAILABLE as Ambersons finished so high. (Not to mention one so compromised and mutilated.)

Once again, unavailable to whom??? It's been available on VHS for decades, it's shown frequently on TV/cable (in fact, caught some of it while I was home recently), and I know for a fact that DVD copies are available for rent in Austin, Seattle, um, NYC, and no doubt other cities. Plus it's a hoary staple in film schools. Is it really so amazing that people have seen the thing? We're not talking The Other Side of the Wind or The Dreamers here.

As for the parenthetical matter, we all should have made our peace with that by now (unless you're rummaging through film archives in South America for the original cut/a chimera).

I was parodying Lord Sotosyn... Also, WHAT video stores in NYC? Kim's is gone.

It's hard to know a movie is compromised if you've never seen the non-compromised version.

I would make an exception if the last scene was not written or directed by the writer-director. And if other cuts have been well chronicled in bios.

Also, WHAT video stores in NYC? Kim's is gone.

was parodying Lord Sotosyn.

thought you would have chosen one of my anti-Wilder bon mots.

how the fukk could yall niggas leave off rome open city too

yall make me sick

omg, cankles right once a decade.

re Children of Paradise -- I rewatched this weekend, recognize its merits, and really don't give a damn about Garance and Baptiste.

i love baptiste! i think jean-louis barrault is hugely entertaining to watch. garance is sort of frustrating as a character, but deliberately right? mostly i love the milieu of the movie, the intimate story with big, rowdy, colorful backdrop. i think i love it in sort of the same way i love farewell, my concubine -- the whole overheated shakespearean vibe. and i guess i'm sort of a sucker for backstage dramas. (see also my enthusiasm for topsy-turvy, the band wagon, all about eve, etc.)

also, last night i watched dark passage (which got one vote above). wouldn't put it on any best-of ballots, but its whole p.o.v. gimmick for the first half-hour was fun, the story was enjoyably ridiculous, and the sanfran location shooting was nice.

Ugh I totally haven't even finished writing blurbs. Who knew 50 of them would take so long? Should I even bother finishing?

I have still never seen Dark Passage.

KJB, I always relish whatever you have to say about anything, but do with your time what you will.

Ok done! xoxo

tipsy otm about Dark Passage and even more especially otm than usual about Les enfants du paradis

but he's a MIME.

(casting Arletty in her mid-late 40s took some stones, tho)

Exactly. For which his father gives him a hard time. And furthermore, when it's time to make his move, he mimes out and lets the girl slip away. The tears of a mime, a heartbreaking story to which everyone can relate.

(Ha. I picture the speakerphone guy from Real Life chiming in with his opinion)

Seriously though, as someone who is old enough to have watched Schoolhouse Rock in its original airing, I saw enough summer replacement mime to last a lifetime. But the way that character is introduced is brilliantly handled- he's not just a mime imitating/bugging people as they go about their business- he's a mime who solves crimes!