1954's Best Movies: 70 Years Later

In keeping with previous polls, I've gone with the contenders in the top 2,000 films, but they now offer the entire starting spreadsheet. Here are the titles that carry through through the top 5,000 films ever.

2129	2067	Brigadoon	Minnelli, Vincente	1954	USA	108
2188	2124	Late Chrysanthemums	Naruse, Mikio	1954	Japan	101
2307	2341	Sound of the Mountain	Naruse, Mikio	1954	Japan	96
2474	2446	Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome	Anger, Kenneth	1954	USA	38
2506	2430	Magnificent Obsession	Sirk, Douglas	1954	USA	108
2585	2703	Creature From the Black Lagoon	Arnold, Jack	1954	USA	79
2672	2599	Fear	Rossellini, Roberto	1954	Italy	82
2681	2610	Wuthering Heights	Buñuel, Luis	1954	Mexico	90
2839	2788	Seven Brides for Seven Brothers	Donen, Stanley	1954	USA	103
3109	3110	Silver Lode	Dwan, Allan	1954	USA	81
3188	3000	Human Desire	Lang, Fritz	1954	USA	90
3263	3139	Carmen Jones	Preminger, Otto	1954	USA	105
3279	3158	Track of the Cat	Wellman, William	1954	USA	102
3344	3225	Gold of Naples, The	De Sica, Vittorio	1954	Italy	107
3382	3395	Them!	Douglas, Gordon	1954	USA	94
3563	3449	Twenty-Four Eyes	Kinoshita, Keisuke	1954	Japan	154
3645	3524	Dial M for Murder	Hitchcock, Alfred	1954	USA	105
3782	3673	River of No Return	Preminger, Otto	1954	USA	91
4160	3965	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Fleischer, Richard	1954	USA	127
4354	4223	Bread, Love and Dreams	Comencini, Luigi	1954	Italy	90
4414	4274	Animal Farm	Halas, John & Joy Batchelor	1954	UK	75
4630	4699	It Should Happen to You	Cukor, George	1954	USA	87
4648	4510	Back of Beyond, The	Heyer, John	1954	Australia	65
4907	6975	Crime Wave	de Toth, André	1954	USA	74

Top 5:

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, USA)
Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
Crime Wave (André de Toth, USA)

The Italians have it this year: Senso over Viaggio in Italia. Found Salt of the Earth pretty clumsy. Haven't seen On the Waterfront among others.

A few days ago I had an idea for a remake of Rear Window where everyone keeps their blinds drawn.

I don't appear to have seen anything from the lower list, unless I saw the Kenneth Anger on a compilation tape sometime.

I recently watched Brigadoon. That was a slog. Voting Rear Window.

A few days ago I had an idea for a remake of Rear Window where everyone keeps their blinds drawn.

Basically the opening shot of Rope repeated for 90 minutes. Probably Chantal Akerman already did this.

I believe you can vote for Empire in another of these polls

Top five:

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, USA)
A Star is Born (George Cukor)
Journey to Italy (Rossellini)

I never vote in these because there's always a few major films I haven't seen; this time it's Sansho and, ouch, Seven Samurai. I've also yet to catch any Visconti.

I did happen to watch both Johnny Guitar and Voyage to Italy very recently. I was quite entranced by the former but a little perplexed by the latter's rep, though the more abstract new wave (or proto- in this case) stuff often leaves me cold. That said, I can still recall some of it rather vividly which probably means it affected me more than I consciously realized.

I had no idea Buñuel did a version of Wuthering Heights--anyone seen that?

Yup. One of his more erotic films so long as you're okay with the $14 budget.

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, USA)

So happy you're happy, amongst so many other quiet qualities

On the Waterfront (Rear Window somewhat close). Nothing from the runners-up list.

Sansho is pretty much perfect.

Sansho gets my vote, but what a tremendous year.

It Should Happen To You (down low on the runners-up list) really deserves serious reappraisal in this time of influencers and social media.

Grisbi becomes a real OTT action spectacular towards the end, fucking love it.

Sansho without a second's hesitation

(xposts) I saw It Should Happen to You once a long time ago, but you've made me want to see it again. There's a whole genre in American films of the '50s about rampant consumerism: that, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, A Face in the Crowd, others I'm sure.

Shocked Them! isn’t in the top 2000.

Dial M for Murder's kind of a drag except for the detective.

What Hitchcock tries to do with 3D - not as a gimmick but a way of rethinking how you compose a frame - makes it a very worthy film. Unfortunately, that's the catch - you need to see it in 3D. Without that element, there's not much to recommend. I heard the 3D Blu-ray might be too dark or something to that effect, but theaters can still rent an actual 3D film print - highly recommended if you ever get the chance.

Forgot the 3D--I've only seen it on TV.

I find the 50s Mizoguchi beautiful but distant, like everything is happening on the other side of a sedative screen. Also, except for Street of Shame, they all blend together in my head and become a single blur of bamboo houses, samurai, elaborate robes, and exploited women. The 30s films of his I've seen are way more exciting and jolting (which admittedly and obviously wasn't his latter-day goal).

no one even considering voting for seven samurai? seven samurai?!?!?!? come on. that's my vote

takashi shimura is in seven samurai and godzilla, he had to have been japan's biggest box office star of 1954

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

rear window ahead of waterfront, with a third pick coming from the reserve list in the form of seven brides

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

There's at least one big Godzilla fan lurking out there.

the political intent behind waterfront is idiotic and it makes me unable to enjoy the movie

SANSHO THE BAILIFF (Kenji Mizoguchi; Japan) [#84]	10
CHIKAMATSU MONOGATARI (Kenji Mizoguchi; Japan) [#817]	0

Impressive grouping

The best one is Johnny Guitar.

the political intent behind waterfront is idiotic and it makes me unable to enjoy the movie

Orson Welles mentioned this when someone asked about Kazan in 1982. (I think it was at a guest lecture for a French film school):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6DC4AjTG2M

I voted for Sansho the Bailiff, but FWIW, Rear Window, Seven Samurai, Johnny Guitar and Journey to Italy are all possibly my favorite films from those respective directors, and Chikamatsu Monogatari is a masterpiece too. It really was a tremendous year.

OTW so shrewdly inverts what actually happened that its ersatz leftism impresses me in the right circumstances.

I went Hollywood this year and voted for Rear Window last week b/c it's the film I would've watched at that moment -- the only lodestar in these exercises.

I loved Rear Window,Seven Samurai,Johnny Guitar and Sansho the Bailiff, but ended up voting for La Strada, a sentimental favorite film from a director I know you all hate

haven't seen Chikamatsu Monogatari (The Crucified Lovers) yet, but it is on the Criterion Channel

La Strada is crushingly sad in the end, not many films do that so effectively for me.

I was kinda shocked by ILX’s low regard for Fellini in the Morbsies poll.

missed this poll, Sansho The Bailiff would have got +1 otherwise. I have had dreams about this movie, it's totally imprinted on my subconscious self.

I feel like Fellini is easy to fall in love with particularly as a budding young film enthusiast and then also easy to fall out of love with, as sentimental or facile or self-indulgent. I love at least four of his movies including La Strada. He's defensible for bringing Giulietta Masina to the world alone.

I like I Vitelloni without reservation.