REVEALED-THE ILX TOP 75 FILMS OF THE 1950s

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Save a movie palace, yo.

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75. Rabbit of Seville
Chuck Jones, 1950
POINTS: 44
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“i prefer rabbit of seville bcz bugs in drag = HOTT”

-garth s (mark s) from T/S - Rabbit of Seville v. What's Opera, Doc (aka "Kill the Wabbit")

BONUS FEATURE:

Jeez, kinda low, no?

Oops, I'll send comments as soon as I can find them... or just post them.

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73 A. Aparajito
Satyajit Ray, 1956
POINTS: 45
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS?

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73 B. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
Chuck Jones, 1953
POINTS: 45
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS?

BONUS FEATURE

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72. Orpheus
Jean Cocteau, 1950
POINTS: 46
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS?

Aparajito: Jeez, kinda low, no?

This is why, much as I love Looney Tunes, I didn't vote for any. Apples and oranges.

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70 A. Harvey
Henry Koster, 1950
POINTS: 48
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“if i had to pick what i was doing with my reality, i'd definitely choose drunk with bunny.” & “if harvey is corny then 99% of movies from that era are corny, bro (which is pretty well true but i don't think you should be using this in a derogatory way). harvey is an incredibly funny movie and his performance in it is terrific.”

- the schef (adam schefter ha ha)

“But... but... Harvey is brilliant. And Stewart in it is wonderful!”

-James Morrison

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70 B. High Society
Charles Walters, 1956
POINTS: 48
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Now I'm trying to watch High Society, but am basically skipping around to the musical numbers…Which make it well worth it, especially when they play "Now You Has Jazz" and Der Bingle introduces all the cats in Satchmo's band by name.”

-The Redd 47 Ronin (Ken L)

saw Orpheus again a couple weeks ago; a tad goofy, with the Underworld motorcyclists and all, but better than Les Enfants Terrible (dir Melville).

xpost Depends on if your a Chuck Jones man or a Frank Tashlin woman.

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69. I’m All Right Jack
John Boulting, 1959
POINTS: 50
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“What about 'I'm Alright Jack'? Excellent film and Sellers is superb in it.”

-DavidM

“Apart from his Kubrick films, Sellars is at his best as a comic actor in the Boulting bros. comedies 'Heavens Above!' and 'I'm All Right Jack'. They're screened annually on channel 4. Perhaps too provincial for some tastes, though, but i love them.”

-pete s

“'I'm All Right Jack' definitely one of his greatest performances, and a real late-'50s time capsule to boot. Marvellous.”

-retort pouch

BONUS FEATURE

I've never seen all of Harvey or HiSoc, and ain't burnin' to.

yay Jack.

(O Tabulator, you can slow down a little if it's practical)

I'm All Right Jack is great but only when Sellers is on-screen, really. Oh, and the title song.

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67 A. The Asphalt Jungle
John Huston, 1950
POINTS: 53
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS?

BONUS FEATURE

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67 B. Lola Montès
Max Ophüls, 1955
POINTS: 53
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Easily one of the greatest films about the cult of celebrity and the (literal) media circus ever made. Before Paris and Britney and Lilo and whoever, there was Lola. Not only did Ophüls go out with a great movie, he ended it with one of the greatest closing shots of all time too.”

- The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain)

BONUS FEATURE

Asphalt Jungle is fine, except for all the sentimental horseshit noted by Manny Farber.

Thought about Lola M but couldn't quite justify putting a second Ophuls on, when it's so much more chilly than my first. (And Martine Carol is kind of a blank slate.) Haven't seen the new restoration though.

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66. Kiss Me Kate
George Sidney, 1953
POINTS: 53
VOTES: 2
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“Cock lust in 3-D! And a proscenium so screechingly camp that not even the preposterous Howard Keel can shout it down.”

- Kevin John Bozelka

BONUS FEATURE

except for Ann Miller's scenes, better w/out 3D.

There better be some actual great musicals above this one.

I think James Whitmore is the only non-animated actor with 2 films so far.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0926235/

It is a great musical, hooker. Waaaay better than High Snoozeiety.

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65. Othello/ The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice
Orson Welles, 1952
POINTS: 54
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Despite the crazily stretched production history, as visually grand as any of Welles' post-Hollywood films. MacLiammoir's hissy Iago is perfected deviousness.”

-Dr. Morbius

O Tabulator, you can slow down a little if it's practical

No, don't slow down! This is breathtaking. And I'm LOVING the Bonus Features!!!!! You rock HARD, Farner/Grisso/McCain!!!

Also, how did I’m All Right Jack garner two votes but three comments?

Kim's had the Othello DVD (1999 and I think OOP?), so good luck.

I think the comments are from ILX in general.

Ah ok.

Yeah, I know I didn't send any comments in, but I'm hoping a random snipe of mine from elsewhere on ILX makes its way in somehow ... that is if a film I voted on/saw ever shows up in this countdown.

Just for the record, I wasn't the one who voted Kiss Me Kate as the number one greatest film of the 1950s.

haha, i didn't even notice that wrinkle!

I was.

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64. Johnny Guitar
Nicholas Ray, 1954
POINTS: 56
VOTES: 4
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

" Starring Joan Crawford in Red, Mercedes McCambridge in White (with a voice scarier than the one she provided for The Devil in The Exorcist), and, oh yeah, Sterling Hayden as the title character. "

-Kevin John Bozelka

“johnny guitar worked for me, weirdly enough”

― s1utsky from:Movies to play to seduce a date.

“Mercedes McCambridge also GRATE in 'Johnny Guitar' - hot cowgirl action!”

― Andrew L

BONUS FEATURE

I might have voted for "High Society", I can't remember. I love it, anyway.

I would've considered JG if any of the rest of it was in this ballpark:

Johnny: How many men have you forgotten?
Vienna: As many women as you've remembered.
Johnny: Don't go away.
Vienna: I haven't moved.
Johnny: Tell me something nice.
Vienna: Sure, what do you want to hear?
Johnny: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited. Tell me.
Vienna: [without feeling] All those years I've waited.
Johnny: Tell me you'd a-died if I hadn't come back.
Vienna: [without feeling] I woulda died if you hadn't come back.
Johnny: Tell me you still love me like I love you.
Vienna: [without feeling] I still love you like you love me.
Johnny: [bitterly] Thanks. Thanks a lot.

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63. Ivan The Terrible, Part II
Sergei M. Eisenstein & M. Filimonova, 1958
POINTS: 63
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“well arguably the second "Ivan" film is a critique of Stalin. the whole film is about the paranoia that comes with power, and the death meted out as a result--it makes Ivan into a simultaneously grotesque and tragic figure. anyway the "Ivan" films are the strangest films you will ever see, I'm confident. no way can they be reduced to either Stalinist paen *or* or Stalinist critique.”

― amateurist

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62. Europa ‘51
Roberto Rossellini, 1952
POINTS: 64
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“WIth Rossellini's Flowers of St. Francis, one of the most serious treatments of Christianity by a great filmmaker.”

-Dr. Morbius

BONUS FEATURE

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61. Elevator To The Gallows/ Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
Louis Malle, 1958
POINTS: 64
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

“elevator to the gallows is pretty fun. moreau's performance is great, and i love the guy who plays the german tourist.”

― a spectator bird

“I would like to put in a mention for Louis Malles "Lift To The Scaffold" - less interesting stylistically than the efforts of many of his peers, but an incredibly vivid and evocative atmosphere. “

― Nordicskillz

"I saw this by myself in rep and then had dinner w/my dad & sister afterwards. Our conversation was dominated by me recounting the whole film to them blow by blow. I rarely do that, but the thing was so absorbing and well crafted. I also vividly recall many of the male viewers at the screening gasping at the first sight of the tourist's gullwing Mercedes."

― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain)

BONUS FEATURE

Whoa, slow down, are you going to reveal them all today? I've only seen one of these and would like to read comments.

Wow, Elevator to the Gallows sounds nowhere near as good as Lift to the Scaffold. The UK/US divide hadn't occurred to me before.

(x-post)

...and that'll be it for today. I'll be back w/60-46 tomorrow.

not that it matters, but I think a film that got 64 (2) should be ahead of one that got 64 (3). I think the Village Voice called it the Passion Index.

Grrr. I want them all today!

Anyhoo, glad to see Joan Crawford make an appearance, prolly her only one here. That exchange you quote is indeed eternal, Morbs. But my fave is:

Emma: I'm going to kill you.
Vienna: I know. If I don't kill you first.

It's all in the delivery.

JC didn't like this one, btw: "I should have had my head examined. No excuse for a picture being this bad or for me making it." Roy Newquist, Conversations with Joan Crawford (New York: Berkley Books, 1980), 106.

I was a bit harsh calling High Society a snooze. But "skipping around to the musical numbers" really captures the fate of this film as well as soooo many others. The curse of the genre picture.

I was, for the record, one of the two voting for Ivan, Pt. 2, though I'm sort of feeling guilty about it now considering it was filmed in the '40s, et al.

A lot of the films from 1950 were filmed in the 40s too ;-)

I rescind my ballot.

(Figured it wouldn't be a film poll results thread without me saying that.)

Yeah I would've voted for Ivan the Terrible but felt schizy about including it as a 1950s film.

"Asphalt Jungle" and "Lola Montes" both way too low, I'd say. I don't mind the sentimental stuff in "Asphalt Jungle" - you'll find it in every other Cagney or Robinson flick, I took it as gangster movie convention (though not noir convention, I admit.) Though to be honest I'm not even 100% certain on which parts we're talking about - not the ending, I hope? Or the speech by the police inspector? Cuz that's my all-time fave example of a director using code restrictions to his advantage.

"Lola Montes" could be seen as a bit...overripe, in a way, but I think it's a masterpiece of sorts.

I don't necessairly skip to the songs in "High Society" but I'll admit I watch it more like an old-skool TV special than a movie per se.

Very curious about that Eisenstein!

"Lift To The Scaffold" probably the most archetypal noir not made in the USA? I don't like all of it cos I can't stand Jeanne Moureau, but it is pretty impressively dark and feverish. Love the scene with the german tourists.

xp: Yes, the horsey face-licking included! Cagney-Robinson sentiment was pulpy; a lot of Huston's in AJ is artsy-fartsy.

I rescind my ballot.

I accuse my parents.

O no! Now the big break.

Don't remember anything about Othello; do remember "Yes, you're next/You're so next" from "Rabbit of Seville."

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60. Smiles of A Summer Night
Ingmar Bergman, 1955
POINTS: 65
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Smiles of a Summer Night is one of the best sex comedies.”

― Dr Morbius

“I don't get the "humorlessness" complaint either. While not a laff riot, Smiles of A Summer Night is a great Lubitsch-style comedy.”

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn

BONUS FEATURE

hay gays i think i forgot to submit my ballot, although i found it on my hard drive:

Vertigo
Night and the City
A Man Escaped
Sunset Blvd
Singin' in the Rain
In a Lonely Place
Rear Window
Orpheus
Nights of Cabiria
Pickpocket

Kiss Me Deadly
Gun Crazy
The Wrong Man
Strangers on a Train
Sansho the Bailiff
Ivan the Terrible, Part 2
Bob le flambeur
Imitation of Life
Night of the Hunter
Touch of Evil

Umberto D.
Some like it Hot
The Man in the White Suit
The 400 Blows
The Killing
12 Angry Men
Diabolique
Wages of Fear
The River
The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Lavender Hill Mob
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Night and Fog

(i'm happy with the results, obv)

I thought "Duck Amuck" was one of those flicks the French had to discover before we did.

― Eric H., Tuesday, November 18, 2008 7:42 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

Maybe, but I ain't French, you see.

I'm just saying it wasn't an American thing first.

Well, aside from being made and appreciated by people in general in America.

(Jerry Lewis onstage interview w/ Bogdanovich here this weekend)

1. Rear Window
2. Vertigo
3. Seven Samurai
4. North by Northwest
5. The Night of the Hunter
6. What's Opera, Doc?
7. Singin' in the Rain
8. The African Queen
9. All That Heaven Allows
10. On the Waterfront
11. Anatomy of a Murder
12. Born Yesterday
13. The Red Balloon
14. The 400 Blows
15. Sweet Smell of Success
16. The Men
17. A Night to Remember
18. A Face in the Crowd
19. War of the Worlds
20. Tokyo Story

Leftover blurbs:

A Face in the Crowd
Why are there so few good movies about TV? A Face in the Crowd might
be the best that isn't about the news (though My Favorite Year has a
place in my heart). As a warning, it can be hard to take: The movie's
fear of homespun Southern charisma turning Trojan horse for business
fascism is easily dispelled recalling the awkward handshake between
Elvis and Nixon. But this rise-and-fall story is more compelling and
sensual than any biopic that followed its blueprint, because director
Elia Kazan isn't afraid to get inside the carnality and fun of being
dark, hysterical Andy Griffith--the baton-twirling scene remains the
kind of classic that shows just how tame the imitators are.

The Red Balloon
It seems like a dream to me now, or something that actually happened.
Also a great children's book using photos from the film.

War of the Worlds
I actually love the Spielberg remake, which adds evocations of 9/11
and plausible pessimism about crowd panic and strangers. But the '50s
sci-fi classic has its own distinctly creepy look, sound, and logic,
especially the arcs of sparks shot out by the alien ships, who
represent everything you don't know--the bomb, the Russians, the
future--coming to destroy everything you do.

Anatomy of a Murder
One difference between the early '40s and late '50s is the span of
American history between Dooley Wilson and Humphrey Bogart in
Casablanca and Duke Ellington and James Stewart in Anatomy of a
Murder. Where Bogart grumpily tolerates the black help until he needs
the music like a drink, Jimmy Stewart sits in with genius, and no hint
of white authority (though notice none of the black musicians object).
Hepness has become an entryway into the real world where African
Americans live--and the fact that they live there makes it more real
onscreen. It also brings us to a fresh sexual suggestiveness and
frankness, a nonjudgmental view of alcoholism, and the recognition
that courts of law are a lot like courts of tennis or basketball, and
that this is their beauty. The Upper Peninsula locations,
lake-vacation atmosphere, wall-to-wall Ellington, crackling dialogue,
easy structure, and ironic looks of George C. Scott make this my
all-time favorite courtroom drama.

Born Yesterday
It took a long time for me to like William Holden in this or any other
movie, but I appreciate him more now, maybe because I see how
personalities like his are needed in the real world: The teacher, with
his condescending smile and false humility, can sometimes straighten
us out. And while I wish it were clearer that Judy Holliday had
something to teach him in return, I love how lispy and casually dreamy
she gets when acknowledging her ignorance, as if noticing the world
and giving a shit held appeal for her as some new card game to master.

The Men
I remember nothing except Brando being powerfully sensual even in a
wheelchair, and his rebellion among men in an institution being as
exciting as the one in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

A Night to Remember
The Titanic is earth now, and we're all going down. But none of the
more recent environmental disaster movies are a better metaphor than
this founding horror film about community, which is far more surreal
and convincing than the James Cameron epic weeper if only because
Titanic's FX gloss, length, and suspenseful romantic subplot get in
the way of its basic situation, with all its dread and injustice.

Having just re-watched The Red Balloon for the first time since childhood, I'd yank that outta there for Body Snatchers. Obv there are tons of movies in the Top 75 I haven't seen...

I also have a big soft spot for Creature from the Black Lagoon, which I saw in 3-D. The music is awesome. The sequels are hilariously bad though.

forgot to vote on this one! my top two would've been vertigo and duck amuck, so i'm reasonably happy.

I want to thank the law offices of Farner, Grisso, & McCain for a fantastic poll! Seriously, great work!

My ballot:

1. Imitation of Life – As perfect a capitalist product as has ever been created in the USA, delivering contradictory pleasures sometimes within a single shot. Classical Hollywood never topped it.

2. Angel Face – Preminger’s unblinking eyes make sure we’ll want to scratch out our own.

3. Night of The Hunter – The terrible, horrible capacity for evil in us all.

4. Duck Amuck – The most terrifying film ever made.

5. The Long Gray Line - The greatest of Ford’s living, breathing organisms. More movingly than anything in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, the Christmas scene demonstrates community formation through history making. If you can make it through these five minutes without bawling, then you need to take a break from ILX.

6. The End – I felt so incredibly alone at the end (get it?) of this.

7. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Rosenbaum called this a “capitalist Potemkin” and he’s right! Where Eisenstein’s editing offered a filmic correlation to dialectical materialism, the remarkable final track in to the Dorothy-Lorelei coalition exemplifies capitalism’s repetition compulsion. And give it up for George Winslow who should have won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as lecherous piggy in the making Henry Spofford III.

8. Singin’ In The Rain – Postmodernism avant la lettre (or après if you believe Lawrence Grossberg).

9. Female on the Beach – The cost of nothing. Joan Crawford’s greatest film.

10. All About Eve – Patricia White in Uninvited: “It is one thing to love and emulate Bette Davis; it is another thing entirely to succumb to the charms of Barbara Bates” (213).

11. Track of the Cat – William H. Clothier’s colorless color photography makes this the one classical Hollywood film you could say you’ve seen without actually seeing. But that’s to ignore one of the most miserable family melodramas pinned to celluloid and Robert Mitchum’s quintessential inhabitation of the surly breadwinning male.

12. Harriet Craig – A prequel of sorts to Female on the Beach which means the ending is a happy one.

13. Wagon Master – Another Ford organism, his favorite among his westerns and mine too. In just 86 minutes, the film feels as if it always has been and always will be.

14. Rio Bravo – Thank you, Fred Zinnemann!

15. Torch Song - A fine documentary about Joan Crawford which just so happens to feature the greatest line in motion picture history: “Lobster Newburg and coffee.”

16. Bonjour Tristesse – Jean Seberg’s perfect summer starts to slip away from her as Preminger’s ever-gliding camera picks up every shard culminating in the devastating final shot.

17. Bend of the River – During the winter of 2000, all three of our immediate surrounding neighbors bitched at us for shoveling snow near their property. And then suddenly I couldn’t get this western out of my head. There is still Manifest Destiny in America even if the space to conquer is just a six-foot stretch of alleyway.

18. All That Heaven Allows – Gawd let Sirk have one unironic masterpiece!

19. Queen Bee – Joan Crawford’s Eva is not the villain here (well, not the only villain).

20. Shadows – And thus began a life of sin – Hollywood’s not Cassavetes’.

21. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman – A world where God himself is chaos. Eurotrash dance amongst the ruins of their civilization as pianos sink into the sand and headless statues pay witness to cars dropping in the ocean. Love, the mad, underappreciated Albert Lewin.

22. The Other Woman – Hugo Haas gets reflexive which is sort of like saying a mirror gets reflexive.

23. Hiroshima Mon Amour – To paraphrase Barthes “what’s terrible about narrative is that it makes the monstrous viable.”

24. Awaara – Charlie Chaplin – the Raj Kapoor of Hollywood.

25. Beat The Devil – As with Minnelli’s The Pirate (1948), I’m not sure we’ve caught up with this film yet.

26. Eaux d'artifice – The fire in water.

27. Edge of Hell – Just when you thought Hugo Haas couldn’t get any more bathetic, in walks Flip The Dog.

28. Kiss Me Kate – Cock lust in 3-D! And a proscenium so screechingly camp that not even the preposterous Howard Keel can shout it down.

29. A Movie – If the USA had a movie trailer.

30. Susan Slept Here – Frank Tashlin’s most sustained bit of lunacy. And narrated by an Oscar!

31. Johnny Guitar – Starring Joan Crawford in Red, Mercedes McCambridge in White (with a voice scarier than the one she provided for The Devil in The Exorcist), and, oh yeah, Sterling Hayden as the title character.

32. Strange Fascination – Hugo Haas at his most self-lacerating, quite literally at one point.

33. Father of The Bride – Along with Minnelli’s even more frightening The Long, Long Trailer (which I forgot to nominate), this film is the reason why we cannot determine genre by audience reaction alone.

34. Glen or Glenda? – The ultimate in ineptness as avant-garde serendipity.

35. Murder by Contract – Alternate title: Death by Life (at least if you live in a capitalist economy). Also, I love films you can snap along to.

36. Nightcats – Out of focus shots of kitties fuck with our concepts of figure and ground.

37. It Should Happen To You – I watched this immediately after Stalker. Where Tarkovsky’s film seemed like a command from on high, Cukor punches his film full of holes so we can worm our own way in and out of it, a perfect model of democracy in the belly of the Hollywood beast.

38. Pickup – Hugo Haas at his sleaziest which took some doing. Keep a Wet Nap nearby.

39. Mother India – India, where they manage to make a film in which characters spontaneously burst into songs about despair and poverty. And then it becomes one of the most popular things in the universe.

40. Ruby Gentry – Marvel as Jennifer Jones takes out her revenge on the earth…like actual dirt. From King Vidor in his high delirious period.

Singin' in the Rain is a little mean toward its villainess (though it helps that Jean Hagen actually dubbed Debbie Reynolds in most scenes rather than the other way around)

This isn't true. Hagen only dubbed the lines (actually, I think it's only one line) that Kathy was rerecording for Lina. Betty Noyes dubbed Reynolds' singing.

Fun fact: Kim Fowley's dad, Douglas, plays the harried director.

Right you are about Jean Hagen, though I think you'll forgive my confusion:

'If the subject of movie dubbing is confusing to some trying to connect who is who, then what about the strange set-up connected with the classic MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain (1952)? This merry mix-up of real life dubbing was addressed in Ray Hagen’s article on Jean Hagen in Film Fan Monthly (December 1968): "In the film, Debbie Reynolds has been hired to re-dub Hagen’s dialogue and songs in the latter’s first talking picture. We see the process being done in a shot of Reynolds ... matching her dialogue to Hagen’s and synchronizing it while watching a scene from the film. But the voice that is used to replace Hagen’s shrill, piercing one is not Reynolds’ but Hagen’s own quite lovely natural voice—meaning that Jean Hagen dubs Debbie Reynolds’ dubbing Jean Hagen! To further confuse matters, the voice we hear as Hagen mimes "Would You?", supposedly supplied by Reynolds, is that of yet a third girl ... [Betty Royce]". Confusing? Well, there’s more. Although Debbie sang in the movie, notably the title tune (dubbing Hagen!), Debbie herself is dubbed again by Betty Royce in her duet with Gene Kelly "You Are My Lucky Star."

'Like Debbie Reynolds, other actresses or singers who were quite able to sing their own songs were still dubbed. One reason was money; if a studio had a music track but the vocalist who recorded it was unable to film, they just got someone else to lip sync the song on the screen.'

http://www.classicimages.com/past_issues/view/?x=/1998/november98/idibthee.html

So that is Reynolds singing "Singin' in the Rain"...

.. or Gene!

Yes, that's Reynolds on the title tune. And I've heard both Betty Noyes and Betty Royce but I believe the former is the correct name.

Yes, Betty Noyes!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0637529/

I'm sorry to perpetrate two errors in one thread!

I mean perpetuate. I'll go soak my head.

I mean, I'm an auteurist too and all, but even I recognize Carrie and Dressed to Kill as among De Palma's best films.

I don't think I'm an auteurist, and Femme Fatale is head and shoulders above those two. (The second half of DtK is kind of appalling.)

I'm an incorrigible auteurist and I think Femme Fatale is his best film.

xpost Oh pshaw, Pete. And again, I really loved your blurbs.

You'd really have to be an auteurist to like Femme Fatale. No two ways about that in my opinion.

or a Rebecca Romijn-Stamos fan.

Actually I have no clue what the argument is about. Just filling in the blanks.

Watched Vertigo for the first time last night, thanks to this poll. And I loved it, well done ILX.

Mission Accomplished

The latest Cahiers all-time list puts our #2 ahead of our #1. (also, no Brit films in their top 100)

http://www.cahiersducinema.com/article1337.html

This was maybe the best reveal thread. Or just the gayest.

Everyone's in character and it just works.

Really enjoyed reading this thread...

Still love that Morbs, one of ILX's two foremost anti-gay marriage advocates, is so in love with Father of the Bride.

nothing disconnective there -- I love Paris Is Burning and am still pretty dragphobic.

(also, FoB is pretty ambivalent at best about marriage)

(ie, Vincente Minnelli would've only favored gay marriage to Judy Garland)

Yep, '50s still a dark period in American history.

We were all in tip-top form here.

Tracy has a nightmare in FoB! you should watch it. xp

Kevin thread's late-innings MVP

Kevin was hilarious.

I look for any opportunity to revive my Wilder beef with Morbs.

Oh look, even he likes that movie that got turned into a Steve Martin Short movie.

33. Father of The Bride – Along with Minnelli’s even more frightening The Long, Long Trailer (which I forgot to nominate), this film is the reason why we cannot determine genre by audience reaction alone.

I still can't sit through Shane, On the Beach, Rebel Without a Cause.

Peck is a case study for the effects of exposure to nuclear radiation.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, November 13, 2008 12:49 PM

3 Kurosawas in the top 20 seems to me the poll's biggest overreaction. On the whole, these film poll results were ILX's best.

I still can't sit through Rebel Without a Cause.

^not gay

Well, no, I commit homosexual acts.

Wish I'd been posting regularly then. My top 5 would be Sweet Smell of Success, On the Waterfront, The 400 Blows, The Apu Trilogy, and Paths of Glory; after that, Rear Window, Night of the Hunter, The Killing, maybe The Ten Commandments (absurd, I know), and something else--A Face in the Crowd and The Harder They Fall come to mind. Mostly predictable stuff.

I missed the first 20 minutes or so, but watched most of The Browning Version (Asquith, 1951) last night...surprisingly intense! Redgrave was great, and I really wanted to push Crocker-Harris' wife into traffic. Sort of an English Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Wish I'd been posting regularly then. My top 5 would be Sweet Smell of Success, On the Waterfront, The 400 Blows, The Apu Trilogy, and Paths of Glory; after that, Rear Window, Night of the Hunter, The Killing, maybe The Ten Commandments (absurd, I know), and something else--A Face in the Crowd and The Harder They Fall come to mind. Mostly predictable stuff.

― clemenza, Wednesday, September 7, 2011 9:48 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post

You didn't vote? I thought you had, but the email records are long gone so I have no proof. I do know you came out for the 60s one (and IIRC posted on the thread too).

I didn't start posting regularly till April 2009, so I missed this by a few months. Depending upon how it was scored, I might have moved Night of the Hunter into first.

A call to re-evaluate Stanley Kramer and On the Beach

http://filmint.nu/?p=5264

(i've never seen more than a few minutes of it btw)

anyone ever seen this novelization?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet#Novelization

SUMMARY (17years late)

75. Rabbit of Seville (Chuck Jones, 1950) POINTS: 44 VOTES: 2
73 A. Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956) POINTS: 45 VOTES: 2
73 B. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (Chuck Jones, 1953) POINTS: 45 VOTES: 2
72. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950) POINTS: 46 VOTES: 2
70 A. Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950) POINTS: 48 VOTES: 2
70 B. High Society (Charles Walters, 1956) POINTS: 48 VOTES: 2
69. I’m All Right Jack (John Boulting, 1959) POINTS: 50 VOTES: 2
67 A. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950) POINTS: 53 VOTES: 2
67 B. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955) POINTS: 53 VOTES: 2
66. Kiss Me Kate (George Sidney, 1953) POINTS: 53 VOTES: 2 #1s: 1
65. Othello/ The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (Orson Welles, 1952) POINTS: 54 VOTES: 2
64. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954) POINTS: 56 VOTES: 4
63. Ivan The Terrible, Part II (Sergei M. Eisenstein & M. Filimonova, 1958) POINTS: 63 VOTES: 2
62. Europa ‘51 (Roberto Rossellini, 1952) POINTS: 64 VOTES: 2
61. Elevator To The Gallows/ Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Louis Malle, 1958) POINTS: 64 VOTES: 3
60. Smiles of A Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955) POINTS: 65 VOTES: 3
59. Le Amiche/The Girlfriends (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955) POINTS: 67 VOTES: 2
58. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959) POINTS: 67 VOTES: 2 #1s: 1
57. Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953) POINTS: 68 VOTES: 2
56. Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955) POINTS: 68 VOTES: 3
55. Pickup On South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953) POINTS: 70 VOTES: 4
54. Invasion of The Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956) POINTS: 71 VOTES: 3
53. Un Chant D’Amour (Jean Genet, 1950) POINTS: 72 VOTES: 2
52. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) POINTS: 72 VOTES: 5
51. The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) POINTS: 73 VOTES: 3
50. Shane (George Stevens, 1953) POINTS: 75VOTES: 3
49. Plan 9 From Outer Space (Edward D. Wood Jr., 1959) POINTS: 78 VOTES: 3
48. Rebel Without A Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) POINTS: 78 VOTES: 5
47. La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954) POINTS: 80 VOTES: 3
46. Night and The City (Jules Dassin, 1950) POINTS: 81 VOTES: 3
45. The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951) POINTS: 82 VOTES: 3
44. Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959) POINTS: 83 VOTES: 3
42 A. Diary of A Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951) POINTS: 87 VOTES: 3
42 B. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953) POINTS: 87 VOTES: 3
40 A. Madame de.../The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1953) POINTS: 94 VOTES: 4
40 B. On The Beach (Stanley Kramer, 1959) POINTS: 94 VOTES: 4
39. On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) POINTS: 96 VOTES: 5
37 A. Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956) POINTS: 99 VOTES: 5
37 B. What’s Opera Doc? (Chuck Jones, 1957) POINTS: 99 VOTES: 5
36. Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) POINTS: 100 VOTES: 4
35. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957) POINTS: 101 VOTES: 5
34. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) POINTS: 102 VOTES: 5 #1s: 1
33. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer (uncredited), 1955) POINTS: 105 VOTES: 3
32. Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953) POINTS: 107 VOTES: 4
30 A. A Man Escaped/ Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (Robert Bresson, 1956) POINTS: 110 VOTES: 4
30 B. Ace In The Hole/The Big Carnival (Billy Wilder, 1951) POINTS: 110 VOTES: 4
29. Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957) POINTS: 113 VOTES: 4 #1s: 1
28. In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) POINTS: 113 VOTES: 7
27. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957) POINTS: 115 VOTES: 4
26. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959) POINTS: 117 VOTES: 5
25. Strangers On A Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951) POINTS: 117 VOTES: 6
24. Ugetsu/ Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) POINTS: 118 VOTES: 5
23. Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958) POINTS: 126 VOTES: 5
22. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) POINTS: 127 VOTES: 5
21. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) POINTS: 129 VOTES: 6
20. Hiroshima mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959) POINTS: 129 VOTES: 5 #1s: 1
19. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959) POINTS: 134 VOTES: 7 #1s: 1
18. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) POINTS: 135 VOTES: 6
17. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952) POINTS: 140 VOTES: 5
16. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955) POINTS: 153 VOTES: 6
15. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) POINTS: 159 VOTES: 6

14. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959) POINTS: 162 VOTES: 7
13. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) POINTS: 163 VOTES: 6
12. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) POINTS: 166 VOTES: 7
11. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955) POINTS: 178 VOTES: 7 #1s: 1
10. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) POINTS: 180 VOTES: 8 #1s: 1
9. Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 1953) POINTS: 184 VOTES: 5 #1s: 1
8. North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) POINTS: 194 VOTES: 8
7. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) POINTS: 220
VOTES: 8 #1s: 1
6. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) POINTS: 232 VOTES: 10 #1s: 1
5. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) POINTS: 239 VOTES: 8
4. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) POINTS: 240 VOTES: 10 #1s: 1
3. Singin’ In The Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952) POINTS: 249 VOTES: 9
2. Night of The Hunter
(Charles Laughton & Robert Mitchum (uncredited), 1955) POINTS: 318 VOTES: 11
1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) POINTS: 358 VOTES: 11 #1s: 1