REVEALED-THE ILX TOP 75 FILMS OF THE 1950s

BILL
I can't believe you're making this
up - it sounds like something out
of an old Clyde Fitch play...

MARGO
Clyde Fitch, thought you may not
think so, was well before my time!

BILL
(laughs)
I've always denied the legend that
you were in 'Our American Cousin'
the night Lincoln was shot...

MARGO
I don't think that's funny!

$2 for Eric!!!!!!!!!

shouldn't that be a $3 for me?

Ikiru is the hardest I have ever cried at a movie ever

Tsk tsk...not knowing our All About Eve inside and out.

Yeah; I like baseball, too.

Is Kiss Me Kate really the only MGM musical to make the list so far?! Perverse.

Yeah; I like baseball, too.

Who doesn't?

Short takes FWIW:

In a Lonely Place: Love the club scenes and Los Angeles night scenes, but didn't quite get caught up the first time. Maybe I just don't buy that murderousness and emotional violence come from the same place.

12 Angry Men: It's painful waiting for the plot points to clock in on third look (and doesn't Henry Fonda have his jury-swaying strategy planned out from the start?). But edifying righteousness and a good setup go a long way. I really do believe a lot of tough-on-crime types are punishing children or themselves.

Ugetsu: Fell asleep at the theater both times I tried to appreciate this, so I'm tempted to wonder why tragic drear is so exalted, but I know I'm missing something Japanese see.

Strangers on a Train: Lesser Hitchcock for me, with a less interesting psycho, but love anything to do with the train and the fair.

The Searchers: I found its classically composed look and racism pretty plain and uninvolving the first time, but I know I'll watch it again someday.

Paths of Glory: Probably my 23nd favorite film here, mostly for the ending.

Kiss Me Deadly: The answering machine recording was on my voicemail for years, and there are many great scenes--22nd favorite. I guess I just wish the hero were less of an asshole.

Maybe I just don't buy that murderousness and emotional violence come from the same place.

I think it's more that the former can come from the latter (pretty difficult to discuss this w/o spoiling the movie)

I've not seen Kiss Me Deadly, but surely the hero cannot be more of an asshole than Hammer is in the novels?

I likes me the antiheroes.

Let's do this.

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15. Wild Strawberries
Ingmar Bergman, 1957
POINTS: 159
VOTES: 6
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“The reason "Wild Strawberries" works with the heavy-handed symbolism (while "Seventh Seal" does not) is that it balances it with nostalgia and humanism. The symbolism is also much more visceral & less blatant (although it could be argued that the "clock with no hands" is on par with "playing chess with death" in the cheese factor--but at the same time, it's a dream sequence in "Wild Strawberries", so maybe it's a bit more justifiable.”

― jay blanchard

“yeah, on paper that dream sequence in "wild strawberries" shouldn't work, but i've seen the film three or four times and i always want to leap out of my seat at the creaking sound of the tilted carriage. and the blinding sunlight is truly eerie. it's too visceral to roll your eyes and say "oh A symbolizes B and C symbolizes D, we get it". …i've never known quite what to make of the bickering couple in "wild strawberries". their appearance is unexpected, unsettling, and over quickly.”

― a spectator bird

“I'm weird like this, but I thought Wild Strawberries was a lot more funny than Smiles of a Summer Night (which, pace me and screwball, didn't make me laugh at all).”

― Eric H.

BONUS FEATURE

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14. The 400 Blows
François Truffaut, 1959
POINTS: 162
VOTES: 7
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“The least overthunk juvenile hero in film.”

--Dr. Morbius

“I remember only the groovy vibe soundtrack--playing in my head right now--and the feeling I got that I was watching a new film language invent itself as it went--not just the jump cuts, but the eye-level empathy with children.”

-- Peter S. Scholtes

“the end of 400 blows gives me chills every time.”

― cutty

“Really captures the feeling of being in a family where you’re either at each other’s throats trying to kill each other or busy being best friends—with little or no middle ground. I always thought it was funny that for such a (supposed) monster, Doinel’s mom was still kinda hot.”

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

the four hundred blows

BONUS FEATURE

tsk tsk, equating Smiles of a Summer Night w/screwball!

Maybe we'll get a foreign/Hitchcock onslaught here?

I'm still trying to figure out why Leaud was a totally uninteresting adult actor.

he ha a great scene in What Time Is It There?

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13. Tokyo Story
Yasujiro Ozu, 1953
POINTS: 163
VOTES: 6
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Child abuse is one of the great movie subjects. But is there another great movie about parent abuse?”

-- Peter S. Scholtes

“Ozu's tokyo story is being shown daily at the NFT till next thursday. I caught it yesterday and it was some of the most moving cinema I've ever seen.”

― Julio Desouza

“Tokyo Story affected me deeply, possibly more than any other movie I've seen. There's a culture gap between my parents and I - I was born in the states, they were not - and they often adhere to their ways and expectations. When they are unreasonable to me, I sometimes just laugh at them. This seems cruel and mean (and yes, it is), but to be fair, you need to hear what they sometimes say. For example, right before I left for college, my father told me that I should break up with my girlfriend so I could concentrate on my studies. This is just one example out of many.

“My father is about to retire, and I've noticed a bit of regret within him - that maybe he could've been a better father. Seeing Tokyo Story a few years ago really made it clear to me that no matter how justified I might have felt, whenever I went against their advice or wishes, I usually acted like a jerk. In the film, the mother dies, thinking that her children are disrespectful, selfish brats. It didn't really hit me before, with that much clarity, just how utterly horrible that would be. I think about the movie all the time; I really do. Whenever my father sternly says to me, "You need to get married," instead of laughing, I now just listen, patiently.”

― Anisette,

“I think one of the great things about "Tokyo Story" and indeed many Ozu films is how, as in Renoir's great films, each character has their reasons for acting and feeling as they do, even if certain actions might be unforgivable. The dialogue between the youngest daughter and Setsuko Hara toward the end of the film crystallizes this, and in fact offers the audience two distinct perspectives from which to judge the action: the daughter's fury at the insensitivity of her brothers and sisters, and Noriko's greater sympathy for all parties (a feeling which is made all the more poignant by her breakdown in front of her father in law, where she confesses to selfishness and of not thinking of her late husband every day--in light of this confession one could think that her attentiveness to her in laws is a way of trying to forgive herself).

“For one thing one of the ostensibly least sympathetic characters, the younger son who works in Osaka...I found myself identifying with him very much. His frustration with the funeral rites, his refusal (unspoken but it's clear) to wear the traditional funereal garb, his distractedness...but as is clear from the dialogue with his coworker, his genuine concern for his parents which he just isn't able to make manifest before it's too late.”

― amateur!st

BONUS FEATURE

my favorite thing in Ozu films is Chishu Ryu's habit of giving a noncommital, or dismissive, or accepting "Mmmmmmmmmm" in reply to another character. (It always sounds the same.)

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12. Rashomon
Akira Kurosawa, 1950
POINTS: 166
VOTES: 7
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Rashomon is an extraordinarily beautiful film with terrific acting and vitally with what I think was an entirely original central idea in movies. And its rain hasn't been bettered since. I love it. Whether the directors who put it in their top ten would say anything similar I have no idea - I'm just a fan.”

― Martin Skidmore

“"Rashomon"! Featuring Toshiro Mifune giving the most over-the-top performance I've ever seen that actually works as acting.”

― Douglas

BONUS FEATURE

wow, any Americans besides Welles & Hitch in remaining 11?

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11. All That Heaven Allows
Douglas Sirk, 1955
POINTS: 178
VOTES: 7
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“Gawd let Sirk have one unironic masterpiece!”

― Kevin John Bozelka

“All That Heaven Allows is perfect as is, and funnier than every screwball ever made.”

― Eric H.

“When those kids buy her that TV set, man oh man.”

― Dr Morbius

BONUS FEATURE

Yay for collecting my greatest hits w.r.t screwball!

But that Heaven just missed the top 10 = :(

oh, yeah.

If All That Heaven... had ended with the TV scene, it woulda been perfect.

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10. Touch of Evil
Orson Welles, 1958
POINTS: 180
VOTES: 8
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

Touch of Evil

BONUS FEATURE

xp: oh, don't speak the heresy that the last 10 minutes are unintentionally funny...

I put ToE 36th, and I'm glad it's not higher than this.

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9. Duck Amuck
Chuck Jones, 1953
POINTS: 184
VOTES: 5
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“The most terrifying film ever made.”

-kjb

“Alltime greatest God performance is Bugs Bunny in "Duck Amuck."”

― Oilyrags

BONUS FEATURE

"A close-up, you idiot! A CLOSE-UP!!!"

Daffy Duck > Apu trilogy

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8. North By Northwest
Alfred Hitchcock, 1959
POINTS: 194
VOTES: 8
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“There's so much that's fun or funny in North by Northwest: the
auction, the drunk scene at the police station, the
caught-with-a-knife assassination (pure slapstick), the
making-love-with-clothes-on. But what makes it work is Cary Grant
never once suggesting that being taken out of his comfort zone is fun, adventurous, liberating, exciting, or otherwise a natural extension of his professional abilities. He seems irritated, shaken, and finally scared and determined, which grounds his gentlemanliness in reality, and makes the chase on a plainly fake Mount Rushmore nail-biting.”

-Peter S. Scholtes

“you can't have too much of the score from 'north by northwest'.”

― That one guy that quit

BONUS FEATURE

(actually my fav LT is probably Bugs' showbiz retro, What's Up Doc? not the Bogdanovich)

xp

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7. The Seventh Seal
Ingmar Bergman, 1957
POINTS: 220
VOTES: 8
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“A corpse "most eloquent."”

--Dr. Morbius

“There's something about Death that makes him so compelling; how he appears as 'just' another human being. Death being one of us, someone like us. Like me.

“It still scares the shit out of me, everytime Death appears. Seemingly not unlike all of us, but in the end nothing more than a cheater. Death is a cheater. Like me. Like us all.”

--Le Bateau Ivre

“I love when he uses his morbidity or broodingness as a set up for a punch line--in Wild Strawberries (the kids having a fist fight over whether God is dead) and especially Seventh Seal (Mary responding to Joseph's recounting of the Dance of Death with an amused "Oh you and your visions"). Also, throughout Smiles of a Summer Night.

And OTM about his creation of a consistent world. When I first got into Bergman I gobbled down maybe a dozen of his movies in a month, and it got so whenever I'd see one of his regular actors it'd be like seeing an old friend.

RIP, maybe my all-time fave.”

― Martin Van Burne

BONUS FEATURE

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6. Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder, 1950
POINTS: 232
VOTES: 10
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“What can I say? There really is none higher.”

--Le Bateau Ivre

“Norma Desmond is a not-exactly-fictional character that could have been created by no one but Gloria Swanson, but it's still not a biography of Gloria Swanson; it's a performance. Her greatest. Her caricature of herself is one of the bravest things ever put on film, and sometimes one of the funniest. And to boot, the movie surrounding her is also great.”

―kenan

“Sunset is the most fun vampire film of its era.”

― Dr Morbius

BONUS FEATURE

ludicrously overrated by da gayz

Rear Window and Vertigo better both be higher than NxNW.

Love that you've got a blurb there, Morbs.

that Nancy Olsen character, ugh

xxp

If NxNW is the biggest top 10 bummer, this poll will have turned out pretty good.

lol, it's "screwball," right?

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5. Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa, 1954
POINTS: 239
VOTES: 8
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“A new translation of the subtitles vindicates the dialogue, I think,
and the dream still sweeps me up. I can't think of a moment in three hours where I'm not wanting to crunch popcorn, yet how many other movies this exciting are so completely opened up to outdoor atmosphere, beauty, and sound? The charged magic of the woods is my childhood link between A Midsummer Night's Dream at the outdoor American Players Theater and Star Wars , while those climactic fights to the death in the mud and bright rain are their own gripping cinema. Few Westerns managed as much kinetic action and gentle heroism, and I can't remember a moment from The Magnificent Seven, the Seven Samurai
remake.”

--Peter S. Scholtes

“I'm for the Seven Samurai, mainly because the peasants are so hardcore in it. Once they get the robust leadership of the Samurai they turn into killing machines, dishing out tasty bamboo tipped death to the evil bandits.“

― DV

BONUS FEATURE

^another Eric bummer?

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4. Rear Window
Alfred Hitchcock, 1954
POINTS: 240
VOTES: 10
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“How to catch a voyeur, by Grace Kelly.”

--Dr. Morbius

“The first time I saw this as a kid, the cityscape seemed too
artificial, its whiteness striking, and its '50s attitudes towards
marriage and Manhattan high society alien--plus the plot template had been imitated so much already. But learning to love Rear Window is a process of coming to appreciate limits, of learning to see your backyard as a community. I love its longing look at New York, its use of piano as source music from the nearby apartment with giant windows and cocktail parties, its street sounds in the distance, and its creation of a little world to explore from your chair. It's a great New York movie in spite of itself, and it's partly about why cities are desirable. None of which would mean squat if it didn't isolate film's basic appeal in an often humorous dramatic situation, with the kick that your voyeurism might suddenly turn on you, the lights coming up on somebody stepping off the screen to strangle you and throw you out into the lobby.”

--Peter S. Scholtes

Rear Window: Great Hitchcock or Greatest Hitchcock?

BONUS FEATURE

The only flaw in Rear Window: that awful jangly bracelet Grace wears.

Naw, I never committed myself to sitting through 7S.

NxNW as screwball ... makes sense.

Lemme guess, it's your favorite in this top 10 thus far, right Morbs?

Three left!

xxp: oh, the other things you've sat through!

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3. Singin’ In The Rain
Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952
POINTS: 249
VOTES: 9
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“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), and the sexual chemistry between Gene Kelly and Reynolds evaporates the moment they stop bickering and she admits she's impressed (enter Cyd Charisse). But pretty much everything else about this greatest-ever musical stands up and does back flips before its head explodes.”

--Peter S. Scholtes

“Postmodernism avant la lettre (or après if you believe Lawrence Grossberg). “

― Kevin John Bozelka

“when I saw this at the Castro, at Cyd's pressed slide down Gene's calf at 2:15 my date audibly gasped, grabbed my wrist and then crossed her legs”

― Milton Parker

Singin' in the Rain

BONUS FEATURE

*sigh*

xp: I had Rear Window higher than 7S or NxNW

My blurb for Rear Window from that thread, fwiw:

Not only is Rear Window maybe the best Hitchcock, it's also one of those rare movies that are, while you're in the act of watching them, clearly the best movie ever made.

I'm guessing Fires on the Plain is not in the top 2. (also one of those rare movies)