REVEALED-THE ILX TOP 75 FILMS OF THE 1950s

*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)

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2. Night of The Hunter
Charles Laughton & Robert Mitchum (uncredited), 1955
POINTS: 318
VOTES: 11
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“The terrible, horrible capacity for evil in us all.”

― Kevin John Bozelka

“A lot of this film reminds me of what old movies and children's books were to me when I was little, reading Angus and Sam the Minuteman and watching Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz, or The Red Balloon: stories that were completely possessing dreams, vivid and unreal, that could turn nightmare at any moment. The music, ravishing black-and-white imagery, surreal "outdoor" sets, and lost children on a journey belong to the '40s or earlier in my mind. But the attitude is subversive modern horror: Bill Sikes of Oliver Twist has become a smart noir sadist disguised in the garb of so many Depression-era preacher heroes. Children see through him but adults are taken, charmed, or cowed. The way the film deals with sexuality is also shockingly frank and clear-eyed. This is a film about truths where only the presentation is fanciful, which might be why it was a flop.”

--Peter S. Scholtes

“Cinema straight out of the Anthology of American Folk Music. This is one of those weird films that by all means shouldn’t hit like it does. All the comedy stuff (the Rev bouncing into town in his jalopy, the executioner dialogue) and the yuletide cheer at the end seem out of place, but it DOES NOT MATTER. There is darkness on the face of this earth, or better still:

“Ah, little lad, you're staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil?”

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

"night of the hunter"

BONUS FEATURE

My sources tell me it's Picnic.

xpost

I'm fine with all of the top 4!

wow, I didn't know this was that overrated.

I didn't know you were that much an arrogant asshole.

you ALWAYS say that.

I'd be fine with Hunter as best First Film.

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1. Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
POINTS: 358
VOTES: 11
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“Maybe the greatest dream film ever, hence laughed at by the prosaic. "The gentleman certainly knows what he wants."”

--Dr. Morbius

“Like Rear Window, Vertigo isolates an aspect of why movies work and turns it into a story. Just hearing the soundtrack at a Halloween party recently* brought it all back: that old sinking feeling of falling in love with a wishful fiction, one you imagine exists for you--and in a sense does, at least when it comes to movies, not real-life projections, since an actress wouldn't perform for you without your ticket stub or rental receipt. Then I watched Mad Men on DVD, and noticed the Vertigo bite of the opening, which makes perfect sense, since the heroes of this '50s-as-sanity-squeezing-nightmare are as wrapped up in what feminism and the counterculture had to destroy as Jimmy Stewarts delusion was. He's basically going off a cliff after
a girl in an ad, and the girl goes off the cliff trying to be the ad.

*Coincidentally, I dressed as Alfred Hitchcock, with my date as Tippy Hedren from The Birds.”

--Peter S. Scholtes

“Casting Stewart against type was one of the best things in Vertigo. It makes his descent towards the end all the more affecting, because you don't expect Jimmy Stewart to go that low.”

― Tuomas

“To paraphrase William Carlos Williams, the pure products of America may go crazy, but that ain’t nothin' compared to what they do to the ones they love.”

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

“I wish movies still looked like Vertigo.”

― milo z

“the last shot of "vertigo" is one of the pinnacles of the cinema, and not a word is spoken”

― amateur!st

BONUS FEATURE

Well. I wish Rear Window had traded places.

since Vertigo was my #1, I guess this is the most meaningful vote I have ever cast!

Deciding between Rear Window and Vertigo is the very definition of splitting hairs. I'm glad they're both above NxNW.

Night/Hunter is the best first film in that it feels like its the first film ever. The level of invention and lack of baggage in debt to other movies is practically unparalleled that late in the game.

drowning Shelley Winters done in Place in the Sun (j/k)

Yeah, and silhouette of villain done in Nosferatu, et al, blah blah, still an uncontestable masterpiece.

I mean if you seriously like screwball that much, remove your own eyes immediately, they are obviously of no use to you.

Night/Hunter is the best first film in that it feels like its the first film ever

wow, otm.

did Brando & Clift really make their names by appearing in such insignificant films? (not that I voted for any but the one btwn em that is ranked)

I DON'T like screwball as much as you pretend, I thought that was part of our mutual-caricature shtick.

Don't you think I was exaggerating too?

Loving and respecting Mad Men even more now that I've seen the last episode of Season One, which is like a Sirk film storyboarded by Kubrick.

My blurb for All That Heaven Allows FWIW:

Emo feminism in the strong, subtle, sure hands of a great male director, though maybe it's the uncommonly empathetic female performance at the center that gets me. Sirk's best, I think.

Damn, I had Sansho the Bailiff at #1 and it didn't even make the list. Is the title that off-putting? At least Rio Bravo beat The Searchers.

Having fun imagining Morbs' reaction to Sirk being described as emo.

xxxp: well, sure!

I don't even relate to the meaning of "emo," it came along when my interest in music was waning.

anyway, this was my list -- after the first 20-25 don't hold me to any of it, esp the order:

Vertigo
The Earrings of Madame de...
A Man Escaped
Fires on the Plain
The Tragedy of Othello
World of Apu
The 400 Blows
Un Chant d'Amour
Europa '51
Rear Window

The Seventh Seal
Ugetsu
Paths of Glory
Bonjour Tristesse
Father of the Bride
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Seven Samurai
Rio Bravo
Ikiru
A Star Is Born

In a Lonely Place
The Tarnished Angels
Seven Men from Now
North by Northwest
Kiss Me Deadly
The Sun Shines Bright
I'm All Right Jack
The Wages of Fear
Aparajito
Smiles of a Summer Night

On the Waterfront
All About Eve
Gigi
Some Like It Hot
Ashes and Diamonds
Touch of Evil
The Quiet Man
Son of Paleface
Nights of Cabiria
Mon Oncle

Bubbling under (for my conscience):

The Flowers of St. Francis
What's Opera, Doc?
Touchez pas au Grisbi
All That Heaven Allows
Los Olvidados
Ivan the Terrible, Part 2
The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T
Rashomon
Written on the Wind
Attack
Summertime
Umberto D.
Wild Strawberries
Strangers on a Train

xpost -- That said, I'm sort of on board with the rest of that blurb, Pete. The thing that really gets me in the famed TV sequence isn't the irony and campy signpost symbolism of the blocking/reflections, but rather the way Wyman underplays her disappointment in herself and her children. She lets the snob daughter do the open weeping while she stretches out her temples and seemingly can't even be roused to raise her voice. She's been totally crushed from within.

OK, Morbs, Father of the Bridge xplain plz.

so my takeaway agenda: Ichikawa, Satyajit Ray, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, Boetticher, Bunuel.

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.

have you seen it? I see that I wrote to Grisso "The warmest portrait of the American family engine and its limitations."

The thing that really gets me in the famed TV sequence isn't the irony and campy signpost symbolism of the blocking/reflections, but rather the way Wyman underplays her disappointment in herself and her children.

Although I'm reluctant to resort to biographical criticism, swap Ronnie Reagan for the husband, and Maureen and Michael for the children, and you've got Morning in America.

xp: also, Liz at her peak beauty, around 18.

xpost Haha!

I've frequently caught pieces of it flipping past TCM, but nothing captured my interest, especially not Liz at her peak beauty.

or, if you choose Dave Kehr's perspective: "There is a strange undercurrent of discontent and despair to many of the situation comedies of the 50s; this ostensibly lighthearted film about Spencer Tracy's Kafkaesque attempts to bring off his daughter's wedding is one of the bleakest films of a bleak decade....Minnelli drops all pretense of comedy for a climactic nightmare sequence that conjures up the ghost of Dr. Caligari."

(if that doesn't get you to see it, nothing will)

ILX doesn't appear to like comedies much more than Oscar does. How many besides Some Like It Hot in the 75? (no musicals pls)

The cartoons?

well, that's a whole separate argument...

Live action: Smiles, I'm All Right Jack, Roman holiday (romcom), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (too musical?), Nights of Cabiria (funny-sad), uh...

The Ladykillers was bubbling under (2 votes/38 points)

well, that's a whole separate argument...

Not when they're consistently much funnier than the feature-length, live-action comedies.

Good to see Duck Amuck again: My favorite LOL moment is him pushing away "The End." Wouldn't we all?

anyhoo, thank you for your efforts, C. Grisso/McCain. I don't know what the "base" is for a '40s poll (six of us?).

but Eric, it IS usually easier to make a funny 6-minute film than a 90-minute one.

Then more directors should take the hint and make richly funny 6-minute films instead of fitfully amusing 90-minute ones.

I would obviously not take part in a '40s poll. Don't think I've seen many masterpieces from that decade.

xp: like Guy Maddin?

Exactly. (Though My Winnipeg was very well sustained ... if not a comedy.)

Morbs, you're failing: no Apatow-Rogen jokes in days!

xpost: Also easier to be timeless with animation, maybe, or easier to be subversive/radical without freaking out your funders...

I've had ppl I dragged to Jerry's Nutty Professor tell me that's not a comedy either.

Alfred, I've moved on.