REVEALED-THE ILX TOP 75 FILMS OF THE 1950s

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.

Nutty Professor is many other things in addition to being a comedy, which helps it through the rough spots.

I don't equate comedy with laughs, especially with someone as strange as Lewis (or Keaton or Tati).

There are five Preston Sturges masterpieces in the '40s!

The '40s will be easier than you think...

I don't equate comedy with laughs either, but if that's all they're trying to get and they fail well over half the time and there's no formal qualities to fall back on and I'm not inherently impressed by the sophisticated presentation of the foibles of hetero communications, well ...

My '40s ballot would be about half Val Lewtons, one-third Orson Welles and Hitchcock, and the rest a-g.

oh, and Hellzapoppin’ (which is to say, a-g)

30-40% is a high rate for even a laughs-only comedy. like Hellzapoppin?

xp

(its formal qualities are open to the question of intention)

for Hollywood, I think I prefer the '40s to the 50s!

xpost -- but it has formal qualities, which Leo McCarey movies do not

Comedy in the thirties >> comedy in the forties.

Buñuel was one of the few good directors making comedies in the fifties (no one saw'em, though).

xp: grooooannn, that's madness whether you like his formal qualities or not ... you've seen Duck Soup, yes?

also about 80 of McCarey's films are comedy shorts starring the likes of Laurel & Hardy, which would populate my '20s ballot.

xp: grooooannn, that's madness whether you like his formal qualities or not ... you've seen Duck Soup, yes?

I even like some of his movies. Make Way for Tomorrow is a masterpiece without any particular formal qualities.

“McCarey understands people better perhaps than anyone else in Hollywood.” - Jean Renoir