LISTS

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RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

To me, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY is every bit as good as MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. Better, actually. I like SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON. It's quietly disturbing and exceptionally well played. My favorite from your list is the brilliant DR. STRANGELOVE. The best of all the dark comedies.

I have suggested our local theatre group do THE BEST MAN in 2016, say around election time. Only make one of the candidates a woman! I'm not sure it's adaptable. I need to review the play. But it's worth looking into!
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: LISTS

Post by Rita Hayworth »

kingrat wrote: Top 10 for 1964:

1. ZORBA THE GREEK – Michael Cacoyannis seems to have put everything he knew about filmmaking into this one film. Anthony Quinn’s greatest role. Alan Bates does as well as possible with the role of the dull, repressed outsider who needs to be brought to life by the larger-than-life characters played by Quinn and Lila Kedrova, as well as the beautiful widow (Irene Papas). Some have objected that the life which is affirmed in this film has some pretty dark aspects, but isn’t that the point? To have gorgeously composed shots and motion in the same film is a difficult task which ZORBA, unlike MY FAIR LADY, manages to achieve.
2. ZULU – By all means, see this on the big screen if you get the chance. Can a director who made three films as good as TRY AND GET ME, HELL DRIVERS, and ZULU be totally neglected? If Cy Endfield’s day finally comes, better late than never, the TCM Film Festival will have played a large role in giving his work the attention it deserves. A film which honors equally the intelligence and bravery of both Zulu and British.
3. DR. STRANGELOVE – Peter Sellers at his best, and one of Kubrick’s best.
4. THE PUMPKIN EATER – Harold Pinter’s oblique and time-tricksy script, so fashionable at the time, is the weakness, but Anne Bancroft, director Jack Clayton, and the sublime bright-white cinematography of Oswald Morris make up for it.
5. THE SEVENTH DAWN – Who wants to see a film about post-WWII politics in Malaysia? Not the viewers of 1964, but with the perspective of Vietnam, a story about Communism and colonialism in Malaysia seems more than relevant, with a solid suspense element as well. Capucine’s best work, opposite William Holden and Susannah York. Lewis Gilbert directs capably.
6. SEVEN DAYS IN MAY – If this John Frankenheimer thriller isn’t so brilliant as THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, not many other films are, either. A smart and solid movie.
7. NOTHING BUT THE BEST – It’s been years since I’ve seen this one. Alan Bates is a none too scrupulous working-class youth who seeks riches and power. Denholm Elliott is the posh gent in his way.
8. THE BEST MAN – Gore Vidal’s play makes an effective film, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson as the dueling candidates, and Lee Tracy in a juicy role as a former president.
9. THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA – Of all the Tennessee Williams adaptations, this is the one I’d rather see. I particularly like Richard Burton in one of his best roles, Ava Gardner in probably her best late-career part, and Grayson Hall calling “Seducer!”
10. THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN – In a tough choice for #10, I decided some enjoyable musical numbers gave MOLLY the nod.

Best Actor: Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek
Best Actress: Anne Bancroft, The Pumpkin Eater
Best Supporting Actor: Lee Tracy, The Best Man
Best Supporting Actress: Grayson Hall, The Night of the Iguana

I have not seen THE PUMPKIN EATER, THE SEVENTH DAWN, and THE BEST MAN yet.

My List

1. SEVEN DAYS IN MAY
2. ZULU
3. THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA
4. DR. STRANGELOVE
5. ZORBA THE GREEK
6. NOTHING BUT THE BEST
7. THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN
8. GOLDFINGER
9. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH
10. THE PAWNBROKER
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ChiO
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Re: LISTS

Post by ChiO »

Yes, 1964 was another good year for non-English language films. My five favorites, all of which would have otherwise been in my Top Ten, are: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (Pasolini), GERTRUD (Dreyer), THE RED DESERT (Antonioni), BEFORE THE REVOLUTION (Bertolucci) and THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (Demy). And a tip of the hat to the last great work of direction by Jacques Tourneur, "Night Call", a Twilight Zone episode. As for the English language movies:

1964

1. DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (Stanley Kubrick) - Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott, Slim Pickens and Keenan Wynn steal this from all three Peter Sellers characters (and he's really good). My favorite Comedy and my favorite War movie, and one of my Top Ten movies. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. And, Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff. It has me laughing to the Apocalypse. Never has nuclear destruction been so hilarious. And it only gets funnier…and realer. God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural...fluids. God bless you all.

2. THE NAKED KISS (Samuel Fuller) - Who provides the best opening scenes in movies, Welles or Fuller? And this keeps going as Fuller tears the lid off of the hypocrisy stewing underneath respectable society.

3. THE KILLERS (Don Siegel) - I have come to prefer this to the Siodmak version. Lee Marvin is mesmerizing. And somehow Clu Gulager, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson, Ronald Reagan and Norman Fell manage to keep up.

4. THE PAWNBROKER (Sidney Lumet) - Plus Boris Kaufman cinematography, Quincy Jones music and Rod Steiger at his finest.

5. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (Richard Lester) – Four young guys. Long hair. They play instruments and sing. They’re also funny. Kinetic energy in that ‘60s style. So, does it hold up as a movie? Absolutely! Lester may not have invented the techniques he used, but he put them together in an innovative fashion that is still stunning. Oh, and the songs are still really, really good.

6. SPIDER BABY (Jack Hill) - Unlike Coppola, Scorsese, Bogdanovich, Demme and many other graduates of the Corman Film School, Hill stayed true to his roots. Filmed in 1964, it was released in 1968 (okay, I'm cheating)…and failed. So it goes. A chauffeur takes care of an in-bred demented family that has inherited psychotic traits. Seduction, murder and cannibalism. One admiring writer called it “a television sitcom directed by Bunuel.” That’s the spirit! Tasteless? A gem!

7. SCORPIO RISING (Kenneth Anger) - Hypnotic. Frightening. Dazzling.

8. ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO (Larry Peerce) - A Social Issue movie that Stanley Kramer could only dream of making. Peerce's first movie as a director, and the second movie produced by Sam Weston (nee Weinstein), brother of Jack Weston. Sam Weston later changed his name again to Anthony Spinelli and became a prolific director of pornography. So it goes.

9. THE T.A.M.I. SHOW (Steve Binder) - Jan & Dean host a rock 'n' roll concert. Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, The Rolling Stones and more appear. But it can all be summed up in two words: (1) James (2) Brown. Rock documentaries start here.

10. THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (Roger Corman) - Corman gets kind of arty, but that's okay. Was it cinematographer Nicholas Roeg?
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

You have an espionage theme going, King Rat! In 1965, that was easy to get sucked into. John LeCarre, Frankenheimer, MIRAGE. Your quandary for Best Actress is understandable. Elizabeth Hartman is real and touching in PATCH OF BLUE. Maggie Smith is splendid in everything. OTHELLO must have played in my town a couple of years later. I saw it at a theater that opened in 1967! Even then, I was too young for Shakespeare. I've since become an admirer of that wicked play.
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Vienna
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Re: LISTS

Post by Vienna »

CineMaven, just got round to reading your wonderful post of 8 July.
Surely one of the best I have ever read on any site.
Congratulations and thank you.
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movieman1957
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Re: LISTS

Post by movieman1957 »

Finally, a list where I have seen them all.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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ChiO
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Re: LISTS

Post by ChiO »

Another stellar year for non-English language films. SIMON OF THE DESERT, THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET,THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, RED BEARD, VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA (aka SANDRA) and three by Godard - ALPHAVILLE, MASCULINE FEMININE & PIERROT LE FOU - would be contenders in any year. I was actually surprised at how many English language films I liked from 1965.

1965

1. CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (Orson Welles) - Shakespeare + Welles = Brilliance. Dramatic, violent and comic as Welles creates a new work adapted from The Bard.

2. BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (Otto Preminger) - It always engages me. Seemingly one of Preminger's more maligned movies, I find it one of his best.

3. BRAINSTORM (William Conrad) - Genius is madness.

4. FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (Russ Meyer) - Cinematography and Tura Satana. Don't race with women in the desert. They might kill you.

5. DOCTOR ZHIVAG0 (David Lean) - Yes, it’s more bloated than a Russian novel. Omar Sharif: Handsome, but a stiff, passionless performance. Julie Christie: Beautiful, but a stiff, passionless performance. Geraldine Chaplin and Rita Tushingham: Even worse. Sir Ralph Richardson & Sir Alec Guinness: Wasted performances. Theme song: Unctous. So why include this here? Cinematography and set design: Beautiful, and that scene of the snow covered interior at the rural home is still one of the most stunning I’ve ever seen. Tom Courtenay: Fire and ice – his performance still moves me. Rod Steiger: I love the big lug in everything, always have and always will, and this performance is one of my many favorites. The last line: Ah... then it's a gift. It has me blubbering every time. But what (along with Steiger) was seared deepest into my brain at the first viewing in March 1966 and continues today: Klaus Kinski – the most dangerous man ever to act (or not act) in movies. The face is everything. A genius and a fool…always at the same time. One scene. That’s all it takes. I am the only free man on this train! And the rest of you are CATTLE! I’m not certain that he was acting.

6.WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? (Joseph Cates) - Ten years after REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, Sal Mineo has graduated from disturbed teenager to very disturbed young man - a sexual obsessive, obscene caller and stalker of Juliet Prowse. This is preparing the audience for TAXI DRIVER.

7. MICKEY ONE (Arthur Penn) - Comic noir.

8. ANGEL'S FLIGHT (Raymond Nassour & Kenneth W. Richardson) - Bunker Hill. Sleazy. Film noir.

9. THE LOVED ONE (Tony Richardson) - Richardson directing an Evelyn Waugh novel adapted by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood. It could be outrageous. And make it Rod Steiger's second appearance in my 1965 Top Ten - from Komarovsky to Mr. Joyboy. What an actor!

10. THE MONEY TRAP (Burt Kennedy) - Bad cops. Glenn Ford. Rita Hayworth. The sixth film noir on this list. I thought it was over by 1959.

Best Movie Title of 1965 (or any year): BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL (Doris Wishman) - What if your aunt directed nudie movies? This is so, so - well - lacking anything close to traditional production values that it is downright avant-garde. Magnifique! Thank goodness for Something Weird Video and its efforts to save the outre.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL

But they have a lot of fun getting there!
RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

With 1966 this survey of classic era Hollywood comes to a close

Yes it does. A lot changed the following year. Inevitably, and rightly, it's changing still.

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? – One of the best translations of play to film ever

As evidenced by your ranking it ahead of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS! I agree with your choice. Although the women won the Oscars, Richard Burton and George Segal are the ones who impress me the most. I'm kind of the opposite. I like hyper-neurotic Sandy Dennis! Best thing she's done, by far.

I've been told THE WRONG BOX is painfully funny. Never seen it.

So long, Classic Era! Thanks for the immeasurable hours of entertainment.
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Lucky Vassall
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Re: LISTS

Post by Lucky Vassall »

Sorry to see this wonderful listing of the great films come to an end, but I can certainly see why.

At least it all now exists in this thread, and we can go back to explore some of the ones we might have missed. Thank you, most sincerely for making this possible.

Agree that "Woolf" was the best transfer. As to "A Man for All Seasons," I saw the Broadway original, and while Scofield's performance was outstanding, I have to report that the film showed no relation whatsoever to the play. Making Scofield's Thomas Moore the most important actor instead of George Rose's "Common Man" (think the Stage Manager in "Our Town") and playing the ending straight made for a very different but moving conclusion.
[size=85]AVATAR: Billy DeWolfe as Mrs. Murgatroid, “Blue Skies” (1946)

[b]“My ancestors came over on the Mayflower.”
“You’re lucky. Now they have immigration laws."[/b]
[i]Mae West, The Heat’s On” (1943[/i])

[b]:–)—[/b]
Pinoc-U-no(se)[/size]
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ChiO
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Re: LISTS

Post by ChiO »

With 1966, I find it hard to find ten English language films of those I've seen to rave about (other than the first two on my list). Five non-English language films that would otherwise be among my ten favorites would be, in order of preference: AU HASARD BALTHASAR (Robert Bresson), ANDREI RUBLEV (Tarkovsky), THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Gillo Pontecorvo), PERSONA (Ingmar Bergman) and CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (Jiri Menzel).

1966

1. BLOW-UP (Michelangelo Antonioni) - Antonioni accomplishes a rare feat: making an entertaining mystery that was both commercially popular and an art film.
2. WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (Mike Nichols) - Not bad for a first film from a guy who started out in improvisational comedy in Chicago. Maybe this wasn't that far removed. Haskell Wexler's cinematography was marvelous. And was Burton ever better?
3. SECONDS (John Frankenheimer) - Drama, Horror, Science Fiction, and film noir all in one package.
4. THE PROFESSIONALS (Richard Brooks) - Even though it has a cast for the ages, the star and auteur is Conrad Hall and his cinematography. He does it again, and even better, for Brooks the next year with IN COLD BLOOD.
5. MORGAN! (Karel Reisz) - I haven't seen this in probably over forty years, but I loved it then. Memory can be a tricky thing.
6. HARPER (Jack Smight) - Yes, Virginia, there was film noir in the late-'60s. Conrad Hall's second movie on this list.
7. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone) - Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. Ennio Morricone. And Sergio Leone. That's not marinara on the Spaghetti.
8. THE WILD ANGELS (Roger Corman) - There's nowhere to go. So why did you leave us, Loser?
9. WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? (Woody Allen & Senkichi Taniguchi) - The start of a directing career that is still going (that's a reference to Woody). I think this counts as an English language film.
10. THE NAKED PREY (Cornel Wilde) - A bit of a cheat - it was screened at a film festival in 1965, but its general release was in 1966. Thrilling movie.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

I don't get an improv feel from anything by Albee. Like David Mamet and Neil Simon, the words and the rhythm are SO precisely structured; the timing hair-trigger perfect. Some filmmakers do remind me of spontaneous theatre: Mike Leigh, Jim Jarmusch, Cassavetes, of course. I'm willing to bet those directors keep their actors on a long, flexible leash!
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ChiO
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Re: LISTS

Post by ChiO »

Red,

Watching WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, I get a sense that it is real - not "realistic", which conveys to me that the actors are trying to portray "real", but that it truly is real. And "real" gives me a sense of improvisation - not that there isn't a script to be followed, but, again, that those characters would say those words immediately, without premeditation, kinda like most of life. And, on top of that, despite the psychic pain, turmoil and sadism (or maybe because of that), I find it perversely comic at times. Ergo (in my insular world), I don't find Nichol's direction here (obviously aided by four stellar performances, Albee's words and Wexler's cinematography) to be conceptually that far removed from his earlier improvisational comedy performances.

Or maybe not.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
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