Re: LISTS
Posted: April 19th, 2014, 9:22 pm
Not up to 1955 for me, but still some goodies. An event with a significant impact on film watching in the U.S.: Janus Films was founded in March and became the distributor of foreign films. The men who took over for the founders later started a DVD label - Criterion. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
1956
1. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Don Siegel) - My favorite Sci-Fi movie. The scariest Horror movie this side of ROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski). My favorite anti-McCarthy movie. My favorite anti-Communist movie. My favorite movie about the advertising business. You're next!
2. THE KILLING (Stanley Kubrick) - Kubrick doesn't always click with me, but when he does, he clicks big time. Any movie with Vince Edwards, Marie Windsor (the wife from Noir Hell), Elisha Cook, Jr. (the husband in Noir Hell), Jay C. Flippen, Ted DeCorsia, Joe Sawyer, Joe Turkell and James Edwards can't help but be a good movie. Add the phenomenal Sterling Hayden and you've got a great movie. Then there's that other guy...oh, my goodness! Eh, what's the difference. A grunt and three words sum up film noir.
3. FEMALE JUNGLE (Bruno VeSota) - A world-weary Lawrence Tierney plays a world-weary Lawrence Tierney character. This oozes noir.
4. WRITTEN ON THE WIND (Douglas Sirk) - Never has a miniature oil derrick had such meaning. Just the typical American family, Sirk-style.
5. BIGGER THAN LIFE (Nicholas Ray) - Speaking of typical American families....
6. SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (Budd Boetticher) - My favorite Boetticher movie. Sometimes I think Lee Marvin is the great American actor.
7. GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING (Jacques Tourneur) - Yes, his Lewton-produced movies and his films noirs are great, but so are his Westerns. Here, one might argue that there is no great day and there is no morning.
8. THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (Douglas Sirk) - Tomorrow is about the past.
9. EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (Fred F. Sears) - One of my first movie theater memories, and did it ever give me nightmares. Aliens warn the world to stop using A-bombs and then, to close the deal, start destroying the great symbols of American Freedom. Good thing we have Hugh Marlowe on our side.
10. THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (Frank Tashlin) - Tashlin at his gaudiest, most outlandish and most fun. And I dig that rock 'n' roll (is Little Richard singing the theme perfect or what? Did I mention gaudy, outlandish and fun?).
And what a year for non-English language films: my favorite from one of my favorites, A MAN ESCAPED (Robert Bresson); STREET OF SHAME (Kenji Mizoguchi); THE BURMESE HARP (Kon Ichikawa); EARLY SPRING (Yasujiro Ozu); APARAJITO (Satyajit Ray); THE RED BALLOON (Albert Lamorisse).
Three TV films of note: The Fountain of Youth (Orson Welles); Bang the Drum Slowly (Alex Segal); Requiem of a Heavyweight (Ralph Nelson).
Best Performance in a Timothy Carey role: Timothy Carey in THE KILLING.
1956
1. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Don Siegel) - My favorite Sci-Fi movie. The scariest Horror movie this side of ROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski). My favorite anti-McCarthy movie. My favorite anti-Communist movie. My favorite movie about the advertising business. You're next!
2. THE KILLING (Stanley Kubrick) - Kubrick doesn't always click with me, but when he does, he clicks big time. Any movie with Vince Edwards, Marie Windsor (the wife from Noir Hell), Elisha Cook, Jr. (the husband in Noir Hell), Jay C. Flippen, Ted DeCorsia, Joe Sawyer, Joe Turkell and James Edwards can't help but be a good movie. Add the phenomenal Sterling Hayden and you've got a great movie. Then there's that other guy...oh, my goodness! Eh, what's the difference. A grunt and three words sum up film noir.
3. FEMALE JUNGLE (Bruno VeSota) - A world-weary Lawrence Tierney plays a world-weary Lawrence Tierney character. This oozes noir.
4. WRITTEN ON THE WIND (Douglas Sirk) - Never has a miniature oil derrick had such meaning. Just the typical American family, Sirk-style.
5. BIGGER THAN LIFE (Nicholas Ray) - Speaking of typical American families....
6. SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (Budd Boetticher) - My favorite Boetticher movie. Sometimes I think Lee Marvin is the great American actor.
7. GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING (Jacques Tourneur) - Yes, his Lewton-produced movies and his films noirs are great, but so are his Westerns. Here, one might argue that there is no great day and there is no morning.
8. THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (Douglas Sirk) - Tomorrow is about the past.
9. EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (Fred F. Sears) - One of my first movie theater memories, and did it ever give me nightmares. Aliens warn the world to stop using A-bombs and then, to close the deal, start destroying the great symbols of American Freedom. Good thing we have Hugh Marlowe on our side.
10. THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (Frank Tashlin) - Tashlin at his gaudiest, most outlandish and most fun. And I dig that rock 'n' roll (is Little Richard singing the theme perfect or what? Did I mention gaudy, outlandish and fun?).
And what a year for non-English language films: my favorite from one of my favorites, A MAN ESCAPED (Robert Bresson); STREET OF SHAME (Kenji Mizoguchi); THE BURMESE HARP (Kon Ichikawa); EARLY SPRING (Yasujiro Ozu); APARAJITO (Satyajit Ray); THE RED BALLOON (Albert Lamorisse).
Three TV films of note: The Fountain of Youth (Orson Welles); Bang the Drum Slowly (Alex Segal); Requiem of a Heavyweight (Ralph Nelson).
Best Performance in a Timothy Carey role: Timothy Carey in THE KILLING.