LISTS

[JackFavell]

Uh....oh.....

[Lucky Vassall]

I love the idea of lists of favorite films, and intend to get in on this action asap. (Of course, it will take a couple of weeks to read and digest all these posts first.)

If nothing else, you get a chance to see that others share your opinions (or DON'T). More importantly, you might spot something mentioned that you missed, and it might become one of your favorites, too.

All that said, I also intend to start a new subject with a very different take on the matter of lists. That shouldn't take as long.

[CineMaven]

Ooooh...I'm intrigued.

[Lucky Vassall]

I notice that ChiO included Coppola's "The Outsiders." If you get the chance, I recommend watching the original DVD with Carmine Coppola's score followed asap by the 2005 "The Complete Novel" release. It will be a master class in the importance of the right score making all the difference. Sure opened my eyes!

[ChiO]

I prefer BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL (1965) and ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MAN (1966) -- released together on a single disc, I might add. But I'm a Doris Wishman (the great post-Lupino American female auteur) fan.

[CineMaven]

1945

The war has ended. I’ve gone to thirty movies this year while the world became safe for democracy. I’ve enjoyed a few heartwarming family films this year ( “Christmas in Connecticut” “Our Vine Has Tender Grapes” “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.” ) But mostly the movie fare that was my favorite shows the dark and twisted side of love. Here are my favorites...in alphabetical order:

“FALLEN ANGEL” - ( Otto Preminger )


Dana Andrews & Alice Faye

If you like your redemption with a twist of mystery, then this is your movie Dana Andrews is a particularly bad boy as he marries Alice Faye for her money so he can be with Linda Darnell. I still don't fully and completely understand the movie, but I like the dark mood of it.

* * * * * * * * *

“LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN” - ( John M. Stahl )


Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney gives the performance of her career in this drama of jealousy on steroids. She doesn't gnaw on the scenery or pull on your heartstrings. Her stunning looks compliments how bone-chilling Tierney plays a woman who's just outta control. We watch the web she weaves as she ties the noose tighter and tighter...around her own throat. And in the face of all this, Jeanne Crain is not overshadowed. Her quiet beauty, sweetness and resolve is an oasis.

* * * * * * * * *

“MILDRED PIERCE” - ( Michael Curtiz )


Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth

The audience had to have been in shock to see the shenanigans of Veda Pierce in this movie. After all, she's sleeping with her mother's boyfriend. I'm a little taken aback myself in 2014. What else can I add to this classic that hasn't already been said before...and brilliantly ( in this very Oasis . ) This is flat out a great drama and touches on all sorts of issues and levels. I love Joan in this; she subjugated her fierceness to be this masochistic, self-sacrificing Mother. But this movie would be nothing without Ann Blyth's performance. Are monsters born or made? I think the movie is cast perfectly. Yes, even Bruce Bennett.

* * * * * * * * *

“THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE” - ( John Cromwell )


Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young

McGuire has always been a favorite of mine with her voice of brushed velvet. Robert Young is a vet from the 30’s but got a chance to play some complicated roles in the 40’s. He’s climbing the ranks with me.This is a good solid love story with a wonderful message: beauty IS in the eye of the beholder, and if you love someone, they are beautiful to you. The movie is magic.

* * * * * * * * *

“DETOUR” - ( Edgar G. Ulmer )


Ann Savage and Tom Neal

Who’d have thunk that hitchhiking would open up Pandora’s Box of worms? Things spiral from bad to apocalyptic for Tom Neal when he picks up Ann Savage in the desert, a girl so tough she wears a Mohair sweater in the Mojave Desert. With a limited budget and sparse sets, this story is economically told and a thing a beauty. Any more money and the picture’d be ruined.

* * * * * * * * *

“ISLE OF THE DEAD” - ( Mark Robson )


Boris Karloff and Ellen Drew

...And then there none. There are no bats or wolves or blockheaded monsters in this atmospheric film. But people die nonetheless. There’s a virus among them, but there’s suspicion and superstition in the mix. Karloff is good in this disquieting film. I’ve watched it repeatedly.

* * * * * * * * *

“THE GREAT FLAMARION” - ( Anthony Mann )


Erich von Stroheim and MaryBeth Hughes

A fool for love, that’s what sharp shooter von Stroheim is. And he’s got it bad for MaryBeth Hughes. Hughes and cad-about-town, Dan Duryea, want von Stroheim’s money, and they go about it the worst way. Von Stroheim evinces a pathos as a man hurt in love as he waits for a woman who’ll never come to him. It’s pretty cut and dry: everybody gets what they deserve in this on. Low budget, just the way I like ‘em.

* * * * * * * * *

“SCARLET STREET” - ( Fritz Lang )


Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson

Eddie G. hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in Hell of escaping the clutches of sultry Joan Bennett, who’s in the clutches of Dan Duryea. Both Robinson and Bennett don’t realize they’re in the same boat: the S.S. Abuse and will never have the love of the person they really want. When I see “Little Women” or “Father 0f the Bride” or “The Reckless Moment” I only have to think back to this black humored film to see why Joan Bennett is a leading lady of unsung treasures. It’s already a known-fact that Edward G. can do anything. Thanxxx to Fritz Lang, “Scarlet Street” has got to be the most ironic and devastating movie of the 1940’s.

* * * * * * * * *

“THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY” - ( Robert Siodmak )


George Sanders and Ella Raines

I always found this title unwieldly. But the movie is quiet, quirky with worms festering just underneath the surface. Dear Boy is a bit of a milquetoast in this one, and it takes the liberating Ella Raines to wrest him away from his beautiful but incestuous sister ( Geraldine Fitzgerald. ) I totally believe Sanders as the shy retiring small towner tentatively being led out of his shell by a Big City career girl. And I still say Raines should have been a bigger star.

* * * * * * * * *

“LOVE LETTERS” - ( William Dieterle )


Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones ( the first
of three films together )

I just love love love this movie. It’s a tender story about WHO we love. As menacing as he was as ‘Uncle Charlie’ in Hitchcock’s “Shadow Of A Doubt” Cotten’s very different here. Jennifer Jones shares the same qualities with Ingrid Bergman that I enjoy watching: a warm, quiet sensuality. We’ve waxed on about Cotten here at the Oasis. He plays hurt and damaged very well as Jones’ protector...with something to hide. We have two opposing intents in “Love Letters.” One person wants to regain her memory to become whole and love fully; and the other wants to hide a truth that may lose him his love. The film serves up the Cyrano-tale with a hint of “Marnie.”

I’m going to do something really difficult with my lists. If the participation continues through 1950, I’m going to pick the top ten of my top ten. I should ready for the Booby Hatch after that.

[Vienna]

Great list and descriptions. Must try and catch The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry.
Love your Detour comment - "anymore money and the picture'd been ruined."

[CineMaven]

Thanxxx so much. I'm game if you're game King Rat. I'm hoping to let the thread breath and not hog up space with my zeal. This is a great exercise which I can do in my sleep. I do love reading everyone's list and see where we have interests in common. Oh man, I love "The Great Flammarion." Poor bald-headed little von Stroheim. I never knew he could love. Or smile. ( Mary Beth's my girl! ) Would you be up for making a list of your top tens from 1940 - 1949? I think that would be a torturously delicious exercise.

In the meantime next up, 1946. And for me...it'll be sick and twisted year of post-war darkness. Mmmmm. Yummy!

[ChiO]

In order (I think -- after the first three, it's tough):

1945

1. DETOUR - It may be about Low-Lifes, but it's High Art from Poverty Row.

2. SCARLET STREET - Lang made some incredible movies before and after, but this is #1 for me. One of my favorite actors in the male leading role. In the female lead, #2 after only Stanwyck. And...Bogart, Mitchum & Ryan may be the male Noir icons, but Duryea is Mr. Noir.

3. MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS - I enjoy many of Lewis' movies made before this, but this was the game-changer for him with two even better ones to come. Besides, in the George Macready role is George Macready.

4. MILDRED PIERCE

5. I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!

6. STRANGE ILLUSION - Good year for Mr. Ulmer.

7. FALLEN ANGEL

8. THE BODY SNATCHER

9. THE GREAT FLAMARION - Mr. Noir again.

10. THE STORY OF G.I. JOE

If non-English language films were included, ROME, OPEN CITY would be in the top four (somewhere).

And a very special shout-out to the movie that may still hold the record for greatest profitability, with a budget of $65,000 and rentals of $16,000,000 - produced and co-written by Kroger Babb, directed by William Beaudine and with an appearance by Francis Ford - MOM AND DAD.