LISTS

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RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

King Rat, I like NAKED SPUR too. To be honest, I prefer it to Mann's other westerns. The confined setting allows you to focus on characters and relationships. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is one movie that's better than the book. The book is long, over-written and well...trashy! The movie, no doubt to the dissatisfaction of the author, eliminates most of that and concentrates on plot. Gee, what an intriguing idea!
RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

And that Deborah Kerr. No nun, mousy daughter, or faculty wife here! An absolutely phenomenal actress.
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CineMaven
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Re: LISTS

Post by CineMaven »

Deborah Kerr. Oh yeah, I'm a fan:

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* * * * * * * * * *

1953

In this year, a ship goes down, a bombshell explodes, a cowboy rides off into the "sunset" and I have to learn to share. ( My little sister is born. ) It’s 1953 and time again to share my favorites:

BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS - ( EUGENE LOURIE )

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The Beast

Oh boy, MONSTERS!! I love it when Man is on the short end of the evolutionary Ray Harryhausen stick. RUN!!!
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THE BIG HEAT - ( FRITZ LANG )

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Gloria Grahame

Hard-boiled. Just like I like it. I like Glenn Ford in this ( only one of maybe three films that I really like him in. ) He’s tough. He’s perfect. He’s like a coiled snake. Lee Marvin steals the show. He’s like a rabid dog. You all know how I feel about Glo-lo. She’s a tarnished angel; if only she could catch one good break from a man. But I’m especially partial to Jeanette Nolan. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, with that perfect smile and that mink paid for in blood and murder.
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A BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER - ( ANDREW L. STONE )

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Joseph Cotten & Jean Peters

Joseph Cotten is up against the cool, calm and cunning Jean Peters. She’s a murderer, and he’s got to find the evidence even if it means putting himself in harm’s way...by marrying her. Both Peters and Cotten play roles light years away from their characters in “Niagara”:

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Peters is thrilling to watch in this cat & mouse game. Who doesn't like a smart brunette. Her interrogation scene in the police station is reminiscent of Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct.” Like Stone, Peters fears no man.
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I CONFESS - ( HITCHCOCK )

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Montgomery Clift

I didn’t like this movie until I liked this movie. Here he goes again. Hitchcock takes The Church and spins it on its steeple like a dreidel when he has a murderer confess his crime to a priest. Hitch practically wraps this confession like a noose around the priest’s neck when he doesn’t divulge what he knows. The man of the cloth with convincing conviction is Montgomery Clift. I’m not quite convinced of Anne Baxter as The Hitchcock Blonde. ( No one else available? ) Hitchcock ups the ante when the murderer starts getting paranoid and taunts the priest. Twisted. Confession is not always good for the soul.
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IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE - ( JACK ARNOLD )

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Richard Carlson & Barbara Rush

If it’s not Richard Denning it’s Richard Carlson. If it’s not Richard Carlson it’s Hugh Marlowe. As long as it’s aliens ( and Barbara Rush ) I’m easy. A space ship crash lands out in the desert and needs time to repair its ride back out into the galaxy. We have the requisite believers and nay-sayers. Aliens might take over your body, but sometimes “an invasion” is just a pit stop.
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MOGAMBO - ( JOHN FORD )

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Ava Gardner & Grace Kelly & GABLE

All hail the King. I find it amazing that Gable re-made his role almost 20 years later. And he still gets the girl. HA! The girlS. But which girl? He’s got to choose between earthy Ava and prissy Grace. But even with the choice he had in 1934 it’s still the same for Gable. He must choose between the woman whose world he aspires to or the girl in the world he belongs. For the women I say girls, half a Gable is better than none. << Sigh! >>
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NIAGARA - ( HENRY HATHAWAY )

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MARILYN...

This time Marilyn Monroe is not the vulnerable baby doll victim. She is a lying cheating adulteress wife to shell-shocked Joseph Cotten and she wants him dead. The movie has the same plot twist here as “IMPACT.” There’s a bit of relief with Jean Peters and Casey Adams as a married couple finally on their honeymoon but who get drawn in to the drama. I'm loving Jean Peters in this.

Yes, Marilyn is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I wish we could have seen more of her as a duplicitous femme fatale. Twentieth Century Fox had other plans for her. Well...at least we have "Niagara."

"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make Marilyn."

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ON DANGEROUS GROUND - ( NICHOLAS RAY )

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Robert Ryan & Ida Lupino

Love this film and the unexpected turn it takes from dark-to-light. Robert Ryan goes from the asphalt jungle to the heartland to solve a murder. Us noiristas know where Ryan’s coming from, so it’s just as much a change for us as it is for him when he’s outside in the sunshine and clean white snow. He meets the murderer’s blind sister and through her ( and Bernard Hermann’s poignant music ) he gets his humanity back. I was rooting for Ryan. << Sigh! >> I love it when things work out.

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PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET - ( SAMUEL FULLER )

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Jean Peters & Richard Widmark

Richard Widmark and Jean Peters are not quite your upright, outstanding citizens in this noir thriller. But the heat between them makes up for their lack of citizenship. ( Who knew pickpocketing could be sensual? ) This pair from the wrong side of the law single-handedly and patriotically save the United States from Communism. Thelma Ritter takes one for the team in an Oscar-worthy performance that’ll melt even the coldest heart.

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ROBOT MONSTER - ( PHIL TUCKER )

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George Nader

A man inside a ratty old gorilla costume wearing a diving helmet from outer space, in a bad low-budget is all I need. Oh yeah, and George Nader is just the cherry on top.

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SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO - ( HENRY KING )

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Gregory Peck & Susan Hayward

Seeing Peck in “The Macomber Affair” I know I like him as the great white hunter. In Kilimanjaro, he’s injured and we flashback through the story of his ( love ) life. I...like...Gregory Peck, the color, the romance.
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RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS

My favorite "large monster" movie. Unless you count THEM! And they're ants. How big can they be?

SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO

I once told a Hemingway scholar, "I'm guessing, in the short story, he doesn't recover and find a new lease on life." Uh....NO! But I like the movie too, Cine-manjaro!
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CineMaven
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Re: LISTS

Post by CineMaven »

:lol: Ooooh Fernando! You gave me a good laugh with your Cine-manjaro remark!! :lol:
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Vienna
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Re: LISTS

Post by Vienna »

CineMaven,you did it again. I love your 1953 zingers .
Especially
'Robert Ryan goes from the asphalt jungle to the heartland..." and "Us noiristas know where Ryan's coming from."

And "Who knew pick pocketing could be sensual."

Keep 'em coming!
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movieman1957
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Re: LISTS

Post by movieman1957 »

And "Who knew pick pocketing could be sensual."

That depends on whose pocket you explore.
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 »

With the HUAC Hollywood intrigues winding down (though leaving the blacklist in its wake) and Sen. McCarthy having finally met his match, it seems that almost every U.S. movie worth its Salt of the Earth had a political statement to make - be it righteous indignation in justification (On the Waterfront), explanation of human foibles (The Caine Mutiny) or standing free as an individual apart from conformist society (Apache).

And from France came the shot ultimately heard 'round the film world: "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema" (Francois Truffaut).

1954

1. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray) - A retelling of The Wizard of Oz as an anti-McCarthyism tract.

2. Crime Wave (Andre de Toth) - You can never be free of the gang...unless there's help from a hard-nosed cop with a heart.

3. Them! (Gordon Douglas) - Giant mutant ants are burrowing beneath the City to destroy our way of Life! I bet they're Red ants!

4. Witness to Murder (Roy Rowland) - Stanwyck must be crazy. That nice ex-Nazi, George Sanders, wouldn't harm anyone. And, thank you, John Alton.

5. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock) - We've become a race of Peeping Toms. Hmmm....

6. Silver Lode (Allan Dwan) - A few white lies to save the Good Guy never hurt (especially if the Bad Guy is Dan Duryea). And, thank you, again, John Alton.

7. Riot in Cell Block 11 (Don Siegel) - Neville Brand as an angry man-behind-bars? Yeah, I'll buy it. A warm-up for Siegel's career-long penchant for confounding any attempt at a consistent political interpretation.

8. Wicked Woman (Russell Rouse) - Thy name is Beverly Michaels...and you deserve Percy Helton. (Yes, it was released in 1953...but it was December).

9. Bait (Hugo Haas) - Greed with the laughter of Satan as a backdrop. Besides, it has Bruno VeSota and Haas' replacement for the Beverly Michaels role, Cleo Moore.

10. Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor/John Halas) - Okay, a sweet cartoon with no political agenda. What? Oh....

A Special Award for Most Outstanding Performances in Outstanding Movies: Sterling Hayden - Johnny Guitar, Crime Wave, Suddenly (Lewis Allen), Naked Alibi (Jerry Hopper) and a couple of other less-than-outstanding movies.

Honorable Mentions: Carmen Jones (Preminger), Private Hell 36 (Siegel), The Other Woman (Haas), Beat the Devil (Huston), Shield for Murder (Koch/O'Brien), Pushover (Quine), Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold), Jail Bait (Wood)

My favorite non-English language films of the year: Late Chrysanthemums (Naruse), Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi), Seven Samurai (Kurosawa), Gojira aka Godzilla (Honda), La Strada (Fellini), Senso (Visconti), Viaggio in Italia (Rossellini), Touchez pas au Grisbi (Becker)
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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ChiO
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Re: LISTS

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2. ON THE WATERFRONT – .... Younger viewers often need to be reminded that gangsters like Johnny Friendly were indeed running some of America’s unions, on into the 1960s.
That may be true (though, at least in Chicago, with certain unions, the 1960s wasn't the end; I'll let you know when the end arrives), but that's not the key contextual reference. Johnny Friendly is probably a stand-in for Harry Bridges, head of the West Coast's International Longshoremen's Association, former member of the IWW and oft-prosecuted for deportation as an alleged Communist. And it is that Communist association and related HUAC Hollywood hearings that are key to Kazan's vision. As he said in a 1973 interview, "Terry Malloy felt as I did." In his memoirs:
That was me saying, with identical heat, that I was glad I'd testified as I had. I'd been snubbed by friends each and every day for many months.... The scene in the film where Brando goes back to the waterfront to "shape up" again for employment and is rejected by men with whom he'd worked day after day -- that to was my story, now told to the world. So when my critics say that I put my story and my feelings on the screen, to justify my informing, they are right.
That's why Abraham Polonsky never forgave him.

That said, it is a powerful movie -- and any movie with Rod Steiger and Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb, shot by Boris Kaufman on location, would have to be. And Brando is at his most Brando -- the Beautiful Beast. But Kazan isn't invoking gangsters as in the Mob, the Mafia or the Outfit; he's invoking Communists, former Communists and fellow-travellers.

Maybe the same thing. Maybe not.

And I'll always agree with naming Rod Steiger as Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor in anything. Mercedes McCambridge would get my Best Supporting Actress nod. Best Male Actor -- Sterling Hayden for JOHNNY GUITAR. Best Female Actor -- Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford can fight over it (and maybe Dorothy Dandridge will sneak off with it).
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
The Ingenue
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Re: LISTS

Post by The Ingenue »

kingrat wrote:9. THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN – If you admit liking this movie, you probably lose your Snobby Intellectual card for good.
But you remain in good company. Why apologize for loving something? (And that's as much a Note to Self as anything.)
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CineMaven
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Re: LISTS

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[u][color=#FF0000]Vienna[/color][/u] wrote:CineMaven,you did it again. I love your 1953 zingers .
Especially
'Robert Ryan goes from the asphalt jungle to the heartland..." and "Us noiristas know where Ryan's coming from."
Thank you Vienna. I’m glad you’re enjoying my comments. :)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

( Who knew pick pocketing could be sensual. )
[u][color=#FF0000]movieman1957[/color][/u] wrote:That depends on whose pocket you explore.
:) So true MM'57. So true.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

( 1954 )

Stampeding elephants, steel balls, estrogen gunfights, Black opera, creatures from the deep and a new blonde on the scene. Yep, I cover the ‘waterfront’ in 1954.

“THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA” - ( Joseph L. Mankiewicz )

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AVA

Another Hollywood on Hollywood movie. Flashback, different point of views, the splashiness of it all. I really like Bogie in this, in one of his good-natured nice guy roles. And I enjoyed sweaty O’Brien. Pssst! Did I not mention Ava?
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“THE CAINE MUTINY” - ( Edward Dymytryk )

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BOGART

As nice as Bogie was above in Hollywood, on the high seas he’s one of a long line of Ahabs, Blighs and Claggarts. Maybe not as sadistic, but just as unhinged. Bogie being Bogie he can turn your enmity into sympathy by the time he’s on trial. He’s got a crew of good solid Hollywood leading men in this story; especially like Jose Ferrer. Good character study. Bogie - wound tighter than a Bosun’s knot. Why am I thinking “In A Lonely Place”?
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“DEMETRIUS and THE GLADIATOR” - ( Delmer Daves )

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VICTOR MATURE & SUSAN HAYWARD

Gotta love those sword ‘n sandal movies. This one picks up where Burton drops the robe as Victor Mature ( with a perm ) carries the torch. We watch his noble trials and tribulations as he bobs and weaves his way around friends, Romans, countrymen, lusty redheads, the virginal Debra Paget and a batsh*t crazy Emperor. ( Jay Robinson is great! )
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“DIAL M FOR MURDER” - ( Alfred Hitchcock )

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RAY MILLAND

See. THAT’s why I like Hitchcock. He tells us what he’s going to do...he shows us what he’s told us...and then he throws a monkey wrench in it all and really shakes it up. Hitch has his Blonde Venus ( Grace Kelly ) as the damsel-in-distress. And he’s got his perfect Hitchcock hero. Or is he a villain? Ray Milland is wonderful to watch throughout as the perfect British gentleman who’s the murder plotting husband. I love the methodical police investigation and the matching wit of John Williams. Jolly good show.
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“JOHNNY GUITAR” - ( Nicolas Ray )

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CRAWFORD & McCAMBRIDGE

What a good re-working of western lore Nicholas Ray tackles with “Johnny Guitar.” The men were the objects of desire fought over by two women. We’ve got two...better make that one and a half interlocking love triangles. Sterling Hayden and Scott Brady both want Joan Crawford. And Mercedes McCambridge succumbs to unrequited love of Scott Brady. I haven’t seen a western like this in ever. McCambridge is in all black, burning down Crawford’s saloon like the wicked witch of the Pecos. Her pent up libido is a sight to behold.
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“MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION” - ( Douglas Sirk )

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ROCK HUDSON & JANE WYMAN

Rock Hudson in drop dead gorgeous ( hey, ya can’t hate a girl for noticing ) whose new faith-based lease on life turns him from playboy to doctor, to help the woman he’s blinded. In one of his best pairings, Hudson’s teamed up with Jane Wyman whose dropped her second banana status to be the woman 1950’s ladies pin their hopes on. “Magnificent Obsession” is lush and romantic and the schmaltzy music spells pure soap opera and I love it.

Why ask for the moon...when you have Sirk!
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“PUSHOVER” - ( Richard Quine )

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FRED MacMURRAY & KIM NOVAK

Hello. Who have we here? Kim Novak? How d’ya do. I’m a big fan of yours because from the first, there seems to be a mystery about you, like you’re hiding a secret. You’re working with a Hollywood veteran, and he’s been in this jam before for a girl. And you’re just the type of woman a man would lie, cheat, kill and go for. I’ll be looking for you throughout the fifties.
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“REAR WINDOW” - ( Alfred Hitchcock )

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JAMES STEWART

The Master of Suspense does it again. In “Rear Window” he makes mini-movies within one larger movie and then takes the audience/voyeur ( Jimmy Stewart ) into the life of one of those movies. Everybody gets more than they bargained for, especially when Raymond Burr comes after you.

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Last edited by CineMaven on April 9th, 2014, 3:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Vienna
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Re: LISTS

Post by Vienna »

CineMaven, love your 1954 list .
I will now always think of Mercedes McCambridge as " THE WICKED WITCH OF THE PECOS"!

And Bogie "WOUND TIGHTER THAN A BOSUN'S KNOT".

My memory of PUSHOVER is very second string DOUBLE INDEMNITY.
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