LISTS

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Sue Sue Applegate
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Re: LISTS

Post by Sue Sue Applegate »

I enjoy reading these lists, and wish I had more time to post some of my own. Peggy Cummins was so adorable when I met her at the TCM Film Festival a few years ago. She was amazed at how a film she made so long ago still has such appeal She is such a sweet lady!

I love Gun Crazy and am so happy to see it's part of so many lists here. :lol:
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ChiO
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Re: LISTS

Post by ChiO »

1951

Significant event: The first issue of Cahiers du Cinema came out. And the auteurs (and auteurists) followed.

Drat! I had sixteen movies on my list of "these have to be considered for my Top Ten". Unfortunately for them, I had another twelve on my list of "these are definitely Top Ten." <sigh>

1. On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray/uncredited Ida Lupino) - It has the mark of a truly great movie: it gets better each time I watch it.
2. The Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller) (in this, the correct year) - If you die, I'll kill yuh! Sgt. Zack. Dead man's nothin' but a corpse. No one cares what he is now. War. If I was right all the time I'd be an officer, Lieutenant. No heroes.
3. The Hoodlum (Max Nosseck) - There are sociopaths and, then, there's Vincent Lubeck. My favorite Lawrence Tierney performance. And Mother Lubeck telling her son what every son wants to hear from his Mother: You've never been able to escape the stink of the world because you are the stink.
4. He Ran All the Way (John Berry) - Truly the last of John Garfield.
5. The Prowler (Joseph Losey) - Guilt. No redemption.
6. 5ive (Arch Oboler) - The re-imagining of the Adam and Eve story, turned on its head in a post-apocalyptic world.
7. M (Joseph Losey) - How could one dare to re-make one of the greatest films ever made? Luckily, Losey dared.
8. Fixed Bayonets! (Samuel Fuller) - Sometimes the bullet has your name on it.
9. Girl on the Bridge (Hugo Haas) - One cannot survive survivor's guilt. Production Company: Hugo Haas Productions. Producer: Hugo Haas. Director: Hugo Haas. Co-Writer: Hugo Haas. Co-Star: Hugo Haas. Auteur: Hugo Haas.
10. Pickup (Hugo Haas) - No! Hugo Haas did NOT make the same movie over and over.

Favorite non-English language movies: The Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson) and Der Verlorene (Peter Lorre).

Ten Favorite Honorable Mentions: Hard, Fast, and Beautiful (Ida Lupino); The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks); An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli) (for just the last 17 incredible minutes thanks to Gene Kelly & John Alton); Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock); The Well (Leo Popkin/Russell Rouse); Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder); A Street Car Named Desire (Elia Kazan); A Christmas Carol (Brian Desmond Hurst); The Man Who Cheated Himself (Felix Feist); The Scarf (E.A. Dupont).

Edit: Corrected the spelling of Arch Oboler's name. Just re-watched 5IVE in preparation for my class. Devastating experience.
Last edited by ChiO on March 19th, 2014, 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ChiO
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Re: LISTS

Post by ChiO »

Sirk made eleven films in the '50s before MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954) and I haven't seen any of them - so they're all of interest to me. I have a grainy copy of THE 13th LETTER.

M is fabulous. It often gets a bad rap because "well, it isn't as good as Lang's." Not many movies are, but that doesn't mean there aren't other great movies. Watching it without any preconceived "it's-just-a-remake" notions and it'll bowl you over.
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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moira finnie
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Re: LISTS

Post by moira finnie »

kingrat wrote:The First Legion, with Charles Boyer as a priest, is the one which really intrigues me.
This was on TCM a couple of years ago, but even DVD-r copies don't seem to be available anywhere. It would be good to see this again. Boyer was quietly great in this movie.

ChiO,
I've heard so many good things about the Losey M over the years, it would be great to see it.
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RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

More movies I inadvertently left out. THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952) and the lovely SEPARATE TABLES (1958). Next time, I'll use the link!
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CineMaven
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Re: LISTS

Post by CineMaven »

ACE IN THE HOLE - Billy Wilder

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Wilder does it again. And so does Kirk. Both of these men are not afraid to show the seamy side of human nature: selfish, exploitative, greedy. And tell me that Wilder’s not prescient. Did he call it or not? The media circus in this movie seems like it’s ripped from the today’s headlines as they milk the life out of this story and the trapped miner. Billy Wilder...I love you.

* * * * * * *

ANNE OF THE INDIES - Jacques Tourneur

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I dunno. I can’t quite see sleek simmering Jean Peters call her agent and say: “Get me a pirate script. I want to play a pirate.” But what’s more fun than to play a pirate? She’s on the wrong side of the law, the boss of a crew of men and cruises around the high seas of the Carribbean. It’s a fun movie.

* * * * * * *

DETECTIVE STORY - William Wyler

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This movie is a time bomb. And Kirk Douglas is the bomb. Yes it’s stagebound but the story’s in the characters, not the landscape. Character actors rock this drama and they’re all in top form, especially William Bendix. Kudoes to Eleanor Parker who is always one to watch. A good character study of a detective who metes out justice. But his rigidity cannot withstand the truth.

* * * * * * *

HIS KIND OF WOMAN - John Farrow

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Mitchum and Russell together. What a physically imposing pair. But that’s not ( the only reason ) why it’s a favorite. I like it because it’s a fun romp. This movie has everything: two gorgeous leads ( man + woman ); comic hammy relief ( a la Vincent Price ); and Raymond Burr as the handsome heavy. Throw these ingredients in a blender, mix ‘em up and you get ‘puree’ entertainment.

* * * * * * *

PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN - Albert Lewin

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What happens when a heart-breaking, jet-setting, international playgirl who treats men like toys, falls in love. James Mason is the Dutchman who looks for a needle in Eternity and finds Ava. I have a long and short answer for this favorite of mine. THE LONG ANSWER: I love the romance of Love...what one does for love...dying for love. THE SHORT ANSWER: Ava Gardner. Seeing her here is proof Ava is the most beautiful woman in motion pictures in the 1950’s.

* * * * * * *

A PLACE IN THE SUN - George Stevens

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George Stevens gives a class in Filmmaking 101 as he visually walks us through the story of Boy Meets Girl, Boy Meets Girl...of his Dreams, Boy Loses Everything. ( Elizabeth Taylor’ll do that to a guy. I marvel at the deck stacked against Monty. ) What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

* * * * * * *

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN - Alfred Hitchcock

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Hitch is on my list again. He ratchets up the suspense when he shows two strangers on a train kibbitz about exchanging murders. Only one man is kidding. The lighter...the Great Dane on the stairs...the carousel. Come on...you know you rooted for Bruno to get Guy’s lighter. Say, didn’t your mother tell you not to talk to strangers?

* * * * * * *

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - Elia Kazan

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Brando’s animal magnetism viscerally leaps off the screen. Vivien Leigh’s Blanche DuBois comes undone, and it’s the most devasting thing I will see in this decade.

* * * * * * *

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD - Howard Hawks

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Sci-fi with the Hawks touch. A community under attack by something from...another world. And this time it's not Communists. Tension. Terrible terrible tension as folks are picked off by...something.

* * * * * * *

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE - Rudolph Maté

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We’re coming into the sci-fi era and that’s my genre too! If it crawls, grows gigantically, is not human, or is metaphysical, I’m there. Nature gone atomic, or worlds ending. And Barbara Rush to boot. It’s a sci-fi Noah’s Ark, and desperate people take desperate measures to get off the planet. Why do I feel Mankind still won’t have learned its lesson in another world
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Vienna
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Re: LISTS

Post by Vienna »

Cinemaven, I love your staccato,to the point,wonderfully descriptive phraseology. Am I being pedantic? No one could call you that!
Your words for When Worlds Collide are a classic.
More,please.
RedRiver
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

DETECTIVE STORY. Yes it’s stagebound

I love that. Makes me feel I'm in a little bitty theatre with some REALLY good actors!

I don't know ANNE OF THE INDIES. As a Jacques Tourneur fan, I should! Or as my brother says, "Jack Turner. We're not in ****ing France!"
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Re: LISTS

Post by The Ingenue »

Red wrote:I love that. Makes me feel I'm in a little bitty theatre with some REALLY good actors!
Ha! I like the way you put it, Red. And, yes – likewise. Roll out the stagebound films; I'll take all you've got.

Well. It seems I've got a lot of catching up to do. Reading, and writing, and... this list-making looks mighty tempting.
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Re: LISTS

Post by RedRiver »

Roll out the stagebound films; I'll take all you've got.

DETECTIVE STORY is one of the best!
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