Shhhhh! It's Time to Pick Your Bestavorite Silents!

[melwalton]

Hi, Jon.
I understand the dilemma. I wanted so much, to list 'The Cameraman',
25 is such a small number when it comes to favorite movies.
I like the variety in your list, I think you and I are the only ones to list a 'Golddiggers' movie. I picked 1935 because of that beautiful waltz, 'the Words Are in My Heart' by Harry Warren and Wini Shaw doing ' the Lullaby of Broadway'.
I quit looking at my own list for fear of going batty contemplating changes.
... mel

[CoffeeDan]

Since work has been slow this week, I decided to spend a few nights working on my Top 25. This was a more agonizing exercise than I thought -- I had to leave off so many of my favorites!

Then I decided to limit it to films I have watched repeatedly, with delight, and that feature most of my favorite actors, writers, and directors. Even so, I still had to leave out a lot of my favorites! But after some painful editing, here are my Top 25, in no particular order, subject to further revison, etc., etc.:

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937)
SUNRISE (1927)
THE FRONT PAGE (1931)
CASABLANCA (1942)
THE LADY EVE (1941)
DINNER AT EIGHT (1933)
CITIZEN KANE (1941)
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)
TURN BACK THE CLOCK (1933)
THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE (1935)
KING OF KINGS (roadshow version, 1927)
THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932)
DUCK SOUP (1933)
LE MILLION (1931)
THE INDIAN TOMB (1921)
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
KINGS ROW (1942)
THE LADY VANISHES (1938)
CITY LIGHTS (1931)
FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933)
THE BAND WAGON (1953)

I regret I had to leave such films as MY MAN GODFREY, RED RIVER, WOMAN OF THE YEAR, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, PICNIC, THE COURT JESTER, RANDOM HARVEST, THE CROWD, and PETER PAN (1924) off my final list. Even while I was typing, I made a last-minute substitution of CASABLANCA for GONE WITH THE WIND!

Whew! Now, I think I'll take a closer look at everybody else's lists . . .

[cinemalover]

Dan,
Excellent choices. Thanks for adding your movies into our little competition.

Everyone else:
Tomorrow is the last day for any additions or revisions! Also the last opportunity to campaign to get any lost soul movies into the top 64.

On top of that, it's almost December, oh my!

[cinemalover]

Today is it, cutoff is 11:59pm (pacific).

There are still a few very knowledgeable people out there that I would consider it an honor if you added a list before the day was through. I think we all value your opinions.

If any of you know that you won't be tinkering any more with your list feel free to let me know. Any that are finished I can get an early start on tabulating the results with. Again, thanks to everyone for making this a very entertaining and educational thread.

[cinemalover]

I have had some requests to further explain how I am going to set up this competition. Here goes:
First:
I will come up with the 64 films that make the final cut. This will be based first, by number of votes the film received and second, by the average ranking the film obtains (see below for further explaination).
Next:
The films will be bracketed just like the NCAA basketball tournament. The #1 ranked film will be paired off against the #64, #2 vs. #63 and so on. The first round will consist of 32 matchups which will eliminate half of the films. Round 2 will have 16 matchups and so on until we get to the final 2 films. I am going to ask that with each thread where films are competing that everyone just post the name of the film they want to vote on in one entry, no other words or explainations to muddy that post. Then they can make another post to explain why they voted for that film and to try to convince others to vote that way. I'm hoping this will lead to some good-spirited debate on the merits (or faults) of each film. I will be hand tabulating the results this weekend, using the rankings that people gave them if they wanted them in order. For example, a #1 film rates higher than a film someone else rated a #13. All films that were not specified a ranking will be assigned a value of a #12 (right in the middle). These will only come into to play to differentiate films that received the same amount of votes.

I don't know how well I'm explaining it, but I think I've got it pretty well figured out in my head anyway.

Also, once the 32 matchups are posted on Monday I could use a little help. Any of you that are great at tracking down movie posters and posting them, I think it would be fabulous if one of you would post a copy of a movie poster for each entrant on the thread. It would make a nice visual for the voters.

[jdb1]

Chris, maybe you explained your method well to anyone who has an interest in NCAA basketball, but I'm not one of them. Why do the first & last numbers, etc., have to be paired? Are we grading on the bell curve?

[cinemalover]

Hi Judith,
Sorry, I should never assume.

The film that has the highest ranking "earns" the right to face the film with the lowest ranking. In theory this gives the films that were the favorites an easier path to the finals. In this case since it is individuals voting that won't necessarily hold true.

In our case, say a film like Casablanca may end up at the number one position because it received 12 votes, more than any other film in the competition (this is just a made up number). It therefore has earned a favored status because it showed up on more people's lists than a film like, say The Seven Samurai which may barely make the cut with 2 or 3 total votes. The system gives an advantage to the films that receive the most votes.

Of course, once the films are bracketed and the voting begins all bets are off and any film could win if it rallies enough support. I really think the best part of this little competition will be hearing all our well-educated members’ thoughts and opinions on why one film is better or more deserving than another.

The bottom line is there are no right answers, just opinions.

I hope this helps. It should become even clearer when we get the brackets set up next week.

Thank you for your interest.

[klondike]

Chris;

Please be advised that I just rolled under the proverbial wire with 2 change-outs to my list; I've eliminated Kim in favor of Brazil, and dropped Chinatown for Matewan . .
'Zooks, Solomon never had it so tough!!!

[cinemalover]

Thanks, Klondike. I got your updates.

I also got Hollis's changes.

Being on the west coast here there's about thirty minutes until the polls close. It looks like we have 26 participants at the moment.

[cinemalover]

And the polls are closed. Time to start tabulating!

[Hollis]

Dear Chris,

"WUDDAWEWIN?" "WUDDAWEWIN?"

Are we there yet?

As always,

Hollis

[cinemalover]

I stayed up until 3am last night and got through about 60% of the votes. I should get them done some time today. If only pesky things like sleep, food and children didn't interfere I might be done already.

[cinemalover]

The outlying districts have reported in and we have some preliminary numbers. A total of 444 films received at least one vote. A total of 105 films received at least two votes, which eliminates all the films that received only one vote. Of those 105 films that received multiple votes 43 of them had at least 3 votes, all of those films will be in the final 64. That leaves 62 films that received 2 votes all fighting for the last 21 slots. So I'll be doing a lot of math homework the rest of the day to get every film into its proper seeding.

Thanks again to everyone that participated, it's a crime to see some of the wonderful films that aren't even going to make the cut of 64. I guess I should be happy that there are so many deserving films out there.

[MissGoddess]

Good work, CL, I'll be watching the "polls".

[klondike]

Chris, no matter how it all sets after the big wash, I am hereby nominating you for the post of Silver Screen Oasis' first ever -

ACTUARIAL GENERAL