REVEALED-THE ILX TOP 75 FILMS OF THE 1950s

Then more directors should take the hint and make richly funny 6-minute films instead of fitfully amusing 90-minute ones.

I would obviously not take part in a '40s poll. Don't think I've seen many masterpieces from that decade.

xp: like Guy Maddin?

Exactly. (Though My Winnipeg was very well sustained ... if not a comedy.)

Morbs, you're failing: no Apatow-Rogen jokes in days!

xpost: Also easier to be timeless with animation, maybe, or easier to be subversive/radical without freaking out your funders...

I've had ppl I dragged to Jerry's Nutty Professor tell me that's not a comedy either.

Alfred, I've moved on.

Nutty Professor is many other things in addition to being a comedy, which helps it through the rough spots.

I don't equate comedy with laughs, especially with someone as strange as Lewis (or Keaton or Tati).

There are five Preston Sturges masterpieces in the '40s!

The '40s will be easier than you think...

I don't equate comedy with laughs either, but if that's all they're trying to get and they fail well over half the time and there's no formal qualities to fall back on and I'm not inherently impressed by the sophisticated presentation of the foibles of hetero communications, well ...

My '40s ballot would be about half Val Lewtons, one-third Orson Welles and Hitchcock, and the rest a-g.

oh, and Hellzapoppin’ (which is to say, a-g)

30-40% is a high rate for even a laughs-only comedy. like Hellzapoppin?

xp

(its formal qualities are open to the question of intention)

for Hollywood, I think I prefer the '40s to the 50s!

xpost -- but it has formal qualities, which Leo McCarey movies do not

Comedy in the thirties >> comedy in the forties.

Buñuel was one of the few good directors making comedies in the fifties (no one saw'em, though).

xp: grooooannn, that's madness whether you like his formal qualities or not ... you've seen Duck Soup, yes?

also about 80 of McCarey's films are comedy shorts starring the likes of Laurel & Hardy, which would populate my '20s ballot.

xp: grooooannn, that's madness whether you like his formal qualities or not ... you've seen Duck Soup, yes?

I even like some of his movies. Make Way for Tomorrow is a masterpiece without any particular formal qualities.

“McCarey understands people better perhaps than anyone else in Hollywood.” - Jean Renoir

Sure, but how does that defend his lack of mise-en-scene?

(OK, maybe mise-en-scene isn't the word I'm looking for here.)

yeah, "lack" is a bit strong. His films have an aura (as do Lubitsch's, perhaps moreso) that isn't engineered in ways familiar to us from subsequent filmmakers. But they work, so they must've done it right.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that my love for Make Way for Tomorrow challenges everything I thought I loved about cinema, and I'm grateful for that, but do not find anything remotely approaching Tomomrrow's great whatsit in any of McCarey's other films, and won't stress about it.

(Unfortunatly, I haven't seen a Lubitsch film that works for me in that way yet.)

I have never understood exactly what mise en scène is anyway; it changes from critic to critic. So I say fuck it, give me the arithmetical beauty of a streetful of ppl tearing each other's pants off.

So I say fuck it, give me the arithmetical beauty of a roomful of tap dancers reenacting the Sierpinski triangle.

Thank you for spurring me to rent All About Eve, which has many laughs out loud...

Yes, I laugh or at least exhale through my nose about 40 percent of the time during All About Eve.

it's obv a great, kickass script. But what are Mankiewicz's formal qualities?

also, pony up the individual ballots.

My sources tell me it's Picnic.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 5:33 PM

ha ha!

I was sad Picnic didn't make it. I love the DVD artifacts on this scene. The image compression reveals the Holden-in-blackface:

my #1 was El: This Strange Passion, oh well

it's obv a great, kickass script. But what are Mankiewicz's formal qualities?

You know my point is that, in the absence of formal qualities, it all boils down to "I like this/I don't like this" for me. And screwballs almost always fall under the latter.

it's obv a great, kickass script. But what are Mankiewicz's formal qualities?

The ones he learned from Billy Wilder?

well, I think Sunset Blvd has more memorable visual perks than Eve, but prefer the latter (cuz that cast would eat Nancy Olsen like sherbet).

Nancy Olsen, graduate of the Betty Crocker School of Dramatic Arts.

Yeah, what an unnecessary Oscar nomination hers was.

knowing that she got one, wow!

I used to be jaymc.

Olson didn't win.

anyone read Sam Stagg's All About All About Eve? Lots of dishy anecdotes. When told years later that Anne Baxter regretted promoting herself as Best Actress instead of Supporting Actress, Davis says, "Yeah, she should have."

C. Grisso, I applaud you for organising this and making such an effort of it!

Time to come clean, my top ten:

1. Sunset Boulevard
2. The Seventh Seal
3. Bonjour Tristesse
4. La Strada
5. On The Beach
6. Ascenseur Pour l'Echafaud
7. Rear Window
8. 12 Angry Men
9. Roman Holiday
10. Le Amiche/The Girlfriends

Only thing that really fascinates and surprises me is the inclusion of all the Looney Tunes cartoons. Is this purely an American (cultural) phenomenom? I mean, I like cartoons as much as the next guy, but seeing Duck Amuck in the top ten really raised my eyebrows. I think I've got a lot of catching up to do :)

did Bette say anything nice about a female peer, ever?

I thought "Duck Amuck" was one of those flicks the French had to discover before we did.

so E, did you really not vote for any Tashlin films?

(btw, Road to Utopia with Hope/Crosby is at least as funny as any Looney Tunes, and is sorta structured like one; might be in my '40s Top 20)

did Bette say anything nice about a female peer, ever?

Actually, she became great friends with Thelma Ritter (a huge Dickens fan, apparently) and Baxter. Celeste Holm she detested.

My imaginary ballot:

El
All About Eve
Anatomy of a Murder
The Earrings of Madame De...
Imitation of Life
Rear Window
Early Spring
Touch of Evil
Smiles of a Summer Night
I Vitelloni

hay gays i think i forgot to submit my ballot, although i found it on my hard drive:

Vertigo
Night and the City
A Man Escaped
Sunset Blvd
Singin' in the Rain
In a Lonely Place
Rear Window
Orpheus
Nights of Cabiria
Pickpocket

Kiss Me Deadly
Gun Crazy
The Wrong Man
Strangers on a Train
Sansho the Bailiff
Ivan the Terrible, Part 2
Bob le flambeur
Imitation of Life
Night of the Hunter
Touch of Evil

Umberto D.
Some like it Hot
The Man in the White Suit
The 400 Blows
The Killing
12 Angry Men
Diabolique
Wages of Fear
The River
The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Lavender Hill Mob
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Night and Fog

(i'm happy with the results, obv)

I thought "Duck Amuck" was one of those flicks the French had to discover before we did.

― Eric H., Tuesday, November 18, 2008 7:42 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

Maybe, but I ain't French, you see.

I'm just saying it wasn't an American thing first.