REVEALED-THE ILX TOP 75 FILMS OF THE 1950s

Yeah I would've voted for Ivan the Terrible but felt schizy about including it as a 1950s film.

"Asphalt Jungle" and "Lola Montes" both way too low, I'd say. I don't mind the sentimental stuff in "Asphalt Jungle" - you'll find it in every other Cagney or Robinson flick, I took it as gangster movie convention (though not noir convention, I admit.) Though to be honest I'm not even 100% certain on which parts we're talking about - not the ending, I hope? Or the speech by the police inspector? Cuz that's my all-time fave example of a director using code restrictions to his advantage.

"Lola Montes" could be seen as a bit...overripe, in a way, but I think it's a masterpiece of sorts.

I don't necessairly skip to the songs in "High Society" but I'll admit I watch it more like an old-skool TV special than a movie per se.

Very curious about that Eisenstein!

"Lift To The Scaffold" probably the most archetypal noir not made in the USA? I don't like all of it cos I can't stand Jeanne Moureau, but it is pretty impressively dark and feverish. Love the scene with the german tourists.

xp: Yes, the horsey face-licking included! Cagney-Robinson sentiment was pulpy; a lot of Huston's in AJ is artsy-fartsy.

I rescind my ballot.

I accuse my parents.

O no! Now the big break.

Don't remember anything about Othello; do remember "Yes, you're next/You're so next" from "Rabbit of Seville."

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60. Smiles of A Summer Night
Ingmar Bergman, 1955
POINTS: 65
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Smiles of a Summer Night is one of the best sex comedies.”

― Dr Morbius

“I don't get the "humorlessness" complaint either. While not a laff riot, Smiles of A Summer Night is a great Lubitsch-style comedy.”

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn

BONUS FEATURE

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59. Le Amiche/The Girlfriends
Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955
POINTS: 67
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“A female spin on "I Vitelloni" (or better still, Sex and the City relocated to 50s Turin), Le Amiche is one of those movies that probably would be better regarded if it had been made by someone else. Not quite addressing the darker impulses that would fuel his most famous work (although he was getting there—remember, Il Grido has just 3 years away, and closer thematically to this film than you would think), the film is a terrifically bittersweet melodrama, easily the equal (or the better) to anything else the genre had to offer at the time.”

― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain)

blaming Alfred for low Smiles position

word. thx for this.

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58. Imitation of Life
Douglas Sirk, 1959
POINTS: 67
VOTES: 2
#1s: 1

COMMENTS:

“My point is that there is no way audiences could mistake "Imitation of Life" for anything but a film about race (among other things). The current film studies cant about Sirk being subversive has never convinced me. His best films are sincere, beautifully-crafted liberal melodramas. If I knew how to italicize "liberal" I would. And I'm not using it as an epithet.”

― Amateurist

“As perfect a capitalist product as has ever been created in the USA, delivering contradictory pleasures sometimes within a single shot. Classical Hollywood never topped it.”

― Kevin John Bozelka

“wow, that moment when Susan Kohner sassily talks all Butterfly McQueen to Lana Turner in Imitation really rules. But God, any scenes w/ John Gavin or Sandra Dee...”

― Dr Morbius

“last time i watched imitation of life i had like three glasses of whiskey and could barely see the screen at the end through the TEARZ :(“

― impudent harlot

BONUS FEATURE

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57. Roman Holiday
William Wyler, 1953
POINTS: 68
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“I don't really get Audrey Hepburn either and I've seen lots of her films, but she is super-charming in Roman Holiday. it's the only movie I've really liked her in.”

― horseshoe

BONUS FEATURE

ick

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56. Diabolique
Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955
POINTS: 68
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“do it, paul meurisse. just fucking do it, you bad-ass.”

― poortheatre

BONUS FEATURE

lol "dry yr palms"

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55. Pickup On South Street
Samuel Fuller, 1953
POINTS: 70
VOTES: 4
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“only seen pickup on south street but he [Richard Widmark] was pretty amazing in that ... RIP”

― n/a

“I've seen Pickup on South Street a few times, a few weeks ago most recently, one of those films who's charms grow on you, and you like it more the more you think about it. I was underwhelmed the first time I saw it, perhaps expecting more intensity after seeing the Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor. The scene where the spy beats the girl is still one of the more brutal things on film...”

― Dan Selzer

“Poor Thelma Ritter.”

― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain)

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54. Invasion of The Body Snatchers
Don Siegel, 1956
POINTS: 71
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

"There's a reason the original keeps getting remade every ten years, with endlessly compelling results no matter how trashy (the latest) orbrilliant (the '70s one): This is our most potent-ever allegory of soulless conformism, might-makes-right complacency, and defensive contentment fending off the genuine pursuit of happiness. Communists and anti-communists, corporate men and drug heads--everyone should take a second look at this and make sure they aren't identifying with the wrong side. I still meet pod people in real life, and still worry I'm becoming one."

― Pete Scholtes

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

BONUS FEATURE

Be back in a bit. Hunting for comments.

3 out of 15? what do you ppl like?

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53. Un Chant D’Amour
Jean Genet, 1950
POINTS: 72
VOTES: 2
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Tosses the bouquet and swings the dick with the best of them.”

― Dr Morbius

“Are any even as satisfying as gay movies of porny qualities? I mean, sure, there's Un Chant d'amour and Pink Narcissus, but what else?”

― Eric H.

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52. Some Like It Hot
Billy Wilder, 1959
POINTS: 72
VOTES: 5
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

Some Like It Hot: Classic, Dud or Something Inbetween?

BONUS FEATURE

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51. The African Queen
John Huston, 1951
POINTS: 73
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

"Romancing the Stone was an acknowledgement of what Raiders of the Lost Ark was missing: a credible or compelling romantic relationship at its center. Compared to Raiders, this adventure of whites in Africa pitting missionary and entrepreneur against Nazis seems mild as action and questionable as history, but somehow far more richly entertaining just by being a love story that gets Katherine Hepburn in wet clothes."

― Pete Scholtes

BONUS FEATURE

I kinda thought Some Like It Hot wd be the only pure comedy on the list, just bcz of disposable comedy-adventures like The African Queen.

and see Eric, you are not the anti-barometer re Genet erotica or Rossellini.

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50. Shane
George Stevens, 1953
POINTS: 75
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“Jack Palance is so fucking awesome in Shane.”

― Alex in SF

“I was just now explaining Shane to someone who only knew him for City Slickers.”

― Ned Raggett

“Yeah, "Pick up the gun" is my favourite Palance quote too (anyone see Bill Hicks' "Revelations" when he compares that moment in Shane to the U.S. arming little nations, then attacking them because "See! He had a gun!"?)”

― shorty

BONUS FEATURE

a western for ppl who don't like westerns.

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49. Plan 9 From Outer Space
Edward D. Wood Jr., 1959
POINTS: 78
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

ALL OF YOU ON EARTH ARE IDIOTS!

BONUS FEATURE

xpost OK, this list is starting to get really bad.

How is Imitation of Life THAT low?!

+ I think Un Chant D’Amour was something like #2 on my list.

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48. Rebel Without A Cause
Nicholas Ray, 1955
POINTS: 78
VOTES: 5
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“belle and sebastien are sal mineo in rebel w/o a cause”

― Fritz Wollner From If bands were characters from movies

BONUS FEATURE

luv me some Diabolique (damn I shoulda voted in this thing)

Plan 9 < Glen or Glenda?

I was going to vote but never got around to ordering my list, but I specifically excluded Plan 9 because I felt it didn't belogn on the list. Certainly not above Some like it Hot

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47. La Strada
Federico Fellini, 1954
POINTS: 80
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

“There are films that quietly tell a story (La Strada, for instance) without feeling the need to 'show us what were really are,' or to lampoon the hypocrisy of modern life. Those are the ones I prefer.”

― andy --

“La Strada - I want to go back in time and impregnate Giulietta Masina.”

― Jeff-PTTL

There's a strain of Right Directors/Wrong Films goin on...

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46. Night and The City
Jules Dassin, 1950
POINTS: 81
VOTES: 3
#1s: 0

COMMENTS:

RIP Jules Dassin

RIP Richard Widmark

BONUS FEATURE

...and that's it for today. Stay tuned for 45-31 tomorrow.

Thank God there are still 45 slots left!

yeah, where will Bridge on the River Kwai turn up?

You'd be surprised...

oh I hope so.

#1. Seven Samurai

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"Madness!"

My takes:

I hated La Strada, but that was 18 years ago. I felt trapped in the movie, and couldn't figure out why anyone (the characters, the audience) wouldn't want to get out. Anyone want to rhapsodize?

Shane felt a little canned, its vision of the kid a little cute ("Shane! Shane!"), but I know Western fans love it, and it has some exciting fights and romantic tension. I'd probably watch it again.

Rebel Without a Cause is Beautiful, and I'll keep going back to it (Invasion didn't make my Top 20 either), but its overt sociology is silly. I don't know when the first realistic depiction of American parents and teens hit a screen (maybe the American Family doc on PBS in the '70s?), but this one is laughable enough to throw me out of the film, no matter how good Dead is.

Imitation of Life is great, but it's all sacrifice, tragedy, and pain, where All That Heaven Allows involves a rebellion, which is so much more poignant. I think that's why the combination in Far from Heaven.

I loved Night and the City, but didn't remember it well enough. The first wrestling noir?

I also loved Ed Wood, but couldn't sit through Plan 9.

Ha, I meant Dean, not Dead.

Shane ... I know Western fans love it

hmmm, not cineaste western fans. It's by GEORGE STEVENS, for God's sake. Big fans of it should get an enforced Boetticher/ Mann oater marathon.

(not only are those 2 not gonna show up on this list, we're gonna get High Noon too, right?)

Rebel Without a Cause is a melodrama; what's silly about it is just as silly in Imitation of Life.

Sal Mineo in Rebel is rather proto-Emo. Its kind of odd that Emo kids never picked up on the mismatched socks.

I think that's why the combination in Far from Heaven.

The rest of this unfinished sentence sure as hell better not be something along the lines of "works better than either."

Wish I'd been posting regularly then. My top 5 would be Sweet Smell of Success, On the Waterfront, The 400 Blows, The Apu Trilogy, and Paths of Glory; after that, Rear Window, Night of the Hunter, The Killing, maybe The Ten Commandments (absurd, I know), and something else--A Face in the Crowd and The Harder They Fall come to mind. Mostly predictable stuff.

I missed the first 20 minutes or so, but watched most of The Browning Version (Asquith, 1951) last night...surprisingly intense! Redgrave was great, and I really wanted to push Crocker-Harris' wife into traffic. Sort of an English Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Wish I'd been posting regularly then. My top 5 would be Sweet Smell of Success, On the Waterfront, The 400 Blows, The Apu Trilogy, and Paths of Glory; after that, Rear Window, Night of the Hunter, The Killing, maybe The Ten Commandments (absurd, I know), and something else--A Face in the Crowd and The Harder They Fall come to mind. Mostly predictable stuff.

― clemenza, Wednesday, September 7, 2011 9:48 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post

You didn't vote? I thought you had, but the email records are long gone so I have no proof. I do know you came out for the 60s one (and IIRC posted on the thread too).

I didn't start posting regularly till April 2009, so I missed this by a few months. Depending upon how it was scored, I might have moved Night of the Hunter into first.

A call to re-evaluate Stanley Kramer and On the Beach

http://filmint.nu/?p=5264

(i've never seen more than a few minutes of it btw)

anyone ever seen this novelization?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet#Novelization