1950s Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 2)

[Michael Kerpan]

I do, however, highly recommend Samurai Saga, his take on the Cyrano story. Although set in the past, it is most decidedly not a typical samurai film. You might like it, especially if you know the story already.

This film does sound like fun -- but I see no mention of any DVD version on IMDB.

[tryavna]

I do, however, highly recommend Samurai Saga, his take on the Cyrano story. Although set in the past, it is most decidedly not a typical samurai film. You might like it, especially if you know the story already.

This film does sound like fun -- but I see no mention of any DVD version on IMDB.

No, it hasn't been released yet, but it's a Janus title that turns up now and then on the IFC channel. If I see it on their schedule any time soon, I'll give you a head's-up. (It may also turn up in an Eclipse set of samurai movies before long.)

[Via_Chicago]

I got a chance to see Joseph H. Lewis' remarkable 1958 Western Terror in a Texas Town and I was absolutely blown away. Lewis simultaneously deconstructs the cliches of the genre as well as uses typical stereotypes to further reinforce said deconstruction (killer in black, cowardly town, etc.). The film is rightly remembered for its amazing showdown between Swedish whaler (!) Sterling Hayden, armed only with a whaling harpoon, and Ned Young's ruthless killer-for-hire. However, what's often lost is how powerfully immediate the film is. This isn't surprising since the picture was written under a pseudonym by Dalton Trumbo. However, I couldn't help but think of Zinnemann's High Noon, and how this film is a strong reaction against it.

Seeing as it's written by Trumbo, it's not hard to miss the obvious connections made between the townspeople's utter cowardice and the collective fear of the Hollywood community during the blacklist. However, even more stunning is Trumbo and Lewis' critique of High Noon. Here, Hayden's whaler finds help (from his father's "amigo" Pepe, played very well by Eugene Martin), but only too late. However, because of this, the community itself is spurred into action. There's also a very clear visual connection made to High Noon. Here, the sheriff indeed throws down his badge; however, not after he has taken the money lying in his dead employer's (yes, employer) hands and waltzed right out of town!

Side-by-side with this reading is Lewis' deconstruction of the Western genre's tropes. Justice (or "yustice" as Hayden pronounces it) is meted out, not by the local sheriff, or even by an American, but by an outsider, a foreigner, a Swede. The only person who stands up with Hayden is the only Mexican living in the community, Pepe. Americans are purveyors, not of frontier justice, but of capitalist greed, as Sebastion Cabot's Ed McNeil steals the community's land because of its oil. This could very easily be a parable for own time, but were a film like this made today, it would easily be branded "far leftist," no doubt because of its anti-capitalist sympathies and obvious reverence for the foreigner (its celebration of the immigrant and of the indigenous inhabitants is extremely American, as loathe as many are to admit it).

Finally, Lewis' visual style is remarkable throughout. When he shoots open spaces in the town square, he alternates between five shots, always in the same pattern. His mise-en-scene here is breathtaking, with characters inhabitating all sorts of bizarre positions within the frame. And the shootout! Remarkable! Truly one of the great endings, not only of the genre, but in all of American cinema. What a great film.

[colinr0380]

Has anyone rewatched Johnny Guitar yet? From not being a particular fan of Westerns this film jumped surprisingly high into my list of favourites.

[Awesome Welles]

Well I don't know about rewatched, but I saw it a couple of years ago and at that point it jumped high on my list of top 50s films.

[zedz]

Closing in on the due date, I've just got around to revisiting my list from last time, taking into account the pile of prospective inclusions that have accumulated on the doorstep.

I've managed to make room for a greater variety of films by being much tougher on multiple films from single directors (Mann and Ozu being the conspicuous exceptions).

At the moment a quarter of the list is shorts, so I thought I should do a rah-rah for short films, which have tended to be overlooked in previous iterations of these lists.

Tex Avery and Chuck Jones almost certainly won't be overlooked, if the 40s lists are anything to go by, but vote-splitting for them is usually so extreme that few titles make it into the final 100. My respective selections are presently Deputy Droopy and the inevitable Duck Amuck. The latter is sheer imaginative genius, and I love the former for its dogged inventiveness in working the maximum mileage out of every joke - it approaches Dada.

Resnais appears twice, for the obligatory Night and Fog (which I'll bet ends up the highest ranking short film on the aggregate list) and the enchanting Chant du styrene. It's an industrial short, but it's elegant and beautiful, and very much of a piece with his mature style. I was surprised that, when the crunch came, this trifle outdistanced Hiroshima, mon amour.

A song of an entirely different stripe is Genet's Chant d'amour. I didn't remember this well enough to vote for it one way or another last time (whenever I cast my mind back to it, it got muddled up with memories of Poison and Fireworks), but seeing it again a couple of months ago, it had to be there for its unique proto-Lynch, proto-Svankmajer (is A Quiet Week in the House some strange homage?)mood.

Keeping to the song theme, The Singing Street flew out of nowhere to represent Free Cinema on my list. It's one of the few Free Cinema films I'd never seen before last year's BFI release, and I found it absolutely enchanting. Lorenza Mazzetti's audacious Together was also in contention, but it's not exactly a short. Thursday's Children, which made my list last time, has been pushed out of the running.

Pennebaker's Daybreak Express is superbly dynamic - a music video avant la lettre, and the music doesn't get much better than Ellington in full programmatic flight.

There's a vast body of great experimental film in the decade, and I've had to be ridiculously selective. No Brakhage seems horribly wrong, but it's been so long since I've seen my favourite of his 50s films (Daybreak / Whiteye and Anticipation of the Night) that I can't properly rank them, and Wedlock House lurks in their phantom shadows. If imdb persist in mis-dating Window Water Baby Moving my list is likely to remain unStanned.

I've got three dazzling abstractions in the form of the Whitney Yantra (mind-boggling early computer geometric colourfields, overwhelming on the big screen), McLaren's Blinkity Blank (an unparallelled piece of visual rhythm but, to be fair, it's also standing in for an amazing, varied body of 1950s work) and Lye's phenomenal 3D scratch masterpiece Free Radicals, with an even better soundtrack than the Pennebaker.

Somewhat less abstract, there's Borowczyk / Lenica's terrific Dom and my highest-rated short film (sharing the top ten with Lye), Eaux d'Artifice, one of the most beautiful films ever made.

[souvenir]

With the days before these lists are due dwindling down, I'm stuck on which of the Mann-Stewart Westerns to include. I even briefly thought about putting all five in there since each one has stand-out elements that continue to amaze and entertain me. Winchester '73 has always been my favorite, even though I prefer the color cinematography in the other four. I'm leaning towards including The Man from Laramie and The Far Country, but then how do I leave out The Naked Spur?

I don't think a single one of these made the last 1950s list so I'm curious as to how others have placed or will place any of them. They're all so very similar while still displaying little nuances to keep the viewer interested and enthralled. I have enjoyed reading others' views throughout the thread, especially zedz' write-up. For me, this is the toughest aspect of the 1950s list though.

[jt]

Just sent my list in and I feel a little guilty for not joining in the discussion over the past few months. I didn't think I'd have time to contribute but in the end, I couldn't resist putting a top 50 together.

Thanks to all those who have been so dedicated in this thread and opening my eyes to a few previously unseen classics from the 50's.

Hopefully I can add something to the 60's list.

[mikeohhh]

No sign of ... the amazing pre-Nouvelle vague Murder by Contract (1958 Irving Lerner.)

Really? Damn, I was going to look for this at the video store today. I was just reading about it yesterday and it jumped to the top of my last-minute gotta-see-before-my-list-is-due list.

[tryavna]

As someone who doesn't contribute a list (for various reasons), but who always reads other members' lists with interest, is there a possible last-minute solution to the Mann-Stewart westerns debacle in including them all en masse? One could do the same with the Boetticher-Scotts, too.

The reason I suggest this is that, for the most part, they are all equally good, and selecting one over another is largely a matter of taste. But because they are all equally good, they tend to suffer in these lists because each one may only get one or two votes. (I mean, which really is better: The Tall T or Ride Lonesome? It's an absurd question because it's too tough to call. And anyway, aren't the four key Ranown westerns basically the same movie?)

I'm not sure if this is a satisfactory solution, particularly at this late stage (though you could apply it retroactively to any list that includes a single one of these cycles). But it would be interesting to see just how high the Mann-Stewart and/or Boetticher-Scott films would rise, were they not pitted against one another. (Makes me wonder if the Lewtons would have ranked higher in the 40's list, for the same reason.)

[Michael Kerpan]

List sent in --- needless to say, it has a very East Asian slant. ;~}

[zedz]

As someone who doesn't contribute a list (for various reasons), but who always reads other members' lists with interest, is there a possible last-minute solution to the Mann-Stewart westerns debacle in including them all en masse? One could do the same with the Boetticher-Scotts, too.

This would be cheating, but if people are interested, I could probably figure out the aggregate score by totalling each person's highest ranked Mann western. (And don't forget Man of the West, which for my money is the best western of the decade, or The Tin Star, which also snuck in at the tail end of my list but has yet to appear on anybody else's). He's still drastically underappreciated, based on the votes received to date.

On present voting, there would be no point doing this for Boetticher, alas. Even totalling every vote any of his films have so far received (just me and David, and for different films) wouldn't get him on the final list.

[Gropius]

On present voting, there would be no point doing this for Boetticher, alas.

Alas? As David Thomson said of Derek Malcolm's Guardian 100, 'why should a mere list be given such Schindlerian gravity?' It's not as if it will result in the establishment of an officially-sanctioned canon.

Although I appreciate the anorak spirit of this game.

[Michael Kerpan]

If 1950s Japanese cinema was adequately represented on subbed video, I think it could wind up totally dominating 1950s Hollywood (and this is without intending any put down of Hollywood). Outside Kurosawa (and -- now Ozu), less than 5 percent of Japan's most important (and enjoyable) films are accessible.

While I can link to screen shots of Imai and Gosho and Uchida and less-known Naruse, etc. -- there is no way I can really promote most of the wonderful films I've seen (and I've seen only a tiny fraction of those ythat were made).

Maybe someday....

[Steven H]

I agree, Michael. I'm constantly surprised by how good some of these rare, unsubtitled, Japanese 50s films are. The distinction between directing styles is often striking, and forget about comparing it to other national cinemas.

[zedz]

On present voting, there would be no point doing this for Boetticher, alas.

Alas? As David Thomson said of Derek Malcolm's Guardian 100, 'why should a mere list be given such Schindlerian gravity?' It's not as if it will result in the establishment of an officially-sanctioned canon.

Although I appreciate the anorak spirit of this game.

As I've stated before, the final list that seems to be the objective of the game is actually the thing I'm least interested in. It's the discussion that arises out of it that wakes me up, and it seems that Boetticher is not on anybody's minds at the moment. It's an existential 'alas.'

[vivahawks]

Seeing the discussion going on about the Mann westerns, I want to chip in a word for his Devil's Doorway, which is terribly overlooked. It stars Robert Taylor in the best work he ever did as an ex-US cavalryman Indian who returns home to find racism unabated. It's a flawed but fascinating film, and like Winchester 73 and The Furies (all three made in the same year!) shows Mann bridging his noir and western styles. The only other 50s western I can think of that can boast a similarly sophisticated look at what it meant to be Native American is Fuller's Run of the Arrow, which is on the borderline on my list right now (which includes five Manns and Man of the West #2 overall).

Seeing the mention of Lerner's fine Murder by Contract, I would also recommend his City of Fear, another low-budget thriller made the following year with a disconcertingly contemporary storyline: an escaped convict runs loose in LA carrying a "dirty bomb" (a sealed can of radioactive poison). It's tense, efficient, and features the same dry, socially aware tone of Murder. Funny that davidhare describes it as pre-New Wave, as I've always felt that Lerner, if he had continued on the path suggested by Murder and City of Fear's sardonic attitude and sharp mise-en-scene, could have been an American approximation to Melville. We'll never know.

[vivahawks]

Thanks david. Hopefully if work slows down soon I will have more time to hang out around here. I agree about the ending of Murder by Contract, and City of Fear suffers a bit from the same problem, though it tries to go in a different direction by literalizing the social metaphor implied by the plot.

Off to work again...

[jonp72]

Wow, it's great to see so many fans of Murder by Contract on the boards here. Now, I won't feel like I'm tilting at windmills by voting for it. It might be too much to ask, but are there any others out there who feel similarly about Josef von Sternberg's Saga of Anatahan? That film was a revelation for me. It's a meticulous fusion of American and Japanese filmmaking styles filtered through an ex-German Expressionist. Like the Scarlet Empress, it's great examination of how the erotic allure of Woman can upset the applecart of social hierarchy.

[zedz]

It might be too much to ask, but are there any others out there who feel similarly about Josef von Sternberg's Saga of Anatahan?

Yes, but I'd urge you to get your vote in for it!

[Michael Kerpan]

It might be too much to ask, but are there any others out there who feel similarly about Josef von Sternberg's Saga of Anatahan? .

On MY list.

;~}

[Michael]

And not on mine. Where's the damn dvd?!

I wish I could explore von Sternberg but the only one I've seen by him is Blonde Venus which I'm pretty nuts about.

[Kenji]

Well, i've submitted my little list. A tremendous decade, especially for Japanese cinema, and with the mention of Borowczyk, i regret not including The Astronauts, which i give a slight edge over Dom. Some sort of influence on Terry Gilliam for Monty Python, or via others in between?

[Arcadean]

Anatahan is #2 on my own list that I'm submitting very soon (I'm close to a list of 50 films out of an original list of 150). It's the most sublime Sternberg film I've ever seen (Incidently, I recommend Jonathan Rosenbaum's wonderful article on the film in his book Placing Movies. It certainly explains some of the more subtle and ambiguous aspects of the film and a few of Sternberg's quotes about Anatahan from his autobiography). It's playing in Chicago soon at Doc Films. I can't wait to see it on the big screen.

[mikeohhh]

And not on mine. Where's the damn dvd?!

I wish I could explore von Sternberg but the only one I've seen by him is Blonde Venus which I'm pretty nuts about.

Holy smokes, this is pretty shocking knowing your tastes. Get that Marlene Dietrich Glamour Collection set stat!! It has Blonde Venus (my favorite too), plus Morocco and The Devil is a Woman, as well as two non-Sternberg titles (which I haven't watched yet). Also, The Blue Angel and The Scarlet Empress are absolutely essential. The Dietrich/Sternberg movies are some of my favorites ever and, like I said earlier, knowing your tastes (which very often overlap with mine), these should be your favorites too.

Oops, we're supposed to be talking about the 1950s! Watching it again yesterday, how hot is Marlene in Touch of Evil? And she's like 60(!!!)!!