Defend Your Darlings, You Sad Pandas! (Lists Project v 3.0)

[YnEoS]

32) The Mascot- This one hurts. Have people not seen this? There is a tiny little puppy toy crying and whimpering because nigh no one voted for this phatasmagoric wonder.

I was too busy to participate this time around, but had I submitted a list, this certainly would've definitely ranked very high. I'm a huge fan of stop-motion animation, and when I saw this for the first time it really blew me away. Not only a stop-motion animation pioneer, but it was quite shocking to see how incredibly smooth a lot of the animation was, complete with use of motion-blurs that many stop-motion animators decades later didn't use. Not to mention the remarkably expressive faces of the puppets, and if all that wasn't enough an amazing style that clearly inspired many of the greatest animators later. Definitely worth seeing if you haven't yet.

[Saturnome]

I voted for the director's feature film Le Roman de Renard instead (very high vote in fact, and nobody voted it higher than I did, if I go by the stats shown with the results), and while I like The Mascot, it wasn't enough for the top 50.

[tarpilot]

Top Ten:
1. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
2. Gueule d’amour (Jean Grémillon, 1937)
3. Easy Living (Mitchell Leisen, 1937)
4. Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
5. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
6. Midnight (Mitchell Leisen, 1939)
7. La Bête Humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938)
8. Other Men’s Women (William A. Wellman, 1931)
9. Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933)
10. Man’s Castle (Frank Borzage, 1933)

Orphans:
#9 WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD William A. Wellman, 1933
As I mentioned in the list threat itself, I should have made a case for this pre-deadline to try and encourage others to see it. Oh well. A film about runaway kids being my highest-ranking orphan is amusing enough to placate me. Along with Other Men’s Women, it represents the pinnacle of the rhythm and movement that is so quintessentially Wellman’s, his theme of characters in transit already prevalent in his work (Babs going country in The Purchase Price, Mackaill’s southern sojourn in Safe in Hell, Barthelmess’s veteran attempting to readjust to home life in Heroes for Sale) lending itself with immense beauty to familial and fraternal sacrifice during the depression. Frankie Darro gives one of the all-time great performances by a teenager, a compelling mess of confusion and fear(lessness) and self-imposed responsibility, capped off with a backflip.

#11 THE COWBOY AND THE LADY H.C. Potter, 1938
I have no idea to which to attribute H.C. Potter’s complete lack of a reputation, as there are several passages in this film that are without question as good as movies get: in one, Gary Cooper putters around his house-in-progress, pantomiming his to-be-married life with Merle Oberon (complete with chalk outlines of furniture -- “Special Chair for Mary”) as his mass of cowpoke buddies looks on, curious and entranced, sitting back on their heels to simulate a room full of chairs, until Cooper’s ma strolls by and brings all of their asses to the ground, shatters the illusion with nothing but her voice; in another, Cooper and Oberon take a midnight stroll on the deck of a fog-enshrouded ship (“We seem to be giving each other insomnia”) that quite simply exceeds by miles similar (wonderful) sequences in History Made at Night and Love Affair (and I love History to death; it was #29 on my list). Potter appropriates Western iconography not for cheap laughs but for complex pathos with much of the same potency Nicholas Ray would 14 years later in The Lusty Men.

#12 THE WEDDING NIGHT King Vidor, 1935
Vidor takes a simple single-setting story of forbidden love and expands and deepens it masterfully, uniting its divergent threads on art, culture, and sex in a tragic conclusion that’s totally and completely earned. A late sequence where the mistress and wife of Cooper’s character discuss the novel for which the former acted as a muse and the in-novel moment where their thinly veiled avatars themselves meet is surprising in its tonal complexity and the very fact that it happens at all, the latter point noted by the wife (Helen Vinson) in a moment that moves far past sly autocritique. My favourite Vidor, my favourite Cooper performance, and now that I’m really dwelling on it, a film that probably should have been about 6 or 7 places higher on my list.

#17 BIG BROWN EYES Raoul Walsh, 1936
An absolute pleasure, and what I would like to believe Rivette would have made had he been working in the studio system in the 30s: a bizarre, circular mystery where the emphasis isn’t on the solving of the crime but the ways in which the protagonists find themselves lost and adrift in a haze of uncertainty and narrative grayness. No one in the film is ever sure of anything; not the criminals, not the cops, not the reporters. Even Joan Bennett, when asked if she’s going to marry Cary Grant’s character, replies merely with a meek “uh, yeah, I think so...” Top three Walsh for me, along with The Strawberry Blonde and Colorado Territory.

#20 THE SHOPWORN ANGEL H.C. Potter, 1938
In perhaps the most Jimmy Stewart of Jimmy Stewart roles, he plays an aw-shucks GI in basic training who tries to convince Margaret Sullavan’s songstress to pretend to be his girlfriend for the benefit of his army buddies. In one respect an unabashed veneration of The American Soldier, in a number of others a warm, subtle, lovingly detailed romance between a pair of performers with as pure and pleasureable a chemistry as any other two in movies. I don’t know why I’m such a sucker for characters reverting back to childhood, but there’s a passage here where they cavort about in an amusement park that’s perfection perfection perfection.

#24 LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW? Frank Borzage, 1934
A key line from this film -- “Nothing very wrong happens to the peaceful man” -- seems to cement it as a the far lighter genesis to Borzage’s The Mortal Storm. Sullavan’s surprise humping is moment numero uno.

#25 NO GREATER GLORY Frank Borzage, 1934
The kids in Tree of Life ain’t got nothing on what these little shits get up to, and it’s also a far more authentic and potent portrait of violent childhood. There’s some obvious war=child’s play subtext, but the most profound truths in Borzage’s war parable emerge from the depths of childhood value-instillation and later interpretation, and the relationship between conflict and compassion and how such constructs can be both demolished or nurtured on the strength of a single word, in this case, from a treaded-upon “private” in the Paul Street Boys, a gang of kids preparing for a territorial war against The Red Shirts, a group of older, much larger tin soldiers, none of which are allowed to remain mere faceless “villains” and are instead given legitimate emotions and fears and ideas of their own in perhaps the film’s most eloquent development. In Borzage’s war-tinged efforts, the strongest of human feelings exist in opposition of combatic violence, whether it be Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart’s bowed heads slouching alone in a hall full of Nazi salutes, or one child saving another from a savage parental reprimand by masking the boy’s unspeakable transgressions against his fellow boy. Darro is again fantastic here; the kid was dynamite!

#35 DAMES Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley, 1934
My favourite Berkeley. The long pull-out from a formation of writhing dancers culminating with Powell’s head bursting through the screen is one of the most terrifying and awesome things ever.

#36 QUATORZE JUILLET René Clair, 1933
Probably the most surprising to me of my orphans. Slow push-ins to Anna Bella as she gazes at the moon is probably all any movie ever needs.

#38 AIMLESS WALK Alexander Hammid, 1930
I have little substantial support for this. It’s just beautiful and exhilarating.

#41 MIDNIGHT MARY William Wellman, 1933
I decided to limit myself to five Wellmans, and it was between this and Frisco Jenny, the ending of which is totally heartbreaking, but before that it’s rather routine. Midnight Mary on the other hand is probably Wellman’s most visually inventive 30s effort and features a baffling but fascinating kind-of-there-but-not-really proto-feminist undercurrent wherein the ending posits a legal system where the graces of justice fall only on women who service men. I’m not much of a Loretta Young fan, but she’s great in this and Man’s Castle.

#44 STOLEN HEAVEN George Abbott, 1931
A lovers-on-the-lam story as only the bitterness, cruelty, and freedom of the pre-code era could conceive. A fugitive and a prostitute decide to run off to Palm Beach and live the high life on some stolen loot before pledging to kill themselves. Contains some of the most elaborate and beautiful long takes of the era. Feverishly melodramatic borderline camp and all the more emotionally ravaging for it.

#47 BLONDE CRAZY Roy Del Ruth, 1931
On my list almost solely for the overhead tracking shot above the jail cells. Cagney and Blondell are great, of course, but my lord.

[Gregory]

Most of my orphans were neglected films by major directors such as Sirk, Minnelli, Mizoguchi, Cukor, and K. Vidor.
I'll just choose the Sirk film, Sleep My Love, to defend here. It's available on a nice, affordable German DVD under the title Schlingen der Angst.
One of a subgenre of the melodrama which I often find rich to explore, in which a woman is jeopardized by her scheming husband, this one shares some close psychological parallels with Cukor's Gaslight (among others), which I've argued in the past here is an underappreciated work. Sirk's film was set in the present day and swapped out most of the gothic aesthetic for a different type of suspense and foreboding that feels closer to noir. One can perhaps sense that Sirk was a little out of his element in a story that's a mystery and in which people are running around with guns, but it's fascinating to see what he does with the material to make it work in his own way. He characteristically makes impressive use of the house as a space of danger, entrapment, and crisis, in which staircases, doors, windows, balconies, and the bedroom provide exciting openings and spaces in which the characters move in unsettling ways both "routine" and unexpected. The familiar realm as a site of danger is contrasted with an unfamiliar place as a haven of safety and intimacy, namely the beautiful Chinese wedding reception.
I wanted to keep this short so I'll cut myself off there and just add that this film, while not nearly as great for me as Gaslight, Rebecca, or later Sirks such as Written on the Wind, is still impressive with many unique touches and flourishes that have come to light for me on repeat viewings.

[colinr0380]

OK, here are my orphans from the 1940s list. I'm not very good at making cases for them, but they're all great!:

16. The Ghost Ship (Mark Robson, 1943) - I have great affection for this film as the first Lewton-produced horror film that I saw. I liked the sense of the 'hero' being more of a victim of circumstance and having his insignificance in the society, either on land or on the ship, continually pointed out to him when he decides to speak out against a respected, and feared, captain. Like all of Lewton's films I love the way that this starts off as a specific threat and then becomes something more nebulous, intangible and therefore almost impossible to fight against. These are films which cry out for deus ex machinas to save their protagonists but sometimes the requested help just doesn't arrive!

17. Love on the Dole (John Baxter, 1941) - A great early role for Deborah Kerr (in a part that Wendy Hiller played on stage - they of course were both in Major Barbara together the same year) is one of the highlights of a film that feels like it melds together a kind of D.H. Lawrence class consciousness with pre-Ken Loach social conscience. The film is currently online here, unfortunately without subtitles for the thick Lancashire accents!

20. Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946) - The most delirious possible, borderline insane, melodramatic western trying to out-do Gone With The Wind and, for my money, succeeding!

26. Ruthless (Edgar Ulmer, 1948) - Much more complex than the beautifully stripped down Detour, Ruthless is the upper-class companion to the down to earth Force of Evil (as well as a childhood trauma film to rival Pursued and a tale of wealth bringing loneliness in the vein of Citizen Kane), proving that obsession with money can corrupt any members of a society.

47. The Devil Thumbs a Ride (Felix Feist, 1947) - Like Detour this is another stripped down B-movie full of dualistic characters and situations showing fate trapping people, circumstances bringing out the worst in 'ordinary' people, as well as the way that the 'truth' of a situation can become a malleable concept to newcomers to a situation as the killer and his girl start attempting to set up our hero and his girl to take the fall for them. In other words, a quintessential and underappreciated noir.

50. The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949) - A very underappreciated David Lean film, working on the same intimate emotional scale as Brief Encounter and perhaps even more moving in the sense that rather than giving up the chance at relationships, these relationships were given up long ago. Almost wordless at times, this film has moments of perfection within, as well as looking forward to Lean's future spectacles set in exotic locations reminiscing about events and eras long past.

[Siddon]

(Top Ten)
1.) Citizen Kane (1941) Orson Welles
2.) Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The (1943) Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
3.) Le Corbeau (1943) Henri-Georges Clouzot
4.) Great Dictator (1941) Charlie Chaplin
5.) Devil and Daniel Webster, The (1941) William Dieterle
6.) Double Indemnity (1944) Billy Wilder
7.) Third Man, the (1949) Carol Reed
8.) Maltese Falcon (1941) John Huston
9.) La Belle Et Le Bete (1946) Jean Cocteau
10.) Brute Force (1947) Jules Dassin

My panda's

33.) Going My Way (1944) Leo McCarey, I guess 7 Academy Awards doesn't register on this board. This is one of my favorite musicals and Crosby films. This is one of those movies that is just to earnest and optimistic, an antithesis of the noir films that dominated most of the lists.

39.) The Hamilton Woman (1941) Alexander Korda, This one was a bit of a shock a love story in the film and outside of it Olivier plays Horatio Nelson, Vivian Leigh plays Lady Hamilton. What really stands out to me was the films beauty, shot during the war you still had great sea battles, lavish marple castles, and a plot that travels all over the world.

42.) Johnny Belinda (1948) Jean Negulesco, Oscar baity as ever and I can understand the lack of love for this one. I felt like the lead performances of Lew Ayers and Jane Wynman were both exceptional and unlike most films from this era this one was full of surprises.

46.) Letter, the (1940) William Wyler, a melodramatic film noir that has a fantastic opening which I admit loses quite a bit of its momentum as the film progresses. Yet still it has a great Witness for the Processcution, Anatomy of a Murder type feel to it with Bette Davis playing against type as a woman deeply in reserve. Davis's character is so subtle for her that you almost have to admire what your seeing .

50.) Torst (1949) Ingmar Bergman, okay I just wanted to put a Bergman film on my list and this is my favorite from this era.

[swo17]

My orphans:

31. "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (David Bradley, 1940)
40. A Little Phantasy on a Nineteenth Century Painting (Norman McLaren, 1946)
43. Douce (Claude Autant-Lara, 1943)
44. Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty, 1948)
48. Prison (Ingmar Bergman, 1949)
50. I Dood It (Vincente Minnelli, 1943)

A defense of these and all of my choices can be found here, along with loads of pretty pictures and unchecked sass.

[thirtyframesasecond]

My top ten

Black Narcissus (Powell and Pressburger)
Le Corbeau (Clouzot)
The Lady from Shanghai (Welles)
Les Enfants du Paradis (Carne)
La Belle et la Bete (Cocteau)
Day of Wrath (Dreyer)
Casablanca (Curtisz)
Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin)
Brief Encounter (Lean)
Le Silence de la Mer (Melville)

So far, so conventional. Some films high in my list though were also rans.

19. I Married a Witch (Clair) - well I guess many have seen it already. It's quite a slight movie with a slight premise, but it's nevertheless hilarious, with Veronica Lake giving Frederic March the runaround until her plans turn awry.

26. Inspirace (Zeman) - a Czech animation I only discovered through the forum discussion, it's my second highest short after Meshes of the Afternoon. It's a lovely animation with glass and there's plenty more Zeman to come in the 50s, I feel.

38. Harmonia (Has) and 39. Jammin' the Blues (Mili) - the former's an orphan, the latter an also-ran. Has is of course more famous for his surreal features in the 60s and the 70s, but this more conventional, wordless (besides the music) short is very sweet, with a terrific child's performance based purely on facial expressions. Jammin' the Blues is a wonderfully shot piece of jazz improvisation.

44. Puce Moment (Anger) - Fireworks is the obvious choice, but I found the simple choreography with dresses shot in colour far more intriguing.

50. On the Town (Donen/Kelly) - my list only featured a handful of musicals - I suspect the 50s will feature more - but this was a pacy song and dance rush about the bright lights of the big city.

[matrixschmatrix]

Can you explain the appeal of Monsieur Verdoux to me? I was kind of shocked at how much that one didn't grab me- as I am a fan of both Charlie Chaplin and unrepentant murderers- and I'd love to know why it works for you.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Can you explain the appeal of Monsieur Verdoux to me? I was kind of shocked at how much that one didn't grab me- as I am a fan of both Charlie Chaplin and unrepentant murderers- and I'd love to know why it works for you.

Well I'm not wilfully contrary with Chaplin, but I prefer this to The Great Dictator and A Woman of Paris to most of his other 20's movies (City Lights remains his best film by some way though). I suppose it demonstrates Chaplin had far more range as an actor than before, and could do jet-black comedy rather than comedy laced with lots of sentimentality. Plus there is a moral and political undertone to it, when he condemns a society that judges him for murder when mass killing during war is tolerated. I think it has more depth than previous Chaplins, though the results might not convince everyone. Hence why it was slammed upon release.

[Michael Kerpan]

Most of my orphans were neglected films by major directors such as Sirk, Minnelli, Mizoguchi, Cukor, and K. Vidor.

Which oof your Mizoguchi picks got snubbed? (I voted for several by him).

[matrixschmatrix]

Well I'm not wilfully contrary with Chaplin, but I prefer this to The Great Dictator and A Woman of Paris to most of his other 20's movies (City Lights remains his best film by some way though). I suppose it demonstrates Chaplin had far more range as an actor than before, and could do jet-black comedy rather than comedy laced with lots of sentimentality. Plus there is a moral and political undertone to it, when he condemns a society that judges him for murder when mass killing during war is tolerated. I think it has more depth than previous Chaplins, though the results might not convince everyone. Hence why it was slammed upon release.

Verdoux, in many ways, still has the same sentimentality that runs through all of Chaplin's movies (particularly with The Girl and with Chaplin's original wife and kid)- he's represented as a man with a human, non-blackened heart. Thus, it seems to imply that rather than the nasty, bitchy love I have for a Richard III or for Clifton Webb in Laura, I should genuinely think Verdoux is an ok guy doing justifiable things to get by, which seems totally unconscionable. I mean, Tony Soprano is wont to pull the 'capitalism kills waaay more people than I do' defense, too, but we aren't supposed to buy it, and killing people because they're unpleasant is still really, really not ok.

It also didn't help that I thought most of the movie was pretty painfully unfunny, and made me yearn for the so-so Jackie Oakie parts of The Great Dictator (of which I am also not a huge fan.)

[Gregory]

Most of my orphans were neglected films by major directors such as Sirk, Minnelli, Mizoguchi, Cukor, and K. Vidor.

Which of your Mizoguchi picks got snubbed? (I voted for several by him).

My Love Has Been Burning a.k.a. Flame of My Love. Perhaps not an absolute all-time favorite Mizoguchi, but I still think it's great. I definitely need to see Utamaro again, whenever I get around to buying the forthcoming Blu set.

[Shrew]

I had no orphans! I'm either really bad at this or really good.

1) To Be or Not to Be
2) Hail the Conquering Hero
3) Children of Paradise
4) A Canterbury Tale
5) Curse of the Cat People
6) Paisan
7) Black Narcissus
8) The Best Years of Our Lives
9) Meet Me in St. Louis
10) Late Spring

27) Crows and Sparrows- Was this Wu.Qinghua with the save? I'm glad this wasn't orphaned even though I expected it. It doesn't help when there's no subtitles floating around for a rather talky film.
30) Spring in a Small Town- A bit surprised by this one's fall too. Again, it's not the greatest Chinese film ever, but it's still a moving love story drawn out of the trauma of the war. It's a good companion piece to Murderers Are Among Us, with its bombed out landscapes and pervasive sense of loss, though it lacks the struggle with guilt seen in the other film. The terrible releases of this and most Chinese films certainly don't help, but it deserves a look.
35) Reign of Terror/ The Black Book- Also surprising, given the talk about this explosion of style and delicious nastiness, and the brouhaha over its MOD ghettoing.
37) Rope
38) All the Kings Men
39) The Killers- The film's problem may be that it can never match its beginning, which starts off equally frightening and hilarious, then reaches one of those great existential moments of noir as Lancaster lies in his bed. It's hard to follow, but the film does its best.
40) Le Ciel Est A Vous- Surprised that this didn't have a better showing since it was made available on Hulu Plus. I guess this could be a case of people hesitant to embrace streaming.
42) On the Town- Musicals ended up rather underrepresented
43) The Sin of Harold Diddlebock- It's not perfect, but Harold Lloyd's liquored yowl transcends all things.
44) The Great Dictator
47) Cluny Brown- Plumbing. Hilarious.
48) Shoeshine- Some great performances from the kids here, and also more of a narrative than the LOOKATTHESEPROBLEMS! style of Bicycle Thieves and especially La Terra Trema. The horrifying ending in particular earns itself rather than feeling like a tacked on thesis statement about society.
50) I Married a Witch- If only for Veronica Lake, and the hilarious montage of Marshes and shrews through the ages.

And some orphans I almost voted for...
Whisky Galore! is great fun, if a bit unfocused in its view of island life. No one particularly stands out. Mackendrick manages some hilarious sight gags with hiding whisky, and there's the wonderful scene when the boat comes into dock as the villagers lurch forward toward it like zombies. And a great great last line. But I'd really like to know what made someone feel strongly enough about it to list it in their top 3.

[Michael Kerpan]

Which of your Mizoguchi picks got snubbed? (I voted for several by him).

My Love Has Been Burning a.k.a. Flame of My Love. Perhaps not an absolute all-time favorite Mizoguchi, but I still think it's great. I definitely need to see Utamaro again, whenever I get around to buying the forthcoming Blu set.

I initially disliked My Love Has Been Burning, but have upgraded this negative assessment to a mildly positive one --finding it interesting and, in parts, likeable. All the same, it is only my no. 6 Mizoguchi film of the decade (and I only put four Mizoguchi films on my list). ;~}

[tarpilot]

Top Ten:
1 Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941)
2 Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)
3 The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage, 1940)
4 The Strawberry Blonde (Raoul Walsh, 1941)
5 The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946)
6 The 7th Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)
7 Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948)
8 The Devil and Daniel Webster (William Dieterle, 1941)
9 Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945)
10 Strange Illusion (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)

Orphans:
#10 STRANGE ILLUSION Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945
See here.

#17 CABIN IN THE SKY Vincente Minnelli, 1943
Dang, I thought the other person who voted for this in the musicals list would toss me a bone here as well. “Happiness is a Thing Called Joe” says it all for me.

#20 THE BRIBE Robert Leonard, 1949
See here.

#21 NO TIME FOR LOVE Mitchell Leisen, 1943
This has received but a fraction of the attention afforded to Claudette Colbert and Leisen’s most famous of their four collaborations, the Billy Wilder-scripted Midnight, and is paid similar mind in David Chierichetti’s biography of Leisen, the few words afforded to it regarding the film primarily as a passably amusing trifle coasting on the chemistry between Colbert and Fred MacMurray. However, I believe it’s long overdue for a re-examination, both as a delightfully lascivious example of its underrated director’s most endearing traits and a fascinating distillation of his most lurid obsessions. Like Hawks’s Ball of Fire, it gleefully explores the relationship between the intellectual and the physical, Katherine’s highbrow friends bewitched by Jim’s lusty masculinity and sculpted physique, the subtext mined deeper in a sequence when Jim, having recently taken a job as Katherine’s camera assistant after being fired when an embarrassing photo she took is mistakenly published, exhibits violent jealousy at the leopard-print-underwear-adorned muscleman Katherine’s shooting. It could be said that Leisen’s lens is the one doing the real worshiping: it’s not hard to see the parallels with Leisen’s real-life relationship with beefcake dancer Billy Daniels, The Aesthete and The Atlas, respectively. Those who decry the film’s denouement as sexist cop-out are radically underestimating the hilarious and pointed barbs the film saves for masculine anxiety -- the aforementioned photoshoot brawl has MacMurray fiddling with the photolights as the muscleman’s beefy posterior sits in front of his face, Katherine looking back at them and shouting “Get it up, Ryan!” -- as well as the quiet dignity with which Leisen treats Katherine’s galpal Roger (the wonderful Richard Haydn). The last-act sequence with Katherine trudging through a tunnel of sludge with Roger and burly labourer Paul McGrath to vindicate Jim’s innovative drill machine beautifully streamlines the film’s ideology, one of disparate functions of the human body coming together in filthy unification, and the ironic, exaggerated theme music lends credence to David Melville’s characterization of Leisen as Hollywood's first post-modern filmmaker.

#22 TOBACCO ROAD John Ford, 1941
This was probably the least surprising of my orphans, but it’s one of my favourite Fords. The link between Borzage’s Lazybones and Gummo. I don’t know what that means either.

#23 THE CLOCK Vincente Minnelli, 1945
This moment is as good as movies get. I can’t even explain it. It’s like they’re two mindless automatons attempting to ape what a crew of autistic robot programmers think a transcendent meeting in the park should look like in the movies but then when they come together and the camera holds on Robert Walker’s face it’s like he’s just become a REAL BOY! and you hold your head in your hands and give thanks for the world existing.

#26 TO EACH HIS OWN Mitchell Leisen, 1946
Surpassed only in the Make Tarpilot Cry Canon by Dumbo and Sirk’s Imitation of Life. What? Who said anything about my mother?

#31 PUSS N' BOOTY Frank Tashlin, 1943
Love the nighttime animation and the final reveal.

#33 THE LEOPARD MAN Jacques Tourneur, 1943
Really? Bah.

#35 RAMROD André De Toth, 1947
I couldn’t possibly say it better than Cold Bishop did, I’m just disappointed I was alone in voting for it.

#37 MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE H.C. Potter, 1948
Hilariously bitter, brilliantly subversive, etc.

#39 TOO LATE FOR TEARS Byron Haskin, 1949
Lizbeth Scott’s character is an fascinating synthesization of the complication-collecting noir protagonist with the traits we traditionally associate with the femme fatale; the clouding of such archetypes is not in itself novel, but it’s significant in that Scott’s amorally manipulative, homicidal housewife is indisputably the film’s main character as well as its chief villain. As the film begins, she and her husband (Arthur Kennedy) are driving along the California coast when a bag full of money “literally falls in [their] lap” from a passing car. Her husband is a spineless patsy to end all spineless patsies; not only does he give in to his wife’s demands to let her drive them out of trouble with the loot when the real recipient gives chase (which she ably does), but he’s also too much of a coward to either go to the cops like he feebly threatens to do or stand up to Scott’s assertiveness. She doesn’t pretend that she is doing anything in the name of altruism. She admits up front to her husband that she is only capable of acting in (primarily financial) self-necessity and that it’s an integral part of her being. She continually outwits and outmanoeuvres every man around her, including the perennially menacing Dan Duryea (the money’s “rightful” owner), whom she ropes into aiding her before turning him into a confused, drunken mess and ultimately devouring him in the manner of whichever insect metaphor you feel is most apt. This is what really should have been called a “women’s picture”; it’s an engrossing attempt to level the playing field without resorting to simplistically turning Scott’s character into merely a man with breasts. There is, of course, no chance of Scott evading her inevitable comeuppance, but you may take pleasure in the fact that it comes at the hands of the film’s most boring character in a supremely lame reveal that seems to agree with our desires to see the smartest, strongest, most capable character escape with her hard-earned loot, even as the final image of stained fifties just out of her reach comes as an earned cap to its ultimate anti-capitalist sentiment.

#40 WHEN STRANGERS MARRY William Castle, 1944
See here.

#42 BLOOD ON THE MOON Robert Wise, 1948
An orphan in my Western list as well! I should really start making a real case for it one of these days...(or convince someone to release it)

#44 THE LODGER John Brahm, 1944
It’s no Hangover Square, but it’s great enough for 44th.

[Wu.Qinghua]

27) Crows and Sparrows- Was this Wu.Qinghua with the save? I'm glad this wasn't orphaned even though I expected it. It doesn't help when there's no subtitles floating around for a rather talky film.

Yes. Lubitsch' dismissal couldn't keep me from voting for this funny little 'tenants fighting the landlord' movie. And I like it a lot, despite its pedagogic and polemic streaks, while I passed on 'Spring in a Small Town' which is not one of my favourites. Unfortunately my favourite 40s Chinese movie, Along the Sungari became one of my orphans, which is a pity. Of course, it's an unpolished film, but it offers an immensely interesting representation of the Japanese occupation of China which I highly recommend for comparative viewing to anybody who's fond of Kobayashi's 'Human Condition' - or of classic Soviet cinema.

Edit: Coming to look at my meager notes on 'Spring ...', I wonder if I'll have to revise my dismissal of Fei's movie. I guess I'll vote for it next time round, too.

[Cold Bishop]

#35 RAMROD André De Toth, 1947
I couldn’t possibly say it better than Cold Bishop did, I’m just disappointed I was alone in voting for it.

Yeah, I felt a twinge of guilt, when I saw that, but all three De Toth's on my original list (this, Pitfall, Slattery's Hurricane) were pushed off in the grand culling (same thing with Anthony Mann... of course, the one I did vote for fell off the list).

I enjoyed When Strangers Marry, but not enough to break the stacked list. I've seen The Bribe long ago, and I can't say it left much of an impression, but I'll probably get around to rewatching before I write up the rest of the Spotlight titles.

[Matt]

#17 CABIN IN THE SKY Vincente Minnelli, 1943
Dang, I thought the other person who voted for this in the musicals list would toss me a bone here as well.

Oops, I didn't submit a list. If I had, Mildred Pierce might have charted.

[Murdoch]

1. They Live By Night (1949) – Ray (Not even in the top 100? My favorite Ray, beating out In a Lonely Place by just a smidge. Cathy O'Donnell is my eternal crush because of this movie.)
2. Germany Year Zero (1948) – Rossellini
3. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) – Hitchcock (Disappointment again, my favorite Hitchcock, which is strange, I know. But this movie ranks among the best screwballs ever made, and it has Carole Lombard! I wrote about it in the Hitchcock thread and maintain those feelings today, sheer blissful comedy from beginning to end.)
4. Christmas in July (1940) – Sturges
5. Day of Wrath (1943) – Dreyer
6. I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) – Powell and Pressburger
7. Fireworks (1947) – Anger (All my favorites from notable directors are being sideswiped by this list. This film displays a brilliance in its brevity, and shows how skilled Anger was even at his earliest stage.)
8. The Amazing Mr. X (1948) – Vorhaus (Just see my post on the first page of the 40s thread. The plot may not be much, but the visuals are among cinema's greatest pleasures.)
9. They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) – Cavalcanti (Everything I have to say about this has already been said by Cold Bishop, so just read his posts.)
10. Bicycle Thieves (1948) – De Sica

12. Hollow Triumph (1948) – Sekely
28. Leave Her to Heaven (1945) – Stahl
29. Cluny Brown (1946) – Lubitsch
33. I Wake Up Screaming (1941) – Humberstone
36. The Reckless Moment (1949) - Ophuls
37. Act of Violence (1948) – Zinnemann
41. Rope (1948) – Hitchcock
46. Murder, My Sweet (1944) – Dmytryk
48. T-Men (1947) – Mann
49. Gilda (1946) – Vidor

[tarpilot]

Some great noirs there that almost made my list, Murdoch; the Sekely, Zinnemann, and Humberstone in particular. Laird Cregar's performance in the latter is a thing of absolute beauty, as all his performances are.

[Murdoch]

The line "What's the good of living without hope?" and Cregar's melancholic reply "It can be done," is among the greatest noir exchanges in the entire "genre." Folks, go out and see I Wake Up Screaming NOW.

[domino harvey]

TOP 10 PLUS ORPHANS

01 Whirlpool
02 Hail the Conquering Hero
03 Air Force
04 Red River
05 Rebecca
06 Heaven Can Wait
07 Mrs Miniver
08 It Had To Be You
09 Out of the Past
10 the Song of Bernadette (ALSO AN ORPHAN-- ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME)

18 the Bishop's Wife (OUCH)
19 the Fan (OUCH AGAIN)
25 Dragonwyck
26 Here Comes Mr Jordan
38 Once More, My Darling
39 the Crystal Ball
43 Battleground
48 Juke Girl (At least Thieves Highway got dropped)
50 the Big Steal

Sympathetic to Orphans Johnny Belinda and the Devil Thumbs a Ride, as they were just out of my Top 50

[starmanof51]

The line "What's the good of living without hope?" and Cregar's melancholic reply "It can be done," is among the greatest noir exchanges in the entire "genre." Folks, go out and see I Wake Up Screaming NOW.

It was in the last 5 or 6 I dropped. So I sympathize.

[matrixschmatrix]

I'm intending to do some more in depth writing about my picks later, but for now-

Top Ten
1. Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, 1945)- I am so goddamn glad this wound up in the top five I can't say, this more than anything else I watched for this project is a movie I want to strap people down and make them watch (oh, if only I were Stalin!)
2. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)- I think I voted as high for this one as anybody, and I'd do it again, too. It's just the tightest, nastiest little thing, I want to take it home and cuddle it
3. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
4. Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)
5. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
6. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
7. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
8. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles , 1942)
9. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)- I had a hard time picking which Welles to rank higher, but I think the way Magnificent Ambersons was mangled and mistreated and still manages to be a great film gives it a slight edge.
10. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)- I wonder if I would like this one as much without the Philip Glass opera in my head? Oh, well.

Also rans
15. Motion Painting #1 (Oskar Fischinger, 1947)- Wow, I expected this to do better after Fischinger's great results last list. I should have spoken up about it, it's a fantastic piece. Though, in a sense, I don't think it's really a movie, more of a four dimensional painting.
19. Hangmen Also Die (Fritz Lang, 1943)- I'm hoping this one's because everyone wants a better print than the Kino. It's hard-edged, nasty stuff even with the original ending cut out, and it's a view on the ethics of resistance that I haven't seen elsewhere.
30. They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)- I'm kind of down about this one, it's as emotionally raw as any Ray in its own way and gets across a basic noir scenario while remembering what damn naive idiots people that age are- I love Bogey, but this is a perfect anodyne to the hard, romantic hero Bogey tended to play
35. Macbeth (Orson Welles, 1946)- Can't really argue about this one, as I had a hard time gauging my own reaction to it. It's a striking work, though, and I think I might just have more of a thing for Shakespeare on film than a lot of the board.
40. Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949)- I think if I'd stopped watching this half an hour early, it wouldn't have done anything for me, but it gains such momentum and force towards the end that all the patient building becomes retroactively pretty great. It's not the best thing Dassin ever did, but it's almost definitive a noir as the stuff in my top ten, for me.
42. Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941)- This suffers a bit by comparison to Rebecca, particularly as Joan Fontaine seems to have forgotten to change her performance, but it's tightly made and surprisingly funny for a movie that's secretly about a murderous cad and a woman so devoid of self that she'll go ahead and let herself get murdered.
44. The Bank Dick (Edward Cline, 1940)- Maybe this would have done better if it came out a year earlier? It feels more of a piece with 30s humor, and maybe pales a bit in comparison to the more ambitious Sturges and Ealing comedies. But on the other hand, it's funny as hell.
45. Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa, 1948)- A bit unformed, but the relationship between Shimura and Mifune and Kurosawa's handling of them is all I need for a movie to make the lower reaches of my list. Plus I'm a sucker for footage of bombed-out postwar tenements,
47. The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)- This came up a bit in the main thread, but while I'll cop to this being not terribly Wellesian for a movie he starred in and directed, I think it works well in terms of John Huston (who secretly wrote it), sort of a Huston inflected take on the Suspicion/Rebecca/Shadow of a Doubt thing, delivered by Welles. Plus it's fun and well acted.

Orphans
22. Henry V (Lawrence Olivier, 1944)- Jeez, apparently I do like Shakespeare adaptations more than the room. I thought this was pretty brilliant, mixing more obviously stagebound work early on with an opener and more cinematic adaptation as it goes on, and shaping a Henry who is a decent, honest, man of the people and who can be relied upon as a propaganda figure in WWII. Did this suffer by comparison to Branagh's Henry, or just because people aren't huge on this kind of thing in general?
33. The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges, 1940)- Surprised by this one, too. I thought it one of Sturges' stronger and more successful works, satirizing the whole concept of power while smuggling in an oddly worked out undercurrent about cynical people growing a conscience. Plus, it's funny as hell. Maybe other people just prefer his more flat out comedies, I'm not sure.