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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 3, 2022 12:07:48 GMT -5
After thinking about it, I have a tie for 1959.
Good Morning - from Ozu
I’m All Right Jack - with Peter Sellers
North by Northwest is a great movie, but I’m sticking with these two.
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Post by berkley on Sept 4, 2022 20:06:18 GMT -5
After thinking about it, I have a tie for 1959. Good Morning - from Ozu I’m All Right Jack - with Peter Sellers North by Northwest is a great movie, but I’m sticking with these two. I saw I'm All Right Jack on tv in the '70s, so I'm long overdue for a re-watch of it. Very funny movie, from what I remember. |
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Post by berkley on Sept 4, 2022 20:18:02 GMT -5
Picking up where I left off a while back:
more 1950 favourites:
Los Olvidados - one of Bunuel's best-known films, but also of special interest for comics fans because it's been cited by Gilbert Hernandez as an influence on his Palomar stories
Orpheus (Orphée) - strange, stylish, enigmatic ... I wonder if this was an influence on David Lynch at all?
Rashomon - too famous to require comment, but anyway, fully deserving of its iconic status
La Ronde - interesting cyclic structure with one story leading into the next via shared characters, based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler (author of Dream Story, the source of Kubrick' Eyes Wide Shut)
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Post by berkley on Sept 5, 2022 2:15:07 GMT -5
one more from 1950:
Sunset Boulevard -
I joked or half-joked about Cocteau's Orphée being an influence on Lynch but I think it's no secret that Sunset Blvd certainly was. Billy Wilder made many great films but this might be his masterpiece.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,212 
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Post by Confessor on Sept 5, 2022 8:56:12 GMT -5
19591959 is a bit like 1958 for me, in that there's no single film that I've seen from that year that really stands out to me. I suppose one of the biggest movies from that year was Ben-Hur, but I've never seen it all the way through, though it was often shown on TV in the UK in the '70s and '80s. Religious epics really aren't my thing. The famed chariot race is obviously an exciting and stunt-laden cinematic tour de force, but I couldn't really comment on the rest of the film. So, with all that said, I think I''m gonna pick Journey to the Centre of the Earth for my favourite film this year...  Even though it's been an absolute age since I last saw the film, it still stands out in my memory as a superior piece of '50s sci-fi adventure film-making. I've never read Jules Verne's novel, so I've no idea how the film compares to the source material, but it certainly captures the late 19th century spirit of exploration and adventure well enough. As I recall, the performances of James Mason, Arlene Dahl, and then-current pop sensation Pat Boone are all rather good, although, if memory serves, some of the treatment of Dahl's character by the male leads is rather sexist by today's standards. Still, that's pretty much what you would expect from Victorian gentlemen of that era anyway, so it works in the context of the story, I guess. Overall, this is an enjoyable escapist adventure, with charming characters, some really awe-inspiring sets, and thrilling action sequences, especially the scenes in which the heroes do battle with giant lizards and prehistoric Dimetrodons. Plus, it's all presented in that wonderfully over-saturated colour that films of this era had. I should definitely watch this again. And soon! Other 1959 films I've seen are... - Expresso Bongo, which is a movie vehicle for the UK's then-newest teenage heartthrob pop star Cliff Richard. The flimsy plot follows Richard's happy-go-lucky teen character as he is plucked from obscurity playing bongos in a Soho coffee shop by a sleazy manager, and set upon the road to pop star fame and fortune. Despite its thin plot, the film still has a lot to recommend it, with some sharp comedy, and some exciting performance clips of Cliff and his backing band The Shadows rocking out. It's a lightweight cash-in movie, yes, and Richard himself can barely act, but it still has enough period charm to make for an entertaining and, at times, rather fascinating look at the pre-Beatles British rock 'n' roll era.
- Carry On Nurse, which is the second in the Carry On series of comedy films and is, as the title would suggest, set in a hospital. It stars series regulars Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, and Hattie Jacques, along with a young Bill Owen, who later found fame as Compo in the long-running BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. As I recall, this film trades on the same brand of gentle humour as the first Carry On film, but it isn't quite as sharp or as engaging, though it was more commercially successful. Carry On Nurse would be the first of four hospital-based films in the series, and it doesn't come close to the camp brilliance of the later Carry On Doctor (1967), Carry On Again Doctor (1969) or Carry On Matron (1972).
- Carry On Teacher, which is the third Carry On film and is significant for being the first of the series to begin to use the saucy, innuendo-laden dialogue and character names that the franchise is so fondly remembered for...
Ministry of Education Inspector, Miss Wheeler - " Are you satisfied with your equipment, Miss Allcock?" Music teacher, Miss Sarah Allcock – " Well! I've had no complaints before!" 
The setting of a stuffy, 1950s Secondary School is a really good fit for the Carry On team, and there's some lovely Just William-style japes perpetrated by the school kids (one of which is played by a young Richard O'Sullivan, who went on to star in a number of popular British sitcoms and adventure serials in the '70s and '80s, like Man About the House, Robin's Nest, and Dick Turpin). For my money, this is probably the best Carry On film so far. - North by Northwest, which is a real favourite of my wife and mother-in-law's, but I have to confess that I found it kinda "so-so" when I watched it with them. I mean, don't get me wrong, the central plot, with its espionage and mistaken identity trappings, is pretty gripping, but it also has a ton of plot holes it it and some of Cary Grant's character's actions don't make a whole lot of sense. I usually really enjoy a good Hitchcock movie, but, I dunno...this one left me a bit cold.
- Some Like It Hot, which is a marginally better film than The Seven Year Itch, but only marginally. The pace is pretty snappy throughout and there are certainly plenty of gags in this movie, although a lot of the humour is quite dated. Marilyn Monroe is, of course, dazzling whenever she's on screen, and the film is worth watching just for her. But the presence of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as a couple of gangsters – all dolled-up in drag and on the run from their mob bosses in prohibition-era Chicago – is just ridiculous. I mean, I know that it's meant to be a comedy and all, but the film's conceit that the cross-dressing Lemmon and Curtis could a) pass as women, and b) be so attractive to so many red-blooded men – while passing over the stunning Monroe – it just too hard to swallow.
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Post by badwolf on Sept 5, 2022 14:19:47 GMT -5
North by Northwest easily wins for my favorite of 1959. So much fun, I'll even forgive the cop-out ending.
Anatomy of a Murder is tied with it, as far as my rating goes. But maybe not something I would watch over and over again as much.
I'm not a huge Disney fan but Sleeping Beauty is probably my favorite of theirs. Maleficent is such a great villain, just wish the dragon battle was longer. (When I re-watched it as an adult I was surprised how brief it was.)
Other films seen: Some Like It Hot, The Bat, House on Haunted Hill and Operation Petticoat. Didn't love any of them.
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Post by berkley on Sept 5, 2022 16:25:46 GMT -5
I think North by Northwest is a bit like the Bond films in that the point is the pace, the way it continually swings from one predicament to another, so when I watch it I'm not concerned with plot irregularities or illogicalities, I'm too caught up in the excitement of the story.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 14, 2022 12:35:33 GMT -5
Finally to 1960. I'll just state right off the bat that I've never seen The Apartment. Yes I should. But I haven't. Psycho - Is there really anything left to say about Psycho? It's one of Hitchcock's most important works and is both a classic and a huge influence on pretty much every horror movie that followed. Yes, at this point we all know the twist. It doesn't matter. The journey is still just as fun and thrilling. The Magnificent Seven - Yeah, it's a remake of The Seven Samurai. I don't care. This is just a great western with an all-time great cast (except Horst Buchholtz, he's awful). You can just see Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen vying for attention and screen time and dick-measuring in the best way. Eli Wallach is always great. Add in Charles Bronson at his best, Robert Vaughan and James Coburn and you get a recipe for a testosterone movie par excellence. The music score is iconic (and I don't use that word loosely). There is never a time that I won't watch this film if it's on. Inherit the Wind - A screen adaptation of the stage play based on the Scopes Monkey Trial. I'm probably predisposed to like this movie as Clarence Darrow is a hero of mine and Spenser Tracy does a great turn as Darrow surrogate Henry Drummond. Fredric March is also very good as William Jennings Bryan surrogate Matthew Brady, though Bryan was a day-age creationist and thus not nearly as extreme as Brady is portrayed. Gene Kelly and a young Dick York are definite pluses, but the movie is really all about Tracy and March. An important story in its own right it was that much more compelling in the waning days of McCarthyism. Spartacus - I've mentioned before that I'm not generally big on the "epic" films of the 50s and 60s. Spartacus is one of the exceptions to the rule (we will see a few more). Beyond its quality, and it's a great film, I'd love it simply for the fact that Kirk Douglas publicly acknowledged Dalton Trumbo as the screenwriter, thus helping to end the blacklist. But it's definitely a great film. In scope. In vision. In execution. Douglas handed a still very young Stanley Kubrick a herculean task and he proceeded to perform all twelve labors with this film. North to Alaska - I'll admit that this is lightweight fare compared to the rest. But that's okay. It's about favorites not best. And while I recognize its failings this is just a damn fun movie. John Wayne and Stewart Granger are fine at comic adventure. Ernie Kovacs is a great villain. Capucine is absolutely lovely. It's old-fashioned fun entertainment. And that's frequently more than enough. Oh...and I love that theme song by Johnny Horton. So my favorite movie of 1960? Probably not hard to figure out from the above, but it's The Magnificent Seven. Just a great western adventure film with a cast of some of my favorite actors. I will always want to watch this film. And, besides The Apartment, a few movies I need to watch or re-watch including, Shoot the Piano Player, La Dolce Vida, The Time Machine (it's been eons), Comanche Station (also eons), Sergeant Rutledge (ditto) and The Brides of Dracula. As usual 1960 in film for those as need a hand. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 14, 2022 13:10:14 GMT -5
You nailed a few of my top dogs from 1960, Slam_Bradley: Psycho, Magnificent Seven, Inherit the Wind, Sparatacus. Hell of a starting rotation. I'll also put The Apartment up there. Fred McMurray was so vile as the boss that he swore off being a bad guy (and he had a nice run as various spineless creeps) because his family couldn't stand seeing him in the part. And let's add for everyone's perusal The Time Machine, which I saw on Saturday Night at the Movies. It still holds up, but I guess the Morlocks aren't as scary as they were when I was 10 or 11. Back then, though, the Morlocks were like the even more violent descendants of the Boogeymen from Laurel and Hardy's Babes in Toyland. Elmer Gantry is a Burt Lancaster screen-chewing festival, but his character is an over-the-top evangelist, so, apropos. Check out Shirley Jones, though. She is steamy like an Amazon jungle an as hot as blacktop in July. Comanche Station is rawboned Scott and Boetticher, which means it's top-shelf stuff. Scott planned it as his swan song, but came back for one more gem, Ride the High Country. And check out Alec Guinness in Tunes of Glory as a tough Highland officer threatened by a new commander (John Mills). Both are excellent, but Guinness, as he does so often, inhabits Jock Sinclair. You'll see shades of Colonel Nicholson here, but Sinclair veers off in another direction entirely. |
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Post by commond on Sept 14, 2022 18:54:47 GMT -5
The 60s is a lot of people's favorite decade for cinema. I've always been resistant to that idea because I prefer the 30s and 50s, but I can certainly see where people are coming from. As with an decade, the early years are a holdover from the decade before, and thus 1960 is really the conclusion of 50s cinema. Indeed, many of this films were shot in '59.
I'm tempted to go with the recently departed Godard's Breathless as the best of the lot, though Psycho and La Dolce Vita are also in contention. L'Avventura too, I suppose. I was surprised to learn when Godard died that Ingmar Bergman hated his films, which led me down a rabbit hole where I discovered how many of the great directors disliked Antonioni. The Apartment rounds out the top 5 for the year, but since this list is about favorites, I am particularly fond of Ozu's Late Autumn and Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, which I think is one of his best films. I also love Mario Bava's Black Sunday (and Mario Bava in general.)
Peeping Tom isn't my favorite from Michael Powell, but if you like Hitchcock films I highly recommend it. In the same vein, the Korean film, The Housemaid, is also worth watching. Franju's Eyes Without a Face is... disturbing. Becker's Le Trou is a great prison break film. Rocco and His Brothers is a pretty grand drama from Visconti, and Rene Clement's Purple Noon was the film that they adapted The Talented Mister Ripley from. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a gritty kitchen sink drama with an excellent Albert Finney performance.
I also really like The Bellboy. The kids in Village of the Damned are creepy.
It's bothering me that I can't remember if I've seen Letter Never Sent, so that will probably be on my docket this week.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 14, 2022 18:58:08 GMT -5
The Bellboy. Hell yeah! I love that movie!
But my favorite movie of 1960 is Eyes Without a Face, followed closely by Psycho.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 14, 2022 19:22:40 GMT -5
My Top Ten Movies Of !960
Apartment
Black Sunday
Elmer Gantry
Inherit The Wind
Magnificent Seven
Ocean's 11
Psycho
Spartacus
Time Machine
Village Of The Damned
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Post by badwolf on Sept 20, 2022 11:10:20 GMT -5
My favorite film of was Psycho but I've had a weird experience with it. The first time I saw it was way back, on VHS (not widescreen) on an old standard TV. I already knew the most famous scene due to it being featured on various shows about horror movies and the only thing that surprised me was that it came so early. I was not impressed. Then recently it was released on 4K disc. I was by then aware of the limitations of my first viewing, and decided to buy it and give it another chance. What a different experience it was this time, watching it properly!
I also liked The Apartment. I think it's generally billed as a comedy, but there's a fair bit of drama and heavy themes in it.
Honorable (?) mention to Zazie dans le Métro. Now this is a film I loved many years ago. It's a surreal comedy that plays fast and loose with the laws of reality. When Criterion released it a few years back, I jumped on it. When I re-watched it... I really didn't like it at all. I don't know how I could have such a different reaction. However, I read the original novel by Raymond Queneau just a few years back and did love it. Maybe that affected it, I don't know. It was said to be unfilmable, and maybe it is.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 21, 2022 8:36:37 GMT -5
Honorable (?) mention to Zazie dans le Métro. Now this is a film I loved many years ago. It's a surreal comedy that plays fast and loose with the laws of reality. When Criterion released it a few years back, I jumped on it. When I re-watched it... I really didn't like it at all. I don't know how I could have such a different reaction. However, I read the original novel by Raymond Queneau just a few years back and did love it. Maybe that affected it, I don't know. It was said to be unfilmable, and maybe it is. I forgot about Zazie dans le Metro! I’ve only seen it once, just a few years ago, but I thought it was amazing and I’ve been wanting to see it again. I don’t think I’d quite put it up there with Eyes Without a Face, which I watch on Halloween almost every year. But I might feel different after I see it a few more times. |
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Post by commond on Oct 1, 2022 23:22:25 GMT -5
I still can't figure out whether I've seen Letter Never Sent before, but it's a decent film. It's about a group of geologists searching for diamonds in the Siberian forest who end up battling against the elements. It was Mikhail Kalatozov's follow-up to his most famous film, The Cranes Are Flying, and was shot by the renowned cinematographer, Sergey Urusevsky. Urusevsky's camera angles don't always match my personal taste, but there were some amazing takes, especially during the forest fire sequence.
I also watched The Tall T the other day. It's a fun little Western. Nothing monumental, but a nice distraction from the daily grind. Some of the acting is shoddy, but I liked Richard Boone as the lead bad guy, and I'd forgotten that Henry Silva was one of the outlaws.
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