1948. My single favorite western movie is Red River. Continuing the color scheme, I also loved The Red Shoes. It's been far too long since I've seen Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but I still think it's a safe choice for #3. Then to Japan and an early great Kurosawa with Drunken Angel. And then, sure, Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

I love Hitchcock, so Rope is a strong contender for its continuous shot effect and limited setting. And I love Marvin the Martian, so appreciate Haredevil Hare.

Also worth noting this is the year Superman makes his live-action debut.

I know Bicycle Thieves is supposed to be the best film of the year, but I don't appreciate it as much as the above.

1946 I'll pick the obvious movie. If they show it endlessly on TV, it must be good. It's a Wonderful Life.

After that perhaps my favorite John Ford western is My Darling Clementine. (Favorite Ford film is Young Mr. Lincoln; favorite western I just mentioned is Red River.)

I love Hitchcock, and that includes Notorious.

Then we'll look to the romantic side of things with A Matter of Life and Death.

Rounding out my top 5 is Slam's choice of The Big Sleep.

Also a fan of The Stranger and Beauty and the Beast.

Moving on to 1964.  

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Kubrick's tour de farce is not just one of the best comedies ever, it's one of the best movies ever.  Peter Sellers is absolutely brilliant in all three of his roles as are Slim Pickens and George C. Scott.  The film just skewers the Cold War and honestly was a pretty brave move in 1964, much moreso than it would have been only a handful of years later.  



A Fistful of Dollars - This is not just a great western it is one of the most important westerns ever.  Filmed with a low budget (reportedly $200,000), with a TV star (Clint Eastwood who was only paid $15,000) and filmed in Spain with a largely Italian crew, this was an unofficial remake of Yojimbo (which was stolen from Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest).  You'd be hard pressed to find a single film that so fundamentally changed a genre.  Along the way it (and its successors) made Clint Eastwood a superstar and made Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone household names in the US.  Leone's visual style, while it is certainly influence by Kurosawa is unique.  And the interplay of visuals and music between Leone and Morricone is something that has never been replicated.  While I would now consider it the weakest of what has been deemed "The Dollars Trilogy" it's still a very strong film and was an absolute game-changer.  And...OMG...that music.  



Goldfinger - This is 100% Bond.  The film where it all came in to focus.  Some might say it was the beginning of the end with the gadgets ratcheted up and the start of just a little bit of camp.  While I marginally prefer From Russia With Love I still think this is a great film and if one wanted to argue it's the best Bond film I wouldn't look askance.  This is absolutely the point at which Bond became a full-fledged phenomenon and it's the film that led to the wholesale spoofs, parodies and rip-offs.  You had to love Honore Blackman as Pussy Galore.  And that theme song by Shirley Bassey.  "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."  



Zulu - Solid historical war movie about the Battle of Rorke's Drift.  While certainly not entirely historically accurate it's probably better than average as these things go.  Stanley Baker does a fine job and it's a early big role for Michael Caine.  It tip-toes around its anti-imperialist themes but overall it's a pretty fine film.  



Becket - I mean c'mon...Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton.  Not to mention that I'm something of a Plantagenet buff.  Historically the film isn't bad and most of the inaccuracies come from the original play.  Just a quality historical drama elevated by the two leads who were at the peak of their power as actors and stars.  



The Killers - The second adaptation of Hemingway's short story is interesting in its own right, even while it fails to eclipse the 1946 version.  The film had an odd history as it started out to be a television movie, but the sex and violence were too explicit for TV and it was released as a film.  Strong direction by Don Siegel and a strong cast with Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassevetes and Ronald Reagan in his last film role (and one of his only roles as a villain).  A solid neo-noir.  



So my favorite?  Tough choice.  I'm firmly of the belief that Dr. Strangelove is the best film of 1964.  But I really love A Fistful of Dollars.  It's one of those two.  Today I'll say Fistful of Dollars.  But tomorrow it could be Strangelove.  


And there are those films I should see but haven't...or haven't seen in far too long, including: Fail Safe; Kwaidan; Marnie; The Last Man on Earth; The Masque of the Red Death; Ghidorah; and A Shot in the Dark.  

As usual, 1964 in film for those who want a gander.  

Dr. Strangelove and A Fistful of Dollars are indeed great films, but I'm torn between Woman in the Dunes and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Woman in the Dunes is one of the masterpieces of Japanese cinema (and all of cinema, really), and Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of the most delightful films I've ever seen (a French New Wave tribute to Hollywood musicals) and also very moving. Both films would make my top 10 for the decade. I'm going with a tie. 

If you like Kwaidan, you should also watch Onibaba from the same year. Naked Kiss is a great Samuel Fuller movie. I also love John Frankenheimer's The Train, starring Burt Lancaster. There's also Hideo Gosha's debut film, Three Outlaw Samurai, Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, the first Seven Up documentary, early Japanese New Wave film Pale Flower, Shohei Imamura's Intentions of Murder, Kalatozov's other well-known film, I am Cuba, and Carl Theodor Dreyer's masterful, Gertrud.  

I've done several Best of the 60s polls before, and I thought I'd seen mostly everything I was interested in, but I realize now I've been overlooking Brazilian cinema, so I'm adding Black God, White Devil to my viewing list. I'm also interested in the Turkish film Dry Summer, which won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. 

Oh yeah! Onibaba!

Between Woman in the Dunes, Intentions of Murder, Pale Flower, Assassination, Cruel Gun Story, Godzilla vs. Mothra and the films already mentioned, 1964 was a great year for Japanese cinema!

I’ve never seen Three Outlaw Samurai. I’ll have to see if I can find it somewhere.

Slam_Bradley , you know how to stock a wine cellar.

Strangelove remains relevant no matter how much it seems to be of its time.

Zulu is classic Anglophile filmmaking, straight out of The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Four Feathers. You have to check your knowledge and sensitivity at the door, but for an Alamo-style saga, it doesn't get any better.

And Becket has it all over A Man from All Seasons, IYAM. Is there a better two-hander in all of movie history?

How aboutA Hard Day's Night, which only took the world by storm that summer?

Two other political films to add; one is Fail Safe, the companion piece to Strangelove and eerily close to what we had all gone through back in October of '62.

Seven Days in May, about the discovery of a military coup led by a MacArthur-ish general, resonates chillingly every few years thanks to a taut screenplay by Rod Serling and the fine work of a superb ensemble cast. Burt Lancaster is frighteningly good in an atypical role. (I'm still convinced that the title is meant to remind us of the war-loving Air Force general and future running mate of George Wallace, Curtis LeMay.)



Do not let The Americanization of Emily pass you by. Julie Andrews and James Garner in a sharp satire of war and war movies. Yes, I said Julie Andrews, who loved this film and her pairing with Garner. (Directed by her husband, Blake Edwards.) Even if you like Mary Poppins, which came out after this hidden gem, you'll appreciate it as a stiff chaser to the sickly sweet image Andrews became saddled with. Garner is spot-on as the military man skilled at finding all the angles and avoiding actual work, including combat, until...At first he'll charm you and remind you of his character from The Great Escape until you realize he has no idea what honor is.

Then find 36 Hours, also a WW 2 setting, also starring Garner, also a fine screenplay. The film is up thereat times with the best suspenseful Hitchcock (Think Saboteur, North by Northwest and Vertigo) and makes an intriguing parallel to Emily in that it centers around D-Day and intelligence-gathering. To tell more would ruin it, but please look for it. You won't be disappointed. (TCM shows it every so often.)



My Fair Lady is one of the great movie musicals, worthy of admiration for every aspect of its production, even if you don't care for musicals. I especially like Stanley Holloway's reprobate of a father.

Other fond memories that I saw in the movies that year: The Unsinkable Molly Brown (we wanted to see the Titanic sink); Father Goose, with Cary Grant as a classic curmudgeon on an island in the South Pacific tipping off the military about Japanese incursions minding a gaggle of kids and their young teacher (we wanted to see the battle scenes); The Incredible Mr. Limpet, animation blended with live-action, and dome well, with Don Knotts as a man turned into a fish who winds up fighting German subs (yeah, we wanted to see the battle scenes). But each of those movies is far better than you'd expect.

And yes! A Hard Day’s Night is amazing! That’s another one I haven’t seen for a while.