At Last The 1948 Show

Jesse Walker is now naming his top ten films of 1948. I can't argue with Red River, which is probably my favorite Western. (It was shot in 1946, but for various reasons, wasn't released until '48.) I'm less enthralled with his two John Huston picks, both of which are highly regarded films, but not by me.

Here are some other movies from that year that I liked:

A couple of musicals, one from Astaire and one from Kelly, both featuring Garland--Easter Parade and The Pirate (the latter has some problems but makes up for it with a few great numbers).

The era was a good time for film noir, and (I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the smaller ones) 1948 brought us Force Of Evil and The Big Clock.

David Lean's Oliver Twist is one of the best Dickens on film.

I'm a big fan of the surrealist Portrait Of Jennie.

I generally don't care much for Abbot And Costello, but they made one of their best in 1948, Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein--where Universal pulled out all their great monsters.

Two greats did good (but not their best) work in 1948--Preston Sturges' Unfaithfully Yours and Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair.

Louisiana Story is a late, great film by Robert Flaherty.

Other Hollywood films of interest. The Naked City, Call Northside 777, The Paleface, Mr. Blandings Bulds his Dream House.

1948 also featured probably the greatest flowering of Italian neorealism, with La Terra Trema, Germany Year Zero and, above all, The Bicycle Thief.