Happy Days
Jesse Walker now ventures into 50s territory, naming the top ten films of 1959, when spectacle was big and small films were doing amazing things in Europe. Which will win out?
Let me spoil it for you. Small wins. Jesse doesn't have much use for one of the biggest hits and most honored films ever created in Hollywood, William Wyler's Ben-Hur. He calls it mostly tedious. I concur, though I suppose seeing it in an air-conditioned theatre on a huge screen when your TV only got black and white might have made it seem different.
Instead, his #1 film is the beginning of the French New Wave, The 400 Blows. Once again, I concur.
Next is North By Northwest, which I think may be Hitchcock's best. Then there's Some Like It Hot, which may be Billy Wilder's best, and my film of the year. (Note: Cary Grant and Tony Curtis starred together in Operation Petticoat, which was the biggest hit of 1959 after Ben-Hur.) Then there's Rio Bravo, which many--too many--are calling Howard Hawks' best (such as the recently deceased Robin Wood). It's good, but it's not his best. Still, it deserves its spot on the list.
I've never seen Warlock all the way through, so I can't comment.
Next is Bunuel's Nazarin, a fine film. Bunuel had an odd career. He made a few surrealist classics in the late 20s/early 30s, then (against his will) pretty much sat things out for about fifteen year. Then he did some work in the late 40s which got him attention. He worked regularly through the 50s, doing good work, but for the most part was stuck turning out melodramas in Mexico. Nazarin is an important film in that it represented a new flowering that saw his rise to prominence as a top international director in his last two decades.
Haven't seen Ride Lonesome. Jesse seems to be into Westerns.
The World of Apu is a world classic and, I agree, may just be the best of the Apu trilogy.
We finally disagree on Anatomy Of A Murder. Talking about panties may have been exciting in 1959, and there's the title sequence, location shooting and Duke Ellington, but overall it amounts to a pretty minor courtroom drama.
I've heard of Science Friction, which is one of them modern experimental films. Sounds like fun, but haven't seen it.
Here are his honorable mentions.
11. A Bucket of Blood (Roger Corman)
12. Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa)
13. Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise)
14. Cat's Cradle (Stan Brakhage)
15. A Midsummer Night's Dream (Jiří Trnka)
16. Shadows (John Cassavetes)
17. Wedlock House (Stan Brakhage)
18. Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu)
19. Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Manckiewicz)
20. Plan 9 from Outer Space (Ed Wood)
Bucket Of Blood is a Corman classic, and Plan 9 transcends even Corman.
Odds Against Tomorrow is surprisingly well done, and also has some nice location shooting.
Shadows. Well, let's just say I like the idea of Cassavetes more than I like Cassavetes.
Suddenly, Last Summer (which by chance I watched again a few days ago) is of interest for sociological reasons, but is pretty dull.
I've seen collections of Stan Brakhage, but I don't recall seeing the two Jesse lists. I've long wanted to see Floating Weeds. Haven't seen #12 or #15 either.
I should add, considering Jesse picks shorts, I'm surprised not to see Donald In Mathmagic Land.
A couple 1959 films Jesse doesn't mention that might have made my top ten are I'm All Right Jack (which may not be top-notch but features an astounding performance from Peter Sellers) and Pickpocket.
I also liked, or at least found something worth praising, in:
The Crimson Kimono, The Gene Krupa Story, It Happened to Jane, Jazz on a Summer's Day, Li'l Abner (not a great film, but essentially the Broadway musical filmed), Gidget, The Mating Game, Pillow Talk (okay, it's no longer the 1930s, and this is what romantic comedy has become), Sampo (not the film, but the MST3K take), Sleeping Beauty, -30- (I love to see anything where Jack Webb isn't a cop) and Peter Sellers being great once again in The Mouse That Roared.
This was also an era where there were a lot of fun exploitation films (such as Corman's above). And also a year where we got to see hip people in movies like The Beat Generation and Expresso Bongo.
There are also many movies Jesse doesn't mention that were highly regarded, at least by some, at the time: Black Orpheus, Compulsion, Les Cousins, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Fugitive Kind, Hiroshima Mon Amour (this one still makes greatest films of all time lists), Imitation of Life (an auteurist's delight), Libel, The Nun's Story, On the Beach, Our Man in Havana, Pork Chop Hill and Room at the Top.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:29 AM
7 Comments:
By chance, I am starting to collect the Hitchcock films, and I just watched North by Northwest yesterday. I remembered it as my favorite after Vertigo and Psycho.
But I think I was a little disappointed (maybe because the real thing can't match memories). I'm curious what you thought was outstanding in the movie? The biggest flaw, I though, was the failure to explain why Thornhill (Cary Grant) would be taken in by the femme fatale on the train?
In favor of the movie I can report that my 13 year old daughter watched the whole thing, so it is entertaining to a new generation!
A funny note - my wife and I actually had a little trouble catching all of Cary Grant's quips (what accent does he have anyway?). We turned on the subtitles, and caught all kinds of things. One was that Thornhill's attorney's name was Larabee. The character is plaid by the man who was the original "Chief of Control" on Get Smart. Coincidence?
I could go on an on about NBNW, but the film hardly needs me to support it. It's a long time favorite of millions. It's the ultimate Hitchcock "chase" film and has momentum like few others. It also has several deservedly famous set pieces sprinkled throughout. I think it's the more "serious" films like Vertigo that don't stand up as well.
I've never heard anyone complain about Grant being taken in (well into the film) by the femme fatale. Certainly doesn't bother me. More troublesome, I'd think, is an average ad man becoming a superman is dealing with international spy stuff, and the government calmly watching on the sidelines as a citizen is oenly being threatened by death on a regular basis.
You're assuming the agency was the Fed. Gov't. I thought it was maybe some extra-governmental anti-communist organization.
the film is exceptionally well-paced. Personally, I think James Mason and Martin Landau are the ones who really make the film work (I've never been a big Cary Grant fan apart from this film).
But my point is how could Thornhill not be suspicious from the start of the beautiful blond who protects him for no apparent reason. If he were James Bond, he could chalk it up to his incredible machismo, but I didn't feel that element in his character had been established (he was, after-all, quite a mama's boy!).
However, I'm going to watch the extras on the DVD tonight, so I may improve my appreciation of the film (and I still love the film, just not as much as I had built it up in my mind).
How could Thornhill not be suspicious from the start of a blond who protects him? This is Cary Grant--it happens to him in every film. He's also a successful Madison Avenue executive who probably picks up women, and has women pick up him, on a regular basis.
Okay, I watched several of the ducumentaries and one o fthe arguments made for how great the film is is the skill with which Hitchcock gets the viewer to accept a series of perposterous plot elements. And they are right, in addition to the acceptance of the Eve's total acceptance by Thornhill, they asked "who tries to kill an adversary by shooting him from a crop duster in a corn field?" "Who flings a knife in a crowded UN lounge and isn't spotted? And why?"
Hitchcock was all about images - telling a story in visual, rather than spoken, terms. On analyst noted that Hitchcock only included sound in his films because he thought it was distracting in old non-sound films when people moved their mouths and nothing came out. And exageration, of course, but it is remarkable how much of the films soundtrack is absolutely silent.
Sounds like they're giving short shrift to Ernest Lehman, who wrote the tremendous script, without which Hitchcock could not have made his silent film with sound.
Don't ask me how, but I just happened to be checking out this old post. Thanks for the comment above, sorry I can't read it.
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