Cool Women And Mad Men

Jesse Walker's movie lists are now at 1961.  Back then, while the rest of the world was doing interesting things, Hollywood was stuck in the doldrums. What will Jesse think? As it turns out, he's got no room for one of Oscar's top films of all time West Side Story (which is fine by me).

Here's the top ten:

1. Yojimbo
2. Lola
3. Yanco
4. The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
5. The Hustler
6. The Innocents
7. The Exiles
8. The Ladies Man
9. Eugene
10. Blast of Silence

Pretty good list.  Can't go wrong with Yojimbo.  And we have to have something from the nouvelle vague so Lola will certainly do.

Haven't seen Yanco.

Munchhausen is fun and The Hustler is one of the most quotable films ever to come out of Hollywood (where it definitely wasn't shot).

The Innocents isn't bad, but I don't really love it.  The Exiles is fascinating in an anthropological sort of way.

I'm not sure if Jesse usually picks Jerry Lewis films, so it's interesting to see The Ladies Man on the list.  This was around the time when Jerry, especially if he directed, was doing fascinating stuff, and Jesse's right--if you didn't know better, you'd think this was some experimental, foreign film.  (Though it's not as funny as other films of his.)

As Jesse knows, I don't believe in putting TV shows on movie lists, even if they're as brilliant as Eugene.

Never seen Blast Of Silence.

Honorable mentions:

11. Viridiana
12. Il Posto
13. Underworld U.S.A.
14. Accattone
15. A Woman is a Woman
16. One-Eyed Jacks

17. Last Year in Marienbad
18. Zoo
19. Substitute
20. Nowy Janko Muzykant

Half of these I haven't seen, but as I predicted, not an awful lot of Hollywood material.

Of those I have seen, Viridiana might be my #1 for the year.  Underworld U.S.A. I like though I don't consider it one of Fuller's greatest.

I'm not on the Godard bandwagon.  I admit he made memorable works in the 60s, but I can't say I love any of them, including the very Godardian A Woman Is A Woman.  I do like Last Year At Marienbad, though.

And One-Eyed Jacks is one of my favorite Westerns of this period.

Here are some other films of that year that were highly regarded:

Breakfast At Tiffany's

The Guns Of Navarone

Judgment At Nuremberg

The Misfits

La Notte

A Raisin In The Sun

Splendor In The Grass

Here are some film that might have made my list:

Divorce Italian Style

The Errand Boy (not as mind-blowing as Ladies Man, but I think funnier)

One, Two, Three (maybe not quite the content of Wilder's other great films around this time, but it's still got an amazing rhythm)

Paris Blues (ah to be a jazz artist in Paris in the early 60s)

A Taste Of Honey  (the angry young woman)

Through A Glass Darkly (not as famous as some of his other titles, but this begins the trilogy that's the essence of Bergman)

Other films of interest:

The Absent-Minded Professor, Bachelor in Paradise, Blue Hawaii, Carry On Regardless, The Children's Hour, The Comancheros, The Connection, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Don't Bother to Knock, El Cid, Fanny, Flower Drum Song, King of Kings, The Last Time I Saw Archie, Lover Come Back (the best of Hudson-Day, for what it's worth), The Marriage-Go-Round, Mothra (maybe should be on my top ten), Mr. Sardonicus, Mysterious Island, The Parent Trap, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Pleasure of His Company (if you want to see Fred Astaire not dance), Pocketful of Miracles, The Rebel, Reptilicus, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Romanoff and Juliet, Snow White and the Three Stooges, Something Wild (great New York location shooting), Summer and Smoke, Town Without Pity, Two Loves, Two Rode Together, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Wild in the Country, The Young Doctors, The Young Ones, The Young Savages