Films On The Edge

Jesse Walker's top ten movie lists have hit 1951.  Hollywood came rip-roaring out of the War, but soon was faced with the threat of TV.  By 1951, they were starting to offer up big, dumb spectacles to compete, but still specialized in smaller, tougher (and sometimes smarter) black and white films.  Meanwhile, Europe was starting to explore again.

Anyway, that's the background.  Let's see what Jesse's favorites are.  Turns out it's not Oscar winner An American In Paris.

1. Ace in the Hole
2. Strangers on a Train
3. The Thing from Another World
4. A Streetcar Named Desire
5. The Tales of Hoffman
6. The Lavender Hill Mob
7. Miracle in Milan
8. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
9. The Man in the White Suit
10. Bellissima

Note the first four are black and white Hollywood films.

Ace In The Hole is Billy Wilder's great flop.  Every now and then he'd get so popular he'd allow his bilious side to come out and turn off the audience.  After this, he retreated to Broadway adaptations for a while.  If it has a problem, it doesn't know quite where to go in the end, but it's definitely one of his best.

Strangers On A Train is one of Hitchcock's best.  The Thing (which I consider a Hawks film) started a whole new genre and still holds up, though I'm sure kids today would laugh the effects, if that's what you want to call them, off the screen--but who cares, it's got all those great Hawksian scenes where people just stand around and talk a lot.

I don't know if Streetcar is a great movie per se so much as one of the best adaptations of a major Broadway play, with much of the cast intact.  (Not that Kazan, who directed on stage and on film, didn't turn it into a real movie.) Certainly belongs on a list somewhere, though I might not put it in the top ten.  And we should be happy someone preserved Brando's breakthrough performance.

I have an ambivalent attitude toward much of Powell and Pressburger.  Even if they didn't always succeed, at least it wasn't the same old thing.  Still, Tales Of Hoffman isn't my kind of film.  Speaking of cinematography, there's Pandora And The Flying Dutchman.  It's okay, but I can't say I love it.

Just by chance, the two best Ealing comedies came out this year, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man In The White Suit. Not sure which one I prefer.

I like Miracle In Milan but haven't seen Bellissima.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions: 

11. People Will Talk
12. The African Queen
13. Four Ways Out
14. Diary of a Country Priest
15. He Ran All the Way
16. Susana
17. Rabbit Fire
18. The Man from Planet X
19. The Tall Target
20. Rooty Toot Toot

In 1951, Joseph L. Mankiewicz was on a streak, having won the Oscar for Screenplay and Director two years running. People Will Talk effectively ended this streak. Yet it's not without interest (which is true of just about any Cary Grant film).  But there's an awful lot of huffing and puffing over very little.  The film is a good example of how hard it was for Hollywood films of the time to deal with "adult" subjects.

I've never quite understood the enthusiasm for The African Queen.  Haven't seen Four Ways Out.  I'm not a big fan of Bresson but I think Country Priest is his best film and should be in the top ten.  He Ran All The Way is a decent noir. Susana is mid-range Bunuel, which makes it better than most other films.  As with so much Ulmer, the cheapness of The Man From Planet X gives it a certain appeal.  Don't really care much for The Tall Target.

I love many of the cartoon shorts of the era, like Rabbit Fire and Rooty Toot Toot, but I don't think they should be included on these lists.

Here are some other highly regarded films of 1951:

David And Bathsheba

The Day The Earth Stood Still

A Place In The Sun

Quo Vadis

Show Boat

Here are some films that probably would have made my list:

Detective Story (lively adaptation from Wyler, more tough guy stuff from Kirk Douglas)

The River (a Renoir classic I'm surprised didn't make Jesse's list)

Royal Wedding (not a great plot, even for a Fred Astaire film, but some great numbers)

The Steel Helmet (Fuller showing his stuff)

Other films of interest:

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Alice in Wonderland, Angels in the Outfield, Atoll K, Bedtime for Bonzo, The Big Night, Bride of the Gorilla, The Browning Version, Call Me Mister, Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N., Cry, the Beloved Country, Dear Brat, Death of a Salesman, Double Dynamite, Father's Little Dividend, Flight to Mars, Flying Leathernecks, Ghost Chasers, The Great Caruso, The Harlem Globetrotters, Here Comes the Groom, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, I Was a Communist for the FBI, I'll See You in My Dreams, Jim Thorpe – All-American, The Lemon Drop Kid, Let's Go Navy!, Lost Planet Airmen, The Magic Box, The Mating Season, Murder Inc., My Favorite Spy, No Highway in the Sky, On Moonlight Bay, Peking Express, The Red Badge of Courage, Scrooge, Sirocco, Superman and the Mole Men, That's My Boy, Three Arabian Nuts, Two Tickets to Broadway, Westward the Women, When Worlds Collide