Happy Forties, War Is Over

Hollywood probably felt it was well-positioned in 1947.  The war was over and everyone was home, ready to be entertained.  Little did the studios know they'd soon be broken up, and television would change everyone's viewing habits.

In any case, Hollywood was a different place pre- and post-WWII.  I admit I prefer pre-, when it was a faster, happier place (at least the films were).  Hollywood seemed to be turning more inward (everyone had seen a lot during the war) and so you get film noir, which is good.  You also get more social message films, which probably isn't.  Overall, there's a certain staid quality in much of Hollywood product of the time, which wouldn't change for a while.

Meanwhile, Europe and Japan were crawling out of the rubble, and starting to make stuff with their own sort of originality.

Let's see what Jesse Walker lists as his top ten films for the year 1947:

1. Out of the Past
2. The Lady from Shanghai
3. It Always Rains on Sunday
4. Nightmare Alley
5. Odd Man Out
6. Black Narcissus
7. The Red House
8. Daisy Kenyon
9. Hue and Cry
10. Dreams That Money Can Buy

As expected, the list is heavy with films noir.  Out Of The Past is the best of the lot.  The Lady From Shanghai is seriously flawed, but bizarre enough to be worth watching.

Most of the others I like, though I wouldn't call them classics.

Just by chance, I watched both Black Narcissus and Daisy Kenyon late last year.  The former is an excellent example of what Powell and Pressburger could do.  I'm not a big fan of their work, but they're visually quite accomplished.  The latter is just a weird film that the people in charge didn't know what to do with.  So it's a character study without a plot that makes too much sense. (Perhaps the novel explained it better.)

I've never seen Hue And Cry or Dreams That Money Can Buy.

11. Quai des Orfèvres
12. King-Size Canary
13. The Woman on the Beach
14. Motion Painting No. One
15. Body and Soul
16. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
17. The Unsuspected
18. Fireworks
19. A Double Life
20. The Cage

11 I've never seen, though I'd like to.  12 is a classic cartoon short. 13 is non-classic Renoir.  14 is a short.  15 is a famous film noir--I expected it to make Jesse's top ten.  16 is a battle between Preston Sturges and Harold Lloyd--Sturges wins, but it's not great for either.  17 is another decent noir.  18 is a notorious short. 19 is an Oscar-winning Cukor film which is passable.  20 is another short.

By the way, I agree with Jesse that the Best Picture Oscar Winner Gentleman's Agreement isn't much, and that Crossfire is better.

Other films that would make my top ten:

Road To Rio (one of the better entries in an enjoyable series)

Other films I enjoyed:

The Bachelor And The Bobby Soxer

The Bishop's Wife (these last two films showed post-war Cary wasn't the same)

Good News

Kiss Of Death

Other films of note:

13 Rue Madeleine, Angel And The Badman, The Big Fix, Blondie's Holiday, Boomerang, Brighton Rock, Buck Privates Come Home, Captain From Castile, Carnegie Hall, Cass Timberlane, The Cast, Copacabana, The Damned, Dark Passage, Dear Ruth, The Egg And I, Exposed, The Fabulous Dorseys, The Farmer's Daughter, Forever Amber, Framed, The Ghost And Mrs. Muir, The Ghost Goes Wild, Green Dolphin Street, Hard Boiled Mahoney, The Hucksters, An Ideal Husband, It Happened In Brooklyn, It Happened On Fifth Avenue, Jesse James Rides Again, Lady In The Lake, The Late George Apley, Life With Father, Living In A Big Way,

The Macomber Affair, Madame Bovary, Magic Town, Merton Of The Movies, Miracle On 34th Street, Monsieur Verdoux (unlike Jesse, I love Chaplin, but I draw the line at his talkies), Mourning Becomes Electra, Nora Prentiss, The Paradine Case, The Perils Of Pauline, Possessed, The Sea Of Grass, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, The Senator Was Indiscreet, Seven Keys To Baldpate, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Sinbad The Sailor, Smash-Up The Story Of A Woman, Song Of Love, Song Of The Thin Man, That Hagen Girl, They Made Me A Fugitive, The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Unconquered