Coolidge Defeats Davis And La Follette Combined

So it's happened, Jesse Walker has made it back to the silent era.  We're talking 1924.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-year-la-follette-took-his-shot-our.html

Here are his top ten:

1. Sherlock Jr.

2. L'Inhumaine

3. Cartoon Factory

4. Ballet Mecanique

5. Au Secours!

6. He Who Gets Slapped

7. Girl Shy

8. The Last Laugh

9. The Crazy Ray

10. The Navigator

1924 was a pretty good year and this is a pretty good list (even with all the shorts listed).

Sherlock Jr. should be on top--a special film, even for Buster Keaton (though it wasn't appreciated at the time).  And I agree it's better than The Navigator, which should also be on the top ten list.  The Navigator for a long time was ranked second only to The General, but I think that's partly due to availability as well as its original popularity. On the other hand, Girl Shy is ranked too low--one of Harold Lloyd's best, it should be #2. (Just last week I recommended it to a friend who asked for a good Lloyd title that wasn't The Freshman or Safety Last.)

As for the shorts, Cartoon Factory shows you how special the Fleischer's were even back then. Ballet Mecanique is one of those neat French experiments of the time.  Au Secours! has Abel Gance working with Max Linder, a fascinating combination (even if Linder had done better work before while Gance would next do Napoleon!).

He Who Gets Slapped should be on the list--a Victor Sjostrom film starring Lon Chaney and featuring Norma Shearer and John Gilbert, the film helped establish the fledgling MGM studio.  The Last Laugh, a great Murnau film, should be even higher.  The Crazy Ray is a fine and weird start to Rene Clair's career.

I haven't seen the experimental film L'Inhumaine.

Jesse has no honorable mentions list.  For that matter, he hasn't seen enough from 1914 or 1904 much less 1894 to do more top ten lists (though he does mention Les Vampires, The Impossible Voyage and Autour D'une Cabine). So this is the end of the line.

Films that might have made my top ten:

Entr'acte

Hot Water

Greed

The Marriage Circle

Monsieur Beaucaire

Other Films Of Note

Alice's Spooky Adventure, Beau Brummel, Captain Blood, Captain January, Dante's Inferno, Dorothy Vernon Of Haddon Hall, The Extraordinary Adventures Of Mr. West In The Land Of The Bolsheviks, Felix Finds Out, Forbidden Paradise, Her Night Of Romance, Icebound, The Iron Horse, Kid Speed, The Last Man On Earth, Manhandled, Manhattan, Monsieur Don't Care, Die Nibelungen, Peter Pan, Pleasures Of The Rich, Quo Vadis, Romola, Rupert Of Hee Haw, Scaramouche, The Sea Hawk, The Snob, So Big, Symphonie Diagonale, Tess Of The D'Urbevilles, The Thief Of Bagdad, Thy Name Is Woman, Triumph, Waxworks, What Every Woman Knows, Why Men Leave Home, Wide Open Spaces, The Wolf Man, Yolanda

Hitler Becomes Fuhrer

Jesse Walker has reached back to 1934.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-year-of-laval-decree-ive-picked.html

Here are his top ten films of the year:

1. The Black Cat

2. It Happened One Night

3. L'Atalante

4. The Thin Man

5. Dames

6. The Scarlet Empress

7. Granton Trawler

8. The Mascot

9. Lieutenant Kije

10. Soldier's Story

I like a lot of the low-budget Universal horror of the era, and The Black Cat is among the best. Just not #1 best.

It Happened One Night is maybe Capra's best and screwball's best.  My #1.

L'Atalante would probably be #2.

I like The Thin Man a lot, though, as first of the series, they're still working things out. (Of course, they didn't know it was a series yet.)

The plot of Dames is forgettable, but who could remember anything but the Busby Berkeley numbers?  "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "Dames" may be his best ever one-two punch.

I like The Scarlet Empress, even if I find the Josef von Sternberg's Dietrich films a bit overrated.

The top six I enjoy.  The next four I haven't seen (and I think three of them are shorts).

Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. The Merry Widow

12. Ship Of The Ether

13. The Man Who Knew Too Much

14. Crime Without Passion

15. We Live In Prague

16. Ha! Ha! Ha!

17. The Song Of Ceylon

18. The Old Fashioned Way

19. A Dream Walking

20. Babes In Toyland

11 is a fun film where Lubitsch gets to spend a bunch of MGM's money. 13 is one of Hitchcock's better British films. 14 I'd like to see.

18 is pretty good W. C. Fields, though not his best of the year. Laurel and Hardy were best in shorts, but even in 20, where they're in supporting roles (though they're officially the leads), they can still be quite enjoyable.

Speaking of shorts, I don't deny the 30s was a great decade for them, but I don't think they should be listed alongside features.  So that takes out 12, 15, 16, 17 (a long short) and 19.

Other films that would make my top ten:

The Gay Divorcee

It's A Gift (the best W. C. Fields film of the year)

Twentieth Century

Other films I like:

Belle Of The Nineties, The Captain Hates The Sea, The Cat's-Paw, College Rhythm, Imitation Of Life, Little Miss Marker, Man Of Aran, Manhattan Melodrama, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Six Of A Kind, Tarzan And His Mate, Wonder Bar, You're Telling Me!

Other films of note:

The Affairs Of Cellini, Allez Oop, Anne Of Green Gables, Bright Eyes, Broadway Bill, Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back, Charlie Chan In London, Cleopatra, Cockeyed Cavaliers, Come On Marines!, The Count Of Monte Cristo, Death Takes A Holiday, Easy To Love, Evelyn Prentice, Evergreen, Fashions Of 1934, Flirtation Walk, Forsaking All Others, Gambling Lady, Here Comes The Navy, Hips, Hips, Hooray!, Hollywood Party, The House Of Rothschild, Jimmy The Gent, Jew Suss, Judge Priest, Kentucky Kernels, Kid Millions, Lady By Choice, The Last Round-Up, Liliom, Little Man, What Now?, The Little Minister, Lorna Doone, The Lost Patrol, Madame Bovary, The Man From Utah, Mauvaise Graine, Les Miserables, Murder At The Vanities, Nana, Of Human Bondage, One Night Of Love, Our Daily Bread, The Painted Veil, The President Vanishes, The Return Of Chandu, Le Roi Des Champs-Elysees, Sadie McKee, Servants' Entrance, Spitfire, Stand Up And Cheer!, A Story Of Floating Weeds, Treasure Island, Twenty Million Sweethearts, Viva Villa!, What Every Woman Knows

FDR Wins Unprecedented Fourth Term

Jesse Walker is now back to 1944.  Funny, it doesn't seem like eighty years.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-year-they-took-beach-i-have-listed.html

Here are his top ten films of the year:

1. Double Indemnity

2. To Have And Have Not

3. Laura

4. The Curse Of The Cat People

5. Hail The Conquering Hero

6. The Chronicle History Of King Henry The Fift With His Battell Fought At Agincourt In France [Jesse swears this is how it's spelled onscreen]

7. The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek

8. A Canterbury Tale

9. It Happened Tomorrow

10. Arsenic And Old Lace

A fine list, and mostly Hollywood--they were pretty busy overseas at the time.

Double Indemnity is a Billy Wilder classic. Working with Raymond Chandler (his regular partner Charles Brackett wasn't interested and James M. Cain was busy), the script has some of the greatest noir dialogue ever.  Maybe not #1, but certainly top ten.

Hawks could do no wrong from the late 30s to the late 40s.  In To Have And Have Not he adapted Hemingway's worst novel (mostly by ignoring it) and came up with something special.  The amazing thing is very little seems to happen (as opposed to the film he's reacting against, Casablanca) yet it's mesmerizing. He also created a sexy new star in the process, Lauren Bacall (and instead of getting her--certainly his plan--threw her into the arms of her leading man).

Laura looks good and has some nice performances, but I'm less than enchanted with its story.

The Curse Of The Cat People is quite something, especially for a B picture.

Hail The Conquering Hero is my favorite Preston Sturges film and would be my #1 for the year.

Henry V is Olivier's best Shakespeare movie.

I agree that Morgan's Creek is Sturges second-best film of the year, and also that it's top ten.

A Canterbury Tale is a pretty solid Powell and Pressburger film.  I should note that John Sweet, a real US Army sergeant, is not a professional actor, and you can tell.  It's hard to say if this is bad, or adds a note of realism to the film. (I watched this movie on TV with the CC on.  One of the characters says tea must be good "for the wind." I guess the CC typist hadn't heard of this phrase, so we read that tea is good "for the win." FTW,  baby!)

I like It Happened Tomorrow, though Clair's English films aren't quite a magical as his French ones.

Arsenic And Old Lace is Capra trying to make something quickly so he can get some quick cash before he devotes his time to the war effort. (The film was held back for years, ruining Capra's plan, because contractually it couldn't open until the play stopped running on Broadway.) Thus, unlike You Can't Take It With You, Capra pretty much leaves the original alone.  Which is fine with me.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. The Old Grey Hare

12. Murder, My Sweet

13. At Land

14. Lifeboat

15. Ministry Of Fear

16. The Suspect

17. Jammin' The Blues

18. Little Red Riding Rabbit

19. The Woman In The Window

20. The Tower Of The Seven Hunchbacks.

I doubt anything on this list would make my top ten.

A lot of shorts.  As such, 11, 17 and 18 are excellent.  Haven't seen 13.

12 is a good but not great film noir.  14 is another intriguing but not great Hitchcock experiment.  15 is decent Lang.

I like, but don't love, 16 and 19.  20 I haven't seen.

Other films that might make my top ten:

Cover Girl

Meet Me In St. Louis (Jesse likes parts of it, but I see it as a unified work of art)

Other films I like:

Higher And Higher

Meet The People

Phantom Lady

Other films of note:

El Abanico De Lady Windermere, The Adventures Of Mark Twain, Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves, Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble, The Battle Of China, Belle Of The Yukon, Blonde Fever, Bowery To Broadway, The Bridge Of San Luis Rey, Broadway Rhythm, Buffalo Bill, The Canterville Ghost, Casanova Brown, Dragon Seed, The Falcon In Hollywood, The Fighting Seabees, The Fighting Sullivans, Four Jills In A Jeep, Gaslight, Gildersleeve's Ghost, Going My Way, The Great Moment, Greenwich Village, The Hairy Ape, Here Come The Co-Eds, Hollywood Canteen, House Of Frankenstein, I'll Be Seeing You, Ivan The Terrible, Jungle Woman, Kismet, Lady In The Dark, Louisiana Hayride, The Mask Of Dimitrios, Memphis Belle, Million Dollar Kid, Mr. Skeffington, Mrs. Parkington, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, Music For Millions, National Velvet, The Negro Soldier, Nevada, None But The Lonely Heart, Nothing But Trouble, Once Upon A Time, Pardon My Rhythm, Pin Up Girl, The Return Of The Vampire, Rosie The Riveter, Shine On Harvest Moon, Since You Went Away, Something For The Boys, Song Of Russia, Step Lively, The Story Of Dr. Wassell, Swing In The Saddle, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Two Girls And A Sailor, The Uninvited, The Very Thought Of You, The Whistler, The White Cliffs Of Dover, Wilson, Winged Victory

Top Ten Films Of 2024

I stopped posting on this blog in 2020, except for annual discussions--around this time of year--of my friend Jesse Walker's top ten movie lists.

But I saw quite a few movies in 2024, including a fair number of good ones.  And I noticed that most of those I liked best were lesser-known titles.  So I thought I'd post my own list for the first time in years.  Not many may read it, but it's a chance to spread the word.

When I was regularly posting, the annual film wrap-up was my most popular feature, but also the most labor-intensive. So I'm not going to discuss all the movies I saw, or last year's cinema in general.  I'm just going to list my top ten, selected from films I saw in theatres and were released in Los Angeles in 2024.

But first, I'll note in passing I saw some spectacularly awful films as well.  Some were big-budget studio projects--it's hard to explain how Madame Web could be so bad.  And some were smaller, personal projects--Chris Pine's bizarre Poolman is an excellent example.  Then there is that rare hybrid--personal and big-budget. I'm referring, of course, to Megalopolis.  Francis Ford Coppola spent well over $100 million of his own money on this complete misfire. I'll give him credit, though (he probably needs credit now)--at least he swung for the fences.

But enough about poor films.  What are the good ones (that is, the ones I like)?

Before I get to the top ten, here's a list of films that almost made it:

Bookworm

The Coffee Table

Evil Does Not Exist

I Like Movies

Look Back

My Old Ass

Perfect Days

Red Rooms

Robot Dreams

Here are films that weren't in the running (usually due to significant flaws or because they're too slight) but I still found intriguing or funny:

Art Talent Show

The Beast

Didi

Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World

Flow

Hippo

His Three Daughters

Lake George

Problemista

Scream Therapy

Sleep

The Substance

The Sweet East

Thelma

THE TOP TEN (in alphabetical order)

Anora

A sex worker gets swept off her feet by a rich man.  It's the plot of Pretty Woman, but Anora does it on a more realistic level.  Yet another Sean Baker film about people you don't usually see on screen--and I recommend all of them.

Daaaaaali!

I look forward to Quentin Dupieux films, which tend to be short (usually under 80 minutes) and absurdist.  Has there ever been a better subject for him than Salvador Dali? I bet Dali would have loved it.  Or maybe he would have sued--he always liked publicity.

A Different Man

The famous line from The Elephant Man is "I am not an animal!" But hey, everyone's got problems.  And if life gives you neurofibromatosis, that's no excuse. (That's not really what this film is about, but it's part of it.)

Ghostlight

A man going through a tough time starts working with a community theatre.  A simple premise. A small film.  No names.  It once again shows a simple drama about real people is more interesting than millions in special effects.

Hundreds Of Beavers

A silent, black and white, partly animated comedy about a 19th century trapper dealing with wildlife while trying to get the girl.  No one was waiting for this film, but it was exactly what we needed.

I Saw The TV Glow

Two teens bond over a weird television show.  I Saw The TV Glow is spooky, but not a horror film.  It's about how important connections are, and how difficult it can be when you don't feel you fit in. But what makes this film special is the way it manages to communicate these feelings.

Late Night With The Devil

A new twist on a horror film--done as a 70s late night talk show.  The re-creation is fun, but there's a sense of foreboding as you're waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Let's Start A Cult

What happens when your cult kills themselves and you miss out?  Why, you start a new one, of course.  Some of my favorite comedies are about decent but intensely stupid people trying their hardest to accomplish something.

Memoir Of A Snail

There were a lot of animated features last year, but this was my favorite.  It's done in stop-motion and is about a woman telling us the story of her life. It may be a sad story, but in the telling is quite funny, as well as touching.

Strange Darling

The strangest thing about this film is why it didn't catch on.  It's a well done (and well shot--by Giovanni Ribisi) thriller about a psycho killer.  I know the genre is tired, but the way the story is unveiled keeps you guessing.  Featuring two fine leads and one amazing breakfast.