The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions (Decade Project Vol. 4)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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bamwc2
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#576 Post by bamwc2 » Sat Jul 25, 2020 6:28 pm

Viewing Log:

The Eternal Breasts (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955): Earlier this week I watched Kinoshita's The Ballad of Narayarma starring Kinuyo Tanaka as the crone Orin. Just a few days later I find myself taking my first plunge into her work as a director with the 1955 melodrama The Eternal Breasts. Fumiko Shimojō (Yumeji Tsukioka) is a put upon housewife to a philandering husband and mother of two young children. Early on she summons the courage to leave her husband, but soon receives a breast cancer diagnosis. She undergoes a double mastectomy which is shown in remarkable detail (including a pair of bare stunt breasts--something I don't remember ever seeing before in a Japanese film from this era), and takes up poetry during her recovery. As her fame as a poet increases, so does her illness. In her final days she begins a relationship with a younger reporter, Akira Ōtsuki (Ryōji Hayama). The two fall in love, but with Fumiko deathly ill, their happiness is short lived. This was a remarkable film, with a frank exploration of female desires (the main character asks her lover to make love to her--again, groundbreaking for its time). Unfortunately, the only edition I could find of it was extremely soft, and sepia toned with subtitles that blended in with the background. That meant that there were quite a few times where the subs were unreadable. What I could understand was fantastic though. I'd love to catch this with a proper release someday. It's also worth noting that Tanaka didn't have an easy time as a woman director in the 50s. No less than Kenji Mizoguchi, who had cast Tanaka in some of his most famous films, blocked her from having membership in Japan's Director Guild on the grounds that no woman should be allowed to direct a movie. Thank goodness she got the chance, because this film is excellent.

Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957): I'd long heard of the film, but never payed much attention to it until it came on my radar due to a recent article on women in philosophy. Like the character of Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), the author dealt with the sexual advances of older men in the field that she wanted to study under. It's shocking how little has changed since this portrayal, but the field is overwhelmingly ossified in white heterosexual patriarchy. Anyway, in the film photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) finds himself wanting a more intellectual model than the one he's currently working with, so magazine editor Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) and him take over a local used bookstore operated by Jo. Despite wanting nothing to do with them, Dick frequently kisses Jo without her consent, and whisks her off to Paris where she becomes the new face of Prescott's fashion line. Despite being at least thirty years older than her, Jo falls for Dick as they explore the romantic city, but complications abound. The film seems to revel in the message that no woman is complete until her inner beauty is revealed on the outside, and that things like philosophy are silly pursuits for women and distractions from finding their man. There are some terrific song and dance numbers in it from Hepburn, Astaire, and Thompson, but the regressive nature of the film stood in my way of enjoying it.

Godzilla Raids Again (Motoyoshi Oda and Ishirô Honda, 1955): Having seen the original Godzilla and none of its sequels, I wondered how they got around
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killing him off with an oxygen bomb in the original.
Now I know. There were actually two Godzillas all along! The new one turns up on an island off the coast of Japan battling an Ankylosaurus of all things. Setting up the trend of having "Godzilla versus the monster of the year", the film feels like a formulaic, by the numbers creature feature. There's a huge drop off in quality between the original and it's follow up. I just hope that some of the 60s output are better than this, or I'm going to have a bad time going through spine #1,000.

Kaagaz Ke Phool (Guru Dutt, 1959): My knowledge of Bollywood isn't very deep, but this romantic dramedy from actor/director Guru Dutt has been on my radar for a while along with a handful of other Indian films from the 50s. As a representative of what Bollywood has to offer, this isn't bad at all. Dutt plays troubled director Suresh Sinha, whose chance encounter on the street with the beautiful Shanti (Waheeda Rehman) leads to her becoming the lead in his new film. A la A Star is Born, she reaches the heights of fame, while his career takes a nosedive. With frequent musical interludes, the story is told in a refreshing perspective including some neat tricks with overlays. After watching this one, I'm really looking forward to checking out some other Indian films on my to-see-list for the project.

Machine Gun Kelly (Roger Corman, 1958): By the time that Roger Corman made the biopic of gangster Machine Gun Kelly (Charles Bronson), he had already cut his teeth on eighteen prior exploitation flicks made in just three years! This time we join the action as Kelly's gang have just robbed a bank and are making a get away. Before long we meet his moll, Flo (Susan Cabot), who acts as a kind of Lady Macbeth, egging her beaux on to ever increasing acts of brutality. Cracks in his gang give way to Kelly finalizing their split in a permanent manner, as he and Flo branch out into more profitable crimes. Soon they kidnaps a nine-year-old oil heiress and her nanny in an effort to extract a large ransom. But Kelly's own cruelty to his associates and underlings ultimately leads to his downfall in dramatic fashion. Corman knows how to get the most for the least amount, and did an admirable job with this flick. Bronson, who I'm usually not a fan of, does an excellent job here in the titular role. It's not high art, but it is good cheap fun.

No Way Out (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950): Sidney Poitier plays new doctor Luther Brooks in this race-tinged noir by Joseph Mankiewicz. While on duty, the racist brothers Ray (Richard Widmark) and George (Harry Bellaver), come in with leg wounds after they were both shot in a failed robbery. George exhibits other symptoms and dies in the middle of a spinal tap performed by Brooks. Unwilling to accept that his brother died of natural causes, Roy refuses to allow an autopsy and vociferously accuses Brooks of murder. Soon enough, Roy causes a race riot to breakout from his hospital bed. When Brooks concocts a plot to clear his name, Roy engineers his escape to get his revenge on the doctor. You wouldn't expect a film from 1950 to have the most progressive race politics, but here the black Brooks is shown as a brave professional with a loving wife played by the great Ruby Dee (her real life husband, Ossie Davis, also makes his debut here). While this is undoubtedly Poitier's film, no one plays a heavy like Widmark, and he really shines as the film's villain. It's definitely worth watching, but be warned. There are a LOT of uses of the n-word here, along with other anti-black slurs.

The Ogre of Athens (Nikos Koundouros, 1956): This light as air Greek comedy of mistaken identities was an interesting find. Thomas (Dinos Iliopoulos) is a meek bank clerk who's resemblance to a gangster known as "The Dragon" leads him to him being mistaken as the criminal by the police, the underworld, and the citizenry at large. The set up sounds like a remake of John Ford's The Whole Town's Talking, but the two movies couldn't be more different. While Edward G. Robinson's doppleganger shows up for wacky hijinx, we never meet the real Dragon. Instead the comedy comes from the character's anxiety over how deep he enters Athen's criminal world over the course of a night. With near constant diagetic music, the film is always airy and never overstays its welcome.

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knives
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#577 Post by knives » Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:52 pm

Later this week I'm planning on writing up the films in the Showa set, but in short Raids Again is the nadir of the set and if taken as their own thing the other sequels have much to offer. You should jump straight to vs. Mothra though skipping till after Astro Monster vs. King Kong.

bamwc2
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#578 Post by bamwc2 » Sun Jul 26, 2020 4:25 am

knives wrote:
Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:52 pm
Later this week I'm planning on writing up the films in the Showa set, but in short Raids Again is the nadir of the set and if taken as their own thing the other sequels have much to offer. You should jump straight to vs. Mothra though skipping till after Astro Monster vs. King Kong.
Thanks, but I intend to go through the entire set. I'll leave the next batch for the 60s project.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#579 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Jul 26, 2020 12:47 pm

All That Heaven Allows (Sirk 1955). This was discussed at length earlier. I really don’t mind that the message is upfront because I do find that in its challenging of family norms and social role conventions of the 50s it’s as radical in its own way as Bigger Than Life is, and quite movingly so. TW did a good job explaining how single-minded the film is in this regard. I also find the melodramatic soapiness doesn’t detract from the film’s ability to create a strong sense of romantic ache and regret, something which doesn’t come off nearly as well in a film like Magnificent Obsession, for example. When you add the incredibly accented stylistic expressionism and the dazzlingly gorgeous thing in general that is this whole movie from beginning to end, this easily becomes my favorite from the director.


Picnic (Logan 1955).
You can certainly draw a parallel here with the contemporaneous Rebel without a Cause – ordinary, small-town life neuroses made epic-size through slightly mannered acting, occasional tableau-like staging and Scope. It’s not nearly as successful because the script (and I gather Inge<s play) is at times a little heavy-handed and awkward. But the cast is very good (even though Holden’s 28-going-on-40 is a bit much) and above everything else it’s an exquisite-looking film, with all those exterior Kansas-set scenes, Wong Howe’s photography and some really eye-catching compositions.


Jeux interdits (Clément 1952).
There may be a few overly sentimental moments but the film retains its power and poetry. Contrary to what Truffaut expressed, I find the children here quite natural, and there’s something special in the way we’re made to share in their private universe that both shelters and expresses the world of death surrounding them. The many animals give the film a very pungent, earthy spirituality. The children stick in our minds but it’s a charming film in its warts-and-all, satirical-yet-in-the-end-tender look at the country people, both their caring for one another and their fighting and the comedy involved in the neighborly disputes.


Viva Zapata!
(Kazan 1952). Grimly realistic film about political power. This is my only Kazan so far (apart from a few of the most well-known I saw so long ago I don’t count them) and I know he’s known as an actor’s director but this film impresses me just as much for its photography and well-crafted action scenes. Just extremely solid on all levels and it succeeds as both thought-provoking mass art and compelling entertainment.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#580 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 27, 2020 1:13 am

I watched Dementia tonight, which is hard to write about, but as far as experimental-narrative hybrid cinema goes, it floored me. The camerawork was just extraordinary and the surrealistic dreamlike setpieces imbued noirish and horror tones into an overall unpredictable silent film, with an eerie jazz score to highlight the incongruities within our heroine's mind. If taken as a waking nightmare that can't even diagnose its own degrees of consciousness, this hits exactly the kind of horror I love, and predates Lynch (especially something like Inland Empire) at shocking us through breaking rules and reinventing cinema's possibilities at provoking senses in uncomfortable places to achieve a newfound catharsis in experiencing novel artistic expression.

bamwc2
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#581 Post by bamwc2 » Mon Jul 27, 2020 11:55 am

Viewing Log:

The Bridge (Bernhard Wicki, 1959): I've had this blu-ray on my shelf for years, but somehow never got around to watching it. Holy cow, was this a brutal watch. Set in the days as the Allies are closing in on Berlin, the film tells the story of a handful of boys that are plucked from there civilian lives to act as cannon fodder for the Nazi army. For the first half of the film we follow them as they live normal wartime lives. They go to high school, have crushes on girls, and play pranks on one another. Soon they all receive draft notices in the mail, and eagerly report for duty against the wishes of the adults in the city. Brainwashed by the ultra-nationalism of their day, the boys dream of fighting glorious battles for the fatherland, and quickly get their chance as they are given their first orders right out of the gate. They are to defend a bridge leading into town from the Americans, which leads to
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a heartbreaking battle in which all but one of them dies.
Shot in a brutal, forthright manner that never allows you to look away, the film is an excellent antidote to the pro-war sentiment gripping countries like Nazi Germany.

The Court Jester (Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, 1955): Danny Kaye stars as the dimwitted, but quick with a rhyme Hubert Hawkins, a carnival performer who left his life as a performer to become a member of a Robin Hood-esque group of outlaws living in the forest. An evil king has usurped the throne, but the band of outlaws is caring for an infant who is the rightful heir to the throne. Early on in the film, the resistance encounters a jester on his way to join the royal court, and after some shenanigans, Hubert takes his place. Most of the jokes in this musical comedy come from Hubert's numerous near scrapes where he is almost found out. At the last minute, fate always intervenes to save him. Ultimately, it was a trifle, but with good supporting tuurns from Basil Rathbone and Angela Lansbury, it was an enjoyable one.

Dry Rot (Maurice Elvey, 1956): A trio of nincompoops without a dime to their name hatch an elaborate scheme to fix a horse race. A certain horse is the odds on favorite to win the big competition, and the three (played by Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix, and Sidney James) plot to make a fortune by betting on the horse to lose. Why are they so sure that it won't win? Because they plan to replace the horse and jockey with ringers that are supposed to be guaranteed to blow it. Of course this wacky comedy follows the rules of its genre, and nothing goes according to plan. Comparable to the sort of humor found in The Tree Stooges (though frequently less violent), the boys rely on slapstick and wordplay to make the audience laugh. Your mileage may vary from mine on this one, but I'll give it a marginal pass.

Enjô (Kon Ichikawa, 1958): Told in flashback from a police interrogation, Goichi Mizoguchi (Raizô Ichikawa) recounts his experiences as a novitiate Buddhist monk at a temple that burned down. His father was a monk at the temple and Goichi wants to follow in his footsteps, but is handcuffed by his stutter and relationship to the older monks. I liked the film, but ultimately found much of Goichi's actions mystifying. A poster on imdb had the same issue and said that it results from Yukio Mishima's use of inner monologue in the film's source material. Unable to adequately convey the character's thought process results in a tremendous amount of what's happening on screen go unexplained.

Hondo (John Farrow, 1953): John Wayne produced and starred in this 3D western made by his production company. In the film he plays Hondo Lane, a former army scout who has run into trouble with the Apache. Though they signed a peace treaty with the federal government, the Apache believe that the government hasn't upheld their end and now consider it null and void. As the film opens, Hondo comes across a homestead operated by Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page) and her young son Johnny (Lee Aaker) only to find out that her husband left months earlier without returning. Now on the warpath, the Apache are lead by their chief Vittoro (Michael Pate), who names Johnny an honorary Apache after he tries to defend his mother. Hondo, sympathetic to the natives, finds himself trying to defend the Lowes as other homesteaders around the area are massacred. With a by the book performance by Wayne, the film doesn't exactly stand out on his CV. It's not bad, but it just feels like so many other westerns with rogue Apache that I've seen before.

India: Matri Bhumi (Roberto Rossellini, 1959): Mixing documentary with drama, Roberto Rossellini's India: Matri Bhumi stands out as one of his most unusual entries in his oeuvre. It's not just because of it's hybrid format. It also marks the first film I've seen by the director set outside of his native Europe. Commissioned by Nehru himself, the director responded by crafting a series of vignettes using local villagers playing versions of themselves. The results are amateurish, but still surprisingly well regarded. It's okay, but far from his most interesting material.

A Lesson in Love (Ingmar Bergman, 1954): David and Marianne Erneman (Gunnar Björnstrand and Eva Dahlbeck) are unhappy after fifteen years of marriage. Both are having affairs, and they always fight. As the two approach divorce, we're told the story of their romance in a series of flashbacks. Bergman's script revolves around the possibility of renewed love, but much of it feels contrived. Both leads do outstanding jobs in their roles, but it never reaches the heights that Bergman would climb to by the end of the decade.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#582 Post by bamwc2 » Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:28 pm

Viewing Log:

Devdas (Bimal Roy, 1955): Mischievous youth Devdas spends his days playing pranks on his teachers and smoking, but still finds time fall in love with Parvati. Separated by his studies, Devdas (Dilip Kumar) grows up into a successful member of the upper class, but lonely and alcoholic. Meanwhile the provincial Parvatti (Suchitra Sen) is married off by her family. Devdas finds himself unable to love anyone but his childhood sweetheart, and self destructs without her. Will the two ever see each other again? It was a decent enough semi-musical, but ultimately not very memorable.

The Ghosts of Kasane Swamp (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1957): I'm a sucker for Japanese ghost stories from this era, and man, is this intergenerational tale of revenge a good one! The film's scant 66 minute runtime wastes not a second in getting the story going, as Soetsu Minagawa, a blind masseuse, goes to collect a deabt from Fukami, an impoverished samurai. Offended by the conversation, the samurai kills Soetsu and disposes of his body in a swamp. Soetsu returns to haunt Fukami, tricks him into killing his wife, and leads him to his death in the same swamp where he dumped the corpse. Fukami's infant son Shinkichi is abandoned at a wealthy shop keep's store, and twenty years later he matures into a handsome boy popular with the ladies, played by Takashi Wada. After stopping an attempted rape, spends the night with Ryu (Kazuko Wakasugi), the daughter of the murdered masseuse. The two begin to live together as man and wife, but a supernatural occurrence leaves Ryu horribly disfigured. Soon Shinkichi's eyes wonder to another woman, as the same ghostly forces that claimed their fathers take control over their lives. Haunting and beautiful, this film is energized by the poetry of its director. This is the best film I've viewed for the project so far.

A Kiss Before Dying (Gerd Oswald, 1956): Robert Wagner stars as Bud Corliss, a college English major who thinks that he has the world by the horns until his girlfriend, Dorothy Kingship (Joanne Woodward) becomes pregnant. Faced with the prospect of quitting school for a dead end job to support his would-be wife, Bud instead decides to murder her. His attempt to fake Dorothy's suicide fails, but luck later gives him the opportunity to push her off of tall building. The police are convinced that she committed suicide, but her little sister Ellen (Virginia Leith) believes that she's the victim of foul play. Soon Bud begins dating Ellen, but can he convince her to give up her quest to find the killer? I found every move in this university set noir utterly predicable, but nevertheless culminated in a worthwhile journey. Wagner delivers a terrific performance as the killer, and it was great seeing Mary Aster pop up as his mother.

Man Without a Star (King Vidor, 1955): Kirk Douglas stars as Dempsey Rae, a drifter, who hates barbed wire like Joan Crawford hated wire hangers. He comes to a small Western town only to find employment at Reed Bowman's (Jeanne Crain) cattle ranch. Bowman is a stern taskmaster who runs her ranch like a dictator, and soon enough Rae leaves her employ. Rae turns his allegiance to the smaller ranchers in the area that she terrorizes with violence carried out by her sadistic foreman. I'm not the biggest Vidor fan since he made one of my least favorite films of all time (The Fountainhead--I loathe Ayn Rand and her writings), but I found this one enjoyable enough. It's far from Douglas's best western, but I enjoyed it enough for a mild recommendation.

Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957): After a new water canal is dug for a small Indian village, local elder Radha is called upon to gives its invocation. On her way, she recount her life as a younger woman (played by Nargis) beginning with her marriage to Shamu (Raaj Kumar). Unfortunately, the money used for the ceremony was from a loan that weighs heavily on the family's finances for years to come. When an accident leads to her husband's perpetual unemployment and eventual disappearance, Radha must step up and raise their children on her own. This melodrama was meant to be allegorically entwined with the emergence of India from colonial rule. While it's important subject matter, it never connected with me on any meaningful level. Pass.

No Name on the Bullet (Jack Arnold, 1959): When hired killer John Gant (Audie Murphy) comes to town, his reputation as a gunman precedes him. He refuses to reveal his purpose there, and the town folk get spooked over who he has in his sights. Everyone seems to have enemies, and everyone in town is paranoid that its them. Town doctor Luke Canfield (Charles Drake) strikes up an innocent friendship with Gant over a proposed game of chess. However, when the tension leads one of the townsmen to take his own life, Dr. Canfield soon seeks to rid the town of the killer. When the true target of Gant's is finally revealed, he and Dr. Canfield find themselves on opposite ends of a fight. This was my first film starring Audie Murphy. I can't say that he's the most natural talent behind the camera, but he does a decent enough job as the semi-cerebral hitman. Arnold does a good job ratcheting up the tension through out. All in all, it's not a bad western.

The War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 1953): Paramount owned the rights to H.G. Wells's novel, The War of the Worlds, for decades before they were finally able to bring it to the big screen. Changing the setting from 1890s London to 1950s California, the film starts off from the Martian's perspective. Finding their own planet too inhospitable to life, the aliens decide that Earth is their only option to go on as a species. They send spacecraft through meteors that land all over the world. Just outside of Los Angels, a group of yokels stumble across one of the meteorites that soon attracts the attention of the military and scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry). He becomes interested in local librarian Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson), but the emergence of the Martian military soon forces them to flee for their lives. With the military impotent against the alien war machines, Clayton and Sylvia are in a mad dash to figure out humanity's response to the seemingly indestructible spacecrafts. There's nothing too serious going on here, but it's mostly dumb fun. As an atheist, I was a little uncomfortable with the film's frequent overt Christianity, but it was still a fun enough diversion if you're into the sort of practical effects that are carried on visible strings.
Last edited by bamwc2 on Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#583 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:43 pm

bamwc2 wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:28 pm
A Kiss Before Dying I found every move in this university set noir utterly predicable, but nevertheless culminated in a worthwhile journey.
Even if the larger plot 'moves' are predictable, the detailed 'movements' within aren't- I mean, what experienced moviegoer expects that rooftop scene to linger for as long as it does? Gutwrenching!

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#584 Post by bamwc2 » Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:59 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:43 pm
bamwc2 wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:28 pm
A Kiss Before Dying I found every move in this university set noir utterly predicable, but nevertheless culminated in a worthwhile journey.
Even if the larger plot 'moves' are predictable, the detailed 'movements' within aren't- I mean, what experienced moviegoer expects that rooftop scene to linger for as long as it does? Gutwrenching!
I'll give you that. Like I said, I liked it!

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#585 Post by swo17 » Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:35 pm

Going through the Joe McDoakes set and I got a real kick out of So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger. Great, dark sense of humor and a memorable cameo by someone primarily known for voicing an extremely famous cartoon character

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knives
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#586 Post by knives » Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:44 pm

That is an unusually good one.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#587 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:25 pm

I feel like all the Joe McDoakes shorts I've seen are just funny enough to convince you that they should be a whole lot funnier than they are

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#588 Post by Red Screamer » Thu Jul 30, 2020 12:19 am

Man, I can’t keep up with y'all. Regardless, below I minorly weigh in on the Wyler parley and throw some more recommendations into the ring.

Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) All of these brutal cop films are odious in one way or another, though this one is less nasty than something like Where the Sidewalk Ends. Like the Preminger, Wyler’s direction keeps the film engaging anyway. The rhythmic control he has, over the real-time plotting and the flow of different scenes in the same location, is so seamless it’s easy to miss. This control is a large part of what makes the film work at all, as Wyler steers its attitude towards Douglas’ character, slowly peeling away at his integrous maverick cop image. The flow of his depth-staging style is interrupted occasionally by distracting, closer-view insert shots in a handful of scenes. In front of the camera, the MVP is Parker, who’s intense enough to become the emotional center of the film in a short time onscreen. Thankfully, her character is also exceptionally written. In their climactic scenes together, Douglas says basically what you’d expect his character to say in that situation, but Parker’s dialogue is surprisingly frank and goes much further than I thought it would. Her husband’s redemption, on the other hand, is sadly predictable. On Dangerous Ground becomes a sort of fairy tale to save the soul of its brutal cop and Where the Sidewalk Ends stays ice cold when it eventually rehabilitates its antihero. Meanwhile Detective Story’s ending throws its sentimental side into overdrive and crams in Christian rites for good measure. This is ludicrous overkill, desperately valorizing an action that was never all that admirable in the first place. I couldn’t put it better than Dave Kehr’s dig that the script is “modeled a little too clearly on Greek tragedy.”

Girl with Hyacinths (Hasse Ekman, 1950) Because of its structure and theme, people often compare this to Citizen Kane or Laura. But as a lean, mean melo on youth, idealism, and sexuality that lays the irony on thick without losing any emotional intensity, it reminded me of La Casa del Angel. Ekman takes the pulpy material and gives it a stark theatrical spin, using long-takes that are more often modest than showy. His direction largely saves its stylish side for a few key scenes. I’ll have to see this again to add more in-depth thoughts since it’s a movie that begs to be reseen as soon as you finish it, but for now I can give my highest recommendation and leave it at that.

Except...re: the ending—
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There’s a rich irony in how the ending unfolds: the lounge singer and Anders both think she committed suicide over a crush on him and Britt thinks it was because of her love for Alex. But in its final flashback, the film shows us that her anguish comes from (as much as it's explainable) an inseparable combination of lost love and broken ideals, with the flashbacks' settings defined by WII and, most painfully, her husband’s Nazi sympathies and Alex’s complicity.
As for shorts, I loved swo's recommended Gyromorphosis and Abstract in Concrete and can second the praise. Reading about the latter, I saw people comparing it to Klein’s Broadway by Light, so I sought that out as well. Klein's film is more of a (well-done) documentary assembly of Broadway light displays, like a photography series, while Arvonio is doing something much more slippery and poetic.

The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo (Margaret Tait, 1955) Hopkins is one of my favorite poets, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt, but as someone who usually finds shorts that illustrate poems pointless, I found myself moved by this film, maybe more for the director’s deadpan reading of the ecstatic poem than for the accompanying shot-collage, though its images are strong and have a life of their own.

As for Maya Deren's twin shorts this decade, I prefer her Ensemble for Somnambulists (1951) and its exciting, disoriented sense of space to the hazy repetitions and flatter visual style of The Very Eye of the Night (1958).

And I hope masterpieces like NY, NY, Night and Fog, and Window Water Baby Moving—all of which will definitely make my list—don’t need my recommendation here.

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#589 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jul 30, 2020 1:24 am

Eleanor Parker still holds the record for shortest performance ever nominated for Best Actress (I believe it’s only nine minutes or so of actual screen-time)

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#590 Post by Red Screamer » Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:32 am

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 1:24 am
Eleanor Parker still holds the record for shortest performance ever nominated for Best Actress (I believe it’s only nine minutes or so of actual screen-time)
Makes sense. It’s rare that a performance stops a film in its tracks in a good way! The supporting cast is all around pretty great in their comedic or functional bit parts too, and I think the inital ensemble scenes and broad-ish characterizations set up Parker’s performance for the biggest impact.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#591 Post by bamwc2 » Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:15 pm

Viewing Log:

El (Luis Buñuel, 1953): Francisco Galván de Montemayor (Arturo de Córdova) is a bachelor, but quickly changes his tune after meeting Gloria Vilalta (Delia Garcés) at a church service. Francisco becomes obsessed with Gloria and convinces her to marry him. Once married his passion does not abate. Instead, he becomes even more unhinged and paranoid about Gloria's interactions with other men. Córdova does an excellent job as the unhinged Francisco, and the film serves as the perfect example of testimonial injustice as no one believes Gloria's complaints about his behavior. I'm not the biggest fan of Buñuel's Mexican phase, but this and Los Olvidados stand out as the best of the era.

The Facts of Murder (Pietro Germi, 1959): Director Pietro Germi stars as Detective Ingravallo, a police officer called in to investigate the robbery of jewelry in a Rome apartment building. None of the facts make sense, with a plethora of suspects who all seem to have an alibi. The next day, a murder takes place in a neighboring apartment, and Inspector Ingravallo must now determine whether it's connected to the robbery. Going into this, I had no Idea that Germi acted in Italian cinema (and no idea it was him until I read the imdb page), but he does a perfectly fine job carrying the movie as the police inspector. The film kept me guessing until the end with its twisty tale of murder. I really liked this one.

The Naked Dawn (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1955): Edgar G. Ulmer's story of Mexican bandits has...really not aged well. Arthur Kennedy stars as Santiago while wearing literal brown faced make up to make him appear Mexican. In fact, with the exception of two Puerto Rican actors, the entire cast is composed of whites in brownface. Santiago spends his days raiding train cars until the beautiful farmer's daughter, Maria Lopez (Betta St. John) catches his eye. Soon Santiago is fully infatuated with her, but his changes coincide with her brother Manuel's (Eugene Iglesias) descent into greed and murder. It's an interesting tale, but I couldn't get around the brownface. Pass.

Room at the Top (Jack Clayton, 1959): Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) returns from the war to take up a job as an accountant at a machine parts manufacturer. Soon, he meets and falls in love with the older, French Alice (Simone Signoret). Despite being in love with another, he still courts Susan (Heather Sears), the daughter of his employer. Joe chooses to pursue both relationships simultaneously, with predictably disastrous results. With strong performances from all three leads, and gorgeous black and white cinematography, I really dug this one.

Waiting Women (Ingmar Bergman, 1952): This early dramedy from Ingmar Bergman features the wives of four brothers that await their immanent return. To pass the time, they take turns telling stories to each other tales of their marriages. Marta (Maj-Britt Nilsson) kicks things off by recounting the affair she had. Next, Rakel (Anita Björk) has a tryst with an artist, which results in a baby. Karin (Eva Dahlbeck), sets a comic tone with her story of getting stuck in an elevator with her hubby. Then we take a detour into the life of young Maj (Gerd Andersson), who plans to elope with her boyfriend. At times heady, but always funny, it was a decent enough of a distraction. On the whole, I do prefer his other comedy from the era, Smiles of a Summer Night, but this one wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Warlock (Edward Dmytryk, 1959): Warlock is an old west town that's infested by a gang of ruffians. After they run the old sheriff out of town, the townfolk bring in notorious gunman Clay Blaisedell (Henry Fonda) to be it's new marshal. Clay brings along Tom Morgan (Anthony Quinn) to have his back, and he quickly takes over Warlock's saloon. At the same time, Johnny Gannon (Richard Widmark) leaves the gang that's terrorizing the town and becomes the town's new deputy sheriff. The showy Clay wants to cut corners and play lose with the law, while Johnny tries to do everything by the books. As the inevitable showdown with the gang looms over the town, so too does the growing tension between Clay, Tom, and Johnny. Since it had two of my favorite stars in it, I wanted to like it more than I did. It wasn't a bad movie, but it was a pretty forgettable film. Fonda and Widmark are always joys to watch, but both have made better westerns.

Woman on the Run (Norman Foster, 1950): While Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) is out walking his dog at night, he witnesses the murder of a man who was scheduled to testify at a criminal trial. Though Frank initially cooperates with the police, he gets spooked and decides that they can't protect him. Frank goes on the lam and the police begin following his wife, Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) in a bid to find him. Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) soon teams up with newspaperman Danny Leggett (Dennis O'Keefe) to try and track Frank down, but somehow the killer seems to be one step behind them during their search. I found this to be an enjoyable enough noir, with a twist that it took me far too long to figure out. With beautiful real life San Francisco locations in the background, this one was a lot of fun.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#592 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:19 pm

bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:15 pm
El (Luis Buñuel, 1953): Francisco Galván de Montemayor (Arturo de Córdova) is a bachelor, but quickly changes his tune after meeting Gloria Vilalta (Delia Garcés) at a church service. Francisco becomes obsessed with Gloria and convinces her to marry him. Once married his passion does not abate. Instead, he becomes even more unhinged and paranoid about Gloria's interactions with other men. Córdova does an excellent job as the unhinged Francisco, and the film serves as the perfect example of testimonial injustice as no one believes Gloria's complaints about his behavior. I'm not the biggest fan of Buñuel's Mexican phase, but this and Los Olvidados stand out as the best of the era.
You... you took the film at face value as a sincere study of unidirectional spousal abuse? You have impressively missed the point

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#593 Post by bamwc2 » Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:48 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:19 pm
bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:15 pm
El (Luis Buñuel, 1953): Francisco Galván de Montemayor (Arturo de Córdova) is a bachelor, but quickly changes his tune after meeting Gloria Vilalta (Delia Garcés) at a church service. Francisco becomes obsessed with Gloria and convinces her to marry him. Once married his passion does not abate. Instead, he becomes even more unhinged and paranoid about Gloria's interactions with other men. Córdova does an excellent job as the unhinged Francisco, and the film serves as the perfect example of testimonial injustice as no one believes Gloria's complaints about his behavior. I'm not the biggest fan of Buñuel's Mexican phase, but this and Los Olvidados stand out as the best of the era.
You... you took the film at face value as a sincere study of unidirectional spousal abuse? You have impressively missed the point
Oh? How should I have taken it?

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#594 Post by TMDaines » Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:27 am

bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:15 pm
The Facts of Murder (Pietro Germi, 1959): Director Pietro Germi stars as Detective Ingravallo, a police officer called in to investigate the robbery of jewelry in a Rome apartment building. None of the facts make sense, with a plethora of suspects who all seem to have an alibi. The next day, a murder takes place in a neighboring apartment, and Inspector Ingravallo must now determine whether it's connected to the robbery. Going into this, I had no Idea that Germi acted in Italian cinema (and no idea it was him until I read the imdb page), but he does a perfectly fine job carrying the movie as the police inspector. The film kept me guessing until the end with its twisty tale of murder. I really liked this one.
Yeah, Germi was the actor, writer and director for probably the three most acclaimed films on his in the 50s.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#595 Post by alacal2 » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:35 am

<t>Pool of London (Basil Dearden, 1951)<br/>
<br/>
Adrift on dry land. A film about navigation. <br/>
<br/>
In essence the narrative is about seamen on shore leave, two of whom unwittingly get caught up in a diamond heist and within that, emerges one of the first inter-racial relationships in British film.Based on two viewings within the month this much underrated film is circling around the lower reaches of my top 50. Charles Barr, in his authoritative book on Ealing Studios, damns it with faint praise by briefly referring to it in the footnotes. 'If only one film could be preserved for posterity, to illustrate the essence of Ealing from the time before decadence set in, this would be a good choice with its clearcut embodiment of Ealing attitudes towards women, violence, social responsibility and cinematic form'. Unfortunately he doesn't elaborate because I think there's a lot more going on here.<br/>
<br/>
Part of its strength is that it's almost entirely shot on location and makes magnificent use of Dockland, the Thames and the streets of the City of London. But it doesn't feel like a comfortable Ealing London. None of your characterful communities but a place of betrayal and exploitation. One of the crew (played by James Robertson Justice) is almost terrified of leaving the ship and remains in his room to consume his duty free whisky. At one point he launches into a desperate tirade about the real 'festering' city behind the public jewel-like facade. And towards the end there is a sequence of shots of the Thames that look positively prehistoric as one of the main characters struggles to get back to his ship to give himself up. The Studio Canal restoration is impressive and does full justice to the cinematography.<br/>
<br/>
Dearden is particularly good at masculine anxiety where, with one exception, all the male characters seem rootless and directionless, literally 'at sea' on dry land. The exception is Johnny, a West Indian played by Earl Cameron (who sadly died this month at the sprightly age of 102!) who is clearly in touch with his emotions and able to articulate them, although tragically he is unable to use that to form a full relationship with Pat, the woman he meets.<br/>
<br/>
The relationship between Pat and Johnny forms the quiet, beating heart at the centre of this film, as a contrast to the cacophony of the jewel raid (as an aside Dearden uses his theatrical background to make the central villain a stage acrobat - a role essential to both the robbery's success and failure) and its consequences. Although the 'daring' scene where Pat and Johnny are almost jolted by a bus-ride into closer intimacy is the one that attracted most attention at the time, for me, the most powerful sequence, is where they visit Greenwich together and wander through the Naval College up the hill to the Greenwich Observatory - a place central to the history of navigation. Here, Earl's musing on colour and race (although somewhat simplistic - this is Ealing, England at the start of the 50s after all!) take on a real power about the limits and possibilities of time and a person's being in the world. Dearden frames this scene looking up at both of them in midshot with the Obervatory in the background. It's at this point in the film that you realise their relationship has finally strengthened into something rich but will never be consummated and its heartbreaking. (Reading this back, I'm not sure if I've communicated this very well but I hope you get the picture).<br/>
As a footnote, I'm sure many cinemagoers at the time wondered about Pat and Johnny's fates and I was interested in the actors' futures which turned out to be bittersweet. Earl Cameron had a prolific and successful career, got given a CBE and a birthday card from the Queen on his 100h birthday. He was still looking for parts. In looking at the various interviews he's done he comes across as a lovely man with a fierce intellect and quiet anger. Susan Shaw, according to Wikipedia, who played Pat, married twice, the second time to Bonar Colleano who was the lead in Pool of London. He was killed in a car accident, a tragedy from which she never fully recovered leading to a long period of alcoholism. Her addiction resulted in handing over the care of her son to his paternal grandmother. An attempted screen comeback failed and she died of liver failure aged 49. The Rank Organisation paid for her funeral.</t>

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#596 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:52 am

bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:48 pm
domino harvey wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:19 pm
bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:15 pm
El (Luis Buñuel, 1953): Francisco Galván de Montemayor (Arturo de Córdova) is a bachelor, but quickly changes his tune after meeting Gloria Vilalta (Delia Garcés) at a church service. Francisco becomes obsessed with Gloria and convinces her to marry him. Once married his passion does not abate. Instead, he becomes even more unhinged and paranoid about Gloria's interactions with other men. Córdova does an excellent job as the unhinged Francisco, and the film serves as the perfect example of testimonial injustice as no one believes Gloria's complaints about his behavior. I'm not the biggest fan of Buñuel's Mexican phase, but this and Los Olvidados stand out as the best of the era.
You... you took the film at face value as a sincere study of unidirectional spousal abuse? You have impressively missed the point
Oh? How should I have taken it?
Well Bunuel isn't exactly associated with sincerity. I don't know about "should" but domino posted his thoughts on this first page of this thread and I also weighed in if you're interested in reading some satirical readings more in step with Bunuel's typical auteurist brand of approach to cinema.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#597 Post by bamwc2 » Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:49 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:52 am
bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:48 pm
domino harvey wrote:
Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:19 pm

You... you took the film at face value as a sincere study of unidirectional spousal abuse? You have impressively missed the point
Oh? How should I have taken it?
Well Bunuel isn't exactly associated with sincerity. I don't know about "should" but domino posted his thoughts on this first page of this thread and I also weighed in if you're interested in reading some satirical readings more in step with Bunuel's typical auteurist brand of approach to cinema.
Oh. I thought that Domino took issue with the fact that the husband was obsessive and abusive. Yes, anyone with even a remote understanding of Buñuel knows that his films are satirical. I'm sorry that I left out one word from my synopsis.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#598 Post by bamwc2 » Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:32 pm

Viewing Log:

Dreams (Ingmar Bergman, 1955): Eva Dahlbeck plays Susanne, a fashion photographer that's having an affair with the married Henrik (Ulf Palme). At the same time, Doris (Harriet Andersson), Susanne's twenty-year-old model, has romantic troubles with her boyfriend, Palle Palt (Sven Lindberg). While on location in Gothenburg for a photo shoot, Susanne absconds with Henrik. Meanwhile, Doris has a chance encounter with Otto Sönderby (Gunnar Björnstrand) and ends up spending the day with the charming stranger who showers her with gifts. Soon uninvited guests present complications for both women in their affairs. I've now watched three Bergman's for this project, and completed my 50's Bergman scorecard. Of the three, this one is my favorite, though both Waiting Women and A Lesson in Love are worth viewing too. All three movies feature women characters having affairs. I wonder why that theme preoccupied Bergman's mind during these years.

Duel at Silver Creek (Don Siegel, 1952): A gang of claim jumpers kill a man after he signs over the deed for his plot of land that he pans for gold on. His son, Luke (Audie Murphy), goes after the gang, but when they kill his horse he gives up the chase. Fast forward a few years and Luke is now a gunslinging gambler that goes by the name of The Silver Kid. Soon The Silver Kid teams up with Marshal Lightning Tyrone (Stephen McNally) to take on the bandits that killed his father and terrorize the town. Vamp Opal Lacy (Faith Domergue) causes tension in the uneasy alliance, and may know more about the claim jumpers than she lets on. Using internal monologues, the film is not your usual western. So much the better, as it turns out to be a pretty effective experimental oater. This was my second Audie Murphy film of the project, and also only the second film I've ever seen him in. From what I gather, his film career is considered undistinguished, but I've now watched to real winners from him.

The Gates of Paris (René Clair, 1957): Though he's best remembered for his films made at the dawn of the sound era, director René Clair was still making movies well into the sixties. In this delightful comedy from 1957, hobo Juju (Pierre Brasseur) spends his days hanging out at the house of a character known only as The Artist (Georges Brassens). The two get into hijinx like stealing cans of foie gras from a local grocer, but soon run afoul of local gangster Barbier (Henri Vidal) who forces them to hide him out at gunpoint. Juju is rejuvenated at having someone to care for, and gives up drinking to dote on Barbier. However, their relationship is put to the test over the love of Maria (Dany Carrel), a local girl that Juju loves from afar, but Barbier is sleeping with. Maria wants to help her lover escape, but the extent that he's just using her comes as a shocking revelation to the love struck drunk. So far I've seen about half a dozen films from Clair and have loved each one. This charming story of a pair of friends didn't have many laughs in it, but played out as a nice character study of Juju.

The Lady without Camelias (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953): Milanese beauty Clara Manni (Lucia Bosè) gets discovered by filmmakers in a shop, and in a whirlwind finds herself in her first movie. Her small role becomes a big hit, leading to bigger parts in more films. But at the same time that her career is taking off, Clara's psyche becomes more fractured by the bright lights of her industry. Without any real friends to turn to, Clara becomes anxious and depressed. I'm not the biggest Antonioni fan. For some reason I've had a hard time relating to his early work on an emotional level. This one was no different. Bosè did a fine job in her role, but it never added up to much with me.

Park Row (Sam Fuller, 1952): Probably the biggest omission in my Sam Fuller knowledge has been filled. Beginning with a hagiographic account of newspapermen in New York, the film transitions to a bar where 1880s reporter Phineas Mitchell (Gene Evans) is fired by The Star. He goes into a dialogue about what he'd do if he had his own paper, and by an act of serendipity, he gets the chance to start one that very night. Soon his new paper, The Globe, is the talk of the town and Star owner, Charity Hackett (Mary Welch), unleashes a series of dirty tricks against her new competitors. It was a fun, rugged ride, especially if you're a sucker for talk about the nobility of the press like I am. I could have done without the romantic subplot between Phineas and Charity, but overall, I really liked it.

Rawhide (Henry Hathaway, 1951): My second oater of the last few days, features Tyrone Power as Tom Owens, a faithful stagecoach stop employee in the old west. Strong, independant Vinnie Holt (Susan Hayward) has to spend the night at the stop along with her one-year-old niece. At the same time, Rafe Zimmerman (Hugh Marlowe), an escaped murderer, takes over the stop along with a gang of three fellow escapees. They plan to rob a stage coach with $100,000 in gold on it that comes the following evening. With Tom and Vinnie as their hostages, the gang bickers with eachother and frays begin to emrge in it. This one was another real winner. With fun performances from the leads, it made me want to check out more of Hathaway's work.

The Sleeping Tiger (Joseph Losey, 1954): Young thug Frank Clemmons (Dirk Bogarde) breaks into the home of Dr. Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) and becomes his new exxperiment in rehabilitation. The doctor's maid and his wife, Glenda (Alexis Smith), are initially opposed to the criminal's presence. However, Frank forces himself on Glenda and she immediately finds herself passionately in love with him. As Frank relapses into criminality, the pair begin an illicit love affair, leading to fatal results. I really enjoyed this one. With good acting from all three principles, I felt the passion that Frank and Glenda had for one another.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#599 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:44 pm

bamwc2 wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:32 pm
Rawhide (Henry Hathaway, 1951): My second oater of the last few days, features Tyrone Power as Tom Owens, a faithful stagecoach stop employee in the old west. Strong, independant Vinnie Holt (Susan Hayward) has to spend the night at the stop along with her one-year-old niece. At the same time, Rafe Zimmerman (Hugh Marlowe), an escaped murderer, takes over the stop along with a gang of three fellow escapees. They plan to rob a stage coach with $100,000 in gold on it that comes the following evening. With Tom and Vinnie as their hostages, the gang bickers with eachother and frays begin to emrge in it. This one was another real winner. With fun performances from the leads, it made me want to check out more of Hathaway's work.
That's a favorite of mine and on my list, probably higher than it should be. I like my westerns to be more roaming adventures than interior suspense dramas, but this one is an obvious exception.


Man of the West (Mann 1958). I’ll preface this by saying I think all of Mann’s 50s westerns are good-to-great films (Devil’s Doorway being a weaker exception), and I have a hard time seeing a great contrast of quality between the best and the least of them. This is a forum favorite, but despite the points made by TW about its thematic depth and senseabove’s about the superiority of its compositions, I prefer a few others, through a combination of their stories and senses of locales and scenery striking my fancy more. Cooper executes one of his better performances, though, and Cobb is a lot of crazy/scary fun.


The Day The Earth Stood Still
(Wise 1951).
The film definitely distinguishes itself from the rest of its kin by its classiness (less cheesy focus on special effects) and serious anti-war tone. The concern over the atomic age makes itself felt in an extremely liberal and unsubtle plea (hence the massive criticism it received, at a time when America was still at war – both hold and cold) for a peaceful brotherhood of man… or else! Kind of depressing to see so how long ago this was and how humans have(n’t) evolved since. The film is almost more of a psychological thriller than anything else, and a pretty good one, helped by the way it’s obviously shot with aesthetic concern. That middle chunk of the film with the mysterious stranger is really the best thing here, and makes it memorable beyond the impressive opening.


Senso (Visconti 1954).
As an incident occurs at the opera that will trigger the film’s actions, Countess Livia says she hates when people start behaving melodramatically, and that’s exactly what happens in this opera-as-film, but of course that’s the (ironic) point. I was seduced again by the loving preciseness of the filmmaking on display here, with the carefully composed shots and staging, the very still and slow pans during the later battle scenes, the detail of the sets and costumes, the music perfectly on cue to the film’s emotions. It’s such a disconsolate, illusion-creating-then-mercilessly-destroying film, and I’d forgotten how it foreshadows Death in Venice in its romantic but gloomy setting in that city for the first half or so. There’s something ultimately pathetic but also mysterious and hard to completely fathom in the character of Franz Mahler. His change at the end speaks of immense reserves of self-loathing and shame following his action, projected back onto the Countess, but from the beginning of the film and throughout we have signs of his being calculating and manipulative, although we’re never sure in the service of his spontaneous desire(s) or other aims. But ultimately he’s a figure secondary to the Countess at the heart of the film, whose tragic story you could say mirrors Visconti’s depictions of the death knell of a social class.


Le Plaisir
(Ophuls 1952).
The first and last pieces are so short and slight that the pleasure is really in the camera work and art direction. The longer middle episode is Renoirish in its setting, and full of charm, and the comedy of manners adds more meat to the bone. Still overall less than satisfying enough for me.

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#600 Post by domino harvey » Sun Aug 02, 2020 6:39 pm

swo: does Pagnol's original Manon des sources / Ugolin two part film count as one film for this list?

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