1950s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
Message
Author
User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#701 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:37 am

colinr0380 wrote:I actually rewatched Glen or Glenda? in the last week or two. It is fascinating, even-handed and quite beautiful in its way of non-patronisingly (although often amusingly!) describing the differences between transvestites and transexuals through two case studies. Its also surprisingly moving, with some of the off-kilter filmic moments just adding to the feeling of a very unorthodox educational film. I actually learned quite a lot from it!

Although I'm not sure I'd be daring enough (yet!) to put in on a 'top 50 from the 50s' list when the decade is so full of other, even higher, achievements in filmmaking.
Its Lugosi's 'presence', and all the stock footage, - inappropriate or otherwise, - that really does it for me.
As a piece of 'documentary', or even 'social realism', it doesn't cut the mustard

User avatar
the preacher
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:07 pm
Location: Spain

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#702 Post by the preacher » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:39 am

Tommaso wrote:I'm really shocked how badly Antonioni did. Only "Il grido" in the also-rans, "Le Amiche" and "La signora senza camelie" orphaned, and no votes for "Cronaca di un amore". Very surprising given that all these films are so easily available, but Italian cinema didn't do particularly well in general, it seems.

Also, it seems to be high time that Criterion finally releases Mizoguchi's "Oharu". Seeing it drop by 127 places into the also-rans is really cause for some consideration...

And yes, great work as always, swo!
Same here. I voted for "Il grido"... and several Italian orphans and also-rans. Not big fan of Oharu, though.

User avatar
Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#703 Post by Tommaso » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:40 am

Apu Trilogy: That was my greatest problem for this listmaking. I'm sure I would have voted for these films, but I still couldn't bring myself to buy the AE set given that CC will do a much better release in the foreseeable future, and so I haven't seen them yet. So the only Ray I voted for was "The music room" (not exactly a surprise).

User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#704 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:52 am

swo17 wrote:
Casualties from the 2007 List

26. The Life of Oharu (now an also-ran)
41. Shadows (now an also-ran)
46. Gun Crazy (now an also-ran)
47. Othello (now an also-ran)
50. Mr. Arkadin (now an orphan)
51. Bob le flambeur (now an also-ran)
54. Repast (now an orphan)
58. Anatahan (now an orphan)
59. Casque d'or (now an also-ran)
61. Good Morning (now an also-ran)
63. Eaux d'artifice (now an also-ran)
67. Touchez pas au grisbi (now an also-ran)
76. Ensayo de un crimen (now an also-ran)
76. Floating Weeds (now an also-ran)
78. The Tiger of Eschnapur / The Indian Tomb (now an orphan)
80. The White Sheik (now an orphan)
81. Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (now an orphan)
83. Early Spring (now an also-ran)
84. On the Waterfront (now an orphan)
86. Forbidden Games (now an also-ran)
87. Les Enfants terribles (now an orphan)
89. The Burmese Harp (now an also-ran)
90. The Lusty Men (now an also-ran)
92. Late Chrysanthemums (now an also-ran)
92. Night of the Demon (now an also-ran)
96. The Lavender Hill Mob (now an orphan)
98. A Star Is Born (now an orphan)
The following casualties are unforgiveable, in my book (the first three were all part of the very first Top 100 list I made, some 12 years ago, at which time I hadn't seen the other five:
Gun Crazy
Bob le flambeur
Casque d'or
Shadows
Touchez pas au grisbi
Les Enfants terribles
The Burmese Harp
Late Chrysanthemums

these are probably more 'touch and go'
Repast
Good Morning
Floating Weeds
Mr. Arkadin

User avatar
Sloper
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:06 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#705 Post by Sloper » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:57 am

Tommaso wrote:Apu Trilogy: That was my greatest problem for this listmaking. I'm sure I would have voted for these films, but I still couldn't bring myself to buy the AE set given that CC will do a much better release in the foreseeable future, and so I haven't seen them yet. So the only Ray I voted for was "The music room" (not exactly a surprise).
I don't blame you - I just gave my old AE videos to a charity shop, and am also waiting for a decent DVD release. Haven't got around to The Music Room yet.

And yes, a good release of Oharu is also long overdue, though I wonder if its extreme, episodic austerity now makes it a bit less popular than the other '50s films (which are more readily available, and in deluxe editions, than they used to be). I also meant to post defences of The Lady of Musashino and Tales of the Taira Clan, which I think deserve a lot more love than they get.

User avatar
the preacher
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:07 pm
Location: Spain

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#706 Post by the preacher » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:06 am

Yojimbo wrote:The following casualties are unforgiveable, in my book (the first three were all part of the very first Top 100 list I made, some 12 years ago, at which time I hadn't seen the other five:
Gun Crazy
Bob le flambeur
Casque d'or
Shadows
Touchez pas au grisbi
Les Enfants terribles
The Burmese Harp
Late Chrysanthemums

these are probably more 'touch and go'
Repast
Good Morning
Floating Weeds
Mr. Arkadin
I also find "Good Morning" a very minor Ozu, nothing comparable to "I Was Born, But..." However, the film worked well in S&S last survey and it will probably get a place in TSPDT's Greatest Films.

User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#707 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:15 am

the preacher wrote: I also find "Good Morning" a very minor Ozu, nothing comparable to "I Was Born, But..." However, the film worked well in S&S last survey and it will probably get a place in TSPDT's Greatest Films.
I'd agree with you as to which is the better film, preacher, although its certainly due a re-watch

User avatar
willoneill
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:10 am
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#708 Post by willoneill » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:06 am

Yojimbo wrote:The following casualties are unforgiveable, in my book (the first three were all part of the very first Top 100 list I made, some 12 years ago, at which time I hadn't seen the other five:
Gun Crazy
Bob le flambeur
Casque d'or
Shadows
Touchez pas au grisbi
Les Enfants terribles
The Burmese Harp
Late Chrysanthemums
Gun Crazy would have made my top 25, but I thought it was from 1949. I wonder if anyone else made that mistake.

User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#709 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:16 am

willoneill wrote:
Yojimbo wrote:The following casualties are unforgiveable, in my book (the first three were all part of the very first Top 100 list I made, some 12 years ago, at which time I hadn't seen the other five:
Gun Crazy
Bob le flambeur
Casque d'or
Shadows
Touchez pas au grisbi
Les Enfants terribles
The Burmese Harp
Late Chrysanthemums
Gun Crazy would have made my top 25, but I thought it was from 1949. I wonder if anyone else made that mistake.
I trust it made the 1940s list, then (without looking it up on IMDb, I suspect you're probably right)

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#710 Post by knives » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:39 am

colinr0380 wrote:I actually rewatched Glen or Glenda? in the last week or two. It is fascinating, even-handed and quite beautiful in its way of non-patronisingly (although often amusingly!) describing the differences between transvestites and transexuals through two case studies. Its also surprisingly moving, with some of the off-kilter filmic moments just adding to the feeling of a very unorthodox educational film. I actually learned quite a lot from it!

Although I'm not sure I'd be daring enough (yet!) to put in on a 'top 50 from the 50s' list when the decade is so full of other, even higher, achievements in filmmaking.
I was that madman. I had to have at least one Wood and I thought this less than Night of the Ghouls had a chance for a second voter. Thanks a lot Swo for all of your hard and caring work.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#711 Post by swo17 » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:23 pm

willoneill wrote:Gun Crazy would have made my top 25, but I thought it was from 1949. I wonder if anyone else made that mistake.
I made it explicitly clear in the first post of the thread that Gun Crazy (among several other films) was eligible for the '50s list, and reminded everyone multiple times to review what films were eligible. I don't know what more I can do than that!

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#712 Post by knives » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:33 pm

You can lead a horse to water Swo, but you can't drown it.

User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#713 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:37 pm

knives wrote:You can lead a horse to water Swo, but you can't drown it.
...although you can lemmings! :D

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#714 Post by knives » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:46 pm

They make for a terrible pie though.

User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#715 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:55 pm

knives wrote:They make for a terrible pie though.
I'll take your word for it
I'm not much of a deep-sea diver! :)

User avatar
willoneill
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:10 am
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#716 Post by willoneill » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:46 pm

swo17 wrote:I made it explicitly clear in the first post of the thread that Gun Crazy (among several other films) was eligible for the '50s list, and reminded everyone multiple times to review what films were eligible. I don't know what more I can do than that!
Don't get me wrong, I blame myself entirely! There was definitely a disconnect between when I read that first post and when I started creating my list.

User avatar
Gropius
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:47 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#717 Post by Gropius » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:04 pm

In addition to Cronaca di un amore, am I correct in thinking that no-one voted for Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (strange, given that Rabbit's Moon - generally considered a more minor work - got four votes) or Varda's La Pointe Courte? All three would have featured highly on my (unfinished) list.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#718 Post by swo17 » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:11 pm

You are correct. None of those films received votes.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#719 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:06 pm

After championing it for years to increasingly less and less deaf ears, it is so satisfying to see My Sister Eileen actually make the list proper. I'm still pleasantly stunned!

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#720 Post by swo17 » Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:12 pm

domino harvey wrote:it is so satisfying to see My Sister Eileen actually make the list proper.
Still nowhere near as satisfying as the film itself!

User avatar
Mr Sheldrake
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:09 pm
Location: Jersey burbs exit 4

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions

#721 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:42 pm

My top ten.....

1 Rear Window (Hitchcock)
2 Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger)
3 Ordet (Dreyer)
4 Sweet Smell of Success (MacKendrick)
5 Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi)
6 Touch of Evil (Welles)
7 Imitation of Life (Sirk)
8 Man of the West (Mann)
9 Vertigo (Hitchcock)
10 Some Came Running (Minnelli)

I grew up in the 1950s so it's no coincidence that it's my favorite decade. But I've lived with these movies all my life, and sometimes it's difficult to find anything new in them. So I would like to thank all those posters who were watching them for the first time, and helped me to see them anew through their unique perspective. And thanks to swo17 for all his work on this project

Mike_S
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:35 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#722 Post by Mike_S » Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:51 pm

My top 10, which is perhaps a tiny bit more idiosyncratic than I thought.

1. The Searchers (1956, Ford)
2. Vertigo (1958, Hitchcock)
3. La Ronde (1950, Ophuls)
4. In a Lonely Place (1950, Ray)
5. The 400 Blows (1959, Truffaut)
6. Ugetsu (1953, Mizoguchi)
7. Night and Fog (1955, Resnais)
8. Clash by Night (1952, Lang)
9. The Magician (1958, Bergman)
10. Rio Bravo (1958, Hawks)


I'm particularly passionate about number 8, which is my favourite Fritz Lang film, and no 9 which is my favourite Bergman.

User avatar
matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#723 Post by matrixschmatrix » Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:18 pm

Clash by Night is one of those movies where if the last five minutes had been different, I would have hated it- but as it is, it's a movie I really like, albeit one that's overshadowed by a lot of Lang's other work for me. It's definitely stacked with great performances, though.

User avatar
Wu.Qinghua
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:31 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#724 Post by Wu.Qinghua » Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:23 pm

Well, here's my top 13:

Salt of the Earth (Herbert Biberman, 1953)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Captain from Cologne (Slatan Dudow, 1956)
No Peace under the Olive Tree (Giuseppe de Santis, 1950)
Ballad of a Soldier (Grigori Chukrai, 1959)
Momma Don't Allow (Karel Reisz & Tony Richardson, 1956)
Moi un noir (Jean Rouch, 1958)
The White-Haired Girl (Shui Hua & Wang Bing, 1950)
Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958)
On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1956)
Jia / Family (Chen Hsi-ho, 1953)
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)

In my eyes, one of the biggest surprises was the rather poor performance of Shadows and especially On the Bowery. I hadn't expected those independent US productions to score that low (especially given Milestone's release of Rogosin's docudrama earlier this year). White-Haired Girl may be a bit high, but Sadoul also put it in his annual Top 10 back then and I may have made a few more eccentric choices.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#725 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 17, 2012 8:02 pm

Swo, unless I missed it, how many total lists were received?

Post Reply