When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1957, it gave its Best Picture award to a David Lean epic called The Bridge on the River Kwai. That's a good movie, and you'll find it on my list—but not at the top:
1. What's Opera, Doc?
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Michael Maltese
With American efficiency, the Ring Cycle is gagged up and slimmed down to seven minutes of film.
2. Paths of Glory
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Written by Kubrick, Calder Willingham, and Jim Thompson, from a novel by Humphrey Cobb
Possibly the least sentimental antiwar movie ever made.
3. Wild Strawberries
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
"Me and my wife are dependent on each other. It is out of selfish reasons we haven't beaten each other to death a long time ago."
4. The Seventh Seal
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
Shortly after Bergman passed away, I was in an ER awaiting an appendectomy. A previous patient had left the room's soundless TV tuned to Turner Classic Movies, which was paying tribute to the director by broadcasting The Seventh Seal. So now I can tell people that when I went to the hospital, I saw Death hovering above my bed. And that I got a good laugh out of it.
5. Sweet Smell of Success
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
Written by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Ordets, from a novelette by Lehman
This treats Walter Winchell with all the affection that Citizen Kane had for William Randolph Hearst.
6. Throne of Blood
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Written by Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Hideo Oguni, from a play by William Shakespeare
The best of the celluloid Macbeths.
7. Witness for the Prosecution
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Wilder, Harry Kurtz, and Larry Marcus, from a play by Agatha Christie
I won't claim this as a libertarian movie, but libertarians should enjoy anything that allows the great Charles Laughton both to disobey doctor's orders and to battle the prosecutorial state.
8. The Bridge on the River Kwai
Directed by David Lean
Written by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, from a novel by Pierre Boulle
Another study in primate pack behavior from the man who wrote Planet of the Apes.
9. Night of the Demon
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Written by Charles Bennett and Hal Chester
The American cut is called Curse of the Demon. Watch the British original if you can—both versions were damaged by the producer's oafish interference, but the American edition was mangled more.
10. Decision at Sundown
Directed by Budd Boetticher
Written by Charles G. Lang, from a novel by Vernon L. Fluharty
"If you'd been tending bar as long as I have, you wouldn't expect so much out of the human race."
Honorable mentions:
11. An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey)
12. N.Y., N.Y.: A Day in New York (Francis Thompson)
13. Three Little Bops (Friz Freleng)
14. Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray)
15. The Transposed Heads (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
16. The Bachelor Party (Delbert Mann)
17. The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher)
18. The Sound of Jazz (Jack Smight)
19. 3:10 to Yuma (Delmer Daves)
20. Rhythm (Len Lye)
Of the films of 1957 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in I Am Waiting and The Devil Strikes at Night.
THE BEST OF 1957: So far we've looked at my favorite movies of 1997, 1987, 1977, and 1967. Before we go back another decade, I ought to pause to stress how provisional these lists are. My take on 1967 might look different when I finally watch Playtime. My perspective on 1987 could change if I ever get around to seeing Housekeeping. And so on.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1957, it gave its Best Picture award to a David Lean epic called The Bridge on the River Kwai. That's a fine film, and you'll find it on my list -- but not at the top:
1. What's Opera, Doc? Directed by Chuck Jones Written by Michael Maltese
With American efficiency, the Ring Cycle is gagged up and slimmed down to seven minutes of film.
2. Paths of Glory Directed by Stanley Kubrick Written by Kubrick, Calder Willingham, and Jim Thompson, from a novel by Humphrey Cobb
Possibly the most unsentimental antiwar movie ever made.
3. Sweet Smell of Success Directed by Alexander Mackendrick Written by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Ordets, from a novelette by Lehman
Does for Walter Winchell what Citizen Kane did for William Randolph Hearst.
4. Wild Strawberries Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
"Me and my wife are dependent on each other. It is out of selfish reasons we haven't beaten each other to death a long time ago."
5. Throne of Blood Directed by Akira Kurosawa Written by Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Hideo Oguni, from a play by William Shakespeare
The best of the celluloid Macbeths.
6. The Bridge on the River Kwai Directed by David Lean Written by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, from a novel by Pierre Boulle
Boulle also wrote Planet of the Apes, and from an evolutionary perspective that seems entirely appropriate.
7. Witness for the Prosecution Directed by Billy Wilder Written by Wilder, Harry Kurtz, and Larry Marcus, from a play by Agatha Christie
I won't claim this as a libertarian movie, but libertarians should enjoy anything that allows the great Charles Laughton both to disobey doctor's orders and to battle the prosecutorial state.
8. The Bachelor Party Directed by Delbert Mann Written by Paddy Chayefsky
No, the Tom Hanks movie isn't a remake of this one. Really, you should be ashamed for even asking that.
9. The Curse of Frankenstein Directed by Terence Fisher Written by Jimmy Sangster, from a novel by Mary Shelley
There were two great series of Frankenstein films: the moody black-and-white pictures released by Universal from 1931 to 1948, and the violent, gory, richly colored flicks released by Hammer from 1957 to 1974. This stylish, ambiguous thriller launched the second set of movies. Christopher Lee's monster, unlike Boris Karloff's, is an unsympathetic killing machine; Fisher records his crimes with a raw, primal power.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1947, it gave its Best Picture award to Elia Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement, arguably the worst movie ever to win the prize. It stars Gregory Peck, dripping with even more sanctimony than usual, as a gentile journalist who goes undercover as a Jew so he can describe how anti-Semitism feels first-hand. (Presumably no actual Jews were available to write the article.) It's a sign of how careless the screenwriters are that so much of the anti-Semitism he encounters isn't first-hand; he just hears about it from other people. Still more of it consists of someone not realizing that Peck is supposed to be Jewish and saying something bigoted in his presence, an experience he had surely already endured before he started his research. The only difference is that now he can respond by claiming to be Jewish himself, and then everyone feels a little awkward, and then it's on to another adventure.
Peck's character has a young son who disappears for long stretches of the narrative, appearing only when the story requires it. His absences may be hard to explain but his constant presence would be worse, since the boy turns in one of the most grating child-actor performances in Hollywood history. The reporter himself is supposed to be a brilliant wordsmith, but for most of the picture we never actually hear any of his work -- a wise choice, since the filmmakers obviously didn't have any good writers on hand to produce it. When we finally do hear a passage, it's completely banal, though it's supposed to be searing and heartfelt.
The sad thing is that there really was an effective indictment of anti-Jewish prejudice in theaters that year: Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire, a solid film noir about an anti-Semitic murder. It isn't quite good enough to make it into my top 10 -- a few scenes are too heavy-handed for my taste -- but it's thousands of times better than the picture that beat it at the Oscars.
End rant. Begin list:
1. Out of the Past Directed by Jacques Tourneur Written by Geoffrey Homes, from his novel
Proof that Tourneur could be great without Val Lewton's guidance.
2. The Lady from Shanghai Directed by Orson Welles Written by Welles, from a novel by Sherwood King
"George, that's the first time anyone ever thought enough of you to call you a shark. If you were a good lawyer, you'd be flattered."
3. Nightmare Alley Directed by Edmund Goulding Written by Jules Furthman, from a novel by William Lindsay Gresham
One of the seediest noirs of the '40s, full of phony psychics, carnival cons, and marrow-deep corruption.
4. Odd Man Out Directed by Carol Reed Written by F.L. Green and R.C. Sherriff, from a novel by Green
If the IRA Movie qualifies as a genre, this dark thriller is the standard by which every other effort, from The Informer to The Crying Game, should be measured.
5. Germany, Year Zero Directed by Roberto Rossellini Written by Rossellini, Max Kolpé, and Sergio Amidei
The third, best, and most relentlessly grim of Rossellini's antifascist war trilogy.
6. Black Narcissus Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Written by Powell and Pressburger, from a novel by Rumer Godden
Like many of the Archers' films, this one finds something pagan and inexplicable at the edge of the world and the core of the self.
7. The Red House Directed by Delmar Daves Written by Daves, from a novel by George Agnew Chamberlain
I was home from college one Christmas break, mildly annoyed at a professor's habit of finding Freudian symbols in virtually everything we read. "I'll bet I can 'discover' a Freudian meaning in anything," I told myself. "Why, I bet I can impose one on this random movie I've never heard of that's about to come on TV." And then I watched this tale of a man whose daughter is just entering puberty, a man who becomes enraged at the thought that she and her boyfriend will start to explore the deep dark woods near his farm. He's afraid, he says, that she'll discover the red house in the middle of the deep dark woods, and oh how he's haunted by the screams from the red house in the middle of the deep dark woods. Just to top it off, we learn in the end that-- but no, I won't give away the ending. Let's just say I came away with new respect for my prof.
8. Quai des Orfèvres Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot Written by Clouzot and Jean Ferry, from a novel by Stanislas-André Steeman
"You expect a good case, and it boils down to the usual. Diddly-squat."
9. Motion Painting No. 1 Directed by Oskar Fischinger
Abstract expressionism on a static canvass rarely impresses me. But when it's animated...
10. King-Size Canary Directed by Tex Avery Written by Heck Allen
There are those who think this extra-manic Avery cartoon is a metaphor for the arms race. If nothing else, that would explain why the dog is named Atom.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1947, it gave its Best Picture award to Gentlemen's Agreement, arguably the worst movie ever to win the prize. It stars Gregory Peck, dripping with even more sanctimony than usual, as a gentile journalist who goes undercover as a Jew so he can describe how anti-Semitism feels first-hand. (Presumably no actual Jews were available to write the article.) It's a sign of how careless the screenwriters are that so much of the anti-Semitism he encounters isn't first-hand; he just hears about it from other people. Still more of it consists of someone not realizing that Peck is supposed to be Jewish and saying something bigoted in his presence, an experience he had surely already endured before he started his research. The only difference is that now he can respond by claiming to be Jewish himself, and then everyone feels a little awkward, and then it's on to another adventure.
Peck's character has a young son who disappears for long stretches of the narrative, appearing only when the story requires it. His absences may be hard to explain but his constant presence would be worse, since the boy turns in one of the most grating child-actor performances in Hollywood history. The reporter himself is supposed to be a brilliant wordsmith, but for most of the picture we never actually hear any of his work—a wise choice, since there obviously weren't any good writers on hand to produce it. When we finally do hear a passage, it's completely banal, though it's supposed to be searing and heartfelt.
The sad thing is that there really was an effective indictment of anti-Jewish prejudice in theaters that year: Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire, a solid film noir about an anti-Semitic murder. It isn't quite good enough to make it into my top 20—a few scenes are too heavy-handed for my taste—but it's thousands of times better than the picture that beat it at the Oscars.
End rant. Begin list:
1. Out of the Past
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Written by Geoffrey Homes, from his novel
Peak Robert Mitchum.
2. The Lady from Shanghai
Directed by Orson Welles
Written by Welles, from a novel by Sherwood King
"George, that's the first time anyone ever thought enough of you to call you a shark. If you were a good lawyer, you'd be flattered."
3. It Always Rains on Sunday
Directed by Robert Hamer
Written by Hamer, Angus MacPhail, and Henry Cornelius, from a novel by Arthur La Bern
"I give you my word I haven't got it. By my life. By Sadie's life. The baby's life." "Your life will do."
4. Nightmare Alley
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Written by Jules Furthman, from a novel by William Lindsay Gresham
One of the seediest noirs of the '40s, full of phony psychics, carnival cons, and marrow-deep corruption.
5. Odd Man Out
Directed by Carol Reed
Written by F.L. Green and R.C. Sherriff, from a novel by Green
If the IRA Movie qualifies as a genre, then this dark thriller is the standard by which every other effort, from The Informer to The Crying Game, should be measured.
6. Black Narcissus
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Written by Powell and Pressburger, from a novel by Rumer Godden
Like many of the Archers' movies, this one finds something pagan and inexplicable at both the edge of the world and the core of the self.
7. The Red House
Directed by Delmar Daves
Written by Daves, from a novel by George Agnew Chamberlain
I was home from college one Christmas break, mildly annoyed at a professor's habit of finding Freudian symbols in virtually everything we read. "I'll bet I can 'discover' a Freudian meaning in anything," I told myself. "Why, I'll bet I can impose one on this random movie I've never heard of that's about to come on TV." And then I watched this tale of a man whose daughter is just entering puberty, a man who becomes enraged at the thought that she and her boyfriend will start to explore the deep dark woods near his farm. He's afraid, he says, that she'll discover the red house in the middle of the deep dark woods, and oh how he's haunted by the screams from the red house in the middle of the deep dark woods. Just to top it off, in the end we learn— but no, I won't give away the ending. I'll just say I came away with new respect for my prof.
8. Daisy Kenyon
Directed by Otto Preminger
Written by David Hertz, from a novel by Elizabeth Janeway
This turns the stuff of pure soap opera into an intricately nuanced story about three-dimensional people.
9. Hue and Cry
Directed by Charles Crichton
Written by T.E.B. Clarke
In the streets and bombed-out ruins of post–World War II London, kids create their own secret culture.
10. Dreams That Money Can Buy
Directed by Hans Richter
Written by Richter, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Fernand Léger, Alexander Calder, Josh White, Hans Rehfisch, and David Vern
A surrealist anthology.
Honorable mentions:
11. Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
12. King-Size Canary (Tex Avery)
13. The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir)
14. Motion Painting No. One (Oskar Fishchinger)
15. Body and Soul (Robert Rossen)
16. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (Preston Sturges)
17. The Unsuspected (Michael Curtiz)
18. Fireworks (Kenneth Anger)
19. A Double Life (George Cukor)
20. The Cage (Sidney Peterson)
Of the films of 1947 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in Gran Casino and They Made Me a Fugitive.
The reissue of the year: two of Doug Sahm's finest albums, one of them never before available on CD. The songs range from honky-tonk to jump blues to psychedelia to jazz -- if a musical style has ever drifted through Texas, Sahm can (a) play it brilliantly and (b) combine it casually with everything else.
A new collection of old music, recorded from 1926 to 1929 and released in countless forms since then. Surely you don't need me to tell you how good Louis Armstrong was?
Sublime folk-rock from a punk pioneer. (Before she went solo, Houston was in the Avengers.) For years I only had a pirated tape of this out-of-print album; now, thanks to the Internet, you and I can acquire the CD directly from the artist. Best track: "Putting Me in the Ground."
Cash's most recent studio album was a mixed bag -- but with this brilliant live set from 1969 hitting stores at the same time, who could complain? Bloggers caught between hawkish and dovish sympathies will especially enjoy the singer's declaration, re: Vietnam, that he's "a dove with claws."
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1927, it gave away not one but two Best Picture awards. "Best Production" went to Wings, a dull drama about World War I. "Best Artistic Quality of Production" went to a much better movie, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise. That one's on my list—but it isn't at the top:
1. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
Directed by Walter Ruttmann
Written by Ruttmann, Karl Freund, and Carl Mayer
A day in the life of a city.
2. Metropolis
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Lang and Thea von Harbou, from a novel by von Harbou
Trivia: In 1984 this dystopian science-fiction story was rereleased with a "modern" soundtrack, featuring Pat Benatar, Billy Squier, and the king of Eurodisco, Giorgio Moroder. Only advanced students of late 20th century kitsch should watch that version.
3. Napoleon
Written and directed by Abel Gance
Featuring the best snowball fight in film history.
4. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Directed by F.W. Murnau
Written by Carl Mayer, Katherine Hilliker, and H.H. Caldwell, from a novella by Hermann Sudermann
This was a strong year for great movies with ridiculous subtitles.
5. The End of St. Petersburg
Directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin with Mikhail Doller
Written by Nathan Zarkhi
It's propaganda, but it's dynamic and inventive propaganda. It wouldn't be long before the Soviets stopped even doing that.
6. A Wild Roomer
Directed by Charley Bowers and Harold L. Muller
Written by Bowers, Muller, and Ted Sears
These days it's hardly controversial to claim that Buster Keaton was better than Charlie Chaplin. But I'll go out on a limb and say that Charley Bowers, the most surrealist of the silent clowns, was better than Chaplin too.
7. The Kid Brother
Directed by Ted Wilde with J.A. Howe, Harold Lloyd, and Lewis Milestone
Written by Howard Green, John Grey, and Lex Neal, from a story by Wilde, Neal, and Tom Crizer
Harold Lloyd was also better than Chaplin.
8. The Unknown
Directed by Tod Browning
Written by Waldemar Young and Joseph Farnham, from a story by Browning
"Hands! Men's hands! How I hate them!"
9. Fluttering Hearts
Directed by James Parrott
Written by Charley Chase and H.M. Walker
By the end of this two-reeler, William Burress has taken to dressing like a woman, Oliver Hardy has had a sustained flirtation with a mannequin, and Charley Chase has completely failed to get the girl.
10. The Lodger: A Tale of the London Fog
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Eliot Stannard, from a novel and play by Marie Belloc Lowndes
Hitch's first hit, a riff on the Ripper.
Honorable mentions:
11. R-1, a Form-Play (Oskar Fischinger)
12. Emak-Bakia (Man Ray)
13. Combat de Boxe (Charles Dekeukeleire)
14. Bed and Sofa (Abram Room)
15. Long Pants (Frank Capra)
16. The Battle of the Century (Clyde Bruckman)
17. L'Invitation au Voyage (Germaine Dulac)
18. Should Second Husbands Come First? (Leo McCarey)
19. Walking from Munich to Berlin (Oskar Fischinger)
20. The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni)
Do not ask me where The General is, OK? The General debuted on December 31, 1926. It was the #1 movie on my 1926 list. If it had come out on January 1 instead, it would be #1 here.
Of the films of 1927 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in The Diplomatic Pouch and Six et Demi, Onze. And I suppose someday I should sit through 7th Heaven: I'm not a big Borzage fan, but a lot of people love this movie and maybe it'll be the one that wins me over.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked at 1958, it gave its Best Picture award to Gigi, a mediocre musical that even Maurice Chevalier couldn't save. In fact -- and I say this in sorrow, as a confirmed Chevalier fan -- he wasn't very good in it himself. Maybe if they'd cast Harpo Marx hiding a phonograph under his coat instead...
1. Touch of Evil Directed by Orson Welles Written by Welles, from a novel by Whit Masterson
"A policeman's job is only easy in a police state."
2. Vertigo Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Written by Samuel Taylor and Alec Coppel, from a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
I'm not exactly in the minority here. Half a century after the fact, most critics are going to pick either this or Touch of Evil as the best American movie of 1958. So I'd just like to take this opportunity to remind you again that the Oscar went to Gigi.
3. Ivan the Terrible, Part 2 Written and directed by Sergei Eisenstein
Completed in 1946, but suppressed by Stalinist censorship until the Khrushchev thaw.
4. Mon Oncle Directed by Jacques Tati Written by Tati, Jacques Lagrange, and Jean L'Hote
Slapstick vs. technocracy.
5. Man of the West Directed by Anthony Mann Written by Reginald Rose, from a novel by Will C. Brown
The last entry in Mann's series of layered, psychologically complex westerns.
6. Night of the Demon Directed by Jacques Tourneur Written by Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester, from a story by Montague R. James
The American cut is called Curse of the Demon. Watch the British edition if you can -- both versions were damaged by the oafish interference of producer Hal E. Chester, but the American one was mangled more.
7. Ashes and Diamonds Directed by Andrzej Wajda Written by Jerzy Andrzejewski, from his novel
Another product of the Khrushchev thaw, or more precisely the Gomulka thaw, which is what you get when you combine Khrushchevism from above with labor unrest from below. The film's ambiguous attitude towards the Communists is handled delicately -- unlike Hal E. Chester, the East Bloc authorities could mangle much more than a mere movie -- but there's little doubt about where the Polish audience's sympathies lay.
8. The Magician Directed by Ingmar Bergman Written by Bergman, from a play by G.K. Chesterton
A playful mixture of horror and humor, with some crafty things to say about illusion's relationship to truth.
9. The Big "O" Directed by Carmen D'Avino
Variations on the 15th letter.
10. A Movie Directed by Bruce Conner
The lost bridge between Joseph Cornell and YouTube Poop.
N.B.: Night of the Demon technically debuted in 1957, though it didn't make it to America til '58. I included it anyway for the usual reason: I didn't realize its actual year of release when I compiled my '57 list last year, and I'd hate to ignore the picture entirely. If I were forced to exclude it, I'd fill out this top 10 with Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1927, it gave away not one but two Best Picture awards. "Best Production" went to Wings, a dull drama about World War I. The prize for "Artistic Quality of Production" went to a much better movie, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise. It, unlike Wings, is on my list -- but not at the top:
1. The General Directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman Written by Keaton, Bruckman, Al Boasberg, and Charles Smith
Forget D.W. Griffith. This is the great American Civil War movie.
2. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City Directed by Walter Ruttmann Written by Ruttmann, Karl Freund, and Carl Mayer
A brilliant snapshot of a day in the life of a city.
3. Metropolis Directed by Fritz Lang Written by Lang and Thea von Harbou, from a novel by von Harbou
Trivia: In 1984 this dystopian science-fiction story was rereleased with a "modern" soundtrack, featuring Pat Benatar, Billy Squier, and the king of Eurodisco, Giorgio Moroder. Only advanced students of late 20th century kitsch should watch that version, unless you're willing to risk permanent brain injury.
4. Napoleon Written and directed by Abel Gance
Featuring the best snowball fight in movie history.
5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans Directed by F.W. Murnau Written by Carl Mayer, Katherine Hilliker, and H.H. Caldwell, from a novella by Hermann Sudermann
This was a strong year for good movies with ridiculous subtitles.
6. The End of St. Petersburg Directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin with Mikhail Doller Written by Nathan Zarkhi
Before Stalin came along, the young Soviet Union produced some of the most dynamic and inventive films in the world. Unfortunately, they were usually yoked to simple-minded propaganda, but the best efforts -- like this one -- managed to be great despite that.
7. A Wild Roomer Directed by Charley Bowers and Harold L. Muller Written by Bowers, Muller, and Ted Sears
These days nearly everyone agrees that Buster Keaton was better than Charlie Chaplin. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Charley Bowers, the wildest and most surrealist of the silent-era clowns, was better than Chaplin too.
8. The Kid Brother Directed by Ted Wilde with J.A. Howe, Harold Lloyd, and Lewis Milestone Written by Howard Green, John Grey, and Lex Neal, from a story by Wilde, Neal, and Tom Crizer
Harold Lloyd was also better than Chaplin.
9. The Unknown Directed by Tod Browning Written by Waldemar Young and Joseph Farnham, from a story by Browning
"Hands! Men's hands! How I hate them!"
10. The Lodger: A Tale of the London Fog Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Written by Eliot Stannard, from a novel and play by Marie Belloc Lowndes
When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences looked back at 1956, it gave its Best Picture award to Around the World in 80 Days, a fairly entertaining but not particularly memorable adaptation of Jules Verne. Here are some films I like more:
1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Directed by Don Siegel
Written by Daniel Mainwaring, from a novel by Jack Finney
The fact this works as a metaphor both for Communism and for McCarthyism tells you something about the era.
2. Aparajito
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Ray, from two novels by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
What feels liberating for the son can seem selfish to the mother. Ray shows the truth in both perspectives.
3. Baby Doll
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by Tennessee Williams, from his play
"Mrs. Meighan, your husband sweats more than any man I know and now I can understand why."
4. Night and Fog
Directed by Alain Resnais
Written by Jean Cayrol
The standard against which to measure all other Holocaust films.
5. The Searchers
Directed by John Ford
Written by Frank Nugent, from a novel by Alan Le May
Invasion of the Body Snatchers: The Western.
6. Death in the Garden
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Buñuel, Luis Alcoriza, and Raymond Queneau, from a novel by José-André Lacour
Buñuel had the kind of politics where the oppressive state is venal, so you sympathize with the revolutionaries; but the revolutionaries are kind of venal too; and the kindly priest who means well is also pretty unbearable; and the charming rogue who knows the score is an unbelievable asshole.
7. Crazed Fruit
Directed by Kō Nakahira
Written by Shintaro Ishihara, from his novel
Starts like a teen sex comedy, ends like a noir.
8. Bob le flambeur
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Melville and Auguste Le Breton, from a story by Melville
"With a really good lawyer, I could sue for damages."
9. A Man Escaped
Written and directed by Robert Bresson
One of the great jailbreak movies.
10. Number 10
Directed by Harry Smith
I swear I didn't go out of my way to put this one in the #10 slot. Not way out of my way, anyway.
Honorable mentions:
11. Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher)
12. Toute la mémoire du monde (Alain Resnais)
13. Mirror Animations (Harry Smith)
14. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock)
15. The Wormwood Star (Curtis Harrington)
16. The Silent World (Jacques Cousteau, Louis Malle)
17. O Dreamland (Lindsay Anderson)
18. Symphonie Mécanique (Jean Mitry)
19. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray)
20. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock)
Speaking of The Silent World, I've got to get something off my chest. At one point, by accident, Cousteau and his men mortally injure a baby whale. They then kill it to put it out of its misery. Some sharks show up to eat the carcass, and so the crew decides to avenge the whale’s death by slaughtering the sharks, even though it’s the crew that killed the damn thing and the sharks are just there to feed. What the hell, people?
(By the way: All this time I thought The Seventh Seal came out in 1956. But apparently it's from 1957. So don't ask me where The Seventh Seal is. We'll get to it.)
Of the films of 1956 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in Elena and Her Men.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1937, it gave its Best Picture award to a formulaic biopic called The Life of Emile Zola. You won't find that one here:
1. Grand Illusion Directed by Jean Renoir Written by Renoir and Charles Spaak
"Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot."
2. Night Must Fall Directed by Richard Thorpe Written by John Van Druten, from a play by Emlyn Williams
This atmospheric crime story's origins as a play are obvious but not overwhelming: It's dialogue-heavy but never too talky, placebound without seeming stagy.
3. Nothing Sacred Directed by William Wellman Written by Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner Jr., and Budd Schulberg, from a story by James H. Street
The secret origins of Oliver Stone.
4. Stage Door Directed by Gregory La Cava Written by Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, from a play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman
It isn't as famous as the year's other aspiring-actress story, William Wellman's A Star is Born, but it's much, much better, with a young Katharine Hepburn in one of the abiding Hepburn roles.
5. The Awful Truth Directed by Leo McCarey Written by Viña Delmar and Sidney Buchman, from a play by Arthur Richman
I haven't seen the other much-praised McCarey film of 1937, Make Way for Tomorrow, but this screwball romance earns the director a place on the list.
6. Easy Living Directed by Mitchell Leisen Written by Preston Sturges, from a story by Vera Caspary
Like many of Sturges' comedies, this is stuffed with jokes about class, convention, hypocrisy, and mistaken identity.
7. On the Avenue Directed by Roy Del Ruth Written by Gene Markey and William M. Conselman
"Some fellows see the girl that they love in a dream/Some fellows see their love in a rippling stream/I saw the girl that I can't forget/On the cover of a police gazette."
8. The Edge of the World Written and directed by Michael Powell
Haunting and dreamlike yet extremely realistic, this manages to feel fantastic and naturalistic at the same time.
9. Shall We Dance Directed by Mark Sandrich Written by Ernest Pagano, Allan Scott, and P.J. Wolfson, from a story by Harold Buchman and Lee Loeb
To be honest, I tend to get all those Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals mixed up. That's partly because they frequently follow a formula, but it's also because so many of them are so good.
10. Even—As You and I Written and directed by Roger Barlow, Harry Hay, and LeRoy Robbins
The framing story is overlong, but that's forgivable. The heart of the film is one of the first and best cinematic parodies of surrealist art -- and, perhaps, a surrealist mini-masterpiece itself.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1937, it gave its Best Picture award to a formulaic biopic called The Life of Emile Zola. You won't find that one here:
1. Pépé le Moko
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Written by Duvivier, Henri La Barthe, Jacques Constant, and Henri Jeanson, from a novel by La Barthe
The Casbah Autonomous Zone.
2. Grand Illusion
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Renoir and Charles Spaak
"Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot."
3. Night Must Fall
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by John Van Druten, from a play by Emlyn Williams
This atmospheric crime story's origins as a play are obvious but not overwhelming: It is dialogue-heavy but never too talky, placebound without seeming stagy.
4. Nothing Sacred
Directed by William Wellman
Written by Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner Jr., and Budd Schulberg, from a story by James H. Street
The secret origins of Oliver Stone.
5. The Awful Truth
Directed by Leo McCarey
Written by Viña Delmar and Sidney Buchman, from a play by Arthur Richman
"I've seen your picture in the paper and wondered what you looked like."
6. Make Way for Tomorrow
Directed by Leo McCarey
Written by Viña Delmar
That title—Make Way for Tomorrow—is about as bitterly ironic as Old Hollywood could get.
7. Un Carnet de Bal
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Written by Duvivier, Henri Jeanson, Yves Mirande, Jean Sarment, Pierre Wolff, and Bernard Zimmer
A widow tours her love life's garden of forking paths.
8. The Great Garrick
Directed by James Whale
Written by Ernest Vajda, from his novel
Imagine a Truman Show–style scenario where virtually everyone surrounding the protagonist is actually an actor. Now imagine that they all come from the Jon Lovitz "Master Thespian" school of acting.
9. Stage Door
Directed by Gregory La Cava
Written by Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, from a play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman
It isn't as famous as the year's other aspiring-actress story, William Wellman's A Star is Born, but it's much, much better.
10. Easy Living
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Preston Sturges, from a story by Vera Caspary
Like many Sturges stories, this is stuffed with jokes about class, convention, hypocrisy, and mistaken identity.
Honorable mentions:
11. The Edge of the World (Michael Powell)
12. Pearls of the Crown (Sacha Guitry, Christian-Jaque)
13. On the Avenue (Roy Del Ruth)
14. Mr. Fantômas (Ernst Moerman)
15. Désiré (Sacha Guitry)
16. Shall We Dance (Mark Sandrich)
17. The Old Mill (Wilfred Jackson)
18. Stand-In (Tay Garnett)
19. Even—As You and I (Harry Hay, Roger Barlow, LeRoy Robbins)
20. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand)
Of the films of 1937 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in Harvest.