Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2017 21:51:24 GMT
My top 10 of the 1940s
1. The Snake Pit (1948) 2. How Green Was My Valley (1941) 3. The Shop Around the Corner ( 1940 ) 4. The Little Foxes (1941) 5. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 6. Old Acquaintance (1943) 7. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) 8. Mrs. Miniver (1942) 9. The Pride of the Yankees ( 1942 ) 10. Casablanca (1942)
|
|
|
Post by LaurenceBranagh on Feb 20, 2017 21:57:17 GMT
(in alphabetical order) Arsenic and Old Lace Bicycle Thieves Casablanca Double Indemnity It's a Wonderful Life Shadow of a Doubt Stairway to Heaven The Best Years of Our Lives The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp The Red Shoes
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2017 22:13:09 GMT
1 To Have and Have Not 1944 watch Bogie and Bacall fall in love on the screen for real 2 Red River 1947 my favorite Western 3 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 Jimmy struts his stuff Oscar style 4 Treasure Of The Sierra Madre 1948 Bogie's Fred C. Dobbs is amazingly complex 5 The Lady Eve 1941 scene in stateroom w Stanwyck and Fonda is so sexy 6 Double Indemnity 1944 dialog between Stanwyck and MacMurray 7 Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 one of the finest British films ever made 8 The More the Merrier 1943 Jean Arthur love scene on steps w Joel McCrea 9 Ball of Fire 1941 adult version of Snow White 10 Monsieur Verdoux 1947 Martha Raye is hilarious
Honorable Mention: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948 best parody until Young Frankenstein Hollywood Canteen 1944 Bette Davis and Errol Flynn skits are highlights Broadway Melody Of 1940 1940 just for the 'Begin the Beguine' dance number The Search 1948 Monty rescues one of the War's littlest victims
|
|
|
Post by joekiddlouischama on Feb 20, 2017 22:29:18 GMT
I am not sure about a top-ten list, but It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) is easily one of my favorite films of all time. Jimmy Stewart relates to George Bailey on such an intimate and instinctive level, and Capra forces his protagonist and his viewer to confront the darkness in a way that most movies do not. He shows how the margin between triumph and tragedy is paper-thin, and every scene—every moment—is memorable. Few, if any films, are that uplifting and yet that shuddering—It's a Wonderful Life may epitomize cinematic catharsis. (By the way, I have seen the film in the theater six times since December 2013.)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) epitomizes, and perhaps defines, film noir's imperative to transgress, to behave immorally and criminally simply because you can. Sure, there is a practical (if licentious) motivation behind the behaviors of the leading characters, but clearly there is something more at play.
Two other films noir from the 1940s that really stand out to me are The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), the first commonly acknowledged noir classic (if not the first commonly acknowledged noir in general), and Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947). When I viewed The Maltese Falcon in the theater a year ago, I was amazed by how coldly and relentlessly dark the film's tone and vision happen to be—it almost seems animated by the spirit of a German silent horror movie such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920). Out of the Past, meanwhile, memorably uses both rural and urban landscapes to invoke the nature of fatalism.
I also have to mention Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), perhaps the greatest Western of the forties and one of the movies that still, to this day, sets the standard for exploring the nature and meaning of masculinity. In retrospect, one almost could not imagine John Wayne and Montgomery Clift being in the same movie together, let alone the same Western, but their combination here is sublime.
|
|
|
Post by novastar6 on Feb 20, 2017 22:44:47 GMT
Hard to pick.
Shadow of a Doubt The Lodger Abbott and Costello in just about any movie they did, Meet the Killer Boris Karloff, Meet the Invisible Man, Meet Frankenstein, The Naughty Nineties, Here Come the Co-Eds, Hit the Ice, Hold that Ghost, Who Done It?, The Time of their Lives, they're all great. Double Indemnity The Postman Always Rings Twice the East Side Kids, Ghosts on the Loose, Spooks Run Wild, etc. The Ghost Breakers The Miracle of Morgan's Creek Miracle on 34th Street Gaslight
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2017 4:01:34 GMT
in alphabetical order
1. The Bank Dick 2. The Devil and Daniel Webster 3. Double Indemnity 4. Hail the Conquering Hero 5. Kind Hearts and Coronets 6. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House 7. The More the Merrier 8. Sullivan's Travels 9. The Third Man 10. To Be or Not To Be
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2017 4:47:06 GMT
I also have to mention Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), perhaps the greatest Western of the forties and one of the movies that still, to this day, sets the standard for exploring the nature and meaning of masculinity. In retrospect, one almost could not imagine John Wayne and Montgomery Clift being in the same movie together, let alone the same Western, but their combination here is sublime. I, too, love Red River - see my List above. But I do wish they had cast someone other than the talent-less Joanne Dru! She had no chemistry with Monty, and her overacting in the climax was just awful!
|
|
glenesq
Freshman
@glenesq
Posts: 61
Likes: 67
|
Post by glenesq on Feb 21, 2017 6:54:11 GMT
Out of the Past (1947) His Girl Friday (1940) The Third Man (1949) Brighton Rock (1947) Citizen Kane (1941) Bicycle Thieves (1948) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Stormy Weather (1943)
and how about two short films
Jammin' the Blues (1944) A Plumbing We Will Go (1940)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2017 8:51:12 GMT
Feel like I'm missing something, but this is all I can think of right now...
Twelve O'Clock High (1949) Roughly Speaking (1945) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) Rebecca (1940) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Mildred Pierce (1945) The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) Romance on the High Seas (1948) Rhapsody in Blue (1945) The Heiress (1949)
|
|
|
Post by joekiddlouischama on Feb 21, 2017 9:56:29 GMT
I also have to mention Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), perhaps the greatest Western of the forties and one of the movies that still, to this day, sets the standard for exploring the nature and meaning of masculinity. In retrospect, one almost could not imagine John Wayne and Montgomery Clift being in the same movie together, let alone the same Western, but their combination here is sublime. I, too, love Red River - see my List above. But I do wish they had cast someone other than the talent-less Joanne Dru! She had no chemistry with Monty, and her overacting in the climax was just awful! As a freshman in college, I took a course on Westerns (which, for me, was a heavenly experience). Red River was one of the films that we viewed and studied, and the (male, fifty-five years old) professor mentioned something about the women being "strong." One of the female students stated that she found the women (including Colleen Gray, as Tom Dunson's girlfriend early in the film) to be "sappy" rather than "strong." Either way, I believe that she judged Dru's acting in the same manner as you did. This class took place fifty years after Red River's release, so I wonder how women in the late 1940s viewed the matter (of course, not all women think alike) and whether there would be a strong generational difference from those times to more contemporary times. Ostensibly, Tess Millay (Dru) is "strong" in the sense that she ultimately settles matters, but both actresses are assertive in the "I am a woman, and you need a woman" sense that probably is much less palatable for many female viewers in recent decades. I will say that I find the moment where the arrow penetrates Millay to be quite arousing (not literally, but intellectually)—and it is an example of how the industrial censorship of the era, while perhaps unfortunate overall, sparked greater creativity and metaphorical suggestion in many instances.
|
|
|
Post by joekiddlouischama on Feb 21, 2017 10:03:46 GMT
When you get to a certain age and have seen a lifetime of films, it's hard to choose only ten for a decade. I could probably do ten for each year. Maybe I'll try that, for now doing just 1940. I'm interested to see how it turns out. The Grapes of Wrath Rebecca His Girl Friday The Philadelphia Story The Shop Around the Corner The Great McGinty Foreign Correspondent Fantasia Pinocchio Our Town Not bad, for one year. Thanks for indulging me. I should have mentioned The Grapes of Wrath; I was thinking of it as a 1939 release, but of course, John Ford filmed it in 1939 and then it came out in 1940. The movie is at once filled with austerity and humanity, and it takes an unflinching look at some uglier attitudes in America. In that sense, it is definitely one of John Ford's most honest and objective films, keeping sentimentality on a short leash. And the technical aspects (visual and audio) are just superior.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2017 11:38:40 GMT
1 BLACK NARCISSUS 1947 2 LAURA 1944 3 MEET ME IN ST LOUIS 1944 4 THIS HAPPY BREED 1944 5 ON THE TOWN 1949 6 THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES 1946 7 TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT 1944 8 THE SHANGHAI GESTURE 1941 9 NOW VOYAGER 1942 10 GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT 1947
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2017 14:40:23 GMT
I, too, love Red River - see my List above. But I do wish they had cast someone other than the talent-less Joanne Dru! She had no chemistry with Monty, and her overacting in the climax was just awful! As a freshman in college, I took a course on Westerns (which, for me, was a heavenly experience). Red River was one of the films that we viewed and studied, and the (male, fifty-five years old) professor mentioned something about the women being "strong." One of the female students stated that she found the women (including Colleen Gray, as Tom Dunson's girlfriend early in the film) to be "sappy" rather than "strong." Either way, I believe that she judged Dru's acting in the same manner as you did. This class took place fifty years after Red River's release, so I wonder how women in the late 1940s viewed the matter (of course, not all women think alike) and whether there would be a strong generational difference from those times to more contemporary times. Ostensibly, Tess Millay (Dru) is "strong" in the sense that she ultimately settles matters, but both actresses are assertive in the "I am a woman, and you need a woman" sense that probably is much less palatable for many female viewers in recent decades. I will say that I find the moment where the arrow penetrates Millay to be quite arousing (not literally, but intellectually)—and it is an example of how the industrial censorship of the era, while perhaps unfortunate overall, sparked greater creativity and metaphorical suggestion in many instances. I have no issues with portrayals of strong women in Westerns. God knows they must have been strong in real life. I specifically have an issue with Dru's performance. I don't find it convincing. Her reaction to being struck in the shoulder by an arrow is comical to me. I do see your point re its suggestive nature... but the arrow came from an Indian, and not Monty !!!! Could be that she was a last minute replacement for the original actress (who ?) set to play Tess, and did not have time to refine her character. I would have loved to have seen Barbara Stanwyck, Ida Lupino, or Joan Blondell in the role instead.
|
|
|
Post by MooseNugget on Feb 21, 2017 15:10:57 GMT
1. A Matter of Life and Death 2. It's a Wonderful Life 3. Citizen Kane 4. The Philadelphia Story 5. Miracle on 34th Street 6. Here Comes Mr. Jordan 7. The Lady from Shanghai 8. The Body Snatcher 9. The Uninvited 10. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
|
|
|
Post by mikef6 on Feb 22, 2017 3:02:21 GMT
TOP 10 (CHRONOLOGICAL)
The Maltese Falcon / John Huston (1941)
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp / Michael Powell and Emric Pressburger (1943)
To Have And Have Not / Howard Hawks (1944)
Double Indemnity / Billy Wilder (1944)
Brief Encounter / David Lean (1945)
The Best Years Of Our Lives / William Wyler (1946)
A Matter Of Life And Death / Michael Powell and Emric Pressburger (1946)
Notorious / Alfred Hitchcock (1946)
Key Largo / John Huston (1948)
Banshun (Late Spring) / Yasujiro Ozu (1949)
|
|
|
Post by Wesley Crusher on Feb 22, 2017 3:14:00 GMT
Top 10 Rope (1948) It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947) The Maltese Falcon (1941) National Velvet (1944) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) The Song of Bernadette (1943) Lifeboat (1941) Double Indemnity (1944) Angel on My Shoulder (1946) She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
(+5) The Pride of the Yankees (1942) Little Women (1949) Sergeant York (1941) Fort Apache (1948) It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Feb 22, 2017 4:54:07 GMT
I am not sure about a top-ten list, but It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) is easily one of my favorite films of all time. Jimmy Stewart relates to George Bailey on such an intimate and instinctive level, and Capra forces his protagonist and his viewer to confront the darkness in a way that most movies do not. He shows how the margin between triumph and tragedy is paper-thin, and every scene—every moment—is memorable. Few, if any films, are that uplifting and yet that shuddering— It's a Wonderful Life may epitomize cinematic catharsis. (By the way, I have seen the film in the theater six times since December 2013.) Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) epitomizes, and perhaps defines, film noir's imperative to transgress, to behave immorally and criminally simply because you can. Sure, there is a practical (if licentious) motivation behind the behaviors of the leading characters, but clearly there is something more at play. Two other films noir from the 1940s that really stand out to me are The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), the first commonly acknowledged noir classic (if not the first commonly acknowledged noir in general), and Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947). When I viewed The Maltese Falcon in the theater a year ago, I was amazed by how coldly and relentlessly dark the film's tone and vision happens to be—it almost seems animated by the spirit of a German silent horror movie such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920). Out of the Past, meanwhile, memorably uses both rural and urban landscapes to invoke the nature of fatalism. I also have to mention Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), perhaps the greatest Western of the forties and one of the movies that still, to this day, sets the standard for exploring the nature and meaning of masculinity. In retrospect, one almost could not imagine John Wayne and Montgomery Clift being in the same movie together, let alone the same Western, but their combination here is sublime. I can't make up my mind for this topic, but I just want to let you know, Joe, that this is an excellent list and analysis. I agree with every choice, particularly It's a Wonderful Life (so continually underrated by critics--certainly not by audiences--in this cynical age!) and Red River.
|
|
rick220
New Member
@rick220
Posts: 44
Likes: 31
|
Post by rick220 on Feb 22, 2017 14:12:37 GMT
In random order:
My Darling Clementine Banshun Paisa The Treasure of the Sierra Madre How Green was my Valley Johnny Eager This Mortal Storm Dark Passage His Girl Friday Mildred Pierce
|
|
|
Post by outrider127 on Feb 22, 2017 18:21:01 GMT
Strange Cargo(1940)
Lifeboat(1944)
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House(1948)
Postman Always Rings Twice(1946)
Random Harvest(1942)
The Foxes Of Harrow(1948)
The Ghost And Mrs Muir(1947)
Shadow Of A Doubt(1943)
The Time Of Their lives(1946)
|
|
|
Post by louise on Feb 24, 2017 16:45:40 GMT
Passport to Pimlico Spring in Park Lane The Ghost Of St Michael’s The Black Sheep of Whitehall Too Many Husbands It Started with Eve I Know Where I’m Going English Without Tears Spring Meeting A Gentleman at Heart
|
|