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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senseabove
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#801 Post by senseabove » Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:55 pm

Chance and availability led me to squeeze The Violent Men into a 95-minute gap before dinner the other night, after bamwc2's write-up, and I thought it was as good a take on the ranch rivalry/range war Western as I've seen (I think I've said before that's my least favorite prototypical Western plot?). Ford's having to be frustrated into his principles felt smoother than most uses of that character pivot, the oppositions within the Big Ranch household made it more interesting than the typical Regional Juggernaut characterization that this plot provides, and the cherry on top is a few standout scenes from Stanwyck as the bebustled, calico'd femme fatale. It's an easy addition to my long list, though I don't think it'll make the cut. Here's hoping somebody gets around to releasing it, though, since the scan looked good for the most part, aside from some opticals and what look like some inserts of stock footage.

Nunnally Johnson's Black Widow is a fun, weird noir script with an admittedly clunky middle. It starts off implying it's a noir-ish take on All About Eve, then tries to be more Mildred Pierce, an unexpected blend of noir and melodrama, lingering as much on the nitty gritty of emotional desperation as skulduggery and whodunit even as it resorts to a lot of ungrounded noir shorthand—neither Van Heflin nor the script exactly sell the tough-guy antics he has to resort to, and the rug-pull is so ham-fistedly red-herringed you have to feel briny about it, but the later twists are nicely handled by the relevant actors, and Johnson's Cinemascope composition is effective. For a blind buy from the Twilight Time Going Out of Business sale, I'm quite pleased, but it's a fun color noir, not one I'd suggest anyone prioritize.



As for orphans, my highest is The World of Apu, which I find a bit surprising as an orphan if not as a ranking—I have the idea it's generally more appreciated than the second movie, even if not many other folks think it's the best movie of the trilogy as I do, but perhaps it's just that Pather Panchali is getting the token vote for the trilogy so the other two are getting short shrift. Hopefully I'll be able to find some time to rewatch and write that one up...

My other orphans:
The Mating Season (Mitchell Leisen, 1951)
The Model and the Marriage Broker (George Cukor, 1951)
The Pajama Game (Stanley Donen & George Abbott, 1957)
Bridges-Go-Round (Shirley Clarke, 1958)
Summer Stock (Charles Walters, 1950)
The Flame and the Arrow (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)

The first two I've written about already, The Pajama Game is a bit surprising as I for some reason had the perhaps mistaken impression that it had its defenders, elsewhere on the board, and the remaining three are admittedly movies that fall within the back-half category of personal favorites aside from any arguments about Superior Quality I could make. The Flame and the Arrow is just a damn good time, though, if anyone wants something fluffy, fun, and list-qualifying.

My biggest Not An Orphan! surprise is The Member of the Wedding, though! I'm very curious whether I persuaded anyone to join me on its defense team or it already had some secret admirers.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#802 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:49 pm

I like The Pajama Game, but for all the buoyancy and impressive style, I never feel connected to anyone or anything in the film. I've seen it a few times, but I still can't remember what happens or picture any of the characters. I do, however, remember some of the colorful numbers vividly, and even thinking about a few of them as I write this fills me with joy. I guess my own personal barrier to accessing this one resides in the content beyond spectacle, but I'll surely be revisiting it for the musicals list. With ten of my fifty spots going to musicals this decade, there wasn't even room for several other all-time favorites, and sadly this isn't one of them.

A few more orphan revisits:

Yield to the Night seduced me from the opening sequence, shooting action from a variety of strange and caustic angles before spilling into tangible violence that unexpectedly feels relieving after the confusing yet pleasurable assault on the senses we’ve just endured. The radical positioning continues to nauseate the audience into comprehending our heroine’s powerlessness and alienation. The lack of holds on her environment stems from a void of logical reason her perspective cannot gather from available social cues, and the surrealistic style mimics the delusional pit of despair that leads Dors to commit premeditated murder. I love when Dors yells at the guards for not understanding what is going on in her mind, which for once doesn’t mean that she has concrete congruent thoughts but a whirlwind of fragmented components with loud voices yearning for connective tissue to give them direction. The meaning she attaches to her actions might be the truth, but like the flaws in ours memories, her inferences are born from the judge’s statement and thus her clarity isn’t confident or originating from her own impetus. A strong piece of artistic exercise in form imitating a fragile psyche.

Cairo Station is an intelligently-made hybrid of sociological examination and psychological thriller. The camerawork is incredible, especially the blocking in the stalking train car scene, where we see the obsessed clearly through the window as the targeted woman moves back and forth vigorously. I loved how the use of sound and visualized friction (i.e. trains grinding on the track) work to provide us with the detached understanding of the stalker’s dysregulated mental state. The actual scenes of violence predate slashers in tactics of tension even before many of the inspirations commonly cited, and the final gesture of affection for the mentally ill revealed as a ruse to divorce empathy from the curt practicality, prioritizing dangers of harm over humanism, is a brutal finish. The transfer on Netflix (U.S.) is terrific too, and well worth the 70ish minute runtime. I won’t have room to rescue it, but it’s accessible to see and good enough for more people to check out over the next month.

Men in War is exactly as RV described, a raw presentation of a brutally long day in desperate wartime conditions. The moral flexibility that rationalizes behavior contends with self-preservation and physiological wear on the body and soul, with minute, cutting details so loud they essentially serve as immense setpieces, just like the Fuller pic. Ryan is terrific though Aldo Ray matches his intensity with an equally nebulous and complex character we are trained to see as a burden until he reveals himself as more and more valuable and multifaceted over time (Ray was also quite funny in We're No Angels, another hidden gem this decade, though a polar opposite performance!) Definitely another contender for a rescue.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#803 Post by Red Screamer » Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:01 pm

It's Always Fair Weather ("I Like Myself"!), Toute la mémoire du monde (icy tracking shots!), and Sudden Fear (Joan Crawford's face!) just missed my list. And I feel for whoever voted for the McLaren films, I'm a huge fan of his, but this is probably my least favorite decade of his work. He's always fun and technically impressive, but nothing of his 50s work has the exhilarating invention of something like Synchromy or Pas de Deux.

As for my darlings, I'm disappointed no one else voted for seminal films like Window Water Baby Moving and Un Chant d'amour. I've already written a bit about the latter, which is really unlike anything else this decade. Once you see it, you'll never forget it. Or at the very least, it'll get the song from Lili stuck in your head. And the Brakhage, well, it's a revolution in personal cinema, with remarkably tactile cinematography and sensitive, jagged editing. Very few films attempt to find honest-to-goodness Beauty and succeed. This one does.

Meanwhile, Last Spring, I expected would wind up dateless. But the Cinémathèque Française is streaming it here in HD, so the interested now have no excuse. Reichenbach made this semi-fictional film in the United States towards the beginning of his career, but it was rarely shown until recently. It's both intimate and highly stylized, chock full of casually gorgeous shots and humming with playful energy. Cocteau and Vigo are the obvious reference points but it's also notably a film of its era, shot on handheld 16mm with both leads dressed in white t-shirts, jackets, and jeans. I'd argue that the off-the-cuff filmmaking and play with genre make this, along with Rentrée des classes, an underdiscussed proto-Nouvelle Vague film that's doing something distinct from the more famous films of the movement. If Last Spring connects with you, or if you just like beautiful men dressed like James Dean, its companion film Nus Masculins is also worth seeing. That one's basically a home movie style portrait series, but Reichenbach is a natural filmmaking talent with a photographer's eye, so it's at worst great eyecandy.

Cairo Station is getting raves in the Random Speculation thread as well as here, so I'm not too worried about that one. And I'm glad someone else voted for Audry's Olivia! I was prepared to sell it as The Nun directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, but now I don't have to :wink:. The others I'll make a case for another time. Thanks for your defenses and recs, everyone!

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#804 Post by dustybooks » Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:25 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:55 pm
Well I had 20 minutes and watched Toute la mémoire du monde (up for free on YT), which bookended itself with optimistic and empowering deconstructions of knowledge's utility to impact versatile areas of life beyond intellectualization. I particularly appreciated the celebration of endless possibilities for discovery and the links to Resnais' own preoccupation with memory's defining qualities on our lives, where I interpreted this as an ode to all the opportunities to create more memories and shape ourselves and the world. The middle parts that delve into the tangible innerworkings of libraries were interesting but probably much more for you or other members who are library employees, and at times felt at odds with the more abstract ideas at the beginning and end. Still, a solid rec from Resnais' strong early days, which is always welcome!
Thank you for posting these thoughts! I have no doubt that my appreciation is deepened by my career. It’s impressive that any outsider is able to capture it so well.

The other film I wanted to defend a bit is Rooty Toot Toot, probably the best of the films John Hubley made at UPA and a really charming exercise in style that’s much more sophisticated and “grownup” than the more familiar cartoons of the era. Hubley would deal a lot with the relationship of rhythm to animation in his later independent films, working with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie (to say nothing of his earlier work on the Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia) but I think this is one of the most effective, witty marriages of contemporary musical style to modernist visuals in American animation. It’s also a film I can’t get enough of, watching it repeatedly each time I’ve returned to it through the years.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#805 Post by hearthesilence » Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:55 pm

swo17 wrote:
Tue Sep 01, 2020 5:02 am
New Votes

The following films received no votes during the last round of the lists project but currently have two or more votes. Perhaps they were not on your radar before...

Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)
This has continued to grow on me. I've seen it so many times in the last few years, and I've thought about it nearly everyday during the pandemic. This is a film made in 1950 (the book it was based on was published in 1947) where an outbreak forces the closure of the local church in a devoutly Christian 19th century town. Compare how they react and deal with that crisis to what we hear now - it's pretty damn sad how a large portion of the evangelical wing have unconscionably become so obnoxious and reactionary.

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Rayon Vert
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#806 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 06, 2020 12:53 pm

The True Story of Jesse James (N. Ray 1957). (revisit) Watched it to finally see the TT blu upgrade. It’s definitely not a great film, but it echoes themes in the director’s work such as youthful criminals and outsiders. Ray emphasizes the James brothers’ beginnings as a way to make a living after being harassed because of immediate post-Civil War politics, so making them rebels with a reason if not an actual cause. Also the scenes involving the young Jesse with his girl Zee definitely casts them as Rebel-ish adolescents. The film is built on flashbacks, but if anything that probably undercuts the potential drama and suspense. But probably the biggest flaw is Wagner and Hunter as the brothers, especially the former as Jesse – they don’t provide the characters with a strong sense of personality and charisma. On the other hand it’s Ray in Scope, so it looks good, and that scene with the robbers in Northfield fighting the whole town is good action. I prefer this at least to Run for Cover.


Forty Guns (Fuller 1957). (revisit)
therewillbeblus wrote:
Sun May 10, 2020 10:44 pm
This might be another unpopular opinion but this is in the upper tiers of Fuller for me. His tough-knuckled worldview is perfect for the western genre, and the inclusion of aggressive weather contributes to the reminder of spontaneous disorder lurking everywhere. There are some abrasive cuts and the wedding scene is edited so intensely it’s one of the very best examples of human-propagated disorder in all of westerns, into a scene that should be a safe place of romantic elation. There are a few savage deaths, and even the general behavior can be completely devoid of restraint on this front (Eastwood’s Unforgiven stole a particularly crude visual idea from here that shows how people can be creatively, publicly disrespected, even after they’re dead). It’s not a perfect film- there are more than a few curious detours and uninvesting arcs, but what does work more than makes up for what doesn’t. It's a shame though that the narrative itself isn’t as intriguing as the uninhibited sharpness of human behavior, because this film feels born for a greatness it can’t quite reach. The final shootout plays like only Fuller would do, and it’s absolutely brutally (in every meaning of the word) honest, and the sick discussion in the aftermath using killing as a declaration of love is perverse twisted perfection.
TW, I for one am completely with you here, and as it stands it’s my favorite Fuller film of the decade. I also think the narrative isn’t as grand or as resonant in meaning as the very best in the genre, but I do nevertheless find the mysterious, winding detours you highlight intriguing and appealing. But more than anything it’s just the tremendous visual style of the thing that blows me away. I don’t think Fuller ever made a better looking film, and yes this is the kind of film that flaunts its camerawork (does there exist a western with as many crane shots?) but it’s all in the service of conveying style and emotion, and throughout the film we get a series of mise-en-scènes and images that are incredibly arresting. Potent characters too that are well-acted, and the violence is unrestrained and shocking. I just wish it went on longer than the 80 minutes that go by so fast.


The Quiet American (Mankiewicz 1958).
(1st viewing) TW gave his thoughts about how terrible he thought this was. I don’t know what other people’s opinions here are but I came out of it if not impressed then at least pleased. It did feel a bit on the nose but it nevertheless drew me in as both drama and near-thriller and the shooting in Vietnam gives it an extra dimension, and different to a lot of the director’s indoor talking dramas or comedies. There is a certain depth to Fowler’s inner journey, and Redgrave’s performance of it, as you find yourself sympathizing with his plight even while having in full view his egotism and unassumed vulnerabilities.


The Crimson Pirate
(Siodmak 1952).
(1st viewing) A follow-up to The Flame and the Arrow with the acrobatic team of Lancaster and Cravat again, trading in medieval northern Italy for a more classic Caribbean pirate setting. It’s definitely going too far to call this a parody or any kind of meta take on the genre; it’s too close in its comedic tone to what was already present in the Tourneur film – and which has always been present in the genre anyway -, there are moments of sincere (if infrequent) drama, and the humor isn’t actually poking fun at the film. The comedy is more prevalent, though, and occasionally borders on farce. To me that’s partly where it wasn’t in the end as satisfying, as the slapstick can get a little over the top and the story elements themselves occasionally get a bit tedious. On the other hand, the film has tons of energy and color, and some of those action set pieces feature tremendous invention and a strong sense of visual flair. So a pretty bipolar experience for me in terms of enjoyment and appreciation.


The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (Ozu 1952). (1st viewing) Different than some of the other Ozu films of this period because of the focus on the marriage and less on the generational divide, but it’s also more tightly scripted in terms of plot – there aren’t the usual digressions -, and the thing starts and moves pretty fast as well as goes “out” a lot (baseball, pachinka, kabuki, bicycle races, airport, in addition to the bars, work places, restaurants, trains, etc., we usually encounter), even while retaining its sense as psychological drama with a hint of comedy. I’m not so sure that’s what accounts for the superlative quality as much as how this is just so strongly written and executed – the story, every scene and character -, and so well acted as usual. Just that little extra bit, for example, with how Chishu Ryu pops up in a surprising role and we get that scene that brings up Mokichi’s war past, adds another layer, and it sets up a dialogue over eating/drinking scene among the men that echoes an earlier parallel scene with the women. The story of the marriage and the way it’s played by the leads is so subtle and beautiful, and the ending is so moving and the tenderness memorably rendered in that late meal preparation scene. Great film, and now my favorite Ozu, as it seems to be the case for others here as well if I remember correctly.


Violent Playground
(Dearden 1958).
(1st viewing) Stanley Baker is a Liverpool detective sent to work as a “liaison officer” with the juvenile delinquents, whether they be 8 or 17 years old. A crime story is the pretext for some social realism drama, and there are some good bits with the young kids. The rougher older teens are overplayed as rock & roll-crazy teen ruffians (who would have been roughly the same age as the pre-success Beatles roaming near these actual Liverpool streets, but as it says in Wiki they forgot for the most part to include the Merseyside accents), especially the lead Johnny played by David McCallum. This is pretty much the same problem I had with The Blue Lamp with Dirk Bogarde’s character, which this resembles in some ways. The film ends up a little disappointingly in a more traditional chase and hostage-taking crime narrative. Despite all the flaws, though, I still liked a fair amount of it.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#807 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:08 pm

Rayon Vert wrote:
Sun Sep 06, 2020 12:53 pm
The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (Ozu 1952). Great film, and now my favorite Ozu, as it seems to be the case for others here as well if I remember correctly.
I think you're the first to grant the film this superlative though I've been pretty actively championing it as his second best, and honestly it's close enough between this and Good Morning where you could ask me tomorrow and I'd agree with you- either way, glad to have a partner on this small hill!

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#808 Post by dustybooks » Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:26 pm

I just watched Ozu’s film for the first time this weekend as well. In my head I’ve been comparing its climax
SpoilerShow
in the kitchen to the moments of marital redemption in Sunrise and Journey to Italy and finding that the comparative subtlety of Ozu’s approach says so much more to me about real relationships, even though I love those other two films.
For some reason there is one particular shot of an empty room with a lamp on toward the end that defines for me what makes Ozu such a master. He lingers on these details and objects not because they’re inherently interesting but because of the place they inhabit in the world of his characters. A room that you see every day might look different to you under the duress of an emotionally difficult moment and somehow this translates. So for another example, the perspective shot of the rear window of the train and its scenery passing gains so much sadness and weight from context. The life that’s happening alters the world that surrounds it.

It’s a beautiful film and I will need to find room on my list for it when I resubmit.
Last edited by dustybooks on Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#809 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:33 pm

Your comment is bringing to mind this more mundane observation I had during the film, where the room the wife finds herself in a few times, which I wasn't sure was a living room or her personal room because she does her make-up there or something of the sort, is a very Western room, with Western sitting chairs and decoration on the walls (perhaps even wallpaper if I remember correctly). I don't seem to remember such a room in other Ozu films, and I'm wondering what's that about, if it's a statement about this couple's relative wealth (they have servants), or if it says something about her as a character - meaning she's the opposite of her husband's simple, down-to-earth nature, her high-maintenance and attachment to class differences before she undergoes her transformation.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#810 Post by dustybooks » Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:39 pm

When reading over the film’s dedicated thread I realized I had largely skirted past the class implications of the story. I think because the relationship dynamic of a person that largely comes over time to disapprove of their spouse’s every inconsequential behavior is something I’ve witnessed in extended family and even at work several times. But of course their relative wealth adds another dimension to what’s happening; I notice also that Shin Saburi’s character seems vaguely dissatisfied with his career and has turned into a bit of a doormat (in the corporate world and at home) out of some sense of societal obligation — which is something that certainly resonates with the context of Japanese society at the time but, as usual for Ozu, feels like it could make a seamless transition to a Western story, arranged marriage aside.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#811 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:52 pm

Funny I didn't read Saburi's character as generally dissatisfied (except in his marriage, and then more in relation to her critical view of him) - he seemed to me like an incredibly endearing man, with a Zen or Taoist acceptance of life as it is and the natural flow of things,
SpoilerShow
and in the end very accepting of his wife's differences and ready to forgive her meanness and seeing the relationship as perfectly workable if she's willing to see it as such as well.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#812 Post by dustybooks » Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:56 pm

You’re quite right. I don’t know that “dissatisfied” was the right word so much as “resigned,” as in... not exactly jumping up and down with excitement over his career as the younger man seems to, with more of a philosophical seen-it-all quality. But the Zen acceptance is probably closer to what I’m observing, and I certainly felt that by the finale. Regardless it’s one of the best performances in an Ozu film to my mind.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#813 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 06, 2020 3:33 pm

Yes I defnitely agree, and it definitely contrasts with his less sympathetic roles (!) in There Was a Father and Equinox Flower. It felt fresh to see less of the usual casting suspects here.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#814 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Sep 06, 2020 4:54 pm

Are you thinking of Toda Family? Shin SABURI played the youngest son in this (and was pretty mean) -- but had only a small role in There Was a Father. I wonder if Saburi's only really mild-mannered role was the one in Green Tea. He usually played pretty hot-headed (or at least a bit feisty) characters (in films by various directors). ;-)

Most of the roles I've seen Shin Saburi in have been in films I've only seen without subs -- in one (name escapes me, alas - but from the 30s or early 40s) he plays a character that anticipates James Dean (almost always angry -- and usually "mumbles").

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#815 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 06, 2020 5:02 pm

You're right. I remembered his less sympathetic character from Equinox Flower and looking at his filmography assumed he played the father in the earlier war-era film, which I haven't seen a quite a while.

Michael, what's your take if you have one on what I brought up in terms of the Western-styled room in Green Tea? Is this rare and therefore has some potential significance, or was it common in this era, among a certain class, to have, in a same house, this sort of style in one room, and the more traditional Japanese look in others?

Image

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#816 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Sep 06, 2020 6:07 pm

The house in Green Tea is comparatively modest and traditional, compared to its predecessor What Did the Lady Forget (which shares about half its plot). ;-)

One assumes that the husband has a very well-paying job, but the wife's family is obviously very wealthy. For very well-to-do families, a mix of traditional and Western interior design would not have been uncommon. Ozu's more typical cinematic families (even the relatively well-off ones) were not affluent enough to live in the style portrayed in Toda Family (before its fortunes fell), WDtLF and Green Tea.

One of the best places to see Ozu era settings in real life (including homes of the wealthy circa 1890--1930s) -- if you manage to get to Tokyo -- is the Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum. We spent over half a day and still did not see everything.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#817 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 06, 2020 6:18 pm

Good info. Thank you!

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#818 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Sep 06, 2020 7:09 pm

Rayon Vert wrote:
Sun Sep 06, 2020 6:18 pm
Good info. Thank you!
I'd give a link to my Facebook album with photos from the Open Air Architectural Museum, but as far as I can tell, such links no longer work even for FB friends.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#819 Post by Shrew » Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:25 pm

I suppose I ought to mount a defense of my orphans.

The Horse's Mouth (Ronald Neame, 1958) 32
Alec Guinness having fun, Prokofiev, shots fired at bourgeoise "artistic" tastes without getting too condescending. What more could you ask for? That the film manages to weave in heavier themes like art for the sake of art versus commerce and an artist's relationship to his subjects, spectators, and patrons without becoming too ponderous or deflating the comedy. I suppose that, like every film about a fictional artist, you might find that the paintings don't measure up to the "genius" title applied to the main character, but at least they're going for something and not playing safe. But really, it all comes down to how you view Guinness's irascible performance, and I love it.

Daybreak Express (D.A. Pennebaker, 1953) 33
A bonus feature on Criterion's release of The Horse's Mouth, but it's an accident that they're right next to each other on my list. It's easy enough to just film a cityscape passing by from a train window and get something compelling, but this film catches something special. I love the tactile feel of the morning sun on the film stock. I love the way a fish-eye lens distorts a block of buildings as they whiz by. I love the ending zoom to the red stop light breaking into a kaleidoscope of signs finally settling into a dull red glow that becomes the gate of the train station at daybreak. And Duke Ellington. This is five minutes of exuberance.

A Town of Love and Hope (Nagisa Oshima, 1959) 48
The poor son of shoeshiner supports his ailing mother and developmentally disabled sister by selling a pair of homing pigeons to rich families, which inevitably escape due to negligence and fly back to their home. His mother and a teacher are both determined to see the boy into high school, but he just wants to get factory job and earn money to support them. Meanwhile, the daughter of a corporate manager buys the pigeons and becomes determined to help the boy get a job. Not as formally inventive or transgressive as Oshima's later output, this is still a complex tale of poverty and pride, bias and noble (but useless) good intentions. So much of this film could easily fall into the sentimental and occasionally aims a bit too much for the poetic (the final fate of the pigeons, for example), but Oshima keeps bringing it back to cold, harsh reality. Weirdly, even though it was Imamura who once served as Ozu's assistant director, this feels more like a response to Ozu and expansion of some of his technique than Imamura's films. In particular, early on there are a lot of shots of smoke pluming from factories and ramshackle villages that seem like a parody of Ozu's "pillow shots." The film is less than 70 minutes long and on the Criterion Channel, so check it out.

Dreams (Ingmar Bergman, 1955) 49
I know this one is a long shot, but this was the film that really surprised me when going through the Bergman set. I voted for Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries higher up, and both Summer Interlude and Smiles of a Summer Night are more justified choices for a third Bergman. But after struggling through the rest of Bergman's 50s output, this struck me as an overlooked gem. The opening photo shoot is visually witty and arresting in a way that showcases Bergman's jump from the theatrical to the cinematic. And the relationships seem more mature, especially that between Dahlbeck's model agency owner and Harriet Andersson's model. The manages to keep up a lightness while bringing in some dark shading at the edges. But perhaps I was just eager to see a early Bergman film without everything devolving into "Oh woe is me, an arrogant tortured artist who can't help but abuse others."

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#820 Post by Red Screamer » Thu Sep 10, 2020 3:28 am

Red Screamer wrote:
Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:56 pm
One last profound insight from me: Catching up with The Girl Can't Help It last night, I realized that Tashlin uses the same joke to end it, Son of Paleface, and his brilliant cartoon Nasty Quacks from the previous decade. The man sure thought it was funny to have a lot of kids.
Not only does The Lady Said No, the creepy but visually delightful puppet animation on the Son of Paleface blu, also have the same ending joke, but in this iteration, it's portrayed as a horrific punishment for the overly adamant pursuit of the titular lady. What an odd signature to have as a studio filmmaker, especially for a man who only had one kid himself. And I haven't even seen Rock-A-Bye-Baby yet! Let's just be thankful his favorite cross-film gag wasn't about underage marriage...

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#821 Post by hearthesilence » Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:11 pm

Shrew wrote:
Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:25 pm
Daybreak Express (D.A. Pennebaker, 1953) 33
A bonus feature on Criterion's release of The Horse's Mouth, but it's an accident that they're right next to each other on my list. It's easy enough to just film a cityscape passing by from a train window and get something compelling, but this film catches something special. I love the tactile feel of the morning sun on the film stock. I love the way a fish-eye lens distorts a block of buildings as they whiz by. I love the ending zoom to the red stop light breaking into a kaleidoscope of signs finally settling into a dull red glow that becomes the gate of the train station at daybreak. And Duke Ellington. This is five minutes of exuberance.
Scorsese used a glimpse of this in No Direction Home which was the first time I saw any of it, and it was stunning to see. I think Pennebaker said that lens was custom made and he basically had to find a glass or lens manufacturer in the NY area who could create it to his specifications. It's quite remarkable how he designed so much of the groundbreaking equipment he used.

My favorite story about the Ellington song is how Pennebaker was accidentally given ownership of the song, and I think it was Evie who frantically tracked him down by phone over the next few days, finally getting in touch with him so he could bring back the contract and have a new one made. That aside, the whole process of licensing that song was so shockingly easy and simple compared to what happens now - he literally went knocking on Duke Ellington's door, told him what he needed, and I think Ellington just fished out or typed out a licensing contract on the spot and that was it.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#822 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 13, 2020 12:34 pm

Gideon’s Day (Ford 1958). (revisit) The terrific Indicator presentation allowed me to appreciate better the qualities of this film this time around. It’s very unambitious and as narrative it doesn’t add up to something profoundly satisfying, but at the same time there’s consistent charm in the mise-en-scène, the acting and the photography, strung together like a series of charming vignettes. Ford typically brings together the comic and dramatic, but here he definitely succeeds in creating a successful, consistent fusion that doesn’t pivot awkwardly from one end of the spectrum to the other like he can occasionally do (e.g. What Price Glory).


The Maggie (Mackendrick 1954).
(revisit) The comedy is very successful here, with one excellently scripted and directed situation after another within the greater comic frame that they’re set in. But it’s more than laughs – it’s an extremely well-polished film in terms of the characters and the acting, the photography, and just the right degree of pathos. A little gem.


Buchanan Rides Alone (Boetticher 1958). (revisit) This and the preceding Decision before Sundown are both Charles Lang scripts and they share similarities: both stories about Scott entering crooked towns, with the action centered more on the town, and the absence of a female relationship with the hero – indeed there’s almost no women at all to speak in this one. This one though, despite the violence, establishes a comparatively lighter-hearted feeling, with Scott’s character unburdened by a tragic backstory and more of an easygoing, straight-ahead winning hero. Definitely less emotional resonance here because of it, you could say almost none, but the film makes it up with a lot of plot twists and action. It’s entertaining overall but nevertheless uneven and a shot with less panache than usual in some places. Those scenes with the endearing character Pecos in the middle are probably the best. (The master used for the Indicator here is noticeably inferior-looking to the earlier films in the set, to the point that the image quality is a little distracting.)


The Last Hurrah
(Ford 1958).
(revisit) I’m still not completely won over by this one but my appreciation nevertheless increased substantially. I can have a lot of patience for Ford’s tendency towards a leisurely narrative style, but there seems to be something a little missing or a little too subdued here for the ambitious grandness that the films seems to be seeking. But it’s really solid in the performances, with Tracy really impressive here (standing out especially in a few notable fairly long takes), and the usual delights in watching the director’s craft.


Ivanhoe (Thorpe 1952). (1st viewing) Of the rapports between Saxons, Normans and Jews. Technically it fits the swashbuckler genre but it plays more like a rather strait-laced, completely serious adaptation of the Walter Scott novel. It’s a mixed bag: the script has its highs and lows, and the direction, whether it’s the acting, the battle sequences or the look of the thing, is competent but unremarkable. It’s the cast that’s the strongest element – Robert Taylor is as could be expected the weaker point as the titular hero, but he’s surrounded by Joan Fontaine, Elizabeth Taylor and George Sanders, with the latter also as usual the best, although Liz Taylor can look like an angel here again. But in the end they’re not enough to quite make this a complete winner. Some points for the rousing and vigorous way the jousting tournament is handled.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#823 Post by senseabove » Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:35 am

In a Lonely Place (Ray, 1950) I'll start by saying that this is an absolute masterpiece of adaptation, a radical deviation from its source whose deviations are inspired and faithful in the concessions they make for a new medium. I cannot recommend Hughes' book enough—go order it yesterday—and the movie is a marvel of a heart transplant, putting Hughes' cross-examination-by-interior-monologue of a pathological masculine violence into an almost classical tragedy whose characters behave exactly as they must, because there is no other way for them to: "Yesterday this would've meant so much to us; now it doesn't matter... It doesn't matter at all." The perversity of Hughes' book is that, from the start, we know Steele is guilty and we are locked from beginning to end inside his guilt; the movie's is that it doesn't really matter whether Steele killed that girl, he's guilty before and after the fact, regardless of the fact. And so the movie, unable to have a guilty leading man, drops the book's counter-investigatory cat-and-mousing. The scene is set by Dix's cross examination, the possibility of his guilt is stunted by a cursory signal that the cops are quietly investigating the dead girl's boyfriend while feigning to Steele that they wouldn't suspect such a standup guy in the least, and shortly after, Dix is going to dinner at his old war buddy the detective's house and having a picnic on the beach with him and his wife.

That relationship, and how it is reflected in every other relationship, is the movie's concern. And while it might've meant so much yesterday, tomorrow they'd be in the same place, unable to ignore the mistrust and rage and doubt and fear that have become major or minor wobbles in each character's orbit around the others. The noir-ness comes not from the murder or the cops or the parfum de femme fatale that lingers when Graehme first passes Bogart on the courtyard path and dissipates by the time she's opening the window on Dix's snooping agent, but from a man fighting against his murderous, ostensible fate, with the wind of someone else's hope at his back, and a bitterly code-satisfying ending confessing that, in this case, it's futile. Steele didn't kill Atkinson, but he's going to, next time. Everyone knows it: the audience, Brub, Sylvia, Laurel, Dix, the folks who read the book before or after. After all, he almost killed... What Hughes does brilliantly is show how pervasive misogyny is, how scantly-buried it needs to be for us to not see it, and how helpless we are to uncover and confront it; what Ray does brilliantly is show us how we want to brush past this man's misdirected rage, and that we don't know how to, even if we want to help him. (There's a whole lot more to say at this point about exploitation and manipulation, the significance of reseting the story in Hollywood, Dix's shift from pulp writer to screenwriter, etc., but not tonight...) If its earnest sop to Hollywood is that something beautiful can come of something terrifying—"a girl was killed, and because of that I found what I was looking for"—its bleary-eyed truth is that even when you have the desire to, even when you have reason to, it could be impossibly hard to change who you've become, and it is impossibly hard to will away what you see in someone.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#824 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:16 pm

Ride Lonesome (Boetticher 1959). (revisit) With Burt Kennedy back as the screenwriter, the series returns to the defining features of the first two films, including a more elemental, out-of-town setting (pretty much exclusively exteriors like The Tall T was), an ambiguous, near-sympathetic villain counterbalanced by the hero being at times more inflexible and harsh than anyone else, and of course the lady between them. I think the Lang-scripted films in the middle of the cycle have their charms, but they’re very different films; Ride Lonesome allows Boetticher to explore a natural setting that’s once again starker and more distinctive, where the visuals speak to the moral stakes, and allow the director opportunities to create potent compositions in this riding movie constantly on the move. The surprises at the end add a richness to the narrative, but this one’s already slightly different than its predecessors when we’re allowed earlier on to leave behind Brigade’s perspective and gain access empathically to the “villain” Boone’s very relatable and understandable situation and concerns. Another winner.


Sapphire (Dearden 1959). (1st viewing) Dearden was already addressing racism dead-on much earlier in the decade, but here the film more provocatively portrays it as present everywhere in British society. I can’t think offhand of another detective procedural movie where there are as many scenes of inspectors interviewing witnesses and doing the same repetitive work yet it somehow stays entertaining. It doesn’t hurt when you have such quality acting, and there are some nice dashes of jazzy style in the action sequences.


Crime Wave (De Toth 1954). (revisit)
therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Jan 28, 2020 10:03 pm
One of my favorite lean noirs thanks to expert direction of de Toth. The opening gas station holdup is one of the best opening scenes, perfectly constructed and edited together with the pretty music contrasting tones. The rest of the movie holds that momentum as a great potboiler that manages to hamper a blending with the didactic police procedural. Hayden does his hard-nosed shtick as a devoted policeman who thankfully doesn’t tilt the even balance with the strong tension on the criminal underworld side of things. Those details including the alcoholic doctor’s graverobbing antics and the stress on Lacey trying to stay clean despite ties that unpredictability keep pulling him back in are fleshed out with ample space despite the short runtime. I actually appreciate how this film goes to lengths to show, like Caged, the fatalism that exists because of, and is built by, the American systems and ideologies, which is very unAmerican in many respects, at least for the 50s! I don’t think this one often gets a lot of love, but I think it’s a great sleeper de Toth.
Well it’s getting a lot of love from me. This was on my rewatch list because I had a good memory of it but I was several degrees more impressed this time around. The fatalism point twbb rightly bring up gives it depth, but it starts with a smart, suspenseful script and honestly every scene feels perfectly executed here in this little gem. It’s tough but tender (nice bits like the realism of the girlfriend and how loving she is with Steve, Hessler with his dogs at the vet clinic) and it feels vital all the way through, with Fulleresque camerawork in some sequences. The way some cramped, apparently real rather than studio sets, like the police station, are shot in, with frequent long, twisting takes, gives it a proto-New Wave feel at times. Love all the actors, even the insane as usual Tim Carey (he and Hayden will be teamed up again a few years later for the Kubrick film).


Gunman’s Walk (1958). (1st viewing) I’ll add my voice to the choir here and very glad I went for the blu ray blind. Even with the praise on the board, I was surprised how strong this was. Given Frank Nugent is the screenwriter, though, maybe I shouldn’t have been. It’s all in the story and the screenplay for this one (and the performances of course, starting with Hunter, whose character is pretty scary - right from the get-go you sense the psychopath within him), Karlson didn’t have polishing to do on the gold that’s already here: the brilliant bit with the tragedy over the cliff, the drama between the brothers, the story between Davy and Clee, the patriarch’s dreams and illusions coming apart (I have to reveal a kind of sadistic pleasure on my part in seeing what happens to Heflin here, which I guess says something about the quality of his own performance here - from sympathetic father figure when his family and ego gets threatened a bigoted, law-dismissing tyrant is revealed underneath). The film surely makes my top 20 westerns. FWIF, when it comes to this list, this is battling with Forty Guns for a spot on mine - it’s going to come down to choosing narrative vs. style.


Suddenly, Last Summer (Mankiewicz 1959). (1st viewing) There’s something a little precious about elements of the play, especially that whole business about the circumstances of cousin Sebastian’s death, which limits its appeal for me, but the drama about the potential involuntary commitment of Catherine and its mystery is compelling enough, and it’s an artful adaptation. The feverish mise en scène for the ending, with all those tight close-ups, elevates the limits of the material, and the whole film benefits strongly by Taylor’s charismatic performance.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#825 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Sep 20, 2020 3:42 pm

Glad to see the love for Crime Wave, which very nearly made my list and may find a spot due to your prompt
Rayon Vert wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:16 pm
Gunman’s Walk (1958). ...the patriarch’s dreams and illusions coming apart (I have to reveal a kind of sadistic pleasure on my part in seeing what happens to Heflin here, which I guess says something about the quality of his own performance here - from sympathetic father figure when his family and ego gets threatened a bigoted, law-dismissing tyrant is revealed underneath)
I think that's a normal reaction from our objective point of view as the audience to his consequences of blind hypocrisy and manipulation of privilege, though I never saw him has a sympathetic father figure. Instead I find empathy in the broad relatable state of being blind to one's effects on others, which doesn't discount the harm he perpetuates but rather forces me to sit in a grey space that acknowledges how I unconsciously default to solipsism like everyone and fail to peripherally assess the moral ramifications in every instance of being. Heflin genuinely believes he's doing the best he can, and the 'right' thing according to his own code, which makes it all the more tragic. He's responsible but not directly accountable for all, and so instead of answering to an external judge, jury, and executioner, he does to an internal one of the self and God, imprisoned with guilt which is a far worse punishment than any impartial court could sanction. Whether he "deserves" it or not from our objective position feels to be besides the point, since that subjective self-assessment is what will haunt him forever.

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