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TM2YC's 1001 Movies (Chronological up to page 25/post 481)

TM2YC

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63 years ago...

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Forbidden Planet (1956)
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Country: United States
Length: 98 minutes
Type: Sci-Fi

I'd watched the first half of the influential Sci-Fi film 'Forbidden Planet' before but never finished it until today. The debt owed by 'Star Trek: The Original Series' (and 'The Motion Picture') is indeed obvious, although the unusual electronic score is more like early Radiophonic Workshop Doctor Who. The costumes, designs and concepts all look very dated and naive now but the technical brilliance and precision of the Visual FX still hold up. Huge faultless matte paintings, impressively large sets, clever back projection and convincing animated elements really bring the alien planet alive. Like TOS, one of the elements that has not aged well are the sexist attitudes. It seemed like half the film was devoted to the crew creeping on the young girl Altaira, including a guy "teaching" her about kissing and our "hero" implying she would deserve what might happen to her if she didn't stop dressing sexily around his sex-starved crew. The story would have made a great 45-minute Star Trek episode but feels a bit too slow and padded at 98-minutes.


A film by Kon Ichikawa next.
 

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63 years ago...

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The Burmese Harp (1956)
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Country: Japan
Length: 116 minutes
Type: War, Drama

'The Burmese Harp' ('Biruma no Tategoto') takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Burma Campaign and Japan's surrender in 1945. We experience this era through the eyes of the noble Captain Inouye's unit, who boost their morale by singing and playing the titular harp. Private Mizushima is lost on a final desperate mission to try and persuade another suicidal Japanese unit to surrender. Inouye's troop find themselves in a POW camp, while Mizushima wonders Burma in the guise of a Buddhist Monk, burying the bodies of Japanese soldiers. There is something about the black & white photography, religious themes, emotional string music and shots of barbed wire camps that made me think of 'Schindler's List'. Other acclaimed films based on the Burma Campaign from the same period include 'A Town Like Alice' and 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' but 'The Burmese Harp' might be the most eloquent. The scene where Mizushima plays for his comrades one last time is so sad.


Kon Ichikawa remade his film in 1985 in color:


Another John Wayne Western next.
 

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63 years ago...

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The Searchers (1956)
Director: John Ford
Country: United States
Length: 119 minutes
Type: Western

Even on a second viewing it's surprising how far John Wayne and John Ford go with their anti-hero Ethan Edwards, he's an angry, bitter and prejudiced man. Their film simmers with sexual violence, racism and allusions to war atrocities so horrible that Ford won't permit us the audience, or any other character to see them (only making them worse in your mind), only Ethan can bear the cost. Wayne has a memorable catchphrase "That'll be the day", when delivered in his trademark slow drawl, it's half joke, half threat. The posse of the title ride off to track a Comanche raiding party who have massacred their loved ones and abducted 8-year-old Debbie. The pursuit across the years takes a toll, physical and emotional. The Monument Valley location photography looks spectacular and ageless, so it's a shame Ford occasionally resorts to phony studio inserts, for no obvious reason. On my first viewing I hadn't twigged the subtle suggestion that Ethan is secretly Debbie's father, implied by the 8-years of her life and of his absence, the looks he gives his brother's wife and the exultant way he holds Debbie up at the end. 'The Searchers' is a classy Western, full of rich characters and powerful drama. The AFI placed it at No.12 on their official top 100 American movies list (one above 'Star Wars').



A Robert Bresson prison film next.
 

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62 years ago...

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A Man Escaped (1956)
Director: Robert Bresson
Country: France
Length: 99 minutes
Type: Drama, Prison-Break

This would make a perfect minimalist French prison-break double-bill with 1960's 'The Hole'. Director Robert Bresson based the film very closely on the escape of French Resistance member André Devigny from the Gestapo controlled Montluc prison. His camera never leaves the side of the protagonist 'Lieutenant Fontaine' (played beautifully by François Leterrier, father of Hollywood action Director Louis Leterrier) and rarely takes us outside the blank walls of his cell. A constant monologue takes us into Fontaine's hopes and fears. Watching the patient way he files down spoons, twists ropes, bends hooks and loosens panels across months makes for intensely compelling viewing.


A Douglas Sirk film next.
 

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63 years ago...

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Written on the Wind (1956)
Director: Douglas Sirk
Country: United States
Length: 99 minutes
Type: Drama

'Written on the Wind' was is too melodramatic for my tastes. The story centers on an elderly Texas oil baron's two self-destructive offspring and two other "normal" characters in a love quadrangle. Robert Stack is the weak and alcoholic son, Lauren Bacall is his understanding and loyal wife, Rock Hudson is his friend and protector and Dorothy Malone is Stack's vindictive tramp sister. Stack pitches his performance at near hysteria, where as Hudson's stiff acting is down the other end of the register. It passed the time well enough I suppose.


Another Alfred Hitchcock thriller next.
 

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63 years ago...

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The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: United States
Length: 120 minutes
Type: Thriller

James Stewart is the man of the title, once again an unwitting and innocent participant in an international spy plot. Although Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 version of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' (remaking his own 1934 film) is a very entertaining thriller, it's not one of his greatest, or most distinctive works. It does have some memorable meta touches, such as casting the composer of the score Bernard Herrmann, as himself conducting a concert at the (actual) Royal Albert Hall performing the finale music from the 1934 film, during the finale of this film! Also Doris Day is cast as a popular singer performing 'Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)' which was written for the film and is now ubiquitous. All the strands of the mystery plot tie up in a really neat bow at the end.


James Dean's last film next.
 

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63 years ago...

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Giant (1956)
Director: George Stevens
Country: United States
Length: 201 minutes
Type: Epic, Western, Drama

You get 'Gone with the Wind' straight away, 'Giant' has a similarly epic 3.5hr runtime, it follows the fortunes of another American family across generations and changing times as they try to maintain their cattle-ranch "Reata" in Texas (instead of "Tara", a plantation in Georgia), it centers on the turbulent relationship of a determined woman and racial intolerance is a central theme. The difference with 'Giant' is that the characters are actually likeable (despite serious flaws) and the social commentary is surprisingly modern. It's got a lot to say about racism towards Mexican border immigrants, female empowerment and the wealthy class corrupting politics to play very well in 2019. The stubborn Texan rancher Bick Benedict is a perfect role for the stern Rock Hudson, he didn't impress me in 'Written on the Wind' but he is magnificent here. The most epic thing about the film is perhaps Hudson's big fist-fight at the end, I was cheering him on as he fights for his very soul. James Dean plays the antagonist Jett Rink (although the character is also very sympathetic), an alcoholic young oil-baron, intent on proving he is better than the Benedicts. Sadly Dean died in a car accident during post-production, so a few of his lines had to be dubbed by someone else but you can't tell.


This is one hell of a fist fight! The way it's shot and edited makes you feel like you're in the middle of it (set to "The Yellow Rose Of Texas") :


Another Rock Hudson film next... 1956 was his year!
 

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TM2YC said:
63 years ago...

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Giant (1956)
Director: George Stevens
Country: United States
Length: 201 minutes
Type: Epic, Western, Drama

Agree.  Absolutely fantastic soapy epic drama.  Love it!!!
 

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bionicbob said:
TM2YC said:
Giant (1956)

Agree.  Absolutely fantastic soapy epic drama.  Love it!!!

I've been whistling 'The Yellow Rose Of Texas' to myself at work all day :D  and watched another Rock Hudson film this evening...

64 years ago...

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All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Director: Douglas Sirk
Country: United States
Length: 89 minutes
Type: Melodrama, Romance

I struggled to get onboard with this story of two single 30-somethings causing a social scandal simply because Rock Hudson is a few years younger than widow Jane Wyman. Maybe in 1956 this was a huge earth-shattering taboo but in 2019 it's difficult to get your head round what the problem is? If her circle of c**ty middle-class friends and her selfish grown-up kids didn't like it, so what? The colour lighting is pretty astonishing, a studio controlled fantasy world of cold electric blues, confronting fiery reds across golden autumnal scenes (echoing the emotions of the characters). Sometimes this atmosphere strikes a powerful romantic mood but sometimes it comes off as schmaltzy and sentimental. Using a Bambi-like dear frolicking in the snow to represent love is too much.



A Don Siegel film next.
 

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Director: Don Siegel
Country: United States
Length: 80 minutes
Type: Sci-Fi, Horror

Watching late at night, half a century later, 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' still has the power to make your skin crawl. There is something really unsettling about the idea of aliens imitating our friends and family almost perfectly. It's that "almost" that gives it the "uncanny valley" feel.  Star Kevin McCarthy brilliantly takes his character from stereotypical mild-mannered 50s stiff, to wild-eyed paranoid lunatic, without us seeing the join. The practical creature FX hold up pretty well. The ending felt like a slight cop-out after the nihilistic tone of the rest of the film.


Another Hitchcock film next.
 

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62 years ago...

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The Wrong Man (1956)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: United States
Length: 105 minutes
Type: Drama

'The Wrong Man' isn't up there with Alfred Hitchcock's best but the fact that it's based closely on a recent real-life case makes it almost unique in his filmography. Hitchcock still goes for the thriller angle, really getting across the horror, bewilderment and out-of-body feeling of being accused, arrested and charged with crimes you didn't commit and yet the police find witnesses testifying against you. Henry Fonda superbly plays Manny the accused man with a sweet innocent nature and then haunted despair. Vera Miles isn't all that convincing as his hysterical wife and Bernard Herrmann's score is unremarkable compared to his other scores for Hitch. That all of Manny's problems in the film are shown to be created by "woolly minded" irrational women and then all solved by "cool headed" rational men looks a little sexist to modern eyes. The police (who were of course all male in the 50s) get off very lightly but maybe critiquing trusted institutions wasn't gonna fly in 1956 Hollywood? Nevertheless, it's an interesting case-study of the unreliability of eye witnesses and the dangers of presuming guilt.


Another Nicholas Ray film next.
 

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Bigger Than Life (1956)
Director: Nicholas Ray
Country: United States
Length: 95 minutes
Type: Drama

James Mason plays a self-confessed rather "boring" father and teacher who is prescribed powerful new Steroids but begins abusing them, leading to mood swings and paranoia. His tirade at the school parent's evening has fascistic undertones and he ultimately turns psychotic. The authority with which Mason states "God was wrong!" when reading from the Bible is scary. I'm sure the kind of extreme behaviors depicted are all possible given enough time and enough prolonged abuse but when you condense it all into a few days/weeks in a 95-minute movie it becomes a bit melodramatic. The descent is conveyed superbly by Director Nicholas Ray through the use of colour, sound, lighting and framing. Considering all the news coverage in recent years about prescription drug misuse, 'Bigger Than Life' is a film that still has something to say.


A Bing Crosby film next.
 

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High Society (1956)
Director: Charles Walters
Country: United States
Length: 111 minutes
Type: Musical, Romantic-Comedy

This Musical remake of 1940's 'The Philadelphia Story' doesn't reach the same heights but it gets close. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra make winning replacements for Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart (in that order). The zippy, acid-tongued banter is still there, so I found the adequate songs to be a distraction to the flow of that dialogue. Louis Armstrong and his Band (playing themselves) add a touch of class to the music.  This was Kelly's last film before she retired to be "Princess Grace of Monaco" and can be seen wearing her $4-million engagement ring in the film.


Next up, Cecil B. DeMille's magnificent octopus.
 

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The Ten Commandments (1956)
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Country: United States
Length: 220 minutes
Type: Biblical Epic

There is something so right about the combination of a Sunday afternoon and a good old fashioned 3-4 hour Epic. I'd seen Cecil B. DeMille's adaptation of the Moses biblical story once on TV when I was very little but this was the first time seeing it in it's stunning 6K restoration. With an Overture, a lecture from DeMille about the rigorous historical research behind the film (just so it's clear that this story of magic snakes, talking bushes and parting seas definitely really happened ;) ) and then an opening title sequence... the film doesn't even start for 8-9 minutes. Whether you believe the story or not, it can still be enjoyed in the same way one enjoys seeing Gandalf face down the Balrog in 'Lord of the Rings', Yoda lifting the X-Wing in 'The Empire Strikes Back', Neo rescuing Morpheus in 'The Matrix', or Muad'Dib summoning rain in David Lynch's 'Dune'. Charlton Heston with his big grey beard and long staff (possibly the model for the staff Sir Ian McKellan carries) looks every inch the Tolkien wizard and he wraps himself in a bright red cloak that is just missing a big yellow "S".

The vast crowd scenes are impressive, the sets are so large the mind boggles, the rear-projection shots look perfect but the green-screen compositing is obvious. It's like they were trying to make the matte lines look as big as possible but the shots are composed like bold classical paintings so the unreality almost doesn't matter. Yul Brynner looks like a bronzed athletic god of a man, making his role as the god-like Pharaoh of Egypt very believable. The film all builds towards the big FX sequence where Moses parts the Red Sea. After that there is an anti-climactic and silly post-script where Moses leaves his people for what feels like 15-minutes to go off and get the Ten Commandments and they all suddenly forget the miracles they've just witnessed and begin worshiping golden idols and partying like it's 1999 BC. It's mostly a mistake of trying to condense too much myth into too little time but it's the one flaw in this total classic. Now I've got an itch to watch Paramount's own belated sequel 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' :D  (John Williams and Steven Spielberg were clearly paying homage with their film).


^ This 1989 re-issue trailer is amazing "There was a time when the Cinema was a place of spectacle and wonder..." (it uses a similar technique to the 1997 Star Wars SE trailer).

A Sidney Lumet film next.

The Ten Commandments (1923)
Cecil B. DeMille's first silent run at the Moses story was included on a bonus blu-ray with his 1956 version, so I gave that a watch too. The first half follows the same basic structure but the other half is set in the then present day, following the trials and tribulations of a family who don't follow the commandments. The elderly, confused looking Theodore Roberts doesn't have the vigor and stature of Charlton Heston in the Moses role. Redundant verbatim quotes from the Bible are used in instead of the usual illustrative and important inter-titles. The present day stuff is pretty melodramatic but there is some good acting in there. Some of the FX, like the words of God appearing out of the sky still look great, some of them like the parting of the waves (done with wobbly jelly) is less impressive. It's interesting to see the two versions back-to-back but otherwise I probably wouldn't bother with this one.


The Ten Commandments: Making Miracles (2011)
A feature doc about Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 biblical epic, included on the 3x blu-ray set. Most of the behind the scenes photos and stuff is in lovely HD and they get interviews with the sons and daughters of the key players, who dish out plenty of anecdotes. I didn't know that DeMille had a heart-attack during the location shoot but carried on anyway, despite his Doctor predicting it would kill him.

 

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62 years ago...

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12 Angry Men (1957)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Country: United States
Length: 96 minutes
Type: Courtroom Drama

The men of the title are a jury deciding the fate of a troubled kid accused of the murder of his father. 11 of the men are confident he's guilty and eager to swiftly get out of the sweltering heat of the jury chamber but one man (Henry Fonda) has nagging doubts about the evidence and refuses to condemn the boy so quickly. Across 96-minutes the case is built up, examined and taken apart, revealing each man's own attitudes and prejudices. Everything takes place in one small room, so Director Sidney Lumet uses every angle, lens and composition to keep it fresh and build intensity. Despite all those efforts, it always feels like it's a stage play... albeit one of the best written and best acted stage plays you'll ever see.


Ingmar Bergman's most iconic film next.
 

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62 years ago...

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The Seventh Seal (1957)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Country: Sweden
Length: 96 minutes
Type: Historical, Drama, Fantasy

I'm sure everybody is familiar with the iconic image of the Knight playing chess with Death but that's only the opening of Ingmar Bergman's film. Most of the film follows Max von Sydow's returning Crusader Knight and his nihilistic squire as they ride across medieval Sweden in the grip of the Black Death and religious hysteria, encountering various strange people in a series of vignettes. 'The Seventh Seal' has been heavily homaged and parodied over the years in things like 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey', 'The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey' and 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and I suspect the doom-laded atmosphere and decayed look of this film has shaped the way we picture the Dark Ages in our collective imaginations ever since. I felt the influence of Orson Welles' 1951 version of 'Othello' in the shot compositions.


Scott Walker put the film's script to music on a track from his 4th solo album which I've been listening to for years, so it was nice to finally see where it came from (a youtube editor has handily combined the two):


Yet another Cary Grant classic net.
 

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62 years ago...

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An Affair To Remember (1957)
Director: Leo McCarey
Country: United States
Length: 115 minutes
Type: Romance

I love Cary Grant, I love Deborah Kerr and I love Director Leo McCarey, so I love this right...? Well not particularly no. Nicolò and Terry fall in love aboard a transatlantic liner and for some reason they make a pact to meet again in 6-months at the top of the Empire State Building. Naturally fate intervenes and the meeting doesn't happen because Terry gets hit by a car on the way to the rendezvous. Then for some reason neither of them are able to find the other, despite Nicolò being an international celebrity who is recognised everywhere and Terry being a famous singer. After the accident Terry has difficulty walking but I found it difficult to accept that she thought being physically disabled was so shameful that she could never see Nicolò again (even in 1957). It all feels pretty contrived. The scene where Nicolò and Terry exchange silent glances while his grandmother plays the film's romance theme on piano is really lovely though.


Another Ingmar Bergman film next.
 

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62 years ago...

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Wild Strawberries (1957)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Country: Sweden
Length: 91 minutes
Type: Drama

'Wild Strawberries' ('Smultronstallet') follows the elderly Professor Borg on a road trip with his pregnant daughter in law, who doesn't much care for him. Pioneering Swedish Silent-Film Director Victor Sjostrom plays the lead, his last work before he died in 1960. Along the way Borg encounters places and people that remind him of events from his past and through them he re-evaluates his life. Ingmar Bergman skillfully weaves backwards and forwards in place and time through deceptively simple tricks of editing, lighting, sound and camera placement. The characters start off cold and distant, like one might expect of a Bergman piece but he reveals them as warm and sympathetic people as the film goes on. I wish I spoke Swedish (and didn't have to read the subtitles) because I felt I was missing part of the dream-state experience by not be able to give the compositions, landscapes and faces my undivided attention.



Another Fellini/Masina film next.
 

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62 years ago...

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Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Director: Federico Fellini
Country: Italy
Length: 118 minutes
Type: Drama

Federico Fellini's 'Nights of Cabiria' ('Le notti di Cabiria') once again stars his wife Giulietta Masina playing Cabiria a brash, combative, lower-class prostitute in Rome. You love her when she is hurling abuse at friend and foe, furiously gesticulating with her arms in that distinctly Italian way, then you love her even more when you see she is really a gentle, lovelorn spirit under all that bravado. The story is bookended with her being betrayed by men she has allowed herself to trust and love and various encounters in-between with washed up film stars, hypnotists, samaritans and priests. The ending "parade" scene is an intoxicating mix of sadness and joy.



Another Kurosawa Samurai film next.
 

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63 years ago...

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Throne of Blood (1957)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Country: Japan
Length: 110 minutes
Type: Samurai

'Throne of Blood' (or the original title: 'Kumonosu-Jo' = 'Spider Web Castle') shifts the setting of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan. The dialogue is all different, the characters are renamed and some small changes are made to better fit a different society but mostly it's a faithful, scene-by-scene adaptation of the play. The mist strewn photography shot around Mount Fuji really captures the gothic gloom of 'Macbeth'. I wasn't a big fan of the stylized Noh-theatre acting that Kurosawa went for. The final sequence in which skilled archers shot hundreds of arrows inches from (and in to) actor Toshiro Mifune is something to see.



A Jack Arnold Sci-Fi film next.
 
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