1952 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1952.  My criteria is that I can only use films that are on the 1001 list. To make it a little easier on myself, I am using the rules of the first Academy Award and name a winner for Best Picture (won by Wings for 1927-1928) and Best and Unique and Artistic Picture (won by Sunrise from 1927-1928). 

This year is often noted as being the best year of the Classic Movie era. There are a lot of potential choices here, but my two winners seem pretty clear.

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
The Quiet Man
Forbidden Games
Angel Face
Singin' in the Rain
Ikiru
Europa '51
The Bad and the Beautiful
The Big Sky
High Noon
Umberto D
The Golden Coach

                  

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1952 is…Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain

This most famous of musicals is a pretty interesting piece to see after just seeing the recent Oscar-winning film The Artist cover similar terrain.

The plot of Singin' in the Rain involves two silent movie stars who have trouble adjusting to the new "talking" picture phenomenon. It's funniest moments involve either Jean Hagen and her grating voice or Gene Kelly's sidekick Donald O'Connor.

Kelly's mammoth Broadway Melody number is memorable,though his waterlogged rendition of the title song is such a part of movie lore it overshadows virutally everything else. However, I still am giving this the nod over worthwhile contenders The Bad and the Beautiful and High Noon.

Singin' in the Rain

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1952 is...Ikiru

Ikiru

Ikiru is a story that seems to look better the older you get. The plot involves a by-the-book office manager who finds out he has only a few months to live and decides to do something meaningful with his life. It doesn't sound all that exciting by the description, but it is in an emotionally charged and inspirational film if you are in the right mood for it. The unusual storytelling order with the last half of the movie being told in flashback is another effective touch.

Ikiru

1951 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1951.  My criteria is that I can only use films that are on the 1001 list. To make it a little easier on myself, I am using the rules of the first Academy Award and name a winner for Best Picture (won by Wings for 1927-1928) and Best and Unique and Artistic Picture (won by Sunrise from 1927-1928). 

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...

Ace in the Hole
A Streetcar Named Desire
Strangers on a Train
The Lavender Hill Mob
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
The African Queen
Diary of a Country Priest
An American in Paris
A Place in the Sun
The Day the Earth Stood Still

                    

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1951 is…A Place in the Sun

A Place in the Sun

One of the most famous dramas from the fifties, A Place in the Sun is based on Theodore Dreiser's early twentieth century novel, An American Tragedy. The plot involves poor, but ambitious George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), who works his way up the corporate ladder of his rich relatives business and gets involved with the loving, but simple Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). He later meets the beautiful Anglea Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) who he falls for right away. This creates a problem with the lingering presence of Alice, whose relationship with George is further complicated by the fact that she is in a family way...

It sounds like a bit of a soap opera when you try to recount the plot, but it really is a strong drama, with well-cast leads, a tragic story (as the original title indicates) and very solid directorial touches from George Stevens (who won the Academy Award for A Place in the Sun). In fact, the film won the most Academy Awards of any film released in 1951 (6), but lost out to An American in Paris for Best Picture.

A Place in the Sun

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1951 is...Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole is probably the most famous Billy Wilder film that I had never seen before starting this blog. It is the story of a little news story about a man trapped in a cave that gets blown up by an opportunistic reporter played by Kirk Douglas. And it is dark. And it is seedy. And it is a movie that is so bleak and has such a dearth of unsympathetic characters, I'm surprised that even a director as respected as Wilder got it made! The alternative title of the film was The Big Carnival, which is what the reporter turns this story into it.

Spike Lee commented that Wilder had a crystal ball peering into the future of modern day news coverage and how things are in today's media. It's easy to imagine the plot of this story being played out today each night on The Nancy Grace Show or on various Internet news outlets. Definitely not a feel good movie, but certainly a good if not great one.

Ace in the Hole

1950 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1950.  My criteria is that I can only use films that are on the 1001 list. To make it a little easier on myself, I am using the rules of the first Academy Award and name a winner for Best Picture (won by Wings for 1927-1928) and Best and Unique and Artistic Picture (won by Sunrise from 1927-1928). 

Some great ones to choose from this year.

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
Orpheus
The Ashphalt Jungle
Rashomon
Winchester '73
Rio Grande
All About Eve
Sunset Boulevard
Los Olvidados
In a Lonely Place

                    

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1950 is…Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard is the story of the over-the-hill movie the star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and her kept young man (William Holden) is part film noir, part Hollywood tell-all, part horror movie sprinkled with just a dash of camp. Wilder and Charles Brackett's screenplay is smart and sharp and the casting of the three leads (Erich Von Stoehim being the third) is perfect.

I admit that this film does make me think of the Carol Burnett skits that featured Burnett (as Norma) and Harvey Korman (as Max). Some may also think of Glenn Close's turn as Norma on Broadway in the musical version of the story. Or might make you think of a drag queen performing as Norma Desmond at a night club near you. 

Regardless, Sunset Boulevard in its original form is a must see for any movie buff.

The actual Academy winner All About Eve, The Asphalt Jungle and In a Lonely Place might have been my choice if they had come out in different years. Oh, well. 

Sunset Boulevard

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1950 is...Rashomon

Rashomon

After that first time I watched The Seven Samurai, I felt compelled to watch other Kurosawa movies and thought Rashomon was a good place to continue. Rashomon is a film whose very title has become a part of our language when a situation arises that involves competing and contradictory points of view. The presentation of this drama with its four (maybe five) stories really is food for thought about how we perceive things. If anyone asks me where to start with Kurosawa movies, I'd probably recommend Rashomon first before jumping into The Seven Samurai.

Rashomon

1949 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1949.  My criteria is that I can only use films that are on the 1001 list. To make it a little easier on myself, I am using the rules of the first Academy Award and name a winner for Best Picture (won by Wings for 1927-1928) and Best and Unique and Artistic Picture (won by Sunrise from 1927-1928). 

A little slim pickings for one of the top spots this year, though The Third Man was clearly going to get one of them.

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...

The Heiress
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Gun Crazy
Adam's Rib
Whiskey Galore
White Heat
The Reckless Moment
On the Town

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1949 is…Kind Hearts and Coronets

Kind Hearts and Coronets

These days, Kind Hearts and Coronets may be better known as the inspiration for the Broadway Tony winner Gentleman's Guide to Murder. The original is a very witty black comedy featuring a deadly but erudite leading man bent on revenge, two lovely ladies vying for his attention and Alec Guiness as several members of the Ascoyne family that seem to be prone to fatal mishaps.

Kind Hearts and Coronets

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1949 is...The Third Man

The Third Man

Director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene's The Third Man, is a film noir set in post WWII Vienna, where the black market is running amuck. I do wonder how a largely English film made the AMERICAN Film Institute top 100 list, whether deserving or not? David O'Selznick was one of the producers, and it does have American stars Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, so I guess that was enough. Regardless, this film should be seen no matter what list it pops up on. The score features nothing but a zither, which I thought was great. Opinions on the zither differ.

Favorite The Third Man quote:
Harry Lime: "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
or Holly Martins: "Hey, satchelfoot! Who's your boss?"

I don’t know why I like this second quote so much. It’s what Cotton says right before he finds out Harry Lime is still alive. If I am calling out to someone and don’t know who it is, I like to yell out, “Hey Satchelfoot, who’s your boss?” Don’t you? No? Well, lets move on then.

The Third Man