AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956)

THE FINAL FOUR BEST PICTURE WINNERS

THAT I HAVE (SORT OF) NEVER SEEN BEFORE

#3 Around the World in 80 Days

 David Niven and Cantinflas prepare to go

Around the World in 80 Days

"Imagine this-and being married to Liz (Taylor), too!"-Mike Todd, after Around the World in 80 Days wins Best Picture-Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona

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I said in the heading "Sort of" never seen before because I'm sure I saw at least chunks of it on television as a kid as it was a regular staple of something you could show on the tube at any hour that would have kid appeal and be okay for the grownups to tune in. I have previously seen the similar film Five Weeks in a Balloon and star Cantinflas's follow-up Pepe in full.

Well, Around the World in 80 Days is big. It's expansive. It travels all around the world. It's got a ton of extras. It's even got a ton of animal extras. David Niven is snootily charming as Phileas Fogg. Mexican comic legend Cantinflas is also on hand as Fogg's sidekick, Passeportout. There's action, adventure and many star cameos. There's also great closing credit sequence from the legendary Saul Bass. The Victor Young score is good. And don't forget the film comes form the literary pedigree of Jules Verne!

That's a lot of positives. Despite all that, I can't say I found Around the World in 80 Days overly riveting. It's amusing in part (Thanks mostly to Cantiflas) but not the most hilarious comedy of the era. It certainly seems in retrospect that Giant probably should have won Best Picture for 1956. The picture that has had the most staying power from the below nominee list is the perennially shown The Ten Commandments. The beloved (by some) The King and I also seems to have stood the test of time more than Around the World in 80 Days.

Michael Todd: You can't mention this film without mentioning the ambitious producer of the whole thing, Michael Todd. After great successes in other mediums, this was his first (and only) film and it was a big hit and, of course won the Oscar. Todd's career ended in a plane crash in 1958. It would have been interesting to see what ambitious film projects would have come after this one if he had lived.

Cameos: Todd is also credited with coining the phrase "cameo" to denote a star in a brief role. There are many in Around the World in 80 Days, from Frank Sinatra to Marlene Dietrich to John Carradine. If you get bogged down in the plot, you can always play the spot the celebrity bit-player game. "Look, honey. Isn't that Jack Oakie?"

Which Indians come off worse? During Fogg and Passepartout's journey to India, they come across a princess (played by a young Shirley Macclaine) about to be burned alive after her husband dies. She is saved from death from these heathens by the resourceful Passeportout. Later, in the United States, the crew are travelling by train and get attacked by another kind of Indian. The kind with bows and arrows! They kidnap Passeportout and try to burn him at the stake! He is of course rescued. The Indians (dots) at least had a reason for burning the princess (although a pretty bad one). The Indian's (feathers) motivations seem to be to just supply an excuse for an action sequence.

Can someone please find me a Frenchman? In the book by Jules Verne, Passepartout is a French valet.

In this version, he is played by the Mexican Cantinflas

In the 1989 television version, he is played by Englishman Eric Idle

In the 2004 feature film, he is played by Jackie Chan, who I'm pretty sure also isn't French.

1956 Best Picture Nominees

Around the World in 80 Days

Giant

Friendly Persuasion

The King and I

The Ten Commandments

Around the World in 80 Days' Michael Anderson lost out on Best Director to George Stevens of Giant

Neither Niven nor Cantinflas was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Around the World in 80 Days

Yul Brynner won Best Actor for The King and I

Cantinflas was given The Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical Golden Globe Award.

James Poe, John Farrow and S. J. Perlman won Best Adapted Screenplay for Around the World in 80 Days

Victor Young won for Best Musical Score for Around the World in 80 Days

This was Young's first Oscar after being nominated a previous twenty-one times. He died the year he won the award, which was given posthumously. 

The film also won for Best Color Cinematography and Best Film Editing

David Niven with Buster Keaton,

One of the many "cameos" in

Around the World in 80 Days

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952)

THE FINAL FOUR BEST PICTURE WINNERS
THAT I HAVE (ALMOST) NEVER SEEN BEFORE
#4 The Greatest Show on Earth

Charlton Heston and James Stewart in
The Greatest Show on Earth

"To Everyone's astonishment (including presenter Mary Pickford), the winner was The Greatest Show on Earth. Back in New York, the audience at the Century could not even applaud and a voice asked, "Who decides these things, anyway?"-Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona

"I thought High Noon or The Quiet Man would get it," Cecil B. DeMille said backstage.

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I had to qualify the never seen before tag on this one, as I did see it on TV in the late 70's, so I may have to change the heading on this to "Haven't seen in the last forty years."

Anyway,  The Greatest Show on Earth isn't really a choice that has aged well. DeMille was right, High Noon or The Quiet Man (or Singin' in the Rain) would have been better choices. I think at the time the Academy was trying to give an award to a film directed by DeMille, probably the greatest living filmmaking pioneer at the time. The movie itself is a big color extravaganza of the circus featuring an all-star cast (Yes, Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde were major stars at one time) that reminds me a little bit of 1970's disaster films in having the name cast in a somewhat soapy melodrama, though we aren't waiting to see who will die or not like in those films. That being said, the film does end with a massive train wreck of the Barnum and Bailey circus train that was pretty spectacular for the time, but doesn't particularly date that well either, though I still kind of like the train scene, anyway.

Worth seeing, though I'd argue with you if you call this the Best Picture of the Year.

Star that comes off best: Easily the best story under the big top is Jimmy Stewart as a clown named Buttons that is secretly an on the lamb doctor accused of murder. He wears his make-up throughout the film. I honesty wish the film had been centered more around his character.

Star that comes off the worst: Dorothy Lamour. Not that she is particularly bad, but the film gives her very little to do. She just pops up every twenty minutes or so to remind us that Dorothy Lamour is indeed in this picture!

Rising star: Demille cast Charlton Heston as the head of the circus in what was easily his biggest role to date. Demille and Heston would team up a few years later to in what was possibly the most iconic film for both of them, The Ten Commandments.

1952 Best Picture Nominees:

The Greatest Show on Earth

High Noon

Ivanhoe

Moulin Rouge

The Quiet Man

John Ford did win Best Director for The Quiet Man over Demille.

The Greatest Show on Earth's elaborate costume design by Edith Head lost out on that award to Moulin Rogue. Ms. Head  did win the costume design award eight other years.

The Greatest Show on Earth's only other Oscar went to Frederic Frank, Theodore St. John and Frank Cavett for their screenplay.

Cornel Wilde, Betty Hutton and Charlton Heston

under the big top

in The Greatest Show on Earth

WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954), BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

White Christmas

Today's Christmas double feature: White Christmas (1954) and Black Christmas (1974)!

Black Christmas

The plots: White Christmas features Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as musical performers who romance Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in snowless Vermont.

Black Christmas has a killer going around killing college girls in a sorority house.

Popularity: The lighthearted White Christmas was the biggest movie hit of 1954. It has shown up perennially on TV in subsequent years.

The not-so lighthearted Black Christmas was a minor hit in 1974 and has gained a cult following since.

The Directors: Despite the popularity of White Christmas, it is not considered to be one of director Michael Curtiz's great films. Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce and (especially) Casablanca fill that void.

Black Christmas director Bob Clark is remembered more these days as the director of another Christmas classic, A Christmas Story.

The leading man: White Christmas's leading man Bing Crosby was probably the most popular man in movies during the 40's and into the 50's. He didn't do too badly with records either. He had a laid back and likable style (at least on-screen) that was very appealing. Gary Giddens is writing a biography series on Crosby that has so far stretched to two volumes. I've read the first, A Pocketful of Dreams -The Early Years, 1903-1940 and it is recommended for those who like lots of details about early sound musicals and the record industry during that time.

Black Christmas's leading man Keir Dullea is best know to cinefiles as Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where he plays the laconic astronaut, Dave Bowman. He shows some surprising versatility in Black Christmas by playing a temperamental artist. He also looks quite different with long hair (A little Marc Singer in The Beastmaster, maybe?).

The leading lady: I suppose you'd call Rosemary Clooney (Betty Haynes) the leading lady of White Christmas, though I find myself more of a Vera-Ellen (Judy Haynes) man.

Lovely Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet) is the leading lady here and I guess you could call her one of the first "lady in distress running from a killer" roles that would be featured in many films during the subsequent decades.

Character actor alert: Ubiquitous character actor Dean Jagger plays the retired general who Bing and the gang are putting on a show for in White Christmas. Dean's hundreds of movies and TV credits include: Bad Day at Black Rock, The Robe and the "Static" episode of The Twilight Zone. He won a supporting actor Oscar for Twelve O'Clock High. He appeared with Bruce Lee in the 1978 film Game of Death.

Ubiquitous character actor John Saxon plays the detective searching for the killer in Black Christmas. He appeared in way too many movies and TV shows to name, but seemed to appear in a lot of horror and science fiction: Blood Beach, Planet Earth, Nightmare on Elm Street, Battle Beyond the Stars, etc. Saxon was also a martial arts expert and co-starred with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. (Okay, I was not expecting to find a Bruce Lee connection between Dean Jagger and John Saxon, but there you have it!)

Scenes that made me think of the actor's real life: Danny Kaye is featured in a number in White Christmas called The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing. He sing-talks part of the song in a proper English accent which made me think of Laurence Olivier, who Kaye had a long-standing affair with.

In Black Christmas, the kind of wild sorority girl with the fresh mouth is played by a pre-Lois Lane Margot Kidder. It made me think of the party girl Kidder I read about in the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.

The mind wanders: The Vermont Inn setting in White Christmas made me think of the show Newhart. The sorority/fraternity setting in Black Christmas made me think of Animal House.

It's interesting that: There is a lot more snow in Black Christmas than White Christmas.

It's interesting that: (musical number). The only Christmas Carol we hear in Black Christmas is performed in the foreground while a murder is going on at the same time. Bing sings a number in White Christmas called What Can You Do With a General? that is the only song I can think of that is about enlisted men singing about how hard generals have it (at least not ironically!).

Tensest moment: At the end of Black Christmas when the killer is chasing Olivia Hussey you ask, "She's going to get away, isn't she?" (She does). At the beginning of the musical number, I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show, you ask "They aren't going to put on blackface, are they?" (They don't).

Telephone issues that we wouldn't have today: Busybody Mary Wickes overhears part of a phone conversation (by getting on the extension) that Bing Crosby is on that leads to a rift between Bing and Rosemary Clooney. The phone issue in Black Christmas is in the constant attempt to get a tracer on the line for the caller that keeps threatening Olivia Hussey.

Questionable plot points: White Christmas has a lot of them, which you are supposed to ignore because this is a lighthearted musical, but when Rosemary Clooney leaves Bing Crosby at the Inn in Vermont for New York and seems to have an elaborate stage show set up there virtually overnight for her to star in only to return with Bing to perform in time for Christmas...it strains credulity even in context...best to not think of it too much.

Black Christmas-When you know there is a series of murders occurring and people keep coming up missing, you might want to search the attic in the sorority house since you're investigating the crime and you're already in the damn house! There might be a dead body or two up there and they've probably been up there almost the whole movie!

Miscellaneous trivia: Black Christmas has been remade twice, including a version released this month! If you're ever at trivia night and you are asked what movie did Bing Crosby first sing White Christmas, the answer is Holiday Inn (1942).

Poster art: I've always really liked the poster for Black Christmas with the tagline, "If this picture doesn't make your skin crawl, it's on to tight!"

The White Christmas poster points out that this film is in VistaVistion, a wide screen experience you can't get on your little black and white 1954 TV!

Merry Christmas!

THE RAPTURE (1991), ORDET (1955, DENMARK)

“There are two lives, the natural and the spiritual, and we must lose the one before we can participate in the other.” 
― William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

Sharon (Mimi Rogers) explores the hedonistic side of life
with her buddy Vic in The Rapture

A hedonistic young woman named Sharon (Mimi Rogers) explores the decadent nightlife of swinging with her friend Vic (Patrick Bauchau). However, something important is brewing in the world! People are having dreams about the pearl! The rapture and the whole four horseman of the apocalypse are coming! Repent, sinner!

Sharon eventually finds Jesus, marries David Duchovny and has a daughter. A few years later, her husband is murdered. After that, she gets visions from God to go into the desert with her daughter. When God doesn't come, she kills her daughter so her offspring will ascend to heaven. She is grief stricken with what she has done, but guess what? The rapture really is coming! The horsemen are here and God only wants you to accept him and your ticket to heaven is stamped. But guess what? Sharon won't forgive God for what he pushed her to do to her daughter and the film finishes with her stuck in limbo "forever."

I can understand why The Rapture may have limited appeal. Christian viewers may be prone to reject it because Sharon ultimately rejects God. Secular viewers may find a literal Four Horseman of the Apocalypse coming as trite. I think the movie has balls in that it doesn't try to conform to anyone's expectations.

This is the third time I've seen this movie and it seems to come on my radar every ten years. I'll probably keep watching it about every ten years until I get raptured myself.

Sharon searches for God in the desert
in The Rapture

I have no basis whatever for my belief in God other than a passionate longing that God exist and that I and others will not cease to exist. Because I believe with my heart that God upholds all things, it follows that I believe that my leap of faith, in a way beyond my comprehension, is God outside of me asking and wanting me to believe, and God within me responding.
-Martin Gardner, Whys of A Philosophical Scrivener

 Johannes, the mad brother
in Ordet

Quote from the novel “Invisible” by Paul Auster.

If not for the end, Ordet would not have effected you any more than any other good film you’ve seen over the years. It is the end that counts, for in the end does something to you that is totally unexpected. And it crashes into you with all the force of an ax felling an oak.

The farmwoman who has died in childbirth is stretched out in an open coffin as her weeping husband sits beside her. The mad brother, who thinks he is the second coming of Christ, walks into the room holding the hand of the couple’s young daughter. As the small group of mourning relatives and friends looks on, wondering what blasphemy or sacrilege is being committed at this solemn moment, the would be incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth addresses the dead woman in a calm and quiet voice. “Rise up.” He commands her. “Lift yourself out of your coffin and return to the world of the living. Seconds later, the woman’s hands begin to move. You think it must be a hallucination that the point of view has shifted from objective reality to the mind of the addled brother. But no, the woman opens her eyes and just seconds after that she sits up, fully restored to life.

There’s a large crowd in the theater and half the audience bursts out laughing when they see this miraculous resurrection. You don’t begrudge them their skepticism. But for you, it is a transcendent moment. You sit there clutching your sister’s arm as tears role down your cheeks. What cannot happen has happened. You are stunned by what you have witnessed. Something changes in you after that. You don’t know what it is, but the tears you shed when you saw the woman come back to life seemed to have washed some of the poison that has been building up inside you.

My thoughts: The preceding passage was the reason I chose to see Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet.

Will my reaction to viewing this film be like Adam Walker (Auster’s character) or like those in the audience who laugh at the unlikely resurrection?

Well, I didn’t laugh and even though I had already read about it in the book, I couldn’t believe Inger (the character in the film) was really going to come back to life. I can’t say my reaction was akin to Adam Walker’s, but the film (based on a play by Danish pastor Kaj Munk) was stirring. I actually felt different than Walker in that it was more than the end, it was the building towards the end. Brother number one’s loss of faith, brother number two’s overdose on Kierkegaard leading him to think he is Jesus of Nazareth and brother number three’s wish to marry a girl whose family's religion is not compatible with his are all important parts that must be understood to even appreciate the ending.

I've been doing this blog so long now, this is actually the second time I've seen Ordet, the first time being ten years ago now! I still can't figure out exactly why I like Ordet as much as I do. I can certainly understand how someone could find it quite sappy...yet somehow I don't find it that way. And I really love the mad brother (Johannes). His monotone will stay with me in dreams for some time to come. 

I thought Ordet would go well with The Rapture. God is alive in both films. In The Rapture, Sharon rejects God anyway because he led her to take away the life of her daughter. In Ordet, the husband embraces God because of the restoring of life to his wife...The varieties of religious experience indeed...Amen.

Death and resurrection
in Ordet

We must judge the tree by its fruit. The best fruits of the religious experience are the best things history has to offer. The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, and bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have all been flown for religious ideals.” 
― William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

1960 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1960.  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 1960 for every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
Eyes Without a Face
Le Trou
Rocco and His Brothers
La Dolce Vita
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Shoot the Piano Player
L'avventura
The Young One
The Cloud-Capped Star
The Housemaid
Psycho
Black Sunday
Peeping Tom
The Apartment
Spartacus

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1960 is…Psycho

                    

 Psycho

I've seen it a dozen times. Norman Bates in that hotel.Janet Leigh in the shower. Mamma in the cellar. It's with me forever. Can't not pick this one.

Psycho

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1960 is...uh...uh...
This year's category for Unique and Artistic Picture is the one I couldn't decide on. I'm going to have to think this one out.

Eyes Without a Face is a good B-Horror movie, but in a year with Psycho and Peeping Tom, it just isn't going to make it.

Le Trou, the prison escape movie that I found totally absorbing is a real possibility.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, good film about working class Brits may have won in other years, but not the winner in this unusually strong year.

Shoot the Piano Player is my favorite of the Francois Truffaut films that I've seen, though may be to stuck in the gangster genre to win the artistic award.

L'avventura and La Dolce Vita, two landmark art films and among their respective director's best!

The Young One, Different and worthwhile Luis Bunuel, but not going to win this time.

The Cloud-Capped Star, recommended film, though I like director Ghatak's Subarnarekha more.

The Housemaid, another horror film ahead of its time from this year! What is it about 1960?

Black Sunday, Italian horror film. Nice B-picture, but not really the one to win.

Psycho, Could have one the award in this category, but I chose to give it the other award. So gotta keep looking!

Peeping Tom, Killer film in some ways more ahead of its time than Psycho. Decisions! Decisions!

The Apartment and Spartacus, two favorite films of mine in their own right. What to do?

Rocco and His Brothers, epic tale of 1960 Italy and a families struggle to make it....Excellent film! Ugh!

And the winner for Unique and Artistic Picture is...Peeping Tom
Whereas Psycho was a stylish upgrade of B-movie horror, Peeping Tom was Michael Powell's "so far ahead of its time it isn't even funny" slasher film. Since I couldn't really make up my mind for award, I thought it would be right to have two horror films in a year of innovative and influential films in this genre.

Peeping Tom

Let's move on before I change my mind again!

1958 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1958.  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 features the Sight and Sound polls most recent choice for Best Picture of all-time!

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die for 1958 are...
Man of the West
Touch of Evil
Cairo Station
Gigi
The Defiant Ones
Vertigo
Ashes and Diamonds
Horror of Dracula
My Uncle
The Music Room
Some Came Running
Dracula

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1958 is…Vertigo

Vertigo

I remember in the 1980’s The Screening Room in Atlanta showed several re-released Hitchcock movies, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Rope, The Trouble with Harry and Vertigo. I believe I went to see them all at the time. Four of these films star Jimmy Stewart and Vertigo may be the most critically acclaimed of the bunch today. (Though I need to see Rear Window again!).

Seeing it again now in a restored version it is a meticulously plotted, suspenseful film, built nicely to a dramatic climax. If you think about the plot too much, the setting up of the acrophobic Scottie Ferguson through the death (?) of the woman he loves might be a little far-fetched, but it hardly ruins the movie.

When Scottie finds someone who resembles his lost love, he tries to recreate her to look or be like her. Is he being a bully? Obsessive? Or is it actually his lost love? Scottie’s recreation of Judy is one of the best parts of the film.

William Goldman mentions in one of his books that he finds Vertigo an overrated film, but doesn’t say why. My guess is that he’s not buying into the plot.“1001 Movies” also mentions that the plot contrivances caused the film to not be a critical success at the time of release.

Overall, I got caught up in the film this time as much as I have during previous viewings. Few films show off a city better than this film shows off San Francisco. And few directors utilize music better than Hitchcock (through Bernard Herrmann’s score).

Interesting supporting performance from a young Barbara Bel Geddes as Stewart’s frustrated gal pal Midge. 

Note: The most recent edition of the ten year Sight and Sound poll lists Vertigo as the greatest film of all time, supplanting Citizen Kane in the number one spot for the first time in fifty years, so I'm guessing any Vertigo plot holes didn't bother the Sight and Sound panel.

Vertigo

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1958 is...Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil

A Touch of Evil is Orson Welles's later film noir set on the U. S. Mexico boarder. There may be some plot points of this film that are a little sketchy, but the overall impact of the film is so strong and involving, I didn't care. And the long shot opening scene is classic. 

The movie stars Charlton Heston as a Mexican lawman and Janet Leigh as his American wife. But it is Welles himself as Police Captain Hank Quinlan that really steals the show. Quinlan is overweight, drunk, unprincipled and thinks himself above the law when he's on a case. As impressed as we might be with Welles the director, Welles the actor is pretty good too. He's got great roles for his supporting players here too, including: Dennis Weaver, Marlene Dietrich and Akim Tamiroff.

Touch of Evil

1957 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1957.  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). 

I really had to bypass some great movies for this year (Throne of Blood, 12 Angry Men, Paths of Glory, The Cranes Are Flying). 1957 seems like a most underrated movie year!

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
12 Angry Men
The Seventh Seal
An Affair to Remember
Wild Strawberries
The Nights of Cabiria
Throne of Blood
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Gunfight at the O. K. Corral
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Mother India
The Cranes Are Flying
Paths of Glory
Sweet Smell of Success

                    

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1939 is…The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai is...The Bridge on the River Kwai has got to be ranked as one of the greatest films ever made! At least that’s my initial reaction after seeing it for the first time last night. The question is why did I put off seeing it for over forty years?

I could try to list reasons why you should see it, but I really don’t want others to make the same mistake that I made and procrastinate for years and say “I just don’t feel like watching a three-hour 1950’s war film."

So, instead I will now implement hypnosis techniques I learned from Marshall Sylver’s home hypnosis kit to persuade you in a little stronger way to watch this film if you are for some reason still reluctant.

We begin:

I want you to listen carefully to my voice
as you close your eyes and picture yourself
in a clearing outside a Japanese jungle in 1943.
Do not be concerned, for you are not a prisoner of war,
You are free and just there relaxing, relaxing.

Deeper…deeper…

You hear whistling in the background,
The World War I Colonel Bogey March, I think.
But if that’s too jaunty for our purposes,
just imagine the more tranquil “Fishin’ Hole” theme
from The Andy Griffith Show.

Deeper…Deeper…

If you are a male, four female Thai water carriers
are bringing you fresh sustenance,
If you are a female, you are being brought an extremely dry martini
from a shirtless William Holden.

Deeper…Deeper

You are totally in control
just like Alec Guiness.
But the force is not with you,
because that’s a different movie.

Deeper..Deeper

You are now totally susceptible to the power of suggestion.
And I am suggesting that you watch The Bridge Over the River Kwai,
Now available on DVD and Blue-Ray from Columbia.

Deeper…Deeper.

When I count to three I will give my men the order to fire.
Scratch that.
What I meant to say is when I count to three you will awaken.

One…Two…Three…awake!

I hope you will now enjoy this film as much as I did.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1939 is...The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is Ingmar Bergman at his most Bergmanesque. Since he is certainly on the short list of my favorite directors, I really I had to include this film about war, love, religion and, of course, death. Some also may not realize that Bergman films always have a dark sense of humor to them as well. So break out your chess board, form a conga line and let's have some fun!

The Seventh Seal

1956 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1956.  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 1956 for every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
Forbidden Planet
The Burmese Harp
The Searchers
A Man Escaped
Written on the Wind
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Giant
All That Heaven Allows
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Wrong Man
Bigger Than Life
High Society
Aparjito

                    

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1956 is…The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Very entertaining Alfred Hitchcock thriller about a doctor (Jimmy Stewart) and his ex-perfomer wife (Doris Day) whose son is kidnapped while they are on vacation in Marakesh. They embark on an odyssey that sends them across continents, up a few blind alleys and finally to the Royal Albert Hall in London.

One of my favorite scenes is when Stewart goes to meet Ambrose Hall to get information about his boy, only to find out the Ambrose Hall he goes to is the wrong one! Just one of Hitchcock's misdirections, but a interesting bit of comic relief at a tense time in the movie.

Jimmy Stewart does his usually fine job as the everyman caught up in a situation over his head (Assuming you can call a successful doctor with a beautiful and talented wife an everyman.) And Doris Day is also very good. It makes you wonder how she would have done if she had veered off into more dramatic parts instead of Please Don't Eat the Daisies type roles.

There are also lot of clever touches in the John Michael Hayes script, including much of the banter between Stewart and Day.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1956 is...Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet

Here are the top ten reasons Forbidden Planet is one of the most fondly remembered films all 50’s sci-fi films.

Number 10 Anne Francis’s uber-short mini-skirt!

Number 9 Despite the quality of the production, it can still be a bit cheesy at times.: Examples include the flying saucer shots which aren’t really that much better than the ones from Fire Maidens From Outer Space and the supposedly nude Alatara clearly wearing a body suit.

Number 8 Special appeal for Trekies. This film was clearly a clearly a blueprint for much of the original Star Trek universe: Dashing commander who goes to an unknown planet and makes out with the only girl there! Dashing commander hangs out with the ships doctor, who really is closer to Spock than Mccoy. Blasters-which are called phasers in Star Trek, and more space jargon (you know, like the explanations from Star Trek why a worm hole will be closing up because of an exploding Super Nova in the next galaxy that is really hard to understand, but you just have to except it as a given plot point) is used here than you can shake a blaster at.

Number 7 High brow appeal in that Forbidden Planet is often compared to Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Number 6 Special appeal for Freudians as the Id plays such an important part in this story

Number 5 The fine supporting cast including the guy who later was on Police Woman, the guy who was later on Maverick and the guy who was later on The Six Million Dollar Man.

Number 4 Walter Pidgeon as Morbius is indeed a tragic character out of Shakespeare, though it might take a minute to realize that the pre-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen actually says his lines straight!

Number 3 The fact that the creatures are more of the mind than anything avoids the film from having any bad monster makeup that would seem dated now.

Number 2 The look of the film, the color, and the fact that it is in Cinemascope makes this production great to look at. Dr. Morbius’s lab is also pretty impressive.

But the Number 1 reason that Forbidden Planet is one of the most fondly remembered films all 50’s sci-fi films is: Robby the Robot!

Forbidden Planet