Yearly Consensus - 1950

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films and five favorite performances from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten in both categories. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

10.5 pts will be required to make either list.

There will be no restrictions on short films.

There will be no distinction made between male and female performances.
There will be no distinction made between lead and supporting performances.
Voice acting can be considered a performance.


I would like to be able to count votes as they come in. This means that if you change your vote, you need to make a new post. Please quote your old list and then add your new list so that I can easily track the changes. I will not be looking for edits. Once you make a post, consider your vote cast.

You may begin now.

fxEmnxiUz8w

[Spinal]

1. Los Olvidados
2. Sunset Blvd
3. All About Eve
4. Orpheus
5. Rashomon

1. Bette Davis, All About Eve
2. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd
3. Erich von Stroheim, Sunset Blvd
4. Anne Baxter, All About Eve
5. Toshirô Mifune, Rashomon

[Watashi]

1. Rashomon
2. Sunset Blvd.
3. Harvey
4. All About Eve
5. In a Lonely Place

[B-side]

1. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann)
2, La Ronde (Max Ophüls)
3. Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tourneur)
4. Devil's Doorway (Anthony Mann)
5. The Furies (Anthony Mann)

1. Barbara Stanwyck - The Furies
2. James Stewart - Harvey
3. Joel McCrea - Stars in My Crown
4. Toshirô Mifune - Rashômon
5. James Stewart - Winchester '73

[ContinentalOp]

1. Night and the City
2. Los Olvidados
3. Rashomon
4. Gun Crazy
5. Sunset Boulevard

Damn, kind of a great year. All top 100 movies for me. Also really liked In A Lonely Place and the Asphalt Jungle.


1. Richard Widmark- Night and the City
2. Machiko Kyo- Rashomon
3. Humphrey Bogart- In a Lonely Place
4. Peggy Cummins- Gun Crazy
5. Toshiro Mifune- Rashomon

Hard to pick performances too.

[Pop Trash]

1. Los Olividados
2. Sunset Blvd.
3. Rashomon
4. Gun Crazy
5. In a Lonely Place

Perfs:
1. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd.
2. Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place
3. Alfonso Mejia, Los Olividados
4. Richard Widmark, Night and the City
5. Robert Newton, Treasure Island

I haven't seen All About Eve, otherwise Bette Davis might be here. I'm still not sure how much I like Toshiro Mifune's acting.

[Derek]

1. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
2. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
3. Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini)
4. Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel)
5. Born to be Bad (Nicholas Ray)

Performances:

1. Ingrid Bergman - Stromboli
2. Humphrey Bogart - In a Lonely Place
3. Gloria Swanson - Sunset Boulevard
4. Jimmy Stewart - Winchester '73
5. Joan Fontaine - Born to Be Bad

[soitgoes...]

1. Los Olvidados (Buñuel)
2. The Flowers of St. Francis (Rossellini)
3. Rashômon (Kurosawa)
4. Panic in the Streets (Kazan)
5. Sunset Blvd. (Wilder)

HMs: Winchester '73, La Ronde, Gun Crazy, The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve

1. James Stewart, Harvey
2. Gloria Swanson, Sunsey Blvd.
3. Toshiro Mifune, Rashômon
4. Bette Davis, All About Eve
5. Erich von Stroheim, Sunset Blvd.

[B-side]

I edited mine real quick, but I'm assuming that's OK since I don't believe you've begun tallying these yet?

[Spinal]

I edited mine real quick, but I'm assuming that's OK since I don't believe you've begun tallying these yet?

Yeah, you're good. Thanks for checking.

[Melville]

1. In a Lonely Place
2. Gun Crazy
3. All About Eve
4. Sunset Boulevard
5. The Scarlet Pumpernickel

1. Bette Davis, All About Eve
2. Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place
3. Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place
4. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard
5. James Stewart, Harvey

[B-side]

Why haven't you seen Winchester '73, Melly? Pretty certain you'd love it.

[Melville]

Why haven't you seen Winchester '73, Melly? Pretty certain you'd love it.
I thought Naked Spur was all right and Man of the West was quite good. I figured that was enough Anthony Mann westerns for me. Is Winchester '73 a step above those?

[transmogrifier]

The Naked Spur is my least favourite of the Mann/Stewart Westerns

The Man from Laramie - 74
Winchester '73 - 74
Bend of the River - 72
The Far Country - 71
The Naked Spur - 65

Pretty consistent.

[Melville]

The Man from Laramie - 74
Wait, I've seen this one as well. I thought it was pretty good. I'd give it and Naked Spur roughly the same scores you did.

[Qrazy]

I thought Naked Spur was all right and Man of the West was quite good. I figured that was enough Anthony Mann westerns for me. Is Winchester '73 a step above those?

Man of the West is his best. Winchester is probably just below that though.

[Spinal]

5. The Scarlet Pumpernickel


Nice.

[Irish]

1. Sunset Boulevard
2. All About Eve
3. In a Lonely Place
4. The Asphault Jungle
5. Adam's Rib

--

1. Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place
2. Bette Davis, All About Eve
3. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard
4. Jean Hagen, The Asphault Jungle
5. Katherine Hepburn, Adam's Rib

[Raiders]

1. In a Lonely Place
2. Stromboli
3. Los Olvidados
4. Winchester '73
5. Gun Crazy

6. Night and the City
7. Story of a Love Affair
8. Devil's Doorway
9. Orpheus
10. Rashomon

Performances:
1. Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place
2. Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli
3. Jimmy Stewart, Winchester '73
4. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd.
5. Richard Widmark, Night and the City

[Gizmo]

Damn, I only know I've seen 3, but think I also saw Rashomon at some point. Not enough to vote, but they are all vote worthy, well maybe not Cinderella so much...

[Irish]

5. Richard Widmark, Night and the City

Great pick.

[Dukefrukem]

Can't vote :(

1. Sunset Blvd
2. Rashomon

[dreamdead]

1. In a Lonely Place
2. Sunset Blvd.
3. Rashomon
4. Winchester '73
5. All About Eve

Performances:

1. Humphery Bogart, In a Lonely Place
2. Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place
3. Erich von Stroheim, Sunset Blvd.
4. Bette Davis, All About Eve
5. Jimmy Stewart, Harvey

[Lazlo]

1. Sunset Blvd.
2. Los Olvidados
3. Variety Lights

[baby doll]

Films:
1. Orphée (Jean Cocteau)
2. Stromboli, terra di dio (Roberto Rossellini)
3. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
4. Francis, God's Jester (Roberto Rossellini)
5. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)

Performances:
1. Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli, terra di dio
2. François Périer, Orphée
3. Machiko Kyo, Rashomon
4. Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place
5. Toshiro Mifune, Rashomon

1950 movies I haven't seen but want to:

Born to Be Bad (Nicholas Ray)
Cronaca di un amore (Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Furies (Anthony Mann)
The Munekata Sisters (Yasujiro Ozu)
Night and the City (Jules Dassin)
La Ronde (Max Ophüls)
Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tourneur)
Wagon Master (John Ford)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger)
Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann)

[Mr. McGibblets]

5. Adam's Rib


I have this as 1949.

[Yxklyx]

1. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
2. Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis)
3. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann)
4. Side Street (Anthony Mann)
5. Night and the City (Jules Dassin)

1. Richard Widmark - Night and the City
2. Humphrey Bogart - In a Lonely Place
3. Peggy Cummins - Gun Crazy
4. Sterling Hayden - The Asphalt Jungle
5. Marlene Dietrich - Stage Fright

[Robby P]

Winchester 73
The Asphalt Jungle
In a Lonely Place
Sunset Boulevard
Cinderella

[Robby P]

Did Anthony Mann have 3 movies in the same year? That's crazy.

[StanleyK]

Votes for The Scarlet Pumpernickel, but none for Rabbit of Seville? WTF?

Films:

1. Rabbit of Seville (Chuck Jones)
2. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
3. Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder)
4. The Ducksters (Chuck Jones)

Performances:

1. Humphrey Bogart (In a Lonely Place)
2. Gloria Swanson (Sunset Blvd.)
3. William Holden (Sunset Blvd.)
4. Gloria Grahame (In a Lonely Place)

[Yxklyx]

Did Anthony Mann have 3 movies in the same year? That's crazy.

Four films, and all have been listed in this thread.

[Pop Trash]

Four films, and all have been listed in this thread.

The Takashi Miike of 1950.

[kopello]

1. Sunset Boulevard
2. In a Lonely Place
3. The Flowers of St. Francis
4. The Baron of Arizona
5. Orpheus

[Russ]

1. Sunset Blvd.
2. All About Eve
3. Gun Crazy
4. Champagne for Caesar
5. Rabbit's Moon

1. Vincent Price, Champagne for Caesar
2. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd.
3. Bette Davis, All About Eve
4. Andrea Palma, Aventurera
5. Toshirô Mifune, Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka

[B-side]

Man of the West is his best. Winchester is probably just below that though.

Disagree.

[EyesWideOpen]

1. In a Lonely Place
2. Rashomon
3. The Asphalt Jungle
4. Cinderella
5. Harvey

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Rashomon
2. Last Holiday
3. Harvey
4. All About Eve
5. La Ronde

--------------------------------------

1. Bette Davis (All About Eve)
2. Alec Guinness (Last Holiday)
3. John Wayne (Rio Grande)
4. James Stewart (Harvey)
5. Jennifer Jones (Gone to Earth)

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Los Olvidados
2. Sunset Boulevard
3. Rashomon
4. The Asphalt Jungle
5. The Gunfighter

1. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd
2. Toshiro Mifune, Rashomon
3. Sterling Hayden, The Asphalt Jungle
4. Richard Widmark, Night and the City
5. William Holden, Sunset Boulevard

[Irish]

I have this as 1949.

Good catch; you're right. it was nominated for Best Story & Screenplay for the 23rd Academy Awards (honoring films from 1950), which threw me.

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann)
2. Rashōmon (Akira Kurosawa)
3. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
4. Orphée (Jean Cocteau)
5. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)

1. Humphrey Bogart (In a Lonely Place)
2. Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard)
3. Marlene Dietrich (Stage Fright)
4. Takashi Shimura (Rashomon)
5. Erich von Stroheim (Sunset Boulevard)

[soitgoes...]

Disagree.

Disagree.

[Boner M]

Damn, whadda year for noir.

1. In a Lonely Place
2. Sunset Blvd.
3. Gun Crazy
4. Los Olvidados
5. Night and the City

HM: The Flowers of St. Francis, Panic in the Streets, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Side Street, Wagon Master, Winchester '73

Been too long: Rashomon, All About Eve, Harvey, Orphée

[Qrazy]

Disagree.

Your taste is shit and you're an awful person.

[Boner M]

Gotta agree w/ the Q-man, I've liked ever Mann I've seen but MotW is on a whole 'nuther level - formally, thematically et al.

[Raiders]

Men in War y'all. Or are we just talking westerns?

[Boner M]

Still haven't seen that one, even though it plays seemingly every month on Australian TV.

[Raiders]

Still haven't seen that one, even though it plays seemingly every month on Australian TV.

It's pretty awesome, though Mann's best is Border Incident. It is formally impeccable.

[Boner M]

I need to see Border Incident again, I liked it at the time but don't remember much beyond the locations and that scene.

[B-side]

Your taste is shit and you're an awful person.

Your mother!

[soitgoes...]

Anthony Mann in 1950: Winchester '73>Devil's Doorway=Side Street>The Furies

All good movies

[B-side]

I've seen Side Street as well. Would switch The Furies with Side Street using soitgoes' formula.

[transmogrifier]

Anthony Mann, Don Siegel, Nicholas Ray, Sam Fuller....gotta love the 50s.

[Pop Trash]

Anthony Mann, Don Siegel, Nicholas Ray, Sam Fuller....gotta love the 50s.

That dude Hitchcock was pretty good in the 50s too.

[Spinal]

You have at least another day for this one.

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#9

There were three young directors who showed promise in those days: D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, and Max Von Mayerling.

Erich von Stroheim, Sunset Blvd.


Nn4pMI2q_PM

Did you know?

He directed Gloria Swanson in the film Queen Kelly, which went unreleased in the United States. When an excerpt from the film was used in Sunset Blvd., it was therefore the first footage American audiences had seen from the collaboration.

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#8

Yesterday, this would've meant so much to us. Now it doesn't matter... it doesn't matter at all.

Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place


W1UohOq8xNw

Did you know?

Grahame and director Nicholas Ray's marriage was starting to come apart during filming. Grahame was forced to sign a contract stipulating that "my husband [Ray] shall be entitled to direct, control, advise, instruct and even command my actions during the hours from 9 AM to 6 PM, every day except Sunday...I acknowledge that in every conceivable situations his will and judgment shall be considered superior to mine and shall prevail." Grahame was also forbidden to "nag, cajole, tease or in any other feminine fashion seek to distract or influence him."

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#7

With me, God has never been merciful!

Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli


FYD4ppu9eV0

Did you know?

The film is best remembered for the affair between Roberto Rossellini and Bergman that occurred during this time, as well as the resultant child out of wedlock. The affair caused such a scandal in the United States that Bergman was denounced on the floor of the Senate by Colorado Senator Edwin C. Johnson. Her Hollywood career was halted for a number of years, until her Oscar-winning performance in Anastasia.

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#6

Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.

James Stewart, Harvey


VvfXvW2wsuQ

Did you know?

The Jimmy Stewart Museum, based in Stewart's hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania, presents the Harvey Award to a distinguished celebrity tied to Jimmy Stewart's spirit of humanitarianism.

[Pop Trash]

Did you know?

Grahame and director Nicholas Ray's marriage was starting to come apart during filming. Grahame was forced to sign a contract stipulating that "my husband [Ray] shall be entitled to direct, control, advise, instruct and even command my actions during the hours from 9 AM to 6 PM, every day except Sunday...I acknowledge that in every conceivable situations his will and judgment shall be considered superior to mine and shall prevail." Grahame was also forbidden to "nag, cajole, tease or in any other feminine fashion seek to distract or influence him."

The Grahame/Ray story is really interesting. Apparently he caught her fucking his own son/her step-son, Tony, who was 13 at the time. She later married Tony Ray and had kids with him. No wonder Nick Ray went a bit nuts later in his life.

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#5

"... Mifune plays the bandit with terrifying wildness and hot brutality." -- Bosley Crowther

Toshirô Mifune, Rashômon


xCZ9TguVOIA

Did you know?

Kurosawa first encountered Mifune when Toho Studios, the largest film production company in Japan, was conducting a massive talent search, during which hundreds of aspiring actors auditioned before a team of judges. Kurosawa was originally going to skip the event, but showed up when an actress he knew told him of one actor who seemed especially promising. Kurosawa later wrote that he entered the audition to see "a young man reeling around the room in a violent frenzy...it was as frightening as watching a wounded beast trying to break loose. I was transfixed."

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#4

How much are you sellin' me for?

Richard Widmark, Night and the City


rM3v_jeIcSQ

Did you know?

From 1942 until her death in 1997, Widmark was married to playwright Jean Hazlewood. The marriage produced a daughter, Anne Heath Widmark, an artist and author who was married to baseball player Sandy Koufax from 1969 to 1982.

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#3

I'll admit I may have seen better days, but I'm still not to be had for the price of a cocktail like a salted peanut.

Bette Davis, All About Eve


Eg-ckMup6SI

Did you know?

Bette Davis was cast as Margo Channing after Claudette Colbert severely injured her back and was forced to withdraw shortly before filming began. Channing had originally been conceived as genteel and knowingly humorous, but with the casting of Davis, Mankiewicz revised the character to be more abrasive.

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#2

There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk.

Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd.


Z22DSBEvVFY

Did you know?

In her memoir, Swanson recalled asking George Cukor if it was unreasonable to refuse to submit to a screen test. He replied that Norma Desmond was the role for which she would be remembered. "If they ask you to do ten screen tests, do ten screen tests, or I will personally shoot you," Cukor replied.

[Spinal]

Favorite Performances of 1950

#1

It was his story against mine, but of course, I told my story better.

Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place


6nNrIzx6bM4

Did you know?

Louise Brooks wrote in her essay "Humphrey and Bogey" that she felt it was the role of Dixon Steele in this movie that came closest to the real Bogart she knew.

[Spinal]

FAVORITE PERFORMANCES OF 1950

1. Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place (44.5)
2. Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd (43)
3. Bette Davis, All About Eve (28.5)
4. Richard Widmark, Night and the City (18.5)
5. Toshirô Mifune, Rashomon (18)
6. James Stewart, Harvey (17)
7. Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli (14)
8. Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place (13.5)
9. Erich von Stroheim, Sunset Blvd (12)


James Stewart, Winchester 73 (9)

[dreamdead]

Did you know?

Grahame and director Nicholas Ray's marriage was starting to come apart during filming. Grahame was forced to sign a contract stipulating that "my husband [Ray] shall be entitled to direct, control, advise, instruct and even command my actions during the hours from 9 AM to 6 PM, every day except Sunday...I acknowledge that in every conceivable situations his will and judgment shall be considered superior to mine and shall prevail." Grahame was also forbidden to "nag, cajole, tease or in any other feminine fashion seek to distract or influence him."

Really loving the trivia you bring to these, Spinal. And might I say that I'm excited to see that our society still doesn't prioritize this kind of attitude.

[Raiders]

Really loving the trivia you bring to these, Spinal. And might I say that I'm excited to see that our society still doesn't prioritize this kind of attitude.

I don't know, I think a director is typically entitled to those actions, it just doesn't usually need to be contracted because they aren't married to the actor. The only issue I have is the idea of "feminine" distraction and influence.

[Spinal]

Really loving the trivia you bring to these, Spinal. And might I say that I'm excited to see that our society still doesn't prioritize this kind of attitude.

This seems to be a particularly interesting year for Hollywood scandal and intrigue.

[Spinal]

#10

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/8361/strombolifilm01.jpg

Stromboli

Director: Roberto Rossellini

Country: Italy/USA

Karen, a young woman from the Baltic countries, marries fisherman Antonio to escape from a prisoners camp. But the life in Antonio's village, Stromboli, threatened by the volcano, is a tough one and Karen cannot get used to it.

In the promotional material, Howard Hughes played up the parallels between the character she played and the recent indiscreet behavior of lead actress Ingrid Bergman. It was banned outright in Memphis, and the Roman Catholic church urged its priests not to see it. It opened to phenomenal business, earning nearly $1 million in its first day.

"The first - and strongest - installment in Rossellini's purgation trilogy, Stromboli also marks the first of several attempts to transform Ingrid Bergman into a personification of the miscommunication that ... was used as a synecdoche for the ravages of war, and so construe her gradual apprehension of, and reconciliation with, her surroundings - the trajectory of all three films - as a descent, purgation and salvation that leaves her pitied, despised and incapable of displaying any sign of grace, innocence, or naivety ... " -- Billy Stevenson

[Spinal]

#9

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9067/orpheus.jpg

Orpheus

Director: Jean Cocteau

Country: France

Orphee is a poet who becomes obsessed with Death (the Princess). They fall in love. Orphee's wife, Eurydice, is killed by the Princess' henchmen and Orphee goes after her into the Underworld. Although they have become dangerously entangled, the Princess sends Orphee back out of the Underworld, to carry on his life with Eurydice.

For the scene in which Orphee passes his hand through a glass pane, Cocteau used a vat of mercury to create the effect. Orphee's obsession with deciphering hidden messages contained in random radio noise is a direct nod to the coded messages that the BBC concealed in their wartime transmissions for the French Resistance.

"Seeing Orpheus today [2000] is like glimpsing a cinematic realm that has passed completely from the scene. Films are rarely made for purely artistic reasons, experiments are discouraged, and stars as big as Marais are not cast in eccentric remakes of Greek myths." -- Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#8

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4083/annex2020monroe20marilyx.jpg

The Asphalt Jungle

Director: John Huston

Country: USA

Doc Riedenschneider, legendary crime brain just out of prison, has a brilliant plan for a million-dollar burglary. To pull it off, he recruits safecracker Louis, driver Gus, financial backer Emmerich, and strong-arm man Dix Handley. At first the plan goes like clockwork, but little accidents accumulate and each partner proves to have his own fatal weakness.

Both Director John Huston and ex-communist star Sterling Hayden were members of the Committee for the First Amendment, which stood against the blacklisting of alleged communists working in the film industry during the Red Scare. Of the film's 112 minute run-time, only 6 have musical scoring.

“With a special focus on Hayden, whose brutish snarl masks his essential decency, the film aligns its sympathies with the working-class criminal stiffs who take all the risks but reap none of the rewards. In postwar America, many viewers surely found Huston's underworld looking more than a little bit like its legitimate counterpart.” -- Scott Tobias

[Spinal]

#6 (tie)

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/4386/allabouteveno7.jpg

All About Eve

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Country: USA

Ambitious aspiring actress Eve Harrington insinuates herself into the lives of temperamental Broadway star Margo Channing and her caustic circle of theater friends.

Bette Davis fell in love with her co-star Gary Merrill during the shoot of this movie and the two married in July 1950 a few weeks after filming was completed. They adopted a baby girl, whom they named Margot. Years later, Bette Davis said in an interview "Filming All About Eve was a very happy experience....the only bitch in the cast was Celeste Holm."

“Ersatz art of a very high grade, and one of the most enjoyable movies ever made ... Mankiewicz’s bad taste, exhibited with verve, is more fun than careful, mousy, dehydrated good taste.” -- Pauline Kael

[Spinal]

#6 (tie)

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/9153/guncrazyud1.jpg

Gun Crazy

Director: Joseph H. Lewis

Country: USA

Gun-obsessed Bart and dominating sharpshooter Annie get married, and she finds the life financially displeasing. The trigger-happy lovers then go on an erotically violent robbery spree.

The bank heist sequence was done entirely in one take, with no one outside the principal actors and people inside the bank aware that a movie was being filmed. When John Dall as Bart Tare says, "I hope we find a parking space," he really meant it, as there was no guarantee that there would be one. Bart Tare and Laurie Starr are modeled on the infamous Depression-era bandits Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.

“Lewis, through sheer force of will, turns the script's easy ways out ('I told you I'm a bad girl, didn't I?') into the essence of blunt, adolescent sexual flowering. Wild, wam-bam pacing (early heavy petting) eventually matures into the film's most memorable sequence: a one-take robbery sequence taken from the back seat of the getaway car, a stunning tour de force that's Lewis's cinematographic slow fuck.” -- Eric Henderson

[Spinal]

#5

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/4215/600fullwinchester2773sc.jpg

Winchester '73

Director: Anthony Mann

Country: USA

In a marksmanship contest, Lin McAdam wins a prized Winchester rifle, which is immediately stolen by the runner-up, Dutch Henry Brown. This 'story of a rifle' then follows McAdams' pursuit, and the rifle as it changes hands, until a final showdown and shoot-out on a rocky mountain precipice.

The filmmakers did not have the budget to pay James Stewart his requested fee of $200,000, so he suggested they take the then-unusual step of paying him a cut of the profits instead. This deal, the first of its kind since the advent of talkies, would soon become the norm and change the studio-agent-actor relationship, leading to the demise of the long-term contract and the studio system. Stewart is believed to have made around $600,000 from this film. At the time of filming, Stewart was anxious to appear in more challenging roles, as he was worried that the general perception was of him as a limited actor.

“If Ford is evoked ... it’s as a point of departure -- the genre’s old gallantry turns obsolete in a West as astringent as Mann’s, his cowboys are modern brooders negotiating the impending collapse of terrain, body, and mind.” -- Fernando f. Croce

[Spinal]

#4

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/206/olvidadosxq8.jpg

Los Olvidados

Director: Luis Buñuel

Country: Mexico

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, and the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

In 2002, a ninth roll off the movie was found after decades of thinking that the movie only had eight. The ninth roll includes an alternative 'happy' ending. According to cast member, Alfonso Mejia, Buñuel was "pressured by the censorship in México, and urged to film an alternative ending, a conventional ending, to maintain the image of a progressive Mexico, where no one was poor or illiterate."

“In the 1960s, Buñuel would cement his reputation as a surrealist, and his career would reach great heights, but this Mexican period was crucial to his development, and Los Olvidados finds him hugging the ground, searching, experimenting and refining. He could have been one hell of a Neorealist, had he wanted.” -- G. Allen Johnson

[Spinal]

#3

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1042/rashomonfi7.jpg

Rashomon

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Country: Japan

In ancient Japan, a woman is raped and her husband killed. The film gives us four viewpoints of the incident - one for each defendant - each revealing a little more detail. Which version, if any, is the real truth about what happened?

In his autobiography, Kurosawa recalled that one of the biggest problems his crew encountered while filming in the forest was that slugs kept dropping out of the trees onto their heads. The cast and crew had to constantly slather themselves with salt to keep the slugs off. This film is often given credit for the first time a camera was pointed directly at the sun.

“The wonder of Rashomon is that while the shadowplay of truth and memory is going on, we are absorbed by what we trust is an unfolding story. The film's engine is our faith that we'll get to the bottom of things -- even though the woodcutter tells us at the outset he doesn't understand, and if an eyewitness who has heard the testimony of the other three participants doesn't understand, why should we expect to?” -- Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#2

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2695/lonelyyf2.jpg

In a Lonely Place

Director: Nicholas Ray

Country: USA

Screenwriter Dixon Steele is the prime suspect in the murder of a hat-check girl he met the night before, but a lovely neighbor provides an alibi. His macabre sense of humor and belligerence when angered threatens to violently undue their ensuing relationship.

Although Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart were 24 years apart in age, they both died at the age of 57. David Bond, as the doctor, has the first part of his one line dubbed by another actor - with a non-American accent - while the remainder of his line is in Bond's own very American voice.

“The genre trappings of this noir masterpiece ... don’t matter a whit. There’s a murder and a mystery, but 'whodunit?' is just the punch line to the gut. Director Nicholas Ray is more interested in examining the ways in which people poison themselves and each other, and it’s not a pretty picture.” -- Keith Uhlich

[Spinal]

#1

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/6594/sunsethh1.jpg

Sunset Blvd.

Director: Billy Wilder

Country: USA

A flat tire brings small-time screenwriter Joe Gillis to the mansion of aging silent film star Norman Desmond. Seeing a way to cure writer’s block and make a name for himself, he agrees to write her comeback vehicle, but the madness of faded stardom threatens their very lives in typical melodramatic Tinseltown fashion.

The 'fee' for renting the Jean Paul Getty mansion was for Paramount to build the swimming pool, which features so memorably. According to Cameron Crowe, who shadowed Billy Wilder in his twilight years, a typical day in his office would consist of him answering numerous phone calls from people requesting to remake this film, upon which he would inform them that he didn't own the rights and promptly hang up.

“Wilder and co-screenwriter Charles Brackett's pungent dialogue has lost none of its sophistication with age, but Sunset Boulevard's specificity is what keeps the film alive even now. The filmmakers name names (Cecil B. DeMille, Schwab's Drugstore, countless actual streets), and in the process, give a firm grounding to a cautionary tale about the cynical artificiality of the movie industry.” -- Noel Murray

[Spinal]

FAVORITE FILMS OF 1950

1. Sunset Blvd (67)
2. In a Lonely Place (55)
3. Rashomon (40.5)
4. Los Olvidados (37.5)
5. Winchester 73 (24.5)
6t. All About Eve (23.5)
6t. Gun Crazy (23.5)
8. The Asphalt Jungle (18.5)
9. Orpheus (13.5)
10. Stromboli (11.5)


The Flowers of St Francis (10.5)

2008 poll:

1. Sunset Boulevard (108)
2. Rashomon (90.5)
3. In a Lonely Place (71.5)
4. Los Olvidados (64.5)
5. Gun Crazy (38)
6. All About Eve (35)
7. The Asphalt Jungle (22.5)
8. Rabbit of Seville (20.5)
9. Harvey (18)
10. Cinderella (15)

Almost there:
Night and the City 12
Winchester ’73 11.5
Orpheus 10.5

[Dead & Messed Up]

Wow, Winchester '73 shot up there, didn't it?

[B-side]

Wow, Winchester '73 shot up there, didn't it?

Rightfully so!

[Yxklyx]

Doh! Forgot about Mifune in Rashomon.