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I Vitelloni (1953, Federico Fellini)
I’m still figuring out Fellini – his movies seem to fall into categories, but I’m not sure how to define those categories, since it’s been ages since I watched most of them. But however you divide it,...
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Samurai Trilogy (1954-56, Hiroshi Inagaki)
An epic trilogy, obviously conceived as a single story – it would be foolish to watch just one. It might, in fact, be foolish to watch all three. A weighty, picturesque drama with restrained emotions,...
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The Horse’s Mouth (1958, Ronald Neame)
Alec Guinness, a few years after The Ladykillers, plays dedicated painter Gulley Jimson, introduced getting out of prison and shooing off devoted fan Nosey. Jimson is a gruff-voiced wreck, living on a...
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Tammy and the Bachelor (1957, Joseph Pevney)
Katy had a powerful hankering to watch this after we heard the main song in The Long Day Closes. Tammy (Debbie Reynolds, a few years after Susan Slept Here) is a young girl living on a houseboat with...
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The Killing (1956, Stanley Kubrick)
Perfect movie about the perfect crime. Johnny is Sterling Hayden (not a very “Johnny”-looking actor, but this was his second Johnny after Johnny Guitar), perfect-crime-planner, with a demeanor nearly...
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Nights of Cabiria (1957, Federico Fellini)
Opens with prostitute Cabiria being robbed and pushed into the river by her boyfriend Giorgio (Franco Fabrizi, shitty husband Fausto in I Vitelloni). She takes comfort in her friend Wanda then goes to...
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America as Seen by a Frenchman (1960, Francois Reichenbach)
America as seen but not heard – the soundtrack seems like a post-sync invention, with a fun Michel Legrand score (one of his first films, the year before Lola). Reichenbach spent a year and a half in...
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The Crimson Kimono (1959, Samuel Fuller)
Dancer Sugar Torch is surprised in her dressing room, then chased down and shot to death in the street. Enter the cops: Glenn Corbett (star of Homicidal) and James Shigeta (of the musical Flower Drum...
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Max Ophüls double-feature
Madame de… (1952) A talky rich-person drama with lots of fainting – not usually my thing. Of course it’s sumptuously shot, and I got caught up in the drama by the end. The earrings of Madame: Charles...
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Three Christmas Movies
The Holly and the Ivy (1952, George More O’Ferrall) A typical holiday family-crisis movie (see also: A Christmas Tale). Bulb-nosed Ralph Richardson (lead butler in The Fallen Idol) is a parson who...
View ArticleAn American In Paris (1951, Vincente Minnelli)
We’ve got three guys who live in the same building over a cafe: painter Jerry (Gene Kelly), pianist Adam (Oscar Levant of The Band Wagon and The Barkleys of Broadway) and semi-rich guy Henri (French...
View ArticleA Night to Remember (1958, Roy Ward Baker)
An ensemble version of the Titanic story without the James Cameron love story – in fact, with no lead actor at all, just a lead event. Second officer Kenneth More is first billed, followed by a hundred...
View ArticleRun of the Arrow (1957, Samuel Fuller)
One of Fuller’s final-shot ruminations – that the moment a war ends, killing turns from a heroic act into a criminal one. Feeling oppressed by the North and betrayed by his own losing side, an...
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Rififi (1955, Jules Dassin)
Tony (Jean Servais of Le Plaisir and Thomas the Impostor) is a down-on-his-luck gambler (is there any other kind of gambler?) just out of jail. His ex-girl Mado has taken up with dangerous gangster...
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Big Deal on Madonna St. (1958, Mario Monicelli)
Rewatched Rififi recently after reading that this is supposed to be a parody. Instead of a team of experts successfully pulling a heist then getting killed off by rivals in the aftermath, we’ve got a...
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Hobson’s Choice (1954, David Lean)
Charles Laughton is Hobson, self-important shoe salesman, who talks of getting his youngest daughters married, but not the severe elder daughter since she’s far too old. So she elopes with the...
View ArticlePandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951, Albert Lewin)
Pandora (Ava Gardner) is immediately set up as destructive and impulsive, getting the man who loves her (Nigel Patrick of The League of Gentlemen) to wreck his prize racecar in exchange for engagement....
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A Generation (1955, Andrzej Wajda)
I wanted to see Ashes & Diamonds, but since Criterion released it as the third title in a loose war trilogy, I figured I’d dutifully start with the first and work my way up to the masterpiece. But...
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The World of Apu (1959, Satyajit Ray)
The further, depressing adventures of doomed Apu (now played by newcomer Soumitra Chatterjee) in an uncaring, godless world. Apu now lives alone, trying to write a book while dodging the landlord. When...
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The Lower Depths (1959, Akira Kurosawa)
I bought Criterion’s Lower Depths double-feature, watched the Renoir version then only took seven years to watch the Kurosawa version. This one by comparison lacks snails, a fancy baron’s house, and a...
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