I have now seen 72 movies that were released in 1953. Some of the B pictures were reviewed only here. It was a fairly strong year with 20 of the films rated as 9/10 or higher. The complete list of the movies is here.
Except for the top film, I found these extremely difficult to rank. I should mention that I gave Luis Buñuel’s El a perfect 10/10 when I saw it several years ago. I didn’t remember it well enough to include in my 10 favorites. The other also-rans, in no particular order, were: Little Fugitive; The Naked Spur; The Hitch-Hiker; Ugetsu; Calamity Jane; I Vitelloni; White Mane; Gion Bayashi (A Geisha); and Summer with Monika.
10. Gate of Hell – directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa
9. The Band Wagon – directed by Vicente Minnelli
8. The Heart of the Matter – directed by George More O’Ferrall
7. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday – directed by Jacques Tati
6. The Big Heat – directed by Fritz Lang
5. Pickup on South Street – directed by Samuel Fuller
4. From Here to Eternity – directed by Fred Zinnemann
3. Wages of Fear – directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
2. The Earrings of Madame de ... – directed by Max Ophüls
1. Tokyo Story – directed by Yasujirô Ozu
Great list! I’m looking forward to seeing THE HEART OF THE MATTER. Thanks for introducing it to me or me to it!
Be sure to let me know what you think. I’m loving getting into all the great and good British films now available streaming on Amazon.
I like your top seven, but I would probably order them differently. However Tokyo Story is a solid winner.
I want to see The Heart of the Matter.
I’m surprised that you would rank Madame de at all! If you see The Heart of the Matter, I would love to discuss it with you. It was one where I was talking to the TV set by the end with advice on what old Trevor Howard should do. Of course, he did the exact opposite.
They always do, those silly actors.
I do admit that Madame de… would be at the bottom of those seven, but it was not so bad as to be totally crap. Also Hulot would feature higher on my list.
FWIW you may wish to edit “Gion Bayash” to Gion Bayashi and perhaps add “AKA A Geisha”?
Mentioned only in passing for aiding someone, like me, who uses your reviews to find all sorts of previously unknown goodies. Love the blog.
My proofreading has always left something to be desired … Thanks
Nearly 3 years later….
I was reminded of this one while posting about Clothes of Deception
Wild Geese AKA Gan
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045802/
This one I’d label as an unreserved “must see, I’m sure you’d like it”. Another Golden Age period piece that is simply superb in acting. story telling and set design.
Maybe I should make my next break month be Japanese or Asian cinema. You can help me with my list. Sounds like fun!!!
By all means but from memory you have a couple of correspondents who sound way more erudite than me….you should rope them in…..must admit I far prefer a (good) Japanese movie to most other nations’ product……and I have shamefully started to develop a real liking for quality Japanese series…lord they take so much of my time but the ability to expand the storyline over the time constraint of a movie can really pay dividends.
It’s funny, one of the points of Clothes of Deception was a close friend urging one of the family to leave Kyoto as it was too bound by tradition being such an old city untouched by bombing and thus unchanging. This evening I watched Kyoto, My Mother’s Place
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102248/
An autobiographical doco by director Nagisa Ôshima primarily about his formative years and the life of his mother (it was not about film) and one of the points that came through strongly was how restrictive the Kyoto life and traditions were in the years around WW2.
Finally if you want a complete break from any hint of quality cinema and can take a(fair) bit of blood splashing around, Dead Sushi (wife was a bit “errrrk” but had many chuckles too)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2396429/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Ignore the “5.8” the comments are a bit more positive…and a better guide. Completely disposable but it was funny (has a few draggy scenes) I’d say 7/10. Note I am NOT a fan of gore movies ala
The Machine Girl
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1050160/
RoboGeisha
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1381512/?ref_=nv_sr_1
but silly cartoonish violence that is funny will always get me in.
While on this theme (and back to western cinema) this one was a whole-of-family hit
Cockneys V Zombies
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1362058/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
again “5.9”, but the comments are more relevant….includes the funniest chase sequence I have seen in many many years…is a bit slow to start.
Here’s a local one that I’m sure you’ll have never heard….note the “hit” song goes to 4:42 odd, the second bit is waaaay weaker. Never forgotten this one.
Newcastle at the time was dominated by the BHP steelworks ie a heavy industry town….all closed now of course.
Thanks for a nice morning laugh!
Well it’s time for another intermittent post in thanks for your blog!
We’ve gone aussie here. Heard this for the first time tonight and thought “not too bad”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OQ9U70kI74
Couldn’t shake the feeling that the tine, in part, it was channeling Pink Floyd, this one I think
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVhNCTH8pDs&list=PLw3TLPcaA1OzZnfGVWK0p4wTyA8gH48v6
Let’s do a Hunters and Collectors grab…90’s band so I think it will have escaped you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGBSBoWcH6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD-58aVlPYk
A quieter one but good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CInPaxLU3tw
My fav
classic line-
“we were full of beans
but we were dying like flies”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuCgfC5Q3uA
A bonus ultramodern 2012!! LOL brilliant B&W video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di5AT4MI6BY
a second bonus….one of the vids for Ghosts showed a single cloud and instantly reminded me of this animation from an independent studio I stumbled across a couple of months ago….a 10/10 short IMHO
Hello there! Thanks for many minutes of viewing enjoyment. Will check back in with comments.
Just(?) stumbled across this Ozu free book (can’t remember if I sent the link ages ago, it seems familiar….hmmm I may have in 2016, I’ve got a copy dated thus, anyway…)
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cjs/0920054.0001.001/–ozu-and-the-poetics-of-cinema-david-bordwell?view=toc
You’ve made so many good recommendations over the years. I really must read that Bordwell book. Maybe someday do a total Ozu retrospective binge???!!! Sounds fun.
Well it’s time for another intermittent post in thanks for your blog! (geez nearly 2 months have passed)
Let’s have one of the Oz big 3 bands*….at number 3, The Angels. Don’t think they had great overseas success so these will probably be new
*note I exclude enormously successful ACDC here as though good they never quite “do it” for me.
They were strictly a rock band so I hope these are tolerable even so for ya. Legendary as live performers and as an influence band the latter far greater than their chart success.
First this….rocker but has that something that raises it into “good music” as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AxRIa-KySc
Then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSXYiZsajgI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIIZhWCtKHw
Finally this one, the number one song in Oz IMO that includes an (audience) refrain not in the original but once heard you cannot unhear it. It fits so so perfectly and is sung by every audience everywhere….getting a decent vid is the problem, you will see why
The official (which has the audience turned waaaay down, wonder why LOL)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aozgp2Od7b8
The unofficial….I think the continuing **solo** audience response mid clip says it all re the popularity of this one!…unfortunately iconic frontman “Doc” Neeson had left the band and it really shows, he died the year of this vid.).
Thanks for the introduction to The Angels. No they never made it into my consciousness here back in the day. Love them. Love the audience refrain.
Here’s a band that may not have made it to Australia. Couldn’t be more different to The Angels but I love them. The Magnetic Fields.
Papa Was a Rodeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fllQTBPDalk
The Book of Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkjXr9SrzQE
Fantastic Peter Gabriel cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmnDXRJ7btE
Busby Berkeley Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAwU1RkFqEw
Another post here from me.
Heck this was a good year for Japanese cinema!
Watched this a few nights back just hoping for a decent movie. What a surprise, it was excellent. The lead, Nobuko Otowa, carries this and is absolutely superb…and this from someone who rarely has the nouse to pick up on a performer’s work. I felt this stands up to the best Japanese cinema of its time.
I think you’ll like this one a lot – realistic, well played by all,well shot and plotted – note despite the setting there is no nudity or crudity.
I know 1953 is long past in blog years but this is one to pick up on a look back and looks to be under the radar so to speak (only 43 scorers on IMDB for 7.0).
There are 2 very good English reviews on IMDB – read AFTER watching.
Note has a few titles – Shukuzu, Epitome and Miniature.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046308/
I’d like to see this one. I absolutely loved the director’s Naked Island. It might be on my top 10 of 1960 list. Check it out!
Thanks for the tip, it had slipped off “The List”….now restored.
Let me know how you like it!
Dunno whether I did reply on The Naked Island bit…..thoroughly enjoyed it anyway – boy did those 2 adult leads actors work to play their roles, was exhausted just watching it!
Now another “beneath the radar” from 1953 Japan, Love Letter AKA Koibumi, (IMDB 7.3 but only 118 voters) very well done romance that really hooked me – that and the general air of a unique time in Japan. As a side note the director, Kinuyo Tanaka, was only the second woman to direct a full scale movie in Japan and was unique in having directed multiple features there till the 2000’s. Formerly an actress, “she worked on several movies with Mikio Naruse, Yasujirō Ozu, and also Keisuke Kinoshita” (sorry if you know all this)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinuyo_Tanaka
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407929/
In my humble opinion, Kinuyo Tanaka is one of the really great actresses of world cinema. She also made several masterpieces with Mizoguchi.
…………and here I am again……….amazed there’s no mention of Older Brother, Younger Sister (1953) – Naruse, did you miss it or not like it? Watched it tonight and I cannot decide between ‘great’ or ‘OK, but…’ – may be an ‘it’ll grow on you’. Loved the very very end frames. As I said above ‘Heck this was a good year for Japanese cinema!’
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045507/
I generally like Naruse a lot. Don’t know why I didn’t get to this one. I assume it was not readily available.
Could have been, remembered he was a fav of yours, now consider it “flagged for your attention”
I always like getting your tips.