I’ve now seen 57 films that were released in 1951. A complete list can be found here. A very few films were reviewed only here. It was a good year on the high end but lacking somewhat in depth below that.
Any way, I have fourteen 1951 films that I would call favorites. I reluctantly left out The Prowler, The River, The Man in the White Suit and The African Queen. Another day I would probably slice and dice another way. The ranking is fairly arbitrary as well. Bottom line: These are all films I would watch again any time.
Encore Directed by Harold French, Pat Jackson, and Anthony Pelisser Written by Eric Ambler, T.E.B. Clarke, and Arthur Macrae from stories by W. Somerset Maugham UK/1951 Two Cities Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant
Doctor: That nonsense about Englishwomen being icebergs is a mere fallacy made up by the French.
I’m coming to the tail end of my 1951 viewing. I was so pleased to still have this good film to cap off the year with.
Encore is an anthology of three of Somerset Maugham’s short stories, each with a different director and writer. The first two are in a comic vein. “The Ant and the Grasshopper” is about a wastrel’s (Nigel Patrick) series of successful con jobs to get money from his stuffy elder bother. My favorite, “Winter Cruise”, is about a prim shopkeeper (Kay Walsh) who drives everybody on board crazy with her incessant chatter. On the return voyage, she is the only passenger and the crew decides that only a shipboard romance will shut her up. The final story is a drama incongruously called “Gigolo and Gigolette”. A high-wire artist (Glynis Johns) and her husband have struck it rich with a very dangerous act in which she dives into a flaming pool of water only five feet deep. The story explores what happens when she suddenly loses her nerve.
An unrecognizable Kay Walsh
I thought all the stories were clever and well-acted. I laughed out loud more than a couple of times at the one with Kay Walsh. My husband liked the movie very much too. Recommended.
Royal Wedding Directed by Stanley Donen Written by Alan Jay Lerner 1951/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] How could I ever close the door/ And be the same as I was before?/ Darling, no, no I can’t anymore/ It’s too late now — lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner[/box]
This has a couple of Fred Astaire’s most famous dance numbers and a couple of good songs. The story sort of lets the whole thing down.
The brother and sister team of Tom (Astaire) and Ellen (Jane Powell) Bowen are just closing their hit Broadway show. They get an offer to perform in London while the town is abuzz with the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth with Prince Philip. Ellen is quite the flirt and has about a dozen guys on a string. This all changes when she meets playboy Lord John Brindale on their Atlantic crossing.
Tom tries to be a strict task master but Ellen wants to spend all her time with John. He meets cute with Anne Ashmond (Sarah Churchill) on the street and their relationship picks up when she tries out for the show. She turns out to be engaged to an American she hasn’t heard from in awhile. With Keenan Wynne in a dual role as the Bowen’s American manager and his own English twin brother.
This is the one with Astaire’s iconic dancing with a coatrack and dancing on the ceiling numbers. It also has a couple of standards by Burton Lane and Allen Jay Lerner. Unfortunately, the parts in between the numbers is so much dead weight. The John-Ellen relationship has zero conflict and Sara Churchill is so bland I just couldn’t care less about the Tom-Anne romance. Keenan Wynne makes a pretty pathetic upper-crust Englishman.
Judy Garland had been slated for the role of Ellen but was fired from the film for “personal problems”. Her contract with MGM ened shortly thereafter.
Royal Wedding was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song for “Too Late Now.”
Clip – “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life” – longest song title in Hollywood history
Bonus track: Judy Garland singing “Too Late Now” on her TV show
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
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