Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

The Ten Commandments
Directed by Cecil B. de Mille
Written by Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss and Fredric M. Frank from a number of novels
1956/USA
Motion Picture Associates
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Moses: A city is built of brick, Pharoah. The strong make many, the starving make few. The dead make none. So much for accusations.

This is a 3 1/2 hour Cecil B. DeMille biblical epic.  That practically insures I will not be a fan. Nonetheless, the special effects and the sheer scale of the thing managed to keep my attention.

The first and last parts of the film are from the Biblical story.  The adult life of Moses as Prince of Egypt is made up. A soothsayer tells Pharaoh that a child has been born that will deliver the Hebrews from slavery so he decides to kill all the newborn Hebrew infants. Seeking to save her baby son, Moses’ mother (Martha Scott) puts him in a basket and floats him down the Nile.  He is discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter (Nina Foch), a childless widow.  Her handservant (Judith Anderson) is sworn to secrecy.

Moses is raised as a prince. His general nobility endears him to the current Pharoah, Sethi (Cedric Hardwick) and Princess Nefretiri (Anne Baxter).  The Pharoah’s other son Ramses (Yul Brenner) is determined to be the next Pharoah and is extremely jealous.  Sethi is not too pleased with Ramses who has not finished the city he promised to build.  Ramses blames this on the laziness, etc. of the Hebrew slave workers.  Sethi sends Moses to oversee the construction.  He takes pity on the Hebrews.  Eventually, he finds out his true identity.

This is really too long and complicated to summarize in more detail.  We have Nefertiri’s lust, a romance between the Hebrew stonecutter Joshua and a beautiful waterbearer, the perfidy of Hebrew overseer Dathan (Edward G. Robinson), the exile of Moses and his later romance with Jethro’s daughter Sephora (Yvonne DeCarlo), and then the plagues of Egypt and the Exodus.  With Vincent Price, John Carradine, and seemingly every actor that worked with DeMille during his long career.

A lot of the dialogue seems laughable today but it has a kind of slightly campy appeal.  A lot of the acting was overdone.  Yet the whole thing has a kind of irresistible grandeur that keeps you watching.

The DVD came with an adulatory commentary from a film historian who got much of her information from conversations with associate producer and actor Henry Wilcoxson. There were a lot of interesting tidbits.  She says that DeMille saw this as a Civil Rights film. I was charmed to learn that Yul Brenner came by his physique naturally.  He didn’t exercise or count calories.  Cecil B. DeMille ended his career with his most profitable and acclaimed film.  There are very few directors that can claim that distinction, especially after so many productions.

The Ten Commandments won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Sound, Recording; and Best Film Editing.

Written on the Wind
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Written by George Zuckerman based on a novel by Robert Wilder
1956/USA
Universal International Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#321 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Kyle Hadley: You’re a filthy liar.
Marylee Hadley: I’m filthy – period!

Dorothy Malone matches the Technicolor in outrageous intensity!  This melodrama is a lot of trashy fun.

Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) is an alcoholic playboy and ne’er-do-well.  He is the heir to a vast Texas oil fortune earned by his level-headed father (Robert Keith).  Old man Hadley had tried to tame his son by also raising the smarter, handsomer, more capable, but poor Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson).  But now the father is at the point of giving up on both of his children including his wild daughter Marylee, who spends her time drinking in dives and picking up men.

As the film begins, Mitch meets Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall), an executive secretary at a fashion magazine owned by the Hadley empire.  He takes her to meet Kyle and Kyle decides to make her his latest conquest by plying her with presents.  But Lucy is not about to be conquered this way.  She leaves the playboy flat and he reconsiders and opens up to her.  They fall in love and marry and for awhile it looks like she is straightening him out.

In the meantime, we find out that Marylee has been in love with Mitch since she was a girl. A lot of her acting out is done out of spite.  But Mitch thinks of her as his sister and is secretly in love with Lucy.  The story builds to a crescendo as the sibling rivalry (counting Mitch as one of the siblings) plays out in the most dramatic way possible.

I have mentioned my favorite parts of this film – the eye-popping color and Malone.  I just love that bright red convertible Marylee drives and Kyle’s orange sportscar.  Marylee’s costumes are also fabulous.  The scenery, especially the autumn foliage by a river, is also glorious.  Malone takes her character straight over the top in the most enjoyable way possible.  I love her mambo or whatever it was.  Recommended for fans of this kind of thing.

Dorothy Malone won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Stack) and Best Music, Original Song (“Written on the Wind”).

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Bob le Flambeur
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville and Auguste Le Breton
1956/France
Organisation Generale Cinematographique/Play Art/Productions Cyme
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#314 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Roger: Locks are like pretty ladies. You need to practise to know them

This is more style than substance but oh what style!

Bob Montagne (Roger Duchasne) is called “Le Flambeur” because of his reputation as a high roller.  He has returned to Montmartre after twenty years in prison for a bank heist. He now lives a fairly quiet life as a minor local celebrity.  He has adopted a young gangster, Paolo.  Early in our story, he picks up another stray, Anne, an under-age charmer with the face of an angel and a heart of steel.  Paolo immediately hits on Anne and Bob is contented to let the relationship take its course. Bob is also a friend of Commissaire Ledru, the local police inspector whose life he saved.

Bob’s immediate problem is a string of bad luck in gambling.  When he gets down to his last 200 francs, he learns of a rich haul that will be in the safe of the casino at Deauville on Grand Prix day.  Bob puts together a gang for one last heist.  He seems to have all the bases covered. Of course a criminal never knows whether he can really trust his friends, his enemies, or himself.

Melville shot one of the most evocatively photographed film noirs ever made outside America.  One striking composition follows another.  I find a lot of the plot points don’t ring quite true but who cares when you get 98 minutes of non-stop eye candy.  I love the score too.

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Giant
Directed by George Stevens
Written by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffitt from the novel by Edna Ferber
1956/USA
Giant Productions/Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix
#325 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Leslie Benedict: Money isn’t everything, Jett.
Jett Rink: Not when you’ve got it.

George Stevens gives us an epic on a very human scale.

The story begins in Maryland where rancher Jordan ‘Bick’ Benedict, Jr. (Rock Hudson) has traveled to purchase a prize hunter.  He winds up leaving with both the horse and its rider, the beautiful and feisty Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor).  The enormously wealthy Bick takes them back to his massive cattle ranch in the dusty heartland of Texas.  Leslie is met by Bick’s sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), who expects to continue running the household.

Leslie has to adjust to a totally new set of expectations.  She never completely does so.  One thing that she can’t get used to is the way the Texans treat their Mexican and Mexican-American employees.

Leslie feels a closer kinship with fellow outsider Jett Rink (James Dean), an equally fierce Texan with dreams above his station.  For his part, Jett makes no secret of his attraction to Leslie.  When Luz dies she leaves Jett a parcel of land he refuses to part with at any price. After many setbacks, he hits oil, gets rich, and feels he can now lord it over the gentry.  He may have more money but that is definitely not enough to ingratiate him with the Benedicts and their ilk.

The saga encompasses 25 years in the lives of these people, including ups and downs in the Benedicts marriage and two generations of their descendents.  With Dennis Hopper as the Benedicts’ son; Carol Baker as their wild daughter; Sal Mineo as the son of the Mexican foreman; Jane Withers as a neighbor and Chill Wills as a friend of the family.

I liked this much better than I expected to.  I was especially impressed with Elizabeth Taylor and with the proto-feminist message of the film.  Hudson is solid.  I thought Dean was somewhat miscast. He has the outcast role nailed but not so much the two-fisted tycoon.   I think I’ve missed out completely on seeing Carol Baker before this.  The seduction scene with fellow Actor’s Studio alumnus Dean is wonderful.  She is really a force of nature and I’m looking forward to Baby Doll now.   The time passed easily.

George Stevens won the Academy Award for Best Director.  Giant was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor (Dean); Best Actor (Hudson); Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge); Best Writing, Best Screenplay – Adapted; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

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The Searchers
Directed by John Ford
Written by Frank S. Nugent from the novel by Alan Le May
1956/USA
Warner Bros./C.V. Whitney Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#318 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Reverend Clayton: You wanna quit, Ethan?
Ethan: That’ll be the day.

My husband said “It’s that sad Western, isn’t it?” That’s right.  Also the really beautiful one with the great John Wayne performance.

Ethan Edwards (Wayne) comes home to the Texas wilderness three years after the Civil War.  He has a cache of Yankee gold which he never really explains, giving him a mysterious air.  “Home” is the household of his brother Aaron, sister-in-law Martha, nieces Lucy and Debbie, blood nephew Ben and adopted nephew Martin Pawley.  Wordlessly, we learn that Martha and Ethan have feelings for each other.  Also that Ethan resents Martin for his 1/8 Cherokee heritage.  Lucy is being courted by Brad Jorgenson (Harry Carey Jr.), son of Swedish settler Lars Jorgenson (John Qualen).  Martin is shyly courting Jorgenson’s daughter Laurie (Vera Miles).  Debbie is maybe ten years old.

On the very night of Ethan’s return, Rev. Samuel Clayton (Ward Bond) comes to call.  Clayton is also a Captain in the Texas Rangers and is there to deputize Martin and Aaron on a mission to chase some Indians who have slaughtered Jorgenson’s cattle.  Ethan volunteers to take Aaron’s place.  It turns out that the rustling was a trick to draw the men away from their homes.  By the time Ethan and Martin can return to the Edwards homestead the Indians have burned the place down.  They find the bodies of Aaron, Martha, and Ben.  Lucy and Debbie have been spirited away to some unspeakable fate.

The Raiders set out on the trail of the war party.  Clayton and Ethan clash over strategy, Ethan always favoring the most brutal method, and eventually the Raiders go home leaving Ethan and Martin to search on their own.

So begins a search that lasts many years.  Martin and Ethan spar throughout.  Martin is determined to stick with Ethan to the end though as he fears that Ethan will kill Debbie if he finds she has adopted Indian ways.  With Olive Carey, Hank Worden, and Wayne’s son Patrick.

I seem to love this film more every time I see it.  The vistas and compositions leave me awestruck.  It’s also a powerful story of racism in the old West along with the bravery and strength of the people who conquered it.  Wayne was never better.  He has a taciturn, savage edge  that complements his heroism.  Most highly recommended.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by John Michael Hayes; story by Charles Bennett and D.B. Wyndham-Lewis
1956/USA
Paramount Pictures/Filwite Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#328 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Ambassador: You have muddled everything from the start, taking that child with you from Marrakesh. Don’t you realize that Americans dislike having their children stolen?[/box]

I like this middle-range Hitchcock more on each viewing.

Dr. Benjamin McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Jo (Doris Day), and their son Hank are on vacation in Morocco following time in Paris for a medical convention.  Jo has retired from a stage career to be a full-time mother.

While they are riding on the bus to Marrakesh, Hank accidentally bumps into a lady, dislodging her veil.  Her irate husband goes to retrieve it and yells at the boy in French, which no one in the family understands.  Fellow passenger Louis Bernard translates and soothes the man.  He then strikes up a conversation with Ben and through casual questions manages to find out all about the family.  He arranges to dine with them that evening.  Later, Jo tells Ben about her suspicions of Bernard and his questions.

Bernard bows out of dinner and the McKennas go out on their own.  They notice another couple, the Draytons, whom they previously spotted at their hotel, staring at them.  They are relieved to find they had seen Jo on stage in London and end up dining together.  Then they see Pierre walk into the restaurant on the arm of a beautiful woman.

The McKennas go sightseeing with the Draytons the next day.  Before long, they witness the murder of a man in Arab garb.  This turns out to be Bernard in brown face, who whispers a message to Ben about an assassination to take place in London.  Ben is taken in by the police for questioning and Mrs. Drayton takes Hank back to the hotel.  While Ben and Jo are with the police, he gets a call saying that Hank will be in danger if Ben tells anything to the police about the message.  The couple return to the hotel to find their son missing and the Draytons nowhere to be found.

The rest of the story follows Ben and Jo’s desperate search for their boy through London. The movie culminates with a famous set piece in Albert Hall.  With Brenda de Banzie as Mrs. Drayton and Bernard Miles as Mr. Drayton.

I like Jo’s character a lot in this movie and Day plays her to perfection.  It’s nice that she is the one with the best ideas and instincts.  Stewart is great too and it was a treat to see Miles as a villain.  It’s also nice to see all the exotic scenery filmed as only Hitchcock can.  There are a lot of gaps in the plot, such as why Bernard was so interested in Ben in the first place, but that’s only to be expected in this kind of thing.

The Man Who Knew Too Much won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song (“Qué Será Será).

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High Society
Directed by Charles Walters
Written by John Patrick from a play by Phillio Barry
1956/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sol C. Siegel Productions, Bing Crosby Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
#327 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] DEXTER and MIKE: Have you heard? / It’s in the stars/ Next July we collide with Mars/ Well, did you evah?/ What a swell party this is! — Lyrics by Cole Porter[/box]

It would take quite some remake to match up to the delights of The Philadelphia Story. This isn’t it.

The plot follows the original closely.  The story takes place in the run-up to the Newport Jazz Festival and Louis Armstrong provides a kind of musical commentary. Society beauty Tracy Samantha Lord (Grace Kelly) is marrying social climber George Kitteredge (John Lund).  Her ex-husband, composer C.K. Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby) is still in love with her and has shown up to throw some spanners in the works.

In the background, Tracy’s father has been involved in a scandal with a ballet dancer. Tracy wants nothing more to do with him, though her mother is more forgiving.  A gossip magazine called Spy has gotten wind of the story and threatens to publish the dirt unless its reporter, Mike Connor (Frank Sinatra), and photographer, Liz Imbry (Celeste Holm), are allowed to cover the wedding.  Tracy leads the magazine people on a merry chase until she starts succumbing to Mike’s charms.

Will Tracy make it to the altar?  If you have seen the 1940 film you will know all the answers.

I like the entire cast of this movie.  (It was a kick to see John Lund again after all those Bulldog Drummond movies!).  But there’s just no way they could do anything but fall flat in comparison with Hepburn, Stewart, and Grant.  I thought Grace Kelly was particularly off.  The dialogue and acting just lacks the bite of the earlier movie.  Comparisons are odious but they were invited here.  My enjoyment was moderate.

High Society was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Music, Original Song (“True Love”) and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.  It was Grace Kelly’s final feature film before retiring from show business.  It was also Louis Calhern’s last film.

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The Burmese Harp (Biruma no tategoto)
Directed by Kon Ichikawa
Written by Natto Wada from a novel by Michio Takeyama
1956/Japan
Nikkatsu
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#319 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Captain Inouye: The songs uplifted our spirits and sometimes our hearts.[/box]

This film really got me where I live.  I found it to be a spiritual experience.

Captain Inoye and his men are serving in Burma during the last days of World War II.  He keeps morale up by leading them in choral singing.  One of their favorite numbers, believe it or not, is “There’s No Place Like Home” (I may never be able to listen to this again without tearing up). One of the men, Mizushima, has taught himself to play the Burmese harp beautifully and accompanies the singing.  He is sent out as a scout in native Burmese garb, and everyone remarks on how Burmese he looks.

The war ends and the Japanese are about to march off to a camp.  The British contact Inoye and inform him that there is a group of Japanese still fighting in the hills that apparently have not heard of the surrender.  Inoye sends Mizushima off to talk them into giving up.  He makes contact but they refuse to believe there has been a surrender or to stop fighting.  The British basically wipe out the platoon.  Mizushima survives.

Mizushima begins to walk south to rejoin his comrades in the camp.  He acquires a monk’s robes on the way.  After several days his robes are in rags and he is out of food.  The Burmese people, believing he is a monk, feed him.  He comes across the bodies of Japanese soldiers which are being devoured by vultures.  He tries to bury them but he has no tools and there are simply too many.  He keeps encountering masses of dead on his journey.

Mizushima gets to the camp and witnesses a group of British nurses singing at the burial of a Japanese soldier who has died in camp.  Still in his robes, he turns back north, feeling compelled to bury the dead. When Mizushima fails to return Capt. Inoye begins to be obsessed with worry.   I will not tell any more of the plot.  I defy anyone to have dry eyes by the end.

The sadness, tenderness and compassion in this film was almost overwhelming to me. The simple, moving story is highlighted with some of the most beautiful music, both instrumental and choral, anywhere.  The stunning imagery completes the picture.  Very highly recommended.

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Japanese trailer – no subtitles

Bigger Than Life
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Written by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum from an article by Burton Roueche
1956/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental
#323 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Ed Avery: God was wrong![/box]

Nicholas Ray makes this more than an expose on the dangers of cortisone.

Ed Avery (James Mason) is an elementary school teacher.  His meager salary forces him to moonlight part-time as a taxi cab dispatcher.  He doesn’t tell his wife Lou (Barbara Rush) out of shame.  The couple will have a communication problem throughout the movie.  They have a son named Richie.

Ed has been having bouts of severe pain.  One day, he collapses.  He is hospitalized and the doctors finally determine that he has a rare arterial disease that will probably kill him.  Cortisone is being used as an experimental treatment and seems to be effective.  Ed goes back to work and feels ten feet tall.  Despite his doctor’s warnings, he is careless about his dosage and begins taking too much. Then the abuse becomes intentional.

Ed starts spouting reactionary notions about education and children.  He feels superior to everyone, especially his long suffering wife, and becomes truly scary to live with.  Finally, a friend (Walter Matthau) investigates and finds that the cortisone may be the problem.  By now, Ed has become impossible to talk to and then he becomes scarier still …

Everyone in this movie has secrets. Lou has been trained to be subservient and to conceal what she really thinks.  Both of the partners feel they must hide any problem from the school.  I thought the movie was more a subversive look at the underbelly of ’50s suburbia than about the drug abuse.

Ray was a master of both widescreen and color and the film looks beautiful.  It is as full of ominous shadows as any film noir.  I had a hard time buying Mason as a middle-class American school teacher but despite the miscasting he is superb.  Recommended.

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A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veu)
Directed by Robert Bresson
Written by Robert Bresson from a memoir by André Devigny
1956/France
Gaumont/Nouvelles Editions de Films
First viewing/Netflix rental
#322 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Le lieutenant Fontaine: I laughed nervously which soothed me.[/box]

This prison escape movie transcends its genre.

We first meet Lt. Fontaine in a car on his way to prison with another prisoner and his Nazi guards.  Fontaine makes his first escape when the car stops for a trolley but is immediately captured.  When he gets to prison, he is beaten to within of his life.  He begins planning for his jailbreak immediately.

We follow Fontaine’s preparations in minute detail.  We also watch the prisoners help and encourage each other.  Fontaine proves to be an inspiration for those with less ambition.  But his plans depend on being in the same cell and circumstances.  A trip to the city for sentencing throws the whole enterprise into doubt.

This spare, unsentimental film is both a suspenseful rendering of the execution of an escape and an existential allegory for the struggle of the human spirit.  It emphasizes the need to keep moving forward with action and also deals with issues of trust and compassion.  Bresson’s images are always stark but stunning and we get a haunting Mozart score to round out the picture.  Recommended.

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Criterion Collection: Three Reasons