Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

White Heat
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Ivan Goff and Bob Roberts; suggested by a story by Virginia Kellogg
1949/USA
Warner Bros.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#227 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Verna Jarrett: It’s always “somebody tipped them.” Never “the cops are smart.”[/box]

I wish somebody had bottled James Cagney’s energy and stayed around to sell it to me! This is one of the all-time best gangster pictures and it’s 90% Cagney’s.

As the movie begins, Cody Jarrett (Cagney) and his gang pull off a train heist.  The leader’s psychopathic brutality is revealed by his gratuitous murders of the engineers and abandonment of one of his own men who was badly burned by steam during the robbery. Cody’s heart belongs to Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly), who is the only one that can soothe the raging headaches that turn him into a wimpering baby.  She evidently had practice with Cody’s father, who died in an insane asylum.  Cody’s affection for his sexy, vulgar, lazy, two-timing wife Verna (perfectly portrayed by Virginia Mayo) is a distant second in his priorities.  He’d as soon give her a kick as a kiss.

The gang spends several weeks in hiding while Verna whines about not being able to have any fun with their money and makes eyes at second-in-command Big Ed (Steve Cochran). Finally, the cops take to trailing Ma using radio transmitters.  Cody decides to take the heat off by turning himself in for a minor robbery committed at the same time as the train job and serving a short prison sentence.

The cops are wise and assign veteran Hank Fallon (Edmond O’Brien) to masquerade as Vic Pardo, a fellow prisoner, and get close to Cody.  This works better than anyone could have imagined.  Pardo becomes a sort of substitute Ma for Cody in jail.  When the two eventually escape together Cody treats him like a brother.

After dealing with Big Ed’s treachery, Cody is up for his next job.  The boys have purchased an oil tanker they plan to use in a payroll heist at chemical plant.  Cody decides to use it as a Trojan Horse for an even bigger operation.  Fallon/Pardo tries to get the word out to the police while in constant danger of blowing his cover.  The movie has one of the most memorable endings in film history.  With Fred Clark as a money launderer.

I had seen this before and thought the movie might suffer from its fairly detailed coverage of police procedure.  Not so.  Walsh manages to keep the energy up even as we learn all about radio technology.  Cagney is simply brilliant.  He is as white hot as the title.  Mayo and Wycherly both wring every bit of juice out of their characters.  O’Brien makes a great straight man if not much more.  The many action sequences are gripping.  Highly recommended.

White Heat was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.

Trailer

Clip – Cody’s reaction to bad news

Kind Hearts and Coronets
Directed by Robert Hamer
Written by Robert Hamer and James Dighton from a novel by Roy Horniman
1949/UK
Ealing Studios
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
#231 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Louis Mazzini: The next morning I went out shooting with Ethelred – or rather, to watch Ethelred shooting; for my principles will not allow me to take a direct part in blood sports.[/box]

As the film opens, the Duke of D’Ascoyne (Dennis Price) is calmly awaiting his execution.  He has just completed his memoirs, which detail his strange ascent to the title.  We segue into flashback.

The Duke was born of the union of a daughter of the then-duke with an Italian opera singer and christened Louis Mazzini.  His mother was promptly disowned by her family and a couple of different attempts at reconciliation following the death of her husband were rebuffed.  Louis grew up steeped in the family history and aware of the remote chance that he could yet become Duke himself.  The refusal of the Duke to allow his mother’s burial in the family crypt is the spark that lights Louis’s determination to eliminate every D’Ascoyne standing between him and the peerage.

Following his mother’s death, Louis becomes a lowly draper and moves in with a neighbor. There he spends many happy hours with his childhood sweetheart Sibella (Joan Greenwood).  She, however, elects to marry the loathsome Lionel for his money.  Their dalliance, however, resumes quickly after the wedding.

The bulk of the story is devoted to Louis’s imaginative murders of the eight D’Ascoynes standing in his way.  These are all played by Alec Guiness to great effect.  After he is close to his prize, Louis decides that Edith (Valerie Hobson), widow of the youngest D’Ascoyne to die, will make an ideal Duchess.  His failure to predict the full fury of Sibella’s wrath has landed him in the condemned man’s cell.  But there may yet be a way out …

This is a bone dry British comedy with many digs at the English aristocracy.  I find it more wry than laugh out loud hilarious though I did giggle at the executioner’s lines.  Its great drawing card is the multiple roles taken on by Guinness who disappears, chameleon like, into characters of every age, sex, and occupation.  I am also in love with the archly purring Joan Greenwood and her ridiculous hats.  Recommended.

Trailer

The Heiress
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz from their play and suggested by the novel Washington Square by Henry James
1949/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
#229 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Mrs. Montgomery: I think, Doctor, that you expect too much of people. If you do you’ll always be disappointed.[/box]

For some reason I waited until now before seeing this great movie.  I was looking forward to the acting and was pleased to find it was pretty thought-provoking as well.

Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson) lost his beautiful accomplished wife in childbirth.  He never considered the awkward, shy daughter he got in exchange a fair trade.  Still, he is kind and tries to encourage Catherine (Olivia DeHavilland) to exert herself in society. Catherine already is the possessor of $10,000 a year she inherited from her mother and stands to inherit an additional $20,000 a year on the death of her father.  This would make her quite a catch if she were able to master anything but the needlepoint she works on incessantly.  Catherine’s widowed aunt Lavinia comes to live in the Sloper house one winter and takes Catherine under her wing.

At a dance in which Catherine is suffering the agonies of a perennial wallflower she is asked to dance by the personable Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift).  Morris has just returned from Europe where he spent is entire small inheritance in enjoying what the Continent had to offer to its fullest.  He is apparently unfit for any form of gainful employment.  Just why is never made entirely clear.  He is well-spoken, handsome and cultivated.  He soon showers Catherine with his attentions and before long declares his love for her.

Dr. Sloper instantly brands Morris a gold-digger and sets out to prove it.  He invites the young man’s sister to tea and confirms his suspicions with a few well placed questions.  He tries to dissuade Catherine from marrying Morris tactfully.  This proves futile.  Catherine loves Morris with all her heart and is convinced he loves her.  Dr. Sloper is forced to baldly state his conviction that Catherine has nothing to offer a man than her money.  Catherine is aghast at this revelation, decides her father has never loved her, rejects her inheritance and sets out to elope with her lover.

This does not match up with Morris’s plans for a marriage.  Catherine devotes the rest of her life to revenge on all those who have wronged her.

Considering its source material I should have been prepared for something more than the obvious melodrama of the surface plot.  I was left wondering at the complexities of the characters we find here.  Was the father really such a monster or was he honestly trying to protect his daughter?  He could not help comparing her to his late wife but at the same time seemed actually concerned with Catherine’s welfare.  Morris did apparently seem to lack every quality but charm and looks.  On the other hand, how could we know what kind of marriage the two would have made?  Would Morris have been willing to treat Catherine well in exchange for the money?  Catherine evidently thinks so in the end.  The moral seems to be that the truth hurts.  Is the pain necessary or honorable?  Perhaps I need to read the novel to find out.  Knowing my James, I suspect he will he keep his cards hidden.

Wyler and his cast are well up to the material.  Very highly recommended.

The Heiress won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actress; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Aaron Copland).  It was nominated for Best Picture; Best Director; Best Supporting Actor (Richardson); and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.

Trailer

Louisiana Story
Directed by Robert J. Flaherty
Written by Robert J. Flaherty and Frances H. Flaherty
1948/USA
Robert Flaherty Productions Inc.
First viewing/Netflix rental
#224 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] There’s a saying among prospectors: ‘Go out looking for one thing, and that’s all you’ll ever find.’ Robert J. Flaherty [/box]

A beautiful look at a bygone place and time on the edge of modernity.

This is an almost wordless look at a boy’s adventures in the backwaters of the Louisiana bayou.  He hunts and fishes from a canoe accompanied by his pet raccoon.  All is peaceful until he is forced to do battle with a huge alligator.

The bigger threat may be an oil rig that has just arrived to drill.  The boy seems to welcome the incredibly noisy contraption however.    He forms a silent bond with the crew on the rig and even tries to help out using the talisman of salt he carries as insurance against “them”.

UCLA did an incredible job restoring this film.  It is an lovely, meditative work. Nowadays it would be a “message” film.  Then it was a poem.   I had to slow way down to appreciate it.

Louisiana Story was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.

Excerpt from UCLA’s restored version

The Paleface
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Written by Edmund L. Hartmann, Frank Tashlin, and Jack Rose
1948/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#218 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Potter: Brave men run in my family. [/box]

This might just be Bob Hope’s best film.  Is that enough to require seeing it before you die?

The federal government springs outlaw sharp-shooter Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) from prison to work on a highly secret mission to uncover a gang that is smuggling dynamite to the Indians.  She is to meet up with a federal agent and they are to pose as husband and wife.  The agent is killed and Jane picks out the closest male as a substitute.  The hapless dupe is ‘Painless’ Peter Potter (Hope), a nervous new dentist.  He is happy to get out of town, having pulled the wrong tooth of a real brute.  To his happy surprise, Jane claims he proposed marriage when was passed out.  They marry and set out West with a wagon train.

On the way, they lose track of the rest of the wagons and end up spending their wedding night in an abandoned shack.  This is the first of the many times Jane resorts to conking Peter over the head to avoid his amorous advances.  In the morning, they are besieged by Indians.  Peter defend the cabin with a rifle but it is Jane that actually dispatches their attackers.  She credits Peter and his skill with a gun is a running gag.

The pair continues on only to be captured later by Indians.  This is a comedy so it should be no surprise that the day is saved and Jane develops a soft spot for her erstwhile husband.

This is really pretty amusing and there are just enough songs to entertain without making the movie a musical.  It’s no worse than many of the other comedies on The List but nothing I would want to see more than once or twice.  This picture resurrected Jane Russell’s career after the notorious debut of her bosoms in The Outlaw.

Jay Livingston and Ray Evans won the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song for “Buttons and Bows”.

The story was remade in 1968 as The Shakiest Gun in the West starring Don Knotts.

Bob Hope sings “Button and Bows”, the second Best Original Song he sang in one of his movies – interestingly, this is better known in versions performed by women

Spring in a Small Town
Directed by Mu Fei
Written by Tianji Li
1948/China
Wenhua Film Company
First viewing/Youtube
#216 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” ― Pablo Neruda[/box]

This story of unconsummated love was not aided by a scratchy print.

Unfortunately I am unclear on the character names.  A woman has the same routine day after day.  She goes to a nearby town to buy groceries and herbal medicine then walks home on the ruined city wall.  Then she takes the medicine to her husband, often without exchanging words with him, and after that takes up her needlework.  The husband is suffering from tuberculosis but, more importantly, has been severely depressed since the war destroyed the main house on his property.  He does little but worry about his health. Husband and wife sleep in separate rooms.  The husband’s teenage sister lives with them.

Then one day, a friend that the husband has not seen for ten years comes for a visit.  The visitor is now a medical doctor.  He traveled all over China during the long war.  Unbeknownst to anyone, he is also the first and only love of his friend’s wife.

The two lovers are magnetically attracted to each other.  They cannot stay apart but neither can they bring themselves to betray the husband, who seems to have returned to life due to his friend’s visit.  When the husband finally figures out what is going on, he takes action that will bring matters to a head.

This has been voted the best Chinese film ever made.  It certainly had its moments but it also seemed to drag on interminably at only 103 minutes.  I opted to watch on YouTube rather than buy the DVD and was stuck with scratchy print and iffy sound.  Other reviews I have read suggest the DVD available in the US may not be much better.  The below trailer seems to show the BFI version may be the one to see.

Trailer to BFI DVD

Letter from an Unknown Woman
Directed by Max Ophüls
Written by Howard Koch; story by Stefan Zweig
1948/USA
Rampart Productions
Repeat viewing/YouTube
#213 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Stefan Brand: And I don’t even know where you live. Promise me you won’t vanish.

Lisa Berndl: I won’t be the one who vanishes.[/box]

For me, the outstanding aspect of this film is the beautiful visuals.  Unfortunately, I was reduced to watching it in a very dodgy print on YouTube.  How could they let this classic go out of print?

The setting is Vienna at the turn of the last century.  As the movie opens, handsome, world-weary Stefan Brand is returning from a night on the town with a couple of friends. They are to serve as seconds in a duel he has been challenged to fight.  It seems that this is a frequent occurrence for the womanizing Brand.  The friends warn him his opponent is an excellent shot.  They agree to pick him up in three hours.

As he enters his apartment, Brand tells his valet to pack his belongings for an indefinite stay abroad.  He plans to be gone within the hour.  But the valet hands him a mysterious letter in an unknown hand beginning “By the time you read this, I may be dead …”.  As he starts to read the letter, we hear the voice of the writer, Lisa Brendle (Joan Fontaine) explaining who she is and what she has been to Brand.  We segue into flashback.

It seems that as a young teenager Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine) became intrigued by Brand when she saw movers hauling his piano up to his apartment next to hers.  Once she glimpses the pianist’s handsome face, she is a goner.  She spends years mooning over him from a distance. She builds her life around this stranger, who does not know she exists, to the extent that she considers herself “not free” to accept a marriage proposal.

Lisa grows up to be a beauty and begins working as a dressmaker’s mannequin.  She continues to spend all her evenings hanging around Brand’s apartment building in hopes of seeing him.  Then she does and her troubles really begin.  Brand is attracted and the two spend several evenings together.  Then he goes on a concert tour, promising to return in a couple of weeks.  Naturally, she finds herself pregnant and does not see the cad again for several years.

Fate smiles on Lisa and she marries a wealthy man who loves her despite her past, her son, and her continuing obsession for Brand.  Is Lisa satisfied?  Nooooo ….

If you believe that there is one deep, redemptive and eternal love out there for everyone and that this love can be discovered listening to a piano through an apartment wall, have I got a movie for you!  At least the scriptwriter believed these things and the story plays out as Stefan Brand’s tragedy.  The tragedy is that he was unaware of this love until too late.  If he had known, he could have saved himself from becoming the shallow wastrel that he is.

Unfortunately, I cannot help but see the story as Lisa’s tragedy, stemming perhaps from some type of mental illness.  Or perhaps it was just the times and gender expectations that led to her downfall.  At any rate, she seems like the kind of person that would develop into a stalker in a more modern context.

All that said, the acting is all very good and Ophuls makes the whole thing look lushly romantic.  I rated the film very highly on my previous viewing.  It was very hard to appreciate the visuals on YouTube.  If the story appeals, you will likely love it.

Trailer

Red River
Directed by Howard Hawks and Arthur Rossen
Written by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee from a story by Chase
1948/USA
Charles K. Feldman Group/Monterey Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#217 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Sims Reeves: Plantin’ and readin’, plantin’ and readin’. Fill a man full o’ lead, stick him in the ground an’ then read words on him. Why, when you’ve killed a man, why try to read the Lord in as a partner on the job?[/box]

I find this to be two-thirds iconic cattle drive/man vs. nature Western and one-third highly irritating romance.

Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) is a tough-as-nails Indian scout.  He departs the wagon train he has been protecting to search for cattle land and leaves his sweetheart (Colleen Grey) behind.  She is almost immediately killed in an Indian attack and he becomes tougher still.

Eventually, Dunson and sidekick Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan) find promising ranch land near the Rio Grande.  Although this is a Mexican land grant estate, Dunson lays claim to it by killing the owner’s agent and challenging all comers to try and oust him.  Soon after, Matt Garth, an equally tough boy who has been orphaned in another Indian attack, turns up.  Dunson basically adopts him.

Segue to 14 years later and Matt (Montgomery Clift) has returned from service in the Civil War.  Dunson has amassed a huge herd of cattle but there is no market whatever for them in the South.  He has decided to attempt what has never been done before and make the 1,000 mile journey to a railroad crossing in Missouri.  Matt helps him recruit cowboys for the job.  Dunson announces to all that there will be no pay unless the cattle drive is successful and that they are signed up for the duration.

The journey is fraught with danger, a stampede, and bad weather.  Dunson becomes increasingly obsessed and deranged, a la Captain Ahab in Moby Dick or Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty.  As the supplies run out and the men tire, he ruthlessly makes examples of all who even suggest quitting.  Dunson tries his execution tactics once too often and Matt feels he has no choice but to commandeer the cattle and men and change course for a closer destination in Kansas where he is convinced he will find another rail head.  Dunson vows to murder Matt for his mutiny.

On the way to Kansas, Matt runs across a traveling troupe of city clickers (AKA slickers).  While enjoying their hospitality, the party is attacked by Indians.  Matt and Tess Millay (Joanne Dru) fall in love by sparring during the battle.  He tells her about his history with Dunson.  The men then continue their drive toward Kansas.

Dunson is not far behind, on Matt’s trail with a posse of killers.  Tess is unable to talk him out of his murderous intent but does convince him to take her with him.  Everyone meets up for a final show-down in Kansas.  With John Ireland as Matt’s friend and rival, Harry Carey Sr. as a cattle buyer, and Harry Carey Jr. as a doomed cowpoke.

I think this is one of the best Westerns ever made right up until Joanne Dru’s character enters the picture.  I don’t know whether it’s the actress or her dialogue but I find her incredibly annoying with all her instant character analysis and pronouncements.  The ending sequence also verges on the farcical, destroying the somber tone established earlier in the story.  That said, this is well worth seeing before you die if only for the fantastic vistas of cattle on the wide open plains.

Red River was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Motion Picture Story and Best Film Editing.

Clip

Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette)
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Written by Cezare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica et al from a novel by Luigi Bartolini
1948/USA
Produzione De Sica
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#212 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Antonio Ricci: You live and you suffer.[/box]

Imagine a place and time when someone’s used sheets were worth enough to redeem a pawned bicycle …

We don’t know exactly how long Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggioriani) has been unemployed but we can be sure it has been a very long time.  He is elated when he is selected from a throng of men for a city job hanging posters.  The only catch is that he must provide his own bicycle.  Antonio has pawned his to help support his wife, young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola), and new baby.  In a fit of inspiration, his wife decides the family can do without her dowry sheets and Antonio gets the bike out of hock with the proceeds.

How proud Antonio feels when he gets his uniform and gleefully figures what his wages will do for the family!  He and Bruno polish the old bike until it shines.  But on one of Antonio’s first assignments the bicycle is snatched.  He spots the thief but is unable to catch him.  If he cannot retrieve the bicycle his job and dreams are over.

So Antonio and Bruno spend the next day searching for the bicycle on the streets of the city.  It is amazing just how many bicycles are around.  They go to an open air market where seemingly thousands of stolen bikes and bike parts are for sale.  Although they have no luck there, other adventures bring them close to the thief himself.

De Sica was the master of the devastating ending and this film represents the peak of his craft. This is another movie that hides a lot of humor amidst the sadness.  The scenes with the old man in the church are classic.  I really admire the way that De Sica can take an intensely poignant story like this one and view it with the detachment that keeps it from descending into melodrama.  His amateur actors could not have been bettered by professionals.  Clearly a movie to be seen before one dies.

Bicycle Thieves was voted by the Academy Board of Governors as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States in 1949.  Cesare Zavattini also received a nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay.

1972 re-release trailer