Daily Archives: April 19, 2015

1948 Recap – 10 Favorite Films

Posted on April 19, 2015 | 5 comments

treasure italian poster

I have now seen 63 films that were released in 1948. The complete list is here.  A few shorts, documentaries, and other movies were reviewed here. The total also includes a few I’ve seen before that were not easily available this time around.  This was a great year for movies.  I cut it a bit short so that I can start fresh on 1949 when I return from vacation.

I usually make my list from films I have rated 10/10 or 9/10 on IMDb.  This time there are too many 9/10 movies to include all of them in the top 10.  Also rans were:  Rope; Raw Deal; Red River; Force of Evil; It Happened in Europe; Pitfall; and He Walked by Night.

These basically could have been placed in any order, though Treasure of the Sierra Madre would always come out as my favorite of the year.

10.  All My Sons (directed by Irving Reis)

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9.  Hamlet (directed by Laurence Olivier)

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8.  The Snake Pit  (directed by Anatole Litvak)

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7.  Fort Apache (directed by John Ford)

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6.  The Red Shoes (directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

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5.  Oliver Twist (directed by David Lean)

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4. Drunken Angel (directed by Akira Kurosawa)

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3.  Bicycle Thieves (1948, directed by Vittorio de Sica)

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2.  The Fallen Idol (directed by Carol Reed)

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1.  Treasure of the Sierra Madre (directed by John Huston)

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Posted in Movie Reviews, Top Ten Lists

Louisiana Story (1948)

Posted on April 19, 2015 | 4 comments

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

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1948

The Pirate (1948)

Posted on April 19, 2015 | Leave a comment

The Pirate
Directed by Vicente Minnelli
Written by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich from a play by S.N. Behrman
1948/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Manuela: Someday Macoco is going to swoop down upon me like a chicken hawk and carry me away.[/box]

Minnelli’s 1948 musical with wife Judy Garland was a notorious flop.  There were reasons for this but there are also real pleasures to be found here.

Manuela (Garland) is a sheltered lass living in a quiet village.  Her aunt (Gladys Cooper) has arranged her marriage to the much-older town mayor (Walter Slezak) but Manuela dreams of being swept of her feet by the notorious pirate “Black Mack” Macoco.  She talks her aunt into letting her go on one last trip to a nearby port city.  There she spots actor Serafin (Gene Kelly).  Initially she mistakes him for Macoco.  When she finds out his true identity, she wants nothing to do with him.  She sneaks into see his show anyway and he takes advantage of the opportunity to hypnotize her into revealing her true feelings.  They are for Macoco, not him.  In a trance, Manuela breaks into song to the wild applause of the audience  Now Serafin needs her as the headliner for his show.

Serafin follows Manuela back to her village.  He pretends to be Macoco and threatens to burn down the place unless Manuela is given to him unmarried.  Her fiance objects but it turns out Serafin is possession of a secret that allows him to carry on the charade.  For the time being …  With George Zucco as the viceroy.

The characters of Kelly and Garland are comically overacting for most of the film.  This was not what 1948 audiences wanted to see no matter how clever some of the dialogue might be.  The film also bogs down in places and the Cole Porter tunes, with one exception, are not his catchiest.  The movie is worth seeing, however, just for the number in which Gene Kelly dances with the Nicholas Brothers to “Be a Clown” and the song’s reprise with Garland.

The DVD includes an interesting commentary by a film historian outlining the film’s troubled and protracted production history.  Garland was about ready to implode at this time. Honestly, none of it shows up on the screen.

Lennie Hayton was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NVTFnmav4s

Clip – “Be a Clown” – Cole Porter was sure a good sport when Freed ripped this off for “Make ‘Em Laugh’ in Singin’ in the Rain

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Posted in 1948, Movie Reviews

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

Posted on April 19, 2015 | 4 comments

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Directed by H.C. Potter
Written by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank from a novel by Eric Hodgins
1948/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant Video

[box] Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin’s egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. …  Now, the dining room. I’d like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow….  I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you’ll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can’t go wrong! Now, this is the paper we’re going to use in the hall. …. There’s some little dots in the background, and it’s these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom…. Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room – in here – I want you to match this thread, and don’t lose it….  As you can see, it’s practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan.

Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?

Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.

Mr. PeDelford: Check.[/box]

How can you go wrong with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas?  If you have ever had any remodeling done, you will almost certainly relate to this very funny film.

Jim Blandings (Grant) feels that he is in a rut with his advertising job and his settled life with wife Muriel (Loy) and two kids in their Manhattan apartment.  He spots an ad for a farmhouse in Connecticut and decides this is the change they all need.  Of course, a few renovations are needed …

And naturally this means or less rebuilding the place from the ground up.  The Blandings encounter every inconvenience and expense known to anyone familiar with this game.  They are aided by their sense of humor and advice from bachelor attorney and friend Bill Cole (Douglas).  With Reginald Denny as the bemused architect.

This is funny stuff.  The gags come not only from the chicanery of the contractors but from the fanciful expectations of the clients.  Grant and Loy have terrific chemistry.  Or maybe its just that Loy makes every man she marries in the movies fall in love with her. Recommended.

Re-release trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZwOGVWqHAw

Clip – choosing paint colors

 

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Posted in 1948