Category Archives: Top Ten Lists

My viewing for 2015 spanned from 1945 to 1954.  I saw 508 movies this year, about 320 of which I had never seen before.  There were many gems among them, far too many to include in a top ten list!

There were no new-to-me films that I rated 10/10.  The 9/10 “new” films I did not have room for here were:  Samurai Rebellion (1967); No Regrets for Our Youth (1946); Night and the City (1950); She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949); Red Army (2014); Twelve O’Clock High (1949); All My Sons (1948); Gate of Hell (1953); The Quiet Duel (1949); White Mane (1953); Morning for the Osone Family (1946); and Directed by John Ford (1971).

Many thanks to all of my readers.  You keep it fun.

10.  Last Holiday (1950) – directed by Henry Cass

9.  Gion Bayashi (1953) – directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

8.  Young Man with a Horn (1950) – directed by Michael Curtiz

7.  Umberto D. (1952) – directed by Vittorio De Sica

6. Death of a Salesman (1951) – directed by Laslo Benedek

5.  The Heart of the Matter (1953) – directed by George Moore O’Farrell

4.  The Heiress (1949) – directed by William Wyler

3. Le Plaisir (1952) – directed by Max Ophüls

2.  Brighton Rock (1947) – directed by Rowan Joffé

1.  All the King’s Men (1949) – directed by Robert Rossen

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Just for fun, here is a mash-up of clips from about 300 films that had appeared on the IMDb Top 250 by November 2012. How many can you spot?

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

I’ve now watched 57 movies from 1952.  Finishing off almost all of the available movies rated by IMDb users at over 7/10 plus a few more was enough for me this time around.

1952 is not necessarily known as a great year overall for movies but film makers in Europe and Japan went from strength to strength and ended up dominating my favorites list.   Two of the films, both foreign, were new to me from this last round of viewing. You can find a complete list of the movies I watched here.

10.  The Bad and the Beautiful (directed by Vincente Minnelli)

9.  Umberto D. (Directed by Vittorio de Sica)

8.  The Life of Oharu (Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi)

7.  Le Plaisir (Directed by Max Ophüls)

6.  The Importance of Being Earnest (Directed by Anthony Asquith)

5.  Casque d’or (Directed by Jacques Becker)

4.  Forbidden Games (Directed by René Clement)

3.  High Noon (Directed by Fred Zinnemann)

2.  Ikiru (Directed by Akira Kurosawa)

1.  Singin’ in the Rain (Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly)

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)

9.  Hamlet (directed by Laurence Olivier)

8.  The Snake Pit  (directed by Anatole Litvak)

7.  Fort Apache (directed by John Ford)

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

5.  Oliver Twist (directed by David Lean)

4. Drunken Angel (directed by Akira Kurosawa)

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

2.  The Fallen Idol (directed by Carol Reed)

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