What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
With my local movie theater charging $12.50 per ticket, and with all of the expenses that come with planning my upcoming nuptials (as I commented below on C.J.'s post, I wish we had opted to elope), I’m determined to avoid the cinema this summer. Instead, I’m raiding the public library for every 1940s and 50s film I can get my hands on and plan to write a series over at Acculturated on the selections I watch. While plenty has changed in the sixty to seventy years since these films were produced, the basic human themes of love, truth, happiness, meaning, forgiveness, and mutual understanding are as relevant now as ever.
My first selection, which I write about here, was the 1947 film Gentleman's Agreement, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Gregory Peck. It's a great movie, if at times a bit on the preachy side, that treats the subject of anti-Semitism. Not the blatant, kill-the-Jews strain of anti-Semitism of Hitler's Germany or Ahmadinejad's Iran, but rather the passive and incredibly pernicious strain of anti-Semitism prevalent in postwar America.
My next selection will be on the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson. Member Adrian has already sold me on Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront, which I plan on reviewing as part of my series, but I welcome your recommendations for other outstanding films from the 1940s and 50s that stand the test of time and remain relevant for today's generation.
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Jun '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
Oh wait, did you say '40s and '50s? Do'oh!
Jun '11
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
I know this is outside of the requirements, but W.C. Fields in 1934, "It's a Gift". I could quote altogether too much of this movie, and its a bit of a family tradition, my father and his brothers born in the late 40s, early 50s. Hope I can imbue my kids with an appreciation for it, as I'm not sure my brothers share my love for it.
Of that specific range, Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune are my favorites. Although the aforementioned Ikiru is an excellent example of Kurosawa's other great actor, Takashi Shimura.
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai, Stagecoach, Sunset Boulevard, Rio Bravo, The Wages of Fear, The Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game, Rififi, The Charlie Chan movies, the Mr. Moto series, M, Red River, Out of the Past, The Thin Man (et seq.), To Have & Have Not, The Big Sleep, Arsenic & Old Lace, The Philadelphia Story, and all the Univeral monster movies from the 1930s. Sorry if these repeat. I haven't read the comments.
Feb '11
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
American: Stalag 17 (1953). Japanese: Rashomon (1950). French: A Man Escaped (1953).
Edited on July 11, 2012 at 5:19amNov '10
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
Mr. Kennedy mentioned Witness for the Prosecution, and I would second his recommendation (Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton, and Marlene Dietrich: an unbeatable trio). But, add, also,
To Catch a Thief, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly
Kim, Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell
Captain Horatio Hornblower, Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo and
Captain from Castile, Tyrone Power and Jean Simmons
Twelve o'Clock High and Pork Chop Hill, two of the finest films about war ever made, already mentioned by someone else.
Charade with Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, and Walter Matthau, and
Torn Curtain, with Julie Andrews and Paul Newman get you into the 1960's, but both are superb entertainment.
I think that, with selections like these, you will have an enjoyable summer.
Jul '11
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
Nic already alluded to it: Seven Samurai.
-E
Nov '10
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
I meant to add Rebecca, with Joan Fountaine and Laurence Olivier, Father of the Bride the real one, with Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor, and, finally, The African Queen, with Kathryn Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.
Edited on July 11, 2012 at 5:13amSep '11
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
I married my wife because she correctly cried at the end of Godzilla.
~Jimm
Feb '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
That Hamilton Woman with Vivien Leigh and Olivier as Nelson.. Made in 41 with England at war and Nelson character making a very powerful speech about the nasty intent of Napoleon- read Nazism - and why he needed to be put in his place and must be fought and defeated was a powerful boost for the times. Indeed, ( TCM) "..Churchill was so thrilled with the picture he showed it repeatedly to staff members and even screened it for President Franklin Roosevelt before America's entry into World War II. He would continue screening the film privately long after his retirement, eventually claiming to have seen it 83 times. "
May '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Trouble In Paradise (Sorry, that's 1932 but it is classic Ernst Lubitsch)
The Barefoot Contessa
Nights of Cabiria
La Strada (one of Anthony Quinn's best roles)
The Entertainer (1960, but one of Olivier's best roles)
The Best Years of Our Lives
Edited on July 11, 2012 at 5:30amFeb '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
1. Great Expectations 1946 and
2. How Green was my Valley 1941
May '10
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
The Phaledelphia Story. Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Katharine Hepburn in a great comedy.
Feb '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
I think before the Pauline Kael 's came around and the new directors it would be imo 1936-1946 if you had to pick a ten year period, with 1939 the Golden Year.
Feb '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
I know Where I'm Going (1945) once seen is never forgotten. Scorsese was influenced by the films of Powell and Pressburger.. and that train trip to Scotland with Wendy Hiller to marry for money and British chemicals.. or will she..
Mar '11
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
Just barely out of the time frame - 1961 - The Hustler. Paul Newman, George C. Scott, Piper Laurie and Jackie Gleason. It lost to West Side Story for best picture. Scott notoriously did not appear to accept an Oscar for Patton because he thought his role in The Hustler was a better performance.
Most of my favorites are black and white. Sparse sets, stark emotions and great dialogue.
Another favorite is Twelve Angry Men. Fonda was his customary wooden self but the rest of the cast, ubiquitous character actors all, were fascinating. Most of them appeared in many more films than the major stars. Most stars were type cast, the supporting actors played a far greater range of roles.
Mar '11
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
I finally convinced my 21 year old daughter to watch The Philadelphia Story last weekend. She watched it three times in two days. The musical remake High Society is fun, too, but should be watched second.
In Humphrey Bogart's final movie, The Harder They Fall, he's a journalist of flexible morality who discovers that there are limits to quite how flexible he can be. Watch out, though, there is a very brutal scene, shocking even today I thought.
Someone has mentioned High Noon, but I second or third it. There aren't many movies that gradually screw up the tension, the sense of foreboding, as this one.
Except, perhaps, for Les Diaboliques.
Feb '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
And the underrated Beat The Devil ( 1953) John Houston and Truman Capote's Italian bit of fun with Bogart and crew off to East Africa to get the uranium.. Jennifer Jones is a real comedic treat.. in point of fact.. Bogart hated it but then he had money in it and wasn't well by then.. A forgotten gem. Ahh the Amalfi coast.. even in B/W looks great. What fun they had..
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
Just realized no one had mentioned Ace In The Hole. It's a great reflection on media and all the more impressive considering it was done in 1951. It includes one of my favorite lines: "even for Albuquerque, this is pretty Albuquerque."
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
Yes. And a reminder that women, before feminism, actually used to appear as interesting characters in films.
Feb '12
Re: What are Your Favorite Films from the 1940s and 50s?
"Yes. And a reminder that women, before feminism, actually used to appear as interesting characters in films." Davis, Crawford, Hepburn, Loy,
Harlow, Arthur, and Stanwyck with Fonda in The Lady Eve.. it's the writing not the feminism..