194. Black Narcissus (1946)

Directed By Powell and Pressburger

Synopsis

The epic story of defeat under adversity in the middle of sexual frustration and the threats of the alien.

Review

Scorsese says that each time he saw the Archers production company symbol he knew he was in for something special. I fully agree and I know how looking forward I am for Powell and Pressburger's films on the list. This is the fourth of five films by them on the list and three of them, including this one, have been nothing short of amazing.

The first thing you notice is the astounding cinematography of the film, making it look way ahead of its time, no wonder it won both the Oscar and Golden Globe for best cinematography. Then there are the amazing sets. And last but not least after you finished it you get the idea of the story.

In 1946 to make a film symbolic of the loss of the British empire through a tale of nuns slowly going insane in a convent in the furthest reaches of India, through a combination of sexual frustration and inability to understand the world that surrounds them is to say the least brave.

The film gives you a genuine sense of how alien it all is, a mix of fascination and fear impregnating the exotic. It is all full of a dark glamour, making this one of the most beautiful and spectacular films in the list until today, with the slight problem of the two-dimensionality of most characters as well as an insistence on black-ups.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Black Narcissus was released only a few months before India achieved independence in August 1947. Film critic David Kehr has suggested that the final images of the film, as the nuns abandon the Himalayas and process down the mountain, could have been interpreted by British viewers in 1947 as "a last farewell to their fading empire"; he suggests that it is not an image of defeat "but of a respectful, rational retreat from something that England never owned and never understood"

Revenge of the Sexually Frustrated Nun:

193. Notorious (1946)

Directed By Alfred Hitchcock

Synopsis

Daughter of German Spy gets hired by American Intelligence to investigate some boys in Rio. She marries one of them to keep her cover and when he discovers she is a spy he and his mother attempt to poison her. Cary Grant saves the day.

Review

Not a film about Mr. B.I.G. or a Duran Duran album and single, Notorious is another work by the master of suspense, Hitchcock. And it is actually a pretty good one albeit with a couple of faults.

The film starts much too slowly, Ingrid Bergman really does not play a girl of loose morals really well, but eventually her character is subdued by circumstances and she comes into her own. Cary Grant is fabulous as always and the film does pick up pace after Ingrid marries Claude Rains. From then on the tension does not let up.

In the end the slow start builds up nicely to a pretty great ending, which is so subdued that it leaves a lot to the imagination. And that is a thing I admire about these old film, they knew when to say 'That's a wrap'. There are no useless epilogues, no exposition for those too dumb to realise what happens next, these are films that trust their audience to know where the character go to after the curtain is drawn, thank you.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Critics have noted a "beverage motif" that runs throughout the picture: at the beginning of the film, Alicia is portrayed as a dipsomaniac and bottles and glasses are prominent in many scenes; later, Alicia and Devlin discover uranium in wine bottles in Sebastian's cellar; finally, Sebastian and his mother attempt to kill Alicia by poisoning her coffee.

The MacGuffin in this film is uranium, which Hitchcock and screenwriter Ben Hecht originally chose to use before the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. In his book-length interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock alleged that he was under FBI surveillance for several months because of the uranium reference. In the same interview, Hitchcock said that the original producer of Notorious, David O. Selznick was overbudget on his Duel in the Sun (1946), and so sold Hitchcock, Hecht's script, and the two stars to RKO as a package for $500,000 (Truffaut/Hitchcock, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967).

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance, a signature occurrence in all of his films, takes place at the big party in Sebastian's mansion. Hitchcock is seen knocking back a glass of champagne and then quickly departing, about 60 minutes into the film.

Notorious to Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani... trust Youtube, by the way the complete film is on youtube:

192. Great Expectations (1946)

Directed By David Lean

Synopsis

Pip helps escaped convict, Pip gets to visit freaky old Miss Havisham. Pip gets suddenly rich from a hidden benefactor who he presumes is Miss Havisham, but it's the criminal, shock horror. Oh Pip was also in love with this bitchy girl who was an adoptive daughter of the eccentric old lady and she was the natural daughter of said rich escaped convict who eventually dies, and Pip and Estella ,the daughter, end up together on estate of said eccentric old lady, cobwebs are cleaned, windows are opened, Finis. Use the Force Pip!

Review

Well if you don't know the story my synopsis will not help you, as it is incompetently written but I have no desire to fix it. That being said this is a good film, David lean is deservedly renowned as one of the best British directors, and his career will be examined in depth throughout this list, this film is a good example of a very entertaining adaptation of a classic.

For a Dickens adaptation from 1946 to grab you is not the easiest of thing, but for the two hours that this took I was quite riveted by it. The acting is great, with John Mills as Pip and Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, Sir Alan Guiness as his best friend Mr. Pocket.

Another thing that deserves particular attention in the film are the pretty spectacular set designs, the rooms of Miss Havisham's house are particularly noteworthy with their studied decay as is the whole character of Miss Havisham quite spectacular. A good adaptation. Watch it.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Many consider this version, directed by David Lean, the best version, and it is certainly the most popular. Because of its enormous popularity and the strength of the actors and their characterizations, this version has tended to define the popular conception of many key characters, especially that of the young Estella, Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket, Abel Magwitch and Mr. Jaggers. This film also helped establish the primacy of the love theme in Great Expectations above that of the class strivings of the protagonist Pip. Conversely, other characters with important roles in the novel, such as Biddy, Orlick, Mr. Wopsle and Wemmick, are diminished.

Opening Sequence:

191. A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)

Directed By Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Synopsis

A bomber pilot is supposed to die after an accident, he falls in love with the radio operator while on the plane just before he is supposed to die. He doesn't because Conductor 71, a heaven sent kind of Grim Reaper can't find him through the British pea-soup fog. Now the massive burocracy of the other world has a problem, an invoice without a death... They want to get him back, but he is in love and doesn't want to go back, so he appeals and goes to court. Is it all in his head?

Review

This is Powell and Pressburger at their best, well Colonel Blimp might have been slightly better but the films are both perfect 10's. I don't even know where to start here, well lets start with the superficial content of the film. The acting highlights here are the chap of chaps in David Niven and Roger Livesey, who must be some kind of P&P fetish because in three films by them that we've seen he's been there, always superb. Then there is the set design, which is fantastic in all senses of the word, it is beautiful, innovative, modernist art.

Then there is the spectacular use of colour in the film, I won't say Technicolor, because the most interesting thing is the contrast between black and white and Technicolor scenes, the other world is in black and white and earth is in colour, you can't get much more life affirming than that. And when colour is used it is astonishing.

Now there are the underlying ideas of the film which are pretty interesting and pretty new to this list, firstly what could seem like a patriotic film for the UK manages to sting the Imperial pride, particularly in the trial scene where it is stated that there is no country where you could find a fair jury for Britain because they all have grievances. It is particularly interesting to notice the Indian member of the jury as one of the examples of people who would condemn a British man, remember this is at least a year before Indian Independence. A pretty sensitive topic, and there is an Irish guy next to the Indian...

Then there is the whole theme of was it in his head or not? It isn't a cop out because you end up with no answer and a plausible explanation for why it would have happened in his head, but if you are of a religious persuasion nothing disproves the reality of the other world. It is the ultimate agnostic film, hey the supposed "heaven" is completely multi-denominational, you see Sikhs, Hindus, Puritans, Chinese etc.. there is no committal on what is on the other side.

Another great film by Powell and Pressburger, unmissable.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

There is no explicit reference to "the other world" as Heaven. The word is only used twice, in one conversation, where it may be taken as an adjective. Powell and Pressburger objected to the American distributor's renaming it as Stairway to Heaven, but had to put up with it. The distributor believed that American audiences wouldn't want to see a film with the word "Death" in the title, especially just after World War II.

The architecture of the other world is noticeably modernist; vast and open plan, with huge circular observation holes beneath which the clouds of Earth can be seen. This vision was later the inspiration for the design of a bus station in Walsall, England, by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, and the film's amphitheatre court scene was rendered by BT in an TV advertisement in about 2002 as a metaphor for communication technology, especially the Internet.

Big Train Spoof:

190. The Killers (1946)

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Synopsis

A guy gets murdered in a small town, the insurance guy pursues the why and wherefore of his killing, unravelling a conspiracy involving a theft of a hat factory!

Review

This was actually one of the best film noirs that I've seen in a while, the plot was tight, the characters were believable and it was quite a lot of fun to watch. The technique of slowly unravelling the story by showing you flashbacks in no chronological order, a la Pulp Fiction is actually quite effective.

We return to the glamorous and exciting world of insurance companies here, we had been here before with Double Indemnity but this tackles in quite a different way, no one from the insurance company is actually involved in any of the murders. There's just a guy there who is intrigued.

Burt Lancaster has his first role here, and really it couldn't have been better, it is a pretty good film to start in with top billing playing against Ava Gardner... not bad mister Lancaster. Good Film.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The first twenty minutes of the film, showing the arrival of the two contract killers, and the murder of Anderson, is a very close adaptation of Hemingway's short story. The rest of the film, showing Reardon's investigation of the murder, is wholly original. The Killers was the first, and to date the only, adaptation of a Hemingway work to leave successfully intact the author's laconic dialogue. According to Hemingway's biographer, Carlos Baker, The Killers "was the first film from any of his works that Ernest could genuinely admire."

Producer Mark Hellinger paid $36,750 for the screen rights to Hemingway's story, his first independent production. The screenplay was written by John Huston, uncredited due to his contract with Warner Bros., and Richard Brooks.

Lancaster wasn't his first pick for the part of "the Swede," but Warner Bros. wouldn't lend out actor Wayne Morris for the film. Others considered for the part included Van Heflin, Jon Hall, Sonny Tufts, and Edmund O'Brien, who was instead cast in the role of the insurance investigator. In the role of the femme fatale, Kitty Collins, Hellinger cast Gardner, who had appeared virtually unnoticed in a string of minor films

Trailer:

189. The Big Sleep (1946)

Directed By Howard Hawks

Synopsis

This is a hard synopsis to make... basically Marlowe is sent to investigate a blackmail case involving two pretty rich girls, their elderly father, pornographers, old book dealers, gamblers and stuff.

Review

There is something to be said about Bogart-Bacall films and it is definitely what has made them immortal: those two have chemistry. I do think, however that that chemistry and their legend has kind of over-inflated the reputation of the films.

Don't get me wrong the film is great, but I've seen Hawks do better films such as Only Angels Have Wings, but these are the films he is most remembered by. The plot of this film is fascinating in its amount of twists, but that is also its downfall, it becomes slightly dull after a while, you already know there is a twist after every five minutes, so it never has as much impact as it could have, if they were better dosed.

The dialogue is great, however, and that is typical of Hawks' films, making his women tough and the dialogue snappy. And he does both expertly here. So really a film worth watching, but it didn't knock me off my feet.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


* The author of the novel, Raymond Chandler, claimed that Martha Vickers gave an incredible performance as Carmen Sternwood, so much so that she completely overshadowed Lauren Bacall in her scenes. Unfortunately, this led the powers that be to edit the film in such a way that much of Vickers' performance ended up on the cutting room floor.

* Although Martha Vickers plays Lauren Bacall's younger sister, in reality she was only eight months her junior.


* The henchmen Sidney and Pete are named as a tribute to Bogie's frequent costars Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

* The film was made during the age of censorship, wherein certain points were expected to be able to be picked up by the adult audience but missed by children. The sort of books that Geiger rents quite profitably are mentioned in the book as pornography, which at the time was illegal and associated with organized crime. The photograph of Carmen wearing a "Chinese dress" and sitting in a "Chinese chair" is also supposed to allude to this.

* Joe Brody is killed by Carol Lundgren who believes he killed Geiger. In the book Lundgren and Geiger are homosexual lovers. This is not mentioned in the film.

* In the novel Marlowe finds pornographic photos of Carmen and later on discovers her naked in his bed, but sends her packing. In the film, there is no suggestion of nudity: the photos merely show that Carmen was at Geiger's house at the time of his murder. In the bedroom scene she is shown awaiting Marlowe fully clothed, sitting in his armchair.


Trailer:

188. La Belle Et La Bête (The Beauty And The Beast) (1946)

Directed By Jean Cocteau

Synopsis

There's a family with three sisters, one of them does all the work. Father of said girl goes into forest goes into weird castle, picks up rose for Belle. Bête appears and wants the life of the guy or of Belle. Belle assumes responsibility and goes to the castle. Slowly falls in love. Goes back to visit her father, delays herself, beast almost dies with grief, but Belle saves him at the last moment by looking upon him with love's eyes. Bête becomes beautiful and all are happy ever after... except that guy who dies.

Review

This was a beautiful film, the set design is inspired and nothing else could have been expected from Jean Cocteau, who had long proved his mettle as an artist and all 'round Renaissance man of French artistic life. Then he tries his hand at cinema, and a great thing comes out of it. This film is stunning in all visual respects, the special effects, the make-up on the Beast, the costume and set design, and all the crazy ideas for the castle.

Where the film loses points unfortunately is in the acting, not the Beast, who poor guy is doing all he can with that make-up on, but particularly with Belle, who comes off as pretty wooden. Of course the film has this whole fairy tale thing going for it, and that justifies the one-dimensionality of the characters, but it doesn't justify bad acting. We have been so accostumed to excellent French actors that it was quite a disappointment.

Beyond that, however there is plenty to like here, and the good things about the film, it's atmosphere, inventiveness and sense of wonder do much to tip the balance in its favour. But it is not, unfortunately, perfect.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film is notable for its surreal quality and its ability to use existing movie technology to effectively evoke a feeling of magic and enchantment. The set designs and cinematography were intended to evoke the illustrations and engravings of Gustave Doré and, in the farmhouse scenes, the paintings of Jan Vermeer.

In 1995 composer Philip Glass composed an opera version. In its initial incarnation the musicians and singers would perform the work on stage with a restored, newly subtitled print of the film playing on a screen behind them. Belle was sung by Mezzo-Soprano Janice Felty. The current Criterion Collection DVD offers the ability to view the movie while listening to either soundtrack.

Often considered one of the finest fantasy films of all time it, to some extent, inspired the Disney animated film of the same name.

American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks wrote her 1983 ballad "Beauty and the Beast" after screening the film for the second time.

Belle goes into the castle:

187. The Stranger (1946)

Directed By Orson Welles

Synopsis

A Nazi war criminal hides in small town Connecticut, being pursued by a UN detective, who eventually gets him.

Review

Any film that Orson made is a good film, he never reaches the heights of Citizen Kane again, if it is beginner's luck or something we will never know. But he did know how to make films and this is another example of that.

This is a supremely stressful film, it manages to keep the suspense up throughout the whole thing, like a very good Hitchcock film. The directing is expertly done as you would imagine and the acting is always superb. No one does a bad guy quite like Orson Welles and Edward G. Robinson is always likeable as the good guy, much like he was in Double Indemnity.

This is a film that keep you gripped until the quite predictable ending, even if the ending is predictable, however, the story is never less than interesting, being carried by a really great cast. Something you really shouldn't miss.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It is believed that this is the first film released after World War II that showed footage of concentration camps. The Stranger was the only film made by Welles to have been a bona fide box office success on the first release (Citizen Kane had made back its budget and marketing, but not enough to make a profit).

Trailer:

186. My Darling Clementine (1946)

Directed By John Ford

Synopsis

James Earp gets shot, Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp go to Tombstone where Wyatt becomes Sheriff, they make friends with Doc Holiday. Eventually the Clantons are killed at OK Corral. Oh there's a romance with a woman called Clementine somewhere in there... and a prozie called Chihuahua.

Review

John Ford is a proper director, and frankly this film came as a refreshing change from all the noirs and neo-realisms that we have been having. A proper Western where half the screen is sky and clouds and the rest of the screen is men with fucking guns!

This was a good film, while I actually figure that the two female characters could have been dispensed with as they just make for a bit of a distraction on what is really a film about the Wyatt Earp story.

All said and done Ford is a brilliant director with a sense of angle and shot that few other people have. Again we have the Monument Valley with all those rock formations that Ford has made recognisable world-wide and the huge open skies and Henry Fonda playing another Henry Fonda character pretty well. Heck, it isn't the best film ever, but it was fun.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


* The ages of the Earp brothers are wrong. In the movie, James is a teenager, Virgil is in his twenties, Wyatt is thirty, and Morgan is the oldest. In actuality, at the time of the OK Corral gunfight, James was 40, Virgil was 38, Wyatt was 33, and Morgan was 30. There was a younger brother Warren in real life who does not appear in the movie.

* Wyatt is depicted as being the town marshal of Tombstone, and Virgil and Morgan as his deputies. In fact, Virgil was the town marshal (according to some sources, his actual title was "chief of police"), and Morgan and Wyatt were his deputies.

* James and Virgil are depicted as getting killed: James during the cattle rustling scene, and Virgil shot in the back before the gunfight takes place. James actually lived until 1926 and Virgil survived the gunfight (only to be wounded during an attempted assassination as retaliation). The only Earp to be killed in Tombstone was Morgan, and that was months after the gunfight.

* Doc Holliday is depicted as having gotten his degree in medicine. In fact, Holliday was a dentist, not a physician or surgeon.

* Doc Holliday is shown critically wounded and dying by the end of the gunfight. He survived in real life with a minor bruise and lived for years afterward, dying in Colorado in 1887 from tuberculosis.

* "Old Man" Clanton is shown as a major participant in the feud between the Clantons and the Earps and takes part in the gunfight. (This is also true of the later film Gunfight at the OK Corral.) In fact he was killed in August 1881, well before the gunfight took place.

* Billy Clanton is shown getting killed well before the gunfight, where he actually died. Ike Clanton and other Clanton brothers are seen getting killed at the gunfight, but this did not happen.

* The movie depicts Wyatt and Doc meeting for the first time in Tombstone. They had in reality met years earlier at Fort Griffin, Texas and were good friends by the time both arrived at Tombstone.

* In the movie, the Earps are portrayed as cattlemen who casually stop in Tombstone for a drink and a shave only to get caught up in a rivalry with the Clantons. In truth, they had planned to move to Tombstone to start businesses and get in on the gambling and mining claims that were thriving there.

* The gunfight is portrayed as an epic, street-wide running battle lasting minutes. In fact the fight lasted no longer than 30 seconds.

* Rather than being a bachelor falling in love with a visiting teacher, Wyatt had arrived to Tombstone with a wife (as did his brothers) and during his stay there had fallen in love with actress Josephine Marcus.


Trailer:

185. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Directed By Tay Garnett

Synopsis

See Visconti's Ossessione... except the husband is a nice guy.

Review

Actually I think this film should be a companion piece to Visconti's Ossessione just in historical terms, in order to make a comparison between 1940's European and American cinema. And this film really is a triumph of style over substance when compared with Visconti's contribution.

Yes, the girl is prettier, the people are happier, there is more sunshine and the moral at the end is incredibly explicit. There are also a couple more courtroom scenes which weren't in Ossessione. But this film misses all the gritty realism that made Visconti's such a great film. And that is a pretty big sacrifice.

I don't necessarily blame film directors or American artists as in any way inferior to European ones, but there are two things I blame here and they are the making of films thinking about the bottom line, therefore they can never be too challenging or the studio won't take it on afraid to lose money and the prudish morals that led to the introduction of the Production code.

American cinema is so good during this time that I can only imagine what it would have been like without the incredible consumerism and prudishness attached to the film industry. This is still a good film, but I can't help thinking that I've seen it before, made better.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was referenced in an episode of Charmed. In, "Charmed Noir", one of the protagonists, Paige Matthews is magically sent to a fictional world set in the 1920s or 1930s. Upon arrival she decides to change her clothing to that typically worn in this era. Her new look is complemented by a fellow character who believes she looks like Lana Turner "straight out of The Postman Always Rings Twice, the good version" (i.e., the 1940s film). Paige later calls herself Lana, in the episode, to disguise her real name.

Here ya go:

184. Paisà (Paisan) (1946)

Directed By Roberto Rossellini

Synopsis

The film is divided into 6 vignettes, short stories about the occupation and resistance in Italy after the allied invasion.

Review

After seeing this film the words that comes to your mind are "mixed bag". Just like in any short story collection there are a couple of very good stories and some which could have been left out.

The first story is almost a test of resilience for the viewer. The acting is terrible, the story is quite dull and it doesn't seem to go anywhere. But if you survive that you will be rewarded with progressively better stories, I would have to say that the best stories are numbers 3, 4 and 5. Those are really good sketches of live during the German occupation and the allied invasion.

Rossellini frames these tales in the context of the historical happenings of the war in little excerpts using stock footage, but then quickly moves the story from the epic to the particular and you follow some character's story.

It is this humanising level of the film that is particularly interesting, the individual dramas caught in a kind of Polaroid before moving on to the next one. It is a good film, but the unevenness of the stories lets it down ultimately.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

As he [Rossellini] declared in an interview, in order to really create the character that one has in mind, it is necessary for the director to engage in a battle with his actor which usually ends with submitting to the actor's wish. Since I do not have the desire to waste my energy in a battle like this, I only use professional actors occasionally. One of the reasons of success has been supposed to be the fact that Rossellini rewrote the scripts according to the non-professional actors' feelings and histories. Regional accent, dialect, and costumes were shown in the film how they were in real life.

Roberto Rossellini goes on vacation with Ingrid Bergman and their two children... I wonder if one of them is Isabella Rossellini:

183. Brief Encounter (1946)

Directed By David Lean

Synopsis

A middle-class, middle-aged couple have an affair. He eventually goes away to South Africa, and she stays behind, hurt.

Review

This is a pretty nifty film, there are so many layers of interpretation to it which make it particularly interesting. I should get what I dislike about it out of the way first however... I cannot bear Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, it is the most schmalty crappy melodramatic piece in the whole classical repertoire, and it unfortunately plays a major part in the film.

That out of the way there are many interesting film, rarely are films at this time shown from the point of view of a woman, much less films about adultery portraying the view point of the cuckolding wife, this by itself makes the film unique. But then there is the fact that the main characters are not particularly attractive or young, that they are mostly tortured by the fact that they might hurt others while at the same time having no regrets about what they are doing, and the fact that they are not ultimately punished for their acts. This would never have happened in a US film because of the castrating Production Code.

Then there is the whole different level of interpretation when you know who wrote the film, Noel Coward, and you start thinking: 'Is this semi-autobiographical?' Can the point of view of the woman in love with a man in a secret and forbidden relationship be a mirror to what gay men were going through at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK? There is clearly a sensitivity for the woman's predicament and love for a man that reflects a painful experience by the part of the writer, the inner monologue of the main character is so utterly convincing and devoid of filmesque sentimentality that it is hard not to think of it as real.

An excellent film.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was released amid the social and cultural context of the Second World War when 'brief encounters' were commonplace and women had far greater sexual and economic freedom than previously. In British National Cinema (1997), Sarah Street argues that "Brief Encounter thus articulated a range of feelings about infidelity which invited easy identification, whether it involved one's husband, lover children or country" (p. 55). In this context, feminist critics read the film as an attempt at stabilising relationships to return to the status quo. Meanwhile, in his 1993 BFI book on the film, Richard Dyer notes that owing to the rise of homosexual law reform, gay men also viewed the plight of the characters as comparable to their own social constraint in the formation and maintenance of relationships. Sean O'Connor considers the film to be an 'allegorical representation of forbidden love' informed by Noel Coward's experiences as a closeted homosexual (p. 157).

A made-for-TV version starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren was made in 1974, and is - as noted above - generally considered inferior.

Brief Encounter Parody: