The Usual Choices
The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)
Great Expectations (David Lean)
It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)
A Matter of Life and Death / Stairway to Heaven (Michael Powell)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)
But how about...
Crack-Up (Irving Reis)
A minor film-noirish mystery with a couple of major virtues: great opening (guy smashes into an art gallery, punching out a cop and yelling that he has just escaped a trainwreck!) and a fresh setting (the world of art forgery). While Pat O'Brien is not an obvious choice for an action hero, his calm everyman persona fits here, as an art expert who also happens to be proficient in fisticuffs, and he is adequately supported by Claire Trevor as his main squeeze (is she or isn't she on his side?) and Herbert Marshall (is he or isn't he a baddie?). The flashback sequence is well-constructed as is the retracing of what exactly happened before our hero's, er, crack-up. The film moves along at a fair pace and all the pieces only entirely fit together at the very end. Enjoyable Hollywood product at its most purely workmanlike.
...and what about...
Two Years Before the Mast (John Farrow)
Whilst not in the same league as Mutiny on the Bounty or Billy Budd, this is a semi-stirring seafaring movie where the seamen are not faring so well. Hard captain, loyal first mate, shifty second mate, plucky cabin boy and twinkling old cook...all fairly cliched characters for this kinda thing, but all belong and probably originated from the classic 1840 novel anyway. Three minor flaws bring the movie down a peg or two: as usual, Alan Ladd has difficulty moving his facial muscles; a woman arrives on board and the inevitable romantic slop occurs; and the ending stumbles down into navy propaganda and an incongruously-warm backslap (because real men don't cuddle). However, to compensate, there are twenty lashes with the cat, a mighty storm at sea, cannon-firings and an outbreak of scurvy...me hearties.
...not to mention...
Black Angel (Roy William Neill)
Yet another B-Grade film-noir which manages to clamber up onto a higher level. Starring Dan Duryea as the flawed hero (his hair goes all skewwhiff as soon as he is stressed...I love that) and Easter-Island-profiled June Vincent as the damsel in distress, this story begins with a bitch who is quickly dispatched, reacts to an innocent man on Death Row needing to be saved and climaxes with a twist in the tale I bet you can't see coming. Nifty camera effects, loud 'n' lush soundtrack music and a somnambulistic Peter Lorre supply touches of class while the usual features such as a nightclub, haunting signature song, bully-boy henchman and a brash police officer who is more copper than detective keep it firmly anchored in the movie genre of shadows and dames.
...and one personal unmentionable...
The Razor's Edge (Edmund Goulding)
Bill Collins, fussbudget-doyen of film criticism in Australia, lists this movie in his personal Top 10, adding "...appreciation of The Razor's Edge is dependent upon having an open mind and on not underrating the film simply because it is so entertaining." Er...no. Appreciation of this celluloid stodge is dependent upon how rapidly you can doze off in the armchair while it glows in front of you.
The Razor's Edge is one of those films which asks the forever question: "What is the Meaning of Life?" After watching this, you will come to the conclusion that to achieve true "goodness" (the film's label for Life's ultimate goal, not mine), you must become unbearably longwinded, o-so-lofty and keep your distance from friends while they are emotionally-disintegrating. Me? I've discovered that Life is too short to drink bad wine and to ever slog through pretentious twaddle like this again.
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| "So...do you like to watch gladiator movies...?" |
My Top 10 Films of 1946
#01 A+ It's a Wonderful Life (Capra)
#02 A+ The Big Sleep (Hawks)
#03 A Great Expectations (Lean)
#04 A My Darling Clementine (Ford)
#05 A The Spiral Staircase (Siodmak)
#06 A The Postman Always Rings Twice (Garnett)
#07 A Notorious (Hitchcock)
#08 A- Anna & the King of Siam (Cromwell)
#09 A- Cluny Brown (Lubitsch)
#10 A- The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- The Yearling (Brown)
#12 A- Green for Danger (Gilliat)
#13 A- Black Angel (Neill)
#14 A- The Killers (Siodmak)
#15 B+ Two Years Before the Mast (Farrow)
#16 B+ The Verdict (Siegel)
#17 B+ Crack-Up (Reis)
#18 B+ The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Milestone)
#19 B+ The Chase (Ripley)
#20 B+ The Dark Mirror (Siodmak)
#21 B+ The Blue Dahlia (Marshall)
#22 B+ Bedlam (Robson)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B The Stranger [Orson's #3 film but, apart from the big finish, it coulda been directed by anybody]
> B The Dark Corner [a serviceable film noir which teeters close to self-parody]
> B School for Secrets [British WWII backroom-boffins story featuring too many eccentric fuddy-duddies]
> B A Matter of Life and Death [beloved by many smart people, so I must be missing something]
> B The Green Years [one of MGM's fairiest fairy tales...but it's still pretty good watchin']
> B Gilda ["A femme fatale? You're about as fatale as an after-dinner mint!" Wrong movie; Right observation]
> B To Each His Own [Olivia's performance gives this weepie a prestige it only partly deserves]
> B Sister Kenny [an admittedly stodgy film with a crap lead performance, my fondness for it defies rationality]
> B The Locket [a lying, thieving, violent sicko needs to be played by a gutsy actress]
> B- So Dark the Night [a murder-mystery which starts too slowly and ends too silly]
> B- The Jolson Story [Mammy...can't ya hear me talkin' to you Mammy...]
> B- A Night in Casablanca [Marx Brothers movie which has its moments, but Harpo is the only star]
> B- Three Strangers [trickily & overly plotted within an inch of its life]
> B- The Time of Their Lives [aka Abbott & Costello Have a Fight and Refuse to Act Together]
> B- Without Reservations [John Wayne as the lead in a romantic comedy...er, best not to try that again...]
> B- Nobody Lives Forever [film noir (of sorts) starts promisingly but is nobbled by stodgy plotting]
> C Duel in the Sun [aka The Good, The Bad & The Horny]
> C Night Boat to Dublin [too-mild-mannered WWII espionage story that only the British could have made]
> C From This Day Forward [back-from-the-war story where Joan Fontaine shows us the glamorous side of poverty]
> C Night and Day [Cary Grant as a determinedly hetero Cole Porter... ahahahahahaha...]
> C Road to Utopia [Bing & Bob & Dorothy in #4...no better; no worse...]
> D Undercurrent [a soggy gothic mystery with cringy dialogue and embarrassed actors]
> D The Razor's Edge [A Personal Unmentionable]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1946 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Angel On My Shoulder (Mayo); Bedelia (Comfort); Canyon Passage (Tourneur); The Captive Heart (Dearden); Centennial Summer (Preminger); Deception (Rapper); Decoy (Bernhard); Devotion (Bernhardt); Dragonwyck (Mankiewicz); The Harvey Girls (Sidney); Humoresque (Negulesco); Margie (King); Monsieur Beaucaire (Marshall); Nocturne (Marin); The Overlanders (Watt); Somewhere in the Night (Mankiewicz); They Knew Mr Knight (Walker); Till the Clouds Roll By (Whorf); Till the End of Time (Dmytryk); Tomorrow is Forever (Pichel); Wanted for Murder (Huntington); The Years Between (Bennett); Ziegfeld Follies (Minnelli)
Best Performances of 1946
Ingrid Bergman in Notorious
Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own
Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives
Larry Parks in The Jolson Story
Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives
James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life
Clifton Webb in The Razor's Edge
But how about...
Jennifer Jones in Cluny Brown
As every fan says...such a shame Jennifer didn't do more comedy! Nudged into doing serious (and heavygoing) drama such as A Farewell to Arms and Indiscretion of an American Wife by her hubbie, Jennifer only truly excelled in comedy roles, such as Beat the Devil and this movie gem. Totally charming as a slight birdbrain who ends up being smarter than most around her, Jennifer gathers up all the quirks of her character (passionate about plumbing; meows when drunk) and somehow channels them into a believable and attractive persona. When she is injured by the words and petty judgments of others, you want to soothe her by saying there there. Yet, no matter how upset she gets, the amusing drive of the character never leaves. In this performance, Jennifer joins the ranks of Jean Arthur, Margaret Sullavan and Ginger Rogers: she is a comedic dish.
...and what about...
Glenn Ford in Gilda
I always considered Gilda to be one of the more overrated film-noirs of the 40's: the voiceover device is weak and hokey; the story collapses from creative malnutrition in the last third; and while Rita Hayworth looks great and sings/dances "Put the Blame on Mame" memorably, she was never much of an actress. However, the film gave Glenn Ford one of those rare opportunities to play a nasty-ish anti-hero (like in The Big Heat and 3:10 to Yuma), a persona he was best at (a light comedian he was not; and as a leading man, he was a member of the Tyrone Power / Robert Taylor / Ray Milland Bland Club). He especially excels in the setup-scenes early on, when he is clearly a shifty conman, quite prepared to toady-up to the boss to finally get his hands on some real money. Driven savage by sexual-obsession and inconvenient pangs of loyalty & guilt, he is an impressively-lousy human being. Such a shame the ending makes him a nice guy again.
...not to mention...
Finlay Currie & Martita Hunt & Francis L. Sullivan & Bernard Miles & Alec Guinness in Great Expectations
While the two adult leads (John Mills & Valerie Hobson) are a vague disappointment after the excellence of the two child versions (Anthony Wager & Jean Simmons), the supporting actors are straight from Dickens Casting Heaven. While my favourite remains Finlay (his introductory appearance in the graveyard is a cinematic classic), the others listed above have been snipped from the great novel's illustrated pages. No other film version of a Dickens story (certainly not the 1935 David Copperfield...still a wonderful work though) has been so perfectly cast and played. Great Expectations is the only Charles Dickens novel I have read twice and it is these actors who dance around in my head as the words ruffle by.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Lana Turner AND...Cecil Kellaway??? in The Postman Always Rings Twice
Have a good look at the 1946 version of Lana Turner...an absolutely gorgeous woman, right? You betcha, and in TPART, she is growlingly sexual, ruthless, intelligent and dripping with ambition. So...how are we supposed to accept / believe that this lioness would marry...CECIL KELLAWAY?? A lovely man I am sure, and a member of the charming Edmund Gwenn Pixie Club, but a viable spouse for Lana Turner? C'mon...she couldn't have been that desperate...what, there wasn't some other poor sap in the local bar who at least wasn't old enough to be her grandfather? Clincher...just try to imagine Lana Turner and Cecil Kellaway having sex...ugh. Very silly.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1946
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| "...hmm...what you need is a damned good flossing..." |
#02 Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep
#03 Jennifer Jones in Cluny Brown
#04 The cast of The Best Years of Our Lives
#05 Henry Travers in It's a Wonderful Life
#06 Claude Rains in Notorious
#07 Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase
#08 Jane Wyman in The Yearling
#09 Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine
#10 Harpo Marx in A Night in Casablanca
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own
#12 Claude Jarman Jr. in The Yearling
#13 Ingrid Bergman & Cary Grant in Notorious
#14 Finlay Currie in Great Expectations
#15 Glenn Ford in Gilda
#16 Mark Stevens in The Dark Corner
#17 Irene Dunne in Anna & the King of Siam
#18 Anthony Wager in Great Expectations
#19 Alastair Sim in Green for Danger
#20 Olivia de Havilland in The Dark Mirror
#21 Boris Karloff in Bedlam
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge [unconvincing both as a drunk and a corpse]
> Clifton Webb in The Razor's Edge [just another example of Clifton doing his arch stuff]
> Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life [isn't in it enough to qualify for lead actress status]
> Lionel Barrymore in It's a Wonderful Life [overdoes the Scrooge routine a smidge too much]
> Rosalind Russell in Sister Kenny [plays old age by looking like she needs to eat more prunes]
> Rex Harrison in Anna & the King of Siam [hey! let's have Henry Higgins play a Thai guy...]
> Larry Parks in The Jolson Story [Al Jolson was considered to be one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th Century...Larry doesn't show how that's even remotely feasible]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1946 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)
SILVER: The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)
BRONZE: Great Expectations (David Lean)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: James Stewart (It's a Wonderful Life)
SILVER: Humphrey Bogart (The Big Sleep)
BRONZE: Henry Fonda (My Darling Clementine)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jennifer Jones (Cluny Brown)
SILVER: Dorothy McGuire (The Spiral Staircase)
BRONZE: Jane Wyman (The Yearling)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Henry Travers (It's a Wonderful Life)
SILVER: Claude Rains (Notorious)
BRONZE: Finlay Currie (Great Expectations)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Ethel Barrymore (The Spiral Staircase)
SILVER: Leopoldine Konstantin (Notorious)
BRONZE: Rosalind Ivan (The Verdict)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Fredric March & Dana Andrews & Harold Russell & Myrna Loy & Teresa Wright & Cathy O'Donnell & Virginia Mayo (The Best Years of Our Lives)
SILVER: Ingrid Bergman & Cary Grant (Notorious)
BRONZE: William Conrad & Charles McGraw (The Killers)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Claude Jarman Jr. (The Yearling)
SILVER: Anthony Wager (Great Expectations)
BRONZE: Dean Stockwell (The Green Years)
The Alternate Razzies for 1946 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
The Razor's Edge (Edmund Goulding)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Robert Taylor (Undercurrent)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Joan Fontaine (From This Day Forward)
