Best Movies of 1949
The Usual ChoicesAll the King's Men (Robert Rossen)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
On the Town (Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
White Heat (Raoul Walsh)
But how about...
Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown)
One of the greatest social message films (racism) ever made. Based on a William Faulkner novel, the movie combines a murder-mystery with redneck menace, all eddying around in Smalltown USA. Three heroic figures push the story along: a proud old black man who refuses to play the n-word to appease the white folks (Juano Hernandez, who oozes nobility) / a coming-of-age boy (Claude Jarman Jr) who is at a moral turning point in his life / and an old white lady (Elizabeth Patterson) who is quiet, determined and full of nous. And special mention must be made of Porter Hall as a loving father from the backwoods. The no-music soundtrack magnifies the tension (especially when the pivotal scene takes place in moonlight) and, apart from the occasional moralistic one-liner which must have been irresistible, there is surprisingly little preaching.
...and what about...
The Small Back Room aka Hour of Glory (Michael Powell; Emeric Pressburger)
One of the very best Archers productions, this tells the story of the "Back Room Boys" (science boffins and nerds) who fought WWII through research and experimentation. The focus is on a crippled (physically and emotionally, as usual) scientist as he struggles with pain, petty politics and the bottle, who is supported by Kathleen Byron (whose ethereal quality is on full display here) and a number of admiring colleagues. The film features the best bomb-defusing scene I know, and the typical Powell quirkiness (surreal dream sequence; enigmatic dialogue; little side observations of character motivation) is woven throughout. While the upper lip remains quite stiff and apparently there will always be an England, it remains an engaging experience.
...not to mention...
Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius)
Something very comforting and warming about Ealing comedies like this one: they were played regularly on TV in Commonwealth Australia, as if to remind us of our fish'n'chips roots (although what the indigenous and numerous immigrant peoples thought about this, I cannot imagine). A clever idea sets the plot rolling, and all the comedic possibilities of it are plumbed and presented. The real joy is the gathering of delightfully eccentric character actors (in this case, Stanley Holloway and the queen of them all, Margaret Rutherford) and how they bounce off each other and inside their postwar, usually dour, kitchen-sink surroundings. Thoroughly enjoyable stuff, and this film is perhaps the very best, and certainly most overlooked, of the wonderful Ealing collection.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Alias Nick Beal aka Dark Circle aka The Contact Man aka Strange Temptation (John Farrow)
aka Faust Rides Again. Thomas Mitchell is a big city DA who makes a pact with the walking, talking Prince of Darkness so he can climb the political...zzzzzzz... Has the Devil EVER been played convincingly in the guise of a regular fella? The dialogue in this rubbish movie is all morality-play / cautionary-tale based and rarely rings true, and to have Ray Milland (who was never a particularly convincing actor even at his best..which was...hang on...give me a moment...) portray the Ultimate & Original Super Villain is just very silly. While Thomas and George Macready try to inject some performance-enthusiasm into the proceedings, and there are some nice noirish touches, it all comes across as a dreary amateur theatre production.
My Top 10 Films of 1949
 |
| "Yeah, that's a good one. Can you do a bunny?" |
#02 A+ The Heiress (Wyler)
#03 A Intruder in the Dust (Brown)
#04 A Passport to Pimlico (Cornelius)
#05 A The Set-Up (Wise)
#06 A White Heat (Walsh)
#07 A- Down to the Sea in Ships (Hathaway)
#08 A- The Secret Garden (Wilcox)
#09 A- The Small Back Room aka Hour of Glory (Powell; Pressburger)
#10 A- The Window (Tetzlaff)
Overflow: More A- / B+ Films
#11 A- Whisky Galore! (Mackendrick)
#12 A- A Letter to Three Wives (Mankiewicz)
#13 A- Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer)
#14 A- Adam's Rib (Cukor)
#16 B+ The Last Days of Dolwyn (Williams)
#17 B+ Flamingo Road (Curtiz)
#18 B+ Knock On Any Door (Ray)
#19 B+ Criss Cross (Siodmak)
#20 B+ The Rocking Horse Winner (Pelissier)
#21 B+ Twelve O'Clock High (King)
#22 B+ Obsession / The Hidden Room (Dmytryk)
#23 B+ Eureka Stockade / Massacre Hill (Watt)
#24 B+ Ma & Pa Kettle (Lamont)
#25 B+ Caught (Ophuls)
#26 B+ She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (Ford)
#27 B+ Champion (Robson)
#28 B+ The Queen of Spades (Dickinson)
#29 B+ I Was a Male War Bride (Hawks)
#30 B+ Sons of Matthew (Chauvel)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B The Reckless Moment [mild thriller...yeah, it's a miller]
> B Malaya [outstanding cast but the story dawdles, then dwindles]
> B On the Town [if you're into musicals where they all just burst into song for no reason...]
> B Whirlpool [interesting but ultimately too-ridiculous story involving hypnotism, kleptomania and murder]
> B The Hasty Heart [too obviously a stage play]
> B It Happens Every Spring [harmless, light-hearted fluff which you'll forget 10 minutes after watching it]
> B The History of Mr Polly [Charles Dickens wannabe which remains a H.G. Wells curio]
> B The Man on the Eiffel Tower [interesting cat & mouse manhunt movie, but not really interesting enough]
> B D.O.A. [overrated film noir that overcomes corny acting and dialogue by having a brilliant gimmick]
> B Come to the Stable [reluctantly-likeable schmaltz with the milk of human kindness running like a tap]
> B Manhandled [low-level crime caper featuring lousy acting boosted by a strong script]
> B- My Friend Irma [eternally penalised for bringing us Jerry]
> B- Little Women [a classic Katharine Hepburn performance, reinterpreted by...June Allyson]
> B- We Were Strangers [political film which is tedious...which I guess is appropriate]
> B- House of Strangers [boring battle of the tootsie-frootsie Italians]
> B- And Baby Makes Three [adult sex comedy, 1949-style]
> B- Under Capricorn [not a lost treasure; not a stinker either; but definitely below-par Hitchcock]
> B- Scene of the Crime [cop movie with the usual cynicism and jazz; not bad, not good, not much]
> C Edward, My Son [arthritic and dull story of a rich man and his spoilt-rotten son]
> C Silent Dust [another turgid + well-mannered British potboiler nearly saved by Irene Handl popping in]
> C Alias Nick Beal [A Personal Unmentionable]
> C Rope of Sand [clunky dialogue, an un-fatale femme and Arizona pretends to be South Africa]
> D Beyond the Forest [despite it's rep, it's not campy fun...it's merely dreadful]
> D The Fountainhead [a profoundly stoopid movie]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1949 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Battleground (Wellman); The Big Steal (Siegel); The Blue Lagoon (Launder); Border Incident (Mann); The Clay Pigeon (Fleischer); Colorado Territory (Walsh); Everybody Does It (Goulding); The Glass Mountain (Cass); The Great Gatsby (Nugent); Holiday Affair (Hartman); Home of the Brave (Robson); I Shot Jesse James (Fuller); Impact (Lubin); The Inspector General (Koster); Interrupted Journey (Birt); Johnny Stool Pigeon (Castle); The Lady Gambles (Gordon); Lust for Gold (Simon); Madame Bovary (Minnelli); Madness of the Heart (Bennett); Mighty Joe Young (Schoedsack); Miss Grant Takes Richmond (Bacon); My Foolish Heart (Robson); The Passionate Friends (Lean); Pinky (Kazan); Prince of Foxes (King); The Red Pony (Milestone); A Run for Your Money (Frend); Sands of Iwo Jima (Dwan); Shockproof (Sirk); The Stratton Story (Wood); Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Berkeley); Take One False Step (Erskine); Tension (Berry); Thieves' Highway (Dassin); Tokyo Joe (Heisler); Too Late for Tears (Haskin); The Undercover Man (Lewis)
Best Performances of 1949
Oft-Mentioned ChoicesJames Cagney in White Heat
Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men
Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress
Katharine Hepburn in Adam's Rib
Kirk Douglas in Champion
Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets
Mercedes McCambridge in All the King's Men
Spencer Tracy in Adam's Rib
Orson Welles in The Third Man
But how about...
Joan Crawford and Sydney Greenstreet in Flamingo Road
While I've never been a Joan fan, I have admired her stereotypical role as a tough woman from the sticks who is both smart and classy. In FR, she plays the role to the hilt, and produces a far stronger interpretation of that persona than she did in Mildred Pierce. And while the film is a seedy pseudo-political potboiler, it is great fun just to watch Joan refuse to knuckle under, even when the bastard is...
...Sydney Greenstreet. My favourite of his movie performances (yes, Gutman in The Maltese Falcon is wonderful, but in FR he stands alone), he is an absolute swine. No humour in this performance whatsoever, just total ruthlessness. You know that this guy is capable of any and all kinds of deviousness and cruelty, just to simply get his own way. Instead of his size being a mere physical trait, it highlights that he is larger than mere morality; from his guttural, breathy laugh to his quick, violent moves, he is beyond usual humanity.
...and what about...
Robert Ryan in The Set-Up
One of the great things about a project like this blog is that you occasionally come across terrific movies, performances and even entire careers that you had previously overlooked or been in complete ignorance of. Robert Ryan is an actor who created many topnotch characters in mostly B-Grade or failed A-Grade movies. His powerful performance in TS-U as a boxer with scruples and dreams wipes the floor with many later, more-heralded boxing characterisations (DeNiro; Stallone; Day-Lewis; Bale etc). Robert is the essence of outwardly tough / emotionally feeble, hit in the head far too many times but never hit hard enough to stop believing in himself. Reality (in the form of corruption, of course...it's a fight movie after all) steps in, with the usual consequences.
...not to mention...
While the hosannas were piled onto Alec Guinness and his multiple roles (and let's face it...his eight mini-performances are pretty impressive), I always thought that the success of the film was actually due to the less show-offy Dennis & Joan. HE: dry, calm and driven, Dennis is enjoyably transparent in this central role; you can pick out every fleck of bitterness which covers his public persona. Everyone's purpose in life is to better themselves; Dennis just does it through murder. SHE: Joan coos and teases, fully aware that she has her hand on the man's tiller, enjoying every maneuver that she instigates. Sex on a stick, but classy and proper with it, Joan has chosen a performance style which is wedged in between comedic and malevolent.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Jerry Lewis in My Friend Irma
I don't care what the French think...the Jerry Lewis persona in films like this (and especially in many subsequent films when it became even more extreme) is NOT FUNNY, just STUPID. The term "jerk" must have been coined for this guy: the facial contortions, the pre-puberty voice, the spasticity of the body movements, the sheer desperation of trying anything just to be thought of as amusing all add up to the most annoying comic ever to appear on film (apart from the heir-apparent Jim Carey, of course). Only in The Nutty Professor, where Jerry gave himself a clever premise and room for a little personal jab against his ex-partner Dean, did I ever find him even mildly amusing.
And it all started with this performance.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1949
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| "All right Sydney. You can have the last donut." |
#03 Robert Ryan in The Set-Up
#04 Ralph Richardson in The Heiress
#05 Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn in Adam's Rib
#06 Sydney Greenstreet in Flamingo Road
#07 David Wayne in Adam's Rib
#08 Juano Hernandez in Intruder in the Dust
#09 Judy Holliday in Adam's Rib
#10 Elizabeth Patterson in Intruder in the Dust
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Robert Ryan in Caught
#12 Margaret O'Brien & Dean Stockwell & Brian Roper in The Secret Garden
#13 Joan Crawford in Flamingo Road
#14 Trevor Howard in The Third Man
#15 Bobby Driscoll in The Window
#16 Joan Greenwood in Kind Hearts and Coronets
#17 Porter Hall in Intruder in the Dust
#18 Edith Evans in The Last Days of Dolwyn
#19 Dean Stockwell in Down to the Sea in Ships
#20 Dennis Price in Kind Hearts and Coronets
#21 Marjorie Main & Percy Kilbride in Ma & Pa Kettle
#22 Humphrey Bogart in Knock On Any Door
#23 Franchot Tone in The Man on the Eiffel Tower
#24 Paul Douglas in A Letter to Three Wives
#25 Margaret Rutherford in Passport to Pimlico
#26 Margaret Leighton in Under Capricorn
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men [big & loud with no nuance]
> Mercedes McCambridge in All the King's Men [small & loud with no nuance]
> Kirk Douglas in Champion [effectively swinish, but there's no joy in it]
> Orson Welles in The Third Man [as an actor, Orson is a great writer and director]
> Dean Jagger in Twelve O'Clock High [nice guy; sturdy actor; big deal]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1949 are:
GOLD: The Third Man (Carol Reed)
SILVER: The Heiress (William Wyler)
BRONZE: Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
GOLD: James Cagney (White Heat)
SILVER: Robert Ryan (The Set-Up)
BRONZE: Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
GOLD: Olivia de Havilland (The Heiress)
SILVER: Joan Crawford (Flamingo Road)
BRONZE: Edith Evans (The Last Days of Dolwyn)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
GOLD: Ralph Richardson (The Heiress)
SILVER: Sydney Greenstreet (Flamingo Road)
BRONZE: David Wayne (Adam's Rib)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
GOLD: Judy Holliday (Adam's Rib)
SILVER: Elizabeth Patterson (Intruder in the Dust)
BRONZE: Joan Greenwood (Kind Hearts and Coronets)
ENSEMBLE OR PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
GOLD: Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn (Adam's Rib)
SILVER: Margaret O'Brien & Dean Stockwell & Brian Roper (The Secret Garden)
BRONZE: Marjorie Main & Percy Kilbride (Ma & Pa Kettle)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
GOLD: Dean Stockwell (Down to the Sea in Ships)
SILVER: Bobby Driscoll (The Window)
BRONZE: Claude Jarman Jr (Intruder in the Dust)
The Alternate Razzies for 1949 are:
The Fountainhead (King Vidor)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Neville Brand (D.O.A.)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Bette Davis (Beyond the Forest)
