The Usual Choices
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen)
A Star is Born (George Cukor)
But how about...
The Maggie (Alexander Mackendrick)
The pure essence of Charm. A wonderful Ealing comedy which has been unjustly overshadowed by the likes of The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit, this is the most endearing of them all. All the classic battles are here: Big Business Yank vs Little Man Brit; Modern Times vs Old World; Money vs Character; Objectivity vs Sentimentality. Paul Douglas is wonderful as the fish-out-of-water, and the rugged old puffer boat which plays the title role should get equal-billing to him. Brimming with wily old Scots and pipe-smoking rogues with glints in their eyes, this film is a crown jewel.
...and what about...
The Million Pound Note / Man With a Million / Big Money (Ronald Neame)
...not to mention...
Father Brown / The Detective (Robert Hamer)
This features a classic Alec Guinness "fubsy" characterisation (and, by the way, Alec did not invent the word - "fubsy" appears in a 1913 UK dictionary meaning "chubby"). Bespectacled; mild-mannered; eccentric; sexless; dithering but determined, Alec as Father Brown is quaint personified. Up against master criminal Peter Finch, and supported by players as wonderful as Joan Greenwood (LOVE her voice), Cecil Parker and Sid James, this film is a total pleasure from beginning to end. Even the "save your soul" character motivation doesn't sour the enjoyment.
...and one personal unmentionable...
The Glenn Miller Story (Anthony Mann)
I never really mind if a movie fiddles with the facts for the sake of the story (unless it's a doco of course) because truth should always give way to the avoidance of boredom. But in this film, artistic-licence doesn't merely abound; it rapes & pillages. Racially-integrated WWII troops (as if); the split-lip which brings about the Glenn Miller Sound; the taken-for-granted marriage; the back-of-the-neck tingle; the rubbish about "The Little Brown Jug"; falling asleep during a 1920's Louis Armstrong nightclub show(!!); June Allyson's repeated declarations of "Honestly!" as opposed to the vastly more human "Shit!"; the cutesy-pie fantasies about how the song titles were created; "In the Mood" blaring away as a V2 explodes and no doubt kills many Londoners. What tosh. My advice: buy a copy of the excellent compilation Glenn Miller's Wartime Recordings instead, skip the female vocalist tracks, and just swing along.
My Top 10 Films of 1954
 |
| "My God, Marlon! You have GOT to stop eating cabbage!" |
#02 A+ A Star is Born (Cukor)
#03 A Hobson's Choice (Lean)
#04 A The Maggie (Mackendrick)
#05 A- The Caine Mutiny (Dmytryk)
#06 A- On the Waterfront (Kazan)
#07 A- Father Brown / The Detective (Hamer)
#08 A- Robinson Crusoe (Bunuel)
#09 A- Them! (Douglas)
#10 B+ Riot in Cell Block 11 (Siegel)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Fleischer)
#12 B+ The Divided Heart (Crichton)
#13 B+ The Million Pound Note / Man With a Million / Big Money (Neame)
#14 B+ The Long, Long Trailer (Minnelli)
#15 B+ It Should Happen To You (Cukor)
#16 B+ The Purple Plain (Parrish)
#17 B+ Lease of Life (Frend)
#18 B+ Black Widow (Johnson)
#19 B+ Shield for Murder (O'Brien; Koch)
#20 B+ The Naked Jungle (Haskins)
#21 B+ Ma & Pa Kettle at Home (Lamont)
#22 B+ An Inspector Calls (Hamilton)
#23 B+ Gog (Strock)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Dial M for Murder [Ray Milland AND Robert Cummings?? Ugh]
> B Executive Suite [interesting, but afterwards, it's just over]
> B Salt of the Earth [important message film...gosh, is that the time?]
> B Creature from the Black Lagoon [cute]
> B Seven Brides for Seven Brothers [exhaustingly athletic]
> B Johnny Guitar [I don't like my Westerns lying on the psychiatrist's couch]
> B Doctor in the House [nice, harmless, but not enough James Robertson Justice]
> B River of No Return [Robert Mitchum + Marilyn Monroe in a Western directed by Otto Preminger...hmm...]
> B- The Barefoot Contessa [the actors don't care, so why should I?]
> B- The Country Girl [Bing & Grace slum it to prove that they are serious Actors]
> B- Night People [first-time directed by a long-time writer, so people talk a lot but the movie doesn't move]
> B- Dangerous Voyage / Terror Ship [adequately-interesting mystery being solved by dull people]
> B- Sabrina [light rom-com killed by fatal mis-casting]
> B- The Runaway Bus [minor Brit comedy featuring Frankie Howerd (boo!) and Margaret Rutherford (yay!)]
> C The Belles of St. Trinian's [surprisingly easy to resist]
> D Elephant Walk [a Ceylonese tea plantation...it's a man's man's man's man's world]
> D The Glenn Miller Story [A Personal Unmentionable]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1954 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Black Tuesday (Fregonese); The Bridges at Toko-Ri (Robson); Carmen Jones (Preminger); Carrington VC (Asquith); Demetrius and the Gladiators (Daves); Down Three Dark Streets (Laven); Drive a Crooked Road (Quine); The Good Die Young (Gilbert); Happy Ever After (Zampi); Hell and High Water (Fuller); The High and the Mighty (Wellman); Human Desire (Lang); Knock on Wood (Panama); The Long Wait (Saville); Make Me an Offer (Frankel); The Outcast (Witney); Phffft (Robson); Private Hell 36 (Siegel); Pushover (Quine); The Raid (Fregonese); Rogue Cop (Rowland); The Sleeping Tiger (Hanbury aka Losey); Southwest Passage (Nazarro); Suddenly (Allen); Susan Slept Here (Tashlin); There's No Business Like Show Business (Lang); Three Coins in the Fountain (Negulesco); Track of the Cat (Wellman); Vera Cruz (Aldrich); Witness to Murder (Rowland); Woman's World (Negulesco); The Wonderful Country (Parrish); Young at Heart (Douglas)
Best Performances of 1954
Humphrey Bogart (The Caine Mutiny)
Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront)
Lee J. Cobb (On the Waterfront)
Judy Garland (A Star is Born)
Grace Kelly (The Country Girl)
James Mason (A Star is Born)
Edmond O'Brien (The Barefoot Contessa)
Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront)
But how about...
Van Johnson in The Caine Mutiny
In film after film from the tail end of the Golden Age, Van Johnson played Good Guys. But, in The Caine Mutiny, Van played a Good Guy...With Facial Scars (which Van the man received from a 1943 car crash and hid with heavy makeup). Such a shame that Van spent so much of his career playing lightweight roles or nice fellows - his difficult childhood, conflicted sexuality and emotional distance from his loved ones demonstrated depth within the man, and untapped potential within the actor. Only in TCM did Van ever reveal a character's inner turmoil - responsibility, authority and decisiveness, all followed through, but with great reluctance. A performance which gains resonance with repeated viewings.
...and what about...
Fred MacMurray in The Caine Mutiny
Ever had a friend who talked courage but acted chicken? How about someone who encouraged you to complain to the boss, but didn't actually want to walk down the corridor with you? Lieutenant Thomas Keefer is just such a man. The most snivelling of all movie cowards, this is the crew member who would've resorted to instant transvestism to escape the Titanic. So ordinary as a light comedian, so tepid as a romantic lead, and so boring as a straight man, Fred MacMurray was only ever exceptional when he played a shit. In this movie, his fecal impersonation is impeccable.
...not to mention...
John Williams in Dial M for Murder
I only remember John Williams ever playing John Williams in every movie (and TV show episode) he appeared in. But somehow, in DMfM, his performance leapt out from everybody else's in that merely mediocre Hitchcock movie. Level-headed, vaguely bemused, vocally even-tempered and calmly determined, his Chief Inspector investigates the killing, draws conclusions and sets up traps as if he were organising a Saturday morning garage sale. In the overpopulated film-realm of hard-bitten detectives, quite refreshing and memorable. And very British...what?
...and one personal unmentionable...
Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina
Quite possibly the most jarring example of mis-casting in all of moviedom. Bogie as a viable romantic alternative to William Holden? For Audrey Hepburn? Puffing away as throat cancer quietly digs in, Bogie's face looks furrowed and arid as neglected leather. 1954 being a big year for the actor (The Barefoot Contessa; The Caine Mutiny), his worn visage displays everything but a desire to pitch woo. The offscreen passionate affair that was going on at the time between Hepburn and Holden didn't help matters either: their onscreen chemistry underlines just how improbable it is that Audrey would choose a tired old man to be her sexual partner. And to ask Humphrey Bogart to play a character with the name of Linus is just demeaning. Very sad all round.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1954
 |
| "Humphs, I've just heard: because you're playing my lover, my father has to be played by dust." |
#02 Judy Garland (A Star is Born)
#03 Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront)
#04 Van Johnson (The Caine Mutiny)
#05 Fred MacMurray (The Caine Mutiny)
#06 Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront)
#07 Judy Holliday (It Should Happen To You)
#08 Peggy Ann Garner (Black Widow)
#09 John Williams (Dial M for Murder)
#10 James Robertson Justice (Doctor in the House)
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Alec Guinness (Father Brown / The Detective)
#12 Marjorie Main & Percy Kilbride (Ma & Pa Kettle at Home)
#13 Dan O'Herlihy (Robinson Crusoe)
#14 Grace Kelly (Rear Window)
#15 Charles Laughton & Brenda de Banzie & John Mills (Hobson's Choice)
#16 James Mason (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
#17 Edmund Gwenn (Them!)
#18 Robert Donat (Lease of Life)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Humphrey Bogart in The Caine Mutiny [hate to say it, but I find him totally unconvincing]
> Grace Kelly in The Country Girl [she keeps pining for her pearls]
> Lee J Cobb & Rod Steiger in On the Waterfront [The Battle of the Mr Shouties]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1954 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
SILVER: A Star is Born (George Cukor)
BRONZE: Hobson's Choice (David Lean)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: James Mason (A Star is Born)
SILVER: Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront)
BRONZE: Alec Guinness (Father Brown / The Detective)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Judy Garland (A Star is Born)
SILVER: Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront)
BRONZE: Judy Holliday (It Should Happen to You)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Van Johnson (The Caine Mutiny)
SILVER: Fred MacMurray (The Caine Mutiny)
BRONZE: John Williams (Dial M for Murder)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Peggy Ann Garner (Black Widow)
SILVER: Thelma Ritter (Rear Window)
BRONZE: Margaret Rutherford (The Runaway Bus)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Marjorie Main & Percy Kilbride (Ma & Pa Kettle at Home)
SILVER: Charles Laughton & John Mills & Brenda de Banzie (Hobson's Choice)
BRONZE: Ronald Squire & Wilfred Hyde-White (The Million Pound Note)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Tommy Kearins (The Maggie)
SILVER: Tommy Rettig (River of No Return)
BRONZE: Michel Ray (The Divided Heart)
The Alternate Razzies for 1954 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Elephant Walk (William Dieterle)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Humphrey Bogart (Sabrina)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
June Allyson (The Glenn Miller Story)
