The Usual Choices
Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
Ben-Hur (William Wyler)
North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
But how about...
North West Frontier (J. Lee Thompson)
...and what about...
Warlock (Edward Dmytryk)
A mysteriously overlooked Western which gets better with every viewing. It contains a collection of genre conventions (anti-hero gunslinger who goes up against a completely bad man; a woman of dubious reputation and an unintentional killer both seek redemption; a frightened and cowardly townsfolk rediscovers its backbone) but it adds something new to the mix: a homosexual attachment between the antihero and his sidekick. Anthony loves Henry and, even though it remains in the closet, it's hardly in disguise. This undercurrent of unrequited love burbles through the film and gives it a distinct freshness. Anthony Quinn plays it beautifully with an unusual (for him) degree of subtlety. Not Brokeback Mountain of course, but fairly heady stuff for 1959.
...not to mention...
Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise)
A heist movie which stubbornly refuses to be a noir, and turns into a message film instead. Robert Ryan plays yet another racist nutcase who butts heads with never-much-of-an-actor Harry Belafonte and their mutual hatred is, of course, the cause of their destruction. Love the little touches in this movie: effeminate thug; vibraphone tantrum; the cold wind blowing; the business with the car keys. The outdoor New York scenes are bright and airy, surrounded by a jazzy, finger-snappin' score. But unfortunately, while the story is absorbing and unashamedly fatalistic, the metaphorical climax is a bit OTT. Still, an enthralling crime film with a moral twist.
...and one personal unmentionable...
The FBI Story (Mervyn LeRoy)
Guilty pleasure = feeling good about something which is bad. This film is awful dribble, and I know it. Only permitted to be released after being given the stamp of approval by J Edgar, it was guaranteed to be a load of flagwaving, holier-than-thou bullshit from beginning to end. So, where is the pleasure, you may ask? From the opening blow-up-a-plane-to-kill-Mama, through the killing of rich Indians by those pesky KKK funsters, to good ol' KGB spies playing hide-the-microfilm, this is a collection of the FBI's greatest hits. At its retching best, it is a shared masturbatory experience celebrating an organisation that was started by a megalomaniac cross-dresser. Now tell me...how can you not love that?
My Top 10 Films of 1959
 |
| DIY Euphemism My fave: Gig parks his bike |
#02 A+ North By Northwest (Hitchcock)
#03 A Rio Bravo (Hawks)
#04 A Some Like It Hot (Wilder)
#05 A- Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger)
#06 A- North West Frontier (Thompson)
#07 A- Warlock (Dmytryk)
#08 A- Our Man in Havana (Reed)
#09 B+ The Siege of Pinchgut (Watt)
#10 B+ Tiger Bay (Thompson)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ A Touch of Larceny (Hamilton)
#12 B+ Compulsion (Fleischer)
#13 B+ Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Levin)
#14 B+ Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (Guillermin)
#15 B+ Odds Against Tomorrow (Wise)
#16 B+ Ride Lonesome (Boetticher)
#17 B+ Libel (Asquith)
#18 B+ Look Back in Anger (Richardson)
#19 B+ Ask Any Girl (Walters)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Ben-Hur [the grand-scale battle of the wooden actors]
> B Operation Petticoat [amusing to see Cary & Tony together...just wish it was in another vehicle]
> B The Crimson Kimono [wants to be a noir with a social message...can't have it both ways]
> B Carry On Nurse [pre-smut, so it's just a little bit naughty and only a little bit funny]
> B The Last Angry Man [not angry enough or often enough before martyrdom kicks in]
> B Attack of the Giant Leeches [a commendable Z-Grade monster movie]
> B Imitation of Life [so soapy that I only watch it when my morals need a damn good scrubbing]
> B The Wreck of the Mary Deare [coulda been a good one but Coop looks and acts really tired]
> B The Bridal Path [another minor British comedy best watched with a cup of tea & a finger of shortbread]
> B Summer of the Seventeenth Doll [a classic Aussie play changed to pander to Yank audiences and filmed by Poms]
> B- Left, Right & Centre [mild British rom-com about politics; Brexit and Boris Johnson are more amusing]
> B- The Diary of Anne Frank [the book is better than the movie]
> B- The Mouse That Roared [tries to be Passport to Pimlico-ish, but very isn't]
> B- Have Rocket, Will Travel [aka The Two Stooges + a Ring-in, Very Old and in Space]
> B- On the Beach [it's the end of the world as they know it, and they feel quite upset about it]
> B- The Devil's Disciple [Lord Larry gives the Yanks an acting lesson while the director fumbles about]
> B- A Hole in the Head [plenty of sentiment but no feeling]
> B- Blind Date [just another Joseph Losey film: more decadent rich, lots of talking and a little peculiarity]
> B- The Scapegoat [heavy melodrama with a silly premise and an OTT Bette Davis]
> B- Carry On Teacher [great glob of sentimentality flung onto the usual-style gags]
> B- Invisible Invaders [invisible aliens inhabit corpses and roam the countryside in search of World Domination]
> C The Alligator People [a daft premise is nearly camouflaged into a horror story...but only nearly]
> C Suddenly, Last Summer [gosh: lobotomy, homosexuality, cannibalism, incest, sludge]
> C The FBI Story [A Personal Unmentionable / Guilty Pleasure]
> C Alive and Kicking [3 British character actresses get leading roles...and were better in the background]
> D Plan 9 from Outer Space [the king of the "so bad it's good" cult, but everyone forgets to mention that it's boring]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1959 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Al Capone (Wilson); The Battle of the Sexes (Crichton); Beyond This Place (Cardiff); Danger Within (Chaffey); Day of the Outlaw (de Toth); The Great St Louis Bank Robbery (Guggenheim); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Fisher); House on Haunted Hill (Castle); Jet Storm (Endfield); The Journey (Litvak); Last Train from Gun Hill (Sturges); Middle of the Night (Mann); The Mummy (Fisher); Operation Amsterdam (McCarthy); Pillow Talk (Gordon); Pork Chop Hill (Milestone); Room at the Top (Clayton); Sapphire (Dearden); Shake Hands With the Devil (Anderson); The Sound and the Fury (Ritt); The Stranglers of Bombay (Fisher); Take a Giant Step (Leacock); Ten Seconds to Hell (Aldrich); They Came to Cordura (Rossen); The Tingler (Castle); Too Many Crooks (Zampi)
Best Performances of 1959
Cary Grant in North By Northwest
Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur
Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot
Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot
George C. Scott in Anatomy of a Murder
Simone Signoret in Room at the Top
James Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder
Shelley Winters in The Diary of Anne Frank
But how about...
James Mason in A Touch of Larceny
Dry...the man is dry. When James tackled a comedy role (or a quirky character part in a drama), he displayed his mastery of subtle, dry wit. In AToL, he plays the part of a consummate ladies man who finally falls in love...and needs money to seal the deal. He doesn't go for the great guffaw: James lets the humour of the character worm its way into you, and the comedy is in the outlandish lengths this indolent soul will go to so his life works out the way he wants. Cynical, manipulative and frustrating sure, but also good-hearted, intelligent and charming. Pure James Mason...and his version of being funny.
...and what about...
Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay
Child actors are a funny lot - very few continue their success / popularity after puberty. Something indefinable is lost. Golden-Age Hollywood knew this and squeezed as many films out of their mini-stars as they could before the pimples started blooming. Hayley was one of the very best of them all, and her charm lasted a total of 4 (2 UK; 2 US) movies, TB being the first. Why she stood above the 1959-1962 crowd is all on show here: wide-eyed, a little sadness, mild rebelliousness, humour & sensitivity, perfect enunciation. Like all the best kid actors, there seems to be no acting going on - she seems to be really like this. And nothing about her is cloying or vomit-inducing: an absolute must for this age group. But lap it up fans, because it didn't last long.
...not to mention...
Shirley MacLaine in Ask Any Girl
While the film itself teeters perilously close to being condescending, sexist fluff, it keeps its balance due mainly to Shirley's best comedic performance. One of the more animated actresses of the era, Shirley never slips into overdoing her outrage or indignation (which she was prone to do in later comedies). Her timing is perfect; she singlehandedly rescues entire scenes (David Niven certainly is of no use; Gig Young and Rod Taylor help out occasionally) without even the usual quirky girlfriend/sidekick to back her up. A 50's Doris Day role without the saccharine, Shirley steps right into the part and walks away as the best comedienne of her generation.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly Last Summer
I have a theory about Liz called BRC ("Before Raintree County") & ARC (I'm sure you can figure it out). BRC is sprinkled with terrific performances, both as a child (Lassie Come Home & National Velvet) and as a young adult (A Place in the Sun & Giant). Then RC happened and afterwards, she was a histrionic, Oscar-nominated *STAR* who couldn't find subtlety with a spotlight and a sniffer dog. Her performance in SLS is one of her worst: bullyingly loud, self-consciously controversial with an annoying Southern Belle accent which she uses like a mallet. Admittedly, the material is pretty hysterical on its own, but that would therefore demand a dampening interpretation. But the great actress says Nope. And she never got much better; the wee lassie never came home.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1959
#01 Tony Curtis & Marilyn Monroe & Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot
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| The local outdoors store having run out of wind-chimes, Randolph ruthlessly improvises. |
#03 Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story
#04 Shirley MacLaine in Ask Any Girl
#05 Anthony Quinn in Warlock
#06 Peter Sellers in I'm All Right Jack
#07 James Mason in A Touch of Larceny
#08 Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay
#09 Laurence Olivier in The Devil's Disciple
#10 Robert Vaughn in The Young Philadelphians
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Paul Muni in The Last Angry Man
#13 Edith Evans in Look Back in Anger
#14 Alec Guinness in Our Man in Havanna
#15 Susan Kohner in Imitation of Life
#16 Mildred Dunnock in The Nun's Story
#17 John Wayne & Dean Martin & Walter Brennan & Angie Dickinson & Ricky Nelson in Rio Bravo
#18 Edith Evans in The Nun's Story
#19 James Mason in North By Northwest
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur [he keeps looking around for a rifle]
> George C. Scott in Anatomy of a Murder [highly regarded, but he does so little of consequence]
> James Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder [he overdoes the grizzled, cigar-chewing routine]
> Shelley Winters in The Diary of Anne Frank [oh...shut up, Fatty]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1959 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Nun's Story (Fred Zinnemann)
SILVER: North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
BRONZE: Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Cary Grant (North By Northwest)
SILVER: James Mason (A Touch of Larceny)
BRONZE: Paul Muni (The Last Angry Man)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Audrey Hepburn (The Nun's Story)
SILVER: Shirley MacLaine (Ask Any Girl)
BRONZE: Claire Bloom (Look Back in Anger)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Anthony Quinn (Warlock)
SILVER: Peter Sellers (I'm All Right, Jack)
BRONZE: Laurence Olivier (The Devil's Disciple)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Edith Evans (Look Back in Anger)
SILVER: Susan Kohner (Imitation of Life)
BRONZE: Mildred Dunnock (The Nun's Story)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Marilyn Monroe & Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon & Joe E. Brown (Some Like It Hot)
SILVER: Robert Morley & Wilfred Hyde-White (Libel)
BRONZE: John Wayne & Dean Martin & Walter Brennan & Angie Dickinson & Ricky Nelson (Rio Bravo)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Hayley Mills (Tiger Bay)
SILVER: Eddie Hodges (A Hole in the Head)
BRONZE: TBA
The Alternate Razzies for 1959 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez (Rio Bravo)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Elizabeth Taylor (Suddenly, Last Summer)
