1955 Bonus List: Some Great Movies

1955 blogging, bonus list!

31 Great Movies from 1955

To conclude our festival of 1955, I’m sharing a list of recommended movies.  This mini-list excerpts the 1955 films from the “Doubling the Canon” list (as compiled by participants on the IMDb Classic Film message board) combined with the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They? list of 1,000 great films.

The They Shoot Pictures list is a 1,000-movie canon of great films;  the “Doubling the Canon” list adds an additional 1,000 movies to the canon.  From the combined list, I’ve selected the 1955 movies.

31 Great Movies from 1955

(Combined list, with They Shoot Pictures picks in caps and  “Doubling the Canon” picks in lower case, all presented in alphabetical order.)

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS / Douglas Sirk 

CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ, THE (ENSAYO DE UN CRIMEN) / Luis Buñuel 

Death of a Cyclist (Muerte de un ciclista) / Juan Antonio Bardem 

DIABOLIQUE (LES DIABOLIQUES) / Henri-Georges Clouzot 

EAST OF EDEN / Elia Kazan 

FLOATING CLOUDS (UKIGUMO) / Mikio Naruse 

IL BIDONE / Federico Fellini 

It's Always Fair Weather / Stanley Donen 

KISS ME DEADLY / Robert Aldrich 

LADYKILLERS, THE / Alexander Mackendrick 

LES MAITRES FOUS / Jean Rouch 

LOLA MONTES / Max Ophüls 

MAN FROM LARAMIE, THE / Anthony Mann 

Marty / Delbert Mann 

MOONFLEET / Fritz Lang 

NIGHT AND FOG (NUIT ET BROUILLARD) / Alain Resnais 

NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE / Charles Laughton 

One Froggy Evening / Chuck Jones 

ORDET / Carl T. Dreyer 

PATHER PANCHALI / Satyajit Ray 

Phenix City Story, The / Phil Karlson 

PRINCESS YANG KWEI FEI  (YOKIHI) / Kenji Mizoguchi 

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE / Nicholas Ray 

Richard III / Laurence Olivier 

RIFIFI (DU RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES) / Jules Dassin 

Rio 40 Graus / Nelson Pereira dos Santos 

Run for Cover / Nicholas Ray 

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT (SOMMARNATTENS LEENDE) / Ingmar Bergman 

Summertime / David Lean 

Tales of the Taira Clan (Shin heike monogatari) / Kenji Mizoguchi 

Wichita / Jacques Tourneur 

Here’s the full They Shoot Pictures list.  And here’s the  “Doubling the Canon” list.  Special thanks to the two masterminds behind these lists: Bill Georgaris who manages They Shoot Pictures and Angel Gonzalez Garcia who now leads the "Doubling the Canon" project.

I created and launched  “Doubling the Canon” project around half a dozen years ago, ran it for a few years, and then handed it off to Angel’s capable hands where it’s flourished since.

Next year up on the random year generator:  1963.  (Coming soon…)

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1955, Part 5

1955 blogging, part 5 of 5

Inexhaustible Secrets of 1955

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I thought I might try a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.

So... first up on the random year generator:  1955.  And here’s my fifth and final 1955 series possibility:  21 essays on “Sestina,” a poem by Elizabeth Bishop.

It’s time for tea now;  but the child
is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house…

                                      excerpt from “Sestina”

                                      by Elizabeth Bishop

In 1955, Elizabeth Bishop published Poems: North and South—A Cold Spring, which collected a remarkable group of her poems.  “Sestina” is far from the best known, but I find it bewitching.  Everything in the grandmother’s house has secrets to communicate.  I’ve known and loved houses like that.   I think each item merits an essay:  the stove, the almanac, the iron kettle, the teacup, the picture, and, of course, the inscrutable house itself.

This is the last of my official 1955 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…) but I’ve got one more bonus entry of additional classic 1955 movies that I’ve saved for last.  I’ll post it tomorrow.

Next year up on the random year generator:  1963.  (Coming soon…)

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1955, Part 4

1955 blogging, part 4 of 5

Down the river of time in 1955

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I thought I might try a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.

So... first up on the random year generator:  1955.  And here’s my fourth 1955 series possibility:  21 essays on Cesta du praveku.

Okay… actually I’ve never seen the film Cesta du praveku.  Not all of it, at least.  But it’s got scenes in it that are permanently embedded in my dreams.  When I was a young boy, I saw Journey to the Beginning of Time at a matinee.  In the movie, four boys in a rowboat take a trip backward in time, observing mammoths and dinosaurs on the shores as they pass.  Journey to the Beginning of Time is a 1966 American re-edit (with some new material) of Cesta du praveku, a 1955 movie by Czech animation virtuoso Karel Zeman.  At some point, I know I’ll need to pay homage to something by Zeman and I’d be very happy if it could be this movie.  Zeman deserves much more attention—21 essays at the very least.

With tomorrow’s entry, I’ll post the last of my 1955 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…) and then I’ll finish with a bonus entry of additional classic 1955 movies.  But I remain open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1955 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1955, Part 3

1955 blogging, part 3 of 5

Humbert/Quilty, 1955

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I thought I might try a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.

So... first up on the random year generator:  1955.  And here’s my third 1955 series possibility:  21 essays on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita.

“Where the devil did you get her?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said: the weather is getting better.”

“Seems so.”

“Who’s the lassie?”

“My daughter.”

“You lie—she’s not.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said:  July was hot…”

                                   Lolita, Chapter 28

                                   Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita is still the yardstick that I measure novels by.  The timing was right, I guess.  I read it during the summer between high school and college, a time when I was particularly susceptible to the intoxicating swirl of voluptuous language and forbidden subject matter.  It made me want to be a writer.  Maybe I could repay the favor with essays on some focused item in Lolita, for instance 21 essays on the ever-enigmatic Clare Quilty (who comments on the weather in the prose poem above).

Thanks to Dan Kocher who suggested Lolita!  The book was published in Paris in 1955, but still had to overcome some hurdles before making it to American bookstores.  Paris publication counts, so I happily recognize it here.

Over the next two days, I’ll be proposing some more 1955 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…)  But I’m wide open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1955 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1955, Part 2

1955 blogging, part 2 of 5

Blues and Rags of 1955

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I thought I might try a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.

So... first up on the random year generator:  1955.  And here’s my second 1955 series possibility:  11 essays on “Folsom Prison Blues.”

“I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die.”  On his 1955 debut album, 23-year-old Johnny Cash nails an iconic lyric.  All it takes is just eleven words and a chugging acoustic rhythm.  So simple you’d think anyone could do it… How about 11 essays for these two lines, one essay for each terse word?

Leaving Reno for Termite Terrace (Hollywood home of Chuck Jones), my friend Dan Kocher reminds me that 1955 was the year of One Froggy Evening, with the debut performance of Michigan J. Frog:

The Fred Astaire of the frog world well deserves a spate of essays.

Over the next three days, I’ll be proposing some more 1955 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…)  But I’m wide open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1955 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1955, Part 1

1955 blogging, part 1 of 5

Love/Hate in 1955

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I thought I might try a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.

So... first up on the random year generator:  1955.  And here’s my first 1955 series possibility:  21 essays on The Night of the Hunter.

This single two-minute scene alone could fuel at least 21 essays.  Robert Mitchum in the dark, singing “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”  Lillian Gish cradling a shotgun, offering counterpoint on the choruses.  Meanwhile, the children are snuggled in their expressionist beds.  Oh, yeah.  I could definitely do 21 essays on this.

Over the next four days, I’ll be proposing some more 1955 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…).  But I’m wide open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1955 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price