SCFZ poll: Henry Koster

[flip]

Polling the films of Henry Koster

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Koster films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

[flip]

i'm guessing not many scfzers will have seen a lot of koster films, so let's use extended rules for this poll:

• if you have seen an odd number of koster films, you can round up instead of down when deciding the length of your ballot (e.g. if you have seen 5, you can vote for 3 instead of the usual 2)
• if you have seen more than 10, you can vote for more than 5 (e.g. if you have seen 13, you can vote for up to 7)

[flip]

koster is someone i'd think better of if he had retired in 1945, but he was making one great film after another before then

Spring Parade
The Rage of Paris
Catherine the Last
One Hundred Men and a Girl
It Started With Eve
Three Smart Girls Grow Up
First Love
No Highway in the Sky


seen 17

[wba]

01. The Robe (1953)

Koster seen: 2

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Seen 7.

1. Three Smart Girls (1936)
2. 100 Men and a Girl (1937)
3. It Started with Eve (1941)
4. Come to the Stable (1949)

Any director who made many Deanna Durbin movies is dear to my heart.

[Curtis, baby]

Seen 8

HARVEY
Dear Brigette
The Robe
Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation

[flip]

i hope more ballots are coming!

reminder: please actually suggest a director in the director waiting room thread (thanks for assembling that abbé apathé!) if you want that director polled! i only want to poll directors that someone is actually interested in polling. you can check in that thread to see if the director has the views, or ask there if the director isn't already listed. our poll queue is empty right now, and if i don't get any suggestions by tuesday, we'll poll wladyslaw starewicz, since one post sort of seemed to suggest him.

i'm taking a couple days off (getting second shot tomorrow, finally, it's been hard to book an appointment on this island i'm on), so there'll be a short break from polling.

[...]

Sorry, forgot this had started. I was thinking about it and trying to figure out how much I wanted to make it a Deanna Durbin poll vs one for Koster, since several of my favorites are Durbins.

Spring Parade (Thanks again for that rec Flip!)
The Robe
100 Men and a Girl
My Blue Heaven
Stars and Stripes Forever
It Started with Eve
The Inspector General
Three Smart Girls
The Rage of Paris

[flip]

actually i woke up early enough i can get our next poll up, still need suggestions for next week!

[wba]

How about RIchard Donner, since he recently died?
I checked of course, and we have enough views.

[flip]

great! that will be the next poll, next week some time

[john ryan]

seen 4

1. One Hundred Men and a Girl

[flip]

these polls where there aren't clear favourites going in are the ones i tend to find most interesting. i was under the impression that harvey, the robe and the inspector general were koster's most famous films. two of those films finished in our top five, while the inspector general came in at a lowly 15th (though i would have voted for it had koster not made so many other good films). koster might be one of the least well-known directors with four best picture nominations -- three of those nominees (the robe, three smart girls and one hundred men and a girl) finished in the top five, while the other, the bishop's wife, didn't get a vote (for good reason imo). but none of those films was our winner:

results
1. Spring Parade (1940) — 10 pts
2. One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) — 9 pts
3. The Robe (1953) — 7 pts
4. Three Smart Girls (1936) — 4.1 pts
5. The Rage of Paris (1938) — 4 pts
5. Harvey (1950) — 4 pts
7. It Started With Eve (1941) — 3.5 pts
8. Catherine the Last (1936) — 3 pts
8. Dear Brigitte (1965) — 3 pts
10. My Blue Heaven (1950) — 2 pts
11. Come to the Stable (1949) — 1 pt
11. Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) — 1 pt
11. Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) — 1 pt
14. Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) — 0.5 pts
15. First Love (1939) — 0.3 pts
15. The Inspector General (1949) — 0.3 pts
17. No Highway in the Sky (1951) — 0.1 pts

[...]

Heh. Yeah, among non-Durbinite cinephiles Harvey and Inspector General would surely finish higher, and The Robe and Rage in Paris probably lower with the Durbins, but we're an odd little bunch, so I'm not entirely surprised it turned out differently. Well, Danny Kaye is something of an acquired taste too, so that's always a wild card.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Any top ten with four Durbins in it is a good top ten

[Curtis, baby]

i'm the only one voting for Harvey, Mr Hobbs, and Dear Brigette?? ok, you all HATE jimmy stewart, i get it, nbd, good to know tho

[flip]

hey, i love james stewart, haven't seen two of those films tho, and i also love deanna durbin and koster made a lot of the best durbin films

[...]

Heh, no, it's more that I like Jimmy Stewart that I couldn't vote for Mr Hobbs, Jimmy shouldn't be treated like that. Harvey just ain't my thing, but that's probably not on Stewart or Koster really. Haven't seen Dear Brigitte.

[flip]

this is now up at letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-282/