1948 Poll

[thoxans]

is it just me, or does pitfall kinda sorta have an abrupt weak sauce ending...? other than that, i really enjoyed it. found it interesting that pretty much no one in the pic (other than perfectly creepy raymond burr) intends to do wrong. most everyone attempts to make the right choices, until circumstances dictate otherwise; and even then, they attempt to right the wrong that's been committed. so diff than so many film noirs. in that way, the film's momentum is truly compelling, but then it ends, all of a sudden. idk. maybe it's just me. maybe taking a break in the middle of the film completely disrupted the trajectory, so the ending seemed much more hurried than it is in reality. all i know for sure is that the film constantly made me think of lencho. but then when i logged it on boxd, i saw that he'd already watched it, and thought well enough of it, but seemingly saw nothing special. ymmv

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

One of my favourite gleanings from exploring midtier '48ers: Lon Chaney Jr. as a western baddie, not to mention Randolph Scott giving Gabby Hayes a bath, found amid Ray Enright's Albuquerque!

[sally]

oh those colours look lovely.

i'm beginning to get that desperate end of poll feeling where i just don't have enough time to watch everything i want to, and that always leads to bad choices.

but even so, not sure i'll succumb to this



As World War II nears its end, beautiful women forced to serve as sex slaves in a German officer's club, do what they can to destroy the plans of a cosmic death ray.

what's the most lurid, trashy film anyone's seen for 48?

[liquidnature]

i'm beginning to get that desperate end of poll feeling where i just don't have enough time to watch everything i want to, and that always leads to bad choices.

This reminds me, was thinking yesterday about how the sheer abundance and frequency of polls here (and don't get me wrong, I love polls and lists as much as anyone could possibly love them) sometimes hinders the actual engagement in the poll's topic, which would seem to be a significant purpose of the poll.

Was thinking it would be interesting to do a longer-term poll or collective watching/discussion, say anywhere from 2-6 months (?), of a specific director, genre, country, or year. For instance, for a director, we could pick someone with a relatively large filmography that we have collectively explored the least of or could all explore more of (quick examples are directors like Griffith, Feuillade (much is unavailable though), Curtiz (120 films on letterboxd), early silent directors like Porter and Melies with large outputs, Hollywood Genre directors similar to Corman, Wilcox, Brahm, etc with large outputs also, or any "foreign" director that fits the bill). Could do the same with a genre or year, but I think a director may be the most rewarding, as we would all have time to potentially see every (available) film the chosen director and by the end of the journey hopefully have a deep understanding of the director in a way we otherwise wouldn't. A country might be fun as well, especially one virtually none of us have explored in depth, like Finland or something, though it would possibly be hindered by lack of subtitles for certain films.

Just some thoughts.

[Lencho of the Apes]

lurid, trashy

Oh, Mags, you caught me! I'm going to finish watching WotN tonight. Hands down the most lurid and trashy thing I've cued up for '48... but it's all done with innuendo. Never disavows its intention to satisfy a specific audience member's desire to see Nazis with bullwhips having their way with schoolgirls, though.

[Lencho of the Apes]

pitfall

I did like the dialogue; the way the characters played lines off each other reminded me of the so-clever! Leigh Brackett stuff in The Big Sleep.

"Everybody tried to do what was best" seems like a bit of a stretch, it'd be just as easy to argue "everybody tries to get what they want."
Did Dick start going out with Lizbeth because she was a sweet kid who deserved a break or because he was craving an interruption of the rut he was in (or because she wounded his pride)?

Where it was most interesting was in places the script mostly overlooked, the police officer's intuition that Powell was really the bad guy in the picture -- making you wonder about 'unreliable narrators' -- and the way the picture closes with the assumption that all the legal culpability is going to be shifted onto Lizbeth Scott. Cough*male privilege?*cough.

That last bit with Powell and his wife reminded me almost word for word of... something, probably something 50s or 60s... but I can't remember what it is. "It'll be difficult, and I don;t know if we'll succeed, but we'll try and that's half the battle" is the punchline to what other movie?

[Angel]

Ulica Graniczna (Border Street)

An Act of Murder
Cry of the City
Dios se lo pague (God Bless You)
Fuga in Francia (Flight Into France)
Gioventù perduta (Lost Youth)
Hachi no su no kodomotachi (Children of the Beehive)
Il cavaliere misterioso (The Mysterious Rider)
La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma)
Ostatni etap (The Last Stage)
Portrait of Jennie
Senza pietà (Without Pity)
Sitting Pretty
Sotto il sole di Roma (Under the Sun of Rome)
Talpalatnyi föld (Treasured Earth)
The Search
The Walls of Jericho
Valahol Európában (Somewhere in Europe)
Wanjia denghuo (Myriad of Lights)
Yellow Sky

Deliberately excluded (IMDb/TSPDT/S&S top 500)
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Red River
Key Largo
La terra trema: Episodio del mare
The Red Shoes
Xiao cheng zhi chun
Ladri di biciclette
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Germania anno zero
Rope
They Live by Night

To see before the deadline
Noose
Rosenda
The Judge Steps Out
Vlcie diery

Wanted
Der Engel mit der Posaune
Embraceable You
Les frères Bouquinquant
Molodaya gvardiya
Ôshô
Poezd idyot na vostok
Qing gong mi shi
The Argyle Secrets

[sally]

hindered

our long term projects never come to much do they? everyone starts off all excited and by the end there's only a couple of people left. the idea is fine but the practicalities get us. but see what everyone else says - i'm up for a long term look at something (curtiz would be cool, i've liked some of his films quite a bit but no idea who he is, as a director), as long as i can just tag along and don't have to talk about it much, and it's not rape movies. and as long as it doesn't interfere with my year poll viewing

and i didn't mean to get the shrieking hysterics about these years polls, - in fact they're quite long enough - some years i don't care for at all and it's not too long to wait until they're over, and if i do like a year, well, it has to come around again eventually, doesn't it? if there wasn't that pressure of the poll ending to watch things, then i probably never would. (i'd watch things i want to watch off my own desires and some of those are highly dubious) - the advantage to me of the year polls is that it leaves it so open - i can switch between directors and countries, so if i'm bored, it's my fault. a long country study would be equally as open (yes yes yes to finland!) since i could hop around directors and years, but if you can get anyone to agree on a country, then good luck....

[sally]

okay now for actual 48

i had a quick glance at women in the night and i'm glad lencho watched it - i don't have time to, but it looked pretty well filmed & i almost got lured into watching it. if that's the sleaziest that 48 could come up with (i also glanced at test tube babies and that just looked crap) then i guess ilsa comes as a bit of a shock (so i had a quick read of nazisploitation and am amazed to be adding films to my watchlist)

i needed to watch something nice now, but instead i watched pabst's der prozeß (the trial) which is...confused.....but looks gorgeous (you can tell the director is a silent cinema king)....and apparently max brod is in it.


not max brod

and speaking of courtrooms, another random 48 fact - United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 U.S. 131 (1948) - where studios could no longer own cinema theatres has this year been completely obliterated by netflix.

okay NOW I am going to watch something nice (but i've used up all my doris day!)

[Lencho of the Apes]

i've used up all my doris day!

The Inside Story, by Dwan, is Capra/McCarey-level nice... but somehow it doesn't do the Christmas-all-year-round heartwarming/affirmative thing they tended to aim for. One of the happier surprises of my 1948 viewing -- I'm surprised fans of Dwan's other 40s comedies haven't picked up on it.

[Angel]

i've used up all my doris day!

The Inside Story, by Dwan, is Capra/McCarey-level nice... but somehow it doesn't do the Christmas-all-year-round heartwarming/affirmative thing they tended to aim for. One of the happier surprises of my 1948 viewing -- I'm surprised fans of Dwan's other 40s comedies haven't picked up on it.

A runner-up here. The Allan Dwan fan club president apologizes.

[St. Gloede]

My top 20:

1. Ladri di biciclette / The Bicycle Thief (1948, Vitorio De Sica)
2. The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
3. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, John Huston)
4. Berliner Ballade (1948, Robert A. Stemmle)
5. The Snake Pit (1948, Anatole Litvak)
6. Oliver Twist (1948, David Lean)
7. The Naked City (1948, Jules Dassin)
8. Blood on the Moon (1948, Robert Wise)
9. Yoidore tenshi / Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)
10. Hachi no su no kodomotachi / Children of the Beehive (1948, Hiroshi Shimizu)

11. Red River (1948, Howard Hawks)
12. Straßenbekanntschaft / Street Acquaintances (1948, Peter Pewas)
13. Rope (1948, Alfred Hithcock)
14. Les parents terribles / The Terrible Parents (1948, Jean Cocteau)
15. Cry of the City (1948, Robert Siodmak)
16. Key Largo (1948, John Huston)
17. La terra trema: Episodio del mare / The Earth Trembles (1948, Luchino Visconti)
18. Road House (1948, Jean Negulesco)
19. Krakatit (1948, Otakar Vávra)
20. Macbeth (1948, Orson Welles)

Honorable mentions:

They Live by Night (1948, Nicholas Rey)
Musik i mörker / Music in Darkness (1948, Ingmar Bergman)
Hamnstad / Port of Call (1948, Ingmar Bergman)
Ruy Blas (1948, Pierre Billon)
The Fallen Idol (1948, Carol Reed)
Wege im Zwielicht (1948, Gustav Fröhlich)
3 Godfathers (1948, John Ford)
Unfaithfully Yours (1948, Preston Sturges)

And I will definitely seek out L'armoire volante before the deadline.

[sally]

i've used up all my doris day!

The Inside Story, by Dwan, is Capra/McCarey-level nice... but somehow it doesn't do the Christmas-all-year-round heartwarming/affirmative thing they tended to aim for. One of the happier surprises of my 1948 viewing -- I'm surprised fans of Dwan's other 40s comedies haven't picked up on it.

i'm sure i can fit it in. i always need nice.

but fuck you ozu. even naruse didn't throw women down the stairs and expect them to love it. japan surrenders and the women have to pay (by being turned into cyphers) & chishu ryu was way more fun hamming it up in gosho this year (also thick with cyphers, but at least more even handed)

anyway...nice..... --------->

[liquidnature]

hindered

our long term projects never come to much do they? everyone starts off all excited and by the end there's only a couple of people left. the idea is fine but the practicalities get us. but see what everyone else says

i'm up for a long term look at something (curtiz would be cool, i've liked some of his films quite a bit but no idea who he is, as a director), as long as i can just tag along and don't have to talk about it much (...) and as long as it doesn't interfere with my year poll viewing

(yes yes yes to finland!)

Oh I wasn't talking of something mandatory like the cups, but simply a longer term look, as you mentioned, at a certain director - and people would just be encouraged to watch as many as they can or want to, and the thread could be a focus for even the entire year. (i.e. - "In 2020 try to watch as many Curtiz films as you can and post about them in this thread.") Same thing with Finland or another country.

Curtiz actually seems like a good choice if we were ever to do something like this, as he made a lot of films, many of which are unseen by us collectively.

I can understand if others aren't as keen on the idea though, it's more of a personal thing for me and always wanting a purpose and structure to my viewings. Just a rough idea I was thinking about for fun, not anything I would push anyone else to do.

[mesnalty]

I've long toyed with the idea of doing a similar thing. I like the idea of countries (or film movements, or specific time periods in a national cinema if it's a major country, or actors, etc.) because I suspect I'd get bored easily with directors.

[rischka]

myriad of lights is a compelling social drama with an appearance by this very fine cat

[greennui]

My watch lust for this year has been very low, barely found anything that strikes my fancy which is in complete contrast to the previous '49 poll. So far I've only seen one thing, The Apple-Knockers and the Coke, a short blue movie curio.

Seeing as I'm the only voter for it I'll recommend Dédée d'Anvers to anyone who enjoys french smoky port noir (poetic realism, sailors, seedy bars, Simone Signoret, Marcel Dalio. That kind of story.).

[karl]

Bicycle Thieves

Letter from an Unknown Woman
Somewhere in Europe (von Radványi)
A Hen in the Wind
Women of the Night (Mizoguchi)
Treasure of Sierra Madre
Fort Apache
Red River
The Red Shoes
Drunken Angel
The Last Vacation (Leenhardt)
The Blum Affair (Engel)
Louisiana Story
Under the Sun of Rome (Castellani)
The Last Stage (Jakubowska)
Yellow Sky
Woman (Kinoshita)
The Portrait (Kinoshita)
A Face to Remember (Gosho)
Temptation (Yoshimura)

[...]

The Pirate

Children of the Beehive
Louisiana Story
Bicycle Thieves
The Red Shoes
Aag
Easter Parade
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
A Hen in the Wind
Spring in a Small Town
La Terra Trema
Berlin Express
The Amazing Mr X
Macbeth
The Snake Pit
The Quiet One
Fort Apache
They Live By Night
Arch of Triumph

[sally]

well, the small voice - a very enjoyable british film i've never seen anyone mention. although at this point it might just be enjoyable because i couldn't take my eyes off james donald. ♥

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

My final votes

1. Fort Apache (John Ford)
3 Godfathers (John Ford)
Fuga in Francia / Flight Into France (Mario Soldati)
Relentless (George Sherman)
I Wouldn't Be In Your Shoes! (William Nigh)
They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray)
Il Cavaliere Misterioso / The Mysterious Rider (Riccardo Freda)
N.U. (Michelangelo Antonioni)
Isole nella Laguna / Islands of the Lagoon (Luciano Emmer and Enrico Gras)
A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder)
A Song Is Born (Howard Hawks)
The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak)
Ladri di Biciclette / Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
Key Largo (John Huston)
In the Street (James Agee, Helen Levitt, and Janice Loeb)
Sorry, Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak)
Souvenirs of Death (Edward L. Cahn)
Gioventù Perduta / Lost Youth (Pietro Germi)
Totò al Giro d'Italia / Toto Tours Italy (Mario Mattoli)
Fury at Furnace Creek (H. Bruce Humberstone)

A rich year! And my list is exclusively American (13) and Italian (7) films, which is all I've explored so far - there's sure to be many other great '48ers from other national cinemas as yet undelved into by yours truly.

[---]

My watch lust for this year has been very low, barely found anything that strikes my fancy which is in complete contrast to the previous '49 poll. So far I've only seen one thing, The Apple-Knockers and the Coke, a short blue movie curio.

Seeing as I'm the only voter for it I'll recommend Dédée d'Anvers to anyone who enjoys french smoky port noir (poetic realism, sailors, seedy bars, Simone Signoret, Marcel Dalio. That kind of story.).

not only do i FREAKING LOVE french smoky port noirs, but i've been desperately wanting to get some yves allegret in my life... thanks for the heads up!

[dominicano1970]

Portrait of Jennie (Dieterle)

Berlin Express (Tourneur)
Bicycle Thieves (De Sica)
Call Northside 777 (Hathaway)
Children of the Beehive (Shimizu)
Flight Into France (Soldati)
Force of Evil (Polonsky)
Fort Apache (Ford)
The Inside Story (Dwan)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophüls)
Moonrise (Borzage)
The Naked City (Dassin)
Red River (Hawks)
The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger)
The Search (Zinnemann)
Spring in a Small Town (Fei)
Tale of the Siberian Land (Pyryev)
The Three Musketeers (Sidney)
Wake of the Red Witch (Ludwig)
The Walls of Jericho (Stahl)

[Lencho of the Apes]

Fuga In Francia was marvelous, thanks for the rec., E.!

Crazed last-minute effort to squeeze in Dedee d'Anvers, cuz Greeny and I were so much on the same page with Hans Le Marin. (IIRC)

Should I move the deadline up to 1/2/2020? If people want to use the 1/1 holiday as an excuse for watching movies, it would make sense... (While still using 1/1 to begin the subsequent year, ofc.)

[sally]

YES! (assuming that means the 2nd of jan & not 1st of feb, though that would be fab too)

apologies to greennui but i have made a vow mumbled through grinding teeth that i will not knowingly watch another prostitute movie if i can help it, so dedee is out (along with approx 70% of all movies that feature those things, women)

but just watched ford's (not that one) border street and appreciate why it made angel's top spot.

also i had no idea peter ustinov directed movies. the earliest (?) version of vice versa. bit slow, but proto-goons/python behaviour which i wasn't expecting. i chuckled occasionally.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Goons! I loved the book of Goons scripts I read in the 70s, but Down Among The Z Men was a thing I turned off after five minutes.

[rischka]

january two would be good for me too. kinda got sidetracked

[rischka]

so i watched the allegret and it's rather good, esp the ending. simone signoret sadly kinda got typecast as a prostitute after her success in this. marcel dalio has a fine turn as her brutal pimp -- not a role i expected from him! i'm a sucker for a seedy seaport as greennui well knows. also impressive was the use of french, german, english, italian and flemish (film is set in antwerp) i do generally agree w/sally that the percentage of films about prostitutes is ridiculously high and this fetish grows tiresome

[ofrene]

Children of the Beehive

Germany Year Zero
They Live by Night
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Spring in a Small Town
3 Godfathers
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Red Shoes
Fort Apache
Red River
Moonrise
Raw Deal
Rope
The Pirate
Yellow Sky
Bicycle Thieves
The Last Stage

[thoxans]

a day's extension would be much appreciated! starting romance on the high seas today, and still have the snake pit to get to. the holidays always screw up my precious movie viewin