1945 Poll 2.0

[greennui]

Pick your favourite movies of 1945 (according to IMDB), up to 20 films.

20-film ballots must be ranked as follows (with point totals assigned):
Five tiers 5-4-3-2-1
Four tiers 4.5-3.5-2.5-1.5
Three tiers 5-3-1
Two tiers 4-2
One tier (aka unranked) 3

Ballot totals that aren't divisible by the number of tiers must be unranked. So 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 film ballots are unranked.

[wba]

Films seen: 30+


three tiers


Les enfants du paradis "Children of Paradise" (Marcel Carné, France)
Solistin Anna Alt (Werner Klingler, Germany)
The Kid Sister (Sam Newfield, USA)

Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, USA)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, USA)

Kolberg "Burning Hearts" (Veit Harlan, Germany)
Les Dames du bois de Boulogne "The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne" (Robert Bresson, France)
The Valley of Decision (Tay Garnett, USA)

[flip]

i also posted this on discord, but in case the tabulator would prefer it here:

Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini)
Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz)
Hangover Square (John Brahm)
Danger Signal (Robert Florey)

Kitty (Mitchell Leisen)
Cornered (Edward Dmytryk)
Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carne)
The House on 92nd Street (Henry Hathaway)

The Story of GI Joe (WIlliam Wellman)
My Name is Julia Ross (Joseph H Lewis)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan)
Two People (Carl Dreyer)

Conflict (Curtis Bernardt)
Johnny Angel (Edwin Marin)
Murder, He Says (George Marshall)
Detour (Edgar Ulmer)

Death Mills (Billy Wilder/Hans Burger)
Dead of Night (Alberto Cavalcanti/Basil Dearden/etc)
And Then There Were None (Rene Clair)
Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock)

[Silga]

[provisional list deleted]

[wba]

The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak)

The Spiral Staircase is 1946 on ImdB (and letterboxd as well).

[flip]

The Spiral Staircase is 1946 on ImdB (and letterboxd as well).

thanks, that appears to be the correct year too, not sure why i had it in my notes as a 1945 film. well i guess i'll vote for hitchcock then!

[greennui]

Brief Encounter 1945 Directed by David Lean
Leave Her to Heaven 1945 Directed by John M. Stahl
Wandering with the Moon 1945 ‘Vandring med månen’ Directed by Hasse Ekman
Hangover Square 1945 Directed by John Brahm
Nazi Concentration Camps 1945 Directed by George Stevens
Death Mills 1945 Directed by Billy Wilder, Hans Burger
Jasenovac 1945 Directed by Gustav Gavrin, Kosta Hlavaty
Blithe Spirit 1945 Directed by David Lean
The Wicked Lady 1945 Directed by Leslie Arliss
My Name Is Julia Ross 1945 Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Jealousy 1945 Directed by Gustav Machatý
Isle of the Dead 1945 Directed by Mark Robson
Les Dames du bois de Boulogne 1945 Directed by Robert Bresson
Fallen Angel 1945 Directed by Otto Preminger
The Mouse Comes to Dinner 1945 Directed by Joseph Barbera, William Hanna


Watchlist:

Children of Paradise 1945 ‘Les Enfants du Paradis’ Directed by Marcel Carné

A rewatch of Arletty's international ass is long overdue.

The Phantom Lady 1945 ‘La dama duende’ Directed by Luis Saslavsky
The Bride of Darkness 1945 ‘La Fiancée des ténèbres’ Directed by Serge de Poligny
Angel and Sinner 1945 ‘Boule de suif’ Directed by Christian-Jaque
Twilight 1945 ‘Crepúsculo’ Directed by Julio Bracho
Kolberg 1945 Directed by Veit Harlan
In the Evening After the Opera 1945 ‘Am Abend nach der Oper’ Directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt

Maybe rewatch I Know Where I’m Going! 1945 Directed by Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Kurosawa's The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail is 1945 on imdb but 1952 on letterboxd.

[rischka]

les enfants du paradis - carne
detour - ulmer
brief encounter - lean
i know where i'm going - powell/pressburger
mildred pierce - curtiz

they were expendable - ford
scarlet street - lang
bugambilia - fernandez
les dames du bois de bolougne - bresson
the clock - minnelli

watched a few; i'll probably add humayun and maybe the horn blows at midnight!

[St. Gloede]

Wouldn't have minded giving all my points to Children of Paradise:

Les Enfants du paradis/ Children of Paradise (1945, Marcel Carne`)
Roma, città aperta / Rome, Open City (1945, Roberto Rossellini)
Dead of Night (1945, Alberto Cavalcanti & Charles Crichton)
Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945, Robert Bresson)

Scarlet Street (1945, Fritz Lang)
Mildred Pierce (1945, Michael Curtiz)
Spellbound (1945, Alfred Hitchcock)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945, Elia Kazan)

Naïs (1945, Raymond Leboursier)
Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)
Le miserie del Signor Travet / The Miseries of Mr. Travet (Mario Soldati)
Berlin / The Fall of Berlin (1945, Yuli Raizman)

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945, Albert Lewin)
And Then There Were None (1945, René Clair)
Kungliga patrasket / The Royal Rabble (1945, Hasse Ekman)
The Spiral Staircase (1945, Robert Siodmak)

The Valley of Decision (1945, Tay Garnett)
Nessuno torna indietro / Responsibility Comes Back (1945, Alessandro Blasetti)
The Clock (1945, Vincente Minnelli)
Quartieri alti / In High Places (Mario Soldati)

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Yolanda and the Thief (Vincente Minnelli, MGM)

It cost almost $2.5 million and lost over $1.5 million at the box office. I think warmly upon this one, although it wasn't the diamond in the rough I was hoping for. Lucille Bremer doesn't have enough star power to carry it, so it's more of an Astaire one-hander. But I like the daffy plot, and the fifteen-minute nightmare ballet must be seen!

[rischka]

wow that looks amazing

didn't youtube links used to embed here? anyways I rewatched strange illusion . the last time i saw it it looked much worse! https://youtu.be/7ki3IYrLM6Q?si=ugNHYMvw7iOPxp7B

edit: ok i tried to research this issue, there are posts about it but reading that programming stuff gives me a headache so i failed. there are extensions/permissions involved that have to be updated i believe? same for the banner maybe there are still people writing code for this, too bad i don't know how to install it

now i'm watching the musical state fair also on youtube

[rischka]

well that was ok but I still prefer the one with Janet Gaynor and Will Rogers

@lencho your boy frank mchugh has a nice role as an itinerant songwriter

i'm gonna check out Yolanda and the thief

[rischka]

15 mins nightmare ballet as advertised and worth the price of admission

[Lencho of the Apes]

well that was ok

State Fair borderline bugged the hell out of me, New York elites telling the flyover proles how to think about themselves, complete w/ chorus boys duded up like Grant Wood yokels with unfash chinwhiskers.

But, yeah, Frank McHugh.

[rischka]

you mean you don't want to see the version with pat boone and ann margret?

[rischka]

thx evelyn for inspiring me to rewatch 'they were expendable' which i 100% agree is one of ford's greatest achievements



also john wayne looks good soaking wet

[Lencho of the Apes]

Some youtube things I haven't gotten to yet:

Arturo de Cordova in English: Incendiary Blonde.
Don Siegel's first directing credit: A Star In The Night (18 min)
indie short starring Louis Jourdan: Caldonia.

Also, I see Gavaldon's La Barraca is up there with subtitles now. I didn't like it much, but Brian did, iirc.

[brian d]

for what it's worth, i probably was reacting to seeing an adaptation of the novel, so the movie might actually not be that great.

[rischka]

Charles laughton as captain kidd w v hot pirate Randolph scott - also on ytube. Great part for laughton the big ham

John carradine and Gilbert Roland too

according to wiki and khruschevs memoir this was stalin's favorite film

[cinesmith]

I don't know why it feels like a smaller roster than other years to me. I've seen well over 30 of the features released that year but only half of them are worth giving mention to. There's a good ten that I haven't seen yet- those by Kazan, Ford, Cromwell, Stahl & Florey stick out as those I should probably see before nailing down anything.

[cinesmith]

Wouldn't have minded giving all my points to Children of Paradise

Kind of in the same boat myself

[Lencho of the Apes]

Deep-dive discovery: Identity Unknown dir. Walter Colmes. One of those heavy-zeitgeist noir burners -- and there isn't even any crime in it! Combat veteran manages his trauma by developing amnesia; his superiors figure out that he's one of four specific people, and he goes to visit the families of all four to try and find himself. Everybody he meets up with back stateside is just as broken as he is. the filmmaking's kinda PRC-level, but otherwise it's like Lewton/Robson made a 1945 version of The Brown Bunny.

Normalcy's restored in the last couple minutes, with an edifying kicker that... doesn't make any sense? And it doesn't do anything to uproot the general feeling of 'wrong'.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Ooh, Gilbert Roland's in Captain Kidd? That's a must-see. Already had it downloaded...

[wba]

Deep-dive discovery: Identity Unknown dir. Walter Colmes. One of those heavy-zeitgeist noir burners -- and there isn't even any crime in it! Combat veteran manages his trauma by developing amnesia; his superiors figure out that he's one of four specific people, and he goes to visit the families of all four to try and find himself. Everybody he meets up with back stateside is just as broken as he is. the filmmaking's kinda PRC-level, but otherwise it's like Lewton/Robson made a 1945 version of The Brown Bunny.

Normalcy's restored in the last couple minutes, with an edifying kicker that... doesn't make any sense? And it doesn't do anything to uproot the general feeling of 'wrong'.

Sounds like a must-see!

[Lencho of the Apes]

Sounds like a must-see!

I'd push hard for this one... if only you weren't such a stickler for print quality.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

according to wiki and khruschevs memoir this was stalin's favorite film

Always thought it was Volga Volga!

[rischka]

i'm sure it wouldn't do to tell people an american film was his favorite

can't resist an amnesia plot; i'm watching identity unknown tonight!

also all films should be 70 mins

edit: this is THE amnesia movie

[wba]

Sounds like a must-see!

I'd push hard for this one... if only you weren't such a stickler for print quality.

Hehe.
I searched a bit, but couldn't find an upload that didn't look atrocious. So I'll wait till someone releases this in better quality or simply never watch it. ^^

As for why I'm such a stickler: if you're an art lover, it's simply impossible to evaluate the aesthetic qualities of say Jan van Eycks "Arnolfini" portrait (which I saw in the National Gallery in London, and though it's been some 600 years, I couldn't get enough of its colors - already a truly outstanding painting simply going by the use of color alone), when you're looking at a black and white photographic reproduction of it.
It's the same with movies. If I can't watch it at the cinema from an original print, with a decent audio system, screen and projection equipment, I can at least try to find a halfway decent reproduction of it in 4K or HD and watch it on a properly calibrated audiovisual system. Which still isn't the same by far, and inherently a much lesser experience from which it is still difficult to extrapolate how the film was supposed to have looked and sounded like at the cinema. It's impossible to even start thinking about such things, when viewing a shitty upload like the ones available for IDENTITY UNKNOWN. As there are millions of fantastic films worth seeing out there, I won't waste my short lifespan trying to appreciate a play by Shakespeare that's been translated first to Japanese, from Japanese to Finnish, from Finnish to Swahili, then to Hieroglyphic Luwian and from that back to "Basic English". Any opinion I might thus have from the "experience" of such a work of art is in my opinion not worth having.

[wba]

also all films should be 70 mins

Absolutely!

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Some Hollywood genre viewings over the past few days

Thrill of a Romance (Richard Thorpe, MGM)

Produced by Joe Pasternak. Highly recommended to fans of Deanna Durbin——and no one else. Esther Williams in a mega-cute romance with Van Johnson, with comic relief / opera performances by the great Danish Wagnerian tenor Lauritz Melchior of the Metropolitan Opera!



The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, RKO)

Well-done, entertaining historical horror picture carried by a great Boris Karloff performance. Val Lewton wanted to make it an A production, but the money people wouldn't let him. Still unusually big production for Lewton.

Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson, RKO)

The other Karloff—Lewton movie of '45. A disappointment. Slow-building creeper but more... slow-building than creepy.

Strange Illusion (Edgar G. Ulmer, PRC)

Hamlet as a PRC noir. Revisited this, and was ever more convinced that it's one of the great Poverty Row movies. A dream of '40s pop concerns (youth culture, psychoanalysis, low–high cultural divides) mixed together into an unshakeable, juvenile neurosis nightmare. Kehr says it well: "this picture has the riveting quality of delirium—framed by dreams, the movie is a nightmare in itself... less a movie than a hallucination of a movie"