SCFZ

Polling the films of director John Huston

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Huston 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

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: umbugbene, greennui, evelyn, bure, m arkadin, mrcarmady, nrh, brian d, mesnalty, kanafani, st gloede, ofrene, silga, greg x, therouxxx, charulata, oscarwerner, wba, unholymanm, john ryan, dt

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

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

Seen 25:

Wise Blood
Fat City
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Night of the Iguana
The Man Who Would Be King

Honourable mention:
Moulin Rouge

Beat the Devil
Wise Blood
Across the Pacific
Key Largo
The List of Adrian Messenger

seen fourteen

The Dead
Wise Blood
Moby Dick
Freud: The Secret Passion
Moulin Rouge

Seen a lot, most even, though still a fair stretch from all

13.

The Misfits
Fat City
The Night of the Iguana
The Maltese Falcon
Let There Be Light

under the volcano
fat city
the dead
key largo
the asphalt jungle

*seen eleven (used to be one of my favs, but outgrew him a while ago; still interested in the man who would be king and the misfits though)

seen 13

the unforgiven
we were strangers
treasure of the sierra madre
night of the iguana

Great director!

Seen 15

The Dead
The Treasure of Sierra Madre
Key Largo
Fat City
The Maltese Falcon

Seen 21:
1. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
3. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
4. The African Queen (1951)
-----------
5. Moulin Rouge (1952)
i also like
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)-difficult choice between those two films....

Seen 7. Count me in the camp that classes him Less Than Meets the Eye. I don't like Huston as a director or as a writer.

1. Key Largo (1948)
2. The Night of the Iguana (1964)
3. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

I don't care for the script in Key Largo, or for the Bogart-Bacall brand, but it's transformed into excellent entertainment whenever Eddie Gee is on screen, a delish performance and one of his best supporting role showcases. I don't remember Night of the Iguana, but I recall liking it, and it's the only movie I've seen at the Castro Theatre, so it gets points for that. Don't remember Asphalt Jungle either, but again, recall being fond enough.

Fat city
The African queen
Key largo
The dead

the dead
fat city

seen 10

i think this poll is interesting because huston directed a lot of very celebrated films, and i have a hard time guessing what might win (or even what might fare well, because i don't recall much discussion here of huston)

and i think huston is a bit interesting, because i'm not sure i could name many other directors (one or two, sure, but not a lot) with as many celebrated films who no one ever seems to talk about, at least in the film circles i find myself in. looking at those (imo awful but i'm just taking them to represent mainstream opinion of which films are 'classics') afi 100 years / 100 movies lists, taking the 123 films that have appeared in either edition, huston directed three of them. there are only five directors with more (four directors of four films each, one director of six), though huston is tied with a lot of others. still, that's fairly rare company in a century of filmmaking.

if anyone likes guessing at this kind of trivia question: which five directors were responsible for 4+ films on the AFI 100 years / 100 movies lists? i would have guessed four of them i think, and would not have guessed the fifth.

flip wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 8:50 pm if anyone likes guessing at this kind of trivia question: which five directors were responsible for 4+ films on the AFI 100 years / 100 movies lists? i would have guessed four of them i think, and would not have guessed the fifth.

Maybe William Wyler, John Ford?

Hitch Wilder Ford Hawks Kubrick?

Seen 3

The Maltese Falcon (even though it's one of the most overrated noirs out there)

re: trivia: in addition to the curtis' and silga's guesses: cukor, curtiz?

okay a no-spoilers update to the trivia question, don't highlight the text below if you want to guess without knowing which guesses so far have been correct:


steven spielberg - six films
stanley kubrick - four films
billy wilder - four films
alfred hitchcock - four films
??? - four films


a few of the other guesses had 3 films on the list(s), so were tied with huston

casino royale
the maltese falcon

surprised by how few i've seen, might add a couple more

flip wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 8:50 pm if anyone likes guessing at this kind of trivia question: which five directors were responsible for 4+ films on the AFI 100 years / 100 movies lists? i would have guessed four of them i think, and would not have guessed the fifth.

4 films each, I'll guess: Billy Wilder; Alfred Hitchcock; William Wyler; Frank Capra.
My guess would be that Howard Hawks is the one with 6 of them.

seen 25

1. The Maltese Falcon
2. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
3. Fat City
4. Night of the Iguana
5. Beat the Devil

trivia: coppola! that other dir with a last name that starts with a c (unless ford is the first part of his last name...)

Scorsese? Coens maybe?

Ugh one of them is probably frigging Steve Spielberg isn't it?

This is the AFI list, so it's got to be Spielberg

started wondering scorsese or spielberg after posting coppola, but you know the godfather i and ii gotta be on there, probs apocalypse now, and maybe the conversation. but can also see marty in there easily with taxi driver, raging bull, and goodfellas; just not sure about that fourth, maybe mean streets, but only maybe, and don't think casino has increased its rep enough. but thinking bout it now ugh it might be spielberg with e.t., jaws, schindler's list, and either close encounters of the third kind or saving private ryan

yeah it was spielberg with six films: schindler's list, et, jaws, and raiders of the lost ark made both lists, while close encounters of the third kind and saving private ryan made one of the two

of the four directors with four films on the list(s), three were guessed above. the fourth is the one i would probably never have guessed even given an hour to think about it (and three of his films only made one of the two lists, and each of those in the bottom twenty). i'll reveal the answer later tonight in case anyone else wants to take a shot at it.

Ah shit it's gotta be Rob Reiner

Let There Be Light
Casino Royale (if it even counts, and I have no idea which segment he directed and whether it's the worst one in it or not . . .)

Seen 5

Haven't seen much in the way of his "real movies". The African Queen wasn't great, and Key Largo was godawful. But I guess I don't like noirs so much...

damn. not coppola? can't possibly be lubitsch or tourneur... hmmm this i shall ponder into the wee hours of the night

not woody allen?