SCFZ poll: Robert Florey

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Polling the films of Robert Florey

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Florey 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 Friday, 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/

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i imagine many people won't have seen much florey, so we'll go with extended rules:

• if you have seen an odd number of florey 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, subject to the restriction above (e.g. if you have seen 13, you can vote for up to 7).

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i represented robert florey in a directors cup a while back, and wrote a few paragraphs about his films and career and put together a ranked list of the florey films i've seen here if anyone is interested:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... ey-ranked/

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The Crooked Way
Danger Signal
The Face Behind the Mask
Rogues' Regiment
The Love of Zero
Women Without Names
The Beast With Five Fingers
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra

seen 34

edit: my original list included the tv episodes below, instead of the bottom four films, but i changed my ballot to include only things on letterboxd, so that we can get enough votes for the letterboxd list:

The Twilight Zone: Perchance to Dream
Zane Grey Theatre; The Scaffold
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Opportunity
The Twilight Zone: The Fever

[greennui]

3.

Daughter of Shanghai

[brian d]

just 3

life and death of 9413
the crooked way

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

A really, really interesting director I'd like to explore more. Seen 4. Seen 5.

1. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
2. The Hole in the Wall (1929)
3. The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)

These two are both formally inventive, weird genre films featuring two of my favourite performers, Bela Lugosi and Edward G. Robinson respectively.

I'll try to watch a few more while the poll is open.

[wba]

I have seen a measly 3, but loved loved loved two of them, so this thread is perfect for me.

Both films 5/5, easily:

01. Ex-Lady (1933)
02. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

Florey seen: 3

[wba]

i represented robert florey in a directors cup a while back, and wrote a few paragraphs about his films and career and put together a ranked list of the florey films i've seen here if anyone is interested:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... ey-ranked/

Very nice overall entry and list flip, but I'm a bit shocked to find MURDERS iN THE RUE MORGUE merely ranked 24th out of the 34 you've seen. For me, it's one of the best Hollywood films. Ever. And it doesn't even rank as the no. 1 in my personal Robert Florey Top 3 (as that's all I've seen, so far ), which surely MUST mean that Florey is one of THE top directors of the 20th century and that there are plenty of wonders and masterpieces in his filmography waiting for me.

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i think we might just have a different opinion of rue morgue, though i do find a lot to admire in that film. that film is probably a cutoff in my list - it's the films below it that i don't think i'd ever recommend anyone watch. imo florey made many great films, so hopefully you'll find other masterpieces, though i have no idea if you'll think he is one of the great directors of the century after you explore further -- probably not, since that seems a rare level to attain, but who knows! one thing i find interesting is how his roots as an experimental filmmaker show through in interesting ways in many of his commercial films, and that's certainly true in rue morgue, but is true in more subtle ways elsewhere too.

[---]

seen 6

The Cocoanuts

[Lencho of the Apes]

/7

Murders In The Rue Morgue
The Face Behind The Mask
The Hole In The Wall

[john ryan]

seen 4

1. The Love of Zero
2. The Crooked Way

[...]

Ex-Lady
Beast with Five Fingers
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra
The Crooked Way
The Love of Zero
I am a Thief

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Updated my ballot to include The Beast with Five Fingers. Peter Lorre as an obsessive rare book nerd? Be still my heart!

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the wikipedia entry on florey says that "for some film historians, florey's finest work" was made in the 1936-1940 period. i haven't been able to see many of those films, and only one got support in the poll (daughter of shanghai). so either scfz does not share that opinion, or scfz hasn't seen much from that period of florey's career. i edited my ballot to remove the tv episodes that aren't on letterboxd:

results
1, The Crooked Way (1949) — 9 pts
2, Ex-Lady (1933) — 7 pts
2, Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) — 7 pts
4, The Beast With Five Fingers (1946) — 5.3 pts
5. The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928) — 5.1 pts
6. The Face Behind the Mask (1941) — 5 pts
7. The Love of Zero (1927) — 4 pts
7. Danger Signal (1945) — 4 pts
9. The Hole in the Wall (1929) — 3 pts
10. Rogues’ Regiment (1948) — 2 pts
11. Daughter of Shanghai (1937) — 1 pt
11. The Cocoanuts (1929) — 1 pt
13. I am a Thief (1934) — 0.5 pts
13. Women Without Names (1940) — 0.5 pts

+ the tv episodes i removed from my ballot to get enough votes for the letterboxd list:
The Twilight Zone: “Perchance to Dream”
Zane Grey Theatre: “The Scaffold”
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: “The Opportunity”
The Twilight Zone: “The Fever”

[...]

'36-'40 for Florey is pretty much unseen by me, but that quote looks a bit like a wiki editor trying to do some wiki editorializing with the "some" doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

[wba]

'36-'40 for Florey is pretty much unseen by me, but that quote looks a bit like a wiki editor trying to do some wiki editorializing with the "some" doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Yeah, I'd definitely like to know who these ominous "some" are!
I have seen a mere 2 Floreys from '32/'33, but it don't get any better than that, I can tell you.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

'36-'40 for Florey is pretty much unseen by me, but that quote looks a bit like a wiki editor trying to do some wiki editorializing with the "some" doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Original quote appears to come from the author of Florey's TCM bio:

"For many historians some of Florey's finest work is to be found in these lower-budget programmers and B films; he hit a peak at Paramount in the late 30s with films including "Hollywood Boulevard" (1936), "King of Gamblers" (1937) and "Dangerous to Know" (1938), all distinguished by their fast pace, cynical tone and striking use of moody, semi-expressionistic camera angles and lighting effects."

I'll have to prioritize these ones! Certainly none of them are films I'd previously heard spoken of as Florey's best work.

[wba]

'36-'40 for Florey is pretty much unseen by me, but that quote looks a bit like a wiki editor trying to do some wiki editorializing with the "some" doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Original quote appears to come from the author of Florey's TCM bio:

"For many historians some of Florey's finest work is to be found in these lower-budget programmers and B films; he hit a peak at Paramount in the late 30s with films including "Hollywood Boulevard" (1936), "King of Gamblers" (1937) and "Dangerous to Know" (1938), all distinguished by their fast pace, cynical tone and striking use of moody, semi-expressionistic camera angles and lighting effects."

I'll have to prioritize these ones! Certainly none of them are films I'd previously heard spoken of as Florey's best work.

Thanks fro clearing this up a bit!

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up at letterbox:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-287/