1947: One Wonderful Sunday

Sterling examples of cinema, with Black Narcissus, Nightmare Alley, Crossfire, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Lady from Shanghai, and Gentleman's Agreement.

But I'll select an underrated Kurosawa gem, One Wonderful Sunday. This isn't one of Kurosawa's tested genre formulas like a wild actioner or a Shakespearean reinvention. What we've got is a romantic drama where Masako and Yuzo (Chieko Nakakita and Isao Numasaki) try to change their lives in post-war Tokyo, finding work where they can and partaking of pastimes they can afford.

This is like Frank Capra filtered through a Kurosawa lens, and the effect is magical. You feel for these two, and the film doesn't work without these compelling central performances. You want them to succeed, you want them to have a good time, and you buy Yuzo's nervousness and Masako's optimism.

I like this film to the same degree that I admire it... which is a lot.

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1948: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

NOW WE'RE TALKING.

From beginning to end, John Huston's exploration of distrust, greed, & the depths of human nature is pure metal, all-killer/no-filler.

Humphrey Bogart has rarely been better as the desperate and driven Fred C. Dobbs, and he keeps good acting company w/ Tim Holt as a fellow drifter & ESPECIALLY Walter Huston as an elderly prospector joining forces to find gold in the Sierra Madre mountains.

The movie's chock full of great scenes and sharp writing, but the centerpiece is Dobbs' devolution from a man facing hard times to the twisted personification of treachery. It's an amazing journey, & John Huston has a grand itinerary mapped out as your tour guide into Hell.

Other wonderful faves include Bicycle Thieves, Drunken Angel, The Fallen Idol, Call Northside 777, Road House (no, not THAT Road House), and Olivier's take on Hamlet (even w/o Rosencrantz & Guildenstern)

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1949: Jour de Fete

Fantastic jazz w/ classics as Stray Dog, DOA., White Heat, Late Spring (my GOD, Yasujiro Ozu, y'all), The Third Man, and if we considered animated shorts, there's Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

But this is Jacques Tati. And I typically don't like to go against Tati (it took Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Harold & Maude to outrank Parade and Trafic, respectively).

This is where Tati started out in feature-length film. Before he breathed life into Monsieur Hulot, Tati graced the screen with a postman whose ineptitude and bumbling mishaps spell disaster for people depending on his deliveries. Things become especially chaotic when that visiting fair comes to town.

I'm a simple man. I see Tati doing comic pratfalls in a French village with inspired set pieces, and I'm happy.

The other films from this year may have had more on their minds, but this one led with its heart. And it's a big warm heart.

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1950: Night and the City

Gawd, really formidable picks here in the form of Rashomon, Harvey, Sunset Blvd, and All About Eve.

But me, I had to go with this work from Jules Dassin, the brilliant visionary behind heist gems Rififi and Topkapi.

When you want a crime movie, Dassin's your man, and he gives you something extraordinary in this story of conman and perpetual screw-up Harry (Richard Widmark) who decides to try his hand as wrestling promoting, w/ a predictably horrible 40-car pileup of disastrous consequences.

SO MUCH MOOD HERE. This is a visual feast for cinematic technique (credit to Max Greene's top-notch cinematography), & that's not getting into the deceptively & surprisingly potent power of the piece. Wanna hit the ground running on film noir? THIS is one helluva film to consider. And we can't overlook Gene Tierney or that Franz Waxman score.

Or that concluding act where it all goes to hell. YOWZA.

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1951: The Day the Earth Stood Still

One more time: Robert Wise is a damn genius.

1950s sci-fi gets a lot of razzing for being silly hokum where the heights of silliness are matched only by the depths of the budget.

But this is different. This is paranoia cinema at its spacey best where the alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie in fine form) lands in D.C. and arrives with peaceful intentions, only to face violence. This is not w/o consequence, as his robot guardian Gort snaps into action.

No matter which lens you choose to examine this through - a Cold War cautionary tale, a religiously-themed allegory, or a straightforward sci-fi adventure - this delivers the thrilling goods w/ a considerable, unignorable humanity. Wise's direction takes this narrative and its characters above & beyond.

And disregard the 2008 remake. (Sorry, Keanu.)

I also loved Strangers on a Train, Ace in the Hole, The African Queen, and Tales of Hoffman.

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1952: Kansas City Confidential

BLAZING films here, esp. Ikiru, Singin' in the Rain, High Noon, The Quiet Man, The Machine That Kills Bad People (THAT TITLE), and even the Disney Halloween short, Trick or Treat.

Here, I go w/ my fave genre: the heist movie. Kansas City Confidential delivers a caper with a deliciously noir-esque flavor all its own.

An ex-con (a hard-boiled John Payne) takes a beating at the hands of the police for an armored car robbery he had nothing to do with. Naturally, he feels raw, so he aims to infiltrate the criminal gang responsible, taking them down from the inside.

If you like heist/noir films, this hits all the right notes, starting w/ that awesomely scummy gang of tough guys like Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, & Jack Elam. You have double-crosses galore, plotting, scheming, manipulating, AND the always stunning Coleen Gray as Mr. Big's law student daughter.

Purely satisfying.

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1954: Rear Window

How many views have I given to my favorite Hitchcock movie? Far, far too many, and yet, nowhere near enough.

I love the hell out of this one. I remember loving this on TV and playing this to no foreseeable end on DVD. I'm a big Jimmy Stewart fan, and I love love love what he does here as wheelchair-confined professional photographer Jefferies.

During an intensely hot summer in Manhattan, Jefferies has little to do but keep a watch over all the various characters in his neighborhood from his apartment's rear window. He comes to suspect a neighbor (a wonderfully menacing Raymond Burr) of murder, and voyeuristic suspense ensues.

So much to love. The production design is amazing, Hitch's direction is as brilliant and involving as one could hope, & the cast is fantastic. Grace Kelly is dazzling as Jefferies' girlfriend but the real MVP is Thelma Ritter as his nurse.

Always a fun revisit!

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1955: Bad Day at Black Rock

REALLY strong contenders here. Ask me on another day, and this could be Rififi, The Night of the Hunter, Diabolique, Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple, I Live in Fear, Summertime, or Smiles of a Summer Night.

As of now, I give the win to John Sturges' almost unbearably tense and suspenseful neo-Western, Bad Day at Black Rock.

Spencer Tracy gives a performance that's as compelling as the day is long as a one-armed veteran who travels to a small, isolated desert town in 1945, looking for a man named Komoko. The townspeople are just as secretive about Komoko as Tracy is about his agenda, and a clash is inevitable.

An absolute gut-churner of dread and foreboding. From Tracy's dignified portrayal to cold-blooded adversaries in Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine, Sturges directs this with such control, precision, and tightness.

This has an atmosphere you can feel in your bones.

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1957: Night of the Demon

We have two towering examples of American filmmaking here in 12 Angry Men and A Face in the Crowd.

Top honors go to this British horror film that would inspire another pick of mine, 2009's Drag Me to Hell. Jacques Tourneur's film is not only distinctly different from Sam Raimi's update, but it's also far superior.

Niall MacGinnis is magnetic as Julian Karswell, a Satanic cult leader who uses Celtic runes to curse his adversaries. Dana Andrews is a professor who's determined to investigate Karswell, only to end up bringing a curse upon himself.

An aura of dread and tension practically DRIPS off this film, and with MacGinnis as the charismatic predator and Andrew as the initially skeptical prey, we have a top-notch conflict that drives the plot. Love the writing and direction, love love love the ominous feel of the whole work. But it's the performances that give Demon its teeth.

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1959: Floating Weeds

This year had masterworks in The 400 Blows, House on Haunted Hill, North by Northwest,Black Orpheus, & Some Like It Hot.

The great Yasujiro Ozu had two terrific films come out in 1959. One of them was Good Morning, which was nifty enough, but his really sterling work - and in my book, the year's finest film - was Floating Weeds.

This movie's a remake of Ozu's 1934 silent film, A Story of Floating Weeds. Here, he extends upon the ideas of his original vision while also putting everything in gorgeous color & immersing his concepts in the sound era.

The story is very much the same, w/ a Japanese theater troupe traveling to a small seaport town, with one of the players hoping to reconnect with the son who thinks he's his uncle. The man's mistress, however, is jealous.

A testament to Ozu's character/narrative-centric genius. Ebert once called it one of the 10 greatest films. Tough to argue with that.

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(The favorite count is off from my actual # of posts, but screw it, someone favorited my earlier post; I'll honor that & write a post whenever it gets a fave.)

1960: Shoot the Piano Player

Amazing films, like The Apartment, Spartacus, Peeping Tom, Magnificent Seven, Psycho, Little Shop of Horrors, Eyes W/o a Face, & esp. Breathless.

The great Francois Truffaut triumphs with Shoot the Piano Player, a crime drama that's at turns tragic and hilarious, executed with style and infused with sincere humanity. It can juggle such disparate tones and come across as a cohesive, coherent whole without feeling discordant or contradictory.

Charles Aznavour rocks it as Edouard, a soulful pianist who once played the concert scene but now makes his living at a bar. His brother, pursued by gangsters, finds him, leading to terrible consequences. That probably doesn't bode well for the waitress that Edouard has his eyes on.

*Classic.*

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1962: To Kill a Mockingbird

Lawrence of Arabia and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane are superb & formidable films, but here, the choice couldn't be easier.

I remember watching this for the 1st time when some channel ran it on Christmas night. I didn't know anything about the movie before, but it stuck with me. God, did it stick with me...

From Stephen Frankfurt's simple but effective opening titles to that unforgettable closing narration, everything in this film gets a hold of you, and powerfully so.

In a career of richly nuanced and detailed performances, Gregory Peck has never been better than his Oscar-winning role as widowed lawyer Atticus Finch, defending a Black man falsely accused of rape in 1930s Alabama.

Mary Badham admirably matches Peck beat for beat as his young daughter Scout, well earning her Oscar nom.

Haunting, powerful, unshakable, from Robert Mulligan's direction to Elmer Bernstein's stellar score.

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1963: The Haunting

This was a BATTLE. Bergman's Faith Trilogy had two amazing releases here in The Silence and Winter Light, 007 struck again with From Russia with Love, Stanley Donen gave us the best film Hitchcock never made with Charade, Paul Newman stood tall in Hud, and Sidney Poitier made Oscar history in the memorable Lilies of the Field.

But there's no competing with Robert Wise's exemplary haunted house movie The Haunting.

Perhaps the scariest movie to never spill a drop a blood, this film packs a psychological punch as a doctor conducts a paranormal study at a creepy mansion, with unfortunate results.

Julie Harris constructs a fascinating character journey as the troubled Eleanor, infusing the role with vulnerability and urgency, compelling you to emotionally invest so much.

IS the mansion haunted? It's ultimately left unclear, but the question marks are more fascinating than a definitive exclamation point.
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1964: Kwaidan

Really strong contenders here this year in Kubrick's impeccable Dr. Strangelove, giallo masterpiece Blood and Black Lace, one of the best Bond entries in Goldfinger, Leone's classic gunslinger A Fistful of Dollars, Vincent Price chillers The Masque of the Red Death and The Last Man on Earth AND Tomb of Ligeia, MST3K'd gem Jack Frost, and Mary Poppins, y'all.

It's the Japanese horror anthology film Kwaidan that looms large here, presenting viewers with four choice tales of supernatural happenings.

Whether it's about a spurned ex-wife's wrath, a spirit in the snow who demands a man's silence, a blind musician who needs protection from ghosts after giving a command performance, or a strange face that appears in a cup of tea, it's all good, and it's all compelling.

And the visuals, DAMN & A HALF. One GORGEOUS film where the cinematography grabs you as much as the stories. Beautiful. Contemplative. A mood.

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1965: The Cincinnati Kid

Sergio Leone came close to a second win with For a Few Dollars More. Other faves include sci-fi groundbreaker Alphaville, 007 thriller Thunderball, WWII actioner Von Ryan's Express, and kaiju picks Gamera and Invasion of Astro-Monster.

But here, I'm going with Norman Jewison's cool-as-ice poker flick, The Cincinnati Kid. Just as a general rule, you don't bet against Steve McQueen when he enters the cinematic fray.

McQueen plays an upstart poker player who has his eyes set on the big prize: defeating a legendary poker player known as "The Man" (Edward G. Robinson, appropriately enough, because who else are you going to cast as The Man?).

The movie's filmed at New Orleans, which only adds to the overall atmosphere of cool, as do supporting players Karl Malden, Tuesday Weld, Joan Blondell, and Ann-Margret.

Ray Charles performing the title tune doesn't hurt matters, either.

Great ending, too.

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1966: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

BOY HOWDY

Lots of movies have the title of "epic" bestowed upon them to varying degrees of deserving. This one EARNED it.

Easily my favorite Western of all time. It's also my fourth fave film.

Sergio Leone combines a sprawling narrative - the hunt for a fortune in gold stolen during the Civil War - with three towering performances: Clint Eastwood as the steely Man with No Name, Lee Van Cleef as the soulless killer Angel Eyes, and Eli BY GOD Wallach as the unpredictable wild card Tuco. We can't forget about the fourth and fifth big stars: ENNIO MORRICONE'S SCORE AND TONINO DELLI COLLI'S CINEMATOGRAPHY.

Tremendous scope, fantastic story, breathtaking landscapes, all leading to a memorable final showdown.

Only Leone could make a man running around a cemetery for 3.5 minutes better than ENTIRE MOVIES.

Other faves include Persona, Battle of Algiers, Sword of Doom, and Tokyo Drifter.

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1967: Playtime

Some wonderfully eclectic films in 1967, from the groundbreaking The Graduate to the appropriately cool Cool Hand Luke to the erotic drama Belle de Jour to the unnervingly suspenseful Wait Until Dark to the yazuka neo-noir thrills of Branded to Kill.

But as I said in my post about 2010's The Illusionist, I dearly love Jacques Tati, and he has another cosmically charming comedy masterpiece in Playtime.

Tati's beloved Monsieur Hulot might be kept at more of a distance here (note all the fake Hulots around that make you go "HEY, IS THAT... no, it isn't"), but the lovable character's antics are still as fun as ever as Tati finds a way to use ingenious sight gags and intricate visual humor to send up the modern Paris that's a far cry from the one we see in his previous effort, Mon Oncle.

Playtime is a comedic and visual triumph, but that elaborate restaurant set piece? MY WORD. Bless you forever, Tati.

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1968: Night of the Living Dead

2nd-fave film after Jaws. Very easy choice.

I first saw it while at home sick from elementary school on Halloween. Some channel had an all-day marathon of it. I thought it'd be harmless fun.

I WAS WRONG. Saddened, traumatized, shaken. A brutal film w/ an impossibly cruel ending.

Yet... it was exhilarating. I wanted MORE. My whole perception of FILM was turned on its head.

So much going on. Romero pairs unrelenting & unceasing zombie dread w/ visual poetry (that music box shot "trapping" Barbra, GAH). Brilliant, thrilling, beautiful. The script drips w/ Romero's ingenious social commentary.

The final siege on the farmhouse never loses its intensity any more than the ending loses its sadness & unfairness.

Duane Jones turns in a landmark performance as Ben, representing a seismic shift for Black actors in filmdom.

Notice how I didn't discuss other 1968 movies? Aye. Night stands alone.

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1969: The Wild Bunch

First, I want to say that it's profoundly unfair to have to choose between such two dominant Westerns: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and The Wild Bunch.

The latter won, which doesn't take away from the effortless cool & charm of the former.

Peckinpah's hard-hitting Western puts together a badass cast of rugged gunslingers who keep your attention. Yeah, I just called Ernest Borgnine a badass. William Holden and his gang leave an impression that's every bit as hard-felt as the graphically/viscerally violent Old West action that has Peckinpah's fingerprints all over it.

Game-changing editing and a sensational visual flair set this apart. Roger Deakins called this his fave, and who are we to argue with the best cinematographer in the game?

Make no mistake, this is not your grandfather's Western with sanitized action. This goes hard, ugly, and feral. You don't get to Unforgiven w/o The Wild Bunch.

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1970: Dodes'ka-den

We can't overstate the brilliance of Robert Altman's M*A*S*H. Ossie Davis's Cotton Comes to Harlem is reliably badass, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a staggering achievement, and Le Cercle Rouge is crime with coolness to spare.

This time, I went w/ a Kurosawa movie that WASN'T beloved at the time of its release (to the point that Kurosawa suffered depression and a massive personal crisis as a result), Dodes'ka-den. It's still somewhat divisive, but has been vindicated with time to some degree.

Personally, I love this one. It's Kurosawa's first color movie, and the breathtaking results speak for themselves. The man had an eye for rich, rich color.

Even more considerable are the poignant interlocking stories about humanity, all centered on people living in a shantytown by a garbage dump.

All I can do is advise against letting the runtime or old reviews color your opinion of this towering work.

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