Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Lina Lamont: If we bring a little joy into your

humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard

work ain't been in vain for nothin'. Bless you all.

Director Stanley Donen was born 99 years ago today -- once I saw that and started doing the math I was shocked to realize that meant he was only 28 when he directed Singin' in the Rain??? I had no idea that movie came from that young a man, but I guess that makes sense now that I do realize it. I'm hesitant to make this comparison because I don't particularly like Damien Chazelle's movies (and he'll love this compliment) but Singin' in the Rain probably felt to 1952 audiences like what Chazelle's movies do now -- vibrant and fresh and explosive. Chazelle in my opinion doesn't know how to control the fire-hose once it's in his hands going at full blast, but he's certainly poppin' off. And Donen making this movie at 28 must've had that same kind of energy in its moment. 

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1952

Here, a treat for your Monday -- now that I've got a break from the film fest stuff I'm diving back into trying to finish off my "Siri Says" series! The last one we did was back in April when I finished off the 1930s -- indeed we're getting perilously close to finishing this series, as I think we've got about ten years out of one hundred left to survey? In case you're new round these parts or just need a refresher this series is where I ask my iPhone to pick a number between one and one hundred, and then I give y'all my five favorite films from the year that corresponds to the number given. So for example today the number we've got is "52" and I will be giving you my favorite five films from the Movies of 1952. 

Funny enough I'm not finishing off the 50s this time -- I have at least one more year to go until I do -- which makes me kind of sad, as the 1950s are a pain in my ass. I don't love the 1950s to be honest! I've probably complained about this previously one of these times but it's all Noir and Musicals and big bloated Technicolor literary adaptations and it's just not my cuppa. I barely scavenged up this episode's top five and I mostly only like these films, as opposed to loving any (except the first one, which I deeply adore). But hey these are all turning 70 this year, I suppose that's of interest! And with that ringing endorsement I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1952

Ikiru

(dir. Akira Kurosawa)

-- released on October 9th 1952 --

High Noon

(dir. Fred Zinnemann)

-- released on July 24th 1952 --

Singin' in the Rain

(dir. Stanley Donen)

-- released on March 27th 1952 --

Clash By Night

(dir. Fritz Lang)

-- released on May 28th 1952 --

Don't Bother to Knock

(dir. Roy Ward Baker)

-- released on July 18th 1952 --

--------------------------------------

Runners-up: The Quiet Man (dir. John Ford), The Narrow Margin (dir. Richard Fleischer), The Star (dir. Stuart Heisler), Monkey Business (dir. Howard Hawks), The Marrying Kind (dir. George Cukor), Pat & Mike (dir. Cukor)

Never seen: The Greatest Show on Earth (dir. Cecil B DeMille), The Bad and the Beautiful (dir. Vincente Minnelli), Umberto D (dir. Vittorio De Sica), Othello (dir. Welles), Forbidden Games (dir. René Clément), The Importance of Being Earnest (dir. Anthony Asquith), Sudden Fear (dir. David Miller)

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What are your favorite movies of 1952?

Going Gay All of a Sudden

I feel like me telling anyone who visits this site that there are a giant pile of queer movies on the Criterion Channel right now is pointless -- anybody coming to this site already knows this. But maybe I am incorrect -- it's not like that's uncommon! -- and so I tell you, here and now, whether you know this already or not, there is a giant pile of queer movies on the Criterion Channel right now. This link here is a good place to start (Teorema and Cruising and Poison, oh my!) but they've also got a collection of Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein's films (including their wildly moving and effective doc on Harvey Milk) and a collection of Dirk Bogarde films (Fassbinder's Despair anybody?) and a collection of films directed by Mitchell Leisen (on that note I really recommend this piece on him at The Film Experience)... actually you know what, they have a page on their site for this, right here. I don't have to link to these separately. Everything from Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together to Gregg Araki's The Living End to James Bidgood's Pink Narcissus, to Maurice to BPM to Fox and His Friends and Querelle to Weekend to Mishima; really I would be living on the Criterion Channel right now if it wasn't for Tribeca happening. 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder died on this day in 1982 pic.twitter.com/UTTui1jokf

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 10, 2021

Speaking of Tribeca, though -- please do stay tuned for my first sputtering bits of coverage of that Film Fest, now ongoing, which should go up online starting at some point in the next couple of days. Yes perhaps even over the weekend, even though I don't normally write on the weekends. And it's a three-day Summer Weekend for me, at that! Wild and crazy stuff! Yeah we'll see how it goes. But it'll mostly at The Film Experience and Pajiba, although I'll try to remember to link to all of it from here too. Bye!

A sailor's life for me... pic.twitter.com/JakKXH52e1

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 10, 2021

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Pirate (1948)

Manuela: Someday Macoco is going to swoop down 

upon me like a chicken hawk and carry me away.

Before you ask no, I have absolutely no freaking idea what that line of dialogue spoken by Judy Garland (born 99 years ago today!) is supposed to be about. And that's why it's amazing, and why I will begin whispering it to strangers on the street from this day henceforth. Oh, Judy. So giving, so true. In case it wasn't clear already I've never seen The Pirate, although unlike most musicals from this period which I stay away from on general principle I have long wanted to see The Pirate because hello Gene Kelly in shorts. (See my previous post about this, with the clip, right here.)

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1948

I'm just gonna say this right off the bat -- I have a terrible batting average with the year that Siri gave me for this week's edition of our "Siri Says" game. Just terrible. I've seen so little! It would make sense if we were talking about the early 1920s here, but today when I asked Siri for a number between 1 and 100 she gave me the number "48" and so we're talking about The Movies of 1948. I have no excuse for seeing so few movies from 1948. I suppose my indifference to Noir, which has come up before, is part of it, as we're in the thick of that genre in 1948. But some of my favorite movie stars are working -- Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck... 

... well okay I've seen both of Stanwyck's films from this year; I'm not a total sociopath. (They both made the "runner-up" list below.) But otherwise it's just a poor, poor showing on my part., so you'll all have to work overtime in the comments to tell me what I should prioritize. (Not that that's unique, exactly.) But first...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1948

The Red Shoes

(dir. Powell & Pressburger)

-- released on September 6th 1948 --

Rope

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on September 25th 1948 --

Red River

(dir. Howard Hawks)

-- released on September 17th 1948 --

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

(dir. John Huston)

-- released on January 24th 1948 --

Bicycle Thieves

(dir. Vittorio De Sica)

-- released on November 21st 1948 --

----------------------------------------

Runners-up: The Big Clock (dir. John Farrow), The Search (dir. Fred Zinnemann), Key Largo (dir. Huston), They Live By Night (dir. Nicholas Ray), BF's Daughter (dir. Robert Z. Leonard), Sorry Wrong Number (dir. Anatole Litvak)

Never seen: The Snake Pit (dir. Litvak), Johnny Belinda (dir. Jean Negulesco), Joan of Arc (dir. Victor Fleming), I Remember Mama (dir. George Stevens), Drunken Angel (dir. Kurosawa), Moonrise (dir. Borzage), Hamlet (dir. Laurence Olivier)...

... La Terra Trema (dir. Visconti), The Naked City (dir. Jules Dassin), The Pirate (dir. Vincente Minnelli), A Foreign Affair (dir. Billy Wilder), Macbeth (dir. Welles), Letter From an Unknown Woman (dir. Max Ophüls), Oliver Twist (dir. David Lean)

----------------------------------------

What are your favorites from 1948?

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1945

With Sundance now behind us we can reignite some projects set to simmer, like our "Siri Says" series -- here I ask the lady who lives inside of my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100, and then with whatever number she chooses I pick my favorite films from the movie corresponding to that year. I've done a lot of these posts by now and the remaining numbers at this point are getting slimmer and slimmer -- this translates to I usually have to ask Siri for a number about a dozen times before she gives me one I can work with. But today twas meant to be I guess, because she struck gold on first pick -- she gave me "45" right off the bat, and so today we'll talk our favorite out of The Movies of 1945.

I'd say my batting average for 1945 is decent -- scanning the list of movies out that year I'd probably seen about a quarter of them, although there are several big titles I've yet to see (Noir is a real weak-spot for me). Two of my favorite films of all-time were released this year, but beyond that I had a hard time picking getting my list up to 5 that I fully adore; a list of 4 would've been more honest, but I like the 5th one well enough it's not an absolute cheat. Meanwhile there's one you'd think I'd like better than I do (that'd be Hitchcock's Spellbound, which I've always had mixed feelings about) and there is one movie that I'm sure y'all love (that'd be Blithe Spirit) that I positively cannot stand. (Rex Harrison gives me hives.) All that said onto the list...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1945

Brief Encounter

(dir. David Lean)

-- released on November 19th 1945 --

Mildred Pierce

(dir. Michael Curtiz)

-- released on October 20th 1945 --

Leave Her To Heaven

(dir. John M Stahl)

-- released on December 25th 1945 --

Christmas in Connecticut

(dir. Peter Godfrey)

-- released on August 11th 1945 --

My Name is Julia Ross 

(dir. Joseph H. Lewis)

-- released on November 27th 1945 --

-----------------------------------

Runners-up: Dead of Night (various directors), The Body Snatcher (dir. Robert Wise), The Picture of Dorian Gray (dir. Albert Lewin), Spellbound (dir. Hitchcock), Isle of the Dead (dir. Mark Robson), Rome Open City (dir. Roberto Rossellini), Along Came Jones (dir. Stuart Heisler)

Never seen: The Lost Weekend (dir. Billy Wilder), The Bells of St Mary's (dir. Leo McCarey), Anchors Aweigh (dir. George Sidney), National Velvet (dir. Clarence Brown), The Clock (dir. Vincente Minnelli), Detour (dir. Edgar G. Ulmer), Children of Paradise (dir. Marcel Carné), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (dir. Elia Kazan), Scarlet Street (dir. Fritz Lang), House of Dracula (dir. Erle C. Kenton) 

-----------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1945?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

An American in Paris (1951)
.

Jerry: I never touch a guy unless

I've known him at least fifteen minutes.

Weirdly (for a frothy musical like An American in Paris anyway) there are several choice bits of dialogue that would've made for a good post -- Gene Kelly's character finds time to spout all sorts of wisdom while also wearing the world's most obscene pair of pants. Relatedly for a frothy musical I've also seen An American in Paris way more times than one would think, knowing what one might know about me and frothy musicals.

Blame the pants. Anyway the great Vincente Minnelli,
papa o' Liza, was born 116 years ago this very day.

What's your favorite film of his? 

(Please don't say Gigi.)

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Xanadu (1980)

Danny: Kira, I want you to promise me one thing.
Kira: Anything!
Danny: On opening night, I get the first dance.
Kira: Okay.
Sonny: You're gonna dance?
Danny: Oh, I've been known to twinkle a toe or two.

Gene Kelly was born 106 years ago today!

His toes weren't the only thing twinkling...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

An American in Paris (1951)

Jerry: Civilization has a natural resistance to improving itself.

Director Vincente Minnelli was born 115 years ago today! 

Without him there'd be no Liza, and there'd be no... 

 ... Gene Kelly shaking his ass in those pants, 

so show some damn respect.

What's your favorite Minnelli movie?

.

Which is Hotter?

.

I was just tweeting my annual birthday wishes to Scott Caan's butt when I noticed, somehow for the first time, that Scott's Spectacular Butt shares a birthday with one of the Greatest Cinematic Butts of All Time - Gene Kelly's! And since there's nothing (literally nothing) I love more than a Butt-Off...

online polls

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1951

.

I'm forced to listen to all the "Apple Events" by my Apple-crazed co-workers (click here to gauge my typical reaction to these shenanigans) but my ears perked up during yesterday's over-hyped announcements when Apple said they're upgrading Siri! It won't hit until December but I sure do hope whatever they've come up with won't effect our game here, where I ask Siri to pick a number between 1 and 100 and she tells me a number between 1 and 100, which I then use to pick my 5 favorite movies of the corresponding year. Don't fix what ain't broke! 

But hey maybe Siri will just be soooo smart now that she'll be able to choose the 5 movies for me while she's at it? And then she can write the post too, even. Oh my god, Siri is stealing my job. Anyway let's hurry before Siri grows a mouth to eat me with and let's write up our favorite movies from The Movies of 1951 or whatever...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1951

Strangers on a Train

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on June 30th 1951 --

The Thing From Another World

(dir. Howard Hawks)

-- released on July 22nd 1951 --

The Tales of Hoffmann

(dir. Powell & Pressburger)

-- released on April 4th 1951 --

Ace in the Hole

(dir. Billy Wilder)

-- released on July 4th 1951 --

A Streetcar Named Desire

(dir. Elia Kazan)

-- released on September 19th 1951 --

-------------------------------------

Runners-up: Alice in Wonderland (dir. Hamilton Luske),  The African Queen (dir. Huston), The Day the Earth Stood Still (dir. Robert Wise), An American in Paris (dir. Vincente Minnelli), A Place in the Sun (dir. George Stevens), Rashomon (dir. Kurosawa)

-------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1951?

.