Top Ten 1947 American Movies (Part 2 of 2)

Ok, so... Here comes the second and final part of the definitive list of the best American Movies of 1947 (look in my previous post for number 10 to 6)... But first, I'd like to point out some things I've learned through the hard, painful - sometimes even perilous - journey (this is like my Golden Boy diary):

- The best job you can get is in a music store (Guys and Girls): selling LP's or something, and the guys usually know how to play piano, and they all sing with pretty voices (in their charm, they are quite annoying!)

- Is not a Noir unless you got a crooked woman. Rule number One. This could be: The Femme Fatale; The double edge lady (a moral character but hiding something or working two sides) or just plainly The Whore

- There's always a happy ending, and when there's not is always that kind of unhappiness that brings some sort of dignity to the characters, like they get a redemption through pain or something.

-  Rule Number 2! Is not a Noir, unless you got the Noir aesthetic. Let's call it Gothic! The shadows have meaning!

- Everybody smokes in the Classical Hollywood. As Nick Naylor well puts it "directors need to give their actors something to do while they're talking" Doctors give their patients cigarettes, parents let the Kids smoke, Old people smoke, pretty girls smoke, ugly chicks chew tobacco; if there's a fucking monkey in the movie they would make him puff.

- All Enterprise Studios movies are excellent

- At least once they say "Swell", or even multiple times, Guys and girls say it. "Was the coffee any good? Swell. How's the Missu? Swell. At that fancy party the girls sure were swell" (and then they light a cigarette, yeah smoking and swelling!)

-There's almost no horror movies in 1947 :(

- All these fuckers (actors/ crew) married and divorced at least 4 times.

- They never gonna make movies like these again, movies with heart, movies that looked and felt like movies.

5. Desert Fury (1947, Lewis Allen) Slightly Erotic Thriller / Film Noir 

Paula (Lizabeth Scott), the young daughter of casino owner Fritzy Haller (Mary Astor) fells for middle age gambler Eddie Bendix (Burt Lancaster)... Soon she finds he had some sort of involvement in the past with her own mother...

Is the most shocking movie I've found in 1947, because like I said is slightly erotic, but I should have said HOMO erotic... is not overtly gay, old people won't notice that's for sure... (I don't know how though? with lines like, Burt Lancasters: "I wanna feel all that Desert Fury in my ass...mmmm Swell")

From this year there's a well-known homo erotic mainstream short called Fireworks (1947, Kenneth Anger), very scandalous at the time (the director was put in jail. Shame on you and your ignorant communist round table witch hunt, senator McArthur!!!) 

But that movie was just a short, and a gigantic piece of experimental shit. This is a AAA produced by Hal Wallis (the man behind Casablanca), distributed by Paramount, shot in technicolor (Every frame of it, screams: Expensive!) and it's good!!!

It's a Noir Melodrama, but the love triangle here seems to be established between the girl and two boys... Wait that's what usually happens in a Noir... yeah well, here the boys are fucking each other!!! 

And if that's not enough there's something between the mother and the daughter too: holy shit!... In any case for many reasons is definitely a unique Film Noir.

Lewis Allen had like a great timing; this movie is so fast paced that feels like a 90's thriller, but with all the elegance of classic Hollywood (the photography by Charles Lang as always flawless, and the music by Miklós Rózsa... I mean what else do you want?)

4. Golden Earrings (1947, Mitchell Leisen) Romantic Spy: Marlene Deitrich, Ray Milland

A British colonel (Ray Milland) escapes from the Gestapo to the Black Forest (south-west Germany); here he'll find the help of a gypsy, Lydia (Marlene Deitrich), and end up posing as her gypsy mate. 

I think more people would mention this one on their lists of best classical movies ever, if it wasn't so politically incorrect... Cause this movie could be understood as sort of racist, sort of... Gypsy's are depicted as filthy, ignorant human beings; devoted to commit thievery and other hideous crimes... But at the same time there is a certain Cervantine quality to it (if you ever read La Gitanilla you know what I mean) Romani people here are a symbol of freedom, liberal kindness and unconditional friendship against oppressive states. And that's what our colonel Ray Milland discovers while posing as one. And Marlene Deitrich's Lydia is really good (I mean, could this woman act or what?) You LOVE her. You'll end up loving her so much: in her filthiness, with all the racist jokes... She's so cute! She'll warm your cold selfish heart.

3. The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947, Joseph L. Mankiewicz) Romantic "sort of" / Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, Natalie Wood MUS: Bernard Hermann

Young widow Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) moves away with her daughter to a secluded seaside cottage. The ghost of the former owner, sea captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), is haunting the house, but Lucy gathers the courage to stand up to him, and then woman and ghost become friends. 

At first, you don't feel it... This is one of the very best movies I've watched. Because is so silly right? A Lady and a ghost fell in love, not only that: he's a sea captain, and a grumpy one, like: Graaaaaar!

But you end up feeling the wind in this movie, and the sea, and you end up loving both characters... and the one thing that makes all REALLY work: Bernand Hermann's score. Of course, he's a legend, but he's always remembered for the Hitchcock movies or Cape Fear, or The Twilight zone... but I honestly believe this is one of his best ever, you will forever remember the music in this movie, it will haunt you, and you'll long for it like a sailor needs the sea... (puns! puns!) The movie is simple, but the score just elevates it. You can listen to it, here:

Gene Tierney is just fantastic. She plays a single mom that has invested all her money on this seaside cottage, and then she discovers there's a ghost in the house! But you know what? Fuck you! I'm not allowed to be scared: I'm a single mom. So we're gonna stay here and fuck you if you don't like it ghost! 

And Rex Harrison is just... shocked! And amazed by this tiny woman.

  

I said is a romantic movie, but we don't have any romantic scenes, like kisses, or declarations of eternal love... everything is more subtle: like looks and smiles... But it's a tragic love really, cause they can't even let themselves fall in love. Not even that... I love this movie.

2. Nightmare Alley (1947, Edmund Goulding) Film Noir / Tyrone Power, Coleen Gray, Joan Blondell, Helen Walker / FOX

Traveling carnival Stan Carlisle (Tyrone Power) cheats his way to learn an ingenious "act" code that let him pretend to have mental powers. 

Not much to say, other than it's a great movie about the rise and fall of a con-man. A perfect example of a non detective noir, all the characters -except perhaps the accomplice played by Coleen Gray (but even her) are twisted and fucked... There's no morality, no fear of God, no nothing: there's no God in this world...

But the thing that really gives you the creeps in the film is... destiny similarities, the effect is just spell bounding: like a mirror house in a fair... And essentially this is a horror movie: Stan Carlisle is like one of the monsters from Freaks (1932) that escaped from the fair into the world.

  

(I'd love to see the uncensored version... Supposedly - like the things are said in myths - supposedly, originally there was a scene of the Geek actually biting the chicken's head off... like... Daaamn!)

And the Number One goes to...

1. Body and Soul (1947, Robert Rossen) Drama / John Garfield, Lili Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere, William Conrad / The Enterprise Studios

Amateur boxer Charley Davis fights in order to save himself from poverty... but discovers that winning has cost him way more than he bargained for.

Old tale: a dream that becomes a nightmare or how success can corrupt a man's spirit. The irony when the attainment of our dreams brings out our perdition... It works, why fix it? 

There're many reasons why this is one the greatest boxing movies of all time and the very best of 1947, but I will only mention two: the Soul of this movie, which is, of course, John Garfield, one of the most talented actors of his generation in his best performance ever. This is the first in the Holy Trinity of Boxing movies, the other two being: On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan) and Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese); but I would argue that both Brando and De Niro took things from John Garfield's performance... Quite a bold statement... 

That's the soul. And the body of the film: the cinematographer James Wong Howe. Any movie made by this guy is worth to be watched, but here... you can feel all the freedom and the savagery of an experimental movie (It was an Enterprise Studios movie so...); the final fight sequence is just mind-blowing, the guy put himself on a fucking pair of skaters and shoot from below the ring... and the effect is just amazing!!!

Talking about the best DPs of all time people mention Greg Toland or John Alton, or whatever, but everyone forgets about Wong...

and this is probably his very best.

Well there you have it. One last thing, if you are curious Here is the list of the best one hundred 1947 movies, maybe you can find your favorite in it... maybe not... Anyway: God Bless Movies

(by pelida77) 

Top Ten 1947 American Movies (Part 1 of 2)

Ok, after working on it for like 2 years, here's my list on The absolute very Best 1947 American movies. 

Of course, you can disagree with it... but unless you've watched 200+ 1947 movies - as I have - , and I mean you need to tolerate movies like Gas Kids go West, Hi De Ho or The Fabulous Dorseys (Just to mention some crappy ones in the good list)... So, How could you feel entitled to?... No way! Antagonize me?, Ha! 

You are just a Film illiterate, and an internet whiner. 

I think I've been fair with the whole bunch, except perhaps with 

The Lady from Shanghai. For once that movie is an early example of disgusting Whitewashing practices. Oh Come one! Rita Hayworth wasn't fucking Asian, call it the Lady from the Sea or something... (though she had some Spanish blood in her... by the way, she was always ashamed on how Spanishy she looked.

So she fixed it... with bleach skin lightening and hair electrolysis, yikes!)

ALSO I hate Orson Welles. Don't get me wrong, he is a genius director... But I just hate to see that egotistical fucker in almost every piece of film he directed. There are better choices out there for the role you narcissistic fuck! so HA HA Orson Welles I made your master piece rank as low as I could.

I also would have made rank really high to Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger), like maybe top 3?... But it is a British movie so (only Americana, dude...). 

So lets begin:

10. Gentleman's Agreement (1947, Elia Kazan) 
Drama: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield

The journalist Phillip Green (Greg Peck) is asked to write an article on antisemitism. He decides to adopt a false Jewish identity. Which kind of raises tension with his new love interest Kathy Lacey (Dorothy MacGuire); though she thinks herself as a liberal, she's really filled with prejudices against Jews... 

Here's the Oscar winner of 1947. It's 10 on the list of my preferences, but of course it is a very good movie. 

The reason why I made it rank so "low", is because I feel about it the same I felt for Crossfire (1947, Edward Dymitrik) which was a movie that also dealt with antisemitism (though the original novel was about homophobia: you can still see some glimpses of it in the movie) So yeah, we are tolerant, and we are preaching... but not THAT tolerant. It comes out just a tiny bit fake, it doesn't go all the way... But I guess that's always the case with first-timers and you know for a 1947 racism movie this is pretty much unique. 

Of course the director is the great Elia Kazan, and the movie just has to be excellent... and it is... But that's the other problem I have with it... Boomerang, also directed by him, also a 1947... Is not as good of a movie as this one (you can even call it just a regular movie), but at least there, the camera did some crazy interesting shit... You can see the hand of the director... here's just like good, you know? Just really good. In any case, as always he got the best from his actors and the movie is super fun and intense.  

9. The Other Love (1947. Andre DeToth) 
Drama: Barbara Stanwyck, David Niven, Richard Conte / MUS: Miklós Rózsa Enterprise Studios

One of the greatest novels you need to read is The Magic Mountain (1924, Der Zauberberg, Thomas Mann), though there's nothing magical about that shitty mountain... is about death and disease... I confess I could never finish it, for once is as big as the bible... and the reading is deeply personal, is just so disturbing! I must have tried it at least five times but had to leave it, had to.

I was close this year (to get to the end I mean) but a burglar... can you believe this?, a fucking burglar stole my book! (Who does that these days?! Leave it to me to get the only literate thief in the whole world. So, Mr. Burglar if you are reading this - you probably are because you like to read- Fuck You!)

Well anyway, this movie remind me of The Magic Mountain, I think it was influenced by Mann's work (At the very least the novel this was adapted from) Andre DeToth is a weird filmmaker for classic Hollywood, he's more like an atmosphere creator. A master of Noir (though he didn't call it that, for him it was gothic movies)

Concert pianist Karen Duncan (Barbara Stanwick) checks in a Switzerland sanitarium not knowing that her tuberculosis is terminal.

She'll fell for auto racer Paul Clermont (Richard Conte), so they'll "escape" to Monte Carlo to smoke, gamble and drink, that is: she will race the very few months she has left. 

8. Ride the Pink Horse (1947, Robert Montgomery) 
Film Noir / Robert Montgomery, Wanda Hendrix.

Lucky Gagin (terrible name) arrives to the Mexican town of San Pablo during Fiesta seeking for mobster Frank Hugo to extort him. FBI agent Bill Retz is also in town for Hugo, and when he finds that Lucky has a telltale, he asks him for it. But Lucky has his own ideas for... revenge...

The third directorial effort of Robert Montgomery, who kind of grew to like it once during another production, They were Expendables (1945) when John Ford got ill and he took over.

And he's... kind of talented, for the Noir bug. 

Ride the Pink Horse has a surreal quality to it, at times it looks like a freaking nightmare. I think it helps that the photographer is non other than Russell Metty, a master in the light and shadows.

Lucky is a man consumed by revenge, but he finds peace surrounded by all these beautiful and kind Mexican people, and specially teenager Pilla (Wanda Hendrix); so yeah it's a story about how a man learns to overcome hate... I don't have much to say about it. Good Movie!

7. Brute Force (1947, Jules Dassin) 
/Drama Prison movie

Prisoner Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) plots his escape together with fellow prisoner Gallagher (Charles Bickford)

The prison is ruled by the mean brute force guard Cpt Munsey (Hume Cronin) It's an example of a movie trying to depict the criminal's soul... Why they did what they did, It's trying to make you feel for the criminal but...

"I have no pity"

Cause you are a fucking criminal, right?

Is trying so hard to make you see victims and not criminals,  that really gets the opposite effect: Hey there's a reason why these fuckers are in jail... By the way, these all are romantic criminals! Because, all of them got into trouble because of some woman in the first place. For example an accountant commits fraud just to keep buying shit for the way-out-of-his-league waifu.   

As the sadist cell keeper you got the Cocoon old guy, it was nice to see him...

though he's not much of a sadist here in my opinion... I mean, movie guards these days are real nasty motherfuckers. 

Still, a great villain. I think in most Classical Hollywood movies you hate the villain just because...

I mean the message is great: prisons should rehabilitate and not just punish; and I might have agreed with that when I was in my 20s; but it's really hard to swallow this with our cynic middle age souls. Still, a very well directed movie, well paced, fun, great performances, great shots...

6. Ramrod (1947, Andre De Toth) 
Western noirish / Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Don De Fore /  ENTERPRISE STUDIOS

A sheep ranch owner Connie Dickason (Veronica Lake), loses her fiance at the hands of the local cattle owner Frank Ivey (Preston Foster). The stubborn woman decides to hire Dave Nash (Joel McCrea) as an overseer to help her raise her sheep and face the cowboy bully. 

It's just a Western, a good old Western. But what makes it really interesting for me is the performance of Veronica Lake, she would do anything to defend what is hers... The Italian title is way more suitable: La donna di Fuoco (The Lady of Fire). She seduces men to kill and die for her. There's so much lust in the dust in this film (it's 1947!), that I even remembered to be a Technicolor: it isn't, it's black and white... and just a harsh reminder of what men would do for some pussy.

La donna di fuoco, Connie Dickilove: she's gonna fuck them all! 

(The list continues on the next post...) (By pelida77)