The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

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Women will be your undoing, Pépé


Rope

This was a rewatch and, I did get to watch the short doc "Rope Unleashed" beforehand which was kinda fun to see and then take note of things that were mentioned.

For me, beyond the technical aspects, this was a very good movie. Enjoying everyone's character and truly loving the "twists" of every single conversation and being "in" on it, knowing from the very beginning that a murder DID occur really made the double meanings really -- well, meaningful.
This movie has all the trappings of a very enjoyable Hitchcock movie: moments of suspense, a dark aspect of having dinner on the chest containing David, the dry humor sprinkled throughout and the detail to camerawork that can be easily over looked because it is rather flawless. Having watched the "behind the scenes" and how the set was entirely on rollers and things moved about as necessary I did enjoy watching for such things and appreciating them.
While I have heard that this is not one of Hitchcock's best, for me it is still very memorable and very, very enjoyable.

excellent nom, Neiba

Seen: 63/93

My List:
#1 Top 3
#2 Top 3
#3 Top 5

#4 Arsenic and Old Lace (18)
#5 Top 5-10
#6 The Big Sleep (22)
#7 Laura (12)
#8 Ain't gonna happen but a longtime favorite
#9 The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (33)
#10 should show up in the next 2 or so
#11 whoulda coulda shoulda

#12 Odd Man Out (55)
#13 The Great Dictator (11)
#14 Pinocchio (23)
#15 Kind Hearts and Coronets (26)
#16 Now, Voyager (78)
#17 The Suspect (70)
#18 Waterloo Bridge (93)
#19 A new favorite, don't see it making it and it isn't
#20 highly doubted it was gonna make the list

#21 The Pride of the Yankees (59)
#22 Little Foxes (43)
#23 Can't believe this DIDN'T make the list at ALL
#24 Gilda (72)
#25 Arch of Triumph (1 Pointer)



This is what i wrote about Rope and Rope Unleashed for the record:

Rope



This was my 19th Hitchcock film. First thing i'd like to say is i personally think this would've benefited from an extra 15-20 minutes at the start, it just drops us right into the murder which could work but i don't think it did completely here. Even a few scenes of how they met and how the murder came up, or whatever it wouldn't have to be that just a bit more time to build a rapport between the characters before the murder, just my opinion don't know if anyone else will agree. That being said i thought this was very good.

I was fairly familiar with what it is about since i've read about the Leopold and Loeb case before. Both Farley Granger and John Dall did a good job of playing these young, unhinged privileged guys, and their characters were clearly alot different from each other. James Stewart was good as always, loved him as the suspicious one who these nutcases believe will approve of their actions. I'd say i preferred his other one-location film that i've seen Dial M For Murder, i preferred the story personally. Interesting to shoot it using a bunch of long takes edited to make it look like one long shot. Of course i've seen the same thing before so i'm not as impressed with it now but it is always interesting to watch. Very good film, i'd say i preferred Shadow of a Doubt but not greatly. Sorry i don't have more to say it's just after watching the documentary right after it i don't want to just repeat some of the stuff that was in that.

Rope Unleashed


Almost watched this last night because it was late and this was only 30 minutes long, glad i didn't since it kind of ruins a few things. Very interesting stuff. If you have access to it i recommend watching it after Rope. If you are going to i wouldn't read any further here because i basically say what it is about.

The people featured in the doc are: Arthur Laurents who wrote the screenplay, Farley Granger who played Phillip, Hume Cronyn who did the script treatment and Patricia Hitchcock his daughter. It heavily focuses on the homosexual subtext between the characters Brandon and Phillip; didn't mention it in my write-up since it was talked about so much here. I'm guessing most will pick up on it without seeing this anyway since their relationship is pretty uh... intense haha. It's mentioned that the film did alot better in Europe because attitudes were alot more relaxed to this but they still had to heavily mask it, i also found it interesting that this was originally a British play and there was great difficulty transferring the british dialogue to american as well as fitting in the british class system which is a strong part of the original play but America didn't have the same kind of social structure. Apparently, Cary Grant turned down James Stewarts role and Montgomery Clift turned down the role of either Brandon or Phillip because they didn't want to be associated with homosexuality. Keep in mind this is secondhand from Farley Granger who claims Hitch told him this. Farley actually sounded pretty critical of Stewarts performance, not really his performance actually more his character because he believed he didn't work with Brandon and Phillip the way he was supposed to. He also felt that some of the suspense didn't work of a few things.

Anyway no point in going on summarizing everything. A solid accompaniment to the film.



Rope was my #12, and Bicycle Thieves my #4!

My list so far (with predictions):
1. Top 3 (title contender)
2. Late Spring (#25)
3. Top 5
4. Bicycle Thieves (#9)
5. Top 3 (title contender)
6. The Great Dictator (#11)
7. Top 7
8. Meshes of the Afternoon (#69)
9. The Grapes of Wrath (#13)
10. The Big Sleep (#22)
11. Brief Encounter (#21)
12. Rope (#8)
13. Didn't make it
14. Stray Dog (#64)
15. Shadow of a Doubt (#17)
16. Top 7
17. White Heat (#42)
18. Didn't make it
19. Cat People (#49)
20. Rebecca (#10)
21. Top 5
22. Gaslight (#41)
23. Didn't make it
24. Gilda (#72)
25. Top 7



I love James Stewart and Hitchcock, and while Rope isn't my favorite by either of them, I still enjoy it. Still, it did not make my list.
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Been a number of years since I've seen Rope so it was yet another that would have required a rewatch - I doubt it would have made my list though.



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I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Bah, too much Rope-bashing in this thread!

I think Rope is fantastic and it was #2 on my list. I think it's a very tense, exceptionally well executed film. It's very much play-like in that it's mostly single location and focused very much on character interactions, yet the cinematic tricks prevent it from ever looking stagey. It's intense and creepy but smart with dashes of dark humour too. I'm not sure about whether Stewart was miscast - I can't quite imagine anyone else playing his role, I think he plays it very well.



Sorry I've been absent for this countdown. I have to admit it's a real great list, Mofo, right up until Rope at #8 that is. Way too high, guys! Anyway, let the top 10 roll on. I'll post my list when all is done.
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His Girl Friday was one of the nominations in a recent Hall of Fame. I don't think it's a particularly good film. My main criticism is summarized in this paragraph...

I found it to be an incredibly frustrating watch, because of its over the top fast-paced dialogue. I didn't really find it amusing nor funny, mainly because of the fact that lines were delievered so fast that I barely had any time to process them. Overall, I think the dialogue was way too incomprehensible and not particularly funny, so I guess I didn't really see the appeal of an aspect this film is praised for. Secondly, I disliked majority of the characters, particularly Walter Burns (Cary Grant). I get that this was a rather cynical view on the world of journalism and politics and that characters were probably deliberately painted as vultures, but disliking almost every one of them made it really hard for me to enjoy this film.
I cannot say anything about The Grapes of Wrath because it's been far too long since I've last seen it. To the best of my recollection it's a very good film.

Laura is an iconic noir with a mesmerizing theme song. However it's not of my favorite Gene Tierney performances. I prefer films where she's not relegated to playing a porcelain doll. I very much like this Frank Sinatra rendition.



The Great Dictator was nominated in one of the recent Hall of Fames as well. I enjoyed it at the time but I believe it fades away rather quickly.
This was actually my first introduction to Chaplin. Never have I previously seen a film of his at full length, so naturally I was very excited for this nomination, considering the man's role in cinema's history. Initially I wasn't sure, what to expect out of this; whether it will be a classic goofball comedy or excecuted in a more conservative manner. It turned out to be a great goofball fun with lots of physical comedy, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but also a film of great historical and cultural importance. I find it remarkable, that Chaplin had enough grit to openly ridicule National Socialist Party in the middle of a bulging ww2. I like the universal message he carried out in his final speech. It might have been corny, but I think a straight-forward message like that, was needed at time to warn the humanity of an increasing decadence and to plead for peace and unity. To conclude this is a very powerful and poignant satirical piece, which definitely stood the test of time.
I haven't seen Rebecca and I don't feel compelled to do so.

Bicycle Thieves is a second masterpiece by Vittorio De Sica and the most well-known frontrunner of Italian Neorealism. Simply stupendous depiction of post WW2 desperation in Italy. The ending to it is arguably the emotional peak of cinema's history. Here is an incredible text about the ending itself.

Even though Lamberto Maggiorani remained uncomfortable with the mechanics of filmmaking and acting, he nevertheless began to feel a merging of his own identity with that of his character Antonio. Vittorio De Sica later stated that Maggiorani "confessed to me that he had experienced this sensation, acutely and poignantly, in the last scene in the film: Antonio, in a moment of revolt against his cruel fate, attempts robbery and is arrested and maltreated in front of his son. When, through his tears, Lamberto Maggiorani felt his hand seized by little Staiola, it seemed to him that it really was his son who took his hand, and his tears became real tears of burning shame. In a few months of patient effort, I had brought this man to the point of being able to forget himself in his role and to enter fully into the sad story."



Sergio Leone worked as an assistant on the film and made a short cameo appearance.He is the priest with glasses on the left.


Rope
is the only film by Alfred Hitckcock that rises above the pile of mediocrity. Despite being my favourite from the director, I think that N0.8 is a massive reach.

1. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
2. Portrait of Jennie
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray
4. Bicycle Thieves
5. The Big Sleep
8. Le Corbeau
9. Kind Hearts and Coronets
10. The Body Snatcher
12. The Red Shoes
13. The Best Years Of Our Lives
15. Arsenic And Old Lace
16. Children of Paradise
17. Gaslight
18. The Ox-Bow Incident
19. The Lost Weekend
20. Leave Her To Heaven
21. Rome, Open City
23. Dead of Night
24. Magnificent Ambersons
25. Night Train To Munich



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Hitchcock is mediocre? He is the greatest director ever!

That being said Notorious>Rebecca>Rope

And his best 40s film didn't even make the cut IMO.



I'd love to see it again. Think I would like it a lot.


Criterion sale next month

Hitchcock is mediocre? He is the greatest director ever!
Well the silent Hitchcock's are pretty bad and late Hitchcock isn't that great. So calling him the GOAT is debatable



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Criterion sale next month



Well the silent Hitchcock's are pretty bad and late Hitchcock isn't that great. So calling him the GOAT is debatable
Debatable yes, but his top 10 can rival anyone elses.



Well the silent Hitchcock's are pretty bad and late Hitchcock isn't that great. So calling him the GOAT is debatable
I haven't seen any of Hitch's silent films, but I've seen most all of his sound films, and I like them all and loved many. Even his last films have something to appreciate about them, as he was trying to do something different.

I think what happened is his fans wanted him to keep making the same type of films he did in the 50s and early 60s, but after his success with Psycho and The Birds...his friendship with François Truffaut influenced Hitch to make his version of French new wave type films and fans weren't wanting that from Hitch.

By the time he got back to his 1950s roots with Family Plot, his films were out of vogue and he was out of time with what was happening in the mid 1970s. Had he made Marnie in the mid 1970s it would have been much higher regarded than it was. Hitch was ahead of his time and that's why his last films aren't appreciated it like they should.



Save the Texas Prairie Chicken
~7~


1948

Director: John Huston
Producer: Henry Blanke
Distributor: Warner Bros.





417 Points - 28 Lists
(1st; 2nd-2x; 3rd-4x; 5th; 6th-2x; 7th-2x; 9th; 10th; 11th; 12-3x; 16th-2x;
18th-2x; 19th-2x; 20th; 23rd-2x; 25th)
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The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre is a very good fillum and quite probably would have been on my list.