The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

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Casablanca was my #5, The Third Man was my #3 and Citizen Kane was my #1. So, all in all, quite a good top three to the overall countdown, I'd say. I'm quite surprised The Third Man placed ahead of Citizen Kane, though.

The three films from my list that did not make the overall list were The Blue Dahlia (my #13), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (my #18) and Brighton Rock (my #13); I'd thought all three of those films would have had a good chance of making it.

My complete list:
1. Citizen Kane (#3)
2. Late Spring (#25)
3. The Third Man (#2)
4. Bicycle Thieves (#9)
5. Casablanca (#1)
6. The Great Dictator (#11)
7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (#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. The Blue Dahlia (D.N.P.)
14. Stray Dog (#64)
15. Shadow of a Doubt (#17)
16. The Maltese Falcon (#4)
17. White Heat (#42)
18. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (D.N.P.)
19. Cat People (#49)
20. Rebecca (#10)
21. It's a Wonderful Life (#5)
22. Gaslight (#41)
23. Brighton Rock (D.N.P.)
24. Gilda (#72)
25. Double Indemnity (#6)



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Mr Minio's 40s list

1. Late Spring
2. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
3. Odd Man Out
4. Ornamental hairpin
5. Portrait of Jennie
6. Les enfants du paradis
7. Vredens dag
8. Ladri di Biciclette
9. A Hen in the Wind
10. The Record of a Tenement Gentleman
11. Brief Encounter
12. The Ball at the Anjo House
13. Women of the Night
14. Drunken Angel
15. Double Indemnity
16. Key Largo
17. The Maltese Falcon
18. The Spiral Staircase
19. White Heat
20. Ossessione
21. The Grapes of Wrath
22. No Regrets For Our Youth
23. The Set-Up
24. One Wonderful Sunday
25. Hideko the Bus Conductress
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.





Round up the usual suspects, because Casablanca was my number one. Glad to see it get the letters of transit and triumph overall. I had The Third Man sixth, The Maltese Falcon was my lucky thirteen, and I did not have Citizen Kane on my list at all.

MY COMPLETE LIST
1. Casablanca (#1)
2. His Girl Friday (#14)
3. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (#7)
4. Out of the Past (#32)
5. The Ox-Bow Incident (#39)
6. The Third Man (#2)
7. Shadow of a Doubt (#17)
8. Stray Dog (#64)
9. Gaslight (#41)
10. Notorious (#15)
11. Unfaithfully Yours (DNP)
12. Bicycle Thieves (#9)
13. The Maltese Falcon (#4)
14. Odd Man Out (#55)
15. The Great Dictator (#11)
16. The Philadelphia Story (#37)
17. Laura (#12)
18. The Set-Up (DNP)
19. The Palm Beach Story (DNP)
20. Rome, Open City (#74)
21. Double Indemnity (#6)
22. Rebecca (#10)
23. Kind Hearts & Coronets (#26)
24. It’s a Wonderful Life (#5)
25. Black Narcissus (#79)




All of my choices placed, save for three.


The Set-Up
Robert Wise, 1949

This Noir with a real-time narrative about a boxer who mobsters are forcing to throw a fight is a big time favorite of mine. Robert Ryan worked for a long, long time, and this is in the period when he was starring in some of them. It is one of his best roles, a washed up fighter who seemed to be on his way out, he finds the strength to muster one more brilliant fight against a much better opponent, only to find out that he is supposed to give up. Only 72-minutes long, but Robert Wise, who dabbled in so very many genres and managed to master most of them, doesn’t waste a second of it. Not shocked it didn’t find its way into the bottom section of the group list, but still disappointed.


Preston Sturges had one of the most amazing if brief runs of success in Hollywood, a lauded screenwriter who became a writer/director tuning out ten wonderful films, fast-talking and intricate comedies, including a flurry of brilliance of seven movies between The Great McGinty in 1940 and Hail the Conquering Hero in 1944! Only one Preston Sturges movie made the MoFo list (Sullivan’s Travels, #68), but I had two of his others on my personal list.


Unfaithfully Yours
Preston Sturges, 1948

If you grew up in the '80s you may have seen the remake starring Dudley Moore on cable, and while that version is serviceable it is totally unnecessary. Rex Harrison is best known for his Oscar winning turn in My Fair Lady. Two of his other '40s entries made the countdown, two ghost stories in Blithe Spirit (#90) and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (#33). But for me he is best here as the famous symphony conductor who becomes so filled with jealousy that his young, beautiful wife (Linda Darnell) may be cheating on him, he envisions elaborate ways to murder one or both of the lovers, meticulously set to the pieces of classic music the symphony is performing. Oh, and it's a comedy! It is considered the last "great" movie Preston made during his brief reign, and for me it is his magnum opus.


The Palm Beach Story
Preston Sturges, 1942

For this one Sturges has fun deconstructing the screwball genre a bit, with Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, and Rudy Vallée having a blast running through this insane They Lived Happily Ever After...or DID THEY? romantic ballet of chaos and misunderstandings and mistaken identities. Colbert won her Oscar nearly a decade earlier in Capra's It Happened One Night (stay tuned for the MoFo 1930s List), but she is just as wonderful and radiant and funny here. This one is a little lesser known here in the 21st century than Sullivan's Travels or The Lady Eve, including in this MoFo vote, but it shouldn't be.

In addition to simply watching all of Preston Sturges' great movies, track down the documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer which was done for the PBS series American Masters back in 1990. Fascinating man and a heck of a story. He doesn't have the longterm name recognition nor certainly the length of career as say Billy Wilder, but he was very much a genius working in Hollywood.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



First off: great job, @SilentVamp! Appreciate you forging ahead in light of your personal situation, and I want to give a special shout out to all the effort you put into those images. Using the on-screen titles must have been a lot of work, but it was a super cool idea and I hope future list curators are willing to emulate it!

The Third Man being so high is definitely a bit surprising, but I do know that it's a good deal more beloved among cinephiles than the populace at large, and I always felt it was particularly well-liked no here (though maybe that's just me extrapolating from @Harry Lime's overt appreciation for it), so I'm not totally shocked.

For the record, I had Citizen Kane at #1, Casablanca at #2, and The Third Man in the bottom half somewhere.



First off: great job, @SilentVamp! Appreciate you forging ahead in light of your personal situation, and I want to give a special shout out to all the effort you put into those images. Using the on-screen titles must have been a lot of work, but it was a super cool idea and I hope future list curators are willing to emulate it!

The Third Man being so high is definitely a bit surprising, but I do know that it's a good deal more beloved among cinephiles than the populace at large, and I always felt it was particularly well-liked no here (though maybe that's just me extrapolating from @Harry Lime's overt appreciation for it), so I'm not totally shocked.

For the record, I had Citizen Kane at #1, Casablanca at #2, and The Third Man in the bottom half somewhere.
So will this become an official 'list' on the list section on people's profiles?



So will this become an official 'list' on the list section on people's profiles?
It will.



My List:

1. The Best Years of Our Lives
2. Casablanca
3. Mrs. Miniver
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray
5. It's a Wonderful Life
6. The Grapes of Wrath
7. Key Largo
8. Lifeboat
9. The Maltese Falcon
10. Citizen Kane
11. The Big Sleep
12. Rope
13. The Lost Weekend
14. Gilda
15. To Have and Have Not
16. The Lady Eve
17. Black Narcissus
18. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
19. Double Indemnity
20. The Sullivans
21. Sergeant York
22. Dark Passage
23. His Girl Friday
24. Miracle on 34th Street
25. The Philadelphia Story
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A big to @SilentVamp for doing an excellent job with the countdown, especially after such a huge loss. My mom's the most important person in the world to me so I can't imagine the pain of losing her. The strength you showed to soldier on and finish this countdown is extremely admirable. Most of us wouldn't have been able to do it. Reading how interested and involved your mom was with the countdown brought a smile to my face. And if my list really was one of her favorites and you're not confusing it with someone else's, then she also had excellent taste.

Also want to give thanks to the many mofos who take the time to write about why they voted for particular films, even if it's just copying and pasting a write-up from the past. Those are the posts that make these countdowns fun to follow. I've seen 72/100. That number should be going up soon, though, since a lot of the ones I haven't seen yet are saved on my DVR. As always, the best part about prepping for these countdowns is discovering new favorites. The Best Years of Our Lives, Sergeant York, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Portrait of Jennie, Shadow of a Doubt and Johnny Belinda were all first-time viewings for me, and they're all among the best films I've watched this year.


Captain Spaulding's 40's List


#1) His Girl Friday


#2) The Great Dictator


#3) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre


#4) Double Indemnity


#5) Brief Encounter


#6) The Maltese Falcon


#7) The Lost Weekend


#8) Children of Paradise


#9) The Red Shoes


#10) Bambi


#11) Notorious


#12) The Best Years of Our Lives


#13) Rebecca


#14) Sergeant York


#15) A Foreign Affair


#16) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde


#17) The Grapes of Wrath


#18) The Big Sleep


#19) Portrait of Jennie


#20) White Heat


#21) Shadow of a Doubt


#22) The Third Man


#23) Citizen Kane


#24) Johnny Belinda


#25) The Thief of Bagdad


__________________



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Here are some comments about the other three movies on my list that didn't make the Top 100.
12.
The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley, 1942)



I honestly believe that anyone who loves Arsenic and Old Lace and/or Harvey will love this film. It's a tale about world-famous, egotistical critic/commentator Sheridan ("Sherrie") Whiteside (the awesome Monty Woolley), who, against his will, comes to dinner with a Midwestern couple, but slips on their frosty front porch and breaks his leg. He proceeds to turn the life of the couple and their young adult children upside down by taking over their home, as well as trying to torpedo the blossoming romance of his secretary (the wonderful Bette Davis) with the local newspaper editor (Richard Travis). Other major characters include a vain movie actress (Ann Sheridan, the "Oomph Girl" and the female version of Sherrie) whom Sherrie uses to try to steal Bette's beau, an actor/playwright/Renaissance Man (patterned after Noel Coward) played hilariously by Reginald Gardiner, the effervescent, sex-crazed Banjo (Jimmy Durante) [think: Harpo Marx with a voice], and the young nurse (Mary Wickes) who Sherrie constantly bombards, physically and verbally, at will.

Sample line of Sherrie speaking to his nurse: "My great aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy every day of her life. She lived to be 102, and when she'd been dead three days, she looked better than you do now!"

The nurse has to wait about an hour further into the flick to retort, but it's a doozy: "I am not only walking out on this case, Mr. Whiteside, I am leaving the nursing profession. I became a nurse because all my life, ever since I was a little girl, I was filled with the idea of serving a suffering humanity. After one month with you, Mr. Whiteside, I am going to work in a munitions factory. From now on, anything I can do to help exterminate the human race will fill me with the greatest of pleasure. If Florence Nightingale had ever nursed YOU, Mr. Whiteside, she would have married Jack the Ripper instead of founding the Red Cross!"
15.The Heiress is William Wyler's version of Henry James' Washington Square. It contains unbelievable performances by Olivia de Havilland and Ralph Richardson as a plain, socially-awkward woman and her wealthy father who has never loved her. When Montgomery Clift takes an interest in her, abetted by her aunt Miriam Hopkins, it's apparent that he may be after her money, but she will do anything to get away from her father's coldness. What ensues is an actor's showcase and an intense study of all the characters' emotions. Here's a good scene even though the video quality is weak.

21.
Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges, 1944)
- Talk about crying! Sturges has always crafted films which are irreverent, sophisticated and sentimental at the same time. He was probably the closest thing American cinema saw as a comedy auteur in the early 1940s. He was sorta like a combo of Capra and his screenwriter Robert Riskin rolled into one. OK, well, why is it that this is my fave Sturges? Probably because it's got the backbone story of a loser who won't shame the memory of his hero father and his doting mother. But the flippin' U.S. Marines won't let him not come home to see his mother (and his sweetheart) along the way. The film is a wonderful political satire, has hundreds of classic throwaway lines delivered by William Demarest, Raymond Walburn and several others of Sturges' company, and temporarily made the great Eddie Bracken something resembling a star. Too bad his only other major role was in Sturges's The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, probably one of the most-sacrilegious American films ever made!
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I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Great job with the list, Vamp, especially under such difficult circumstances - you've been amazing!

I have seen 68/100 and 20/25 of my list made the countdown.

My list:

1.Brief Encounter (1945)
2.Rope (1948)
3.Rebecca (1940)
4.Day of Wrath (1943)
5.All the King’s Men (1949)
6.Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
7.I Walked With a Zombie (1943)
8.Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
9.Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
10.The Third Man (1949)
11.In Which We Serve (1942)
12.The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
13.Brighton Rock (1947)
14.The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
15.Citizen Kane (1941)
16.The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)
17.A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
18.I Remember Mama (1948)
19.Laura (1944)
20.Gilda (1946)
21.Ossessione (1943)
22.Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
23.The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24.How Green Was My Valley (1941)
25.I Know Where I’m Going! (1945)

The ones that didn't make it:

In Which We Serve

Wasn't really expecting this war-time ensemble to show up, I suppose it just inspired a bit of patriotic fervour in me. That and Celia Johnson being top-notch as always.

Brighton Rock

Seriously, why not? It's great! Adaptation of the Graham Greene novel starring Richard Attenborough.

I Remember Mama

Watched this for the 40s HOF and thought it had a shot, it seemed well-liked. Warm, humorous family drama.

I Know Where I'm Going

Flawed but endearing Powell and Pressburger rom-com. Someone else must have voted for it because it wasn't a one-pointer.



21.Ossessione (1943)
This was probably in my last five cuts. It was the first Italian Neorealism film i watched and i wasn't completely on board with everything which is why i left it out. Think it could have made it had i watched it after the Rossellini's when i got more used to those types of films.

Oh and i forgot all about I Remember Mama, very surprised that didn't make it everyone in the Hall of Fame seemed to like it.



Holden mentioned Unfaithfully Yours and Mark The Man Who Came to Dinner, both of which I love, and if I'd remembered those two I very likely would have tried to find room on my list for them. As well, there's a few films that made the countdown that I'm very much looking forward to seeing and it's possible a few of them would have been in contention for my list, we'll see. As it is, I guess it's all for the better since creating my list was hard enough.
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Women will be your undoing, Pépé
like @Kaplan, I'd forgotten @Markf's The Man Who Came to Dinner, which, like he stated, if you like Arsenic & Old Lace and Harvey, it's true, you WILL enjoy TMWCtD. A lot of great barbs shooting all over the place in that. Enjoyed Heiress as well. Lovely lil romance.
As for I Remember Mama, I had run out of room or that could have had a spot.



I have a hunch that most participants are not overly interested in each other's lists..

I'm probably one of the few who have seen every film on the top 100 list, apart from some of the non-English films, and have seen most multiple times. Rather than post my own top 25, I will say that in that list are included 6 from the top 10, 13 from the top 25; and all the rest were in the top 100. I'm sure others have even a higher percentage, and those percentages would be interesting to see.

But what does "top" films mean? There were no criteria listed, but at the base, was the proposition to list our "favorite" films, or to list what we believed to be the "best" films? Interesting distinction, which might not always equal up.

In my personal case I decided to leave out animated films and non-English speaking films; and --with all respect to our Brit and Aussie friends-- any non-American films. The reasons? To me, animated films are not movies. I love many of them, but there are no live actors, scenery, or locations. How would Dumbo do against Jimmy Stewart in a best actor category? I shudder to think..

There are many great non-American films from the '40s to be sure. But to consider a few of the well known ones would leave many hundreds out of consideration-- the vast majority of which few have seen, or could see.

Out of curiosity, I listed the top 25, with the animated and non-American films listed in red. The list would have to extend to 33 in order to get a top 25 American, non animated list. This is interesting because it would bring 5 additional excellent films up into the top 25 (the last 5 black font entries). ~Doc

1. Casablanca
2. The Third Man
3. Citizen Kane
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. It's a Wonderful Life
6. Double Indemnity
7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
8. Rope
9. Bicycle Thieves
10. Rebecca
11. The Great Dictator
12. Laura
13. The Grapes of Wrath
14. His Girl Friday
15. Notorious
16. The Best Years of Our Lives
17. Shadow Of a Doubt
18. Arsenic and Old Lace
19. The Shop Around the Corner
20. Fantasia
21. Brief Encounter
22. The Big Sleep
23. Pinocchio
24. The Lost Weekend
25. Late Spring


26. Kind Hearts and Coronets
27. Day of Wrath
28. Letter From an Unknown Woman
29. The Killers
30. Children of Paradise
31. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
32. Out of the Past
33. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir









Women will be your undoing, Pépé
rather like your query, @GulfportDoc regarding the basis of a countdown. What should be included, and by its inclusion do we actually delve deep enough to grant those options a fair shake.
Sadly, it is an intriguing intellectual conversation that I would falter and stumble through. Hell, I may even misconstrue your actual query.

So, instead, I will attempt to express an aspect of the countdowns behind the numerical competition of where individual lists compare to the calculation of a group and exploring the definition of any given parameters of said list and the importance or lack of, each of those parameters.

That aspect, I propose, at its basis is more of a wonder than of the intellect and that is, a cinematic journey.
Like one would wander an open market, trying out things, garnering opinions and making discoveries and revisiting, as well as sharing past enjoyments. So is the discussion and sharing opinions of each movie both on, and not on the actual countdown.
These lists, for myself, and most likely, for many others - along with the fun of counting down - the more deeper pleasure and excitement comes from seeing, hearing of, talking about, movies that may get spoken about in a small discussion is opened up for the as many on the Forum who deem to check it out.
I see and learn of movies I knew nothing of; and THAT is a more intriguing process. To discover.
While it is true, there are always so much more yet to be spoken of, or ventured to; we do get to take that tentative step toward them with these countdowns.

I understand this may simply be a dreamer's response to an intellectual proposition. . . but I am no scholar and therefore, this is all that I may offer to a query that caught my attention.



Ed, I agree. Most everyone who participates in this forum does so because they love films. Therefore there's a wide spectrum of movies and their related subjects which gather interest, and promote discussion. Still, being herd animals, most of us like to see how we stack up amongst the norm. Otherwise no one would've posted their personal rankings..

~Doc



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Ed, I agree. Most everyone who participates in this forum does so because they love films. Therefore there's a wide spectrum of movies and their related subjects which gather interest, and promote discussion. Still, being herd animals, most of us like to see how we stack up amongst the norm. Otherwise no one would've posted their personal rankings..

~Doc
oh, so very true. That IS the initial attraction after all.



My List:
1.Day of Wrath (1943) (#27)
2.The Great Dictator (1940) (#11)
3.Scarlet Street (1945) (#73)

4.Blithe Spirit (1945) (#90)
5.Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (1943) (#95)

6.Bicycle Thieves (1948) (#9)
7.King Sizee Canary (1947) (#97)
8.Casablance (1942) (#1)

9.Der Fuehrer's Face (1942)
10.Fantasia (1940) (#20)
11.Saboteur (1942)
12.Grapes of Wrath (1940) (#13)
13.Rope (1948) (#8)
14.The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) (#31)

15.Gentlemans Agreement (1947)
16.The Killers (1946) (#29)
17.The Lady Eve (1941)
18.A Night In Casablanca (1946)
19. This Happy Breed (1944)
20. Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
21. In Which We Serve (1942)

23. The Lost Weekend (1945) (#24)
23. Detour (1945) (#94)
24. Brief Encounter (1944) (#21)

25. You Gotta Stay Happy (1948) (1 pointer)
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2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Im late to the party. Here was my list:

1. Casablanca
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. Double Indemnity
4. Laura
5. The Killers
6. The Best Years of Our Lives
7. Out of the Past
8. Late Spring
9. Ride the Pink Horse
10. It's a Wonderful Life
11. Day of Wrath
12. Shadow of a Doubt
13. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
14. Citizen Kane
15. Leave Her to Heaven
16. There Was A Father
17. The Big Sleep
18. A Hen in the Wind
19. Foreign Correspondent
20. I Remember Mama
21. Pursued
22. The Little Foxes
23. Pinocchio
24. Thief of Bagdad
25. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

-To Have and Have Not would have made my list had I seen it in time. I would have slotted it at number 18.

-There Was A Father: probably an under seen film that deserved consideration for the list.

-A Hen in the Wind: Same as the other Ozu. He was a great filmmaker and this was an under seen gem. Glad to see on Minios list.

-Foreign Correspondent: my favorite 40s Hitch. Not surprised to not see it though as not many look at it as anything substantial.

-I Remember Mama: Capraesque feel good story in a way that I enjoyed

-Pursued: an uneven film that had quite a bit of strengths to it, enough to make my list.

-Thief of Bagdad: not even a great film, but definitely a fun watch

-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: 40s Kazan at his best.