The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

This scene alone explains why I put The Lady from Shanghai at number 6 on my list. The weirdness and messiness of the whole film gives it a certain surreal quality that I appreciate a lot. The film has clearly been messed with, but the end result somehow still kind of works. Welles himself actually thought that despite the involvement of the studio, the film still kind of ended up working (I remember him saying this in one of the many 3-hour long interviews that I've seen with him over the years). I tend to agree, even though (yet again) I would've loved to see his untempered vision.

I also had the wonderful Meet Me in St. Louis on my list. It was my number 21 but could've easily been higher. It's the perfect Christmas film, full of nostalgia, passion, fun, sadness, warmth... It's simply a gorgeous picture and boy does it look beautiful!
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How Green Was My Valley

Wasn't sure what to expect going into this since my experiences with Fords films haven't always been great, i had already seen The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Stagecoach the latter i love and the other two i found underwhelming although The Searchers desperately needs a rewatch. Thankfully i thought this was excellent. The start of this was excellent i think it can be seen as a bit hokey but in my opinion it was crucial to make the towns depression later effective. It started off ridiculously charming, the narration and playful music especially made this a really cozy film. I think the small Welsh village played into this as well; it looked beautiful both naturally and through Fords direction. Then we have the close family, loving parents and the rest of the community during the wedding scene and subsequent celebrations felt like an extended family; it was a great portrayal of a very happy community. So when you see the sign saying wages are being cut with the omninous music playing it is such a sharp turn towards coming gloom that it worked really well at least for me, it made me care. I honestly think this is one of the most powerful films i've seen because it is such great storytelling; it never felt manipulative or cloying which is an amazing feat since there's so many sad scenes/scenes of hardship. Plenty of scenes really got to me like Beth being completely overwhelmed with emotion at the town who she and her family were just at war with coming together to sing her songs of well-wishing after her recovery; coming together for one of their own despite the problems they have. Anyway there's really too many different stories to go through without repeating myself; i though all of them were handled really well and i can't think of any bad acting which again is some feat from such a large cast. It's surprising to me that this is only two hours long and this is a positive as it really feels like an epic when you consider how much actually happens and how naturally the passage of time feels; not one scene is filler that i can remember at least.

One thing i do want to point out because it surprised me is that i think the romance was done very well and truthfully it didn't need to be since it wasn't that important. As i said my main problem with The Suspect was how i don't think Laughton and Ella Raines relationship was handled well; it was too quick and so i didn't really care about them much. Here Angharad and the preachers love was handled masterfully without much interaction; even the first scene at the celebration where they smile at each other and once he goes past her she is sitting in the background nervously playing with her hair followed by the time they talk outside her house. It worked very well i thought, mostly because it was well acted and written, i mean the celebration scene when she was touching her hair she wasn't even the main focus but my eyes were drawn to her because i felt the first time they looked to each other there was something there. I think it says something about the quality of this film that a relationship that was basically a brief sidestory (i mean they aren't in too many scenes together) was done so well.

Anyway fantastic film. Amazing score and absolutely beautiful as well, didn't think there was much point going into that since it seems pretty well covered in the other reviews. Thanks for nominating Daniel.