The mafo's MoFo 100 List

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Me too

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I haven't seen the Depardieu version of Cyrano. I think I'll rent it this weekend. Thanks, Mark.

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That does sound good, I can't say how many times I've skipped over that movie, now methinks I want to see it.

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis, 1988)



I love this movie for many reasons. Basically, I love seeing Looney Tunes mix it up with Disney icons. The Donald Duck/Daffy Duck routine is particularly sweet. I love the fact that you can make a legit film noir and have the majority of the characters toons. I also love the contrast between Bob Hoskins' Eddie Valient's downer and Charles Fleischer's Roger Rabbit's upper. Plus any movie that has sex bombs Betty Boop and Jessica Rabbit is a must-see.



Kathleen Turner's sultry voice is perfect for the woman who married Roger because "he makes me laugh". Add to that, Amy Irving's singing voice for Jessica's show-stopping number "Why Don't You Do Right?", turns Eddie into Jell-O. Christopher Lloyd and the Weasels are particularly despicable villains too. If you don't know, the script was intentionally devised to have echoes of Chinatown in its depiction of an L.A. scandal, so it's not a kiddie movie at all; at least unless you're just a kiddie at heart.



When all is said and done, I just enjoy the fact that someone had the audacity to make this entertaining film. To tell you the truth, nothing tops the opening cartoon, Somethin's Cookin'. If you haven't watched it, here goes...

Love that clip

I almost hate to pimp myself, but nobody has any feelings on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

I've not been around much lately, Mark, so I've only just read your post. I'm glad you bumped this thread...

...because I love, love, LOVE Roger Rabbit! I remember when I was about six or seven I recorded it off TV and just watched it over and over. It's one of my favourite movies, one of my first in fact. My enjoyment didn't change as I got older, but my appreciation did. It really is a top noir, and it's only a kids movie when you're a kid. But when you're older it's just a brilliant movie.

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Roger Rabbit is the man. Great movie.

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The Devil and Daniel Webster (William Dieterle, 1941)



Those are the words that Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) mulls over early on in this wonderful film, but the Devil, aka Mr. Scratch (Walter Huston), tells him that it doesn't matter much because if he doesn't sell his soul, then Webster will never become President of the United States. These adversaries have much to contribute to this sometimes down-home, sometimes mindblowing adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's story. Director William Dieterle, who fled Germany for the U.S. in 1931, is mostly known as Warner Bros. "Go-To" director for various prestigious biographies, many starring Paul Muni, but he should not be shortchanged of his position as one of the more-personal directors working in the Studio System. Besides this classic, he also made such films as the delightful pre-Code Jewel Robbery, Charles Laughton's magnificent The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and the trippy noir The Accused (1948).



The premise of the film is that hardworking but dirt-poor farmer Jabez Stone (James Craig in a career performance) is having difficulty on his New England farm (somewhere near the border where Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire meet up). All the farmers in the area are hard up, but Jabez cannot seem to support his pretty young wife Mary (Anne Shirley) and God-fearing Ma (Jane Darwell). Well, when a bag of seed is ripped open and lost, a calf has to be sold to make a property payment, and Mary injures herself, Jabez spits out loud, "Consarn it! Well, if that ain't enough to make a man sell his soul to the Devil...and I would too for about two cents." He realizes what he did and whispers, "I guess nobody heard." Oops! The next thing he knows he finds two pennies in his pocket and this wacko guy Scratch shows up with a contract, offering him seven years of "Money and ALL That Money Can Buy". Jabez accepts the offer, somehow missing out on the importance of what happens after the seven years.



This film was made at RKO and released about five months after the studio put out a little home movie called Citizen Kane. Most of the crew and technicians from Kane also worked on this film, and it shows in the spectacular visuals and sound. One example of something basically unrivaled in film to this day is the scene of the dance/party celebrating Mary's about to give birth. The neighbors have all gathered in Jabez's barn for the occasion while Mary is upstairs in the house going through childbirth with Jabez's Ma's help. Mr. Scratch has brought with him an exotically-attractive woman named Belle (Simone Simon), from "Over the Mountain". The dance scene where Jabez falls helplessly in love with Belle is a masterpiece of lighting, sound, movement, sets, and music; the last part provided by Scratch himself, as he plays the most-devilish version of "Pop Goes the Weasel" on his violin that anyone will ever hear. The score is provided by Bernard Herrmann, who received the film's only Oscar and the only one of his illustrious career. (He was also nominated that year for Citizen Kane.)




The movie culminates in an awesome scene where Jabez Stone goes before a Judge and Jury of the Damned to decide his fate, with Webster defending and the Devil prosecuting. It is a truly memorable ending to a must-see film. When I grew up watching this film on TV, it had already been edited for re-release to 85 minutes. This was done because it was no longer a first-run feature, but the distributor thought they could maximize profits by running it as the second feature in the 1950s with a newer, undoubtedly weaker first run film. That was the version which was available on TV for everyone. So, I'm happy that Criterion has added 22 minutes to make it as long as they could find. It's true that you can often see the difference in the quality of the film's transfer based on what was restored, but that shouldn't matter to a true film buff. It was great at 85 minutes and it's just that much better at 107.

Thanks Mark, sounds like something i would like to watch

Give 'Em Hell, Harry! (Steve Binder & Peter H. Hunt, 1975)



One of the true sins of this DVD era is that this awesome film is not available in the format. This seems to make it difficult as hell to show some of the wonderful images of James Whitmore portraying President Harry S. Truman right here. I have the VHS, and since it IS a filmed document of a play, DVD probably doesn't matter too much, but this is easily one of the funniest, most-powerful, and best-acted films ever shown in theatres. The fact that it's a one-man performance is only semi-unique. However, it is the only film representation of a one-man stage show to ever receive a nomination for a Best Actor Oscar, so in that way, it's historically-significant.



Nowadays, most people know James Whitmore as the tragic Brooks Hatlen in The Shawshank Redemption, but he's been an excellent film actor since 1949; he even received a Best Supporting Actor nom for his second film, William Wellman's gritty WWII flick Battleground. Whitmore also made a name for himself on stage playing Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt, the latter which was also turned into a one-man movie, Bully, a solid film which is apparently available in NO format whatsoever.

However, I believe that James Whitmore's greatest performance can be found in his total embodiment of the plain-speaking, honest and defiant Harry S. Truman, who became President in 1945 after FDR died. Truman was in office during the dropping of the A-Bombs on Japan, the beginning of the Cold War, the Korean War and the McCarthy Era. He was also involved in Missouri politics for decades before he became Vice-President. This film is filled with Truman's own words, which are very blunt, full of strong swear words (at least for the time) and incredibly funny when they aren't bringing a tear to your eye.



Harry Truman was a politician back when that wasn't a dirty word, or, at least, he lived the life of a politician as an honest man. In this day and age, it seems almost surreal. Truman didn't cowtow to anyone, and that's part of what makes this film so thrilling to watch. Whitmore's acting is certainly terrific, but the script/play is inspired in how it makes Truman a totally-living-and-breathing character that anyone can look up to, regardless of one's politics, nationality or age.The film is presented in two acts, and the first act is crammed with some of Truman's most famous quotes, especially those of the humorous variety. Act II turns a bit more serious when Truman talks about three separate run-ins with the Ku Klux Klan in his home state where his life was threatened for preaching equal rights for African Americans. These scenes should rivet any audience. Then, he has more problems with General MacArthur (who seemed to believe he was Miilitary Dictator of the U.S.) in Korea and the witch hunter Joseph McCarthy.



I'm not sure how you're supposed to watch this terrific film. I first saw it at the theatre, even before Whitmore was nominated for an Oscar. Sure, I was disappointed at the time that none of the three actors fron Jaws and Gene Hackman in French Connection II weren't nominated for Best Actor, but as the years go by, this performance and film grow stronger and more-personally significant to me. I really hope that you can watch this film ASAP. You can always come and visit me, and we'll watch my copy. It should give you goosebumps. Besides, I'll let you pull my beard and ask me questions about leprechauns.

Very enlightening mark f, I really enjoyed that.

Very interesting Mark thanks

I'd never heard of that film Mark, so I'm off to try and find it now - thanks

Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, 1941)



It was a major mistake that I left this one off my list initially, but you know me. I have to try to rile up people. I want to talk about Dumbo, the movie. I don't really want to talk about ignorant people's perceptions of racism, so I'm saving that for later. See what I said about me being the "Rile-Up King"?

The first time I watched Dumbo, I thought it was cute. It didn't really register on my psyche as anything very significant; it was just some kids' movie which was over in about an hour and was sorta painless and inconsequential. Boy, was I completely dense! In 64 minutes, Dumbo tells a story of tolerance and belief in doing what you are capable of doing. It teaches you to overcome prejudices while trying to stay tight with family. It also teaches you to sometimes trust strangers because they might turn out to be your best friends, especially if your own kind reject you. At least, that's all there in the film, if you can appreciate it in between crying, laughing and smiling so much.



This is one of the more memorable tearjerker scenes in fim history. Several of the elephants made fun of Dumbo's big ears, causing his mother to rip up the joint and try to put them in their place. Subsequently, she was labeled as a "mad elephnat" and imprisoned. It's still often true that the individual who rebels against tyranny and prejudice is often identified as the trouble maker and forced to pay for others' sins.



Dumbo was part of the heyday of Disney's animated output. In the span of three years (1940-1942), Disney's animators produced four films which were released, and all four are classics. The lone financial bomb was Fantasia. The public ate up Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi. I personally love Pinocchio at least as much as Dumbo, especially for the simplicity of how the former film explains the spiritual concepts of free will and resurrection, but I'll save that for a later post. Dumbo should be a must-see and a Hall-of-Fame flick even if it only contained the Pink Elephants sequence. Timothy the Mouse and Dumbo both drink water spiked with champagne which the clowns tossed into a tub. After they "wake up", they see this... perhaps the five best minutes of any Disney movie.

The next scene is often considered the most racist in the film. The crows are spoken by African Americans, and they sing and jive just like you might expect from a 1940s jive-era movie. At the end of the "Pink Elephants" scene, both Dumbo and Timothy are up in the trees, but these "streetwise" crows don't buy it. It's sorta funny they can accept an elephant in a tree but cannot consider that maybe he got up there on his own power. It's too bad they don't have the continuation scene where the crows don't make fun of Dumbo but actually encourage him to try to be "all that he can be". The crows are true heroes in the movie, and they're certainly not treated like second-class citizens. I'll also verify that Dumbo and his mom love the honest crows at the end much more than the sycophantic "white" elephants, at least if you HAVE to play the race card to watch this lovely film. The final scenes of Dumbo are actually my fave, which is saying a lot. It may have the Happiest Ending Ever.

i loved loved loved your list....untill number 1....now im not saying anything bad, who the **** am i right..but of all the movies you could have chosen, and all the amazing movies you had on your list you chose jaws as number one? my personal opinion, you jumped the shark with that one HA!...seriously though, this is the best list i have seen on this site.

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I find it sad that people shun Dumbo.

Not me I love it Thanks for the clips they make the post so interesting