The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

I didn't like Madre on first watch. I think it's decent but I do think there are many better films that decade. That being said, it's also better than Maltese Falcon, which hasn't popped up.

I agree with you. Rope is an interesting film. That's it. I've watched it several times over the years, and concluded that it is pretentious, semi-boring; and that James Stewart was badly miscast in the role of the detective. The film's most notable feature of course is the long takes, which were expertly done, and probably studied in most film schools. Once the notion of the body in the trunk wears off, one is left with an uncomfortable desire for the plot to get better. Hitchcock is my favorite director, but this picture is no more than in the median ranking of his output.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre, OTOH, is a semi-masterpiece. To my taste there are no weaknesses in this superb film.

~Doc

I wrote about that in my review of Rope:

BUT as much as I like James Stewart, he was all wrong for the role. He's supposed to be a haughty, smug, intellectual professor who feels murder can be justified as art...but doesn't have the guts to carry off his own views.

Jimmy Steward is the antithesis of this, he's down to earth, he's friendly, and he's very trust worthy, every one likes Stewart! and he's just the wrong fit. He thought so himself too:

This was the only movie James Stewart made with Alfred Hitchcock that he did not like. Stewart later admitted he felt he was miscast as the professor.

It's funny because during the movie they talk about actors of the day, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, James Mason. Cary Grant was the first choice to play Rupert...James Mason would have made an excellent Rupert.

My picks are in tact.


De Sica's Bicycle Thieves was number twelve on my list. My favorite of post-war Italian Neorealist cinema, a hair above Rossellini's Rome, Open City (twentieth on my list). Lovely, simple Humanism on display.

MY LIST
2. His Girl Friday (#14)
4. Out of the Past (#32)
5. The Ox-Bow Incident (#39)
7. Shadow of a Doubt (#17)
8. Stray Dog (#64)
9. Gaslight (#41)
10. Notorious (#15)
12. Bicycle Thieves (#9)
14. Odd Man Out (#55)
15. The Great Dictator (#11)
16. The Philadelphia Story (#37)
17. Laura (#12)
20. Rome, Open City (#74)
22. Rebecca (#10)
23. Kind Hearts & Coronets (#26)
25. Black Narcissus (#79)

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"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

Bicycle Thieves was close to make my list, the fact that I prefer Umberto D always makes me rank it a little lower.

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Very happy to see my No.1 spot make it this high up the list!

Thank God. Was starting to think it may have been top 3, which would have been crazy.

Rauldc is going to come in here and poo poo on Rope but I think it's fantastic. In my top ten Hitch...possibly top five. I had it at #7 which means Mofo got it pretty damn right.

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I had Rope at #6. I didn't get Compulsion on the list last year (it was my #1). But at least I got the other film that I really like that is inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case onto the list this year.

Rope is very good, but you already know I didn't have it on my list. Four more of mine will show and four of mine won't. Any guesses on the eight? Anyone really care?

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I have some contradictory feelings about Rope. I think it's way too high on this list, that it was not Htich's best movie of the 40s, but I did have it on my own list, at #16. Which surprised me, because I thought I'd left it off. I guess I must have decided to include it just because of the sheer number of times I've seen it. Probably only two movies from the 40s have I seen more times than Rope, so I gave it points for that. But the movie is not without its flaws and built in limitations, yet I do think it's far more than just its gimmick, which some seem to think. The casting of the two young men is very good, it is a case study in the creation of suspense, and it has an intelligent, thematically rich central premise. And of course, the execution of those long shots is extraordinary. As for the casting of Stewart as the professor, that is questionable, and someone mentioned James Mason, who I think would have been perfect in the role. Yet ... no one, including Mason, could have conveyed the outrage over discovering how his lofty, theoretical ideas have been perverted by taking them to their extreme as deeply and convincingly as Stewart conveyed those feelings.

I do really love and admire the film. I just think Notorious and Shadow of a Doubt are better, and maybe Rebecca, too, but I haven't seen that movie in over a dozen years.

My List:

2. Shadow of a Doubt (#17)
3. The Great Dictator (#11)
5. Bicycle Thieves (#9)
8. Notorious (#15)
10. Out of the Past (#32)
11. The Philadelphia Story (#37)
12. Stray Dog (#64)
13. The Grapes of Wrath (#13)
14. Laura (#12)
15. His Girl Friday (#14)
16. Rope (#8)
17. Drunken Angel (#54)
18. The Ox-Bow Incident (#39)
19. Sullivan’s Travels (#68)
22. Gaslight (#41)
24. The Lost Weekend (#24)
25. Five Graves to Cairo (1-pointer)

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Oh, and still on track. I also would have picked Rebecca as #10, if I'd bothered to officially post it.

I loved Rope alot more as it is nearly entirely focused on the suspense, while Shadow of a Doubt tells its stories with some suspenseful moments.

And you know, Hitch is the master of it after all!

My guess for the rest of the list:

1. Citizen Kane
2. Casablanca
3. The Third Man
4. Double Indemnity
5. It's a Wonderful Life
6. The Maltese Falcon
7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

I believe you will have Madre and Casablanca for sure. I will guess Kane and Wonderful Life for the other two. I am sure I must have asked you about Third Man but can't remember what yoiu thought.

Rope is way too high. Think i only kinda liked it because i watched a documentary about it immediately after. Glad it's not top five at least.

*EDIT* Forgot you have mentions turned off, whoops.

Mentions or no mentions it's kinda a piece of sht!