The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

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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.
Eh...you're missing what 30-40% of his filmography I also don't think Hitchcock was ever really ahead of his time. The magic in Hitchcock to me as always been his blocking and the way he carefully sets the scene. What makes Rope so good is how he manages to tell this great story within the confines of this one scene. Hitchcock was at his best when he could be influenced by other filmmakers and take those influences and craft a great film.

And while the Birds and Psycho are both good movies, I think they were also the start of his fall as his focus seemed to move more towards the story and less the scene.

When you look at Billy Wilder, Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman, Charlie Chaplin they didn't have down periods of time and it didn't take them fifteen movies before they figured out how to make great movies.



25. The Spiral Staircase
24. Gaslight
23. The Treasure of Sierra Madre
22. not going to make it
21. not going to make it
20. not going to make it
19. The Killers
18. All The Kings Men

17. not going to make it
16. The Devil and Daniel Webster
15. Rope
14. I Walked with a Zombie

13. not going to make it
12. Pride of the Yankees
11. not going to make it
10. The Great Dictator
09. Black Narcissus
08. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

07. coming soon
06. coming soon
05. Rebecca
04. not going to make it
03. Le Corbeau
02. coming soon
01. coming soon

Looks to me that 9 out 10 made the list and 6 of the 10 made the top ten.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
the ONLY reason Madre isn't on my list was because I had initially saturated with Bogart films and had to even it out. Besides being a great film there's this:



Seen: 64/94

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)



Eh...you're missing what 30-40% of his filmography...
With over half a million movies to watch I don't have the time to watch all of Hitch's silent films. Besides that's not what he's known for.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Sierra Madre was my #3. I watched it many times as a teen and is probably the one movie which made me such a humongous Bogie and John Huston fan. The plot, taken from the mysterious B. Traven's novel, goes through all kinds of complications - being an out of work American in Mexico, getting ripped off by another American, learning about gold from an knowledgeable old-timer, wanting to throw water in Bobby Blake's "ugly mug", worrying about your goods and having to take "look sees", being scared about gila monsters, taking votes on whether to share your gold with an interloper or kill him, dealing with a spitting bandido in a gold hat who defiantly won't show you any stinking badges, performing some weird resuscitation and becoming a medicine man, going murderously beyond paranoia, betting on who can stay awake the longest, learning about a small Mexican town's quick legal system, dreaming about fruit harvests, dealing with strong northers and laughing about fate (among many others). Bogie is at his most terrific yet he's matched by grizzled Walter Huston and honest Tim Holt. John Huston mixes on-location reality and wonderful cinematography with detailed sets, rear-screen projection and obvious stunt men for knockdown fistfights. For a movie with such a dark and serious theme, it's amazingly fun and witty. And remember to never try to put one over on Fred C. Dobbs.


Seen - 93/93
My List
1. Dumbo (35)
3. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (7)
5. A Matter of Life and Death (34)
6. Heaven Can Wait (63)
7. The Red Shoes (38)
8. Pinocchio (23)
9. Fantasia (20)
10. The Devil and Daniel Webster (46)
11. Red River (56)
13. Yankee Doodle Dandy (66)
14. The Little Foxes (43)
16. A Letter to Three Wives (76)
17. Meet Me in St. Louis (48)
18. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (31)
19. Kind Hearts and Coronets (26)
20. Sullivan's Travels (68)
23. Miracle on 34th Street (53)
24. The Best Years of Our Lives (16)
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2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Wilder, Bergman, Scorcese, and Chaplin are all pretty great. But give me Hitchcock films over theirs. And two of those others are in my top 10.

But, like Siddon said, I haven't seen a lot of his early films so maybe I've seen all the good stuff and it's influenced my overall opinion.



Yes! so glad to see love for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre It was my number five movie. I've seen it three times and it holds up well to repeat viewings. I wish I would have reviewed it, maybe on next watch.

Bogart really made a name for himself with his portrayal of a stir crazy-gold lusting-and very paranoid prospector.

And to the film's credit it makes awesome use of a Mexican actor, Alfonso Bedoya, what a great character!



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Madre was one of the first black and white films I saw when I first joined Mofo. I didn't like it the first time I saw it but I would rate it a
now. Really dig Bogart's performance though, and Walter Huston.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
After all the discussion of Rope, I decided to watch it again this evening, and this viewing cemented my feelings about it - it’s really great, a superb balance of tension and dark humour. (Spoilers for the film below).



“I really don’t appreciate this morbid humour” - Mr Kentley (or Rauldc)

The dialogue is a joy. I’ll try not to quote it all, but Cadell’s biting put down, “Did he do me justice?”/ “Do you deserve justice?” is one of the highlights. It’s also darkly hilarious how characters who know nothing about the murder keep referencing it, “I hope you knock ‘em dead.”, “I could really strangle you Brandon.”

The entire film takes place after the murder so we only have what the characters tell us to decide whether they are behaving out of character afterwards. While it’s possible to speculate that Brandon and Phillip have a volatile relationship anyway (Brandon comes across as a bully), there are definite cracks showing even seconds after the murder as Philip begins to have second thoughts (“It’s a trifle late for that don’t you think.” Brandon says dismissively). There’s some double meaning at play right from the start - just after killing a man, he smokes a cigarette and says ‘pity we couldn’t do it in the daylight with the curtains open.’ For Brandon, murder and manipulation are art and sex. He keeps trying to placate Philip by using ‘we’, including him in his immoral superiority but it is clear he is the driving force.

Brandon also gets a kick out of displaying aspects of the murder (having the dinner over the body instead of the table, tying the books up in the rope). He is also playing with people’s lives in inviting David’s girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend.

There’s a definite sense of decadence (“We’re not having champagne!”), Brandon claims their superiority is entirely intellectual, but it’s clear that it is also financial, there’s a commentary there on the moral vacuousness of the idle rich. The film also seems to successfully capture the ordinary aspects of a party - the disappointment of guests leaving too early combined with the relief of having pulled it off, the couple arguing in furious undertones “he’s been mixing his drinks”, the ill-advised matchmaking.

Watching Rope, I half want them to get away with it and half want them to be caught. That’s the essential tension at the heart of the movie. If they are caught or confess straight away there’s no film. But someone could find out, or they could give themselves away at any moment - either through Philip’s nervousness, or Brandon’s arrogance, and that makes it tense. Similarly Brandon half wants to be caught - he wants Cadell to see how clever he has been and that is his undoing in the end.

Cadell’s growing suspicion is great- the way he increases the tempo of the metronome. Deliberately places the cigarette case on the chest. At what point does he really suspect, how much is he just playing dumb to draw it out of Brandon and Philip? A really tense part is when Brandon prompts Cadell to recount how the murder would have gone - the camera lingering on the chest. “Which is the cat and which is the mouse?” The way he comes back again after leaving made me think of Columbo.

In this version Brandon has an obsessive admiration for his former teacher, Cadell. Philip is just as clearly distrustful and even jealous of him. There was some talk on here on whether Stewart was the right casting choice, but brilliantly this is all addressed in the film itself. They mention James Mason, one character even says, “I’d take Cary Grant myself”

(And they mention Notorious, although they are unable to recall the name. I found that hilarious too, although I am partial to a certain amount of tongue in cheek in-jokes and fourth wall breaking).

But Stewart’s innate presumed decency is actually an asset - his horror and guilt when he finally finds his former student has taken his comments about superiority and murder literally is spot on. It provides a useful moral counterpoint to Brandon’s charming criminality.

Technically it’s brilliant. The long takes, obviously, the near-real time unfolding of events. I love the muted colour scheme, looks very 50s. I really like the look of the film, the smart apartment with its city view which gets gradually darker, neon lights flickering across the explosive final confrontation. Another excellent part is when the camera focuses on Mrs Wilson tidying up (seemingly getting closer to opening the chest) while the others talk out of shot. The limited setting gives it more of a tense feel (see also Lifeboat).

All in all it’s a fabulous film, not only one of my favourites of the 40s but of all time.



The Treasure of the Sierra Madre feels like a very in-your-face cautionary tale against the evils of Greed, but all the details are so perfect and the performances are exceptional, and you spend the last half of the movie wanting to yell at Bogart to just let it go, no matter how many times you've seen it, but alas his fate was sealed early on. I also particularly love Walter Huston in this. I had the movie at #9.

My List:

2. Shadow of a Doubt (#17)
3. The Great Dictator (#11)
5. Bicycle Thieves (#9)
8. Notorious (#15)
9. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (#7)
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.



Yeah! Love The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and even though I love Bogie and Tim Holt in this, I always get into Walter Huston's performance more than the others. He is just the epitome of the grizzled prospector that others tried to match through the years but couldn't.

#3 Arsenic and Old Lace
#6 Yankee Doodle Dandy
#8 Sergeant York
#9 The Pride of the Yankees
#10 The Shop Around the Corner
#11 The Best Years of Our Lives
#13 The Philadelphia Story
#14 Red River
#15 Notorious
#17 The Big Sleep
#18 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
#19 Great Expectations
#21 His Girl Friday
#22 The Ox-Bow Incident
#23 Pinocchio
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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
22. The Big Sleep
21. Brief Encounter
20. Fantasia
19. The Shop Around the Corner
18. Arsenic and Old Lace
17. Shadow Of a Doubt
16. The Best Years of Our Lives
15. Notorious
14. His Girl Friday
13. The Grapes of Wrath
12. Laura
11. The Great Dictator
10. Rebecca
9. Bicycle Thieves
8. Rope
7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

I haven't been here for about a week, but of the movies that were posted, four of them made my list.

This probably isn't a surprise to anyone, but Arsenic and Old Lace was #1 on my list. I'm thrilled that it made it this high on the list, and pleasantly surprised at how high several other people placed it on their lists.

In addition to Arsenic and Old Lace, The Shop Around the Corner was #7 on my list, Laura was #13 on my list, and His Girl Friday was #14 on my list.

Brief Encounter, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Notorious were all strongly considered for my lists, and some of the hardest cuts that I had to make. Rebecca, Shadow Of a Doubt and Rope were also considered for my list, but they just didn't make it.

Fantasia is a great movie, but it's inconsistent. Parts of it deserved to make the list, but other parts weren't as good.

I've seen both The Grapes of Wrath and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but neither is a favorite movie, so they weren't considered for my list.

I haven't seen The Great Dictator and Bicycle Thieves.


My list:
1) Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
2) Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
3) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
4) The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
7) The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
11) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
13) Laura (1944)
14) His Girl Friday (1940)
15) Bambi (1942)
16) The Philadelphia Story (1940)
18) The Lost Weekend (1945)
21) The Uninvited (1944)



The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was my #6. It has my favourite Bogart performance and my favourite portrayal of paranoia ever, Walter Huston is fantastic too and i love the setting.

Watched: 52/94
My List:

01.
02. Letter From An Unknown Woman
03. The Shop Around The Corner
04. How Green Was My Valley
05. Notorious
06. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
07. His Girl Friday
08.
09. Rebecca
10.
11.
12. Laura
13. Bambi
14. Day of Wrath
15. My Darling Clementine
16. Shadow of a Doubt
17. Meet Me In St. Louis
18. Red River
19.
20. Nightmare Alley
21.
22.
23. The Philadelphia Story
24. Pinocchio
25.

One last guess to try and equal SC at least:

01. Casablanca
02. Citizen Kane
03. It's A Wonderful Life
04. The Third Man
05. Double Indemnity
06. The Maltese Falcon



Save the Texas Prairie Chicken
In a few short hours it will be trick-or-treat. So I will posting the movie extra early today, as I have that to tend to.


I will get our 6th film posted in just a bit.
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6. Citizen Kane
5. Maltese Falcon
4. The Third Man
3. Double Indemnity
2. It's a Wonderful Life
1. Casablanca