Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[Steadmund Brand]

Musicals?

My Fair Lady
Oliver
Mary Poppins
The Wizard of Oz
Calamity Jane
The King and I

Musicals... good pick...

1- Wizard of Oz
2- Rocky Horror Picture show
3- Top Hat
4- Yankee Doodle Dandy
5- The Ruling Class ( it actually IS a musical.. if you want to be technical )
6- An American In Paris
7- Singing in the Rain
8- The Blues Brothers ( again.. it is technically a musical)
9- Hard Days Night
10- Help
11- Magical Mystery Tour
12- The Muppet Movie ( Original...with Paul Williams music.. And to stay with Paul Williams.....)
13- Phantom of the Paradise
14- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ( Gene Wilder only!!)
15- Paint Your Wagon ( just for the strangeness of it)
16- Little shop of Horrors ( fun adaptation the 1986 version)
17- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
18- the Coconuts
19- Animal Crackers
20- Horsefeathers
21- Duck Soup ( I am a Marx brother nut... these are the only four I will actually call "musicals" even though all of the films had music)
22- Train Ride To Hollywood ( With Bloodstone!!! lost forgotten classic)
23- Top Banana
24- 200 Motels
25- Popeye
26- Shock Treatment
27- South Park- Bigger, Longer and Uncut

I did not add Tommy or The Wall as they are operas

gee.. I guess I like Musicals more than I thought....

Steadmund Brand

[Mayerling]

GREAT LIST!!!!

I can't believe I left off The big Sleep... shame on me ( but hey.. list was off the top of my head so....)

Thank you for mentioning Conflict... this is a film I have yet to see, and now I'll look for it ( see this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted this thread to do )

what should the next list be? any suggestions anyone.. let’s pick a genre... and please folks keep the lists coming... I know I for one am learning quite a bit and I hope others are as well.


Steadmund Brand

P.S. Now I must look up Jonathan Goodman as well that is a great story!!!!

Hi Steadmund,

Don't be ashamed about it. These lists are like those psychological tests where a word is mentioned to you and you have to repeat the first word that pops into your head. There are plenty of films we all enjoy that we simply can't recall at the time we do one of these lists.

For example, among the thriller/film noir listings I gave (and I gave a sizeable list) note that I did not include these films which I thoroughly enjoyed.

1) The Mask of Dimitrios
2) Three Strangers
3) The Verdict (1946)
4) Out of the Past
5) Brighton Rock (one of my all time favorites - with some interesting variations from the original Graham Greene novel)
6) The Third Man
7) The Fallen Idol (an intriguing noir, as it turns out there is no real crime.)
8) The Stranger
9) The Spiral Staircase
10) Ladies in Retirement
11) So Evil My Love
12) Gaslight
13) Manhunt
14) The Ministry of Fear
15) The Big Clock (I always love watching the film)
16) History is Made at Night (not technically a noir, but it rises to it due to the portrayal of the insane shipping owner played by Colin Clive)
17) Night Must Fall (1937 - Robert Montgomery shows what he can do!)
18) Rage in Heaven
19) High Sierra (Bogie's really first great starring role)
20) The Petrified Forest
21) The Naked City
22) Rififi
23) Diabolique
24) Les Corbeau
25) I Walk Alone
26) The Killers
27) Crossfire
28) The Little Foxes (yeah, the Hellman play shows a vicious side of the upper crust - and dig that somewhat perfect murder)
29) The Letter (1941)
30) All This and Heaven Too

Again I have not exhausted the films. Some may be peripheral, but all have noir elements in them.

Jeff

[Abby Normal]

Hi Steadmund,

Don't be ashamed about it. These lists are like those psychological tests where a word is mentioned to you and you have to repeat the first word that pops into your head. There are plenty of films we all enjoy that we simply can't recall at the time we do one of these lists.

For example, among the thriller/film noir listings I gave (and I gave a sizeable list) note that I did not include these films which I thoroughly enjoyed.

1) The Mask of Dimitrios
2) Three Strangers
3) The Verdict (1946)
4) Out of the Past
5) Brighton Rock (one of my all time favorites - with some interesting variations from the original Graham Greene novel)
6) The Third Man
7) The Fallen Idol (an intriguing noir, as it turns out there is no real crime.)
8) The Stranger
9) The Spiral Staircase
10) Ladies in Retirement
11) So Evil My Love
12) Gaslight
13) Manhunt
14) The Ministry of Fear
15) The Big Clock (I always love watching the film)
16) History is Made at Night (not technically a noir, but it rises to it due to the portrayal of the insane shipping owner played by Colin Clive)
17) Night Must Fall (1937 - Robert Montgomery shows what he can do!)
18) Rage in Heaven
19) High Sierra (Bogie's really first great starring role)
20) The Petrified Forest
21) The Naked City
22) Rififi
23) Diabolique
24) Les Corbeau
25) I Walk Alone
26) The Killers
27) Crossfire
28) The Little Foxes (yeah, the Hellman play shows a vicious side of the upper crust - and dig that somewhat perfect murder)
29) The Letter (1941)
30) All This and Heaven Too

Again I have not exhausted the films. Some may be peripheral, but all have noir elements in them.

Jeff

great list.

How about Manhunter-the first one that has hannibal lector

[Mayerling]

Musicals... good pick...

1- Wizard of Oz
2- Rocky Horror Picture show
3- Top Hat
4- Yankee Doodle Dandy
5- The Ruling Class ( it actually IS a musical.. if you want to be technical )
6- An American In Paris
7- Singing in the Rain
8- The Blues Brothers ( again.. it is technically a musical)
9- Hard Days Night
10- Help
11- Magical Mystery Tour
12- The Muppet Movie ( Original...with Paul Williams music.. And to stay with Paul Williams.....)
13- Phantom of the Paradise
14- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ( Gene Wilder only!!)
15- Paint Your Wagon ( just for the strangeness of it)
16- Little shop of Horrors ( fun adaptation the 1986 version)
17- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
18- the Coconuts
19- Animal Crackers
20- Horsefeathers
21- Duck Soup ( I am a Marx brother nut... these are the only four I will actually call "musicals" even though all of the films had music)
22- Train Ride To Hollywood ( With Bloodstone!!! lost forgotten classic)
23- Top Banana
24- 200 Motels
25- Popeye
26- Shock Treatment
27- South Park- Bigger, Longer and Uncut

I did not add Tommy or The Wall as they are operas

gee.. I guess I like Musicals more than I thought....

Steadmund Brand

All right, musicals:

Meet Me in St. Louis
The Wizard of Oz
In the Good Old Summertime
Summerstock
Easter Parade
A Star is Born (technicaly more than a musical, but I'm a big Judy fan - though I like James as well)
The Pirate
Good News
Best Foot Forward
Flying Down to Rio (and not for Gene Raymond, although I do like Dolores Del Rio - it's for introducing Fred and Ginger and Vincent Youmans' score)
Hit the Deck (1955)
Tea for Two
The Gay Divorcee
Top Hat
Swing Time
Roberta (oddly enough Irene Dunne has the best musical moment here - singing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes")
The Barkeleys of Broadway
Carefree
Follow the Fleet
The Goldiggers of 1933
The Goldiggers of 1935
Forty Second Street
Footlight Parade
Dames
Love Me Tonight
The Merry Widow (1934)
One Evening With You
The Love Parade
Maytime (1937)
Rose Marie (1936)
Naughty Marietta
Sweethearts
Bittersweet (I actually did like it - despite Mr. Coward's dislike of it)
The New Moon
Duck Soup (1933)
A Night at the Opera (the destruction of Il Trovatore is marvelous)
Showboat (1936)
High Wide and Handsome
Showboat (1951)
Calamity Jane
Romance on the High Seas
On Moonlight Bay
Pal Joey
On the Town
Anchors Aweigh
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
It Happened in Brooklyn
High Society

to paraphrase the title of a late Judy Garland film title..."I Could Go On Listing!"

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

That golfing story from Dead of Night contains one of my all time favourite lines. When Wayne tells the golfing cheat Radford that he will have to stay within a certain short distance of Radford, even on Radford's wedding night, Radford says with great dignity : "Because a chap becomes a ghost shouldn't mean that he ceases to be a gentleman."

[Mayerling]

great list.

How about Manhunter-the first one that has hannibal lector

Hi Abby,

Believe it or not, while I am aware of Mr. Lector and his de-LECTOR-ble eating habits, I have not seen either "The Silence of the Lambs" or "Manhunter". A lot of the post 1972 movies were never caught by me. In fact, if you look at my lists, you'll notice most of the movies end roughly about 1960 (some will go up to 1970).

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff

That golfing story from Dead of Night contains one of my all time favourite lines. When Wayne tells the golfing cheat Radford that he will have to stay within a certain short distance of Radford, even on Radford's wedding night, Radford says with great dignity : "Because a chap becomes a ghost shouldn't mean that he ceases to be a gentleman."

Hi Robert,

Yes, and if you recall there is a clever camera trick pulled shortly after, somewhat based on this notion. Nauton Wayne is concentrating on trying to remember the proper hand movements to disappear, and Basil Radford sees an opportunity to go to his bride's room to commence the honeymoon. He enters, and Wayne vanishes in the middle of using a motion - we think the motion worked. But a second later, an angry Radford reenters the living room followed by Wayne, who obviously was put into the bedroom because he had to be within 8 feet of Radford unless he dematerialized. It's actual a clever moment. Apparently this tale was a short story by (of all people) H. G. Wells. Well Wells liked supernatural ideas at times ("The Man Who Could Perform Miracles" is a perfect example of this).

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Yes it was a clever touch.

Wells's story is online, but I can't read it as my eyes aren't too good at the moment. Here's an old radio dramatisation :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob-UioE2e5Q

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff

Yes it was a clever touch.

Wells's story is online, but I can't read it as my eyes aren't too good at the moment. Here's an old radio dramatisation :



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob-UioE2e5Q

Thanks Robert,

I listened to the dramatization, and it varies considerably from the sequence in "Dead of Night". No mention of golf, or of a rivalry over a woman, and the "dead man" ends up regaining life in the end while his rival disappears.
Here both the man and the ghost are ghosts in the end. It's a clever story, but I wonder why they rewrote it. Wells died in 1946, which is about the time the film was made. Possibly they felt nobody would be critical about the changes.

Jeff

[lynn cates]

sticky

Hello Robert. Thanks.

Hmm, a sticky wicket.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

must watch

Hello Jeff. Thanks.

It was 1956.

Rod Steiger

Anita Ekberg

Keith Andes

Robert Ryan

Gene Barry

Beulah Bondi

Need I say more? It is a MUST watch.

Cheers.
LC

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Dead of Night was 1945. The Wikipedia entry for the film says that both Wells and EF Benson were uncredited, but in fact the film's opening titles mention both men, though not saying who wrote what.

I don't know whether Wells received any money for the use of his idea.

[barnflatwyngarde]

"what should the next list be? any suggestions anyone.. let’s pick a genre... and please folks keep the lists coming... I know I for one am learning quite a bit and I hope others are as well."

I agree, it has been interesting to see what movies other people really rate.

Re what the next list could be, we could do it by genres, or we could take an interesting detour.

How about the following?

1. Those movies that are guilty pleasures, largely devoid of any artistic or acting merit, but we love them anyway (Showgirls anyone?)

2. Those movies that are just so twisted and totally barking that we watch them with our mouths open, and at the end ask ourselves what the hell have we just watched.

[Robert]

Hi Barn

As a guilty pleasure, I would nominate The Ghost Train with Arthur Askey, whose hyperactive cheerfulness becomes extremely wearing, so much so that I was waiting for the ghost train to arrive so that the other passengers could throw Askey under it. But hey, I'm a sucker for ghost stories and old country stations, and Askey isn't usually quite so relentless.

[martin wilson]

Barking?

Killer Joe, which meanders along as a modern noirish tale of low life's then goes totally off the planet in the last half hour.

Dumplings, Japanese or Korean film, it WILL make you feel sick, also Audition, Oldboy, Battle Royale, Sightseers and a very odd British film about a couple of paranormal investigators I've forgotten the name of.
All the best.