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What a difference one week and a couple of years make. Last week for this series - wherein we ask our phone a number between 1 and 100 and then choose our five favorite movies corresponding to that year - we did 1955 and we had too many to choose from. This week Siri gave us 53, and you know what? The Movies of 1953 ain't as hot a bunch. (Montgomery Clift aside.)
Oh I'm sure there are classics that've fallen between the cracks that I haven't seen - and I look forward to you telling me in the comments what they are! - but out of what I have seen there's only one film I love unabashedly and four that I like well enough, I suppose, but in another better year they probably wouldn't make a list like this. And on that note of enthusiasm, let's do this thing!
Oh I'm sure there are classics that've fallen between the cracks that I haven't seen - and I look forward to you telling me in the comments what they are! - but out of what I have seen there's only one film I love unabashedly and four that I like well enough, I suppose, but in another better year they probably wouldn't make a list like this. And on that note of enthusiasm, let's do this thing!
My 5 Favorite Movies of 1953
(dir. Roy Rowland)
-- released on July 1st, 1953--
(dir. William Wyler)
-- released on September 2nd, 1953 --
(dir. Jacques Tati)
-- released on June 16th 1953 --
(dir. Fred Zinnemann)
-- released on August 5th, 1953--
(dir. Douglas Sirk)
-- released on August 28th 1953 --
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Never seen: The Earrings of Madame de... (dir. Max Ophüls), The Wild One (dir. Laslo Benedek), The Wages of Fear (dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot), Fear and Desire (dir. Kubrick), I Vitelloni (dir. Fellini), Niagara (dir. Henry Hathaway)
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4 comments:
My top five would be:
1. The Wages of Fear
2. The Earrings of Madame de...
3. The Band Wagon
4. Mr. Hulot's Holiday
5. Pickup on South Street
It's not as strong a year as last week true but there are plenty of delights nonetheless including my favorite of any Best Picture winner.
Top 5:
1. From Here to Eternity
2. The President's Lady-Contains my favorite Susan Hayward performance as Rachel Jackson. Her chemistry is so good with Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson she even manages to get him to be less starchy than usual!
3. The Big Heat-Gloria Grahame at her best.
4. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
5. Wages of Fear
5 more that are SO close:
6. Titanic-Barbara Stanwyck, Clifton Webb AND Thelma Ritter! How can the Cameron version compete with that!
7. Pick-up on South Street
8. Niagara
9. Kiss Me, Kate
10. The Hitch-Hiker
A bunch of other worthies:
All I Desire
Angel Face-A deeply nuts Jean Simmons and a deeply hunky Robert Mitchum
The Earrings of Madame de...
Second Chance
Shane
House of Wax
How to Marry a Millionaire
Hondo
The Man Between
Genevieve
The Blue Gardenia
Split Second
Houdini
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Mister Scoutmaster
The Bigamist
Never been able to sit through The Wild One. Niagara is one of Marilyn Monroe's best performances. Not quite as good as Don't Bother to Knock, but close. However, there are a lot of movies from 1953 that I remember quite fondly:
Shane, Roman Holiday, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. I saw most of these on television, such as NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.
Calamity Jane is a lesbian musical; Lili is charming, Kiss Me Kate is better than the stage version, and The Band Wagon is my favorite Fred Astaire movie. I've seen both Kiss Me Kate and House of Wax in 3D and own them on disc. House of Wax is the better 3D of the two.
I didn't see The Actress, Tokyo Story, Peter Pan or The Earrings of Madame D until I was an adult, but liked those as well.
Dr. T! I'm so happy anytime anyone else brings up that film because to this day I'm still not sure I didn't somehow drop acid as a kid and imagine it.
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