Golden Indeed

Given how literate and worldly my readership is I'm sure all of you knew that Josh O'Connor is about to do a staging of Clifford Odets' boxer drama Golden Boy in London this fall. That said -- knowing it and actually seeing it in the flesh are two different experiences, as casting an eye upon that photo of Josh makes clear. Lord send me a sugar daddy who can jet me off to front row! This play was of course turned into a terrific movie in 1939 that starred William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck, and it made Holden a star ... and so naturally we must ask the question...

online polls

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Ball of Fire (1941)

Garbage Man: I could use a bundle of scratch 

right now on account of I met me a mouse last week.

Prof. Oddly: Mouse?

Garbage Man: What a pair of gams. A little in,

a little out, and a little more out.

Professor Potts: I am still completely mystified.

Garbage Man: Well, with this dish on me hands

and them giving away 25 smackaroos on that quizzola.

Professor Potts: Smackaroos?

Prof. Oddly: Smackaroos? What are smackaroos?

Garbage Man: A smackaroo is a...

Professor Potts: No such word exists.

Garbage Man: Oh, it don't, huh? A smackaroo is a dollar, pal.

Professor Potts: Well, the accepted 

vulgarism for a dollar is a buck.

Garbage Man: The accepted vulgarism 

for a smackaroo is a dollar. 

That goes for a banger, a fish, a buck, or a rug.

Professor Potts: Well, what about the mouse?

Garbage Man: The mouse is the dish. 

That's what I need the moolah for.

Prof. Oddly: Moolah?

Garbage Man: Yeah, the dough. We'll be stepping. 

Me and the smooch - I mean, the dish, I mean, the mouse. 

You know, hit the jiggles for a little drum boogie.

Professor Potts: Please, please, not so fast.

Garbage Man: Brother, we're going to have some hoytoytoy.

All The Profs: Hoytoytoy?

Garbage Man: Yeah, and if you want 

that one explained, you go ask your papas.

The script for Ball of Fire is so much fun (not a surprise given Billy Wilder was one of the writers)  that I had to share this entire lengthy passage of dialogue -- god I love this film. I didn't even need to include a portion involving Barbara Stanwyck here -- that's how you know it's good! But since I tend to give her all of the love for this movie I figured I'd focus in on her stellar leading man Gary Cooper today, given it's Coop's birthday. He was born today, the year 1901. Check out our extensive Gary Cooper Archives for more of him -- he's a forever MNPP fave, he is. One of the greatest faces (et cetera) ever put on screen.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1946

There is a prompt going around Bluesky (ahh remember harmless fun prompts on social media?) asking people to name a favorite movie of 1975 and it reminded me -- I still have a few entries in my "Siri Says" series left to do! It's been so long since I've done one of these posts (since November of 2022 for god's sake; time has absolutely no meaning anymore) let me remind you what the hell I'm talking about -- "Siri Says" began with me asking my phone to randomly choose a number between 1 and 100 and then whatever number it gave me I would pick my favorite movies of that year. For example the last time I did this all those many months ago I got the number "56" so I shared my favorite movies of 1956. 

The game has sort of changed over time though -- since I only have a handful of numbers left (less than ten) I wrote the remaining years down on pieces of paper and I blindly choose one (since otherwise it would take me a billion years to get Siri to narrow it down to a number I hadn't done before). Yadda yadda I was tired of doomscrolling social media this afternoon so I decided to spend some time on one of these posts (they eat up a surprising amount of effort) and here we are. Today I picked the year 1946. And so now I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1946

Notorious

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on September 6th, 1946 --

It's a Wonderful Life

(dir. Frank Capra)

-- released on December 20th, 1946 --

A Matter of Life and Death

(dir. Powell & Pressburger)

-- released on December 26th, 1946 --

Dragonwyck 

(dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

-- released on April 19th, 1946 --

Beauty and the Beast

(dir. Jean Cocteau)

-- released on October 29th, 1946 --

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Runners-up: Gilda (dir. Charles Vidor), The Big Sleep (dir. Hawks), The Stranger (dir. Welles), The Spiral Staircase (dir. Robert Siodmak), The Postman Always Rings Twice (dir. Tay Garnett), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (dir. Lewis Milestone)

Never seen: The Best Years of Our Lives (dir. Wyler), The Killers (dir. Siodmak), The Yearling (dir. Clarence Brown), Paisan (dir. Roberto Rossellini), The Blue Dahlia (dir. George Marshall), Great Expectations (dir. David Lean)

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What are your favorite movies of 1946?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

There's Always Tomorrow (1956)

Marion: At my age a birthday is only

a time to turn all mirrors to the wall.

The great Douglas Sirk was born 126 years ago today!

If you've never seen this movie the final scene is

my favorite piece of acting from Stanwyck ever -- seek it out!

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1956

It is Election Day here in the US and I am desperately trying to distract myself -- I mean I have real work I should be doing, but I can't focus on that. But it's easy enough to focus on one of our "Siri Says" series posts, they ask very little of me while also being extremely time consuming at the same time. It's perfect! It's been a few months since the last one of these that I did, as film festivals began eating up my time, but as I've made clear a few times this year we have very few years left to choose from at this point! Only a handful, and today's pick -- the movies of the year 1956, which the post's title gave away -- brings us to the end of the 1950s. We've now chosen our favorite movies from every year that decade! 

Here are my favorite movies of 1950

Here are my favorite movies of 1951

Here are my favorite movies of 1952

Here are my favorite movies of 1953

Here are my favorite movies of 1954

Here are my favorite movies of 1955

Here are my favorite movies of 1957

Here are my favorite movies of 1958

Here are my favorite movies of 1959

It's a pretty great decade for movies, right? One of my favorites mainly because you had Brando and Dean and Clift and Newman and Rock Hudson and Steve Reeves (good lord), and you had two of my favorite film directors -- that'd be Sir Alfred Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk -- hitting their strides. Hitch alone has faves in like half of the years from 1950s, and both of them make today's list twice, including a runner-up each.

One other weird side-note about this year in the movies -- an inordinate number of movie titles were very long this year. Around the World in 80 Days, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Girl Can't Help It, The Teahouse of the August Moon, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The Best Things in Life Are Free.... and those are just a handful. I feel retroactive pain for all of the people who worked putting titles up onto the movie theater marques in 1956, truly. Anyway let's get to it...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1956

Written on the Wind

(dir. Douglas Sirk)

-- released on December 25th 1956 --

The Bad Seed

(dir. Mervyn LeRoy)

-- released on September 12th 1956 --

Forbidden Planet

(dir. Fred M. Wilcox)

-- released on March 23rd 1956 --

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

(dir. Don Siegel)

-- released on February 5th 1956 --

The Man Who Knew Too Much

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on May 16th 1956 --

-------------------------------------------------

Runners-up: Giant (dir. George Stevens), The Searchers (dir. John Ford), Somebody Up There Likes Me (dir. Robert Wise), The Ten Commandments (dir. Cecile B. DeMille), High Society (dir. Charles Walters), Ilya Muromets (dir. Aleksandr Ptushko), Bigger Than Life (dir. Nicholas Ray)...

... The Red Balloon (dir. Albert Lamorisse), The Girl Can't Help It (dir. Frank Tashlin), Friendly Persuasion (dir. William Wyler), Rodan (dir. Ishirō Honda), Baby Doll (dir. Elia Kazan), There's Always Tomorrow (dir. Sirk), The Wrong Man (dir. Hitchcock)

Never seen: The King and I (dir. Walter Lang), Love Me Tender (dir. Robert D. Webb), Around the World in 80 Days (dir. Michael Anderson), War and Peace (dir. King Vidor), The Rainmaker (dir. Joseph Anthony), Bus Stop (dir. Joshua Logan), Lust For Life (dir. Vincente Minnelli), Bob Le Flambeur (dir. Melville), Carousel (dir. Henry King), The Killing (dir. Kubrick)

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What are your favorite movies of 1956?

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1952

Here, a treat for your Monday -- now that I've got a break from the film fest stuff I'm diving back into trying to finish off my "Siri Says" series! The last one we did was back in April when I finished off the 1930s -- indeed we're getting perilously close to finishing this series, as I think we've got about ten years out of one hundred left to survey? In case you're new round these parts or just need a refresher this series is where I ask my iPhone to pick a number between one and one hundred, and then I give y'all my five favorite films from the year that corresponds to the number given. So for example today the number we've got is "52" and I will be giving you my favorite five films from the Movies of 1952. 

Funny enough I'm not finishing off the 50s this time -- I have at least one more year to go until I do -- which makes me kind of sad, as the 1950s are a pain in my ass. I don't love the 1950s to be honest! I've probably complained about this previously one of these times but it's all Noir and Musicals and big bloated Technicolor literary adaptations and it's just not my cuppa. I barely scavenged up this episode's top five and I mostly only like these films, as opposed to loving any (except the first one, which I deeply adore). But hey these are all turning 70 this year, I suppose that's of interest! And with that ringing endorsement I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1952

Ikiru

(dir. Akira Kurosawa)

-- released on October 9th 1952 --

High Noon

(dir. Fred Zinnemann)

-- released on July 24th 1952 --

Singin' in the Rain

(dir. Stanley Donen)

-- released on March 27th 1952 --

Clash By Night

(dir. Fritz Lang)

-- released on May 28th 1952 --

Don't Bother to Knock

(dir. Roy Ward Baker)

-- released on July 18th 1952 --

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Runners-up: The Quiet Man (dir. John Ford), The Narrow Margin (dir. Richard Fleischer), The Star (dir. Stuart Heisler), Monkey Business (dir. Howard Hawks), The Marrying Kind (dir. George Cukor), Pat & Mike (dir. Cukor)

Never seen: The Greatest Show on Earth (dir. Cecil B DeMille), The Bad and the Beautiful (dir. Vincente Minnelli), Umberto D (dir. Vittorio De Sica), Othello (dir. Welles), Forbidden Games (dir. René Clément), The Importance of Being Earnest (dir. Anthony Asquith), Sudden Fear (dir. David Miller)

--------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1952?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Double Indemnity (1944)

Phyllis: I'm a native Californian.

Born right here in Los Angeles.

Walter: They say all native Californians come from Iowa.

If Sunset Boulevard didn't exist I might have to say that Double Indemnity was the best script ever written. Still number two's not so bad, at least not if you're Walter Neff and it's Phyllis coming in at number one. Admittedly I'm not the world's biggest Film Noir fan -- I like it when I like it but I don't seek them out too often -- and I do know there are others that people love more but for my buck Double Indemnity's the best of them. And whaddya know, the best of them says me is hitting Criterion 4K blu-ray today. Buy it right here!

I've got this baby at home and baby, it's a beauty. (I apologize that I am smackin' my lips like a dame-blind gangster as I'm writing this post, but that dialogue's as infectious as, well, a dame.) Anyway speaking to what matters most -- this is a top five Stanwyck performance to boot. It's not my personal fave (which is probably The Lady Eve) but it's right there, in the top five. She's diabolically delicious. If you've never seen this man are you in for a treat, and if you have seen it man are you in for a second.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1937

Well I wasn't planning on doing one of my "Siri Says" posts today but I am the poisonous combination of being both dullard-minded and bored to boot this afternoon, and this is a good way to kill an hour plus -- wowza am I ever selling it today! You're welcome! Anyway today's pick ended up being "37" and so we'll be talking the Movies of 1937. Which well first things first it turns out this is the last year of the 1930s that I had left! So, as we do whenever we finish a decade, here are links to all of the 1930s...

Here are my favorite movies of 1930

Here are my favorite movies of 1931

Here are my favorite movies of 1932

Here are my favorite movies of 1933

Here are my favorite movies of 1934

Here are my favorite movies of 1935

Here are my favorite movies of 1936

Here are my favorite movies of 1938

Here are my favorite movies of 1939

Lots of fun to be had up in there, as the 1930s are obviously a killer decades for the movies -- indeed going though the movies of 1937 I have to admit that I was kind of shocked by how few 1937 movies I have seen? I'm pretty good with the 30s in general, but for some reason this year in particular is a big fat void nothingburger. I'll be curious to hear what movies y'all dig from it, because I got not a lot! The enthusiasm of this post, from start to finish, it's really something right? It's just that kind of day. On that note...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1937

The Awful Truth

(dir. Leo McCarey)

-- released on October 21st 1937 --

Nothing Sacred

(dir. William A. Wellman)

-- released on November 25th 1937 --

Stella Dallas

(dir. King Vidor)

-- released on August 5th 1937 --

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

(dir. David Hand, etc.)

-- released on December 21st 1937 --

Make Way For Tomorrow

(dir. Leo McCarey)

-- released on April 30th 1937 --

-----------------------------------------------

Never seen: Easy Living (dir. Mitchell Leisen), Topper (dir. Norman Z. McLeod), Lost Horizon (dir. Frank Capra), Captain Courageous (dir. Victor Fleming), The Life of Emile Zola (dir. William Dieterle), Marked Woman (dir. Lloyd Bacon)

-----------------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1937?

Criterion Says It's Gonna Be May

How does time even work anymore? I have no idea how a month has passed since the last time I did one of these Criterion announcement posts -- it feels like I was just telling you about The Girl Can't Help It yesterday, but that was four full weeks into the past. So here we are today, with the films that Criterion will be releasing onto blu-ray in the month of May! Okay, sure, great, let's do it. The big title, the one they're giving the 4K treatment, is Billy Wilder's classic noir Double Indemnity, which stars a spectacular Barbara Stanwyck, ice blonde as we ever got her as perhaps the greatest femme fatale of all time, stomping the heart and soul out of the sucker Fred MacMurray. And man do we love to watch her do it. This is one of the movies that lives up to its perfect reputation -- they don't get any better. And the extras on the disc look pretty special, so make sure you check out all that on Criterion's site. 

Also pretty damned exciting is the 4K restoration of Mira Nair's romance Mississippi Masala, which stars Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury and which has long been sought by collectors as the DVD's been out of print for awhile. I think I saw this back in the 90s around the time it came out but not since, and have been dying to revisit -- especially with Choudhury being the only good thing happening on the Sex and the City reboot (yes I watched that thing, I have no idea why). Also this is Prime Denzel Time...

I mean look how gorgeous those two are! Damn. I bet this movie is gonna play like a revelation all these years later. The other three films hitting disc in May are "Wayne Wang's Chan Is Missing, a mistaken identity in World War II–era Paris in Joseph Losey's Mr. Klein, and... the maker of Tampopo, Juzo Itami, takes on the Japanese way of death in The Funeral." I haven't seen any of these but per usual can't wait for the chance to change that now. I mean any excuse for Alain Delon, after all...