Thursday, December 15, 2011

The final five

Robert Avrech completes his list of 20 favorite movies from the 1940s.

Let the quibbling commence (I’ll start. Gun Crazy? Meh. Don’t see how this bests Out of the Past).

5 comments:

Yojimbo said...

Hmmm

I'll certainly agree with Notorious, although I certainly disagree with the "tedious spy stuff", and Red River. I can go along with Great Expectations, I guess. The other two, not so much.

He bypasssed
Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
The Grapes of Wrath
It's a wonderful Life
Command Decision(ok, it's one of my very favorites)
Just to name a very few.

Can't wait for the fifties.
Wonder if he'll have The Searchers in there. That is recognized as the greatest western of all time(although my favorite is still Stagecoach).

The decade also has some of Cary Grant's greatest films including To Catch a Thief(probably not) and my personal favorite, An Affair to Remember with Grant and Deborah Kerr.

mojo said...

There does seem to be a lot of "Cary Grant would have been perfect"-type bloviation over there...

Gun Crazy: a good flick, and Peggy is a doll, if a little - insane. The girl just loves to shoot her guns.

But, yes, "Out of the Past" beats it all to hell and gone. MITCHUM! and a serious femme fatale...

bruce said...

History can be cruel, I wonder if Barbara Stanwyck is being gradually forgotten? It's great that he put so many of her movies. She doesn't fit into current histories mostly. But I could watch her movies forever, while I can't take more than a little Cary Grant.

So many great movies you realise when you try to make a list like this.

After finally seeing a good print of Casablanca (on DVD) I'd rate that as my best - never tire of watching it.

mojo said...

"Good old Archie Leach. I wonder what ever happened to him?"
-- Cary Grant, cracking wise

Yojimbo said...

I think Archie moved to the French Riviera and changed his name to John Robie. I heard he was doing some roofing work to get by.