Best Movie Year Ever?

                                                                     1951

Harry Truman was still in the White House, the Korean War was at its worst, and 17 films worth seeing premiered.

An American in Paris won the Oscar for best picture, and it's hard to think of a better musical.  Gene Kelly is at his gracefully athletic peak; the dancing and photography are superb and the music is by Gershwin. A joyous delight!  Only a half-step back is another wonderful musical, Show Boat. Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson and North Carolina's Ava Gardner are all fine. William Warfield's rendition of Old Man River sets the standard and raises goose bumps every time. The wonderful dancing Champions, Marge and Gower, make a rare and delightful appearance. Some of Fred Astaire's very best dancing is the attraction in Royal Wedding, including a dance with a hat rack and dancing on the ceiling. Jane Powell isn't Ginger Rogers, but is a surprisingly good partner.

Alfred Hitchcock weighed in with Strangers on a Train, a particularly menacing and creepy suspenser about two strangers who each want someone rather permanently removed and make a deal to help each other out. Robert Walker and Farley Granger are the participants, with a good supporting cast. The merry-go-round climax is justly famous. Classic Hitchcock!

Of all the many versions of Arthur Miller's American legend, Death of a Salesman, the 1951 version may be the best. Frederic March as Willy Loman is joined by Mildred Dunnock, Kevin McCarthy and Cameron Mitchell. The play won the Pulitzer Prize and defined a society. The failure of the dream and the definition of a man's worth by his job ring particularly true in our time. Another top-of-the-line version of a much produced classic is 1951's A Christmas Carol. Alastair Sim IS Scrooge. Faithful to Dickens' story and too good to only watch at Christmas.

Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland is a joy and one of that studio's finest. The bite and wit of Lewis Carroll's wacky characters are only slightly diminished; not as prettified as many Disney versions of classics.

The African Queen, about a bible-thumping spinster being rescued by a bleary-eyed souse on an old tramp steamer in World War I, has snappy dialogue, great photography and a good story. Katherine Hepburn and director John Huston were nominated for Oscars, and Humphrey Bogart won for best actor. A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan's faithful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play, won Oscars for Vivian Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter, but it is Marlon Brando you remember. The British produced two superb Alec Guiness comedies in 1951: The Man in the White Suit has Guiness as a befuddled inventor who has developed a fabric that will never wear out and that nobody wants to market, and The Lavender Hill Mob features Guiness as a timid bank clerk who plans the funniest caper in the movies.  The Magic Box is a magical film about the invention of the movies. It is a wonder. Robert Donat and Maria Schell star in an absolutely splendid screen play. There is no better movie about movies.

                                                     Best Movie Year Ever?

                                                                1962

Jack Kennedy was in the White House, most people had never heard of a faraway place called Vietnam, and 1962 burst on the scene with a cornucopia of good movies. 

Gregory Peck had many great roles, but perhaps his best is as the dogged attorney Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, a courtroom drama about racial injustice in the South.  This is the first movie I can remember where the kids (Mary Badham and Phillip Alford) are allowed to be kids.  Robert Duvall in his first role is virtually a walk-on. I caught this film again not long ago and it does not seem very dated, which I guess is unfortunate.

Lawrence of Arabia is that rarest of animals, a spectacular entertainment with intellect.  Peter O'Toole (in his debut) shines as the English junior officer who led the Arabs into battle. Gorgeous location cinematography; never drags despite its nearly four hour length. Won a fistful of Oscars, including Best Picture. Watch out for hatcheted versions; running time should be at least 222 minutes.

The Miracle Worker is the story of Helen Keller, blind and deaf from the age of two, and her early education. Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke repeat their Broadway roles (both won Oscars). The fight for authority scene is absolutely unforgettable; cinematic magic in the hands of two of the best. 

Herman Melville stories produced several good movies, including Bartleby the Scrivener and the titanic Moby Dick.  But the best one by far is Billy Budd, a brilliant morality tale about the letter of the law and ultimate justice. Peter Ustinov is splendid as the tortured captain, Terence Stamp mesmerizing as the saintly Billy and Robert Ruark has his best part as the satanic Starbuck. 

Requiem for a Heavyweight is arguably one of the best boxing films ever made. Jackie Gleason, Anthony Quinn and Mickey Rooney are very good in this somber story of the users and the used. Interesting note: Both this film and The Miracle Worker started out as television plays. That gives us a rather grim idea of what we're missing these days.

The late Burt Lancaster's range was amazing.  In Birdman of Alcatraz he keeps our interest alive in a film that for all intents has only one set. Birdman is the story of a convicted murderer serving a life sentence who becomes an authority on birds, and is about redemption and revelation.  

The Manchurian Candidate is such a good political thriller that it was re-released into theaters several years ago, and did a good business.  Features heart-pounding suspense and some neat plot twists.  Frank Sinatra is good as a government agent and Angela Lansbury is somewhat less loveable than we're used to. Some wag has said Lawrence Harvey was typecast as an automaton, but anyway he makes a good one. 

The Music Man is a sunny, charming musical with Robert Preston as con man become band director Harold Hill. Shirley Jones is good as Marian the Librarian and the score includes "Seventy-Six Trombones", "Till There Was You" and "Trouble in River City". This film doesn't seem to age a bit and has been deservedly loved by three generations of Americans.

 Best Films of 2024

Now that the year is way past half over,  I guess it’s about time to get off my tail and write about the best movies from last year. Most of them are- finally- available to stream somewhere, but you may have to pay. Even if you already have paid for a streaming service. No 10s this year, but some lovely 9s and a bunch of worthy 8s. Not even a good year, let’s go with C+.

1- Nickel Boys 9

2- IF 9

3- Conclave 9

4- Wicked 8

5- Fall Guy 8

6- Woman of the Hour 8

7- Hit Man 8

8- How To Rob A Bank 8

9-Wicked Little Letters 8

10- I’m Still Here 7

11- Memoir of a Snail 7

12- Inside Out 2 7

13- Blitz 7

14- Steve 7

And here endeth those with 7 or more points. I want to quickly tell why you didn’t see Anora, which won the Best Movie Oscar. This falls in the “what were they thinking” category, right there with Everything Everywhere All At Once from 2023. Both are-to me- howling dogs. I strain to give Anora a 4.

On to better news. I had read Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Boys and really liked it. But I thought it would be very difficult to make into a movie. Enter director RaMell Ross and fellow script writers Josyln Barnes and Mr. Whitehead. The actors are all unknowns which adds to the punch. It is not shown in a straight line but with perfect bits and pieces of scenes dropped in just the right places. It’s not Mr. Ross’ maiden voyage, but it sure a winner.

OK, IF is a personal pick certainly not for all tastes. When you were a kid, did you ever have an Imaginary Friend? Well this movie is about a kid who has one he can see and who hides from the lights while delighting us with his antics. Yeah, it’s animated and really a kid’s movie, but so what? I liked it.

The last high scoring film is Conclave, about the election of a new pope upon the death of the old one. Talk about ripped from the headlines! The guy who wins in the film isn’t American, like Pope Leo XIV, but is equally surprising. Great acting. 

Finally, we have Wicked, which I really liked but only gave an 8. The reason is length. It is nearly 3 hours long and has some very dead spots. The photography, special effects and music are superb. Make it 2 hours long and it’s a 10. 

                                                               Best Movie Year Ever?

                                                                           1983

Another year with more than its share of winners is the fairly recent (to me) 1983. Let’s take a look.

  Tender Mercies features Robert Duvall at his absolute best (and that's saying a lot) as a broken down country singer trying to rebuild a life on the wreckage of too much liquor and too many honky tonks.  Duvall wrote the songs in this movie.  Betty Buckley, seen briefly as another singer, is now the star of Sunset Boulevard on Broadway.

The Year of Living Dangerously is one of the best political thrillers ever made.  Sigourney Weaver is just fine as the attache who knows more than she wants to.   Helen Hunt won an Oscar for her role as a local who knows too much, but why they picked her to play a man baffles me. Since she won an Oscar, what do I know?  Mel Gibson proves here he really can act. 

Terms of Endearment features Jack Nicholson as an aging ex-astronaut with problems connecting emotionally and Shirley MacLaine as the unsainted mother of the fetchingly terminally ill Debra Winger.  An excellent screenplay by first-time director James L. Brooks from a Larry McMurtry novel keeps you interested and off balance.

The Right Stuff was the best movie about the space program until Apollo 13 came along.  Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Sam Sheppard and Ed Harris play the early astronauts broadly as true American heroes.  Never boring, even though it's over three hours long, and technically stunning, it does not hook you emotionally.

Educating Rita is an absolute little gem of a film. Michael Caine is a world-weary college professor and Julie Walters (in her film debut) is the hairdresser who wants to better herself.  This is the best feminist movie ever made, but don't let that stop you from watching it.  

El Norte, about illegal immigrants, is alternately harrowing and humorous.  Featuring all unknowns, it is riveting from beginning to end.  You'll never think the same way about Latinos again.

Testament is a good end-of-the-world movie, far superior to the much-ballyhooed The Day After (made this same year).  Jane Alexander leads a stellar cast. It isn't the desperation that gets you, its the low key matter-of-factness.

Return of the Jedi was the second of the Star Wars trilogy, and, while not as dazzling as the first and third, the story is first-rate and the lovable Yoda is one of the best characters in the set.

Fanny and Alexander is one of the great Ingmar Bergman's most accessible films, and easily the most charming. One of his few color ventures, it is the story of a brother and sister whose dream lives intertwine with reality.

Ed Harris, Gene Hackman and Nick Nolte are certainly a dream team in Under Fire, a political thriller set in Latin America in which the journalists telling the story somehow become the story. The most violent scene is so offhand you're not sure you saw it at first.

Zelig is considered one of Woody Allen's lesser films, but those tend to be the ones I like the best.  This one foreshadows the neat special effects in Forest Gump  by showing Zelig on screen with long-dead celebrities. Mia Farrow is in this one, too; this was before you-know-what.

                                                   Best Movie Year Ever? 

                                                               1939

Yep, I was born in 1939. You can do the math.  Anyway it so happens that this was a great year for movies.

Many movie fans would pick 1939 as the best year in the history of motion pictures, primarily because two of the most popular movies ever made were both released in that year.  The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind are each shown on TV at least once a year and most everyone has seen and liked both.  The Wizard of Oz has been on TV so much it has been referred to as The Oz Bowl Game, but who wouldn't like Judy and Ray and Bert cavorting along the yellow brick road. (The fourth actor, the guy who played the tin man and the one nobody can ever remember, was Jack Haley).  The truth is, it holds up very well indeed and is that rare film that appeals equally to kids and grown-ups.  And, it spawned the hugely successful prequel Wicked, which is still kicking.

Gone With The Wind  is epic in sweep and the story is a winner. Never mind that it is really just an overblown soap opera and Vivien Leigh is simply dreadful.   (Do you know anyone who talks like that?)  But Gable is excellent, the photography and music are great, and it's just so darn big you have to at least be awed by it.  The Technicolor in both of these movies is just amazing, and no, they don't make them like that anymore.

Well, there aren't a whole lot of years that produce two absolute legends, and 1939 also produced the definitive Hunchback of Notre Dame, the one with Charles Laughton.  Laughton has been constantly downgraded since he died, and this is a mistake.  The man could play absolutely anything and this film proves it.  Forget all those dreary remakes and catch this one.  Director William Dieterle pulls one of the neatest tricks in Hunchback: when Quasimodo swings from a rope to rescue Desdemona, Dieterle suddenly cuts all sound: no dialogue, no crowd noise, no music. It is an unforgettable moment.

Of Mice and Men also first came out in 1939.  Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr., give career performances in the Steinbeck story of the feeble-minded Lenny and his pal and mentor Curly, who desperately want a place of their own.  (Steinbeck characters always want a place of their own and have not a prayer of ever having it.   They just don't know it.) 

Jimmy Stewart's first Everyman role appears in 1939, in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The faintly socialistic, do-good Smith would get booed off the screen by today's me-first crowd, but it's a darn good performance. Stewart also found time that same year to star in Destry Rides Again, along with the legendary Marlene Dietrich.  Destry was the philosophical godfather of Maverick, for those of you keeping score. He would rather joke than fight. 

Hollywood hadn't been quite able to decide what to do with Big John Wayne until 1939.  When Stagecoach came out, he became The American Cowboy Hero, and he always will be. This also happens to be a good western that holds up quite well.

 

                                                                Rabbits

I enjoy watching the rabbits in our urban back yard. They seem to require a column about their tribe. Well, why not? Turns out the problem is picking the best, not lack of subjects. Of course Mr. Movie can do that so here goes.

I’ll start with my personal favorite, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). In a world where cartoon characters (toons) and real people exist side by side, Roger Rabbit is accused of murder. Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) reluctantly agrees to defend Roger. The terrible Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) is out to see that Roger is convicted. The toons cannot be killed by the usual means, they have to be destroyed by a caustic chemical combination .It’s complicated, but things work out. The film also has the sexiest rabbit ever, Jessica Rabbit (voiced without credit by Kathleen Turner and Amy Irving).

Up high on everyone’s list of classics is the endearing Harvey (1950) with James Stewart as the charming but wacky Elwood Dowd, who is dear friends with a puka (legendary Celtic rabbit) named Harvey. However, no one but Elwood can see Harvey, including the two female relatives with whom he lives. Several attempts are made to have Elwood committed but he keeps escaping and finding his way to his favorite bars with his favorite friend. Elwood gives us Harvey’s best quote: “Harvey not only understands time and space, but any objection”.

Zootopia (2016) is a fun animated film that features a wily rabbit, Judy Hopps, as the local police officer. She is conned, but then befriended by an even wilier fox, Nick Wilde. They become quite a good team and eventually ZPD (Zoo Police Department) colleagues. The movie provides the funniest sloth in the world: Flash Slothmore, the fastest clerk at the Zoo DMV. He is worth the trip!

Song of the South (1948) is, okay, unabashedly racist, so much so that for many years it was banned everywhere and you couldn’t see it. I say get beyond that pigeon hole and enjoy the story of a lonely little boy enchanted by the stories of Uncle Remus, a kind elderly black man. One of his favorite characters is the sharp-witted Brer Rabbit, who enjoys taunting and escaping from the clutches of the dense and slow Brer Bear. 

Any version of Lewis Carroll’s delightful Alice in Wonderland features the frantic White Rabbit, who is scurrying because he is always late. Alice follows him “down the rabbit hole” and has many wonderful (pun intended) adventures. For my money, the 1950 animated version is superior to the one from 2010 with live characters. 

And any version of Winnie The Pooh brings us another frantic Rabbit, who talks too fast and overruns his plans. The 2011 version is good enough, though none of the films come close to the magic of the books. Anyway, Rabbit leaves a note for Pooh:”I am scerching for owl a new house. So had you. Rabbit”. And of course Rabbit is trying to help the professorial Owl, who could spell his own name: Wol. 

There’s even a movie featuring killer rabbits- Night of the Lepus (1972). The killer bunnies gather at an abandoned gas station. Good grief! 

                                                                 Michael Madsen

                                                                       Part 2

No more Mr. Nice Guy. He made a good living doing exactly that. From the severed ear by Mr. Blonde to burying The Bride alive in Kill Bill 2 he continued to menace the other characters (and often the audience). And yet in real life he was a gentle guy, well liked by his fellow players. He was even a published poet!

In both of the Kill Bill films (2003, 2004, 2006) Madsen is Budd, also known as Sidewinder. The Bride (Uma Thurman) is a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She is nearly killed by Bill (David Carradine) and spends most of these movies hacking her way toward revenge against  Bill. Bodies everywhere, body parts as well. This is Quentin Tarrantino’s masterpiece and there’s nothing else quite like it. The 2006 version is actually a merger of the first two. Fans keep hoping for a Volume 3. Quentin says it is not happening. The Sidewinder becomes one of the numberless dead in the second film. 

Mulholland Falls (1996) is about a group of Los Angeles cops who grow tired of known criminals slithering out of punishment and decide to do something. That something is throwing people off the cliff on Mulholland Drive. Michael Madsen is one of the group, playing Eddie Hall. The group operates with the passive protection of the police chief (Bruce Dern). A series of murders and assorted crimes complete the movie until the equivocal finish.

Donnie Brasco (1997) is portrayed by the unlikely Johnny Depp as Joseph Pistone, an undercover FBI agent assigned to infiltrate the Mafia. Which he does, endearing himself to the fading enforcer Lefty Ruggerio (Al Pacino). Michael Madsen is Sonny Black, titular head of one group of mob members. His enemies, a rival Mob gang, makes the mistake of burning down Sonny’s night club. His revenge is unsubtle and complete. Meanwhile, Donnie’s undercover work results in over 200 indictments and he retires to an undisclosed location. 

The Hateful Eight (2015) is another Quentin Tarantino project and like most of his films it is a good story with nobody much to pull for. The title group is a mishmash of outlaws and crooked lawmen forced together by a blizzard into a clothing store. Madsen is Joe Gage, one of the cowboys in the group, by no means the worst. Samuel L.Jackson, Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh are also present. Someone poisons the coffee and most of the group is killed. There is a hanging, an arm cut off and various other acts of blood and gore. Well, this is a Tarantino. 

Michael Madsen can also be seen to advantage in Wyatt Earp (1994) as Wyatt’s brother Virgil, and in the very weird Sin City (2005). One of his last roles of note was as Sheriff Hackett in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019). Madsen worked all the time. He logged nine films, none very good, in 2004, the year before his death. 

All of the films in this article are for adults only.