79. Klute (1971)

A detective thriller par excellence.

John Klute is a small town, Pennsylvania detective who decides to investigate his friend's disappearance after the police have failed to come up with anything. His first port of call is Bree Daniels, a prostitute who seemingly received explicit letters from the friend.

Klute enters into the seedy underbelly of New York to try and track down his friend with the help of Miss Daniels. She tries to tempt him into the temptations of the big city, but in turn he shows her another side of the male sex she has come to know and loathe.

Jane Fonda is just sublime in this film. Ignore the eponymous title. this is the story of Bree. She has survived the game and is desperate to get out. Her scenes with her analyst are great, juxtaposed with her scenes getting to know and falling for Klute.

The detective story does take a back seat to the development of their relationship, but not to the detriment of the thriller.

Thrill indeed this does. The actual perpetrator is revealed quite early, but it is well perceived. It becomes more of a case of "what will happen?" rather than a "whodunit?"

New York is shot to perfection. It is gloriously noir in its restricted pallet.

Sublimely shot. Excellent direction. Donald Sutherland is great as the eponymous lead, but this is Fonda's film and rightly so. Well deserved Oscar.

78. Point Blank (1967)

Lee Marvin plays Walker. A crook who is betrayed and left for dead by his best friend, gangster Mal Reese. Reese takes Walker's share of a robbery and his wife. Unfortunately for Reese, Walker isn't dead and does the impossible, swimming to the shore from Alcatraz. Once his wounds are healed, he begins a mission to retrieve his $93,000 share of the loot and exact vengeance on his wife, Reese and the rest of the accomplices.

This is a very stylised thriller. Marvin's Walker is a very unsympathetic anti-hero, though his seemingly unstoppable nature is to be admired. Someone just give him his money! The use of single names is used throughout and acts as a mystery to the identity of the mysterious head honchos. Who is Fairfax?

Boorman's use of flashback throughout is well motivated. From the opening scene where we see the apparent death of the main character to the repeated imagery in the frequent scenes of violence and death, each point is hammered home.

Angie Dickinson as Chris, Walker's sister-in-law, is on great form and the neo-noir genre does leave you guessing about her character's motivations. Is she a femme fatale? Is she Fairfax?

It is a great on the edge thriller and has many traits of a classic noir. Boorman's makes great use of wide screen and colour palate to make the most beautiful views look bleak.

77. The Awful Truth (1937)

Jerry and Lucy are a married couple who, after believing they have caught each other in indiscretions, decide to divorce. Before their divorce is finalized  each plots to ruin the others plans to remarry. Lucy to a rich Southern rancher (well observed by Ralph Bellamy) and Jerry to a madcap heiress.

This is truly one of the great screwball comedies. Perfectly observed subtle comedy combined with sharp witty dialogue and a showcase of slapstick and bedroom farce. Both Irene Dunne and Cary Grant are exceptional in the lead roles, but the film is fleshed out with a wealth of witty supporting roles. Allegedly, the comedy was greatly improvised from day to day making it even greater in my opinion.

Leo McCarey's direction has produced a masterpiece in comic timing. It's wonderfully paced. The comedy is both subtle sand broad and the tenderly sweet ending is very touching and rounds out a great ride.

76. Alphaville, Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)

Set in the future, Alphaville tells the story of Lemmy Caution, a secret agent who travels to Alphaville to seek out Professor Von Braun and possibly get rid of him.
I'm not a fan of French New Wave cinema, but you cant help but see the influences this film has had on modern sci-fi. Here Godard chooses to make a science fiction film with no special effects or elaborate sets. Almost as if it is a parody of sci-fi. Instead he tells the story as a noir detective tale and shoots it in futuristic looking buildings in Paris and has lingering shots on neon and mathematical diagrams. Caution is dressed in typical noir detective garb (trench coat and hat) as he makes his way through this disturbing Dystopian society where emotion has been outlawed through punishment of death by firing squad into swimming pool.

Never really clear on whether Alphaville is a city or planet, or whether Caution's Ford Galaxy is supposed to represent a spaceship. It really is all a bit too hipster for me, though its place in the list is deserved. The influence from the story and look is wide reaching. Fahrenheit 451 and Blade Runner scream loudest, but you will find hints in other gritty sci-fi.

I was still bored to nonplussedom, but the signposted influences made this more of a comfortable ride.

If the marksmen doesn't get you, the synchronized swimmers will finish you off!

75. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)

A young missionary travels to Shanghai to marry her childhood sweetheart who is a missionary out there. She gets injured when rescuing a group of orphans during an uprising and is taken captive by a Chinese Warlord, General Yen. A spot of Stockholm syndrome later and she has fallen for him.

Quite a beautiful film visually and the story is much darker than the norm from this age. Stanwyck's Megan is a real powerhouse to start with, but slowly but surely becomes a sappy mess. Nils Astor is an odd choice. Another peg in Hollywood Asian racism? Possibly. The film has Asian actors in supporting roles (Toshia Mori as the double-crossing Mah-Li is particularly fine), so why cast a Dane as the General and cover him in distracting make-up that makes him look very creepy and monstrous?

It's an odd story with bizarre character arcs. I didn't find anyone particularly sympathetic and the plot was quite ancillary. Left me a touch bored.

74. Beat the Devil (1953)

A stellar cast and crew gather to make a great independent Hollywood movie.

A non-consequential story involving uranium and land rights in central Africa is quickly forgotten and the plot itself ends up being a plot device.

What is great about this film is the cutting, witty script penned by Truman Capote and John Huston (who also directed.) Often tongue in cheek, you can see the cast are having a blast with it. This is a fun frolic and never takes itself too seriously.

73. The Evil Dead (1982)

Five friends take a trip to stay in an old log cabin in the middle of some woods. Then they go down into the basement. Will these kids never learn?!

Archetypal cabin in the woods horror. Hoaky acting of an already clunky script. Effects that I remember looked dated when this originally came out especially the Claymation ending. Some of the gore is well done, though it borrows heavily from Dario Argento.

It was made on a shoestring budget and looks it, however the tight camera angles and extreme close ups not only help to disguise a cheap set, but also add menace, especially when you have the likes of Bruce Campbell mugging for you.

I remember this actually being quite terrifying back in the 80s. Now it looks really dated and it's hard to read anything but comedy here, especially when you bring to mind the sequels.

I watched this again to see if the 2013 remake is justified and it clearly is. This is now a tired old film, but it does show an emerging talent in Raimi.

72. Madame de.../The Earrings of Madame de...(1953)

An opulent drama unfolds around a pair of diamond earrings. A strange premise, but the story told is one of heightened emotion, love and loss. The depth of tragedy here is a counter play to the lavish opulence of the setting.

Louise is a Countess who, unbeknownst to her husband, has incurred some debt and decides to sell some diamond earrings back to the jeweller her husband bought them off. Whilst at the opera, she lies and says that she has lost them that night. A theft is suspected and reported in the newspaper. In an effort to avoid scandal, the jeweller returns the earrings to the General and explains what has happened. The General buys back the earrings and instead of returning them to his wife and confronting her, he gives them to his mistress who is leaving to live in Constantinople. She gambles them away and they end up in a pawn brokers where they are bought by Baron Donati, an Italian diplomat. Back in Paris, Donati spies Louise at the train station where she is paying some duty on imported dresses. He falls for her and fate throws them together twice more, before he finally meets up with her at a ball and they begin a dim fated romance.

This is a masterpiece of cinematography. Magnificent tracking shots are choreographed rather than merely directed by Max Ophüls. One dance between Louise and Donati is cut with time elapse to tell the story of their brief romance with great effect. Simple notes in their conversation change. He asks about her husband; she remarks on her husband's health and eventually The General is forgotten altogether.
The earrings act as punctuation to the acts of the story and this is done with great effect as is the anonymity of The Countess.

It's not all doom and gloom though. This tragedy of errors does have some nice comic touches in some incidental characters. The valets at the opera; the jeweller's son; the guardsmen at the barracks. Just light little touches that bring a strong balance to the piece.

71. Blazing Saddles (1974)

Hedley (not Hedy) Lemar is a corrupt official who needs to run his railroad through a wild west town.
After hiring a band of miscreants to ransack the town killing the sheriff, the town asks for a new sheriff to be appointed. Lemar sends them Bart. An insubordinate black railroad worker. They are not very impressed.

This is a gag reel deluxe. It's full to the brim with one liners, sight gags, hilarious close to the knuckle jokes and contains the glorious put down, "Teutonic twat!"

It would be a five star film, but the ending lets it down. It appears Brooks was writing it as he went along and just couldn't figure out a conclusion, so borrowed from Monty Python.

The ensemble cast is great, but Gene Wilder is on particular good form in a role that requires him to be restrained. He reels it in and he is as funny as his usual madcap self.

Amusing songs, laugh riot, great pace and sparkling dialogue. It is a typically daft Mel Brooks piece, but the ending is just a little too zany.

70. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

There are many meta Hollywood films, but this is one of the finest.

It charts the rise and fall of producer Jonathon Shields as seen through the eyes of three former friends/colleagues who he has gathered together to see if they will help him make his comeback film. The film is split into three acts, each a telling of the story of why that person will never work with Shields again.
Barry Sullivan plays director Fred Amiel who started in the film making business with Jonathon and together they made B-movie pics for a studio. When Fred tires of the corny titles they are expected to direct he gets Jonathon to pitch his idea to the studio. Jonathon sells the story, but freezes Fred out of the deal.
Lana Turner plays Georgia Larrison, the drunken slut daughter of a famous dead producer. He takes her under his wing and turns her into a star, only to spurn her for a trampy extra on the night of her big premiere.
Dick Powell plays writer James Lee Bartlow, who Jonathon convinces to come to Hollywood to write screenplays for him. Dick is easily distracted when writing, especially by his beloved Southern belle wife, Rosemary. Shields takes Bartlow away on a fishing trip in order to get him to write free of distraction. He gets the Latin Lothario star Victor Ribera to keep her occupied so she wont bother them with constant calls. Tragedy strikes as Victor and Rosemary are killed in a plane crash with the press and James convinced they were having an affair only to find out the truth much later.

It is a brilliant warts and all telling of behind the scenes of old Hollywood. The way it is executed is very clever. The cast is superb. Kirk Douglas plays the charming cad so well that it's almost hard to loathe him...almost!
Vincente Minnelli's direction hones down the melodrama very well and it is a great example of storytelling. Ending on the repeated theme of eavesdropping on the telephone is an amusing cliff-hanger.

69. Hotaru No Haku/Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

One of the most poignant tales of war committed to celluloid. Instead of focussing on the soldiers, it tells the tale of brother and sister Seita and Setsuko who are left orphaned and homeless after an air raid burns their village to the ground. They go to stay at their aunt's house nearby and don't really get along. Seita takes off with his sister and they go and live independently in an abandoned bomb shelter. At first life seems idyllic, but having to provide and care for a child is not something Seita is able to do in times of rationing and hardship. Harsh reality soon sets in.

Opening with Seita's death in a city subway is quite alarming, but you are now told the tale of how he got here and know that you aren't in for an easy ride.

It is a harrowing story, but it does have the ethereal wonder of a child's viewpoint and has moments of joy in play. These happy moments and the beautiful bond the brother and sister have make the denouement all the more tragic.

A touching story, beautifully drawn. Not just a great anime, this is one of the great films about war.

The moments of sheer joy and intense sorrow are beautifully encapsulated.

68. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Spielberg's first foray into alien adventure and it does act as a precursor to ET.
Close Encounters is supposed to be an everyman's search for hope and meaning, but all I see is an allegory of bad parenting set against an alien subplot.

Roy Neary is an average Joe who is having visions after experiencing an alien encounter. His obsession with this vision takes over his life and drives his family away. He then finds solidarity with a woman, Jillian, whose son went missing during an encounter at her home.

A bad mother and a really crap father are supposed to be the heroes of this piece? My sympathy is not at full tilt here.

The finale is quite breath taking though and he remastered mothership effects stand up today. John Williams' iconic 5 tone greeting/language is a true masterstroke.
In the end though, you'd think that now his enigma is solved Roy be full of apologies and dying to get back to his wife and children and recount his adventure. Nah. He just hops onto the spaceship and fucks off with ET. Possibly one of the worst role models in cinematic history!

This is classic Spielberg and contains many of his go to traits. The worried mother; a one man quest; the unknown; untrustworthy authorities.
I just think this feels like a rough draft. An idea was formed and though it looks pretty good, the story needed shaking up and the protagonist needed to be sympathetic. Basically ET is this film's better sequel of sorts.

The mothership finale is truly spectacular.

67. The Shining (1980)

A classic modern horror that I have never really got.

Writer, Jack Torrance takes his wife and son to live at the luxurious Overlook Hotel where he has been employed as an off season caretaker. During these winter months, Jack believes that the isolated location will get rid of his writer's block and force him to write a novel.
Unfortunately the hotel is haunted by, amongst others, a previous caretaker who murdered his family then killing himself whilst staying here.
Looks like a little bit of history repeating as Jack slowly descends into madness.

I do admire the look of the film. It is beautifully shot. The Overlook is suitably grand and the opening approach shot as Jack drives to his interview, is particularly wonderful.

It's the horror aspect I don't get. The demise of Jack's mental state is supposed to be a gradual descent, but Nicholson goes from nought to crazy in 5 seconds. Serious scenery chewing.
Shelley Duvall's character is just a flimsy doormat so it is hard to be sympathetic to her plight. Duvall does a good line in shrieking, though I could live without her high monotone voice.
Danny Lloyd's performance as the psychically gifted son is the most effective here. The 'split personality' of his imaginary friend is a great counterpart to Jack's encounters with the old caretaker. Lloyd's reactions to the visions are really well acted. He does shit scared very well!

I like my horrors to be frightening and this is where this is lacking for me. Everything that is scary about the original Stephen King novel is lacking here. This is mostly due to the portrayal of Jack. The premise of Room 237 never really pays off. The twin girls deliver on the creepiness factor as does the shooting of the hotel from the viewpoint of Danny on his big wheel, but this is just lacking in fright.

Plenty of oddness and creepiness, but just not scary.

66. Tootsie (1982)

Dustin Hoffman plays Michael Dorsey, a brilliant actor who is impossible to work with. Sounds a lot like Dustin Hoffman! When his agent bets him that he can't land a job, Michael Dorsey becomes Dorothy Michaels, a Southern belle who's sassy attitude lands her a role on a popular daytime soap opera. Hilarity ensues!

The cast is a wealth of talent. Hoffman is superb and even though the transformation is more Dame Edna than RuPaul, it is actually convincing and you start to believe in Dorothy and like her a lot more than Michael. Jessica Lange has a nice touch as the weird love interest. Dorothy's best friend who Michael is falling in love with. The weird lesbian connotation is awkward, but wonderfully farcical.
Bill Murray plays Michael's roommate and is quite a highlight. More so than Terri Garr who was Oscar nominated for her role as Michael's emotional girlfriend. Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, George Gaynes and even Geena Davis pop up to round out a sterling casting.

This really is an excellent comedy. It heralds back to farce and 50s screwball comedies, but director Sidney Pollack(who also plays the agent) keeps it up-to-date. It is superbly written and a definite must-see.

"That is one nutty hospital!"

How Bill Murray was overlooked for a supporting Oscar nod is a massive Academy gaffe.

65. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

A flying saucer appears from outer space and lands in Washington. Out comes a humanoid spaceman with a gift. The gift is quite pointy though, so a soldier shoots him. Turns out the gift was for the President and was a means of communicating with other planets. Broke now. Ah well!
The alien man, Klaatu, is fixed up in hospital so that's okay.
Klaatu is here with a warning. Be at peace, or face destruction. (Isn't irony ironic?!)

Robert Wise's sci-fi drama is very of it's time and isn't just another B-movie. It's anti-war message is very blatant and hit a nerve with the war weary audiences of its time.

Klaatu fails to win the trust of the world, but he does befriend a woman, her son and an Einstein-esque mad professor who organises some of the world's great thinkers to a conference with Klaatu, as the world's leaders are not so willing to. (Isn't science brilliant?!)

Here comes Gort. A 7ft tall indestructible robot with a very destructive eye laser. Quickly..."Gort, Klaatu, Barada, Niktoh!" Phew, that was close.

The film may seem clunky today, but they were very superior of the time. Effects certainly don't make a good movie as the dreadful Keanu Reeves remake proved.

It has many forgivable gaffes, but it stands out as the first popular adult sci-fi drama with a message, so a very worthy watch and Bernard Herrman's spooky soundtrack using 2 theramins, pretty much defined the music of sci-fi from thenceforth.

64. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Sprawling epic in every sense. From the 1000s of extras, to the CinemaScope photography, to the 227 minute length (it does go on a touch.)

T.E. Lawrence is a lieutenant in the army who is stuck in a clerical post in a basement. He is an eccentric young soldier and quite insubordinate. He is picked to go on a mission to Arabia and infiltrate the inner circle of Prince Faisal and find out what he is up to. Lawrence goes beyond the call of duty, making his way into the trust of the Arab clans until his grandeur lifts him to a godlike idol that the Arab soldiers will follow anywhere. Lawrence's former attitude against violence and murder change as he grows a blood lust and leads an army into defeating the Ottoman Empire.

Peter O'Toole shines in the lead. Hard to imagine that it is his first leading role. His depiction of Lawrence is quite remarkable. The changes he goes through from his humble beginnings in a murky basement drawing maps, through his study of Bedouin, finally to his rise as Arab Idol! It is an intense performance and he steps up to the plate. The lush technicolour adds vividness to his piercing blue eyes. The supporting cast is exceptional to. Omar Sharif as sheriff Ali is a particular triumph. His character being most affected by Lawrence as they seemingly do a swap of morals. Ali is prime witness to his decent into blood lust madness and tries to stop him from falling too far.

The centre of it all is the perplexing character of T.E. Lawrence. A man with undecided loyalty and unpredictable to say the least. This intriguing man is the core around which a superb cast, stunning cinematography and a triumphant score by Maurice Jarre revolve to make this a true great by David Lean.

Perfect Sunday matinee fodder.

Warning. This film contains no women!

O'Toole's range from meek to madness is almost as stunning as his eyes.

63. Gilda (1946)

A film so steeped in Casablanca, it's almost embarrassing as it isn't any where near as good.
The plot is ludicrous and rather boring (tungsten cartel anyone?)
It is the performances that make this a worthy watch. Hayworth is smoking hot as the eponymous temptress. At one point she performs a sexy striptease and manages to drive a crowd of men bonkers rapey, even though she only removes her evening gloves! A highly unpleasant character though. The entire film oozes misogyny. The character of Gilda is seemingly a metaphor for womankind. Whores who drive men mad and create havoc wherever they are. Serious mommy issues from the writer.
Gilda is merely a distraction of a bad element. As a post-war film we do get the requisite German bad guys, but they are such downplayed characters they exist only as plot devices. The main bad egg is Ballin Mundson, lusciously played by George Macready. He steals the show for me as a man who is not only full of hate, but positively thrives on it. His relationship with Johnny and Gilda (for it does play like a strange threeway) is a powder keg ready to explode.
Sadly the story just gets a bit too messy. After a bizarre plot twist where Ballin fakes his own death and does one, the Gilda abuse fires up even more, so much so that I really didn't buy the neat ending.
It is a gorgeous film to look at. The entire film seems to be set at night as the cast is swathed in gorgeous evening wear. Rita Hayworth's hair should really have billing. It is a wonder to watch when she dances.
So worthy of a watch for the performances and the quite blatant homoeroticism between Ballin and Johnny.

62. Apocalypse Now Redux (1979)



Director Francis Ford Coppola's task in making this war epic was no easy one. It was fraught with setbacks from start to finish. Most of this is documented in sublime detail in the documentary Hearts of Darkness (see future post.)
Emerging from this lengthy mess of production is possibly the greatest film about Vietnam. It was certainly the first big picture to question the war.

We follow Captain Willard and his crew as they travel into the jungle to search for Colonel Kurtz, who has turned renegade and gt himself a touch of god complex. Willard has been ordered to execute Kurtz with extreme prejudice.

What is achieved is a study of one man's journey into 'the abyss'. Martin Sheen's spectacular central performance is where the viewer is grounded. The fact that he himself is on the cusp of crazy, makes it all the more provoking.

The film is littered with set pieces. From the opening scene where we meet Willard in his Saigon hotel room, dishevelled and driven mad by his inner demons; to the Wagner accompanied napalming of a village; to the final face off between Willard and Kurtz. It's all brilliantly atmospheric. The lightness and black comedy of the Colonel Kilgore(loves the smell of napalm in the morning dontyaknow) pre jungle scenes is most welcome.

It's a bit of a hypnotic trip, but you do come out the other side having scene a true classic.