Bill Ash:
From: Bill Ash
Date: Sat Jan 3, 2004 7:31:23 PM US/Pacific
Subject: Favorite films
Came across your great site as I do most most things - by accident. Don't believe I am related to previous poster - Jesse Ash, but it is a small world.
My Favorite films in no particular order -
- From
Russia With Love (1963) - The best James Bond film with the
best James Bond.
- She
Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) - great story of a professional soldier.
- Citizen
Kane (1941).
- Dracula (1931)
- Bela Lugosi, the original and the best.
- North Dallas
Forty (1979) - Still the best movie about the business of
football.
- Seven
Samurai (1956) -
Copied as The Magnificent Seven but the original is best.
- Throne
of Blood (1961) - The Samurai MacBeth.
- Mary
Poppins (1964) -
Dick Van Dyke was mugged on Oscar night.
- The
Quiet Man (1952) -
I know - another John Wayne movie, but it was his best performance ever
(I think he got the
Oscar for True Grit (1969) because
he didn't get one for this movie).
- M (1933)
- A scary Peter Lorre movie even if you don't understand German.
- Vertigo (1958)
- Hitchcock's film of sexual obsession.
Movies I am sorry I sat thru --
- Dune (1984)
- Ishtar (1987)
- Caddyshack (1980)
- Rocky
V (1990)
- Gremlins
II - The New Batch (1990)
Hi Bill!
First, thanks
for the kind words about my site!
Second, From
Russia with Love is a good Bond movie, it's the second one, and
Connery is without question, the best Bond. But I actually prefer Connery's
Dr.
No (1962), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965)
-- and On
Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) to From Russia with Love.
It's still in my top five though.
She
Wore a Yellow Ribbon -- Wayne is outstanding. This is the second entry
in director John Ford's so-called Cavalry Trilogy. Made after Fort
Apache (1948) and before Rio
Grande (1950). One of Wayne's best performances.
Citizen
Kane, in re your comments: I agree, nothing needs to be said.
Dracula with
Lugosi is a good movie. Lugosi wasn't a good actor, but he was effective
(at least this once) here in Tod Browning's Dracula. I like this movie,
but not as much as the James Whale horror films from the same period like Frankenstein (1931),
Bride
of Frankenstein (1935) and The
Old Dark House (1932). And also not as much even as
Coppola's Bram
Stoker's Dracula (1992).
North
Dallas Forty: how do you feel about Semi-Tough (1977)?
And The
Longest Yard (1974)? I'm not saying I think they're better, I'm just
asking what you think. But I prefer Kris Kristofferson to Mac Davis, anyway.
I've
seen The Hidden Fortress (1960) and Rashomon (1951), and maybe Yojimbo (1961),
but I haven't yet seen Seven Samurai or Throne of Blood.
I
don't remember much about Mary Poppins other than it was a cute kid's movie.
Van Dyke must have been mugged a month or two before Oscar night though,
as he wasn't even nominated.
Nothing
wrong with more than one John Wayne movie in your list -- he rules. The
Quiet Man (1952) is great. You're right, he didn't win an Oscar for it
(wasn't even nominated, but director John Ford won, and Victor MacLaglen
got a nomination for Supporting Actor), and he did for True Grit (a very
good, very funny movie, with a great and funny
performance
by the Duke).
Interestingly,
on Oscar night for the year 1952, Gary Cooper won the Best Actor Oscar --
for the overrated western High Noon (1952) (although Cooper was great in
the film, and I don't have a problem with him winning the Oscar -- his second,
after
Sergeant York [1941]), but he was not present at the awards ceremony and
his friend John Wayne accepted on his behalf.
M (1933)
is good; haven't seen it in a while. Fritz Lang is a good director, not my
favorite,
but decent, and I love Peter Lorre always.
I'm
really, really interested in seeing the director Joseph Losey's 1951
remake, also called M. It's never been on video or DVD, and never
on TV that I've noticed. This film is 88 min; black and white; and upon
original release
was
reportedly banned in Finland. The cast of great character actors is extremely
nice: David Wayne, Howard Da Silva (who like director Losey, would soon
be blacklisted for communist affiliation), Martin Gabel, Luther Adler,
Steve
Brodie, Raymond Burr, Norman Lloyd, Walter Burke, Jim Backus, Madge Blake,
William Schallert. The cinematographer was Ernest Laszlo. Robert Aldrich
was the assistant director.
Hitchcock's
Vertigo ranks among his very, very best, with Rear
Window (1954) and North
By Northwest (1959).
I
haven't seen Dune, but am a partial fan of Lynch's and doubt it would
be on my worst five list. Ishtar was so famously panned and reviled,
maybe because I was expecting something so awful, I saw it and felt it was
just mediocre.
Rocky V and Gremlins 2 - The New Batch are obvious turkeys,
but if you put Caddyshack on that list, where do you put Caddyshack
II (1988)?
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