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The Tales of Hoffmann (1951, UK, Powell & Pressburger)

Powell and Pressburger have gone and filmed an opera!  They’re mad!  Mad!  Watched it all.  This is basically the two hour equivalent to the ballet scene in The Red Shoes.  As with all their movies, my reaction is partly amazement that such a thing can exist at all.   Unlike most of their movies, though, that amazement is more or less all there is to it. But still .. !

Let’s Make it Legal (1951, USA)

So now Marilyn Monroe is at third billing, and rising.  Watched: 3 minutes, then fast forwarded to find her scenes.  I still don’t quite get Marilyn Monroe.   There’s something annoying about the way she slurs her words.  Did she get less annoying later?

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Varieties on Parade (1951, USA)

Hey this is unexpectedly enjoyable: It’s a vaudeville show put on film, with no stupid plot lines or stars, just ordinary vaudeville stars doing stand-up, acrobatics, music, animal tricks, magic, etc.  And it’s actually really enjoyable.  Friendly.  Watched it all.  It’s .. it’s the Muppet Show.  I finally get the Muppet Show now!  They were doing vaudeville with puppets!

Appointment With Danger (1951, USA)

So, in the series of movies based on the Exciting! Thriller! Breathtaking! Death-defying! life of government officials, we’ve now come to the postal inspector?!  Is this for real?  Watched: 3 minutes.

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The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, USA, Wise)

The first plan from outer space was to send a giant robot and ask nicely.  Watched it before, and again now.  I don’t think I appreciated the last time I saw it how few science fiction movies (good or otherwise) had been made at this point.  And it demonstrates nicely SF’s potential for portraying ideas that are too big for realism.  In this case, it’s a stupid idea, (Plan 9 with better writing), but this is still a fantastic movie.  And the music .. yes!

My Favorite Spy (1951, USA)

Having successfully ruined 1940′s comedy, Bob Hope now hopes to set his mark on the 1950′s as well.  I hope they don’t let him.  Watched: 4 minutes.

The Kaiser’s Lackey / Der Untertan (1951, East Germany, Staudte)

What Werner Peters respects more than anything else in life is a display of raw Macht.  He allows himself to be subjected to the will of others, so that he may in turn subject others to his.  Generations of Kaiser worship have thus succeeded in creating the Perfect German.  Watched it all.  Wow, these guys have an even bleaker view of the course of German history than A. J. P. Taylor.

The Axe of Wandsbek (1951, East Germany)

I’m playing a game with these German movies.  I try to guess if they were made in East or West.  This one features two references to Nazi persecution of Communists in the first minutes, so my guess is Eastern.  Watched: 7 minutes.  (I was right.)

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Ace in the Hole (1951, USA, Wilder)

A bunch of Chilean miners are stuck down in a cave somewhere, and Pulitzer-aspiring journalist Kirk Douglas is more than happy to turn it into a media circus.  He’s a bastard, but he’s a new kind of bastard, in touch with the low, greedy soul of the times.  Watched it all.

Bahar (1951, India)

Watching a comedy from a foreign culture can be an odd experience. It’s like it’s randomly phasing in and out of the funny zone. But this isn’t too strange.  It’s basically the Indian version of the old Hollywood formula: Wealthy airheads and their romantic troubles, interrupted by song and dance.  Watched: 31 minutes.

The Tall Target (1951, USA, Mann)

Dick Powell is on the train to Baltimore, and so is Abe Lincoln’s assassin.  Watched it all.  Every time I start an Anthony Mann movie, I promise myself not to be biased by how fantastic his previous movies have been. Maybe this one won’t be so good.  And almost every time, I find myself sucked into the movie, scene by scene.  Mann is the director Hitchcock is often credited to be, and for far less money too.  And this is one of his best movies, the kind of cramped, focused thriller Hitchcock (let’s be honest now) only rarely succeeded in making.

Miss Julie / Fröken Julie (1951, Sweden)

Everyone in the Swedish countryside is absolutely despicable.  They do nothing but humiliate, laugh at and beat each other all day.  Why, that’s terrible!  Watched: 13 minutes.

The Whip Hand (1951, USA, Menzies)

Angus MacGyver stumbles into one of those small towns where everyone conspires to hide a Horrible Horrible Secret.   Naturally he starts Asking Questions, and will soon discover that the town is secretly ruled by gangsters, Communists, or possibly even Nazis.  Watched it all.  Spoiler: It’s actually ex-Nazis working for the Communists, and in the end the police shoots them all dead with machineguns.  Hell, yeah!  Er .. I mean, how uncivilized.

Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951, UK)

Life at Hogwarts can be difficult, but also a source of valuable life lessons, etc. etc. Yes but where’s Flashman, the famous spin-off character?  Ah, here he is.  Watched: 9 minutes, then fast-forwarded to find all the Flashman scenes.  Apparently he’s the main villain of the story, and he’s just as repulsive as advertised!

Mr Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951, USA)

I wouldn’t exactly call them good, but I’m fond of the Belvedere movies.  He’s a cross between Sheldon Cooper and a stoic mentor, who rudely insists on teaching others to make their choices and stand by them.  Here he moves into an old people’s home to get the patients to stop whining about their age, and start living again.  It’s didactic, but I forgive that when I approve the message.  Watched it all.

The Lady and the Bandit (1951, USA)

“England – the eighteenth century – a lawless age of lawless men”.  No.  No, I think that was in fact not the case.  Watched: 3 minutes.

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People Will Talk (1951, USA, Mankiewicz)

The unconventional doctor, played by an aging comic actor, doesn’t cure chronic illnesses with positive thinking, nor does he throw millennia of medicine out the window whenever he feels like it.  In fact, he’s really quite an interesting character.  So is every other person who opens their mouth in this movie.  Watched it all.

As Young As You Feel (1951, USA)

It’s fun to watch Marilyn Monroe climb up the cast list.  Here she’s number six.  Watched: 3 minutes, then fast forwarded to see Marilyn.  I still don’t quite see her appeal.  As an actor, I mean.  But she definitely has something nobody else has.  Again, I refer to her acting.

Four Ways Out / La Citta si diffende (1951, Italy, Germi)

Turns out that when you stop trying to make important movies about “real people”, the rundown apartment blocks of Italy make a pretty good backdrop for an Asphalt Jungle type post-heist thriller. Watched it all.

Distant Drums (1951, USA)

Never mind the movie, but while fast-forwarding through it I noticed a close-up shot of a man being stabbed in the stomach.  That’s new.  Step by step, filmmakers are learning that movies and violence go really well together.

Birthright (1951, USA)

Okay, some sort of boring educational movie about some family or something .. fast-forwarding .. fast-forwarding .. and, OH MY GOD, is that an actual uncensored human birth?!!  Yes.  Yes it certainly is.  Lots of it.  Watched: I don’t know.  Where was I?

Kranes Konditori (1951) - Gå pokker i vold

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Kranes konditori (1951, Norway, Henning-Jensen)

Poverty and small-town hypocrisy keeps a single mother all tied down, stressed and unhappy.  She finds her true self by getting drunk with a contrarian Swedish sailor, and wakes up a free individual.  This isn’t subtle, but there’s a spark of something genuine and timeless here, like second-hand Ibsen.  Watched it all.  Bonus interest for appearances of Wenche Foss and Aud Schønemann.

David and Bathsheba (1951, USA)

There’s a right way and a wrong way to make Biblical epics.  The wrong way is to make it feel like the rehearsal of a school play that just happens to have access to lots of high quality costumes and scenery.  Watched: 6 minutes, then fast forwarded to see the obligatory decadent banquet scene.

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Carmen Comes Home (1951, Japan, Keisuke Kinoshita)

A girl who has adopted a Western name for her career as a stripper returns to her village, where she is appreciated for her artistic renown.  After all, “Japan is very cultural”.  Watched it all.  This is the earliest Japanese color movie I’ve seen.  Also the earliest satire.  At least I think it’s satire.  Comic nuances don’t always translate well across the Japanese-Western cultural border, but I’m almost positive there is some sort of humor going on here.

Quo Vadis (1951, USA)

Rome under Nero is one big toga party, but those pesky Christians have begun to appear, and they’ll ruin everything.  And then nineteen hundred years later they’ll make a dreary movie about it.  Watched: 21 minutes, then fast-forwarded to the obligatory decadent banquet scene.

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The Scarf (1951, USA, Dupont)

This is what I love about the 50′s – so far.  Suddenly you’ve got low-key dramas with interesting characters who talk and act in unpredictable ways.  It’s like a new door has been opened, and a bit of honesty was let in.  Watched it all.

I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951, USA)

That commie Dad you’re so ashamed of is actually an undercover FBI agent. One day you’ll understand.  Watched: 5 minutes, then fast-forwarded to the end, where a stirring testimony for the House Un-American Activities Committee reveals those labor activists for the slimy red traitors they are.  This is followed by the undercover agent punching a commie in the face. Hell, yeah!  Er .. I mean, how uncivilized.

Strangers on a Train (1951, USA, Hitchcock)

Some nice guy’s life is made difficult by an assortment of annoying psychopaths.  Watched it before, but less so this time.  The more I see of the really good movies of this time, particularly Anthony Mann’s thrillers, the less interesting I find Hitchcock’s.   The only emotion he knows is tension.

The African Queen (1951, USA, Huston)

Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn have never looked uglier.  That’s probably intentional, but it all feels pretty awkward.  Bogart’s massive stomach rumbling scene, the ev0l Germans burning down a village for no reason.  It’s like all the effort went into actually getting a technicolor movied filmed in Africa, and everything else was secondary.  Watched: 14 minutes, then fast-forwarded to the end, where a German ship accidentally sails straight onto a stationary torpedo.  Oh come on.

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Let’s Go Crazy (1951, UK, Cullimore)

Everything is all going to be allright now, I can feel it: Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan are here, doing the kind of short film that’s waiting for the British sketch show to be invented.  It’s not funny, but it’s got Peter Sellers!  And Spike Milligan!  Doing nonsensical sketches!  Yes, everything is going to be all right.  Watched it all.

Valgus Koordis (1951, USSR)

This movie came without subtitles, but it seems to be the Estonian version of that scene in Summer Stock where Judy Garland gets a shiny red tractor, only without all the decadent bourgeouis singing and dancing.  Watched: 2 minutes.

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The Desert Fox (1951, USA, Hathaway)

I didn’t really want to watch this.  It’s a fawning biopic of Rommel, and it’s probably got all sorts of facts wrong.  He’s the one Good German, etc etc.  But I couldn’t stop, because this movie annoyingly persists in being interesting.  Watched it all.  Oh, and at some point along the way Hollywood appears to have invented the modern action movie, at least for a few minutes there in the intro.  Good for them!

Bedtime for Bonzo (1951, USA)

Life’s going downhill for Ronald Reagan, the former A-list actor who now finds himself doing one of those stupid 80′s-style comedies about a nice teacher, his chimpanzee, and the evil dean who interferes with his love life.  Watched: 10 minutes.  Once more I’m transported to that alternative reality where Reagan faded out of history at this point.

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The Lavender Hill Mob (1951, UK, Crichton)

In jolly England, crime is a game for poor, but enterprising gentlemen.  Even your local safe cracker is a decent chap, all in all, and any gentleman can become a bank robber, if they put their mind to it.  Watched it all.  Alec Guinness can add or remove 20 years with a twitch of a facial muscle.  What an actor.  Come to think of it, yes, it is a bit unfair that he will go down in movie history as “that old guy in Star Wars”.

Double Dynamite (1951, USA)

Please stop putting Marx brothers in movies now.  It’s embarassing to watch, and must have been even more embarassing for them.  Watched: 3 minutes, then fast-forwarded to see if Groucho has any funny lines.  He doesn’t.

Fourteen Hours (1951) - A jumper on the ledge

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Fourteen Hours (1951, USA, Hathaway)

The way I do this marathon, I’m naturally biased in favor of movies with great openings.  This is one of them, (above).  The quiet streets, no words, and then, suddenly – the man on the ledger, ready to jump.  And the rest follows from there, intense and compressed like a filmed play.  Sometimes that doesn’t work, but I love it when it does.  Watched it all.

The Red Badge of Courage (1951, USA, Huston)

I don’t necessarily approve of long movies, but even I understand you can’t do an American Civil War epic in 70 minutes.  Watched: 5 minutes, then fast-forwarded to see the final battle scene, which looks amazing.