I Vitelloni

Federico Fellini, Italy, 1953, bw (8.4*)
Enjoyable early Fellini comedy film about a group of slackers, ne’er do wells who are content to merely chase women, drink, and dream rather than apply themselves to constructive endeavors.

One of a small group of friends, Fausto Moretti, seduces Sandra, a sister of his friend and companion Moraldo Rubini, then against his intuition, he does the right thing and marries her. After their honeymoon, he takes a boring job as a salesman of religious objects in a small shop that barely has any customers. He still looks at (and goes for) other women, along with his friends. He even mistakes some messages from his bosses wife and tries to seduce her, and is fired.

Still, not much changes in the lives of any of the group. This film is not about going anywhere in particular, but just as much about not making much effort to get anywhere either, and have some pleasures along the road to nowhere if possible. Fellini is merely giving us a snapshot here of a lazy lifestyle, or rather a beautifully photographed cinematic portrait, in the era of the growing beatnik movement, when work was considered the opposite of freedom.

Vitellone is literal for fatted veal calf, but on the dvd, Fellini defines it as aimless, do-nothing guys, or slackers. It is said that this film is autobiographical, at least partially so. It is also given credit for defining the modern term, or usage of slackers as well.

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The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

Roy Rowland, 1953 (8.2*)
Totally fantastic story by Dr. Seuss, who also provided the set design and some song lyrics. This wonderful spoof of childhood music lessons features Hans Conreid as diabolical Dr. Terwilliker, who is writing the world's first piano concerto for 500 boys on a monstrous serpentine piano of his own creation, hence the film's title - his concerto takes 5,000 fingers.

Tommy Rettig plays one of the music students, who are basically held prisoner, and forced to play rehearse nearly all the time, staying in cells, and with the music school surrounded by an electrified fence. His help comes in the form of a surrogate dad, played by Peter Lind Hayes, who is an amateur inventor with a planned surprise invention for Dr. Terwilliker.

This is a fun movie all-around, it's surprising that it's not better known, given it's Dr. Seuss connection. It's just crazy enough to be an unforgettable children's fantasy.

Just one of the goofy set designs of

Dr. Seuss in 5,000 Fingers

The piano that seats 500 boys

I want one of these hand beanies

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The Wages of Fear

Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 1953, bw (8.4*)
aka La Salaire de la Peur
Best Picture (BAA)
Excellent French film in classic b&w, now considered by many an all-time classic. Yves Montand leads the cast as one of four hungry, jobless men in the middle of nowhere in South America who agree to drive trucks of nitro-glycerin for an oil company in order to put out an oil well fire. Naturally, this is an extremely explosive situation, the slightest jolt could set off the chemicals.

One of the more tense, suspensful films ever made, so popular that it was reshot in 1977 as Sorcerer by William Friedkin, shortly after his success with The French Connection.

Beautifully shot by master director Clouzot, who made The Raven and Diabolique, and many other classic films. The beautiful babe playing Linda is Clouzot's wife Vera Clouzot. This was her first film - she only appeared in films by Clouzot, Diabolique being the most famous. [photo below]

Winner of 5 awards, all best film awards, including a BAFTA for "best film from any source". Now #174 all-time on the IMDB top 250, which is amazing for a French bw film from thr 50's..

Vera Clouzot, wife of director Henri-Georges, a Brazilian born musician -

she only appeared in Clouzot films, notably Wages and Diabolique

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Stalag 17

Billy Wilder, 1953, bw (8.6*)
William Holden stars as a gritty POW in WW2 Germany in perhaps his finest role, winning an Oscar® for best actor. Apparently the barracks in which he's placed has a stool pigeon supplying information about prisoner's escape plans to the guards. Holden is a suspect because he's not only a loner, but appears to have a thriving black market exchange going on as well.

Another classic from master director Billy Wilder, who actually fled to the U.S. from Austria to escape the German invasion. Here he has made a psychological war film that's as much about what war does to men's minds as their bodies. Shot in a film noir style with many night scenes, a war classic. #208 on the IMDB top 250.

Wilder is one of the great directors, here's a small list of his best films:
The Front Page, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Lost Weekend, The Spirit of St. Louis, One Two Three, Ace in the Hole, Sabrina, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, Witness For the Prosecution, The Fortune Cookie.

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Tokyo Story

Yasujiro Ozu, 1953, Japan, bw (8.0*)
Beautifully filmed and touching story about an elderly Japanese couple who make a major trip for their age to visit as many of their grown-up children as possible on a train trip to Tokyo. This story slowly reveals a well-known one, of how the elderly are often treated with a lack of respect befitting their experience and lifetime of sacrifice for their children. These children can’t seem to set aside time in their self-important daily affairs to treat their parents with even the normal attention one would show out-of-town guests, and often do spend time on idle gossip or even having routine card games with the regulars, or scheming up places to send the parents.

Master director Yasujiro Ozu’s camera may seem a little stilted to western filmgoers but not when taken in its own cultural context of a society with a tradition of asceticism, meditation, austere furnishings, ritualistic ceremony, and for us, rigid social manners. He both touches and angers us in this film that many rate as a timeless masterpiece; it’s #57 on the Top Ranked 1000 list I compiled, #10 on the critics consensus 1000 – so it’s more liked by critics than the general public. For me, it’s perhaps overrated: a little slow with too much silence for my top 100 (I'd trim 20 minutes), but definitely a masterpiece of Japanese cinema with a universal story that should be seen.

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Ugetsu

aka Ugetsu Monogatari
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953, Japan, bw (9.1*)
This is one of the greatest Japanese cinema classics. Moody, atmospheric, bewitching, you'll be mesmerized by the beautiful visuals and the camera of director Kenji Mizoguchi which seems to always be in motion. The story is about some village peasants in war-torn 16th century Japan. A farmer who also is a potter (Machiko Kyo) for extra income must flee an army with his wares to sell them in a nearby city, accompanied by another couple from the village. This begins an excursion into ambition, desire, and delusion with unforeseen consequences.

The story's plot, which has some unexpected twists, is hard to describe without spoilers, so suffice to say that this is perhaps the best Japanese film after Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. Many consider Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff his masterpiece, but I much prefer this one. It reminds me of the German expressionists, like Murnau and Lang, with perhaps less surrealism and a more modern camera technique, which appears to be often on a moving crane. Fans of classic cinema should love this one, which is a masterwork of modern fables. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

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The Earrings of Madame De

Max Ophüls, France, 1953, bw (8.4*)
This is a gorgeously crafted and beautifully filmed truffle about what else: a romantic triangle among the French aristocracy. The Madame De (we aren’t given her last name to protect the guilty) begins the film rummaging through some jewelry, and finds some earrings to sell. We don’t know why, but we see the innovative direction from Max Ophuls right away as the camera follows her eye, the wonderful actress Danielle Darrieux. She is perfect for this part, always appearing elegant but letting her body language do her acting. I would compare her to Garbo, but the Swedish goddess didn’t have the acting skills of Darrieux. (Don't be misled by the dvd cover, Darrieux is much more beautiful than the cheesy artwork)
After she sells the earrings, a wedding gift from her husband, the Count who’s also The General, wonderfully played by Charles Boyer in perhaps his finest performance, she set a chain of events in motion that seem to force her life to spiral into a web of deceit to everyone in her sphere. She meets an Italian diplomat, played by an appealing Vittorio de Sica, taking a break from directing classics like The Bicycle Thief (1949), and they start a whirlwind flirtation, seemingly blessed by her jovial husband. Here the camera of Ophuls really shines, as we track them dancing through three rooms of opulent French artifacts. The story becomes typically entangled, as only the French seem to encourage, yet the stars of this film are really the Oscar®-winning costumes, the incredible art direction, and the innovative direction of Ophuls, which has the camera in constant motion so the pace never lets up.

Ophuls' masterpiece, as well as the best of a certain type of costume romance that reeks of a lifestyle of aristocratic opulence with little substance or heart. These people seem to possess each other like jewelry, which can be given away, sold, or even re-bought. Madame’s earrings become the perfect metaphor for her affairs of the heart. Before this film, cameras just didn't move this way; film buffs and artists will be entranced by just the camera movement alone.

Also see our review of his triptych of De Maupassent stories, Le Plaisir

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Shane

Dir: George Stevens, 1953 (9.0*)

AFI Top 100

This is a landmark western, featuring Jack Palance (Oscar nominated) in probably the most archetypal villain role in any western. Taken from the terrific Jack Shaeffer novel, which every fan should read, as its a little less sentimental than the film (hence the 9*s). This is a powerful story, at the level of parable and mythology, with some unforgettable scenes, like the drifting newcomer Alan Ladd as Shane (perhaps a bit too spiffily dressed and clean to be a trail vagabond) helping farmer Van Heflin remove a giant tree stump. The first film for doe-eyed Brandon de Wilde, as the kid who looks up to Shane and his gun.

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