griggs's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
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Set in the 1920s, "The Quiet Man" stars John Wayne as Sean Thornton, an Irish-born American who has travelled to his birthplace of Inisfree to lay claim to his family farm. Although warmly embraced by the denizens of the village, Thornton's outsider status is thrown into relief when the abrasive landowner Squire Will Danahan (Victor McLaglen) objects both to the turnover of the land, and to the handing over of his sister Mary Kate's (Maureen O'Hara) dowry to the man whose community stature now threatens to show up his own. What follows is a confrontation with custom and with the personal past, all before an unforgettable extended brawl sprawing the entire countryside whereupon nothing less hinges than the peace of Inisfree itself. - Director:
- John Ford
- Cast:
- John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald
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Europa '51 (1952)Europe '51 / The Greatest Love
Irene Girard (Ingrid Bergman) is an ambassador's wife and used to living in luxury. After the dramatic death of her son, she feels guilty of having neglected him and feels compelled to help people in need who cross her path. One day she offers shelter to a man who is evading justice, and she ends being arrested herself. Her husband (Alexander Knox), for the sake of social propriety, arranges for a doctor to declare her insane. Irene escapes one prison to enter another, and to reflect on what sort of society she lives in. - Director:
- Roberto Rossellini
- Cast:
- Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini
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Ikiru (1952)Living
Opening with a shot of an x-ray, showing the main character's stomach, 'Ikiru' tells the tale of a dedicated, downtrodden civil servant who, diagnosed with a fatal cancer, learns to change his dull, unfulfilled existence, and suddenly discovers a zest for life. Plunging first into self-pity, then a bout of hedonistic pleasure-seeking on the frenetic streets of post-war Tokyo, Watanable (Takashi Shimura) - the film's hero - finally finds satisfaction through building a children's playground. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
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The Golden Coach (1952)Le carrosse d'or
A band of Italian strolling players has come to perform, seeking fame and wealth. Lusty Camilla, the troupe's fiery prima donna, soon turns the heads of the Spanish viceroy, a soldier and a famous bullfighter. To prepare for an impending war the viceroy demands great financial sacrifices from the local aristocrats, but when he then gives his official gilded coach to Camilla in order to win her love, the noblemen rebel. Camilla is pursued by the three infatuated men, but her first love is always the stage. - Director:
- Jean Renoir
- Cast:
- Anna Magnani, Odoardo Spadaro, Nada Fiorelli
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Charismatic but ruthless film producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) needs a blockbuster after producing three consecutive flops and falling out of favor with the studio. To help him make a comeback, he appeals to three Hollywood heavyweights - a director (Barry Sullivan), an actress (Lana Turner) and a writer (Dick Powell) - who owe their success to Shields. Unfortunately, they all hate his guts and have vowed never to work for him again. - Director:
- Vincente Minnelli
- Cast:
- Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon
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"Plain arithmetic. Money splits better two ways instead of three," smooth-talking outlaw Ben Vandergroat reasons to his captors, three bounty hunters thrown together by chance. They're taking him to justice in Abilene, but Ben has other ideas. If he can set the men against each other - play on their greed, their fears, their vanities - he may be able to make his break to freedom. In the third of his five landmark Anthony Mann-directed Westerns, James Stewart stars as the relentless leader of bounty hunters caught in the snare of the hunted (Robert Ryan). Tough, sweating with tension and towering as tall as its breathtaking Colorado Rockies setting, The Naked Spur is simply "one of the best Westerns ever made." - Director:
- Anthony Mann
- Cast:
- James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan
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Summer with Monika (1953)Sommaren med Monika
A chance meeting in a coffee shop between Harry (Lars Ekborg), a young errand boy, and Monika (Harriet Andersson), a wild and reckless girl who works in a nearby grocery shop, soon develops into a love affair. After a row with her father, Monika goes on a motorboat holiday. Their idyllic summer is soon shattered by the news that Monika is pregnant. Faced with sudden responsibility, Harry agrees to marry Monika and they set up home together in a small flat. Monika rapidly becomes bored with married life and looking after the baby. Soon Harry returns from a business trip to discover that his wife has been unfaithful with a former lover. A frank and tender portrait of first love, Bergman's film is also a realistic and uncompromising account of a disintegrating marriage. - Director:
- Ingmar Bergman
- Cast:
- Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, Dagmar Ebbesen
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Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)Les Vacances De Monsieur Hulot / Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
The film that brought Jacques Tati international acclaim also launched his on-screen alter ego: the courteous, well-meaning, eternally accident-prone Monsieur Hulot with whom Tati would from now on be inseparably associated. As with Jour de fete, Vacances is set in a sleepy French coastal resort which is seasonally disrupted by holidaymakers in energetic pursuit of fun. At the centre of the chaos is the eccentric Hulot, struggling at all times to maintain appearances, but somehow entirely divorced from his immediate surroundings. There is little plot in Tati's beautifully orchestrated 'ballet' of comic action: it's a series of incidents, a seamless succession of gently studies of human absurdity. - Director:
- Jacques Tati
- Cast:
- Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud, Louis Perrault
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Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)Ugetsu / Tales of Ugetsu
In 16th century Japan, amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory, respectively. Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory. - Director:
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast:
- Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka
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The Wages of Fear (1953)Le Salaire de la peur
Part road movie, part suspense thriller, the plot is high-tension simplicity itself. In the South American jungle, supplies of nitro-glycerine are urgently needed at a remote oil field. The unscrupulous American oil company pays four out-of-work men (Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli and Peter Van Eyck) to deliver the supplies in two sets of drivers: a tension magnified thousand fold by the unforgiving heat, the lure of filthy lucre and the rough and rocky roads where the slightest jolt can result in agonising death. Which of the disparate, desperate desperadoes will survive the white-knuckle journey and claim the loot and the glory? - Director:
- Henri-Georges Clouzot
- Cast:
- Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck
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Shane (1953)Shane, el desconocido
Alan Ladd plays the titular gunslinger, the archetypal "man alone" who wanders into town and shortly afterward becomes embroiled in a conflict between a group of Wyoming homesteaders and the nefarious cattle baron who has designs to wrest away their land. As the conflict escalates, and a romance develops between Shane and homesteader Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur, in her last screen role), a who's-who of studio system character talent revolves through the production - Van Heflin, Jack Palance, Elisha Cook, Jr. - before one of cinema's most famous, unforgettable endings. - Director:
- George Stevens
- Cast:
- George Stevens, Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur
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The film tells the tale of shady pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) who steals a wallet belonging to Candy (Jean Peters) who, unbeknownst to her, is carrying microfilm containing government secrets. Anxious to recover the film, Joey, Candy's ex-lover and the man using her as courier, convinces her to find the thief. - Director:
- Samuel Fuller
- Cast:
- Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter
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Featuring Marilyn Monroe's legendary rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", this fun musical comedy is a knockout. Marilyn and Jane Russell star as two showgirls who set sail on a luxury liner bound for France. Hijinks on the high seas ensue as Lorelei (Monroe) and Dorothy (Russell) discover they're being tailed by a private detective hired by the father of Lorelei's landlocked boyfriend. By the time the ship reaches Paris, a missing diamond tiara lands the girls in hot water, but by following their hearts, they'll get out of trouble and on to the altar. - Director:
- Howard Hawks
- Cast:
- Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn
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In this Vincente Minnelli-directed backstager, Fred Astaire dazzles in numbers set in a train station (By Myself), a penny arcade, a backlot Central Park and a smoky cafe, the latter two with the incomparable Cyd Charisse. And when he, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan play infants who "hate each other very much!" in the merry Triplets, it's one more reason to love this movie very, very much. As the hallmark song which originated here goes, That's Entertainment! - Director:
- Vincente Minnelli
- Cast:
- Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant
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In this landmark film, passion and tragedy collide on a military base as a fateful day in December 1941 draws near. Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a soldier and former boxer being manipulated by his superior and peers. His friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) tries to help him but has his own troubles. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) tread on dangerous ground as lovers in an illicit affair. Each of their lives will be changed when their stories culminate in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. - Director:
- Fred Zinnemann
- Cast:
- Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr
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