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1940s Decade in Review
33 Plays6 days ago
Another decade in the can! In this casual wrap-up episode, we each count down our top 10s of the 1940s! Here's our Letterboxd list of our 40s Top 10s: https://letterboxd.com/criselie/list/one-week-one-year-top-10s-of-the-1940s/ And here's our list of every movie covered on the show so far! https://letterboxd.com/criselie/list/one-week-one-year-films-discussed/
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Transcript
Introduction and Decade Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
hello welcome to the show welcome to the show cheers this is our 1940s decade in review which is why we're uh drinking non-alcoholic beverages out of fancy glassware But you don't know that, because that's movie magic.
00:00:18
Speaker
That's movie magic for you, which is what we had to talk about. This is usually one week, one year, a film history podcast, and we're still talking about films and history and all that, but it's casual today. It's a nice casual Friday of an episode, even though it's being recorded on a Sunday.
00:00:35
Speaker
This is our 1940s Decade in Review episode. So we're going to be counting down our top tens of the 1940s. Glenn's got a top ten. I've got a top ten. We're going figure out where they align and where they don't. That's 20 movies being listed. Up to 20. Up to 20. There's going to be some crossovers. Oh, you're going to get some crossovers.
00:00:58
Speaker
and And having a good time to celebrate this decade that we've made it through. So, congratulations to you, Glenn, on a decade well-decaded. And congratulations to you, viewers, for listening or watching to, ah I don't know, 10, 20, 30 hours of old-timey 1940s movies. And congratulations for you for that lovely intro.
00:01:27
Speaker
Thank you. Congratulations, all around. Okay, serious now. Time to get into our top tens of the 1940s.
Key Movies and Personal Reflections
00:01:38
Speaker
That's right, top ten. Number ten.
00:01:41
Speaker
You want to your number ten first? Uh, sure. Cool. We're counting down. I'm doing my number ten. I think this is going to be lower for Glenn. My number ten is arsenic and old lace. Ah, how interesting.
00:01:56
Speaker
How interesting. Arsenic and Old Lace, Cary Grant in a kind of primo, freaked out Cary Grant role. I feel like, I want to say this is the first old movie that I ever loved.
00:02:08
Speaker
Hmm. I remember watching this at your at your house when we were teens. I'm happy that I was able to to to spread the the good word of Arsenic and Old Lace. And it's just a great old time. It it it it is of fantastic screwball comedy that is elevated to another level by its macabre subject matter. How macabre.
00:02:33
Speaker
It is quite macabre. Abra macabra. No arguments here. Whenever in these wrap-up episodes when somebody says, like, yeah, yeah, you're right. That that means that something else is coming from from their side. um Yeah. And, you know, it's an out-of-character one for Frank Capra in a lot of ways. i think he's dropping his sentimentality. um And it's just also just a real fun movie. I struggled with my 10th position because I feel like there are a lot of movies that I like...
00:03:04
Speaker
in this realm of amount there's a there's a good few runners up which maybe we can discuss afterward or maybe we'll butll ah but we'll do that number two yeah exactly that's the same thing it it should be between two and one yeah i got all um all my number 10 glenn's number 10 may shock you because it is citizen kane
00:03:28
Speaker
Widely ah regarded as one of, if not the best film i ever made. um And yet it is and number 10 for me, which is less a comment on its quality. It is obviously a tremendous quality film.
00:03:43
Speaker
And it's in my top 10 because it's great. But I mean, just in terms of like, I think it is a very entertaining movie. It's not one that I often am like, I want to throw that on. I'm going to sit back relax and watch Citizen Kane, you know? yeah Which is not... Like, I do think it's there are worse movies could do that with, for sure. We're talking favorites. We're not talking... Right, personal favorites.
00:04:05
Speaker
um Like, it's it's... I feel... I would feel guilty not putting this on my top ten. Because, like... That's exactly where I was at. Citizen Kane. And it is, like... It's it's good. Like, is Arsenic and Old Life a more fun movie than Citizen Kane? Yeah.
00:04:19
Speaker
yes i would i would say so there's a lot of great things about citizen king yeah and citizen king is a fun movie too yeah it's not really a comedy but it's like there's yeah there's there's light moments there's lots of really great character moments in it um when they put the sled in the fire incinerator that's that's a lot of fun yeah when joseph cotton is old pretending to be old and wants cigars and his doctors keep telling him no Yeah, it's just and it's really ah ah really appreciate and admire the like the playfulness of it and how much it is like...
00:04:51
Speaker
just trying stuff yeah i realized that usually before we do this we would kind of talk about our general takeaways from the decade i don't know do you want to throw that in right now or do you want yeah no we've got one movie out of the way let's do that yeah um we'll seed it we'll seed things in there you go we got we got to draw this out it's like what are your feelings this is like a discovery channel show we got to make this as long as humanly possible what What are your feelings about 1940s as
1940s Hollywood Impact
00:05:19
Speaker
a whole? len fors as a whole, ah it feels like ah a big decade for movies. I mean, what decade? It isn't really, I guess. But like so much of what we associate with like classic Hollywood, we at like classic like black and white yeah and technicolor movies comes out of the 40s. Yeah, I think this is the beginning of the stone cold like canonical classics. Yeah, I feel like it's like Hollywood in particular really yeah
00:05:44
Speaker
ah a just had a hot streak. And was like they they it was a real kind of... you really get the sense that it was a like a a machine just like churning stuff out.
00:05:55
Speaker
And sometimes that... It was. Sometimes they were incredible. which Most of what we watched is, you know, the stuff that is, like, risen to the top that is considered classics now. Yeah. And that were groundbreaking or whatever.
00:06:07
Speaker
You know, that's why we're watching them. There's, ah you know, tons of movies in the 40s that are, like, awful or at least just very disposable that we didn't watch. It was kind of the the peak of the era, I guess, of, like, movies were made on a lot, on a set, and...
00:06:23
Speaker
It was a like self-contained little kind of industry where it's like you go to the lot, you go to the soundstage, you shoot your whole movie in there, you got your your contract players for the studio. Yeah.
00:06:36
Speaker
It's just like everything is there for you immediately. You know, all the writers are on hand. Like, they have an office upstairs. The editors have an office down the street. Like, I i mean, I've never experienced that, naturally.
00:06:50
Speaker
um I just made movies in my house most of the time, so. I thought that you came of age in the nineteen forty s in Japan. Little known fact about me. Not true. But yeah, I know that that that ah that seems very appealing to me.
00:07:03
Speaker
That it's like... it's all It's all there. all All of the exploitation and other terrible things about the studio system, less so. Also, growing up, back when we were watching movies like Arsenic and Old Lace, we played a lot of a video game called The Movies. Great video game. A studio simulation game. yeah ah Sort of a sim movie studio type thing.
00:07:29
Speaker
type But where you could also make your own... like it was like two two different types of games in one thing. and You could make your own movies in it. but Limited, but still pretty freeform.
00:07:40
Speaker
For 2005? Yeah, it was pretty good. ah But yeah, the the kind of studio system that it kind of paints in that game does feel like it's evocative of that classic Hollywood time.
00:07:52
Speaker
um you know So what I'll say about the forty s is I think the 30s had a definitively rocky start. But...
00:08:05
Speaker
I think that, for me, there were more standouts in the 1930s. And I think that is because of World War II. I think World War two really put a damper on the productivity and the quality, in many ways, of the 1940s. And there were good movies that came out of that time. But I feel like a lot of the good movies, like, the... the the the It was like more, there there was a more a higher preponderance of mediocrity in the 40s. Right. let's ah I think the 30s had like really high highs and really low lows. Yeah. Whereas the 40s, it's like everything kind of evens out a bit more. It's like they had stuff figured out more. They were kind of like churning stuff out.
00:08:55
Speaker
They figured how to make a like solid quality movie. Yeah. better than in the 30s but that means a lot of stuff ended up in kind of more kind of mediocre territory probably there's a little bit more homogeny is that the word i'm thinking of homogeneity homogeneity yeah where it's like it's there there's maybe a few less wild swings than in the 30s and the thing is i like those 30s wild swings yeah like i like Movies from 1929 through 1933 can be real rough.
00:09:32
Speaker
Yeah. ah Oh, yeah. But... ah But the ones that work are incredible. Yes. Yeah. And, yeah, I i think that... The movies that I really loved in the 30s were ones that were big swings. And I feel like the ones that I really loved in the 40s, which we'll be getting to, are ones that are just regular movies made quite well.
00:09:56
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that' that that is fair to say. and And yeah, I mean, I think we kind of have to talk about like the influence of World War II, right? Yeah. From the very beginning of the Hard to ignore. From the very beginning of the 40s, World War II was either begun begun already or a specter, depending on what country your these your films are coming from. Yeah.
00:10:20
Speaker
the The U.S. was able to squeak out like a couple of you know unaffected, relatively, by World War two movie years before they like all of it went into the war effort. We saw those um the the ah the the Nazi concentration camp documentary that was very harrowing. A lot of stuff.
00:10:42
Speaker
But like right in the heat of the war... Not much good stuff came out because the the effort was on the war. We had the private snafu, you know. Right. But... My number one.
00:10:58
Speaker
Anyway, should we get back to the list? maybe Yeah. Yeah. ah Well, I think I was. yeah You're up. My number nine is ah something that kind of fits into what we were just talking about.
00:11:10
Speaker
ah Bicycle Thieves. Something very post-World War II or influenced by World War II. We had the we had the lead up to World War II. We had the World War twoi period. And then we had like five years of...
00:11:25
Speaker
How do we reckon with all of this, right? Which i actually, I think a lot of the the most kind of, like, interesting, like, dramatic storytelling is in that post-war period. Yeah, I think so. um Even though i think a lot of my favorite movies are from before World War II. But... ah The... Bicycle Thieves is a movie that feels... think ahead of its time in a lot of ways.
00:11:52
Speaker
ah Or at least, like, it it it is... on the forefront of a new style and one that, you know, maybe let's call it the beginning of Criterion Core, right?
00:12:07
Speaker
You know what mean? Sure. Like, like it is this it is this new European style. We've seen the solidification of Hollywood style movies. And Bicycle Thieves is very much not that. Yeah. um And it is going for something kind of rich and complex and artsy fartsy. Well, I think...
00:12:28
Speaker
It's definitely going for more naturalism and realism, hence Italian neorealism. I think that makes it stand out too, is it's like, it's, this was, i feel like a very Hollywood heavy decade.
00:12:40
Speaker
Although we tried to keep all the other stuff in in the mix in there too. And it's like, yeah, Bicycle Thieves and just Italian neorealism in general just seems to be very much just like, we're not doing that. like That's great.
00:12:50
Speaker
Keep doing that. But you know this is this is not the same thing. I think what I like... you know I like the the classic Hollywood stuff. But I like the stuff that's doing something new and interesting. And I think that Bicycle Thieves... We only watched one... we only watched Rome Open City of the Rossini neorealist trilogy. But I think Bicycle Thieves is kind of... it's the The craft is a bit...
00:13:14
Speaker
Yeah. Is working for me a bit more than on those. I mean, you can, you can see why that one's kind of like the, the poster movie for yeah like post-war Italian new released movies. Yeah.
00:13:26
Speaker
Cause it's like, it, it got, it has, it does all the sort of like, it's, it's a good example of a lot of the kind of, i guess like artistic or like storytelling trends that were part of that. Yeah. But it ah is also just like, don't Yeah. It's like everything like synthesizes together really nicely in that one.
00:13:41
Speaker
how about your number nine? ah My number nine is another ah European film, Beauty and the Beast. Ah. Jean Cocteau's Beauty of the Beast, in all of its weird, dreamy, surrealist goodness.
00:13:58
Speaker
You heard it here, Disney adult over Citizen Kane. Not the Disney, I'm supposed to be saying this is not the Disney. I want the weird, creepy French version.
00:14:09
Speaker
I feel like I like this movie a lot more than you did. Yeah, I want to give it another try, but I did not like it that much. I mean, i also, I mean, I don't know, this makes a difference. I got to see it theater. i don't know if that affects things that much.
00:14:20
Speaker
As a movie projectionist, I don't think that seeing things in a theater matters at all. But I, um yeah, don't know, this I was just really
Significant Films and Themes
00:14:30
Speaker
struck by that film.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah. I was just like, damn, this is really... Cool imagery. Yeah, but also just like, don't know, the the moods and things it evokes, I think. I i mean, i think we said this on the episode, like it it doesn't, I don't get that emotionally involved. Yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah. As opposed to something like Bicycle Thieves, which is, like, very emotionally affecting. Yeah. Whereas Beauty and the Beast is more just like, oh my god, what am I even looking at? But it's, like, it's it's pretty, especially, like, considering how visually dazzling most, like, you know, effects-driven movies are now, that, like, this movie is all sort of, like, simple, kind of, like, smoke and mirrors magic tricks. Yeah.
00:15:13
Speaker
And it holds up really well. Yeah. And i i I really just like how weird it is, I think. Definitely a good contender for the put on the background of a party kind of... It would be....kind of looks. Yeah. Definitely.
00:15:27
Speaker
Yeah, definitely the sort of thing where I can imagine people being like, you know, kind of doing a double take. I'm like, what? What is this? We need to have more parties where... Well, just in general, yes We need to have more parties.
00:15:39
Speaker
Humanity... should We should just be inviting people over more often. agree. But as people. But also we should mostly in order to show the cool things that we can put on that are not the focus of the party. Yeah. And I mean, i have i have done this and it it works.
00:15:57
Speaker
My number eight is Citizen Kane. Ah. little bit higher up. Yeah. It... it But still relatively low on the list. Yes.
00:16:08
Speaker
So, I mean, I think we're maybe in the same boat. We are in the same You have it in there. And it good. We gotta it there. But, like... And I think the thing is, you know, I think you said it right. Do I want to just throw Citizen Kane on? Not really. Do I, like, appreciate lot about it? I think that Citizen Kane...
00:16:26
Speaker
I think if went to someone's house and they were watching Citizen Kane, be like, alright, let's watch. I'd be excited. Yeah, if somebody was like, I really want to watch Citizen Kane, I think I'm going to watch it tonight. I was like, yeah, let's do it. Especially if someone hadn't seen Citizen Yeah, yeah. That would be very exciting. I appreciate how... I think there are there are parts of me that like so don't all the way connect with Citizen Kane, but I think it is like an extremely rich movie. Yeah.
00:16:55
Speaker
yeah like I think that like what hot take is so special what's so special about it and what like kind of attracts me to it is that there is there's like a lot of angles that you can approach it from. There's a lot going on in it. that ah And it's got a lot of kind of eternally relevant kind of cultural, political commentary. yeah It's not... a it's not When people talk about like the great American novel, it kind of feels like the great American movie. And that is like... it Yeah. It feels like a movie that is about like America. Yeah.
00:17:27
Speaker
And kind of the... And Hershey is the great American chocolate bar. As they say in the in the like free tour. Like, it is this kind of, you know... somewhat of a like rags to riches story yes of this guy who's like I'm a self-made man I've like I've made myself the most powerful important person in the world I'm a self-made man I inherited a bunch of money right from yeah yeah that and then also the fact that he's like miserable for most of it and it's like and kind of in eternally a child yeah remind you of anyone
00:17:58
Speaker
I like how I can say that and there's like eight people you could say. I was, know, like, even though I know who you meant, my mind went, wait, who is that? Who we talking Who you think I meant?
00:18:09
Speaker
I mean, I think you meant our current and former president. No. So that's the thing. Oh, you meant our ketamine infused shadow, ex-shadow president. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But it's, that's like and there's like six other people that you could easily apply, you know. Any rich person. I mean, the thing the thing about Citizen Kane is that the commentary is eternally relevant because rich people are eternally like that. Yeah. um Yeah.
00:18:39
Speaker
Anyway, number eight. number Number eight. My number eight is Fantasia. oh Fantasia for people who speak normally.
00:18:50
Speaker
I mean, what a what what a picture. I didn't say that about all of these. What a picture. ah But, like, Fantasia, I guess somewhat similar to Beauty and the Beast, is, like, narratively isn't necessarily doing that much that is, like, shocking or groundbreaking or even that emotionally affecting. I don't know. i I mean, I think Fantasia is a more emotionally affecting movie than Beauty and the Beast, despite it being less narrative heavy.
00:19:18
Speaker
Yeah. Being a sort of mostly non-narrative with occasion, you know, some segments of it are, you know, the Sorcerer's Apprentice part is probably the most like narratively like structured. Yeah. Section of it. Because, I mean, I think what I, what I have to say is that like cartoons are great. And one of the great things about cartoons is how they can hook you into a specific emotion so much more directly yeah than live action can. Yeah. It crosses the the the barrier of relatability and and um ah suspension of disbelief. Yeah. Where a cartoon cut straight to a It's the, like Scott McCloud thing of, like... Exactly, yeah. If it's abstract enough, it suddenly becomes this, like, universal thing that we can all kind of glom onto a lot more easily. Yeah. And, yeah, the way that Fantasia is, like,
00:20:10
Speaker
expressing uh we talked about this on the episode also but like the uh the like synesthesia kind of quality of it where it's like showing musical notes as visual things and like visualizing sounds and like emotions is is is so well done and it's so colorful and just like i'm the craft that went into it is clearly like staggering And also, right, it's it's like a romp.
00:20:38
Speaker
It's like super fun, too. Yeah. That's a movie that you were just like, let's throw Fantasia on. Oh, yeah. And I'd be like, hell yeah. Also, a great movie to put put on at a party. Yeah. You know, you don't have to listen to dialogue, really. It's just sort of like, hey, there's cool stuff happening in the background. Yeah. This rules. Especially if you're having like a classical music kind of party. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:59
Speaker
I love a classical music kind of already. my number seven is Casablanca. casab blanca Ah. What a picture. Very true. It is ah a movie that I think initially I'm like, yeah, this is nice. And then the more that I kind of let like marinated with it, something felt like so like vital and um that's andim important about it.
00:21:27
Speaker
It's a movie that is... concerned with not like real issues but it's not grappling with like issues of fascism and nazism directly it's grappling with like how bystanders exist within the world of fascism and i think that is something that just feels so real i wonder why yeah um Yeah, know very very true. And yeah, definitely it it... I'd seen that movie before we watched it for the podcast, but like it hit me so much harder watching it like this year. yeah
00:22:06
Speaker
Largely due to that, I think. I think i like across the board, but like especially that stuff. Yeah, and like the romance, I think... like the the The romance or the kind of like it the ill-fated romance that works really well. I think, yeah, it's just like... It works. It just...
00:22:23
Speaker
Casablanca, good. Hot take. Yeah. yeah I think that's going to be a lot of this list. It's like, hey, this famous, this super famous movie everyone loves. Pretty good. You know, that's the thing that if we're to step back into a bit of a, like a metatextual thing again, like, you know, we're talking about the 40s being like, this is where Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood is really Yeah.
00:22:43
Speaker
so much of the experience of this podcast in the past has been feeling like making discoveries and like finding things that like some people knew about, but like they feel like deep cuts to like most of the movie going public. Yeah. But now like that we're in the era of like the stone cold classics. We're just like, yeah, Casablanca. That's good. because i think I remember at some point in the early thirties were like, I think we were saying like either Frankenstein or Dracula is like, this is the oldest movie that most people like either have seen or even like know about yeah but nor the oldest movie that normal people have seen right like it that way because yeah it's true and then i feel like the forty s is like kind of that is you even more of that like a lot of the movies we watch for the 40s are like movies that people have seen yeah
00:23:34
Speaker
Which, compared to a lot of the other stuff that we've been doing for the show, is, like, strange. It's, like, not not the norm. I don't know how to emotionally handle it. I mean, it's only going to get more so. I know. the movies get newer. Huh, what's your favorite movie of 1977? Well, Star Wars is pretty good. Yeah, yeah. well'll we'll We'll get there.
00:23:54
Speaker
Right, it's like, don't does that make it less interesting? i don't know, because I still find it really... You know, i like the idea of watching Star Wars in the context of everything that has come before it, but also, what are we going to say that's new about Star Wars? I guess we'll cross that bridge when come to it, you know? Yeah, right it's it's less about, like, right, what are we say about Casablanca that hasn't been said before, but it is, like, I think it is, like, watching it... Well, we're the boys of... With, like, the movies surrounding it, too, like... movies. Yeah.
00:24:21
Speaker
This is what else was happening at the same time and also kind of like what was before and after. in Yeah. Full premise of the show that we do. My number seven is Brief Encounter.
00:24:34
Speaker
Another ah ill-fated 1940s romantic drama. Yes. Again, super famous. Pretty good. My pitch for A Wide Roof Encounter is good. Is that um i I do think it's like, I appreciate a romantic drama that is, feels like really emotional and like really grounded in like strong emotions and yet is like not...
00:25:03
Speaker
It is not a clean romantic movie. It is like, it's very messy. And like the emotions in it are very messy. And that like, God, I can't remember the characters names, but the the woman in it is like so clearly in love with the guy.
00:25:17
Speaker
And yet also is like, has a very happy home life, is part of a happy marriage. and is And is yet just, like, compelled by this thing that she kind of has no control over.
00:25:28
Speaker
it's new ah It's nuance, it's ambiguity, it's ambivalence. And it's, like, the the performances in that movie are so incredibly good. The direction in it by David Lean. it And, yeah, the kind of, like...
00:25:40
Speaker
I think I also just really responded well to the kind of like British repression of it, I guess. I'm just like, yeah, we love each other, that but we could, it can never be, we must go now. And like, you know, say, saying goodbye on a train late at night. It's just like, Oh God, kill me now.
00:25:59
Speaker
Um, yeah. Great movie. Yeah. i'll talk i'll talk I'll talk more about later. What a picture though. Yeah. My number six is the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which is such a fun movie.
00:26:17
Speaker
I think that really, like, this movie goes up so many notches because of how fun it is. ah You know, a lot of this other stuff we've been talking about, we're like, oh, like, these are, like, real, like, this has real urgency. The emotions. Yeah. The importance of this. The importance. It's so relevant for today. Yeah. So relevant to today. Or, like, these feelings, like, reach through time. And, like, there's aspects of that, of some of that in here. Sure, Greed is universal. Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
Greed is timeless. Greed is timeless. but But really, it's not about the timelessness of greed. It's about just like, dang, this is a like a romp. It's a fun it's a fun movie. I mean, about yeah, that too. It's a fun movie about like going a going out into the wilderness to pan for gold and striking it rich and tensions rising. And it just there's just something about it that just works. It works, works, works so well.
00:27:17
Speaker
Uh... It is... And then, of course, yeah. I mentioned this in the episode, but, like, the way that it remains a great time that is, you know, if we're to use this barometer of, like, do I want to just throw it on and watch it?
00:27:33
Speaker
Hell yeah, I do. You know? But also, does it go to some, like, really dark, like, evil places? Yes. And somehow it threads that needle so well. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:43
Speaker
ah Yeah. Super cool movie. love I love Treasure of Sierra Madre. i I agree. it I'll say it now. It did not make my list, sadly. But it is... and That's pretty Glenn-coded. I'm surprised. It is. Yeah. But it's it it's certainly in my honorable mentions, I think. Yeah, very fun movie.
00:28:02
Speaker
Right, like, it has all of that, like, deep, dark human drama in it also. Yeah. But it also... Right, like you said, it's just... It's it's a romp. And it's like... Every scene is entertaining.
00:28:14
Speaker
Every scene feels like it it is giving you something as an audience member. It's giving. Are you saying that in in the sense that it is it is very generous? Or in the sense like, it's it's giving treasure. It's giving desert.
00:28:28
Speaker
The second one. Okay. Great. My number six is Notorious. Notorious. ah the The Hitchcock romantic spy thriller.
00:28:40
Speaker
the The movie where we zoom very, very, very long way into one key in one hand. um I mean, my I will say this. much The order of these movies is pretty...
00:28:53
Speaker
messy and arbitrary and I if I made this list again in 10 minutes I'd put them in a different order like even right now I'm like so Tori's really better than Brief Encounter no but like uh right Brief Encounter is like yeah it's like very you know heart-wrenching uh romantic drama whereas notorious is like i think it also a very successful romantic drama but also is a spy movie with lots of sneaky hitchcock suspense shit in it and also claude rains as a
00:29:25
Speaker
as a sneaky nazi spy you gotta love an evil claude rain we've got a lot of evil claude rains in our lists love a good evil claude rains kind of like frozen siramandri is like uh is this movie is very fun yeah and has a lot of a lot of great like hitchcock stuff a lot of great suspense a lot of great just like really robust filmmaking i guess great performances all around really great writing i thought yeah that does a lot with with a little like it doesn't feel like it's there's not a lot of like bombast there's not a lot of like big set pieces necessarily which hitchcock sometimes does where it's got a restrained scope yeah but it it i really works in that one yeah what a picture indeed
00:30:11
Speaker
hu My number five is Indiana Jones. No, I'm just kidding. I was tricking you. It's Gaslight.
00:30:22
Speaker
Ah. Is that Gaslighting, though? I don't know. I think Gaslighting is saying your favorite movie of the 1940s is Indiana Jones. I wanted to do a bit, and i kind of knew partway through the bit that it was not really correct. But you know what?
00:30:42
Speaker
Oops. Anyway, Gaslight is ah an incredible, incredible picture.
Cultural and Social Commentary
00:30:48
Speaker
I, you know, I think that there's a lot about Gaslight's reputation that precedes it.
00:30:54
Speaker
It has a large place in culture. I mean, completely unrelated to its status as a film or completely unrelated movie people. It's just now a thing that everybody is aware of. And many people have no awareness that it comes from a really damn good movie. Yeah. But it introduced a like psychological concept.
00:31:19
Speaker
yeah to to don't know i introduced that concept necessarily but it it introduced it to a a wide audience it gave a name to something that has probably always existed right yeah and it is i will say it was very interesting watching it with that like knowing the like long tail of like cultural impact that it's had yeah and that's even the first gaslight movie because there's the older british film of it also that's right the older brit the older british one isn't called that Don't do the thing from the movie. hey
00:31:52
Speaker
There you go The bit worked that time. don't know. It was just interesting to see how it is actually how it plays out in the actual movie itself. Like the concept of gaslighting.
00:32:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And like the the the emotions in this movie, like the the the the the way that it just brings you in on her distress and her yeah unfolding psyche.
00:32:18
Speaker
Ingrid Bergman really good at being distressed on camera. It's like, it it feels... Yeah, it's it's it's just so well put together. um It's heightened. It's big. It's not like... don't know if it's like, you know, realistic exactly. But it's like melodramatic in like this...
00:32:38
Speaker
it does feel melodramatic it sells it sells it's so good and you know movies are all about heightened feelings they're all about heightened them unless you're yasujira ozu you know it's all about heightened emotions and uh and and this the paranoia of this movie is just it's so good it's so good right and like it's got all the paranoia also it's got jewel theft yeah Honestly, the jewel thieving is like the clunkier part of the movie, but like it's still still fun to have jewel thieves in a movie. Yeah. I think that was a thing where it ended up being a little bit more heightened and a little bit more kind of big and exaggerated than I maybe expected it to. But it's like the the actual like psychological manipulation...
00:33:22
Speaker
stuff and it is like very very affecting yeah and it's well observed in certain ways i mean you know i think that it's easy to think melodrama as worse than drama right right uh because like oh people are like oh don't be melodramatic you know why but like I think that in the same way that like opera is something that is like taking these kind of, i was just talking about cartoons, right? Taking these kind of yeah core concepts and magnifying them and blowing them up and turning them into iconic things. And I think that ah like I've watched movies that I've, that have been called melodramas. And as long as it works, as long as it feels true. If if they're selling it, yeah then it totally works. Yeah. They're selling it. I'm buying it, baby. Yeah.
00:34:12
Speaker
What a picture. My number five, a recent addition, is The Third Man. Ooh. I mean, we just talked about this on the last episode, but ah good movie.
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i this is, I think, especially at this point in the list, maybe, in the top five, is going to start being a little bit... Since this is my personal list, yeah there is a thing... And I'm not trying to take that away from you. This is your personal list. This is also...
00:34:41
Speaker
This is also, I think, a thing with, like, my Letterboxd Top 4. Yeah. Things like that, where it's like, i I think that I have a pretty eclectic taste in movies, and I like a lot of different things. Uh-huh.
00:34:53
Speaker
There is usually one thing that I like. There's, like three things that I like more than anything else, though. which is like sci-fi adventure and noir detective shit and so that like if i'm making a list of any group of movies yeah it's always going to be it's going to end up being a lot of the same thing yeah and so when i was making my list for my top 10 of the 40s i was like oh no these are all kind of the same movie but i'm like hey that's my favorite type of movie yeah 40s nothing wrong a lot of my movies are going to be very kind of samey
00:35:25
Speaker
The 1940s is a decade full of Glenn-coded movies. Sure. ah Mostly just because I've based so much of my personality on forty s and movies. Or movies that are aping 40s movies. Or apes from 30s movies. Hey, there you go. I mean, if there's ah if there's going to be a Glenn shoe-in...
00:35:44
Speaker
If there's a Glenn Shue-In for the 50s, there's going be a lot of Glenn Shue-Ins for the fifty s with all the creature and sci-fi movies and everything like that. But I hope that you can still see that Creature from the Black Lagoon is a bit of a stinker, even if there fun parts of Ooh, hot take.
00:36:00
Speaker
i don't know. I rewatched that bet not that long ago. I think it's pretty good. But we're not here talk about that. We'll get to that. The third man. Sorry. Yes. The movie I'm actually talking about. Yeah, it's a great noir movie. it It feels like simultaneously like a great example of noir. And also there's nothing else like it.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yes. um it's it's like its setting is really specific and like kind of unusual for a noir movie it's its score is super weird for a noir movie but really works it eschews some of the stereotypical noir yeah it's it's characters feel like really hard-boiled noir characters but they don't fit easily into like noir stereotypes euro noir um yeah i i am
00:36:45
Speaker
I know you are, but... ah Yeah, and then Orson Welles, again, crushing it. Yeah. Being real sinister, but also charming. What a picture.
00:36:56
Speaker
All's Wells that ends Wells. My... What number are we at? My number four is... Now now we're getting into movies that more or less, like... Like, from here on... From from here on for you, it's, like, movies that are just 100% Yeah. from here on for me it's like ze movies that like like hit the waterworks you know nice uh hell yeah and so now we're moving into it grapes of wrath grapes of wrath i you know because i didn't go to high school i didn't like read a lot of john steinbeck i've read east of eden and that's it did not read murder at full moon
00:37:36
Speaker
Nor have I even read ah Of Mice and Men, even though it's 50 pages long. yeah But I do really like writing recommend it. It's really good. You know, we talk about Citizen Kane, which feels very politically relevant. But, like, Grapes of Wrath is... Citizen Kane is a movie that's politically relevant from, like, we're looking at this, like, systemic issues kind of pulled back. Let's look at the the kind of twistedness of rich people. And Grapes of Wrath is, like...
00:38:06
Speaker
Just this bitter, like, rough, rough movie. It's ah it' a very movie, too. About, working-class conditions. Yeah. I mean, you know, it is... Steinbeck and Henry Fonda, like...
00:38:23
Speaker
There's a reason why ah there's some kind of Red Scare stuff going on with them, you know? like or that happened with them, as far as I'm aware. Because, like, this is a a viciously left-wing movie ah that... um But, it know it ah like, it doesn't...
00:38:42
Speaker
It's not preaching. Yeah, it's not a, like um like, militant movie, really. It's like, well, I don't know. But it's like, yeah, it's it's not preachy. It's not, like.
00:38:54
Speaker
It's not it's a not a movie that's going, like, it's here, politics. Yeah, it's going very it's very, like, it's very grounded in, like, humanity. It's a very humanist And I think that's the reason why it hits so hard and why it feels so brutal. Like, this is a brutal movie, you know? And it feels like that because it is grounded in, like like, yeah, lived experience. Or, or I don't know if john or Steinbeck went through this, but, like... it It paints an extremely realistic picture of people on the margins of society who are so like barely able to scrape together an existence in a system that doesn't give a shit about them. yeah it Remind you of anything? it like It's a movie that you know it it like champions the human spirit in not like a corny way. like yeah In terms of just like...
00:39:51
Speaker
Where do we go when everything is so much that you could just give up and die? You know, like if you're one little piece away from one one little like piece of effort away from losing everything, like how does that feel? Yeah.
00:40:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's like it's like Bicycle Thieves compounded. yeah yeah yeah it is a kind of larger scope more sweeping version of that um it's like yeah it's less every like this is one day and this is like no this is every day yeah you think of like uh like um gone with the wind right it's like like uh like the right because like what does the guy in bicycle thieves do the next day Because it's like, that's not what this movie's about. It's like, that's entirely, like, I think Graves of Wrath is much more a about the kind of long, it's like, no, It's a family, it's like a family epic. But it's not about success. It's like a family epic of suffering. Yeah, yeah. But also like that movie, got plenty of fun stuff in it too. Like it it is, it is well paced. It is well, you know, it's it's not just a bummer to sit through.
00:41:01
Speaker
no yeah Which I appreciate about it. And I think it makes it... It makes the things that it's... trying The ideas that it's trying to impart hit better. Because it's it's not just dragging through the mud the whole time. It's just sort of like... It's giving you the little little victories, little moments throughout. That to kind of keep you... Keep you on track. Keep you engaged. You know, like we were saying, this is not like a ah preachy movie per se It... But like...
00:41:29
Speaker
You know, the the good political opinions make logical sense. Persuasive political opinions make emotional sense.
00:41:40
Speaker
But... Pretty much all the good political opinions, if you put them in the right terms, they make emotional sense. Right. And this is a movie that is just showing you the emotional case for treating poor people with dignity. and it's like, that's it. That's like the only... There are a lot of other political ideas, I think, like put forward in the movie. i think that is...
00:42:06
Speaker
by and large it's like its thesis it's like idea is that like everyone is deserving of dignity despite their circumstance yeah and and yeah the kind of the ways in which america kind of tends to sidestep that yeah often um and yeah it's like it is so it is so very specifically like pointed at like this is about the dust bowl it's about the 1930s it's about the great depression and yeah all of this like i was i was really kind of not really shocked because i mean i'd read the book and i'd seen it before and it was like but re-watching it was definitely like wow this is like this is hitting so hard
00:42:48
Speaker
right now just because it's like everything it's talking about is still like very relevant yeah even more so than the other stuff that we've talked about already what a picture what a picture my number four is less of a uh maybe politically relevant movie but one that is very glenn coded which is double indemnity Nice. um Once again, like... That's on my honorable mentions. Well, like we'll save the honorable mentions a little bit. great noir movie.
00:43:18
Speaker
Like, absolutely top-notch writing on this one, I think. And it's like... I think a really good example of a noir movie that is like its characters are really ah despicable.
00:43:31
Speaker
Like the characters that you're following that you're like you want to see succeed because they're the lead characters. You're like emotionally wrapped up in their schemes. And yet they're like these are like garbage people. Like they are so selfish and cruel.
00:43:45
Speaker
And yet, it's like when they're... Right, they're like plotting a murder. And when they're like trying to get away with it, you're like, oh no, the car won't start. They're gonna get caught. And you're like, of course. They should get caught. They're murderers. The way that it like...
00:43:59
Speaker
plays with that the way that it like draws you in as ah as an audience to like root for them just on purely like undramatic terms of like i want to see where the story goes yeah it's not cheap there's something like persuasive about what's happening with them yeah right it's like they they do just enough laying off um just enough the grind work like the guy they kill kind of sucks and maybe i do want to see him dead like And then, yeah, like just it's it's so it's got full of quick twists and turns.
00:44:27
Speaker
Great suspense. Great. Just great characters, I think, is really the thing that puts that one kind of over the top. And also then it just has like some of the some of the absolute best like hard boiled dialogue in it.
00:44:40
Speaker
Like there's some, there's like, it is like dripping with like 40s lingo. Yeah. Not even a famous line in this movie, but a line that I absolutely love is there's like a pretty minor character says this where he goes, keep you a nickel and buy yourself an ice cream cone. like Who would say that?
00:44:59
Speaker
But I, I want to talk like that every day. If only it didn't take a writer to talk in the way that a writer will write. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that movie's great. And I'm feeling ashamed that I don't have really any noir on my top ten. That's fine.
00:45:18
Speaker
yeah i like i enjoy the noir movies. I think this is a good balance. Your all your list is like emotionally hard-hitting, really sort of ah like topical...
00:45:28
Speaker
like thematically really rich movies and all my movies are just like this one's this one's real cool you guys i like that too i like that too i think that um yeah with the third man and double indemnity are probably the the top noirs for me but if you want like ur noir you want platonic noir that's either out of the past or double indemnity um Speaking of um ah politically relevant ah movies, ah my number three is The Great Dictator.
00:46:05
Speaker
Ah. You know, now that we've seen every Charlie Chaplin movie up until this point, i don't think we've missed any. um Films, like full feature films. Features? ah He didn't make that many. Yeah, think I guess. I guess maybe we have. we've got We've watched every single Charlie Chaplin feature film up to this point. and Damn. I mean, this is my favorite of his. I think it's... i think it's His best movie that I've seen, even though I really like a lot of his silent movies, I like i like his silent work, there's something that is so vital about The Great Dictator. I said that word before. and It like applies here, sure.
00:46:46
Speaker
Like, The Great Dictator... is It's a movie that's got cojones too. Which I think is easy to lose sight of. yeah yeah Yeah. Because they didn't want him to make this movie. yeah like he was like The movie they didn't want him to make. like you know Charlie Chaplin is a complicated guy. he had...
00:47:07
Speaker
bad Bad parts about him. he had issues. But he was somebody who cared about the downtrodden. Yeah. and he was somebody who believed in doing the right thing.
00:47:23
Speaker
in You know, pull like socially. Yeah. He saw what was happening in Germany and he said, this is so bad. like i need to make a movie about it and it is such a such an inspired idea honestly to like do it the way that he did it yeah to to play everyone think right to play into the the sort of weird synchronicity of their their public image of like they have this right the the tramp and hitler have the same facial hair
00:47:54
Speaker
Yeah, but also, like, you know, to just but maybe become Hitler. Right, but, like, making that, like, a whole plot point, that, like, the tramp and Hitler had the same facial hair. Yeah, yeah But, I mean, like, you know, I think another movie might ah make fun of Hitler without, like, embodying him, in a way. And he embodies him in this...
00:48:14
Speaker
really, like, it's doing something that can only be done by not having, like, here's somebody impersonating Hitler and then we make fun of him, you know? One of the kind of lead characters, in a way, is, like, you know, this universe's version of Hitler. And it it does something to tear him down and delegitimize him by placing him in that role.
00:48:40
Speaker
Yeah. um And, yeah, and it just, like, makes... It's... Makes the Nazis look... silly but it also makes them look scary yeah like there is right it does it doesn't skimp on the like i think that is always a thing like i do think it's very important to skewer fascism with humor like i think i think humor is ah is a a potent weapon against fascism precisely because fashion is fascism is so built up on like strong man like we're important we're the best we're very serious yeah that like
00:49:15
Speaker
You know, it's it's like any amount of, like, humorous criticism, I feel like, cuts even deeper. i But I think the the danger there is, like, you if you lighten it too much, if you if you make it too jokey, if you make it too lighthearted, you lose out of just the danger and the menace and the the really just how terrifying it is. And, yeah, Great Tick Terrier does a really good job of, like, not like being really incisively silly and also, right, not losing that sort of the menacing side of it. Yeah. And I mean, you know, there's a lot of great stuff in the movie. lot of good slapstick in the movie. It's funny.
00:50:00
Speaker
It's got great just like chaplain bits also. Yeah. um But like... The final scene, the the speech at the end of the movie where the tramp is revealing himself to be, like, being dressed up yeah as Hitler and speaking and, like, gives a speech, a diegetic speech to the audience. Right, like, right down the barrel to camera. Right, that, like...
00:50:26
Speaker
That, like, ends up very quickly becoming... Yeah, breaking the fourth wall. Yeah. completely abandoning the fiction of the movie. Yeah. saying, this is serious. Yeah. Listen to me. And also, like, a guy known for not speaking.
00:50:42
Speaker
Like... Yeah. Famously does not speak on camera. And then gives the greatest speech of all time. Yeah. And it's, like, something that kind of, like, on paper maybe shouldn't work. Like, it it is...
00:50:55
Speaker
You shouldn't do it. Right. You're not to that. It's like we were saying earlier how it's like, oh, this movie isn't preachy. Like, the end of The Great Dictator is like preaching yeah and yet it is it is so earnest and it is so from the heart yeah think it still lands and it still works i get i get um i get like too emotional just like recounting what happens in that speech yeah what he says in that speech let alone watching it i was a wreck i was a wreck at the end of that yeah
00:51:25
Speaker
Yeah, pretty good movie. Yeah. What a picture. ah My number three is, were saying about the the the sort of ur-noirs. I think this might be, and for me anyway, this is sort of like the, for me personally, and also I think just as a genre, the the like ultimate ur-noir movie, which is The Maltese Falcon.
00:51:48
Speaker
It's a very early one. It's like early 40s. So it's like, it it doesn't have that kind of like post-war, weight hanging over it that I think is like so associated with noir and is such a big part of like much much like Dublin Demity I guess it it just it has so much just like absolute like 40s detective goodness in it it is i think it's Out of the Past might take i have a slight edge over just, like, noir iconography in it. Yeah.
00:52:19
Speaker
But um I think the characters in The Maltese Falcon are a lot more fun. A lot... They're kind of bigger. it's It's one of the more cartoony ones, I think.
00:52:31
Speaker
but Peter Lorre, especially. Yeah. yeah Like every, everyone is just like doing is like, yeah, pretty, pretty arch, pretty like exaggerated, but it is like in, in the way that you want a, like a forties movie to be arch and exaggerated. Yeah.
00:52:49
Speaker
Uh, again, like the, the writing really stands out. It is like almost just kind of like, uh, like copy pasted from the book. But it's like, hey, when you have good hard-boiled dialogue, like, why change it?
00:53:02
Speaker
Yeah. The dialogue's great in it. And I think, like, those, like, the the cast in that movie is, like, the people you want delivering that kind of dialogue. Like, Humphrey Bogart is, hot take, very good at doing detective shit. Killing it through this entire decade. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:19
Speaker
Right. There is a multitude of movies that we watch that we have not mentioned that it's like, Humphrey Bogart is great in this. Yeah. Yeah, like, I think there was, think it was, like, Clive Owen talking about the the time he played Sam Spade, the same character from this movie, and how he was, like, watching this and other Bogart movies, and he was, like, the thing he picked up on is how it's, like, Humberberger will have, like, an entire page of dialogue of, like, really, like, complicated technical stuff, like, full of lingo and jargon.
00:53:48
Speaker
And he's, like, running through it. He's, like, taking no time to like... He's not, like, chewing on He's not savoring any of it. He's just, like, throwing it all away. And going, like, just, like, speaking through it as fast as humanly possible.
00:54:02
Speaker
And it's, like... That's something that I think is, like, a very 40s thing of, like, we're going to speed... speak through this whole movie of just like this is going to have like three movies worth of dialogue in it but it's just going to we're going to say it so fast that you don't notice but then it's just more to kind of pick up on like on repeat viewings right exactly I think it rewards repeat viewing it's dense for that um also I think just like for me personally this movie is some one that I like I return to a lot and that I have I think I've learned a lot from and is like
00:54:39
Speaker
I I like I have a little bit of just like sentimental kind of like ah it was like definitely one of the first kind of like 40s noir movies that I'd seen. and they really kind of like set set the standard. Yeah.
00:54:52
Speaker
It's a fun time. It's, uh, yeah. I mean, in a way I almost like by proxy have, uh, have that association. Just by knowing me, you've gotten through osmosis. You've got a lot of Maltese Falcon. for Definitely. Definitely. Especially because like, right. We made a movie. We made a movie. Which is like almost a remake of it. A lot of Maltese Falcon energy, I guess I'll say. Yeah, for sure.
00:55:14
Speaker
Great, great picture. Yeah. What a picture. My number two is Fantasia. Ah. I figured this would be high on your list. Yes. Yeah.
00:55:25
Speaker
And, you know, i don't know. Maybe on some days it could be a number one. But Fantasia is one of the most incredible pieces of art that I've ever seen in my life. Yeah.
00:55:37
Speaker
And it it, honestly, one of the most shocking things about it is that it came from the Walt Disney Corporation. Yeah. Damn. i fired i I said this in the episode, but like Disney has never, will never make anything remotely approaching Fantasia in quality.
00:55:59
Speaker
In terms of like interestingness, artistic chutzpah, and just like... I don't know, thought Clone Legacy was pretty cool.
00:56:11
Speaker
Okay, I'll give it to that.
00:56:14
Speaker
I mean, but you know, what part of what's incredible about Fantasia is its visual inventiveness. And that is something that Tron Legacy has. Tron Legacy carries on in the legacy of... It's really a legacy sequel to Fantasia. Yeah.
00:56:31
Speaker
But yeah, Fantasia... um she guess they did do Fantasia 2000, which I haven't seen, but... which i haven't seen I think I saw it like way back when, um and i don't remember much about it, but I've watched some of the segments. It's where the original Fantasia has to mentor a new Fantasia. Right, I see, yeah. um But yeah, as you were talking about, I think that the synesthetic elements of Fantasia are something that is... it it feels like...
00:57:03
Speaker
They just did it. And this kind of it's it's this huge scale film that exists in the context of experimental film as far as like this kind of abstract imagery that's in Fantasia. But also so much experimental film, I think, is like idea ahead of feeling.
00:57:27
Speaker
And Fantasia does not sacrifice feeling for ideas. So when you are watching just, you know, what looks like abstract expressionist art that is just...
00:57:45
Speaker
moving in front of you on the screen. In many ways, it feels like it has all of the like importance of a single painting from, i don't know, take your pick. But it's got dozens of them per second, right? And that motion is which magical. I love a cartoon.
00:58:08
Speaker
And this feels like the... it It feels like they are reaching some apex of what cartoons can do. And it is just rare that anything has done something like that. I feel like like the closest reference point for Fantasia is like the Jupiter and the Beyond the Infinite sequence from 2001. In terms of just like...
00:58:36
Speaker
Abstract animation. Like hitting you with feeling and feeling like it's getting at something base level. Yeah. Within yourself. It's hitting something in your like subconscious. Yeah. That is you're like, oh, I didn't know that was there. Yeah.
00:58:53
Speaker
ah And, you know, even though it kind of bothers me that Mickey Mouse is in the movie, um I think that part's lot of fun, too. Yeah, it's great.
00:59:04
Speaker
um Yeah, I mean, I think magical is a really great way of describing that movie. And I think is one one of the best things you can say about any movie, really, is like, I think movies have, as we have learned,
00:59:17
Speaker
Doing the show. um The idea of movies being magic tricks or being sort of like adjacent to magic as a kind of craft is very... There's a lot of... Especially early on, like lot of crossover. A lot of magicians got into film.
00:59:34
Speaker
And a lot of early films were kind of treated almost more as magic tricks than like storytelling, you know, devices. The first animated films were treated that way too. Absolutely. And so it's like there's that, that's always been a kind of ah ah current in in filmmaking. Like I think and there are things like Ozu movies that are like going whole hog onto just like this is like narrative. Although even those can get abstract at times too. Yeah, i know where going with this. Other than just like, yeah, i think I think that kind of like that magical quality is something that is feels... It is not unique to film. It is something that film can do
01:00:15
Speaker
incredibly well it's part of the unique power of moving pictures yeah right it is like it is inherently just a kind of like magical thing where you're like it's a picture but it's moving how is this possible what is this a harry potter news newspaper yeah so i think uh yeah fantasia really uh exemplifies that very well fantasia rips yeah uh my number two a little movie called Casablanca.
01:00:43
Speaker
Ah. Play it again, Sam. I think that is never said in the film. It's okay. We all need to... ah Yeah, I mean, like I said briefly before, it's like this movie hit hit me in in the heart, I think, a lot.
01:00:58
Speaker
A lot more watching it this year than in previous years. Yeah. I think I made only had seen seen it once before this. There's so much good stuff to say about It's like, it's pretty well written. It's well directed. It's like, it's it's it's a really just incredibly well made movie across the board.
01:01:17
Speaker
But I think a thing that like, especially watching it for the show and like within the context of it, of like... I think that, and i I said this on the episode, we talked about it also, but to repeat myself, like one of the things i was most struck by watching Casablanca this time was how it was like being made in the early forty s like, before the U.S. even entered the war, and, like, there was no pre- or, like, preconceived outcome. Like, they didn't know how any of this stuff was gonna go. Yeah, yeah. And yet, they were making a, like, really intensely anti-fascist movie.
01:01:52
Speaker
And, like, really... Great Dictator is, like, a much more um direct about, like, taking a stand and being like, this is wrong, and I'm so i'm telling you why. Yeah.
01:02:04
Speaker
Whereas I think Casablanca's... Weaving it into the narrative maybe bit more, but it's like... Masterful. It's characters are... It does a really good job like, voicing ideas through its characters and having its characters represent different ideas. Yeah, just, like, having this, like, really kind of, like, beaten down, cynical guy who's just, like... Big mood.
01:02:26
Speaker
big Big mood, for sure. But then, like, seeing him soften and it's like... Just that the at the core of him is this guy who just really cares about stuff.
01:02:37
Speaker
And to like have that get like drawn out of him over the course of the movie is so satisfying to see, for one thing. And a lot of people who have fallen to cynicism are people who've done so because they care so much. Right. I mean, i i would apply that to myself. just re-ignite that I think that was a thing where like...
01:02:55
Speaker
I don't remember you know exactly what was going on in the world when I watched Casablanca for this show. But it was like, I was like, I have felt very cynical recently.
01:03:06
Speaker
And like, this movie is being like, we know, we get it. But also, like, it's important to care about things. And I was like, ugh! So, Casablanca, pretty good movie. Yeah. ah Agreed.
01:03:21
Speaker
Agreed. And now, I guess we'll get into our runner's ups. runners up I had 11 runner ups, which is more than the list.
01:03:33
Speaker
ah So I pared it way down to stuff that I think was real knock them out of the parks. um Or at least really notable. Like really like high quality stuff.
01:03:47
Speaker
And I'll throw a few in there. i think Double Indemnity i would I would put on that list, on my runner-up list. This one was a lot of fun and had a lot of really cool stuff in it, but like I feel like... um His Girl Friday is another one. Speaking of movies that have so much dialogue in them that it's been through. The fastest dialogue in the West. Yeah. His Girl Friday. great Great time. Fun time. The Third Man, which we just talked about, but it's got a lot going for it. And I figured I'd i'd throw... I'm i'm doing a little double bill with these of... Not double bill, but like...
01:04:28
Speaker
Red Shoes and um and Black Narcissus. I think, like, the Powell and Pressburger... I'm not so hot on the the Colonel... Sure, yeah. yeah But it's like, you you can see them developing. You can see, like, as as they keep making more movies, they're like... they're I think not only they getting better at their craft, but they're sort of like... Their stories are getting more interesting, too. They're starting to get a little bit... Yeah.
01:04:56
Speaker
Um... A little bit less literal. I feel like, yeah, i I feel like every one of their movies has some level of just like, they're doing something really unusual is maybe the wrong word. i don't There's a kind of a playfulness to their movies. And there's something where it's like, they're not, they're not concerned about, about telling like literal stories.
01:05:15
Speaker
They're like, there's always a bit of, again, magical. The technicolor magic. bit of like magical realism yeah or sort of something or surrealism or like, Just the the and nature of their hyper colors creates an unreality them. And this is maybe going back a little bit, another digression, very quick, ah to the sort of like movies as a magical thing. i was just trying to rattle these off, but go ahead. yeah ah I'll rattle mine off in a second. Is like movies as ah like representations of dreaming.
01:05:47
Speaker
because i also as far as i know there is no scientific consensus on why people dream this is a weird thing our brains do when we sleep and yet i think movies the reason movies are like i don't know if they're the most popular art form in the world but they're like an incredibly popular world art form that is like and they just like they hit they you know when when they work it's like you don't even have to speak the same language it's like it's universal it's yeah and i think that is because it is like They are the closest thing we have to experiencing a dream while we're awake.
01:06:21
Speaker
Which is why um everybody who complains about plot holes should shut the hell up. You complain about plot holes in your dreams? i don't think so. Yeah. um are I'm going to critique your dreams for not making sense. Is that your full? ah It's a Wonderful Life. Also, very good movie. yada Very good movie.
01:06:39
Speaker
I mean, also in my my honorable mentions. up avi And I think a lot a lot of the things that were on your list that I did not... Put on mine are, for sure, Noble mentions like Treasure of Fear, Madre, Gaslight, Grebs of Wrath, Best Years of Our Lives, I really liked. Black Narcissist in Red Shoes, for sure. ah It's not like the best movie in the world, but I want to give a shout out to Cat People because I think it's really cool. Yeah. um And then Bambi is great. Yeah. it's so, so good. Like, a movie I don't think I'd seen since I was, like, a very young child.
01:07:14
Speaker
Yeah. And I was like, this movie rips. This movie's so good. Yeah. That was kind of on my... on my I had to pare it down, that there It's like, that movie's rated G, and it goes so hard, and it's like...
01:07:26
Speaker
yeah bambi's real good yeah like i'm a big bambi booster if anyone's listening to this and it's like oh bambi i don't want to watch that's kid stuff like who cares bambi rules bambi is a kick-ass movie yeah also if you're like oh bambi i don't want to like oh it's it's just like you misery porn or whatever you know it' it's like that's one that's one part like it's it's also just like super colorful and joyful yeah Bambi very good. Yeah. Another mention that we did not watch for the show, but I watched on my own time, is the Powell Pressburger movie, A Matter of Life and Death, um which is actually my favorite Powell Pressburger movie that I've seen. That one's from, like, I don't know, 43 or whatever. um Real good.
01:08:08
Speaker
Real, real good. Check it out. Have we made it to our number ones indeed of the 1940s? The undisputed best movie of 1940. Of the 1940s. I think it might be disputed in a second. but The undisputed, currently undisputed, number one movie of the 1940s. Currently undisputed is a great phrase. The currently undisputed. Just try and dispute it. It's Brief Encounter.
01:08:36
Speaker
Brief Encounter. That... movie god damn yeah talk speak about ah turn on the waterworks yeah yeah uh brief encounter is one of the greatest movies i've ever seen in my life uh it is hitting these just real real things in this uh Harsh, rough, like like but like just aching. it's It's an aching movie. it's a movie about It's a movie about ache. It's a movie about passion that you can't feel. It's it's it's a movie that has like murky morality.
01:09:21
Speaker
But it's a murky morality that comes from real people who just can't control their real feelings. And like real feelings that need to be felt and addressed. And real feelings that in this movie are so, you know, they're so strong.
01:09:40
Speaker
They lead people to think about, you know, ending their life. because of how seriously they, they, they, uh, that this aching exists in them. And there is just, yeah, there's just something that is,
01:09:58
Speaker
such a human piece of art, this this film. Yeah. It's, it's, yeah, it's, there, there's, there's something, there's something real, there's something true, there's something that you are just, like, feeling the complexity within the human spirit in this movie. Yeah.
01:10:16
Speaker
Brief Encounter, so good. Hell yeah. I do think it's very funny how many of your top ten things have been like, this movie is brutal. It is harsh. It is hard-hitting. You will feel pain. You know, one time somebody said to me, ah Chris, you really like these day-ruiner movies, don't you? I actually don't think any of these are day-ruiner movies. I think they're all like, well, don't Brief Encounter, depending depending on the day, maybe. Depending on the day, depending on the person. But...
01:10:43
Speaker
No, it's, yeah, just the the adjectives that are that are flying um make me laugh a little. I like a brutal movie. Yeah, no, I mean, me too. And yeah, Brief Encounter, I mean, I said it already, is great.
01:10:56
Speaker
Yeah, i ah you you will feel emotion, and and you may shed a tear, 500. You may laugh, or perhaps... you may laugh or perhaps Yeah, give the audience a smile or perhaps a tear.
01:11:12
Speaker
i think about that every day. That is The Kid. That is from Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. For anyone who's not a regular listener. Which did give me both a smile and a tear. Yeah.
01:11:23
Speaker
I don't know. Anything else to say about Brief Encounter? no I just waxed for a while. My number one on the opposite end of the spectrum is Arsenic and Old Lace.
01:11:37
Speaker
Hell yeah. Which is is less to do with its like quality as a film. Like really. yeah If I'm comparing this to most of the rest of my list or like anything else that we've talked about in this, you know, listing, it's not right. i I don't think it has any great insight into the human spirit.
01:11:57
Speaker
or condition or it it is just a movie that gives me such intense joy that I it i i would feel ah bad not putting it at number one.
01:12:12
Speaker
It is such... It is like an adrenaline shot of joy into my heart it is what watching this movie feels like. It's a hilarious movie. yeah It's very... it's You know, cartoons don't get enough respect. Comedies don't get enough respect. It's a very cartoony comedy. Yeah. It's a yeah um and yeah it's like every every performance is like cranked up to... Not even up to 12. 12.
01:12:37
Speaker
Cary Grant has never been more manic. And that's saying something, because that guy can get manic in a movie. um He's somehow even more manic than he is in Bringing Up Baby or anything else I've seen him in. It is like he's he is like exploding in this movie.
01:12:55
Speaker
um I don't understand how anyone has that much energy. um Or is able to make like fully cartoon faces. Like, is able to he's like Jim Carrey-style, like, stretching his face into things where I'm like, I didn't know a person could do that.
01:13:09
Speaker
And then also Peter Lorre is like, I think every single line of dialogue Peter Lorre says in this movie is, like, my favorite line of dialogue in a movie. there I feel like the, um, if Peter Lorre's in a movie, it's a Glenn movie. Right.
01:13:25
Speaker
and But it's like, I think, right, Peter Lorre is always usually, ah Great comic relief, great source of sort of menace. All of these things. He's able to do all of it in this movie. He's, like, genuinely menacing, very extremely funny, and is he's the most Peter Lorre he has ever been Arsignaled Lace. It is, like... Yeah. I think the way that, like, you know, Christopher Walken has lots of, you know, mannerisms and stuff. There's, like, a handful of movies where he's, like, the most Walken has ever been, where he's, like, leaning all the way into the the stuff that people be like, where he's just, like...
01:14:02
Speaker
exaggerating all of his own sort of like quirks and i think that's that's what peter lorry is doing in our single place he's just like leaning all the way in he's fully committing to the bit of being peter lorry yeah its it's And it's ah wonderful to be called. It's a great dark comedy.
01:14:21
Speaker
Yeah. It's a Halloween movie. Yeah. The thing that I like... I always just sell it to people. I'm like, it is like a zany comedy about hiding a dead body.
01:14:31
Speaker
Right? Yeah. and Because like... is It's such a wonderful, dark premise that like you don't you don't feel the darkness. It's so silly. It is about murder and hiding dead bodies and poisoning. and like ah like The stakes are life and death. People are very close to being murdered or get murdered in this movie. and it it and it doesn't really There is real moments of like tension and menace.
01:14:58
Speaker
It never feels dark, I guess. It's like yeah it the the it's Because it's just lightly playing with dark subject matter, it makes it even more funny. Yeah. um And also, right, it's like it's it's pretty ah clearly based on ah a stage play. like It feels very kind of stage-bound. It all takes place in a single house. It's like mostly one set, and yet, just the the way that they light and shoot mostly just one room...
01:15:27
Speaker
It's like, it's the kind thing you don't notice until after the movie. It's like, that was like almost entirely one set. Because it's so high energy. Like it doesn't really feel like... People are moving around so much that it's like, wow, they really moved around in this thing. They went all over the place. You don't feel that it's one place too bad because it's like so like bouncing off all walls. Edward Everett Horton is in this.
01:15:50
Speaker
yeah be playing a befuddled ah befuddled man. Perfect role for him. Exactly. his His finest work. So, yeah, I mean, like, yeah, my number 10 was Ciz and Cain.
01:16:03
Speaker
But if we're talking about a movie that I actually just, like, want to watch at all times of every day, it's it's this one. Nice. Ah, so, number one.
01:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, those were that those were the top tens Well, the 1940s. Only...
01:16:26
Speaker
The 1940s. What a decade.
Reflection and Listener Engagement
01:16:29
Speaker
What a decade. Yeah. We had World War II and some movies. Yeah. Anyway, thank you all for joining us indeed on our journey through this decade. We've done the eighteen ninety s The 1900s. 1920s, 1930s. Now, the 1940s. Look at how much podcasting we've done, Glenn.
01:16:52
Speaker
It's nice to look back every once in a while. Oh, look at all that podcasting back there. Indeed. um Thank you all for watching and listening.
01:17:05
Speaker
why't you ah Why don't you engage a little bit and let us know your top tens in the comments. Hey, there you go. Unless you're listening, in which case message us on Instagram your top tens or comment on our on our little picture post or whatever. yeah I don't know.
01:17:22
Speaker
dude or Or make make a letterbox list. Make a letterbox list. Make a letterbox list called Chris and Glenn are wrong. Here are the real top tens of the nineteen forty s ah And it's all... um I don't know. It's all Marx Brothers movies.
01:17:39
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. There you go. That's a Glenn in particular is wrong. All right. That'll about do it for this time. we will see you in the 1950s. So exciting. Indeed.
01:17:52
Speaker
Glenn. With an empty glass. With an empty glass. Cheers. See you next decade.