Friday, January 1, 2016

best classic movies seen in 2015

I watched 69 classic movies in 2015 - dramatically fewer than in past years. On the other hand the overall standard was so high that picking my ten favourites was a real challenge. Here’s my top ten, in order of release date (I can’t pick an overall favourite).

White Woman (Stuart Walker, 1933) - a gloriously over-ripe tropical melodrama with bravura performances by Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Alfred L. Werker, 1939) - one of the two 20th Century-Fox Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce movies made before the move to Universal.

Singapore (John Brahm, 1947) - fine tropical noir with Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner

Morning Departure (Roy Ward Baker, 1950) - the best submarine movie ever although it’s not a war movie.

Murder Without Crime (J. Lee Thompson, 1950) - top-notch British mystery B-movie.

No Highway in the Sky (Henry Koster, 1951) - one of the great aviation movies.

Mr Denning Drives North (Anthony Kimmins, 1952) - brilliantly twisted inverted murder mystery with a superb lead performance by John Mills.

The League of Gentlemen (Basil Dearden, 1960) - the first of the great British caper movies.

Ocean’s Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 1960) - the first of the great American caper movies.

A Dandy in Aspic (Anthony Mann, Laurence Harvey, 1968) - an underrated and very dark spy tale.

1 comment:

  1. Cool site to have stumbled across, found it while googling for info on Cry Vengeance, a better than expected noirish b movie gem I saw today. Love the classic cinema! Your top ten titles are all intriguing, have seen none. With exception of oceans 11, was only vaguely aware of these titles, if aware at all. Cheers!

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