50 Top Films

Here we go again: a list of the 50 best films, this time from The Spectator magazine. Some time ago Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane" always took pride of place at the top of these lists; now it hardly ever does. Here it is at No. 14; and here too is "The Magnificent Ambersons" which most people would, I think, have put at a lower level (if appearing at all) - here it is at No. 7! There is a lot of doubt about whether Welles was completely in charge of the filming of "Ambersons"; certainly the editing of it was not done solely by Welles who, I believe, "washed his hands" of the project since the producers wanted so many changes, believing it to be a money-loser. They were right. It's a hard film to like. There is one outstanding performance in it though; not only outstanding but altogether surprising. Tim Holt, a B picture actor, gave a great performance as a rather "spoilt child" of a young man (his other great performance in film was in "Treasure of Sierra Madre").
There is one serious omission from the list I believe: "Shane". It's never in any list now that I know of. A superb masterpiece of a Western, better than any.... OK, maybe "The Searchers" is as good - that is on the list at No. 6. And where is "High Noon"?
Film critics of newspapers used to offer their lists of best films to a certain newspaper or magazine (was it "Sight and Sound"?) and someone would compile a "critics list" from them. I recall Dilys Powell, well known film critic then, writing that she would have liked to have included a couple of Laurel and Hardy "shorts" in her list - probably not allowed or maybe they would have been deemed "fascetiously chosen". She was quite serious. Why not? Those L and H "shorts" are wonderful. Well, some are.
The No 1 in this list is a surprising choice, directed by an actor, his one and only film as director; not a popular film, one that produced heaps of problems in its making, and one that is not just frightening but alarming in a way that makes me sometimes feel that I shouldn't be watching it as if I am watching porn. The film is "The Night of the Hunter" directed by Charles Laughton with an astonishingly unsentimental and real personification of a religious basket case by Robert Mitchum.
Here are a few films on the Speccie list that I think should not have been included: "The Red Shoes" (No. 20); "Blade Runner" (No. 17); "Le Grande Illusion" (no. 13); "Rio Bravo"(no. 10); "The Magnificent Ambersons" (No. 7).