And African Queen was written by James Agee, a great American prose stylist and a great film critic, too–I don’t see it as a starry trifle but an honest-but-still-epic misfit love story, and I don’t know if it gives me a bigger crush on Hepburn or Bogart . . . can’t an iconic film get some love?

And . . . Alice in Wonderland? Really? Utterly second-rate Disney, gaudy, crassly American instead of wryly British like its source, and full of low-rent Sammy Cahn songs–really an unworthy adaptation of a classic. (Disney would do worse with the Black Cauldron, but the Winnie-the-Pooh series showed they could do sensitive adaptations when they decided to.)

Strangers on a Train? Mesmerizingly creepy and suggestive. Hitchcock’s reputation is a bit much for me, but this one’s as skillful as they come.

(I, a complete pushover for musicals, have never found a way to care about American in Paris–the characters leave me completely uninvolved, the humor is underpowered, and the whole thing feels like it’s quoting other, more vital musicals with more compelling stories–and the big number looks garish and emptily showy to me. Minority opinion, I know.

WHAT A YEAR IN FILM!

I also see your point on Place in the Sun — while I think Taylor and Winters could have been replaced by better actresses, they worked in the film, whose lighting and cinematography is, I believe, it’s greatest asset.

I sure hope we agree next time too!

Personally, I would have given best picture to A Place in the Sun for it’s honest and simple story-telling coupled with it’s lush black and white cinematography. The sheer beauty of Clift and Taylor together on screen at that point in their careers is mesmerizing. As for my expansion pack, it’s pretty similar to yours Doug, we must have similar taste.

6. Strangers on a Train
7. Detective Story (I prefer it to Ace in the Hole, which is very, very dark)
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still
9. The Desert Fox (anchored by one of James Mason’s best performances, the first real American work to look at the war from the German side)
10. Royal Wedding (I can make the argument that Royal Wedding with it’s amazingly inventive dance routines, like Astaire’s memorable dance on the walls and ceiling of his hotel room as well as his partnership with a coat rack, was more inventive and has had a more lasting impact than the American in Paris ballet. Feel free to disagree, but both films are brilliant.)

Honorable mentions would go to The Lavendar Hill Mob, Ace in the Hole, He Ran All they Way and The Mating Season. I have to admit that I have never liked the African Queen, I find it excruciating to watch and after giving it 2 chances, I won’t give it a third.

I really, REALLY don’t see Alice in Wonderland. I don’t even consider it one of Disney’s better films, much less Best Picture of the year. I don’t even think the Disney studio itself really favors this one (i.e. it was always widely available on video/DVD, when the “classics” are released for about a year and then pulled from shelves, you see very little Alice merchandise, etc. The music isn’t memorable, neither are most of the characters, the animation is nothing special. The only thing it really had going for it was the Queen of Hearts and she doesn’t appear till nearly the end.

I do agree with Strangers on a Train…the rest of the films I either haven’t seen or don’t remember well enough to comment.

Although … that said, my father would weep that you excluded African Queen. And honestly, it’s the Bogart film I most easily tolerated being forced to watch on video as a kid, what with the fun jungle cruise and all. There were even real laughs. And Hepburn was in high form, and wore the great hats. (And wasn’t there unmarried sex? In the early 1950s?)

Okay, so maybe I can disagree after all. African Queen rocks! Thanks for doing this, Doug …