I devour the BFI Best Films of All Time list whenever they deem it necessary to revise and (invariably) disagree with most of the findings, but I still get a kick out of browsing. Same with Rolling Stone's inane Best 100 Albums (how does Sgt. Pepper drop from #1 to #24 in the latest incarnation?); the anger I feel subsides when I see they've put a couple of Aerosmith albums on the list! We all disagree with that number one but we keep right on scrolling through each choice.
This project, which has been percolating for quite a while, originated from the constant back and forth "good-natured bickering" between John Scoleri and myself. John invariably loves everything and I hate it all (for more of the discourse, I advise one and all to pick up a copy of bare•bones print magazine and read our debates about streaming and movie theaters to get a taste). I began to think it would be fun to compose a Favorite (as opposed to Best) 100 and compare our selections. Making it even more tantalizing, I managed to talk the third head of Ghidorah, Jack Seabrook, into participating. This could be interesting, since John's never seen a movie the two Georges (Romero and Lucas) didn't have a hand in, and Jack usually favors the flicks that have words at the bottom of the screen (dis-moi que j'ai tort, Jack!). I, on the other hand, can't wait to educate these two gentlemen as to what constitutes good cinema.
Every Thursday, we'll count down our picks two at a time. We're hoping this will generate discourse outside of our trio. Let us know just how crazy we are. This is going to be fun!—Peter
"Anything's good for an alibi. Wives, girlfriends, bartenders, childhood friends, deceived husbands--but not an elevator. That's ridiculous. It's totally harebrained."
All goes well and he and his secretary are escorted out of the building by office security when Julien hops in his convertible and looks up at the office building in horror. He forgot to retrieve the grappling hook. Idiot! He races back into the building, careful not to be seen, and takes the elevator up. Just then, the security guard turns off the building's electricity and heads home to have a few cognacs, leaving Julien trapped in the elevator. Outside, Louis and Véronique, two crazy kids in love, steal Tavernier's car, discover the gun in Julien's glove box, and go on a wild spin, a journey that ultimately leads to the murder of two German tourists.
Meanwhile, our "hero," Julien, sits overnight in the elevator, only gaining his freedom when the police come to ransack his office. Yep, thanks to the abandoned convertible, the cops have labeled Tavernier their "number one suspect" in the double homicide. Unaware that his mug is plastered all over the Paris Examiner, Julien heads for the nearest cafe to chow on some beignets to clear his head. The cops arrive shortly thereafter to arrest him for the murder of two German tourists and the only alibi he could possibly offer is that he was trapped in the elevator outside a dead man's office the entire night. What's a poor cold-blooded killer to do?
I came to Elevator to the Gallows after I listened to the Pure Cinema Podcast featuring Brian Sauer and Elric Kane. One of the gentlemen recommended Elevator and a handful of other titles, noting these French guys could sure whip up a great noir now and then. A couple of weeks later, I settled in to watch Rififi, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, Bob Le Flambeur, and Elevator. Let me tell you, these French guys can sure whip up a good noir now and then!
I'll leave it to film critics more high-falutin' (and certainly more edjacated) than me to go on and on about the psychological ramifications and Malle's use of the city as a breathing character and all that other stuff. I'll just tell you that Elevator to the Gallows is an exhilarating ride from start to finish and, after a few minutes, you won't even mind those little words at the bottom of the screen. —Peter
Remarks from the Gallery:
Jack: I was excited to watch this, thinking I hadn't seen it, until I looked back in my little journal and realized that I saw it on Noir Alley in March 2020. I don't remember it, though, so I watched it again and really liked it. The Miles Davis score is one to download and listen to often.
John: Peter was clearly jealous that Jack was the first to post a movie I was unfamiliar with, so he drops this? That makes two! Of course, I feel like after reading his description, there can't be much left to discover...
After being jailed for a statutory rape, Randle McMurphy manages to get transferred from jail to a mental institution, where he discovers that the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, treats the patients with cruelty. Thinking he'll be released when his sentence is up, McMurphy begins to have fun with the other patients, who respond to his exuberance. But Nurse Ratched isn't amused.
Remarks from the Gallery:
Peter: Great flick but, for me, the scene-stealer is Fletcher, who oozes a "calm evil" every time we see her. This is the epitome of Nicholson's crazy period, but certainly not the last time he'd go into hyperdrive. His quieter moments, when he's not rousing the troops, are where you can see the brilliance come through.
John: I'm obviously aware of this one, but have never actively sought it out. I think it may be due to the fact that everything I've seen from it suggests it's a Nicholson caricature performance, and I've never been a huge fan.
"No one lives any nearer than town. No one will come any nearer than that. In the night... In the dark..."
At a long-ago horror convention, while discussing "scary" movies with a number of writers (to which I surely offered up Dan Curtis's Burnt Offerings as a suggestion), Nancy Holder told me that I had to watch The Haunting. At the time, I didn't realize the film was directed by Robert Wise—whom I had developed a great respect for, given his ability to turn out classic films across genres: The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain, to name a few. Imagine my surprise when I sat down to experience his adaptation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. It was the best of the bunch.
My first viewing was on LaserDisc, in widescreen, at night, in the dark. The film was absolutely chilling. From the creepy caretaker, Mrs. Dudley, to the unseen yet very well heard threats that stalked the halls of Hill House, I was amazed at just how effective a horror film it was; leaving us to imagine the threats we could only hear. It had been a long time since I found a film so unsettling, and I loved that about it. It's the kind of film that can keep you up at night, thinking about every strange sound you hear—in the night... in the dark.
Claire Bloom is very convincing as Eleanor, whose longing brings her to Hill House. Julie Harris plays quite the opposite role, but may not be as strong as she initially appears to be. Richard Johnson lends a certain air of credibility to it all as the scientist who brings the group together, and Russ Tamblyn provides a bit of comic relief—which is quickly forgotten once things get creepy.
I had the privilege of seeing The Haunting on the big screen several years later, with Robert Wise in attendance, and was able to thank him for his diverse body of work, of which this remains my personal favorite. Which is a spoiler-ish way of saying that as good as several of his other films are, they aren't represented in my top 100. —John
Remarks from the Gallery:
Peter: Ooooooh, good one, junior (I have to admit that when I saw The Haunting on your list, I assumed it would be that smelly fish in the garbage can version directed by Jan de Bont). I've got a funny story about this one, too: Back when I was eleven or twelve, I bought this really scary looking paperback by Richard Matheson called Hell House about a week or two after I saw Wise's film on TV at my grandmother's one night. I was obsessed with movie tie-ins when I was young and thought, "Holy cow, this is the book that got made into that scary flick!" Well, it's not really that crazy of a story because the novels are pretty similar, aren't they?
There are a lot of also-rans when you do a project like this and Wise's The Haunting would be one of them. It's on that list of 150 or so that had to be weeded down to an even 100, but I will say this: the scene where Julie Harris and Claire Bloom are in the bedroom and something is banging on their door is among the Top Ten Scariest Scenes of All Time as far as I'm concerned.
Jack: I think I saw this years ago and it's definitely a great scary movie. I have at least one film directed by Robert Wise on my list, but it's much higher up.
"Every magic trick consists of three parts, or acts. The first part is called the pledge, the magician shows you something ordinary. The second act is called the turn, the magician takes the ordinary something and makes it into something extraordinary. But you wouldn't clap yet, because making something disappear isn't enough. You have to bring it BACK. Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled."
And repeat viewings are a must. You'll look for cheats and not find them.
Sure, it's pulpy, but that's part of the fun. Jackman and Bale have dynamite chemistry and I couldn't see anyone playing the "old vet" other than Nolan regular Michael Caine. Batman Begins put Christopher Nolan on my radar, so I was primed for this one, catching it on day one and loving every minute of it. His next picture, of course, would put him into the stratosphere. But more on that one at a later date. —Peter
Remarks from the Gallery:
John: I'm not as enamored with Nolan's films as you are, but this is one that I've been interested in revisiting. I haven't seen it in nearly 20 years, but I do recall enjoying it.
"What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?"
Llewelyn Moss is out hunting in the West Texas desert when he comes across a scene of carnage: a drug deal gone bad with dead bodies everywhere. He leaves the drugs but takes a suitcase filled with $2M in cash, which means that a relentless, psychopathic killer named Anton Chigurh is on his trail. Can Moss manage to hang onto the money without getting himself killed?
Hoo boy, I loved this one when it came out and I loved it just as much when I watched it again last night. Javier Bardem is one of the scariest characters I've ever seen on a movie screen. That bolt pistol that he uses to shoot out door locks and kill people is a frightening piece of machinery. Tommy Lee Jones is wonderfully laconic as the sheriff and Josh Brolin is incredibly lucky as Moss to make it as long as he does. Even Woody Harrelson shows up for a while as a competing hit man with a much friendlier attitude than Chigurh.
There are so many great scenes:
- Chigurh harassing the poor man behind the counter and making him call a coin flip
- Moss escaping from the motel with Chigurh hot on his heels
- the scene with Carla Jean's elderly mother
Peter: I agree, Great flick. And I'll tell you how great someday!
John: An entertaining film with plenty of fine performances that you call out, but like most of the Coen Brothers' films, I don't feel compelled to revisit them after seeing them once. And I will admit a bias against Cormac McCarthy, who came to my attention when he got into the post-apocalyptic game with The Road, which I felt was one of the most pedestrian efforts in the sub-genre, despite all the literary accolades it received.
"You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize."
I didn't know about Reservoir Dogs until it landed on home video. I can't even remember where I first heard about it—perhaps in Film Threat magazine? But it sounded interesting, so I rented it the first chance I got. Needless to say, it blew me away. It was different than any film I had seen before it. The dialogue crackled; there were countless quotable lines. And it was as violent as it was hilarious. How could someone not fall in love with it, and with the unique cinematic voice of its creator?
The structure is one of the things that makes the film so effective, feeding the audience bits of information in a deliberate fashion so as to control our understanding of the events as they unfold. Shortly after seeing the film, I got my first internet account, and while it was still a relative obscurity, it was cool when people recognized the reference in my AOL handle, resrvordogs. Because of this film, I was there on opening night for Pulp Fiction, and the rest, as they say, is history. His first film is not the only one to appear on my list, and while it's ranked the lowest of that group, there was no way it wasn't making my top 100! —John
Remarks from the Gallery:
Peter: Much like The Haunting, something had to give when we arrived at 100 for our number. I like this one a lot but I don't love it. If you threatened to cut off my ear, I'd reveal that this would probably rank as my fifth-favorite QT right behind Inglorious (which — SPOILER! — also didn't make my list), but I would also admit that I would be hard pressed to think of a more impressive directorial debut than Reservoir Dogs.
Jack: I saw this on video after I had been turned on to QT by seeing Kill Bill, volume one. I mainly remember that all the characters were named after colors and that awful scene set to "Stuck in the Middle With You."
