I posted my choices for The 50 Most Important Hollywood Films a couple of years ago. There have been some minor revisions (a few fact corrections, but the list as a whole still stands). These were my top ten — reverse order just as I listed them then.
10. Hypocrites 1915, Lois Weber (uncredited)
According to records at the Library of Congress, women wrote nearly half the movies filmed between 1911 and 1925. Weber was not remarkable just because she was a woman. She was remarkable for her singular talents at writing and directing. By the time she came to Universal, she was one of the highest paid directors in Hollywood - male or female. This film, her first in Hollywood (she had been an influential director on the east coast) was, like most of her others, a religous allegory, attacking what she perceived as modern day Pharisees. It was an indictment of corruption in the church and in the business world. Her films were incredibly rich in technical skill and detail, with gentle pans and elaborate, complex scenes that were sometimes hard to interpret. She was profoundly influential on generations of directors who would follow. When you see the pictorial majesty of John Ford’s films, you are seeing what she pioneered and taught. Her preachiness ultimately did her in. By the early 1920s, audiences had tired of being made to feel guilty, and opted instead for lighter and more escapist pictures. Weber worked as a script doctor for Universal until 1939, when she died penniless and unheralded by the industry that she helped to create.
9. I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang 1932, Mervyn LeRoy
Based on the autobiography of World War I veteran, Robert E. Burns, this movie singlehandedly was responsible for a tidal wave of prison reform. It laid bare the rampant corruption in America’s penal system. Viewers of this film (nominated for three Academy Awards) were horrified that their own justice system could be so abusive and unfair. Burns, whose record at the State House in Trenton was eventually cleared, became a national hero. He was cheered by a standing ovation when he entered the New Jersey Assembly chamber to attend a hearing presided over by Governor A. Harry Moore. Even the grocer, whom Burns had robbed ten years earlier, when asked at the hearing whether he thought Burns should serve out his sentence, responded simply, “I do not.” The hearing ended with the Governor’s official pronouncement, “I have constitutional authority to deny extradition, and I do so.” Although producers attempted to appease Georgia by never mentioning the state’s name in the film, details of Burns’s case quickly became common knowledge as newspapers all over the country told and retold his story. Georgia, the object of much protest and derision, finally dismantled the chain gangs in 1945, and begrudgingly issued a pardon to Burns.
8. The Wizard of Oz 1939, Victor Fleming (Richard Thorpe, original scenes, King Vidor, Kansas scenes, and George Cukor, all uncredited)
What a year for Hollywood, and what a year for Victor Fleming! Hired away from this film to take over Gone With the Wind, Fleming had nearly completed work before King Vidor took over for the last ten days. The film opens in the surreal world of a sepia colored Kansas until Dorothy comes out of her house into a brilliant Technicolor Oz. Arguably, there follow more memorable scenes, lines, characters, props, and songs than exist in any other film. Re-released in 1949, 1955, 1970, and 1972 and digitally restored in 1998, the film’s legions of fans insist that its many bloopers (such as fishing line holding up the Cowardly Lion’s tail, very visible in several scenes) merely enhance its charm. You can’t help but wonder what this film might have done at the Oscars had it not been eclipsed by Seznick’s magnum opus, but it at least received two music awards: Best Song (for “Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg) and Best Original Score (Herbert Stothart). Competition in 1939 was fierce among Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, and Wuthering Heights. The fact that, among them, this film is the perennial choice that is still an event eagerly watched on television year after year is testament to its endurance and influence.
7. Gone With The Wind 1939, Victor Fleming (George Cukor, Sam Wood, William Cameron Menzies, and Reeves Eason uncredited)
There just aren’t enough superlatives… The biggest. The grandest. The most majestic. It’s not particularly a favorite of mine (it bores me), but who’s to argue with a bazillion other people? Cukor was the first director hired (August, 1936), and with assistance from historian Wilbur Kurtz, he and his team headed south in March of 1937 to begin their research. By May, Margaret Mitchell had won the Pulitzer Prize, and sales of her novel had reached $1,375,000. David O. Selznick, the producer, had originally balked at paying $50,000 to “an unknown author” for the rights. But by 1940, after 15 Academy Award nominations (including honoraries) and universal critical acclaim, it was clear that his deal, originally dubbed “Selznick’s Folly” by a cynical press, and negotiated by Kay Brown the week of the book’s release, was one of the best investments in history. By January 13, 1939, all the stars (an incredible cast) were signed. A mind boggling list of accomplished actresses ( including Katharine Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, Margaret Sullavan, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Mae West, Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Arthur, and Lucille Ball) were rejected for the role of Scarlett O’Hara before Selznick settled on “a new girl”, British acress Vivien Leigh. Between January and the time shooting finished in November, camermen were fired and replaced, directors quit and returned, sets were destroyed (Selznick thought they looked too fake) and rebuilt, and Bank of America rescued production with a $1 million loan after MGM refused to spend more money. It was simply a monumental motion picture, spanning twelve years of the War Between the States, and filmed in magnificent three-strip Technicolor with a plenary and majestic musical score by Max Steiner. Its influence was tremendous, creating a stereotype of the South that became an archetype for decades. Hattie McDaniel (as Mammie) was the first African-American ever nominated for an Academy Award, and she took home Best Supporting Actress. Re-released in 1999 amidst some controversy, this film endures as the favorite of untold millions.
6. The Sound of Music 1965, Robert Wise
This is one of those movies, like Wizard of Oz, that has a timeless appeal to all generations. The original Maria von Trapp was waiting for an instrument to arrive at a concert one day, and began telling stories about her family’s adventures. Those stories led first to a book, then to a play, and finally to the movie. Eerily, in 1962, Julie Andrews had sung in a Carol Burnette skit titled, “The Pratt Family of Switzerland”, which was a parody of a von Trapp family singer. Little did she know that three years later she would play the lead role in the movie that would catapult her to super-stardom. The unforgettable score by Rodgers and Hammerstein became entrenched in American culture, giving school children a new way to learn the major scale and giving music teachers an array of delightful songs that they could teach to children… For director Robert Wise, the film earned him his second Academy Award (the first was for West Side Story), and for Twentieth Century Fox, it was a box office smash hit that surpassed Gone with the Wind and held the record until the release of The Godfather. It was Andrews’ second nomination in a row for Best Actress (she didn’t win, but she did win the year before as the title character in Mary Poppins), and in all, the Academy showered the film with ten nominations and five awards.
5. Inherit the Wind 1960, Stanley Kramer
Intended to be an allegorical protest against McCarthyism (as were so many films of the period) this film, perhaps inadvertently, painted an inaccurate portrait of the “Scopes Monkey Trial” that became so famous that it practically represents a revision of history. The screenwriter was listed as Nathan E. Douglas, but his real name was Nedrick Young, and he was on the infamous blacklist. Despite that it was easy to see that Clarence Darrow respresented Henry Drummond, H. L. Mencken was E. K. Hornbeck, and Dayton, Tennessee was Hillsboro, Tennessee, etc., people believed (and still do) that the film was a docudrama of the trial. But in reality, the teacher was not arrested in the classroom, the town was not upset over the trial, the book used was not Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the Descent of Man, and there was no effort by churches to upset the proceedings. And Scopes was not at all the sympathetic oppressed figure that the movie represents; in fact, he volunteered to help the ACLU establish a test case.
4. Taxi Driver 1976, Martin Scorsese
At 1:30 PM on Monday, March 30, 1981 John F. Hinckley, Jr emerged from a crowd of reporters and fired his Rohm R6-14 revolver six times, shooting Timothy J. MCarthy, Thomas Delahanty, James Brady (who later, with his wife, inspired the “Brady Bill”), and Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States. Just prior to the deed, he had written a letter to Jodie Foster, whom he had stalked at Princeton the year before, informing her that he was about to prove his love for her. Massively delusional, Hinckley identified, according to his psychiatrist, Dr. William Carpenter, with Travis Bickle, the character who confused murder with sacrifice, and was brilliantly played by Robert De Niro in Scorsese’s dark and disturbing melodrama. In the film, Bickle rescued Iris, the twelve-year-old prostitute played by the promising young Foster, by mowing down her pimp and others involved with her. Prior to that, he decided to win the admiration of a woman, Betsy, whom he had tried unsuccessfully to woo, by assassinating the man she worked for, a presidential candidate. It is said that Hinckley saw the film more than fifteen times. Even now, this movie is cited by those who argue that Hollywood nefariously influences viewers as their seminal example, charging that it began a trend of lone wolf terrorists who act out their impulses in schools and on city streets. Controversy aside, the film, deeply influenced by John Ford’s The Searchers, was a cinematic masterpiece of film noir with De Niro in his best role ever, and launched the long and glorious careers of Jodie Foster in film (both acting and directing) and Cybill Shepherd in television. Incredibly, the film won not a single Academy Award.
3. High Noon 1952, Fred Zinnemann
On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy (R, WI) began a speech by saying, “I have in my hand a list of 205 cases of individuals who appear to be either card-carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party.” One of those cases was screenwriter Carl Foreman, who adapted John W. Cunningham’s Collier’s Magazine story, “The Tin Star”, into perhaps the best Western film ever made. You won’t find much in this movie in the way of frontier violence or rampaging Indians. What you will find is an unmistakable morality metaphor about good people abandoned by their friends, and left to fend for themselves as they confront revenge seekers and barbarians. It was an effort to criticize McCarthyism in an indirect way, with symbolism and allegory, sadly recapitulating the way writers and directors made their feelings known in totalitarian regimes. Direct criticism was too risky, and could destroy careers. Two years after this film debuted, Joseph N. Welch, chief attorney for the Army, faced McCarthy squarely and said, “You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?” This simple, low-budget Western ($750,000) was so influential that Director Howard Hawks and actor John Wayne created Rio Bravo in 1959 as a direct response to its “liberal preachiness”.
2. A Streetcar Named Desire 1951, Elia Kazan
Released admist a firestorm of controversy, this film marked the beginning of the end for Hollywood’s infamous Production Code and the meddling Catholic Legion of Decency. Kazan (around whom enormous controversy swirled when he cooperated with McCarthy’s committee) was convinced that Americans were tired of being pandered, and for his adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play, he pulled out all the stops available at the time. Even though censors had combed through the movie and excised several scenes and tempered others, what remained was a steamy, deeply sexual, raw, and provocative film. Marlon Brando redefined acting, using his Method acting style to bring an intensity to his character (Stanley Kowalski) that influenced other actors ( like Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, and Sean Penn) for the rest of the century. This is the film that you can point to as bridging two eras: the old hammy style of modest decorum role playing, and the modern realistic feel-your-pain acting. Even within the movie, you can see the contrast between the two styles, Vivien Leigh’s perfect diction and proper manner contrasted with Brando’s mumbles and pauses. Mild by today’s standards, the movie pretty much covered every topic that was forbidden at the time, from homosexuality to nymphomania, from insanity to rape. The Academy showered the film with an incredible twelve award nominations, resulting in three wins from the acting categories (Best Actress for Vivien Leigh, Best Supporting Actress for Kim Hunter, and Best Supporting Actor for Karl Malden). It was the first of 4 nominations in 4 successive years for Brando. A 1993 re-release restored much of the censors’ damage, including Blanche’s sexually charged visit with the newspaper boy and Stanley’s rape of Blanche.
1. The Birth of a Nation 1915, D.W. Griffith
Originally titled The Clansman, after Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr.'s play, this movie spawned controversy like never before (or since) seen. Law suits, picketing, and even street unrest (including massive riots that peaked in 1919) throughout the country followed the movie for decades as it was re-cut and re-released in 1924, 1931, and 1938. Shortly after its release, the NAACP published a 47-page pamphlet, “Fighting a Vicious Film: Protest Against The Birth of a Nation”. The National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures debated fiercely over whether the movie should be shown in New York, but once it opened, it sold more than 3 million tickets in 11 months (an astounding number for the time). Although it was denounced with scathing reviews from horrified critics, President Woodrow Wilson (after the first ever screening of a film in the White House) reportedly declared, “It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.” It is a blatantly racist depiction of the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, and is in fact still used today both as a recruitment tool by the Klan, and as an education tool by the NAACP. Despite all that, it is heralded by most movie scholars as the most important American film ever made. It was as technically innovative as Citizen Kane, thanks in large part to cameraman Billy Bitzer, who pioneered a whole slew of techniques, including the “iris effect” (expanding and contracting circular masks). It was the first film with its own orchestral score, the first to use night photography, the first to use moving (or “panning”) camera shots, the first to use total screen close-ups, and much more. It even had a hand color engraved sequence at the end. The film had already made a mind-boggling $18 million dollars before the first talkie was ever released. Because of its lingering controversy, its pioneering technical brilliance, its innovative artistic advancements, and its sheer longevity, this is the movie selected here as the most important Hollywood film ever made.