Filmically Perfect

Who would’ve cast light comic, later to be known as “everyone’s favorite dad,” Fred MacMurray as the lustful, loathsome insurance man Walter Neff? It was Billy Wilder, who also cast Barbara Stanwyck as the amoral Phyllis Dietrichson, in this adaptation of pulp favorite James M. Cain’s novel, a book that he originally could not get sold! Listen in as we discuss this film that opened the floodgates for one of the greatest of all genres, the Film Noir!

This little bend in the road allows us to relax and prove that even though these films aren’t “perfect” we still love them! Strangler of the Swamp shows that a talented director (Frank Wisbar) can still make a fascinating film even though he has no money. The Girl Can’t Help It, Frank Tashlin’s mad live-action, rock and roll cartoon, may actually end up on our Perfect Movie List--the jury is still out.

What can one say about The Wizard of Oz that hasn’t already been said? A Technicolor fantasy from the high-point of “The Golden Age of Hollywood” whose disaster-laden production would itself make a great movie! A film so ingrained in our psyche that the slightest reference to it in books, in other films and even on t-shirts and bumper stickers brings back a flood of memories. The witch may be dead, but the Wizard lives on!

Starring John Wayne in his eighth (or so) cinematic outing with “a guy who just makes westerns”--Ford’s own self-deprecating assessment. The Searchers is a beautiful and brutal film, running the gamut from familial love to the darkest racism. And John Ford, at a time in his career when many are resting on their laurels, pushed into new territory, reinventing the western and giving us one of the most soul-satisfying films ever.

In 1951, director Robert Wise and Producer Julian Blaustein created one of the ultimate science-fiction classics, whose powerful message has not been diminished by the passing years or the onslaught of computer technology. The film’s message of the need for peace in the face of nuclear annihilation rings eerily true in our post-modern ears in these supposedly more enlightened times. Plus, it’s just a beautifully made film!