Top 10 Films of 1948

1. "Children Of The Beehive" (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)

2. "The Treasure Of Sierra Madre" (John Huston, USA)

3. "Red River" (Howard Hawks, USA)

4. "Force Of Evil" (Abraham Polonsky, USA)

5. "The Big Clock" (John Farrow, USA)

6. "The Pirate" (Vincente Minnelli, USA)

7. "The Louisiana Story" (Robert Flaherty, USA)

8. "The Search" (Fred Zinnemann, USA)

9. "Easter Parade" (Charles Walters, USA)

10. "Berliner Ballade" (Robert A. Stemmle, Germany)

Other great films:

Because of Eve

Berlin Express

Le Coeur sur la main (France)

Danke es geht mir gut (East Germany)

The Dark Past
A Date With Judy
The Emperor Waltz

Forbidden Women (Philippines)

A Foreign Affair
Fort Apache
Hamlet (UK)
A Hen In The Wind (Japan)
He Walked By Night
I Remember Mama
Key Largo

Krakatit (Czechoslovakia)
The Lady From Shanghai
Letter From An Unknown Woman
Macbeth

Maclovia (Mexico)
Melody Time

Miranda (UK)
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House
The Naked City
Oliver Twist (UK)

Original Sin (Germany)
Ostatni etap (Poland)

Les Parents terribles (France)

Port Of Call (Sweden)

Quartet (UK)
The Quiet One

The Red Shoes (UK)
Romance On The High Seas
Rope
The Secret Land

Sins Of The Fathers (Canada)

The Snake Pit
Sorry, Wrong Number
Story Of A Real Man (Soviet Union)

La Terra trema (Italy)

Test Tube Babies

Three Daring Daughters
Unfaithfully Yours
Words And Music
You Were Meant For Me

Short Top 3:

1. "Seal Island" (James Algar, Disney)

2. "Annie Was A Wonder" (Edward L. Cahn, USA)

3. "Symphony Of A City" (Arne Sucksdorff, Sweden)

Other great shorts: 

The Apple-Knockers And The Coke

Oslo Sommerbyen mellom fjord og fjell (Norway)

The Petrified Dog

They Caught The Ferry (Denmark)

Top Commercial:

"E-Z Pop" (E-Z Pop)

Cartoon Top 10

1. "Mouse Wreckers" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

2. "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

3. "Dough Ray Me-Ow" (Arthur Davis, Warner)

4. "Mouse Cleaning" (William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, MGM)

5. "The Bear And The Bean" (Preston Blair, Michael Lah, MGM)

6. "Back Alley Oproar" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

7. "Robin Hoodlum" (John Hubley, Columbia)

8. "Daffy Duck Slept Here" (Robert McKimson, Warner)

9. "Mickey And The Seal" (Charles Nichols, Disney)

10. "Tea For Two Hundred" (Jack Hannah, Disney)

Other great cartoons:

A Lad In His Lamp
The Bear And The Hare
Buccaneer Bunny
The Cat That Hated People
Donald's Dream Voice
Drip Dippy Donald
The Foghorn Leghorn
Gorilla My Dreams
Haredevil Hare
A Hick A Slick And A Chick
Horsefly Fleas
House Hunting Mice
I Taw A Putty Tat
The Little Orphan
Lucky Ducky
Make Mine Freedom
Nothing But A Tooth
Odor Of The Day
Old Rockin' Chair Tom
Out Again In Again
Pluto's Purchase
Rabbit Punch
Riff Raffy Daffy
Shell Shocked Egg
Three For Breakfast
Two Gophers From Texas
Wet Blanket Policy
What Makes Daffy Duck ?
What Price Fleadom

Weak films of 1948:

Drunken Angel (Japan)
Johnny Belinda
Long Is The Road (Germany)
Powrot (Poland)

Sunset Over Corregidor (Philippines)
That Lady In Ermine

Weak shorts:

America's New Air Power
Answer To Stalin
Battle For Germany
Meditation On Violence
N.U. (Italy)
Operation Vittles

Polens born (Denmark)
Steps Of The Ballet (UK)
Waverley Steps (UK)

Weak cartoons:

Banquet Busters
The Big Wash
Bone Bandit
Bone Sweet Bone
Cat Nap Pluto
Daddy Duck
Daffy Dilly
Dog Tax Dodgers
A Feather In His Hare
The Golden State
Half-Pint Pigmy
Hare Splitter
Hop Look And Listen
Hot Cross Bunny
Inferior Decorator
Kit For Cat
Kitty Foiled
Little Tinker
The Lone Star State
The Mad Hatter
Mickey Down Under
My Bunny Lies Over The Sea
The Pest That Came To Dinner
Pluto's Fledgling
Professor Tom
The Rattled Rooster
Scaredy Cat
Soup's On
The Stupor Salesman
There's Good Boos Tonight
They're Off
The Trial Of Donald Duck
Truce Hurts
Wacky-Bye Baby
What's Brewin' Bruin
Wild And Woody
Winter Draws On
You Were Never Duckier

Top 3 Musicals of 1948

1. "The Pirate" (Vincente Minnelli, MGM)

2. "Easter Parade" (Charles Walters, MGM)


3. "A Date With Judy" (Richard Thorpe, MGM)

Children Of The Beehive (1948) ****

Written and directed by Hiroshi Shimizu.

La Terra trema (1948) ***

In Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and to operate independently. A curious film: very Marxist in its class-struggle rhetoric, but basically promoting small-c capitalism as a solution to big-C Capitalism's oppression of the working people. It's quite dated in this over-the-top melodramatic excesses, but beautifully filmed.

Original Sin (1948) ***

Le Coeur sur la main (1948) ***

Not really a musical, but it has two really nice musical numbers, one with Michele Philippe singing "Mais quand j'entends l'accordéon", and another one with Bourvil singing in English and dancing a swing number.

Sins Of The Fathers (1948) ***

Test Tube Babies (1948) ***

A Hen In The Wind (1948) ***

A mother resorts to prostitution in order to pay for her son's hospital bill. One of the best "hahamono" melodramas directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

Maclovia (1948) ***

Because of Eve (1948) ***

Danke es geht mir gut (1948) ***

Forbidden Women (1948) ***

Miranda (1948) ***

Port Of Call (1948) ***

The Secret Land (1948) ***

Documentary film about a US Navy expedition to the South Pole.

The Quiet One (1948) ***

Well-directed, innovative documentary about a black delinquent boy.

Berliner Ballade (1948) ****

Krakatit (1948) ***

Johnny Belinda (1948) **

Over-the-top melodrama about rape, murder, attempted child kidnapping, another murder and other unsavory activities.

Long Is The Road (1948) *

One of the first films about the Nazi extermination of Jews. The first half, set during the war, is more interesting, althought quite tame and simplistic compared to later Holocaust films. However, the second half, set in a DP camp after the war, is unbearably dull.

Sunset Over Corregidor (1948) *

Aka "Outrages Of The Orient".

Powrot (1948) *

Made in 1948, it's a Polish melodrama about a woman who returns from a concentration camp and tries to regain the custody of her daughter. The film was shelved by Communist censors and it was only shown publicly after the fall of Communism, in 1991. But those expecting an anti-Communist masterpiece will be sorely disappointed. For once, the censors were absolutely right and seemed to be motivated by artistic considerations in their decision, as the film is completely apolitical, but also unbelievably tedious, badly acted and incompetently directed.

Seal Island (1948) ***

The first of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures.

Annie Was A Wonder (1948) ***

Touching short film about a Scandinavian woman coming to America.

They Caught The Ferry (1948) ***

The Apple-Knockers And The Coke (1948) ***

E-Z Pop (1948) ***

Oslo Sommerbyen mellom fjord og fjell (1948) ***

The Petrified Dog (1948) ***

Experimental film directed by Sidney Peterson.

Polens born (1948) **

Short Danish documentary about post-war Poland.

Symphony Of A City (1948) ***

Oscar-winning short documentary about Stockholm.