Top 10 Films of 1953

1. "The Band Wagon" (Vincente Minnelli, USA)

2. "Stalag 17" (Billy Wilder, USA)

3. "The Big Heat" (Fritz Lang, USA)

4. "From Here To Eternity" (Fred Zinnemann, USA)

5. "La Salaire de la peur" (Henri-Georges Clouzot, France)

6. "Sawdust And Tinsel" (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

7. "Ugetsu" (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)

8. "Summer With Monika" (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

9. "Les Vacances de M. Hulot" (Jacques Tati, France)

10. "Tokyo Story" (Yasujirô Ozu, Japan)

Other great films:

The 5000 Fingers Of Dr.T

El Bruto (Mexico)
Calamity Jane
The Captain's Paradise (UK)
Le Carrosse d'or (Italy)
Easy To Love
El (Mexico)
Gate Of Hell (Japan)
Genevieve (UK)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Girl Next Door
Glen Or Glenda
Hondo

I Vinti (Italy)
I Vitelloni (Italy)
Kiss Me Kate
Lili
The Living Desert

Love In The City (Italy)

Madame de... (France)

Mogambo
The Moon Is Blue
The Naked Spur

Peter Pan
Pickup On South Street

Shane
Small Town Girl
Sprawa do zalatwienia (Poland)
The Star (Soviet Union)
The Story Of Little Mook (East Germany)

Trzy opowiesci (Poland)

The War Of The Worlds


Top 5 Guilty Pleasures of 1953:

1. "Quand tu liras cette lettre" (Jean-Pierre Melville, France)

2. "Lucrèce Borgia" (Christian-Jaque, France)

3. "Alaston malli karkuteilla" (Ville Salminen, Finland)

4. "Maternite clandestine" (Jean Gourguet, France)

5. "Virgin In Hollywood" (Klaytan W. Kirby, USA)

Short Top 3:

1. "Kolejarskie slowo" (Andrzej Munk, Poland)

2. "Eaux d'artifice" (Kenneth Anger, USA)

3. "The Living City" (Haskell Wexler, John Barnes, USA)

Other great shorts:

Bear Country
Operation Blue Jay

Prowlers Of The Everglades
Return To Glennascaul (Ireland)

Varley (Canada)

Top Commercial:

"Lucky Strike" (Lucky Strike)

Other great commercials:

Mother Knows Best

Top TV:

"I Love Lucy: Lucy Goes To The Hospital" (William Asher, CBS)

Cartoon Top 10

1. "Duck Amuck" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

2. "The Tell-Tale Heart" (Ted Parmelee, Columbia)

3. "Duck Dodgers In The 24 1/2 Century" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

4. "Toot Whistle Plunk And Boom" (Ward Kimball, Charles Nichols, Disney)

5. "The Unicorn In The Garden" (William T. Hurtz, Columbia)

6. "Much Ado About Nutting" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

7. "Rugged Bear" (Jack Hannah, Disney)

8. "A Mouse Divided" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

9. "Melody" (Ward Kimball, Charles Nichols, Disney)

10. "Football: Now and Then" (Jack Kinney, Disney)

Other great cartoons:

Barney's Hungry Cousin
Ben And Me
Bully For Bugs
Catty Cornered
Christopher Crumpet
Don's Fountain Of Youth
Don't Give Up The Sheep
Duck! Rabbit! Duck!
Easy Peckin's
For Whom The Bulls Toil
Fowl Weather
From A To Z-z-z-z
Gerald McBoing-Boing's Symphony
Hare Trimmed
Heir Bear
Hot Noon
Hotsy Footsy
How To Sleep
Hypnotic Hick
Jerry and Jumbo
Just Ducky
Kiss Me Cat
Little Boy With A Big Horn
The New Neighbor
Of Rice And Hen
Plop Goes The Weasel
Punch Trunk
The Simple Things
Snow Business
Southern Fried Rabbit
A Street Cat Named Sylvester
There Auto Be A Law
The Three Little Pups
TV Of Tomorrow

Two Little Frosts (Czechoslovakia)
Two Little Indians
Upswept Hare
Wild Over You
Working For Peanuts
Zipping Along

Weak films of 1953:

Call Me Madam

Fear And Desire
House Of Wax
How To Marry A Millionaire
I Confess
Invaders From Mars
Julius Caesar
The Robe
Roman Holiday
The Stars Are Singing
The Twonky
Zolnierz zwyciestwa (Poland)

Weak shorts:

The Alaskan Eskimo
They Planted A Stone (UK)

Weak cartoons:

Ancient Fistory
Ant Pasted
Belle Boys
Buccaneer Woodpecker
Canvas Back Duck
Cat's Aweight
Cat-Tails For Two
Cobs And Robbers
The Emperor's New Clothes
Father's Day Off
Father's Weekend
Forward March Hare
Half-Pint Palomino
How To Dance
Life With Tom
Magoo Slept Here
Magoo's Masterpiece
The Missing Mouse
Muscle Tussle
Operation Sawdust
A Peck O'Trouble
The Plywood Panic
Robot Rabbit
Safety Spin
Snow White And Red Rose (UK)
Spare The Rod
That's My Pup
Tom-Tom Tomcat
Wee-Willie Wildcat
What's Sweepin'
Wrestling Wrecks

Top 3 Musicals of 1953

1. "The Band Wagon" (Vincente Minnelli, MGM)


2. "Kiss Me Kate" (George Sidney, MGM)

3. "Small Town Girl" (Laszlo Kardos, MGM)

Summer With Monika (1953) ****

The Band Wagon (1953) *****

Fred Astaire's best musical of the 50's. Musical numbers:

"By Myself" ***
"A Shine On Your Shoes" ***
"That's Entertainment" ***
"Beggar's Waltz"  *
"Dancing In The Dark" ***
"I Love Louisa" ***
"New Sun In The Sky" ***
"I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan" ***
"Louisiana Hayride" ***
"Triplets" ***
"Girl Hunt Ballet" ***
"That's Entertainment" (reprise) ***

Sawdust And Tinsel (1953) ****

Superb Ingmar Bergman's film set in a circus.

Gate Of Hell (1953) ***

Japanese drama set in 12th century Kyoto.

Trzy opowiesci (1953) ***

A perfect example of Polish Stalinist cinema. Social realism at its best (and worst).

Alaston malli karkuteilla (1953) ***

Maternite clandestine (1953) ***

The Story Of Little Mook (1953) ***

Impressive children fantasy film from East Germany.

Love In The City (1953) ***

Segments:

"Paid Love" (Carlo Lizzani)  ***

"Attempted Suicide" (Michelangelo Antonioni)  ***

"Paradise For Three Hours" (Dino Risi)  **

"Marriage Agency" (Federico Fellini)  ****

"Story Of Caterina" (Francesco Maselli, Cesare Zavattini)  ***

"Italians Stare" (Alberto Lattuada)  ***

The Star (1953) ***

Soviet war drama, filmed in 1949, inexplicably banned for 4 years by Communist censors, and only released after Stalin's death.

Lucrèce Borgia (1953) ***

Virgin In Hollywood (1953) ***

Quand tu liras cette lettre (1953) ***

I Vinti (1953) ***

Very good Italian film, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, consisting of three shorts set in three different countries. Segments:

"Francia"  ***

"Italia"  ****

"Inghilterra"  ****

Sprawa do zalatwienia (1953) ***

Suprisingly subversive comedy made in Poland during the Stalin era. While seemingly very pro-Communist, the film inadvertently reveals numerous absurdities of the ruling system.

El Bruto (1953) ***

The final instalment in his "Mexican melodramas" trilogy, preceded by "Daughter Of Deceit" (1951) and "Woman Without Love" (1952).