Top 10 Films of 1957

1. "Wild Strawberries" (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

2. "Czlowiek na torze" (Andrzej Munk, Poland)

3. "The Bridge On The River Kwai" (David Lean, USA)


4. "Twelve Angry Men" (Sidney Lumet, USA)

5. "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (Jack Arnold, USA)

6. "Witness For The Prosecution" (Billy Wilder, USA)

7. "Sweet Smell Of Success" (Alexander Mackendrick, USA)

8. "The Seventh Seal" (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

9. "Kanal" (Andrzej Wajda, Poland)

10. "Throne Of Blood" (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)

Other great films:

Aparajito (India)

At The Terminus (Czechoslovakia)

Les Collégiennes (France)

The Cranes Are Flying (Soviet Union)
The Devil Strikes At Night (Germany)

La Diana cazadora (Mexico)

A Face In The Crowd
Funny Face
The Golden Age Of Comedy
Jailhouse Rock

Jungle Girl And The Slaver (Germany)

A King In New York (UK)
Les Girls
Love In The Afternoon

Mademoiselle Strip-tease (France)

Une Manche et la belle (France)

Night Of The Demon (UK)
Nights Of Cabiria (Italy)
Old Yeller
Pal Joey
Paths Of Glory

Perri
Peyton Place

Pot-Bouille (France)

Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny (Poland)

The Shiralee (UK)

Silk Stockings
The Singing Ringing Tree (East Germany)
The Tall T
The Tin Star

Tokyo Twilight (Japan)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter ?

Short Top 3:

1. "Rozbijemy zabawe" (Roman Polanski, Poland)

2. "Adebar" (Peter Kubelka, Austria)

3. "Saunasta sisua" (Finland)

Other great shorts:

Rhythm

Usmiech zebiczny (Poland)

The Wetback Hound

Top Commercial:

"Lion" (Dreyfus Fund)

Top TV:

"I Love Lucy: Lucy Raises Chickens" (William Asher, CBS)

Cartoon Top 10

1. "What's Opera Doc?" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

2. "The Truth About Mother Goose" (Bill Justice, Wolfgang Reitherman, Disney)

3. "Birds Anonymous" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

4. "Steal Wool" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

5. "One Droopy Knight" (Michael Lah, MGM)

6. "Yantra" (James Whitney, USA)

7. "Flebus" (Gene Deitch, Ernest Pintoff, Terry)

8. "Topsy TV" (Gene Deitch, Connie Rasinski, Terry)

9. "Il etait une chaise" (Norman McLaren, Claude Jutra, NFB, Canada)

10. "Tabasco Road" (Robert McKimson, Warner)

Other great cartoons:

Ali Baba Bunny
Blackboard Jumble
Boston Quackie
Boyhood Daze
Cheese It The Cat
Ducking The Devil
Give And Tyke
Go Fly A Kit
Greedy For Tweety
Magoo's Glorious Fourth
Magoo's Masquerade
Mouse-Taken Identity
Nearlyweds
Red Riding Hoodlum
Show Biz Bugs
Spooky Swabs
The Three Little Bops
Timid Tabby
Tom's Photo Finish
Trees And Jamaica Daddy
Tweet Zoo
Zoom And Bored

Weak films of 1957:

An Affair To Remember
Kapelusz pana Anatola (Poland)

The Lower Depths (Japan)
Mother India (India)
Une Parisienne (France)
Saint Joan
Sayonara

The Story Of Mankind

Weak shorts:

Nice Time (UK)

Weak cartoons:

Bedevilled Rabbit
Bugs And Mugsy
The Crystal Brawl
Feedin' The Kiddie
Fodder And Son
Fowled Up Party
Fox-Terror
Gonzales Tamales
Grin And Share It
International Woodpecker
Magoo's Private War
Mucho Mouse
Piker's Peak
Rabbit Romeo
Rock Hound Magoo
Round Trip To Mars
Scat Cats
Scrambled Aches
The Story Of Anyburg USA
To Catch A Woodpecker
Touche And Go

Top 3 Musicals of 1957

1. "Silk Stockings" (Rouben Mamoulian, MGM)

2. "Funny Face" (Stanley Donen, Paramount)

3. "Les Girls" (George Cukor, MGM)

Czlowiek na torze (1957) *****

Stary kolejaz ginie w tajemniczych okolicznosciach pod kolami pociagu. Pierwszy film fabularny Andrzeja Munka, jedno z najlepszych dziel Szkoly Polskiej.

The Seventh Seal (1957) ****

Excellent drama by Ingmar Bergman, set in the Middle Ages.

The Cranes Are Flying (1957) ****

Moving film about love and war. Winner of Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Tokyo Twilight (1957) ***

Ozu's bleakest film, set in wintertime.

La Diana cazadora (1957) ***

Jungle Girl And The Slaver (1957) ***

Mademoiselle Strip-tease (1957) ***

The Singing Ringing Tree (1957) ***

A memorable fairy tale from East Germany.

Pot-Bouille (1957) ***

Une Manche et la belle (1957) ***

Perri (1957) ***

Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny (1957) ***

At The Terminus (1957) ***

The Shiralee (1957) ***

Les Collégiennes (1957) ***

Pal Joey (1957) ***

Musical numbers:

“I Didn't Know What Time It Was”  *
“There's A Small Hotel”
“Zip”  **
“I Could Write A Book”
“The Lady Is A Tramp”  **
“Bewitched Bothered And Bewildered”  **
“My Funny Valentine”  *
“What Do I Care For A Dame”  *

The Devil Strikes At Night (1957) ***

Excellent crime film about a murder investigation in Nazi Germany during World War II.

The Lower Depths (1957) **

Mother India (1957) *

Overrated Indian melodrama about suffering peasants. Popular in India, but completely alien to Western sensibilities. Indian submission for a Foreign Language Film Oscar - a ridiculous choice in a year when Satyajit Ray's "Aparajito" would have had a far greater chance of winning.

Saint Joan (1957) **

This film about the famous French warrior-saint starts quite well, but suffers from many silly touches. Jean Seberg much-criticized performance is actually quite good.

The Story Of Mankind (1957) *

A ponderous, heavy-handed film that isn't even silly enough to be considered camp. The only highlight is a sequence with Groucho Marx as Dutch trader Peter Minuit, who bought Manhattan from the Indians for 20 dollars.

Kapelusz pana Anatola (1957) *

Polish comedy about a bank clerk mistaken for a criminal.

Une Parisienne (1957) *

Weak comedy starring Brigitte Bardot.

Sayonara (1957) *

Dated, heavy-handed film about racial prejudice in the 1950's.

Rozbijemy zabawe (1957) ****

Thugs disrupt a party. Directed by Roman Polanski.

Saunasta sisua (1957) ****

Adebar (1957) ****

One of Peter Kubelka's best films.

Lion (1957) ***

Rhythm (1957) ***

Chrysler commissioned Len Lye to make a short promotional film, but rejected this completed movie because it was too abstract.