Julius Caesar

Title: Julius Caesar
Year: 1953
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Writer: William Shakespeare
Starring: Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud
Music: Miklós Rózsa
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (black-and-white)
Length: 120 minutes
Synopsis: Roman revolution leads to civil war
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), today
Subjective Rating: 7/10
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for story and music)

Not as good as the play; they cut out way too much.  Although, what’s there is done quite well.  I enjoyed the first hour and a half or so quite a bit, but they chopped the ending to pieces.

The Wages of Fear

Title: Le salaire de la peur
Year: 1953
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Writers: Henri-Georges Clouzot & Jérôme Géronimi, based on the novel by Georges Arnaud
Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli, Peter van Eyck, Véra Clouzot
Music: Georges Auric
Distinctions: currently #143 on IMDb’s Top 250
Length: 148 minutes
Synopsis: 300 miles of disrepaired roads in two trucks full of volatile explosives
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 7/10
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for pacing, cinematography and music)

Very effective suspense. The plot doesn’t get started until about an hour into the movie, but once it gets going it’s great. The characters aren’t likable, but given their situation you can’t help sympathizing with them.

Stalag 17

Title: Stalag 17
Year: 1953
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder & Edwin Blum, based on the play by Donald Bevan & Edmund Trzcinski
Starring: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Peter Graves, Neville Brand, Sig Ruman
Music: Leonid Raab
Distinctions: Oscar for best actor (Holden); currently #195 on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: Americans in a WWII German POW camp regularly try to escape
Length: 120 minutes
How I saw it: on video (rented form Netflix), October 2008
Subjective Rating: 8/10
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for cinematography)

Apparently not the basis for Hogan’s Heroes.  It’s a really good movie, although I’m not sure how it’d stand up to repeated viewings, since not knowing what was going to happen was a major factor. Wilder’s approach seems to be to just tell the story as effectively as possible, which makes for great movies but not so much with the pretty pictures.

Roman Holiday

Title: Roman Holiday
Year: 1953
Director: William Wyler
Writers: Dalton Trumbo & John Dighton
Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert
Music: Georges Auric
Distinctions: Oscars for best story, actress (Hepburn) and costume design (black-and-white); currently #235 on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: a journalist entertains a runaway Princess while trying to keep her unaware that he knows who she is
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 8/10
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for concept, cinematography and music)

Good movie. The story sounded terrible, but was in fact hilarious and kind of cute. Audrey Hepburn is adorable, of course. I didn’t think Gregory Peck would be much of a comedic actor, but it turns out he’s very funny. One of the best comedies I saw in 2008.