John Huston - favorites, least favorites

Favourites

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Key Largo
The Maltese Falcon
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Annie
The Night of the Iguana
The Dead
The Misfits
The African Queen
Prizzi's Honor




Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

Several masterpieces, and from 50s - 80s several films I would count among best US films per decades. Never liked Maltese Falcon, Astor is horrendous to say the least, the plot is not exciting at all. Bette Davis repeatedly said that "In This Our Life" was her worst film, it's probably her worst WB film anyway; ironic that while she has many ok/generic films - with many lesser directors, 3 best ones she worked with (in the lead) are Wyler, Huston, Vidor - yet 2 of them directed her worst starring films
But back to Huston

Liked a Lot
The African Queen (1951)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
The Night of the Iguana (1964)
The Dead (1987)
Key Largo (1948)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Moulin Rouge (1952)

Liked
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Victory (1981)
Prizzi's Honor (1985)
Fat City (1972)
The Misfits (1961)
Heaven Knows, Mr Allison (1957)
A Walk with Love and Death (1969)
Moby Dick (1956)

So-So
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958)
Wise Blood (1979)
Across the Pacific (1942)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
The Bible: In the Beginning (1966)
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
We Were Strangers (1949)
The Roots of Heaven (1958)
Annie (1982)
The MacKintosh Man (1973)
Freud (1962)


Didn't Like
The Kremlin Letter (1970)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Unforgiven (1960)
Phobia (1980)
The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Under the Volcano (1984)

Abyssmally Bad
Beat the Devil (1953)
In This Our Life (1942)

Didn't Like
The Kremlin Letter (1970)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Unforgiven (1960)
Phobia (1980)
The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Under the Volcano (1984)

While I can't say that I would go so far as to dislike The Maltese Falcon, I must insist that it's one of the most over-rated films in screen history. While it has unassailable assets (Astor, Greenstreet, Lorre, Patrick, Adolph Deutsch's eerie score, Arthur Edeson's moody camerawork, Orry-Kelly's superb wardrobe for Brigid), there are glaringly problematic issues that I can't overlook or forgive. Chief amongst them is Bogart's often vague and unfocused performance, which is 40% the fault of Huston's screenplay (not the source novel) and 60% the execution (Bogart himself). Like the movie itself, I don't dislike Bogart, in general, but I find him over-rated to the height of critical indiscrimination. While he can be, on occasion, quite marvelous (I shall forever point to Casablanca), his Sam Spade is dreadfully uneven. What cinematic moment is more grating than Bogart's irritatingly phony laugh when Lorre, as Joel Cairo, insists on searching Spade's office, once he retrieves his weapon? The fake laughter and the awkward stuttering would shame a 14-year-old actor in a junior high production.
There are moments in the movie that jar the viewer, breaking the fourth wall and reminding us that we're watching a film. The best example (worst, really) is during Sam and Brigid's climactic standoff. Huston may not be directly responsible, but who else can we blame? It occurs in the attached clip, in the two-shot when Astor says "I can't look at you..." She puts her hands to her face and turns away from him, but in the jump-cut, her hands are nowhere to be seen, giving this viewer whiplash every time. No matter how you look at it, Huston is to blame, whether it's because he didn't properly supervise the editing by Thomas Richards, or more likely, because he didn't provide enough coverage for a seamless cut. In any case, it makes Astor look bad, to an inexperienced viewer who doesn't have much knowledge of the mechanics of filmmaking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPT49WXC0Zo

see Edward, and you were surprised that I rated so-so on Cukor's film that you held in high esteem.
Truth is, if it was some minor film, I rarely see mentioned like Curtiz's "Unsuspected" (and I hope to do a post about Curtiz before the 20th), I would have liked it more. But with all this hype, I would expect something great on the level of Third Man or Hangmen also Die. Instead we get a mystery without any mystery, poorly acted, edited (I know the hands shot you are referring too), and on top of that ludicrously miscast.
Despite his cult mostly supported by his widow, Bogart was never a great actor., but sometimes he acts role minimally (like tired melancholy in Casablanca) and it works great, here he just doesn't work. Astor is terrible. Looking exhausted, with a double chin, she looks 15 years older than she really is. This 'femme fatale" wouldn't be able to swindle anyone for $5. For years I've seen folks on imdb call her matronly, "librarian" (as if librarian can't be attractive). One of the posters here has a theory, that she knows she's aging, and this is her cast case :-/ A theory completely unsupported by the script (let alone original novel). When Lee Patrick tells Bogart she's waiting, she says she's quiet a bute or something like it.
I remember the laugh as well

As with your Cukor list, I have to completely disagree with you about Mary Astor. I may be as gay as three cans of pink paint, but my opinion that she is one of the greatest beauties ever captured on film is supported by my many straight male friends, who all agree that she's strictly "babe" material. Her performance is one of the strongest assets of this over-rated movie.

(I suggest you check out Edward Goren's new, illustrated bio, Mary Astor's Purple Diaries.)

k, now I know why you was so supportive of Garland and her Star is Born ;)
So you are supposed to have great taste !
Well, as a straight married man, I have to say that Astor (while maybe beautiful, beauty is in the eye of the beholder), she's completely asexual. I look at her, looking so exhausted, in those unflattering costumes that would sute Dame Mae Whitty or May Robson back then, and my only desire is to ask if she's uncomfortable, maybe she needs 3 extra pillows for her rheumatism.
(actually I had similar issue with Garland, in SIB she looks sick, but unfortunately, she really was)

k, now I know why you was so supportive of Garland and her Star is Born ;)
So you are supposed to have great taste !



I never mentioned A Star Is Born on the aforementioned thread, and, in fact, I take exception to many of his most respected films, which you listed as unlikeable. I challenge you to point out to me where I was "so supportive of Garland and her Star is Born". I am not, not have I ever been, a Garland fanboy. Be careful not to injure yourself wen jumping to conclusions.


EDITED.

I looked, I listed 10 of his films as liked a lot, and 12 as liked. While not a large % of his filmography, still a large number.

The ones I listed I didn't like (Rich and Famous 1981, Wild Is the Wind 1957 ,
Heller in Pink Tights 1960 ,Winged Victory 1944 ,Susan and God 1940 , The Royal Family of Broadway 1930) while I am sure have their fans, are never referred to as his most respected films.