by Nathaniel R
1956 is not, from our vantage point, a particularly lauded year in cinema but it's an Oscar field we tend to think of regularly for various reasons including but not limited to:
-Camp value (Ten Commandments, Bad Seed)
-Musicals (The King and I, High Society)
-Strange snubs (The Searchers received zero nominations despite Oscar's obsession with John Ford)
-Delayed foreign grandeur (La Strada and Seven Samurai, 1954 films both, were up for Oscars)
-not one but two kaiju movies (Godzilla and Rhodan)...and more.
What's your favorite movie of 1956? I don't think I've seen enough to feel comfortable with a full top ten but here are the five I like best currently (with much more to see) after the jump...
01 Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
Every single performance is a keeper, not just Oscar winning Dorothy Malone's go for broke randiness. Every single color, and there are so many of them, is an eyeful. I get as drunk on the movie as Robert Stack gets inside the movie because Sirk was on fire in the 1950s.
02 Giant (George Stevens)
What a year for Rock Hudson, eh? I've been meaning to rewatch this one for the longest time. Despite my aversion to long movies (and this one is 3 hours plus) I remember being enthralled. It lives up to its title not just in the running time but in the star wattage assembled: HUDSON. TAYLOR. DEAN. MINEO. MCCAMBRIDGE. Plus P.T. Anderson loves it.
03 The King and I (Walter Lang)
Sentimental favorite and I'm gaga for everything Yul Brynner in the mid 50s. Though, yes, I know it's "problematic"
04 The Court Jester (Melvin Frank and Norman Panama)
Because: delightful.
SOME COOL AWARDS TRIVIA FOR YOU: both Danny Kaye AND Yul Brynner lost the comedy/musical Golden Globe that year to Around the World in 80 Days' Cantinflas. Cantinflas did not receive an Oscar nomination and the Golden Globe winner in Drama Kirk Douglas in Lust for Life couldn't fend off Yul Brynner mania at the Oscars. What's more the Golden Globe supporting actor winner wasn't nominated for an Oscar and their choice for Supporting Actress lost. So it's one of those years when the majority of acting winners at the Golden Globes did not repeat at the Oscars. The only repeat winner was Ingrid Bergman for Anastasia and she was not present at either awards ceremony.
05 Bus Stop (Joshua Logan)
I grew up understanding that this was the consensus on Marilyn Monroe's best performance. I don't know if it still is but she's wonderful in it. I'd place it below Some Like It Hot (the pinnacle) but maybe fighting for second or third place with The Misfits and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Maybe.
RUNNER UP
Somebody Up There Likes Me (Robert Wise)
Wrote about this one here a few years back, so it's fresh in the memory. Recency bias, perhaps, but I like it and it's an amazing document of Paul Newman approaching his impending legend without quite being PAUL NEWMAN yet.