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Forum Overview
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Peter Molyneux's The Movies
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by Brody Wilder 03/30/2026, 9:22pm PDT |
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WINNER: The Ox-Bow Incident
When he was 14 years old, actor Henry Fonda witnessed a lynching. "It was the most horrendous sight I’d ever seen . . . We locked the plant, went downstairs, and drove home in silence. My hands were wet and there were tears in my eyes. All I could think of was that young black man dangling at the end of a rope." Fonda would go on to spend his entire career confronting such perversions of justice. He played an innocent man running from the death penalty in Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once, John Brahm's Let Us Live, John Ford's The Fugitive, Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, and probably more besides. He was the noble outlaw's elder brother Frank in two Jesse James pictures, and the sole holdout on a jury determined to convict in 12 Angry Men.
In the first great noir western, The Ox-Bow Incident, Fonda played a simple cowpoke who stumbled upon three men about to be hanged for cattle rustling. Far from steering the ship like his civic-minded character in 12 Angry Men, here he's reduced to a conscientious objector, a voice of moderation muttering plaintively into the literal and metaphorical darkness. As grim as westerns come, the lean 75-minute running time mercifully keeps things moving to their inexorable conclusion. A beautiful depiction of man at his worst and the perfect counter-programming to this most rah-rah of propaganda years.
Army: Sahara
Switching gears, let's put the fun back in breaking some mother's heart with this action-packed story of a man and his tank, the best World War II movie produced during the war itself. Humphrey Bogart (far from the studio's first choice - they wanted an Aryan ideal like Gary Cooper or Glenn Ford) plays the grimy commander of an M3 Medium named "Lulubelle", lost in the Libyan desert after a retreat. He links up with a multinational rainbow coalition of stranded Allies and leads them to the only watering hole for days. When Rommel's thirsty Afrika Corps comes a-calling, the wiley American sees his chance to hold up an entire battallion with just a handful of men. Ridiculous...ly awesome. (There's a scene near the climax where the black soldier brutally suffocates a white Nazi in hand-to-hand combat, representing the first time American audiences were expected to cheer for such a thing. So that's progress, I guess.)
Navy: Destination Tokyo
With land sorted, what about sea? Well, it looks like everything on the ocean is out to kill Cary Grant, skipper of the submarine sent to deposit a recon team on the fortified island nation of Japan. Minefields, torpedo nets, one crewman's own traitorous appendix organ and more stand between Grant and his titular destination. Do you think he'll make it? Includes an early dramatic role for John Garfield, blacklisted communist and method acting legend. He was sort of the missing link between James Cagney and Marlon Brando, here playing the Cagney role of insubordinate young bowery boy, but doing it in the brooding, taciturn fashion later popularized by Brando. You may not know Garfield, but if you ever watched 1939's Daughters Courageous, you'll remember his pitch-perfect delivery of one particular line: "These peanuts are makin' me thirsty".
Army Air Corps: Air Force
Turning our eyes to the sky, we see an aircrew ferrying their unarmed B-17 bomber from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor. Unluckily for them, they happen to be doing it on the day of the infamous sneak attack. Between the Japanese bombardment and the (entirely fictional) Japanese-American insurgency, they're lucky to escape with their ship in one piece. What follows is an island-hopping tour of Pacific airbases as the crew look everywhere for shelter and the rocks cry out, "No hidin' place". The aerial combat sequences were a significant influence on 1977's Star Wars - the scene in which the Millennium Falcon fends off TIE fighters with its turbolaser turrets being particularly similar. John Garfield is in this one, too, playing much the same character he did in Destination Tokyo. (According to a monologue in Pulp Fiction, he's the airman who flies Butch's grandfather's watch off Wake Island before they're overrun.)
Joy Division: The More the Merrier
All this fighting is bringing me down. Let's take our minds off it with that most escapist of genres, the romantic comedy. Rich old man Charles Coburn arrives in Washington, DC intending to solve the wartime housing crisis. Unable to secure a hotel room, he's forced to rent out half of stridently independent government clerk Jean Arthur's personal apartment. Always the problem-solver, Coburn realizes how empty and unfulfilled the career girl's life must be, and sublets half of his half of the apartment to the sturdiest young buck he can find: Joel McCrae (good job). The remainder of the film is Coburn playing Cupid while Arthur and McCrae weave a sexually frustrated spider's web of misunderstandings and near-misses. The makeout scene on the steps, in which no single kiss could last more than three seconds without violating the production code, might be the hottest thing I've seen in a movie from this era. Make love, not war! |
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The Best Movie of Every Year by Brody Wilder 03/14/2026, 8:42pm PDT 
The Best Movie of 1930 by Brody Wilder 03/14/2026, 8:46pm PDT
Best thread in ages NT by Gaige Grosskreutz 03/15/2026, 1:05pm PDT
Do you have a job/family NT by Mysterio 03/15/2026, 3:16am PDT
God forbid. NT by Brody Wilder 03/15/2026, 8:56am PDT
Is this Tom Chick? NT by mysterio 2 03/17/2026, 11:37pm PDT
He might honestly be the last person to read and post here. NT by Kenji Carter 03/18/2026, 8:05am PDT
The Best Movie of 1931 by Brody Wilder 03/15/2026, 3:53pm PDT
Holy cow, Caltrops is back! by Mischief Maker 03/15/2026, 4:46pm PDT
Are your motivss pure, Maker of MischIEF? NT by Tomorrow People 03/16/2026, 9:39pm PDT
Re: The Best Movie of 1931 by E. L. Koba 03/19/2026, 5:15pm PDT
Set your expectations for "early talkie" and you should have a good time. by Brody Wilder 03/19/2026, 6:25pm PDT
Dubbing is actually pretty crucial, when you think about it. by Brody Wilder 03/19/2026, 7:21pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1932 by Brody Wilder 03/16/2026, 6:15pm PDT
Keep 'em coming! NT by MM 03/16/2026, 6:34pm PDT
That's SIR Ian McKellan to you, smart guy. NT by caltrops analyzer 03/17/2026, 6:54am PDT
I gave Sir Ian's knighthood to Charles Laughton, who never got one. by I felt like he deserved it. 03/17/2026, 4:46pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1933 by Brody Wilder 03/17/2026, 4:45pm PDT
Thanks for doing these. by Ice Cream Jonsey 03/17/2026, 8:48pm PDT
Thanks for reading! NT by Brody Wilder 03/17/2026, 8:56pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1934 by Brody Wilder 03/18/2026, 1:06pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1935 by Brody Wilder 03/19/2026, 5:43pm PDT
Hitchcock by Gaige Grosskreutz 03/19/2026, 8:28pm PDT
I like Hitchcock. by Brody Wilder 03/19/2026, 9:22pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1936 by Brody Wilder 03/20/2026, 7:35pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1937 by Brody Wilder 03/21/2026, 7:30pm PDT
We need more movies with electric chairs in them. by Gaige Grosskreutz 03/22/2026, 9:50am PDT
The Best Movie of 1938 by Brody Wilder 03/22/2026, 7:33pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1939 by Brody Wilder 03/23/2026, 4:59pm PDT
I have nothing to contribute, but I love these. NT by Hangman 03/25/2026, 12:58pm PDT
Fukk yes NT by Gary 03/25/2026, 10:02pm PDT
Re: Fukk yes by PICKLES 03/26/2026, 5:47pm PDT
#Beep# NT by Hero detector 03/26/2026, 7:07pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1940 by Brody Wilder 03/26/2026, 7:25pm PDT
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! by HES BACK YOU LITTLE SHIITS! 03/26/2026, 8:47pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1941 by Brody Wilder 03/27/2026, 8:02pm PDT
I love Hammett. An actual real-life PI turned author, his writing rings true. by Mischief Maker 03/27/2026, 10:48pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1942 by Brody Wilder 03/29/2026, 8:20pm PDT
I was half-expecting you to be edgy and not pick Casablanca. NT by Mischief Maker 03/29/2026, 9:35pm PDT
I admit, I considered doing Arabian Nights with Maria Montez and Sabu. by Brody Wilder 03/29/2026, 9:57pm PDT
Wizard of Oz is still good, right? 1939? NT by Gaige Grosskreutz 03/30/2026, 8:39am PDT
Probably, but it's not my cup of tea. by Brody Wilder 03/30/2026, 4:43pm PDT
I didn't realize these weren't Oscar Best Picture winners until just now by laudablepuss 03/31/2026, 11:43am PDT
The Academy has rarely selected films of cultural, historical, or aesthetic impo by Brody Wilder 03/31/2026, 5:25pm PDT
How the hell did "Arthur" wind up being oscar-bait? by Mischief Drunkard 03/31/2026, 5:43pm PDT
Vince Gilligan said the comedic engine of Pluribus is a descendant of Bewitched. by Fullofkittens 03/30/2026, 7:26am PDT
Re: Vince Gilligan said the comedic engine of Pluribus is a descendant by Gaige Grosskreutz 03/30/2026, 8:40am PDT
Ooooh. So Bogart was 43 in Casablanca, not 37 as the script says. I'd chalked it NT by up to the smoking & booze -MM 03/31/2026, 8:53pm PDT
This was supposed to be a reply to the 1944 list. Whoops! NT by MM 03/31/2026, 8:54pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1943 by Brody Wilder 03/30/2026, 9:22pm PDT
I'm cumming!!! NT by 8======D ~ ~ ~ 03/31/2026, 4:48am PDT
The Best Movie of 1944 by Brody Wilder 03/31/2026, 8:20pm PDT
Double Indemnity is the first of these I have seen, and a top 10/15 movie for me by Ice Cream Jonsey 03/31/2026, 9:18pm PDT
Loving these! NT by The entire world 04/01/2026, 5:48am PDT
Justifies ICJ not pulling the plug on this place in 2011. NT by Keister M. Feister 04/01/2026, 7:33am PDT
The Best Movie of 1945 by Brody Wilder 04/01/2026, 7:47pm PDT
Waaaaaaaait a minute! by Mischief Maker 04/01/2026, 9:23pm PDT
Lots of people like that movie! I could be anyone. by Brody Wilder 04/02/2026, 2:49am PDT
The Best Movie of 1946 by Brody Wilder 04/05/2026, 8:36pm PDT
Brody, what makes for good film noir - to you? NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/05/2026, 9:33pm PDT
First of all, it has to hate women as much as I do. by Brody Wilder 04/05/2026, 10:46pm PDT
I'm still working on your question. Thank you for asking it. NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/08/2026, 9:42pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1947 by Brody Wilder 04/08/2026, 3:24am PDT
Re: The Best Movie of 1947 by matt mysterio 04/29/2026, 9:18pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1948 by Brody Wilder 04/11/2026, 11:08pm PDT
You bastards ran him off! NT by we can't have nice things 04/27/2026, 11:24am PDT
What are you talking about? The list is over. Movies ended in 1948. NT by Mischief Maker 04/27/2026, 11:46am PDT
I really hope he continues. NT by Gaige Grosskreutz 04/27/2026, 1:29pm PDT
The Best Movie of 1949 by Brody Wilder 04/28/2026, 5:19am PDT
Fuck yes NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/28/2026, 6:49am PDT
The Third Man was the only noir I rooted for the villain by broad strokes 04/30/2026, 12:36pm PDT
Maybe you're not prejudiced enough? The gypsy music subconsciously informs the NT by audience they are being swindled. 05/01/2026, 8:19am PDT
I'm prejudiced enough! I am! Continue! NT by Mysterio GAMER 05/19/2026, 3:08pm PDT
PLEASE CONTINUE NT by Mysterio GAMER 05/19/2026, 1:29pm PDT
Love Bump NT by Lonnie 05/31/2026, 4:50am PDT
Aw man by Lonnie 06/09/2026, 11:54pm PDT
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