Best Films – 1952
Movies about children tend to be dangerous to one’s blood sugar levels. Les Jeux interdits / Forbidden Games is one of the few exceptions. Directed by René Clément, this masterpiece co-written by Clément himself, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost, and François Boyer shows us how the horrors of war (in this case World War II) affect the lives of two little children in the French countryside. As a plus, Les Jeux interdits boasts one of the best film scores ever, Narciso Yepes’s "Romance d’amour," and two of the greatest child performances ever recorded on celluloid: Brigitte Fossey’s and Georges Poujouly’s as the two kids obsessed with their animal cemetery. We feel confident in our (highly judgmental) appraisal of reactions to this particular film: If your eyes are dry at the end of Les Jeux interdits, you can be sure you’re as dead as the animals in the children’s pet cemetery.
FILM
El Bruto / The Brute
Carrie
Casque d’or / Golden Marie
The Crimson Pirate
5 Fingers
High Noon
The Hoaxters
Les Jeux interdits / Forbidden Games
Ivanhoe
Monkey Business
Scaramouche
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René Clément (Forbidden Games)
Jacques Becker (Casque d’or)
Luis Buñuel (El Bruto)
Howard Hawks (Monkey Business)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (5 Fingers)
George Sidney (Scaramouche)
Robert Siodmak (The Crimson Pirate)
Richard Thorpe (Ivanhoe)
William Wyler (Carrie)
Fred Zinnemann (High Noon)
SCREENPLAY
Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost, René Clément & François Boyer (Les Jeux interdits / Forbidden Games)
Anthony Asquith (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Luis Buñuel & Luiz Alcoriza (El Bruto / The Brute)
Carl Foreman (High Noon)
Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz (Carrie)
Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer & I. A. L. Diamond (Monkey Business)
Noel Langley, Aeneas Mackenzie & Marguerite Roberts (Ivanhoe)
Ronald Millar & George Froeschel (Scaramouche)
Michael Wilson (5 Fingers)
Cesare Zavattini & Vittorio De Sica (Umberto D.)
ACTOR
Gary Cooper (High Noon)
José Ferrer (Moulin Rouge)
Cary Grant (Monkey Business)
James Mason (5 Fingers)
Laurence Olivier (Carrie)
Georges Poujouly (Forbidden Games)
Serge Reggiani (Casque d’or)
Robert Taylor (Ivanhoe)
ACTRESS
Joan Crawford (Sudden Fear)
Joan Fontaine (Ivanhoe)
Brigitte Fossey (Forbidden Games)
Julie Harris (The Member of the Wedding)
Katharine Hepburn (Pat and Mike)
Jennifer Jones (Carrie)
Katy Jurado (El Bruto)
Maureen O’Hara (The Quiet Man)
Ginger Rogers (Monkey Business)
Simone Signoret (Casque d’or)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Charles Coburn (Monkey Business)
Finlay Currie (Ivanhoe)
Brandon DeWilde (The Member of the Wedding)
Aldo Ray (Pat and Mike)
Gilbert Roland (The Bad and the Beautiful)
George Sanders (Ivanhoe)
Frank Silvera (Viva Zapata!)
Alberto Sordi (Lo Scieicco bianco / The White Sheik)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vivian Blaine (Skirts Ahoy)
Edith Evans (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Joan Greenwood (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Jean Hagen (Singin’ in the Rain)
Miriam Hopkins (Carrie)
Katy Jurado (High Noon)
Colette Marchand (Moulin Rouge)
Marilyn Monroe (Monkey Business)
Margaret Rutherford (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Ethel Waters (The Member of the Wedding)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
George Barnes, Peverell Marley & Wallace Kelley (The Greatest Show on Earth)
Norbert Brodine (5 Fingers)
Floyd Crosby (High Noon)
Russell Harlan (The Big Sky)
Winton C. Hoch & Archie Stout (The Quiet Man)
Robert Juillard (Forbidden Games)
Joseph P. MacDonald (Viva Zapata!)
Oswald Morris (Moulin Rouge)
Robert Surtees (The Bad and the Beautiful)
Frederick A. Young (Ivanhoe)
MUSIC
Georges Auric (Moulin Rouge)
Charles Chaplin (Limelight)
Alessandro Cicognini (Umberto D.)
Miklos Rozsa (Ivanhoe)
Dmitri Tiomkin (High Noon)
Narciso Yepes (Forbidden Games)
"Best Films of …" Annual List
1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
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Tags: 5 Fingers, Best Films, Brigitte Fossey, Carl Foreman, Casque d'Or, Classic Movies, Colette Marchand, Forbidden Games, Georges Auric, Jacques Becker, Jean Aurenche, Jean Hagen, Jennifer Jones, Joan Greenwood, Pierre Bost, René Clement, Richard Thorpe
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