Best Films - 1953
by Andre Soares
An elegant, hauntingly romantic tale of love and betrayal, Max Ophüls’s Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De boasts a mature but still radiant Danielle Darrieux, a solid Vittorio De Sica, and what may well be the best performance of Charles Boyer’s long career. To say that Ophüls is a master of tracking shots would be a disservice to both the director (and his cinematographer, Christian Matras). In Madame De. . . the ever-fluid camera is no mere tracking-shot device; it is as alive as any of the film’s characters, dancing at the ball, flowing into and out of rooms, going up and down stairs, and running into the fields, as it follows Madame De, her husband, and her lover as they move toward their tragic meeting with fate. A masterful companion to Ophüls’s Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and La Ronde (1950).
FILM
Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De
The Bandwagon
The Big Heat
Blowing Wild
Calamity Jane
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
How to Marry a Millionaire
I Confess
Shane
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot / Mr. Hulot’s Holiday
ANIMATION
Peter Pan
NON-FICTION
The Living Desert (d: James Algar)
DIRECTOR
Max Ophüls (Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De)
David Butler (Calamity Jane)
Hugo Fregonese (Blowing Wild)
Howard Hawks (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
Alfred Hitchcock (I Confess)
Fritz Lang (The Big Heat)
Vincente Minnelli (The Bandwagon)
Jean Negulesco (How to Marry a Millionaire)
George Stevens (Shane)
Jacques Tati (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot / Mr. Hulot’s Holiday)
ACTOR
Charles Boyer (Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De)
Montgomery Clift (I Confess)
Gary Cooper (Blowing Wild)
Franco Fabrizi (I Vitelloni / The Young and the Passionate)
Glenn Ford (The Big Heat)
Franco Interlenghi (I Vitelloni / The Young and the Passionate)
Howard Keel (Ride Vaquero)
Gregory Peck (Roman Holiday)
Robert Ryan (The Naked Spur)
Jacques Tati (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot / Mr. Hulot’s Holiday)
ACTRESS
Barbara Stanwyck (Blowing Wild)
Leslie Caron (Lili)
Danielle Darrieux (Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De)
Joan Fontaine (The Bigamist)
Betty Grable (How to Marry a Millionaire)
Gloria Grahame (The Big Heat)
Rita Hayworth (Miss Sadie Thompson)
Marilyn Monroe (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
Jean Peters (Pickup on South Street)
Barbara Stanwyck (All I Desire)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Brandon DeWilde (Shane)
Richard Basehart (Titanic)
Jack Buchanan (The Bandwagon)
Richard Carlson (All I Desire)
Charles Coburn (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
Peter Graves (Stalag 17)
Stanley Holloway (The Titfield Thunderbolt)
Lee Marvin (The Big Heat)
Anthony Quinn (Blowing Wild)
Alberto Sordi (I Vitelloni / The Young and the Passionate)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Deborah Kerr (From Here to Eternity)
Nanette Fabray (The Bandwagon)
Hildegarde Kneff (The Man Between)
Ann Miller (Kiss Me Kate)
Donna Reed (From Here to Eternity)
Thelma Ritter (Pickup on South Street)
Jean Simmons (The Robe)
Dorothy Tutin (The Beggar’s Opera)
Teresa Wright (The Actress)
SCREENPLAY
Marcel Achard, Max Ophüls & Annette Wademant (Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De)
Sidney Boehm (The Big Heat)
Adolph Green & Betty Comden (The Bandwagon)
A.B. Guthrie, Jr. (Shane)
Nunnally Johnson (How to Marry a Millionaire)
Charles Lederer (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
James O’Hanlon (Calamity Jane)
George Tabori & William Archibald (I Confess)
Jacques Tati & Henri Marquet (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot / Mr. Hulot’s Holiday)
Philip Yordan (Blowing Wild)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Loyal Griggs (Shane)
Burnett Guffey (From Here to Eternity)
Charles B. Lang (The Big Heat)
Otello Martelli, Luciano Trasatti & Carlo Carlini (I Vitelloni / The Young and the Passionate)
Christian Matras (Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De)
Kazuo Miyagawa (Ugetsu monogatari)
Alex Phillips (La Red)
Joseph Ruttenberg (Julius Caesar)
Kôhei Sugiyama (Jigokumon / Gate of Hell)
Harry J. Wild (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
ORIGINAL SCORE
Victor Young (Shane)
Georges Auric (Roman Holiday)
Alessandro Cicognini (Stazione Termini / Indiscretions of an American Wife)
Morris Engel (The Little Fugitive)
Bronislau Kaper (Lili)
Nino Rota (I Vitelloni / The Young and the Passionate)
Oscar Straus & Georges von Parys (Madame De. . . / The Earrings of Madame De)
Dmitri Tiomkin (Blowing Wild)
"Best Films of …" Annual List
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