20 Actors

About a month ago, I shared my 20 favorite actresses thanks to the wonderful meme that was making the rounds at that time. Well, during the past couple of days, I decided that it was time to give the men some love. The love may not be the same as for the women, but I'm still quite fond of all of these people. Here are my 20 favorite actors of all time:

Groucho, Paul, Jean-Pierre, Claude, Cary
Spencer, Buster, John, Charlie, Jack
Gene, Jean-Paul, Robert, James Cagney, Humphrey
James Dean, Montgomery, Henry, Gary, Marcello

Weekend Rental Picks

Miss Julie (Alf Sjöberg, 1951)
The film is based on a world-famous play, but unlike most stage adaptations, Miss Julie is actually quite cinematic. The real beauty of Sjöberg's film is the deep focus photography, which makes it probably the closest (and best) descendant of Citizen Kane. Anita Bjöork is absolutely magnetic as the lead character, a wealthy young woman in love with one of the family's servants.

Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959)
I was watching the fascinating documentary The Celluloid Closet, about gay and lesbian representation in films, and they amusingly mentioned this bonkers Tennessee Williams drama. The film was censored so much because of the Production Code that they couldn't even directly mention the main plot point of the film (how Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn were getting men for their gay cousin/son Sebastian). The film makes little sense, and is hardly the best film adaptation of Tennessee Williams, but it gives Mommie Dearest a run for its money in terms of batshit craziness. My favorite part has to be the final moments when Elizabeth Taylor gives the horrifying/campy scream when she recalls what happens to Sebastian.

Everyone Says I Love You (Woody Allen, 1996)
If you haven't seen Annie Hall, Woody Allen's masterpiece, go out and see that right now. But since I'm assuming that anyone reading this has already seen it or knows they should see it, I'm going to recommend the Woodman's 1996 musical/comedy. The music is kind of forgettable and no one in the cast really has that great of a singing voice, but that is Allen's intent- to make an "ordinary" musical. What I love most about Everyone Says I Love You is the wonderful ensemble (which includes Woody, Goldie Hawn, Drew Barrymore, Edward Norton, Alan Alda and Julia Roberts!) and the hilarious script, probably his last great comedy. In what other movie can you think of in which all of the characters are dressed and act like Groucho Marx at a New Year's party?

Montgomery Clift Blog-a-thon: The First Time I Fell in Love With Monty

Sure, the first time I saw a Monty Clift movie (1951's A Place in the Sun) I wasn't so impressed. I don't know if it's because I didn't understand Clift as an actor yet or I just couldn't get over how God-awful that film is, but, suffice to say, we didn't get off on the right foot. I wasn't until a while later when I saw, of all films, Fred Zinnemann's post-WWII Berlin film The Search, that I understood what all the fuss was about.

The film is a merely standard Hollywood outing- a WWII Czech orphan is taken in by an American private Berlin and eventually he starts growing attached to the boy- that makes me gag just thinking about it. But there's something about this film that works and it's all Monty. Steve Stevenson is far from the juiciest role Clift's ever gotten, but the magic is in the chemistry he creates with the little boy Karel (played by non-actor Ivan Jandl). He grows so attached to Karel that he takes him everywhere with him, teaches him English and even fights to be allowed to take him back to America with him. Monty gives such an emotional performance that it's hard to not be a little sad for him at the ending when circumstances prevent him from bringing Karel back with him (I'm not going to give away the ending if you haven't seen it ;) ).


If I had been allowed to vote at the 1948 Oscars, Clift would have won hands down for this performance. Sure, the ultimate winner Laurence Olivier (in Hamlet no less) is a fine choice, but I think Clift had the biggest challenge-- turning the cliched into something beautiful. He doesn't even get upstaged by Jandl, who, as most child actors are, notorious scene stealers.

I don't care what anyone says because The Search will always be the movie I think of when I think of Monty Clift. Perhaps he has given better performances in From Here to Eternity, The Heiress and Wild River, but there's something haunting in this film that I will never forget.