Sunday, August 06, 2017

John Farrow Top Ten

In honour of that new doco they're trying to make about him:
1) The Saint Strikes Back (1938) - an excellent B, the best in the series, superbly handled by Farrow
2) Five Came Back (1939) - another terrific B film, a great thriller that not even Farrow himself could match (when he remade it)
3) Wake Island (1942) - for a brief time America had to make movies about losing battles and this is one of the best
4) China (1943) - good tough Alan Ladd adventure with a great opening tracking shot
5) Two Years Before the Mast (1946) - rollicking sea adventure with some great performances
6) Calcutta (1947) - a personal fave bc I love adventure mysteries set in studio-shot exotic backdrops and this is done very well
7) The Big Clock (1948) - a really terrific noir, perhaps the one film of Farrow's that was really embraced by buffs
8) The Sea Chase (1955) - flawed to be sure but an exciting story and full of novelty (John Wayne as a German, Germans as heroes, opening scene in Australia, etc)
9) Hondo (1953) - I never quite loved this as much as other film buffs do but it is a well done Western
10) His Kind of Woman (1951) - nutty film noir, re shot greatly by Richard Fleischer but still recognisably "Farrow", great fun

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