Alrighty. John Ford or Howard Hawks?
I read of a night where Hawks and Ernest Hemingway were getting likkored up. Hawks was boasting that he was such a good director he could make a hit film out of Hemingway’s worst book, Hemingway took the bet. They both agreed on what the worst of Hemingway’s works was, and Hawks went to work.
YES,
Liberty Valance and Have and Have Not!!!
Ray, thanks for the shout out on original B&W. I adored All Quiet (AQOTWF), and want to add two more that will richly reward anyone who watches as they will be captivated:
First, the film that Orson Welles said if he could save only one film of all films it would be Renoir’s The Grand Illusion, the best French film of all time and a matching saga to AQOTWF. The remastered B&W is very very well worth tracking down.
The USAian POV of WWi is gloriously done in Wings, the first film to win the Academy Awards, the launching pad for Gary Cooper’s and Clara Bowe’s careers, and the last of the great silent films.
My great uncle was a WWI pilot volunteer in the French forces before the USA entered the war. He was beautiful and brilliant and brave and shot down on his first battle flight. I first watched Wings, his photo in my memory from breakfast that morning, when I was 6 years old sitting in his sister’s (my grandma’s) lap at a movie theater in Tacoma on Veteran’s Day. I have never recovered. I am weeping now.
david fb
Although you also have to like Jimmy Stewart to make the movie worthwhile.
DB2
Who doesn’t like Jimmy Stewart?
He even has a great first name!
JimA