Even in slim pickings years like this one, Alfred Hitchcock stands tall. 1958 starts an incredible 3 year run of films by one of America’s greatest filmmakers, finding all sorts of ways to scare, shock, and entertain us. In addition, this year sees Akira Kurosawa plant the seeds of the Star Wars universe into George Lucas’s brain, so that might be a little important too.
No honorable mentions though, it’s a pretty weak movie year.
It’s campy and dated yes, but if you want some early versions of how fun a B movie horror flick can be, you could do worse than this one. Plus you get an early version of Steve McQueen in hero mode, which you’ll see in the 60s more often.
Before Jack, Rose, and Celine Dion there was this story about the sinking of the Titanic. It’s almost as big as James Cameron’s movie, with a sprawling cast, elaborate sets and thrilling action sequences, just from a more procedural view.
William Wyler’s sprawling Western, with a slight spin, as Gregory Peck plays a seafaring man who doesn’t want to fight like most men in the West. But when pressed by Charlton Heston and Burl Ives, we’ll see what Peck chooses to do.
The French New Wave take on the American film noir results in one of Louis Malle’s great films. Jeanne Moreau is the femme fatale, a frustrated wife who uses her lover to try to murder her husband. But the passion mixed with naivete leaves a messy crime scene, and soon the law will be bearing down upon them and the people in their mistake filled orbit. Malle also brought in Miles Davis to add some melancholic, beautiful jazz music to help take the American noirs and transfer their essence to France.
A sign of the ephemeral trippiness to come, Ingmar Bergman gives us a weird little gem with a strange cast of characters, circling around Max Von Sydow’s traveling magician, who creates such a ruckus with his act that he draws the attention of everyone in the town, including its most powerful, and its most strange.
When Orson Welles is involved, you know the film is gonna be just a little better than you think. Welles wrote, directs, and stars in this thriller about a cop, Charleton Heston, on his honeymoon with his wife Janet Leigh, only to be stuck investigating a bombing. Enter Welles, a rotund ball of menace, abusing his power as the police chief to try to keep his perfect arrest record in any way possible.
Akira Kurosawa’s film about two peasants from a losing side of battle escaping and stumbling upon a princess and her protector as they try to find allies to defeat their rival clan. This movie’s got battles, humor, and great acting from Toshiro Mifune, as expected. This movie’s so important and great, that George Lucas decided to rip off the first hour as the plot for his movie set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away.
This Tennessee Williams play would be great with anyone, a drama that escalates as every wound gets exposed like a peeled onion, causing tears. But when you cast Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor as the sexually repressed leads, you’ve got yourselves a potboiler for the ages. Both are excellent here, with Newman’s damaged ex hero struggling to contain his anger/disgust, and Taylor playing a woman who wants some loving, and has a hard time dealing with the fact that she isn’t getting any. Surrounding these two titans is also a story of family drama and conflict that helps deepen the emotional well the film pulls off.
Jacques Tati tells this whimsical tale about a man who lives a modest life, which clashes wildly with his sister’s ultra modern/progressive one, and his nephew’s war against it. Like the movie itself, Tati merges silent moviemaking with modern filmmaking (at the time) to craft a comedy that nearly hits all the right notes. Wes Anderson probably watched this movie and got some ideas about how to film cute, strange, and poignant in equal balance.
Sinister, thrilling, and complex, this classic from Alfred Hitchcock starts a run of legendary films by the master of suspense. Jimmy Stewart is excellent here playing a detective with acrophobia from a previous chase, who unretires to help a friend investigate his wife, the enigmatic Kim Novak. Hitchcock, after the halfway point, turns Vertigo into a deep, melancholic study of love and its effects when it comes to loss: one of the best scripts the director ever oversaw.
