The Best Movies: 1948

The 10 Best Movies of 1948

1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Directed by John Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt. I would argue that this is John Huston’s best film (in an extremely close call over Chinatown) and, while it’s not my favorite Bogart movie, I would also argue that this film features his finest acting performance. I also think his Oscar three years later for The African Queen was a “make up” tribute to Bogart who was not even nominated for this role. I also think Bogart thought so too because, at the time, he said the only fair way to pick “a best actor” was to have all five nominees recite the soliloquy from Hamlet. (The best actor Oscar this year went to the star of the next film on this list.) John and Walter Huston did win an Oscars for this film, the only time in history a father-son combination won for the same picture. Thirty-seven years later, John’s daughter, Anjelica, would also won an Oscar for a film directed by John.

2. Hamlet. Directed by Laurence Olivier. Laurence Olivier, Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney. Even at 2 hours, 35 minutes, this is an abridged version of Shakespeare’s epic tragedy. To this day, however, I wish Olivier had handed the directorial chores to someone else — he seems too consumed with the visual aspects of directing and not concerned enough with acting directions for his cast. I do, however, applaud his decision to shoot this film in black and white. (He filmed his first run at Shakespeare, Henry V, in color). The photography perfectly suits the gloomy, brooding mood of the piece

3. The Red Shoes. Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer. The best ballet film ever made, which is feint praise from me because I am not that big a fan of the art. I would be, however, if more ballet performances were as engrossing as the title dance segment of this beautifully photographed, marvelously directed, superbly acted film. From the “Let’s Be Thankful for Small Favors” Department: Powell and Pressburger bought the rights for this script from producer Alexander Korda who originally commissioned Pressburger to write it for his wife Merle Oberon.

4. Oliver Twist. Directed by David Lean. Alec Guinness, Robert Newton. Not on the same level as Lean’s Great Expectations, but still a superb Dickens interpretation, with some of the best art direction and set decoration to be seen in a 1940s film. It really transported me to that place (London, mainly) in that time. The title role is played by John Howard Davies who went on to become the producer of such landmark British television shows as Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the related Fawlty Towers.

5. Red River. Directed by Howard Hawks. John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru. This was Hawks’ first western and it proved he could master this genre just as well as he mastered comedy (His Girl Friday), mystery (The Big Sleep) and, to a lesser extent, war films (Air Force). I would go so far as to argue that The Ox-Bow Incident was the only better western from the 1940s, that is if you don’t count the top film on this list as a “western,” which I don’t. Wayne was never better and strangely enough, Clift’s method approach perfectly complemented the Duke’s more traditional one.

6. Easter Parade. Directed by Charles Walters. Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller. Too good only to be seen during the Easter holidays. Originally, Gene Kelly was supposed to star in this musical about revenge (admittedly, a strange topic for a musical), but he injured his ankle playing volleyball, of all things, and told producer Arthur Freed to convince Astaire to come out of his announced retirement. The result is one of Astaire’s best film appearances. The little tyke in the final number is Liza Minnelli.

7. Key Largo. Directed by John Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor. Huston’s second classic of this year and, in my opinion, his direction made this a far better version of Maxwell Anderson’s material than it was on the stage. It also gives me the opportunity to bemoan the fact that Robinson was one of a handful of superb actors who never received an Oscar nomination, let alone a statuette. Robinson virtually invented the screen gangster 18 years earlier with Little Caesar and this is his excellent bookend to that type of part.

8. The Fallen Idol. Directed by Carol Reed. Ralph Richardson, Michele Morgan, Bobby Henrey. The first of two majestical Reed-Graham Greene collaborations (the second, even superior, one will be highlighted in 1949's list) is a wonderful thriller uniquely told from a child’s point of view. For those who want to know what a great director means to a film, simply study the camera movements, the lighting and the acting performances in this one.

9. Fort Apache. Directed by John Ford. John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple. The first and the best of Ford’s so-called “cavalry trilogy” a film that explored the everyday life of the solder and the women on the American frontier and, even more importantly, the difference between the facts and the presentation of heroism. I also disagree with all those who say Fonda was miscast in this role — I believe he was exactly the right choice to play this thinly disguised version of General Custer.

10. Johnny Belinda. Directed by Jean Negulesco. Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, Jan Sterling, Agnes Moorehead, Stephen McNally. Had it not been for Negulesco’s atmospheric direction and Wyman’s majestical performance, for which she justly won an Oscar, this would have been nothing more than soap opera. Interestingly, studio head Jack Warner predicted this film would be a financial disaster, arguing that no one would pay to see a movie in which the leading lady didn’t say anything. Was he ever wrong.