1946

This was a year in which all the films I've chosen to highlight, center around a romantic entanglement regardless of the genre they occupy. Perhaps that's why I have such a lovestruck fondness for all of the pictures below. However, none moreso than my top three, perhaps my favorite top three films of any year.

The Top Three
The Best Years of Our Lives, The Big Sleep, Notorious

The Best Years of Our Lives remains one of the best viewing experiences I've had where I knew virtually nothing about the film except that I wanted to see it. The number of truthful, poignant moments contained in this masterpiece of American cinema is staggering. However, they all pale in comparison to the very real truth of the situation facing Homer and his fiancee. The performance given by Harold Russell is not the greatest acting put forth on screen but never has there been a situation where someone "playing himself" has felt more genuine. I can still get chills thinking about the simple ending where a very small action, has the greatest meaning.

Oh, The Big Sleep. How I love thee. While I will admit this is not the greatest film noir of all time, it is the one that has my heart. It's no one thing (it never is with a great film) it's a collection of images and moments: Bogart with the bookstore girl, waiting in his car in the rain, talking horses with Bacall, Elisha Cook Jr bantering with Cunino, "you're cute", and all the strange twists and turns that give the film a foggy feeling. I am an unabashed Bogart fan and I enjoy all the films he did with his wife, Lauren Bacall, but it's their chemistry in this film that really connects with the audience.

Lastly, Notorious, which has the distinction of probably being the best Hitchcock film outside the big four (Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo and Rear Window). Here you get Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in two very mature roles. Their park bench dialogue contains some of the best back and forth exchanges, where each line cuts upon the other while giving each character room to react. The film also contains one of Hitch's most brilliant pieces of camerawork, starting extremely wide above a busy ballroom and ending on a ring. While the ending is somewhat anticlimactic, the film still contains enough thrilling moments to be considered a classic.

Best of the Rest
It's a Wonderful Life, Gilda, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Killers

When it was released, It's a Wonderful Life was not overly successful. Only in the last 30 years has it gained it's stature and been romanticized as one of the preeminent Christmas films. The other three films all have strong performances from their female leads and act as great precursors to the dark alley of post war pessimism film noir would find in 1947 and 1948.

Other Films of Note
A Matter of Life and Death, (have not seen The Yearling, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, My Darling Clementine, or Beauty and the Beast--French version)

Overall, this year for me will always be about the chemistry of a great pair of actors and actresses. Whether it be Bogart and Bacall, Grant and Bergman, March and Loy, Andrews and Hayworth, Garfield and Turner, or Lancaster and Gardener, they were all enthralling. This was a rare year for another reason. It represented a turning point in American ideals. It is the calm before the storm that hits in 1947 when films like Out of the Past, The Lady from Shanghai, Born to Kill, and Crossfire would showcase how the post war joy of victory was wearing off and everyone was wondering "now what". The films listed above said that everything was alright for the time being and to enjoy the present moment, even though it was not to last.