my favorite movies of 1956:

(1) The Wrong Man

(2) The Killing

(3) The Bitter Stems

favorite of 1956:

The Wrong Man

(Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.)

A critic on Ebert’s website says this might be “the least fun” of Hitchcock’s Hollywood movies:

For “The Wrong Man,” Hitchcock took his task so … seriously that he denied himself his usual winking cameo, the appearance (usually early on) of Hitch in some dryly humorous posture interacting with the world he’s creating. The director does appear in the movie, addressing the audience directly in a prologue, but his mien is different than it would be in his droll introductions to the episodes of TV’s “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”; … in silhouette and long shot, he all but warns his audience that this is a “different” kind of story for him. The difference, we are meant to infer, is in the documentary value: the scenario is based on a true event, and Hitchcock tells it with great attention to realism and verisimilitude. …

More from that review:

The movie tells the story of Christopher Balestrero, nicknamed “Manny,” a member of the house band at New York’s swanky Stork Club in the early ’50s, who found himself on the receiving end of a very bad case of mistaken identity, enduring arrest and trial for a series of small-time robberies that he did not commit. Screen icon of integrity Henry Fonda plays Manny and Vera Miles is his wife Rose, who suffers a breakdown and serious attendant depression as a result of the ordeal. …

Stream The Wrong Man on the Criterion Channel (leaving after February 2025 — try a free trial) or these sites.

 

2nd favorite of 1956:

The Killing

(Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Vince Edwards, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Joe Turkel. Directed by Stanley Kubrick.)

You have not yet learned that in this life you have to be like everyone else — the perfect mediocrity, no better, no worse. Individuality is a monster, and it must be strangled in its cradle to make our friends feel confident. … I’ve often thought that the gangster and the artist are the same in the eyes of the masses. They are admired and hero-worshipped, but there is … an underlying wish to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory.

Stream The Killing on Amazon Prime, YouTube (free with ads), Kanopy, or one of these sites.

3rd favorite of 1956:

The Bitter Stems

[Spanish: Los Tallos Amargos]

(Carlos Cores, Vassili Lambrinos, Gabriele Ferzetti. Directed by Fernando Ayala.)

In this psychological noir from Argentina, a struggling journalist named Gasper (Carlos Cores) thinks he’s found salvation when he meets the charismatic Liudas (Vassili Lambrinos), who lures him into a get-rich-quick scheme where they run a scam journalism school.

If you know film noir, you know what to expect next: cold-blooded corruption, searing betrayal, deepening paranoia, impending downfall. But The Bitter Stems is no noir-by-numbers. As the interestingly named Gasper starts suffocating under his guilt, plot twists tangle with fragmented dialogue, and the line between dreams and reality is blurred.

I recommend approaching The Bitter Stems not as just one more noir, but as a character study of a man who doesn’t realize how much his avoidance of other people holds him back from really living. Gasper pushes away those who offer love and support while he plunges into bitter isolation. What’s his real enemy: his con-artist partner, or himself?

Trains run through this story; trains can connect people but can also bring danger. Seeds contain a similar duality: growth, nourishment, renewal … yet burial, decay, bitterness.

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Stream The Bitter Stems on the Criterion Channel (try a free trial).

Click here for the full list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020.