Thursday 17 March 2016

MY DVD COLLECTION 14

John Huston 1906-1987
I've always found it hard to define John Huston. As a director he was constantly able to surprise me. Projects I thought were totally wrong for his peculiarly masculine style turned out to be a delight and others which seemed at first to be minor works in his canon turn out to be among the most watchable.  A great director?  Most certainly - there are enough masterpieces along the way. As an actor he could be kindly, funny uncle Noah in his own, surprisingly good, THE BIBLE or he could be the epitome of evil as Noah Cross in Polanski's CHINATOWN without seemingly changing stride. He was the son of the great actor Walter Huston and part of a dynasty that still spreads out through the film world today. My DVD collection contains fewer John Huston films than I should like. The ones I have at present are : Films directed by John Huston : THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) THE BATTLE OF SAN PIETRO (1944) THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE (1947) KEY LARGO (1948) THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE (1951) THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1952) MOULIN ROUGE (1953) MOBY DICK (1956) THE BIBLE...IN THE BEGINNING (1967) FAT CITY (1972) THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN (1973)  Other films in which Huston participated other than his own : MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932) HIGH SIERRA (1941) DE SADE (1969) CHINATOWN (1974) MR. CORBETT'S GHOST (1987)

1 comment:

Cerpts said...

It's true -- it's funny how Huston's name doesn't crop up often when talking of great directors and, like you, my vault probably needs more of his films. . . although looking at them, it appears I have more in my vault than I thought.

The Huston films in my OWN DVD collection: THE MALTESE FALCON, ACROSS THE PACIFIC, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, KEY LARGO, WE WERE STRANGERS, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, BEAT THE DEVIL, MOBY DICK, THE MISFITS, THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER, THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT.