I had a lot of fun in 2014 watching each of the 36 films that Charlie Chaplin made in 1914 (well, the 35 that still exist, at least). What made it most fun was watching them a hundred years to the day from their original release, so seeing them at the rate that the audiences of the time did.
A neat side effect was that I kept on task and so inherently had a book ready to proof and edit by the end of the year, so I conjured up a similar project. This one wouldn't involve the centennials of films but of people, working to the same sort of structure.
So, here's 2016 Centennials.
Each review here was posted on what would have been (or in some instances actually was) the one hundredth birthday of someone important to the film industry. The aim was to remember them with an interesting film from their career that, in the process, allows me to explore another aspect of history, whether to cinema, something wider or both.
Some of these people are famous, household names that we grew up watching. Some aren't. And some used to be, but a hundred years is a long time and things change. All, however, are important.
These carefully curated films vary by era, genre and nationality and, together, help to enrich my knowledge and maybe yours too. I collated these reviews into a book, A Hundred in 2016, which won the Alan Black Cirque du Livre Book of the Festival in 2017.
Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic
Latest Review (19 Dec 2016) | |||||
Title | Year | H | D | Director(s) | IMDb |
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde | 1971 | 5 | 5 | Roy Ward Baker | IMDb |
All 2018 Centennial Reviews | |||||
Title | Year | H | D | Director(s) | IMDb |
10 Rillington Place | 1971 | 7 | 6 | Richard Fleischer | IMDb |
23 Paces to Baker Street | 1956 | 5 | 5 | Henry Hathaway | IMDb |
Angel Baby | 1961 | 5 | 5 | Paul Wendkos | IMDb |
Babies for Sale | 1940 | 5 | 5 | Charles Barton | IMDb |
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend | 1949 | 4 | 4 | Preston Sturges | IMDb |
Behold a Pale Horse | 1964 | 4 | 4 | Fred Zinnemann | IMDb |
The Brute Man | 1946 | 4 | 4 | Jean Yarbrough | IMDb |
Bwana Devil | 1952 | 3 | 3 | Arch Oboler | IMDb |
Carry On... Up the Khyber | 1968 | 6 | 5 | Gerald Thomas | IMDb |
Curse of the Queerwolf | 1988 | 5 | 4 | Mark Pirro | IMDb |
The Curse of the Werewolf | 1961 | 5 | 5 | Terence Fisher | IMDb |
Dance of the Vampires | 1967 | 5 | 4 | Roman Polanski | IMDb |
The Dark Eyes of London | 1939 | 5 | 5 | Walter Summers | IMDb |
Death Car on the Freeway | 1979 | 4 | 4 | Hal Needham | IMDb |
Deathtrap | 1982 | 6 | 6 | Sidney Lumet | IMDb |
Doctor Syn | 1937 | 5 | 5 | Roy William Neill | IMDb |
Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine | 1965 | 4 | 4 | Norman Taurog | IMDb |
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde | 1971 | 5 | 5 | Roy Ward Baker | IMDb |
The Ghost Breakers | 1940 | 5 | 5 | George Marshall | IMDb |
Hellzapoppin' | 1941 | 6 | 5 | H. C. Potter | IMDb |
Horrors of the Black Museum | 1959 | 5 | 5 | Arthur Crabtree | IMDb |
The Inheritance | 1962 | 6 | 6 | Masaki Kobayashi | IMDb |
The Iroquois Trail | 1950 | 4 | 4 | Phil Karlson | IMDb |
Johnny O'Clock | 1947 | 4 | 4 | Robert Rossen | IMDb |
Lady in a Cage | 1964 | 5 | 6 | Walter Grauman | IMDb |
The Lost World | 1960 | 3 | 3 | Irwin Allen | IMDb |
The Night of the Grizzly | 1966 | 5 | 4 | Joseph Pevney | IMDb |
Postal Inspector | 1936 | 4 | 4 | Otto Brower | IMDb |
Psychout for Murder | 1969 | 5 | 5 | Edward Ross | IMDb |
The Shiralee | 1957 | 5 | 5 | Leslie Norman | IMDb |
Skidoo | 1968 | 2 | 2 | Otto Preminger | IMDb |
The Spiral Staircase | 1945 | 6 | 6 | Robert Siodmak | IMDb |
The Tattered Dress | 1957 | 6 | 5 | Jack Arnold | IMDb |
Terror in a Texas Town | 1958 | 6 | 5 | Joseph H. Lewis | IMDb |
The Villain | 1979 | 3 | 4 | Hal Needham | IMDb |