What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

John Huston: Director Hall of Fame **VOTE HERE** (1 Viewer)

What movie should John Huston go into the Movie HOF with?

  • The Maltese Falcon

    Votes: 12 32.4%
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

    Votes: 17 45.9%
  • The African Queen

    Votes: 5 13.5%
  • The Asphalt Jungle

    Votes: 1 2.7%
  • Key Largo

    Votes: 1 2.7%
  • The Man Who Would Be King

    Votes: 1 2.7%
  • The Misfits

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Fat City

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    37

Ilov80s

Footballguy
So I was thinking when athletes enter the HOF, they have to pick the team they will go in for. Randy Johnson, Mariners or Diamondbacks? Gretzky, Oilers or Kings? Deion, Falcons or Cowboys?

What if directors were entered into the Movie Hall of Fame and had to choose 1 movie to represent them. Look at it however you want: best movie, most successful movie, breakout movie that put them on the map, etc. It's however you see the director best represented.

It's Oscar Week: Paul Thomas Anderson and Jane Campion are true auteurs nominated for both direction and screenplay. John Huston was one of signature writer-directors of Old Hollywood. He won one Best Director Oscar, one Best Screenplay Oscar and  had 14 total nominations. He also holds the distinction of being the oldest director ever nominated (79). What's his signature film to represent him in the HOF? Why?

Rd1: Jaws for Spielberg (50%)

Rd 2: Alien for Ridley Scott (43%)

Rd 3: Psycho for Hitchcock (44%)

Rd 4: 2001: A Space Odyssey for Stanley Kubrick (31%)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I’ve seen the first five. I’ll go with Sierra Madre, but pretty close. Sierra Madre just holds up as the best overall movie for me when you put together the story with the acting and cinematography. 

Maltese Falcon may be the first noir, but I think Asphalt Jungle was better.

 
my favorite director - his taste for the quest, in life & film, made him so. Huston suffers in estimation now because he prized. without cynicism, what men of convenience are most afraid of today.  his Moby ****  - not even on the list - is better than anything the Scotts, the Andersons, Nolan, maybe even Scorsese have ever done.

he got more & more ambitious, but he never got better than his first flick so, while Man Who Would Be King is my favorite, Maltese Falcon is what he would have put forward for nomination, so was my vote.

 
That’s my worry, this is also kind of a test balloon to see how old one can go with this. Though I suppose one didn’t need to see Moss play to stake a claim on Pats or Vikings. 


I've seen all of the nominees :bag:   They're all better than anything Ridley Scott ever directed.

Voted for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.  It's a great B. Traven yarn that Huston and company filmed without an ounce of bloat.

Fat City is a great film whose reputation has grown over the years. It fits in perfectly with the New Hollywood films of the 1970s in spite of Huston being a movie lifer at the age of 67.

 
I have not but that’s not surprising.   I know it’s pathetic but I am a mainstream movie guy that doesn’t watch a bunch of movies.  Any of these movies truly outstanding?
I know the first 2 are considered classics but they’re also like 80 years old

I think African Queen highly regarded too.

not sure I’ve even heard of the others 

 
I have not but that’s not surprising.   I know it’s pathetic but I am a mainstream movie guy that doesn’t watch a bunch of movies.  Any of these movies truly outstanding?
I guess it depends on the established prejudice one has for older movies. These movies are very main stream. They are just old. If interested The Treasure of the Sierra Madre would be the place to start. If you don’t like that, you probably won’t like any of them.

 
That’s my worry, this is also kind of a test balloon to see how old one can go with this. Though I suppose one didn’t need to see Moss play to stake a claim on Pats or Vikings. 
I read past Asphalt Jungle, so I've seen 2 - that and Falcon.  Technically I have seen 3- we watched African Queen for a movie appreciation class in MS, but I remember 0% of it.  

 
I read past Asphalt Jungle, so I've seen 2 - that and Falcon.  Technically I have seen 3- we watched African Queen for a movie appreciation class in MS, but I remember 0% of it.  
I am not actually a fan of The African Queen. Just didn't do anything for me and I am a huge fan of Bogart and Hepburn. 

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a must watch though. Huston has a deep roster with lots of quality movies:  Moby ****, Night of the Iguana, Wise Blood, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, In This Our Life. 

 
I guess it depends on the established prejudice one has for older movies. These movies are very main stream. They are just old. If interested The Treasure of the Sierra Madre would be the place to start. If you don’t like that, you probably won’t like any of them.
I’d agree with Sierra Madre as the most accessible for anyone who does not watch a lot of older movies.

Even if someone has never seen it, a lot would be recognized. The “Badges?” scene one of the most famous in movie history.

 
I’d agree with Sierra Madre as the most accessible for anyone who does not watch a lot of older movies.

Even if someone has never seen it, a lot would be recognized. The “Badges?” scene one of the most famous in movie history.
True. If you watched a lot of Looney Tunes growing up, you will recognize a lot of elements from John Huston movies. 

 
Huston has a deep roster with lots of quality movies:  Moby ****, Night of the Iguana, Wise Blood, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, In This Our Life. 


I watched this last month for the first time in over 40 years.  Paul Newman is terrific as the judge but even he and a great director like Huston couldn't put over John Milius' episodic script.

ETA:  I agree with you re: The African Queen.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I guess it depends on the established prejudice one has for older movies. These movies are very main stream. They are just old. If interested The Treasure of the Sierra Madre would be the place to start. If you don’t like that, you probably won’t like any of them.


Old is relative.  I first watched Huston's films in the 1970s when the movies were 30 years old.  That would be similar to a current audience watching something made in the early 1990s.

 
Old is relative.  I first watched Huston's films in the 1970s when the movies were 30 years old.  That would be similar to a current audience watching something made in the early 1990s.
Good point. I first watched his big three movies in the 90s which would be equivalent to checking out 70s movies today. 

 
I watched this last month for the first time in over 40 years.  Paul Newman is terrific as the judge but even he and a great director like Huston couldn't put over John Milius' episodic script.

ETA:  I agree with you re: The African Queen.
Judge Roy Bean is really messy but it’s fun and the wild shootout at the end closes it out in a bang. I liked it but it’s certainly no Maltese Falcon.

 
Old is relative.  I first watched Huston's films in the 1970s when the movies were 30 years old.  That would be similar to a current audience watching something made in the early 1990s.
"Old" is also along a bending curve, if we imagine time that way. A movie made in 1940 or 1950 would seem very old to a person in 1974 in a different way than a 1974 movie would seem to a modern youth. The technological and emotional depiction of certain stories and people are much more in tune in even from grandchild to a boomer than a boomer to his parents' generation. 

If that makes sense. It's just a feeling I get. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
A little shocked by so many having not seen any of these.  Do yourself a favor and go watch them.  Maltese Falcon is my favorite from the list but I’m a sucker for film noir.  But I voted Sierra Madre.  Classic movie and the first I think of with Huston.

 
I watched Fat City last night and liked it but I enjoy boxing and sports movies in general.  The drunk mess of a lady was my favorite character and made the movie entertaining.    I don’t need to watch it again but it was interesting.  

 
I watched Fat City last night and liked it but I enjoy boxing and sports movies in general.  The drunk mess of a lady was my favorite character and made the movie entertaining.    I don’t need to watch it again but it was interesting.  
What’s cool about that is just the range Huston had. In ‘41 he makes the Maltese Falcon which is one of the earliest movies to establish the noir/modern crime movie. Huston does a lot of classic studio work but he also pushes the boundaries by trying to get off the soundstage and into real locations for movies like The African Queen (shades of Apocalypse Now in the movie and it’s production). In the 60s he stays on trend getting into melodrama and adapting works by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Carson McCullers. Into the 70s he is making very new Hollywood pictures like Fat City and Wise Blood. He even did Annie in the 80s. Whatever turn the movies took, he was always able to adapt and excel. 

 
The Maltese Falcon was a little overrated for me, especially it's fairly weak ending.

The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre is one of the greatest films I've ever seen.

I guess you know which one got my vote.

 
I watched Fat City last night and liked it but I enjoy boxing and sports movies in general.  The drunk mess of a lady was my favorite character and made the movie entertaining.    I don’t need to watch it again but it was interesting.  


not a lot of acting going on there, from what i'm led to believe. Boozy Suzy Tyrell was a pretty legendary camp follower on the LA music scene in the 70s. word was, if you wanted to go home with a story, hook up with Tyrell at the Whiskey or backstage and you'd wake up in a Mexican jail with an adrenochrome hangover or with a dwarf, a donkey & coupla nuns, a tarpaulin & several cans of paint in a Pedro motel room. never got the chance meself, but...

 
I wasn't in the mood for Treasure of the Sierra Madre when I watched it - and it was still good.

I've never been able to make myself sit down and watch African Queen. I think I'm avoiding Kate Hepburn.

I agree with his role in Chinatown being terrifically menacing. There was a lot of menace, right @wikkidpissah?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
What’s cool about that is just the range Huston had. In ‘41 he makes the Maltese Falcon which is one of the earliest movies to establish the noir/modern crime movie. Huston does a lot of classic studio work but he also pushes the boundaries by trying to get off the soundstage and into real locations for movies like The African Queen (shades of Apocalypse Now in the movie and it’s production). In the 60s he stays on trend getting into melodrama and adapting works by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Carson McCullers. Into the 70s he is making very new Hollywood pictures like Fat City and Wise Blood. He even did Annie in the 80s. Whatever turn the movies took, he was always able to adapt and excel. 
An interesting watch is Clint Eastwood's paean to Huston and African Queen in White Hunter, Black Heart (his least successful film, btw). the script is a roman a clef by Peter Viertel, a jetsetter who collaborated with Huston on a halfdozen flicks. fun in its way and i guarondamtee you'll appreciate Queen more w the backstory.

 
I wasn't in the mood for Treasure of the Sierra Madre when I watched it - and it was still good.

I've never been able to make myself sit down and watch African Queen. I think I'm avoiding Kate Hepburn.

I agree with his role in Chinatown being terrifically menacing. There was a lot of menace, right @wikkidpissah?
gotta loooove the menace....

ETA: BTW. Huston's gusto (tho he has recently been named among other Playboy Mansion denizens as a serial Bunny abuser) perhaps exceeded his talent and puts his autobiography, An Open Book, right up there with Peter OToole's and David Niven's among the most entertaining of the old-timey movie memoirs.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Surprised no mention of The Misfits. Kind of a Shawshank for this ol' man - if i chance upon it on the old-movie networks i end up watching the whole thing every time. Imagine wrangling legendary Hollywood psychos Marilyn Monroe & Monty Clift and coaxing a singular last performance from Gable while bringing Arthur Miller's immense dialogue to life in the stinking desert (all while gambling @ the ol' Mapes in Reno all night inbetween). That's moviemaking.

Monty would have been Huston's new Bogie if he had lived. They went right into a bio of Freud (now out of print - kind of a good thing) off this, he had to cancel a couple others due to health and Clift was already signed for another with him when he died. Would have been interesting to see that partnership play out as Huston's 2nd half, tho.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
not a lot of acting going on there, from what i'm led to believe. Boozy Suzy Tyrell was a pretty legendary camp follower on the LA music scene in the 70s. word was, if you wanted to go home with a story, hook up with Tyrell at the Whiskey or backstage and you'd wake up in a Mexican jail with an adrenochrome hangover or with a dwarf, a donkey & coupla nuns, a tarpaulin & several cans of paint in a Pedro motel room. never got the chance meself, but...
I had horrible taste in women before I married.   Boozy Suzy would have been perfect for me.

 
Haven't seen half of them; loved the ones I've seen.

Voted Maltese Falcon, but could've easily voted African Queen or Sierra Madre. The combo of Huston, Bogey, Lorre, Greenstreet and Dashiell Hammett put it into the winner's bracket for me. Plus, the young Cagney look-alike who played the gunsel, Wilmer, had some great scenes with Bogart.

 
gotta loooove the menace....

ETA: BTW. Huston's gusto (tho he has recently been named among other Playboy Mansion denizens as a serial Bunny abuser) perhaps exceeded his talent and puts his autobiography, An Open Book, right up there with Peter OToole's and David Niven's among the most entertaining of the old-timey movie memoirs.
I've been watching the Playboy Secrets series on A&E and digging a little on my own.  It is reported that Huston was one of those specifically named in Paige Young's (Playmate Nov. 1968) suicide note along with Hefner and Cosby.  

 
Huston's 1953 comedy Beat the Devil deserves a mention.  It was a chaotic production with a legendary shoot that deserves a documentary of its own. Truman Capote wrote the script as they went along while the cast drank and played poker every night.  The resulting film is a mess but an entertaining watchable one. The plot has something to do with small-time criminals and a plan to smuggle uranium but it's mostly just an excuse to string together scenes with a cast that included Bogart, Lorre, Robert Morley, Gina Lollabrigida and Jennifer Jones.

The copyright lapsed decades ago so there are prints of the film everywhere.  Most are dodgy while the one on Amazon Prime has been colorized.  There was a restoration done for an arthouse re-release in 2016 but I haven't seen it.  This version on YouTube is a pretty decent print.

 
Huston's 1953 comedy Beat the Devil deserves a mention.  It was a chaotic production with a legendary shoot that deserves a documentary of its own. Truman Capote wrote the script as they went along while the cast drank and played poker every night.  The resulting film is a mess but an entertaining watchable one. The plot has something to do with small-time criminals and a plan to smuggle uranium but it's mostly just an excuse to string together scenes with a cast that included Bogart, Lorre, Robert Morley, Gina Lollabrigida and Jennifer Jones.

The copyright lapsed decades ago so there are prints of the film everywhere.  Most are dodgy while the one on Amazon Prime has been colorized.  There was a restoration done for an arthouse re-release in 2016 but I haven't seen it.  This version on YouTube is a pretty decent print.
it's a high mess, but they all looked like they wanted to improv the next ten years of their lives together. IIRC, Jennifer Jones was married to a megalomaniacal studio head at the time who insisted on hourly cables from Huston, lest he "end his career". the director's infrequent, ridiculous & inflammatory telegrams back to the Mogul kinda set the tone for the picture.

 
I've seen most of those in the poll. Don't know if I've ever been able to set through a whole viewing of The African Queen. The one I've watched the most is The Man who would be King. Connery and Caine was a great pairing.

 
Huston's 1953 comedy Beat the Devil deserves a mention.  It was a chaotic production with a legendary shoot that deserves a documentary of its own. Truman Capote wrote the script as they went along while the cast drank and played poker every night.  The resulting film is a mess but an entertaining watchable one. The plot has something to do with small-time criminals and a plan to smuggle uranium but it's mostly just an excuse to string together scenes with a cast that included Bogart, Lorre, Robert Morley, Gina Lollabrigida and Jennifer Jones.

The copyright lapsed decades ago so there are prints of the film everywhere.  Most are dodgy while the one on Amazon Prime has been colorized.  There was a restoration done for an arthouse re-release in 2016 but I haven't seen it.  This version on YouTube is a pretty decent print.
Just clicked to me that Beat The Devil must be the movie referred to during the the PS Hoffman Capote movie. 

 
Mile High said:
I've seen most of those in the poll. Don't know if I've ever been able to set through a whole viewing of The African Queen. The one I've watched the most is The Man who would be King. Connery and Caine was a great pairing.
African Queen is a little bit of a slog - I rewatched it last year and while it’s good and two titans of acting it’s just not something worthy of multiple rewatches.

 
wikkidpissah said:
Surprised no mention of The Misfits. Kind of a Shawshank for this ol' man - if i chance upon it on the old-movie networks i end up watching the whole thing every time. Imagine wrangling legendary Hollywood psychos Marilyn Monroe & Monty Clift and coaxing a singular last performance from Gable while bringing Arthur Miller's immense dialogue to life in the stinking desert (all while gambling @ the ol' Mapes in Reno all night inbetween). That's moviemaking.
When Eli Wallach passed away at near the age of one-hundred, and all his screen highlights were mentioned, The Misfits got lost in the shuffle. 

Too bad. Great movie for all the reasons you listed above.

The scene that always stands out is the one between Monroe and Wallach where she unloads on him. It might be the angriest Marilyn ever was on screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e917WJMzl4

 
Last edited by a moderator:
wikkidpissah said:
Surprised no mention of The Misfits. Kind of a Shawshank for this ol' man - if i chance upon it on the old-movie networks i end up watching the whole thing every time. Imagine wrangling legendary Hollywood psychos Marilyn Monroe & Monty Clift and coaxing a singular last performance from Gable while bringing Arthur Miller's immense dialogue to life in the stinking desert (all while gambling @ the ol' Mapes in Reno all night inbetween). That's moviemaking.

Monty would have been Huston's new Bogie if he had lived. They went right into a bio of Freud (now out of print - kind of a good thing) off this, he had to cancel a couple others due to health and Clift was already signed for another with him when he died. Would have been interesting to see that partnership play out as Huston's 2nd half, tho.
I think it was Marilyn’s last performance as well. One of Cliff’s last and as a matter of fact he briefly watched it on TV the night he died. 
 

I’ve talked so much about that movie that I didn’t want to go on again but I’m glad you highlighted it. Fantastic movie. 

 
I think it was Marilyn’s last performance as well. One of Cliff’s last and as a matter of fact he briefly watched it on TV the night he died. 
 

I’ve talked so much about that movie that I didn’t want to go on again but I’m glad you highlighted it. Fantastic movie. 


The Misfits was Gable's last film.

 
I voted for Maltese Falcon.  I am a fan of both noir and Peter Lorre.

I have not seen Fat City though.  I see it's free on Amazon Prime so I will queue it for a watch next week and maybe report back

 
The Misfits was Gable's last film.
And Monroe’s last completed film. 
 

Clift was a mess while making this as he was post car accident (that he never recovered from). He only made 3 movies after this. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:

Users who are viewing this thread

Top