Tonight on TCM, Metropolis airs, the 1926 science fiction classic from world-renowned director Fritz Lang. It’s probably his single most famous film. It’s been released so many times, with so many different soundtracks, it’s practically an industry unto itself. As such, it’s also the favorite movie by Fritz Lang of a great many people and even more might consider it his best. However, I am of the opinion that this is a result of it being the only Fritz Lang movie many people have seen. No, no, not you, of course, but the average movie goer who may have seen a handful of pre-1970 movies and ranks Metropolis near the top. When the title comes up, more than any other movie, I think about how one movie can represent a director to a lot of people and not terribly accurately. Do I think Metropolis is Lang’s best? No. Is it my favorite of his? No. Is it his most famous? Absolutely, with M running a close second. But that’s how it is for a lot of directors and I often find myself, for the sake of my own amusement, picking out for each director which is the most famous, the favorite, and the best. Let’s start with Lang.
Fritz Lang was one of my first big director crushes. It all started with M which I watched late one night on public television and found myself fascinated with the way the movie turned the tables on the viewer by having the serial killer present an eloquent, if not entirely convincing argument, that while he may be evil, no more so than the gangsters who are trying to judge him. From there, I saw a little of everything, from his silent works, to the early sound, to his mid to late career in Hollywood. I liked most of it but never felt I saw a better one than M. As for favorite, well, many Lang fans will go with the Mabuse films, and there’s little to argue with there, but my favorite Lang has always been a two-way tie between Fury and The Big Heat. Since a tie feels like cheating, I’ll call it The Big Heat in a pinch. Fury does a great job of turning the tables once again when the angry mob, who were previously concerned citizens you sided with, become the villains and then Spencer Tracy, whose side you’ve taken, swoops in late and becomes the villain to their villain. It’s a great movie about mob violence and revenge justice but The Big Heat has Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin in one of the best cop vigilante stories out there. So for Lang’s Famous, Favorite, Best, it’s Metropolis, The Big Heat, and M, in that order.
How about Michael Curtiz? That one’s a little tougher because he’s one of my favorites and I think of many of his greatest as my favorites too. But, okay, first, the most famous. That’s obvious, it’s Casablanca. Now Curtiz is definitely the one director that could conceivably have one movie fill all three slots for a lot of people. It’s not a stretch when that one movie is Casablanca. Except my favorite of his isn’t Casablanca, it’s… well, I’m not really sure. Sometimes, it’s The Adventures of Robin Hood (co-directed by William Keighly). Other times, it’s Doctor X. On certain days, Captain Blood. Still other times, it’s Mystery of the Wax Museum. And occasionally, The Sea Hawk. Or maybe Mildred Pierce. I’m just going to pick one for this particular moment in time. I’ll say Doctor X. It’s a bit crazy, manic, and silly and that’s why I love it so much. Now for his best. Well, I’m afraid I have no choice but to go with Casablanca but if that weren’t in the running, Mildred Pierce.
Now let’s go to a director who is still out there making movies and a director of some very popular movies just to make this a little more difficult: Steven Spielberg. Aha, quick, name his most famous movie! E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial? Jaws? Raiders of the Lost Ark? Jurassic Park? Like Alfred Hitchcock, picking his most famous movie is no easy feat. Thirty years ago, it would have been E.T. without question. But Jaws has never faded out of the public eye and Jurassic Park seems to get better known each year. And Indiana Jones? He’s an institution. So, I really don’t know what his most famous movie is, exactly, but I’m pretty sure it’s one of those. As for my favorite, I almost don’t want to say. I’m sure I will lose my “serious film guy” cred for saying so but this only works if we’re honest with each other, right? The simple fact is, Jurassic Park is my favorite Spielberg movie ever. I think it’s practically the perfect Spielberg film. It’s got the sentimentality but not in abundance. It’s got the exploitation of children in danger, sure, but there are lots of adults in danger too so it feels balanced. And it’s got the T-Rex attack on the two SUVs that is, for my money, one of the best attack/heroes in danger sequences ever committed to celluloid. So it’s my favorite. But his best? Hmm… I still say it’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was a movie about obsession and wonder and the desperate need to connect to something. I don’t think he’s ever made another movie so focused on the story it was telling as that one. A close second for me would be A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
Okay, enough talk. Let’s cover some distance.
Alfred Hitchcock – Most Famous: No idea. What do you think? Psycho? Vertigo? Favorite: Strangers on a Train, but sometimes Foreign Correspondent, except sometimes Psycho, or maybe… oh, never mind. Best: Psycho. Sorry, I’m sticking by that.
John Ford – Most Famous: The Searchers (I think). Favorite: Stagecoach. Best: The Searchers. (I almost feel bad about this one because Ford has so much to offer and I’ve only listed two of his titles. Oh well.)
Robert Altman – Most Famous: M*A*S*H. Favorite: The Long Goodbye. Best: Nashville (and almost my favorite but “I even lost my cat” beats everything).
Martin Scorsese – Most Famous: Goodfellas (could be, right?) Favorite: King of Comedy. Best: Raging Bull
Federico Fellini – Most Famous: 8 1/2 Favorite: Nights of Cabiria. Best: La Dolce Vita
Ingmar Bergman – Most Famous: Seventh Seal. Favorite: Wild Strawberries. Best: Persona
Charlie Chaplin – Most Famous: Probably City Lights. Favorite: Modern Times. Best: The Gold Rush.
Roman Polanski – Most Famous: Rosemary’s Baby. Favorite: Chinatown. Best: Chinatown.
Akira Kurosawa – Most Famous: Seven Samurai. Favorite: Ran Best: Ikiru
Orson Welles – Most Famous: Citizen Kane. Favorite: Touch of Evil. Best: Citizen Kane, except when it’s The Magnificent Ambersons or Touch of Evil.
Robert Bresson – Most Famous: Pickpocket or Au Hasard Balthazar. Favorite: A Man Escaped. Best: A Man Escaped.
Buster Keaton – Most Famous: The General. Favorite: Sherlock, Jr. Best: The General.
Claude Chabrol – Most Famous: Les Biches. Favorite: The Bridesmaid (hey, it just is, okay). Best: La Ceremonie.
Spike Lee – Most Famous: Do the Right Thing. Favorite: Malcolm X. Best: Do the Right Thing
Claire Denis – Most Famous: Beau Travail. Favorite: Beau Travail. Best: Beau Travail. (look, she’s done some good work, up to and including Bastards, but Beau Travail is simply one of the greatest works of cinema I’ve ever seen and it deservedly dominates her filmography).
Jean-Luc Godard – Most Famous: Breathless. Favorite: Alphaville. Best: Contempt
Luis Bunuel – Most Famous: Belle de Jour. Favorite: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Best: Viridiana.
F.W. Murnau – Most Famous: Nosferatu. Favorite: Sunrise. Best: Sunrise.
Agnes Varda – Most Famous: Cleo from 5 to 7. Favorite: The Beaches of Agnes. Best: Cleo from 5 to 7.
Josef von Sternberg – Most Famous: The Blue Angel. Favorite: Shanghai Express. Best: Scarlet Empress.
Werner Herzog – Most Famous: Grizzly Man (at least from my experience). Favorite: Stroszek. Best: Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Sam Peckinpah – Most Famous: The Wild Bunch. Favorite: The Wild Bunch. Best: The Wild Bunch (hey, there’s a reason TCM’s main website has six, yes, six articles about this movie from me. No, seriously.).
Well, that’s 25 directors and there’s still a few hundred to go. I’ve left off some of the biggest names in the history of directing, from Coppola to Kubrick to Lean but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring up the hundreds left off of this list to illustrate how the most famous, favorite, and best don’t always overlap, but sometimes they do. We won’t all agree but the disagreements will hopefully say something about the movies and how we look at them. Except for director Charles Laughton. That one’s kind of a given.