HOLLYWOOD CHICAGO ALERT! I take on the subtleties of the highest box office grosser of the weekend. For the review of 'Jumper,' click here.

Jeffery and I continue the Best Picture breakdown with the fabulous 1950's. To remind, Academy Award historian Jeffery L. is JL, and your humble Last Blog in Cyberspace is LB.

OVERVIEW

LB: What characterizes the 1950's?

JL: Two words...method acting.

LB: Interesting!

JL: Almost 100%. The big films from the core of the decade are influenced by the Brando-esque style of that technique.

LB: While I hadn't considered that, my characteristic is an offshoot...a more adult sensibility in subject matter, this is the decade where the movies began to get more mature. While the competition from television had the film industry react with 3-D and widescreen, it also allowed a loosening of the production code that allowed the union busting of 'On the Waterfront' (1954), the horror of war in 'Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957)...

JL: Even the loneliness of 'Marty' (1955).

LB: Don't forget the bitchiness of 'All About Eve' (1950). It just hadn't been shown before.

"BEST" BEST PICTUREs, 1950-59

LB: Number 5 for me is Marty. While there were other films that spoke to the "everyman," this small film became a universal statement to the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers in society.

JL: My number 5 was On the Waterfront.

LB: Which was my number 1. This was a kind of coming out party for Marlon Brando, wouldn't you say?

JL: Well, he had been nominated four years in a row.

LB: I guess I'm framing it in a Best Picture context.

Waterfront hit all the nerve endings, like Casablanca. I always liked that they made Brando's character a sensitive guy, in the midst of all the corrupt madness. I actually saw it for the first time in a screening in high school.

Number 4?

JL: My number 4 is All About Eve.

LB: That was my number 3!

JL: It's way too bitchy to be any higher, and I thought it was extremely predictable. I don't like it as much as other people do, but I respect it.

LB: It's a crackling good screenplay. It's one of those pictures you see, and think, I wonder who wrote that?

JL: I don't think the screenplays necessarily carries it, the cynicism seems hollow to me. That is the point, I guess.

LB: My number four is 'From Here to Eternity' (1953).

JL: That one for me is my number 1.

LB: The reason that I didn't rank it higher is the film's length. I think it is a little too fat, like Ernie Borgnine's character. Why is it your number 1?

JL: I saw it when I was pretty young, so I remember enjoying the whole thing. I love the characters, I think it's a great screenplay and a great American story.

LB: I like that it is on the "edge of tomorrow." You know Pearl Harbor is coming, but even when the actual attack occurs, it's the best part of the movie.

JL: Donna Reed won an Oscar for playing a prostitute, the first such honor for an actress playing such a character.

LB: They were also called "dance hall girls."

JL: My number 3 is Marty. This film breaks my heart watching it, I can relate to this film.

LB: We're all victims of our own circumstances. Many people have felt, at some point in their lives, like a "Marty." If you haven't, you've had a very lucky life.

The point where he hits the street sign in joy, another iconic Best Picture moment.

JL: (quoting the film) "Whadda we gonna do tonight, Marty?"

My number 2 is Bridge on the River Kwai.

LB: That's my number 2 as well (high fives). It's a pulsating film, you can smell the atmosphere and the armies as they rot in that obscure prison camp.

JL: It's not like it's an adventure tale, but it is paced like one, and pulls you in that way. Again, I stayed away from it for a long time, because it was the epic length, 3 hours plus, of director David Lean. Not my favorite type of film, but this one delivered.

LB: And again, my number 1 is On the Waterfront. And repeating, your number 1?

JL: From Here to Eternity.

THE "WORST" BEST PICTURES, 1950-59

LB: Your number 8, sir?

JL: 'Around the World in 80 Days' (1956).

LB: That's my number 10. That was one of the last films I saw, two weeks ago. I saw it on a pristine DVD, it's a beautiful looking film, but it's a travelogue, not a Best Picture. Plus a little Cantiflas, who played Passepartout, goes a loooong way. Did you know he practically owned the Mexican film industry?

JL: I know, every time I see an old film on Telemundo, he's in it. It's like he was their Charlie Chaplin.

LB: That is what his nickname was, the "Mexican Chaplin." Producer Mike Todd practically begged him to be in the film and expanded his role to the detriment of the entire production, at 3 hours plus. It is old fashion, past its time, film making.

My number 8 was 'An American in Paris' (1951).

JL: I liked that more than you did.

LB: I happen to love 'Singin' in the Rain' (1952), which Gene Kelly did the next year, and that wasn't even nominated. Now that's a classic.

JL: It's a fun film, but not a classic.

LB: I guess I'm not going to convince you. Anyway, An American in Paris was somewhat a cynical exercise, especially in comparison to its competition, 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'A Place in the Sun.'

What was your number 9?

JL: 'Ben-Hur' (1959). I actually liked it until the last 20 minutes.

LB: You mean hour 3 to 4?

JL: I mean literally 3-1/2 to 4. The last twenty minutes. When Judah Ben-Hur visits his mother in a leper colony, then Jesus Christ walks by. It falls apart there.

LB: The silent version, from 1925, is actually far superior. I don't think I could ever sit through the '59 version again.

JL: What was your number 9?

LB: 'The Greatest Show on Earth' (1952).

JL: That was my number 10. The less said the better.

LB: It has star power, and it is what it is. I actually knew it was bad, but with a young Chuck Heston and even with the desperately soap opera aspects of it, I couldn't make it 10. Especially after enduring the Mexican Chaplin for 3 hours.

JL: The Greatest Show on Earth wasn't.

THEY GOT ROBBED

JL: I say in 1950, 'Sunset Boulevard' should have beaten All About Eve, even though I gave Eve four stars. It simply was a classic picture that was beaten in what I'm sure was a close vote.

LB: I'm going for a sentimental choice. In 1955, and I love Marty, but it should have been 'Mr. Roberts."

JL: Oh my god, okay. I saw it recently, and hated it.

LB: Geez. I remember this film from my childhood, loved it then. And I think Jack Lemmon's reading of the telegram at the end is one of the purest acting moments I've seen on film.

JL: It was Lemmon in a lemon.

LATER TODAY: The Swinging Sixties are swung by the Best Picture team. Oscar week continues on the Last Blog in Cyberspace.