It was the beginning of a reasonably quiet 12 months, 100 years in the past at present. In 1926, explorers achieved the primary non-reindeer-powered flight over the North Pole. The primary liquid-fuel rocket hit the skies, too. Emperor Hirohito ascended the throne in Japan. The primary Winnie the Pooh ebook appeared in print. Fights over the way forward for China, Italy, and Russia simmered as that they had for a while, however by and huge this was one other in a sequence of post-WWI years of relative calm world wide.
Large issues have been occurring within the film world, even when their actual affect lay years sooner or later. Arguably the primary full-length synchronized-sound film, Don Juan, got here to screens (the extra well-known The Jazz Singer from 1927 was the primary to additionally embody synchronized-sound dialogue; Don Juan synced solely its soundtrack and sound results.) The oldest surviving full-length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reininger, dates to 1926. John Wayne appeared in his very first movie, uncredited, as an Ivy League soccer participant.
Each Queen Elizabeth II and Fidel Castro would have turned 100 this 12 months, having entered the world in 1926. Their affect on motion pictures, although, was principally oblique (a pronoun in a James Bond title, the revolution scenes in The Godfather Half II, that type of factor). So let’s transfer on to the actually essential centenaries, lets?
January 20 – Patricia Neal
A voice of vinegar hiding a Kentuckian lilt; a sarcastic grin belied by eyes of masked ache. Patricia Neal’s one-two punch of apparent mind and deep feeling make some very superb dramas finer. She’s the third wheel in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, each irritating and pitiable. In Hud she’s a goal for the darkish whims of the titular antihero. In A Face within the Crowd she’s a contemporary Dr. Frankenstein sort – on this case, a journalist who creates her personal monstrous story solely to helplessly watch that story unfold. (The star of that movie, Andy Griffith, would additionally flip 100 this 12 months.) Neal’s best little bit of heavy lifting, although, may be within the landmark science fiction allegory The Day the Earth Stood Nonetheless. There she performs a decidedly regular human lady, a conflict widow, reverse an extraterrestrial naif. The concept-heavy first-contact story desperately wants Neal’s subtly multidimensional efficiency, which suffuses it and makes it really feel like one thing that did occur to us Earthlings (in a psychological sense, anyway), moderately than simply one thing that midcentury audiences thought ought to occur. Neal was married to writer Roald Dahl for 30 years, throughout which period Neal suffered a well being disaster that required her to relearn to stroll and speak. They two had a number of kids, a lot of whom have had attention-grabbing lives in their very own rights, however Dahl’s infidelity ended the wedding. Neal handed away in 2010.
Flickchart High 5:
1. A Face within the Crowd (1957) – 201
2. Hud (1963) – 437
3. The Day the Earth Stood Nonetheless (1951) – 565
4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – 571
5. In Hurt’s Approach (1965) – 4082
February 11 – Leslie Nielsen
Canadian WWII veteran Leslie Nielsen grew to become, pretty late in life, the template for the likes of Jon Hamm and Patrick Warburton: rectangular, hardass, baritone-voiced males who’ll seemingly do something for fun. Nielsen, who topped off the vibe with a head of white hair, performed it straighter than anyone. In his beloved spoofs – Airplane!, The Bare Gun, Dracula: Useless and Loving It, Spy Laborious – the pun isn’t not coming, and the raunchy jokes and the pratfalls can occur at any second, however Nielsen won’t ever ship or endure them with something lower than good poise and complete innocence. Since Nielsen is so patently regular, and so visibly unsilly, the films’ absurd wordplay, prop-heavy chaos, and sophomorisms don’t cease stunning us. They don’t put on out their welcome or underline their presence just like the jokes in much less well-cast spoofs do; with Nielsen, the comedy is unforced. It’s each unusual and never unusual seeing the person in non-comedic motion pictures, like his horror, sci-fi, and motion titles from the Fifties-2000s. His severe, alert look makes him a great match for such tasks. Then again, we cause, absolutely the zombies and alien monsters menacing this upstanding gentleman are about to obtain a double-entendre that’ll knock ‘em useless. What’s that, you ask? It’s while you’re not alive anymore, however that’s not essential proper now. (And don’t name me Shirley.) Nielsen died in 2010.
Flickchart High 5:
1. Airplane! (1980) – 229
2. Forbidden Planet (1956) – 627
3. The Bare Gun: From the Information of Police Squad! (1988) – 1165
4. Creepshow (1982) – 1232
5. The Bare Gun 21/2: The Odor of Worry (1991) – 3422
March 6 – Andrzej Wajda
The brightest gentle of one in every of Europe’s best movie cultures, Andrzej Wajda was the central determine of the “Polish Movie College” motion that flourished briefly within the late Fifties and early Sixties. Together with different youthful, historically-conscious Polish administrators, Wajda expanded the boundaries of acceptable cinematic speech because the Soviet Union’s management of Poland weakened after the demise of Stalin. Whereas they may not overtly reject Soviet-style autocratic socialism, Polish Movie College administrators did create soul-searching, taboo-breaking narratives set in Poland’s painful current previous. Wajda, a veteran of the Polish Resistance that fought Nazi and ultimately Soviet invaders throughout World Conflict II, directed his monumental “conflict trilogy” movies – A Technology, Kanal, and Ashes and Diamonds – between 1955 and 1958. Later in his profession he made a hanging research of the French Revolution, Danton, whose story of intra-revolutionary rivalry contained classes for the decaying communist bloc of the Eighties. Wajda remained lively into the twenty first century, racking up a slew of home and worldwide awards for his portraits of antiheroes, fallen idols, and tragi-farcical historic characters. He died in 2016.
Flickchart High 5:
1. Ashes and Diamonds (1958) – 1228
2. Kanal (1957) – 2865
3. A Technology (1955) – 6873
4. Danton (1983) – 7599
5. Man of Marble (1977) – 10399
March 16 – Jerry Lewis
Few comedians have been so profitable, and so polarizing, as Jerry Lewis. Whereas his comedy companion Dean Martin is basically remembered as an exemplar of breezy coolness, the louder and sillier Lewis is commonly dismissed as, properly, merely loud and foolish. And annoying. And tone-deaf and troggish and even abusive, due to his feedback about and conduct towards ladies comedians. And don’t even ask about The Day the Clown Cried. On the identical time, Lewis had the moniker “the King of Comedy” due to his long-running and commercially-successful profession (he additionally appeared in Scorsese’s film by that title), raised consciousness and a great deal of cash for victims of muscular dystrophy, and acquired weirdly enthusiastic accolades from the French movie institution for his self-directed slapstick movies. Flickcharters don’t price them particularly extremely, which means that one period’s king is one other’s previous idiot. Lewis died in 2017.
Flickchart High 5 (as director):
1. The Nutty Professor (1963) – 6216
2. The Bellboy (1960) – 7140
3. The Women Man (1961) – 7807
4. The Household Jewels (1965) – 10585
5. The Patsy (1964) – 12402
April 5 – Roger Corman
The director of B (on a great day) motion pictures that grew to become classics in their very own rights and impressed a technology of filmmakers, Roger Corman helped transfer the beating coronary heart of filmmaking outdoors of the flagging studio system and into the realm of impartial, brash auteurs. It’s tempting to start itemizing the New Hollywood icons that he educated and platformed, starting with Coppola and Scorsese and carrying on by Dante and Cameron, however as a substitute allow us to preserve the give attention to Corman’s personal output. Day the World Ended, It Conquered the World, and The Saga of the Viking Girls and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Nice Sea Serpent, to tug three representatively foolish titles from an egregiously lengthy listing, should not the stuff that legendary careers are created from. No, typically legendary careers are created from sheer willpower. From the mid-Fifties by the early 60s he directed extra motion pictures in a 12 months than some TV present seasons have episodes, most of them low-budget, low-runtime, but well-made and undeniably entertaining. 1959’s A Bucket of Blood benefited from the charisma of Dick Miller, who grew to become a part of Corman’s secure. 1960’s Little Store of Horrors, shot in simply days, helped launch Jack Nicholson’s profession. That very same 12 months, Home of Usher introduced Corman a bonafide star, Vincent Value, and kicked off an eight-film run of Poe diversifications that stands as one of the pleasing horror and horror-comedy sequence in film historical past. Corman’s pivot to producing cemented his position as an alt-cinema influencer, and by the point of his demise in 2024 he had lengthy since acquired the standing of dwelling legend. All from motion pictures so unprepossessing they make different “cult” and “midnight” motion pictures look downright respectable.
Flickchart High 5:
1. Home of Usher (1960) – 1684
2. The Masque of the Purple Loss of life (1964) – 1864
3. Pit and the Pendulum (1961) – 2465
4. Tales of Terror (1962) – 3498
5. The Raven (1963) – 3914
April 30 – Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman had an attention-grabbing path to this listing. She was a Miss America contestant from Iowa who flourished as a stage actress earlier than turning into essentially the most Emmy-winning actor in historical past (tied with Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Half of these Emmys got here from the 2 ends of her profession, from The Mary Tyler Moore Present within the Seventies and Malcolm within the Center within the 2000s. In between she spun off her Mary Tyler Moore character into the present Phyllis and received a Golden Globe for it. But, for a lot of, it’s her film profession that’s her best legacy. Younger Frankenstein by fellow 1926 child Mel Brooks would high her Flickchart if she made the lower on our present five-actor restrict – she in all probability ought to, she’s Frau Blücher (neigh) and Victor Frankenstein was her BOYFRIEND – however even with out it she begins off with a bang: her lonely housewife position in The Final Image Present earned her a Greatest Supporting Actress Oscar, although it exhibits her outdoors of her standard comedic persona. Earlier than that there had been smaller roles in essential flicks like Kiss Me Lethal (1955) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child (1969), and after it there was extra Brooks, extra Bogdanovich, the Muppets, and numerous well-chosen voice performing gigs. Late in life she was nonetheless repeatedly showing in comedies of various high quality, lending her gravitas and limitless gameness to a few of the raunchiest roles that got here her approach, a method of comedy she clearly relished. (She was disillusioned that Mel Brooks edited out her intercourse scene from Excessive Nervousness earlier than displaying it to Princess Grace of Monaco, whom Leachman laughingly described as “a little bit jackrabbit” who didn’t want the coddling.) Leachman, who for years was married to director George Englund, one other member of the 1926 crop, died in 2021.
Flickchart High 5:
1. The Final Image Present (1971) – 256
2. Excessive Nervousness (1977) – 2319
3. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) – 3406
4. Spanglish (2004) – 6674
5. Music of the Coronary heart (1999) – 9354
June 1 – Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe at 100; it’s an idea you’ll be able to’t fairly wrap your head round. On this listing she’s the odd one out, the one who didn’t get to stay a full life or extra. She in all probability would have cherished getting previous. Unencumbered by the exaggerated lore that grew round her reminiscence, possibly she would have spent her autumn years in relative anonymity. One other universe’s Marilyn may be so fortunate, however ours turned out to be essentially the most written-about actress in historical past, her iconic stature inseparable from the very fact of her demise. It has been stated earlier than (as a result of all the pieces about her has been stated earlier than) that she was a superb performer, but that may be a discovery that all the time feels revelatory. Watch what she does in Easy methods to Marry a Millionaire, in Gents Choose Blondes, and in The Misfits, and sooner or later in every film you’ll neglect who she is and begin asking your self “Who’s Marilyn Monroe? Why did I not find out about this Marilyn?” Comedies, musicals, thrillers – you’d assume an emblem could be extra typecast. Her legend steals consideration from her achievements, and on her hundredth birthday you’ll be able to assist tip the steadiness by tuning out the gossip and turning on her motion pictures. As Flickcharters know, they’re among the many best possible on this article.
Flickchart High 5:
1. Some Prefer it Scorching (1959) – 260
2. Gents Choose Blondes (1953) – 1084
3. The Seven Yr Itch (1955) – 1202
4. The Misfits (1961) – 1364
5. Niagara (1953) – 2180
June 28 – Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks has seen numerous loss lately, as anybody who reaches 100 will. However the selection present author turned household-name actor-director has additionally seen ongoing, even growing, curiosity in his work, and that has introduced him alternatives on stage and display which have saved him lively and sharp. Brooks’ amazingly constant model of humor could also be too puerile, or too Borscht Belt, or too rooted in his personal popular culture obsessions for a lot of, however his motion pictures are pure expressions of his model of geekiness, they usually communicate to kindred souls of all generations. We watch them, we quote them, we discover new issues to like about them 12 months after 12 months, and 12 months after 12 months new followers be a part of within the enjoyable. It’s nearly as troublesome to think about a world with out Younger Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, or perhaps a lesser-rated Brooks title like Robin Hood: Males in Tights, as it’s to think about film historical past with no Bride of Frankenstein, no buddy Westerns, no Adventures of Robin Hood. And that’s with out even contemplating the affect of Brooks’ most unique work, The Producers, which received him a writing Oscar. Oh, and don’t neglect Get Sensible, the TV present he co-created with Buck Henry, which in all probability accelerated James Bond’s abandonment of self-seriousness in favor of artistic silliness. Along with his cycle of traditional spoofs, Brooks can be a disconcertingly good impressionist, a superb interviewee and speak present visitor with spotlight clips stretching again half his life, and a pure social media star. His fame has, someway, solely ever grown throughout his eight-decade profession. We hope he has a contented, busy, absurd a hundredth birthday.
Flickchart High 5 (as director):
1. Younger Frankenstein (1974) – 223
2. Blazing Saddles (1974) – 277
3. The Producers (1968) – 475
4. Spaceballs (1987) – 512
5. Historical past of the World — Half 1 (1981) – 1212
July 14 – Harry Dean Stanton
Earlier than you name Harry Dean Stanton a personality actor, contemplate the starring roles and the small ensembles. In a film like Alien with its tiny forged, the query of supporting participant versus star loses a lot of its distinction. On the earth of Twin Peaks, the large assemblage of gifted oddballs – and the choice to present almost each participant their very own prolonged solos – places numerous actors on equal footing; Stanton, David Bowie, Naomi Watts, it’s all about the identical. Within the memorable Paris, Texas and the underseen swan music Fortunate, Stanton was the first focus, carrying scene after scene along with his straight-from-the-desert economic system of movement and his misty, hundred-year gaze. He had the look of a person who should be present in a saloon or a jail, coolly judging every new face that darkens the door, and each westerns and crime flicks have been regular sources of labor for Stanton. But his voice was heat and soulful, not arduous or threatening, and that led him to dramas by which he performed beloved brothers and fathers and grandfathers who, even when hardly ever seen or heard, have been plausible emotional anchors for extra central characters. Stanton’s single scene in David Lynch’s The Straight Story is a chief instance. Fairly in Pink offers him extra time to ascertain a selected persona and to construct a bond. On tv Stanton’s greatest position was as a predominant forged member of HBO’s Large Love, which is all about household, although hardly a healthful one. In one in every of his most complicated roles, in John Huston’s Sensible Blood, Stanton is a scheming grandfather who twists phrases and steals scenes from one other nice character actor in a uncommon lead position. If we should, finally, return to the label of character actor, then we could notice that Stanton is legendary for cropping up in really monumental motion pictures like The Godfather Half II, The Final Temptation of Christ, Worry and Loathing in Las Vegas, and even The Avengers, making him one of many all-time “that man”s of moviedom. Stanton died in 2017.
Flickchart high 5:
1. Alien (1979) – 18
2. Paris, Texas (1984) – 163
3. The Final Temptation of Christ (1988) – 883
4. Wild at Coronary heart (1990) – 896
5. The Straight Story (1999) – 1175
October 18 – Klaus Kinski
Within the documentary My Greatest Fiend, Klaus Kinski’s frequent director Werner Herzog recalled the primary time he ever noticed the singular actor. It was in an obscure German conflict flick, and one thing about the best way Kinski slowly rose and moved throughout the body entranced the younger Herzog. When he tracked down and rewatched the scene for the documentary, it appeared on reflection like nothing very particular, and Herzog was at a loss to clarify why this second ought to have launched one in every of movie’s best and most fraught collaborations. Along with his unkempt nest of yellow hair, nigh-demonic stare, and skeletal grin, Kinski was the proper and doubtless solely option to convey Herzog’s personal mad visions to life. He sailed quixotically down the Amazon in Aguirre: the Wrath of God, steamed equally quixotically upriver in Fitzcarraldo (the place he was the second however inevitable alternative for the position), and struggled in opposition to the surf in Cobra Verde. He was Nosferatu in Herzog’s Nosferatu, for me the perfect movie of that title, and he was Woyzeck in Woyzeck; Herzog couldn’t depart him alone. The 2 drove one another extra mad than every already was, a narrative now well-known however nonetheless fascinating. Their partnership was not, after all, the sum complete of Kinski’s profession. He appeared in over 100 motion pictures, the good majority of them West German and Austrian, although Italian, British, and Spanish administrators seized on his skills as properly. Hollywood auteurs Billy Wilder and George Roy Hill tapped him for Buddy Buddy and The Little Drummer Woman (from the le Carré story), respectively, however Kinski’s most well-known non-Herzog look was within the formidable spaghetti Western The Nice Silence by Sergio Corbucci. Appropriately, his character’s title there’s Loco. Kinski’s daughter Natassja has had about as colourful a profession as her father, although their relationship was not an in depth or joyful one. After Kinski’s demise Herzog remembered him as “one of many best actors of the century, but in addition a monster and an awesome pestilence,” and he was not the one filmmaker who truly mused about killing the unstable man. Kinski died, apparently of pure causes, in 1991.
Flickchart High 5:
1. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) – 135
2. For a Few {Dollars} Extra (1965) – 173
3. Fitzcarraldo (1982) – 299
4. The Nice Silence (1968) – 863
5. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) – 877
Bonus: Might 8 – David Attenborough
Documentary royalty, beloved amongst animal lovers, the pure world’s best dwelling spokesperson, the one and solely Sir David Attenborough will flip 100 this spring, simply because the season’s new child animals start to discover their habitats. The elder of a giant clan of notable Attenboroughs (his older brother, the late Sir Richard Attenborough, appeared within the 2024 version of this characteristic), David is the voice of a veritable gaggle of award-winning nonfiction sequence and standalone documentaries, most of them backed by the BBC. When the American version of his Planet Earth sequence overdubbed his voice in favor of Sigourney Weaver’s, many Yanks most popular Attenborough’s unique and paid further to listen to it on DVD. He’s as irreplaceable as an old-growth forest. Attenborough’s run of “Life” sequence (Life within the Freezer, The Non-public Lifetime of Crops, The Lifetime of Birds, and extra) amassed a number of firsts as Attenborough’s workforce used the perfect accessible know-how to seize the macro and micro of life in our planet’s wild locations. The tireless presenter, who acquired a level in Pure Sciences from Cambridge in 1947, has been world wide and deep underneath the ocean, and superior age has barely slowed him. Reaching 100 will, we hope, turn into one in every of his many spectacular achievements – however we suspect his favourite one is the truth that no less than twenty sorts of vegetation and animals now carry official names like attenboroughi and attenboroughianum in recognition of his unparalleled profession in science outreach. Completely happy birthday, Sir David.
Flickchart High 5:
1. Planet Earth (2006) – 8860
2. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020) – 44282
3. Life within the Freezer (1993) – 50712
4. Planet Earth II (2016) – 50896
5. Life (2009) – 63779
There are extra worthy of notice, after all! Mark the next names and dates in your 2026 commemorative watchlists: Moira Shearer (January 17), Peter Graves (March 18), Don Rickles (Might 8), Paul Lynde (June 13),
Fred Gwynne (July 10), Norman Jewison (July 21), Don Messick (September 7), James Lipton (September 19), Julie Adams (October 17), Richard Crenna (November 30), the aforementioned Andy Griffith (June 1) and George Englund (June 22) – and please chime in with others you wish to spotlight!
