The year 1947 was great for “film noir,” but the most BELOVED film of that year is probably Miracle on 34th Street. Sure, other films that year are considered better in many categories by many people, but of all the films made in 1947, Miracle is, by far, the most well-known and well-liked among film buffs and casual fans alike.
But if you’ve followed this series at all, you know that no list ever ends with the film at the top.
Below are eleven other great films from 1947. In no particular order, here are the Two Through Twelve to Miracle on 34th Street’s Number One.
Out of the Past
Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, and Rhonda Fleming
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Mitchum plays a man with a past – a past as a private eye that he left behind. But a change in job and name and town doesn’t change a man’s past, especially when that past finds him. This film is considered by many to be the best of the genre.
The Lady From Shanghai
Starring Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Stone, and Glenn Anders
Directed by Orson Welles
Director Welles’ dizzying camera angles and choppy editing almost make the camera the star of this twisting tale of lust, murder, secret identities, and double-crosses. It’s impossible to say any more without saying TOO MUCH more.
Black Narcissus
Starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, Jean Simmons, and Kathleen Byron
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
This tale of nuns in the Himalayas is a visual stunner. You can read my full review of it here.
Dark Passage
Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, and Agnes Moorehead
Directed by Delmer Daves
The third of four onscreen pairings of Bogie and Bacall, about an escaped con wrongly accused of murder, spends the first half of the movie shot in Bogie’s first-person perspective. That’s right, Bogie’s face (a new one, based on the storyline) doesn’t even appear until Act II-ish. Still, it’s Bogie and Bacall.
Monsieur Verdoux
Starring Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll, and Martha Raye
Directed by Charles Chaplin
This movie – Chaplin’s second “talkie” and only his second film in a 10-year span – tells the story of how far a man will go to provide for his family. Because it’s Chaplin, look for a deeper message (anti-war), but don’t expect to find the Little Tramp anywhere.
Gentleman’s Agreement
Starring Gregory Peck, Dorothy Maguire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm, and Anne Revere
Directed by Elia Kazan
Peck plays a writer who must pen an article about anti-Semitism. He decides to spend the next six months pretending to be Jewish, to get a first-person account of what anti-Semitism feels like. The experiment not only affects him, it affects his family, too.
The Bishop’s Wife
Starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven
Directed by Henry Koster
This other Christmas favorite from 1947 can be enjoyed any time of the year. Grant plays Dudley, and angel who has been sent to offer help to a bishop (Niven) struggling with the construction of a new cathedral. But the immortal angel finds himself in a little trouble of his own when he starts to fall for the bishop’s very mortal wife (Young).
Nightmare Alley
Starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell
Directed by Edmund Goulding
With the carnival as a unique early backdrop, this film tells of Stanton Carlisle (Power), a smooth and handsome carnival barker who accidentally kills the husband of a woman he flirts with (Blondell). He convinces her to take her old mentalist act out of the circus and into nightclubs, where many different stakes are raised.
Pursued
Starring Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith Anderson, Dean Jagger, and Alan Hale
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Speaking of unique backdrops, it isn’t often you get to cross western and noir when mixing genres, but you do here. Mitchum plays Jeb, a man raised from childhood by the Callum family after his own family is killed. Love, resentment, and intrigue among his foster family members – and others – ensue.
Body and Soul
Starring John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere, and William Conrad
Directed by Robert Rossen
Garfield plays a boxer who fights because it’s what he does best, and everything that happens to him, and all decisions he makes, are because of that. It sounds two-dimensional, but it’s innocently one-tracked; imagine a noir cross between Rocky Balboa and Forrest Gump. Plus, be ready for the masterfully edited final fight sequence.
Song of the Thin Man
Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Kennan Wynn, and Dean Stockwell
Directed by Edward Buzzell
It’s guilty pleasure time again, and this time with a little melancholy. This film marks not only the sixth and final installment of the Thin Man series, it marks the last star-pairing of what is arguably one of the greatest onscreen couples in the history of cinema, Powell and Loy. Whenever current filmmakers wonder how onscreen chemistry is supposed to feel, they need look no further than this pair in any of their 14 films together.
This list certainly doesn’t cover them all, and I’m sure your Two Through Twelve is different – not better or worse, just different – than mine.
