Ten Underrated Films From Ten Great Directors

From The White Sheik

At the risk of being obvious, great directors make great films. Sometimes as many as half a dozen and in a few cases as many as nine or ten. These are the films that come to mind when one hears that director' name. For example, John Ford is automatically associated with such classics as The Searchers (1956), Grapes of Wrath (1940) and Stagecoach (1939). He's only slightly less remembered for How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and My Darling Clementine (1946). But Ford directed over 100 films (cranking out about half of those in an eight-year period during the silent era) so inevitably there are some really good pictures he made that, while certainly not forgotten, are little remembered, particularly in comparison with those of his that are part of the Hollywood canon. So it is with all great directors. Terrific films that either were spurned by the critics, did poorly at the box office, failed to garner any awards or -- as is often the case -- a combination of two or all of these factors. In writing this post I've been subjective. I'm determining that a film was underrated based on whether a) I really like it and b) whether it seems a lesser known work of the director. No one can argue with me as to whether I like a film or not but some may take issue with whether a given film is not well-known.

White Sheik (1952)Fellini . Given the string of classics by Federico Fellini that followed, it's understandable that White Sheik is relatively forgotten. This is no crude early work from a director who had yet to find his voice. While White Sheik portended the beguiling style to come from the great Italian filmmaker, it is a wonderful film in its own right with enchanting visuals, endearing characters and an imaginative story line. The great Italian actor Alberto Sordi was typically wonderful in the title role. A just-married couple has come to Rome for their honeymoon where they will be surrounded by the groom's relatives and afforded a chance to meet the Pope. As the staid groom naps, the innocent bride naively seeks her favorite comic book character. But this is a Fellini film so of course she finds him. The premise doesn't begin to convey the magic that ensues. What follows is a charming, delightful, funny and bittersweet story that, in my mind, is among Fellini's best work.

Shutter Island (2010) Scorsese. I'm truly baffled that Shutter Island was not a bigger hit with critics or audiences. Martin Scorsese is of course better known for his earlier work such as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and Goodfellas (1990) and of his films this century, it is The Departed, (2006), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and The Irishman (2019) that are most frequently noted. However in the last twenty years my favorite of his films are The Aviator (2004) and Shutter Island. The former got a slew of Oscar nominations (11) with five wins. But Shutter Island was shut out at the Oscars and gained no other significant awards or nominations. Why? Beats the hell out of me. It is as visually stunning a film as Scorsese has ever made. A brilliant cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson. It is a compelling story based on a popular novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It works as a psychological thriller, a modern horror story and as a detective yarn. A truly wonderful film.

From Amistad.

Amistad (1997) Spielberg. Amistad is not only an excellent film, it is an important one. The story of the slave revolt aboard the Amistad in July, 1839 and the subsequent trial  over the fate of the Africans, who had landed on US soil after commandeering the slave ship bound for sugar plantations, is one that deserves to be widely told.  Their trials were a cause célèbre that attracted the attention of Americans of all stripes, particularly abolitionists, one of whom -- former president John Quincy Adams -- tried their case before the Supreme Court. Many big budget low-minded films from Steven Spielberg have been given much more attention, particularly at the box office, but Amistad is among his best works. An excellent cast was led by Anthony Hopkins as Adams along with Matthew McConaughey, Stellan Skarsgård, Morgan Freeman, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Djimon Hounsou as Cinque, the African's leader. It's a film that was generally admired by critics but for some reason didn't catch fire, despite being both historically accurate (for a Hollywood film) and inspiring. This former history teacher recommends it for classroom use.

Face to Face (1976) Bergman. Face to Face seems to have gotten lost among all the great films being released in the mid 1970s and is certainly lost among the prodigious output of great films from Ingmar Bergman. That it wouldn't crack my top ten of Bergman's film is hardly a slight considering the competition. Frequent Bergman collaborator Liv Ullman starred as a psychiatrist married to another psychiatrist. The subject matter isn't exactly light fare (par for the course in a Bergman film) as she suffers a mental breakdown. But also like many Bergman films, it is a beautifully told story that challenges and inspires the intellect. The centerpiece is a wonderful performance by Ullman buttressed by an exemplary supporting cast.

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Coens. Joel and Ethan Coen have been cranking out films for over thirty years. Most of them have been excellent, few have flopped and some have been masterpieces (see No Country For Old Men (2007), Inside Llyewn Davis (2013) and The Big Lebowski (1998)). They've also tackled different genres in different times and different places as the three aforementioned films show. With the Man Who Wasn't There they created a modern film noir (fully committing to the atmosphere by shooting in black and white). It stacks up with the best from film noir's post-war heyday. Billy Bob Thornton is excellent as the perpetually stoic and emotionless lead, a barber who gets mixed up in a murder that is ultimately his wife's doing. The fates of characters, like in classic noir, is predestined. The Coens are master storytellers and this is truly one of their best. Far from just an homage to a film style of the past, it is an excellent stand alone movie.

The Long Voyage Home (1940) Ford. You'd be hard-pressed to find a movie with a better opening five minutes. There's not a word of dialogue as the camera pans across a merchant marine ship in dock in the West Indies. It was a brave decision by John Ford to begin the film in such a fashion and he hit a home run. It didn't hurt that he had the great cinema photographer Gregg Toland to work with. Long Voyage Home, based on a series of Eugene O'Neill plays, is set mostly aboard a ship during the beginning of World War II and tells the story of the various crew members as they journey from the Caribbean to Baltimore and then home to England. Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, John Qualen, Barry Fitzgerland and John Wayne (as a Norwegian -- complete with accent!) star. I particularly relate to the film as my father was in the merchant marines during the war (he was at the helm of one ship that was torpedoed and aboard two other ships that were strafed by enemy planes). Long Voyage Home is an engaging film with interesting characters and, as with most Ford films, has striking visuals.

I Confess (1953) Hitchcock. Perhaps less ambitious than many of the films Alfred Hitchcock made around this time, it's about as good a film as some such as Rear Window (1954) and Dial M For Murder (1954) and better than other such as Stage Fright (1950) and To Catch a Thief (1955). Montgomery Clift stars (in the only film he made with Hitch) as a priest who hears a murderer's confession and himself becomes a suspect. The priest's conundrum is that he cannot clear his own name without violating the seal of the confessional. It is a taut thriller, well-paced and featuring a strong cast that includes Anne Baxter and Karl Malden (like Clift, these were both Baxter and Malden's only appearances in a Hitchcock film). Upon its release, I Confess received mostly mixed reviews with many downright negative. This I'll never understand. It is among my ten favorite Hitchcock films.

From Love and Death.

Love and Death (1975) Allen. Love and Death was immediately followed by Annie Hall (1977), Interiors (1978) and Manhattan (1979) in other words the time in which Woody Allen became known as more than a director of silly, if hilarious, comedies. When people think of Allen's early comedies, it is usually Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971) and Sleeper (1973) that come to mind. Love and Death was a transitional movie. While chock full of gags, wit and slapstick, it also foreshadowed the nods to directors like Bergman and Fellini that would come to typify Allen's work along with the first of many references to Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. It wasn't that Allen was getting more serious with Love and Death but he was clearly adding greater dimension to his comedy. I think for that reason it's an important work in his oeuvre and a very funny movie to boot.

The Fortune Cookie (1967) Wilder. My favorite screen pairing of co-stars Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. And undoubtedly the best film ever to feature footage of a Cleveland Browns football game. While it may not be in a league with such Wilder masterpieces as Sunset Blvd. (1950), Some Like it Hot (1959), Double Indemnity (1944) and The Apartment (1960), it's damn entertaining. Lemmon is, as always, superb here as sports photographer, Harry Hinkle, who suffers a minor injury on the sidelines of a Browns game. His brother-in-law (Matthau), a notorious ambulance chaser, tries to persuade him to feign a serious injury and thus win a big lawsuit. Hinkle is reticent until he sees it as a way to win back his estranged wife. It's funny, touching and entertaining and deserves more recognition.

Death in the Garden (1956) Bunuel. Luis Bunuel made twelve excellent films between 1956 and 1977 and this was the first of those and probably the least-remembered. It is about a disparate group of characters who, for various reasons, flee a fictional Central American village that is in the midst of a revolt against the government after the police exercise extra judicial powers. Those on the run are hotly pursued because they include an accused bank robber and rebels. Along for the ride are a priest, a prostitute and the ubiquitous beautiful young woman. It's exciting stuff with little of the surrealism that would highlight Bunuel's later works. In fact it's barely recognizable as a Bunuel film at all. But the story telling is economic while including the stunning visuals that typify the director's work. Also, like most of Bunuel's films, it is unpredictable. It deserves its place among his more renowned works such as Viridiana (1961), The Exterminating Angel (1962) and That Obscure Object of Desire (1977).