The 130 films Martin Scorsese calls “guilty pleasures”
Looking through the filmography of Martin Scorsese, there are few movies that miss the mark. Of course, every filmmaker must endure a spectrum of appreciation for their work, with Marty likely enjoying the glory of Goodfellas as much as the general condemnation of his debut Who’s That Knocking On My Door. However, within that range of 25 feature films, few of his movies could be regarded as ‘guilty pleasures’.
Guilty pleasures are what make art so bountiful. What might be considered stinking heaps of smoking garbage by one patron may be a pure masterpiece for another. There is even a little extra joy in recognition of a movie’s foibles, the inconsistencies that bump and jolt us to provide the rhythm of our affection for what most would consider an uncomfortable ride. We all know that McDonald’s cheeseburgers were surpassed by artisans decades ago, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still enjoy eating the cheese left on the wrapper once in a while.
Despite Scorsese’s status as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, he is also partial to a floppy burger of a film every once in a while and, during a conversation with Film Comment in 1978, picked out a list of 130 movies he would call his “guilty pleasure”.
Naturally, some changes have likely been made to this list in the 40+ years that followed, perhaps even the odd Marvel movie, but this list represents some of the finest and funkiest cinema around. The list was originally broken down into sub-categories: spectacle, war, music and comedy, horror and western, and tough guys. It was then added to with the title of ‘Random Pleasures’ during which Scorsese delivers the bulk of his bashful watching list.
Within the piece, he writes of those chaotic pieces of enjoyment: “On the whole, these films are not good. They’re guilty. But there are things in them that make you like them, that make them worthwhile.” It should also be noted that he included 50 movies about which Scorsese said, “These are unguilty pleasures, films that I love, even though something spoils them.”
Naturally, given the timeframe of the article, and Scorsese’s penchant for cinema’s forgotten titles, the movies listed below will likely be mere memories for most casual cinephiles. However, there are some titles of note, including The Bible (John Huston, 1966) and King of Kings (Nicholas Ray, 1961) which perhaps point to Scorsese’s dalliance with theological cinema a decade later in The Last Temptation of Christ.
There are also plenty of Mafia-focused movies too, including Mafioso and Al Capone, which will have likely informed Scorsese’s own style when delivering classics of the genre Goodfellas and Casino. There’s even a movie which Paul Newman called “the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s”, The Silver Chalice. One of the most modern movies features an actor Scorsese would work with on The Irishman, with Al Pacino’s Scent of a Woman also included in the list.
All in all, the list below certainly has its fair share of bloopers. A collection of movies which are so far removed from the magnificence of Martin Scorsese’s own work that they feel insignificant in comparison. However, if Scorsese can see their value, enjoy their narrative and languish in their sinful lack of substance, then perhaps you should too.
Martin Scorsese’s guilty pleasure movies:
- Land of the Pharaohs (1955)
- Khartoum (1966)
- The Ten Commandments (1956)
- Giant (1956)
- The Silver Chalice (1954)
- Hell’s Angels (1930)
- The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)
- Play Dirty (1969)
- Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
- In Harm’s Way (1965)
- Lady in the Dark (1944)
- My Dream Is Yours (1949)
- The Man I Love (1947)
- Always Leave Them Laughing (1949)
- Road to Zanzibar (1941)
- Blue Skies (1946)
- Lost in a Harem (1944)
- Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
- House of Wax (1953)
- The Uninvited (1944)
- Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
- Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
- One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
- I Walk Alone (1948)
- Night and the City (1950)
- Station Six-Sahara (1962)
- Dark of the Sun (1968)
- Bloody Mama (1970)
- Murder by Contract (1958)
- The Magic Box (1951)
- The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
- Alexander the Great (1956)
- Barabbas (1961)
- The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966)
- Black Magic (1949)
- The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
- The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
- Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)
- Carry on Cleo (1964)
- Circus of Horrors (1960)
- City That Never Sleeps (1953)
- Damn Yankees! (1958)
- Elephant Walk (1954)
- The FBI Story (1959)
- Ghosts of Rome (1961)
- The Flesh and the Fiends (1960)
- Forever Amber (1947)
- South of Algiers (1954)
- Halls of Montezuma (1951)
- Helen of Troy (1956)
- Honor Thy Father (1973)
- Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)
- Invasion, U.S.A. (1952)
- The Iron Maiden (1963)
- King of Kings (1961)
- The Last Valley (1971)
- The Legend of Hell House (1973)
- The Man From Colorado (Henry Levin)
- The Man Who Never Was (1956)
- Middle of the Night (1959)
- Mr. Sardonicus (1961)
- The Naked Jungle (1954)
- Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
- One Million B.C. (1940)
- Pal Joey (1957)
- People Will Talk (1951)
- Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955)
- The Pride and the Passion (1957)
- Prince of Foxes (1949)
- The Proud and the Beautiful (1953)
- The Purple Heart (1944)
- Quo Vadis (1951)
- Raintree County (1957)
- Sands of the Kalahari (1965)
- Scent of a Woman (1974)
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
- Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)
- Streets of Laredo (1949)
- The Three Musketeers (1948)
- Vampire Circus (1972)
- Al Capone (1959)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
- Autumn Leaves (1956)
- Battleground (1949)
- The Big Lift (1950)
- Blanche Fury (1948)
- Canyon Passage (1946)
- The Chapman Report (1962)
- The Climax (1944)
- The Comic (1969)
- Corridors of Blood (1958)
- The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
- Don’t Make Waves (1967)
- The Drum (1938)
- Il Sorpasso (1962)
- The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
- The Girl Can’t Help It (1956)
- Guns at Batasi (1964)
- The Haunting (1963)
- Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer (1955)
- Idiot’s Delight (1939)
- The Wasp Woman (1959)
- Invaders From Mars (1953)
- It’s in the Bag! (1945)
- Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
- Jungle Book (1942)
- King Solomon’s Mines (1950)
- Kill Baby, Kill (1966)
- Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
- Living It Up (1954)
- The Long Ships (1964)
- The Macomber Affair (1947)
- Mafioso (1962)
- The Man Between (1953)
- The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
- The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)
- The Maze (1953)
- The Naked Prey (1965)
- Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
- Pay or Die! (1960)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
- Pork Chop Hill (1959)
- The Purple Plain (1954)
- The Razor’s Edge (1946)
- The Red Tent (1969)
- Shake Hands With the Devil (2004)
- Take Care of My Little Girl (1951)
- Too Late Blues (1961)
- The Voyage (1974)
- Where’s Poppa? (1970)
