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Wendell B. Harris Jr.

American filmmaker and actor trained at Juilliard and Interlochen; wrote, directed and starred in Chameleon Street, which won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.

8 things

The Emperor JonesOther Dudley Murphy

loved

The Emperor Jones is the tallest tree in his cinematic forest.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for The Emperor Jones.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

Citizen KaneOther Orson Welles

loved

Meanwhile, Citizen Kane is still, resolutely and relentlessly, the greatest film ever made.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for Citizen Kane.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

The Ruling ClassOther Peter Medak

loved

The Ruling Class is apocalyptically brilliant and persistently hilarious.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for The Ruling Class.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

A Raisin in the SunOther Daniel Petrie

loved

Frankly, I always find it difficult to talk about A Raisin in the Sun because it is such an overwhelming masterpiece and absolutely unprecedented in terms of showing black people in three dimensions.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for A Raisin in the Sun.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

Seven SamuraiOther Akira Kurosawa

loved

I don’t mean to slam John Sturges and his Hollywood remake, but Lord have mercy, whenever I see The Magnificent Seven it’s like cardboard compared to the caviar and cake of Seven Samurai.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for Seven Samurai.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

The Third ManOther Carol Reed

loved

The Third Man is a spine-tingling, zither-tinged movie where the murderous and the mundane always walk hand in hand.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for The Third Man.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

Nightmare AlleyOther Edmund Goulding

loved

If I had to spend the rest of my life alone on an island and was only allowed to take one film noir with me, it would have to be Nightmare Alley.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for Nightmare Alley.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

Being ThereOther Hal Ashby

loved

The intimate interplay between black culture and white culture, between the media and mind control—all of those factors really bowled me over when I first saw Being There.

Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the entry for Being There.

2021-11-02·criterion.com ↗

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