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Categories
Category Archives: Older Films
Tough Films, Great Performances: The Informer (1935) and The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
I’m not sure exactly what I imagined The Informer to be, but it wasn’t what I expected. This is the film that gave John Ford his first of four Best Director Oscars (still unmatched) and gave an Oscar to lead … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films
Tagged Battle Cry, Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Caged, Casablanca, Charles Laughton, Clark Cable, Dark Victory, Detective Story, Eleanor Powell, Elmer Bernstein, Ernest Borgnine, Franchot Tone, Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity, Gone with the Wind, Interrupted Melody, Jezebel, John Ford, Johnny Belinda, Kim Novak, Life with Father, Marlon Brando, Marty, Max Steiner, Mutiny on the County, Now Voyager, Otto Preminger, Sergeant York, Since You Went Away, The Caine Mutiny, The Garden of Allah, The Gay Divorcee, The Informer, The Letter, The Man with the Golden Arm, The Moon is Blue, The Sound of Music, Victor McLaughlin
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How Green Was My Valley (1941)
How Green Was My Valley is now, and will continue to be, best remembered as the film that “stole” the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars from Citizen Kane. If I have to come down on one side or the … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films
Tagged Arthur C. Miller, Broken Blossoms, Citizen Kane, Donal Crisp, Drums Along the Mohawk, Gregg Toland, How Green Was My Valley, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Intolerance, Jezebel, John Ford, Maureen O'Hara, Mutiny on the Bounty, National Velvet, Pollyanna, Red Dust, Roddy McDowall, Spencer's Mountain, Stagecoach, The Birth of a Nation, The Grapes of Wrath, The Informer, The Life of Emile Zola, The Music Man, The Musketeers of Pig Alley, The Quiet Man, Tobacco Road, Walter Pidgeon, West Side Story, Wuthering Heights, Young Mr. Lincoln
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The Three to See: The Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, and 12 Years a Slave
The Three to See: Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, and 12 Years Slave As I wade into where angels fear to tread, I want to make it clear that I am stepping outside the current social discussion … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films, Older Films
Tagged 12 Years a Slave, Benedict Cumberbatch, Broken Blossoms, Butterfly McQueen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Civil War, D.W. Griffith, Dark Victory, Dodge City, Gigi, Gone with the Wind, Green Book, Gunga Din, Hattie McDaniel, HBO Max, Hollywood, Intolerance, Jacqueline Stewart, Ku Klux Klan, Lillian Gish, Love Affair, Lupita Nyong'o, Max Steiner, Michael Fassbender, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, NAACP, Netflix, Ninotcha, Of Mice and Men, Olivia De Havilland, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, Oscars, Prissy, Reconstructionists, Sarah Paulson, Solomon Northup, Stagecoach, TCM, The Birth of a Nation, The Cheat, The Clansman, The Wizard of Oz, The Women, Viven Leigh, William Cameron Menzies, Woodrow Wilson, Wuthering Heights, YouTube
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Two Films from the Fifties: Niagara and Les Girls
Note: It’s been a long time since I’ve had time to write for this space. The pandemic hit hard, as I was just getting accustomed to handling four college courses (two were new). Once we went online, I had to … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films
Tagged A Star is Born, An American in Paris, cyd charisse, Debbie Reynolds, Don Wilson, gene kelly, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, George Cukor, Grace Kelly, Hello Dolly, Henry Hathaway, Hitchcock, How the West Was Won, it's always fair weather, Jack Cole, James Mason, Jean Peters, Joseph Cotton, Joseph MAcDonald, Kay Kendall, Les Girls, Leslie Caron, Lurene Tuttle, Marilyn Monroe, Max Showalter, MGM, Mitzi Gaynor, My Fair Lady, Niagara, Rashomon, Rex Harrison, Richard Allan. How to Marry a Millionaire, Robert Burks, singin' in the rain, South Pacific, Taina Elg, Technicolor, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, The Women, True Grit, Vera Ellen
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Quick Cuts: Winter Holiday Films
To get personal for a minute, the reason I haven’t been writing here is because my life has been turned gloriously upside down, plus it’s been the holidays, plus we’ve had lots of company, plus I’ve been prepping for teaching … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films, Older Films
Tagged 1917, Adam Driver, Adam Sandlers, All Quiet on the Western Front, Anthony Hopkins, Bette Davis, Bombshell, Charlize Theron, Christian Bale, Daniel Craig, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Taylor, Errol Flynn, Ford v Ferrari, Golden Globes, Gretchen Carlsen, Hustlers, Idina Menzel, Janet Leigh, Jennifer Lopez, Jonathan Pryce, June Allyson, Knives Out, Laura Dern, Lewis Milestone, Little Women (1949), Lon Chaney Jr., Margaret O'Brien, Margot Robbie, Marriage Story, Matt Damon, Megyn Kelly, Michelle Williams, Nicole Kidman, Noah Baumbach, Of Mice and Men, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, Scarlett Johansson, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Front Page, The Irishman, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Two Popes, Uncut Gems
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The King of Kings (1927)
First of all, apologies for how long it’s been. I’ve seen lots of movies, some old and a few new, but have been too busy with other activities. I hope this gets me back in the groove! So I stepped … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films
Tagged Bible, Cecil B. DeMille, Dorothy Cummings, H.B. Warner, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, It's a Wonderful Life, J. Peverell Marley, Jeffrey Hunter, Jesus, John Wayne, Judas, King James English, Mary Magdalene, Mel Gibson, Peter, Sunset Boulevard, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The King of Kings, The Passion of the Christ, The Ten Commandments, two-strip Technicolor, William Holden
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A Trip to the ‘30s: Peg O’ My Heart, Lady for a Day, Morning Glory, and King of Jazz
Saw a trio of films that turned to be central to the 1933 Best Actress race. Katherine Hepburn won her first Oscar for a somewhat strange performance in Morning Glory, playing an actress who goes from young, innocent, naïve, and … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films
Tagged A Star is Born, Adolph Menjou, Bing Crosby, Busby Berkeley, C. Aubrey Smith, Cavalcade, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Frank Capra, Frank Lloyd, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Harvey Weinstein, It Happened One Night, John Boles, Katherine Hepburn, King of Jazz, Lady for a Day, Laurette Taylor, Lowell Sherman, Marion Davies, May Robson, Morning Glory, Onslow Stevens, Paul Whiteman, Peg O' My Heart, Robert Riskin, The Great Ziegfeld, The Rhythm Boys, three-strip Technicolor, two-strip Technicolor, Universal, What Price Hollywood?, Will Rogers, William Randolph Heart
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The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is one of those older, well-regarded films I’d put on my list to see “sometime.” Sometime turned out to be last night, and since I didn’t really know much about the film, many of … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films
Tagged Ben Hur, Bright Victory, Champion, China, Christian, Christianity, CinemaScope, Curt Jurgens, Garbo, Gaslight, Gladys Aylward, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Ingrid Bergman, Japan, Mark Robson, missionary, Notorious, Peyton Place, Robert Donat, Sino-Japanese War, The 39 Steps, The Harder They Fall, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The Mandarin, The Robe, The Small Woman, The Ten Commandments
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Two Prototypes: What Price Hollywood? (1932) and Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Prototype: a first, typical or preliminary model of something. I’ve seen a boatload of old and foreign films recently but haven’t had the time to write about them. Yet when I notice a similarity between two films that don’t seem … Continue reading
Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films
Tagged A Star is Born, Bill Murray, Cat People, Citizen Kane, Clint Morgan, Constance Bennett, Dali, David O. Selznick, Double Indemnity, film noir, George Cukor, German Expressionist, Hitchcock, IMDB, Lowell Sherman, M, Neil Hamilton, Nicholas Musuraca, Out of the Past, Peter Lorre, prototype, Spellbound, Stranger on the Third Floor, The Maltese Falcon, Val Lewton, What Price Hollywood?
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