Category Archives: Older Films

Two from 1945: The Body Snatcher and The Picture of Dorian Gray

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Mark DuPré

In my never-ending effort to fill in the gaps of my film-viewing experience, I have been sloshing around in the silent era (another analysis on its way), but happened to have available to me two quite different offerings from 1945. … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Anchors Aweigh, Angela Lansbury, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Cat People, Citizen Kane, Donna Reed, Dracula, Frankenstein, George Sanders, Henry Daniell, Hurd Hatfield, I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur, Mildred Pierce, Nicholas Musuraca, Oscar Wilde, Peter Lawford, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Wise, Russell Wade, Spellbound, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Body Snatcher, The Leopard Man, The Little Foxes, The Lost Weekend, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Sound of Music, Val Lewton, West Side Story | Leave a comment

The Big Parade (1925)

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Mark DuPré

The Big Parade has always sat there on my “must-see” list, like a little thorn in my side. I knew I “should” see it, but its 2+ hours length and its age—released in 1925—always pushed it down the list until … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, King Vidor, PTSD, Renée Adorée, The Big Parade, World War I | Leave a comment

49th Parallel (AKA The Invaders)

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Mark DuPré

49th Parallel is a propaganda film that doesn’t feel like one, though it is as potent as any persuasive film could be. (It was called The Invaders when first released in the U.S.) It’s also an unusual combination of star … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged 49th Parallel, Anton Walbrook, Canada, David Lean, Dr. Zhivago, Eric Portman, Freddie Young, Glynis Johns, Laurence Olivier, Lawrence of Arabia, Leslie Howard, Nazi, Nazis, Niagara Falls, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Raymond Massey, Ryan’s Daughter, St. Lawrence River, The Invaders, Third Reich | Leave a comment

The Other “Gaslight” (British, 1940)

Posted on July 8, 2017 by Mark DuPré

Most folks interested in classic Hollywood films know Gaslight, the 1944 melodrama that gave Ingrid Bergman her first Oscar. Also the winner of the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, it was a well-regarded, deftly crafted film that received … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged 1944 Oscar, 49th Parallel, Angela Lansbury, Anton Walbrook, Barbara Stanwyck, Beauty and the Beast, Casablanca, Cavalcade, Charles Boyer, Diana Wynyard, Double Indemnity, Falconetti, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Gaslight, Ingrid Bergman, Jessica Fletcher, La Ronde, Lola Montes, Mrs. Potts, Murder She Wrote, Oscar, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Manchurian Candidate, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Red Shoes, Thorold Dickinson | Leave a comment

Watch on the Rhine (1943) and In Which We Serve (1942)

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Mark DuPré

My excursions into the films of Powell and Pressburger brought me back into the world of the 1940s, and specifically, World War II. My next film to see is 49th Parallel (also known as The Invaders in the U.S.), which … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Bernard Miles, Bette Davis, Brief Encounter, Casablanca, Celia Johnson, Dashiell Hammett, David Lean, Dr. Zhivago, East of Eden, Elizabeth Taylor, Great Expectations, Guy Green, Humphrey Bogart, In Which We Serve, John Mills, Lawrence of Arabia, Lillian Hellman, Michael Wilding, Noel Coward, Paul Lukas, Powell and Pressburger, Raymond Massey, Richard Attenborough, Ronald Neame, The 49th Parallel, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Invaders, Watch on the Rhine | Leave a comment

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Posted on June 4, 2017 by Mark DuPré

This improbably entitled film is the great epic of the Michael Powell—Emeric Pressburger canon. The directors’ Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes might be wilder and even more stunningly beautiful, but The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is fascinating … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Anton Walbrook, Ben Hur, Black Narcissus, Cabaret, Deborah Kerr, Emeric Pressburger, Geoffrey Unsworth, Georges Perinal, Gone with the Wind, Jack Cardiff, Laurence Olivier, Lawrence of Arabia, Les Enfants du Paradis, Michael Powell, Roger Livesey, Tea and Sympathy, Tess, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The King and I, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, The Thief of Bagdad, Winston Churchill | Leave a comment

A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven (1946)

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Mark DuPré

I took another trip to the 1940s, and to England, and to something like heaven. But really, I was taking another trip to the land of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (see reviews of Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes), … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged "I Know Where I'm Going", A Matter of Life and Death, A Streetcar Named Desire, Alfred Hitchcock, Black Narcissus, David Niven, Emeric Pressburger, Gandhi, It's a Wonderful Life, J.K. Rowling, Jack Cardiff, Kathleen Byron, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring, Michael Powell, Michael Sheen, Notorious, Raymond Massey, Richard Attenborough, Roger Livesey, Stairway to Heaven, Technicolor, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, The Seventh Seal, The Wizard of Oz, Things to Come | Leave a comment

Black Narcissus (1947)

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Mark DuPré

I was familiar with the famous British writing and directing team of (Michael) Powell and (Emiric) Pressburger from film school. But until recently, my exposure to their work had been quite limited. I’m in the middle of remedying that. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged A Star is Born, Best Cinematography, Black Narcissus, Deborah Kerr, Emeric Pressburger, Gone with the Wind, Himalayas, Jack Cardiff, Kathleen Byron, Michael Powell, New York Film Critics Best Actress, sexual hysteria, Technicolor, The Garden of Allah, The Red Shoes, The Yearling. David Farrer | Leave a comment

Two Semi-Classics: Anne of the Thousand Days and Anastasia

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Mark DuPré

Being a history nut as well as a film person, I try to fill in the many gaps in my film experience with classic or semi-classic historical films. I recently had the opportunity to see 1969’s Anne of the Thousand … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Academy Award, Anastasia, Anne of the Thousand Days, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Downton Abbey, Gaslight, Genevieve Bujold, Golden Globe Awards, Helen Haye, Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Maggie Smith, National Board of Review, Richard Burton, Roberto Rossellini, Romanov, Romanovs, Russia, Siam, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Ten Commandments, Vladovostok, Yul Brynner, Yuliy Borisovich Briner | Leave a comment

The Thin Man (1934)

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Mark DuPré

At once primitive and shockingly modern is one way to describe the 1934 classic, The Thin Man. It seems creaky and hopelessly old-fashioned in the way it sets up its crime story. Then we get to the heart of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert, drawers, Hud, It Happened One Night, James Wong Howe, Myrna Loy, Of Human Bondage, Oscar, tabloids, The Rose Tattoo, The Thin Man, William Powell | Leave a comment