The Most Dangerous Game - 1932

The Most Dangerous Game - 1932

Maret 29, 2007
Fay Wray, Joel McCrea, King Kong, Leslie Banks, RKO, Robert Armstrong, Terry and the Pirates, The Most Dangerous Game

The Most Dangerous Game (1932) makes the point that “less is more” in a film dependent on a little bit of psychology, a little bit of horro...

TV and the Movie Buff

TV and the Movie Buff

Maret 28, 2007
Cecil B. DeMille, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, old movie buffs, The Three Stooges, Turner Classic Movies

Louis B. Mayer had no idea the DVD was coming. Jack Warner could not envision TiVo, and Cecil B. DeMille, for all his imagination, probably ...

Wyler's Moments of Silence

Wyler's Moments of Silence

Maret 27, 2007
Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Fredric March, Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Teresa Wright, The Little Foxes, William Wyler

Director William Wyler is often described as being without a particular trademark or style, compared to directors such as Alfred Hitchcock o...

Lukewarm Reviews of Classics

Lukewarm Reviews of Classics

Maret 26, 2007
Bosley Crowther, Frank S. Nugent, It's a Wonderful Life, lukewarm reviews, New York Times, Wizard of Oz

Bosley Crowther, film reviewer for the New York Times, thought the weakness of “It’s a Wonderful Life” was its sentimentality. He decried t...

Mrs. Miniver and Propaganda

Mrs. Miniver and Propaganda

Maret 22, 2007
Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Wilcoxon, Mrs. Miniver, Nazis, propaganda, The Wilcoxon Speech, William Wyler, Winston Churchill, World War II

Reviews of “Mrs. Miniver” almost always mention the word “propaganda” in the first line. I find this odd, since just about every film made ...

Broken Blossoms

Broken Blossoms

Maret 21, 2007
Broken Blossoms, child abuse, D.W. Griffith, Lillian Gish, Limehouse district, racism, Richard Barthelmess

“Broken Blossoms” (1919) is a fascinating look at what was best about the silent film era, as well as some of its nagging questionable attit...

Gag reels and bloopers

Gag reels and bloopers

Maret 20, 2007
bloopers, Gag reels, Gone With the Wind, Happy Meal, McDonald's, old movies, Star Wars, studio system, Toy Story 2

For the huge number of films produced in this country in the early decades of the 20th century, there are very few bloopers that have been p...

Previews and Playing to the Audience

Previews and Playing to the Audience

Maret 19, 2007
Barbara Stanwyck, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Edward Arnold, For Me and My Gal, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, George Murphy, Judy Garland, Meet John Doe, The Champ, Wallace Beery, World War I

The film industry in its early years was extremely sensitive to audience reaction. This sometimes went as far as changing the movie they ha...

Best Years of Our Lives - PT 4

Best Years of Our Lives - PT 4

Maret 15, 2007
Academy Awards, Baby Boom, Civil Rights movement, Harold Russell, Hugo Friedhofer, space race, The Best Years of Our Lives, Vietnam

“The Best Years of Our Lives” was made in the first year of the Baby Boom, and now the first Boomers are preparing for retirement. Their pa...

Best Years of Our Lives, PT 3

Best Years of Our Lives, PT 3

Maret 14, 2007
Hugo Friedhofer, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, The Best Years of Our Lives

In this film, the women the three men have come home to are not diminished; is it their story, too. Al’s wife Milly, played by Myrna Loy, an...

Best Years of Our Lives - PT 2

Best Years of Our Lives - PT 2

Maret 13, 2007
African-American actors, Fredric March, Hoagy Carmichael, Ray Collins, red states and blue states, Roman Bohnen, The Best Years of Our Lives, World War II

The minor actors in “The Best Years of Our Lives” tell us even more about the three veterans. Fred’s father, played by Roman Bohnen, has a ...

Best Years of Our Lives - PT 1

Best Years of Our Lives - PT 1

Maret 12, 2007
Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives, William Wyler

Sixty years ago tomorrow on March 13, 1947, “The Best Years of Our Lives,” won a basket full of Academy Awards. This week is devoted to that...

Patricia Collinge - Two Supporting Roles

Patricia Collinge - Two Supporting Roles

Maret 08, 2007
Bette Davis, Patricia Collinge, Shadow of a Doubt, The Little Foxes

Patricia Collinge, a Broadway actress, and a writer, appeared in her first film in her late 40s and made only a handful of films. She crea...

Non-smoking Guns and Western "B" Movies

Non-smoking Guns and Western "B" Movies

Maret 07, 2007
B movies, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, smoking, Westerns

It’s an interesting irony that despite the iconic image of The Marlboro Man of the cigarette ads of the 1950s and 1960s, there was very litt...

Music Box Steps, Stooges' Stairs

Music Box Steps, Stooges' Stairs

Maret 06, 2007
An Ache in Every Stake, Audrey Hepburn, Laurel and Hardy, Music Box Steps, The Three Stooges, Tiffany's

What the sidewalk in front of Tiffany’s is to Audrey Hepburn fans, so The Music Box Steps is to fans of Laurel & Hardy, and possibly als...

Intro and Emil Jannings

Intro and Emil Jannings

Maret 05, 2007
Conrad Veidt, old movies, Oscars, silent films

This begins a new blog about old movies. How old is “old” I suppose is a matter of opinion, but any discussion on classic films boils down t...