Clik here to view.
John Wayne – American Adman!
John Wayne posing for an Air France ad (1961) One of the world’s most widely beloved movie stars is John Wayne (TCM’s Star of the Month) and throughout his celebrated career, Wayne endorsed a number...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Camp(ing) classics!
By the time you read this I will be… camping. (Well, by the time most of you read this, assuming that you’re reading this past 6pm Eastern time, 3pm Pacific time.) Let me back up a bit. It isn’t...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Japanese Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Séance on a Wet Afternoon, the chilling 1964 British classic by Bryan Forbes, will be on TCM in the middle of the night tonight. It’s a must-see. It is not, however, my favorite screen adaptation of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Norma Shearer: A Woman of Her Time
There’s a scene in Saturday Night Fever where Tony Manero (John Travolta) is on a date and his companion for the evening, a woman who fashions herself as far more sophisticated than Tony, but really...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From Ned Kelly to Mad Max: The Cinema Down Under, Part 1
In the fall I am teaching a course on World Cinema, and I may include a section on Australian film. As luck would have it, TCM is airing its own tribute to the Australian New Wave every Friday night...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Am Not What I Am: Orson Welles’ Othello (1952)
Othello (1952) marked the beginning of Orson Welles’ exile from Hollywood, its funding provided by an Italian businessman soon to go bankrupt. It was the first of endless financing troubles that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Man Hunt (1941)
Fritz Lang’s Man Hunt, also known as “the other 1941 movie with Walter Pidgeon and Roddy McDowall,” starts as a tense “what if” story, becomes a taut thriller and ends up a rallying cry for England’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rough, Raw & Randy: UP THE JUNCTION (1968)
Peter Collinson’s effective slice-of-life drama UP THE JUNCTION (1968) makes its DVD and Blu-ray debut in the U.S. this week thanks to Olive Films. Today the film is often fondly remembered by fans of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Be still my beating movie heart
It’s a consequence, I suppose, of coming off of the TCM Classic Film Festival and trying to cram too many movies into too few days, of talking movies obsessively with colleagues and fans. I had a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
They Who Get Slapped
This week’s story begins with the Three Stooges, and ends with zombies. The story starts in 1957, when Columbia Pictures shut down the Three Stooges’ production unit and released the aging comedy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The First Aborigine Movie Star: The Cinema Down Under, Part 2
I first saw Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout when I was in film school. Though I did not see the film again for decades, I never forgot the stunning grandeur of the Australian Outback, which was as harsh as it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bad Girl in Bangor: Hedy Lamarr in Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Strange Woman (1946)
The name Edgar G. Ulmer elicits images of the dusty roads of Detour and the empty pockets of its Poverty Row producers. He was a prolific purveyor of B-movie jolts, used to finding creative solutions...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Musicals Broke Free
A new book, Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960′s, by Matthew Kennedy, is one I anxiously await reading. It documents the roadshow movie musicals and how they brought the musical to its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bad Movie Mothers We Love to Hate
TCM is celebrating Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 11th) with a great program of classic films showcasing notable mothers. While looking over Sunday’s line-up I was surprised to spot NOW, VOYAGER (1942),...
View ArticleClik here to view.
People you should know: Jeff Corey
“At present, 20th Century Fox is sending me to drama school — the drama coach is Jeff Corey, the best here in Hollywood.” Bruce Lee to Fred Sato, April 9, 1966 At some point in my work this week I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Schroedinger’s movies
Last week, as a way of exploring the role of the commercial imperative in film, I presented a selection of filmmakers who remade their own, earlier (better) work in an effort to reclaim ownership of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dear Murderer (1947)
British screenwriting husband and wife team, Sidney and Muriel Box, won the Oscar in 1946 for the 1945 drama The Seventh Veil and were quickly picked up by the Rank Organization to head up the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What, Harold Lloyd Worry?
While Chaplin and Keaton remain the giants of silent comedy to modern-day movie lovers, Harold Lloyd was the most popular film comedian and the biggest box-office draw during the 1920s. His movies...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Behind Bars: The Big House (1930)
Any movie in which a hardened inmate slams his tin cup against a cafeteria table and agitates for revolt can trace its roots back to The Big House, the film that popularized the prison riot movie. A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Impact (1949)
Today is troubled marriage day on TCM, with three movies in particular, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, and Impact, topping the bill as the triumvirate of doomed love...
View Article