The Gang’s All Here (1943)
Direction: Busby Berkeley. Screenplay: Walter Bullock; from a story by Nancy Wintner, George Root Jr., and Tom Bridges. Cast: Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, James Ellison, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman, Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton, Sheila Ryan, Eugene Pallette, Tony De Marco, Bando da Lua
From the moment The Gang’s All Here opens [...]
The Kid (1921)
Direction and Screenplay: Charles Chaplin. Cast: Charles Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance, Carl Miller
Although I have never been much of a Charles Chaplin fan, The Kid is one sweet picture. In fact, it is the only Chaplin vehicle I would want to see over again.
The story, also penned by Chaplin, is simple: a [...]
The Great Gabbo (1929)
Direction: James Cruze. Screenplay: Story by Ben Hecht; Continuity and Dialogue by Hugh Herbert. Cast: Erich von Stroheim, Betty Compson, Donald Douglas, Marjorie Kane
The Great Gabbo is one terrific early talkie. Sure, the film is old and creaky, while its technical aspects are cheap and primitive. But the story, the music, and [...]
Naissance des pieuvres / Water Lilies (2007)
Direction and Screenplay: Céline Sciamma. Cast: Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachère, Adele Haenel, Warren Jacquin, Christelle Baras
Writer-director Céline Sciamma’s Naissance des pieuvres / Water Lilies is a film about teens beginning to discover who they are. It is also a film that actually stars teens — as opposed to mid-twenty-year-olds [...]
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
Direction: Fred Niblo. Directorial Associates: Alfred L. Raboch and B. Reeves Eason (and Christy Cabanne, uncredited). Screenplay: Carey Wilson and Bess Meredyth, based on June Mathis’s adaptation of General Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel. Titles: Katherine Hilliker and H. H. Caldwell. Cast: Ramon Novarro, May McAvoy, Francis X. Bushman, Betty [...]
The Penalty (1920)
Direction: Wallace Worsley. Screenplay: Charles Kenyon and Philip Lonergan; from Gouverneur Morris’ novel. Cast: Lon Chaney, Kenneth Harlan, Ethel Grey Terry, Doris Pawn, Charles Clary, Jim Mason, Milton Ross, Claire Adams
Lon Chaney was more than just an actor. He was a magician. Like a chameleon, he could morph into a character.
In the gruesome [...]
My Little Chickadee (1940)
Direction: Edward Cline. Screenplay: Mae West, W. C. Fields. Cast: Mae West, W. C. Fields, Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran, Ruth Donnelly, Margaret Hamilton, Donald Meek, Jackie Searl
Mae West and W.C. Fields. The teaming of these two comedy titans in My Little Chickadee must not have been very easy, but director Edward [...]
Although it gets off to a slow start, Go West Young Man is one of Mae West’s better Post-Code efforts for Paramount. Directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Mae West herself (from Lawrence Riley’s play), Go West Young Man stars West (get it?) as temperamental film star Mavis Arden, who is at odds with [...]
Sparrows (1926)
Direction: William Beaudine. Screenplay: C. Gardner Sullivan (adaptation); George Marion Jr. (titles); from a story by Winifred Dunn. Cast: Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Spec O’Donnell, Billy Butts
Molly is the role Mary Pickford was born to play. In Sparrows, Molly is the oldest among the ten orphans being kept as slaves [...]
Strait-Jacket (1964)
Direction: William Castle. Screenplay: Robert Bloch. Cast: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, Leif Erickson, Howard St. John, John Anthony Hayes, Rochelle Hudson, George Kennedy
"From the director of Homicidal, the author of Psycho, and the co-star of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" reads the by-line for producer-director William Castle’s thriller Strait-Jacket. Although I’ve seen [...]
Viva (2008)
Direction and Screenplay: Anna Biller. Cast: Anna Biller, Jared Sanford, Chad England, Bridget Brno, Marcus DeAnda, John Klemantaski, Paolo Davanzo, Barry Morse
Anna Biller has been labeled the next John Waters. This is not true. John Waters has his own distinctively trashy and marvelous style, which is far different from Biller’s lush and extravagant filmmaking. [...]
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Direction and Screenplay: Samuel Fuller. Cast: Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Patsy Kelly, Betty Bronson, Marie Devereux, Karen Conrad, Linda Francis
In the opening scene of Samuel Fuller’s The Naked Kiss, we see a bald-headed prostitute using her bare hands to beat the crap out of her pimp. It’s [...]
Numb (2008)
Direction and Screenplay: Harris Goldberg. Cast: Matthew Perry, Lynn Collins, Kevin Pollak, Bob Gunton, Helen Shaver, William B. Davis, Mary Steenburgen, Barry W. Levy, Ben Ayres
The first thing to mention is that I hardly ever walk out of movies. I hardly ever stop films, period. Even if I am not enjoying them, for some [...]
Sing and Like It (1934)
Direction: William A. Seiter. Screenplay: Marion Dix and Laird Doyle; from a story by Aben Kandel. Cast: Zasu Pitts, Nat Pendleton, Edward Everett Horton, Pert Kelton, Ned Sparks, Richard Carle, John Qualen
When a tough but simple-minded gangster — while in the middle of a bank heist — overhears an off-key singer [...]
Hello, Everybody! (1933)
Direction: William A. Seiter. Screenplay: Lawrence Hazard and Dorothy Yost; from a story by Fannie Hurst. Cast: Kate Smith, Randolph Scott, Sally Blane, Charley Grapewin, George Barbier, Julia Swayne Gordon
In 1933, radio and stage performer Kate Smith was a force to be reckoned with when Paramount tapped her talents for the absurd romantic [...]
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Direction: Nicholas Stoller. Screenplay: Jason Segel and Judd Apatow. Cast: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader, Jack McBrayer, Paul Rudd, Liz Cackowski, Maria Thayer, Jonah Hill, Steve Landesberg, Billy Bush, William Baldwin, Jason Bateman
Nicholas Stoller’s directorial debut Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a romantic-disaster comedy — at a time [...]
The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954)
Direction: Frank Launder. Screenplay: Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat, and Val Valentine. Cast: Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, Hermione Baddeley, George Cole, Betty Ann Davies, Renee Houston, Beryl Reid, Irene Handl, Mary Merrall, Joan Sims, Guy Middleton
From the first shot of The Belles of St. Trinian’s — which shows the sign of [...]
Night of the Quarter Moon / Flesh and Flame (1959)
Direction: Hugo Haas. Screenplay: Frank Davis and Franklin Coen. Cast: John Drew Barrymore, Julie London, Anna Kashfi, Dean Jones, Agnes Moorehead, Nat King Cole, Jackie Coogan, Charles Chaplin, Jr., Cathy Crosby, Billy Daniels, Ray Anthony, Edward Andrews, Arthur Shields, Robert Warwick
Julie London looks just like [...]
Screaming Mimi (1958)
Direction: Gerd Oswald. Screenplay: Robert Blees; from Fredric Brown’s novel. Cast: Anita Ekberg, Philip Carey, Gypsy Rose Lee, Harry Townes, Linda Cherney, Romney Brent, Red Norvo Trio
When a big, busty blonde is assaulted in an outdoor shower by an escaped lunatic, her life is spared just in time by her stepbrother. The [...]
La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc / The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Direction: Carl Theodor Dreyer. Screenplay: Carl Theodor Dreyer and Joseph Delteil. Cast: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz, Antonin Artaud, Michel Simon, Jean d’Yd
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s late silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc / The Passion of Joan of Arc [...]
The Story of Esther Costello (1957)
Direction: David Miller. Screenplay: Charles Kaufman; from Nicholas Monsarrat’s novel. Cast: Joan Crawford, Rossano Brazzi, Heather Sears, Lee Patterson, Ron Randell, Fay Compton, John Loder, Denis O’Dea, Sid James, Bessie Love
As Margaret Landi, Joan Crawford gets top billing in The Story of Esther Costello, a maudlin tale of a deaf, [...]
Downstairs (1932)
Direction: Monta Bell. Screenplay: Lenore Coffee and Melville Baker; from a story by John Gilbert. Cast: John Gilbert, Virginia Bruce, Paul Lukas, Olga Baclanova, Reginald Owen, Hedda Hopper, Bodil Rosing, Otto Hoffman, Karen Morley
Monta Bell’s seldom-seen drama Downstairs proves not only what a great actor John Gilbert was, but, quite contrary to legend, how [...]
Savage Intruder (1970)
Direction and Screenplay: Donald H. Wolfe. Cast: Miriam Hopkins, John David Garfield (aka David Garfield), Gale Sondergaard, Florence Lake, Lester Matthews, Joe Besser, Virginia Wing, Riza Royce, Charles Martin, Minta Durfee
Savage Intruder was filmed in 1970 but (briefly) released in 1974, and is also known as either Hollywood Horror House (the video edition) [...]
Golden Dawn (1930)
Direction: Ray Enright. Screenplay: Walter Anthony; from Otto A. Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II’s operetta. Cast: Walter Woolf, Vivienne Segal, Noah Beery, Alice Gentle, Dick Henderson, Lupino Lane, Edward Martindel, Marion Byron, Nina Quartero, Sojin, Otto Matieson, Julanne Johnston
Ray Enright’s early musical Golden Dawn should be filed under the "What Were They [...]
Lady in a Cage (1964)
Direction: Walter Grauman. Screenplay: Luther Davis. Cast: Olivia de Havilland, James Caan, Jennifer Billingsley, Ann Sothern, Jeff Corey, Rafael Campos, William Swan, Scatman Crothers
Olivia de Havilland jumped on the aging-actress horror-film bandwagon with the lurid shocker Lady in a Cage. That said, I must add that the film, directed by Walter [...]
