Lenore J. Coffee Articles

Chicago, the restored 1927 silent (unofficially) directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring perky Phyllis Haver (right, with Victor Varconi) as Roxie Hart, is being released on DVD by Flicker Alley, in collaboration with The Blackhawk Films Collection. The 2002 Chicago remake, based on Bob Fosse's musical which itself was taken from Maurine Watkins' stage play, starred Renee Zellweger (as Roxie), Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard [...]

Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold in You Can't Take It with You FILM The Adventures of Robin Hood d: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley; scr: Seton I. Miller, Norman Reilly Raine Bringing Up Baby d: Howard Hawks; scr: Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde Dramatic School d: Robert B. Sinclair; scr: Ernest Vajda, Mary McCall Jr. L'Etrange Monsieur Victor d: Jean Grémillon; scr: Albert Valentin, [...]

Made at the dawn of the sound era, All Quiet on the Western Front remains the best war film ever made. Despite some brave (and not so brave) attempts by other filmmakers ever since, no other motion picture I've seen has captured the horrors of war with the honesty and the poignancy of Lewis Milestone's rendition of Erich Maria Remarque's pacifist novel. Lew Ayres plays [...]

Considered by many one of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's lesser films, The Barefoot Contessa is a classy, intelligently written, and generally well acted morality tale. Inspired by the life of Rita Hayworth (née Margarita Cansino), the film's plot revolves around the tragic fate of Maria Vargas, a great, earthy beauty who becomes a Hollywood movie star. Besides Jack Cardiff's beautiful cinematography and Mario Nascimbene's melancholy score, [...]