South (1919) movie review: Explorer Ernest Shackleton and his landmark Antarctic expedition are depicted in beautiful and harrowing detail.
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Queen Christina (1933) movie review: Greta Garbo gives what may well be her most magnetic performance as the mannish Swedish queen in Rouben Mamoulian’s classic. John Gilbert costars.
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Little Caesar (1931) movie review: Edward G. Robinson is an iconic all-American gangster in Mervyn LeRoy’s landmark but creaky crime drama.
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Barry Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby in Going My Way. Going My Way (1944) movie review: Leo McCarey’s Oscar-winning sentimental blockbuster. Going My Way movie review: Multiple Oscar winner starring Bing…
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Swampland race relations: Old indie mixes reactionary ideas about interracial love with vengeance and voodoo in tragic actress’ final little-seen film.
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The Goose Woman with Louise Dresser and Jack Pickford. The Goose Woman (1925) movie review: The Goose Woman movie review: Great Louise Dresser in Clarence Brown silent classic At the…
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Huckleberry Finn movie: Lewis Sargent toplines sentimental William Desmond Taylor effort. Huckleberry Finn (1920) movie review: Huckleberry Finn movie review: Sentimental Fare Directed by Eventual Murder Victim Directed by William…
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Au Revoir les Enfants (1987) movie review: Academy Award-nominated WWII-set semi-autobiographical drama is possibly Louis Malle’s best effort.
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Blood and Sand with Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi Blood and Sand (1922) movie review: Dominating Rudolph Valentino. Blood and Sand movie review: Rudolph Valentino star vehicle Bullfighting has never…
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Bad Education (2004) movie review: Brazenly subversive Pedro Almodóvar (gay) ‘film noir’ is one of the most daring exemplars of the genre.
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The Beast with a Million Eyes: Hardly truth in advertising as Roger Corman’s micro-budget sci-fi thriller is no “monster movie.” ‘The Beast with a Million Eyes’: Alien invasion movie predates…
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The Love of Jeanne Ney with Uno Henning and Edith Jehanne. G.W. Pabst’s The Love of Jeanne Ney / Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney is a real mystery. And I mean…
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Mildred Pierce (1945) movie review: Oscar winner Joan Crawford is terrific as psycho Ann Blyth’s devoted mother in Michael Curtiz’s noir melo.
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All Quiet on the Western Front with Lew Ayres. Synopsis: World War I: A group of German schoolboys soon learn that war has absolutely nothing to do with either glory…
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The Merry Widow with Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier. The Merry Widow is neither one of Ernst Lubitsch’s most discussed nor best-liked films. Film critics and historians generally tend to…
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A Tale of Two Cities movie. Although not as widely known as other Old Hollywood spectacles, David O. Selznick’s film production of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, set…
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Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain As I sit here writing, I am finding it hard to gather my thoughts together. Most of this essay has already…
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Directed by schlock-master William Castle (House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler), Shanks is a little-known curiosity piece, telling the story (written by Ranald Graham) of Malcolm Shanks, a deaf-mute puppeteer who leaves his abusive…
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Straw Dogs with Dustin Hoffman and Susan George: Infamous rape scene. Straw Dogs movie (1971) review: Sam Peckinpah drama is best remembered for its infamous rape scene. If there has…
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Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Inception.’ Inception movie review: Summer blockbuster with brains & soul Christopher Nolan’s Inception is a summer blockbuster that doesn’t act like one. Unlike so many of the…
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Sophie Scholl: The Final Days with Julia Jentsch and Fabian Hinrichs. Directed with clenched fists by Berlin Film Festival winner Marc Rothemund, who seems to have been at least partly…
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Boom! movie: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton critical and box office disaster is rediscovered and receives some belated cult classic appreciation.
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Riot movie with Jim Brown and Gene Hackman. “A protest, a riot, I don’t care what you call it,” says Red (Gene Hackman), the mastermind of an audacious plan to…
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Monster’s Ball 2001 with Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thornton. This brief piece is an amalgam of two comments posted in response to Alt Film Guide’s Monster’s Ball review written by…
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Cavalcade with Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook (upstairs), and Herbert Mundin and Una O’Connor (downstairs). Synopsis: Upstairs, Robert and Jane Marryot (Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard), and downstairs, Alfred and Ellen…
A Face in the Crowd (1957) movie review: A hammy Andy Griffith and a didactic Budd Schulberg hinder Elia Kazan’s political drama with Patricia Neal.
The Sadist with Arch Hall Jr. The Sadist (1963) movie review: The Sadist movie review: Curious B flick Say what you will about Arch Hall Jr. (and I know many…
Beulah Bondi, Victor Moore, Make Way for Tomorrow The main conflict in Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow revolves around an elderly couple, Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Victor Moore and…
Monique van Vooren, Joe Dallesandro, Flesh for Frankenstein The first time I saw Flesh for Frankenstein was during its theatrical release in 1973, when it was titled, Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein.…
Vicky Cristina Barcelona set with Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, and Woody Allen. I saw Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona at its Canadian premiere at the 32nd Montreal World Film…
The Queen with Helen Mirren and James Cromwell. A more sober tone would have made Stephen Frears’ filmization of Peter Morgan’s The Queen screenplay less appealing to a mass audience.…
The Girl. In rural Sweden, a young girl’s parents jet off to Africa on a charity trip, leaving the child (Blanca Engström) in the care of an inattentive aunt. The…