Archive for May, 2009

On the audio commentary track, it is stated that “a run on a bank couldn’t happen today because our money is protected”. That was recorded in 2005; how times change — and how things remain the same! In the midst of our own century’s most traumatic financial crisis, where not just 25% of banks but… »

Dead End (1937), although nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture, won nothing. Although it’s a fine picutre, and stands up remarkably well for its time, this was hardly an example of “Oscar getting it wrong”; it’s memorable as a break-through role for Humphrey Bogart, third in billing, as the gangster… »

Movie archaeologists who might have believed the long suppressed 1931 version of Universal’s Waterloo Bridge was lost were delighted when it was unearthed in the 1970s; it is now, happily, available to the rest of us as part of TCM Archive’s Forbidden Hollywood releases of pre-code talkies (1929-July 1934). Without question, the film is a… »

Morning Glory (1933) is a touching, well paced story of a young woman vying for success in the glamourous world of New York’s theatre. Premiered a year before the enforcement of the notorious production code, it was only Hepburn’s third film, but it won her her first of 12 Oscar nominations, and her first win…. »

Ida Lupino may have top billing but Robert Ryan walks away with this viewer’s admiration for his evolving portrayal of a cop close to the breaking point but whose humanity is restored through tragic… »

The name Jules Dassin is not widely known, except to certain movie goers and film scholars, in no small part due to the rather small number of films he directed. But Dassin was not a tragic figure who died too young — his output, including director, writer, producer and even actor — is spread over… »

If ever an early talkie deserved the opening line narration “It was a dark and stormy night …”, this is it. This rain-soaked early horror, freshly churned out by the director and studio which gave us Frankenstein, features five travellers who stumble upon the Femm estate in Wales during a horrendous rain storm. The residents,… »

An unexpectedly stylish comedy, underpinned by a hen-pecked husband and deliriously egomaniacal wife, Old Acquaintance (1943) zips along like a bubbly champagne slipping down the back of the throat, occasionally going the wrong way causing a serious cough or two. Vincent Sherman was relatively new to directing, having joined Warner Bros in 1939 directing, as… »

Justly celebrated since its original release, Dark Victory (1939) continues to delight fully 70 years later. Though Bette Davis is in virtually every scene – this is not exactly an ensemble picture – she never outstays her welcome as her moods swing from… »

In The Great Lie (1941), dashing Pete Van Allen (George Brent) is an ace flyer … and playboy society drunk. On a bender, he hooks up with snooty upper class concert pianist Sandra Kovak (Mary Astor); before the night is over, they are married… »