Raw Deal (1948): Crashing Out of Corkscrew Alley

"I believe in the nobility of the human spirit. It is that for which I look in a subject I am to direct. I do not believe that everybody is bad, that the whole world is wrong. The greatness of Shakespeare's plays is the nobility of the human spirit, even though he may...

All Twisted Up Inside:  Arthur Kennedy and Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running (1958)

All Twisted Up Inside: Arthur Kennedy and Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running (1958)

This is about Kennedy's performance in Some Came Running (1958), directed by Vincente Minnelli. Kennedy scored his fourth Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of Frank Hirsh, the embodiment of small-town small-mindedness and hypocrisy.  I am...

Love Letters: Dear Thomas Mitchell

Love Letters: Dear Thomas Mitchell

"I didn't know I was that good" ?what you said upon accepting your Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Stagecoach (1939) Dear Tom, or Dear Kid Dabb (Only Angels Have Wings, 1939) ...Diz Moore (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939) ...Doc Boone (Stagecoach, 1939) ...Clopin...

?Acting is a ridiculous profession?? ?notes on Peter Lorre

?Acting is a ridiculous profession?? ?notes on Peter Lorre

This post is part of the 2014 What a Character! blogathon. To see more, click graphic (above).? ?Acting is a ridiculous profession unless it is part of your very soul.? ??Peter Lorre Even people who have never seen Peter Lorre in a movie know his nasal, dreamy voice...

A Viewer’s Guide: How to Watch Grand Hotel (1932)

A Viewer’s Guide: How to Watch Grand Hotel (1932)

Grand Hotel, always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens. courtesy Pre-Code.com Grand Hotel took home the Best Picture Oscar for MGM in 1933, beating another MGM release,The Champ, as well as Samuel Goldwyn’s Arrowsmith, Fox’s Bad Girl, First...

Day 6: Order in the Court! The Classic Courtroom Movie Blogathon concludes (in extra innings)?

Day 6: Order in the Court! The Classic Courtroom Movie Blogathon concludes (in extra innings)?

Oyez, oyez! Welcome to Day 6, the final day of our courtroom extravaganza! In the first five?days we saw, among others, posts on Hitchcock worth knowing better (The Paradine Case), lynching (Fritz Lang?s?Fury), Louise Brooks?s Lulu in?Pandora?s Box,?Kramer vs. Kramer,...

Disembodied: Waldo Lydecker, the Voice in the Dark in Laura (1944)

Disembodied: Waldo Lydecker, the Voice in the Dark in Laura (1944)

“McPherson, if you know anything about faces, look at mine. How singularly innocent I look this morning. Have you ever seen such candid eyes?” “Laura considered me the wisest, the wittiest, the most interesting man she’d ever met. I was in complete accord with her on...

TCMFF 2016 Sunday: Church: Sirk, Chaplin, Ford, Minnelli, Final Wrap and Coda

TCMFF 2016 Sunday: Church: Sirk, Chaplin, Ford, Minnelli, Final Wrap and Coda

And so we come to the last day of TCMFF 2016. I was already feeling it on Saturday, and of course Saturday?s events and pace and the least sleep yet went a long way toward creating a detour from my still excited but increasingly weary mind and my mouth, which began to...

TCMFF 2016: Recap of Saturday, Day 3: Vitaphone, Reiner, Gould, Karina

TCMFF 2016: Recap of Saturday, Day 3: Vitaphone, Reiner, Gould, Karina

From my comfortable perch back at my friend?s house in North Hollywood, ?the intensity, mad dashes, glorious experiences, and occasional frustrations of TCMFF 2016 seem rather remote, Gentle Reader, but at this time a little over one?week ago I was watching?Dead Men...

Anatomy of a scorcher: Mary Astor on Filming the Steamy Kiss in Red Dust

Anatomy of a scorcher: Mary Astor on Filming the Steamy Kiss in Red Dust

Mary Astor?s memoir?A Life on Film?is fantastic?she?s a wonderful writer, and her sharp observations on the industry and what went on behind the cameras are fascinating and incredibly useful to anyone who writes about classic film. Astor writes of being asked by a...