
Most Recent Blog Posts
Of Monocles and Mystery: Charles Douville Coburn
He’s one of the preeminent character actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and, like Sydney Greenstreet and Marie Dressler, among the small club of performers who started hugely successful movie careers around age 60, which at the time was not “the new 50,” it was...
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)
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...
Blogathons
Desk Set (1957): Sapiosexuals Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy Find Love in the Library
The opening: The Mondrian carpet, the computer, clattering typewriter? the sprightly, lighthearted music tell us that it?s a comedy. Here is how I first saw?Desk Set: At about 2:30am after working a double shift, one at?Forbes?and another at?Newsweek, I got home,...
The Fabulous Films of the 30s: The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Eighty years after its original release, James Whale?s?The Bride of Frankenstein?just keeps getting better That wasn?t the end at all?. Would you like to hear what happened after that? I feel like telling it?. It?s a night for mystery and horror. The very air is...
Strangers in a Strange Land Pt II: Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg?s Shanghai Express (1932) and The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Part II Deceit, Desire, and Survival: Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg?s?Shanghai Express(1932) and?The Scarlet Empress?(1934) A missionary wins the heart of a poetic warlord, a woman of mystery wins back her untrusting lover, and a promiscuous princess wins...
Strangers in a Strange Land: The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), and The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Here are three pre-Code films about women from the West who find themselves in dangerous situations in exotic lands (China in two, Russia in the other). The women are thrown upon their own resources, their ability to adapt and survive, with little or no support or...
Les Girls Can?t Help It (and neither can Elvis?it?s the beast in him)
The Girl Can?t Help It?(1956),?Jailhouse Rock?(1957),?Les Girls?(1957) Two classic but revolutionary rock?n?roll movies and one golden-age Hollywood musical, made in the twilight of the genre and the studio system. If you know?The Girl Can?t Help It?it?s probably for...
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937): McCarey wins Oscar ?for the wrong picture?
Leo McCarey on the set March 10, 1938 The Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles The 10th Academy Awards Banquet was almost over, with only the two top awards left to present. Everybody was anxious to hear who had won Best Director. The nominees were among the era?s most...
The General (1926): Split-second timing, decades ahead of his time
In 1926 Buster Keaton, one of the most successful comedians in Hollywood, released?The General,his eighth feature. It was a masterpiece, now considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made. But things were different in 1926, and in the wake of the film?s...
The Trouble with Stella Dallas
This post is part of the?Contrary to Popular Opinion Blogathon,?where we set the consensus on its head by defending a maligned film, performer or director or toppling a beloved one! Stella Dallas?is still much beloved 78 years after it was made, and a favorite to many...
Second Sight Cinema Live Coverage From Hollywood?
at the?2018 TCM Classic Film Festival!
[April 26-April 29]
Second Sight Cinema returns to Hollywood for our sixth TCM Film Festival, media credentials proudly in hand, to cover everything from pre-festival doings?fan gatherings, lectures and presentations, tours, the whole nine yards?to the mad whirl of official screenings and events, to the post-fest catch-our-breath musings on the experience. From nitrate to noir, pre-Code to silents, tearjerkers to comedies, I’ll bring you my best insights, observations, and celebrity sightings.

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