Most Recent Blog Posts
Writer at Work: Mary Astor
Mary Astor is almost one-stop shopping for a classic film buff. She started working in her teens and was the sole support of her greedy, abusive parents, whom she eventually had to sue for her independence, so she checks that box (see Jackie Coogan, Baby Peggy, Dickie...
Giant (1956): Can This Marriage Be Saved?
Oh boy, I get to write about Giant! Or rather the marriage therein, between Texan Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), rich, powerful, and beautiful scion of a 595,000 acre ranch, and Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), daughter of an old money Maryland family. Giant spans 25...
Alistair Sim’s Christmas Carol (1951): the “full-bodied” Scrooge
“An ant is what it is, and a grasshopper is what it is, and Christmas is a humbug.” —E. Scrooge “ As so often happens when I choose a movie to write about, a movie I dearly love, I pass through a period of thinking there's not really that much to say about it. That's...
Blogathons
The More the Merrier (1943): Kissin’ on the Stoop
I Like a Man That Takes His Time ”You look like a high-type, clean-cut, nice young fellow.” What’s really hard with a movie this delightful is to write just about one scene, even a scene this great. A brief digression: I’m posting this an hour before leaving for...
Joyeux Anniversaire! Godard?s Alphaville at 50
Godard and Karina What happens in Alphaville, stays in Alphaville. Fifty years ago, during the coldest January the city had seen in years, Jean-Luc Godard and his crew took to the streets of Paris to film?Alphaville, une ?trange aventure de Lemmy Caution.?Godard was...
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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