Search Results for essays

Yakuza The (1974)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Yakuza The (1974) Produced and directed by Sydney Pollack (They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)) with a story by Leonard Schrader that adapted by Paul Schrader and Robert Towne (Chinatown (1974)) this average action drama set in Japan stars Robert Mitchum as Harry Kilmer. It’s a Japanese gangster story about honor and fulfilling one’s debts that starts with greed and betrayal. It includes samurai sword battles that pale in [...]

Prairie Law (1940)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Prairie Law (1940) Directed by David Howard writing credits include: Bernard McConville (story) and Doris Schroeder & Arthur V. Jones (screenplay). This below average B Western is about the unique justice of the wild West including water rights the conflicts between farmers and cowmen a crooked judge and (of course) a hero. Brill Austin (George O’Brien) is a rancher who freely offers his springs’ water to the new settlers even though [...]

Great Mr. Nobody The (1941)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Great Mr. Nobody The (1941) Directed by Benjamin Stoloff this unexpected gem features Eddie Albert in the title role. Known best for his supporting roles and later nominated for two Oscars (Roman Holiday (1953) & The Heartbreak Kid (1972)) Albert is the lead in this one which features several other career supporting actors who somehow were never recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences: Alan Hale John Litel Charles [...]

Fighting Seabees The (1944) – full review!

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Fighting Seabees The (1944) – full review! Directed by Edward Ludwig based on a story by Borden Chase who wrote the screenplay with Aeneas MacKenzie this average war drama about the formation of Construction Battalions (C.B. – get it?) by the U.S. Navy during World War II also includes a love triangle subplot involving its three top-billed actors: John Wayne Susan Hayward and Dennis O’Keefe. Wayne plays a well known (and well [...]

Born to Be Bad (1950) – full review!

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Born to Be Bad (1950) – full review! Who does 33 year old Joan Fontaine think she’s fooling playing a business college student? Other than that incredulity and the fact that others are so easily manipulated by her seemingly inconsequential acts and words she plays a conniving bitch to rival Anne Baxter’s title character in that year’s All About Eve (1950) though Fontaine’s cute little smiles and feigned (yet [...]

Hallelujah! (1929)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Hallelujah! (1929) An early (dubbed after the fact) sound era Musical drama set in the deep South and featuring an all Black cast from director King Vidor who not only wrote its story but received an Academy Award nomination for his direction. Wanda Tuchock and Richard Schayer wrote the screenplay. After being duped into gambling away his family’s cotton crop money to Hot Shot (William Fountaine) under the influence of a juke joint dancer [...]

Stand By For Action (1942)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Stand By For Action (1942) Laurence Kirk’s “A Cargo of Innocence” was transformed by Captain Harvey Haislip and R.C. Sherriff (Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939)) into a World War II story about a Navy destroyer that rescues a boatload of babies and two pregnant women while on its way to covering a rear admiral’s convoy’s flank in the Pacific. Robert Z. Leonard (The Great Ziegfeld (1936)) co-produced and directed this [...]

Anthony Adverse (1936)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Anthony Adverse (1936) Directed by Irving G. Thalberg winner Mervyn LeRoy with a screenplay by Sheridan Gibney (The Story of Louis Pasteur (1937)) based on the Hervey Allen novel this film won Gale Sondergaard her only Oscar the first Supporting Actress award given in her film debut; Cinematographer Tony Gaudio also won his only Oscar; editor Ralph Dawson won his second of three Oscars and the Score also won. The film also received three other [...]

Patton (1970)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Patton (1970) “Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” Director Franklin Schaffner won the Best Director Oscar on his only nomination for this Best Picture Oscar winner which brought home four more Oscars including Adapted Screenplay Writing (shared by Francis Ford Coppola). George C. Scott was the first Best Actor to [...]

Midnight (1939)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Midnight (1939) A very funny film not to be missed by anyone who’s yet to see it. It stars Claudette Colbert as a showgirl who arrives in Paris penniless but is assisted by a taxi driver played by Don Ameche. When she realizes his interest in her is more than she wants she ditches him and ends up crashing a society party meeting a wealthy man (John Barrymore) whose wife (Mary Astor) is cheating on him. This man knows the showgirl doesn’t [...]
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