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Chatterbox (1936)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Chatterbox (1936) Directed by George Nicholls Jr. with a screenplay by Sam Mintz (Skippy (1931)) based on a story by David Carb this B movie comedy drama features Anne Shirley in the title role as Jenny Yates a simple Vermont country girl who’s always dreamt of being a stage actress. Her mother had been one 20 years earlier playing a part on stage in “Virtue’s Reward”. Ironically a New York acting company has been [...]

Call Me Madam (1953)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Call Me Madam (1953) Directed by Walter Lang (The King and I (1956)) with a screenplay by Arthur Sheekman this above average Musical comedy features Ethel Merman’s signature performance reprising her Broadway role with great Irving Berlin songs and the energetic dancing of Donald O’Connor! Not only that but George Sanders sings too and Vera-Ellen dances! The film’s Score won the Academy Award; its Color Costume Design was [...]

Bachelor Party The (1957) – full review!

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Bachelor Party The (1957) – full review! One might be tempted to label this drama “dated” however as was typical screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky provided it with a story that is both insightful and (still) enduring today. Though the setup is rather contrived (a 30+ year old virgin male find himself about to be married to a more experienced war widow that also happens to be his distant cousin) every man questions: who he is what [...]

Manchurian Candidate The (1962)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Manchurian Candidate The (1962) Directed and co-produced by John Frankenheimer with a screenplay by George Axelrod (Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)) that was based on the novel by Richard Condon this essential political thriller stars Frank Sinatra Laurence Harvey Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury (among others). Notable for Lansbury’s evil mother portrayal (AFI’s #12 villain) the film was voted the #67 Greatest Movie of All Time by the [...]

Three Smart Girls (1936)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Three Smart Girls (1936) Cute comedy with music that served as the screen debut-showcase for the talented teenage singer-come-actress Deanna Durbin who’d gone on to work at Universal Pictures after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer chose to make a star of Judy Garland instead; the two had more or less auditioned in the MGM short Every Sunday (1936). It was directed by Henry Koster and written by Adele Comandini who earned her only Academy recognition [...]

Summer Place A (1969) – full review!

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Summer Place A (1969) – full review! Any cinephile who watches this movie without reading the opening credits or doesn’t notice its director and the date it was released will swear that it’s an early Douglas Sirk-Ross Hunter soap opera. Though perhaps not quite as fine tuned nor polished it features the same melodramatic characters and storylines in crisp clean Technicolor as the director-producer duo was famous for making in [...]

Peeping Tom (1960)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Peeping Tom (1960) Ahead of its time this above average thriller about a voyeuristic cinematographer who films the women he terrorizes and then kills while the camera is rolling was so scandalous in its day that it actually ruined the career of its British director (and uncredited producer) Michael Powell. His reputation was subsequently restored and revered in part because of another director Martin Scorsese who sought him out and found Powell [...]

Sea Wolf The (1941)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Sea Wolf The (1941) Not unlike Charles Laughton’s Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) Edward G. Robinson plays a maniacal sadistic Captain of a ship named the Ghost which has garnered quite a reputation. Directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca (1942)) this Jack London novel was adapted by Robert Rossen (All the King’s Men (1949)). This excellent drama features Special Effects which were nominated for an Academy Award. John [...]

Single Standard The (1929) – full review!

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Single Standard The (1929) – full review! Produced and directed by John S. Robertson based on Adela Rogers St. Johns (What Price Hollywood? (1932)) novel with adaptation & scenario by Josephine Lovett (Our Dancing Daughters (1928)) this average Greta Garbo silent also stars Nils Asther and Johnny Mack Brown. Garbo plays a debutante whose first love affair with a chauffeur ends in tragedy. This colors her future relationships which [...]

Mata Hari (1931)

August 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Mata Hari (1931) Directed by George Fitzmaurice and co-written by double Oscar winner Benjamin Glazer this fictionalized historical drama stars Greta Garbo in the title role as the infamous World War I spy. Mata Hari is an erotic dancer working in Paris and spying for the Germans. Initially she’s a courtesan for General Shubin (Lionel Barrymore – A Free Soul (1931)). However when the young attractive Lieutenant Rosanoff (Ramon [...]
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