By Alan Hurst Broadway has always been a major source of inspiration for film musicals. In the thirties Hollywood lured the great composers of the day to write film scores: Irving Berlin, the Gershwin brothers, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter among others. Broadway performers – including Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Fred…
By John H. Foote Lean was, before Spielberg, the great visual storyteller working in movies. It is no surprise the modern masters like Scorsese and Spielberg revere him, have paid homage to his work in their own, and been active in preserving his films. David Lean began his career in film as an editor,…
By John H. Foote He was one of the greatest character actors in movies, his immense talent crossing over to leading status. Honest, real, truthful in every performance he ever gave, I am not sure one could ever catch him “acting”. He burrowed under the skin of each character he brought to the screen, bringing…
By Alan Hurst June 22, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Judy Garland. She was only 47, but seemed to have packed multiple lifetimes into that short span of years. She had achieved significant success in films, records, on stage, and on television, but the well-known struggles were equally part of her…
By John H. Foote There was a sense for many years that there were no great, even good films emerging out of Canada, and our actors and directors bolted for the U.S. the moment they could. No good films in this country? Baloney! Or should I say poutine! Some of the films emerging from Canada…
By Alan Hurst Picking my own personal list of 10 best films is a frustrating treat. It’s a list that’s heavily influenced by whim and mood and it varies by year, by month, by week as I revisit some films and discover others. There are always a few staples that consistently make the list –…
By Nick Maylor We Canadians recently had our national holiday That means that today our neighbours below the 49th parallel are celebrating their Independence day. . Happy Fourth of July to our American friends and readers! I must admit that when I conceived the idea for this post, I had a much goofier list of…
By Alan Hurst The sixties were a transitional decade for a lot of reasons and those transitions are evident in the decade’s best comedies. From the sit-com innocence of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960) to the oh-so-trendy sexuality of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), there was a major shift in both…
By John H. Foote The trouble with a ten greatest films list is I cannot merely do ten, can anybody? My colleague and friend Craig suggested I was cheating a bit, he’s right, (laughing) but I also don’t care! My list might not have been the same a year ago, it will not be…
By John H. Foote It happens, though truly one has to wonder why? How can an Academy made up of film people, experts, one would hope in their field, miss the best films of the year? How do inferior films get a Best Picture nomination over clearly greater films? Yet it happens, year after year.…