By Alan Hurst As we’ve said before, sometimes the Oscars get it very right, and sometimes they miss the mark. With the advantage of hindsight, here is a look back at the Best Actress Oscars awarded during the fifties – the winners, the should have been winners, and some alternate nominees. These are always fun…
By John H. Foote Kubrick. Visionary. His very name conjures a near instant reverence among film audiences who know anything about film, critics, professors, film students, and filmmakers. To this day, eighteen years after his sudden, unexpected death, there are many who believe Kubrick to be the greatest director in the history of the cinema.…
By John H. Foote Cool Hand Luke (1967) (****) “What we have here is, failure to communicate!” – Warden (Strother Martin) When the great counterculture films of the sixties are discussed, I am stunned how often Cool Hand Luke (1967) is left out of the discussion. Very few films tapped into the disdain for a…
By John H. Foote “My name is John Ford, I make westerns,” he said at one of the most infamous meetings of the Directors Guild of America. Humbly, but always with undeniable force, Ford defended his friends William Wyler and Billy Wilder, whose patriotism was under attack by Cecil B. Demille, a director Ford did…
By Nick Maylor Happy Halloween to all of our readers. So… could I have been any more obvious in my choice? I doubt it. For this site, I recently reviewed this year’s direct-sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher film which can be read here. I really enjoyed the new movie as it harkened back to…
By Alan Hurst We were asked to pick our favorite movie for Halloween and there were many that could have made my top spot. I love the Universal monster classics of the thirties and forties, particularly The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and The Wolf Man (1941). The Uninvited (1944) is probably the…
BY John H. Foote His very image or photograph is instantly recognizable around the globe and immediately associated with cinema even though it has been nearly one hundred years since the time of his greatest popularity. The baggy pants, bowler hat, the cane, the silly little moustache, the oversized shoes that saucy demeanor is instantly…
By Alan Hurst You always hear some older movies described as “the perfect rainy-day movie” (I’ve done it myself numerous times). But I think Now, Voyager truly is that movie. It’s one of the great bittersweet romances in film history, the ultimate depiction of the ugly duckling turning into a swan, and one of the…
By John H. Foote Lon Chaney was born for the silent screen. For acting, for creating. Synonymous with horror, his name instantly recognizable as being a horror movie star it is shocking how few of his films are truly horror films. I have been fascinated with Chaney since I was a boy, since seeing his…
By Alan Hurst Released in late 1964 in time to qualify for Oscar consideration, Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte is many things: creepy, funny, campy, and probably the best example of Grand Dame Guignol there is with two older but still fabulous stars, an unbalanced central character, severed hands and heads popping up, stray meat…