Clik here to view.
The Young at Heart (1938): A Sentimental Tale About a Band of Grifters
Billie Burke, Janet Gaynor and Roland YoungThe Young at Heart (1938) involves a family of con artists who set out to bilk an old woman of her fortune, but come away rehabilitated by the woman's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clark Gable Double Feature: The Hucksters (1947) and Any Number Can Play (1949)
Clark Gable had the great ability to make a character his own. We can see this clearly in The Hucksters (1947). Gable plays one of the original Mad Men, Victor Albee Norman, an advertising executive...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Five by Gable: A Pictorial Tribute to Clark Gable
I have been bingeing on Clark Gable films lately. I have always said that Cary Grant is the most charming actor in film history, but I now have to say that Gable comes a close second.Here are screen...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Pictorial Tribute to A Few Good Films
Carole Lombard and Gene Raymond in Brief Moment (1933)The best clocks work with a seamless precision. The wheels, springs and gears serve their function while neatly concealed inside a pretty casing....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The "Follow That Car" Gag
Duck Soup (1933)This is one of Duck Soup's most well-known gags. Groucho hops into the sidecar of a motorcycle driven by Harpo. He announces, "I'm in a hurry! To the House of Representatives!"...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clyde Cook Versus The Missus
Clyde Cook as a photographer in Suspicion (1941).Comedian Clyde Cook suffered a fair share of marital woes in his films. Sufficient evidence of his grief with the opposite sex can be found in Should...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hank Mann, From Star to Featured Extra
Hank Mann as a fruit vendor in Laurel and Hardy's The Dancing Masters (1943)Hank Mann is widely celebrated among silent film comedy enthusiasts for his mastery of slapstick, pantomime, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Billy Bevan: A Genial Character
Billy Bevan is best known today for devoting ten years (1919-1929) to being regularly swept in the lunacy and mayhem at the Mack Sennett studio.Bevan's best films at Sennett were directed by comedy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Pre-Code Era: Just a Lot of Underwear
Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross (1932)The pre-Code obsessives irritate me. They never tire of professing the superiority of the indecent and shocking pre-Code films made between 1930 and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
People Will Talk (1951): Doctor Praetorius and The Wrong Frog
In the 1950s, a doctor determined if a woman was pregnant by injecting the woman's urine under the skin of an African frog. If the woman was pregnant, the frog would produce a cluster of eggs within a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? (1953): A Mischievous Bedroom Farce That...
Bonar Colleano share a drink with his new wife, Diana Decker.Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? (1953) proves just how dumb a farce can be. Farces depend on preposterous situations and this film...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Undercover Butler Battles Nazi Spies in a Weak Wartime Comedy
In her early B-movie days (pre-The Lost Weekend), Jane Wyman was little more eye candy in a dopey Warner Brothers comedy, which is the subject of today's article. At Warner Brothers, Wyman was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mothers Have Gone to The Dogs
Alice Brady in My Man Godfrey (1936)When I was a boy, I became familiar with lots of stock characters in comedy films. One of those stock characters was the ditzy society matron who carried around a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Mom's Favorite Actress
I once asked my mother, "Who was your favorite film actress when you were growing up?" I was almost certain that she would say, "Bette Davis, of course!" My mother loves to see Davis lugging about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Black Widow (1954): Attack of the Starry-Eyed Dreamer
Black Widow (1954) is a murder mystery that unfolds with a clever series of twists. I enjoyed the film despite the fact that the film's marketing did somewhat spoil the surprises. Do not read further...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975): Peter Has Nothing to Be Proud About
In my senior years, I have become more critical of a film protagonist's moral character. This relates to the qualities that I have come to tolerate or not tolerate within myself. A man behaves poorly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Joseph Cotten Triple Feature: Portrait of Jenny (1948), The Steel Trap (1952)...
Roger Ebert wrote, "There was often a sadness about Joseph Cotten, and it was one of his most attractive qualities as an actor." The mysterious, underlying sadness that the actor conveys in his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Celebrating Rare and Little Known Films
Bobby Walberg and Ingrid Bergman in Adam Had Four Sons (1941)In the last few months, I have had great fun digging into rare films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. In many cases, these are films that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seven Bad Films from Hollywood's Golden Age
Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers in Once Upon A Honeymoon (1942)A bad film can rankle a viewer. In a recent article, I compared a fine film to a rose. It need not be contemplated. Just let its splendor...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Billy Wilder Finds Love (in the Afternoon)
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) is an astonishingly bad film. The film was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, writtten by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, and starred Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper. How...
View Article