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Hollywood Invents The Adulterer's Loophole
Hollywood filmmakers have long preferred to accentuate the pitfalls of marriage while ignoring the important and often sublime benefits of marriage. Baseball would look like a pretty bad idea if films...
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The Idiot Plot in the 1940s and 1950s
The Long Dark Hall (1951) has a good cast and good production values, but its weak script has its protagonist making unbelievably dumb decisions at every turn. This is for sure idiot plot...
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Now, Voyager (1942) and Bend of the River (1952): A Complex Story Structure
Nothing is wrong with the standard three-act story structure. But it is somewhat admirable when a filmmaker succeeds with a more complex story. A complex story is a story that explores shifting...
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A Glimpse Into The Adultery Film
I haven't been around here lately because I have been busy writing a book on the adultery film. The book will spotlight hundreds of films. Here are a few of the films that I have been examining...
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A Foolish Revolt: La marcia su Roma (1962)
La marcia su Roma (1962) is more relevant today than ever before. The film presents the story two buffoonish young men (Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi) who are recruited by the Fascist Party to...
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A Protagonist Quandary: Act of Violence (1948)
Who is the protagonist of Act of Violence (1948)? The plot is simple. WWII veteran Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan) is determined to kill his former captain, Frank Enley (Van Heflin), who he believes...
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Mirthful Alliances
Today, I want to acknowledge a few little known comedy teams. Åke Söderblom and Oscar Törnblom join forces to provide comic support in the romantic comedy Julia Jubilerar (1938).Patsy Kelly and ZaSu...
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The Ugly Girl Who Wasn't Ugly
A filmmaker sometimes demands that the viewer relinquish his critical thinking skills. This is something commonly known as suspension of disbelief. You cannot engage with the story unless you believe...
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An Angry, Pompous Fool
I was recently disappointed to hear John Cleese express his disdain for American Christians. He resents Christianity for promoting humility and gratitude, which he believes makes a person small....
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Mugging
For years, I routinely drank my morning cup of coffee out of a Three Stooges coffee mug. But then, one morning, I bumped the mug with my elbow and the mug went plummeting to the floor. I heard it...
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Deep Affection for Bygone Allies
Bruce Jay FriedmanI would never be able to write my books and articles without the help of many good people. It saddens me that three people who helped me in my research passed away during my hiatus...
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Pengar (1946)
The Swedish comedy Pengar (1946) stars Nils Poppe as a tramp who is about to end his sorry life when he learns that he has become an heir to a fortune. A group of evil brothers persuade the tramp to...
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The Ethels
Vivian Vance achieved fame playing Lucille Ball's fretful, wisecracking sidekick, Ethel Mertz, on I Love Lucy. In films of the 1930s and 1940s, the comic heroine was rarely without a wise-cracking...
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Plague of Fools
We imagine that the greatest miseries in the world are created by villains. But there is another group that causes most of the harm in our daily lives. It is the bona fide, unadulterated, omnipresent...
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Peter Sellers: Great Comedian, Not So Great Person
If you are a fan of Peter Sellers, it might be best for you to keep away books or documentaries on the actor. Otherwise, you will learn that the comedian was a highly unpleasant character off-screen....
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The Ape Man in Early Film Comedy
Several early film comedies dealt with a man transforming into a half man and half simian. In the 1906 Gaumont comedy The Truth Behind the Ape-Man, a man drinks a new tonic to grow hair on his head but...
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Hour of Glory (1949)
I highly recommend Hour of Glory (1949). The film's flawed hero, Sammy Rice (David Farrar), is a bomb disposal expert who often gets drunk to relieve the pain from a leg injury that he sustained in...
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Film Comedy History Comes to YouTube
I am happy to see that a number of film comedy historians have set up shop on YouTube. Hats Off Entertainment https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCay-jgoQFnEFsJ8GD6fjzQDave Glass...
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Questions Surrounding The Origin of Gentleman Max
In a 2017 article, I addressed a claim made by film historian Alan Williams that Max Linder was a fairly obscure actor until Pathé employed him to replace their natty funnyman René Gréhan, who exited...
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Does Brundlefly Have a Soul?
Film analyst Rob Ager proposed on his YouTube channel, Collective Learning, that The Fly (1986) was an anti-religion film. Ager said: If a computer scan of molecules and genetics can result in...
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