As trenchant political thrillers go, Seven Days in May (1964) is at or near the top of the list. John Frankenheimer’s movie, based upon the bestselling novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II, is an engrossing tale of treachery […]
Continue reading »Month: December 2011
The Big Country (1958) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Everything about William Wyler’s 1958 western The Big Country is B-I-G. The story tells of sea captain Gregory Peck’s arrival in the magnificent grandeur of the old West to marry firebrand Carroll Baker but instead discovers feelings for schoolmarm Jean Simmons. […]
Continue reading »Boomerang! (1947) ✰ ✰ ✰
Fans of the “Law and Order” television dramas will undoubtedly find Boomerang! (1947) dated in terms of its investigatory procedures, yet Elia Kazan’s film provided the blueprint for the series half a century earlier. When a beloved priest is murdered […]
Continue reading »The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) ✰ ✰ ✰
Equal parts of comedy, drama and social significance blend entertainingly — if somewhat unevenly — in John Ford’s 1935 film The Whole Town’s Talking. Those viewers expecting powerhouse Ford drama or his familiar, expressive love of America may not warm […]
Continue reading »The Dish (2000) ✰ ✰ ✰
Plenty of movies include the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing as a cultural touchstone; it’s one of those events like Woodstock or Pearl Harbor that defines a generation and instantly provides viewers with a concrete sense of place and time. […]
Continue reading »Zeppelin (1971) ✰ ✰ ✰
Being interested in aviation and in particular, airships, I’ve always enjoyed the old-fashioned but exciting World War I adventure Zeppelin (1971). This is an international production: filmed in Britain by Belgian director Etienne Perier, regarding a German dirigible sent on a […]
Continue reading »Suddenly (1954) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Frank Sinatra’s film career was at its apex when he made the crime thriller Suddenly (1954); he had just won an Oscar for his work in From Here to Eternity and he was soon to star or co-star in Not as […]
Continue reading »She (1935) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
H. Rider Haggard’s adventure story has been filmed at least eight times. I’ve never seen the five silent versions, nor the 1965 version with Ursula Andress, and the 1985 version with Sandahl Bergman is awful, but the original 1935 version […]
Continue reading »Midnight in Paris (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
A screenwriter (Owen Wilson) is in Paris with his fiancé (Rachel McAdams) and her parents. He realizes he loves the city and starts thinking about living there and being a novelist. He begins to travel back in time to the […]
Continue reading »The Last Hurrah (1958) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
John Ford’s contemporary political film follows the last campaign of a big city mayor, Frank Skeffington (Spencer Tracy, masterful), as he battles a younger candidate favored by the blue bloods. Skeffington is of Irish descent and represents a style of […]
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