Movies about astronomy, space exploration and the wonders beyond our own planet rarely fail to inspire me; one of the finest is October Sky (1999).  Based on NASA engineer Homer Hickam’s recounting of his formative years in West Virginia’s coal […]

Teachers (1984) is not the freshest or most original movie about the difficulties modern educators face in an urban public school setting, but it has a lot to say about those difficulties.  Furthermore, it does so with clever, dark humor, […]

Hal Needham had worked as the stunt coordinator on Hellfighters before finally climbing into the director’s chair in the late 1970s.  His second film, Hooper (1978), a loving tribute to stuntmen everywhere and Jock Mahoney in particular (Jock was co-star […]

Not all of John Wayne’s contemporary dramas stand up to the passage of time, but I revisit Hellfighters (1968), his oil well-firefighting movie, every few years because it does.  Hellfiighters is a fictionalized version of real-life fire-fighter “Red” Adair’s adventures […]

A taut hostage drama takes place in a film noir titled Dial 1119 (1950), which today would have been called Dial 911 due to the revision of emergency telephone service numbers.  Not knowing the then-present American system of emergency communication, […]

Blending a realistic perspective concerning politics of the era, a yearning for something better and an absolutely delightful performance by Loretta Young (she won a Best Actress Oscar for it), The Farmer’s Daughter (1947) is at the top of the […]

A futuristic drama concerning the construction of an underground passageway from England to the United States, The Tunnel (1935) was an ambitious project.  It is perhaps better known by its alternative title, Transatlantic Tunnel, for two reasons.  That was its […]

Lon Chaney became one of the greatest stars of the silent era, and his performance in The Penalty (1920) is proof positive not only of his talent, but his remarkable dedication to his craft. Chaney plays the role of an […]