I first witnessed this marvelous adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s novel in grade school; it was shown to illustrate the culture, history and conditions in China.  Although the film was immensely popular at the time of its release in 1937, […]

The majority of baseball films are thoroughly familiar and formulaic; one surprise is The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, a vibrant comedy-drama that celebrates black baseball players in the era before they were allowed into the major leagues. […]

I first learned about this 1955 modern western as I was researching my Korean War film reference book.  Based on a novel by Luke Short called Silver Lode, the film chronicles a Korean War veteran’s efforts to build a life […]

(For volume six, in 2004, I switched the title of the column.  The format remained the same.)   Never having been satisfied with the column title “Overlooked (or Obscure) Goodies,” which appeared in the final two issues of volume three, […]

One of the better and more audacious films from last year is one I have only recently seen, entitled Personal Velocity (2002).  Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, adapted her own book and has directed the film, which is subtitled […]

Writer-director Ron Shelton has made movies about several sports before more recently branching into the cop genre (Dark Blue, Hollywood Homicide), and the script he wrote for The Best of Times is one of his sharpest.  It is a movie about […]