Archive for July, 2009
Monday, July 27th, 2009
War Starts at Midnight!
Don’t be put off by the title. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) is one of the finest British films ever made. Based on the popular Colonel Blimp political cartoon that satirized Britain’s military establishment, Winston Churchill was so worried the film would send the wrong wartime message to British and American audiences [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Cable and DVD by DavidE
Monday, July 27th, 2009
A Comedy of Thrills
It’s one of the most enduring images from silent comedy — Harold Lloyd grasps the hand of a massive clock as he hangs perilously over a busy street. The image became an emblem for the daredevil stunts that were popular during the era, in part because Lloyd appears so ordinary and out-of-place. The source for [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cable and DVD by DavidE
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Glorious Excess
How do you top the untoppable? That was the problem facing Busby Berkeley and the Warner Bros. Studio back in 1933. Following the success that same year of 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933, how could they make the script funnier, the pacing faster, and — most importantly — the spectacular musical numbers even [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cable and DVD by DavidE
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Haunted Images
Nobody does ghost stories like the Japanese. Just ask someone who has seen the contemporary Japanese movies, Ringu and Kairo. Ugetsu isn’t just a ghost story, though it’s the images from the ghost portion of the film that tend to linger in the mind and haunt the viewer for years to come. Ugetsu is generally [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cable and DVD by DavidE
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Double Trouble
The best film noir stories center around fate. Characters are destined to commit a crime because they can’t escape their past. Or a fatal flaw keeps them from seeing the obvious truth, so the tension builds as we’re unable to warn the characters, as we might be able to do in real life. Double Indemnity [...]