Posts filed under "Talkies"
Review: Pennies From Heaven (1981)
Pennies from Heaven airs Wednesday, May 15th on TCM. Check local listings. Dennis Potter was a household name in British Television, but hardly known at all in Canada or the states when a movie based on his mini-series opened in December, 1981. Pennies from Heaven, starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters, was an anomaly. It [...]
Review: The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Arguably, The Lady Vanishes is the apex of Alfred Hitchcock’s body of work now known as “The British Period.” This film has all of British Hitchmarks – suspense, romance, psychological tension, Brit humor of the dry and ribald variety, and Hitch’s favorite film set, a train. The Lady Vanishes is so British, it seems somewhat [...]
TCM Classic Film Festival 2013: “Safe In Hell” (1931)
Safe in Hell is a trip. I don’t want to oversell it, because at the TCM Film Fest the initial sold-out show had such great word-of-mouth that the additional screening filled up as well. As happens at festivals, the film was gaining momentum like a snowball, so that just prior to the second screening, words [...]
Pressburger and Powell’s The Red Shoes (1948)
A young and gifted ballerina is driven to the edge of madness by a controlling company director as she confronts the intensifying pressures of becoming a world-renowned dancer overnight. Although we could be talking about the Oscar-winning film Black Swan (2010), instead let us look back to another dark and visually-stunning ballet film made sixty [...]
TCM Classic Film Fest 2013: The Donovan Affair (1929)
You can’t really review The Donovan Affair without discussing the unique way it’s presented. Frank Capra’s first talkie is a creaky parlor-room mystery with some tongue-in-cheekiness to it that still works today. But the big headline, as you’ve probably heard ad infinitum, is the film’s missing soundtrack, and the unique “work around” that’s brilliantly been [...]
TCM Classic Film Festival 2013: The Twelve Chairs (1970)
You know you’re in the right place when Robert Osborne strides out – so I am overjoyed when he personally introduces Mel Brooks. And Brooks, at 87, still has it. After the TCM representative reminds the audience that one of the sponsors is Porsche, Brooks quips, ”we should support Porsche cause they did so much [...]
TCM Film Festival 2013: Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Writer/director Robert Benton spoke before the Festival’s screening of Bonnie & Clyde in the big, bad Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (I refuse to call it the TCL Chinese Theatre) and he really painted a surprising picture of the process to get the film made. A dyslexic art department slave for Esquire Magazine , he knew he [...]
TCM Classic Film Festival 2013: The Swimmer (1968)
The Swimmer as aptly introduced by indie filmmaker Alison Anders, is a perfect movie for our times, just as Mad Men is a series about the past, but prescient as part of our current collective consciousness. In fact, it’s Anders herself who draws the analogy between The Swimmer and Mad Men. Burt Lancaster could be [...]
TCM Classic Film Fest 2013: From Russia with Love (1963)
Screened from a newly resorted and digital print, the images were sharp, with deeply saturated colors and tones. The sound, crisp and bright. And Sean Connery, as always, the strongest of Bonds. However, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Now that the images are so resolute and vivid, we can discern [...]
TCM Classic Film Fest: Road to Utopia (1946)
My first screening of the festival, and I quickly learned it’s sometimes great to see something that may not be on everybody’s hit list. The theatre was half full as festival-goers jammed in to see “Funny Girl” and “The Killing” and “Ninotchka.” The vibe was relaxed and anticipatory. The guest host, comedian Greg Proops, was [...]
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Wade Sheeler
And definitely Julianne Moore should've been nomin …
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Victoria
I'm so glad someone mentioned [SAFE]. It has to be …
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Tam Francis
Great write up. I have seen a lot of Cagney films …
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Brandy Dean
Well, aren't you just riding in our your little se …
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Hala Pickford
Grand Old Movies: There's no evidence she was Ramb …
