The Wind
BBBB (out of 5) Lillian Gish heads west from her native Virginia to live with a male cousin and his careworn wife, but before long her beauty and instant rapport with their children… Continue reading
Tag Archive: Cedric Gibbons
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Red Dust (1932)
BBBB (out of 5) Clark Gable runs a rubber plantation in southeast Asia, his daily grind interrupted by the appearance of a brassy blond (Jean Harlow) who is avoiding the authorities in Saigon,… Continue reading
Love Is Better Than Ever (The Light Fantastic)
BBB (out of 5) Big time New York theatrical agent Larry Parks meets the owner of a children’s dance studio (Elizabeth Taylor) and courts her during an out of town dance convention she… Continue reading
The Girl Who Had Everything
BB.5 (out of 5) After a Washington attorney (William Powell) succeeds in getting a gangster (Fernando Lamas) acquitted of illegal gaming charges, he invites him over to his house where the hood spots… Continue reading
Callaway Went Thataway (The Star Said No)
BBB.5 (out of 5) Old westerns starring Howard Keel are being played on television and thrilling the kids who watch them on the small screen with their parents. Film producers realize this is a… Continue reading
Rhapsody
BB.5 (out of 5) Elizabeth Taylor announces to her wealthy father Louis Calhern that her latest rebellion is to abandon her current studies and move to Switzerland to study at a music academy there.… Continue reading
Lassie Come Home
BBBB (out of 5) It’s nice to know that decades of movies about children befriending animals began with a few great ones, since it would take a very cold heart to not be… Continue reading
Courage Of Lassie
BBB (out of 5) The beloved canine hero gets top billing above the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Morgan in this charming film. Pal, who appears as the female Lassie in the other films, actually… Continue reading
Interrupted Melody
BBBB (out of 5) Marjorie Lawrence (Eleanor Parker) makes her way from the Australian outback to a singing contest in the big city, the victory of which sends her to Paris to study… Continue reading
A Date With Judy
BBB.5 (out of 5) Teenaged Jane Powell is a very popular girl whose patience for her bandleader boyfriend has worn thin. After he fails to escort her to a big dance where she is… Continue reading
The Big Hangover
BB (out of 5) Van Johnson is a law student who has been selected to work at a prestigious law firm thanks to his being the top of his class. He barely sniffs… Continue reading
Broadway Melody Of 1938
BB.5 (out of 5) None of the Broadway Melodies have any narrative in common other than all being excuses to tell stories set in the New York theatre world. This one is a… Continue reading
Battleground
BBBB (out of 5) This one’s uncomfortable blend of gritty realism and jokey contrivances keep it from having aged flawlessly but its darker elements make it astonishing for its time. Based on true… Continue reading
Blossoms In The Dust
BBBB (out of 5) A Wisconsin girl is swept off her feet by a tall Texan who takes her away from her intended fiancé and installs her in the Lone Star state in the… Continue reading
Marie Antoinette (1938)
BBB (out of 5) Married to the king of France as a teenager, brought to the court of Paris from her native Austria, Marie Antoinette (Norma Shearer) quickly made friends and enemies and,… Continue reading
Romance (1930)
BB (out of 5) Unwatchable cornfest that captures Greta Garbo between stages of development as a film actress: pulling large facial expressions as if she were still in a silent movie, then forced to… Continue reading
Because You’re Mine
BB (out of 5) Mario Lanza plays (what else) a famous opera singer whose celebrity does nothing to keep him from the draft. He is snatched up by Uncle Sam and put through basic… Continue reading
The Unfinished Dance
BBBB (out of 5) Decades before Black Swan indulged a hyper-surreal investigation of female egos clashing in the world of ballet, and a year before a woman would be torn destructively between love and… Continue reading
Moonfleet
BBB (out of 5) Having recently lost his mother, young and innocent Jon Whiteley follows her last spoken instructions and makes his way back to a village he has never known, seeking out a… Continue reading
Mr. Imperium (You Belong To My Heart)
B.5 (out of 5) Studio heads gave opera star Ezio Pinza a screen test and incorrectly believed it wise to move ahead with a starring role. Pairing up his complete lack of charisma with… Continue reading
Somebody Up There Likes Me
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Scintillating biography of Rocky Graziano, a prizefighter who grow up in the rough neighbourhoods of New York City a complete juvenile delinquent and ended up a heroically admired boxer.… Continue reading
Executive Suite
BBB (out of 5) The president of a furniture-making corporation drops dead of a heart attack on the streets of New York not long after sending out a meeting request to his top… Continue reading
The Secret Garden (1949)
BBBB (out of 5) Early version of the classic Frances Hodgson Burnett children’s novel isn’t as delicate as the 1993 version by Agnieszka Holland, but it does make for nice family viewing. Margaret… Continue reading
A Day At The Races
BBBBB (out of 5) Reviews of this film always point out that it isn’t quite as good as its predecessor A Night At The Opera, but who cares? The plot is strung together… Continue reading
High Society
BBBB (out of 5) Delightful musical version of The Philadelphia Story has Grace Kelly getting ready to remarry, but not before ex-husband Bing Crosby sticks his nose into the mix and Frank Sinatra shows up to throw… Continue reading
Easy To Love
BB.5 (out of 5) Weak Esther Williams vehicle that, as with so many her films, is just a series of excuses to get her into a bathing suit. She plays the star attraction… Continue reading
Lili
BBBB (out of 5) Leslie Caron is a delight in this positively charming family film. She plays the kindhearted Parisian girl of the title who finds herself stranded alone in a strange city and… Continue reading
Texas Carnival
BB (out of 5) Minor Esther Williams film hardly gets her into the pool in its zippy 77 minute running time. She and Red Skelton play circus performers who are struggling to get by. After… Continue reading
Summer Stock
BBB (out of 5) The last film that Judy Garland completed before her contract was torn up by MGM was this so-so musical that has enough great numbers in it to make it worth… Continue reading
Good News
BBB.5 (out of 5) Campus comedies and musicals were a staple of the thirties and forties, and this meaningless little charmer is one of the best loved and remembered of them. It stars… Continue reading
The Swan
BBBB (out of 5) This mediocre period film is mainly remembered for being Grace Kelly‘s last role before leaving Hollywood to become princess of Monaco. It conveniently feeds into her impending royal life… Continue reading
Love Me Or Leave Me
BBB.5 (out of 5) Fictionalized biography of singer Ruth Etting makes for a very dark musical (for its time) and provides Doris Day with one of her richest roles. She plays Etting from her… Continue reading
The Thin Man Goes Home
BB.5 (out of 5) Weakest of the series, but who cares? William Powell and Myrna Loy are such a sexy couple that anything with the two of them is worth your time. In this installment,… Continue reading
Night Must Fall
BBBB (out of 5) Faithful to the original stageplay by Emlyn Williams, this entire film takes place in the peaceful English country cottage of a mean old English lady (Dame May Whitty). She… Continue reading
The Toast Of New Orleans
BB.5 (out of 5) Those who aren’t fans of opera will prefer to kill themselves than sit through two hours of Mario Lanza bellowing endlessly and Kathryn Grayson screeching at the top of her lungs.… Continue reading
Words And Music
BB.5 (out of 5) Like Till The Clouds Roll By, this film is a musical biopic of a popular American composer whose life is made complete fiction for the Hollywood screen. You don’t… Continue reading
Presenting Lily Mars
B.5 (out of 5) Don’t be prepared to settle in for a cozy old movie when you watch this simpering musical; it tries to be charming, but it can’t succeed at it. Judy… Continue reading
Little Nellie Kelly
BB.5 (out of 5) Ridiculously boring yarn has lovely lass Judy Garland give birth in Ireland and then play her grown-up daughter who has moved to America with relatives after her mother dies in… Continue reading
Kiss Me Kate
BBB (out of 5) Bright and boisterous musical comedy based on Cole Porter’s successful stage play. Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel play a bickering couple who are reunited for a production of The Taming of… Continue reading
Life Begins For Andy Hardy
BBB (out of 5) In one of the more entertaining (or should I say less annoying) chapters of the Hardy family saga, Andrew (no longer Andy) graduates high school and becomes a “man… Continue reading
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante
BB.5 (out of 5) Routine Andy Hardy adventure has its star Mickey Rooney falling in love with a society-page heiress while continuing to ignore plucky and spirited lass Judy Garland, who continues to be… Continue reading
Love Finds Andy Hardy
BBB (out of 5) Plucky young Andy Hardy is back once again, and his ridiculous adventures in romance are the centre of this painfully pure comedy. The drama it revolves around is a… Continue reading
Parlor, Bedroom And Bath (Romeo In Pyjamas)
BB.5 (out of 5) Yet another example of the awkward early days of sound, before the technology was sophisticated enough to capture a more natural rhythm of movement and dialogue. Even the brilliance… Continue reading
The Big Store
BB (out of 5) One of the least memorable Marx Brothers comedies is this choppy adventure that takes place in a department store. The boys get involved in the sale of a store… Continue reading
The Merry Widow (1934)
BBB.5 (out of 5) Harmless fluff musical about a gigolo soldier (Maurice Chevalier, annoying as ever) sent on a mission by his worried superiors from a fictional eastern European country to retrieve a… Continue reading
Ninotchka
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Greta Garbo shines in her first comedy in this hilarious early Billy Wilder script, the film that was the basis for the musical Silk Stockings. A tough-as-nails Russian agent (Garbo)… Continue reading
Mutiny On The Bounty
BBBBB (out of 5) Exceptional adventure film that, along with The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, makes 1935 a top-notch year for action films. By far the best of all three versions made of… Continue reading
The Great Ziegfeld
BB (out of 5) Lord only know what moviegoers of the thirties saw in this tepid musical biography of showman Florenz Ziegfeld (played here by William Powell). It’s not that it hasn’t aged… Continue reading
Pride And Prejudice (1940)
BBBBB (out of 5) Devastatingly good adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, a surprise considering how very condensed the story is from its original source. Greer Garson makes a wonderful Elizabeth in this tale of… Continue reading