Posts filed under 'Classic movies'
September 25th, 2009
Back in the glory days of the studio era, Warner Bros. would compile collections of each year’s bloopers and screw-ups and show them at the annual holiday party. Thankfully, many of these have been included on various Warner Bros. DVDs (the first gangster boxed set has plenty). Here’s the reel from 1936. You’ll see some familiar faces — including Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Edward G. Robinson — and hear them spout some slightly naughty language.
September 4th, 2009
It’s Labor Day weekend, which means the Jerry Lewis Muscular Distrophy telethon will be airing somewhere on a TV set near you. Jerry is clearly past his prime, and just about the only time you see him these days is on the annual telethon. But once upon a time, back in the 1950s and 1960s, he was a global superstar — and one of the most interesting filmmakers around. Check out this surreal, beautifully shot and staged scene from his 1961 movie THE LADIES MAN (my personal favorite in the Lewis filmography) and you might change your opinion of the guy…
And, if you’d like to donate to the fight muscular distrophy, click here.
August 20th, 2009
For a long time — about a decade, in fact — I’ve argued that 1999 is one of the great years in movie history, bringing us such memorable films as THE MATRIX, THE LIMEY, ELECTION, TOY STORY 2, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT, OFFICE SPACE, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, MAGNOLIA, THE IRON GIANT, AMERICAN MOVIE, THE INSIDER, THE SIXTH SENSE and my personal favorite, FIGHT CLUB.
The public radio show Here & Now recently hosted a discussion between Boston film critics Ty Burr and Wesley Morris devoted to this very topic — 1999 being one of the great movie years, right up there with the legendary year 1939 (which brought us GONE WITH THE WING, THE WIZARD OF OZ, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS and other classics).
You can listen to it by clicking here.
August 3rd, 2009
Over at one of my favorite movie blogs, Shadowplay, David Cairns delivers an excellent write-up of the 1941 fantasy, THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER. He goes through the film scene-by-scene and points out many reasons why this is one of the great American films. Here, for example, is his praise of actor Walter Huston, who plays the title role (and no, I’m not referring to Daniel Webster)…
Walter Huston is possibly my favourite actor of all time. He’s not only effective in an impossibly wide variety of parts (basically, anything that doesn’t depend on conventional good looks), he can adapt his whole approach to acting to suit the role: he’s hammy here, in just the right way (remember his advice to his son: “Always give ‘em a good show, and always travel First Class.”), but he can bring it right down.
It’s a long piece, but if you’re a fan of classic films, I think you’ll get a kick out of it. There are spoilers galore, though, so if you haven’t seen THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER, you might want to give it a look, first. There’s an excellent Criterion disc available (shown above), and the film shows up fairly often on Turner Classic Movies.
And, if you’re dying for even more about THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER, check out this piece I wrote two years ago on my own blog. I won’t pretend to be the film scholar David Cairn is (this guy has seen everything!), but I think I have an interesting thing or two to say about the movie.
July 17th, 2009
Here’s something fun from Slashfilm.com – a subway-style map charting “The 250 Best Movies of All Time”…
Shown above is the junction where Gangster (light blue), Mystery/Crime (black) Sci-Fi (green) and World/Adventure (olive) meet.
Click here to see a big version of the entire map. Thankfully, you can zoom in to make it even bigger.
July 15th, 2009
Courtesy of Mark Evanier’s blog, News from Me, here’s a video showing how they managed to the leopard-related scenes in the classic comedy, BRINGING UP BABY. There were a surprising number of special effects used — mainly because, according to Evanier, star Cary Grant was unneasy around the big cat.
June 12th, 2009
Director Alfred Hitchcock was legendary for making cameo appearances in his own films. Supposedly, he started doing it because he just needed another body onscreen to make the shot work, and he was handy.
Here’s a short video roundup of some of the most memorable…
June 2nd, 2009
In the latest installment of his series, Black and White World, blogger James Lileks looks at a true classic — 1941’s THE MALTESE FALCON, directed by first-timer John Huston and starring Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elisha Cook Jr., Mary Astor, Ward Bond, Walter Huston (John’s dad in a cameo) and, of course, the great Humphrey Bogart.
Lileks does an excellent job of pointing out some of the great moments in the movie, but his best line comes when he describes the appeal of Bogie: “… the man’s man other men’s men call a Man’s Man.”
One reason I think THE MALTESE FALCON is so rewatchable is that it, like ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, TOUCH OF EVIL and a few other films, is its so darned confusing that you can never remember all the plot twists from one viewing to the next, so it’s almost like watching a new movie every time. If you’ve never seen it, clear your schedule for tonight and rent it. You won’t be sorry.
May 27th, 2009
Tonight, be sure to tune in to Turner Classic Movies (that’s channel 608 if you’ve got Comcast) to catch an evening of films programmed by none other than character actor Tommy “Tiny” Lister. If you watch movies, you’ve seen Lister at work — he made his debut in RUNAWAY TRAIN, played Deebo in FRIDAY, played the president (!) in THE FIFTH ELEMENT and was recently seen as the prisoner with a surprising moral backbone in last year’s THE DARK KNIGHT. (Check out his extensive — and I mean extensive — filmography here.)
He also has some intriguing movie tastes. According to the TCM site, his lineup includes ANGEL AND THE BADMAN, SHANE, THE PROFESSIONALS and IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Three Westerns and a classic screwball comedy — not a bad mix. It all starts at 7 p.m.
May 4th, 2009
If you happen to have Turner Classic Movies on your cable line-up, you can check out one of my favorite movies at 8:30 tonight: 1948’s THE BIG CLOCK.
Set almost entirely in a (then) ultra-modern office building, THE BIG CLOCK is a suspense thriller that delivers plenty of tension and danger but somehow manages to be funny — and fun — at the same time. Ray Milland plays George Stroud, a magazine editor working for publisher Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton). When Janoth kills his mistress and Stroud happens to witness the crime, Janoth (not knowing it was Stroud who saw him) assigns Stroud to track down that man, claiming he must be the murderer. In other words, the movie is all about a man searching for himself while he’s desperately trying to divert all attention away from himself. (If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because it was used for the Kevin Costner thriller NO WAY OUT.)
It’s very entertaining, with plenty of lightning-quick plot twists, quirky characters (including Laughton’s real-life wife, Elsa Lanchester, as a kooky artist), and dark corners you think Stroud can’t possibly back himself out of. Plus it features a young Harry Morgan — M*A*S*H’s Col. Potter — as Janoth’s creepy thug. The movie looks great, with some amazing sets and slick direction from John Farrow (Mia’s dad — Mia’s mom, Maureen O’Sullivan, plays Milland’s wife).
Here’s the amusing trailer:
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