Dir. George Waggner. Starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers Dir. William F. Claxton. Starring Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun Both of these pictures—one a classic horror movie from Universal and the other a marvelously terrible horror movie that made me go “Aw!” for ninety minutes—begin with scientific invocations. In 1941, one goes… Read More The Wolf Man (1941) and Night of the Lepus (1972)
To see my running list of the hundred greatest movie stars in American film history, click here To start this project, I began with about 750 names which I knew I’d need to pare down to 100. On my first pass, I only eliminated about 300 of those names, which is a sign of how… Read More Better than AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars: The Near Misses
Dir. Michael Curtiz. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains Sometimes, when I feel just aggressively masochistic, I try to narrow down the best scene I’ve ever seen in a movie. This is a fool’s errand, and only fools rush in. On the other hand, I’ve seen Casablanca maybe a dozen times in my life, and I… Read More Casablanca (1943)
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains Pain boils down to a loss of control. Something outside of our reach hurts, and for the most part there is nothing we can do to stop that hurt from coming, and above all else that’s what makes us crazy. Lingering deaths would be scary… Read More Notorious (1946)
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 1
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 5-2
You thought I’d keep doing this in fives! Ha! As if I wouldn’t drag this out! The following is part of an overview of the top 100 American narrative fiction feature films, from my perspective. For an introduction to the project and an index of other entries in the series, click here. For a list of… Read More Better than AFI’s Top 100: 10-8
The following is part of an overview of the top 100 American narrative fiction feature films, from my perspective. For an introduction to the project and an index of other entries in the series, click here. For a list of more than 800 films which I considered for the top 450 and my eligibility qualifications, click here.… Read More Better than AFI’s Top 100: 75-71
Dir. Michael Curtiz. Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains “They don’t make movies like [x type of movie] anymore” is more often than not the most prosaic sort of movie criticism, a “Saturday Night Live had its best cast when I was sixteen” for film fogies. Typically it’s a statement of nostalgia more… Read More The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Seeing Things Secondhand 