To see what interests me about the Andy Hardy movies (with apologies to the rest of his family) and to get some broader thoughts on them, you can follow this link. You can also find this list with so many fewer words at my Letterboxd. It goes without saying that there are moderate to serious… Read More The Andy Hardy Movies: Ranking
Main Street on the March!, a short movie by Edward Cahn, is a forerunner for what has become, beyond the postwar years, a significant mode in World War II filmmaking. Cahn’s picture depicts an American public which is blissfully unaware that war will come to their territorial borders, and that they will send out so… Read More “We Can Begin to Live Again” – Portraits of Adjustment in Post-World War II American Cinema
Dir. Mark Robson. Starring Diane Varsi, Lana Turner, Hope Lange The premise of Peyton Place is based on the shallow belief that many people begin from in their real lives, no matter how many times they learn about books and covers as tots: appearances are reality. The trouble with the fame of Peyton Place is that we all… Read More Peyton Place (1957)
Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain Dir. Vincente Minnelli. Starring Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon In the wake of film noir, which used voiceovers and flashbacks to greater effect than ever before, A Letter to Three Wives and The Bad and the Beautiful are logical conclusions outside the genre. A Letter to Three… Read More A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Dir. Douglas Sirk. Starring Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, Susan Kohner (Featured image links here.) Sarah Jane Johnson (Kohner) can trace her future in two directions. The first path keeps her with her loving, practically perfect mother, Annie (Moore). Annie’s friendship, which borders ungracefully on mistress/maid with a successful actress named Lora Meredith (Turner), will almost certainly… Read More Imitation of Life (1959)
Seeing Things Secondhand 