ClassicFlix - Only the Classics

Classics 101: A Definition of Film Terms

Classic movie fans and ClassicFlix subscribers know that the great movies of yesteryear can be enjoyed as entertainment for their stars, stories, production values, direction, cinematography and all the other artistic areas that make films worth the price of a ticket. For those looking to delve deeper into the Hollywood vaults, most of the film books on the motion pictures of the era deal with the overall output of the studios and independents, 1920s-1960s, or specific genre, such as noir, ho...

Classics 101: Cartoonified - Forgotten Animation Studios of the 1930s

Beyond the well-known Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, and Max Fleischer cartoons with their all-star lineups of Mickey, Donald, Bugs, Daffy, Tom & Jerry, Betty Boop, and Popeye, there exists a strange parallel universe of B-level animated cartoons from the 1930s. Nobody could ever mistake these for Disney (or even Fleischer or Warner Bros.) cartoons, yet they have a certain rudimentary charm and a bouncy sense of fun that makes them fondly regarded by cartoon fans (like us).Some of...

Classics 101: Harry Langdon - The Fourth Clown

Our story so far: on September 5, 1949, Life magazine published a cover story entitled Comedy's Greatest Era, by James Agee. Virtually overnight, twenty years after its heyday ended, great silent comedy as a genre was rediscovered and placed on a pedestal that's been revisited by each ensuing generation. Agee's article crowned four Kings of Silent Comedy; we previously looked at Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd; in this concluding article, we'll turn to the one that's frequently cited as a...

Another Nice 'mas: The Christmas Films of Laurel & Hardy

Oh, in the history of movies, there have been more successful comics, I suppose, than Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, more famous, more popular, and more influential. But has ANYBODY generated as many laughs? Is there any other comedy team that you can say is as beloved?Not that we need a reason to revisit them (or, more accurately, have them revisit us), but the holiday season is as good a time as any to entertain kith and kin with the following films, most of which have...

The Gypsy Wildcat: The Films of Maria Montez and Jon Hall

'If I had to name the one series of films that most captured the escapist spirit of the films of the forties, I would unhesitatingly choose the six filmed-in-Technicolor Jon Hall-Maria Montez adventures turned out by Universal between 1942 and 1945.' --Alan Barbour, 'A Thousand and One Delights'Throughout most of its history in the talkie era, Universal struggled to shake its reputation and produce 'A' pictures while keeping within penurious budgets; Deanna Durbin musical...

Hammer Prime: The Best of Bray Horror

The history of Hammer Studios is fascinating but convoluted; a production company in the 1930s, then a distributor, then a production company again that subsisted on a series of low-budget comedy, drama, and science-fiction pictures partially financed by U.S. producer Robert L. Lippert, who also supplied second-tier American stars like Brian Donlevy and Cesar Romero in return for American distribution rights. Hammer got UK rights to Lippert films, and the sci-fi offerings, including Rocke...

Strange Science Serials, Chapter III: Maniacs from Space!

After three attempts by Ming the Merciless to either enslave the Earth, destroy all human life on it, or otherwise make a nuisance of himself, our planet was relatively safe for the next several years (WW2 notwithstanding) until 1945, when -- no doubt suspecting we would be an easy target following the worldwide conflict that had just ended -- Mars invaded the earth led by one of Ming's successors in The Purple Monster Strikes (1945).A famous astronomer, Dr. Cyrus Layton,...

Classics 101 - The Four Clowns: The Boy with the Glasses

In the first two parts of this silent comedian series, we discussed how little regard studios and most filmgoers had for 'old-time silent movies' throughout the 1930s and 1940s; that changed on September 5, 1949, when Life magazine, one of the most popular publications in the nation, published a James Agee cover story entitled Comedy's Greatest Era. This installment of Classics 101 will take a look at the third of Agee's Four Clowns, Harold Lloyd.Lloyd's is one of the gre...

Classics 101: Klassics for Kids

Classic movie fans aren't born (unfortunately); they're made, either by those of us lucky enough to discover Turner Classic Movies or another similar channel (are there any others left?) that programs films older than Home Alone for the kids, or though the love and encouragement of caring parents who understand that vintage cinema is as rich a part of our heritage as great novels. You read to your kids (don't you?) so why not sit down with them to enjoy classic films as well? Sure, y...

Strange Science Serials, Part II: Bring on the Bad Guys

An interesting thing about science-fiction serials of the 1930s is that, with the world poised on the brink of war yet again and scrupulously evil dictators presiding over much of the globe's territory, scenario writers and chapterplay directors really had to work hard to invent fictional villains who measured up to their real-life counterparts. The mid-1930s through the early 1940s gave matinee-goers some of the greatest evil-doers in the history of movies, thwarted week by week by square-ja...

Author: Cliff Weimer