Category: article

  • Dark Cinema: Color Noir

    When we think of film noir, dark, foggy streets and shadowy black and white cinematography often come to mind. That look is as closely tied to the genre as its fatalistic themes. Noir is about more than gloomy grey alleyways though. Sometimes it pops with juicy, lurid color. It seems so wrong to film the darkest moments of the human soul in rainbow hues, until you realize the bleakest tale is often of the evil that unfolds in broad daylight. What could be more jarring, and effecti...

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  • Silent Cinema: The Class of 1914

    2014 marks the centenary of Charlie Chaplin's motion picture debut. This is certainly an important milestone and Chaplin deserves all the praise he gets, but let's not forget that two other important movie people also debuted in 1914. Cecil B. DeMille is remembered today for his religious epics and wooden dialogue, but three-quarters of his output was actually silent films. If you think you do not like DeMille, his silent films may come as a revelation. Sassy marital comedies, dar...

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  • Hollywood's B-Sides: Musical Moments for the Connoisseur

    Once there was a place called Hollywood, and out of it poured wonderful things, fantastic creations that included musicals, musical comedies, and operettas. What fan of classic films has not watched One Hour with You, Shall We Dance, The Pirate, or a hundred others, and not marveled at the level of artistry and studio production that made these films possible? The golden age of movie musicals falls roughly between 1932 and 1954, but music was a key eleme...

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  • Classics 101 - Presenting Alfred Hitchcock: Part 1, The Silent Years

    The name Hitchcock has become synonymous with motion-picture suspense. From the silent era through the mid-1970s, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock directed more than 50 films, and although his resume includes a handful of non-thrillers, it's for such films as North by Northwest, Rear Window, Rebecca, Vertigo and Psycho that he's become a household word and cinematic legend...as The Master of Suspense. It's not that Hitchcock ('Hitch...

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  • TV TIME: Art Carney - More Than Just Ed Norton

    Regular readers of this column know how much I love The Honeymooners, and of course an essential element of that sitcom's timeless appeal is Ed Norton, arguably the best second banana in television history. Jackie Gleason, who was immodest enough to dub himself 'The Great One,' nevertheless always gave credit to co-star Art Carney for creating such an unforgettable character. When you've seen The Honeymooners as many times as I have, and in so many of its differe...

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  • Alan Ladd: Hollywood's Great Gatsby

    One of Alan Ladd's greatest performances -- though sadly also one of his least-seen -- was playing the title role in The Great Gatsby (1949). The off-screen Ladd had much in common with Jay Gatsby: outwardly successful, but inwardly insecure and vulnerable, the perfect meeting of man and role. And like Gatsby, Alan Ladd died far too young. Alan Ladd was born in Arkansas just over a century ago, on September 13, 1913. Ladd's father died when he was a kid. His c...

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  • Pre-Code Obsession: Journalistic Pre-Codes

    Next to gold diggers and mustachioed cads, journalism was one of the most popular on-screen professions during the pre-Code era. Fast-talking reporters livened up early sound films, freeing them from the stiff feeling plaguing many pioneering talkies. In movies like Broadway transfer The Front Page (1931), a crackling newsroom comedy, Hollywood seemed to finally understand how to make sound pop. Newspapers were a bigger, more competitive business in those pre-Internet and...

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  • Silent Cinema: A Week of Silent Swashbucklers

    Why do we love swashbucklers so much? Well, most of all, they are a ton of fun. Adventure, romance, a dash of humor and gorgeous costumes. What more could you wish for a night at the movies? When people talk about swashbucklers, the discussion often centers on the rousing films of Errol Flynn, the slick entertainments from Tyrone Power or movies from Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Burt Lancaster and others. While these Golden Age movies are spectacular, we are going to be heading a littl...

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  • Guilty Pleasures: A Further Selection

    Here are more films I find addictive while acknowledging they are far from perfect. Most of these films earned average ratings in Leonard Maltin's (now defunct) Movie Guide and Scheuer's Movies on TV. But as film buffs discover, you should never let a rating of two or two and a half stars deter you from watching a vintage film. Films with worn-out stories can succeed on style, star power, and sometimes, sheer absurdity. For your consideration this month: His ...

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  • TV TIME: Are You Ready For Some Football?

    Football dominates the television landscape today, and its biggest games fill up lists of the most watched broadcasts of all time. Yet in the classic era of TV, football steadily gained popularity while baseball remained the national pastime. Witness Herman the Rookie, a classic episode of The Munsters in which Herman Munster tries out for the Los Angeles Dodgers. By the end, Herman is playing football with Eddie, and he draws interest from the general manag...

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