Reviews
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Teen Scene: All Quiet on the Western Front
War movies help us understand a difficult part of history. It's sad when we think of the fact that, if there wasn't war, some great films wouldn't have been made. What is even better than war movies are anti-war movies and one of the best examples is All Quiet on the Western Front directed by Lewis Milestone in 1930. Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel - Im Westen nichts Neues
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Where's That Been? - The Whistler
Previously here at 'Where's That Been?' I reviewed The Power of the Whistler (1945), one of eight films in Columbia Pictures' 'Whistler' franchise based on the popular radio series The Whistler, broadcast over CBS West Coast Radio from 1942 to 1955. Sony Pictures, through their manufactured-on-demand Choice Collection, has been releasing the Whistler movies on DVD sin...
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Where's That Been? - This Day and Age
It's 'Boys' Week' at North High School in Anytown, USA -- and for those of us who aren't quite sure what this entails, it's an annual scholastic event in which students are placed in charge of elected offices to assist them in their study of civics. For example: young Steve Smith (Richard Cromwell) will be the district attorney, with his chums Gus Ruffo (Oscar Rudolph) performing as judge and B...
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Where's That Been? - The Thirteenth Hour
From 1942 to 1955, an omnipresent narrator known to audiences as 'The Whistler' was the host of one of the West Coast's most highly-rated mystery radio programs. The announcer for The Whistler even bragged that the series was 'rated tops in popularity for a longer period of time than any other West Coast program.' If you lived on the West Coast back then, or within driving distance of ...
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Teen Scene: National Velvet
National Velvet classifies itself in every way as a family movie. In other words, children like it, teens, and adults can enjoy this colorful little gem.National Velvet is directed by Clarence Brown, released in 1944, with an unbeatably stellar cast with great performances from all actors including Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, Angela ...
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Where's That Been? - Why Be Good?
Winthrop Peabody, Jr. (Neil Hamilton) is scheduled to take over as the personnel manager of the department store owned by the senior Winthrop Peabody (Edward Martindel), so on the night before the big event, Winthrop's pals throw him a little 'farewell whoopee,' as his dad describes it. Winthrop, Sr. also takes his son aside to explain that with his new job comes great responsibility: he'll be ...
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Where's That Been? - The Velvet Touch
Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) is the toast of Broadway: she's a popular light-comedy actress who's achieved her success largely as a result of her long association with uberproducer Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames). But Valerie is game for more of an acting challenge -- she's interested in playing the titular heroine of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, which means her collaboration with Dunning wi...
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Baseball Fights Juvenile Delinquency in The Kid from Cleveland
Olive Films' Blu-Ray release of Republic Pictures' 1949 feature The Kid from Cleveland is a fascinating time capsule for fans of baseball history that includes vintage game footage of the Cleveland Indians, as well as numerous glimpses of the team's personnel 'acting' in this socially relevant drama about juvenile delinquency.If you're not a sports fan, well, fear not, it's...
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Colorama: Anastasia
In 1949, after appearing in such classics as Casablanca (1943), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Notorious (1946), and Joan of Arc (1948), Ingrid Bergman went to Italy to work with director Roberto Rossellini on Stromboli (1950). Bergman and Rossellini were both married to other people at the time but fell in love and had a son in 1950.A h...
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Obey the Command of Her Majesty, Love
Director William Dieterle fled the political situation of his native Germany in 1930, finding a home at First National Pictures remaking German films, including Ihre Majestat die Liebe, a comedy about a barmaid engaged to marry a very wealthy man whose family turns their noses up at her.W.C. Fields, great star juggler and comedian of vaudeville and the Ziegfeld Follies emig...
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Where's That Been? - Everybody Does It
New York businessman Leonard Borland (Paul Douglas) seems the embodiment of the American Dream: he's the founder of a successful wrecking company, and with his marriage to Doris Blair (Celeste Holm) enjoys an enviable social status that comes from marrying into good family stock. Lately for Len, however, the Dream has turned into a nightmare. His company -- which he owns with partner Mike Craig...
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Colorama: Charade
Charade (1963) feels like an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, but was actually directed by Stanley Donen giving it the distinction of being the 'best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock didn't make.' But the Hitchcockian flair is no accident; Donen made Charade as an homage and near-spoof of Hitchcock's work. Donen recalled later, 'I always wanted to make a movie like one of my favorites,
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Teen Scene: The African Queen
For the Teen Scene column this month we'll visit a new genre I haven't written about yet: the adventure film. To represent the genre, I chose The African Queen. Based on the novel by C.S Forester, The African Queen was directed by John Huston in 1951 and is cited as one of the most thrilling and entertaining movies ever made. It has always been a favorite of mine and I'm sure ...
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Where's That Been? - The Captive City
It sounds a little facetious to say it, but the most popular personality on television in the first half of 1951 might very well have been Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver. His live Senate committee hearings on organized crime were watched by an estimated 30 million viewers educated on the intricacies of how gangsters had thoroughly permeated life in these United States from such experts as Mic...
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Dark Cinema: Christmas Holiday
When I think of Christmas, I don't necessarily think of film noir. By the same token, when I think of film noir, songstress Deanna Durbin and hoofer extraordinaire Gene Kelly seldom, if ever, come to mind. But Universal's 1944 Christmas Holiday combines all of these elements to produce a memorable Yuletide experience -- with a shadowy twist.Chr...
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Colorama: Meet Me in St. Louis
You've probably heard the song 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,' but you may not know Judy Garland debuted the now-classic Christmas tune in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Although the film doesn't focus exclusively on Christmas (there is a lengthy Halloween sequence, for example), it's become an indelible, must-watch choice for this time of year.The movie takes place...
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Teen Scene: Father is a Bachelor
Fall is at its end, which gives us the clue that it's Christmas soon! Outside of exchanging gifts and eating turkey with your family and friends, another thing you can do with them is, of course, watch a classic film. The perfect Christmas movie is, first and foremost, a family movie that doesn't necessarily have to be where people celebrate Christmas. As long as you spend a great time watching...
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Drop In at The Shop Around the Corner
It's the time of year to gather with family and friends to celebrate the holidays. For those of us who love classic movies, it's also a special time to pull our favorite titles off the shelf as part of our holiday celebrations.It seems to me Christmas movies often have a special, indefinable glow. I suspect this is partly because they've become part of our heightened memories of hap...
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Where's That Been? - Thieves' Highway
Nico 'Nick' Garcos (Richard Conte) returns to his childhood home in Fresno, loaded down with gifts for his father Yanko (Morris Carnovsky), mother Parthena (Tamara Shayne), and fiancee Polly Faber (Barbara Lawrence). Nick's been at sea, working as a ship mechanic, and along with the presents he reveals he's earned 800, which he hopes to use to start a business with Polly's father. The occasion ...
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Danny Kaye: Legends Lives Up to the Title
As with its earlier release, The Best of the Danny Kaye Show, Danny Kaye: Legends is another release from MVD, presenting 6 full episodes, in both black and white and color, from throughout the series' 1963-1967 run on two discs. The blend of music, comedy, and old-fashioned broad audience appeal offered in this collection is as 'vintage showbiz' as vintage showbiz gets, and a...
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