Fastest Gun Alive, The (1956): Western Starring Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, and Broderick Crawford
Russell Rouse directed this black and white Western, starring starring Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, and Broderick Crawford. The tale, penned by Rouse and Frank Gilroy, was based on the March 30, 1954 episode of “The United States Steel Hour,” directed by Alex Segal starring Harry Bellaver and Royal Dano. Ford plays George Kelby Jr., son […]
Anonymous (2004): Verow as Director and Actor (Gay Sex)
Queer writer and director Todd Verow helmed Anonymous, a self-indulgent, tediously boring exploration of sordid anonymous sex.
Film Theory: Classic, Dominant, Mainstream Cinema–Hollywood
CLASSICAL (DOMINANT, MAINSTREAM HOLLYWOOD) CINEMA A feature‑length narrative sound film made and distributed by the Hollywood studio system. There is ambiguity about the precise dates for the classic period (people agree on roughly 1930‑60). What is important is the concept of a classical model with fixed conventions of film practice that are repeated from product […]
Baby Face Harrington (1935): Raoul Walsh’s Comedy, Starring Una Merkel and Charles Butterworth
Raoul Walsh directed the comedy Baby Face Harrington, written by Nunnally Johnson, Edwin H. Knopf and Charles Lederer.
Lola: Fassbinder’s First Panel in the Melodramatic Trilogy BTD,
Lola, the third panel if Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s vastly impressive BRD Trilogy is the weakest, in my opinion, though imminently watchable and enjoyable. The first and best film in the trilogy is The Marriage of Maria Braun (BRD 1), followed by the second, Veronika Voss (BRD 2). The Trilogy centers on three powerful women, played […]
Stonewall Riots and Judy Garland: Facts and Myths
For some reasons, the myths persist that the Stonewall Riots and Judy Garland’s death occurred on the same day. They did not. The Stonewall Riots, also called the Stonewall Uprising, began in the early hours of June 28, 1969 when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village in […]
Idiot’s Delight (1939): Misconceived Romantic Drama, Starring Norma Shearer (Miscast) and Clark Gable (Singing and Dancing)
Norma Shearer gives one of her worst performances in MGM’s Idiot’s Delight, a serio comedy penned by Robert E. Sherwood from his 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play of the same title.
That Kind of Woman (1959): Lumet’s Tedious Tedious Romantic Melodrama, Starring Sophia Loren and Tab Hunter
After a brilliant directing debut, Twelve Angry Men in 1957, Sidney Lumet made several weak films, including That Kind of Woman, a tediously predictable romantic drama, starring Italian sex goddess Sophia Loren and the all-American hearthrob Tab Hunter.
Ex-Lady (1933): Pre-Code Romantic Drama, Starring Bette Davis
Robert Florey directed Ex-Lady, a bold Pre-Code film, penned by David Boehm based on unproduced play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin. A star vehicle for the young (and then blond) Bette Davis, the film was made one year before the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced, in 1934. As a result, it is risqué […]
This Land Is Mine (1943): Renoir’s American Political Drama, Starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara and George Sanders
While in exile in the U.S., French filmmaker Jean Renoir directed This Land Is Mine, an overtly political drama starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara and George Sanders.