Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
'30s Career Girls and Marriage
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Sep 22, 2014
Sometimes the occasional rogue woman will try to "live like a
man," finding contentment in her career. This week I examine what happens in a pair of films from the 1930s.
Female (1933) - What a dazzling display of girl power! Alison Drake (Ruth Chatterton) is the CEO of a large company and run read more
Every Girl Should Be Married
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Sep 15, 2014
Sinatra & Reynolds
For better or worse, movies have been telling us that matrimonial bliss is the key to true happiness. More specifically, it--along with children--are the only way for a woman to be truly fulfilled. Men, on the other hand, might be content to live out their bachelor lives, fi read more
A Tribute to Lauren Bacall
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Aug 13, 2014
The movie that introduced me to Lauren Bacall was The Big Sleep (1946). I was twelve and didn't have an inkling as to what was going on. Since then, I've seen the movie over a dozen times. I still am not completely positive on what is occurring, but according to many film critics' analyses, I'm not read more
Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jul 31, 2014
ISBN 978-0-7535-1809-0
In 2008, Virgin Books released David Kaufman's biography of the quintessential girl next door, Doris Day. The book is over 500 pages long (tiny print), but given the length of Doris Day's successful career--ranging from singing to acting to advocating and spanning over five read more
If you could be a TCM Guest Programmer...
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jul 25, 2014
Yesterday's TCM Facebook feed asked what movies we would choose given the opportunity to be a Guest Programmer. I thought, Oh yeah, I've got this. That is until it dawned on me that Guest Programmers only choose four movies. Four movies? How could any lover of classic movies choose only four movies? read more
Paging Dr. Gillespie - Disability in the Movies
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jul 22, 2014
When it comes to dissecting messages in movies, I must say that the disability experience holds a special place in my heart because my masters thesis focused on this lens of literary analysis. The disability experience has been neglected over the years. Much has been written regarding how women have read more
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jul 16, 2014
Nobody knows what is true and what is false about me anymore. I'm not sure that I know myself anymore. (105-106)
I admit that when I asked for Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations last Christmas I was enticed by the advertising lure that these were secret conversations, so secret that they read more
Escapism, Movies, and Lydia
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jul 10, 2014
It's summer, which means I finally have the opportunity to delve into books related to classic films; i.e., read for fun. Currently I am in the midst of Devin McKinney's The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda. Although I am far from finished, I was particularly stru read more
World War II Films: Yankee Doodle Dandy
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jul 4, 2014
James Cagney & Joan Leslie
If To Be or Not To Be was an example of tragic timing (see previous post), Yankee Doodle Dandy illustrated what can happen when all the pieces fit together perfectly. Yankee Doodle Dandy was to be yet another musical biopic (biography picture), a type of mo read more
World War II Films: Hitler Satires
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jun 30, 2014
Decades before "Springtime for Hitler" (Mel Brooks' The Producers), there were Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not To Be, two classic comedies, which respectively hold places 37 and 49 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list. Both films poke f read more
Message in the Movies: Jealousy and Forgiveness
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jun 22, 2014
One thing I love to do while watching movies is
to catch messages, especially those I do not agree with or ones that society no
longer finds acceptable (or thinks they no longer do). To the trained
eye, a singular scene or line of dialogue reveals the social mores of
the film's time period read more
Nod to Adoptive Fathers
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jun 15, 2014
Nowadays it seems one can’t go far without hearing about a
celebrity adoption. However, adopting children is nothing new. While most will
think of famous actresses who were adoptive parents (think Joan Crawford a.k.a. Mommy Dearest),
there are many celebrity fathers who have adopted children t read more
Giant Step Forward
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jun 12, 2014
What a
great movie! Made in 1956, the film was ahead of its time. In an era of
subservient stay-at-home wives and racial segregation, audiences are introduced
to Leslie, a strong-minded woman who defies her husband in a number of arenas for
the common good. When her husband attempts to exclude her f read more
A Star by Any Other Hair Color...
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jun 9, 2014
The other day I caught Janie Gets Married, a cute post-war film starring one of my favorites, the lovely Joan Leslie. The plot wasn't anything special, and I probably won't go out of my way to watch it again, but it did get me thinking. The supporting cast included Dorothy Malone; how read more
The Making of a Classic Reel Girl
Classic Reel Girl Posted by BG Voita on Jun 7, 2014
I was raised on great classics such as Casablanca and Gone with the Wind, as well as a healthy diet of musicals (Oklahoma!, White Christmas, and The Music Man to name a few). When I was twelve, I discovered a cable channel devoted to the classics, and I was determined to watch as many as I coul read more