Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
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You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
The Heart of the Matter (1953): British Empire in Film Blogathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
This post is my hopelessly late contribution to the excellent British Empire in Film Blogathon (thank you, crippling four-day migraine). Go check out some of the other fine entries! When you’re done reading this one, of course. George More O’Ferrall’s “The Heart of the Matter read more
Wherefore Art Thou Zombie? “World War Z” Takes Another Shot at the Apocalypse
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
The Husband does not like zombie movies. Neither is The Husband a fan of apocalypse movies, though he’s perfectly happy reading Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. Which is, let me assure you, much less action-packed than even the worst zombie movie. Unlike The Husband, I am a fan of zombie read more
The Merry Widow Waltz: Lubitsch’s Heaven Can Wait
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
This post is part of the Romantic Comedy Blogathon, hosted by Backlots and Carole & Co.! It’s hard to imagine Ernst Lubitsch, director of “The Love Parade” (1929), “Design for Living” (1933), and “Ninotchka” (1939), making something that isn’t a classy, urbane read more
SBIFF 2015: “Partners in Crime”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
O woe is me, attending film festivals is getting in the way of my watching classic film. Luckily, I’ve got several blogathons coming up (see banners at right) to get me back into the classic swing of things. Before we return to our regularly scheduled programming, however, I’d like to te read more
Johnny Eager (1941):What’s the Angle?
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Dir. Mervyn LeRoy David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film refers to Johnny Eager (1941) as “fatuous,” which I think unfair. (The IMDb hordes gave it a 7.1, for whatever that’s worth.) Casting the famously good-looking Robert Taylor was something of a gamble; Thomson’s other read more
What is Clara Bow’s ‘IT’?
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Inspired by the oracular Self-Styled Siren (can sirens be oracles?) and her post on MOMA’s 10th Edition of the “To Save and Protect” screenings, I watched Clara Bow’s classic It (dir. Clarence Badger, 1927) for, I’m ashamed to say, the first time. Bow has been hopelessly neglected, not just read more
Army of Shadows (L’armée des ombres, 1969), Part 2: Snoopathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Director Jean-Pierre Melville is famous for his lack of female characters, and the few women who do populate his universe frankly don’t have much character. Women are generally superfluous in Melville’s films; he is fascinated by (and makes fascinating) relationships among men. So the fact that read more
Madeleine Carroll Blogathon: I Was a Spy (1933)
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
One of the great pleasures of blogathons is discovering an old film, or an actor, or director and realizing that there’s still so, so many wonderful classic films yet to see. It’s sort of like knowing that there’s still a bunch of Graham Greene novels I haven’t read. Maybe t read more
The Hoodlum (1951) Stars “the Meanest Man in Motion Picture History”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Dir. Max Nosseck “The Hoodlum” (1951) screened at UCSB, January 2013, with Q&A with Dir of UCLA Film & Television Archive, Jan-Christopher Horak If you’ve never seen Lawrence Tierney in his prime, you’re missing out. Described as “quite possibly the meanest man in motion picture read more
Jacques Tati’s Playtime (1967): The Social Art of Tativille
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
(and then I got horribly sick—children are Petri dishes of contagion —so it’s only, uh, three weeks late) Anyway, check out the plethora of great posts from the Blogathon! French filmmaker Jacques Tati was only able to make six feature-length films, but each film, right from the beginning read more
The House on Trubnaya (1928): Russia in Classic Film Blogathon, Part 2
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Thanks to Movies, Silently and Flicker Alley for hosting the Blogathon! Despite what “Aelita: Queen of Mars” (1924) might have lead you to believe, Bolshevism did not destroy the Russian sense of humor. Although the “message” of “The House on Trubnaya” (1928) read more
Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960): Take Me to Your Cinema!
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Part of The British Invasion Blogathon. I first saw this peculiar film about ten years ago, sometime when I was still in grad school. I can’t remember why; I must have stumbled across it at the very fine Four Star Video Heaven, which is—somewhat miraculously—still in business. Neither am I sure read more
Hitchcock Double Vision: “Blackmail” and “North by Northwest”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Det. Frank Webber (John Longren), Alice White (Anny Ondra), and Mr. White (Charles Paton) On Tuesday, June 18, I got to see the silent and sound versions of Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929) back to back at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles read more
Pre-Code Blogathon: Murder at the Vanities (1934)—Murder Is the Least of It
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
The following is my contribution to the fabulous Pre-Code Blogathon, hosted by Shadows and Satin and Pre-Code.com. Even if you’ve seen some of the now-classic pre-code films, like “Night Nurse” (1931), “Freaks” (1932), or “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang” read more
King and Country (1964): World War I Blogathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
This post is a part of the fantastic World War I in Classic Film blogathon hosted by the always intriguing Movies Silently and Silent-ology – go read the other excellent posts! One of the great—and somewhat overlooked—films about World War I was originally made for television in Britai read more
Looking for FREE streaming films?
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Check out Open Culture’s huge listings! http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline Here are some of the treats* awaiting you (chosen at Random, of course): Spider Baby – A black comedy horror film, written and directed by Jack Hill. Stars Lon Chaney Jr. (1968) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse read more
Peter Lorre’s Dr. Gogol in Mad Love (1935): The Great Villain Blogathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Like most movie watchers of my generation, I probably first saw the actual Peter Lorre in “Casablanca” (1942). He doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but he’s hard to forget. My first exposure to Peter Lorre, however, and perhaps also like a lot of folks my generation, was th read more
AFI Fest 2014: “Réalité” and “Alléluia”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
I’m not sure why every screening at the AFI’s annual Fest isn’t packed, regardless of the day or time. It’s FREE. F.R.E.E. I have a ticket to see Sophia freakin’ Loren honored at a screening of Marriage Italian Style (1964, Vittorio de Sica). Technically, it’s a read more
Sunday Random Weekly Roundup
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Welcome back, dear readers–all five or so of you. read more
The Expedient Exaggerations of “North by Northwest”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
“North by Northwest” (1959) ticks off a lot of Hitchcock’s favorite boxes. And yet, it seems always to have lingered in the shadow of “Vertigo” (1958). “Vertigo” is amazing, of course, but deeply disturbing. (Bonus points for casting All-American Nice Guy Jimmy read more