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What’s Noirvember? It’s a month-long celebration of all things noir, started by Marya over at Cinema-Fanatic.com. I can scarcely believe it, but this is my FIFTH year participating in this awesomely dark event, and I can hardly wait to get started! I hope you’ll join me every step of the read more

Now that the dates for the 2019 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival have been announced (April 11-14, 2019!!), I think it’s a great time for another installment in my ongoing look at this year’s event. On the second day of the event, I was faced with one of many time slots that featured numerous read more

In the four years that Kristina and I have been recommending films for our Pre-Code Crazy series, I’ve never quite experienced a month like this one! October is a notoriously difficult month for me to identify a film, what with all the horror pictures crowding the TCM schedule, and I’m usually left read more

Outdoor concerts. Noir City Chicago. Cold lemonade on the back porch. And the Summer Reading Classic Film Book Challenge! I am delighted to share that I’ve been participating in this awesome event, the brainchild of Raquel over at Out of the Past, for six straight years now! And I’m here to tell read more

Cicely Tyson. Legend. It’s about that time . . . time for the next installment of my coverage of the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival 2018! One of the many memorable events from my festival experience this year was the hand and footprint ceremony for actress Cicely Tyson, held in the forecourt read more

Day 6: Miss Audrey Totter All things considered, I have to say that August is one of my favorite months of the year. The weather is still undeniably warm – nary a hint of the Chicago winter lurking just around the corner. There’s the slightest bit of calm before the storm at my job, before the new read more

The participants in this year’s ‘So You Think You Know Movies’ contest. You can see me on the left, with a white shirt and a hat. read more

A few weeks ago, I ran into an old friend, who happens to be one of my (very) few “real-life” friends who has any interest whatsoever in classic movies. We got to talking about some films he’d seen recently, which had been recommended to him – The Third Man and How Green Was My Valley. He gave read more

Harding, Howard, and Loy I think I’ve made it clear on these pages that I’m a big Ann Harding fan. Her performances in Double Harness and When Ladies Meet rate among my all-time favorites. And she delivers again in my Pre-Code pick for this month, The Animal Kingdom (1932), co-starring Leslie Howard read more

The opening scene of Mary Stevens, M.D., my pre-Code pick of the month, offers a perfect illustration of the bad-ass pre-Code dame. As the film begins, an ambulance is called to a tenement apartment on a crowded, bustling street. A frantic resident (Harold Huber) stands at the top of the stairs, urg read more

It’s hard to believe that in just a few short days I’ll be winging my way to Hollywood for my sixth trip to the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival – but it’s true! As always, I’ll be sending out messages during the event via Facebook and Twitter, and providing year-round coverage with monthly read more

Don’t you love this shot? You’re going to love this movie even more. Even classic film lovers who aren’t film noir aficionados have heard of such classics as Double Indemnity, Laura, and Out of the Past, am I right? But what of those low-budget Bs that no one ever talks about? The ones read more

Dick Cavett during his interview — er, conversation — with Illeana Douglas. In a little over a month from now, I’ll be making my way to Hollywood to attend my sixth Turner Classic Movies Film Festival! So, while I wait for more films to be announced, and try to figure out the perfect war read more

If you tune in to The Eagle and the Hawk (1933) on March 24th because you’re a huge Carole Lombard fan, let me give you a tip. Lombard is in the film, but her role is small; she’s on screen less than 10 minutes, tops.  But if you want to see a riveting pre-Code starring two first-rate actors read more

Gene Tierney was an outstanding Laura — but she wasn’t the first choice. As the rapidly passing days on the calendar would indicate (can you believe it’s nearly March already?!??), it’s almost time for this year’s Turner Classic Movies Film Festival – and time for another installment read more

Can’t get enough of Norma Shearer and The Divorcee. Today’s List o’ the Week is an easy one – my Top 20 favorite pre-Code actresses. Because I couldn’t possibly rank them in order of how much I love them (Stanwyck vs. Crawford vs. Blondell vs. Shearer!?!? Come ON!), I put them in alphabetical read more

The anticipation builds . . . It’s about that time – time for another installment in my monthly look at the 2017 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival! And this month I’m taking a look at one of my favorite experiences of the festival – the Hand and Footprint Ceremony featuring Carl Reiner and read more

I don’t remember the first time I heard the name “Helen Twelvetrees,” but for many years she was, for me, just an unfamiliar actress from the 1930s with an interesting name – like Gwili Andre or Jobyna Ralston. I never really thought about seeing her in a film, or even trying to. And then came read more

As 2017 comes to a close, it’s the perfect time for my next entry in my ongoing look at this year’s Turner Classic Movies Film Festival. And what better topic than one of the first events I attended – “Remembering Robert,” which was presented on April 6, 2017, exactly one month read more

Before I decided to choose Two Seconds (1932) for this month’s Pre-Code Crazy pick, I’d only seen the first five minutes of it – I’d never made it any further. Boy, was I a dope. This is a really good one, y’all. Trust me. What’s it about? To be honest, it was really hard for me to read more