By Movie StarAlfred HitchcockAudrey HepburnAva GardnerBarbara StanwyckBasil RathboneBette DavisBilly WilderBob HopeBoris KarloffBurt LancasterBuster KeatonCarole LombardCary GrantCharlie ChaplinClara BowClark GableClaudette ColbertDana AndrewsDeanna DurbinDebbie ReynoldsDoris DayDouglas FairbanksElizabeth TaylorErnst LubitschErrol FlynnEsther WilliamsFranchot ToneFred AstaireFred MacMurrayGary CooperGene KellyGinger RogersGloria SwansonGrace KellyGreer GarsonGregory PeckGreta GarboHarold LloydHedy LamarrHenry FondaHoward HawksHumphrey BogartIda LupinoIngrid BergmanIrene DunneJack BennyJack LemmonJames CagneyJames StewartJane RussellJean ArthurJean HarlowJeanette MacDonaldJeanne CrainJoan CrawfordJoan FontaineJohn FordJohn WayneJudy GarlandKatharine HepburnKay FrancisKirk DouglasLana TurnerLauren BacallLillian GishLon ChaneyLoretta YoungLouise BrooksMae WestMarilyn MonroeMarion DaviesMarlene DietrichMary AstorMary PickfordMickey RooneyMiriam HopkinsMyrna LoyNatalie WoodNorma ShearerOlivia de HavillandOrson WellesPaul NewmanPaulette GoddardPreston SturgesRichard WidmarkRita HayworthRobert MitchumRudolph ValentinoShirley TempleSidney PoitierSpencer TracySteve McQueenTeresa WrightTyrone PowerVincent PriceVivien LeighWilliam HoldenWilliam PowellWilliam WylerWoody Allen By HolidayNew Year's DayPresident's DayValentine's DayEasterMother's DayFather's DayMemorial DayJuly 4thLabor DayColumbus DayHalloweenThanksgivingChristmasBlack History MonthWomen's History Month All Blogs4 Star Films (3500)50 Most Influential Disney Animators (58)A Person in the Dark (367)All Good Things (815)Backlots (412)Caf? Muscato (572)Caftan Woman (904)Carole & Co. (3081)Cary Grant Won't Eat You (490)Cinema Crossroads (42)Cinematic Catharsis (928)Cinematically Insane (268)CineMaven's Essays from the Couch (152)Classic Cinema Gold (319)Classic Film & TV Cafe (1283)Classic Film Review (14)Classic Movie Hub Blog (1959)Classic Movie Man (971)Classic Movies (3247)Classic Reel Girl (95)Comet Over Hollywood (1335)Creme de la Creme (32)Criterion Blues (770)Critica Retro (1462)Curtains (58)Durnmoose Movie Musings (1105)Film Reviews and Anything Else I Get Inspired by (27)Finding Franchot: Exploring the Life and Career of Franchot Tone (161)Flickers in Time (2221)GlamAmor (587)Hitchcock Master (146)Hollywood Revue (532)Hometowns to Hollywood (855)How Sweet It Was (86)In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood (154)Lady Eve's Reel Life (733)Le Mot du Cinephiliaque (945)Love Letters to Old Hollywood (150)MacGuffin Movies (362)Movies Silently (1029)Noir and Chick Flicks (1998)Noirish (1273)Once Upon a Screen (420)Outspoken and Freckled (140)Phantom Empires (60)Pop Culture ImagineMDD (103)Serendipitous Anachronisms (82)Shadows and Satin (1005)Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers (1928)Smum County (115)Stardust and Shadows (120)Studies in Cinema (118)The Baz (162)The Blonde At The Film (330)The Bogie Film Blog (147)The Cinema Dilettante (110)The Giddy Blog (152)The Great Katharine Hepburn (240)The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog (1758)The Jeanette MacDonald Blog (94)The Man on the Flying Trapeze (643)The Old Hollywood Garden (462)The Timothy Carey Experience (1181)The Vintage Cameo (134)The Wonderful World of Cinema (621)Timeless Hollywood (73)True Classics (573)Virtual Virago (1634)Where Danger Lives (136)Wolffianclassicmoviesdigest (640)

“You can master a gun if you have the knack. Harder to learn men.” ~ Henry Fonda as Morgan Hickman A veteran bounty hunter rides into town with a corpse slung over the rear of his horse and gets the whole town gawking. They don’t quite fancy this entrance because they’re abo read more

What can I say? I am one of the proud and the many who loved The Beatles before they loved any other type of music. So when I watch Help! I look for all the best in it because that’s all that I can do. However, if you are familiar with this follow-up to the frenzy and the success surrounding A read more

The title says it all. James Stewart is the eponymous stranger who rides into town delivering a load of supplies to an isolated outpost called Coronado. But that’s not his main business at hand. He’s searching for someone because he has some personal matters to take care of. In this sma read more

“I don’t need help. I don’t need people. I can take care of me.” ~ James Stewart as Jeff Webster This Alaskan Northwestern opens and it’s almost like we’ve missed something. Jeff Webster (James Stewart) rides into a town with two men and promptly gives them back read more

James Stewart carries over his persona from Bend of the River (1952) to continually redefine his career in the post-war years. He is a man under a different name who nevertheless is seething with the same raw fury. In this regard, there are numerous parallel themes in this subsequent collaboration read more

Madeline’ Madeline takes the very individualistic nature of its title and boldly realizes it through POV and metaphor to begin digging around in the perplexing head-space of a teenager. The first words we hear are as follows, “The emotions you are having are not your own, they are someone read more

In Bend of The River, there are glimpses of the man we knew before the war. Joking and smiling with that same face. The affable charm and so on. But it’s also starkly different. In this picture, James Stewart is on horseback leading a wagon train preoccupied with farming, cattle, ranching, and read more

To set the scene our storytellers enlist an opening crawl that runs over the unmistakable strains of train noise. The year is 1861. The event being dramatized is the alleged Baltimore Plot and our hero is New York policeman John Kennedy (Dick Powell). Despite being common and coincidental I canR read more

Frenzied opening strings from a score by Franz Waxman assist in introducing a film that positions itself as another textured portrait of the West boasting a pair of grandiose performances from Walter Huston and Barbara Stanwyck. This particular ride down the well-trodden paths takes place in New Me read more

Right here we see the precise genesis of Anthony Mann as a director of westerns. To consider the string of modest classics that followed is nearly staggering. But he was well-suited for the transition taking his acquired skills over the years and translating them easily to the West. The Devil’ read more

“You’re always in the Garden.  Even Jesus wasn’t always in the Garden, on his knees, sweating blood. He was on the Mount. He was in the marketplace. He was in the temple. But you, you’re always in the Garden.”  Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese unknowingly formed a leg read more

Though Preston Sturges would never eclipse the heights of the early 40s again and his stellar run was slowly spiraling down, we do have Unfaithfully Yours and for my money, that’s recompense enough. It documents the life of a prestigious conductor, Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison), happily read more

I have long sought out this picture and all I can say is all hail the conquering hero! It’s everything that could have been hoped for in a Preston Sturges wartime comedy. But in order for the laughs to come along with a great deal more, there must be a setup — a watering hole for our ma read more

“If you can’t sleep at night, it isn’t the coffee – it’s the bunk” – Maxford Coffee House Slogan Christmas in July is one of Preston Sturgeses earliest efforts where he both scripted and directed the material. He was fed up with how others had handled his h read more

“When life hands you conundrums you turn it into art” – Nick Offerman as Frank Fisher The opening introduction of our character is nothing short of fantastic. He lights up a cigarette absent-mindedly, headphones plugged in to Tweedy only for his reverie to be broken by a patron te read more

The more and more I get to know Jacques Tourneur the more it seems that he was content in making films on his terms no matter the budget or restrictions. His ambitions were not to win awards or garner acclaim yet he was a master craftsman painting in shadows, intrigue, and vibrant strokes. Known in read more

  Right away, in the very first moments, we know something’s amiss when the driver of a passing wagon notes to the woman at his side that they just passed her father…and they proceed to keep going without even a word of greeting. It’s true that Ramrod is a riff on the age-old read more

It speaks not only to the man but to this film, that Joel McCrea rated Stars in My Crown among his personal favorites. (Hint: It’s not because of the imminent reunion of two castmembers in Gunsmoke). The story is framed by the nostalgic recollections of an old man and it’s a singular st read more

Filmed in Central Oregon on the eve of winter, Day of The Outlaw displays gorgeously fluffy photography as the snow covers the ground. With the leading part anchored by Robert Ryan, I could not but help recall his portrayal in Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground (1951), another project that ma read more

“Boy oh, boy has somebody come to town!” – Gabby Hayes How else is there to describe Gabby Hayes except for a cantankerous old cuss? When we first set eyes on him he’s berating his old mare for making him spill his liquor although he’s already swigged down quite the sn read more