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.
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 2: The Tunnel of Terror
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 3, 2017
The Tunnel of Terror opens with Buster Crabbe and Priscilla Lawson quickly escaping from the previous chapter’s cliffhanger. The unfortunate lizard monsters (real lizards standing in for giant monsters) make a brief return, but soon Crabbe and Lawson are just on the run from the guards. Pretty soon read more
TerrorVision (1986, Ted Nicolaou)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 2, 2017
TerrorVision is a masterpiece of pragmatism. Writer-director Nicolaou works the low budget to the film’s advantage–whether it’s the fifties sitcom nuclear family only with Mom and Dad swinging or how the monster from outer space is cute, even though it’s a disgusting space mutant, with the cuteness read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 1: The Planet of Peril
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 2, 2017
In just around twenty minutes, The Planet of Peril, the first chapter of Flash Gordon, boldly defines itself. It establishes the ground situation–Earth is about to be destroyed by a collision with another planet and the world’s in panic. It establishes the leads–Buster Crabbe’s a blond, smart read more
The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 1, 2017
The French Connection has a linear progression. No flashbacks, no flashforwards; it’s never implied two events are happening simultaneously. One thing happens after another. Only there’s nothing connecting those things, other than the actors, other than the cops’ investigation. Be read more
The Seventh Sin (1957, Ronald Neame)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 1, 2017
The Seventh Sin has three problems. The first is the third act; it’s too rushed. Given the constraints of the film production–a shot-in-Hollywood production about a cholera outbreak in a rural Chinese town–there’s not so much to be done about it. The film has a limited cast, especially once read more
Quartet Sum Up | Maugham adaptations
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 29, 2017
When I was in undergrad, I discovered the existence of Secret Agent. I was on a thirties Hitchcock kick and a Maugham kick. The idea of a Hitchcock Maugham adaptation? Should be something. At the time–sixteen years ago–Secret Agent was a major disappointment. I’ve still got an interest in Maugham read more
Muriel’s Wedding (1994, P.J. Hogan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 25, 2017
There are a lot of things going on in Muriel’s Wedding, so many writer-director Hogan’s script gets to the point he’s constantly raveling and unraveling foreground and background threads. The threads are all wrapped around the film’s center–lead Toni Collette’s complicated read more
Encore (1951, Pat Jackson, Anthony Pelissier, and Harold French)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 25, 2017
With the exception of some overly confident rear screen projection and a problematic middle story, Encore is an almost entirely successful anthology of three W. Somerset Maugham stories. Each story has a different director and screenwriter; otherwise the crew is the same. Maugham introduces each st read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 20, 2017
For the majority of Batman’s fifteen chapters, the serial has a set formula when it comes to the action. Batman (Lewis Wilson) and Robin (Douglas Croft) get into fist fights with the same five or six thugs. Croft gets beat up early while Wilson takes on at least two of the villain, then two o read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer), Chapter 15: The Doom of the Rising Sun
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 19, 2017
Titling the final chapter, The Doom of the Rising Sun, might give away whether or not J. Carrol Naish succeeds with his awful plan–which Batman never quite defines and sort of forgets about anyway. The screenwriters try to drum up some excitement as Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft finally face off read more
Bluebeard (2017, Lee Soo-youn)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 19, 2017
Bluebeard runs just under two hours. The last forty-five minutes of it basically undo–or seem to undo–everything in the first seventy-five minutes. Writer and director Lee doesn’t want to answer the questions the film’s mysteries raise, but reveal entirely new mysteries with entirely new answers. read more
Disco Pigs (2001, Kirsten Sheridan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 18, 2017
Disco Pigs might not be the best title for Disco Pigs, but it’s hard to imagine any other title for it so an imperfect one is better than a wrong one. Maybe disco had some appropriate cultural Irish relevancy. Or maybe playwright Enda Walsh, who adapted the screenplay himself, couldn’t think of read more
Trio (1950, Ken Annakin and Harold French)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 18, 2017
Trio is a lopsided anthology of three W. Somerset Maugham short story adaptations. The first two segments, directed by Ken Annakin, are deliberate, thoughtful, wry comedies. The last one, directed by Harold French–and taking up over half the film’s runtime–is something of a traged read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer), Chapter 14: The Executioner Strikes
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 18, 2017
The impossible occurs, one chapter until the finish, with The Executioner Strikes actually having a satisfying cliffhanger resolution. A somewhat satisfying one. Better than any of the others. After that high point, unfortunately, the chapter gets pretty bad for a while. First, it’s dumb, with Lewi read more
FM (1978, John A. Alonzo)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 18, 2017
After a somewhat linear, pratical first act, FM begins to meander through a series of vingettes. Occasionally these end in a fade to black, usually when there’s supposed to be some deep meaning to the scene, but occasionally just when it’s time to move an interminate period into the fut read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer), Chapter 13: Eight Steps Down
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 17, 2017
Despite the previous chapter suggesting a cliffhanger, turns out the resolution is more about Douglas Croft and William Austin’s impatience than anything else. But as Batman is now seventy-some percent complete, things start happening in Eight Steps Down. Though nothing about eight steps. There’s read more
Vesper (2017, Keyvan Sheikhalishahi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 16, 2017
Vesper has something like six “gotcha” reveals, which is a lot for a killer. Especially since Vesper runs twenty-three minutes. And the first gotcha is in the first five minutes. The experience of watching the film quickly becomes waiting for director Sheikhalishahi to spring another one. The story read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer), Chapter 12: Embers of Evil
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 16, 2017
The chapter opens with Batman leaving some guy to get killed–it was hinted at in the cliffhanger, which resolves even more stupidly than I expected, but I sort of assumed Batman wasn’t going to get some guy killed. Nope, he’s fine with it. J. Carrol Naish gets more screen time this chapter than read more
Captains Courageous (1937, Victor Fleming)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 15, 2017
As Captains Courageous enters its third act, Spencer Tracy (as a Portugese fisherman) reminds Freddie Bartholomew (a spoiled blue blood kid Tracy rescues after he falls overboard from an ocean liner) it’s almost time to go home to his regular life. It’s a shock for Bartholomew, but also read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer), Chapter 11: A Nipponese Trap
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 15, 2017
So, even though the title is A Nipponese Trap, there’s no trap in the chapter. Unless it’s when the bad guys bail out Lewis Wilson–in his thug disguise–so they can run him over. Except Douglas Croft and William Austin have already bailed him out, yet they don’t go to pick him up. The bad guys read more