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.
Random Harvest (1942, Mervyn LeRoy)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2014
It’s hard to imagine a more supreme melodrama than Random Harvest. Almost the entire first hour (of two and a nickel), the film chronicles the blissful romance of Greer Garson and Ronald Colman. He’s an amnesiac World War I veteran, she’s on the stage–a combination of song a read more
Working Girl (1988, Mike Nichols)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2014
Towards the end of Working Girl, the film seems to jump around a bit with the timeline. It seems to jump ahead, but then it turns out it doesn’t. And it only seems to jump ahead because of how director Nichols and editor Sam O’Steen structure a couple transitions. It’s not a big t read more
The Goonies (1985, Richard Donner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 29, 2014
There’s a lack of consistent mood to The Goonies. The film has its phases and the mood and tone change from phase to phase, but Chris Columbus’s script changes characterizations between these phases as well, which is rather disconcerting. For example, while the film introduces the villa read more
Mannequin (1987, Michael Gottlieb)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 19, 2014
When Mannequin is at its best, it makes one forget about its worst. There’s a lot of weak writing–and some strong writing–and director Gottlieb is terrible with actors. What’s so strange about his inability to direct them (most visible with Carole Davis) is how well other pe read more
[FYI] JR Ralls has a new project (not movies)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 21, 2014
If you haven’t seen Dark Dungeons, which JR Ralls produced, you need to check it out as soon as possible. Ralls primarily funded the film through Kickstarter and now he has another Kickstarter project, only this time he’s doing a movie, he’s putting together a Desert Bus video com read more
I Confess (1953, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 5, 2014
I Confess is unwieldy. Director Hitchcock is extremely precise in his composition, the same goes for Robert Burks' photography (especially the photography) and Rudi Fehr's editing (which changes in harshness based on the story's tone); sure, Dimitri Tiomkin's music is all over t read more
After Hours (1985, Martin Scorsese)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 26, 2014
After Hours is meticulous. Director Scorsese, editor Thelma Schoonmaker and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus work with exacting precision throughout, with the first third of the film serving to prepare the viewer for the rest. The film follows boring, regular guy Griffin Dunne as he impetuously pur read more
The Mummy (1932, Karl Freund)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 18, 2014
The Mummy is a strange horror movie. While there’s a definite villain–a monster–in Boris Karloff’s resurrected mummy, he poses a danger specifically to only one cast member–Zita Johann. She’s the reincarnation of his lost love and her exact importance to him isn’t clear until the last read more
Uncle Tom’s Bungalow (1937, Tex Avery)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 10, 2014
Uncle Tom's Bungalow manages to be both appallingly racist and a little progressive. Director Avery turning the slave trader into the devil, poking a little fun at the angelic white girl, general mocking of Southern cultural all around…. But Bungalow just isn't a good cartoon. Ben H read more
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 3, 2014
For The Bride of Frankenstein, director Whale takes a contradictory approach. It's either more is more, or less is less. More music, all the time. Franz Waxman's frequently playful music rarely fits its scenes, unless Whale is going for a melodramatic farce, which he really doesn't s read more
The Old Dark House (1932, James Whale)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 27, 2014
The Old Dark House is a strange film about strange people doing strange things. Director Whale and screenwriter Benn W. Levy rarely let the film get a set tone–unless one counts the consistent mix of comedy and horror. It’s not straight comedy; the comic elements tend to be either absur read more
Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1971, Woody Allen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 19, 2014
Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story recounts the rise to power of one Harvey Wallinger, friend and aide to Richard M. Nixon. Wallinger is one part buffoon, one part creep, one part sex addict–Allen revels in the part. He opens the short with a recounting of the 1968 election with some c read more
Fear in the Night (1947, Maxwell Shane)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 16, 2014
Fear in the Night shows just how far something can get on the gimmick. Bank teller DeForest Kelley wakes up one morning from the dream he killed someone. He then discovers evidence of his crime and, as he suspects he’s going mad, starts going a little mad. If not totally mad, he does make some poor read more
Quicksand (1950, Irving Pichel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 15, 2014
Quicksand is a film noir with room for cream and about five sugars. The genre often has a morality element to it, but this entry goes way too far with it. Or it might just be how the film treats lead Mickey Rooney. Most film noir male protagonists are overconfident simpletons taken in by devious wo read more
Nothing Sacred (1937, William A. Wellman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 13, 2014
Nothing Sacred is an idea in search of a script. It’s a little surprisingly they went forward with Ben Hecht’s script, which plays like he wrote it on a bunch of napkins and left director Wellman to piece together a narrative. Fredric March–who has shockingly little to do in the film–is a newspaper read more
Busses Roar (1942, D. Ross Lederman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 8, 2014
Busses Roar is a slight propaganda film. It doesn't fully commit to any of its subplots, not even the patriotism. With the exception of the establishing the villainous Japanese, German and the gangster at the opening and the flag-waving speech at the end, it's not too heavy on it. Most of read more
FYI: Concept art from Jared Pelletier’s new project
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 6, 2014
Since Troops–and, hey, maybe even Hardware Wars–short fan films have been a thing; with better consumer video editing and the Internet for distribution, they’ve gone past being a zeitgeist into their own genre of short filmmaking. Though they do seem somewhat dismissed by the esta read more
Without Orders (1936, Lew Landers)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 6, 2014
Without Orders has enough story for a couple movies or at least one twice as long–it runs just over an hour. Instead, everything gets abbreviated. There's flight attendant Sally Eilers who has a sturdy fellow in pilot Robert Armstrong, but he's too concerned about helping her with h read more
Clean and Sober (1988, Glenn Gordon Caron)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 4, 2014
In hindsight, as the film settles during its final scene, it becomes clear a lot of Clean and Sober is obvious. Director Caron and writer Tod Carroll withhold a few pieces of information until that final scene, which do inform a little more, but the obviousness isn’t actually a problem. Prota read more
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989, Stephen Herek)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 4, 2014
About halfway through Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the film becomes truly excellent. Dimwitted metal heads Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves have successfully brought historical figures to the present and loosed them on the modern world–the mall. That sequence of the film, along wit read more