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.
Red’s Dream (1987, John Lasseter)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 25, 2013
Red’s Dream sure is depressing. It’s wonderfully depressing, actually, since the second act is so profoundly upsetting one almost hopes for the happy ending. The short is only four minutes, so I think the first act basically consists of the tracking shot through the bike shop. The titul read more
Bunco (1977, Alexander Singer)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 23, 2013
One of the best parts of Bunco–and there’s actually a lot of good stuff in it–is how director Signer composes his shots of “leads” Robert Urich and Tom Selleck. Even though Urich’s top-billed and has a little more to do, Singer makes sure to get both men in each read more
Best Seller (1987, John Flynn)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 18, 2013
Best Seller either isn’t sleazy enough or it isn’t glitzy enough. Larry Cohen’s script about a cop who writes true crime books teaming up with a hitman desperate to be the subject of such a book needs something distinctive about it. Leads Brian Dennehy and James Woods are okay, bu read more
The Phantom of Crestwood (1932, J. Walter Ruben)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 16, 2013
When the politics of a murder mystery are more interesting than the mystery, there’s a bit of a problem. The Phantom of Crestwood involves a woman of the world (Karen Morley) blackmailing her former lovers so she can get out of the professional mistress life. Why’s it so easy to blackma read more
What Do You Think? (1937, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 15, 2013
Well, What Do You Think? is one bland short film. There are some definite strengths to it. Tourneur’s direction of the actors is outstanding, especially at the beginning at a Hollywood party, when he’s cutting between various actors. All of Think is told in narration (from Carey Wilson) read more
Diner (1982, Barry Levinson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 14, 2013
I’ve probably seen Diner ten times but I still don’t know where to start with it. Barry Levinson sets the present action between Christmas and New Year’s, so one probably could sit down and chart out what happens on each day. There’s a big basketball bet driving some of the read more
Smile (1975, Michael Ritchie)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 11, 2013
Smile is the story of the week of a regional beauty pageant in a northern California town. It’s not exactly the story of the pageant, though it does look at some of the contestants, but it also looks at how the event affects the locals. Bruce Dern gets top billing and he does tie most of the read more
The Passover Plot (1976, Michael Campus)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 9, 2013
For the first few scenes, Alex North definitely composes The Passover Plot like a big Biblical epic of the fifties. It’s not, of course, and not just because Plot’s from the seventies. It’s cheap and director Campus uses that reduced budget interestingly. Maybe not well, but defin read more
Killer-Dog (1936, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 3, 2013
Killer-Dog is the story of a dog on trial. Really. It’s a courtroom short concerning a farm dog accused of being a sheep killer. Tourneur and producer Pete Smith take a while to get to that detail though, just referring letting the sensational title do the work of riling the viewer’s im read more
The Devil and Miss Jones (1941, Sam Wood)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 2, 2013
The Devil and Miss Jones has three or four stages in the narrative, but director Sam Wood basically has three. The first phase–covering the first two narrative stages–feature this singular composition technique. For close-ups, Wood either gives his actors a lot of headroom (fifty percen read more
Knight’s Gambit (1964, Walter Grauman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 19, 2013
Knight’s Gambit plays a little like a serious, American James Bond variation. Roger Smith is a former CIA agent–he inherited hundreds of millions and quit–out to seduce Eleanor Parker for information. Parker is a disgraced politician’s secretary; they’re living in Spai read more
Third from the Sun (1960, Richard L. Bare)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 17, 2013
Third from the Sun suffers from a far too obvious ending. The episode forecasts it a few minutes early and then it all falls into line. However, it’s an obvious twist ending and it is a “Twilight Zone” after all, so who knows if it’s just predictable now because of the serie read more
Invaders from Mars (1953, William Cameron Menzies)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 13, 2013
About halfway through Invaders from Mars, the army mobilizes to come to the aid of the protagonists (who have discovered an alien invasion). These mobilization scenes are all stock footage–later tank footage is stock too–but director Menzies uses it for a long time, like an actual scene read more
Windows (1975, Peter Greenaway)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 12, 2013
Windows is exquisite. The short is a number of shots in a house, always out a window (hence the title), while pleasant harpsichord music plays. The music fits in later; Greenaway makes an exceptional amount of moves in just three and a half minutes with this one. Throughout the short, the narrator read more
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967, Roger Corman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 6, 2013
Director Corman and–probably more so–writer Howard Browne construct The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre as a docudrama. Paul Frees narrates the entire film, introducing characters, providing their backstories–Corman sometimes mutes the film’s dialogue (during boring parts read more
Some Like It Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 30, 2013
Some Like It Hot is perfectly constructed. Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s script precisely sets up gags, even as the film moves through its three stages. For example, there’s a joke about matching blood types–type o–near the beginning and it keeps echoing throughout. It&# read more
The Little Shop of Horrors (1960, Roger Corman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 28, 2013
The filmmaking economy in The Little Shop of Horrors is astounding. Most of the film takes place in one set–the titular shop–and Charles B. Griffith’s script works hard to imply the world outside that set. My favorite bit in the script is probably when leading man Jonathan Haze is read more
Fletch (1985, Michael Ritchie)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 23, 2013
While Fletch has its technical high lights and Andrew Bergman’s script is strong both in dialogue and structure (though the Chevy-sized plot holes are a tad rampant), the film hinges on star Chevy Chase (not a car) being arrogant, likable, sincere and funny all at once. And Chase manages it. read more
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979, Robert Wise), the director’s edition
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 20, 2013
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one of those imperfect films. No matter how many versions, there’s no way to fix one thing without breaking another–or it might just be broken all together. For example, I don’t know if I’d ever realized how focused director Wise is–dur read more
Dick Tracy (1967, Larry Peerce)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 8, 2013
“Dick Tracy” is shockingly all right. About half the pilot plays like a bad James Bond movie–villain Victor Buono is ludicrous and in it way too much, even if there’s an amusing revelation at the end. But the other half, with Ray MacDonnell as Dick Tracy, is pretty good. He& read more