Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987, John Hughes)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 24, 2013
Planes, Trains & Automobiles is probably most impressive technically. The narrative is problematic but not a bad narrative, it’s just a problematic one. Director Hughes can’t decide if he wants Planes to be a comedy with John Candy or a comedy about Candy. Candy’s able to be s read more
Three’s Company, the first unaired pilot (1976, Burt Brinckerhoff)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 4, 2013
What a difference a cast makes. It’s hard to determine the real star of the first attempt at “Three’s Company.” It’s either Valerie Curtin or Susanne Zenor, both of whom are–to the best of my recollection–very different from the similar characters on the ev read more
Deadline – U.S.A. (1952, Richard Brooks)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 3, 2013
Deadline – U.S.A. is about half a great movie. Director Brooks fills the film with a superb supporting cast of character actors–Paul Stewart, Audrey Christie and Jim Backus are the standouts–and lets them share the runtime with lead Humphrey Bogart. It’s a newspaper drama read more
British Intelligence (1940, Terry O. Morse)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 31, 2013
It should be obvious British Intelligence is based on a play, so much of it takes place in a single house, but director Morse and screenwriter Lee Katz open it up enough it never does. Actually, even though it’s a low budget picture, their expansive approach even obscures the concentration ar read more
Diner (1983, Barry Levinson)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 30, 2013
What a difference a cast makes. Barry Levinson’s pilot for a “Diner” television series reunites some of the film crew–editor Stu Linder does a wonderful job–but the only returning actors are Paul Reiser and Jessica James. Both are good–and Alison La Placa and Mad read more
The Body Snatcher (1945, Robert Wise)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 29, 2013
The Body Snatcher has half an excellent foundation. Nineteenth century medical genius Henry Daniell can’t escape his past associations with a shady cabman (Boris Karloff). These past associations being of the grave robbing variety. There’s also Daniell’s romance with his maid (Edi read more
The Blues Brothers (1980, John Landis)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 27, 2013
I wonder if Cab Calloway got upset he only got half a music video in The Blues Brothers while Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin both got full ones. While these interludes are completely out of place and break up the “flow” of the film, they’re at least somewhat competent. One can se read more
Galaxina (1980, William Sachs)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 24, 2013
Galaxina answers a number of burning questions. Most immediately, it shows practical special effects and miniatures is sometimes not the best way to do special effects. Because auteur William Sachs had a great cinematographer–Dean Cundey–yet the effects work in Galaxina is awful. But it read more
How to Bridge a Gorge (1942, Ray Harryhausen)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 23, 2013
How to Bridge a Gorge isn’t just an instructional video about how to, you know, bridge a gorge… it’s Ray Harryhausen showing off the possibilities for what the short calls “three dimensional animation.” In a lot of ways, the possibilities he suggests in this short̵ read more
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982, Joe Layton)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 22, 2013
Maybe it’s Sheldon Kahn’s editing, which doesn’t do the picture’s content justice, but Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip doesn’t feel seamless. The first twenty minutes or so do, however, which makes the change jarring. All of a sudden, the reaction shots of the read more
The Seventh Victim (1943, Mark Robson)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 17, 2013
Quite surprisingly, The Seventh Victim–in addition to being a disquieting, subtle thriller–is mostly about urban apathy and discontent. Though there aren’t any establishing shots of New York City (or of the small New England town protagonist Kim Hunter comes from), Robson and writ read more
The Leopard Man (1943, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 16, 2013
The Leopard Man has such beauteous production values–one would never think it was a low budget picture, not with Robert De Grasse’s lush blacks and he and director Tourneur’s tracking shots–it’s a shame the acting fails the film. A lot of the problem the script. Co-scr read more
The Jewel of the Nile (1985, Lewis Teague)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 15, 2013
If there’s a better example of why not every successful film should have a sequel than The Jewel of the Nile, I can’t think of it. Nile should be a lot of fun–Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are still likable, Danny DeVito’s still hilarious… but it soon becomes cle read more
Murder on a Honeymoon (1935, Lloyd Corrigan)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 14, 2013
Murder on a Honeymoon is a tepid outing for Edna May Oliver and James Gleason’s detecting duo. It’s the third in the series and, while Oliver and Gleason are back, it’s clear some of the magic was behind the camera. Robert Benchley and Seton I. Miller’s script is a little to read more
The Thirteenth Guest (1932, Albert Ray)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 13, 2013
The Thirteenth Guest has a lot of problems, but its biggest failing is Frances Hyland’s script. Hyland doesn’t just have a lot of logic problems, he also has a bunch of lousy humor. There’s Paul Hurst’s moronic police detective, who Hyland relies on for Guest‘s version read more
The Money Pit (1986, Richard Benjamin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 26, 2013
Without any subplots–and a running time, sans end credits, less than ninety minutes–it seems likely The Money Pit had some post-production issues. There are a bunch of recognizable character actors–Josh Mostel, Yakov Smirnoff, Joe Mantegna–who show up for a scene or two then read more
Disgraced (1933, Erle C. Kenton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 19, 2013
Like most lame melodramas, Disgraced‘s plot only works because characters all of a sudden act completely differently than the story has previously established them. Disgraced concerns a department store model (Helen Twelvetrees) who starts hanging around a regular customer’s fiancé. Rom read more
Deadline at Dawn (1946, Harold Clurman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 18, 2013
Given all the excellent components, Deadline at Dawn ought to be a lot better. It has a compelling plot–a naive sailor and erstwhile murder suspect (Bill Williams) has to solve the crime before he ships out, but he’s just met a city hardened girl (Susan Hayward) and crushing on her and read more
Please Don’t Eat My Mother (1973, Carl Monson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 17, 2013
I don’t even know where to start mocking Please Don’t Eat My Mother. There are just too many places to start… first probably should be the pacing. Mother is a softcore–but seventies softcore, which isn’t particularly soft–remake of The Little Shop of Horrors. Buc read more
Splash (1984, Ron Howard)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 16, 2013
Splash has a strange narrative structure. The front’s heavy, likely because the filmmakers make a real effort to establish Tom Hanks as a listless young (well, youngish) man. Of course, Hanks is a listless man with an apparently great job as a produce whole seller, an amazing Manhattan apartm read more