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.
Enter Arsene Lupin (1944, Ford Beebe)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 24, 2013
It’s hard to find anything good about Enter Arsene Lupin. Ella Raines isn’t as bad as the other primary cast members, though she’s not as good as some of the bit players. The film does hold some historical value both in the use of the Universal European backlot set for EnglandR read more
The Horse (1973, Charles Burnett)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 23, 2013
The Horse plays a little like the end of another movie, like Burnett cut off the first hour and a half and just left the finale. He forces the viewer to distance him or herself from the film’s narrative as much as possible–the characters all know one another, the viewer never gets an in read more
The Greene Murder Case (1929, Frank Tuttle)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 18, 2013
If it weren’t so predictable, The Greene Murder Case would be a little better. Not much better–part of the film’s charm is the obvious foreshadowing, since director Tuttle’s obviously on a limited budget and he couldn’t do much anyway. There are no natural exteriors, w read more
Come Live with Me (1941, Clarence Brown)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 17, 2013
Come Live with Me features exquisite direction from Clarence Brown. Whether he’s pacing out a reveal, directing a conversation or just being inventive with composition, he does an outstanding job. George J. Folsey’s photography helps, as do the fantastic sets. It’s a shame good di read more
Barbarella (1968, Roger Vadim)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 16, 2013
In terms of badness, Barbarella is phenomenal. One could spend his or her time on the gender politics–someone must have in the last forty years. The film takes place in a post-gender future, where Jane Fonda’s titular character is the most relied upon person in the galaxy. However, the read more
The Studio Murder Mystery (1932, Joseph Henabery)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 11, 2013
The Studio Murder Mystery is a lame little short mystery. It takes place at a Hollywood studio, just before and after a troublesome star is murdered. The before parts aren’t so bad–Henabery has a little fun with the movie in the movie stuff and the scene at the commissary where the cast read more
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 10, 2013
The Man Who Knew Too Much is Hitchcock’s only remake and, as such, it probably ought to be a whole lot better. The resulting film suggests he really wanted to make a Moroccan travelogue and symphony picture… assuming he didn’t set out to make a turgid thriller. There’s also read more
A Day with the Boys (1969, Clu Gulager)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 9, 2013
Ah, the joys of boyhood. Watching A Day with the Boys, one quickly tires of all the outdoor activities director Gulager chronicles. The titular boys have no names and no dialogue–Boys is entirely dialogue-free–and they just act adorably rambunctious. When they’re sliding down a hi read more
Mark of the Vampire (1935, Tod Browning)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 4, 2013
MGM cut at least twenty-five percent out of Mark of the Vampire, which accounts for some of the plotting problems but still leaves the film a little messy. Ben Lewis’s editing is weak during dialogue exchanges, not just in general. And no amount of studio interference could have changed Brown read more
Isle of the Dead (1945, Mark Robson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 3, 2013
The Greek anti-defamation league, if it existed, mustn’t have had much power when Isle of the Dead came out. It’s a quarantine drama, a genre I’m unfamiliar with but certainly has a lot of potential, set on a small Greek island. There’s nothing on the island besides an amate read more
Mad Max (1979, George Miller)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 2, 2013
While the low budget undoubtedly plays a hand in it, Mad Max is the epitome of narrative efficiency. It should have a big concept–a slightly post-apocalyptic future (but people still vacation and get ice cream and the beaches are nice) where the big cities are (probably) gone and the rural hi read more
Die, Monster, Die! (1965, Daniel Haller)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 28, 2012
For the first three quarters of Die, Monster, Die!, the biggest mystery in the film is how wheelchair-bound Boris Karloff gets around so well. The lifts become visible in the last act. Karloff’s British upper crust whose family name has fallen on hard times thanks to an embarrassing father. S read more
Naughty Nurse (1969, Paul Bartel)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 27, 2012
Naughty Nurse should be better. Bartel’s direction is outstanding–Jan Oonk’s black and white photography is particularly phenomenal–and he writes some funny material, but it should be better. Bartel seems to think because he’s funny, he doesn’t have to keep Nurse read more
Coffee and Cigarettes II (1989, Jim Jarmusch)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 25, 2012
Coffee and Cigarettes II stars twins Cinqué Lee and Joie Lee as twins having coffee in Memphis. Why are they in Memphis? They don’t know, but it seems like it’s Cinqué’s fault. Jarmusch le’s the twins bicker though most of the short, which is funny enough but then there̵ read more
Coffee and Cigarettes (1986, Jim Jarmusch)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 20, 2012
Technically, Coffee and Cigarettes is most impressive at the beginning. The short’s simple–Steven Wright meets Roberto Benigni for coffee. When Benigni makes room for Wright, Jarmusch’s handling of the process is amazing. It’s a quick series of shots; beautifully composed an read more
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986, Brian Gibson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 17, 2012
There’s not much to recommend Poltergeist II: The Other Side, but it does promote family “values” while quite literally demonizing Christianity. That juxtaposing alone, however, does not make it worthwhile. The film is the perfect example of a bad sequel. There are budget issues, read more
China (1943, John Farrow)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 3, 2012
China has a lot to do. While it’s a propaganda picture meant to rally American support for the Chinese, it’s also propaganda for the future of China. Loretta Young plays a school teacher and her charges, in almost every one of their scenes, extol the virtues of Western democracy. There& read more
I Like Your Nerve (1931, William C. McGann)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 30, 2012
While I Like Your Nerve is urbanely genial, it’s a somewhat high concept romantic adventure comedy. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is a playboy–though not one of means–living it up in South America. He travels from country to country (they are, of course, so small he can drive) and stirs u read more
Adventures in Babysitting (1989, Joel Zwick)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 29, 2012
Given the abundance of terrible television sitcoms, seeing what kind doesn’t make it past pilot stage should be interesting. But it’s not. “Adventures in Babysitting” is a semi-sequel to the movie–with David Simkins, the original writer, co-writing the pilot. It recast read more
Sh! The Octopus (1937, William C. McGann)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 28, 2012
Sh! The Octopus is a painfully unfunny spoof of the “old dark house” genre. Instead of a house, though, it takes place in a lighthouse on a rocky island. That setting should be enough, but it appears Warner only budgeted for the lighthouse model. The action principally takes place inside the lighth read more