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.
Saturday Afternoon (1926, Harry Edwards)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 25, 2012
Even though Saturday Afternoon is astoundingly bad on every expected level and a few unexpected ones, I guess I’m glad to know there were always terrible comedies. It’s not some recent invention, post-television. There was always tripe. The story is pretty simple. Harry Langdon is a mor read more
Martian Through Georgia (1962, Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow and Maurice Noble)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 24, 2012
Martian Through Georgia has three directors and no ending. It also has nothing to do with Georgia. It opens fairly well, with very expressionist mainstream cartooning showing life on Mars. A bored Martian then travels to Earth, which kicks off the majority of the run time. Even though the Martian&# read more
Woman Hater (1948, Terence Young)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 23, 2012
Woman Hater is an incredible mess. It’s a romantic comedy about the titular character, played by Stewart Granger, who wants to “scientifically” prove women will throw themselves at any man. Or something along those lines. Luckily, he’s a British royal, so he can engineer the read more
Among Those Present (1921, Fred C. Newmeyer)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 22, 2012
Newmeyer takes Harold Lloyd to a country house in Among Those Present and sets him loose in front of a bunch of snobs. Lloyd plays a variation of his regular character, but this time with additions. For much of the short, he’s posing as a British lord, which showcases Lloyd’s acting abi read more
Lucrezia Borgia (1935, Abel Gance)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 21, 2012
Gance has a real problem with Lucrezia Borgia… none of his characters are likable. Even Antonin Artaud, playing a friar who rallies against the Borgia regime, is unlikable and he’s the film’s closest thing to a good guy. Gance shoots Artaud like a lunatic. It’s also not a fi read more
Knighty Knight Bugs (1958, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 20, 2012
Besides Mel Blanc’s voice work, there’s nothing to recommend Knighty Knight Bugs. Actually, even with his voice work, there’s nothing to recommend it. It’s just the only good thing about the cartoon. Bugs, as a medieval jester, has to go get a sword. Yosemite Sam has the swo read more
La roue (1923, Abel Gance)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 19, 2012
Gance is very ambitious with La roue, only not so much technically. Even the second half of the film, which opens up considerably (the first half takes place in a train yard, mostly on one set, while the second half moves the action to a idyllic mountaintop), Gance is far more concerned his protago read more
Oranges and Lemons (1923, George Jeske)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 18, 2012
Jeske isn’t much of a director, which I feel weird saying as Oranges and Lemons has a really masterfully done sequence. Jeske holds the shot as Stan Laurel keeps confusing Eddie Baker, who’s pursuing him. It’s brilliant stuff, as Laurel is a great physical comedian. The directing read more
Birds Anonymous (1957, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 17, 2012
Birds Anonymous should be really good. Its failings so how tied animation technique and writing are when it comes to a cartoon. The narrative, down to the scenic plotting, is fine. But the animation is bad so Birds flops. The most startling problem is the backgrounds. A more generous person might c read more
Number, Please? (1920, Fred C. Newmeyer and Hal Roach)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 15, 2012
Number, Please? is split into three very different parts. First, Harold Lloyd is trying to win back his ex-girlfriend (Mildred Davis), who’s just an awful human being, from her current beau, played by Roy Brooks. The men have to find her missing dog. This section isn’t much fun as there read more
Fresh Airedale (1945, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 13, 2012
Fresh Airedale opens without titles and I’m a little surprised to see it’s Chuck Jones. The animation is rather weak for the most part and, while there’s inventiveness, it’s chaste. The cartoon has either a mixed message or just a depressing one. It’s all about a socio read more
The Devil’s Foot (1921, Maurice Elvey)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 11, 2012
To call The Devil’s Foot inept is too complementary. Some of the stupider story elements come from the Conan Doyle story, so one cannot really fault screenwriter William J. Elliott. Instead, the fault lies entirely with director Maurice Elvey. The short does show how important sound is to a p read more
Duck Amuck (1953, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 10, 2012
Duck Amuck is either very memorable or very predictable. If I have ever seen it, it was fifteen plus years ago. Yet I could guess a bunch of the plot twists, including the final one. That final reveal, which might make Amuck memorable, also undoes a lot of the neat stuff the cartoon does otherwise. read more
Whipsaw (1935, Sam Wood)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 9, 2012
Whipsaw takes some detours, but eventually reveals itself as an unlikely road picture… albeit one with limited stops. The first few scenes are in London, with a lot of exposition introducing Myrna Loy and Harvey Stephens as jewel thieves. There are some other jewel thieves who want in on thei read more
His Marriage Wow (1925, Harry Edwards)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 8, 2012
I wonder how His Marriage Wow would play without Vernon Dent. His character is an inexplicably omnipresent professor who counsels leading man Harry Langdon as to his future wife’s murderous intentions. Of course, Marriage is never scary and never tries to be scary, so the whole groom in dange read more
The Rains Came (1939, Clarence Brown)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 7, 2012
I was expecting The Rains Came to be a standard soap–with some ethnic flair, of course (Tyrone Power’s an Indian doctor, Myrna Loy’s a British lady). Instead, it’s a little like… Maugham-lite. Neither Loy nor Power is the lead (in fact, Power’s in it so little he read more
Dragon Around (1954, Jack Hannah)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 6, 2012
If someone was unfamiliar with Donald Duck–and missed the opening titles, which imply Dragon Around is a Donald Duck cartoon–he or she might read the ending as Chip and Dale killing Donald Duck. And Donald Duck definitely deserves it. Initially, the chipmunks confuse Donald’s powe read more
Diplomatic Courier (1952, Henry Hathaway)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 5, 2012
Diplomatic Courier starts a lot stronger than it finishes. For the first half or so, it’s a post-war variation of a thirties Hitchcock–a lot of unexplained, strange incidents and a protagonist trying to unravel them. Then it changes gear, becoming a Hollywood attempt at The Third Man. I read more
Play It Again, Charlie Brown (1971, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 4, 2012
“Play It Again, Charlie Brown” is shockingly bad. About the only good part of it comes near the end, as Danny Hjeim’s Schroeder debates whether to play rock instead of Beethoven at a concert. There’s actual internal conflict and so on. Unfortunately, it’s a small scene read more
Alice in the Wooly West (1926, Walt Disney)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 3, 2012
While the title suggests this cartoon is about Alice, it’s really about her sidekick, Julius; he’s the attraction of Alice in the Wooly West. Maybe Disney just didn’t have the budget to have Alice (here played by Margie Gay) do any actual action shots. The mix of live action and a read more